Tuesday Links

Like Kevin Youkilis last night, these links probably contain at least one error, even if it wasn't scored that way.

Apparently Marcus Thames wasn't starting last night just because the Yankees were in Fenway. Brian Hoch reports that the righty is a "near-lock" to see time against lefties. So Thames track record matters when it comes to facing lefties, but Curtis Granderson's doesn't? And Gardner doesn't even get a fair shake? Got that? No? Me neither.

Over at Pending Pinstripes, Matt was one of eight writers who answered a bunch of questions on Yankees prospects. Here are parts One, Two, Three and Four of the octagonal table.

Greg from PP also gathered up the links to his top 30 Yankee prospect profiles.

More from the farm: here is Mike from RAB's Minor League Primer, wherein he posts and discusses the rosters for each level of the minors.

Ross from NYY Stadium Insider did an excellent two part series analyzing the resale market for Yankees tickets this year. Well worth checking out if you are planning on picking up tickets online.

Want to hear some Sawx fans whining about the umpiring last night? Probably not, but here's the link anyway.

The Yankees are checking in at 3-1 to win the World Series right now with the Sox and Phillies next best at 6-1. Any takers?

It turns out that Joba really admires John Smoltz. The former dominant starter and reliever told the youngin' to treat everything like a one inning game, regardless of his role.

Via Craig at NBC, here is evidence that people have been complaining about the pace of play at baseball games since at least 1905. The only thing is, back then, 2:20 was apparently too slow.

Write something misguided about the Tampa Bay Rays and Jonah Keri just might write 4,000 words telling you how wrong you are. You've been warned.

Do you think if we told Joe Morgan that Hal McCoy was listening to the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast, he would stop talking?

Sky Andrecheck over at Baseball Analysts looked a how experts make predictions about baseball and developed a model that explains how it might be rational for people to pick teams that aren't actually the favorites. It was similar to what I started talking about here, except it goes about 10 times deeper.

Over at the Hardball Times, Geoff Young did something right up our alley by combining music and baseball. He watched the Yanks/Sox game last night on mute with Radiohead's OK Computer playing instead of the announcers. The results can be found here.

Walkoff Walk compiled a guide to the stadium grub that is new for the '10 season. Nothing new at Yankee Stadium but plenty to check out around the league.

Balls too slippery? Rub some mud on 'em.

Here is a professional poker player talking about how Major League Baseball is "complete garbage" and "totally, and insanely boring to me". He adds:

Teams like Tampa Bay occasionally have a miracle year with a cast of young players, but guess what happens when their contracts are up? They end up in Boston or New York.

Exactly. Like, you know... that awesome player who went from Tampa to the Yankees that one time. Cleveland would have probably been a better example.

Daniel Negraneau is fantastic card player and he makes some fair points, but I don't really care about what someone who is admittedly not a fan of the game thinks about what is wrong with it.

That's it for now. We'll be back with the preview for tonight's game in a little bit.

Prediction Round Up

There isn't a whole lot of variety in these, but I wanted to consolidate the predictions that we asked everyone to make at the end of the AL East interviews we did this week.

Here are the interviews with our fantastic guests:

Jonah Keri on the Rays

Daniel Moroz on the Orioles

Patrick Sullivan on the Red Sox

Drunk Jays Fans on the Blue Jays

And everyone's predictions in graphical from, including Matt's and mine:

There you have it folks. According to our panel of experts, there is a 100% chance that the Yankees win the AL East this season!

Actually, that's not what it means at all. You can't divine overall probabilities based on individual predictions (in this scenario at least). For instance, let's say that we are going to flip a coin that has a 60% chance of coming up heads and a 40% chance of landing on tails. Which one are you going to pick? Well everyone that's not a moron is going to pick heads. As a result, you'd end up with something like 95% of people choosing heads with the remainder of the superstitious dummies telling themselves that "tails never fails". And that doesn't reflect the actual probability of the event. It's the kind of thing that happens when you have some rational people looking at similar data.

