Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Ravens:
Yesterday while on DC's 980 AM, Lavar Arrington (Mr. Nickels himself) talked about his desires to play for the Baltimore Ravens. He said he had had talks with owner Steve Bischotti and would love playing along side such a middle linebacker as Ray Lewis.
While he complimented Brian Urlacher he talked of how Lewis is the best to ever play the position. He also talked about his recovery from injury and perhaps coming to the Ravens when he has proven that he has recovered fully.
Although the Ravens have their starting defense set, Arrington could add a pass rushing threat on third downs such as Peter Boulware did when he came back from injury a few years ago. This is an interesting situation would add another mouth to the south of the AFC North. And why not take him when he can have great performances like this little doozie? While it might not be Jonathan Ogden good, I'd still say thats some very fine acting.
ESPN has reported the Ravens as a possible landing spot for Daunte Culpepper. I don't find any logic or truth to these rumors. Culpepper would quite obviously not supplant Steve McNair as the starter for the 2007 season nor would he provide the Ravens with a good long term option for the post McNair regime.
Culpepper is 30 years old with a bum knee, and while I believe he could be productive in certain systems if given the right tools and allowed to recover fully from injury, I don't believe the Ravens situation would be a intelligent choice for himself or the team.
Or maybe this sums it up best for these two players...
Yesterday while on DC's 980 AM, Lavar Arrington (Mr. Nickels himself) talked about his desires to play for the Baltimore Ravens. He said he had had talks with owner Steve Bischotti and would love playing along side such a middle linebacker as Ray Lewis.
While he complimented Brian Urlacher he talked of how Lewis is the best to ever play the position. He also talked about his recovery from injury and perhaps coming to the Ravens when he has proven that he has recovered fully. Although the Ravens have their starting defense set, Arrington could add a pass rushing threat on third downs such as Peter Boulware did when he came back from injury a few years ago. This is an interesting situation would add another mouth to the south of the AFC North. And why not take him when he can have great performances like this little doozie? While it might not be Jonathan Ogden good, I'd still say thats some very fine acting.
ESPN has reported the Ravens as a possible landing spot for Daunte Culpepper. I don't find any logic or truth to these rumors. Culpepper would quite obviously not supplant Steve McNair as the starter for the 2007 season nor would he provide the Ravens with a good long term option for the post McNair regime.
Culpepper is 30 years old with a bum knee, and while I believe he could be productive in certain systems if given the right tools and allowed to recover fully from injury, I don't believe the Ravens situation would be a intelligent choice for himself or the team.Or maybe this sums it up best for these two players...
Sunday, June 10, 2007
O's:
The Orioles lost 6-1. Erik Bedard only lasted five innings, though he didn't pitch horribly.
NBA:
Gil Arenas will opt out of the last year of his contract. If the Wizards want to keep their franchise on an upward swing, they better hope to offer all they have to keep Arenas in town. Arenas, who will be the cover boy of NBA Live '08, is the face of the franchise and one of the brightest young stars in the league. His quickness to the basket combined with his almost unimaginable range make him the premeir combo guard in the NBA.
Sopranos:
The series finally ended tonight. Although I missed a majority of the episodes, it was sad to see the series end. It was a series I had grown up being familiar with. Even if I didn't watch it frequently it was there. The ending of the finale was sort of disappointing. While Tony getting whacked or arrested would have been too obvious of an ending, it was a very quiet and not so fantastic ending. Most people believed the series would end with a bang, quite literally. Sometimes I guess it isn't called for though.
The Orioles lost 6-1. Erik Bedard only lasted five innings, though he didn't pitch horribly.
NBA:
Gil Arenas will opt out of the last year of his contract. If the Wizards want to keep their franchise on an upward swing, they better hope to offer all they have to keep Arenas in town. Arenas, who will be the cover boy of NBA Live '08, is the face of the franchise and one of the brightest young stars in the league. His quickness to the basket combined with his almost unimaginable range make him the premeir combo guard in the NBA.
