Smallball

I would like to go "off-topic" in this post to talk about this website I have known about for the past 10 years and have used for the past 5 years. It is called www.smallball.com . This site allows you to train your own baseball or soccer team and then play them in simulated games.

This game is good for the player who does not want to play a whole bunch of games or rely on your own keyboard skills.

McCarthy's play calling leaves many questions

During the Green Bay Packers 22-9 victory over the Detroit Lions, there was something that was that bothered me, it was not the great play by the special teams, it was not the defense and it was not even the offensive players. It was the offensive play calling.

Overall, I thought the player played a good game, but Mike McCarthy leaves me wondering what runs through his head with the play calling especially in short yardage situations. There were two key moments that stuck out to me, the third drive of the game during the 3rd & 1 with a roll out pass. situation which was made worse by the fact we had to burn a timeout just before the play. The second was at the end of the game, in which we were trying to run out the clock, we had been using Lacy to run the ball, but then we decide to just take a knee? Take a knee with Detroit having a timeout remaining. How... Why? Give yourself a chance to get the first down, which improbable, but not impossible.

These two situations along with a lackluster passing game today show that Mike McCarthy's offensive game play has passed its prime and it is time for someone else to be calling the plays. We were able to pull the game out today, but against the better teams down the road, we will most likely not come out on top. It has not worked already this year against the 49ers and Bengals.

McCarthy needs to relinquish the play card, he is unable to make the right calls at the right times. We need someone who will provide a scheme that will test the opposing defenses, but also will make the simple calls at the simple times. The one and two yards situations are the simple times, this situation seems to bring out the worse in McCarthy with overcomplicated play calls when maybe a quarterback sneak will do.

I'm not a person who likes to wait until the other shoe to drop to make a change and neither should be the Packers. If this was a one off case, I would not have a problem, but this has been happening for the last 3 years. That is too long in my book. It is time for change with the play calling, the time is now, not when we are in the cellar, by then you are going to lose a lot more than just your play calling responsibilities, it will be your job!

Dusty Baker another casualty

Friday brought another day where another MLB manager was fired when Dusty Baker was fired from the Cincinnati Reds. I know that I recently wrote a post talking about Dale Sveum being fired from the Cubs, Dusty Baker did posses almost all the skills that Dale did not, but was missing one minor aspect that you need. Rebound.

Over a 162 game season, there are ups and downs, but it is how you overcome the downs that makes you a great manager. It is the ability to stop a losing streak or to refocus the team after a unusual moment in the game. Dusty did not possess this.

Dusty did not have it in San Francisco, he could not calm down Cubs after the Bartman incident and he could not recover with the Reds. Someone will hire Dusty again, but whoever hires him better be really for the team to let little mistake or incidents get inside their head.

USA Qualify for World Cup

It has been a dark road, it has been a long road, but it appears after the "Dos A Cero" game that soccer has arrived in the US. Nobody more than me is glad that it appears that soccer has finally come out of the shadows of a third tier sport and is gaining media attention.

Certain spots has accepted the sport as a first tier sport for many years (Seattle and Portland), but clearly with the national attention and filled stands that US soccer and the established leagues are now here to stay. With the prolonged run of qualifying for the World Cup has brought to the attention to many people that this game is no longer the punch line of jokes/

For some, soccer will always be hated especially for the baby boomers but who can fault them? They were raised in a era in which soccer was a "fourth tier" sport only played by kids until 7 or 8 when they switched to Football (American) or Baseball. The game was treated as a joke by the soccer federation and it showed on the field by not qualifying for the World Cup between 1950 and 1990. My dad is a classic example of this theory, to this day, he continue to mock the game when I have it on TV, he mocks me for getting up at 6:45am on most Saturdays to start watching the EPL games on NBC. My Dad and other people of his generation say that they do not understand the game and say that soccer is not a sport (but isn't soccer just over-sized hockey?).

But for all the dislike of soccer for the people raised in the 40 years after the 1950 World Cup appearance, soccer has found it mark with the younger generation. While American Football is still the preferred sport, soccer has hit its mark and the attendance figures in MLS show it. With the upcoming investments coming from Dave Beckham and Manchester City/New York Yankees this further enhances this as the fifth sport.

It is said that "it takes years to win a customer, and seconds to lose one", this saying no more than true with the MLS and the US men's national team. The house has been set up perfectly with good media coverage, good teams, top players coming overseas to play here along with good fans. I hope that we do not screw this up because nobody will be more disappointed than me.

Dale Sveum: Another incomplete MLB manager fired

No, that is not a typo in the title of this post, I did not mean incompetent, incomplete is a much more realistic term. On Monday, the Cubs fired Dale Sveum as manager with one year left on the contract. As a former Brewer player and coach, I have a little something to say about what went down in Chicago.

Dale Sveum was always a iffy choice to head up a major league baseball club. A major league manager needs to posses the ability to manager players on both side of the ball. Sveum never showed the ability to manage a pitching staff during any of the two seasons, but the warning signs were there for the Cubs even before the first interview.

Warning Sign #1: Former power player generally don't make good managers
Players that generally have good careers with the potential for power do not do well as managers because they are unable to identify issues with players. Managers that seem to have played little or poorly have more time to watch other  players and identify mistakes and take the needed corrections. There is always the exception to the rule, but for every Joe Girardi there are many Charlie Manuel's


Warning Sign #2: No Pitching coach experience
Sveum entered the Cubs job with no pitching experience, not even at a basic level. If you are that one sided in baseball, it is like getting hit with a 2X4 when you have to care about the other side of the ball.

Warning Sign #3: 2008 season
This should have been the biggest reason not to hire Sveum. After Ned Yost was fired near the end of the season Sveum was named the interim manager and continued the effort of Yost to mismanage the pitching and having to overusing C.C. Sabathia. This was a sign that he was unable to manager or turn around a pitching staff. This should have raised the red flag for all teams that Sveum could not manage both side of the game.

The Cubs did not heed warning sign #3 and made the two year mistake of allowing him to manage their team. Some guys are just not cut out to be Major League managers. If he wants another shot at managing a MLB team, he should go down to a "AA" or "AAA" team to manage, learn the ropes and if it works out, it works out. In this case, Dale Sveum will make a good hitting coach and that is what he should do.

Josh Freeman over-hyped career over?

As reported on Sunday, Josh Freeman has played his last game in the Tampa area and maybe in the NFL. For me, this "I don't care" attitude was something that does not surprise me about this quarterback.

This was a long time coming, Josh Freeman was not NFL caliber quarterback and should not have been in the NFL as long as he was. He lasted in the NFL as long as he did for the sheer fact that he beat the Green Bay Packers in his rookie season back in 2009. People started looking at him different and unfortunately viewed him as a real quarterback based on the caliber of defense that Green Bay was at the time.

But everybody has a bad day, it just was not Green Bay's just happen to have one that day. Bad start after bad start, year after year were shadowed by the fact that "He beat the Packers back in 2009". You can not rely on one game as the reason a quarterback should be propped up for this long. If there is no improvement by the end of the next season, get rid of the player.

The pressure and the limelight got to Freeman, he thought he was something because everybody in the media said he was something because of one game. Josh Freeman would have benefited by waiting a year or two like Aaron Rodgers, learn the ropes, learn how to handle himself in the NFL.

I'm guessing when he lost the captain role from the team was the end for him, when the other shoe was going to drop was just a matter of time. To spike that quick in the NFL at that age is just too much for most. Someone will most likely give him another shot at a backup most likely (because someone will remember that '09 Packers game), but the damage is done.

In the end, this occurs more than it should in the NFL, every game is make or break. The media likes to proclaim the rise to stardom from just one game or sometimes from just one throw. It should not be this way, but once again another victim has been claimed in the form of Josh Freeman.

'Rush' movie review (more like statment)

So what did I spend the Packers bye week doing? Going to a movie. I decided to go see the movie Rush from director Ron Howard.

I'm not going to get into the plot of the movie, that is what Wikipedia is for. Overall, I thought this was very good movie that does live up to its name. The acting is above average, but not award winning. The awards from this movie will come from the directing which was great in my perspective.

This movie was well worth the Matinee price I paid to get in.

Brewers End of Season Grades

Another season is in the books for the Milwaukee Brewers and while the season was far from perfect for what fans were expected, this blogger knew it was coming. With that being said I have completed a season ending grade list.

