MLB Preview 6: AL Central

Minnesota Twins

Lineup
Shannon Stewart LF/DH
Lew Ford DH/LF
Justin Morneau 1B
Joe Mauer C
Jacque Jones RF
Torii Hunter CF
Mike Cuddyer 3B
Jason Bartlett/Nick Punto SS
Luis Rivas 2B

Rotation
Johan Santana
Brad Radke
Kyle Lohse
Carlos Silva
Joe Mays
Matt Guerrier
JD Durbin
Boof Bonser

Ugh. What can you say about this lineup, other than that it's built to play pinball in that dome of theirs. My lineup makes halfway decent sense, but Rivas will probably inexplicably move up to second (or inexplicably be allowed to play in the first place, if that's your opinion of him). The bench features Juan Castro, Augie Ojeda, and, of course, Matt LeCroy. If and when Joe Mauer goes down, Minnesota has two very capably backups - Mike Redmond and Corky Miller. Boy is this team lucky it plays 81 games at home every year.
The rotation looks good if Lohse has a decent year. They're getting Mays back, and Durbin is a Baseball America Top 100 prospect (as is Mauer, technically, due to the injury bug last year). Boof Bonser may not see much MLB time this year, if any, but I just wanted to give him the proper shout-out. The bullpen is again solid. Joe Nathan will again be set up by the likes of Juan Rincon and JC Romero, and by BA Top 100 Jesse Crain.

Chicago White Sox

Lineup
Scott Podsednik LF
Aaron Rowand CF
Frank Thomas DH
Paul Konerko 1B
Jermaine Dye/Carl Everett RF
Joe Crede 3B
AJ Pierzynski C
Juan Uribe SS
Willie Harris 2B

Rotation
Mark Buehrle
Freddy Garcia
Jose Contreras
Jon Garland
Orlando Hernandez
Felix Diaz
Dustin Hermanson

Well it's a lineup built for speed. If and when "Big Frank" goes down, you can put Harris at leadoff or Uribe at the 1 or 2 and move everyone else down - and the lineup then looks much nicer (but Pierzynski still looks like a jerk either way). The bench features established catcher Ben Davis and... are you ready? Give me a T! Give me a Mo! Give me a Timo!
The rotation features a great 1-2 punch (at least when Buehrle remembers that getting people out is a good thing). After that - well, it's really up to Contreras and Hernandez. After them, it's pretty thin. Of course, if the bullpen can ride Damaso Marte, Luis Vizcaino, and Shingo Takatsu, maybe no one will notice starters 3-5.

Cleveland Indians

Lineup
Coco Crisp CF
Ronnie Belliard 2B
Travis Hafner DH
Victor Martinez C
Juan Gonzalez LF
Casey Blake RF/3B
Ben Broussard 1B
Aaron Boone 3B
Jhonny Peralta/Brandon Phillips SS

Rotation
CC Sabathia
Jake Westbrook
Kevin Millwood
Clifford Lee
Scott Elarton
Jason Davis
Jason Bere
Denny Stark
Brian Tallet
Billy Traber
Kyle Denney
Jason Stanford
Francisco Cruceta
Jeremy Guthrie

The lineup. I don't know how Coco will handle a full year as the leadoff guy, but he did put up great fantasy numbers last year. And, if all else fails, you could always move Belliard up to leadoff and put Crisp or Peralta second. Manager Eric Wedge toyed with the idea of batting Martinez 3rd and Hafner 4th, but he has decided to go with what worked last year. Pronk (Hafner) will hopefully continue to be Cleveland's best kept secret (who'd we get rid of for him? Einar Diaz?); in a best case scenario, Martinez will not need to share the catcher Silver Slugger with Pudge Rodriguez this year. Gonzales signed with the team as a minor leaguer, but he's looked decent in spring training this year. Blake proved himself with the bat this year, and he's said to be a "natural-born outfielder" as he makes the position switch this year. He will play 3rd base until Boone returns from his injury. Rounding out the lineup: Broussard was unbelievably clutch last year, making himself indispensable when it looked like Blake would take over at first when Boone was signed. Peralta, meanwhile, has won the shortstop job over Phillips. Phillips is a great natural fielder, but his bat has struggled since early 2003. The bench features Jody Gerut once he returns from knee surgery, center fielder to be Grady Sizemore, slugging righty Ryan Ludwick, former LA starter Alex Cora, catcher Josh Bard (easily a starter on a bad team), and strikeout king Jose Hernandez, who can play anywhere and hits well against lefties. If necessary, BA Top 100 outfielder Franklin Gutierrez is waiting in the wings.
The rotation: Sabathia showed up lighter than ever, and he's still the ace. Fantasy experts may not like Jake Westbrook this year, but he did lead the league in ERA in 2004. Millwood is a safe pickup - anything from him is a bonus. People are calling Lee a bust, but I think he basically just ran out of gas last year. Look for a comeback from him. Elarton busted out after shaking post-Colorado-pitcher-syndrome. Davis is an absolute fireballer; he'll be the #5 starter until Sabathia returns from his minor injury. Anything from Bere or Stark is a bonus, while the rest of that list presents a bright, bright future. What of the bullpen that some say cost the Tribe the playoffs last year? Bob Wickman has returned from injures to retake the closer role; he's looked great this spring. Davis and Tadano will be the long relievers. Bob Howry, Rafael Betancourt, and Matt Miller had underrated seasons last year. They'll be joined by new pickups Arthur Rhodes and Scott Sauerbeck (who missed 2004 due to injury), and returner David Riske.

Lineup
Craig Monroe/Nook Logan CF
Carlos Guillen SS
Pudge Rodriguez C
Magglio Ordonez RF
Dmitri Young DH
Rondell White/Bobby Higginson LF
Carlos Pena 1B
Brandon Inge 3B
Omar Infante/Fernando Vina 2B

Rotation
Jeremy Bonderman
Nate Robertson
Mike Maroth
Jason Johnson
Gary Knotts
Wilfredo Ledezma
Colby Lewis

The surprise was the release of .320 hitter Alex Sanchez, let go for not improving his defensive play. So, Detroit has options. Logan can leadoff; Monroe can't. Vina can but he's not healthy. This lineup actually looks really good (especially with the 2004 Guillen had), other than the fact Brandon Inge is the best and only option at 3rd (ok, so he has revitalized his offensive production, but "OK" doesn't always cut it at 3rd in the AL). The bench consists of Vance Wilson (now who's the backup catcher in Queens?), Omar Infante, Ramon Hernandez, and Marcus Thames.
This is a halfway decent, but not very deep rotation. The bullpen, however, is stacked with Kyle Farnsworth, Ugie Urbina, and Troy Percival.

Kansas City Royals

Lineup
David DeJesus CF
Tony Graffanino 3B
Mike Sweeney 1B
Ken Harvey DH
Matt Stairs RF
Terrence Long LF
Angel Berroa SS
John Buck C
Ruben Gotay 2B

Rotation
Brian Anderson
Jose Lima
Runelvys Hernandez
Zack Greinke
Jimmy Gobble
Denny Bautista
Chris George
Kyle Snyder
Mike Wood

On the other side of Missouri, the Cardinals have a "middle of the lineup" that stretches from the 2-6 spots. The Royals have a "middle of the lineup" that goes from 3-5. And this is the AL team. The moral? The bigger the "middle of the lineup" is, the better the team. I just don't know what to do here. This team isn't built for power, or for speed, or for anything. As a positive, I don't think DeJesus will be following Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye, and Carlos Beltran (imagine that starting outfield - decent) but of town any time soon. My suggestion? Play Eli Marrero (C, 1B, OF) as much as possible. Other than Marrero and Abraham Nunez, the only bench player of note is Chris Truby. Truby is infamous in baseball nerd circles for his associations with Satan and Albert Belle.
If Brian Anderson (who has Browns season tickets and wears #19 in honor of Bernie Kosar) can figure out how to win again (although that may have been his lineup's fault), this is a good rotation. Greinke is a great young up-and-comer, Hernandez was an ace-in-training before losing all of 2004, and Lima Time is Lima Time. The bullpen features a closer battle between the fallen closer-of-the-future Mike MacDougal and converted starter Jeremy Affeldt.


I'm going to be out of town between Monday and Thursday next week, so I'll warn you now: the first baseball lineups will be due on the message board on Friday, April 1st, but 5 pm eastern. More info to come.

The Case for the Upset

Albuquerque Regional

(1) Washington vs (16) Montana - Grizzlies are bigger than Huskies. The state of Montana is bigger than the state of Washington. Um, yeah. That's about it.

(8) Pacific vs (9) Pitt - I'd hardly call it an upset if a 9 seed from one of the toughest divisions in the country beats an 8 from a mid-major - even if that 9 seed has played inconsistently and is vastly overrated in the polls.

(5) Georgia Tech vs (12) George Washington - GW beat Maryland 101-92, and Maryland beat Tech 79-71. Seems simple to me. (Of course, you have to avoid the fact that GW lost big to Wake Forest, while the Yellow Jackets lost by only 1 in overtime.)

(4) Louisville vs (13) LA-Lafayette - I would have a hard time betting against a group of Cajuns, especially after living next door to one for a year.

(6) Texas Tech vs (11) UCLA - For as many national championships as Bob Knight has won, everyone only wants to talk about his first-round losses. Hey, I guess we can't rule out another one.

(3) Gonzaga vs (14) Winthrop - Maybe Gonzaga will be really confused by not being the underdog in a tournament game.

(7) West Virginia vs (10) Creighton - 7/10 isn't that far from 8/9. You've got a former Cinderella going up against a team that may have run out of gas in the Big East finals. This one's reasonable.

(2) Wake Forest vs (15) Chattanooga - Chattanooga's another perennial Cinderalla, and Wake isn't the superstar team everyone thought they were in October. Plus, on a personal note, I can't root for Wake because Chris Paul is the name of the principal who decided to close Lorain Catholic.

Chicago Regional

(1) Illinois vs (16) Farleigh Dickinson - Well, if 1/3 of the Illini get distracted by saying "Farleigh Farleigh Farleigh" the whole game, and another 1/3 get distracted by snickering every time they hear "Dickinson," and the final 1/3 get disqualified for accidentally showing up in their orange jerseys, then this one is a cakewalk for Farleigh Dickinson.

(8) Texas vs (9) Nevada - 8/9, Nevada's a former Cinderella, Texas likes to choke in big games no matter what the sport. Doable.

(5) Alabama vs (12) UW-Milwaukee - Alabama is hot, but this is the dreaded 5-12 game, and the Panthers always seem to be a media darling come tourney time.

(4) Boston College vs (13) Penn - BC lost their first game after being outcoached by Notre Dame. Penn is the Ivy League champ. Do you think they'd have trouble outsmarting the Eagles?

