An A-Bomb That Shakes The Record Books

On August 4th, 2010, Alex ‘A-Bomb from A-Rod’ Rodriguez hit his 600th home run in his MLB career and became the youngest member of the seven players in the 600 club. After hitting 599 on July 22nd, A-Rod slumped (in terms of home-run progression and average) for 12 games. Number 600 developed into a grand distraction; Michael Kay had to “layer” every A-Rod at bat as if it was going to be number 600, the umpire would deliver the specially marked baseballs to the pitcher and of the most inconvenient occurrence—the Yankees went 6-6 during A-slump.

The Yankees are tied for the best record in Major League Baseball with 67-40; unfortunately they are tied with their divisional rivals the Red Sox—excuse me, I meant to say the Rays. A-rod’s drought was not the sole reason why the Yankees lost, but if the clean-up hitter goes on a 2-24 drought—not even Gatorade can quench that thirst. To get some breathing room, the A-599 had to tell the media to “get comfortable” because he was not going to be A-600 for a while. What do you know—the next game, he hits his 600.

Now all the Yankee business aside, the big news lies under Barry Bonds’ comment, "Congratulations Alex on hitting your 600th home run today, welcome to the club. Stay healthy and focused, you only have 163 to go. I'll be watching and rooting for you along the way. Good Luck."

Barry Bonds is rooting for A-600 to become A-763? Do I believe it? No, not really—it’s just good P.R., and hey… can you blame him? Being the home run king with a tainted mark of HGH on your bat kind of hinders any public relations*.

But beyond that; we have arguably the real home run king (Hank Aaron) saying the following; "When you reach that plateau, no matter where it is, whether you're playing in the majors or the minors, it's a tremendous accomplishment. It means an awful lot to whoever reaches this achievement. ... It really doesn't matter what kind of asterisk you put by it -- 600 homers is something special."

And it is special. Extremely special. So special that the debate goes to an even more special platform—will A-600 get to A-763 and become the home run king?

Tim Kurkjian, on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight mentioned that there is no doubt A-600 will evolve into A-700, and at one point, Kurkjian even thought he’d become A-800, but not even Kurkjian knows if he’ll surpass Barry Bonds* (only to become Alex Rodriguez*).

Well let’s see what we got in his numbers. By not counting 1994, (A-Rod’s 17 game, zero homer season), he has averaged 37.5 home runs per season. Or we could even take it a step further and not count his 1995 season where he hit 5 home runs in 48 games—then his average would bump up to 39.7. A flawed way to calculate how many seasons it would take A-Rod to get pass Bonds would be to divide 163 (home runs left to be the leader) by 39.7 (average per season), which would be about 4.1 seasons. Since he is 35 years old, I think it’s safe to say that he has about another 5 or 6 years left in him.

But that method of calculating how long it would take him is flawed because he is not as dominant as he used to be; the last two seasons—he hit 35 and 30 home runs. This season, he is on pace to hit less than 30 home runs (which he hasn’t done since 1997 in the Mariners!). The exhausting search of HGH in America’s past time might or might not have affected A-Rod’s performance drastically, but if it hasn’t—then the umpires have to stop putting some kryptonite on the balls. During the 3 seasons he claimed he used the enhancements, he hit 52, 57 and 47 home runs—that’s his highest 3-year average in his career. And after the steroid drama, he is approaching his lowest 3-year average (again, this is without counting his first two seasons where he played less than 50 games).

A-600 will probably average about 30 home runs for the rest of his career (give or take 5 homers each season), and if that’s the case, it’ll average him 5.4 seasons to beat the record. So there are plenty of A-Bombs ahead of us, but how long will he be the king before Pujols comes around?

Pujols is up to 393, and he only 30 years-old. And unlike A-Rod, Pujols has consistently been hitting homers since he was 21when he hit 37 homers in his rookie season. Give Pujols eleven years, and I guarantee he will reach the 800 mark (if he doesn’t get severely injured like Griffey).

Once that happens, the home run kings will be the following:
(1) Albert Pujols
(2) Alex Rodriguez*
(3) Barry Bonds*
(4) Hank Aaron

Chris Paul to NY, Dallas, Portland or Orlando?

ESPN analyst Chris Broussard reports from his sources that Chris Paul has a “50/50” shot of leaving New Orleans to either of the above mentioned teams. Paul is looking to enter a team that has potential to win a Championship and can be a contending team—whether it is for the future decade or for next year is unknown, but winning is the goal. Surprise surprise.

Paul cannot leave his current team the Hornets without their permission and decision—but because of the poor economic state of the team, they simply might not be able to afford to keep him. Paul was injured last season and since his All-Star value is immense, the tension arises as to how the Hornets could pin the hornet on the Paul. Plus, the rising star in Darren Collison fulfills a potential point guard role for the future of the organization. You might remember Collison last year when Paul was injured; Collision threw some serious numbers on the box score with a bunch of 20-point games and a few 30 point games. The 23 year-old also dished out multiple 14+ assists games—even one 20 assist game!

But I digress; so let’s go back to Paul, where will he go? Of course I’d hope that such a prized player lands in Madison Square for a New York future in Stoudemire and Paul. If Paul were to come to New York, New York’s economy might also increase by a billion dollars like it did in Miami after the free agent signing. The Knicks can actually compete in the league and make a dent in the playoffs, rather than eating popcorn during the first round.

Or will he go to Dallas with Nowitzki and learn tips from the Kidd. The Mavericks are unbelievably strong in terms of the players on paper and this could be Paul’s home. Besides, he would reunite with Tyson Chandler!

Or will he go to Portland? Much youth and potential in Roy, Oden, Fernandez, Aldridge, Bayless, Cunningham, Babbitt, Johnson, Mills—seems like everyone was born after 84’! There are good amounts of talented youth and they are a team that does damage—at least they have shown capabilities!

Or will he go to Orlando, the serious contenders in the East? With Jameer Nelson being a bit outsized and injure prone, this could be the right piece of the puzzle for Orlando to finally win a title. Imagine alley-oops from Paul to Howard over and over and over again. If Paul can turn Chandler into one of the most frequent dunkers in the league (during the season they had together), then what would Paul do with a player with the most amount of dunks in the league year after year?

Where is he going to go? I have no idea and I don’t have the sources that could tell me where he will go but what I do know is this—Paul in any team other than the Hornets instantly pushes team xyz to the playoffs and probably into the top 5 seeds (of course I mean in terms of the teams listed above). Either way, no matter where he goes—he will become a magnet for Carmelo Anthony’s “decision” next year. And that’s the draw owners might be thinking about.

Rocky Road To Cy Young?

Ubaldo Jimenez (15-1), the 26 year-old phenom had an ERA of 0.78 after 11 starts this season. Since then, his ERA has evolved to 2.38, which is not horrible but not nearly as impressive as the previous mentioned statistic.

The Rockies ace has been the most dominant starter in baseball after the first 14 starts this season. Since then, the Colorado pitcher has had a bunch of rocky outings.

He gave up 8 earned runs his first 11 starts and then a total of 27 earned runs his last 8 starts. Jimenez was such a overriding pitcher earlier this season that he overshadowed his no-hitter with his overall ERA and record. And although his record is tainted by only one blemish on May 9th against the Dodgers, where he lost even though he only gave up one run in seven innings, Jimenez is not as feared a figure—at least not compared to the other lights-out pitchers in the league.

Jimenez has had four outings where he has given up 4 or more earned runs, and in those four outings, he is 1-0. He gave six runs in one game and seven in another, yet his outcome was neutralized and unmarked on his record. This isn’t to say that Jimenez is not a great pitcher but what this does say is that records are deceiving. For example; at this point, the strongest pitcher in the league is arguably Josh Johnson. With a 1.62 ERA and 130 strikeouts to 28 walks, he shows command and supremacy—but his record is 10-3. Again, don’t get me wrong—it’s a great record but not nearly as exciting as 15-1. Yet Johnson’s loss was the only game he gave up 4 earned runs (which occurred in the first game of the season against the Mets). Since then his two losses happened once in Florida on May 29th, where he gave up one run (unearned) in seven innings. And the other lost happened on June 26 at the Marlins residence—this time he pitched eight innings and gave up two runs (both earned). In total, Johnson has given up 12 less earned runs than Jimenez and 12 more strikeouts than Jimenez.

But who is a better pitcher this year? Jimenez (15-1) or Johnson (10-3)?

When it comes down to who I would give the Cy Young to, it would be Johnson—unless Jimenez turns it around and revives the residue of starts he had earlier this year. I would think Johnson is in the lead of this candidacy. Sure, he doesn’t have the most innings pitched (he’s 15th in the MLB) and of course he doesn’t have the most about of K’s (7th in the MLB), but he does have the 5th best K/BB ratio (4.64—Cliff Lee leads the major leagues with a 13.86 K/BB ratio, which is twice better than the second leader Roy Halladay!) and Johnson has given up the fewest runs, Johnson has the lowest ERA, Johnson has the second best WHIP, Johnson has one of the best K/9 ratios and Johnson has one of the best H/9 ratios.

What does Jimenez have? A no-hitter, the best H/9 ratio, major league-leading 15 wins, one of the top ground-out inducer (no one tops Tim Hudson), 2 shutouts, and an unbelievable ability to not lose regardless of how many runs he gives up. Records speak volumes but Johnson is the mute button. Regardless of the phenomenal year Jimenez is having, I don’t know if he will win the Cy Young or at least deserve to win the Cy Young. The year of the pitchers has created the most competitive pitching duels in recent decades.

In all honesty, I’m not even sure if either of these two pitchers will win the Cy Young over Wainwright—who is 14-5 with a 2.02 ERA and has pitched in the third most amount of innings than any pitcher in the major league this year. With such outstanding competitive action among the pitchers, this year’s Cy Young candidate will be a great toss up (at least we can count out Lincecum this year--or can we?).

