With the baseball season's first pitch (in North America) less than 24 hours away, I felt it was time to offer up my predictions for the upcoming campaign. As always, these merely represent my personal views, and will certainly not pan out by October. Enjoy.
AL
East: Boston
Central: Detroit
West: Los Angeles
Wild Card: Toronto
Yes, I have the Yankees not making the playoffs, and Toronto getting in. The Wild Card will be an amazing race this year, as, in addition to New York and Toronto, expect to see challenges from Cleveland and Seattle. I believe it will go down to the last day.
AL Champion: Los Angeles
NL
East: New York
Central: Chicago
West: Los Angeles
Wild Card: Arizona
The NL West is the league's best division, and its most difficult to predict. With the exception of the Giants, every team has a realistic shot at playoff ball. It's time for Joe Torre to prove that he can win without the bottomless pockets of the Yankees.
NL Champion: New York
World Series: New York (Mets) over Los Angeles (Angels)
Call it a hunch: teams that blow division leads (like the Mets did last year) either collapse further down the standings or rally around it and succeed. With the addition of the majors' best pitcher, Johan Santana, the Mets have the ability to succeed. The only question is, can the Mets get past the mental block of last September and win it all? I think they can.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Post #100 Means More Random Ramblings
First, am I the only one who is surprised by the fallout of the Jonathan Roy pummeling/subsequent suspension? Roy get 8 games for beating the daylights out of an unwilling participant, and the outrage sparks a debate on whether or not fighting in junior hockey should be banned.
While I think it should, as a long proponent of banning fighting at all levels of hockey - including the NHL - fighting generally involves two people who are, you know, interested in fighting each other. What Roy did was above and beyond cruel, and his famous father encouraging to do so was just as bad.
Roy Jr. should have been thrown out of the league, for good, and his daddy should have had his bags packed. But don't tell me that a ban on junior fighting would have saved this situation from happening. After all, when you watch the video (which I specifically will not link from here), you can't see a referee in sight.
When something of this magnitude occurs, it is only natural to discuss the ramifications for the rest of the league, and the sporting world in general. In this case, the Q sent a message to the hockey world that bullying is permitted in their game.
Second, a huge thumbs-up to Raptors point guard Jose Calderon. In a sporting world filled with narcissistic, selfish dolts, Calderon is a breath of fresh air. Before Wednesday's game against the Pistons, Calderon suggested to his coach, Sam Mitchell, that T.J. Ford take his place in the starting line-up. Calderon said it was the best move for the team, and he was dead-on. Toronto beat the far superior Pistons by 7. If more players acted like Jose, sports fans would be far less cynical.
Third, on the same topic, Calderon makes less than one million dollars this season, and is up for free agency. If Bryan Colangelo and his team don't resign the guard, the fallout will be epic for years to come.
Fourth, it has finally come to a head for the Leafs. Last night, Toronto lost 4-2 to the Bruins, taking any remote chance of playoff hockey away from the Buds. The best thing the Leafs can do for the rest of the season is to start Andrew Raycroft in net, so one of two things can happen: either lose more to get a better draft spot, or show him off as trade bait this summer. Either way, Vesa Toskala deserves a break after 26 straight starts for the blue and white.
While I think it should, as a long proponent of banning fighting at all levels of hockey - including the NHL - fighting generally involves two people who are, you know, interested in fighting each other. What Roy did was above and beyond cruel, and his famous father encouraging to do so was just as bad.
Roy Jr. should have been thrown out of the league, for good, and his daddy should have had his bags packed. But don't tell me that a ban on junior fighting would have saved this situation from happening. After all, when you watch the video (which I specifically will not link from here), you can't see a referee in sight.
When something of this magnitude occurs, it is only natural to discuss the ramifications for the rest of the league, and the sporting world in general. In this case, the Q sent a message to the hockey world that bullying is permitted in their game.
Second, a huge thumbs-up to Raptors point guard Jose Calderon. In a sporting world filled with narcissistic, selfish dolts, Calderon is a breath of fresh air. Before Wednesday's game against the Pistons, Calderon suggested to his coach, Sam Mitchell, that T.J. Ford take his place in the starting line-up. Calderon said it was the best move for the team, and he was dead-on. Toronto beat the far superior Pistons by 7. If more players acted like Jose, sports fans would be far less cynical.
Third, on the same topic, Calderon makes less than one million dollars this season, and is up for free agency. If Bryan Colangelo and his team don't resign the guard, the fallout will be epic for years to come.