• Jonathan Lucroy (B+) - Once of the most consistent players over the entire season minus a slow start. Made the transition to playing first base on a as needed basis. The only thing holding this grade back from a "A" was some base running blunders that occurred throughout the year along with the slow start to the year.
• Juan Francisco (F) -Too slow, Too Fat, Too many K's. His new name should be Juan Fran-wiffo
• Rickie Weeks (D) - Once again Rickie has another slow start with a season ending injury, I almost think that is Weeks gameplan at the start of the season. He is too slow and too fat, he got away from the way he got in the major leagues, with his speed.
• Jean Segura (A) - Jean had his breakout season at the plate and in the field, a well deserved top grade.
• Aramis Ramirez (C-) - Ramirez has outlived his welcome in Milwaukee, a very streaky season for when he was healthy. He is too slow and on the DL too much to be of much use for the Brewers anymore. Time to move on.
• Ryan Braun (C) - Based solely on his play, Braun would get a "A", but given the events of the season, I have downgraded him to a "C". It will be long road back for Braun, and some people will never forgive him even if he cures cancer, provides world peace and finds Jimmy Hoffa.
• Carlos Gomez    (B+) - An above average season for Gomez who signed a contract extension before the season. Did recently start to cool off at the end of the season and is plagued by the injury bug.
• Norichika Aoki (B-) - The faults that did not show themselves during last season seemed to manifest themselves during this season. Seemed to not be able to slap the ball as well, plus Aoki seem to have troubles covering right field from time to time. Overall though, he did have an average year and used his speed efficiently.  
• Yuniesky Betancourt (D+) - Making another trip though the Brew city did not prove any better for Yuni-B. To slow, too inconsistent.
• Logan Schafer (C-) - Too young and inconsistent. Most likely will be no better than a defensive replacement.
• Jeff Bianchi (C-) - Not enough speed, not enough power to be an every day starter. Only a utility or every fifth day starter.
• Scooter Gennett (C+) - A breath of fresh air from the play of Rickie Weeks given the defensive play that he provided this season, but it was a tough year for Scooter. His power is below average, he has trouble with lefties and drawing walks. He was able to hit righties over .300, so there is hope. He should compete for a starting job next season, but could be beat out.
• Martin Maldonado (D) - When working with pitchers from the minors, he seemed better, but struggled at the plate for most of the season. He is replaceable.
• Caleb Gindl (C) - Capable backup player, will have to see how he develops 
• Khris Davis (C+) - After a slow start, Davis has been able to turn it one with the bat. Does continue to struggle from time to time in the outfield.
• Sean Halton (C) - Started the season slow, but near the end of the season started to play more consistent.
• Kyle Lohse (B) - Overall an average year for Lohse coming over from St. Louis, did have his moments without Dave Duncan to oversee him. St. Louis appeared to know what he was doing when letting him go just like with Suppan and Looper.
• Wily Peralta (C+) - Wildly inconsistent throughout the year, when he was on, he was on. Threw a complete game shutout on July 9th.
• Yovani Gallardo (C) - Most people would think I'm crazy for giving the grade I have to Yo, but given that he has now pitched about 5 1/2 years in the major leagues (1/2 of 2007, missing most of 2008) that he would learn how to pitch the complete game. He has too many pitches too soon in the game. Many times he has 25+ pitches in the first inning, but does not give up any runs. So he is only able to go 5-6 innings. With stuff that Yo has, he should be able to 7+ innings consistently. Gallardo does not always have to go for the K. Gallardo did once again present a threat at the plate this year.
• Marco Estrada (C-) - Another year of solid 5 inning starts. After that, disaster. Did fill in in the starter role again this year, but injuries once again plagued hit. Better fits a long reliever role.
• Jim Henderson (B) - Solid in most of his appearances, does not rely solely on the fastball.
• Brandon Kintzler (B) - An acceptable bounce back year lowering his ERA to career lows with a good strikeout to walk ratio, could be a good 8th inning man next year.
• Burke Badenhop (C) - Was not worth the money we paid this year, but given what we gave up, the deal was average. Might be worth a look next year if the price is right.
• John Axford (F) - I understand that Axford is no longer a Brewer, but I had to give him his grade. Does not throw anything but a fastball and that pitch can give him trouble at times. Has the tendency to overthrow the fastball which causes trouble. Please use the following guide to evaluate Axford on any given day. Pitch MPH <= 94 - Doing Good; <=96 At the limit; <= 97 All over the place; >= 98 Do not have your drink on the ledge behind the plate. Unfortunately he was at 97+.
• Mike Gonzalez (F) - I don't know who is more to blame, Melvin for signing Gonzalez or Gonzalez not declining the offer stating he really can not pitch. Melvin of all people should know that you just don't sign a lefty for the sake of signing the lefty. We won a division back in 2011 without a single lefty in the bullpen. Gonzalez lack any kind of control or ability to work the corners of the plate. Let this guy go and be someone else's problem.
• Tom Gorzelanny (C) - I was always nervous with this signing. One good season generally should not be a reason to sign a guy especially given the past seasons and how he done against the Brewers. Gorzelanny was a good long reliever, but an awful starter. The Brewers should only keep him if they plan to use him as a long reliever.
• Donovan Hand (C-) - A roller coaster first season for Hand. While he shows the ability to get batters out, he is no starter, or at least right now not a starter. Should work at the middle relief.
• Tyler Thornburg (C) - I consider this a bounce back season for Thornburg. Seemed to be able to get batters out and string together good starts. My concern is that this was done against teams that were already out of playoff contention so the focus might not have been all there this year, but might have lit him up at the start of the year.
• Johnny Hellweg (D) - Wild, Wild, Wild. That is the book on this guy. Can not go more that 5 innings and goes through these painful stretches where he can not get anybody incurring large pitch counts.
• Rob Wooten (C-) - Did get use through some tough games when the Brewers were not playing their best. Does posses the ability to be a 8th inning or closer in the future, but the 7/8th is most likely his role.
• Jimmy Nelson (D+) - Only played in a couple of games this year for the Brewers, but I'm concerned with the pitches to the backstop along with the high pitch counts, but he is only 24 years old.
• Chris Narveson (I) - Another season cut short by the injury bug. One might ask if his time might be done in Milwaukee given that he will be 32 years old when he comes back and he can only give you 6 innings max a start.

Packers Bye Week

What to do during the bye week since I will not have to yell at the TV on this Sunday?

Anderson learns recuriting is key from Ohio State game

During the 31-24 lost to Ohio State on Saturday night, Badger head coach Gary Anderson might have been dumbfounded how Ohio State was able to move up and down the field at will with the speed rushers and speed receivers, but it call comes down to "Recruiting".

That is something that has been missing in Wisconsin the last couple of years when Bret Bielema failed to properly recruit for the Wisconsin program having one foot out the door. Most people will say that we just won three consecutive Big Ten titles, but each one came with a catch. The first was due to a lucky tie breaker rue, the second the Badgers benefited from a good conference alignment along with Ohio State being nailed for violations plus a roughing the punter penalty. The final title was thanks to backing into the game along with two schools being ineligible to for postseason.

Recruiting was lacking at the end for Bret at these key positions:

• QB
• WR
• TE
• S
• K
• P

This lack of recruiting manifested themselves on Saturday night well have Bret(Who also lost Saturday) decided to cut and run.

I hope that Gary Anderson learned a lot about the game, I hope that he knows what he has to change for next season because of this game. If Anderson can not learn what he needs to change from this game, then he is of no use to us. I know the changes can not completed this season and I personally think that he called about the best game he could have given the circumstances.

Arkansas Razorback Football: It begins

I could not help noticing that on Saturday, while I watched Stave miss on pass after pass, that Bret Bielema blew a pretty big lead against Rutgers. This was the always the concern when he was at Wisconsin, blowing the big game and playing down to his opponent. If you are reading this and you are from Arkansas, I'm glad you took this problem off our hands. We had many close calls with him but we all knew here in Wisconsin, that what we saw Saturday was going to happen.

Best of luck Arkansas and once again, thank for taking Bret.

Selig continues poor punishment record

Given the events of last nights altercation between the Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves, I would have expected some kind of punishment to be handled down, but once again the kids are running the house with no guidelines to controlling the household.

First and foremost, I will state that I agree with the Gomez suspension for 1 game. You can not jaw with everybody around the base paths and not expect something to occur. I also agree with the suspension of Reed Johnson, though I like how he then hid behind his coach after getting his shots.

