The Outside Corner

I got to thinking, which can be scary.  Before, I posted that Griffey is the best player of the era.  Which made me think who is the best player right now in the majors?

It A-rod.  Hands down.  Given what foreign enhancement he used from 01-03 doesnt matter in my eyes.  Take maybe 5-10 homeruns and 20 RBI’s off his stats through those seasons, and still his numbers are fantastic.  He is going to be the best baseball player that I ever see in my lifetime.  No one is going to be better.

He can hit, run, throw, and field.  The total player and that is why Steinbrenner and the Yanks don’t care if he used in Texas, they want him to break the homerun record in pinstripes and make them even more famous. Just another reason to hate the self activating Yankees. George wasn’t stupid, he gave A-rod the dollars he deserves, he is the best and he is going to make them famous by breaking the record.

I truly believe that A-rod breaks the record even if he doesnt use in those season.  He is just that good, and I hope that other people realize it.  There is noone that is better in the league.

My fantasy baseball draft is coming up soon.  I am in a league with one of the best sports fans I know Matt Freeman and several East Liverpool guys for the most part I think.  We are in the third season of our keeper leauge and I finally think I might break through to at least finish in the top 3, if not first place.

So I thought I would post my lineup on here and see what ya all think.  We keep our whole lineups and just draft bench players every season.

C – Kelly Shoppach
1B – Pronk
2B – Brian Roberts
3B – Chipper Jones
SS – JJ Hardy
OF – Alfonso Soriano
OF – Pat Burrell
OF – Michael Bourn
Utl – Victor Martinez

SP – CC
SP – Edison Volquez
P – Rich Harden
P – Ben Sheets
P – Fausto Carmona
RP – Jon Raush
RP – Ryan Franklin

I think my starting pitching is the best in the league.  CC, Harden, Sheets and Carmona barring injuries are all going to have solid seasons.  Volquez is my only question mark.  He has to really come off a great season, but is still unproven in my eyes.  If Volquez does have another great season, then my starting 5 is amazing.  My closers are terrible.  This is something that I will have to address in the draft.

As far as my hitting lineup.  I do have two question marks that I feel need solidified.  Catcher and First Base.  It looks like Victor and Shoppach are going to be eligible for both 1st and catcher so that is going to help.  However, I really think that Pronk is done.  He I am afraid is another case of steroids possibility and I don’t see him ever being the same power hitter on major leaguer again.

Catchers are so hard to come by that I am thinking of trading one of my starting pitchers for a stud catcher and leaving Victor at first, allowing me to bench or cut Hafner. Cause I have to leave Bourne in at utl, cause I need his steals, with Soriano’s steal decreasing ever season. Hardy and Chipper make up some power numbers for a not so great power oufield.

But I really think that my starting pitching can keep me in the race most of the season.  Of course their are always injuries and Sheets has to scare the dickens out of ya.  I dealt Ichiro in the preseason last year for Sheets and of course I didnt get a full season out of him, and that is all I am really asking.  Just a full season.

So comment and let me know where you think my holes are and where I need to solidify some areas.

I hope that everyone got a chance to watch the Duke v Carolina game last night.  What an atmosphere it was and always is when these two get together.  Neither of these team are the best team in the country but I am sure that this morning the Heels felt like they could beat the world after handling Duke in their gym.

What I want to talk about is the play of Tyler Hansbrough.  Was this guy really the national player of the year last season?  Every shot that he makes is tripping into a defender, drawing contact, traveling and throwing up some garbage over the shoulder half hook shot.

Then the sportscaster praise him and say what an amazing athlete he is.  Okay.  First off, he is not that great of athlete.  However, I won’t argue that he may be one of the hardest working players in the country.  I have never really seen a player give so much for his teammates and school that Tyler does.  And that is something that he and UNC should be proud of.

Lets get to the point here though.  For those that say Hansbrough is going to be a good NBA player are completely out of their minds.  What posistion is he going to play in the NBA?  His posistion is going to be bench.

