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.

UFC 145 Recap

So this past Saturday's UFC 145 PPV was just like I expected. Both Rashard Evans and Jon Jones fought the full twenty five minutes. Jones being the winner by decision (unanimous), I was not surprised by the results at all. Jones was pressuring Evans pretty hard in the cage and also Evans had more significant shots thrown at him. When it comes to the scorecards, a fighter will get more points based on their striking, aggressiveness, grappling, and octagon control. Jones in every round scored points based off this system. At the end he even got a good take down to secure the fight in his favor.



What gives Jon Jones such a great advantage in the octagon is the fact that his reach is by far the largest of any fighter at 84.5 inches and for his division he is fairly taller than most of his competition at six feet four inches. Having a huge wingspan helps because you can attack without being in the other fighters face and increase your chances of not being hit. Although Evans did come with some good shots, this is the first time we have actually seen Jones get tagged in the manner that he did. However, we also saw that Jones has a strong chin meaning the resistance to being knocked out.

After the event, during the post interview, Dana White announced that Dan "Hendo" Henderson is next in line to challenge Jon Jones, although we do not have a date yet. This fight will possibly be the toughest fight "Bones" has even been involved in. If I could describe Dan Henderson I would say complete MMA competitor. His strength is in his wrestling as we he was an Olympic wrestler, however, he has a great clinch, and heavy hands.

This had to of hurt!

The other fights were amazing, Michael McDonald knocked out former WEC Bantamweight champ Miguel Torres in the first round, and other than the Jones fight, the most exciting fight that I did not think was going to be exciting was the bout between Mark Hominick and Eddie Yagin. Both fighters were equally beat up after the fight was said and done, where each fighter had the chance to stop the fight due to strikes. They were feeding off the excitement from the crowd and that is what made the fight so exciting. There were no slow points in the fight, where these fighters could rest. The slowest points of the fight was when the bells rang for the end of the round. Overall, I'm sure that fight will be a contender for the "Fight of the Year". Please everyone post your comments on how you thought the fights were, and also where did you spend your time watching the fights? I know I watched it with my girlfriend and my good friend at Buffalo Wild Wings. Make sure to read this and other posts on Penultimate Round Pick!

Give golf back to the common man!

Considering this is my first career blog post, I'd appreciate if the fans ease me in with some kind words.  Well, that's enough of that.  Since when has golf become an athletic sport?!?  Golf has always been my retirement plan.  I figure I'm 23 now, so if I play a few times a week that the senior tour can't be too far out of reach.  But, no.  Now we have guys like Tiger and even Phil that look like linebackers.  Seriously, who introduced Phil  Mickelson to a weight room?  And Rory McIlroy has become a sensation at the tender age of 22 (a bit ahead of me in route to the senior tour).  I suppose I'm just living in the past where all it took to be a good golfer was some goofy pants and a fat ass.

You should talk to my neighbor the accountant 

This is why my favorite golfer has to be Keegan Bradley.  In just his second year on the PGA tour, this skinny bastard is off to a nice looking career ahead of him.  In 10 events played this year, he has nine top-25 finishes to go with three top- 10 finishes.  Still looking for his first win of the season, he has settled for a 2nd place finish at the Northern Trust Open and a 4th place finish to begin April at the Shell Houston Open.  The kid is good.  He currently sits at a world rank of 20 which I feel to be quite respectable.  

Sorry, I got off topic there. Let's talk about my round today and how Bubba Watson needs to watch out for this guy! Who on earth named that little dude "Bubba"?  Terrible. At this point, any round that I don't lose a ball goes down as a victory.  I can't figure out how those pros do it.  Maybe we should master mini golf?  That is if you can stand watching 13 year old kids go on their first dates which are always awkward, yet inappropriate at the same time... you know what I mean.  They won't speak to one another for nine holes, then lick each others faces instead of the ice cream mom just paid for.

So can we please get some more slobs like John Daly and Jason Dufner on the tour to give everyone else hope?  Even these golfers seem to defy the barrier of "slump busters".  Every guy on the 18th hole on a Sunday has some babe of a wife watching the last putt.  Even Matt Kemp had to dump Rihanna before he got good.  The PGA tour is living proof that the guys from "The Big Bang Theory" aren't wasting their time after all.

I may smell weird but we did write the karma sutra :)

Using baseball as an example, the only way to break a slump is to hook-up with a lady who weighs more than your current batting average.  Why do you think 90% of the All-Stars are single?  Ryan Braun got Herpes just to ensure another good season. Now that is dedication!  A-Rod and Jeter may be linked to celebrities, but let's be real, they both have fatties lined up like their door mat is made of cake.  

All the peach cobbler you can eat for a hitting streak

Before I close, I feel it might be important to note that NBA players' opinions on women really don't count.  Just ask Lamar Odom.  If Khloe Kardashian and Lamar have a baby, it will come out as an exact replica of Demarcus Cousins. In a nutshell, these new-age golfers really are better than us.  At everything.  So I for one am taking a stand by continuing to suck at golf.  And I hope the rest of you follow my lead.  Not that you have a choice because everyone I have ever met has a slice worse than the one on master shredder's face.  All in all, it has been an exciting golf season thus far and I'm excited to keep watching/playing.