Like one of my previous posts , how does McCann not get anything out of this, just like Matt Kemp earlier this year? How can not punish the secondary and third party offenders who commit equal or greater offenses than the people caused the initial starters. McCann ignited the fight, yet he gets nothing. This can no longer occur now or with the new commissioner in a couple of years.

You can not have these major brawls night after night in baseball. People might say that it is going to occur over a 162 game season with 30 teams, but honestly how is it even remotely acceptable in baseball, but in any other job where you work 3 times the hours a night for double the number of nights a year? If you start a fight at a normal job, you are out of a job, but in baseball you might not even get a fine.

This needs to change now, any person who does joins a fight should get ejected and suspended for future games. Period!

Selig allows fights to continue in MLB

If you have not heard by now, during the 4-0 victory for the Brewers over the Braves during Wednesday's game, there was a little scuffle between Carlos Gomez and the rest of the Braves after his home run which ignited a beach clearing brawl. In this post, I could take the high level perspective on this and talk about the unwritten rules, but I want to have a different take on the events that occurred.

Bud Selig has lost control of the ship or at least lost control of the ability to right the ship when events occur that require a review and change in the rules. Even before I started this blog I knew the rules had to change, I even mentioned some of these rule changes within a previous post.

This is a simple rule change, simple! Any player who joins a fight outside of the original parties are ejected and hit with a suspension. This fact eludes Bud Selig that the rules have to change or at least he has to make the attempt to change the rules, even if the players union might reject them, then it is not on Bud.

Some will say that fighting is part of the game and that these "unwritten" rules are part of the baseball tradition. This complete bull, traditions are meant to be broken(or else there would still be gladiator fights at the Colosseum) and the rules should be changed. Baseball has been stuck behind this "unwritten" rules for too longer and something has to change, the first being the way we police the game.

One additional question I have out of the game today, how does Brian McCann not get ejected from the game? He escalates a volatile situation by standing in front of the plate and then gets in the face of Gomez. This is another problem with the MLB umpiring today, the inability to get the call right when large scale situation occur. Like in the NBA and NCAA basketball, the use of replay could have led to additional player being dealt with during the game [cough] [cough] Kelly Johnson [cough].


What do I expect in the end? Nothing. Bud might hand out a couple of fines and maybe a 1 game suspension, but nothing to address the root cause of the issue. In the end, what will it take for change? Season ending injury, career ending injuries or maybe incident that might end the reign as commissioner.

Only time will tell.

Baseball Tonight Disrespects Brewers

It has been said that ESPN has a unhealthy obsession with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. This was no more true than on Baseball Tonight on Sunday before the baseball game. They displayed the lineup of the St. Louis and progress to talk about the lineup and the key players. Then the lineup of Milwaukee was displayed and following a brief mention that the Brewers were 20 games under .500 we progress to start talking about the players for the Red Sox and Yankees while the Brewers lineup was still on the screen.

I understand that Brewers are not in playoff contention, but I would at least hope that ESPN could give the common decency to give one minute towards the lineup.

McCarthy needs to give up the offensive reigns

During the crazy 34-30 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals there was one fact that was move prevalent than anything, Mike McCarthy lacks the common sense to run an offense in the NFL. Now I know that he has led us to a Super Bowl, but the way the offense was running that season, there was no way of screwing that up.

There have been many examples in the past of the sheer incompetence, but the there were two examples during Sunday's game.

1. 4th Down and 6 inches - After the yardage reversal on the Cobb catch we encountered the much dreaded short yardage situation. There is a motto "Work Smart, Not Hard", apparently this saying is lost on McCarthy. Instead of going with the easy and more likely successful QB sneak, we go with the hand off to the running back. The hand off is so much riskier with the chance of someone coming through the line and with going back to 7 yards back to go to 1 yard forward. This should have been a easy call, an easy call, you QB sneak it and keep the clock moving. If you can not make this easy correct call, you should not be calling plays in the NFL.
2. 4th Down End of Game situation - We are moving the ball down the field, but we end up with a fourth down situation. I've always held that you should try to reduce the number variables in any big play. Given that Rodgers had previous passes batted down on the drive, we should have rolled him out of the pocket to reduce the chance of a pass being knocked down or Rodgers being sacked. In the end, the pass gets batted down and the game is over. 

These errors can no longer be overlooked, these issues with the play calling need to be changed. The defenses of the NFL change their defense schemes year to year and so should the Packers offense. While it appears that the Packers are starting to get a running game the offense continues to be crippled by the sabotage play calling McCarthy.

The easy thing to do is to hand over the play sheet to someone else, but I really hope we are not heading down the path of one of my other posts. Anyway, in the end it is time for a new play caller in town with common sense and a sense for the game before this offense goes down the tank.

Stave not the answer for Badgers

During a post last year ripping on Bret Bielema, I laid out the regression of the quarterback position for the Badgers Football team since Bielema took over the program. During this post I mentioned that I gave Joel Stave an incomplete grade and mentioned "There is hope, but I want to see how he plays next year.". That hope was lost during the 41-10 victory over Purdue.

People who read this post will say that Wisconsin won with Stave why are we ripping about Stave this week? Because it was the defense and the running game that won on Saturday. Stave proved once again that he is not going to get any better accuracy wise. I have seen pass after pass in the four games this season that has been off the mark, but still caught or just plain inaccurate and incomplete.

The final straw for me was on the deep pass to Abbrederis when he was open by 15 yards and Stave was not only short on the pass but off to the right. When you have a guy that wide open, all you have to do is just lay it in there, in this case you can underthrow a little bit, but to be that far off, that is it for me. It is time to replace Stave with Phillips or Houston, anything different is just a waste of time for the Badgers. Each snap with Stave under center is a wasted time for someone else with potential to get valuable game experience.

I had been concerned for the past two weeks about the accuracy of Stave, but by the four game and with minimal wind, we should should be hitting our receivers in stride or hitting the home run passes. The problem really presented itself the previous week during the Arizona State, a slightly better team, when he went on long stretches without completing a pass. This problem will be further exasperated in the coming weeks when we play better opponents. Teams like Ohio State will try to stop the run first and make Stave make his throws which Stave will be incapable of doing.

My proposed solution? Bring in Bart Houston, if you are just handing off the ball, Houston should be more than capable of doing that, plus he brings a running quarterback element that Stave does not posses. Plus if Houston can throw the ball accurately, we could have a dangerous offense for years to come.

I'm a person is is proactive instead of reactive, I personally do not wait until something happens to change something because you are hurting the team. It is time to replace Stave with someone else before it too late for him or the receiver he is going to get killed across the middle.

Get rid of Stave!

2013-2014 (English) Football League Predictions

Back prior to the start of the English Football League season, I made some predictions for the upcoming season. Based on how the season is going so far, I'm already regretting some of my selections. I will post some time in December with my mid-season predictions.

2013-2014 Predictions		Promoted/Winner		Relegated
Premier League		Chelsea		Crystal Palace
Premier League		N/A		Hull
Premier League		N/A		Norwich City
Championship		Watford		Yeovil Town
Championship		Nottingham Forest		Huddersfield Town
Championship		Bolton Wanderers		AFC Bournemouth
League One		Crawley Town		Colchester United
League One		Wolverhampton Wanderers		Preston North End
League One		Sheffield United		Notts County
League One		N/A		Port Vale
League Two		Burton Albion		Accrington Stanley
League Two		Newport County		Morecambe
League Two		Portsmouth		N/A
League Two		Plymouth Argyle		N/A
Conference		Kidderminster Harriers		Nuneaton Town
Conference		Hereford United		Hyde
Conference		N/A		Salisbury City
Conference		N/A		Tamworth
Scotland Prem		Celtic		Hearts
Scotland Prem		N/A		St Mirren
Scotland 1st		Falkirk		Raith
Scotland 1st		Dundee		Cowdenbeath
Scotland 2nd		Rangers		East Fife
Scotland 2nd		Dunfermline		Stranraer
Scotland 3rd		Peterhead		N/A
Scotland 3rd		Berwick		N/A

Instant Replay in MLB in here!

It took more that a decade, but it is finally here.... no it is not a new Star Wars movie. It is instant replay in baseball. It took longer than it should with the ARRP competition committee who moves at a snail's pace. Finally baseball has taken the needed step to move into the modern era and address the concerns of incorrect calls that do occur from time to time on close plays. In the end instant reply will do what it is suppose to do, get it right.

One thing that amazes me in this whole saga is how for years upon years, the 30 Major League managers spoke out against instant replay, but the minute Selig announces this change in the rules, they all do a 180 and are all in favor of the system. At least I know that Selig does have control over something in baseball.

