The NL West

Well, if nothing else, no one will be calling the NL West the NL Worst again anytime soon. The DBacks and Rockies play in the NLCS. The Padres have one of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball. And now the Dodgers... well, the Dodgers are making some noise.

Grady Little has resigned as manager of the Dodgers. His replacement? None other than ex-Yankees skipper Joe Torre, if you believe Tim Kurkjian of the Worldwide Leader. Kurkjian reported today that an announcement of Torre as Dodgers manager is imminent, and could come as soon as the next couple of days.

Oh, and just in case that isn't enough, there is another hot rumor about the Dodgers. LA is rumored to be one of only a few teams in the running to sign one Mr. Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod likes Torre, and the Dodgers are one of the teams that could afford to sign him. One of the weirder reasons i've heard for this signing is that Scott Boras, uber-agent, is based in Newport. A-Rod did not have a father figure growing up, and it's been speculated that Boras has become that for A-Rod.

It is strange, and a bit of a stretch, but is plausible if you think about it. A-Rod has made some strange career choices (Texas, and now opting out of the rest of his contract), and it could be due to Boras speaking in his ear. Boras is (naturally) looking out for himself, trying to make as much money as possible for his clients so he himself gets paid. This ploy of opting out of his contract, especially considering the timing of the announcement (during the 8th inning of Game 4 of the World Series), is a curious one, but figures to make A-Rod max money (somewhere in the 10 year, $30 million range supposedly). Understandably, Boras may want to be close to his best and highest paid client. Similarly, A-Rod may want to be close to someone he considers a confidant and somewhat of a father-figure.

Personally, i think the Torre rumor has legs. It was no secret they were after Joe Girardi, but he was signed as the new Yankees manager. So they went after the next best option, who is obviously Torre. As for the A-Rod thing... hard to say. The only teams i think could even afford to sign him are the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Cubs, possibly the White Sox, Dodgers, Angels, and maybe the Giants. The Yankees and Red Sox have both said they will not go after him, and i believe that. The Cubs are out because of their messy ownership situation (don't get me started on that either. MLB would be crazy not to allow Mark Cuban to buy this team, but they are too short-sighted and stupid to allow this to ever happen). White Sox won't do it because they can't really afford him, even though they think they can. A-Rod doesn't want to go to the Mets because he doesn't like the NY media.

That leaves the California teams, the Angels, Giants, and Dodgers. I just don't think the Angels will do it, it seems to go against their idea of building a 'team', as A-Rod is notorious for polarizing not just fan bases, but players as well. The Giants are a possibility, as no team in baseball understands the effect a superstar chasing a record can have on a fanbase. Make no mistake, A-Rod will be chasing records in the next 5-7 years, and will most likely break a lot of them.

And then there's the Dodgers. This team has the fanbase, tradition, now the manager, and the money to open the bank. The Dodgers have not spent mega-money on a player in many years, and with new manager Joe Torre, the Dodgers could be looking to make a splash.

If you are the Dodgers, you just sat through a season in which you were picked to finish first in the division, but in which the Padres showed off their amazing starting rotation and lost a one game playoff to win the Wildcard, the Rockie's showed off their great young talent and finished 14 of 15 in the regular season to win the Wildcard, and the Dbacks won 90 games and the division.

It will probably be a while before A-Rod makes a decision, but don't be surprised if A-Rod re-unites with Joe Torre and signs with LA. And when it happens, the NL West may be the most talked about division in baseball next year...

1 Game To Go

Oh, did i neglect to mention that the Dbacks clinched the NL West tonight? Oh, and homefield throughout the playoffs? Must have slipped my mind...

Bitch.

2 Games To Go

What a fantastic win for the Dbacks today. Going against the ace of the Rockies staff, Jeff Francis, against a team that had won 11 in a row, in Colorado with a raucous crowd, against a Rockies team still fighting for the playoffs, the Dbacks pounded out an impressive 4-2 win.
Behind a fantastic outing by Brandon Webb, who went 7 innings and allowed only two runs, the Dbacks clinched a postseason berth.

With the Mets losing (again. I told you), the Dbacks are assured of getting at least the Wildcard. Then again, if the Dbacks can win one more game, they will win the division. Oh, and also have the best record in the NL and homefield throughout. Not that that matters or anything. Ha ha...

Special congrats go to the Cubs, who clinched the Central division and a playoff berth tonight. The only negative to this, for the Dbacks at least, is that Milwaukee is now out of the race. And seeing as how they are playing the Padres, i really hope they will not pack it in the last two games. The Dbacks could really use one more Padres lost. I'm just saying...

Magic number for the Dbacks (as far as i'm concerned): Now down to 1. It's a beautiful thing...

Big Series!