Sopranos:
The series finally ended tonight. Although I missed a majority of the episodes, it was sad to see the series end. It was a series I had grown up being familiar with. Even if I didn't watch it frequently it was there. The ending of the finale was sort of disappointing. While Tony getting whacked or arrested would have been too obvious of an ending, it was a very quiet and not so fantastic ending. Most people believed the series would end with a bang, quite literally. Sometimes I guess it isn't called for though.
O's:
The Orioles lost 3-2 in 10 innings last night. Rodrigo Lopez started for the Rockies, and pitched seven strong innings against his former mates. Making his third start after coming back from an early season injury, Lopez allowed only six hits and two runs helping his team which eventually broke the tie in the 10th inning. Jeremy Guthrie had another outstanding effort but it again ended in a no decision. He has gone six straight starts of 7+ innings of work and 3 or less earned runs. Guthrie has been one of the few pleasant surprises the O's have had. Both he and Brian Burres have given the Orioles some quality starts, although Burres has not gone quite as deep into games. Now the O's need to hope these guys don't become the next Rodrigo Lopez's and Bruce Chen's of the clasisc Orioles.
People often forget how excited we were about Lopez and Chen at certain points.
Ramon Hernandez went on the DL went on the DL after being hit in the nads with a foul tip. Cheer up Ramon, I've been hit with faster lax balls.. in the balls.
At 29-33, the O's seem to be having a better season than most of us feel like they are having. The pain has come from all the close games. The O's are 11-20 in games decided by two runs or less. At an even worse winning percentage the O's are 6-15 in games decided by one run or less. Barring a miracle the O's will most likely be out of contention by the trading deadline again this year. It begs the question as to whether or not they will consider blowing up some of the key parts of the current team. Miguel Tejada, a hot item at last years trade deadline, will again be the player the O's get the most calls in regards to. It will be interesting to see what the O's do at the deadline. They are in a similiar situation. They have some veteran bullpen members that though they have sucked, will get some interest from teams, but won't draw a very valuable return. The O's also have a core group of starters that would draw much more return, but that I believe should not be offered in any deals. This is not the case for Hayden Penn, who has most likely lost a good deal of pull in the market due to his injury problems.
The O's have a core group of average to below average veteran bats in Huff, Mora, Millar and Payton who will all draw some interest from teams looking to add some depth for their playoff runs. But none of these four will garner more than some mid-level prospects. The actually valuable members of the lineup are Roberts, Tejada and Markakis. Markakis is almost a guarantee as an untouchable. Tejada and Roberts (more this year than last; especially if he continues to swing like he has been) will most likely create some interesting dialogue between Duquette/Flanagan and other GM's. The O's are at a point where they have some young talent, some older talent, and a lot of older mediocrity inbetween. They are atleast two or three signicant pieces away from become a serious contender and are also far from just a young and up-and-coming team with Mora, Tejada & Crew on the downsides of their careers. This makes the decisions made at the trade deadline quite important as to the direction of the team.
Other MLB:
Roger Clemens gave the Yankees a decent start as the Yanks beat the Pirates 9-3.
NFL:
Chad Johnson beat a horse in a race. As much as I love the Ravens and hate the Bengals, I can't help but love Chad Johnson
Fantasy Football:
Never too early for fantasy football. I had my first draft last night. Ten team league. My roster looks like this : QB: Peyton Manning, Jake Delhomme. RB: Willis McGahee, Edgerrin James, Marshawn Lynch, Carnell Williams. WR: Anquan Boldin, Lee Evans, Braylon Edwards, Jerricho Cotchery, Jerry Porter, Dwayne Bowe. TE: Vernon Davis. K: Matt Stover. D: Philadelphia. Give me some feedback and let me know what YOU think. I think my team is built well overall even with its lack of a true fantasy stud at RB. I encourage comments though.
While it is early and there are sure to be many injuries and mix ups along the way, I'll be using these as sort of mock warm up drafts for both my later drafts and my rankings which I'll do again this year. I'm thinking of trying to do a draft every two weeks or so and posting the results to build a little file up on what people are doing and thinking about doing for fantasy. I'll post the first few rounds in their entirety later today.