Hopefully this will now not become a drawn out process. There is much debate how to handle most situations. If MLB wants to make this simple on themselves, employe the system that little league uses today.

Whatever MLB decides to use, I just have to say, replay is here!

Packers and the no confidence defense

If a team completely dominates another team for 1/2 a game, but still wins, does anybody care? This guy does. While I did enjoy the 38-20 victory over Washington, what was not lost by me was once again the large number of passing yards that were hemorrhaged by the defense. Last year I had written a post about having no confidence in the Badgers against anybody good, today I write about my no confidence in the Packers Defense.

Another game of 300+ passing yards (320 to be exact) given up by a secondary that can not cover and a defensive line that can not reach the quarterback. Some people might say to me that the game was over and the Packers were just not allowing any big plays, but let me say this, how many teams do you know that are playing "prevent" defense blitz? This shows me that Dom Capers was still attempting to play this defense straight up 100% to shut down Washington.

It was another week in which no adjustments were made during the game or at halftime which led to another receive having a monster day against us. This week it was Pierre Garcon, last week it was Anquan Boldin. Dom Capers proves that once again, instead of addressing the issue with maybe something like double converge on the receiver in question, we decide to blitz the hell out the quarterback which leads into my next problem...

The pass rush, the non-existent pass rush reared it ugly head, especially in the second half of today's game. How did we address this lack of pass rush? By blitzing, but this caused the opposite effect because none of the blitzers reached the quarterback and the receivers were more wide open than they already were.

For the above reasons and because of the way the Packers defense has played since 2011 the Packers should put Dom Capers out of his misery now, fire him and start building a new defensive scheme. Most people would think I'm insane to suggest firing an assistant coach, but why waist time on what you already know is going to happen? Why allow us to play the 10 yards off the ball defense?


There is no reason today after the way the offense played in first half that the backup offensive players should not have got some time on the field today, but due to the defense allowing Washington to keep the game within an arms length this could not happen. This cost the backup value experience on the field for future situations.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that the Packers did win today, but I can not help it that you can see the car wreck happening while the cars are two miles apart, but the cars keeping going along the same course. It is time for a course correction  and fire Dom Capers.

Over the top opening song/video

I could be using this post explain the way the Badgers were sabotaged out of a win Saturday, but that would be too easy and there already too many articles that have or will be written on the subject.

What I really want to talk about is the opening video of Berzer by Eminem with Notre Dame/Purdue highlights integrated into the video before the game on Saturday night. I will post a link to the video if I can find one.

All I have to say about that video is..... Wow. That is not a good wow, that is more like "Oh my eyes" along with a "What the hell?". I'm a person who has never done any drugs, but watching that intro I'm assuming that is what being on acid is like with the stop motion along with the forward and reverse of the video. The video itself was pointless while boarding on driving away viewers. I ask why that type of intro video is needed?

What is wrong with the simple intro video? The people that already have channel set to ABC are not going to say "I really want to watch Purdue, but that intro video is too simple, lets flip on Hallmark Channel instead".

In this era of companies trying to maximize their profit, I would think that the intro video would be one area that television companies would be looking. I'm sure this post will have no effect on future intro video, but I wanted to get my thoughts out there about the intro video.

Packers: New Year - Same Defense

This was the Packers chance, the 49ers had lost the Super Bowl, they did not have the same team and the Packers had worked on the defense, but all that was just a dream last Sunday. The same old Packers defense reared it ugly head with close loss in the Bay.

I can only sum up the game and team like this:

• Linebackers = Still Slow
• Corners = Take too many chances
• Safeties = Sound rename themselves the "Un-Safeties".
• D-Line = They do not exist, we rush one person in the middle and two linebackers on the side

One position I would like to hit on is the D-Line, Ted Thompson has made to no attempt to replace this position since the Super Bowl run. We continue to run one person on the line with two linebackers which leads to no pass rush and no pass defense. This is a clear attempt of sabotage by Ted not to see this issue and correct this issue.

The scheme of Dom Capers did get us a title, but it does not work any more. We can not continue to play the big yard zone defense games and continue to win. It is time to get rid of Dom and start a new era of the man to man defense and turn this team around. The time is now, not when we have the 4-12 record.

Brewers: I called it in May

I'm going to take another crack at this blog thing, but not post as often. With summer over I'm hoping to be able to spend more time posting and less time debating what to post.

I was looking back at my past posts and say this post dealing with Brewers in May and thought this would be a good post to pick back up on. The first thing I would like to say is..... I told you so. The Brewers sucked for the rest of May, Rickie Weeks has been replaced with Scooter which was then covered up with his "injury", the budget bullpen has given up game after game. The years of trading away the upcoming talent has led the Brewers to be in cellar while Pittsburgh and Kansas City battling for playoff places for many years to come.

The Brewers do not have the benefit like Pittsburgh or KC, we do not have much if any minor league talent upcoming that can step in that has not been called up already. Sean Halton is still a so-so player along with a disappointing season for Hunter Morris plus Mat Gamel tearing something every year leaves the first base position very uncertain.

The third base position is another area of concern, with the possible exception of Taylor Green, nobody has ever stood out as even a remote possibility of coming up since Ryan Braun. I know people will say that Mat Gamel was at third, but we all know that he was going to first base once Prince left.

So, how do you fix the Milwaukee Brewers?

1. New Hitting Coach - This is more of an understatement, the Brewers have been plagued with hitting coaches that fall in love with the long ball with the expense of the strikeout. We need a hitting coach that can relate to the young players and wants to stick around. In recent years, Sveum was the closest to breaking our bad batter habits. This hitting coach has to understand that you can not solely rely on the long ball. Look at St. Louis right now, they are at the top of the league in record and in all batting categories with the exception of Home Runs.
2. Invest in the Bullpen - It's time to end the era of the "Budget Bullpen", it is time to invest money in someone who is young and can pitch consistently. I'm not saying go out and get an all star bullpen, but go out and get one good player to help.
3. Quit selling the future - The past five years have been like the Stock Market Crash in 1929, a lot of people were getting rich with quick short term gains, but in the end were in the poor house. The same holds true with a baseball team, if you sell off your long term solutions for the short game, you will have a losing club in a couple of years. It is time to stop selling the minor leagues away and start keeping some of these players

There is no reason that the Brewers could not play winning baseball in a couple years if they did not employee the above suggestions.

Now I can not go an entire Brewers post without saying something about my "favorite" GM in MLB Doug Melvin. Doug has really had it tough this year of all the years with the sort of bait-in-switch Ryan Braun pulled on him this year denying everything about his PED's along then taking the deal from Grandpa Selig. Still that was no excuse for the budget bullpen along with not addressing the first/third base situation.

Its time to let the rookies play and wait until next year!

Favorite Bond Movies

A slight change to the mostly sport-centric posting to touch on the topic of what my favorite Bond movies along with my favorite title openings.

First and foremost, I do not believe in the Non-Eon films and they will not be included in the list below.

1. The Spy Who Loved Me
2. Goldfinger
3. GoldenEye
4. Skyfall
5. You Only Live Twice
6. Dr. No
7. A View to a Kill
8. Thunderball
9. Moonraker
10. Diamonds Are Forever
11. Tomorrow Never Dies
12. From Russia with Love
13. Casino Royale
14. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
15. Octopussy
16. Quantum of Solace
17. Die Another Day
18. For Your Eyes Only
19. The World Is Not Enough
20. The Living Daylights
21. The Man with the Golden Gun
22. Live and Let Die
23. License to Kill

Favorite Openings Credits for song and title sequence

1. Goldfinger
2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3. The Spy Who Loved Me
4. Tomorrow Never Dies
5. Skyfall

 

NHL End of Season Predictions

Back in January I made a couple of predictions about the upcoming shortens season for the NHL. In this post I will review the predictions.

• Eastern Conference
• Atlantic
• Philadelphia - Incorrect
• NY Rangers - Correct
• Pittsburgh - Correct
• Northeast
• Boston - Correct
• Toronto - Correct
• Southeast
• Tampa Bay - Incorrect
• Carolina - Incorrect
• Washington - Correct
• Western Conference
• Central 
• Chicago - Very Correct
• Detroit  - Correct
• Nashville - Incorrect
• Northwest
• Vancouver - Correct
• Minnesota - Correct
• Calgary - Incorrect
• Pacific
• San Jose - Correct
• Los Angeles- Correct

Finals Prediction:

Minnesota defeats Philadelphia four games to two.