Realistically, what this means is that the Yanks are in the neighborhood of 50-45-40%, the Sox are 35-30-25% and the Rays are 30-25-20%. Or something? I don't know but the midpoints sum to 100 and that sounds about right. Take it from me, I predicted the correct order that the AL East would finish in last year and had every team's total within 5 wins. (What's that you say? I also had the Mets playing the Cubs in the NLCS? Nevermind that.)

Anyway, that's it for today. We'll have some good stuff running over the weekend, so in the unlikely event that you need a break from the awesome weather that is forecasted for the northeast, we'll be there for you.

Divisional Weekend - Saturday Games

Okay Fackers. Last week I went 2-2, correctly predicting both AFC Wildcard Weekend matchups but brutally butchering the NFC tilt. 2-2 isn't so bad I guess. I mean Adam Schefter went 1-3. Mike Greenberg went 0-4 as did Bill Simmons. Eric Allen was the only "expert" on ESPN did better than me. Some of you told me that I should "stick to baseball." Well should Adam Schefter find another job? Should Greenie resign? (Trick question, Mike is absolutely awful and should resign for a lack of sports knowledge that is not remotely compensated for by humor).

Despite the Giants not being involved and the fact that 75% of the games were certifiable blowouts, I think that a good number of you Fackers were pleased with the results--namely the Jets winning and the Patriots gettin' knawked the fack out by the Ravens. Let's hope that the Cowboys lose this weekend.

Well, I'm back offering more NFL Playoffs content. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment. Or maybe I have fun writing these posts.

In my opinion, Divisional Weekend is the best weekend of the sporting year. Two entire days of football, wherein the Super Bowl pretenders are knocked out and the heavyweights - the #1 and #2 seeds - make their postseason debuts. We get to speculate about whether the top seeds should have rested their starters in the final weeks of the regular season and sought health at the expense of momentum. I certainly can't wait until 4:30 on Saturday.

The elements do not figure to be be a factor this week as 3 of the games will be in domed stadiums and the other will be in San Diego. Certainly not what I think of when I think of playoff football. Regardless, it would be difficult for the games not to be better than last weekend's slate. Unlike last weekend, we are going to split the posts up. Here are Saturday's games:

Arizona Cardinals (+7) at New Orleans Saints, Saturday 4:30 PM EST. The Cardinals are coming off a thrilling 51-45 overtime victory in which a defensive touchdown ironically ended the highest scoring NFL postseason game ever. Go figure. Some, including the aforementioned Mike Greenberg say that the Cardinals will be exhausted and mentally drained from the victory and the "long" flight from Arizona to Nawlins. I say bullshit. If the Saints lose, they'll say they were rusty coming off their first round bye. Rest, or lack thereof, is thoroughly overrated.

Meanwhile, the Saints, who were 13-0, before losing their final three contests, look to get back on the winning track so that they can win their first ever Super Bowl title. Incidentally, no team has ever lost its final 3 games and won the Super Bowl. If Brees, who was screwed in the MVP voting, plays like he did during the Saints' first 14 games, we could see a shootout of epic proportions at the Superdome akin to what we saw in Glendale last weekend. Brees finished the regular season with 4,388 yards (6th in the NFL) and led the Saints to a league-leading average of 31.9 points per game. (Interestingly, Cardinals QB Antrel Rolle was quoted as saying he'd rather face Saints QB Drew Brees any day of the week than face Packers QB Aaron Rodgers again.)

Cardinals WR Anquan Boldin, who missed the Wild Card matchup, did not practice Wednesday and is questionable.

How The Cardinals Can Win: Exploit the Saints' 26th-ranked pass defense. Also, they will need to replicate their running game that they had against the Packers (Nawlins was particularly vulnerable to the run in their final 3 games). Follow the Cowboys' gameplan and blitz the shit out of Brees and limit him to underneath passes. DO NOT GET BEAT BY THE BIG PLAY!

How The Saints Can Win: Big plays from Brees. Blitz the shit out of Warner and force picks.

My Prediction: I think this game will be a proverbial barnburner that comes down to the last possession. Offense rules. Kurt Warner, the surefire future Canton inductee, drives the Cardinals down the field for a Neil Rackers field goal with 20 seconds left.

