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      Packers want decision from Favre, target Woodson

      March 30, 2006 /

      At the NFL team meetings, new Green Bay HC Mike McCarthy said that the team would like Brett Favre to give them a decision on whether or not the quarterback will play this season.

      McCarthy said the Packers do want Favre to make his decision by Saturday, which is the latest deadline for the $3 million roster bonus they owe him.

      But the deadline is an artificial one, because Favre’s contract stipulates the team doesn’t have to pay the bonus until September if he returns and doesn’t have to pay it at all if he retires.

      Still, McCarthy said he’d like to see the issue resolved ASAP.

      “I feel like it’s Groundhog Day. I’ve been answering the question the same way for two months,” McCarthy said. “The bonus, that’s pretty much the goal we’re trying to set (for a decision). Obviously, you keep moving back the date, (but) there’s a reason behind the date. So, we would definitely like to know as soon as possible.”

      This has been a case of the tail chasing the dog. Favre wants to see offseason improvement before he decides to play another season and the team can’t have a truly effective offseason plan if they are unsure about Favre’s desire to play. It sounds as if McCarthy is going to hold Favre more accountable for his interception count, but that has a lot to do with other facets of the game – talent at the WR position, an effective running game and a good defense.

      If the Packers are able to draft DE Mario Williams or LB A.J. Hawk with the #5 overall pick, it would certainly help the defense. The team is also looking at Charles Woodson.

      Woodson, the fourth pick in the 1998 draft, is one of the highest-profile free agents remaining on the market, though his contract requests have kept him from being a highly sought-after player.

      The Packers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers appear to be the only teams making a strong run at Woodson, who turns 30 in October.

      The Packers have been frugal thus far in the offseason and the question is – how much money does he want? I don’t think it’s a good idea to commit a lot of money to a 30-year old defensive back, but if Woodson is willing to come down in his asking price, then he might be a nice addition to the defense.

      NFL

      Sampson takes Indiana job

      March 30, 2006 /

      Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson will undertake the pressure of returning the Indiana basketball program to elite status. He will replace Mike Davis, who resigned in the middle of the season, saying that the program needs “one of their own.”

      Indiana athletic director Rick Greenspan called Sampson’s teams “hard-nosed, disciplined and unselfish.”

      “Every coach sees it as a great basketball state with tremendous coaches and players, and we will do our best to keep those players in the state,” Sampson said in a news release.

      The 50-year-old Sampson, AP’s Coach of the Year in 1995, replaces Mike Davis, who announced last month he was resigning. Davis went 115-79 in six seasons as head coach, was the first Indiana coach to win 20 games in each of his first three seasons and led the Hoosiers to the national championship game in 2002, two seasons after Bob Knight was fired.

      At first glance, this is a strange move for Sampson, who has built Oklahoma into a top basketball program. The NCAA is still investigating OU’s recruiting practices, so maybe there’s more to the move than meets the eye. Sampson will bring a little more toughness to Indiana program and his teams’ physical style is probably a good fit for the Big Ten.

      College Basketball

      Bullz-Eye 2006 Baseball Preview

      March 29, 2006 /

      The most enjoyable part of writing my 2005 preview for BE was the response from you, gentle readers. The mail that I received on that piece was well worth the hours that I put into it. Some people sent me detailed, Bill James-style stat projections, while others just said that I “suuuuuuuuuck.” That last person was a Washington Nationals fan…at the All Star break, when they were still in first place. We all know who got the last laugh on that one.

      So I’m poring over the projected lineups and pitching depth charts for all the teams, and the only thing I can think is, Man, did a lot of players switch teams. Matt Morris is a Giant, Fatty Ponson is a Cardinal, Carlos Delgado is a Met and Josh Beckett is a Red Sock. Some things, though, stay the same: Kerry Wood is already on the disabled list, and George Steinbrenner is overpaying for pitching ($18 million for Kyle Farnsworth? You got served, sucker).