While the finals prediction looks in bad now, going 11 for 16 is pretty good given all that was up in the air at the start of the season.

Brewers have season ending issues

Long time no posting... I had to take a little break from posting, but now I'm back to talk baseball, specifically Brewers baseball. In case you did not notice the Brewers were able to pull one out Monday against the Pirates, but one win in May does not make a season.

The Brewers as a whole and in the long term are all on the 60-Day DL with season ending problems. The most recent series against the Reds and Cardinals go a long way in proving that pitching wins you games in the long term and home runs win you a couple of games.

Brewers GM Doug Melvin and his budget bullpen time over time have caused the Brewers major trouble. Now the starters are getting into the mix when it comes to giving up runs with Burgos giving up a nice 10 spot the other night due to the overused pen. Years of pillaging the minor leagues for the short term victory has now come bite Melvin.

If you look at the trade that essentially won them the division, the Brewers gave up four major league players for a year and a half rental (Cain, Escobar, Jeffress, Odorizzi) and while winning is important while you can, long term success is more important. These guys would have would have all played important parts of the lineup for the Brewers since we would not have Segura.

The next person I would like to zero in on is Rickie Weeks. Whether the numbers the support this or not, Weeks has regressed in the past 4 years overall at the plate and remained level with the defense. Weeks has lost his way in how to bat and what kind of style he played when he was first called up to the major leagues. When he first came up, he was a average power, speed player that would beat out the high chopping play. Now Weeks has packed on the pounds and is carrying a couple of jelly rolls. I really wonder how many half step out plays Weeks would have beat out if he would drop about 10 pounds.

Do not hold your hopes up for this season, the team structure is too far gone to win anything. The overall issues of the Brewers in the end center around them being good, but just not good enough to compete in the division or in the wild card playoffs. The Brewers need to work on establishing the pitching in the minors and the draft. If the Brewers do take their lumps for the next couple of seasons and do not trade away the future, there is no reason this team can not win the division. 

What is the fuss with the name of the new football playoff?

I guess when it comes right down to it, you can really can not please everybody. This statement is not more true when it came to the naming of the College Football Playoff. What is the big deal with the name of this new playoff? It is not fancy, it does not beat around the bush, it gets directly to the point.

Honestly, what did people really want to call it? The Battle of the Gridiron? The ineligible players playoff? Future probation teams tournament? When it comes right down to get, the people got what they wanted, a college football playoff and who cares what they call it.

NFL Draft Four Days Away

Can you believe it, time for another NFL draft? And due to another no free agent signing year from Packers GM Ted Thompson, we once again rely on the lifeblood of the NFL draft to resupply the team and fix a defense that looked non-existent against the running of San Francisco.

You never really know what you are going to get with Thompson, sometimes he gets the it right (2005, 2010), sometimes he gets it wrong (2006). It is funny watching him explain why he takes some of the players he does. For example, in 2007 with the pick of Justin Harrell Thompson stated that he had to take the best player available regardless of position, but yet Brady Quinn was still available at the time (Granted that too would have also been a bad pick).

Who are we going to pick? Only Thompson knows.

Bury F.C. leaves me with so many questions

To sort of change gears, I was reading a story from the other side of the pond recently that League 1's Bury Football Club was over 1 million pounds in debt (That is $1,534,198) and was looking for external investment. I had known for many seasons and going into this season that Bury continued to struggle financially at Gigg Lane, but it just blows my mind how something like this could happen.

How does someone allow the situation to get that far out of control? How does someone not stop the club and make them pay up? How does someone in League 1 get that much credit? I'm thinking this is part of the "results now" society and when it does not turn out the way you planned it, someone is left in the wind.

I was under the impression that the recent UEFA FFP regulations that these types of situations would be reduced and clubs could not run up huge losses, but this shows that teams will do what they can to succeed, but in Bury's case, your club just might cease to exist.

Selig disappoints with suspensions again!

If I started to say... Did anybody see that thing that fight late last week? You know the one that started with two guys but then everybody joined?
 
Would you not assume that I was talking about some incident that occur outside some bar or tavern? Well you would be wrong, I'm talking about the fight that occurred on April 11th between the Dodgers and Padres in which Zack Greinke was left with a broken collarbone.

What does Carlos Quentin get out of the whole ordeal? A very unjustly 8 games. What does Matt Kemp get? Nothing! While I don't think the suspension should be tied to when Greinke time on the DL, the suspension should have been longer and sent a clear message. As for Kemp, I guess you can go off on a 'Roid rage jumping on top of people swinging wildly, start a second fight plus cause trouble in the parking lot and you get no discipline.

Once again MLB front office lets another set of players off the hook, Bud Selig is letting the kids run the school and the discipline is non-existent. This suspension will have done nothing to prevent future incidents like it from occurring in baseball. Selig has had numerous opportunities to address the issues of bench clearing brawls in baseball, but he sits idle like he can do nothing about the issue.

The thing is, Bud Selig can do something about it, he can make a statement that this kind of behavior is not acceptable in the game of baseball. He needs to enact rules that eject & suspend any players who joins the fight outside for the initial players that started fighting. Rules like these exist already today in Soccer, Basketball and Hockey.

People might say that fighting and bench clearing brawls have been apart of the game since the start of time, but does not really make it acceptable? Should we not be progressing the game into the future and modernizing the rules of the game? I think this is the reason that Selig has not changed the rules, he is still stuck in this 1960's fantasy version of the game of baseball.

Bud Must Go! The game of baseball is counting on it, I know I have written about my disapproval of Selig before and this incident should further prove that Bud has no place anymore in baseball. It is time for change, time for new ideas, its time for a new commissioner.

Time to relive Schroeder's No-Hitter

Another April 15 has come around again on the calendar which means it is time for Brewers color commentator to relive when he pitched the Brewers only no hitter in franchise history. Pitched? No, I did not make a mistake, or at least I did not make a mistake in the eyes of Schroeder.

I know really that Juan Nieves pitch that day, but you would think the way Schroeder carries on about the game that he pitched and played the other 8 positions which the exception of that play in centerfield by Yount (he only acknowledges that due to the overwhelming video evidence of the diving play).

This year has presented a problem for Schroeder with no game on Monday for him to live in his own glory, relive his warped reality, make a bigger deal out of his meteoric playing career. The only thing I can see happening is him reliving the day twice, once today and second on Wednesday. Whatever the outcome, it will be a another year in the books for the Schroeder no hitter parade.

S.O.S to Major League Baseball and Bud Selig

This post today is an S.O.S to MLB and Bud Selig to fix the slowly sinking ship called baseball.... If you have not seen it by now, there was a conversational play in the Tampa Bay/Texas game on Monday night in which Marty Foster called Ben Zobrist. In one of my previous posts here, I talked about how Bud Selig is out of touch with the fans and implementing new technology and this incident proves once again the need for instant replay in baseball.

We have a commissioner in baseball that cares more about some fantasy image of baseball as it was in the 1960's than the progress of the game today. Selig thinks that people will plop down $50+ minimum including all costs to watch the games calls get botched. He would rather hear baseball get bashed in the media for 2 days with bad publicity and shave 2 minutes off the game now without instant replay than get the call right.

Would you go to a bank that does not use a computer system to keep track of the books? Would you go in there and open up an account if you saw someone working all day with a pencil and ledger paper? This is how Bud Selig has run baseball, like bank that is behind the times and has not caught up with the times, without modernization, there are bound to be big mistakes.

I'm really unsure what the big fear is about instant replay, you get the call right, you don't have controversy and it takes some stress off the umpires. Personally, I would not be asking to replay every single play in the game, give each manager two replays a game which would only add 8 minutes maximum and everybody goes home happy.

Peoples livelihood's are the on the line with each and every missed called. There are large amounts of money that gets moved with each and every play whether on the betting counters or on the playing field, someone gets affected by the wrong code. It is essential that baseball should take every realistic step to ensure that no call is blown.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, it is time for Bud Selig to step down as commissioner of MLB and find someone who will relate to what the fans are saying, relate to the younger generation and keep the integrity of the game. I know being the commissioner of MLB can not be an easy job and I would not want the job, but how much more will the fans endure before they stop showing up at the ballpark?

Brewers: I saw this coming

With another loss early in the in season to the Diamondbacks on Sunday, the Brewers fall to 1-5 on the season. While most baseball people would say that it is too early to panic, I say just say the opposite. Especially given the lack of high quality free agent moves the Brewers did this past off season, it is time to look at making some changes.

