Tag: Sports top 10 lists

      SI.com: 20 best MLB decisions of the past year

      June 22, 2010 /

      SI.com’s Jon Heyman put together a list of the 20 best decisions made by MLB teams over the past year.

      His No. 1 was the Nationals’ signing of Stephen Strasburg, while his No. 2 was the Cubs’ decision to trade Milton Bradley to the Mariners in exchange for pitcher Carlos Silva (who is leading the club in wins, ERA and WHIP).

      Heyman’s No. 4 best decision involves a team that has been one of the bigger surprises so far this season:

      4. The Padres’ decision not to trade Adrian Gonzalez and/or Heath Bell

      Everyone assumed new Padres GM Jed Hoyer would want to make a big splash and set the team up for the future by trading All-Star 1B Adrian Gonzalez, who could bring a haul with his reasonable contract ($10 mil over two years) and big-time talent. Word supposedly was that Hoyer had an obvious landing spot in his old haunt in Boston, where Hoyer had been an assistant GM and knew the system. That assumption was supposedly bolstered by Padres marketing materials that allegedly omitted Gonzalez.

      However, Hoyer and Padres decision-makers held both Gonzalez and top reliever Heath Bell, fortified the rotation by adding stable veteran Jon Garland and kept their fingers crossed. To everyone’s surprise — except maybe San Diego’s brass — the Padres have been at or near the top of the NL West all year. Hoyer didn’t disrupt what former Padres GM Kevin Towers built in San Diego to satisfy his ego. Instead, he did the prudent thing. Just because Towers was fired by new owner Jeff Moorad doesn’t mean he did a bad job. It turns out there were some very good pieces in place, including what appears to be the majors’ best bullpen.

      There is still some concern in San Diego that the Padres will be sellers at the trade deadline, but if they stay in contention in the NL West it’s hard to envision that happening. This is just speculation on my part, but I have to believe that if Hoyer does make a big move (i.e. trading Gonzo and/or Bell), it won’t come until after the season.

      Until then, the Padres’ current roster will have every opportunity to make a run at the postseason this year.

      External Sports, MLB

      Ten reasons why Spring Training beats Training Camp

      February 24, 2009 /

      RealClearSports.com compiles 10 reasons why baseball’s spring training beats football’s training camp.

      Downtime
      Normally, there is no down time during an NFL training camp, unless you count sitting in a large tub full of ice. Players are usually so exhausted that any and all free time they have is spent either eating or sleeping.

      Baseball just simply isn’t as demanding as that, which allows them to work on some of the game’s finer points, like perfecting the “hot-foot,” determining exactly when to shove a towel full of shaving cream into a teammate’s face during a live TV interview, and everyone’s favorite, learning exactly how to place a bubble-gum bubble on your pitcher’s head.

      Pressure
      Imagine if an NFL wide receiver went all of camp without catching pass in any of the scrimmages or games. For a month in game-competition, every pass that came his way either sailed through his hands or bounced off his chest. To top it off, he was often running the wrong routes and missing blocks. The chances of him making it past cuts and onto the final 53-man roster would be slim to none.

      Translate that to baseball, where the opening day starting lineups are usually already set before February even begins. A player could have an awful spring: terrible at-bats, poor fielding and too many strikeouts, but come April, he’s in the starting lineup (just ask Ichiro, who struggled last spring and started 0-for-21).

      Practices
      Seemingly as soon as a football practice begins, players are in full pads, flying around and running into each at full speed. This continues for hours at a time, in extreme summer heat, and often, twice-a-day.

      Baseball practices, on the other hand, feature fielding fungos on perfectly manicured fields, hitting balls of a tee, first base running drills (seriously), covering first base on sacrifice bunt roughly 3000 times and doing whatever it is those Red Sox are doing in that picture – it seems highly likely that one could go through an entire practice without breaking a sweat.

      Not RealClearSports.com’s best work. The three reasons listed above are supposed to be in favor of spring training, but I’d say every one of them favors training camp.

      MLB, NFL

      Erin Andrews: Greatest Hits

      January 20, 2009 /

      The Love of Sports compiled a top 10 list of great Erin Andrews moments of the past couple of years. (Hey, someone had to do it.)

      2. The Chicago Cubs get easily flustered in her floozy presence
      “Yup. I’m just a hot chick covering a baseball game. [Blows bubble.] Nothing to see here, please move along.” Not so fast. Mike Nadel, a Chicago news service columnist (and, in the children’s game of Eye Candy Land, would be Mr. Molasses) penned the scathing report, “Blonde Bombshell can’t distract red-hot Cubs” and, well, let’s just say he takes issue with her … assets. And flirting. Or something.

      Erin Andrews

      1. Playboy’s Sexiest Sportscaster
      Of course she is. The people have spoken. I wonder for whom these gentlemen below voted.

      Erin Andrews

      You’ve got to admire Andrews’ longevity. Normally America shuffles “what’s hot” out the door as quickly as we ushered he/she/it in. But Andrews has stuck around and you know what? She’s pretty good at her job, too. (Yes…and nice to look at.)

      College Basketball, College Football, General Sports, MLB, NBA, Women

      Top 10 Worst Super Bowl Teams

      January 13, 2009 /

      RealClearSports.com compiled a list of the top 10 worst Super Bowl teams of all time.

      David Tyree7. 2007 New York Giants
      Is it easy to discount the Giants’ unbelievable win over the then 18-0 Patriots because of “luck?” Of course it is – they needed a wild sack-escape by Eli Manning and David Tyree catching a pass on his helmet to pull-off the win. But before you get upset over the ratings of another bitter Patriots fan, consider this: the Giants were quite possibly the worst team to win a Super Bowl. Ever. And the numbers say so.

      Of the 42 teams that have won the big game, the 2007 Giants are last (or tied for last) in winning percentage (0.625), point differential per game (1.4) and the Pythagorean record (0.536). Additionally, the Giants had just one Pro Bowler, went 0-4 against playoff-teams Dallas, Green Bay and New England in the regular season (losing by a combined 46 points) and finished second-to-last in margin of victory per game in the playoffs (5.0).

      Is that a somewhat complicated, numbers-heavy way to say the 2007 Giants weren’t a very good Super Bowl team? Sure is.

      Here’s a simpler version: In 2007, there were 10 teams with an equal or better record than that of the 10-6 New York Giants. One of those teams was the Cleveland Browns.

      5. 2003 Carolina Panthers
      Carolina’s 2003 season defined “average,” which makes their near win in Super Bowl XXXVIII all the more surprising. In no area did the Panthers stand out. As a team, they ranked 15th in points scored and 10th in points allowed—slightly above the norm, but by no means great numbers. Additionally, the Panthers were only 3-3 against opponents with a .500 record or better—a statistic notable for its small size (10 opponents had losing records) and mediocrity. Their season appeared more impressive than it was because of that weaker schedule, and the strides made from Carolina’s disastrous 1-15 performance in 2001, but the team was, in the end, simply not that good…

      1. 1979 Los Angeles Rams
      In 1979, the NFC West was just as bad as it was this year. The Rams made the playoffs by winning the West with a 9-7 record (the 9-7 mark is still the worst record for a Super Bowl team, but another NFC West team, the Cardinals, have a chance to tie that this season)…

      It’s amazing that the 2007 Giants and 2003 Panthers are on a list of “top 10 worst Super Bowl teams” considering they gave fans two of the greatest Super Bowls of the last decade. It just goes to show you that in the NFL, you don’t have to necessarily have to be the best team in the league during the regular season. You just have to be one of the best two teams in the league during the playoffs.

      NFL

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