Hey, maybe ESPN will do another special on “The Decision” and explain how the MLB picked the Cy Young?

Steinbrenner

At the age of 80, George Steinbrenner passed away today in Tampa, Florida. Of course, we all know Steinbrenner as the the die-hard Yankee fan and owner who would stop at nothing on his pursuit to win a championship.

The Yankees have won 11 pennants and 7 World Series during Steinbrenner's reign, which began in 1973. He was known as "The Boss" in the sports world because of his great deal of interactions with the clubhouse activities.

He has hired, fired, rehired, refired managers and has traded and signed big named players. Yankee fans could always trust him because he was just as much of a fan of the team than any other New Yorker. Of course, sometimes his fan-impulse mind would deter good decision making. The controversy with Dave Winfield (the person The Boss made the richest player in the Major Leagues), when he said, "Where is Reggie Jackson? We need a Mr. October or a Mr. September. Winfield is Mr. May. My big guys are not coming through. The guys who are supposed to carry the team are not carrying the team. They aren't producing. If I don't get big performances out of Winfield, Griffey and Baylor, we can't win." (Which is one of the reasons why Griffey never wanted to play for the Yankees).

Steinbrenner never took a back-seat, it was painful for the Managers but necessary for the fans. Except, Steinbrenner did take it too far at one point in his career and paid an individual named Howie Spira to find "dirt" on Winfield after Steinbrenner was sued by Winfield for not paying $300,000 of Winfield's contract.

Of course, The Boss returned to his owner position and continued his reign in 1993, except there was no more dictatorship. Steinbrenner played less of a role in baseball operations and did not dig up anymore "dirt" on other players. Steinbrenner let the farm system grow and groom players instead of trading prospects to win every year--which in turn developed Bernie Williams to become the promising center-fielder of the New York Yankees.

The team was flying high and although there was a drought of Championships for New York--he still is acknowledges as one of the most influential owners in sports history. Steinbrenner stepped down in 2006 and let his sons take over the team; again, proved to be helpful as the Yankees won in 2009.

The New York Yankees; one of the most successful franchises in sports history won 7 times under this owner. No matter what kind of owner Steinbrenner was, he is still a fan favorite in New York.

He becamse such a figure in New York that even the show Seinfeld had a Steinbrenner's character as a humorous figure. He was George's boss and although you never see his face, his mannerisms were mimicked and adored by all Seinfeld-viewers (COSTANZA'S IN THE BUILDING!).

So to the most powerful and passionate owner in the world; we recognize you today--the day of the 2010 All-Star game, and the day George Steinbrenner leaves his legacy: thank you for all you have done for NYC.

The Big Three

So it's done. The years of hype as to where LeBron is going--is done. During his 1 hour ESPN special, LeBron transformed Cavalier fans to barbarians, Knicks fans to LeBron haters, Bulls fans to either (a) disappointed or (b) happy that no one could try to overshadow Jordan, and the "self-proclaimed King"--as the Cav's owner Dan Gilbert would say, brought even more fire to the Heat.

James, Wade and Bosh are the new big three--completely trumping the tri-force of Allen, Pierce and Garnett. The Boston Three-party consist of a 35, 34 and 33 year-old. The hottest three of the Heat consist of three players in their mid-20's--at the peak of their career.

Suddenly, fans and sports-analysts have converted into believing that the Heat are now the team to beat in the East. Is it fair to the Celtics to count them out all of a sudden? If I felt strongly enough about the Celtics, I'd debate--but I truly dislike the Celtics so I won't really talk about that. Although I will say that the Celtics won games because everyone scored--I don't know if the fourth player in the Heat will average a double unless it's rebounds.

What I really want to talk about is how James' move affected his place in basketball history. Let's be blunt here; there was a bunch of analysts riding on the James ban-wagon claiming that he would be one of the best players to every play the game. I'm a part of that, I thought that if he continued to grow and mature as a player--he would be an unstoppable force. He still might be but it's no longer a true testament of challenge to him. He has now entered the realm of being a player who can win a championship (but not with his team). When marquis players move, it's interesting to see the dynamic of the players performance afterward. James is now a part of Wade's team. The king left his throne, he's now a court gesture.

Many people I have been talking to say that he took the "easy" way out. Well, I'd like to say no--he took the easiest way out. LeBron could have gone to Chicago and it would have been a great fit playing with Boozer (needed big man) and Rose (the Rondo-compliment to a star) and that would've been a very fun team to watch. Or he could have gone to the Knicks and played with Amare under the spotlight of MSG. Or he could have taken all the money he wanted in Cleveland and asked the owner to find another guy he wanted--he was the king of the city. But no, he decided to join two superstars in order to create a dynasty. He took a pay-cut and humbly became a South Beach player.

I am frustrated. As you can tell--all of this venting leads to no true point, it's a bunch of jub-jub (as Joe Buck would say). LeBron could never be the best player in the league, nor can he ever be considered as such a dominant force. Once a player leaves his legacy in a state after 7 years, there is a cloud above how dominant he was--and when that player leaves by taking a pay check for a team that signs two other stars, it shows that the player could not do it "on his own." Of course that figure of speech is ridiculous because no player could win a Championship on his own; you need an entire roster. But no matter how amazing Pippen was or how crazy Rodman was or how sharp Kere was--it was always Jordan's team and it was always Jordan being Jordan (a.k.a. winning another title). Jordan was a winner. James potential to win might have increased but he can never be a winner.

Of course James is nothing like Jordan and should/can never be compared to Michael, but things could have been different. James could have actually been a winner. But he's not.

Strasburg + All Star game = Helpful to NL?

Yesterday, I was sitting and watching some Around the Horn and they had a tab of conversation/debate on Strasburg being selected into the All-Star game. Should he be selected to pitch for the NL in the All-Star game? 3 of the remaining debaters said "yes" he should pitch an inning or two for the fans and because he will strengthen the NL pitching squad.

Now I'm an avid fan of Strasburg (aren't we all), and I even have him on my Fantasy team. But there were 15 pitchers in last year's NL All-Star team and I'd like to believe there there are 15 pitchers that deserve to pitch in that game before Strasburg. Not to take anything away from the young phenom but he simply has not pitched enough innings to qualify for such an honor, and overall pitching this year has stumped the past years of pitches. Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com wrote an article showing how the ERA of this year's pitching was as low as 1992--pitchers are dominating the field once again (there is a plausible correlation to the steroid era). http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100620&content_id=11417974&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb.

Before Strasburg is even mentioned as an All-Star nominee, I'd think you have to put the following in;

(1) Ubaldo Jiminez (obviously--the Cy Young candidate, the best pitcher in baseball right now)
(2) Josh Johnson (ERA is 1.80; no further explanation is needed)
(3) Adam Wainwright (Second most amount of innings pitched, more than 100 K's, and tied for second place with amount of wins, 10-4 record, oh and he has an ERA of 2.23)
(4) Roy Halladay (Most innings pitched, as always. And don't let his record of 8-6 fool you, he still has an ERA of 2.43 and is still the most dominant pitcher in the past half-dozen years)
(5) Matt Cain (Might not have as many strike outs as the other top-guns, but he certainly gets the job done with an ERA of 2.16 after more than a hundred innings of work)
(6) Tim Lincecum (Back to back Cy Young winner who maintains dominance with his "freak"-style of pitching. With him and Cain, I still wonder how the Giants are a game and a half behind the Padres for 1st in the NL West)
(7) Chris Carpenter (8-1 record with a 2.83 ERA and 88 K's in over 100 innings of pitching)
(8) Yovani Gallardo (6-3 record might not be as eye catching than 8-1, but he has a 2.59 ERA and has struck out more than a 100 batters, only Lincecum, Haren and Weaver have more strike-outs)
(9) Mike Pelfrey (9-2 record and a save for good luck. He has been mentioned in NY sports radio as the Ace of the team over Santana. He has a 2.69 ERA and has been one of the main factors as to why the Mets are one of the hottest teams the past month. Excluding his last start--he went 5 wins in 6 starts and brought his ERA from 3.14 to 2.39)
(10) Jaime Garcia (The unsung hero of the Cardinals, the 3rd pitcher in their rotation after Wainwright and Carpenter--has an ERA of 1.79! The only reason I dropped him down to number 10 is because he pitches five or six innings and goes seven once in a while. He doesn't go too deep into games and doesn't strike out many, but he never gets bombed. He gave up 3 earned runs in one game this season, that has been the most earned runs he's given up this year. He has a 7-3 record and a 2-1 strikeout to walk ratio.)
(11) Evan Meek (He is a relief pitcher for the Pirates and he has pitched 40 innings with an ERA of 0.68 and a WHIP of 0.83; when your ERA is lower than your WHIP, it means you are loading the bases every time you get up to pitch or that you know how to close out innings without handing runs--it's definitely the latter for this guy. For such an atrocious baseball team, Evan has maintained and excelled in his job of relief pitching and I think he deserves to be recognized for that!)
(12) Brian Wilson (The Closer for Giants has 20 saves with an ERA of 2.05, and 42 K's in 30 innings--he is definitely one of--if not the top closer in the NL)
(13) Billy Wagner (5-0 with 14 saves and an ERA of 1.23; he is dominant. Wagner is pitching better for the Braves than he ever pitched for the Mets, and this is definitely an All-Star year for him)
(14) Jonathan Broxton (3-0 with 16 saves and 0.92 ERA; Broxton is a beast and I'd say the the most intimidating closer in the NL today)
(15) Carlos Marmol (2-1 with 13 saves and a 1.71 ERA; but what really sticks out for me is that he has 58 strikeouts in 31.2 innings of work--he almost averages 2 K's an inning! I don't care what you think, that's a closers real job--I want my closer to come in and destroy the hope of the other team. I want my opponents--especially the Red Sox, to feel like they lost the game because my closer stepped on the mound. And of course as a Yankee fan, we have that affect already in Rivera. But Marmol has been the best strikeout closer this year. I'd take him in my 15 pitchers)

All of these pitchers should be selected before Strasburg and I would also probably pick another 3 or 4 pitchers before I even entertain the idea of having Strasburg on my All-Star game pitching roster. There are simply, way too many good pitchers this year. Pitching has been amazing this year and practically everyone on this pitching roster has an ERA less than 3! I couldn't even pick the closer with the most amount of saves for the team (Matt Capps) because he has an ERA above 3.