Cardinals: 38
Saints: 35

Ravens (+7) at Colts, Saturday 8:15 PM EST: This is a game of contradictions. Current Baltimore team versus former Baltimore team. Top seed versus the lowest seed. The Ravens, in my opinion are undoubtedly the hottest team in the NFL. The Colts, au contraire, are the most rested team as a result of not having played their starters in 3.5 weeks.

The Colts are led by three-time MVP QB Peyton Manning (Peyton won the award this season to join Brett Favre as the only three-time winner of the sport's most prestigious award). Under center for the Ravens is Joe Flacco - he who owned a stat line of 4/10, 34 yards (tied with Miami's Bob Griese for the fewest in a playoff win in the Super Bowl era) over the fackin' Pats.

The Ravens had the 5th rated run defense; the Colts had the 24th rated run defense. The Ravens, led by the diminutive yet ravishing Ray Rice, finished 5th in the NFL in rushing; the Colts finished 32 of 32 in the same stat. As a matter of fact, the only similarity of the two teams is the relative inexperience of their head coaches - John Harbaugh is in his second year at the helm of the Ravens (and has two postseason appearences); Colts boss man Jim Caldwell, who has been critiqued by more Americans than President Obama over the last month, is a rookie.

So Who Will Win?

The Colts Can Win If: They are able to stop Ray Rice. As simple as that.

The Ravens Can Win If: Ray Rice runs wild. And Manning throws 3 INTs.

Prediction: Earlier in the week I was telling everyone who would listen that the Ravens would advance to the AFC Championship game. I was only one of the few who picked the Ravens over the Pats and I have a special affinity for Ray Rice because I picked him in the late rounds of my fantasy draft and he ended up one of the top Fantasy RBs. However, after looking at the matchups, I am not so sure anymore. Mainly, I am not too confident in Joe Flacco after the numbers he put up in Foxborough. Manning throws for 300 with 2 TDs with Addai running in another. Rice plays well with 140 combined yards and a TD, but not well enough to compensate for Flacco's turnovers.

Colts: 24
Ravens: 17

Come back on Sunday for the other two breakdowns. Enjoy the games!

Sláinte,
Joe

World Series Game 1: The Best Is Yet To Come

It's been a great season for the Yankees to this point. They opened the New Stadium which, despite being met with some outspoken opposition at first, has treated them awfully well.In the first 29 games (without A-Rod) they went 14-15, but has gone 97-46 since then, including the postseaon. It's been almost 7 full months loaded with affirmative answers to questions people had about the team coming in.

There were resurgences of Robinson Cano, Jorge Posada, and Derek Jeter's defense. The smooth transitions for Nick Swisher, A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia. A-Rod's recovery from offseason hip surgery and avoidance of bad press. Brett Gardner's development into a useful Major League player. Johnny Damon's power surge. Mariano Rivera's continued dominance. The sustained health of the team. Some small but important acquisitions during the season. All the walkoffs and pies in the face. The AL East title and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. Wins over Anaheim in Minnesota thus far in the postseason.

As fans of the Pinstripes, we've been treated to pretty much all we could ask for to this point. But we're not done yet. The Yankees will face the best and most complete team they've been this postseason and the series will start with the best possible pitching match-up featuring, coincidentally, the previous two AL Cy Young winners and former teammates on the Cleveland Indians.

After coming to the Phillies at the trade deadline, Cliff Lee went 8-4 with 3 complete games, a 3.39 ERA and struck out 74 batters while walking only 10. He only made three poor starts, but those were pretty awful, accounting for 19 of his 30 earned runs with the Phillies. In his other 9 outings, he was 8-1 with a 1.50 ERA.

You might say I'm cherry picking those numbers, but Lee's been even better than that this postseason. In his three starts (two in the NLDS), he's pitched 24 1/3 innings, given up 14 hits, 2 ER (0.74 ERA), and is sporting a strikeout to walk ratio of 20:3. The only weakness in his game over that time is that he's got most of his outs in air (39) as opposed to on the ground (26) or by strikeout (20). As we know, once balls get up in the air at Yankee Stadium they can find the seats in a hurry.