Hansbrough is the third best player on his team.  Lawson and Ellington are way, way, way bigger NBA talents.  I even would go as far to say that Ellington is going to be a starter in the NBA by his third season and should be a top ten pick.

Tyler Hansbrough will not even be a first round pick.  He can play a little D and rebound.  But has no  offensive NBA skills and is going to be out sized at whatever position he plans on playing.  The only team stupid enough to take him in the first round might only be the NY Knicks, but how could they even take that chance?

I like to compare Hansbrough to Drew Gooden.  Drew Gooden came from a big program had a great collegiate career and was a pretty high draft pick.  Can you really say that Hansbrough will have a better career than Gooden.  There is no way.  Tyler isnt even Joakim Noah, or an Aaron Gray.

He si going to be a flop in the NBA.

Before all the sports people come out with their NBA mid-season awards.  I though I would try to put in my thoughts before you heard theirs.

League MVP – LeBron James

I am not going to start with the Kobe Bryant argument, cause I know that will lead.  However there is no doubt that Lebron deserves the MVP this season so far.  He still isnt the best player in the NBA.  However this season he is having the best season of any other player.  Todays lost at home to the Lakers is only going to fuel the L-train who is leading ths league in scoring and is averaging 7+ rebs and 7+ assist.

Runners Up – Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant and Brandon Roy

Coach of the Year – Stan Van Gundy

The Magic are no longer flying under the radar.  Their on it.  Van Gundy has made this possible.  With the addition a few years ago of Rashard Lewis he has his team in a great posistion to get to the Finals.  I love his simple strategy.  Give it to Howard if they try to play one on one down low and he will dominate. If they double Howard they have Turkoglu and Lewis busting bombs on the opposition.  Simple and effective and play good D.

Runners Up – Jerry Sloan, Nate McMillan

Rookie of the Year – Derrick Rose

Not much has went right for the Bulls this season.  Vinny Del Negro as a coach bad idea.  Larry Hughes is horrible for chemistry.  Noah is so overrated its sick.  Rose has been the only bright spot for Chicago.  But they did get it right choosing Rose with the first overall pick. He has averaged 16+ppg and has been in the top 15 in assist all season.  One question to ask ya to reveal how good Rose is.  What happened to Kirk Hinrich?

Runners Up – O.J. Mayo, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love

Defensive Player of the Year – Gerald Wallace

This is a personal pick for me.  This guy bust his butt every night for a not so great team.  He was recently injured, but is still in the top five in steals, averaging nearly two a game.  Every time I see him play he is always guarding the oppositions best scorer.  Very long and very active and doesnt get tired easy cause he does a great job on the offensive end for the Bobcats as well.

Runners Up – Dwight Howard, Marcus Camby and Mario Chalmers

6th Man Award – Charlie Villanueva

Averaging 15.4ppg and 6.6rebs a game so far this season off the bench for the Bucks.  He comes from a great collegiate program, so it doesnt surprise me that he is going to be a great NBA talent.  In just his third season, he has a career average of 12.9ppg and mark my words is going to be and All Star in the next couple seasons. Not giving this to Manu cause number one he is foreign and also has not played all season.

Runners Up – Jason Terry, J.R. Smith and Manu Ginobli

Most Improved Player – Danny Granger

Wow what a tear this guy has been on.  I think he has this award all but locked up.  Averaging 25.5 points which is currently fifth in the league.  In his rookie season he averaged 7.5, sophomore season 13.9, last season 19.6.  Are we seeing a pattern here?  Don’t think he can go up from here but is definetly worhty of his all star spot this season.  Actually should maybe argue he should be a starter.  Delonte “hands down man’s down” West is a close second.