Sure, Strasburg has an ERA of 1.86 and a 2-0 record with 32 K's; but he has only pitched an out over 19 innings of Major League Baseball in his life. He has great control, giving only 5 walks and yes he has been fanning practically every batter he faced. But he is a rookie and has not had enough outings to show his dominance over a vast stretch. There have been countless pitchers that have started off a un-hittable and than batters have caught on to their styles--it happens all the time. And I'm not saying that he's not the real dea; I'm not saying that he will not continue being amazing. All I'm saying is that he is not an All-Star pitcher yet. At least not before the 15 named pitchers and probably another 3 before we can even think of him being on the roster.

Strasburg is 21 years old and people are already saying that he will be in the hall of fame--he probably will be if he lives up to even half the hype people have set on him; but let the kid grow. Let him pitch an entire year before you declare him one of the youngest players to pitch in the All-Star game (after Dwight Gooden who pitched in the big game when he was 19!). Let the kid grow--funny thing is I'm calling him a kid when I'm his age. He will be an All-Star pitcher and heck, he might even start the All-Star game in his life; but let's not prematurely put him on a pedestal that people have already built for him.

Let someone else pitch in this year's All-Star game; don't waste a spot on a kid who has 3 stars under his belt. Strasburg + All Star game = I hope you mean him watching from the bleachers.

Pirates Without Treasure

The Pirates have the least amount of hits in the MLB, the least amount of Runs and RBI's in the MLB, the lowest batting average in the MLB, the second worst ERA in the MLB, the second most amount of losses in the MLB, and the third worst defense in the MLB. The record of the Pittsburgh Pirates is 23-42 and they have lost their last 10 straight games. The team website says "Pride. Passion. Pittsburgh Pirates," but I don't know how proud any person can be of the Pittsburgh baseball team.

Last night, the Pirates made a striking 6 errors in a single game. SIX ERRORS. The record for a game is 12, which both the White Sox and the Tigers are infamous for--which happened in 1901 and 1903. It is uncommon to have a professional Major League Baseball team to have such a great amount of mistakes in a series--let alone a single game.

The team is poor, unmotivated and despicable. None of their starts have a winning record, only one hitter is hitting above a .273, and they have given up 60 stolen bases (only the Red Sox and Giants have given up more stolen bases--difference being that the other two clubs still win).

The Pirates are far from being the worst team to ever play the game (the 1899 Cleveland Spiders were 20-134, a total of 84 games behind first place); but in this past decade, the worst team was 2003 Tigers that completed the season with a record of 43-119. The Pirates would have to go 20-77 to perform as poorly as the Tigers. Such a dismal record his difficult to achieve, and I don't believe the Pirates will lose another 77 games--but I almost have to believe they can with their performance in this stretch.

The disappointing part for the Pirates is that they have nothing to look forward too; they are pushing for Andrew McCutchen to play in the All-Star game, and that might happen. He's batting above .300, and is 3rd in the NL for hits and 8th in the NL for runs, and second in the NL for steals. He'll probably make the All-Star game but he'll probably also get traded by the end of next season.

Being a Pirates fan must be difficult; it's like being a Knicks fan, except there will never be the hype of gaining a LeBron figure or somewhat equivalent for baseball--the Pirates are just not competitive. So to all the Pirates fans out there; I'm sorry, but this is one Pirate ship that doesn't even go looking for treasure.

Ken Griffey Jr.

My favorite player in the history of the Major League Baseball retired and I have yet to talk about it in my blog--I'm sorry Grif'.

George Kenneth Griffey Jr. has the most beautiful stroke in the game--and it is a rarity to find anyone that would combat that claim. Griffey has hit 630 homeruns in his career, had a lifetime batting average of .284, 2,781 career hits, and 1,836 Runs Batted In.

Griffey made the All-Star team 13 times, including the entir 90's decade. He has won 10 Gold Glove Awards, again throughout the entire 90's decade. He won the Silver Slugger Award 7 times. He was the 1997 AL MVP. He was also the 1992 MLB All-Star Game MVP.

Unfortunately Ken went through a barrage of injuries during the new century after he asked to move to Cincinnati (to remain closer to his relatives). However, although he was injured and his career took a major drop-off, he revived himself enough to receive the 2005 NL Comeback Player of the Year Award. This award explains the real Ken Griffey Jr. to me. Griffey was a fighter--and although that might sound cliche, it's realistic for him. Griffey became a injury prone because of the effort he displayed on the field. After much energy exhausted and many robbing homerun moments, he inevitably harmed his body to a point where he ruptured his right hamstring. He was never truly able to recover from his injuries but he still showed his trademark step after hitting a bunch of other homeruns (accumulated over the second decade of his career). His 3-time winning Home Run Derby bat speed, simply was not there.

If Griffey did not get injured, he undoubtedly would have been the home run king (without any asterisks by his name). When he was asked about his career, Griffey mentioned his pride of playing well defensively. He said that he would rather make a great play in the outfield than hit a homerun--as far-fetched as that sounds, Griffey truly meant it. His glove-work was his trademark and his homerun strut was just a bonus for the fans.

Griffey played for three teams in his life; the Mariners, the Reds and the White Sox. He started as a Mariner and retired as a Mariner. And although he was not as dominant in the second decade of his career, his image will never be forgotten as a young kid slapping 56 homers in back to back season with a 147 and a 146 RBI's in 97' and 98'. In a span of 5 years, he hit 249 homeruns. He almost average 50 homeruns in a five-year span! He was the epitome of consistency and honor.

His contribution to the game never went acknowledge as he was recognized as a member of the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Above his impact on the game, Griffey did a lot for children and the League with his presence and motivations. Nintendo abused his Griffey's name for baseball games as 4 games came out for Super Nintendo and the Backyard Baseball series began. Griffey performed in a Rap song titled "The Way I Swing." He participated in countless commercials with Pizza hut and Pepsi. I remember watching the commercial where he hit a foul ball to the dug-out because Sammy Sosa touched his drink.

By all of his greatness, he made an impact on the league in one aspect that no one has ever made. Ken Griffey Jr. was the first player to ask Bud Selig if he can wear the number 42 on Jackie Robinson Day. Selig approved and asked all the players to promote Jackie Robinson Day by wearing the number 42. Griffey was the player who pushed for this occurrence. He was a star and a hero.

The greatest low point of his career was not his injuries; but I'd say it was his retirement. His retirement was in the shadow of the 28-out perfect game. He was not as acknowledged and spoke of in the media, and he left without a proper goodbye.

The greatest baseball player of the 90's and the most popular baseball player in our generation should have had a more fanciful ending. Regardless of his closure; it must be said, Ken Griffey Junior is one of the best players to ever play the game--and I would go as far to say he is the best player to the center-field as long as you attach the preface that he played in the Steroid and HGH era--and he played it clean. Thank you Griffey.

Venting

Other than the Celtics being possessed last night, there were several key factors contributing to their dramatic win against the Lakers.

I have a bunch of pent up things to say so bare with me:

(1) It seems like the first quarter always starts off with 6 straight Celtics points in every game and this game started off the same way--once again, Garnett hits a field goal to start off the game. Can the Lakers start off a bit better next game?

(2) Garnett is playing like the vintage Garnett, and that's almost impossible to stop regardless of what jersey he has on.

(3) Grand theft Rondo is amazing. I have tried to repel the Rondo craze and overlook his intangibles but there is no way I could do this any further. Rondo is one of the most phenomenal point guards to watch--the kid can't shoot nearly as well as the other 29 starting point guards, but he is still uncontainable. I am thoroughly convinced that he is the best when it comes to finishing a lay up, regardless of where he is around the hoop. He shows a Usain Bolt quickness when he's on a breakaway. I don't even think his dribbling skills is at his peak but his speed outweighs any of those flaws. He will fight for every possession--just like how he got a tip in over the Lakers Forwards last night (he jumped over everyone to tip a put-back when he was about seven feet away!). Rondo is unselfish and patient--sometimes erratic but mostly patient. He is tough. Rondo pushed Artest after Garnett was unnecessarily pulled to the ground and Rondo went to defend the Big Ticket. When it comes down to it, he's the MVP of the team.

(4) Pierce was unable to miss. It seemed that everyone who guarded him put up a great defensive stretch--he just made his shots. I don't know if Pierce could do that in the Staples Center, but if he is able to--Artest better start playing a bit dirtier.

(5) The Lakers looked scared. They were not composed. There were points where I was even laughing at the ball-handling of some of the players. As John Candy once said in Cool Runnings, "You better stay loose out there!"

(6) Perkins brought up the ball and was called for a charge!

(7) Jackson was still composed throughout the entire game--he even taunted the Celtics in his huddles, explaining how they know how to give games away.

