intERrUPTION: Ending the Streak

This past weekend Inter Milan defeated Juventus 3-1 in the Serie A ending Juventus' 49 match unbeaten streak. The match began in typical fashion with the referee allowing Juventus to score a goal in the first minute that was sparked by a pass to a Juventus player in an offside position. The referee, at this early stage of the game, thought he was getting a Maserati from the Agnelli family, a belief he held throughout the duration of the first half. If asked about the call, the referee would wisely tell the media that he was not offered a Maserati and that Juventus were unfairly demoted to the Serie B a few years ago on false information. He would cite the penalty he awarded Inter at the beginning of the second half as proof that he was not favoring Juventus, despite missing a blatant offsides call that directly led to a goal.

Offsides much?

Despite some suspect refereeing and roughhousing from Juventus defender, Inter, headed by a resurgent Diego Milito were able to turn the halftime deficit into a two goal by the late stages of the game. Not even Andrea Pirlo's beard could save Juventus from suffering defeat on this fateful day in November.

The Italian Serie A has come a long way in the past ten years or so. Once one of the very top leagues in Europe in the late 90s and early 2000s, the Serie A is now rated lower than the German Bundesliga. As a result the Serie A has seen reduced automatic spots in the Champions League and is now ranked closer to the French League. Now the Serie A is best known for it's match fixing scandals that present themselves at least once each season, usually involving a handful of teams.

Despite the praise that Juventus has been given over the past season continuing into the current campaign, the only teams from Italy that have found any success in Europe recently are both from Milan, Inter Milan and AC Milan. AC Milan won the Champions League a few years ago and Inter most recently lifted the coveted trophy in 2010, a campaign that included the Italian Cup and the Serie A title, too. Either referees throughout Europe aren't interested in Maseratis or other clubs are offering something better. What is Barcelona's secret? Whatever it is, Fernando Torres didn't care to stick around to figure it out.

Juventus' CEO, Giuseppe Marotta, claimed that Juventus' lack of a "clinical striker" was a major part of the undoing of his club. Apparently this was not a problem during the 49 game unbeaten streak. Alessandro Del Piero's 3 goals in 23 league appearances last season is sorely missed by the Italian giants. Inter could not have possibly won this game because they were the better team, they don't even give the referees presents. If there is one thing that is certain about this match, it is that the referee did not drive home in a brand new Maserati.

The floor is now open for bets on which teams will be involved in a match fixing scandal at the end of the 2012-2013 Italian Serie A season. Good luck and choose wisely.

What do you mean the beard wasn't enough?

Losing Is Good For You!

Don't get confused by the title, this isn't one of those things your parents, teachers and other respectable members of society are trying to tell you.  The whole "losing builds character" thing is fine, but since we write about real sports and real competitions where winning is everything, to hell with character!  Especially since we are talking about baseball, not saying that all baseball players are bad people, but look at the top two all time hits leaders!  One is banned from baseball for the rest of his life and the next is considered to be a disgrace to baseball despite being the leading vote-getter for the introductory class for the Hall of Fame, and is still the 4th leading vote-getter of all time.  I also hold the stiff belief that Barry Bonds was the best player I've seen in my life, possibly only being threatened by Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez and the potential of a healthy Ken Griffey Jr.  So you know what, character is great and I have all the respect in the world for the Chipper Joneses and Derek Jeters of the world, but in some cases you don't need to be the best person to be successful in baseball.  Returning to my point, even though you don't need character and losing builds character, losing can be important in the right circumstances.  Namely, the Championship Series.

Because I respect my readers..

As you should know if you are reading this, the San Francisco Giants are once again the World Series champions, and since the last time I wrote about this topic it went on to be one of my most viewed blog posts ever, I'll see if lightning can strike twice.  They once again won on a great pitching staff, which this time DID include Barry Zito and his curve.  But I don't want to talk about the Giants winning, I'm slightly more interested in talking about the Tigers losing.  They quite possibly have 3 of the top 10 players in the league right now yet looked completely helpless for the entire series, which only lasted 4 games.  The hell of it was that the Tigers also were playing their best baseball of the year down the stretch.  Miguel Cabrera had a fantastic September that catapulted him from "this guy is having a quite good season" to "this guy is winning the Triple Crown" and his Triple Crown is still something I didn't expect to see for a long time.  Their pitching staff was streaking with Max Scherzer and Doug Fister each having awesome Septembers, as well as Verlander being himself.  They had just swept the Yankees in an ALCS that looked too easy.  Yet Despite all this they still looked useless at the bat against San Francisco.  This could, of course, be due to the fantastic pitching staff they have, but that wouldn't be as fun to talk about as why they failed.

"Woah! San Fran can cheer for me!"

Even before the series started I couldn't have helped but remember the 2007 Colorado Rockies, streaking down the stretch of the season to make the playoffs, then not losing a single game before falling to the Red Sox in the World Series.  A World Series in which they were outscored 29-10, although most of that deficit was caused by a 13-1 loss in game 1 to set the tone of the series.  Needless to say the Rockies did not win a single game that series.  Being both a Red Sox fan and a fan of baseball in general, this was an interesting time for me, because while the Rockies swept their NLCS against Arizona, the Red Sox took their sweet time dispatching Cleveland in all 7 games.  So while the Red Sox were gaining tons of momentum coming back to win a series they once trailed 3-1, the Rockies were just sitting there at home waiting to find out where they had to go for game 1, a period of 9 days where they had not taken part in any real competition.  Needless to say if they had any momentum that was helping them out through the playoffs, it was long gone.

Also a little help from umpires, perhaps?

 Are you starting to see the connections yet?  I was vaguely thinking about this at the start of the series, but as it went on it seemed to be more and more like deja vu, so I actually took the time to look at the past results of teams that had swept their 7 game Championship series.  Since the 7 game series was introduced in 1985 here is the exhaustive list of teams that have won it in 4 games. The 1988 Oakland Athletics, 1990 Oakland Athletics, 1995 Atlanta Braves, 2006 Detroit Tigers, 2007 Colorado Rockies and the 2012 Detroit Tigers.  Out of these 6 teams in the playoffs, they have combined for 6 wins in the World Series, (4 of those coming from the 1995 World Champion Atlanta Braves) and a total record of 6-22.  Needless to say, sweeping the Championship Series has not been a particularly good thing for teams that desire to win the World Series, no matter how counter-intuitive and backwards that may seem.  This is by no means saying that if you sweep the Championship Series, you are going to get destroyed in the World Series, but it is starting to look like a trend, so please, try to lose at least one game will ya?

By being less hasty of doing this, you can do this more often!

I do need to make sure that I give proper credit to the San Francisco Giants once again, they played a great series, and got some pretty great production out of all their players.  Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants, but don't get too soft the Dodgers are gonna be coming for you next year.  Speaking of next year, MLB Fan Cave look no further, I'm comin' for ya!

America's Most Hated Man

With the New York Yankees pitifully bowing out of postseason to the Detroit Tigers the insults of Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) are in full swing again. As if those insults ever cease. Not only was the loss of the series 100% Rodriguez's fault, it was also his evil powers that fractured Jeter's aging bone and took out Mariano way back in May. Apparently A-Rod had been planing this one for a while. A-Rod was even lifted due to his lack of productivity at the plate in favor of Eric Chavez. Chavez's stellar .000 postseason average was a major force in the Yankees offensive attack, proving that he was clearly a better hitter in the postseason than A-Rod who hit .120, only 120 points higher than Chavez.

