Tag Archive: Florida Marlins

The NL East, The Big East, and Dan LeBatard Eats

September 20, 2011 Randy Neil

Welcome back, boys and girls. It’s been a pretty amazing week. The Phillies clinched the NL East with a win over the Cardinals on Saturday. Chase Utley’s barehanded grab to make the last out was symbolic of our entire season. We could do things the more traditional way, but instead, we’ll just make it look easy. Get your cameras ready, we’re making a highlight reel.

College football is changing. Smaller schools and smaller conferences are starting to get bullied around by the bigger fish in the pond. The ACC is starting to make moves that strangely look like they are attempting to destroy the Big East Conference. Teams are leaving, teams are joining other conferences, everyone is playing musical chairs.

If it wasn’t for the disgusting greed behind these actions, I’d actually be in favor of consolidating conferences in some cases. Bigger conferences make for better competition among teams, better games, etc. Sure, it would hurt those smaller schools, but isn’t the illegal recruiting already doing that?

I’m curious as to what college sports will look like in twenty years. I imagine a mere 3 major conferences, all involving 20 or more teams, with players that are getting financially compensated and huge scandals. It’s getting ugly, folks, and I don’t see any signs of it slowing down.

Now, I have to take a brief moment of silence for someone dear in the sports community. The Florida Marlins’ fans. Does anyone down there have time in between gator hunting to check out America’s pastime? Last week, Sun Life Stadium hosted a whopping 347 total spectators for a Marlins’ game. THREE. HUNDRED. FORTY. SEVEN. Man, that’s sad.

Florida is talking about building a new stadium for the Florida Marlins, and honestly, I can’t imagine why. Obviously the days of combining a football and baseball stadium are somewhat faux pas (cough, OAKLAND, cough, SAN DIEGO) but still, if you aren’t drawing crowds in Florida with a good team (see Bay, Tampa) you probably won’t do it with a terrible team. Let us bow our heads….

Ok, now if you haven’t seen, or even heard of, the new Dan Le Batard (pronounced Leh-bi-tard) show on ESPN2, I strongly recommend you watch it. Le Batard has been a regular on PTI and writes for the Miami Herald.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. The guys a douche, right? I used to think so, too, but his fast paced, bold attitude while interviewing athletes is perfect. His co-host happens to be his father, who truly has no business on television, but that’s what makes it funny. His thick Cuban accent makes interviewees very uncomfortable during questioning, and makes me very delighted.

I didn’t get a chance to see the Floyd Mayweather “knockout”, but from what I’ve heard, it was pretty unsatisfying. Look, truth is, he was going to win that fight anyway. I hate the guy, but there’s only one man on the face of the planet who’s better than him. We all know who it is, including Mayweather, which is why we’ll probably never see that fight take place. It’s pathetic, but I guess I wouldn’t have much an issue having people hating me if I was making $50 million dollars. I would just buy some of those people and pay them to like me.

Finally, I KNOW ya’ll saw my man Cam Newton tear it up. I fell into the hype of thinking he wasn’t going to perform as well against the Packers, so I sat him, again. It came back to haunt me once more, as I lost this week.

Week 1 : 422 Yards, 2 TD, 1 Int, 1 Rush TD
Week 2 : 432 Yards, 1 TD, 3 Int

Now those 3 picks look nasty, but in the fantasy world, they cancel out that 1 TD and I’m looking at a QB who threw for 432 yards. In most leagues, that equates to about 35 points. I’d take that anyway, and I should have.

Seeing how many yards Cam threw got me thinking…. Who the heck is this guy throwing to?? Steve Smith caught for a majority of those with 156, but who accounted for those other 276?

Well, Jonathan Stewart caught 8 passes for 100 yards. Jeremy Shockey got 46. Greg Olsen only caught 1 pass for 34. Brandon LaFell grabbed 4 receptions for 49 yards. He’s distributing the ball well.

Another thing that stood out was Carolina’s leading rusher. It’s Cam Newton. So far, he leads a team that boasts a duo of great running backs with 71 yards. Jonathan Stewart and Deangelo Williams have a combined 74 yards in two games. This concerns me.

Ah well, 854 yards in his first two games. Cry me a river, right?

LETS GET TO THEM PICKENS!!

San Francisco (-2.5) over Cincinnati
Playing in Cincinnati, still like the 49ers in this one.

Buffalo (+9) over New England
Division rivals, plus Buffalo has a healthy run game. I expect this to be close enough to take the points.

Houston (+4) over New Orleans
The Texans are on fire. Even with Schaub being mediocre, I think they’ll win in New Orleans.

Eagles (-1) over New York Giants
The Giants barely scraped by the Rams. Philly’s home opener.

Cleveland (-3) over Miami
Meh… why not? Whatever. You got a good idea on this?

Denver (+7) over Tennessee
The Titans upset Baltimore last week, but I think this game’s gonna be close. Tebow is finding his way into the offense and Orton is solid enough to keep it close.

Detroit (-3.5) over Minnesota
I think D-town is gonna stay hot. I think McNabb is gonna stay losing.