I also plan on reviewing last years fantasy rankings/projections still. I know I've said I wanted to do this for awhile, but I do really want to break the players down for this.
Again: Give me any feedback and comments about anything; especially fantasy.
The Orioles lost 3-2 in 10 innings last night. Rodrigo Lopez started for the Rockies, and pitched seven strong innings against his former mates. Making his third start after coming back from an early season injury, Lopez allowed only six hits and two runs helping his team which eventually broke the tie in the 10th inning. Jeremy Guthrie had another outstanding effort but it again ended in a no decision. He has gone six straight starts of 7+ innings of work and 3 or less earned runs. Guthrie has been one of the few pleasant surprises the O's have had. Both he and Brian Burres have given the Orioles some quality starts, although Burres has not gone quite as deep into games. Now the O's need to hope these guys don't become the next Rodrigo Lopez's and Bruce Chen's of the clasisc Orioles.
People often forget how excited we were about Lopez and Chen at certain points. Ramon Hernandez went on the DL went on the DL after being hit in the nads with a foul tip. Cheer up Ramon, I've been hit with faster lax balls.. in the balls.
At 29-33, the O's seem to be having a better season than most of us feel like they are having. The pain has come from all the close games. The O's are 11-20 in games decided by two runs or less. At an even worse winning percentage the O's are 6-15 in games decided by one run or less. Barring a miracle the O's will most likely be out of contention by the trading deadline again this year. It begs the question as to whether or not they will consider blowing up some of the key parts of the current team. Miguel Tejada, a hot item at last years trade deadline, will again be the player the O's get the most calls in regards to. It will be interesting to see what the O's do at the deadline. They are in a similiar situation. They have some veteran bullpen members that though they have sucked, will get some interest from teams, but won't draw a very valuable return. The O's also have a core group of starters that would draw much more return, but that I believe should not be offered in any deals. This is not the case for Hayden Penn, who has most likely lost a good deal of pull in the market due to his injury problems.
The O's have a core group of average to below average veteran bats in Huff, Mora, Millar and Payton who will all draw some interest from teams looking to add some depth for their playoff runs. But none of these four will garner more than some mid-level prospects. The actually valuable members of the lineup are Roberts, Tejada and Markakis. Markakis is almost a guarantee as an untouchable. Tejada and Roberts (more this year than last; especially if he continues to swing like he has been) will most likely create some interesting dialogue between Duquette/Flanagan and other GM's. The O's are at a point where they have some young talent, some older talent, and a lot of older mediocrity inbetween. They are atleast two or three signicant pieces away from become a serious contender and are also far from just a young and up-and-coming team with Mora, Tejada & Crew on the downsides of their careers. This makes the decisions made at the trade deadline quite important as to the direction of the team.Other MLB:
Roger Clemens gave the Yankees a decent start as the Yanks beat the Pirates 9-3.
NFL:
Chad Johnson beat a horse in a race. As much as I love the Ravens and hate the Bengals, I can't help but love Chad Johnson
Fantasy Football:
Never too early for fantasy football. I had my first draft last night. Ten team league. My roster looks like this : QB: Peyton Manning, Jake Delhomme. RB: Willis McGahee, Edgerrin James, Marshawn Lynch, Carnell Williams. WR: Anquan Boldin, Lee Evans, Braylon Edwards, Jerricho Cotchery, Jerry Porter, Dwayne Bowe. TE: Vernon Davis. K: Matt Stover. D: Philadelphia. Give me some feedback and let me know what YOU think. I think my team is built well overall even with its lack of a true fantasy stud at RB. I encourage comments though.
While it is early and there are sure to be many injuries and mix ups along the way, I'll be using these as sort of mock warm up drafts for both my later drafts and my rankings which I'll do again this year. I'm thinking of trying to do a draft every two weeks or so and posting the results to build a little file up on what people are doing and thinking about doing for fantasy. I'll post the first few rounds in their entirety later today.
I also plan on reviewing last years fantasy rankings/projections still. I know I've said I wanted to do this for awhile, but I do really want to break the players down for this.
Again: Give me any feedback and comments about anything; especially fantasy.