Donald Trump reminds the Twitter universe just about everyday that A-Rod was better when he was on drugs. Much of the criticism of Rodriguez exists due to his enormous salary. Everyone who hates A-Rod because of how much he makes is absolutely correct. None of those people would accept the contract that A-Rod has because they all know they would be unable to live up to it. A-Rod is nothing to this Yankees team which should rid themselves of the man who had nothing to do with the team's 2009 World Series victory. A-Rod's 6 home runs and 18 RBI during the 2009 postseason did not help the Yankees win in the least bit. Derek Jeter could have won the World Series that year by himself.

I'm the number one hated person in America!

Since Alex was born in 1975 he has been a burden to our world. Despite playing in Texas during the 2001 season he shoulders the blame for the September 11th attacks on New York's Twin Towers. He was f**king New York well before signing with the Evil Empire in 2004. A-Rod is also the leading cause of global warming and it is only a matter of time before Al Gore sets out on a stingy campaign against the former Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, and MVP award winner. Rodriguez's most recent damage to New York is of the smaller variety. Earlier this summer, A-Rod was the reason the city's mayor banned large fizzy beverages for purchase in his wonderful city. Clearly A-Rod is a major contributor to the obesity problem in the country and the mayor is doing all in his power to crack down on the superstar's terrible influence.

Not only is A-Rod destroying our environment and making Americans fat, but he is ruining our economy. One of the largest issues faced worldwide today is unemployment. The lack of jobs even in our great country has many people sitting at home all day collecting unemployment that they all definitely deserve. Rodriguez's ludicrous salary is preventing the Yankees from signing other overrated pricks to hefty contracts. The nerve of the bastard to do such a thing. If it wasn't for A-Rod the Yankees could be a better team with more than one player tying up the same amount of money. This would help the U.S. unemployment by about 0%, what a selfish f**k.

Apparently I had nothing to do with this

Fans from all over Yankee Universe are calling for A-Rod's head. They want him gone, and who can blame them, the numbers don't lie. In the 2012 postseason A-Rod only had a higher batting average than Chavez, Robinson Cano, and Curtis Granderson. Yankees fans would argue that Jeter would have been more productive playing in a cast or wheelchair than Rodriguez. The fans treat A-Rod the right way, too. If fans want to help out struggling superstars, then booing is the number one prescription to help them turn it around.

Let's not forget all the other horrid things that A-Rod has done during his time on earth. We haven't been hard enough on him to this point, not the Yankee fans, not Donald Trump, or any of the baseball experts out there. Don't forget what he did to New Orleans a few years ago, Katrina's nickname was A-Rod. Don't think you're safe on the west coast either. Those fires out in California were all caused by the same person. That's right, A-Rod, who is now the number one target for Al Gore and Smokey the Bear. Good luck finding your way out of that one, Mr. Rodriguez. A-Rod's devilish legacy has him chasing down even the greatest of evil icons. Watch out Adolf Hitler, A-Rod is hot on your trail. In fact, Donald Trump already thinks that what A-Rod has done to his beloved Yankees is much worse than what Hitler did to the Jews.

Everyone is definitely going to pick on me again

We all know the Mayans predicted the world to end in 2012, but the untold part of their prediction is that the world will end this December because of Rodriguez. The stories about plagues and environmental disasters are simply stories. However, A-Rod is the figure of impending doom and the Mayans correctly predicted him as the downfall of mankind. The Mayans foresaw the 2012 season that A-Rod had at the plate and knew it was all over without any doubt.

If we somehow make it through December of 2012 will the Yankees get rid of A-Rod this off-season? No one knows for sure right now, but we can all agree that he played absolutely no part in the Yankees winning the World Series in 2009. What A-Rod will do next no one knows either. Keep your fingers crossed and hope that the game's most expensive player doesn't f**k what's left of the Yankee legacy and the great country of America.

What a Year!

It's October as Toninho pointed out in a post the other day!  He also talked about the end of the baseball season and the start of playoffs.  That's where I come in, a majority of this was written about a week ago on the last day of the season, I tried to update it as much as I could.

AL East
I say it's obvious that the biggest story of the year in the AL East was the Red Sox deciding to take a very talented team and driving it into the ground again.  Going into this year, this Red Sox team was not the same team that I knew when they reversed the curse and won two titles in 3 years after an 86 year drought.  They had Fried Chickengate, Francona's firing and the sting from last year's collapse on their mind, a real Red Sox team would have gone in with a chip on their shoulder and be what Bill Simmons often refers to as the "Nobody Believes in Us" team.  Instead they got a team full of entitled players and sedated management, it was a disaster from day 1, and now they have to start from scratch.  Meanwhile the Yankees hardly even stumbled through the season and will likely beat the Sox in the two remaining games to clinch the AL East and the top seed (they did).  I can't think of anything positive or negative to say about Toronto other than better luck next year.  The Rays had the season they were expecting to have and would've made the playoffs if it wasn't for those meddling kids in Baltimore.  Yes, the Orioles, a team running completely on bravado winning pretty much every 1 run game they played in and are a jaw dropping 11 games better than their Pythagorean Record.  Holy Buck Showalter Batman!  I can't imagine they can keep this up in the playoffs, but you can never rule out the real "Nobody Believes in Us" team.

Been there, done that...

AL Central

I wrote about them earlier in the season, it turned out to be fairly accurate so read on that and love my predictive talents.  The Tigers put it together and clinched the division despite underachieving, the White Sox did find consistent pitching and held it together until dropping out of the playoff hunt the other night, I overrated the Indians who found a 12 game losing streak in August and never looked back, Kansas City started playing better but they were never destined to much and the Twins are the worst team in the American League.  Detroit is ending the season and going into the playoffs as a streaky team, the magic of October will have to decide their fate.  Meanwhile, Miguel Cabrera is making me look slightly good since I said after this year there won't be any question that he is the best hitter in baseball, winning the Triple Crown will surely do that.  He has been in the top 5 of MVP voting 5 years in his career, including the last 3 years, I think this is the year he going to finally get over that hump.  I'll gush over him more later.

Gushing.

AL West

I honestly can't wait to get to talk about the Astros in this camp next year.  Anyways, the Rangers have been mildly uninteresting like the Yankees and just kept winning and still have (had) the upper hand in winning the division again.  What the people really want are surprises!  Like the Mariners!  Oh wait... they didn't play that well, except for the fact they were probably like 15 games better than I expected out of them.  Lets try again.  Like the Angels!  Kinda... Trout had been a total spark plug and having the best rookie season since Ichiro broke into the league in 2001, Pujols also ended up having a good year after his abysmal start but their pitching betrayed them despite signing C.J. Wilson and trading fro Zach Grienke so they are on the outside looking in.  One more try for the excitement.  Like the Athletics!  Now that is exciting, this team of nobodies who signs a top free agent in Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes, trades their best starting pitcher (Gio Gonzalez) and their closer (Andrew Bailey), should not be competing.  And that's what we thought when it reached midseason and they traded their catcher Kurt Suzuki to join Gonzalez in Washington, yet they just didn't stop winning.  I still haven't watched any of their games so I don't know if they are actually good or not, but I can't think of anything more fitting than them having this amazingly unexpected year the year after Moneyball came out and made a splash at the box office.  The baseball gods have an interesting way of working, I'll call this a team of destiny for now and may the gods (or Brad Pitt) be with them.

This town ain't big enough for the two of us!