(6) LSU vs (11) UAB - UAB went to the Sweet 16 last year, LSU is a team that I haven't heard about all season. My vote's for UAB.

(3) Arizona vs (14) Utah State - Arizona always seems to be a bit rough around the edges to me. You have to go with the Fighting Lane Weavers in this one.

(7) Southern Illinois vs (10) Saint Mary's - Well, which is the tougher converence, the Missouri Valley, or the WCC? And is having a cool nickname enough to make you root against the mother of your Savior?

(2) Oklahoma State vs (15) SE Louisana - If John Lucas II (that's the fomer Cavs coach and father of John III, who's the current OK St. player) can't make this game due to a delayed flight or whatever, this could greatly confuse the Cowboys - perhaps even enough for the loss? I mean, I saw Lucas coach the Cavs. He's carrying Eddie Sutton out there with secret hand signals to the bench. Or something like that.

Syracuse Regional

(1) North Carolina vs (16) Oakland - I got nothing. Really. Unless North Carolina gets confused and flies to Dayton instead of their actual first round site. Even then, it would be close.

(8) Minnesota vs (9) Iowa State - This is a hot bubble team against a school that... well, I know Jon Byrer goes there, and that Janelle McCarville - but niether of them play on the men's basketball team. I gotta go with the Cyclones.

(5) Villanova vs (12) New Mexico - Hey, it's a 5/12. If this game was decided by media vote, New Mexico would probably thrash the vastly underrated Wildcats. Unfortunately, though, I think they're actually going to play this one out and see how it goes.

(4) Florida vs (13) Ohio - Two of the many reasons to go with Ohio: 1. They're MAC-tastic! 2. That whole election thing.

(6) Wisconsin vs (11) Northern Iowa - When I see this matchup, all I can think of is Mike vs. Hannah in a wrestling match, with Meg as the special guest referee. I've wrestled Mike before, and I have to give the edge to Hannah (and therefore UNI) in this one. I'll also avoid any totally inappropriate comments about wrestling Hannah.

(3) Kansas vs (14) Bucknell - Hey, Bucknell beat Pitt. Why can't they beat Kansas.

(7) Charlotte vs (10) NC State - NC State is an ACC team. Charlotte may get confused by not being the underdog. Oh yeah, and that Philip Rivers is awesome!

(2) Connecticut vs (15) Central Florida - Maybe if they had Dante Culpepper. Even then, it's still a maybe.

Austin Regional

(1) Duke vs (16) Delaware St. - Hi, we're in Delaware. And hey, it is a state! Duke only loses if they're forced to forfeit once the tournament committee realizes how ugly Sheldon Williams is.

(8) Stanford vs (9) Mississippi St. - I honestly haven't heard a single thing about either team all year. It's a toss-up.

(5) Michigan St. vs (12) Old Dominion - Old Dominion is a 12 seed with 27 wins. Good enough for me.

(4) Syracuse vs. (13) Vermont - This former Cinderella is 26 in the RPI and held their own against RPI #1 Kansas at the beginning of the year. Look for a lot of the Jim Boeheim Face.

(6) Utah vs. (11) UTEP - Sure, Utah has Bogut and the spread option (oh wait, nevermind), but don't take it from me - just listen to all the "experts" who have UTEP as a big sleeper team.

(3) Oklahoma vs. (14) Niagara - One team had a terrible time winning big games last year. The other hasn't seen the tournament in 35 years and is hungry to play. You decide.

(7) Cincinnati vs. (10) Iowa - I don't know if I'd even call Iowa winning an upset. I saw Cincinnati play this year, and they were very sloppy. A disciplined team coached by a Bob Knight disciple should be able to handle the Bearcats much easier than the Bearcats would handle the new SAT.

(2) Kentucky vs. (15) E. Kentucky - I'm picturing a comical scene where the janitor leaves something sitting in front of the Eastern Kentucky locker room, blocking the word "Eastern" from sight. The Kentucky players walk in, for some reason dress in the EKU uniforms, and unwittingly win the game for the Colonels. Really, that's the only way it's going to happen.

OK, so I lied about the Transaction Wire today. But, there's a new link in the sidebar. Check out Corby's Blog - a blog about the bar itself. You'll notice a familiar Corby's regular has his picture up on the site.

The Weekend in ReviewNorcross Edition

Well, I finally remembered to do a running diary of the ND men's game, but I think I'll scrap that for now. Here's my rambling story on the rest of the weekend in the north Atlanta suburbs:

So last week was trip #1 to Atlanta. Norcross, actually. Apparently, Norcross is a place where everybody works because that's where all the businesses are, but nobody lives there because it's too expensive. So, there wasn't much going on - especially for someone without a rental car. They do have a metro system, but it was a $15 cab ride to get there. Oh well. I did do some quality random wandering along the side of the road. That's right, there really weren't any sidewalks - it's like this suburb was anti-exercising. There were Wachovias as far as the eye could see (and three Waffle Houses!), but not much in the way of pedestrian pathways.
The first night, I walked over to this little Italian place that was part of a shopping plaza. I had the lasagna, of course, since I'm by no means creative, and always get the lasagna at Italian places. The walls had autographed pictures of all of last year's SEC football coaches - including Lou Holtz in his ND gear. Nice. The people there were almost too friendly. My waiter did the whole "do you need anything else?" about five times. Meanwhile, while I was waiting for my food, another waitress who wasn't busy saw I was alone and brought over free copies of two local small-town newspapers.
The next night, I went back to the same shopping plaza (did I mention there wasn't much in walking distance?) to a place I thought was like a BW3's. It wasn't - it was more like a family lunch diner that only served hamburgers. My supervisor actually encouraged me to go to places with fancy $25 dinners every night, so I actually thought of ditching this place when I saw that all they had were $6 hamburger combo meals. (Unfortunately, unlike band trips, I didn't get to keep the expense money after the trip was done.) But, it was too late, as once again the people there were too nice and I was waited on as soon as I picked up a menu. So I had a triple pickle BLT or whatever.
Tangent time: My classes were with five other people: two women from North Dakota, two from a small town in Illinois, and a guy from Bradenton, Florida. I was waiting for a "don't cha know" from the North Dakotans, but I wasn't that lucky. The Bradenton man, however, had a bit of a southern drawl. To top it off, he kept wanting to talk about the new lockbox software his company just got (even though it didn't come from the company whose training classes we were at). He must have said "lockbox" 100 times... in a souther drawl... I kept wanting to stare him down and shout, "strategery." On day 3, my class ended at 4, and my flight didn't leave until 10:30. Fortunately, I was near the northernmost stop of the metro, and the airport was the southernmost. The women from Illinois - Pana to be exact - took me to the metro, saving First Federal $15 in cab fares. Since you can get from any point on the metro to any other point for only $1.75, I decided to stop in downtown Atlanta on my way to the airport. There, I saw the Coca-Cola Museum. Emphasis there on "saw," as in "from the outside," since it was $9 to get in. Right next to it was this place called "The Underground." Here's the story as I picked it up: In the early 1900s, with all the people and horses and streetcars, the streets were getting really crowded. So, what Atlanta decided to do was build a whole new set of streets 20-25 feet
off the ground, above the existing streets (it looked a lot like a parking garage). The "old" streets on the bottom would then be used for trains. Nowadays, since they don't need the trains any more, the underground area is now a shopping area/tourist attraction... named "The Underground." There, I saw a restaurant called the "Irish Bred Pub." Now, I've come to the conclusion that as an ND grad, I'm not allowed to pass up a place like this. I perused the menu, and saw something called "Irish Beef and Guiness Stew." (That is, Irish beef stew made with Guiness.) Now, I KNEW that the members of KankaNation would never let me live this down if I passed it up, especially since I have the tendency to run my mouth when I drop the ball. The Irish Beef and Guiness Stew wasn't quite the big meal I hoped it to be - it was a small pot not much bigger than a coffee mug. But, I was amused to find all the Guiness settled at the bottom.
Now, the Underground was only so big, so there was still almost 3 hours to go before my flight when I got to the airport. This turned out to be a good thing, as you'll soon see. I used one of those ticket kiosks that look like an ATM machine. I didn't have a Delta whatever club card, so it said it could read my name from my credit card. So, I stuck it in and pulled it back out, even though the fit was a little snug. It didn't read the card, so I put it back in, and kept pushing until... it got stuck really good in there. Genius. They had to call over a "Delta Technician" to fix it. While I was waiting for the "technician," I noticed that the machine had a barcode scanner, and that the online receipt I printed the other day had a bar code on it. So, I asked someone behind the counter, "Could I have avoided all of this just by scanning my receipt here?" I sure could have, and the woman took my receipt and checked my in in about 3 seconds. Dah. While I'm still waiting, I'm thinking to myself, "Hey, maybe they'll give me some free miles, and I'll be able to fly to see Dave and Ellen this year." As the technician came over and, instead of taking the machine apart, simply yanked my card from the slot, the woman from Delta came over and said, "I tried to get a $50 travel voucher for you, but they were all out. So, I got you these 3 drink coupons instead." The good news is that they are valid for three years. The bad news is that those three years are 2003-2005. Good good. So, I still have 3 coupons sitting on my desk at home which will probably never be used - unless someone wants to volunteer to take them off my hands.The flight home was uneventful, but when I got home, there was snow on the ground. But hey, I'm from Ohio, so that didn't really bother me.

Mailbag

Reader Tara sent some updates on former ND footballers. Here they are with their new teams:
Lance Legree - Jets
Mike Gandy - Bills
Javin Hunter - Panthers (NFL Europe)
Allen Rossum - Falcons (re-signed)

You may or may not know this, but the Ravens tried to move Javin Hunter from WR to CB before releasing him. It looks like Hunter will play WR in Europe.

In basketball news, Niele Ivey is playing well in Spain despite injuries. Also in basketball news, you'll notice that I added a link to the Senior CLASS voting at the top of the page.

Adding to Tara's updates, Matt Carroll was signed by the Charlotte Bobcats, and is actually getting decent playing time. Don't believe me? Check out this story from NBA.com.

MVP Baseball 2005

The new features that may be the reason why I've been playing this way too much lately.

• Managers can now argue close calls. If you do well, the team gets fired up and actually gets an "attribute boost." If you don't do well, you get kicked out of the game as the manager. Now, most umps work really hard with little respect, so I normally wouldn't promote including blown calls in a video game. But here's what's great about this feature - if your manager gets thrown out of the game, the computer takes over as manager. You still control the pitcher, hitters, defense, etc., but only the computer can put in pinch hitters and make pitching changes on your team.


• MVP Baseball only has the actual names and pictures of players in the MLB Players Association. For the rest (including most minor leaguers, but also former "scabs" like Damien Miller and Kevin Millar), they do the college game thing and give fake names to players who otherwise have the same look, number, and attributes as a real person. Why is this important? This year, the Baseball America Top 100 Prospects are labeled in their player profiles. Don't count out a guy like me starting a franchise in the game and trading for all 100.


