Baseball Blog

BC released its Spring Depth Chart. Some key names are not listed (Castonzo, Herzy) due to various ailments and issues. Despite those absences, you can derive and learn a few things. Here are a few key takeaways:

– Momah is still at DE. Some referred to his redshirt year switch as an experiment. Well I think this confirms he will stay on the defensive side.
– LeGrande is back at Safety. This makes sense, since he was too talented not to see the field more and we have solid depth at LB.
– Richman seems to have the inside track at Center. Speculation varied on who would move into Tennant’s big shoes. Some thought Claiborne might slide over or they would give the job to Spinney. Now it looks like Richman, who played pretty well at G last year, will get the job.
– We are very thin at DT. Newman, who has been solid at DE, is now an undersized DT. We need to get healthy quickly inside.

While everyone will be making their March Madness picks this weekend, there’s another type of madness to watch out for when the Sprint Cup series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday for the Food City 500, the first of two races to take place on the half-mile wrestling ring that is Bristol. Here are five drivers to watch for, providing they can stay out of trouble, which isn’t always easy here.

NASCAR Betting – Sunday, March 21, 2:00 PM ET

Kyle Busch (+600)

The younger Busch brother won last year’s spring race at Bristol, leading 378 laps along the way. That makes two wins in this event for Kyle, although he still has to catch up to brother Kurt, who has won four spring races here. Busch has yet to break the top 10 this year as he sits 15th in the standings, and he’ll be on a mission this week.

Denny Hamlin (+700)

Busch’s teammate finished second to him here last year, and Hamlin is one of the best short-track racers in NASCAR. Hamlin has had some bad luck this year, coming into this race in 22nd place, but he has a finishing average of 9.0 in four spring races, and he’s finished in the top 10 five times in eight overall trips to Bristol.

Kevin Harvick (+1000)

The points leader is one of three drivers, along with Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle, to finish in the top 10 in all four races after a ninth-place run at Bristol, and he won this race back in 2005. Harvick has seven top-10s in nine spring races at Bristol, but he finished 30th in last year’s event. He’ll be one to consider in your sportsbook.

Kurt Busch (+1200)

Kurt romped to the win at Atlanta last week, and he is one of two active drivers, along with Jeff Gordon, to win this race four times. He just missed the top 10 in last year’s event, coming in 11th, so look for him to find his way to the front.

Juan Pablo Montoya (+2000)

This is your value pick, and we can guarantee that watching Montoya carve his way through Bristol will be worth the price per head. Montoya’s road-course experience has made him a master of using the breaks, which you do more at Bristol than any other oval except maybe Martinsville, and his ninth-place run last year was his first in three Bristol spring races. However, his aggressive style may also get him in trouble.

Pick: Kevin Harvick is the play here this week, as he’s running as well as anyone in the series, and he’s comfortable at Bristol. He would definitely be a No.1 seed if this were odds on March Madness.

Adding another name to the youthsportsparents honor roll. That is, a list that recognizes pro and Olympic athletes for speaking up about sports parenting taken to the extreme.

Joy Fawcett won two gold medals playing for the U.S. Olympic soccer team. Now she has three soccer-playing daughters, age 8, 12 and 15, who play competitively but mostly for fun.

In Saturday’s San Jose Mercury News, Fawcett says she often (too often) sees many parents “stomping around on the sidelines.” She told the paper, “Parents just go a bit crazy.”

We know.

Fawcett was involved in starting a youth soccer club in Orange County, California. She’s also an activist of sorts speaking about responsible sports parenting. On our list of outspoken athletes, she joins, among others, Dusty Baker, Wayne Gretzky, Joe Dumars and Mark Messier.

Looks like UGA is looking for as many as two more BCS caliber home games and two more BCS caliber road games for the upcoming 2010-2011 season. This is according to a message board post by our director of football operation on Basketball Travelers, a site where coaches and assistant athletic directors can exchange scheduling opportunities with each other.

“We are looking for H & H series for 2010-2011 with BCS schools. Looking for 2 @ home and 2 on the road.”

The site is one of several craigstlist.org type sites for arranging b-ball rendezvous.

The basketball schedule as of now for 2010-2011 includes:

Neutral:
Old Spice Classic (3 Games) – Participants include BC, Cal, Notre Dame, Temple, Wisconsin, Texas A&M, UGA, and Manhattan.

Home:
UAB
Hawaii (tentative)

Away:
Georgia Tech
Saint Louis

If you add four more BCS-level games to the mix, that would really look impressive. While we’re asking for 4 games (2 home and 2 away), I’d wager that we’d settle for three (2 home and 1 away). I’m also guessing…and it’s just a guess…that we wouldn’t go back to Gwinnett next season IF we could land the other games being asked for.

That’s the schedule for a team that doesn’t just want to make the NCAA Tourney. It’s the schedule for a team that wants a great seed. If Trey bails on us, I’d expect to see that schedule soften up.

Then again…all BCS teams aren’t created equal. If we ended up with Nebraska, DePaul, Penn State and Iowa as the four teams, it wouldn’t exactly terrify anyone.