Galarraga's Perfect Game*

On June 2nd 2010, Armando Galarraga pitched 8.2 innings of perfect baseball only to give a "hit" to second to last batter he faced. On the box score, it seems unlucky for a pitcher to go the distance only to allow one hit at the last out--but by watching the game, there is no doubt that Galarraga is the 21st perfect game pitcher.

Umpire Jim Joyce called ninth-spot batter Jason Donald safe on a soft grounder to first--which forced Galarraga to cover first base. Galarraga did in fact cover first base and beat Donald out at first by a step to secure his spot in baseball history. Unfortunately, his spot in baseball legacy was stolen by the 1st Base Umpire Joyce.

Joyce called Donald safe; and umpires make mistakes, but to have a missed call on the last out of the game where a pitcher is supposed to have a perfect game is an error that simply cannot happen.

Joyce has been the umpire for more than twenty years and has been the umpire for All-Star games and even World Series. Less than an hour after the game, I looked up his name on Wikipedia and saw a subtopic of "Controversial Call," describing the occurrences that took place today.

He might have been one of the league's finest umpires, but this call will not only tarnish his reputation but hopefully will restrict him from umpiring and major baseball events such as the playoffs. Firing such a known umpire is implausible, but a perfect game is a greater rarity.

After the game, Joyce admitted that he blew the call--claiming that he believed he saw the play correctly. He also acknowledged how it was the biggest call of his life--but it was also the biggest call of Galarraga's life.

The umpiring this season has been sub-par at the very least. Between the balk-arama with Ozzie and Mark, the first balk-off walk-off since 1989, and let's not forget Madden's blow up over the Phantom call. The umpires have been well below flawless and well above tempered this season. Ejections have been delivered more this season than UPS packages, and what is the Major League to do?

Major League Baseball has told the Blue's all over the league to quicken the pace of the game but not to practice their omniscience.

But I digress; back to Galarraga, he pitched 9.0 innings, 0 walks, 3 K's, and gave up 0 hits***. Great job Galarraga and although the MLB does not practice reversing calls; I hope they make an exception. Congratulations. You pitched a Perfect Game.

The Magic versus the Celtics

So it has been a while since I wrote another article here--I'm sorry for that. End of the semester was hectic and all, but I'm trying to get back into it! The perk of not writing any articles for a little while is that there are many things to be spoken about!

I could focus on Dallas Braden's no-hitter a week and a half ago or I could talk about how Javier Vasquez might be moved to the Yankee bullpen or I could talk about how my NBA predictions busted horrendously (to my defense; Nuggets' George Karl was diagnosed with Cancer--so he stopped coaching, LeBron clearly did not put everything he had into the series--probably because he will get a blockbuster 6-year contract this off-season, the Bobcats did not scratch the Magic and that's probably because Stephen Jackson would be taken out of the game prematurely--but who am I to defend my predictions, they were wrong). What I will focus on today is the Magic and Celtic series at hand.

I would describe the teams as a half-court set offensive pair of a squads. Each team has a solid go-to big men and a sufficient supplementary shooters on the perimeter. The Magic are well known for their long-range snipers, but 22.7% will not cut it--as evidenced by Game 1.

The home-court advantage Magic lost 92-88. Unfortunate for Orlando--yes, is the series over, most definitely not.

The 30 point fourth quarter for the Magic (compared to the 18 point Celtic fourth quarter) was a great indicator of the Magic's true ability to score in spurts. The Magic gradually became comfortable with the ball--they started off scoring 14 in the first, 18 in the second, 26 in the third and 30 in the fourth. They progressively recovered their game, but by the end--they just were not able to restrict the Celtics from the clutch shots that Pierce made.

Although the Celtics won the first game, I cannot see the Magic losing in less than 7 games. Especially after seeing how the Magic improved within Game 1. Stan Van Gundy might not be the most articulate speaker in terms of the media but he designs beautiful plays to combat any defense. The day off will help him figure out how to attack using Howard.

Dwight Howard had 13 points and went 3-10 from the field after being A student from the field. He was able to grab 12 rebounds and block 5 shots (one of them being the clutch block towards the end of the game on Rondo) but he also had 7 turnovers. It is unacceptable and unexpected. Howard is a force, and I'd take it a step further and say the force in the Magic. If Perkins and Wallace did not frustrate him the way they did--his low post game would have spread the floor for a a bit more open three-point attempts for Carter and the crew. Instead, technical fouls were paraded to Wallace and Howard--causing Howard to get even more flustered. The issue here is that Wallace is a supplementary player to the Celtics, Howard is the focal player. Gundy knows that and so I'm sure that will be the main issue to tackle over the next day--but will Howard play composed?

Howard's downfall throughout the year has been his foul trouble and his passion--and at the same time, his passion has been his salvation. If he can orchestrate his temper a bit more positively--there will be more meandering of the scoreboard than a dominant one-sided game.

However, this is not to downplay the Celtic's skill or win. The rotation by the Celtics were flawless and articulate. I just see more depth with the Magic, which lead to greater amount of plays. The Celtics have Pierce, Garnett, Allen, Rondo and Wallace who are all offensive forces that play pretty much the entire game. Michael Finley who was once the Maverick star was used for SEVEN SECONDS during the game--why? There are simply too many solid shooters. The Magic have a variety of shooters but the shooters are not as trigger-happy as the Celtic players. Do not get me wrong, the Celtics have a great balance of shots by all the stars--but the dominant players are shooters (with the exception of Garnett but not even Garnett will be able to muscle Howard! and of course Rondo can penetrate but we saw what happened when he tried to drive in on Howard). The Magic have a solid big man surrounded with some silky shooters--that difference might be enough to put the Magic over the edge, I certainly think so. Problem is, my other NBA predictions have not fallen through--will this one?

The Future of Basketball

http://www.parentdish.com/2010/04/02/nba-scouts-eye-10-year-old-hoops-prodigy/?icid=main|main|dl3|link6|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parentdish.com%2F2010%2F04%2F02%2Fnba-scouts-eye-10-year-old-hoops-prodigy%2F

A ten year old basketball player by the name of Jaylin Fleming is looked at as the future NBA star.

Please watch the videos in the following links

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx1YNft8MP8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jME6TEctLLY

I have a couple things to say about this; (1) He's ten and has a better ball-handling skill than practically my entire high-school basketball team (2) If this kid can grow under parents that teach him how to be humble--he's the second coming of basketball interest all over the world (3) Will he be a child-wonder and a flop later on in his career?

To tackle my first comment; a kid who is ten that can dribble with two hands and cross-over cones like he's Mike Bibby's Better Basketball instructor. To maintain the focus of dribbling two basketballs while looking up and crossing cones is more than just skill or talent, it's determination. This kid has immense focus and is trusting the obstacles that his father plays before him--that's how to get a kid to learn what basketball is about.

I have a nephew who is ten years old and I've been trying to get him to dribble for the past 3 years (not even dribble between cones, just dribble... and not shoot... for one day)--epic fail after every single attempt I had. Kids are simply stubborn and want to shoot like LeBron or they want to chuck up unorthadoxed shots like Kobe (the difference is Kobe is forced to take those shots and he is double-teamed, my nephew shoots against my four-year old nephew who eats ice cream 24/7--I'm sure the 10 year old kid isn't under much pressure). This leads me into my next commentary.

When a kid can play ball and understands his place not on the court but in life--society is blessed to have such a character. Kids on the basketball courts that can really ball, end up taking every shot no matter how difficult it is because they're the best kid on the court. Jaylin has a more basketball-quarterback like mentality. In all the clips I could watch this kid; I see him calling picks and taking advantage of players with a slower step (practically every kid against him) and if they double up on him, he pushes the opposing team to a corner and hits a reset man who is patiently open.

Basketball is a game of understanding spacing--that's how players get good shots, that's how players get dunks, that's how alley-oops occur, that's how you stop a team; it's spacing that matters. Sure the kid has phenomenal ball-handling skills and we saw him make a couple of shots either swished or high off the backboard because he's so small, but I'm more impressed by his attitude than anything.

And finally the last topic of conversation is where will he be in the future? I hope he succeeds--I really believe that the NBA needs more players with this kids mentality. I want to see more intellectual and multi-dimensional basketball players in the league. I want to see an Okafor gpa and a Dwight Howard skilled player. If this kid can progress at this rate and keep his mentality, my only prayer is that he goes to college and be an inspiration to the future kids growing up with basketball interest.

Beginning the season with a bang...

Albert Pujols is the number one pick in every fantasy baseball draft (except in those drafts where a baseball-know-it-all fanatic picks Hanley over him... in reality, no one should be picked over Pujols. Let's be real here.

Pujols played his first game of this season yesterday and hit two home runs (one in his first at bat). He had 3 rbi's in the Cardinals 11-6 win against the Reds. The sea of red-dressed fans (either for the Cards or Reds) could not help but admire one of the best players to ever play the game hit.

There have been many players who have hit two homers in the first game of the season but when a player who is projected to be the best player every year hits two homers, it foreshadows a scary season for the teams in the rest of his division.

Pujols went 4-5; he has constantly been attempting to get the triple crown year after year--he's off to a good start and although it seems highly implausible that he would win the great honor, he is the only player that is a legitimate nomination to accomplish this.

When there was the whole talk about Howard potentially moving to the Cards in exchange for Pujols--I found no credibility to such a claim (although it might seem interesting). The reality is Pujols is the perfect cover for the McGuire steroid era, and of course Pujols has helped McGuire's image by now having him as his hitting coach. Pujols will go down as one of the best players to ever have swung a bat, and he will do it in St. Louis.

The home run ticker has begun... game 1--two home runs. I'm projecting 55 homers, 140 rbi's, 17 sb, and a .349 average.

Nets

The 09'-10'Nets are not the worst team in NBA history.