The Dbacks open a four-game series against the Padres tonight, starting a stretch of 7 games in 10 games against they closest competitor in the NL West. Entering the game 3 games clear of the Padres in the division race, this series in San Diego and the three games back at Chase field next week will go a long ways towards deciding the NL West, and most likely the NL Wildcard in turn.

Sorry about the lack of posts the last few days, been a little crazy. Will get back at it again soon. In the meantime, check out some of my favorite blogs on the right, and leave some comments!

Dbacks

Where has this month gone? I can't believe it is the last day of June, this month flew by. It was a pretty good month though, in a lot of ways, but i'm focusing on the Dbacks for now. Three months into the season, with three left to go, and the Dbacks are in 2nd in the division, only .5 games back. For the month they were 14-12, with tonight's game yet to go. Not a great month, but not a bad month either considering who we played. The Red Sox might be the best team in baseball; the Yankees, though struggling, are always tough in Yankee Stadium. The Mets are rolling, and then we've played some tough games within our own division.

As for last nights game, that was awesome. We are once again camping so i couldn't watch the game, but listened to it on the radio. I liked the way we jumped to an early lead, then once we lost the lead we fought back to tie it. Livo pitched great last night, going 7+ innings for us, which the bullpen needed. And thanks to a little luck (How do you drop a fly ball Dave Roberts?), followed by another Barry Bonds home run, the Dbacks found themselves in the 10th inning, needing a lift. Enter Miguel Montero, stage right.

With a .226 Batting Average, 20 RBI's, and 5 home runs this year, Montero is not your typical clutch hitter. Bring him to the plate in the 7th inning or later though, and watch out. His BA jumps to .341, he has 11 of his RBI's, and four of his five home runs (three as a pinch-hitter!)when the game is on the line. That, my friends, is clutch.

And so Montero lifted a pitch into the seats, sending the Dbacks onto their 46th win of the year, most in the NL, in dramatic fashion. All that was left was for Jose Valverde to retire the side in the bottom of the 10th, which he did in order, including a ground-out by Barry Bonds to end the game. Game, Set, Match.

The Dback's are back at it again tonight, and have about ten days until a much-deserved break for the All-Star game (which better have some AZ players in it, if not it's ridiculous. We'll find out today). Then the Dbacks will gear up for the homestretch, in the hopes of bringing back the NL West crown to the desert.

Half-way through the season, and .5 game back, not a bad place to be...

Day Off

Como esta, bitches.

I must apologize for my lack of posting yesterday, the first day i haven't posted since i started this site. I was working during the day, and what was supposed to be a leisurely trek up a mountain to go camping turned into a four hour ordeal involving the changing of an RV tire and many, many swear words. In the end, it also resulted in us being stuck in a campground with no wi-fi access, hence the lack of posts. But today, i am back and better than ever. Or just back...

Ahh, the NBA Draft. So many possibilities, so many disappointments. Where was the KG trade? Where was the Amare' trade (thank god they didn't do that), where was the Kurt Thomas for cap space trade? Where was moving up into the top ten? In the end the Suns ended up with Rudy Fernandez with the 24 pick, whom they promptly traded along with James Jones to the Blazers for $3 million and cap relief. They also picked up Alando Tucker with the 29 pick, which i think might be good. I've been watching Tucker absolutely torch my Iowa Hawkeyes the last few years while he was at Wisconsin. What i like about Tucker the most, and what the Suns needed, was the fact that he can get to the rim and he can create his own shot. He could become a valuable contributor off the bench this year.

I do like that the Suns didn't give up Kurt Thomas. But i think the only reason they didn't give him up is because they couldn't pull off a trade to get KG. If KG gets here, Thomas is gone. No offense KT, i still like you. But in the end we kept him, and for all intents and purposes the rest of the team, minus Junior Jones. Who i will also miss, but i don't think it will affect the Suns in any meaningful way.

In other news, the Dbacks laid an egg against the Dodgers in the 4th game of their series, once again falling behind LA and San Diego for 1st in the NL West by a half game. They dropped three of four to LA, which qualifies as a slump. Good thing they have the lifeless Giants coming to town for their next series. While the Dodgers and Padres (hopefully) beat each other up over the weekend, Arizona should be able to sweep the Giants and reclaim their rightful spot atop the standings.

Moving on to the hockey.... ha ha ha, yeah right.

My illustrious brother wrote a fairly lengthy post a couple of days ago, and it was even pretty good for once. Though i wish he would run ideas past me, or even just mention them to me, before he goes posting them on here (Posts on every NFL team? What army of whipping boys do we have doing the research on that?). Also there will soon be another poster on this site, a certified girl. I know, seems a little strange having a girl post about sports, but trust me, she's pretty knowledgeable. Plus, she knows things about other sports and teams neither my brother nor myself give two craps about (See: Nascar, Pitt Panther athletics, Notre Dame).