• There were two things most noticeably missing (to me) from MVP 2004. Number one was the pitcher covering first. In 2004, if you told the first baseman to throw to first, he would hold the ball until the pitcher got to the bag. This year, he hits the pitcher midstride on the way to the bag. Now, MVP's defensive animations impressed the heck out of me last year - adding the fluid toss to first is icing on the cake.


• Now, you have to be a big baseball nerd to appreciate this last one. Not a fat, sit in front of your computer and slam real players type of baseball nerd, but a Frank Catalanotto student of the game type baseball. When you're hitting, you try to read the spin on the pitch to pick up what type of pitch it is (and therefore it's speed). A fastball will just look white, while a curveball's spin will cause the seams to form a circle effect (the tighter the spin, the smaller the circle, therefore the harder to pick up as a curveball). But, how do you pick up the speed or type of pitch in MVP. Enter 2005's key feature, the "Hitter's Eye." Now, my TV doesn't quite have the resultion to pick up the seams on a small white pea. But, I don't have to do that. With the Hitter's Eye, the ball will flash a certain color for a split second as it comes out of the pitcher's hand. Each color represents a different pitch. Brilliant.

Due up this week: Tuesday night is NSS meeting night and Thursday is St. Patrick's. I think I'm going to put off the AL Central preview a week so I can do a Transaction Wire Wednesday. Also Wednesday, if I'm so motivated, I'm going to do a "fun feature" on what it would take for all 32 (33?) NCAA first round underdogs to pull off an upset.

MLB Preview 5: NL Central

St. Louis Cardinals

Lineup
David Eckstein SS
Larry Walker RF
Albert Pujols 1B
Scott Rolen 3B
Jim Edmonds CF
Reggie Sanders/Roger Cedeno LF
Mark Grudzielanek 2B
Yadier Molina/Einar Diaz C

Rotation
Matt Morris
Mark Mulder
Jason Marquis
Chris Carpenter
Jeff Suppan
Al Reyes
Rick Ankiel

I don't think a team could be more stacked 2-6. Eckstein is a great addition to this team for his heart and hustle - so don't listen to what the fat, bald computer nerd baseball "fans" have to say about him. Grudzielanek is a decent veteran pickup. Their choices at catcher aren't much, but bother #3 of the Fabulous Catching Molinas may surprise some people. The bench is OK, but if I recall correctly, Tony LaRussa isn't a big bench man. Bo Hart, Cedeno, and defensive replacement So Taguchi highligh the bench bunch.
The rotation may not look overly impressive, but believe me when I say that those starters can put up some good numbers. They have 4 good starters (all 4 were on my fantasy draft board), and Suppan is a good #5. Anything Ankiel can do is a bonus (laugh all you want, Dave). There were no major changes in a bullpen that features an underrated Jason Isringhausen,

Houston Astros

Lineup
Craig Biggio LF/2B
Adam Everett/Jose Vizcaino SS
Jeff Bagwell 1B
Lance Berkman CF
Morgan Ensberg/Mike Lamb 3B
Jason Lane RF
Chris Burke 2B/Orlando Palmiero LF
Brad Ausmus C

Rotation
Roy Oswalt
Roger Clemens
Andy Pettitte
Pete Munro
Tim Redding
Brandon Backe
Carlos Hernandez
Brandon Duckworth

I'm not sure what you do with the lineup here. It looks like Houston will keep Biggio in left and start Baseball America Top 100 prospect Burke at second. However you slice it, this lineup is not nearly as good as last year's, and if Biggio and Bagwell don't have it, Berkman will have to carry this team. That is, if pitchers just don't pitch around him every at bat. Bench? Well, they're all up there, other than Houston's other BA Top 100 guy, OF Willy Taveras.
So, the Astros have a pitcher on their 40-man named Mark McLemore. I see this and I think, "Is McLemore making the switch just like Mark Lemke, who was last seen as a coach/knuckleballing reliever in High-A ball?" No, it turns out that this is a different McLemore - the Mark McLemore we all know and love is still with the A's. Of course, with the utility McLemore born in '64, it's somewhat possible that the pitching McLemore is a Junior. OK, back to the guys who actually have player pages on MLB.com. The top 3 in this rotation can be as good as any - if they stay healthy. After that, it's not so certain. Munro was mediocre last year. Redding is a veteran stopgap. Duckworth has to find a form that may be lost. Only Backe, who I became a big fan of last year, shows a glimmer of hope. The bullpen may not be Lidge-Dotel-Wagner any more, but John Franco-Lidge isn't bad at all. That's especially due to the "Lidge" part. Not only did Lidge blow away the single-season strikeout record for a reliever, but he was also an absolute hoss in the playoffs - he never even looked tired, and he just shut down anyone he faced. Lidge could be the difference maker in the battle for second place in this division, and for the wildcard.

Chicago Cubs

Lineup
Todd Walker 2B
Corey Patterson CF
Nomar Garciaparra SS
Aramis Ramirez 3B
Jeromy Burnitz RF
Derrek Lee 1B
Michael Barrett C
Todd Hollandsworth/Jerry Hairston, Jr. LF

Rotation
Kerry Wood
Mark Prior
Carlos Zambrano
Greg Maddux
Glendon Rusch
Sergio Mitre

With the downgrade to Houston's lineup this year, the Cubs have a major chance to pass them up. Do they have the team to do it, though? Burnitz/Alou were dead even stat-wise last year. Are Nomar/Hollandworth better than Gonzalez/Sosa? Does it matter if the rotation puts up? How many random middle infielders will the Cubs sign this year? (They look to break camp with Jose Macias and Neifi Perez coming off the bench.)
Who's the Number 1 in this rotation? More importantly, who's the Number 5? Only 7 guys started for the Northsiders last year, and these are the 6 left. Wood, Prior, and Maddux probably couldn't survive a 4-man rotation, so can Rusch and Mitre step up? Or does it even matter. The bullpen may be the most important part of this team. Who will close? (No, really, I'm asking - it's probably been decided, but I haven't seen anything.) Who will set up for him? Unless a Joe Borowski or a Ryan Dempster can prove he can get the job done, don't be surprised to see a move for a big closer if the Cubs are still in it for the wildcard come July.

Cincinnati Reds

Lineup
D'Angelo Jimenez 2B
Sean Casey 1B
Ken Griffey, Jr. CF
Adam Dunn LF
Austin Kearns/Wily Mo Pena RF
Joe Randa 3B
Jason LaRue/Javier Valentin C
Filipe Lopez/Anderson Machado SS

Rotation
Paul Wilson
Eric Milton
Ramon Ortiz
Aaron Harang
Luke Hudson
Jose Acevedo
Brandon Claussen
Luke Hudson
Josh Hancock
Jung Bong

Give me Jimenez, Casey, Dunn, LaRue, and Valentin. The rest I could do without. Why, tell me, do you sign Randa and stick him in front of Ryan Freel? The bench of Valentin, Pena (even if he's a nutcase), Machado, and Freel isn't too bad, but don't confuse this team for a contender.
Wilson is an underrated starter, especially on a bad team. Milton was probably overpaid for (I don't have the numbers - I'm just assuming). Ortiz is a decent fit on this team. Harang is another in a long line of washed-up prospects who found their way to the Cincinnati rotation. That being said, his numbers last year (10-9, 4.86 ERA) look good. The bullpen is better than you might think (maybe). Ben Weber and Kent Mercker pave the way for Danny Graves. Last year, Graves had 41 saves, even if his method wasn't pretty at first. (He had a 5+ ERA at the beginning of the season before ending at 3.98.)

Pittsburgh Pirates

Lineup
Matt Lawton RF
Jack Wilson SS
Jason Bay LF
Craig Wilson 1B
Rob Mackowiak 3B
Benito Santiago C
Tike Redman CF
Jose Castillo 2B

Rotation
Oliver Perez
Kip Wells
Josh Fogg
Ryan Vogelsong
Mark Redman
Sean Burnett
Dave Williams
John van Benschoten

Interesting lineup here. Normally, Lawton bats 1st on a good team and 3rd on a bad team. But then I realized that Pittsburgh doesn't have a leadoff hitter (Redman's .310 OBP last year disqualifies him). So, I moved Bay up to 3rd (although Craig Wilson may end up there), filled in the next few guys, and the next thing I new I didn't need Santiago until the 6 hole. Not too bad. Not great, but not too bad. The bench features Freddy Sanchez (formerly a great middle infield prospect, but he still has time) and Ty Wigginton (formerly a great 3B prospect - sensing a pattern?)
The rotation looks pretty good on paper, especially with Top 100 prospect van Benschoten. But who will setup for Jose Mesa, and when will Mesa again realize that he sucks?

Milwaukee Brewers

Lineup
Junior Spivey/Rickie Weeks 2B
Bill Hall/JJ Hardy SS
Carlos Lee LF
Geoff Jenkins RF
Lyle Overbay 1B
Wes Helms/Russ Branyon 3B
Brady Clark CF
Damian Miller/Chad Moeller C

Rotation
Ben Sheets
Doug Davis
Victor Santos
Chris Capuano
Ben Hendrickson
Wes Obermueller
Jorge de la Rosa
Gary Glover
Matt Wise
Jose Capellan
Ben Diggins

I'll count Bobby Crosby, Khalil Greene, Kaz Matsui, and Jose Reyes as established players. That being said, here are the top three Gammonsesque double play combinations:
1. Weeks/Hardy
2. BJ Upton/anyone
3. Brandon Phillips/Jhonny Peralta
This team has some talent, it's just not there yet. And Weeks and Hardy only count for 2 of the 5 Brewers on the BA Top 100 list, which also includes Capellan and Prince Fielder. (By the way - add Prince to the impressive list of "we saw him when"s that we saw at ND - Carmelo, Wade, Tom Brady, the list just goes on.)
Now that we know of the far future, what about the near future - namely this July? Whose jersey will Ben Sheets be wearing on August 1st, and who will step up to take his place? Can Ricky Bottalico take the place of Danny Kolb? Why haven't I mentioned RP/OF Brooks Kieshnick yet? Why do I ask so many questions?