Carolina (-3.5) over Jacksonville
Panthers first win of the season. Actually, J-Ville will probably win this one….

San Diego (-15) over Kansas City
Jamaal Charles is out. Matt Cassel looks terrible.

Oakland (+3) over New York Jets
The Jets travel to the Bay Area. I like what I’m seeing from dem Raydahs.

Baltimore (-3.5) over St. Louis
St. Louis is still trying to figure out their offense. Let Baltimore’s D figure it out for them.

Atlanta (+1.5) over Tampa Bay
I don’t understand how this is so close. Falcons upset the Iggles, Tampa Bay hasn’t won a game yet. This is fishy, but I guess I’ll take Atlanta.

Arizona (-3) over Seattle
NFC Division Rivalry! Oh boy!

Green Bay (-3.5) over Chicago
Hopefully Green Bay doesn’t give up 17 points in the first half.

Pittsburgh (-10.5) over Indianapolis
I don’t like the big spread on this, cuz I think ol’ Kerry Collins can keep you in a game, just not win it, but I’m going Pitt.

Dallas (-1.5) over Washington
How is Dallas getting all the night games? I think both of these teams are going to be (2-1) when all is said and done.

*Lines taken from SportsBetting.com

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The Defense Is Killing Me Inside

May 11, 2011 Randy Neil

So the huge pitchers duel from Josh Johnson and Roy Halladay lived up the hype last night (sarcasm.) Yeah, they pitched great, but the Phillies lost, so it’s still a let-down in my eyes. Having Josh Johnson in a fantasy league didn’t help either. You want him to do great, but so great that he still loses. I’m like Tupac with all my inner conflict.

How many innings does Roy Halladay plan on pitching this year?? Seriously. I get that he is a work-horse, the man wants to pitch all the time, but he’s pitched for 61.1 innings so far this year, which leads the league. The next highest is Jered Weaver at 57.7, who is about 5 years younger. It’s awesome that Halladay has the stuff to go 9 innings every start, but it doesn’t mean he should. Not in mid-May.

Charlie needs to start digging into the bullpen and take the reigns a little. Halladay’s emotions were clearly running a little wild when Polanco was too slow throwing out Ramirez in the 8th. Roy looked like he wanted to smash his face in. Just pitch 7-8 innings and save that arm for the fall.

I watched the Grizzlies/OKC game from about 5 minutes of the 4th quarter to the end of the 2nd OT. Yes. That’s right. I stopped watching. Overtime after overtime, it was just getting a little out of control. The identity crisis that Oklahoma City is having right now makes me wonder if they are going to make it past the Mavs IF they make it past the Grizzlies.

Westbrook is taking a lot of heat for not dishing the ball to Durant in this series. They have a lot of weird defensive match-ups with the Grizzlies and it’s hurting the OKC’s offensive scheme, and even causing some drama in the locker room. Westbrook can basically drive at any point he chooses, so I don’t mind that he’s being a little more aggressive. He just needs to understand that the last shot of every quarter shouldn’t be him, and that it shouldn’t be Durant with 2 seconds left with a defender all over him because Westbrook gave a poor pass. It’s a learning experience.

It’s funny how relaxed a lot of these veterans are in the NBA playoffs… as they are losing. Kobe Bryant was ‘convinced’ he could still win the series after being down 3-0 to the Mavericks. And then he lost. The big 3 from Boston are trying to keep the same casual, care-free confidence as they travel to Miami to play the Heat tonight. I wonder what’s going to happen to them…

Once the Conference Finals are set up, I’m sure that we’ll probably have a revamp of our play-off picks. I know I need to. I still think the OKC have a pretty good chance of winning the whole she-bang, but with Miami playing at the level they are, I don’t know who’s gonna stop them. The Bulls and Hawks are taxing themselves in their series, so I pretty much have the Heat winning the East. This sucks of course, because the Miami Heat are everything wrong with the NBA, and they have (in my eyes) the easiest schedule and best chance to win the NBA Finals now.

Step 1 : Abandon teams, assemble new team of stars .
Step 2 : Play entire season casually, as to not strain yourself, draw media attention.
Step 3 : Win NBA Championship.

Perhaps I’m only bringing this up to double-jinx myself on my OKC pick. I mean, to be fair, I haven’t definitively changed my pick yet. There has been no official announcement of my new selection. So… in efforts to be respectable… my pick for the NBA Champion this year is…

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Fantasy Baseball is No Longer a Fantasy

April 20, 2011 Randy Neil

It’s a nightmare. I remember watching the ESPN 30 for 30 about the start of fantasy baseball, and they made it sound so cool and neat. Our league (seen above) is turning out pretty nice actually. Aside from our buddy Sweede dropping Brandon Marrow and Chase Utley instead of putting them on the DL slots given, it’s been a pretty tight race. Everyone has pretty decent squads, including yours truly, who happens to have the 2nd best record after week 1. Big deal right? Right.

