Tag Archive: prince fielder

All-Star Weekend Yippiee!!!!

July 6, 2012 Randy Neil

It’s summer time folks. Officially. There’s something very pleasant about the MLB All-Star Weekend. It usually means I’ve been to the beach several times already and my body is so sun-burnt that wearing T-shirts have become nearly impossible.

There’s just something really awesome about the All-Star week for baseball that blows the other All-Star weekends for sports out of the water. The NBA? Yea, half the athletes don’t want to be there and the dunk contest has a bunch of no-names. The celebrity game usually makes for a good hour of TV, but aside from that, it’s a snore fest. The NHL? To be honest, I don’t even know what happens there. The NFL? They could quite possibly be the worst of them all.

Baseball, however, still has a great amount of integrity and honor in their All-Star festivities. It’s a family-friendly series that still has some implications down the line for the rest of the season and every baseball player wants to be there. Rarely do you see someone dropping out. You want to see it because they want to be there.

The biggest draw for me has always been the Home Run Derby. It’s relaxing, eventful, and I even had a chance to go there but had to pass unfortunately. Here’s the list and who I think is going to win…

Mark Trumbo
Home Runs Jacked: 2
At first I thought this was Mike Trout, the rookie who’s having and incredible season. I don’t doubt Trumbo is good, I just don’t see him going into the second round.
Matt Kemp
Home Runs Jacked: 4
Man, it was hard finding pictures of this guy without Rihanna next to him. He’s coming off an injury so I have to think he’s going to have a hard time finding his groove. Good for him for finding Rihanna’s groove though (HIYOOO!)
Carlos Gonzalez
Home Runs Jacked: 5
Cargo had a hard time making it into the second round last year. Hitting homeruns in Denver and hitting homeruns in Kansas City are two different monsters.
Jose Bautista
Home Runs Jacked: 12
Now onto the big boys. Joey Bats is a home-run monster, but he never does well in the derby either. He didn’t make it to round two last year, but I think he’ll be a bit more comfortable this year.
Robinson Cano
Home Runs Jacked: 15
Last year’s winner always has a great chance. Lefties always do great as well. I dunno, if his dad pitches to him again, he’ll probably have a zillion, I just think his power numbers have been down and I want someone else to win.
Carlos Beltran
Home Runs Jacked: 22
Beltran is having an incredible season this year. He’s a seasoned vet. I think he’s comfortable enough to make it well into round 2 and surprise some people.
Prince Fielder
Home Runs Jacked: 28
Prince loves this kind of stuff. He’ll have his kids with him, some spinach (or some vegetarian power on tap), and he’ll be crushing homers. Again, lefties always do well, and he’s got a good rhythm for this kind of event.
Giancarlos Stanton
Home Runs Jacked: 36
I dunno why, I just have a feeling this kid is on the verge of his prime. He has monster power numbers, a good attitude, and he changed his name this off-season. Formerly Mike Stanton, Giancarlos has been killing it for Miami. Can’t hate on a name like Giancarlos. I hope he has a great derby simply because I want announcers to have to say his name repeatedly.

Happy 4th of July folks!

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A Barrage of Thoughts in Street Fighter Attacks

July 13, 2011 Randy Neil

Well, well, well. Let’s see here. I’ve got a lot of topics to cover and so little time. What that really means is I’ve been watching a lot of TV and have formed opinions about things that I probably have no business discussing. Perhaps I’ll take a page from my colleague and use some rapid fire. COMING ATCHA!!!

BAM! I hate Joe Buck. He’s an absolute moron. Not only do I find him pretentious and arrogant, but he’s also completely biased when it comes to Philly sports, and that, will not stand. Buck was commentating for the All-Star game last night and opened with, “It’s a daunting task for the NL to go against such a line-up like the one of the American League.” The American League had a line-up full of designated hitters, the National League had a line-up of baseball players. Guess who won?