Fantasy Baseball

Fantasy baseball drafts are exhilarating. Between the sleeper picks, the keeper leagues, the depth charts, the players who come back from injuries, the potential production in a new team--it's all incredibly analytical. I ended up with a pretty solid team in a twelve-man keeper league draft last night--my results were:
Round Pick Player Position
1. (4) Chase Utley 2B
2. (21) Jimmy Rollins SS
3. (28) CC Sabathia SP
4. (45) Derrek Lee 1B
5. (52) Johan Santana SP
6. (69) Matt Wieters C
7. (76) Chone Figgins 3B
8. (93) Carlos Peña 1B
9. (100) Francisco Rodríguez RP
10. (117) José Valverde RP
11. (124) James Shields SP
12. (141) Ryan Ludwick OF
13. (148) Brandon Webb SP
14. (165) Nate McLouth OF
15. (172) Ben Sheets SP
16. (189) Chris Coghlan OF
17. (196) Justin Duchscherer SP
18. (213) Ryan Rowland-Smith SP
19. (220) Joba Chamberlain SP
20. (237) Ted Lilly SP
21. (244) Russell Branyan 1B
22. (261) Ken Griffey Jr. OF

The main thing that worked well for me is stalling on the OF. I ended up picking an OF in my twelfth round in picking Ryan Ludwick. Of course I followed up two rounds later and picked Nate McLouth who was ranked about 70 something in Yahoo and is a great player--but by the time that teams get to him, they already have a filled up OF crew. This is where the key picks come in where you snag a really good player late in the draft.

Another good thing to keep in mind is the power hitters that are not ranked high. Carlos Pena isn't among the top picks but certainly is home run hitting beast who has a pretty good on base percentage. A valued pick late in the draft to secure the RBI's and Homers.

Take risks with pitchers. You will probably end up dropping and adding a lot of different pitchers because a bad start completely turns you off from certain pitchers. What I say is pick up those once amazing starters like Brandon Webb and
Justin Duchscherer and Ben Sheets (sure he got bombed in Spring training but he's an Ace of the squad for a reason).

And of course I did something similar by taking Ken Griffey Jr. He is my favorite player to ever play the game and just having him on my team makes me feel like this is going to be a good year. Who knows, maybe with the new Mariners--he can produce something? I don't know--but take the change.

The Mariners have one of the best defenses in the league and have a good line-up with a solid 1 and 2. I picked up their number 3 because I think he'll have a great deal of success; Rowland-Smith has potential and I say look out for him.

The countdown begins.

Madness... Just Madness

Alright, so we have March Madness, which is absolutely ridiculous right now. I wouldn't be surprised of any upsets anymore--the tournament is up for grabs in my opinion. When you have the number one overall dropping out when the President chose them--we got a crisis. Put that alert on red because somethings going down; we might have the apocalypse soon or multiple eclipses consecutively.

Cornell beating Temple and Wisconsin and then St. Mary's pounding away against Richmond and Villanova--brackets all over the world or destroyed. Nostradamus himself, couldn't have predicted this.

Where do we go from here though? What team will eventually win it? Well I can see Northern Iowa beating Michigan St. just because Michigan's top player got injured last game and well Northern Iowa is capable of anything after that second round win over Kansas.

Cornell was able to eliminate the tougher five seed that definitely should have been ranked a four seed in Temple, and then ultimately beat Wisconsin might be able to George Mason their way in a bit further into the elite eight.

Honestly, the tournament is up in the air to me and since there has been so many changes in the top seed--I don't know if there's a fair way to predict the champs. I'm going to put my money on Kentucky just because they produced the most amount of points in the tournament. They obliterated both the teams they faced by 29 and 30 points--and they averaged 95 points per game.

Or maybe UNI could pull out another few upsets and be the first team to be seeded over 8 to win the championship? Could the George Mason upset reference be changed to the University of Northern Iowa?

Barnes and Kobe

The rematch of last years finals and the Lakers did not pull out with a win. The game was tightly contested throughout the entire game and unfortunately Bryant was not able to pull three-straight Kobe-clutch shots. The Lakers fell short with one field goal.

The Lakers have gone on a three-game slide, but that doesn't matter because they are still regarded as one of the top 4 teams (in terms of power rankings). To me, the greater thing to look at from the game is Matt Barnes.

Barnes averages 8.7 points, 1.7 assists, 5.6 rebounds and .7 steals along with .4 blocks per game. His numbers are as surprising as Brett Favre coming back coming out of retirement to play yet another season. But what is impressing, is the defense and mental energy he exerted on irritating Kobe.

As you may know, I don't see the Magic going deep in the play-offs and I will stick with my predictions--except if Barnes can play that kind of defense on the top player of every team, I might predict otherwise.

The Magic have solid players all around, and their defense is the third best in the league (only behind the Lakers and Celtics). But what becomes important in the play-offs is to have a Bruce Bowen or Tayshaun Prince--that's what the two teams had over any other playoff contender; the had lock-down players.

Bowen could shoot, but I could think of five or even six players that could shoot better than him on that team. Prince is a great all-around player but Rip, Chauncey, Rasheed were the scorers (Prince scored around 13 per game). But if you would ask me what was it about those two teams that put them over the Lakers and even the Nets in the beginning of the decade, it would be their defensive stoppers.

Prince's crazy block over Ray Allen, Bowen's defensive lock-down on Kobe. If a player on your roster is used specifically to irritate and stop a scorer from scoring 15 in the 4th quarter and 30 in a game--you're team elevates to a new platform.

I haven't seen much of Barnes, but if he could play that defense on Kobe--he can play that defense on anyone (except I feel LeBron would physically overpower him), then the Magic have a much better shot. But again, since LeBron is a beast--I think he will end up winning this year.

Congratulations to the Magic and good luck having Barnes on LeBron.

Spring Training Tension

The Yankees versed the the Phillies yesterday in Spring training, but the world series tension was muted (obviously, it's the Pre-season). But the bad blood between Fielder and the Giants pitching staff was very much alive.

Last year, the Giants lost to the Brewers after Fielder hit a walk off-homer to destroy the Giants' potential of going into the post-season. When Fielder came home, he jumped on the plate and created an earthquake-like effect on the rest of the team as they all fell collapsed--it was one of the best celebrations I have ever seen.

Unfortunately, the Giants were severely angered by the celebration and made a remark of impending doom; one of the players said that the homerun would not be forgotten.

Well, I forgot about it and I assumed everyone else did too--but the Giants pitching staff did not. In the first inning, Fielder was beamed in the middle of his back. He walked towards first and threw the ball back towards Zito and started clapping his hands as if to say "Good for you--you got me back... in a pre-season game, congrats."

What is the point of such a play? Why would Zito retaliate in a pre-season game? More than 4 months have passed--could the Giants really still be that mad?

I think it was a poor decision and if there is any form of revenge--it should take place during the season. The blue behind the plate did not issue any warnings of any sort--but I think MLB should take some sort of action on this matter. If a team shows that they have a pre-meditated retaliation, why let this matter go?

Fantasy Baseball Draft Tips

Alright, let's talk about some fantasy baseball tips this year. I will have my own couple of fantasy teams in several different leagues and I was trying to figure out where there are major drop-offs and key elements to keep in mind.

Top-tier in each positions:
1B: Pujols, Tex, Howard, Fielder
2B: Utley, Kinsler, Uggla, Pedroia
3B: A-rod, Wright, Longoria
C: Mauer
SS: Ramirez, Rollins, Reyes, Tulowitzki, (maybe Jeter)
OF: Braun, Crawford, Kemp, Holliday, Sizemore
SP: Lincecum, Sabathia, Felix, Holladay, Santana, Greinke, Haren
CP: Broxton, Papelbon, Nathan, Rivera, K-rod, Soria

There are a bulk of 1B to choose from and I'd say it's even more important to snatch the top-tier ones. So with that being said, who are the top-tier 1B? Pujols, Teixeira, Howard and Fielder. Then there is a slight drop off with the next several top 1B like Morneau, Gonzalez, V. Martinez, Berkman, or Youkilis. The top 4 1B are going to go within the first two rounds of the draft and about seven of the top ten homerun hitters will be a first basemen this year, which makes it essential to have one of the top 1B to solidify your line-up.

Mauer, the one catcher that you might want to get will go the first round but I don't know if he will make that big of an impact as a first rounder than the others--but he does fill up the one position that no other batters are amazing at.

The top 3B will be going soon (I know I did not keep Reynolds as a top-tier batter but his average is too low for my liking). It's important to get the strong corner-infielders early because homeruns effect statistics more than anything! By getting a homerun; runs, hits, rbi's and average/slug./ob% all increase (obviously, but by understanding that possibly 4 categories increase--homeruns become one of the main focus for a team).

The top SS will be picked within the top four rounds, so you might have some more cushion to pick a good SS on the 3rd or 4th round--like get Jeter down there. But I'd say having a strong 2B is even more important because the top 2B seem to be better bats than the top SS.

I draft OF towards the bottom of the draft because there are so many more sleeper picks when it comes to OF. You could get a solid OF even up to the 9th or 10th round!

Getting a one of the top-tier pitchers above is essential to get within the first four rounds as well because having a guaranteed 7 K, 7 IP, and > 3.5 ERA performer is a good fall back. While getting a top closer can wait until at least round 7.