NL East

I was a moron and didn't publish my thoughts on the Nationals before this year, but Toninho, my brother and some of my close friends are sure of how I felt before this season.  I thought they were a year away from being a playoff contender, but then they traded for Gio Gonzalez and basically told the world "were gonna be in the playoffs, deal with it."  I knew Gio was a good move but a 20 game winner was beyond my wildest dreams, not only did I enjoy this from a fantasy owner perspective (taking Gio in effectively the 11th round of my draft) but I enjoyed it from the seats as I happened to organize a trip to DC to see a game with some friends and it was the day he won his 20th over the Brewers!  I think the Nationals are going to hang around for a long time and can still make a dent in the playoffs without Strasburg.  I have also been a big fan of the Braves for a large chunk of my life and am really happy to see them playing so well in the final year of Chipper Jones's illustrious career, and am also happier to see Heyward may be stepping up to be the new franchise guy with a great year.  Unfortunately I sat through a game that I could only describe as condensing a long term relationship into 3 and a half hours, to see the Braves lose the Wild Card and Chipper end his career, we'll miss you.  The Marlins were struck down by the baseball Gods after hosting the Opening Night game which is an honor that should go to the defending champs every year.  The Phillies got old.  And the Mets held in there better than I would have ever imagined, especially R.A. Dickey's continued success.

Didn't even mention this fine lad!

NL Central

Fuck the Cardinals.  They are the New York Giants of the MLB and are one of the main reasons I'm starting to agree with Toninho about how the American sports playoff systems are kinda dumb.  They have a very good offense and some fine pitchers but screw them.  If you want a playoff team let me show you the Cincinnati Reds, a team I truly can respect, from the OBP monster Joey Votto, the playful spirit of Brandon Phillips and the guitar of Bronson Arroyo.  I hope to see them continue the success they have seen thus far in the Playoffs (unless the face off with Washington).  Milwaukee saw a late season run be for naught, but saw fantastic years out of Aramis Ramirez and Ryan Braun, they could be a good team next year.  The Cubs and Astros were absolutely abysmal, it is kind of sad.  And lastly we all missed out on a great story in the Pirates who keep on teasing us by performing admirably until the All-Star break and then losing control.  I want to see them make it back to the playoffs some time.

It's been too long...

NL West
The Dodgers should be ashamed of themselves, they started out the season like wildfire, then by the time California reached actual wildfire season they bought every available player on the market and performed worse.  Now they are paying infinity dollars for a non-playoff team, just like the Cubs!  The Giants managed to keep up their amazing season despite Melky Cabrera informing us that BALCO does, in fact, still conduct their business (Bartolo Colon only confirmed it), mostly due to Matt Cain having his breakout year and Buster Posey stepping up to take the slack.  I guess the Diamondbacks were lightning in a bottle last year as they brought in an improved team and finished at a respectable .500.  San Diego put up a solid year despite having no more than one nationally known player on their roster.  I still don't know what happened to the Rockies, their DL looks like it could win 70 games!  Lets look at award winners now!

I guess there wasn't enough Magic.

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera (Week 1 Prediction: Miguel Cabrera)

Nailed it!  I thought for a little while that I was going to have to give it to Mike Trout, but then Miggy finished the season like a man possessed and gave us the first Triple Crown since 1967.  I am proud of him, as he has put himself above Pujols and could easily be sold as the best hitter in baseball right now.  I can understand how some people still think Trout deserves the MVP, but the modern convention has given precedence to playoff players and milestones.  Trout had plenty milestones, but if Ichiro doesn't get a single 1st place vote for the most hits ever in a season I don't know how a leadoff hitter could ever win (you know unless he manages only a .344 OBP...)  Sorry Trout you put up a valiant effort, but you aren't getting this trophy yet.

NL MVP: Buster Posey (Weel 1 Prediction: Troy Tulowitzki)
Yeouch, Tulo got hurt so I should get a waiver for that, but saying the NL West was winnable for the Rockies was terrible.  I wish Tulo the best of luck in years going forward.  I don't want Posey to win, but I think the convention of the voters will make him the winner, despite making it obvious that the first half of the season is meaningless.  Here are some players that deserve it over Posey.  Ryan Braun, who likely put the whole steroid mess behind him and put up better numbers with a worse guy hitting behind him.  Yadier Molina, who didn't quite have the statistical prowess of Posey but still put up a very good statistical year and is indispensable for a very easy to hate Cardinals team.  Andrew McCutchen for his breakout year everyone knew was coming.  And finally, Adam LaRoche, I can hardly think of a player who was more consistently effective for his team.

AL Cy Young: David Price (Week 1 Prediction: Justin Verlander)
I could still be right, some analysts have said Verlander has put up a better year than Price.  But I am usually of the convention that when WHIP and ERA are comparable you look at wins, not strikeouts, cause sometimes you need a little luck to win a game and you need a little more luck to win a Cy Young.  I wouldn't be surprised if either player won.

NL Cy Young: Gio Gonzalez (Week 1 Prediction: Adam Wainwright)
Apparently I had no feel for the NL awards going into this year.  I am very proud of Gio Gonzalez, when he was traded to Washington I felt that was the turning point for the Nationals to be a playoff squad, and it needed to get more attention than it did.  Seeing him live, I was only more drawn in to his aura, where he seems like a truly nice guy who deserves this honor.  I wish him all the best in his career and will watch over him as long as I can.  Johnny Cueto and R.A. Dickey have also put up good years, but as I said with Price, when all else is similar, consult the wins.  Or give it to the guy whose slugging percentage against is less than .300.

AL Rookie of the Year: Mike Trout
I discussed him for MVP, that is some Ichiro shit right there.  Nobody else should even get a vote, no second place votes, just give Trout the trophy.

He can also catch a ball!

NL Rookie of the Year: Bryce Harper
This was a very close race for a large portion of the year with Harper doing admirably for a 19 year old, but still seeming like he was worse than Wade Miley and Todd Frazier.  Then September happened.  Harper was a monster in that final month of the season, and made me wonder if the way he runs the bases was similar to the spirit Ty Cobb had.  I've never seen a player before that forces the opposition to make a perfect throw as often as Harper has.

AL Manager of the Year: Buck Showalter (Week 1 Prediction: Joe Maddon)
Buck did an amazing job, which I have already talked about.  Now he has to get them to beat the Yankees.  I also feel obliged to mention Robin Ventura.

NL Manager of the Year: Davey Johnson (Week 1 Prediction: Ozzie Guillen)
The Nationals have such a young team, and even though they are very talented it has to take a good managerial job to make them the best team in baseball.  Ozzie Guillen never could get the Marlins off the ground.  I also think Dusty Baker did a good job bringing the Reds back into the playoffs after stumbling last year.  Screw Mike Matheny only because I hate the Cardinals.  Also, I like the Nationals this year.

Playoff Picture
Detroit over Oakland (It's basically over already)
Baltimore over New York (Unless Jeffrey Maier has anything to say about it)
Washington over St. Louis (Go home Cards, you are living a lie)
Cincinnati over San Francisco (Ditto from Detroit)

Detroit over Baltimore (Detroit is a better team than they have shown all year)
Cincinnati over Washington (It pains me to say it)

Cincinnati over Detroit (We may have a new Big Red Machine)

Maybe not...

A Man of Merit

On Friday September 7, 2012, Aries Merritt of the United States broke the world record in the 110 meter high hurdles at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels. The previous world record, established by Cuba's Dayron Robles four years ago, stood at 12.87 seconds, until Merritt absolutely hauled ass to cross the finish line in a blistering 12.80 seconds. .07 seconds in a short race like the 110 meter high hurdles is quite significant, not even mentioning that he ran the fastest time in the event... ever.