      Once again, I attempt the impossible and list my projections for each division, which will surely look ridiculous at the All Star break, and absurd by season’s end.

      National League East
      1) New York Mets
      Theme Song: “At Last,” Etta James
      And thus, their season is already jinxed before it’s even begun, by the very notion that I am expecting them to win the East. My stepbrother, a dyed-in-the-wool Mutts fan, will surely kill me. But I can’t help it, that lineup kills, bro. Reyes and LoDuca are at the top, followed by a murderer’s row of Beltran, Delgado, Wright and Floyd. These guys are going to score tons of runs, and while their pitching is still lacking, it’s good enough to keep them in the game (look for Aaron Heilman to break out big time if the Mets give him a shot in the rotation), and putting Billy Wagner in the closer spot in place of the piñata that closed for them last year (Braden Looper, who’s now in St. Louis) is a big boost. Of course, the Mets being the Mets, this could all go horribly wrong; Pedro’s got a bad toe, and Delgado has a sore something or other. But at the moment, the planets seem to be aligned. Even John Smoltz thinks the Mets are going to win the East this year.

      2) Philadelphia Phillies
      Theme Song: “Long Shot,” Aimee Mann
      I took a long look at Atlanta for this spot – after all, I did say last year that until someone knocks them out of the top spot, you have to go with them as the favorites – but it ends here. Like the Mets, Philadelphia has two great table setters at the top of the order in Rollins and Rowand (whom they got from the White Sox in the improbable trade of Jim Thome), and any one of the following four hitters (Abreu, Utley, Burrell, Howard) can go yard seemingly at will. Abreu’s colossal fall-off after the All Star Game was disturbing, but he’s still a perennial 30-30 threat, while Utley is the next Jeff Kent, though hopefully with much less jackassity. On the surface, the starting rotation would concern me, since Cory Lidle and Ryan Franklin are big time Stifley Stiffersons, but if the Phils are smart, they will take two of the three guys fighting for the fifth spot in the rotation, Ryan Madson and Robinson Tejeda, and give them each their own slot, hopefully kicking Franklin to the curb. If that happens, they could cause all kinds of trouble. One question, though: why is management so eager to get rid of Abreu? He was part of every trade rumor out of Philly this offseason.

      To read the rest of the preview, click here. And don’t forget to come back to Scores Report to sound off on your picks to win it all.

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, MLB

      Sponsors cleaning up baseball

      March 29, 2006 /

      I was reading the baseball news today and began to smile when I read that Major League Baseball sponsors are going to boycott Barry Bond’s new records this year. In my opinion, Barry Bonds is guiltier of using steroids than most active players today. He has been avoiding the controversy and letting everyone else take the fall. The amount of growth and power in his body is unprecedented.

      Baseball’s image as a whole was taking a dive because Barry continued to break records and avoid investigations. It’s a sad day in baseball when the companies that sponsor the game show more integrity than the game itself. Barry Bonds should retire and take all of his “tainted” records with him.

      MLB

      Concerns about Vince Young

      March 29, 2006 /

      Phil Savage, the excellent GM of the Cleveland Browns, can speak candidly about Vince Young since the Browns are not in the market for a quarterback in the first round. Savage sums up nicely the concerns about Young’s ability to transition from the college game to the NFL game:

      Savage raised some serious questions about Young’s ability to transfer his running and throwing ability to the NFL.

      “I think the question on him, at least in my mind, is the fact he has operated in a shotgun offense with pretty vanilla reads, and if those reads weren’t there, he could take off and run with it,” he said. “You could do that in the NFL to a degree, but there does seem to be a little bit more structure in the league than in the college game.

      “I think you would have to adjust your system, and if he came on your team you’d have to have two different offenses in a way, and I’m not sure you have time to prepare all of that. You have to be really convinced that’s what you want to do.”

      He’s right on the money.

      NFL, NFL Draft

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