MLB Preview 4: AL East

New York Yankees

Lineup
Derek Jeter SS
Hideki Matsui LF
Gary Sheffield RF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jorge Posada C
Bernie Williams CF
Ruben Sierra/Jason Giambi DH
Tino Martinez 1B
Tony Womack 2B

Rotation
Mike Mussina
Randy Johnson
Kevin Brown
Carl Pavano
Jaret Wright
Tanyon Sturtze
Jorge De Paula
Alex Graman

A decent lineup. Of course, Joe Torre will decide to hit A-Rod 2nd and Bernie Williams or Matsui 4th for no apparent reason. Oh, and other than Matsui and and maybe Posada, Tino, or Womack), this isn't a good defensive team.
Pavano and Wright are coming off career years. But, this will most likely turn out to be a bad move for Wright. After a brilliant '97, he faded back into obscurity, only to be resurrected by the great pitching teachers in Atlanta. But, will he fare well without those teachers under the bright lights of the Big City? Also, when (not if) Johnson, Mussina, and Brown go down, who will step up? Steve Karsay? With no major changes in the bullpen, it will once again be up to some hitter - anyone! - to figure out that Mariano Rivera has thrown nothing but cut fastballs since 2001.

Boston Red Sox

Lineup
Johnny Damon CF
Edgar Renteria SS
David Ortiz DH
Manny Ramirez LF
Kevin Millar 1B
Jason Varitek C
Trot Nixon RF
Bill Mueller 3B
Mark Bellhorn 2B

Rotation
Curt Schilling
Wade Miller
Matt Clement
Bronson Arroyo
David Wells
Tim Wakefield
Byung-Hyun Kim
Abe Alvarez
John Halama

There are a few new faces in the lineup, but this is still a very solid core group. I put Renteria 2nd here, but you could easily drop him down to give your lineup a little more overall punch. Heck, who needs a guy who puts his bat on the ball and moves runners over batting second anyways? As for these starting 9 - they'll have to have some endurance. The bench features big names like Kevin Youkilis, Ramon Vazquez, Hanley Ramirez, Adam Hyzdu, and Jay Payton. Yep, that's it.
The rotation features a few new faces. This week's SI points out that the addition of Wells and Clement makes this the MLB's best rotation as far as control of the strike zone goes. Let's just see if Miller can stay healthy and Clement can prove to the doubters that he's worth his big contract. The good news is that the bullpen features some good names. Setting up for Keith Foulke will be Alan Embree, Mike Timlin, and Matt Mantei.

Baltimore Orioles

Lineup
Brian Roberts2B
Melvin Mora 3B
Miguel Tejada SS
Sammy Sosa RF
Javy Lopez C
Rafael Palmeiro DH
Jay Gibbons 1B
Larry Bigbie LF
Luis Matos CF

Rotation
Sidney Ponson
Daniel Cabrera
Erik Bedard
Rodrigo Lopez
Eric DuBose
Matt Riley
Bruce Chen
Kurt Ainsworth
Rick Bauer
John Maine

This is a lineup that should be able to compete in any division. Baltimore cleared their two-man logjam at second by sending Jerry Hairston, Jr. out west, giving Roberts the starting job full time. Mora can flat-out put the bat on the ball, and dropping Gibbons another spot in the lineup should help him return to his underrated 2003 form. Now it's up to Sosa and Palmeiro to stay healthy, and for Javy Lopez to avoid a slump in his sophomore AL season. Then, anything that Bigbie and Matos can and will do will be a bonus.
The rotation won't strick fear in anyone's heart. But hey, at least Bruce Chen gets to play for the same team two years in a row. And, on the bright side, the bullpen is just loaded. Setting up for new closer BJ Ryan is former closer Jorge Julio, Jason Grimsley, Steve Kline, and Steve Reed. The lineup and the bullpen (maybe with the addition of a big name closer) can compete in any division, and possibly even in this one. But can Ponson, Lopez, and the rotation hold up their end of the bargain?

Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Lineup
Carl Crawford CF
Julio Lugo/BJ Upton SS
Roberto Alomar 2B
Aubrey Huff RF
Josh Phelps DH
Danny Bautista LF
Travis Lee 1B
Toby Hall C
Alex Gonzalez 3B

Rotation
Dewon Brazelton
Casey Fossum
Mark Hendrickson
Rob Bell
Douh Waechter
Jorge Sosa
Scott Kazmir

Do you like replaceable parts? Maybe you can be the guy who makes out Tampa Bay's lineup card. Besides the 10 guys listed above (Lugo or Gonzalez can't hold back Upton very long), you also have Rocco Baldelli, Delmon Young, and Joey Gathright. Call me crazy, but I still love watching this team.
The rotation is full of questions, most of them being "Can (Brazelton, Fossum, Sosa, Kazmir) live up to expectations? I have a feeling the answer will be "yes" in at least two occassions. Meanwhile, a revolving door of mediocrity will continue to set up the seemingly resurgent Danys Baez. But will the former Cuban sensation get more than 33 chances to save a game this season?

Toronto Blue Jays

Lineup
Reed Johnson LF
Frank Catalanotto DH
Vernon Wells CF
Corey Koskie 3B
Eric Hinske/Shea Hillenbrand 1B
Gregg Zaun C
Alex Rios RF
Orlando Hudson/Frank Menechino 2B
Russ Adams/John MacDonald SS

Rotation
Roy Halladay
Ted Lilly
Miguel Batista
Josh Towers
Scott Schoeneweis
Dave Bush
Justin Miller
Ryan Glynn
Gustavo Chacin

JP Ricciardi is a much-respected GM. However, unless there's some master rebuilding plan I don't know about (and I'm not saying there isn't), this team appears to be heading in the wrong direction. Johnson and Wells are definitely building blocks for the future, and Catalanotto is one of the best veteran role players you could ask for. But what's there other than that? Sure, you can't blame Ricciardi for Hinske's sophomore demise, but where are the rest of the big name prospects?
The rotation has its bright spots, but not many. In what may be potentially bad news, it appears that Bush will get the last spot over Schoenweis. Schoenweis is another great reliever who thinks he's good enough to be used solely as a starter. If he's not, and the team tanks, look out. It appears that Justin Speier will be the closer. That's a decent choice, but surely not one that will strike fear in the hearts of AL East hitters. The only big names setting him up are virtual has-beens. Billy Koch returns not as a closer, but as a middle reliever, after being exposed as a fastball-only pitcher - and one who doesn't even have that much fire on his heater any more. Kerry Lightenberg, meanwhile, is most well known as the guy who took over as the Braves closer after John Rocker's collapse.



Well, that's it. I'll be in Georgia for most of next week, but I'll try to get the NL Central preview out before I go.

The Weekend in ReviewA-P-R-P-E-I-E-I-O

Transaction Wire

• Cavs get Jiri Welsch from the Celtics for a future draft pick. Well, so now the "random guy on the Celtics in NBA Live 2005 whom I have no idea who he is" is now a Cav. How about that.


• Knicks trade away Moochie Norris, Vin Baker, Nazr Mohammed, and Jamison Brewer and get Malik Rose and Maurice Taylor.


• Bears sign Mushin Muhammed and release David Terrell. I believe that's considered an "upgrade."


• Browns release Robert Griffith and trade Gerard Warren to the Broncos for a draft pick. Good riddance to poor tackling.


• Speaking of the recent Davis-era purge in Cleveland, it appears that Jeff Faine will be sticking around for now, as long as someone can "light a fire under his backside." Never thought I'd hear that said about Faine.

Bubble Watch

Men: Current RPI: 51 (ouch). Conference leaders ahead of them: 18. At-larges ahead of them: 33. That makes their "bubble magic number" 34, just enough to get in. However, Pitt, who is ranked 18/17 in the polls, is below ND with an RPI of 64. (ND's 50th best SOS is much better than Pitt's 98th best.) So, it'll take a good showing in the conference tourney to make it to the Big Dance. As a 6 seed in the Big East, ND would play #11 Providence in the first round and #3 Syracuse in round 2. Gulp.

Women: Their RPI is #4, despite being ranked 10th in both polls. I'd still love to see the women knock off tOSU a second time in a 1 seed/2 seed Elite 8 matchup.

Like the true sportswriter I am, I will now pretend like I know more about basketball than a guy who coaches for a living, and offer advice for the ND men's team to use for the rest of the season

• Jordan Cornette needs to play like a forward on offense. Mike Brey sometimes refers to the Cornette-Thomas-Quinn-Falls-Francis lineup as a "4 and 1 set," meaning 4 guards and 1 forward. OK, but... when you have four guys acting like it's a penalty to be inside the 3-point arc for more than three seconds, don't expect much out of your one forward. Every time one of the guards tries to dump it down to Francis in this set, Francis gets beat up up not one but two guys who are wider than him and can crash down and take the ball away. That's what I like about Lattimore on offense, even if he doesn't have more talent than Cornette - he's another option for the defense to worry about close to the basket. If Cornette has such a great jumper, why not play him in a Tom Timmermans-style role at the free throw line, where he can hit mid-range jumpers or even use his athletic ability to drive and make something happen.


• Don't get behind big early. Well, duh, you might say. But it happens all two often - the 2003 Big East Tournament against St. John's and last week's UCLA game are just two examples. The Irish always find a way to turn it on late and get it close, but in the end the deficit just seems to big to overcome. Come out aggressive and keep it close early.


• Colin Falls needs to break out of his mini-slump. Sure, you can't say "hey, stop being in a slump," and expect him to say, "ok, sorry about that." And I'm not upset, as now he's just shooting like a human being as opposed to a Larry Bird/Alicia Ratay-esque supershooter. But, when Falls gets in a slump, Quinn and Thomas try to make up for it by forcing more threes of their own. And, since they're forced, that only puts them in a slump, and the next thing you know, it's 7 minutes without a field goal for the Irish.


• Work to get open looks close to the basket - especially when the three point game is off. Again, it seems obvious - if you're closer to the basket, it should be easier to make shots. Francis is a good player, but the team should be trying to get him open looks instead of just dumping the ball down to him and hoping he can make a shot over the other team after pivoting for 15 seconds. Run some Princeton-style plays to get the guards easy layups. Anything. Layups and dunks are supposed to be easy - try to put yourself in a situation to shoot more of them. Along those lines...


• Find a way to put Chris Thomas's freshman and sophomore year ego in Chris Quinn's body. Quinn has become very good at putting the ball on the floor and driving the lane. We need more of that. Drive, draw, dish. Or, drive and put up a floater, as he has become very good at. While we're at it, let's teach the other guards to drive like Quinn. I know Thomas has it in him, and I'm sure a Colin Falls, Omari Israel, or Russell Carter can learn. (By the way, you may have noticed I said "Thomas's freshman and sophomore year ego." I do think Thomas is a much more mature player this year. I also can see why he sometimes lollygags back on defense when the guy he's covering is doing the same - that's how he can stay on the court longer. I don't agree with that, but I can see why he's doing it.)


• More Russell Carter. Has this guy ever missed a three, especially in a big situation? OK, this is the least serious of my points, but still.