Merritt, also fresh off an Olympic gold in the same event, ended the outdoor season on the highest of highs by clinching the world record. Unfortunately, this tremendous achievement demonstrates the United States lack of respect for the sport, especially outside of the Olympics. Sportscenter, a popular sports news broadcast show in the United States, put Merritt's record setting performance number 10 on its top 10 plays. Apparently there were ten other things in the sports world that happened that day or week that were better than setting a world record. However, regardless of whether the other nine plays were from the same day or the entire week, setting a world record should take precedence over them. Merritt is American, too, so you'd think he would get some respect from his home country.

Let's take a moment to recognize what it means to hold a world record. World records are held by people who have achieved results that no other person in the history of anything has ever surpassed. Actually, that's about all you have to know. No one has ever run the 110 meter hurdles faster than Merritt, not the great Liu Xiang nor Dayron Robles, both former world record holders. Xiang who has been plagued by injuries for some time now might not have another chance to compete for this record, or at least not at 100% fitness, but Robles must be thinking "dayuuumn, that dude is flyin'!" He's certainly in for some tough battles as long as he can recover from the injury he sustained in the final at the Olympics in London.

Given this great accomplishment, the guy is under appreciated by people who are not fans of the sport. Even during the Olympics he wasn't praised much for his gold medal in the U.S. It was all about Phelps and some guy who had no legs. It it isn't football (American, take that!), basketball, baseball, hockey (to some extent), or golf, then it doesn't really matter in the U.S. Or swimming if it's during the Olympics.

Track and field isn't alone, soccer gets no respect, either. Just ask the Sportscenter anchor who didn't know how to pronounce Maicon's name when he scored an absurd goal, he was only one of the best right backs in the world. That's not even the start of it, but in general soccer and track are disrespected sports, at least in the U.S.

Congratulations Aries Merritt for your ridiculous run and tremendous accomplishment!

Dan Uggla is Confusing!

I don't have anything particularly interesting or insightful to say about Dan Uggla, but I really do feel that I need to post an article about him in some way.  I really like Uggla, not only because he plays for one of my favorite teams, the Braves, but because I have never been able to make sense of the man.  In general look at him.  He is supposed to be a second baseman but he is 5'11" and weighs 205, when I think of second basemen people like Dustin Pedroia and Craig Biggio, who are 5'8" 165 and 5'11" 185, respectively.  Every time I see him I wonder who the first person was that looked at this strong powerful man and decided to throw him at second base.  In the minors he played a majority of his games at second base, but also had a pretty large chunk of games at third base, which is where I would have put him personally.  Comparing him to some of the stereotype third base body types, David Wright and Evan Longoria, Uggla is a little short (about an inch shorter than Wright) and at a proper weight.  Yet, I can't complain about Uggla as a second baseman as his production at the position has made him a notable player and his defense is solid.  I just can never get used to seeing a guy at second base who has arms as big as the moon.

"I don't get it either!"

I also find Uggla's numbers to be notably interesting.  He is on pace this year to hit around 20 home runs which would be his career low by 7 homers, yet is still amazing for a second baseman (especially when you note he usually hits 30 or more.)  He also has a really low batting average in recent years (.233 last year .206  so far this year), yet his OBP is sticking around his career norms.  The man is currently leading the league in walks!  He also has the dubious honor of being the first veteran player I have known of who has been an All-Star at the midpoint of the season, then at the end it on platoon due to continued bad play.  I was ashamed to have to drop him from my fantasy team when the Braves announced a reduction in his playing time.  His numbers don't make sense to me because it seems that every time I watch the Braves he either ropes a double somewhere or hits a towering moonshot, so apparently he can't hit a beachball unless I'm watching him.  This is getting a little sad now so lets look at his arms again.

Consolation

I guess that concludes all I have to say about Dan Uggla, he is a great player to have in the league due to his position and style of play that leaves me scratching my head every time.  If you don't watch much baseball I do recommend you take the time to watch some of the Braves this postseason, Uggla will be there and he will have large arms and you won't quite know what to make of him.  Keep checking in on the site as I will probably start posting more as the playoffs come into sight, and you can also read this for a little bit of Toninho talking about Uggla (and Manny Ramirez!)

He also knows how to finish out a home run swing in style

Helping Your Own Cause

Baseball is likely the only sport where the game can differ massively depending on what team or league you play in.  I can't think of any other sport that doesn't have standard field dimensions down to every little aspect, granted you need to keep the infield the same size across parks, but beyond that you can do whatever you want.  Giant walls, infinite room in foul territory, a hill in center field, sometimes all you need is an interesting perk to make your team a winner.  Not only that but the difference of the designated hitter rule in the AL and NL makes for an interesting dichotomy.  Most people prefer to watch AL games as the DH makes games slugfests and inflates offense, but I truly love the NL a lot more.  There is so much more strategy in the game to scrape together runs when you can rather than have everybody swing for the big fly.  Also, there is nothing like seeing a pitcher deposit a ball into the 6th row.  It is moments like that that cause fans to yell "That's how you help your own cause!" at their television screens, or sometimes you get Tim Hudson taking almost half a minute to round the bases.  Because I am a nerd and love numbers, I thought that I should adjust pitchers' ERA to reflect the effective amount of runs they costed their team.  Lets get to it!

Lets not forget Mike Hampton, the only pitcher to hold a bat for his baseball card..

So I fetched all of the pitching and batting statistics for National League starters on the morning of 8/9 isn't perfectly current to the writing of this, but it's close enough and we are just doing this for fun.  I also want to point out that some pitchers had the luxury of pitching a few games in AL parks during interleague play so they are slightly lacking in at bats while other pitchers have sometimes been used as pinch hitters, either way it would be too much effort for me to take this into account so I didn't.  Lastly, any pitcher who had been traded midseason is being counted only for their starts with the team they have the most innings for, it also made things easy for me.  So here are the top 10 pitchers according to ERA (min 50 innings).

1. Mike Fiers (MIL) 1.80
2. Brandon Beachy (ATL) 2.00
3. Ryan Dempster (CHC) 2.25
4. Ryan Vogelsong (SF) 2.27
5. Jordan Zimmerman (WSH) 2.45
6. Johnny Cueto (CIN) 2.58
7. Kyle Lohse (STL) 2.79
8. R.A. Dickey (NYM) 2.82
9. Wade Miley (ARI) 2.85
10. Clayton Kershaw (LAD) 2.88

Dickey and Zimmerman are probably being negatively effected by the timing of this as they both had fantastic starts the night after collecting the data.  I also want to point out that I find it interesting that no team repeats in that top ten, but that is not the point of this.  I did a little math magic with my best friend Microsoft Excel to adjust ERA due to excellent hitting and then the top 10 morphs into this.

I wish this morph would be so cool.

1. Brandon Beachy (ATL) 1.22
2. Mike Fiers (MIL) 1.80
3. Jordan Zimmerman (WSH) 2.07
4. Ryan Dempster (CHC) 2.08
5. Ryan Vogelsong (SF) 2.08
6. Stephen Strasburg (WSH) 2.26
7. Johnny Cuteo (CIN) 2.28
8. Wade Miley (ARI) 2.51
9. R.A. Dickey (NYM) 2.52
10. Kyle Lohse (STL) 2.61

That certainly went better than expected!  As you can see this adjustment didn't rock the boat too much (at least for the top 10) but did alter the ordering.  Young phenom Stephen Strasburg is the only pitcher to enter the top ten after the adjustment, jumping 5 spots from 11 to 6.  Brandon Beachy (sadly done for the season) took a commanding lead over Mike Fiers for the top ERA after Fiers has apparently been completely ineffectual with the bat.  I also don't understand R.A. Dickey this year, knuckleballers are not supposed to be so consistent, it's weird!  For those interested the average drop in ERA across all pitchers was 0.26, a number that could help contract talks for anybody.  Lets see which pitchers get the most benefit.