The pitcher with the second best resume this postseason will be taking the hill for the Yankees. After getting past the Twins with 6 2/3 innings of one run ball, CC Sabathia picked up the ALCS MVP for his work against the Angels. Sabathia was great in Game 1, going 8 innings and allowing one run, but was just as good or better on short rest in Game 4. His only mistake came on a home run to Kendry Morales and he needed only 101 pitches to rip through those 8 frames.

Like Lee, Sabathia has only walked three batters this postseason. Postseason games are notorious for their interminable durations but with these two guys on the mound, this one could be over relatively quickly.

As good as the Yankees have been this year, there is reason to believe that the best is yet to come. Along with most of you, I'm guessing, I feel like the Yankees are going to win this thing. It's not us just being biased homers, people who cover baseball for a living overwhelmingly agree. Those predictions don't mean a thing, but they do reflect who the best team is coming into this series.

We don't like to break him out very often, but we would have been remiss not to go with Frank Sinatra to start the World Series. The last time we called on Ol' Blue Eyes, this is what happened in the next 4 games. Past performances don't guarantee future results, but it doesn't hurt to try.

Let's go Yanks.

Out of the tree of life, I just picked me a plum,
You came along and everything started to hum,
Still it's a real good bet, the best is yet to come.

The best is yet to come, and baby won't it be fine.
You think you've seen the sun, but you ain't seen it shine.

Final Pre-World Series News And Notes

T-Minus five hours and counting, folks.

Predictions for the World Series abound. Keith Law thinks Joe Girardi's moves could make the different and goes with the Yanks in six. Walkoff Walk collected 9 guesses and six went with the Phillies. Here's the data from RAB's poll. The Star-Ledger staff offers some "outlandish" ones.

Joe from River Ave. Blues wonders if Girardi will use David Robertson in high leverage situations.

Matthew Pouliot from Circling the Bases weights in with a full-on preivew. As does David Pinto from Baseball Musings. And Dave Cameron from FanGraphs. And Cliff from Bronx Banter.

Jason and his crew have a position by position breakdown of the two teams.

A graphical comparison of the two offenses using wOBA from Beyond the Boxscore.

Want to know the real reason Jay-Z isn't playing before Game 1 tonight? He was scheduled to perform in Colombus, Ohio.

How can you not enjoy the quality GIF work of LSUFreek?

PeteAbe had some observations on yesterday's media circus.

An Indians fan gives some (angry) Midwestern perspective on the match up between CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee.

Tim Marchman thinks Joe Girardi is too smart for his own good. Moshe Mandel at The Yankee Universe thinks Marchman contradicts himself and laments the fact that picking Joe Girardi has suddenly become the cool thing to do.

Joel Sherman's World Series chat is starting right about... now. Jay Jaffe's at Baseball Prospectus probably just wrapped up.

And finally, Jon Lewin at Subway Squawkers offers some alternative viewing for Mets fans tonight.

Getting The Links Out

It's been a surprisingly lively day in terms of baseball talk on these here internets. Let's take a look around at what's going on.

Here is the best visual you will see explaining how the Red Sox got into the playoffs.

Big Legue Stew gives the Yankees their postseason entrance exam which is proctored by Rob Iracane of Walkoff Walk. It's worth the read just to see which of th ESPN talking heads picked them to finish third in the AL East.

You might have heard Michael Kay state matter-of-factly that the Twins were upset with the rain out on Monday night because it forced a double header. Conventional baseball wisdom says that it's harder to sweep a double header than it is to take two games from a team, but is that really true. MGL from The Book doesn't think so but the primates at BBTF think he should probably have looked at the numbers first. Somewhere in that thread (68 comments and counting) you'll find the truth.

Is Derek Jeter a thief or a liar? The Shyster wants answers. The best part of that post is the dunces on the comment thread who tell Craig to "get a real job" because they take offense to him daring to question the Captain's integrity. [Sidenote: By the URL, you can tell that the original title of that post was vintage Calcaterra ("Great Moments In Gift Giving"), but odds are an editor changed it to the more inflammatory current one. They got their desired reaction all right.]

Teddy Atlas breaks down a fight that broke out in the concourses at Yankee Stadium. It may be the cutest fight ever.

Shocker: According to Hal Steinbrenner, Joe Girardi doesn't have to win a title to return as manager.