So with all that being said--this is the order of position I'd go for in a draft:
1. IF (1b or 3b primarily but any IF is good enough)
2. IF (one more to solidify that power hitting or great all around player)
3. SP (grab one of those top pitchers because you will need one to rely on)
4. 2B or SS (preferably one with speed and contact)
5. SP (especially if any of those top ones are left!)
6. C, 3B (Mauer will be gone so snag McCann!)
7. CP (Grab Broxton if no one has yet!)
8. P (You might want to get another top closer or solid pitcher--but do not go for another position because the drop offs of each position have struck already)
9. OF (It's about time to get one of those now--you'll see that you still have some pretty good bats in the field, grab the top one... or look to see if you have much speed and get an OF that could provide some stolen bases or one that purely gets runs)
10. C (If you weren't able to grab McCann or Mauer--get Doumit, Sotom Posada, Posey or Martin now)

From 11 onwards, it depends on the strong pitchers and which outfielders are left to choose from. Either way--you'll probably have your personal sleeper picks to choose from or have players you're not confident in and will probably drop once the season starts. In the past, I've dropped my entire outfield and picked up early solid hitters like McLouth, Ludwick and Quentin (all in one season). So again, don't worry about the OF!

Hopefully this was helpful--feel free to ask me any questions and good luck!

NBA Predictions

So where are we at this point of the NBA season? If the playoffs would start today we'd have these teams in the East:

1. Cleveland
2. Orlando
3. Boston
4. Atlanta
5. Toronto
6. Chicago
7. Miami
8. Charlotte

and in the West, we'd have:

1. L.A. Lakers
2. Denver
3. Utah
4. Dallas
5. Oklahoma City
6. Phoenix
7. San Antonio
8. Portland

Finally, all teams that would participate would have a .500 or above record. This hasn't happened since the 2004-05 season! Obviously the season is not over so the teams might not all be above .500 but this statistic is definitely worth pointing out.

The teams in the east seem more of a threat now than they were earlier on in this season. Obviously, the Cavs, Magic, and Celtics were known as the three primary teams that could win the finals--but suddenly the Hawks are getting up in the race because of their energetic young group; the Raptors won eight of their last ten; the Bulls are on the longest active Eastern Conference winning streak right now; the Heat are a respectable competitor for their win in 2006 and dominance this past decade; and the Bobcats are just a bipolar group to face (they could beat the best on any given night).

The teams in the west are strong all the way you down: Lakers and Nuggets, enough said; the Jazz keep finding ways to win like in last nights 20+ point overcoming deficit against the Blazers (Boozer is a beast); the Mavs are always in the picture; the Suns with their MVP Nash; the Spurs with Duncan and Parker; and of course the Blazers who simply cannot win once they have a large lead--it's been their problem all year.

All sixteen teams are intimidating and have something better than another squad. On any given night, it seems that the "underdog" could win the game.

Now on to my predictions for this year's finals. Although the Cavs are going through a 3 game slide right now--I think they will end up in the finals. I think that the Bobcats will end up in the seventh seed and beat the Magic. The Celtics will beat Bulls (in seven games)--however I am hesitant because of last years Bull outbreak. And the Hawks will beat the Raptors. I think the Bobcats will beat the Celtics and go to the conf. finals with the Cavs--in which the Cavs will win.

I think the Nuggets will verse the Jazz in the second round, while the Lakers verse the Thunder. I think the Nuggets will advance against the Lakers--and I believe the Nuggets are going to get in the finals. The Cavs will beat the Nuggets in six games.

We'll see how accurate my predictions are in a couple of months, but at this point I think it's important to recognize the Thunder. The new franchise substituted the Supersonics of Seattle into Oklahoma City. Durant has been the pillar and pure dominant force of the team. They are on a nine game winnings streak and just find ways to win a game. They might not be the most stable all-around team--but in a couple of years... I think they will be on top of the Western Conference every year.

New York Cavaliers of Cleveland.

Jamison goes to the Cavaliers, McGrady goes the Knicks, Larry Hughes is gone, Krypto-nate leaves to Boston while the Knicks get House, Brewer goes to the Grizzlies, and the big Z leaves the Cavs. A couple more people shifted areas but these are the marquis players I'll focus on.

Two major questions: (1) Are the Cavaliers going to win this year? (2) Where are the Knicks going to be next year?

As for the first question, I think the Cavaliers have all they need to win the finals. They have come so close for so long and finally developed a starting five that is just plain scary. Mo Williams at point, Anthony Parker at shooting guard, James at small forward, Jamison at power forward, and Shaq at center. Or you can even go big and substitute Parker and throw Hickson or Varejao.

By adding a 20 point, 8 rebound threat into the mix who has the ability to draw out a big men because of his respectable shot--the Cavaliers create a mismatch galore. LeBron and Antawn are two of the top eight small forwards in the league.

Having a strong small forward is essential to advancing in the playoffs strictly for mis-matching purposes. If a team has a taller and stronger player that can be a three-ball threat, it causes much more room for guards/forwards to drive in. Spacing is clutch and now that the Cavs will have each wing--a serious scoring threat, the defense will be utterly disrupted.

Of course the question comes up of who whether or not both will play forwards--if so, will one get over-powered by a team's number four. I don't see that happening because James seems to be able to guard any size in the league (he wasn't able to stop Melo last night but James can contain any size player).

What do I think is going to happen? I think the Cavs will win this year. I thought they were going to win in the beginning of the year because I can't see James being stopped again--and now I can't see that much talent with size and speed losing.

Now the Knicks--they're creating some more salary cap for next season to try and land two superstar athletes (James, Wade, Bosh, Stoudemire, etc.). Will it work? I don't know. If James wins this year--I don't see him moving to another team despite how much he has fallen in love with NY. Remember when he wore his Yankee hat and the pinstripe shoes during the Indian-Yankee playoff games? It was all a tease Knicks fans. I would be the first person to tattoo a picture of James on my back if he came to the Knicks--but it probably won't happen. But if he does--the city will be parading with LeBron pictures.

As for the rest of the season; the Knicks barely have any hope to conserve even the back alley to the playoff spots--unless McGrady brings back his vintage game. Goodbye Nate. Goodbye Hughes. Let's go House? I think House is going to become our key player--to be honest. He can shoot lights out--hey, we don't have anything else to lose.

Let's run and gun. Let the threes fly.

Krypto-Nate wins again!

Standing tall at 5'9", Nate "the Great" Robinson, also known as Krypto-Nate--won his third dunk contest in the Sprite Slam Dunk competition this past weekend in Dallas.

Krypto-Nate is the only player to have ever won the dunk contest thrice; but is there really any pride in winning the dunk contest anymore?

The years of real competition--with Jordan, Wilkins, Dr. J, Carter have passed. Now the competitors are a toss up every year as to who actually wants to participate. Nate did not play much the first half and had less than a dozen dunks during the season; but of course he makes it because he is a two-time champ.

Demark DeRozan wins the Dunk-in preliminary round to advance to the Sprite Dunk contest with Nate, Wallace, and Brown. DeRozan passed into the next round and put up some pretty solid dunks (at least the judges thought so), and ended up losing by 2% of the fan votes!

It's amazing how close the competition actually was between the two contestants--however the contest has had a dramatic drop. What happened to the spin the wheel dunk contest? What happened to the excess creativity? I don't want to see another tomahawk or another jumping-over-a-teammate dunk.

Robinson won his three competitions not because the dunks were spectacular but because he's 5'9", a fan favorite, and he has swagger. When it comes down to it--he doesn't get about the rim as high as many people in the league.

All of the participants barely got above the rim, which is extremely disappointing for me to watch. Creativity can be utilized when you have a grand leap; LeBron's dunks are frightening because he gets more than a foot above the rim at times.

The dunks this past competition were simply not impressive because they barely got 6 or 7 inches above the rim.

Players need to consider participating in the contest for the sake of the fans. Obviously, being a contestant is not a goal for them because they want to enjoy the weekend--but when you have repetitive dunks every year, please do something about it.

I truly believe that the NBA should bring back the wheel for the dunkers to spin. If you want to add an element to the dunk contest--add this, not another mini dunk contest.

We'll see what happens next year--until then, I think Nate is going to win a couple more dunk contests because let's face... no one else who could win would want to participate.

He's just not the average Joe

Every now and then, there comes a question of which MVP player would you rather have. In 2005, would you rather have A-rod or Pujols? In 2006, Morneau or Howard? Or we can go back in the 90's and debate between Griffey or Walker? Bagwell or Thomas?

There could be a serious debate as to who would you pick between any of the above--and this year raises a similar dilemma; would you rather have Pujols or Mauer.

On the one hand, you have a player that will probably end up destroying the all-time home run record while the other side has a dominant player in a position that is not particularly known for hitting.

Pujols hit 47 homeruns in the 2009 season, 135 RBI's, 186 hits, 124 runs, 115 walks, and only 64 strikeouts. Pujols has had 32 homeruns or more in each season in all of his nine years in the league. He has had 103 RBI's or more every season as well as batted .314 or above year in-year out.

Pujols has been getting more walks every year too; he started off with 69 walks in 2001, then 72, 79, 84, 97, 92, 99, 104, and 115 last year. His intentional walks have also increased every year too; 6, 13, 12, 12, 27, 28, 22, 34, and 44 last year. He is becoming a force that pitchers do now want to deal with at any cost--except now he has a safety spot in the line-up right after him so pitchers will have to respect Holiday and try to get Pujols out.

What is the most surprising thing about Pujols is not his dominance or the fear he creates, it's the concentration at the plate--his strike-outs have been decreasing every year as well. He started off the league with 93 strike outs and have cut it down in the 60's for the past eight years. He is more focused, more accurate, and simply more of a beast. And the best thing about him is he's clean. He hasn't been mentioned with the steroid drama and thus he has elevated to a higher platform on baseball--he is the most deadly clean player in the game. Hands down. End of story. He is 30 years old and easily has another 10 more years to play, and he can definitely get another 400 homers in that span.