SONIC BOOM! Why do people like Chris Berman? He legitimately thinks he is better than the average man. There’s a smorgasboard of footage involving Chris Berman cursing at cameramen, producers, and boom-mic-holding guys when he’s off the air. The guy’s a dick. Monday night during the Home-Run Derby, Berman gave the introductions for the captains and participants, and practically demanded a handshake from every one of them. It was weird. Then he started schmoozing with Prince Fielder as he was called up. Fielder was booed during the introduction, so Berman leans over and says, “These guys will boo anybody, huh?” I know that doesn’t read bad, but if you caught it, he said it like a dick.

YOGA FLAME! James Harrison is practically digging himself a grave. In a recent interview with some magazine not worth mentioning, Harrison went on a tirade criticizing anyone and everyone in the NFL. First and foremost, his boss, Roger Goodell. Everyone hates Goodell right now, but the public is fickle, and they will embrace him once again when ESPN starts broadcasting stories on how the lock-out ended. Harrison called him the devil and an idiot. Although I often wish I could tell my boss that, I realize that there are consequences (and he already suffered some of those) in the form of fines. I likes my money, dog. Even worse, he talked garbage on his own, 2-time Superbowl-winning quarterback, B. Reezy. Who does he think he is, the Head Rush?? I can’t foresee any positives coming out of this. You are going to burn a bridge with your own QB? The man has gone off the deep end.

KEYIAHH! As I mentioned before, Adam picked the Milwaukee Brewers to take their division and I thought he was absolutely insane. Maybe not insane, but not realistic. Well, as of right now the Brewers are leading their division at the All-Star Break, they have Rickie Weeks, Ryan Braun, and Prince Fielder having All-Star seasons, and they just signed Francisco Rodriguez as their closer. That prediction looks pretty damn good right now. I also want to mention that Adam didn’t have the Phillies going to the playoffs (I deserve my jab after such praise.) Either way, I’m on the Brewers bandwagon to win the Central. My prediction is they’re out in the first round of the playoffs, though. Signing a big name acquisition, having a great home record, and fizzling in the playoffs, I’ve seen this before. 2008 NLDS with C.C. Sabathia anyone?

HYODUKEN! If you haven’t been watching the Women’s World Cup Soccer, you should be. It’s incredibly competitive and full of talent. I watched the entire United States v. Brazil match on Sunday and it was probably one of the top 3 soccer games I’ve ever seen in my life, male or female. Hell, I’m even willing to say it’s in my top 10 sporting events of all time. International competition always makes sporting events more epic, and to watch a match with such controversy resolve the way it did was amazing. As corny as it sounds, I really did feel a great sense of pride when it was all said and done. The crowd in Germany really appreciated the effort our team was putting into the game. It was almost like Rocky IV.

While debating women’s soccer someone posed to me, “If the US Women’s soccer team played NCAA D-I Men’s soccer team, who do you think would win?” Honestly, it would probably be the NCAA team, but I hardly see how that should be relevant to the opinion of another league. That’s like saying, “NCAA basketball players aren’t as good as the NBA ones, so I’ll just watch the NBA.” The point is that within the World Cup, the women are still placed within the same caliber of players and what they do is still pretty remarkable.

I hate dating my posts, but as of right now the US are tied 1-1 with France in the semi-finals of the World Cup. The game has been pretty awesome. It would be nice to see them make an incredible run. Of course, once this is over, I probably won’t watch women’s soccer for another 4 years, but STILL!

Go forth and be merry! The day is yours!

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Rickie Weeks & Yuniesky Betancourt’s Double Play

May 13, 2011 Randy Neil

This is a pretty awesome web gem. Happened a few days ago and I wanted to do some youtube searching to find the vid.

Normally people have to videotape the television instead of directly recording to avoid copyright infringement (which to be honest, I never understood how that worked.) These guys found a much, much, much funnier way of making a copyright violation-free youtube video. Well done gents. Plus it sounds like they’re swearing!!

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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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