The numbers are almost in, and it turns out that Yankee Stadium isn't quite the bandbox it was originally portrayed as. After averaging 3.78 HRs/game in April and May, the Stadium has given up 2.56 per game since then and only 2.46 since the All-Star Break.

Shelley Duncan's suspension for his role in the Posada-Carlson brawl was rescinded by the MLB. Matt thought Shelley might get off when he initially appealed it and it turns out he was right. Apparently you can kick all the ass you want, just as long as the camera's can't clearly see you and you don't start the fight.

The Indians fired Eric Wedge and his staff. Well, not really because they still have to coach the last six games of the season. This would be the rare occasion when "lame duck" actually applies.

PETCOA's run of amazingly accurate preseason predictions has come to a screeching halt. Well, maybe if Nate Silver wasn't so damn busy becoming rich and famous by predicting the results of the Presidential Election, he might have had more time to spend on his baseball simulations. Talk about misplaced priorities!

Well be back to make fun of the Royals in the preview shortly.

Calm Before The Storm

The next two series for the Yankees, separated by yet another off day Thursday, should serve as a nice tune up for the postseason and will represent the last meaningful games before the playoffs begin. During this six game stretch, the Yanks will certainly clinch a playoff berth but can go a long way towards securing the division and home field advantage as well.

The Yanks would have to falter badly while one of the other teams gets extremely hot to lose HFA or the AL East. If the Yanks go 5-7 over their final 12, the Red Sox would have to go 11-3 just to tie them and the Angels 11-2. Keep in mind that the Yanks have 3 games against the Royals and 3 against the Rays mixed in there as well.

So even though the Yanks just went 3-5 against the Orioles, Blue Jays and Mariners, and Pettitte is hurt and Joba sucks and Mo blew a save and Ian Snell just shut down the offense... let's try not to hit the panic button.

Expect both the series in Anaheim as well as the one in the Bronx against the Red Sox to extrapolated to predict the Yankees' success or failure in the postseason. There will be much talk about "playoff atmosphere" and possibly "must-win" games. Plenty will be said about the Yanks ability to get it done in the clutch and judgments will be made about whether or not they can get it done under pressure.

In reality, the outcome of these games has hardly any predictive value in looking towards the playoffs. Did the 8 consecutive games that the Red Sox won against the Yankees to begin the season do a very good job of predicting the Yankees sweep of them in early August? Then why would they dynamic change when the playoffs roll around? Answer: It doesn't, it's just a function of the media attempting to take the temperature of the team after every game in order to foreshadow what's going to happen when the games really matter.

Right now, teams are playing with house money and expanded rosters and as we know all too well, anything can happen in October. So whatever happens over the next six games, let's try to keep things in perspective.

Another Link-A-Roo

It's been a slow couple of days around here, Fackers, and we hope you understand. I know Matt's been swamped at work and I have had a lot of irons on the fire as well. Here are some more links that will hopefully tide you over.

-----

PeteAbe rounded up the Yankees' farmhands' stats from the MiLB All-Star games last night.

David Pinto from Baseball Musings continues his look at all 30 teams during the All-Star break today. Yesterday he examined the Yankees. Looking at where in the AL the Yanks rank it terms of pitching and offense, it becomes pretty apparent who hasn't been holding up their end of the bargain thus far.

Tommy Craggs over at Deadspin rounded up some experts on pitching mechanics to try and fix Obama's lollipop curveball. It was a pretty respectable toss, and when you compare it to his golf swing, he looks downright coordinated.

Cliff from Bronx Banter grades the Yankees based on their first half performance. On the whole they seem a little generous to me, but hop over and see for yourself.

Matthew Pouliot at Circling the Bases takes a level-headed sabermetirc look at the AL MVP. You can probably guess who comes out on top so far, but it's interesting to see how Matthew came to that conclusion.

Ben K. from River Ave. Blues talks about what the Yankees might have to give up in order to get Roy Halladay and why front officies and fans likes their own prospects better than others do. In his article, Ben links to Trenton Thunder blogger Mike Ashmore's case for trading Jesus Montero, which is well reasoned, but still doesn't make me want to see him go.