1. Anthony Bass (SD) 4.70 to 3.84 (-0.86)
2. Jaime Garcia (STL) 4.48 to 3.66 (-0.82)
3. Brandon Beachy (ATL) 2.00 to 1.22 (-0.78)
4. Stephen Strasburg (WSH) 2.97 to 2.26 (-0.71)
5. Tim Hudson (ATL) 3.77 to 3.11 (-0.66)
6. Jonathon Niese (NYM) 3.82 to 3.29 (-0.53)
7. Jamie Moyer (COL) 5.70 to 5.20 (-0.50)
8. Randy Wolf (MIL) 5.46 to 5.20 (-0.49)
9. James McDonald (PIT) 3.42 to 2.96 (-0.46)
10. Clayton Richard (SD) 3.79 to 3.34 (-0.45)

Granted Bass, Garcia, Beachy and Moyer have less than 85 IP so their numbers would obviously be helped a little more drastically, but the others all have at least 120 IP so you can assume they have seen continued offensive success.  It makes me happy to see Hudson mentioned again although he has not had any chance to speed up his trot time with no home runs this year.  Strasburg proves to be the real deal where not only does he have the best batting average for all pitchers by over 50 points (.343) but he also sees ERA drop comparable to players who have thrown nearly half as many innings as he has.  Jamie Moyer is 49 years old, that is embarrassing for the younger pitchers out there.  I also want to point out how odd it is that two of the pitchers on the list are from San Diego, a home park that deflates all offensive stats and a team that doesn't score runs, so Bass and Richard would probably be a lot more interesting in a more offensive park.  There's not a whole lot more to say without spitting out tons more numbers, which I would be willing to do if there was interest.  Leave a message in the comment box and I'll do a follow up on this soon.  

UH OH! Hes baaaaack!!!

Don't think I would tease you with a picture of Mike Hampton earlier and not follow up on it.  The guy hit 7 home runs one year, 7!  He has 7 home runs in 79 at bats, if he continued that pace to have enough at bats to qualify, that would be the 61st best AB per HR ratio for any season ever.  He also has the most Silver Sluggers for a pitcher, winning 5 consecutive titles from 1999-2003.  So here's some information about how his career would have been different with this statistic.  His career ERA would have been a rather good 3.38 as opposed to an average 4.04.  In 2001, when he hit 7 homers, he scored 20 runs and drove in 16, enough to lower his season ERA by a staggering 1.29!  In his two years pitching at the bambox that is Coors Field, his ERA would have been lowered from 5.75 to 4.81, neither number is good but any pitcher could use an effectual 0.94 drop on their ERA.  In the decade from 1999 until his retirement in 2009, every season would have put him in this year's top ten for ERA differential, and all but two seasons of his total career.  Needless to say, Mike Hampton was an interesting pitcher, just look at his baseball cards again.

What a man.

A New Power

Last week Major League Soccer made a definitive statement to the world. The MLS All-Star game does not follow the same format as all other American All-Star contests. There is no useless skill competition or any type of meaningless competition outside the game itself. However, even the game is unique to other American All-Star games. There is only one MLS All-Star team, comprised of the best players from the league. There is no East and West team, thus allowing for only the creme of the crop to make it. This one super-team takes on a foreign power in a one game showdown. This year's opponent, Chelsea, was the defending European Champions, having won the prestigious Champions League trophy despite finishing 6th in the Premier League. The Champions League victory stole a Champions League spot from Tottenham Hotspur in the 2012-2013 campaign. Tottenham will have to compete in the Europa League with Inter Milan instead. Maybe teams like Tottenham and Inter will give the Europa League more pizzazz.

How the hell did we win this?

 Chelsea's Champions League victory earned them the "Champions of Europe" label. This coveted title was brought to U.S. soil when Chelsea arrived to take on the MLS's powerhouse team. Upon Chelsea's arrival, the whole nation should have been warned that John Terry was in the country so everyone could get ready to hide their wives and girlfriends. Terry has also been under scrutiny for racism recently, so hopefully no one's feelings were hurt while he was here either. En route to Champions League glory, Chelsea somehow managed to eliminate heavy favorites Barcelona from the competition in the semi-finals. Not even Barcelona's little genius, Lionel Messi, could score when Chelsea had nine men and the goalkeeper defending the goal, don't forget that Torres was not defending which allowed him to score that crazy goal. Messi's 70+ goals this year for Barcelona could not get a Champions League title or the La Liga title. One man cannot win it all, at least not all the time. Sorry Messi, maybe you'll have to score 80+ goals to win trophies unless David Villa can come back and make an impact on goal.

Barcelona, arguably the greatest club side of all time, was eliminated by Chelsea as well as Bayern Munich in the final. Chelsea, despite losing extremely valuable striker Didier Drogba to Chinese soccer, should be able to handle the MLS All-Star team. Absolutely not correct. The MLS All-Star team defeated Chelsea 3-2, with goals from Chris Wondolowski, Chris Pontius, and Eddie Johnson. John Terry was even kind enough to stop the ball for Wondolowski to open the scoring. Terry Redeemed himself later with the equalizing header off a corner, but the MLS All-Star team proved too strong for the Champions. Eddie Johnson's game winning goal was one of huge proportions, lifting his side to the victory in stoppage time. By the transitive property, which is always correct, the MLS All-Stars would be the best team in Europe if they did compete in Europe. John Terry and Frank Lampard's goals were not enough to defeat the powerhouse that is the 2012 MLS All-Star team.

Greatest Team Ever Assembled

The glory goes beyond simply defeating the European Champions. Chelsea beat Barcelona, the greatest thing ever, even better than sliced bread which also bows down to the Catalans. The MLS All-Stars, by beating Chelsea, are superior to Barcelona, too. Looks like Messi and CR7 are going to have a third party joining them in the debate for the best player in the world. Who that man will be, I do not know, but it could be Wonolowski since he was astonishingly able to get John Terry to help him out, a man who would much rather be fooling around with Wondolowski's significant other and yelling derogatory remarks at  Eddie Johnson and Thierry Henry. Now that's an impressive feat that neither Messi nor CR7 has accomplished.

The MLS has come a long way since it's inauguration and is quickly making up lost ground created by Americans' prejudice against soccer. But how can anyone argue with a victory carrying the magnitude of defeating the current European Champions? Not only is the MLS relevant, but simply the best.

Up For the Occasion

Today marked the final group stage matches in the Euro Championship for Group B, labeled the group of death. Group B earned this name because it was deemed the toughest group in the whole tournament with all four teams ranked in the top ten in the world by Fifa. Coming into today's fixtures any of the four teams had a chance to qualify for the knockout stages. Germany (3rd in the world) was pitted against Denmark (9th in the world), while Portugal (10th in the world) was facing the underachieving Netherlands (4th in the world).

The most intriguing story line was the Portugal versus Netherlands game. The lackluster Dutch side needed a two goal victory over Portugal who had not seen much production at all from superstar Cristiano Ronaldo (CR7) in the first two games. CR7 showed up for this one, scoring two goals and hitting the post twice in a game where Portugal defeated the Netherlands 2-1 to secure a spot in the knockout stages. Ronaldo has been under some heat for not performing as well for Portugal as he does for his club team, Real Madrid. He silenced the haters, at least for now with a great performance. He also nearly had an assist, too, on a great pass to Nani, but Nani's shot was denied by a brilliant save by the Dutch keeper.