The reason that this season is off to such a season is Doug Melvin. This bad start is the fundamental problem I have with Brewers GM Doug Melvin, he sometimes does not do the hard work to find that value for a free agent in the off season like another GM's would. Melvin employs a more wait and see philosophy. Melvin does not change the equation, he does not make the big off season move but instead we struggle in the same areas year after year.

If the Brewers are close in July, he pulls off a "Big Deal" and pillages the minor league system. We usually end up with some washed up pitchers (Cough.. Michael Gonzalez.. Cough Cough) who make their final playing destination Milwaukee.

Another problem with Melvin is the drafting that has occurred under his reign. Now I understand that is really took over a club that was underfunded and at the bottom of the barrel, but Attanasio has been in control of the club since 2005, so we have been able to put the club out of the basement and yet we do not see any major draftee's from him in the major leagues with the exception of Yovani Gallardo and Ryan Braun. Most of the players that came up were the product of Dean Taylor or via data that remained during Melvin's first year.

It is time to relook at the talent we are bringing up from the minor leagues, Kris Davis continues to struggle, Mark Rodgers is non-existent, Fries is getting wipe lash from all home runs he is giving up, Thronburg is having troubles (I think we brought him up too early). We rely on trades too much and wash up free agents, it time to not only look at the talent on the field, but who placed them there which means I would send Melvin packing!

Yovani Gallardo leaves me with an uneasy feeling

Just a short entry today, does anybody else get that feeling when Gallardo pitches, he is just messing around? The guy with top stuff all-ways has 100 pitches by the 5th inning but yet he can get strike out over strike out. How?

Bruce Pearl on ESPN?

Just a short thought today, I was watching Women's Tournament coverage and who did I see pop on the TV? Bruce Pearl. It appear that in the US we have a double standard when it comes to not following the rules.

Bruce was suspended and hit the the "Show Cause" clause attached to his name which is equivalent to fraud in the criminal world. In the criminal world, you get prison time for fraud (AKA cheating), but in the NCAA world, you just get a job at ESPN (and he is probably making more money).

It is truly sad that no matter what Pearl does short of a felony, someone is gong to pay him and he is going to have a job.

Wisconsin Basketball End of Season Wrapup

Another year, another season of Badger basketball is in the the books with a loss Friday Ole Miss. The loss to the Rebels was due the same reason that plagued the Badgers this season in most all other losses, long painful scoreless droughts.

You can also see when these droughts are coming, there were some key tips to look for that started the droughts:

1. We stop throwing the ball inside
2. We just pass around the perimeter
3. We only fire up 3-pointers
4. Ryan Evans starts shoot whenever hes not open

This season was not all bad with two victories over Indiana and Michigan along with a victory over Ohio State. In those game was were able to do the the following:

1. We throw the ball inside, even if we do not shoot it
2. Good Defense 
3. Good Rebounding
4. Ryan Evan does not shoot the ball
5. Sam Decker plays

I saw people writing that "Bo must go!" after the way this season went and how the offense functioned. I really wonder if these people know how well they really have it with Bo Ryan as a coach. Bo has got the Badgers to the Tournament for the past 12 seasons compared to 7 times in the 103 seasons prior to Bo.

In the end somebody has to win the games and somebody has to lose the games, there is only 1 winner out of 347 Division 1 teams. You never know what you are going to get with a different coach, we might end up like Chelsea. Bo has been able to finish in the top 4 in the Big Ten every season, even this season with a less than stellar senior class plus the issues mentioned above.

This year was a difficult year for the Badgers, but Bo was able to put together a good 20+ win, so its time to give Bo a break since all this guy does is win.

"Bo Must Stay!"

The NFL takes one step closer to more confusion

The NFL, the game that relates that relates to more people in America than any other sport has taken a minor step back during the annual meeting this year in Phoenix, AZ. A series of rules were passed to "enhance" the safety and the game overall. A listing can be found here.

These are my thoughts are the rule changes:

1. Illegal challenges - Of all the rules, this is the only one I agree with changing. The was no reason to no right the wrong in the play no matter how stupid the head coach can be from time to time. If this rule would not have changed, I would have wondered if Bud Selig and his take 10 years to make a rule easy rule change crew was running the show.
2. No overloading on XP and FG's - The game of football is a rough game, but changing rules like this is watering down the game and stop creativity. This is just another one of Roger Goodell's don't let the players sue the league 30 years from now policy rule changes.
3. Tuck Rule - This rule had existed for years upon years without it causing any trouble, but one snowy day in New England changed that in the most replayed example of this rule. Anytime any play even came close to the tuck rule, we saw a replay of Tom Brady, whenever Tom Brady played on TV we saw the reply, whenever there was a game played in snow we saw a replay. Only one of two things was going to happen to stop everybody from talking about the tuck rule, one... Delete the tuck rule or two... Send Tom Brady off to an unnamed remote island in the Pacific and strike his name from all records in a Moses in the Ten Commandments style kind of banishment.
4. Allowing 40's range for Backs and Tight Ends - And why is this an important rule change? Why doesn't football just say that all offensive linemen are in a certain number range and everybody else is eligible? End of problem. 
5. Peel Back Blocks - Please see point #2
6. No leading with Crown of Helmet - Why do we play with helmets? What is the point anymore? You can not touch anybody in the helmet, you can not have helmet to helmet hits from the defender and now running backs can not lead outside the magic 3 yard box. So why do we play with helmets? If everybody plays within the rules, you should not need helmets

To me, these additional rules/changes are another step towards a more complex, more NBA rule like structure. The NFL game is no longer a game that anybody can just start watching and understand. The game is filled with all these complex exceptions that make the game hard to watch and even harder for officials to officiate.  All you need is the teams to pass a rule allowing a mid-level salary cap exception and we can start calling this the NB&FLA(National Basketball and Football League Association).

With more complexity, you create the potential to drive away fans or future fans. That is what you have with the NFL, the rules have been watered down and people want to the game to be exciting but not watered down. I personally think this could be the opportunity for Soccer to breakout in America. The game is simple (minus offsides) to understand, no goofy rules, and the players are not actively suing the league.

Whatever comes of the rule changes this year, the fans will continue to show in the short term, but too many rules too soon just might de-throne the game and vilify whoever is driving the bus for going off the cliff.

Gomez deal has this person concerned

It was announced recently that Carlos Gomez signed a 3 year, $24 million extension with the Brewers through 2016. All I have to say is that the Brewers and other MLB teams never learn when giving out large contracts.

Like Bill Hall before him, Gomez has received a large extension for the future years for a better than usual year, I do not say all-star year because the numbers he had last year were only good numbers for him. He also has the tendency to end up on the DL more than I would like for someone who is getting $8 million a year. If he is even better this year, he will want even more money, if he is off, teams end up eating the contract, giving this kind of extension in this era is pointless, the teams are generally get burned.

It is funny that the Brewers have not learned from the Bill Hall deal who never lived out his deal with the Brewers. Gomez can be streaky at times, he can focus on the long ball too much while I would use the great speed he does possess. Only time will tell if the Brewers did the right thing and I sure this is not the first posting about this deal and it will not be the last.

Flacco should get a raise, but how much?

Just a short thought today about the Flacco contact situation. Flacco received a ~$20 million a year deal to make him the highest/top paid Quarterback right now, but it begs the question in my head, is he really worth it?

Now I understand that he did just lead his team to Super Bowl victory, but does he really deserve top flight money just due to a hot run in the playoffs? Everybody these days thinks that if a player is on the championship winning team that he automatically should be the top paid player. The passing game this year was not the best in the NFL. The Flacco led passing game was mid-pack in all passing stats, but yet he should be paid better than a Rodgers, Brees, or Brady?

It is time now to reel in the insanity, and pay Flacco what he is really worth, as a high mid-pack QB which only should be around 10-12 million a season, maybe 14 with incentives. Not everybody should get what they want, even in success. NFL players are one play away from injury, a bad play or the bench, don't let the high of the Super Bowl cloud against reasonable judgment.

I know the current deal with Flacco is a done deal, but I hope that reasonable judgement will finally kick in just like with the rookie contracts issue and teams will wait until they come off the cloud and make sound choices on how to spend their money.

Baseball Pitchers, how much do they really pitch

With baseball spring training in full swing and the games finally being played, it is the annual start of baseball announcers starting talking about how managers should not overwork their pitchers because you will need them later. We will hear announcers state that there is no reason to go in the 7th inning with only 80 pitches, no reason to get the extra batter out, no reason to keep moving. This is what I hear through-out the year, during...

