MLB Notes: Reading into Spring Training

By Matt Smith

When Spring Training rolls around in March, you have two different types of baseball fans: The kind who put stock into how things go and the kind who doesn’t.
Both of those things are wrong.
What you should do is put stock into individual performances but put no stock into the team’s performance. To break it down further, you should put stock into your star players or starters performances against the star players and starters from other teams.
If a player you are counting on, or a player your team just signed or if a player has shown a tendency to do something bad and that continues, these are all red flags.
I don’t care if it’s early March or not, if a guy is playing horribly, then he is playing horribly. It’s true that he has a whole month to correct it and that is where the whole “It’s Spring Training” argument comes into play.
Some players do get it straightened out, but some don’t. Certainly people who have struggled in the spring have carried that over and had horrible seasons. That is why it is a red flag.
Let’s get this straight: If a player is playing like crap in the early spring, it’s certainly not a good sign. You might not see it as a bad sign, but it is certainly not good and during Spring Training you want to be encouraged. Keep in mind that players are actually trying to do well.
The first name that raises a red flag is Andruw Jones. Jones is coming off a horrible year where he hit .222, a career low and 26 home runs, his lowest since 1999. He also struck out 138 times, the second most in his career.
But because of his track record, the Dodgers gave him a two-year, $36 million contract and early indications are that it is not a good signing.
Jones is hitting a whopping .133 so far this spring and has looked horrible against the opposing teams top line pitchers, including getting dominated by Johan Santana. You might say Santana is the reason for that, but it’s just an example. Jason Repko did get two hits off the very same Santana that day, though.
Another red flag that has popped up are Giants pitchers Barry Zito and Noah Lowry. Giants fans (that I know) are pretending not to be too concerned about their two lefties.
I think they are more concerned and for good reason.
Zito has pitched twice, losing both games and allowing nine earned runs for an ERA above 22. He has walked two guys in 3 2/3 innings, which is about five walks per nine, and he hasn’t struck anyone out. He did pitch much better in his second outing of the spring, so perhaps he has righted the ship after allowing one run over three innings with no walks. His eight runs in 2/3 of an inning is still very alarming, meaning he could be as up and down as last year and that should not be acceptable to Giants fans.
Turns out Lowry is hurt and will have a minor surgery on his left wrist, but he is a guy who’s control got away from him last year, and to see him come out and walk 12 guys in 2 1/3 innings, including nine in one inning, had to be very concerning. Giants fans might have been concerned he had completely lost his mechanics, or that he had Steve Blass syndrome. The best case scenario is that he is in fact hurt because overcoming injury is easier than overcoming yourself.
The red flag is up for Mr. Lowry and how he bounces back will go a long way in telling exactly what his problems are.
On the opposite side of that equation, Angel fans saw Torii Hunter batting .727 after Thursday’s game with the Giants. Of course he won’t hit .700 all season, but you have to be encouraged at his output so far.
Same goes for Jones, Zito and Lowry. You don’t expect Jones to bat .133 with no power and you don’t expect Zito and Lowry to have double digit ERA’s while walking every other guy. You just don’t want a terrible spring to mean a subpar or very poor season.
Speaking of the Dodgers and Giants, both Matt Cain and Derek Lowe gave up five earned runs on Thursday. Lowe got lit up in two innings against Boston while Cain was torched in 2 1/3 innings against the Angels. Yikes.

Taking it slow: A lot of big named pitchers are coming back from surgeries, and injury prone seasons and thus far the approach has been to take it slow with them.
Guys like Francisco Liriano, Mark Prior, Mike Hampton, Jason Schmidt, Randy Johnson, Kris Benson and Rich Harden (to name a few) are being handled with care as they try and make their way back.
Liriano, who has thrown batting practice, is said to have looked good and appears to be on track, will get his first start of the spring today. He will probably go two innings maximum.
Prior is going throw the process of building up to reach a point where he will be game ready. The Padres are taking that slow and it is rumored that it will be May when that happens. As of now, he has only thrown bullpen sessions.
The Braves are not counting on Hampton to be ready to help the rotation, but he threw two scoreless innings against Houston and has reported no soreness. Hampton seems to be ahead of schedule, but the Braves are understandably weary.
Schmidt, who took four days off from throwing after reporting fatigue in his surgically repaired shoulder, is back to playing catch. Schmidt will be handled very carefully and probably won’t pitch a big league game until May at the earliest.
Johnson threw batting practice on Tuesday, and says his back is not a problem. But he’s 45 with back problems, so don’t expect him to make too much of an impact.
Benson is another guy taking it slow as the Phillies took a chance on him. He also probably won’t be ready for opening day despite reporting he has been feeling good.
Last but not least, the most injury prone and perhaps the most talented (maybe other than Liriano) is Harden said he was pain free in his three innings against the Angels on Monday, but he certainly wasn’t effective. He allowed two runs on four hits, but reports were his fastball hit as high as 96.

