Friday, April 9, 2010

TGIF Smorgasbord!

A few thoughts I have had during this great week of sports.

· The Pirates are off to a solid start after taking two of three games from the Dodgers, but they have to clean up the defense if they are going to be competitive at all this year. The Pirates have already committed 4 errors in 3 games (only 73 all of last year) and have failed to make other plays that they need to make (Andy LaRoche’s play in the top of the first in the opener sticks out). On top of that, the Dodgers looked to be stealing bases with ease against catcher Ryan Doumit. The Pirates do not have strike out pitchers as we have talked about on here. If they are to have any success this season, playing above average defense is a must.

· We are only five days into the season and yet only one team is still undefeated (San Francisco Giants) and one team is winless (Houston Astros). That is a far cry from the other major sports and makes baseball a funny game that way. The smallest margin of error exits between winning and losing, that is why even the best teams struggle to win 60% of their games. Imagine if the best team in football went only 10-6 every year…

· I have talked about the importance of getting the number two seed in the playoffs for the Penguins and it comes down to the final weekend. Then Pens and Devils are tied with two games remaining on Saturday and Sunday. The Devils hold the tiebreaker due to their sweep of the Pens during the regular season (would sure have been nice to win just one of those games now wouldn’t it!). The Devils have what should be a sure win against the Islanders on Saturday. The Penguins must win both games this weekend and root for the Sabres to knock off the Devils in the finale Sunday afternoon.

· I am still in shock that the Eagles traded Donovan McNabb to their division rival the Washington Redskins. Those that know me know I have long been a Donovan fan. I don't want to get into too much of it here as I plan to write a longer piece regarding the trade in the near future, but the Eagles have all but guaranteed their division rival a spot in the playoffs. Philadelphia has only missed the playoffs twice in Donovan’s 11 seasons, once in his rookie season and once in 2006 when McNabb missed six games. Further, only two active quarterbacks have a higher winning percentage than McNabb and they are none other than Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Meanwhile, the Eagles are left with an unproven quarterback in Kevin Kolb. That trade was simply a steal for the Redskins, but more on this in the near future…

· As I post this column, Tiger Woods just wrapped up his second round at the Masters with a 2-under 70 that leaves him (-6) overall for the tournament and tied for 3rd place. No matter what you think of Tiger as a person, or whether you are rooting for or against him this weekend, one thing is for sure: Golf is a whole heck-of-a-lot more interesting with him out there. I, for one, am looking forward to sitting down Sunday and watching Tiger in contention for another Major once again.

2 comments:

  1. TPQ If the season ended today the Pirates would finish at 500!Morton demonstrated the "Ace" stuff but once again gives up the huge inning!Hope a pattern not developing here and do you think this is symptomatic of the Braves' concerns re his intangibles? Enjoying the blog! Jack56

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  2. Jack56, glad you're enjoying the blog, it's been fun so far.

    Morton certainly has the stuff to be a big league pitcher, but his problem to me right now is confidence in his ability. His last start he threw 75% fastballs, and was behind a lot of hitters. He needs to trust his stuff more and attack hitters. I'm not sure on the intangibles yet, he is still young and in baseball, more-so than any other sport, talent takes precedent. I think we'll be following his season closely, the Pirates need to start making something of these "power arms" they are trying to acquire.

    The Pirates are 3-3 after 6 games, but have been outscored 45-30 so far. If they don't start pitching better and playing better defense, this season could get ugly in a hurry.

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