The John Chaney Thing

Oh, you've got to love the sports media. (Plus, I've just finished Bob Knight's latest biography, so this situation came up at a great time.) College coaches are supposed to be role models for the 18-22 year old young adults they're in charge of. However, many are setting a terrible example for their kids by lying, cheating, and stealing just so they can keep winning and keep their multi-million dollar contracts (and how many of these coaches donate some of their millions to academics, as Knight does?). Slick Jim Tressel basically sticks his fingers in his ears and does the "I'm not listening! I'm not listening!" routine whenever a player mentions that they have taken money from a booster, just so the coach can circumvent the "if no school officials know about the wrongdoing, the school and team can't be punished" rule. But that's just one example. What did John Chaney do? Did he make a mistake? Yes. Were the consequences much worse than he had planned? Definitely (a St. Joe's senior broke his arm after Chaney sent in a "goon"). So, what did Chaney do after that? Trying to be a role model to his kids, he suspended himself for the A-10 tournament.
So, of course, the "respected" sports media immediately jumps on the "John Chaney should be fired because he's shown he can't control his temper" bandwagon. But is a temper more important than the life lessons he teaches his players? Here's an excerpt from Chaney's bio:

Under Chaney's direction, it has become a yearly occurrence for Temple to meet the nation's toughest opponents in the most hostile environments that college basketball can offer. Chaney knows his teams may take some losses, but playing the best has always been a key element of his grand scheme. The lesson in basketball is the same as the lesson in life: his players soon learn that on the long road to any goal worth striving for whether it is earning a college degree, winning a basketball championship or landing a prestigious job there will always be tough obstacles to overcome.

Thanks to the recent release of the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate Data, let's see how important a college degree is to John Chaney's players. The NCAA's chart on Temple shows that the men's basketball team has a ranking of 818, well below the 925 ranking that indicates a 50% graduation rate - the rate considered "acceptable" by the NCAA. So Chaney isn't graduating players. But wait - this only represents one year of data. On a basketball team, that may be at most 3 people. Let's look at the 4-year averages from the 2004 NCAA Graduation Rate Report. There, it says that, of the 6-10 players who started school between '94 and '97, only 43% graduated, including only 33% of the black players.
What's my point? If you're going to blast a college coach, don't blast him for the occassional outburst. Blast him for making a mockery of college athletics by teaching his impressionable young charges to be dishonest and not caring whether they graduate.

Link of the Week

Courtesy of my high school friend josh - pictures of his tour of duty in Iraq. http://www.joshuagnizak.com

Presidents' Day Holiday Weekend in Reviewby Dave Schmitt, KankaNation Guest Columnist

This past weekend, I felt, was worthy of a Weekend in Review. It was the Presidents’ Day Holiday Weekend, which is exciting, because I love President Bush. I know it’s not his holiday, but still.... Washington and Lincoln weren’t bad, either. There’s an excellent new biography out right now on Washington called His Excellency by Joseph Ellis. It’s a great read, only about 250 pages. On to the weekend....

Friday night after work, Ellen, Brian Campbell, my friend Sabina and I headed down to McSorley’s Ale House in somewhat-downtown Manhattan. You may have heard of McSorley’s as the oldest bar in New York (in continuous existence). It’s quite the experience. Loyal KankaManiacs would love it. It’s a complete dive that looks like it hasn’t been cleaned since the 1800’s. Sawdust is all over the ground, the mustard on each table is in a glass instead of a standard mustard jar, there are old maps all over the wall, and lots of drunk Irish guys yelling at random times. Now, you can only order 2 types of drinks here: light or dark. No mixed drinks, no bottled beers. Light beer or dark beer, made right there. The beers are $2 each, and the waiter (and by waiter I mean drunk Irish guy standing next to the bar) brings them to you 2 at a time. So I guess they cost $4? Excellent brews. The glasses are smaller than regular pint glasses, so you just keep ordering rounds and throwing down beers without having to spend hours deciding what to drink (which helps things when Ellen’s involved). Seeing as it was a Lenten Friday, we all ordered fish & chips, which was pretty good. After 2 hours at this place, everyone was pretty drunk. Sabina still wasn’t sober when she got back to the train station, so her mom had to pick her up. Ellen passed out on the train. Good times all around.

Saturday was a day-night doubleheader of Big East sports action. First, Ellen and I attended the Rutgers-Notre Dame women’s basketball game, which was played under the rules of “no blood, no foul.” Rutgers has some tough-looking girls, presumably from the streets of Newark, who kept blatantly knocking over Megan Duffy and not getting called for any fouls. Ugly, ugly game, double-digit ND loss. I was pretty impressed with the RAC, though, as they got just about a full house. Little Friend Caitlin (manager) was too busy to really stop and chat, so we may try to harass her again next week at Seton Hall.

The nightcap was the Big East Men’s & Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships from Eisenhower Park (on Long Island, by Nassau Coliseum). So soon after returning from the game, we got in Ellen’s car (actually, her mom’s car, for reasons which are beyond my comprehension) and drove to LI. To give you an idea of how exciting swim meets are, the first 2 events were 1,650 meters each – about 16 minutes of back-and-forth apiece. Yikes. But after that, it got easier to handle, and the platform diving amused me. Both ND teams won the team titles, and both coaches won Coach of the Year. It was the women’s 9th win in a row, and the men’s first ever. Ellen was having a freak-out attack because she LUUUUVS Tim, the men’s coach (he loves the Pope and cowboys). So it was a very exciting night for Ellen. After leaving the pool around 10, and realizing we hadn’t eaten dinner, we met Sabina and Vino at a diner.

The next two days did not really consist of anything that would amuse KankaNation.

Coming up next: because of a scheduling conflict, in lieu of a running diary of the men’s Big East basketball tourney, we will be a doing an international edition of Weekend in Review, starring me, Ellen, Molly who Kanka’s only seen sober that one time she was working at Recker’s, and my brother, from London. Look for it around March 18 or so.

Editor's note: I'll be back next week with the AL East preview.

The Weekend in ReviewRevolving Deadline Edition

Transaction Wire

• Bobcats sign Matt Carroll. Carroll had been leading the NBDL with 20.1 PPG, and was the NBDL player of the month for January.


• The Bears will assign Nick Setta to an NFL Europe team in March.


• Jerome Collins, Mike Goolsby, Justin Tuck, and Ryan Grant were invited to the NFL Combine which started Wednesday and lasts until March 1.


• Raiders allegedly will trade Napoleon Harris and draft picks to Minnesota for Randy Moss. Hoorah for the malcontents.


• Jerry Jones signs Drew Bledsoe. Hey, it doesn't take that much talent to take a snap and hand off to Julius.


• Calgary Stampeders name Bill Diedrick QB/RB coach. I'll let you form your own opinions on the press release.


• Indians sign Darren Bragg to a minor league deal. I'm not sure, but I think Bragg started his career before Darrin Bragg was even born.


• Nationals sign Carlos Baerga to a minor league deal.

Bubble Watch

Men: As you know, the magic number for the men is 34 - that's the number of at-large teams that make the tournament. As of Sunday night, the Irish had an RPI of 39. Of the 38 teams ahead of the Irish, 16 lead their division. That gives the Irish a theoretical "bubble magic number" of 23. Barring any major collapse, I would think that's good enough to dance into a 7-8-9 seed.

Women: Nothing to worry about here. A loss to Rutgers dropped them to #10 in both polls. But, the 12th toughest schedule gives them an RPI of 5, one ahead of tOSU. Look for a 2 seed for the "Lady Irish."

Miscellaneous Ramblings

• Is Nascar turning into the WWE with its sponsorships? Darryl Waltrip was on SportsCenter recently, and it named him as the Nextel Cup Champion in '82, '83, and '85. But wait... it wasn't called the Nextel Cup back then.


• Thanks to the two pieces of "fan mail" I recently received. One shared my admiration of Brian Brennan. The other asked about the Kim Dunbar that works for DavidGivens87.com. I looked into it, and it turns out Givens' site is made by Paid, Inc., a Massachusetts company that, among other things, makes personal websites for athletes. (Check out TroyBrown80.com, KevinFaulk33.com, and MattLight72.com among others). Dunbar writes for all of these sites, so I'm not sure whether or not this is the same Kim Dunbar.


• So, I was in the ND Bookstore this past weekend, and do you believe they sell video games now?


• Speaking of ND, the McDonalds High School All-American Game, featuring ND recruit Luke Zeller, will be played at the Joyce Center March 30. Who's with me? There's even a special event at Bethel College on the 28th as part of the festivities. Bethel's such a nice school.


• Link of the week #1: If you're ever wondering what the current Bones are up to, check out these videos taken by current GradAss Matt Merten. I will warn you, though, that "Bones Love Nature" prominently features F-Bomb being F-Bomb.


• Link of the week #2: Apparently, there's this site called The Face Book, where you enter your information and list your friends who are also a part of the Face Book. And they list their friends, etc. Originally, I thought it was only for current ND students, but apparently alumni can join as well. Here's why Ellen has join: not only is it a blatant "your face" reference, but there's also a group called "The DJ Fitzpatrick Fan Club." I swear I'm not making this up. (Hat tip to Andy for pointing this out to me.)


• Link of the week #3: For all you liberal democrat ND sports fans out there, here's Musings of a Domer.


• Wrasslin' Rambling #1: Dave, it's too bad your brother is abroad this semester. Otherwise, he could have warned us that Mick Foley was coming to ND on February 17 to talk. You could have gone up to him afterwards and told him that you, too, come from "the city of Long Island."


• Wrasslin' Rambling #2: Chyna (or, Chyna Doll, as she is now known to avoid legal prosecution from the WWE) is on this season's "Surreal Life." In the next episode that's coming up, her boyfriend shows up and they get in a fight. Now, do you remember who her boyfriend is? That's right, it's none other than X-Pac. I'm not even making this up.

AL East preview coming later this week.

MLB Preview 3: NL East

Atlanta Braves

Lineup
Rafael Furcal SS
Marcus Giles 2B
Raul Mondesi RF
Chipper Jones 3B
Brian Jordan LF
Johnny Estrada C
Andruw Jones CF
Adam LaRoche 1B

Rotation
Tim Hudson
John Smoltz
John Thomson
Mike Hampton
Horacio Ramirez

This is a good lineup, if Mondesi and Jordan can still perform, and if Estrada's year wasn't just a flash in the pan. The only thing close depth on offense is in their infield - Julio Franco and Nick Green - include Wilson Betemit if you think he's going to break out this year.
The rotation has experience if nothing else. All they have to do is get it to Bobby Cox's endless bullpen and hand the ball to new closer Danny Kolb. If Kolb can do well in Milwaukee, imagine what he can do on an Atlanta staff.