I don’t know is on third: One of the more intriguing position battles this year is taking place in Dodgers camp and that is the battle for the third place job.
You have the 34-year old veteran in Nomar Garciaparr who is as good a right-handed bat as any when he is going good and you have a 25-year old rookie in Andy LaRoche who has gotten a very short audition at the big league level.
Joe Torre was probably hoping that one of them would make it easy on him and lose the job, but so far that isn’t happening.
LaRoche ended Thursday’s game with Boston batting .350 so far while Garciaparra, who sat out of Friday’s game, was hitting .333.
Torre seems to prefer experience, meaning Garciaparra probably has the edge right now if healthy.
Another whisper is the Dodgers interest in the Tigers Brandon Inge, but that seems like a foolish move at this point when you have two very strong candidates who will hit for a much higher average already wearing the uniform.

More A’s injuries: Speaking of Oakland, A’s fans probably expected the red flag to go up at some point during the regular season, but probably didn’t expect it at the beginning of March.
Eric Chavez and Bobby Crosby are battling to come back from various injuries, and the one thing they both have in common is a bad back.
Well, surprise, surprise it’s early March and back problems are already seeping their way into any hopes the A’s had.
Chavez had an epidural shot in his surgically repaired back and is reported as iffy for Opening Day while Crosby has already returned.
He was scratched from Monday’s lineup, but played Wednesday and Thursday. Don’t expect it to be the last time he is scratched as it is a situation that could get worse and worse.

NFL Notes: Favre dies of old age

By Mike Walsh


Every spring for the last three years Brett Favre had been given one year to live. He fought to maintain his quality of life, with varying success.
This last year he rebounded to the point that most people were convinced that he was going to live at least another year, if not two or three.
Then, unexpectedly, Favre died.
Doctors, friends and family have tried to pin point the actual cause of death. Some said it was the physical, day to day strain.
Others maintained that it was the psychological toll of knowing he was near the end and still trying to live as though it were 1997. It is often said that, at an advanced age sometimes people just lose the will to live, or in Brett's case, to compete.
Brett will be remembered as a fierce competitor and one of the best quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL. A service, in the way of almost 24-hour Brett fever on every sports network, will take place over the next week. Brett will ascend to football heaven in precisely five years. We wish his family and friends well.
Ok, that's not true. Actually he just retired. It seems plausible though, considering that it feels like he's been in the NFL for my entire life. The coverage of this event has already been inescapable.It's right on par with Barbero, TO, Bonds and Clemens as the most saturated story of the last few years.
In this case it is warranted given the magnitude of the player and personality that was Brett Favre. Favre wasn't the elite, untouchable athlete. He was an everyman who lived a simple life and over came addiction and tragedy throughout his career.
Everyone has their favorite Brett highlight, improvisation or quote. For me, the defining "moment" of Favre's career has to be the three consecutive MVPs.
In a time that featured many superstar quarterbacks and different position players including: Steve Young, TroyAikman, John Elway, Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice and Barry Sanders, Favre stood above them all for three straight seasons as the league's Most Valuable Player.
As excited as I am to see fellow Pleasant Valley High School alumn Aaron Rodgers get his shot, it is a sad day for football to lose such a fantastic player and, more importantly, such a great person.

Dunn in Atlanta: Cat Fancy may have finally caught up with Warrick Dunn. Dunn holds the record at Florida State for single season yards (1,242, at 7.5 yards per carry!) and career yards (3,959). At 5'9", 180 lbs., Dunn has amassed over 10,000 career rushing yards in the NFL, becoming only the third running back under 5'10" to do so.
It is amazing that he has only missed a total of 10 games in his NFL career with such a small stature for a running back.
After six seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, Dunn has been released. He has mentioned Dallas as a place that he would like to play. In the right situation Dunn could help propel a team like Dallas to the next level. He can still run and is a good receiver out of the backfield; something Dallas has lacked the last few seasons.
I hope he ends up in a good situation where he is able to contribute to a good football team. If not, the magazine cover curse may have finally got him.

