Forsberg For MVP

It should be said that personal stat lines aren't the only things that win you most valuable player awards. It's contribution to your team and how valuable you are to it. When Peter Forsberg came back to the Philadelphia Flyer's line up last night an interesting statistic was brought up: The Flyers are 0-13-3 when Forsberg is absent from the line up. While the Flyers aren't exactly the toast of the NHL this year, it should be noted that they can't win without Forsberg playing. Does that not make Forsberg extremely valuable to his team? Is there any other superstar that can claim something similar to what Peter can? I didn't think so.

In fact, it quite oftenly happens that a superstar goes down with an injury and his teammate rally to perform better than when he was in the line up. Bill Simmons calls it the Ewing Theory, stemming from a Knicks playoff run after Patrick Ewing was sidelined. This is apparently not the case with Peter; but then again, the Flyers of 2006-2007 aren't as talented as previous incarnations.

All the glory and trophy talk goes to the players who rack up points (it's not like Forsberg is a slouch in the scoring department) but that's what the Art Ross and Maurice Richard trophies are for. I'm not saying Sid the kid isn't valuable or not worthy, I'm just saying that Peter the great should garner some consideration as long he keeps playing at a high level, of course.

NFL Division Playoff Picks

Seahawks (+8.5) over BEARS

I realize that Seattle was one Tony Romo hold away from watching the playoffs instead of playing this week. I realize that the Bears are playing at home after a week off to rest. I also realize that when these two teams played earlier this year, Chicago straight up jacked the Seahawks. But there is something about Rex Grossman that makes me severely hesitant to bet on him. I suffered through the Grossman rollercoaster all season having him on my fantasy team; believe me when I tell you how bad he can be.

But eight-and-a-half points are far too much to be giving in any intra-NFC game, especially the playoffs. Rex or not.

Pick: Chicago 16, Seattle 10

Patriots (+5) over CHARGERS

This match up has game of the year written all over it. Brady and Belichick are going up against Marty Schottenheimer and Phil Rivers. It's that sentence that makes me think twice about taking the Chargers. Marty is a notoriously bad playoff coach and this is Rivers’ playoff debut. One can argue that LDT can carry his team if Rivers falters, but do you really think that wife-stealing Bill hasn't come up with a game plan to combat that? Either way, I foresee this game coming down to a game-winning attempt, with the Pats losing.

Pick: San Diego 21, New England 20

SAINTS (-5) over Eagles

As much as Philadelphia is on a roll right now and has a ton of momentum, Donovan McNabb will get his wish and the Eagles will be bounced this week. Could you actually imagine what would happen if the Eagles won the Super Bowl with Jeff Garcia at quarterback? Would McNabb be run out of town? Watching him stand on the sidelines is depressing, he may as well be openly routing for a loss. The upside is his beard has come in super strong.

Seriously though, do you really think that Drew Brees, possibly the best pure quarterback in the league this year, can't pick apart a beaten down Eagles secondary? With all-pro Lito Sheppard out, it should be a long day for Philly in the Superdome.

Pick: New Orleans 34, Philadelphia 17

RAVENS (-4) over Colts

Do you really, truly believe that Peyton Manning can win two playoff games in a row? Has he ever actually accomplished that? I can't see it happening. Tack on the fact that Baltimore has assembled one of, if the not the best defense in the NFL. The only way that Indy has a chance would be if their defense plays as well as they did last week (which was more K.C. shooting themselves in the foot then anything) and McNair goes down with some sort of injury (more likely then you think). With their opponent's hopes in the incompetent hands of Kyle Boller, the Colts may come through, but most likely not.

Pick: Baltimore 30, Indianapolis 10

**EDIT**

I'm letting my editor from Tangible Sounds, Alyssa, pick the results for some games. She actually hasn't lost a football bet since I've known her but she has never actually watched a game. Sometimes you don't have to be good to be lucky.

Alyssa's picks are the Ravens and the Saints. Seems like I'm in good company.

The Math Behind Beckham

While many will be distracted by the thrilling MLS SuperDraft today, the biggest news in the history of the league occurred yesterday when David Beckham signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy. What Beckham will do for the league may not be as much as people want, but having a name like Beckham on the pitch will draw more fans then just the soccer die-hards.