Philadelphia Phillies

Lineup
Jimmy Rollins SS
Chase Utley/Placido Polanco 2B
Bobby Abreu RF
Jim Thome 1B
Pat Burrell LF
Mike Lieberthal C
David Bell 3B
Kenny Lofton CF

Rotation
Brett Myers
Randy Wolf
Vincente Padilla
Jon Lieber
Paul Abbott
Corey Lidle
Gavin Floyd

Rollins and Thome are strong. Abreu had a good year batting in front of Thome - look for him to repeat. And, finally, Pat Burrell was able to play at his expectation level. Other than that, this isn't a division winning lineup. Lieberthal is a good hitting catcher, and Bell and Utley are good role players. But will Lofton be agreeable? And can more than Rollins, Thome, Abreu, and Burrell produce consistently, or even stay healthy consistently?
The rotation has a lot of great middle of the rotation names, but someone will need to step up and be a dominator if this team wants to go anywhere. If they do, their bullpen, again lead by Billy Wagner, shouldn't be anything to worry about.

Florida Marlins

Lineup
Juan Pierre CF
Luis Castillo 2B
Miguel Cabrera LF
Carlos Delgado 1B
Mike Lowell 3B
Paul LoDuca C
Juan Encarnacion RF
Alex Gonzalez SS

Rotation
Dontrelle Willis
Josh Beckett
AJ Burnett
Al Leiter
Ismael Valdez
Logan Kensing
Nate Bump

Throwing a healthy Delgado in the middle of this lineup makes it look really nice, arguably the best in the division (it'll take a healthy Lowell and good years from 6, 7, and 8).
The rotation will need bounce-back years from Willis and Beckett, and the long awaited breakout of Burnett. The veteran Leiter in the middle of the rotation will help from an experience standpoint. Meanwhile, the addition of Guillermo Mota turns a so-so bullpen into a pretty good one.

New York Mets

Lineup
Jose Reyes 2B
Kaz Matsui SS
Carlos Beltran CF
Mike Piazza C
Clifford Floyd LF
Mike Cameron RF
Doug Mientkiewicz 1B
David Wright 3B

Rotation
Pedro Martinez
Tom Glavine
Kris Benson
Steve Trachsel
Victor Zambrano
Jae Seo
Matt Ginter
Tyler Yates
Aaron Heilman

Well, you can't buy championships, but little can stop you from trying. This lineup is an interesting one - Reyes, Piazza, and 6 #2 hitters. The emergence of Reyes and Wright are key, of course. But, if Floyd and Cameron can produce, and Mientkiewicz can get back to being a .320 hitter, the Mets will do OK in this division. Speaking of Cameron, who MLB.com expects to move to right, isn't it interesting to have him and Andruw Jones in the same division? Both are 4-tool players, and in each case the lacking tool is hitting for average. The Mets have one of the deepest benches in the NL East. Jason Phillips, Miguel Cairo, and Super Joe Ewing will back up the infield, while former Expo Ron Calloway, fantasy star Victor Diaz, and Eric Valent back up the outfielders.
The rotation looks really good on paper (but, of course, you don't play the game on paper - you play it on grass). Pedro will play well if the team plays well. Benson has been blasted for his poor numbers, but those numbers will look a lot nicer when they're supported by a lineup not wearing gold and black (sorry, Andy). Everyone has Victor Zambrano tabbed as a sleeper this year, and with any luck Heilman will return to his superprospect form. A big name or two in the bullpen by the trading deadline will help, but other than that the pitching staff is pretty much set.

Washington Nationals

Lineup
Brad Wilkerson 1B
Endy Chavez CF
Jose Vidro 2B
Jose Guillen RF
Termel Sledge LF
Vinny Castilla 3
Brian Schneider C
Christian Guzman SS

Rotation
Tony Armas
Zach Day
Livan Hernandez
Esteban Loaiza
Tomo Ohka
John Patterson
Jon Rauch
Claudio Vargas

This is just one of a possible 100 lineups with the replaceable parts on this team. Throw Alex Escobar or hot prospect Ryan Church in the outfield. Move Wilkerson to the outfield if Nick Johnson finally decides to show up. Heck, why not let Frank Robinson return to his player-manager days?
The rotation is not as bad as it looks. I'd go into detail, but I don't want to think about it too much and end up changing my mind. The bullpen? Well, when I'm looking at the entire staff and have to ask, "who's the closer?", they're in trouble. Rocky Biddle, used as a closer and a spot starter (hey, if he's good, you might as well give him playing time) last year, will miss most of the year with a shoulder injury. So, the Washington staff will need some help.

The Weekend in Review

Browns Notes

• Patriots Secondary Coach Eric Mangini has decided to stay in New England as the Defensive Coordinator. He took winning and learning under Bill Belichick over money - I'll salute him for that. With Mangini off the Browns' list, they most likely will turn to former Cleveland linebacker Pepper Johnson, most recently a position coach with the Patriots.


• The Offensive Coordinator position goes to former Giants running back Maurice Carthon. Carthon, most recently an Offensive Coordinator for Bill Parcell's Cowboys, has coached with Romeo Crennel for 13 years.


• Good news for the Cleveland fans who like him - and for the man himself - Terry Robiskie will stay with the Browns as their receivers coach. It would have been nice to see him as the OC, but you have to expect a demotion for a guy from a fired staff.


• Other hirings: Jerry Rosburg, special teams (retains his current job); Jeff Davidson, O-Line; John Lott, strength and conditioning.


• Well, I was hoping to break the news nationally when I heard it Sunday, but now I'm too late. Jeff Garcia will be cut by the Browns. I liked him for being a gamer, but he needed to keep his mouth shut and keep his opinions on coaching between him and the team. The new staff likes Kelly Holcomb from what they've seen. Holcomb has been outstanding in relief over the past few years, but no so good when a team has had a week or two to prepare for only him. If the offensive line can protect, and if he can learn not to stare down his intended targets, Cleveland will be OK. Luke McCown is still the QB of the future, and I'm still a fan of the guy (although he needs to get used to the weather). Bowling Green (not a state) productJosh Harris remains on the roster after a late season addition - who knows what his future is.


• After the Davis era, Jeff Faine is becoming considered by the local media "just another first round bust." The fact that he has only played 22 out of a possible 32 games hasn't helped, especially when Courtney Brown and other top picks have had trouble staying healthy. At the same time, though, one of the knocks on Butch Davis is that he overworked his guys in the weight room, not giving them breaks and causing them injuries. But, the knock on Faine is that Melvin Fowler, drafted the year before, is a better center. Now, wait a minute. Story time. At the beginning of this year, the Packers released Tim Couch. They said that they had compared the tapes of Couch at Kentucky and what they were seeing now - it wasn't the same. The Browns staff had messed up his delivery, and the Packers didn't have the time or the motivation to correct it. Isn't it possible that the same thing happened to Faine? He's spent two years hearing about how the guards next to him are terrible, and as a result often tries to overcompensate. I wish I had stats to back my claim up, but for now there's nothing to combat Butch Davis's O-Line coach and a growingly feisty Cleveland media.

Transaction Wire

• T-Wolves fire Flip Saunders and name Kevin McHale interim coach. Well, someone's got to get that talent to play well. Will it be McHale? We shall see. I can only speculate based on the recent performances of Isiah Thomas and Larry Bird, but I shouldn't jump to conclusions like that.


• Nets trade second round picks in '05 and '07 to Golden State for Clifford Robinson. I had to look this up, because I had no idea. Robinson is 37 years old. Funny, I thought he was about 37 when I started watching basketball 15 years ago.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

• Great quote from my grandpa the other day. The family was discussing anniversaries, and my grandma said that she and Grandpa had been married for 59 years. I jokingly mentioned that she had a bit of a sour face when she said that. She said that it was because Grandpa always claimed that one day he would "trade her in for the new model." Grandpa's response: "Yeah, I thought when she turned 40, I could trade her in for two 20's."


• Utah paid $68 million for Carlos Boozer this offseason, and now they're starting to regret it. First of all, they're finally realizing that Boozer is not a $68 mil superstar - he's a role player that works well on a team with a star center and a star perimeter player. He's definitely not a #1 option, although he thinks he should be. And now, he's starting to mail it in on the court, especially on defense (where he wasn't that great to begin with). The Jazz have called him out on it, and it's all downhill from here. Meanwhile, Drew Gooden has taken over Boozer's double-double every night role in Cleveland.


• Speaking of disgruntled Cavs, Darius Miles is not happy in Portland. Say what you want, but character guys and chemistry do make a difference, even in the pros.


• Finally, in "you can't make this up" news, an Akron, OH man is being investigated by the FBI after allegedly sending threatening emails to Ray Lewis via his charity organization. Some reports say that the man is a relative of one of the two men killed by Lewis's posse in 2000. Wow, I can't even comment on this one - there's just too much going on.

Later this week: NL East Preview.

MLB Preview 2: AL West

Fighting Los Angeles Fighting Baseball Angelroons of Anaheim, California, USA

Lineup
Chone Figgins 3B
Orlando Cabrera SS
Garret Anderson LF
Vlad Guerrero RF
Steve Finley/Jeff DaVanon CF
Darin Erstad 1B
Tim Salmon DH
Bengie Molina/Josh Paul C
Adam Kennedy 2B

Rotation
Bartolo Colon
Jarrod Washburn
Kelvim Escobar
John Lackey
Paul Byrd
Aaron Sele
Ramon Ortiz
Esteban Yan

I tried to go lefty/righty here, but in a perfect situation, Vlad hits 3rd, Anderson 4th, and a meathead righty hits fifth. Finley is a decent pickup, though.
Not much change in the rotation - Byrd is serviceable and will give the Angels good innings. Plus, he's a great change of pace after throwing Colon and Washburn at an opponent. And, of course, the bullpen is once again great, even after the loss of Troy Percival.

Oakland A's

Lineup
Mark Kotsay CF
Jason Kendall C
Eric Chavez 3B
Erubiel Durazo DH
Eric Byrnes LF
Nick Swisher RF
Bobby Crosby SS
Scott Hatteberg 1B
Mark Ellis/Marco Scutaro 2B

Rotation
Barry Zito
Rich Harden
Danny Haren
Juan Cruz
Justin Duchscherer

OK, the A's lineup in reality will look nothing like this. But, I have no idea how a moneyballer would play it. Durazo has been playing low in the order; Ellis is normally a 1-2 guy but is coming off surgery. I may have given Byrnes too much credit, and judging by the reviews, I may not have given enough. The bad news for Steve Stanley (A's best AA player, mediocre year at AAA) and Brian Stavisky (high A) is that, in addition to three quality starting outfielders, the A's also have Bobby Kielty and Charles Thomas coming off the bench.
Major turnover in the rotation for a team that only needed to use 6 starters all of last year. Harden and Haren are huge on promise, though. I don't know if Cruz will be a starter, but they really don't have anyone else to do it. The lack of experienced starting pitching could really wear on what otherwise is a good looking bullpen (and on the cartilage of curveballer Zito if he needs to become an innings eater this year).