Free Agent Frenzy: The annual free agent frenzy has begun. The Pats were able to hang on to Randy Moss at a discount price. While $27 million over three years might not seem like much of a discount, it is when you consider than theRaiders just gave Javon Walker 55 million over the next six years.
Especially given the fact that Walker had a bum knee last year.
Speaking of the Raiders...... they decided to give Kwame Harris a three year, $16 million deal. This is ludicrous when you consider that, while being completely healthy last year, Harris was left inactive for several games for the Niners last year.
If you are healthy and can't crack the roster of one of the worst teams in the NFL with one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL, why would anyone sign him??? Al Davis, that's why. The man is senile. His entire front office knows that they will have to over pay free agents to come to Oakland because no one wants to go there to play anymore.
While the Raiders have added some talent with Gibril Wilson, Javon Walker (pending the health of his knee) and Tommy Kelly, they have overpaid to do so and still have holes to fill. Still, they are in much better shape than last year and if Huggi Bear Jr. (read: Justin Fargas) can play like he did for most of last season, the Silver and Black might be on their way to competing in the AFC West.
Meanwhile, across the bay the Niners may have hired Brian Sabean to help out with free agent signings. That is the only explanation for signing Isaac Bruce. Not only is he old (he was a non-factor for the Rams the last two seasons), but every Niners fan hates his guts because he played for the Rams!
It's bad enough that Mike Martz is running the offense, now we have to watch Bruce be ineffective while remembering how he burned us time and time again at the beginning of this decade.
The Niners also signed DeShawn Foster, who is already upset about being behind a workhorse like Frank Gore. By not addressing their biggest problems which are O-line, D-line and wide receiver, the Niners are leaving a lot up to the quality of players in the draft.
And if they don't address those needs in the draft I will need to be defibrillated.

NBA Notes: Eastern Conference is a reason for change

By Mike Walsh

There has never been a better argument to change the current playoff format in the NBA than this: The Eastern Conference. While the overall talent of the top four teams in the East is better this season, the conference as a whole is miserable.
If I were in charge of the NBA I would make the NBA playoffs more like March Madness, in that the team with the best record in each conference would be given the number one seed in each half of the bracket and then every other team, no matter the conference, would be given a seed based on records alone. There might have to be some scheduling adjustments or strength of schedule factors, but I think it could work.
The West is loaded.
It’s very exciting, but the problem is that each series in each round is going to feel like the conference championship. By the time the Lakers/Spurs/Jazz get out of the West, they are going to be exhausted. Meanwhile the tops four seeds in the East will most likely sweep their first round opponents. I am so confident of this that I feel like only four teams deserve to be talked about as Eastern Conference contenders.

Pistons-I hate them. Nothing changes with them. A few parts here and there, but the nucleus remains, the unexciting play remains and the “not quite good enough” factor remains this year. They have the same team as last year, and that team lost to the fighting Lebron’s. How will they beat two out of the three threats this year? They won’t.

Celtics-As long as Sam Cassell passes his physical (it might be difficult to prove that his ginormous gonads aren’t tumors), he will give the Celtics the crunch time player that will make them the prohibitive favorite. He might be old, but which point guard in the east is going to exploit that? Chauncey Billups isn’t quick, he’s wily. Cassell has more wily in his giant left nut that Billups has in his whole body. Who are you going to key on if the Celts come out for a last shot with Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Sam Cassell??? They also signed PJ Brown’s rotting corpse. Whatever. They are going to be really tough.

Orlando-They are who I thought they were! Dwight Howard is a stud and is only going to get better. Hedo Turkoglu has been underrated his entire career and is finally shining. Rashard Lewis is still the enigmatic character that we all knew he would be. And they have horrible guards. No surprises. When the game slows down in the playoffs they can’t feed it to Howard down low because he’s not a great back to the basket player yet. They can’t rely on Lewis and every other team has someone who can slow down Hedo. Look for Orlando to leap frog Detroit in the coming years though.