PWD

(Ht – bigtuck31)

Over the past few weeks it seems like a lot of people are thinking about ways for baseball to improve their divisional alignment aka The “Poor Blue Jays, Rays and Orioles never have any chance. Boo Hoo Hoo.” Movement. It all seemingly started with Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports, then Tom Verducci got involved, and of course there were bloggers to rip both. Well since I’m planning man with a mild case of insanity here’s my idea for realignment, aka the most ridiculous way imaginable, a divisional draft.

Here’s how it would work. Each year we take the 6 Divisional Winners and we have a draft. A draft? Yes a draft. The divisional winners would select the teams they want in their own division via a typical 1 through 6 draft. Each team could decide whom they want in their division based on any principle they deem worthy. They could pick the Red Sox with the first pick because the Sox will sell out their stadium 18 times. They could pick the Pirates with the first pick cause you know they are going to suck.

Positive Side Effects (1): Everyone loves a good draft.

Negative Side Effects (3): 15 teams per AL/NL means at minimum one inter-league series at all time. Is that so bad? Rivalries might die quickly. Travel would get even worse for players.

A Mock 1st Round 2010 Draft and a Quick Conclusion After the Jump

1. Minnesota Twins – Pittsburgh Pirates
2. St. Louis Cardinals – Kansas City Royals
3. Los Angeles Dodgers – San Diego Padres
4. Los Angeles Angels – Houston Astros
5. Philadelphia Phillies – Baltimore Orioles
6. New York Yankees – Washington Nationals

The draft would then continue this way until the Yankees made the final pick at 24. The divisions would change radically each year and the draft would be MLB’s offseason biggest showcase.

This idea is completely ridiculous has no chance of every happening but is it really that much worse than any of the other ideas out there? I mean how would a division of Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Mets, Pirates be good for anyone?

Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

(if the slideshow is batty or looks sideways or anything, just refresh this page)

As Pirates fans, we’re in a unique situation in that our baseball team has set the record for most consecutive losing seasons by a professional sports team. Since the 1992 NLCS, we haven’t had a team that has sniffed a .500 record. Needless to say, every team for the bulk of the 90s and 2000s had players on it that were absolutely terrible. Sure, other teams can boast some absolute wastes of roster spaces, but when you couple in the repeated mediocrity of the Pirates organization, you get a unique perspective on baseball in Pittsburgh.

We’ll remember Jason Bay, Brian Giles, Jason Kendall. Same with the Freak Show squad…Randa, Loaiza, Young, Schmidt. Hell, for whatever reason, we’ll remember guys like Jay Bell, Jeff King, Jack Wilson, Xavier Nady. But there were the others. There were the Awful Pirates.

Yesterday on Twitter, I started the #AwfulPirates hashtag, to have a laugh at the chumps who attempted to Raise the Jolly Roger at Three Rivers or PNC through the 90s and 2000s. You’ve got a basic 20-year period (still ongoing) where the team was just awful, and these guys sorta tell you why. I picked the most random, terrible, vomit-inducing of the Twitter results to this point. However, there are plenty more…I tried to grab them all but realized I didn’t care that much after I was like 10% done. So maybe we’ll leave the others for future installments of Awful Pirates on PSAMP. You came up with plenty.

This slideshow is kinda like a box of your most horrible baseball cards. These are the ones you’d want your mom to throw away.

So if you have a Twitter account, make sure to call out the worst of the worst Pirates from the last 2 decades, and tag it with #AwfulPirates. And follow me, if you want.

Oh, and I feel the need to justify showing Alex Cole in a Rockies jersey. He played for the Buccos in the 92 NLCS, and doesn’t really have a Pirates card.

Those in this slideshow (Installment 1):

Adam Hyzdu

Alex Cole

Al Martin

Bill Landrum

Blas Minor

Bobby Hill

Brant Brown

Chad Hermansen

Chris Stynes

Ed Sprague

Gary Varsho

Jacob Brumfield

Jeff Reboulet

Jermaine Allensworth

John Smiley

Mark Johnson

Midre Cummings

Orlando Merced

Pat Meares

Rich Aude

Stan Belinda

Steve Buechele

Steve Cooke

Tom Prince

Turner Ward

Vicente Palacios

William Pennyfeather

*i had everyone who submitted these credited, but then the internet ate the article half-way through. so a major hat tip to everyone who named an awful pirate. -tec

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. For real this time. I get to use this awesome picture once a year. I think it’s the trophy that makes it.

What do Big Ben and Tiger Woods have in common? [OFTOT]

Check out Pat’s first-hand account of Spring Training. [WHYGAVS?]

Thoughts from Stoosh. [The Pensblog]

The localization of online media. [Blogs With Balls]

15 of the NHL’s worst trades. [Gunaxin]

MLB loves to hide their beuatiful game. [7th Inning Stache]

Every year I take a look across the major 4 American Professional leagues to see just what kind of superb merchandise they are trying to pawn off on you on St. Patrick’s day. Buy this shirt which you can wear in relevance for exactly one day during the year. Every other day you will look like an idiot for wearing green apparel for a team who’s actual colors are Black and Gold.