Now let's take a look at Mauer. He's not the average Joe; he batted .365 last season and had 191 hits, 28 homers, 96 RBI's, 94 runs, and still won the AL MVP by playing only 138 games. Mauer has been in the league for 6 years now and has become one of the faces of the league--along with players like Jeter and even Griffey until this day. He too is clean from the tainted HGH era, and MLB has never been so happy to have such a player.

He is the best catcher in the league right now. He does not strike out often, he calls the game as good as anyone else in the league--and his arm is ridiculous. He is kind of like a Raul Mondesi from the catching position. I can't remember the last time a catcher won the batting title let alone actually have a catcher going for .400 average! Every year, he floods the headlines with his average. In 2006, he batted .347 and there was that same headline!

Mauer is not as dominant of a player as Pujols (in terms of batting), but he is a leader in all aspects. He orchestrates the pitchers and makes 3 errors a year. His fielding percentage was .996 last season and rarely gets any lower.

To be a catcher and not be placed in the lower part of the line-up is amazing; but to be batting third and becoming a dependent force in the batters box or right behind plate is the most looked for quality in all of the position players. A player who can hit from the catching position is simply more valuable then a player who can hit from any other position. It transforms a liability to an asset.

There are other players that play first base that hits homeruns--it's a cliche and almost expected that if you play first, you hit homers. If you play catcher, you bat 8th.

There's also the team factor--Mauer plays for a team that lacks hitting while the Cardinals have a line-up that can make any pitcher cry. It's obvious that Mauer's numbers would be worse in terms of the team he plays and of course Mauer is not as intimidating as Pujols, but if Mauer had a team with more than just Morneau--his numbers would elevate exponentially.

Either way, you can't go wrong between picking either of these players but what I find amazing is that there actually could be a debate; if it was any other player in the league, I don't think I would pick anyone over Pujols. He's just not the average Joe.

Yankees and Red Sox Rivalry

The New York Yankees versus the Boston Red Sox are undoubtedly the greatest franchise rivalry in Major League Baseball and you can certainly make a case for it being the best rivalry in sports history.

The all-time season record between the two teams are 1,117-933-14 (.545 winning percentage) in favor of the Yankees. The post-season record is 11-8, also with the Yankees maintaining the upper hand.

The Yankees have the largest marginal victory in this rivalry--they won 22-1 back in June 19, 2000. There was the Boston Massacre the other year at Fenway Park, where there were multiple 20 run games that the Yankees won.

Interestingly enough, there's a couple of things to be mentioned about this rivalry: (1) Which team is the better team of this past decade?; (2) Is the rivalry less competitive?

I am a Yankees fan, so naturally I'd have biases towards claiming that Yankees have the better team of the decade--but I say this in terms of what it means to win in baseball. Unlike football, it is not as difficult to win the world series 2 out of 4 years; but to win and maintaining a post-season standard, while rebuilding over ten years is more impressive.

The Red Sox won back in 2004 as well as 2007; the Yankees won in 2000 and in 2009. Both have two world series victories this decade--but the Yankees have played in the World Series 4 times opposed the Red Sox who have reached there twice in this millennium.

In terms of whether the rivalry is less intense--it could be seen that way because as of recent history, both teams have strong rosters but there is more of sheer dominance during the games. When I think of the rivalry, I think of Zimmer going down--I think of "Who's your daddy?"--I think of the curse of the great Bambino--I think of brawls practically every series!

I don't see these occurrences anymore. The players might have gotten better, but the rivalry might be dropping off a bit.

Hopefully the battles are intensified with the newer acquisitions for each club, and maybe we'll actually see some physical confrontations; anger and pure frustration is what creates a real rivalry.

I want to see A-rod glaring at a pitcher after he gets hit, or even some dirty base-running pushes to knock the ball off a glove--it's the biggest rivalry known to sports history!

My goal for this next season is watch some Yankee-Red Sox fights--it isn't the morally right thing to want, but it's what made these teams so well known. In any sport--you could like teams and like their rivals like Nets and Knicks, same division but because both the teams are so poor, I still root for both of them. I should hate Duke because I like UNC but I enjoyed both the atmospheres. When it comes to the Red Sox, I simply hate their team because it's just a rivalry that you must despise each other.


April 4th is the opening day and the Yankees will play against the Red Sox. Will see how this year pans out...

Ichiro

In the past nine seasons, Ichiro Suzuki led the league for six seasons while coming in second the remainder three seasons. He has had a combined 2030 hits in nine seasons--undoubtedly the highest number of hits this decade, yet he has not been honored with an MVP award since his rookie year in 2001.

Even when Ichiro batted an amazing .372 with 262 hits--he was not awarded the MVP. And today, there are fans that make a claim that he is not worth his current contract (the extension of 5 years 90 million dollars). Ichiro has not only been one of the best table-setters in the game but he has also become a complete player on the field.

He has won a Gold Glove Award every year he has been in the Major League Baseball, and he has also been selected into the All-Star game every single year. He currently holds the single-season record with 262 hits and is one of the most admirable players because he does all the small things.

He has hit a career total of 84 homeruns. Deion Sanders hit almost half as many homeruns as Ichiro!

What distinguishes Ichiro from all the other players, is not just his running swings--but also his uncanny ability to play defense. He has a total of 82 outfield assists in his career and has moved around int the outfield quite a bit.

The most essential players on the club are not the ones that can clear the bases but the ones that can put their team in the position to win. Ichiro is the epitome of a team player. Which raises a greater question, would you rather have a player that will get you hits or a player that is focused on the longball--obviously having a player that can do both is ideal, but I'm asking in terms of either having Suzuki or Ryan Howard?

Of course, both players play different positions but in terms of batting--who would you rather have?

Bryant's Platform

Image extracted from http://www.nba.com/playerfile/kobe_bryant/career_stats.html

Kobe Bryant surpassed Jerry West in the Lakers all-time leading scorer last night on February 1st, 2010. He is 14th on the all-time leading scorer list behind the 3-point specialist Reggie Miller.

The list goes as follows:
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 38,387
2. Karl Malone 36,928
3. Michael Jordan 32,292
4. Wilt Chamberlain 31,419
5. Shaquille O'Neal 28,119
6. Moses Malone 27,409
7. Elvin Hayes 27,313
8. Hakeem Olajuwon 26,946
9. Oscar Robertson 26,710
10. Dominique Wilkins 26,668
11. John Havlicek 26,395
12. Alex English 25,613
13. Reggie Miller 25,279
14. Kobe Bryant 25,208
15. Jerry West 25,192

Bryant has a career average of 25.3 points per game, but in the past 5 years, he averages 30.08 points per game. Let's say his pace for the rest of his career is about 28.05 points (between his recent average and his career average)--this means he will average about 2272.05 points per year.

Let's take out about two games year because he has played an entire season only 3 times in his career--so we'll readjust his average yearly scoring to 2215.95. With that being said, he will need to play another six seasons to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Will Kobe Bryant do it? Will be the all-time scoring leader by the end of his career? Bryant is in his 14th season of the NBA, and is currently 31 years old.

Bryant has averaged more than 20 points in eleven season (not including 98-99 where he averaged 19.9). He has also averaged 30 or more points in three seasons of his career (his career high average being 35.4 ppg).

Of course we all know that Bryant has also scored 81 points in a single game, which was one of the most dominant performances in NBA history. Bryant is simply amazing and unstoppable. He has a a switch that can be turned on at will--and no on can even slow him down.

Every night, the best defender attempts to stop his offensive game and Bryant ends up scoring 20 points (on a bad night). Bryant is not Michael Jordan, and he will never be Jordan. He cannot be compared to Jordan, nor does he want to be compared to Jordan.

Michael Jordan did not average 25.3 points a game--he averaged 30.1 points per game in his entire career. His career high average was 37.1 ppg for a complete season (he averaged .482 from the field that year as well). What distinguishes Jordan from any other guard in the league to ever play was his dominance and efficiency. His career field goal percentage was .497 (Bryants' .455), and Jordan averaged 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.35 steals every single night along with his 30.1 points.

Bryant averages 25.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 4.7 apg, and 1.5 spg.

By me saying Bryant will probably become the all-time leading scorer--in no way makes a case for him being the "best player to ever play the game"; that title is reserved and utilized by Jordan for the basketball eternity.

I don't see Bryant slowing down with his scoring--and I definitely see him playing until he's about 38-40, which gives him ample of time to shatter the record.

Right now Bryant is enjoying the glory of being the all-time leading scorer for the Lakers, but in no time--he will be all-time leading NBA scorer.

Pro-Bowl

The AFC won the Pro-Bowl game! I guess it doesn't really matter though so you don't really care whether or not they won or lost.

Aaron Rogers and Matt Schaub each threw two touchdown passes for their respective conferences--except when I thought of the two top pro-bowl quarterbacks going at it, I envisioned Manning and Brees. Of course those two quarterbacks will play on the stage--I mean THE STAGE, on Super Bowl Sunday with all the commercials and hype and excitement.

But it's kind of sad to see that the pro-bowl really did not get utilized to its full potential because not all the stars were able to play. I think having the pro-bowl before the Super Bowl is pointless and less enjoyable for the players as well as the fans; the bigger picture however is the fact that the pro-bowl literally means nothing to the season.

The National Basketball Association has the NBA All-Star game midway through the season and Major League Baseball has their All-Star festivities about 81 games in. Both games are played during the midpoint of the year in order to create a sense of resurgence in interest of the sport and a sort of "clean slate" mentality to improve records.

The MLB uses the All-Star game to decide which team receives home field advantage during the playoffs--which I think is the best method for weighing significance during such a festivity.

If the All-Star or Pro-Bowl game actually meant something valuable to a teams fate--players would be a lot more enthused and the games would be much more exciting.