• Spring Training - "You don't want overwork your pitchers before the games that count"
• April/May - "It is still early in the season, you don't want to overwork players that you will need summer, plus not all your pitchers are in full swing"
• June/July - "Don't let your pitchers pitch too longer, since you will need them in the stretch run"
• August/September - "Don't overwork the pitchers now because you might need them for the playoffs"  

While I do agree that in spring training pitchers should not have to over do it since the games really do not count, the spring training games should be preparing yourself to extended innings for the regular season. I mean if you can not use your pitchers for extended times during each month for the reasons stated above, then when can you? Not everybody makes the playoffs.

My other concern is the uncounted innings that occur on pitching arms today that do not count in the offical stats, do contribute to shorting pitching appearances and causing the less inning/more injuries. It seems that pitchers are pitching more "off the books" with side sessions, simulated games, off season work outs, rehab games and fall/winter leagues it seems that pitchers never seem to have time off to truly rest their arms. I'm sure if you took all the above into account of the total innings pitched, more starting pitchers pitch more than 300 innings a season.

I think the advent of the 5 man pitching rotation has contributed to the the above issues. While the 5 many rotation does allow more time to rest, it give the pitcher more time to throw "undocumented" innings pitched, more time for injury.

Now I don't have 100% proof that what I'm saying in the above two paragraphs is what is really occurring, just my opinion, but if baseball keeps going with starting pitchers pitching as few innings as they do, then we can no longer call them starters, can we? We will need to start calling the starting pitcher the "first 3 inning thrower", followed by the "2 inning middle starter".

Baseball season is here again

Today marked the first spring training game for the Brewers, which means the snow will soon be melting and Spring is right around the corner. It also means it is the start of the long series of posts of Brewers, Timber Rattlers and Rafters baseball along with other thoughts throughout Major, Minor, and Summer League baseball.

It does amazes me that out of the four major sports in the United States (Football, Baseball, Basketball and Hockey) that Baseball has the longest Spring Training/Exhibition season but nobody seems to care or want the baseball pre-season to be reduced.

The concern in the other big three sports is the concern for injury in games that "don't count", but in baseball, the concern is lessened for some reason. You would think that pitchers would be the most concerned with injury. I know the spring training is the time for pitchers to work on their timing, but also they are also only one pitch away from season ending injuries.

Anyway, baseball season is here!

The NBA All Star Game is a Joke

What if you went to a basketball game and nobody played, but you still had to pay for your ticket? That is what you get with the NBA all star game, the NBA is in trouble, Stern just does not see the slump coming. Given how the game is played today, if I had paid as much as I did, I would ask for a refund.

The All Star game has become a joke, it is like walking into Subway, order a foot long roast beef, and only get one inch, but still pay the 12 inch price. The game is just a bunch of players goofing around for 3 1/2 quarters and then turns into a six or seven minute real game. What is the point of the game? Who would want to watch or pay to a game that nobody takes seriously or professionally? If there is no incentive, the players will not take the chance the size of the contracts today.

The All Star game is a hint of another possible issue in the NBA today, the seriousness of how the game is played in the regular season. The regular season games are starting to become only 8-10 minute games. Players are starting to not take the first three quarters seriously because they know if the score reasonably close, either team can win in the end.

This is starting to be recognized by the fans, nobody gets into the game for the first third quarters. For ticket holders, it is more about the other entertainment around the stadium than the game itself. For people watching on TV, you can turn the game on about two and a half hours after the tipoff just in time for the players to kick it up a notch and watch the ending of a close game. To sum it up, the first three quarters do not counter for anything. If you are only getting 1/4 the product you are expecting, then why go? The regular season game is too long today, four 12 minute quarters is too longer along with the TV and normal timeouts.

The college game excels for three reasons. 1) Two 20 minute half's, less is more. There is less time to not have your head in the game. 2) Plays that occur in the beginning of the game can affect the end of the game. You can not skip most of the game in college and expect to understand how the game ended up the way it did. 3) Players care about playing from start to finish. Players know if you do not try in the start of the game, you will not be close in the final 5 minutes of the game.

The NBA game has become too different and confusing from the college game. Too many rules that seem to be changing everyday and they seem to favor the "Chosen" teams. Some the rules that are tainting the watch ability of the NBA game are:

• Mid-Level cap exception, just set a salary cap and the teams can not go over that number
• Defensive Three Seconds
• Backcourt Foul Exceptions
• Clear Path Fouls
• Lack of Traveling enforcement
• Too many timeouts
• No five second guarding rule - This has stopped all kind of passing

In summary, the All Star game is pushing the issues of the league to the front, nobody is taking the NBA game seriously, people rather watch a whole college game rather than a quarter of a NBA game and it will be a matter of time before fans notice and spend their money elsewhere.

We will miss you Charles Woodson

With the release of Charles Woodson, the Packers continue the ending the era of the Super Bowl winners like I mentioned here. While from the business side of the game it made sense given how much he was going to make along with his roster bonus, there is an emotional effect that made people want Woodson to be a Packers forever.

Back in 2006 when we signed Woodson, I thought this was a bad signing. I thought this was another player that did not want to come to Green Bay plus I thought that the best day were behind Woodson. I'm happy that Woodson proved me wrong, I'm happy that he proved he could be the defensive leader that we so needed at the time not only in words (Like so many players), but in his actions.

Age caught up with Woodson, but  he will never be forgotten in the eyes of Green Bay.

Football Over! What to do now?

Now that the NFL season is over, what to do now for sports? Here in Central Wisconsin the Bucks are not that popular nor are we near/affiliated with any professional hockey team. Wisconsin Basketball only plays a couple times a week, so what to do?

Time to ease up on Bo

First things first, big win against Michigan on Saturday. Second thing, will this be the win that will ease up the grumblings against Bo Ryan? I hope so, because for the past two years I have spent the winter trying to defend Bo Ryan from the "Bo Must Go" (a.k.a "BMG") groups. These kind of groups are dangerous since they are the kind of people who like to bail at the first sign something does not go right with their team(s).

I agree that the offense in the past two season has been a little sub-par and can be painful to watch from time to time, but nobody is going to be perfect season to season. Bo is still able to win without jumping on every trend in basketball or recruiting players that do not fit the team culture or playing style. Bo Ryan has proven to be a winner season after season pulling out the big wins.

With this being said, people need to lay off Bo Ryan since he has not got Wisconsin to the Final Four. Getting to the Final Four is a difficult task, only 4 teams out of ~347 schools get there every season, and since we have not reached a Final Four to the same amount of time like Dick Bennett, everybody is in a panic. Bo has led the Badgers to the NCAA tournament every season which in itself is quite an accomplishment.

A national championship may never come again to Wisconsin no matter who the coach is, but it should be noted that John Wooden did not win his first national championship until his 16th season coaching the Bruins.

In this era of the quick championship or your out, it is refreshing to see a program like Wisconsin stick with Ryan because first, he wins more than he loses (which always helps) and second, plays by the rules, which you do not see from many national champions lately. It seems that most programs are investigated for some kind of violation years later. You have not heard about any program related violations with Bo Ryan, and I hope it stays that way.

I really hope, when Bo does leave, it is on his own terms. People now a days live in a "Grass is greener on the other side" culture. We are unable to the accept the fact that we can not win it all every year, somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. Bo has won ~72% of all his games as head coach at Wisconsin and I think there is no other coach that could come in at that level for that many years. Sure Bo has not taken us to a Final Four, but what guarantee would you have that Wisconsin would win with somebody else much less get to a Final Four? We could go back to a long hibernation like from 1947-1993 with no tournament appearances. 

In conclusion, this is no time to even mention anything about a coaching change, especially after Saturday's win, Bo has put us in an era of prolonged period of stabilization with consistent winning and I see no reason that Bo must Go.

Soccer Cheating Scandel

Just a short thought today... Europol recently announced that they were investigating possible match fixing ring. Hearing this story is no surprise to myself. With all the money that is at stake people are looking for a sure thing to ensure they get richer. When you have EPL teams talking about the possible money they would lose from the TV contact rather than the winning aspect we know the priorities are out of line.

Betting seems more prevalent in Europe, it is more accepted. When you mix that with the paid that thing or are underpaid, people will exploit as long as there is a dollar to be made. Baseball when through a similar phase in the early days with the White Sox World Series scandal being the most prevalent of all the game fixing.