The NHL Provides you with some of the worst of the St. Patty’s day merchandise. First you have the boy shorts for the lady of your life with a bunch of clovers and then a random Blackhawks logo (These are available for NFL Teams as well). Next you have the puck which for whatever reason I actually like, probably because its not something you wear. Finally and worst of all, you have the new GRAPHIC-T which is god awful. Nothing says St. Patrick’s Day like the San Jose Sharks.

The NBA is much more muted than the NHL. Most NBA teams really don’t have more than two Green Items sold for St. Patty’s. The items I could find include the retro Pistons had which is pre faded to make it look like you can wear it more than once a year, a Cavs t-shirt which would probably be cool if it was in Orange and didn’t include a shamrock and a Knicks t-shirt which is both boring and horrible. Terrific combo.

The NFL likes to appeal to your drinking side so they have included Irish Pub signs complete with your favorite NFL teams logo. After that you get to the Cleveland Browns hat with their troll mascot guy and finally to the Denver Broncos black t-shirt which is horrible but not nearly as bad as the NHL Graphic-T.

The MLB and the Yankees unsurprisingly bring the most god awful hat in creation. Lets turn the Yankee hat into an Irish flag and then make it even worse by not even making it a fitted hat. Why? The MLB of course doesn’t stop there. You can also get a Phillies shamrock flag with a big logo in the middle in Phillies traditional colors. Go fly that flag with pride! If they replaced the shamrocks with Cheese Steaks it would be much more appropriate. Lastly we get to the Cardinals Green Jacket which is what Tony Larussa will likely be wearing when he falls asleep at a red light after too many Guinness pints.

So which of these leagues do you think provide the worst of the worst for green fashion day?

Here’s a look at 2009 and 2008’s Apparel.

Starts March Madness, that in future editions can be more crazy than ever are considering raising the box 64 teams to 96 – with gallons of Kansas with the team to beat. The Jayhawks are at least leading in the polls Americans about what college are favorites to win the NCAA betting title.

In Sports Illustrated, for example, 48% of Internet users are opting for Kansas. The quartet followed seeded Kentucky (25%), Syracuse (15%, which, despite losing in the Big East tournament, won the battle for his career in regular season) and Duke (12%). The last morning they played Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Winthrop to complete the final table of 64 betting teams.

Are those, though lacking in Arizona. The Wildcats have remained outside the box after 25 years there. The Tar Heels of North Carolina, reigning champions, were not included in the final panel by the selection committee for the NCAA Odds, reiterating its decision “for the role of teams throughout the regular season. Bruins (UCLA), Hoosiers (Indiana) and Huskies (Connecticut) will not. It is the first time since 1966 that the big five are not in the big party. “Well, what a party!”

Here are the NCAA Tournament Odds for 2010 March Madness.

* Kansas 7/4

* Kentucky 7/2

* Syracuse 7/1

* Duke 7/1

* Ohio State 12/1

* West Virginia 10/1

* Kansas State 20/1

* Villanova 18/1

* Georgetown 20/1

* New Mexico 35/1

* Pittsburgh 50/1

* Baylor 30/1

* Maryland 30/1

* Wisconsin 40/1

* Vanderbilt 80/1

* Purdue 60/1

* Michigan State 25/1

* Temple 60/1

* Butler 75/1

* Texas A&M 100/1

* Tennessee 50/1

* Marquette 80/1

* Xavier 80/1

* Notre Dame 80/1

* Oklahoma State 100/1

* Clemson 150/1

* BYU 100/1

* Richmond 300/1

* UNLV 250/1

* Texas 100/1

* Gonzaga 100/1

* California 100/1

* Northern Iowa 250/1

* Wake Forest 150/1

* Florida State 200/1

* Louisville 80/1

* Georgia Tech 100/1

* Missouri 100/1

* Florida 125/1

* St Marys CA 300/1

* San Diego State 250/1

* Washington 150/1

* Minnesota 200/1

* Old Dominion 300/1

* New Mexico State 300/1

* Cornell 300/1

* UTEP 200/1

* Utah State 350/1

* Houston 250/1

* Wofford 1000/1

* Murray State 350/1

* Siena 300/1

* Ohio 250/1

* Montana 1000/1

* Oakland 500/1

* Sam Houston 500/1

* UC Santa Barbara 750/1

* Morgan State 1000/1

* North Texas 750/1

* Robert Morris 1000/1

* Lehigh 1000/1

* Eastern Tennessee State 1000/1

* Vermont 750/1

* Arkansas Pine Bluff 1000/1

* Winthrop 1000/1

Paul Hewitt's glorious 5 year 7 million perpetual rollover deal picked
up another season.

http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-tech-sports/2010/03/16/hewitts-contract-rolled-over-tuesday/?cxntfid=blogs_georgia_tech_sports

This means the Wizard of Techwood will remain on North Ave. Where
he'll continue to underachieve.

Great day for UGA hoops. Eventually Tech will hire an elite coach who
will unlock the true potential of that program.

Pardon the typos. On a mobile device.