Fourth, it has finally come to a head for the Leafs. Last night, Toronto lost 4-2 to the Bruins, taking any remote chance of playoff hockey away from the Buds. The best thing the Leafs can do for the rest of the season is to start Andrew Raycroft in net, so one of two things can happen: either lose more to get a better draft spot, or show him off as trade bait this summer. Either way, Vesa Toskala deserves a break after 26 straight starts for the blue and white.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The Definition Of Insanity
It was reported today in The Globe and Mail that plans are in the works to bring a CFL franchise back to the nation's capital by the 2010 season.
For a league presumably concerned with its long-term survival with the likely arrival of the big, bad NFL soon, expansion seems like the last good option for Canada's football league, and expansion to Ottawa, a city where football failed twice before, appears to be an idea conceived out of idiocy.
Albert Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. The CFL's decision to move back to Ottawa after 2 failed attempts fits the category.
For a league presumably concerned with its long-term survival with the likely arrival of the big, bad NFL soon, expansion seems like the last good option for Canada's football league, and expansion to Ottawa, a city where football failed twice before, appears to be an idea conceived out of idiocy.
Albert Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. The CFL's decision to move back to Ottawa after 2 failed attempts fits the category.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
For Once, Toronto's Division Pays Dividends
For years, baseball fans in the GTA have gripped that the Blue Jays' fortunes were hampered by playing in the same division as the high spending Yankees and Red Sox.
Arguments against that aside (hello, remember 1992 and 1993?), Toronto sports fans get it both ways, as the Raptors are currently enjoying being 5th in the NBA's Eastern Conference, one and a half games back of home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
A quick look at the standings, though, reveals that if the Raps were in the Jays' boat, and in the tougher conference, Toronto's basketball team wouldn't even make the playoffs; in fact, they would be about 5 games out of the last playoff spot.
The reason, of course, is that the NBA's Western Conference dominates the East like the Maple Leafs dominate... well, bad example. The point is, when the 8th best in the West would be 3rd in the East, something needs to be done to level the playing field.
(Insert ironic Tim Donaghy joke here)
The purpose of the post-season should be to determine the champion, and that cannot be done if the best teams don't make the playoffs because of their particular division or conference.
So, how would it look?
Here, if the season ended today and the top 16 teams made the playoffs, is how it would look:
(1) Boston v (16) Washington
(2) Detroit v (15) Portland
(3) L.A. Lakers v (14) Toronto
(4) San Antonio v (13) Cleveland
(5) Houston v (12) Denver
(6) New Orleans v (11) Orlando
(7) Utah v (10) Golden State
(8) Phoenix v (9) Dallas
Under this format, only 1 sub-.500 team makes the playoffs, and that's only because, currently, there are only 15 teams above .500.
Are there problems? Of course. A Lakers/Raptors series would be logistically troubling, as would Pistons/Blazers. But we make accomodations for TV, why not for travel? Give the bi-coastal series an extra day off and call it even.
In the end, playoff ball would be improved because the best teams get in, and isn't that the point of all this? Oh, and keeping pathetic teams like Atlanta and New Jersey out of the post-season dance.
Arguments against that aside (hello, remember 1992 and 1993?), Toronto sports fans get it both ways, as the Raptors are currently enjoying being 5th in the NBA's Eastern Conference, one and a half games back of home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
A quick look at the standings, though, reveals that if the Raps were in the Jays' boat, and in the tougher conference, Toronto's basketball team wouldn't even make the playoffs; in fact, they would be about 5 games out of the last playoff spot.
The reason, of course, is that the NBA's Western Conference dominates the East like the Maple Leafs dominate... well, bad example. The point is, when the 8th best in the West would be 3rd in the East, something needs to be done to level the playing field.
(Insert ironic Tim Donaghy joke here)
The purpose of the post-season should be to determine the champion, and that cannot be done if the best teams don't make the playoffs because of their particular division or conference.
So, how would it look?
Here, if the season ended today and the top 16 teams made the playoffs, is how it would look:
(1) Boston v (16) Washington
(2) Detroit v (15) Portland
(3) L.A. Lakers v (14) Toronto
(4) San Antonio v (13) Cleveland
(5) Houston v (12) Denver
(6) New Orleans v (11) Orlando
(7) Utah v (10) Golden State
(8) Phoenix v (9) Dallas
Under this format, only 1 sub-.500 team makes the playoffs, and that's only because, currently, there are only 15 teams above .500.
Are there problems? Of course. A Lakers/Raptors series would be logistically troubling, as would Pistons/Blazers. But we make accomodations for TV, why not for travel? Give the bi-coastal series an extra day off and call it even.
In the end, playoff ball would be improved because the best teams get in, and isn't that the point of all this? Oh, and keeping pathetic teams like Atlanta and New Jersey out of the post-season dance.
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