I score goals and look great

CR7 played aggressively throughout the game, went on many great runs, and created commotion near the Dutch net weather by shooting or creating opportunities for teammates. The Netherlands came out on fire with a quick goal from Rafael van der Vart in the opening moments of the game, but Portugal dominated for the most part from that point on. Only van der Vart's shot that hit the post in the second half looked threatening as Robin van Persie failed to make an impact despite getting at least one golden opportunity.

This is probably the worst showing for the Netherlands at a Euro cup given that the team lost all three games it played, but credit must be given to their opponents. Germany is a great side and Denmark fought hard in it's three games. Apparently there is unrest flowing through the Dutch team, but it looks like they all developed some Arjen Robben choking habits, maybe with the exception of van der Vart who looked great when given a chance to start. It's also time for people to calm down the shit talk on CR7, he's a wonderful player and he'll always look better than you, too.

Does Anyone Expect the Chinese Inquisition?

After this past weekend's Prefontaine Classic I'm excited to announce that Liu Xiang is back! Xiang, unable to compete in the 2008 Olympics in his home country China due to injury, is back in a big way winning the 110 meter high hurdles at the Prefontaine Classic in 12.87 seconds! That time equals the world record held by Cuba's Dayron Robles, but due to the 2.4 meter per second tail wind the time is ineligible to qualify for world records. In track and field when wind assistance (tail winds) exceed 2.0 meters per second, then records of any type cannot be broken. However, despite the wind behind him, Xiang looked amazing. I love his emotion following the race, too!
 

 Xiang's current form has him in very good shape for the upcoming Olympic games held in London this year. The China man formerly held the world record in the event at 12.88 seconds before Robles broke, running 12.87. Robles also won the gold in the high hurdles in 2008 without competing against Xiang. If Xiang and Robles can stay healthy there could be one hell of a 110 meter hurdle final at the Olympics this year! Xiang and Robles met at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea where Robles was disqualified for disrupting Xiang in the final stages of the race. I think that had Xiang not been interfered with, he would have taken the gold. Regardless of whether the contact by Robles on Xiang was intentional or not, slight contact like that throws off the rhythm of a hurdler greatly and can make you run a 13.27 (as if that's bad).

 Winner of the high hurdles in the 2004 Olympics, Xiang is an experienced hurdler who, when healthy, simply dominates. Look for Xiang to disregard the fact that anyone else has the right to win this race in London and cruelly punish his opponents. For thirteen months spanning from 2009 to 2011 Xiang was unable to compete, but he's back in a big way!

In general, the high hurdles should be a great and exciting event to watch at this year's Olympics. Xiang and Robles will be joined by many other talented high hurdlers which most likely will include Americans David Oliver, Jason Richardson, and Aries Merritt (pending Olympic trials).

Feel free to post any comments related to the Olympics, high hurdles, or Xiang below (I'm not expecting any, but I have to try!) Toninho's prediction: Look for Liu Xiang to reclaim gold at the 2012 Olympics. I hope he shatters the World Record, too!

Liu for the win

Thanks Everyone

We at the Penultimate Round Pick are ecstatic with the people that are coming and viewing our blog! Just want to thank you guys who have supported us and please comment on our blogs so we can write stuff that the fans (our readers) want to see in our postings. Without your support, we would not be doing what we enjoy, which is entertaining you with insight about our strengths in specific sports.

This is not our staff just shows how excited we are to have fans like you guys!

Everyone have a great weekend and remember here at the Penultimate Round Pick, we give you performance enhancing thoughts in the world of sports.

TUF Live Finale

Hello folks, today is the day we have been waiting for. Tonight we will see who will become the first ever TUF: Live winner. The fight pits Team Faber Members Michael Chiesa vs. Al Iaquinta. At this point I am pretty sure that Chiesa will win, he has a much better wrestling game although Iaquinta is a product of Team Serra from New York. I predict that the fight will go down to a decision. Also the other fights scheduled for tonight have the TUF guys fighting which is a great thing. Going on that idea, it is great because these fighters can prove that they are UFC material and can work their way onto future fight cards.



Now getting onto the main event we have two guys who love to stand and beat their opponents to a bloody pulp. Jake Ellenberger has most recently come off a win against Diego Sanchez. He has also been on a night fight streak since his first loss in the UFC by now interim champ Carlos Condit.  Now Ellenberger is fighting Martin Kampmann, who came off a terrific come from behind victory against Thiago Alves by way of guillotine. These two fighters have two opponents in common which is Jake Shields and Diego Sanchez, which Ellenberger has defeated both. My prediction is that Kampmann will show his greatest tool in the octagon, which is his kickboxing. Therefore, Kampmann will win the fight, but it will be a close fight. Be sure to catch the fights at 9pm on FX. You will be sure to see a good ol night of fights because "We are live!"!

Strikeforce Barnett vs. Cormier

Hello readers, sorry for not posting any new articles on the site. So two weeks ago Strikeforce also known as UFC's sister promotion had an event that showcased the finale of the Heavy Grand Prix between former UFC Heavyweight Champ Josh Barnett against former collegiate wrestler Daniel Cormier. Before I talk about that fight, the fight I do want to talk about is the co-main event which consisted of Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson. Melendez is the current Strikeforce lightweight champion, and if you are any type of MMA fan, you would know that these two fighters were going for the rubber match. Quite potentially one of the greatest fights of this year.


In all of the three fights that these two warriors have gone through, they have all gone to a decision. Meaning that they have fought fifteen rounds in the cage (Unlike the UFC, Strikeforce fights in a hexagon). In their first meeting, Thomson won the fight and had the title for about a year and a half until the rematch and Melendez won by decision. So at this point this fight was to prove who the best fighter was. Watching the fight, in all my years of watching MMA, this fight by far was the hardest to score. I thought that Thomson had the slight edge, but again when you leave it in the hands of the judges, you never know what will happen. Melendez won by a split decision victory, however, I believe because this last fight between them was so close they might have to make it a Melendez vs. Thomson IV.

Getting back to the Heavyweight Grand Prix Finale, Cormier was a last minute fill in for former champion Alistair Overeem. Essentially in many people's opinions, not many people had Cormier going far in the tournament. However, in the first fight, he knocked out recent UFC signee Antonio Silva. Now if you do further research like anyone who really cares about the sport you will see that Cormier wasn't even in the beginning of the bracket. He filled in after Overeem was released by Strikeforce.




So essentially it made it somewhat easier for Cormier to go through the tournament because he needed two fights in order to win the tournament and become the Heavyweight Champion (Opps....Spoiler Alert). So getting into the fight, it was another great fight where they both put in all they could. In this case however, Cormier came out victorious and the new Heavyweight Champion. Here is the twist, Strikeforce is removing their Heavyweight division, however, Showtime is owed a heavyweight fight. The remaining Heavyweight fighters are going to the UFC. So when it comes to who will challenge Cormier for the title, so far the name I have heard is Shane Carwin. People I will post about this weeks TUF: Live Finale, as well as this past weekends UFC 146 Dos Santos vs. Mir. Have a great day fighters and post any comments that you have and want to see for this

The Comeback Pitcher

Hey all, sorry for the lack of new content on this page for a while, I've been distracted by "prior engagements" and the other writers don't have an excuse.  I haven't been able to follow baseball as well as I typically do this month, mostly limiting my exposure to keeping tabs on my fantasy team and catching wind of interesting events in the baseball world.  For the first time in a little while I looked at my fantasy team in more depth to really get a sense of how things are going and I found myself coming to a very happy surprise.

Good thing I had a camera handy for it!