I'm sure that this will be the first in a long line of match fixing scandals in soccer that will be exposed in the coming days, months and years. Let just get this hope this goes as quickly as the story came. Fair play is the key to keeping fans coming to the game. Without it, the fans do not show up.

PED's in Baseball will never end

Another day, another PED's scandal, this time in Baseball with reports that Ryan Braun was on a list for the lab Biogenesis along many other MLB players. This story goes to prove that baseball has a long way to go to remove PED's from the game.

The rewards outweigh the risk right now in the MLB. Players that are using get larger contracts, more rewards and more advertisement. If you happen to get caught, you spend 50 games on the bench which is nothing considering how much money players bring in on a good year. The key element of baseball, hitting, is individual element of the game.

No other major professional league in the United States puts an emphasis on sure a single element of the game. In other professional leagues, one player can not dominate with at least some assistance from the surrounding cast or PED's do not give them the advantage they need. In football, there are too many other players on the field, basketball players do not need more muscles to shoot, and hockey players need the ability to skate.

The penalties are too light, they do not deter players, 50 games.... so what? For most players, they come back, face a media onslaught for a little bit and return to their normal life's. There are long term affects for future awards and any Hall of Fame consideration, but when you are making tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, you do not care about the Hall of Fame.

To start making a dent in the issue of PED's, baseball needs to take drastic actions in the penalties. For starters, increase the suspension from baseball to two calendar years starting after all appeals have been exhausted along with a fine of all money the player made for the two years prior to being caught. This should deter players from even thinking about using any PED's or cheating equivalent based the loss of 4 years worth of income.

Do I see this really happening? No, especially with the commissioner today in MLB with the game running him instead of him running the game. He can not stand up to the umpires, what makes you think he will have any power over the players? The game has been cleaned up somewhat better than 10 years ago, but if anybody thinks we were out of the woods, this story proved that we were all sorely mistaken.

Super Bowl Ads Review

Another Super Bowl in the books and another year of Super Bowl commercials. In my opinion, this year marked a steep decline the quality and product marketing. This year proves that the era of the funny entertainment commercials are at an end or should be coming to an end. The purpose of the commercial is to advertise the company or product, Super Bowl ads today do neither. Nothing else today exists where you flush $4 Million in 30 seconds on useless dribble.

It is time to rethink the Super Bowl commercial, what product do you want to feature, how do you want to display your company and why do you want customers to use your company or product instead of the competitor. That is how the money is well spent.

While there was so many commercials to talk about, I would like to focus on three in particular.

1. Dodge Farmer - While some websites have hailed this commercial as one of the better ones this year, I'd disagree. While the production quality was top notch and the idea was a good one, this commercial missing one key element... Product. What product are they featuring? Nothing against farmers, but why should I buy Dodge over Ford or Chevy. 
2. Oreo Whisper Fight - What happens when you put together a commercial that puts me in touch with my inner cognitive dissonance of what can really happen in real life? Money down the drain!
3. Axe Apollo Lifeguard - So let me get this right... Lifeguard beats up a shark and woman goes for person in astronaut without explaining your product.

Now I do understand humor and sarcasm but are these companies getting what they paid for? Are people going out and paying for the products or services they sell? Now is the time for companies to change their marketing tactics and get what they put into their efforts.

My Predictions Wrap-up

Super Bowl XLVII is finally over with the Baltimore Ravens defeating the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 34-31. With that being said another NFL season is in the books. In one of my previous posts, I predicted some things for the game, lets see how I did...

1. Manti Te'o will be seen at the game with his girlfriend Incorrect!
2. Tebow will be mentioned at least once. Incorrect!
3. Phil Simms will say Lawrence Taylor's name at least twice Incorrect!
4. Total number of times the Harbaugh family will be shown by CBS: 8 Incorrect! Only showed them 1 time.
5. A head coach with the last name of Harbaugh will win the Super Bowl Correct!

My serious predictions...

1. Number of commercials during the first quarter including the end of quarter commercial: 5 Correct!
2. Rushing yards by Colin Kaepernick: 80 Incorrect! Only 62 Yards
3. Halftime Score: San Francisco 17; Baltimore 10 Wrong! Baltimore 21; San Francisco 6
4. Missed FG's by Akers: 1 Incorrect! Did not miss a FG (Thanks to some luck)
5. Final Score: San Francisco 31; Baltimore 20 Incorrect! Baltimore 34; San Francisco 31

Some final thoughts on the Super Bowl XLVII:

• I was very shocked to find out that the second quarter interception of Kaepernick was the first pick in any San Francisco Super Bowl appearance
• Bold move by John Harbaugh with the fake Field Goal. He put his trust in the defense and it paid off in the end.
• Flacco looked very good in the first half going 13 for 20 with 3 passing TD's, Flacco was able to throw the ball downfield (With a little bit of luck)
• Based on the halftime show from Beyoncé this year and the way everybody was dressed, I clearly see everybody has gotten over the Janet Jackson fiasco from Super Bowl XXXVIII, not that I minded :) .
• What a kickoff return by Jacoby Jones to start the second half! 
• Power Outage during the biggest game of the year. I'm guessing the conspiracy theorists will say a convenience store group pulled the power so people would go out and buy more snack/beer. 
• Good comeback for the 49ers in the third quarter into the fourth, but it was not enough.

UEFA FFP Rules finally bringing parody?

On Sunday, during the 4th Round of the FA Cup, Liverpool lost 3-2 to Oldham who plays two levels below Liverpool in the Football League system. In conjunction with losses by Premier League sides Norwich City, Tottenham and QPR, all I read in comments how the sky is falling and losing teams are destine to doom, especially with Liverpool.

I have a different take on the reason for the recent losses from Premier League sides to so called "lesser" sides, it could from the UEFA FFP regulations starting to take effect. These rules aim to reduce the heavy losses that some teams take on for short term success at the expense of their long term existence. With these rules, the traditional powerhouse teams are not always able to go out and get the top-notch player they might need, they need to put more of an emphasis on developing players within their own programs

The recent struggles from Arsenal and Liverpool from the top 5 could be attributed to the board paying more attention to their expenses than the short term victory.  In America, most of the major professional sporting leagues (except MLB) has a similar way of keeping expenses in line called the Salary Cap. This prevents teams from buying multiple high priced players and preventing smaller marketing teams from succeeding. Teams are now unable to string together multiple championships with these rules and the same thing appears to be starting in the Premier League.

No more in the future should we see the dominance of the Big Four (or Five) as other teams should get in on the mix. You will see more "Upsets" which are really more than a shift in power that should happen more and more as spending comes back to reality. The only difference between the FFP rules and a salary cap is the total revenue matters with the FFP rules. As long as you can generate the revenue, you can get some of the players you want, you just can't get every player you want.

Do not be surprised in the next couple of years you see new teams crack to the Top 5 and teams that spent their time at the top of the table battling at the bottom of the table. These rules will stop the rampant losses for teams all over Europe and it is time for people around the world to take note that the rich teams getting richer is not the Status Quo  anymore.

Update: FA Cup 4th Round Predictions

As I previously posted here, I made some predictions for the 4th round of the FA cup. Lets see how the predictions turned out.

 

Saturday's Matches
Stoke City		1-3		Manchester City	**Correct (0-1)
Bolton Wanderers		0-2		Everton	**Correct (1-2)
Brighton & Hove Albion		2-4		Arsenal	**Correct (2-3)
Derby County		1-0		Blackburn Rovers	**Incorrect(0-3)
Huddersfield Town		0-2		Leicester City	**Incorrect(1-1)
Hull City		4-1		Barnsley	**Very Incorrect(0-1)
Macclesfield Town		0-2		Wigan Athletic	**Correct(0-1)
Middlesbrough		3-0		Aldershot Town	**Correct(2-1)
Norwich City		1-1		Luton Town	**Incorrect(0-1)
Queens Park Rangers		1-2		Milton Keynes Dons	**Correct(2-4)
Reading		3-1		Sheffield United	**Correct(4-0)
Manchester United		2-0		Fulham	**Correct(4-1)
Sunday's Matches
Brentford		1-1		Chelsea	**Correct(2-2)
Leeds United		0-2		Tottenham Hotspur	**Incorrect(2-1)
Oldham Athletic		0-1		Liverpool	**Incorrect(3-2)

I had 9 correct verses 6 incorrect plus I predicted the MK Dons upset of QPR.