His five-year $250M deal will make him the highest paid player in sports but crunching the numbers is where the deal gets really interesting. With the MLS season being 30 games long of 90 minutes a piece, Beckham will earn $308 every second that he plays (or $18518 every minute). This is, of course, assuming that he plays every second of every game for the next 5 years and also discounting the amount of time he will spend in practice and off-field activities. If he should miss time, that per second goes up rather steeply.
I've got the feeling Becks is going to love L.A.

Lesson Learned

For those who didn't watch the Celtics game on Wednesday, Tony Allen is a bonehead. After being fouled on the dribble, Allen decided to flex some muscle and show off for the fans. Driving the lane and attempting a dunk after the whistle turned out to be a bad choice. Allen came down hard and awkwardly bent his knee upon landing. If you called a torn ACL, you're right. The most sensational thing about this turn of events is the fact that he missed the dunk. Play the game right kids.

The youtube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3tKJ5lypzk

The Rory Fiasco

With Rory Fitzpatrick falling short of being voted into the NHL All-Star game, we all, unfortunately, get to miss out on countless heated debates regarding whether or not he should play. Any person who puts up the argument that he doesn't deserve to be in the game because he stat line is far less than average, is an idiot who doesn't realize what the All-Star game is about. Fans are given the vote for a reason; this game is an exhibition for the fans to watch the players they want to see represent the Eastern and Western conferences. Just because Fitzpatrick isn't up to snuff with the likes of Pronger, Neidermayer and Lidstrom shouldn't negate his right to play.

Everyone's favourite analyst, Paul McGuire, actually went as far as calling the voting public idiots for going along with the Vote For Rory campaign. I was actually looking forward to the possibility of these debates, too bad they won't take place.

Cooperstown Joke

Baseball’s Hall of Fame voting, the worst process since the one that put Bush in power.

This year two men who are overwhelmingly qualified for Hall of Fame status didn’t receive the entire 100% of votes. While Associated Press writers who have reached a status deeming them “worthy” of voting for inclusion to Cooperstown, those who didn’t pencil in Tony Gwynn or Cal Ripkin Jr. should lose their right.

One writer, Paul Ladewski of the Daily Southtown, turned in a blank ballot. His claim was that no one from baseball’s “steroids era” should be allowed in the hall. So players in baseball from roughly 1993-2004 will now have no chance to be inducted unanimously, even though a player like Ripkin, who played in 2632 straight games to set a seemingly unbreakable iron-man record, clearly deserves the honor.

The only thing that Tony Gwynn ever did was capture eight batting titles, five gold gloves and played in 16 all-star games. I would like to know how a man on steroids can have a career high of 17 home runs.

I could understand how a voter could leave Mark McGwire off their ballot considering the turmoil he’s surrounded in. But 23.5% of voters looked past his character issues (namely his ties to the steroid scandal) towards his numbers and the sheer dominance he had on the game during his chase for the single season home run record. McGwire is ranked seventh in career home runs and is only one of 20 players to have hit 500 long balls. Apparently, no one remembers how Big Mac started getting people to care about baseball again after the disastrous strike.

Shouldn’t Cooperstown be about recognizing the best players to ever play? Why should a player who participated during a certain time period be penalized because of it? And if most players were (allegedly) on steroids and other performance enhancers at this time, then weren’t McGwire’s statistics comparable to his peers? Was he still not one of the best in his era?

Hopefully one day, a better system will be put in place to vote for who is worthy of hall contention. Hopefully one day, McGwire will be enshrined in Cooperstown. Maybe one day the controversy with Big Red will be which team’s hat he will wear on his plaque.

The sad thing is, this isn’t even the biggest disappointment related to the Baseball Hall of Fame; Pete Rose, the all-time hits leader, may never be enshrined. But that’s for another time.

Why the Leafs won’t make the playoffs

This post was originally written on August 23, 2006
So there's a good possibility I'll be right.

In a league where parity is becoming more apparent, it is absolutely necessary for franchises to rebuild once their potential has been reached. The Toronto Maple Leafs think that their aging team core haven’t made it to their apex; the fact is the Leafs hit their collective heads on the ceiling before the strike even occurred. It’s this reason why their fan base will suffer their second consecutive season absent from playoff hockey.