Here's some back story first, in my younger days I liked to separate myself from the pack, and to do that one time I had my parents get me a baseball jersey of a seemingly random player for a seemingly random team, for no reason better than my moderate taste for their uniforms.  I did this because I wanted to own something that nobody at my high school would have as well, and apparently I thought it would make me slightly more interesting.  Well anyways, because I had the shirt I started to follow the team as my third team of interest after my beloved Red Sox and Braves.  It was around 2004 at that point and as I started to take a liking in this team and they rewarded me by changing from a last place team to division champs in about 2 years.  In truth, they weren't a good team and just succeeded in a terrible division, but they had a bright spot in a young righty that I look a liking to.  A few years later he won a Cy Young award and that was that.  For a reason I can only speculate about that is when I stopped considering myself a "fan" of this team and went back to my 2 team format.

Now that I've told you this mediocre story, you may be able to see that the team I am talking about was the 2004-2007 San Diego Padres and the young righty I spoke of was none other than Jake Peavy.  Life after the 2007 Cy Young award seemed a little difficult for Peavy, whether the Padres were just never that good or they remained shaken up by their loss in their one game playoff against the Colorado Rockies for the wild card (one of the best games I ever watched) they didn't give Peavy any run support and he finished 10-11 with a 2.85 ERA.  Poor guy gets rewarded for pitching well with trade talks and even had to reject a trade to the White Sox in order to start the season with the Padres, take a second to think he intentionally rejected a trade to stick with the Padres, that doesn't happen in this day and age.  Eventually he tore a tendon in his ankle and the trade talks caught up with him and he accepted a trade to the White Sox.  The next year got even worse as he tore the damn muscles off his back.  It doesn't seem like coming back from a detached back is even possible for a pitcher but he did come back and had a 4.92 ERA.

You need to search "Jake Peavy partying" on Google images

That is where I stood on Peavy at the start of this season.  A sad story of a great pitcher who found his success then fate just decided to screw him over with one random injury after another, a slightly happier version of Brandon Webb's story if you will.  So now we look to a month ago when I got to fed up with Brandon Morrow's bullshit and decided to drop him, I was looking for another SP on the waiver wire and I was very pleased to see Peavy's name among the top pitchers hanging around.  I took a risk on picking up Peavy, telling myself  he would only serve as a stopgap until Fister comes off the DL.  He was 2-0 with a 2.75 ERA at the time and I had not expected that to keep up.  Well, the first start he had since I picked him up was a complete game shutout win over Oakland, then in his second start I got the best of both worlds as he was the tough-luck loser in a 1-0 game against my Red Sox in which he allowed 4 hits and struck out 7 in the complete game.  Needless to say by my writing this article, he did not slow down.  He is the standout guy in a staff that includes Justin Verlander and Gio Gonzalez, I simply love my pitchers this year!  In fear of being the straw that broke the camel's back in jinxing Peavy, I'll cut out here (hopefully that reverse jinx worked.)

Now he drinks Jager to celebrate!

TUF Recap

Hello everyone! If you haven't seen last weeks episode of TUF you missed a great fight. The two fighters in last weeks episode was Team Cruz's Sam Sicilia vs. Team Faber's Chris Saunders. The fight ended in a Split Decision in favor of Saunders. Watching the fight, I have to agree with Dana White, as I saw that each fighter one a round, and therefore, should have been a third and final round to decide the winner. Saunders and Sicilia both had chances of winning the fight, but by the end of the second round you can tell that both fighters were completely gassed. Sicilia has very strong hands which he showcased throughout the fight as he laid hay makers at the face of Saunders, however, Saunders showed a little more grappling which helped win the judges over.

Saunders go to sleep!

However, at one point, Saunders had a stunning head kick that possibly was a flash knockout, however, Sicilia was able to bounce right back up and continue to fight. Herb Dean was the referee, and he is one of the best refs in this sport. He knows all the signs of when a fighter is incapable of fighting, where during that moment, he jumped in to almost stop the fight. Both fighters showed a lot of heart and did not show signs of quit at any point of the fight.

Saunders trying to create a highlight reel!

There is one more fight this Friday between Andy Ogle of Team Faber vs. Mike Rio of Team Cruz. Which again should be a great fight. If there is one thing I have to say about the popularity of TUF it is because of the fact that these fighters lay it on the line because there is no option B for these fighters. Winning this whole tournament and becoming a UFC fighter is a dream for them. Whereas you watch some of the PPV's and you at points will think to yourself, "Why am I watching this!" Everyone catch TUF this Friday at 10pm on FX! Post any comments that you would like to see in upcoming posts on PRP!

How Horrible is the AL Central?

Before the season if you were asked to come up with what teams you would expect to be good, the AL Central was the only league that you could come up with only one response, the Tigers and that's it (most people would have expected before the season that one of the Giants, Rockies or Dodgers were going to be good this year to go along with the Diamondbacks in the NL West.)  And even worse than that I'm sure a consensus of people would have agreed that the other teams in the division could be simply written off as bad teams.  This is due to happen in any sport, there is always going to be one division that is going to sputter and only produce one good team, if they can even manage one (looking at you 2010 NFC West) so this isn't really anything new to anybody.  But the other day I was watching a Red Sox game and the announcers were talking about the easy schedule they had ahead after their difficult start to the season, most of those teams being from the AL Central, the Twins, White Sox, Royals etc.  A seemingly innocent comment that anybody would not think twice about that caused me to chuckle a little seeing that at the time of that comment, the Chicago White Sox were in a tie with the Detroit Tigers for the lead in the Central, and division leaders, even this early in the season, don't typically lend themselves to being pushovers.  So lets take a look to examine if the AL Central is as bad as everybody makes it out to be.

Accurate standings?  Screw that I'm ad-libbing

Detroit Tigers

Yes, the Tigers are good.  Sure Victor Martinez is currently without knees, Doug Fister can't throw a ball at the moment and their 5 hitter is too busy yelling anti-Semitic insults at nobody in particular, but that really doesn't change the fact they are possibly the best team in the world.  Justin Verlander is lights out as always, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder will eventually hit a streak that will make Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier's start to the season look like an off week.  As soon as Scherzer and Porcello can remember that their job is to get people out, they will most likely run away with the division as everyone expects them to.  On a lighter note, I hope Doug Fister's return won't change Drew Smyly's place in the rotation as the young man has pitched quite well in 3 starts and I would hate to see one awesome name get kicked out by another awesome name.   

They need to work on their skipping.

Chicago White Sox

I'm admittedly going by no particular order with these teams so maybe they are which ones are the most entertaining to me?  Speaking of entertaining, how about Philip Humber throwing a perfect game the other day and possibly getting a bizarro Jim Joyce call to end it out?  He was pitching pretty well on the season too until he got smacked around by the suddenly hot bats of Boston yesterday.  That's not saying he is the only pitcher who has seen success for them this year, one of my favorite pitchers a few years back, Jake Peavy, has found his groove again and while I'm not saying he will be a Cy Young candidate ever again, it sure is nice to see him finding success.  Throw in some Chris Sale success and a dash of Gavin Floyd's 4 runs of support in his 4 decent starts they have some pitching to go forward.  Unfortunately their offense won't be getting better as the entire squad has been known to let fans down with the exception of Paul Konerko.  They have enjoyed some moderate success to this point in the season but unless that pitching can really kick it into overdrive for a whole season, they are due to fail eventually.

No quip here, it's just a cool picture.