Jason Stark looks at the divergent possibilites of the Phillies signing Pedro Martinez. Joel Sherman compares him to David Cone. My thoughts... Pedro + Citizen's Bank Park = Yikes.

Before the season began, Lar from wezen-ball collected predicitons from seven bloggers (including me), Lar and a few of his friends. Click through to see how we are doing. (Hint: I'm not looking very good).

Fack Youk 2009 MLB Predictions

Ladies and Gentlemen, Happy Opening Day!

Below are the 2009 MLB Predictions from the Fack Youk team.


Brendan

AL East: Sox
AL Central: Tigers
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Rays

ALDS: Sox over Tigers in 4
ALDS: Angels over Rays in 5
ALCS: Sox over Angels in 7

NL East: Mets
NL Central: Cubs
NL West: Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Reds

NLDS: Mets over Reds in 3
NLDS: Cubs over Dodgers in 5
NLCS: Mets over Cubs in 6

World Series: Sox over Mets in 6

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera
AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay

NL MVP: David Wright
NL Cy Young: Yovanni Galladro


Jay

AL East: Yankees
AL Central: Indians
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Red Sox

ALDS: Yankees over Indians in 5
ALDS: Angels over Red Sox in 4
ALCS: Yankees over Angels in 6


NL East: Mets
NL Central: Cubs
NL West: Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Braves

NLDS: Cubs over Mets in 5
NLDS: Braves over Dodgers in 5
NLCS: Cubs over Braves in 6

World Series: Yankees over Cubs in 6

AL MVP: Mark Teixeira
AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay

NL MVP: Hanley Ramirez
NL Cy Young: Santana


Joe

AL East: Sox
AL Central: Twins
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Yankees

ALDS: Sox over Twins in 4
ALDS: Yankees over Angels in 5
ALCS: Yankees over Sox in 6


NL East: Mets
NL Central: Cardinals
NL West: Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Phillies

NLDS: Mets over Cardinals in 5
NLDS: Phillies over Dodgers in 5
NLCS: Phillies over Mets in 7

World Series: Yankees over Phillies in 6

AL MVP: Mark Teixeira
AL Cy Young: Jon Lester

NL MVP: Manny Ramirez
NL Cy Young: Brandon Webb

John

AL East: Yankees
AL Central: Tigers
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Sox

ALDS: Yankees over Tigers in 4
ALDS: Sox over Angels in 5
ALCS: Yankees over Sox in 6

NL East: Braves
NL Central: Cardinals
NL West: Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Cubs

NLDS: Cards over Braves in 5
NLDS: Cubs over Dodgers in 5
NLCS: Cubs over Cards in 7

World Series: Yankees over Cubs in 4

AL MVP: Derek Jeter
AL Cy Young: Chien-Ming Wang

NL MVP: Albert Pujols
NL Cy Young: Johan Santana

Number of Red Sox to come out of the closet: 26


Matt

AL East: Yanks
AL Central: Twins
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Sox

ALDS: Yanks over Twins in 5
ALDS: Sox over Angels in 5
ALCS: Yankees over Sox in 5

NL East: Mets
NL Central: Cubs
NL West: Diamondbacks
NL Wild Card: Phillies

NLDS: Mets over D'backs in 5
NLDS: Phillies over Cubs in 5
NLCS: Mets over Phillies in 7

World Series: Yankees over Mets in 6

AL MVP: Longoria
AL Cy Young: Sabathia

NL MVP: Manny
NL Cy Young: Santana


Will

AL East: Yankees
AL Central: Indians
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Rays

ALDS: Yankees over Indians in 5
ALDS: Angels over Rays in 4

ALCS: Yankees over Angels in 6


NL East: Braves
NL Central: Cubs
NL West: Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Mets

NLDS: Cubs over Mets in 4
NLDS: Dodgers over Braves in 5
NLCS: Dodgers over Cubs in 6

World Series: Yankees over Dodgers in 5

AL MVP: Mark Teixeira (Homer Alert)
AL Cy Young: C.C. Sabathia (Homer Alert)

NL MVP: Ryan Howard
NL Cy Young: Johan Santana

'Cuse in da House OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!

I am well aware that the College Basketball regular season is half over, but for the #8 ranked Syracuse Orange it's just getting started.