Texas Rangers

Lineup
Michael Young SS
Hank Blalock 3B
Alfonso Soriano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Richard Hidalgo RF
Dave Dellucci/Adrian Gonzalez DH
Kevin Mench LF
Laynce Nix/Gary Matthews CF
Rod Barajas C

Rotation
Kenny Rogers
Ryan Drese
Chan Ho Park
Pedro Astacio
Ricardo Rodriguez
Joaquin Benoit
RA Dickey
Chris Young
Juan Dominguez
Nick Regilio
Kameron Loe

Not much change in the lineup this year. Hidalgo basically replaces Brad Fullmer. I have a feeling that Nix and Matthews will have a bit of a lefty/righty platoon. I'd love to see PT for Gonzalez this year, too. But, with Teixeira at first, it will have to be at DH unless he can learn to play the outfield.
Rogers is backed by a boatload of decent young starters in the rotation. But, can any of those guys make the jump from "decent" to "great?" We shall see. Meanwhile, the best bullpen in the league returns led by breakout star closer Francisco Cordero.

Seattle Mariners

Lineup
Ichiro! RF
Randy Winn LF
Richie Sexson 1B/DH
Adrian Beltre 3B
Bret Boone 2B
Bucky Jacobsen DH/1B
Miguel Olivo/Dan Wilson C
Pokey Reese SS
Jeremy Reed CF

Rotation
Jamie Moyer
Gil Meche
Joel Pineiro
Ryan Franklin
Bobby Madritsch
Ron Villone
Travis Blackley
Clint Nageotte
Cha Seung Baek

Wow. Well, that's how the lineup may look, but I really have no idea. Perhaps Mike Hargrove will try something completely different. This lineup looks great 1-6 - assuming Sexson stays healthy, Beltre wasn't a flash in the pan, and Boone isn't a 'roid user. But after that it's not so good. Reese will play great defense no matter where he is, and I put him and Reed at the bottom of the order as "secondary leadoff men." To be honest, though, I've never heard of Reed before in my life. The tricky task for Hargrove will be to get 3B Justin Leone in the lineup. Leone showed some promise after being called up after the All Star break, but cooled off over the rest of the season.
The lineup won't scare too many people, but that may be to Seattle's advantage. Given these guys, I'd go with a 5-man rotation, but would try to convince Moyer that he would be by #1 and #4 starter. The numbers of Meche, Pineiro, and Franklin last year weren't great, but they'll look much better with this lineup. All they need to do is get it to the 7th, so Rafael Soriano, Shiggie Hasegawa, and Everyday Eddie Guardado can take over.

The Weekend in ReviewSorry, talking animals and groin shots not included

NFL Playoffs Update

Players

Jerome Bettis, RB - Pittsburgh: This Week: 17 rush for 64 yd and 1 TD, 1 fumble lost. Total: 44 rush for 165 yards and 2 TDs, and 1 lost fumble. 1 rec for 21 yd.

Brennan Curtin, OT, Green Bay: Team total: 105 rushing yards, 2 sacks given up.

Vontez Duff, CB, Pittsburgh:

Tony Fisher, RB - Green Bay: Total: 1 rush for 4 yards, 2 receptions for 1 yard, and 1 drop.

David Givens, WR - New England: This week: 3 receptions for 31 yards and 1 TD. Total: 12 receptions for 116 yards and 3 TD. 1 rush for -1 yards.

Joey Goodspeed, FB - St. Louis: Total: Thrown at once (screen pass), 0 receptions.

Paul Grasmanis, DT - Philadelphia:

Jim Jones, OG - Pittsburgh: Team this week: 163 rushing yards, 1 sack given up. Team total: 356 rushing yards, 2 sacks given up.

Mike Rosenthal, OL, Minnesota: Team total: 98 rushing yards 2 sacks given up.

Allen Rossum, PR - Atlanta: This week: 4 kickoff returns for 102 yards, 2 punt returns for 20 yards. Total: 8 kickoff returns for 182 yards, 5 punt returns for 172 yards and 1 TD.

Gerome Sapp, S - Indianapolis: Total: 2 special teams tackles.

Hunter Smith, P - Indianapolis: Total: 8 punts, 40 yard average, 5 inside 20, long of 54 yards.

Bobby Taylor, CB - Seattle:

Coaches

(Former ND assistants or ND alumni)

Pete Bercich, Linebackers Assistant, Minnesota: Linebackers total: 26 tackles, 1 forced fumble.

Kirk Doll, Special Teams, Denver: Team total: 23.5 kick return average, -1.0 punt return average. 18.0 kick return average and 9.0 punt return average given up.

Bishop Harris, Running Backs, New York Jets: Team total: 226 rushing yards.

Jim Johnson, Defensive Coordinator, Philadelphia: Team this week: 24 points , 236 passing yards, 113 rushing yards given up. Team total: 48 points, 688 passing yards, 319 rushing yards given up. 3 interceptions.

Dean Pees, Linebackers, New England: Linebackers this week: 19 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 INT. Linebackers total: 54 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 INT.

Johnny Roland, Running Backs, Green Bay: Team total: 105 rushing yards, 1 TD.

Kurt Schottenheimer, Defensive Backs, Green Bay: Team total: 284 passing yards, 4 TD given up.

George Stewart, Receivers, Atlanta: Team this week: 136 receiving yards. Team total: 220 receiving yards, 2 TD.

Mike Stock, Special Teams, St. Louis: Team this week: 17.4 kick return average, no punt returns. 20.0 kick return average and 50.7 punt return average given up (including 1 punt return TD). Team total: 20.3 kick return average, 4.7 punt return average. 18.9 kick return average and 40.3 punt return average given up, with 1 punt return TD.

Trent Walters, Secondary, Philadelphia: Team this week: 236 passing yards. Team total: 688 passing yards and 3 TD given up. 3 interceptions.

Charlie Weis, Offensive Coordinator, New England: Team this week: 24 points, 236 passing yards, and 113 rushing yards. Team total: 85 points, 597 passing yards, 449 rushing yards.

Transaction Wire

• Tigers sign Magglio Ordonez. Catcher? Check. Right fielder? Check. Hey, only 7 more years until they're contenders!


• Devil Rays trade Jose Cruz Jr. for Casey Fossum. Will they have good years? Will they underacheive again? Who knows! It's baseball time again in Phoenix and Tampa!


• Browns sign Romeo Crennel to a 5 year deal worth $11mil.


• NBA All-Stars of note: Vince Carter (starter), LeBron James (starter), Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Rashard Lewis.


• ND Trustee Dave Duerson resigns his post facing charges of domestic battery. Lucas Sayre of Daily Contentions calls the resignation "telling." Don't forget, though, that Duerson was a big Malloy backer, and that Monk's camp is noted for over-control of public image.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

• Nothing says "impending sense of doom" like Tim Higgins' crew doing a Syracuse-ND. Now, he shouldn't get all the blame this time - after all, he wasn't the one who went 5-17 from the free throw line.


• Seeing Dennis Lattimore at the free throw line running the "high" of the high-low offense against Syracuse's 2-3 zone, was I the only one who missed Tom Timmermans' shooting and passing ability from that spot on the floor?


• On to that football game. I made a point of not watching any pregame... or so I thought. When will I learn that a 6pm start on Fox really means 6:35?


• You have to love Alicia Keys for her respect of the legends who came before her, or at least her manager for making her look like she does. Playing with Stevie Wonder at an awards show, and now the tribute to Ray Charles with his alma mater. There's someone with her head on straight. (And yes, I do now officially have a thing for girls named "Alicia." I hate you guys.


• Early on in the pregame, I made a wishful comment about the Anthem being sung the right way - by a military choir. Who knew that I would get my wish? Well done, NFL.


• Speaking of well done, my dad and I both incredibly 'ppreciated the tribute to the WWII vets. A big salute to bringing class to sports instead of going for ratings.


• Very early in the game, I could tell Romeo Crennel was a great choice as Cleveland's new head coach. The Browns' defense has been incredibly inconsistent these past few years. This year, it boiled down to sloppy tackling. The Patriots, meanwhile, rarely missed a tackle early on (there were maybe two in the first half, one by Troy Brown). Instead, they wrapped up, held on, and drove back. The Browns can start with a fundamentally sound defense and build from there.


• Not a great game from Givens, but of course he came up with a key touchdown. Next time, though, don't do your mocking celebration right next to the ref. Have you learned nothing from Bobby Brown?


• Hey, a quality halftime show that everyone could enjoy. It was odd, though, seeing people of all ages, and even families, rocking out in the SRO area around the stage - an area normally reserved for groupies and "beautiful people."


• What happened to the Eagles halfway through the final quarter? I started seeing the Eagles of last year's NFC championship - a team that blatantly didn't show up. That team was a team that didn't want to go over the middle, ole'd balls for fear of getting hit, and didn't fight for the extra yards. This team was patient to a fault, getting way to cautious at a time when they didn't need to be.


• OK, OK, so Terrell Owens had a great game. Was he even hurt? I was expecting a Byron Leftwich-esque "looks great during the play and drastically worse after the whistle" performance where his teammates would have to carry him down the field by the end of the game.


• Speaking of receivers with great games - would Deion Branch be getting the proper attention for tearing up the great Eagle pass defense if he was a big talker?


• My dad loved the group hug by Belichick, Crennel, and Weis. I wouldn't be surprised to find a framed picture of it in our living room one day. It may be a while, though - I just tried to find it using Google with no luck (let me know if you see it).


• I don't know how much Fox contributed to the pregame, but they definitely could have done better with the postgame. Hey, this is a great moment in sports - let's bring in Darryl Waltrip to advertise the Daytona 500 for the 300th time tonight!


• Cleveland GM Phil Savage said he was going to offer Crennel the head coaching spot shortly after the game. He wasted no time - Crennel's cell phone rang at 10:30 and he accepted the job. Rumor has it that Maurice Carthon of Dallas will be the Offensive Coordinator.


• The new man of the hour, meanwhile, is Patriots DB coach Eric Mangini. Mangini is supposed to be offered the Defensive Coordinator position in both New England and Cleveland (and is expected to pick Cleveland due to a bigger offer). Can he handle it? Well, he was the Patriots DB coach this year. Meanwhile, with a few more years' experience, Patriots DLine coach and former Browns linebacker Pepper Johnson is due to be a popular choice as someone's Defensive Coordinator.

Super Bowl XXXXIXXIXXXIX. Or whatever.by Klondike, special to KankaNation

I suppose I have to contribute some sort of meaningful, Super-Bowl-Related commentary to the blog. The Whiskey Monster has been trying to convince me to do a colorful and insightful review of the game, backed up with statistics and historical facts and whatnot. Unfortunately, the Whiskey Monster left after half time, and the Gin Fiend had to take over.

The Gin Fiend doesn't know fuck-all about sports. I had to go with the next best thing.