Cleveland Indians

I'm going to say it, the Indians are not a bad team and I don't think their 9-6 start is a fluke.  I think they will finish the season between 3 and 5 games above .500 and that would be a season to be proud of for them going forward.  Between the names Carlos Santana, Shin-Soo Choo, Jason Kipnis and Asdrubal Cabrera they have some quality offensive talent under the age of 30, and for some reason I think Michael Brantley is better than his numbers make him seem, but I may be very wrong on that point.  Casey Kotchman can play first base defensively, probably putting him just worse than Daric Barton on my list of starting first basemen (hint: it's pretty low on that list) and Travis Hafner probably still has some pop left in his bat, albeit he would be lucky to hit half the homers he put up in his confusingly good 2006 season.  But ultimately it has been their pitching that has failed them to this point with a staff ERA of 4.56 which is not very good.  Their best starter so far is Derek Lowe who they received as a handout from the Braves who wanted no part of that guy anymore, hopefully Ubaldo Jiminez or Justin Masterson can take that crown from him because if things stay like that it will be a bumpy ride.  The Indians are one big trade away from being able to dream about contending for the second Wild Card spot, but not much more than that being the 8th or 9th best team in the AL.

See Grady, you set up for the fly to not get on the DL again.

Kansas City Royals

The Royals have been faring worse than they have been playing, according to baseball-reference.com they are 3 games worse than their Pythagorean record says they should be.  They have lost all 5 of the 1 run games they have been in.  Their offense is basically comprised of young talent that is going to be huge one day (Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas), solid players who can't live up to their talent level (Alex Gordon, Jeff Francouer) and Billy Butler.  Their rotation is also really young with upside except for talented vocalist Bruce Chen (more singing here and here) who has been pitching very well, which I like because he seems like a cool guy.  They seem like a team that would have a lot of fun on the field and would be very fun to watch during a winning season, maybe next year.

They looked so happy!

Minnesota Twins

How can you possibly take a team that has two former MVPs at ages 31 and 29 and call them bad?  Well, two years of injury troubles could help that happen.  Joe Mauer is among my favorite players in the game right now and Justin Morneau is both obscenely talented and Canadian so I like him too.  I really hope they can  both return to form this year, but two good players can't make a team good.  I did praise Josh Willingham in a past article, but in case you didn't pick up on it, the entire piece was written sarcastically.  I really can't find anything else to say about this team other than the fact that they are simply a disappointment.  As much as I would like to see Mauer and Morneau on top of the AL Central, Ron Gardenhire would have to be considered the best manager of all time (see video below) to get this team to the playoffs.  So yes, the Twins are that horrible.

On the whole I think that the AL Central isn't as bad as people make it out to be.  They have some very good players, some good teams, one great team and a good amount of upside for the future.  Having said that, it still is the worse division in the game.  Thanks for reading if you did and feel free to send some comments on anything you would like to read about, otherwise I'm going to keep improvising like this.

Champions League Final Set

My prediction regarding the second leg of Barcelona and Chelsea's tie in the semifinal of the Champions League was dead wrong. I predicted a 4-0 Barcelona victory, but in fact the end result was a 2-2 tie that saw Chelsea advance to the final on an aggregate score of 3-2. There were 4 goals scored, so I had that part down. Barcelona's defeat has been hit with harsh remarks fired at the stars of the squad, mainly Messi for missing a penalty kick that would have made it considerably hard for Chelsea to come back from. Blaming the loss on one player is unfair, no one really knows why Barcelona, allegedly the best team in the history of anything, failed to win. Barcelona's loss just proves how hard it is to maintain such dominant form. Not many teams expect to find themselves victorious in every tournament every year.

Looking at the other side of this semifinal match up, Chelsea has managed to reach the final of the Champions League despite sitting in 6th place in the Premier League and struggling to find good, consistent form. One of the concerns for Chelsea is that they have four players that are ineligible to participate in the final. Three of these people have yellow card accumulation issues and one repulsive man is excluded due to a red card. The yellow card offenders include Branislav Ivanovic, Ramires, and Raul Meireles. There is a movement attempting to allow the yellow card offenders to play in the final, but the important news is that John Terry will not be playing in the final after his attempt to cornhole Alexis Sanchez with his knee, which earned him a red card. Everyone should know that Terry will not be on the field on May 19, 2012, so make sure he is nowhere near your wife or girlfriend. Chelsea will meet Bayern Munich in the final after Bayern's victory over Real Madrid yesterday in a penalty kick shootout.

When both Real Madrid and Barcelona reached the semifinal of the Champions League, there was a great chance to have El Clasico in the final. I actually think that it is good for the soccer world that this is not the case. While Barcelona and Real Madrid are both spectacular teams full of great players and headed by wonderful coaches, I think it is good for there to be some variety in winners. Chelsea versus Bayern Munich might not be the ideal match up, but at least John Terry can't play. Over the past two seasons, since Barcelona has become known as the greatest team ever, since Mourinho went to the helm at Real Madrid, and the battle between CR7 and Messi started, I think many people need a break from these two teams. Bayern Munich is a great team headed by two outstanding wingers in Ribery and Robben, even if one has problems with prostitutes and the other has trouble staying on his feet and not getting injured.

Bayern Munich earned its spot in the final by advancing over Real Madrid in a game that came down to penalties. Manuel Neuer looks like he was worth signing after his tremendous performance in the penalty shootout, and Sergio Ramos' awful attempt at a penalty kick. Advancement looked improbable for Bayern after CR7 scored two quick goals in the early stages of the match, but Robben put them right back in the hunt when he netted a penalty kick (CR7 scored one penalty, too). Bayern continued to fight valiantly and forced the penalty shootout where Neuer came up so big. I hope Oliver Kahn is proud. Hopefully Chelsea doesn't use extremely defensive tactics in an effort to suppress Bayern's attacking style of soccer, similar to how they played in the second leg versus Barcelona. Chelsea should have confidence in their attackers, especially after Torres scored the winning goal against Barcelona.

I see you, Neuer

Fernando Torres has been struggling to put the ball in the back of the net ever since joining Chelsea during last year. Now that he has scored the game winner against mighty Barcelona and stuck the figurative dagger in the players' and fans' heart, he should have some confidence going into the final that Chelsea should look to tap into. There is no doubt that Bayern will come out attacking, that's their style of play. Real Madrid also plays an aggressive attacking style which made the match up between the too so entertaining. There's no telling what Chelsea will do in the final given that they are without Terry and some other players, but Bayern is also missing players due to yellow card accumulation including Luiz Gustavo, David Alaba, and Holger, Badstuber. Neither side will be able to field its strongest team, but the teams will be far from a reserve team match up.

Not many people had Chelsea versus Bayern Munich pegged in the final, but it creates an interesting game. Bayern Munich has played as two different teams throughout the year. Sometimes Bayern plays like the best team in the world and at other times look like an average team. At one point Bayern won a few games in a row by outrageous scorelines, simply obliterating opposition. However, Bayern was unable to win the Bundesliga, with Dortmund taking the domestic title for the second year in a row. Chelsea has been on the decline for a few years, they haven't been terrible, but they used to be a threat to win the Premier League for the last few years, but have struggled as of late. 6th place in the Premier League is struggling by the team's current standards, and Roman Abramovic expectations considering the amount of money he has put into the team.

The final perplexes me, I have no idea what to expect out of this game. If anyone actually reads this, feel free to share your score prediction on the final and any other thoughts you have on the game. I'm going with Bayern Munich taking this one 2-1, and remember, watch out for Terry because he will not, I repeat, will not be on the pitch for this one. One final note, Fernando Torres deserves congratulations for scoring the game winner versus Barcelona. The guy has taken so much heat since joining Chelsea that it must really be taking a toll on him. His teammates might be scumbags, cue John Terry and Ashley Cole (I didn't forget about that clown), but if Chelsea had to advance to the final, I'm glad it was Torres that did it for them. Good signing, Abramovic.