I'm off to camp some more, but i'll check in later. In the meantime, do us all a favor and post some comments, click on our links, check out our advertising, and generally just spend some time looking around. We'd appreciate it...

6/28, the best sports day until football!

Ahh, what a day! Dbacks vs Dodgers for first in the NL West, with Randy vs Randy, Johnson making his return vs Wolf. The bullpens were spent after Tuesday's extra innings game, but Webb and Lowe produced a gem of a pitching match up tonight, with a huge Dbacks win. I am a lover of fundamental baseball, so I was pissed in the eight inning when you get a triple to lead off by O' dog and he never scores, come on! I have several other things that piss me off about the Dbacks but I will wait until they are struggling to bitch my way through another blog, I mean it is hard when they have the best record in the NL.

The NBA draft; is any more drama possible for the Suns? I have heard 7624 trade possibilities. I do not think any of them are coming true, except 29 and Kurt Thomas to the Bobcats for ..... nothing. Uh, I mean 16 million in saving for Sarver (Suns Owner and rich guy). I know for a fact that I am excited as hell to have Sarver sell the best defender we have against Duncan for money in his pocket. This is a crappy move and pisses me off. So many other opportunities to improve this team and yet we get rid of our Duncan kryptonite, brilliant! Can't wait to sit through another NBA draft where the Suns get nothing, sell one pick and then pick a Euro that we will not see for a year or two (maybe). Question, will they bring out Amare' and tell the draft crowd that he is the first round pick for the second straight year? I hope something better happens but I have my doubts at this juncture, 10:30 pm Wednesday night.

Lastly, if you can't tell we are big US Men's National Futbol fans, soccer to most of you schleps. Good luck to a very young team in South America. Playing against some of the best in the world, they are clearly bringing a very young and inexperienced team. The team will need lots of playing time together to create a real threat at the 2010 World Cup. I applaud Bob Bradley for his stance on playing the young players in this tournament and hope that they find lighting in a bottle and play well, learn to play together, and lastly find out who will be ready to play for the USA the next several years. PS- Congratulations on Winning the Gold Cup vs Mexico in a great game and good tourney. The goal by Benny Feilhaber was magnificent, the best goal I have seen in years for the USA.

Damn, only 67 days until the first big weekend in College Football and 72 until NFL. I could talk football 24/7/365, but have to survive the other seasons, NBA and Baseball. Starting in July, Lite and myself will start having blogs for every NFL teams and most major college football teams to get ready for the season. I am already starting to contemplate several of my fantasy football teams. We will be more than ready to give you all of the information that matters. Thanks and please add some comments to rile me up, I love a great debate!

Best record in the NL, wow

So the DBack's have the best record in the NL, wow that is very surprising. The east coast bias media, think the Mets, Braves and Philly's are always the better teams, but I think the NL West is very impressive this year. The Dodgers, Padres and the home team 9 are 9, 10 and 12 games over with the best pitching staffs in the NL. LA, SD and Phoenix are fighting for 2 playoff spots, no one in the central has a chance at the wildcard and Phily is only 3 games over while Atlanta is straight up playing .500 ball. 4 games at home against the Dodgers should be a great litmus test, and if the Dback's could win 3 of 4 then we will be buyers at the deadline instead of sellers as in the previous few years.

SO CAN THEY WIN THE WORLD SERIES? Crazy as the last sentence is to utter, they very well could. The AL has much better teams than the NL, but remember that Detroit was unbeatable last year and the Cardinals were horrible, but they were hot with the bats for the best week of the year, late October. 22 games over was the final record of the 2001 World Series Champs, and we currently are 12 over. Just food for thought, jump on the bandwagon now and start buying some tickets to the ball park.

Dbacks Off Day

So how 'bout them Dbacks? A young team, one that was supposed to take a year or two (or three) to develop and learn to play together. A young team that some people thought would struggle a bit this year, though very quietly was some pundits dark horse pick in the preseason.

They seem to be doing alright for themselves. 11 games over .500, tied for the division lead. The young guys playing well. Really well. In fact, they're playing better than some of our so-called 'veterans'. Examples: Carlos Quentin, .214 BA. Stephen Drew, .237 BA. I realize both of these guys came up just last year, but jesus. They should both be in the .260 range at LEAST. And Quentin... if it wasn't for his 2-hit, 1 Home Run, 3-RBI performance the other night he might be below the Mendoza Line (.200), and thus in the Minors. As it is, he better hope that night launches his season, cause if he keeps playing like he has been he's on the verge of being sent down.

Hey Carlos: You don't have to hit a home run every time you come to the plate. Base hits are good too. I'm just saying...