Cleveland-Lebron would be the MVP this year hands down if Kobe wasn’t…well, Kobe. Still, Lebron keeps getting better. He is a better defender, better jump shooter and better crunch time scorer this year. We knew he was a better raw athlete than Kobe, but Kobe had the intense desire, hyper-competitive nature to go along with great athleticism and ice water for blood. Now that Lebron is figuring that part out, his ceiling just became “unknown”. The Cavs were the only team in the East to really shake their roster up in a positive way. I was in the minority, but I really liked what Cleveland did, adding an emerging point guard in Delonte West, adding consistent outside shooting (from someone other than their point guard) in Wally Sczerbiak, adding beef down low with Wallace and getting Joe Smith. Smith is a post player that can knock down the 15 footer all day. The Cavs can do a lot more on offense with these acquisitions.

Everyone else-The rest of the east is a cluster of subpar teams that are all difficult to talk about. The only other team that can look like a quality team is Toronto, but they are too flawed to beat one of the top four in a series. As for everyone else…. yikes. The Bulls are dysfunctional and no one can really pinpoint exactly why. The Hawks are the Hawks, the Wiz are injury plagued and have bad chemistry, the Pacers cannot rely on Jermaine O’Neal or Mike Dunleavy night in and night out, the Sixers (who I watched in person get blown out by Golden State) are all smoke and mirrors. Their only bright spot is Sweet Lou Williams. And the Nets, Gold bless ‘em, they traded away Kidd and brought in Devon Harris to deal with Vince Carter. Bad times.
I will be shocked if one of the top four teams gets knocked off in the first round. Although, come to think of it, the Cleveland-Toronto first round match-up could be interesting. I need to stop thinking before I change my mind.

Speaking of the Wizards: Washington might be getting the boost it needs to hang on to one of the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference as Gilbert Arenas has been cleared to return to practice.
Arenas has had three procedures on his injured left knee in less than a year, including two of them just three and a half months ago.
Still, with Arenas helping a team that has been decimated by injuries other than to their star guard, he could come to the rescue just in time.
He told the AP he was cleared to go full speed, but also said he was a big weary of getting hurt again.
As of now, there is no timetable for his return to game action.

College Hoops Notes: Cornell clinches Ivy crown

By Matt Smith

When the horn sounded at Levien Gymnasium on the campus of Cornell University in the sleepy town of Ithaca, New York, the Big Red had not only punished Harvard 86-53, but became the first official team to be admitted into the NCAA Tournament.
With that win, Cornell clinched the Ivy League, and though it will likely be a No. 15 or 16 seed, the Big Red have won 14 games in a row since losing to Duke on Jan. 6 and are 20-5 overall and 12-0 in conference.
The game was essentially over by halftime as the Big Red had a 45-20 lead, stamping their ticket to the Big Dance on March 1 and winning their first Ivy League title since 1988.
Not only is winning their first conference title in 20 years impressive, it stops an amazing streak and reign of terror in the conference by Penn and Princeton. No other team other than those two has won an Ivy League crown since Cornell won it in 1988; until now.
"It's hard to put into words," Jason Hartford, Cornell's only senior, told the Associated Press after the game. "No words can express the feeling to that one sound of the horn. All we could do is run as fast as we could to the middle of the court and jump as high as we could to be able to share it with the people that were there with you the whole way."
Hartford is only the team’s seventh leading scorer. The top two scorers, Ryan Wittman (15.3 ppg) and Louis Dale (13.1 ppg) are just sophomore.
This team has nine freshman and sophomore that will return to a team looking to establish its own little reign of terror, keeping Penn and Princeton thirsting for a return to the Big Dance in the process.

Bracket Watch: Things have changed slightly in some conferences, but have stayed the same for the most part. The for sure thing is that the Big East is still getting at least eight bids.

Big East
Ticket punched: Georgetown, Louisville, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Marquette, Pittsburgh.
Probably: Villanova, West Virginia.
Outside looking in: Syracuse, Seton Hall.
Syracuse and Seton Hall both hurt its respective causes with the Cuse losing to Pitt, a game in which the Orange led late in and the Hall lost to lowly St. John’s. Syracuse has lost three straight since its big win over Georgetown. Wednesday’s game between these two is probably an elimination game, meaning the loser needs to win the Big East Tournament.