Who’s got the best record? Nonchalant Brendan. Of course he does. You know that guy who never puts effort into anything (or at least hides that effort) but still manages to walk away with the victory every time. That’s Brendan. You know that guy who works really hard and over analyzes everything perfectly to get the victory? That’s Adam. You know the guy who has a good idea and put his heart and soul into something and loses? Thaaaaaaat’s me.

What really fucked me this week was Yahoo’s lack of starter notifications. Who’s got time to check their fantasy team everyday?

Not this guy.

So what I do is run through the daily rosters for the week on Monday, and let the lineups adjust themselves for the upcoming days. Normally this is fine, except Yahoo didn’t tell me Josh Johnson and Colby Lewis were starting yesterday. They both sat on my bench… just hanging out.

That’s a quality start, 12 Ks and a 0.00 ERA from Johnson just sitting on the bench doing nothing. Damn you Yahoo!

Watched the Phillies this afternoon and it was nice to see them recover from the 9-0 loss to the Brewers last night. My credit card rewarded me with free tickets again, this time 6 rows behind the home dugout, giving me great seats to the Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder show. David Herndon got destroyed in his relief outing.

His first two pitches went like this : Ball 1, 3 Run Homer.

At least we recovered this afternoon from getting swept. That was nice.

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2011 Baseball Predictions!!!

March 29, 2011 Adam Thomas

Every year at theheadrush.com we get together to harness our psychic ability and forecast the results of the upcoming baseball season. Last year, we all did pretty good. This year, with an extra season of experience under our belt, we stand to do even better (Randy more-so than Adam.)

The picks are separated by division, with number of Wins next to their name.

Randy’s Picks

American League

 

EAST
Boston Red Sox (95)
Tampa Bay Rays (93)
New York Yankees (89)
Toronto Blue Jays (81)
Baltimore Orioles (79)

CENTRAL
Chicago White Sox (92)
Minnesota Twins (90)
Detroit Tigers (82)
Kansas City Royals (73)
Cleveland Indians (64)

WEST
Texas Rangers (88)
Oakland Athletics (85)
L.A. Angels of Anaheim (80)
Seattle Mariners (63)

National League

 

EAST
Philadelphia Phillies (95)
Atlanta Braves (92)
New York Mets (83)
Washington Nationals (79)
Florida Marlins (75)

CENTRAL
St. Louis Cardinals (91)
Cincinnati Reds (86)
Milwaukee Brewers (81)
Chicago Cubs (75)
Houston Astros (74)
Pittsburgh Pirates (59)

WEST
Colorado Rockies (90)
San Francisco Giants (88)
Los Angeles Dodgers (80)
Arizona Diamondbacks (72)
San Diego Padres (68)

Special Notes

This year I think the team’s that are going to hurt the most are the Padres and the Marlins. Padres traded away their best player, and the collapse at the end of the season doesn’t give me much hope for a weak division.

I expect more out of the New York Mets than most are predicting. I don’t expect the Phillies to get 100 wins this year, simply because the Braves are on the rise, and regardless of how bad they may be, every team in the NL East has improved except for Florida.

Adam’s Picks

American League

 

EAST
New York Yankees (94)
Boston Red Sox (90)
Toronto Blue Jays (87)
Tampa Bay Rays (85)
Baltimore Orioles (75)

CENTRAL
Minnesota Twins (92)
Chicago White Sox (89)
Detroit Tigers (80)
Kansas City Royals (68)
Cleveland Indians (65)

WEST
Oakland Athletics (89)
L.A. Angels of Anaheim (88)
Texas Rangers (87)
Seattle Mariners (64)

National League

 

EAST
Atlanta Braves (94)
Philadelphia Phillies (90)
Washington Nationals (79)
Florida Marlins (78)
New York Mets (67)

CENTRAL
Milwaukee Brewers (92)
Cincinnati Reds (89)
St. Louis Cardinals (83)
Pittsburgh Pirates (77)
Chicago Cubs (75)
Houston Astros (74)

WEST
San Francisco Giants (91)
Colorado Rockies (90)
San Diego Padres (83)
Arizona Diamondbacks (74))
Los Angeles Dodgers (73)

Special Notes

It’s going to be a tough year for Phillies fans.  Look at my picks, and you will see that I don’t even have them making the playoffs.  Crazy.  But it could happen.  Look, I think this is going to be the Braves year.  They have a lot of young talent, a lot of depth, and they added some bats.

I could be way off here, but I’m not afraid to go out on a limb and say that the Phils have flown too close to the sun on wings of Pastrami (yeah, that’s what they did…)

You look at that line-up, and the one thing that pops out is that it is old as hell.  Ibanzez (old) Jimmy (old) Victorino (pudgy) Chase (old and hurt) Polanco (old).

Besides Howard, who I expect to have a monster year, there isn’t much to look forward to on the offensive end.  Yeah the pitching will be great (at least, I hope as Cole and Oswalt have looked turrible this spring), but I just see this as the year other teams start to catch up to the Phillies. Sigh.

Playoffs:

AL: Yankees, Twins, A’s with the wildcard being the Red Sox

NL: Braves, Brewers, Giants with the wildcard being the Rockies

World Series: Red Sox over the Braves

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