I enjoy watching the top athletes of a sport participate in the greatest possible competitive game (most possibly competitive due to the level of talent on the field/court) because it should be an amazing game. But it is rarely the case that the players put everything they have out unless there is importance to the game.

Of course players are not increasingly competitive in such an atmosphere because they want to have fun and enjoy the honor--but that detracts the potential of an outstanding competition. Especially if you consider a game like baseball where a player cannot play anymore if he has been substituted in for another player. If Jeter is taken out of the 3rd inning of the All-star game--Jason Bartlett is playing for the rest of the game, unless Michael Young is willing to play shortstop--then he can play there for a couple innings too.

With an environment that restricts the termination of a players impact on a game once he is retracted from the line-up, he can't contribute to the outcome on the field anymore.

This doesn't effect any of the other sports, which is why I wish there would be some more competition during the special games. Football's pro-bowl is about as appealing to me as a fork on a pedestal--it's highlighted but with not really interesting.

I don't know what the NFL could do because football is much more physical compared to the other sports, which forces it to be a more injure-prone sport. Thus if a player participates in the pro-bowl, it might be getting a trip to a sunny place--but there's a high chance of being paralyzed for life.

It's hard to make the pro-bowl more appealing, but the NFL really has to do something.

All-Star Snubs

The All-Star reserves have been named and the line-ups are as follows:

The 2009-2010 Eastern All-Stars

* Allen Iverson
* Dwyane Wade
* LeBron James
* Kevin Garnett
* Dwight Howard
* Chris Bosh
* Rajon Rondo
* Joe Johnson
* Gerald Wallace
* Paul Pierce
* Derrick Rose
* Al Horford

The 2009-2010 Western All-Stars

* Steve Nash
* Kobe Bryant
* Carmelo Anthony
* Tim Duncan
* Amare Stoudemire
* Kevin Durant
* Chris Paul
* Dirk Nowitzki
* Brandon Roy
* Zach Randolph
* Deron Williams
* Pau Gasol

The players I feel who were snubbed are as follows: David Lee, Antawn Jamison, and Andre Iguodala for the East; Billups, Kaman, Gasol (Marc) and Boozer for the West.

Of course each All-Star team has an outstanding bunch--but there will always be the snubs. In this case, I feel like a case should be made for certain players--like David Lee for an example; he leads the Knicks in points and rebounds while being one of the most efficient shooters in the game. I don't think Al Horford should get the spot over him. Lee averages about six more points and two more rebounds over him--not to mention Lee is clearly the Knicks' go-to player while Horford has Johnson, Smith and Crawford that score more points for the team than he does.

Jamison has been playing outstanding this year, he is the Wizards at this point. If any point there is a player that is the franchise--that player must be recognized. I'd rather have star players from a couple of different teams than three from one team (Celtics' Garnett, Rondo, and Pierce--some think Allen got snubbed; yes, maybe the entire Celtics line-up should be playing?).

I also feel that two point guards on the bench (Rondo and Rose) are not needed for the all-star game--sure this is both of their first years being selected, but there are other well-qualified players that should play like Josh Smith!

I don't think there's much to say about the Western snubs, but I definitely feel like they picked the wrong Gasol to play the game. Statistics-wise, Pau averages more points, rebounds and all that good stuff--but Pau has been injured and Marc has been carrying the Grizzlies more than Pau has been carrying the Lakers. I think Marc deserves a lot more credit than he gets because he is strictly a board cleaner--a put-back man. He has made clutch shots in the fourth quarter for Memphis time after time and well Van Gundy said he's the better big man--what else do you need? (sarcasm)

If you don't feel that Marc should've been picked over him, then you can definitely make a case for the new and improved Kaman. He is a beast right now--enough said.

Well there will always be All-star snubs regardless of who is picked, I just wish the players who really deserve it like Lee and Jamison were in--instead of Iverson. Seriously, what were the fans thinking?

Nets WIN... 4 out of 44 games.

The New Jersey Nets won their 4th game of the season last night! Unfortunately it took them 44 games to win that fourth one.

I'm not poking fun at the team, I feel horrible. I'm surprised that a team at this day and age could actually be so pathetic. I believe that any top ten ranked college team could beat the Nets fifty percent of the time (at this point).

The Nets average the least amount of points per game and have the biggest scoring differential (-12.36). That means they lose by double digits practically every night.

They have the worst field goal percentage and they give up the best field goal percentage. The Nets have the worst 3pt percentage. They have the second least amount of assists per game. They average the second least amount of rebounds per game--and the list goes on.

Eventually it gets to a point where there might be conversation of whether this is the worst team to have ever played the game. The Worst team thus far is the 72'-73' 76ers that had the record of 9-73.

At this rate, the Nets will end up with about a 7-75 record. Is there any hope for them?

Brook Lopez is their best player right now--averaging 19 points and 9.4 boards along with a pair of blocks. Devin Harris is not healthy, Yi Jianlian is doing a mediocre 14.6 and 6.8 (I expected more from him), Douglas-Roberts is getting a bit more than a bakers-dozen points per game and Courtney Lee is scoring 11 a game.

None of those players is having a really good season--with the exception of Brook Lopez. The team does not have a player that can carry them (especially if Harris is out), and the team cannot do anything right.

The best thing they can do is shoot free-throws, and they don't get to the line that often. It's disappointing to see a player with so much potential (Lopez) go to a team that could go down as the worst ever squad to compete in the NBA--let me rephrase that and say "play" in the NBA because it really is not much competition with the Nets.

So what should the Nets do? Well, they need to find something that can uplift the spirits of their franchise. I don't know what but they have to grab at least another 6 wins within the next 38 games. Now that I think of it, I really don't have any answers for them--I just pray they do something to turn the franchise around.

I'm no Nets fan by any means--they're my rivals. I just don't want there to be a team that poorly in the NBA.

Bobcats????

The Charlotte Bobcats won the most amount of games they have ever won in a single month after last night's win against the Suns. The team is now 7.5 games behind the Hawks and have a split .500 winning percentage. They are currently holding the seventh seed with their 22-22 record.

When I think of Charlotte, I still have a baby blue image of a hornet in my head--but after this season, it might finally alter to an orange Bobcat.

The Bobcats aren't only at the top of upcoming teams this season, but with Larry Brown as their coach, they might surprise a pack of analysts.

I'm a firm believer of match-up problems leading to victories, and when there are a pair that have the height of 6'7" (Wallace) and 6'8" (Jackson) that can shoot, rebound, dunk and defend--it is scary. Both the players can easily be a 2,3, or even a 4 (especially with the way Wallace rebounds).

Essentially the big issue for any team is that they are too quick for another teams' front court and too big for an opponents back court. And if a team has a player that can guard one of them, they're in awe when it comes to matching up with both players.

All of us knows how Jackson has traveled through practically every division of both conferences, but it seems like he finally has found a place. Jackson is their go-to player with an average of 21.1 ppg, 5 rpg, and 3.5 apg. He is the player that takes over at will, but he does it with a cold-blooded attitude as if to say--"hey, I got nothing to lose."

And he doesn't: he has been traded around the United States; been through many confrontations with the NBA and government; he has only played one full season in his life--the 05-06 season with the Pacers... he's been in the league for nine years!

I think he's finally at a place where he's okay with where he's at. He seems comfortable and he has the pedestal in Charlotte--he might even become the face of the franchise, who knows?

Of course we have to also focus on Gerald Wallace who has been the Bobcat thus far. Potential dunk-contest winner and outstanding athlete. He's averaging a double-double with rebounds and he's 6'7"! He's the only 6'7" player to average a double-double with rebounds in the league. Watch out...

I think the Bobcats will end up as the sixth seed this year and go into the conference finals.

Wade and LeBron

Last night the Cavaliers had an epic win over the Heat. Both James and Wade scored 32 points and James had 9 rebounds while Wade crashed 10 boards. The only difference is that LeBron was clutch and Wade was anything but Mr. Fourth Quarter.

Wade scored 2 points in the second half, he was 1-8 from the field.

It was 91-90 with 41.2 seconds left when Wade went to the line and missed two free throws. But the Cavaliers did not capitalize on their possession. Of course, the ball goes back to Wade and he dribbles with about 11 seconds and draws a double team and attempts a behind the back pass to Michael Beasely--but LeBron steals it and runs down the court and gets fouled by Wade.

James makes both his free-throws and puts the Cavs up by a single point. Wade comes down the court and misses the buzzer beater. After a 30 point first half, he is limited to two points and makes three blunders in the last minute of the game: missed two free throws and hands over a careless turnover--of course I am not counting the missed final shot as a mistake but he put his team in the position where it came down to that last shot (sure you can debate that it's a team game and he helped the team more than he hurt the team--but in that last minute, it was all Wade).

Wade has won a ring and is a swagger-full offensive force doing t-mobile commercials with Barkley. He has made big shots and he has carried the Heat since he got there. It was just a bad second half of one single game, but the game was highly concentrated between the two players that I day-dreamed of where they would be next year.

Imagine the future Knicks line-up as follows:
C- David Lee
PF- Danilo Gallinari
SF- LeBron James
SG- Dwayne Wade
PG- Chris Duhon

That would be the most beautiful thing in the world to me but realistically speaking, it's not going to happen. But for the sake of continuing a stream of thought, let's say that both superstars end up on the same team. Who would score more points and who would be the real go-to player?

James dominates the fourth quarter and was just as good as Ben Gordon--fourth quarter man himself. But I think that Wade would be the player who takes that last shot because Wade this attitude that I don't think LeBron could even match. Wade has matured and has the ring on his finger that no Kay Jewelers can give LeBron.

This fantasy of such a dominant two player team is implausible because no team would be able to afford such a duo--just imagine... if LeBron and Wade were on the same team, would they be the best duo in NBA history?