ACC
Ticket punched: North Carolina, Duke.
Probably: Clemson, Miami, Maryland.
Outside looking in: Virginia Tech, Wake Forest.
After beating Duke and winning its third straight ACC game, Wake has gone from the underrated team to the team that blew it by losing three straight. The Deacons need to win their final two and then win two in the ACC Tourney to get in. Clemson probably punched its ticket by beating Maryland Sunday night, with that loss putting the Terps squarely on the bubble. Still, Maryland and Miami will probably sneak in with 20+ wins and a .500 mark in conference play.

Big 12
Ticket punched: Texas, Kansas.
Probably: Kansas State, Texas A&M, Baylor, Oklahoma.
Outside looking in: Nebraska, Texas Tech.
Even though it has the third best SOS in the country, it’s probably too little, too late for Tech. A win over Texas makes you think, but a late season and conference tourney run is a necessity. The four teams listed as probably in are about as in as they are out right now. All are squarely on the bubble. KSU has lost four in a row, the Aggies continue to flounder in conference play, OU lost Blake Griffin for the remainder of the regular season and Baylor still doesn’t seem to get much respect.

Big Ten
Ticket punched: Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State.
Probably: None.
Outside looking in: Ohio State, Minnesota.
The Buckeyes have lost four in a row, including losses against Minnesota and Michigan. They are out as of right now. The Gophers win over OSU is not going to be enough, despite having 18 wins right now, because their SOS is horrid.

Pac-10
Ticket punched: UCLA, Stanford, Washington State.
Probably: USC, Arizona State, Arizona.
Outside looking in: Cal, Oregon, Washington.
Arizona has the nation’s best SOS, but four losses in the last five games and six losses in the last eight games leaves the Wildcats at 17-12 and 7-9 in the Pac-10. They are a very, very iffy probably at this moment. Cal, Oregon or Washington will have to win the conference tourney to get in.

SEC
Ticket punched: Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State.
Probably: Florida, Arkansas.
Outside looking in: Mississippi, Kentucky.
Absolutely no change here as Kentucky’s hopes of shaking off a bad start and getting in the tournament took a hit with a close loss at Tennessee. That win might have made their conference performance to much to ignore. Arkansas came very close to moving into the ticket punched category with a win over Vanderbilt, but two losses in a row before that makes it impossible to do so. A win over Ole Miss and the Hogs are in and the Rebels are out.

Others
Ticket punched: Cornell, Gonzaga, Memphis, Drake, Butler, Xavier, Davidson.
Probably: St. Mary’s, Kent State, BYU, UNLV, Illinois State.
Outside looking in: Houston, UAB, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, St. Joseph’s.
The biggest movement occurred in the mid-majors as Gonzaga and Davidson have done enough to get in. Both played very tough out of conference schedules and have won their regular season conferences, with Davidson going 20-0 in the Southern Conference. Gonzaga by beating St. Mary’s just stamped its bid as well. Cornell is the only team officially in the tournament, winning the Ivy League with the blowout of Harvard. Illinois State moves up to probably, giving the Missouri Valley the possibility of two teams. The Red Birds have won three big games in a row, beating Creighton, Southern Illinois and Wright State. The MWC has three very good teams, but either New Mexico or UNLV will get left out because the conference probably won’t get three while Conference USA and the A-10 will probably have their fringe teams left out. Maybe Houston and UMass could sneak in.

Rankings: Memphis moves back to one, because it has one loss and should not have been dropped below No. 2 anyway, because all the Tigers did was lose a close game at home to a top five team. The main polls, ESPN and USA Today will have UNC No. 1, but that doesn’t seem right to me. Is anyone else noticing Xavier’s ascent up the charts. The Muskateers, if they win out, will definitely grab a No. 2 seed. This team is for real.

1. Memphis (28-1)
2. North Carolina (27-2)
3. UCLA (26-3)
4. Duke (25-3)
5. Tennessee (26-3)
6. Kansas (26-3)
7. Xavier (25-4)
8. Georgetown (24-4)
9. Texas (24-5)
10. Stanford (24-4)
11. Purdue (23-6)
12. Vanderbilt (24-5)
13. Wisconsin (24-4)
14. Connecticut (23-6)
15. Louisville (24-6)
16. Butler (27-3)
17. Notre Dame (22-6)
18. Michigan State (23-6)
19. Indiana (24-5)
20. Drake (25-4)
21. BYU (23-6)
22. Marquette (21-7)
23. Mississippi State (20-8)
24. Washington State (22-7)
25. Gonzaga (23-6)