'Cuse is currently 16-1 and has played anything but their normal early season cupcake schedule so far. They have actually started traveling outside of New York State before Big East play, and within a three week period have had three big early season wins over #18 Florida and #22 Kansas on consecutive nights followed a few weeks later by a win over #22 Memphis. I would also like to point out that the Florida game was played on a neutral site, the Kansas game was too (but anyone that watched it knows it was basically a Kansas home game) and the Memphis game was played in Memphis.

Sandwiched in between these games, was a match-up against Cleveland St. in the Carrier Dome. This is one of the few games that I didn't watch, but lucky me, I will get to see highlights all fucking season. For those of you with your head up your ass, Cleveland St. won this game at the buzzer with a 60 ft. prayer. I would be unbelievably pissed off if it weren't for these other wins because this is the type of early season BS that could have potentially fucked 'Cuse out of the NCAA Tourney for a 3rd consecutive year. Fortunately, those other wins and the way in which they lost to Cleveland St. should prevent that buzzer beater from having much bearing on their NCAA bid.

As for the upcoming schedule, 8 out of the next 10 games are against top 25 teams. I don't know of any other team ever playing against that level of competition, but that is the nature of Big East basketball this year. With that being said, I think 'Cuse creates match-up problems all over the floor (mainly Johnny Flynn and Arinze Onuaku) giving them the ability to beat anyone in the country. I predict they will go 7-3 over the next 10, with the three losses coming at Pitt, at UConn, and home against G'Town.

'Cuse will most likely be a #2 or #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and maybe a #1 if they can win the Big East Tournament. It is way to early to predict how this will shake out, but I will tell you this:

Syracuse will lose pivotal games and get bounced from the NCAA tournament because of their poor free throw shooting.

Every team, every year has games that they win or lose at the free throw line. It hasn't come down to it yet, but it's going to come back and bite 'Cuse in the ass at some point. They shoot 63.32% as a team which is just not good enough. They have always been a poor FT shooting team, but this year is especially bad. Why they can't make uncontested, stationary 15 footers is fucking beyond me. Arinze Onuaku shoots 100 FTs every day, yet is 41.2% on the year, which is historically, mindbendingly awful (significantly worse than Shaq, Wilt or Ben Wallace).

All I hope is that 'Cuse makes a run at the title, I get to see Johnny Flynn posterize some more people this year and that everyone comes back so that we can make another run next year.

BCS Championship Game Recap and Drinking Analysis

Last night's game was FUCKING AWESOME!

Actually it wasn't that great at all, but I thought it was a little more entertaining than some might have. This is probably because I watched it with enough people to drown out the retardness spewed by whoever the fuck the announcers were.

A complete recap is easy enough to find on your own, but here is my take...

Yesterday, I laid out what each team needed to do to win the game. In the first half, I think that it was pretty accurate. Bradford was able to get the ball out quickly and spread it all over the field. The Sooners O-line did as good as could be expected against Florida's defense. This was also helped by Chris Brown running rampant on Florida, with 22 carries for 110 yards. I also think that Oklahoma's defense played way better than anyone expected and were able to contain Tebow, got a pick and put him on his back more than once. The biggest thing in the first half was Coach Stoops of Oklahoma going for it on 4th and goal instead of kicking the field goal and going into halftime with the lead.

The second half was all about running the ball; how Florida decided to run more and Oklahoma decided to run less. Tebow (22 carries, 109 yards) and Harvin (9 carries, 122 yards) were basically unstoppable in the second half. I was drinking a lot, but it seemed like Oklahoma inexplicably abandoned the run which was killing Florida in the first half. Florida's Major Wright (he really shut me up) made a huge interception on the goal line, which was the beginning of the end for Oklahoma.

I am a big fan of lists, so here is a list of what affected this game in no particular order:
1. 2 trips to the red zone with 0 points for Oklahoma. Should have got at least 3 each time.
2. Stoops going for it on 4th and goal.
3. Florida's blocked field goal in the second half.
4. Sooners abandoned the run.
5. Florida's defense coming up big at the end of the 1st half and for the entire second.
6. Tebow and Harvin running all over Oklahoma.
7. Bradford's 2 second half picks.