Arguably the biggest story in Leaf Nation this off-season was the state of their coaching and management. The media demanded a head on the chopping block and it would either be Pat Quinn or John Ferguson Jr. They nailed this situation by retaining Ferguson and dispatching Quinn. If they had fired Ferguson, it would have been an admission by ownership that they had made the wrong choice by hiring him the year before. It was impossible for him to work within Quinn’s system which didn’t allow for a lot of growth for younger players.

The real mistake that was made in this decision was the firing of long-time Quinn assistant Rick Lee. According to sources close to the game, Lee sees and can manage a game the same way that Quinn does. If they had kept him around to compliment incoming head coach Paul Maurice, they could still, basically, have Quinn’s expertise behind the bench.

Speaking of Maurice, his is the right choice to take the reins of the team after serving a year coaching the Marlies. Maurice is the right man with the right system to develop the young players the Leafs have right now. He also has shown in his career that he can coach teams far into the playoffs, evidenced by leading the Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2002.

The Leafs have also been watching the teams in their division get stronger around them. Ottawa and Buffalo were already leaps and bounds ahead of the Leafs and figure to stay that way this upcoming season. Boston grabbed a premier defender by signing Zdeno Chara and drafted American wonderkid Phil Kessel (who has finally signed with the team). The post-Thornton Bruins won’t contend any time soon, but at least they’re showing signs of improvement.

Lastly, the Maple Leaf’s arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, kept together their already strong team, chocked full of young guns with nowhere to go but up.

The Leafs off-season moves have been questionable relating to their forward progression as a team.

The deal to obtain Andrew Raycroft is especially short-sighted. In dealing Tuukka Rask, the top goaltender of the previous World Junior Championship, the Leafs are showing that they want to take a run now instead of rebuild. Raycroft and his 3.71 goals against average (before losing his starting job and being injured for the remainder of the season) clearly isn’t suited for the new NHL. His performance last season showed that he was more likely a product of the old, big goalie pads NHL, than of the new, skill-based NHL.

To improve their defense core that showed it was lacking, management signed some name defensemen to throw in front of Raycroft. The problem is that names are just names.

Pavel Kubina, member of the 2004 Stanley Cup winning Tampa Bay Lightning, showed his prowess by sporting a -12 for a playoff caliber team. Fellow signee Hal Gill rocked a -4 and a grand total of 10 points. Last but not least, Ferguson made the decision to resign unrestricted free agent Bryan McCabe to a five year $28.5 million deal. This can only be described as overpaying to keep a fan favourite. The fact is that McCabe is a defensive liability but fans can’t get over his contract year point total.

Up front, the Leafs signed “defensive specialist” and future deadline bargaining chip Michael Peca. Nobody at head office seemed to recognize that Peca isn’t the player he used to be, notching 23 points and posting a -4 while on the cup finalist Edmonton Oilers. Also, if you think the drama between he and Tucker is done, wait until the first sign of anything resembling negativity between the two for the media to blow it out of proportion. The only positive that Peca could bring to the table is as the role of mentor to penalty kill dynamo, Matt Stajan (who has reportedly put on some pounds in his time off).

Add it all up and you can expect a season on par with the last, if not worse. Even those who look at the bright side could predict a seventh of eighth place finish at best. In that unlikelihood, the Leafs don’t even have a semblance of the “built-for-the-playoffs” teams the once had.

The Beginning

The Origin Post

I've started this blog purely as a place to write what I think. Being a journalism student (always learning), I know that it is important to get your name on as much work as possible; to make a reputation for yourself.

While some may remember the Ramblings I wrote in high school, I can assure you these will only be similar in name. Obscenity-riddled diatribes about what I did when I was drunk on the weekend isn't a format I would particularly want to keep. But you never know what might happen if I come on the computer at the wrong time of night (No Promises).

I don't know who (or if anyone) will read this site, but it's better than not writing at all. I invite everyone who stops in to share questions and/or comments.

I look forward to one day building a fan base, but only time will tell if that will happen.

Enjoy the Ramblings folks.