Commercial Highlights:

• Bud Light: One of the first ones out there, where the pilot jumps after the beer. Simple. Funny. Short and sweet. Thumb up.


• Quiznos: That talking baby. Slightly humorous the first time we saw it. Incredibly annoying the 98th time we saw it. Thumb down.


• Fed-Ex: 10 things needed in a Super Bowl Commercial. Groin kicks, dancing grizzly bears, and hot girls. Thumb up.


• Subway: Two guys in a car eating sandwiches. This does absolutely nothing for me. Way to blow your advertising bucks, guys. Thumb down.


• GoDaddy.Com: Hot Girl on a spoof of C-Span. Hilarious. Thumb up.


• Diet Pepsi: P-Diddy gets a ride in a Diet Pepsi truck, causing everybody to drive one. Thumb up on the monster Diet Pepsi truck.


• Regular Pepsi: Thumb up on the beautiful girls. Thumb down on the terrible, terrible commercial.


• Lays: Random nonsense getting thrown over a fence, including MC Hammer. Awesome. Thumb up.


• U.S.Cellular: Some guy shoving his pelvis at people. Plus, it's an old commercial. Thumb down. Way down.


• Tobasco Sauce: Hot Sauce. Hot Girl. Thumb Up.


• Nascar: Pirates? Thumb up. Nascar? Thumb down. Nice try.


• CareerBuilder.Com: A normal guy working with a bunch of monkeys. We've all had days like this. Did I mention Monkeys? Thumb up.


• Anheuser-Busch: Airport travelers giving a standing ovation to American soldiers. Well done. Thumb Up.


• American Mortgage: 'Don't Judge Too Quickly' Situational comedy, Thumb up. The guy looking like an idiot every time (as opposed to the girl) Thumb down.


• Hyundai: Ugly pickup truck, thumb down. Big-Ass Alaskan belt buckle, thumb up.


• Bubblicious: LeBron James walks out acting like LeBron James. This is a commercial for Bubblicious. ?! Thumb gouging out eyeballs.

Potential Things That We Should've Seen, But Didn't:

• The Eagles winning the Super Bowl.


• Paul McCartney's Breast.


• Team captains beating the ever-loving crap out of that little kid for such a bullshit coin toss.


• Paul McCartney's Drummer's Breast.


• Bush vs. Clinton Celebrity Deathmatch.

Why yes, Mr. Fiend, I will have an extra olive with that.


All the best.


Editor's note: First of all, I hope Klondike's not too pissed that I blatantly stole this from the message board. Second, I'll be back tomorrow with a Weekend in Review, and later this week with MLB Preview #2.

Super Bowl XXXIX Preview

Eagles Rush Offense vs. Patriots Rush Defense

The Eagles ran for 1639 yards this year, 4 more than Corey Dillon had in less than 16 games. This isn't a pound it out team. Brian Westbrook (812 yards, 3 TD) will get the brunt of the carries, but Dorsey Levens (410 yards, 4 TD) will get his fair share. But Levens really isn't a role player - the "big back" or short yardage guy - he's used whenever. Aside from Westbrook and Levens, Donovan McNabb has strategically rushed for 220 yards this year. With 3 rushing touchdowns, he's always a threat in the red zone.
The Patriots gave up 1572 yards on the year, which comes to less than 100 yards per game. They chiefly employ a 3-4. The 3-4 isn't used by many teams, but those who do use it use it very well (the Steelers are another example of this - have you ever seen a team with a bad defense run the 3-4?). If necessary, though, the Pats aren't afraid to put 9 guys in the box, or even 2 guys in the box.

Patriots Rush Offense vs. Eagles Rush Defense

Dillon was the workhorse for New England this year. In addition to his 1635 yards, he also had 12 touchdowns. Kevin Faulk had 255 yards in a spot role. Everyone's a player in this offense, too - fullback Patrick Pass had 39 carries this year, abnormally high for a "no-name" fullback these days.
The Eagles, meanwhile, are not known for their run defense. Somehow, though, only Mike Martz and Butch Davis of all people were able to figure that out this year. Philadelphia gave up 1903 yards on the ground this year. Weis knows how to play on an opponent's weaknesses, so look for a steady dose of Dillon in this one.

Eagles Pass Offense vs. Patriots Pass Defense

Will Terrell Owens play or won't he? Doesn't God have better things to do than talk to spoiled loudmouths? I'm sure Bill Belichick and Romeo Crennel realize that even if he plays, TO won't be much more than a decoy. Who's the guy to stop then? Brian Westbrook. Westbrook is a Marshall Faulk-in-his-prime style threat out of the backfield. Do the Patriots have a linebacker athletic enough to cover him? Will Crennel just settle into a zone? Or will we see Kevin Faulk's debut as a DB spying Westbrook? Besides Owens and Westbrook, McNabb has distributed most of the remainder of his 3875 yards and 31 TDs between Todd Pinkston (676 yards, 1 TD), Freddie Mitchell (377 yards, 2 TD), LJ Smith (377 yards, 5 TD), and Chad Lewis (267 yards, 3 TD). Chad Lewis, of course, is out as well, moving Jeff Thomason to backup TE.
Facing the team that no longer has any receivers is the team that no longer has any DBs. The pass defense, and really the defense as a whole, revolves around the linebackers. New England had 45 sacks this year, led by Willie McGinest with 9.5 and Mike Vrabel with 5.5, Patrolling the middle of the field will be leading tackler and safety Rodney Harrison. The Patriots as a team gave up 3400 yards in the air this season.

Patriots Pass Offense vs. Eagles Pass Defense

Will Charlie Weis go to the air when former ND assistant Jim Johnson tries to crowd the box? If he does, he has a 3692 yard, 28 TD season from Tom Brady to work with. David "I thought I was his favorite receiver" Givens led the team with 56 catches for 874 yards. Right behind him is Cleveland castoff David Patten with 800 yards and 7 TDs. Deion Branch is #3 with 454 yards and 4 TDs. Daniel Graham is the red zone threat with 7 TDs, and Faulk and Pass are the threats out of the backfield.
Well, the Eagles had to do something right on defense to make it to the Super Bowl. That something right is their pass defense. Philadelphia has held their opponents to 3212 yards in the air and has recorded 47 sacks. The team sack leader, of course, is Jevon Kearse with 7.5. (Only TO could make Kearse's addition underrated.)

Special Teams

If you like kickers (ahem, Ellen), you'll love this game. Adam Vinatieri and David Akers are two of the best. Vinatieri was 31/33 with a long of 48, and Akers was 27/32 with a long of 51.
The punters are close as well, and it's hard to give an edge to either one. Josh Miller of New England had an average of 42 yards, a net of 33.7 (hoo hoo), 5 touchbacks, 19/56 inside the 20, and a long of 69. Dirk Johnson of Philadelphia had an average of 42.1, a net of 37.4, 6 touchbacks, 20/72 inside the 20, and a long of 62.
The Eagles gave up an average of 6.5 yards per punt return, and only 34 of Johnson's 72 punts were returnable. Philadelphia's kick coverage teams, however, gave up an average of 23.2 yards per kick, with a long of 75 yards. New England's punt covereage team gave up 11.8 yards per game and 1 TD. Their kick coverage gave up an average of 23.3 yards and 1 TD.
Punt return duties for Philadelphia were shared between Dexter Wynn and Reno Mahe. Mahe was the better of the two, with an average of 10.8 yards and a long of 40. The main kick returner for the Eagles was JR Reed with an average of 23.1 and a long of 66 yards. Kevin Faulk actually got the majority of the punt returns for New England this year, not Troy Brown. Faulk averaged 6.7 yards with a long of 16, while Brown had an average of 6.9 yards and a long of 23. The Patriots' top kick returner was the speedy Bethel Johnson (Bethel's such a nice returner). Johnson had an average of 24.8 yards, with a 93 yard TD return.


Look for a big game from
Brady, Dillon, Givens, Bethel Johnson, Troy Brown, Harrison, Vinatieri Westbrook, Pinkston, Dhani Jones, Akers.

Patriots 33, Eagles 27

Transaction Wire

• Marlins sign Carlos Delgado. I probably should have guessed this when I didn't see Delgado on Dave's fantasy team. And Dave - no "I hate you" cheap shot on the message board - you already got Beltran and Pedro. You'll have to live with...


• Mets trade a prospect to the Red Sox for Doug Mientkiewicz. Mientkiewicz has shown that he can put a solid hitting season together - he should at least be good enough to fit in an NL lineup.


• Pirates sign Ben Grieve. Andy, all I can say is this: hey, at least your football team is doing well. And the NHL lockout can't last forever.


• Cubs trade Sammy Sosa to the Orioles for Jerry Hairston, Jr. and two prospects. The general feeling was that the Sosa-Chicago marriage was over. Hairston and Brian Roberts were both playing well in Baltimore, but you can't put two guys at second base at the same time. (Not even in the T-ball league I played in, where everyone on the 15-20 kid team played defense the whole game - one kid at each regular infield position, and everyone else lining the outfield. If you can have 4 center fielders, I argued, why can't you have two second basemen. Eventually, I did get "promoted" to the right fielder specifically in charge of backing up throws to first base. Whoops, I'm caught in a tangent, aren't I? Moving on.) The only problem for Hairston now is another log jam, as Dusty Baker will likely find a random 35 year old second baseman to start 140 games. Sosa, meanwhile, makes the Oriole lineup look very good - I couldn't find a weak hitter at any position. Of course, quite a few of those guys, including Sosa, are nearing the end of their primes - if they aren't there already.


• Mets sign Scott Stewart. Sorry, I ran out of "Hey, I played little league with a guy named Scott Stewart" jokes last season.


• Cubs sign Jeromy Burnitz. He's no Mags Ordonez, but he can be a decent NL hitter when the wind's blowing out to right.


• That's all I got, other than the Indians trading away a third base bust for a guy that Baseball Think Factory compares to Mark Lewis. I don't even want to think about that.
  

Bonus Ramblings

• Remember when I mentioned that my dad knew a guy who's daughter was dating Drew Carey. Well, the guy is from Pittsburgh, and apparently he knows Dave Wannstedt well enough that "Wanny" is the godfather of the guy's other daughter. My dad has already started bugging this guy about tickets.


• Congrats to Allen Rossum, who was named the NFC's Pro Bowl return man as an injury replacement.


• Finally, a new entry in the "best website ever" competition - Snooperbowl.com. Snoop Dogg will be bringing his youth football team from California to Jacksonville to play a local all-star youth team. And, a direct quote from the site: "NFL representatives will be on hand for the official announcement of the Snoop Youth Football League (SYFL) which will begin play in the fall of 2005." I don't know what's better, the fact that there will be a Snoop Youth Football League, or the fact that the announcement needs NFL representatives on hand.