I would like to talk about Stoops for a second. He really fucked his team out there with the decision to go for it on 4th and goal. When you are playing for the National Championship you have to be smarter than that. That one play changed the whole outcome of the game. If they get these 3 points, then maybe Bradford doesn't throw that pick when in the 4th when they were down 17-14. I'm not going to get into all possible outcomes, but I just think it was retarded.

Douchiest QB
Both of these quarterbacks have been competing for this title all season, but Tebow wrapped it up last night when he decided to get an unsportsman like penalty at the end of the game. Nice job being a gracious winner you fucking asshole, I'm sure you made Jesus real proud. Cliff mentioned it in his post and I actually said the same thing last night while watching it, if i was a senior on Oklahoma, I would have ripped his helmet off and punched him in the fucking face.

Drinking Recap
The over/under on beers consumed was 13. Honestly, I lost count. However, after everyone left I drank 2 more beers by myself while watching some show on the Navy SEALS until 2 AM, so I am going to call it a push.

Post-BCS Championship Game Hangover Report brought to you by UPS (helping you mail it in!)

Will
Consumed: Unidentified amount of shitty light beers (I can ball park it between 10 - 17.)

Rating: This one only gets 1 horse collar tackle out of a possible 5.

Comments: "I wonder if the Navy SEALS would consider taking out Tebow?"

Jay
Consumed: split two bottles of Côtes du Rhône, drank one 22oz. bomber of Stone Vertical Epic 08.08.08, topped that off with a couple pours of Bowmore.

Rating: 2 horse collar tackles out of a possible 5.

Comments: "I really didn't want to get out of bed this morning until I realized it was Friday and I could wear jeans to work."

Cliff
Consumed: 8 Heineken's, 5 Labatt's (leftovers from New Years)

Rating: 1.5 horse collar tackles out of 5

Comments: "Feeling a lot better this morning than I thought I would, considering I feel asleep watching ESPN Video Montages to Tim Tebow."

BCS Title Game Preview and Predictions

Tonight's championship game features Oklahoma and Florida, two explosive teams with two of the best (and douchiest) QBs in college football. Lets break it down.

Oklahoma
The story behind Oklahoma is their offense, which is fucking unreal. They have scored over 50 points in 9 of 13 games, scored over 60 points in their last 5 games, are averaging 54 points a game, and are the only team to score over 700 points in a season.

Like any good offense this starts with their offensive line which features All-American Duke Robinson. This line has allowed only 11 sacks all season and is a major reason why Sam Bradford won the Heisman Trophy.

Bradford will need to be on point tonight, but he commands a small army of receivers all capable of making a big play which should help his cause. According to ESPN, ten receivers caught a touchdown and eight made at least five third-down catches. That is pretty good, but when you are destroying teams by 50 points these stats could be loaded.

Watch out for 1000-yd rusher Chris Brown. Florida has a tough defense that will be all over these receivers and a D-line that is capable of getting to Bradford, even with their great O-line. Brown has the speed needed to move the ball against Florida's defense and the Sooners will need him to come up big.

Florida
The bottom line with Florida in this game is their defense and their overall speed. Their fucking place holder runs a 4.2 40yd dash (not confirmed.)

Tebow gets a lot of credit for this teams success (rightfully so), but it downplays what their defense brings to the table. It is easy to win when you only give up over 20 points 3 times (2 of games being to #1 Alabama and #4 LSU) and give up an average of 13 points per game.

They have hard hitting LBs (Brandon Spikes) and a secondary that will make any receiver coming across the middle pay (Note: Florida's safety is named Major Wright. Who the fuck names their kid Major?) If their D-line can get to Bradford to rattle him up a little bit, they should be in good shape.

Game Prediction
Ultimately, I think that Oklahoma will have trouble moving the ball against Florida's defense and I suspect Tebow's offense will do pretty much whatever they want against this the Sooner D.

Florida 35
Oklahoma 27

Drinking Prediction
The over/under on tonight's beer consumption while watching this game is 13. I have been a little sick lately so I haven't drank since last Friday, so I am going to take the over.

Check back tomorrow for my follow-up posting about how 98% of what I just wrote didn't happen and how completely wrong I was!!!