Runners Up – Delonte West, Devin Harris and Paul Milsap

Biggest Dissapointment – Chicago Bulls

Biggest Surprise – David Lee ( NYK ) 38 Double Doubles

Finals Pick – LA Lakers v Orlando Magic

Late Season Trade Ideas -

• Brad Miller to Cavs for Wally Szczerbiak and Daniel Gibson

• Nate Robinson and Eddy Curry to Mavs for Josh Howard

I tried my hardest to tell myself to be original this morning.  Guess that is not going to happen cause here I am writing about the Super Bowl, which is only hours away now.  I am not going to go through the generic, and explain the obvious, rather try to pin point the MVP of the game and re-bute some discussions I have heard over the past two weeks.

First off, is anyone else sick of hearing that Larry Fitzgerald is the best WR in the league?  I have had Larry on my fantasy team the past three seasons and he is my number one keeper.  However I do not agree with all this, “best WR in the league” talk.  Everyone knows I love the Big East ( Fitzy is from Pitt ) but come on he is not the best in the NFL.  The Johnson’s have something to say about that.  The title belongs to Andre Johnson of the Houston Texans who is followed closely by Calvin Johnson.  Andre Johnson had 19 more receptions than Fitzy in the regular season and over a hundred more yards with Sage Rosenfels and Matt “stump the” Schaub throwing to him. And Calvin Johnson had a washed up Culpepper and Dan Orlovsky as his quarterback on a team that went 0-16, what does that tell you about the quality of their quarterbacks.  Still Calvin managed to tie Fitzy for the league lead in TD’s.   Fitzy is in the big show and the others are on losing teams that is the only difference and why all the talking heads are labeling him the “best WR in the NFL”.

The next issue I want to cover is Troy Pala-whatever.  If you are a listener of The Herd hosted by Collin Cowherd on ESPN Radio from 10am-1pm Est., you would know that he is a huge USC and West coast sports fan. ( Troy was a Trojan ) So after the past two weeks I have heard about enough about how great this guy is.  I would agree that he is a good player and makes big plays, but again he isnt the best player on the Steelers defense.  But ever time I see this guy play, it brings up a big NFL rule question for me.  Can you tackle a player by their hair?  Would it be considered a horse-collar penalty?  Or is it legal to grab a player by his gangster hair and pull him to the ground?  If so, I would like nothing more than to see someone do that to Pala-whatever.

Finally I want to try to pick the MVP of tonight’s game.  Obviously I am not picking Troy.  Call me a hater I don’t care.  I want to take the obvious Kurt Warner so bad, because his proclaimed love for Jesus Christ, and the fact that he is a true person and competitor. But I really don’t think that he will be the MVP or do I think that the Cardinals are going to win.  I think that the Steelers defense and the Cards offense are going to somewhat cancel each other out, leaving special teams the factor in tonight’s game.  Never being a Buckeye’s fan, it’s tough to say it, but Santonio Holmes will be tonight’s MVP.  Look for him to have some big punt returns against the Cards special teams and be more of a factor in the passing game with Ward not 100%.  Also, I can see the Steelers throwing the ball more, as the Cards defense looks to stop the run.  Heath Miller also could be a factor and is a huge MVP candidate in my eyes.  It just seems like one of those years there is going to be an odd MVP. ( ‘96 – Larry Brown Cowboys CB / ‘03 – Dexter Jackson Bucs Safety / ‘05 – Deion Branch Pats WR )

Hope the commercials are great to……..enjoy the game.

I once wanted to be left handed, fast, and able to track down a long fly ball to the deepest part of the Little League outfield. But I was right handed, slow and a middle infielder/pitcher that just wanted to be like the best player in baseball at the time.  I remember him running backwards at amazing speeds and crashing into the wall making a spectacular catch and then getting up and smashing a home run with the sweetest left hand swing ever.

There were other major league players that I idolized when I was in little league such as Frank Viola, Ricky Henderson, and Cal Ripken, but Ken Griffey Jr. grew on me then and is still the best and my favorite player of my generation.

Griffey, even with the injury plague years, is the best productive player in baseball over the past 15 MLB seasons.  Lets list all the players that have better numbers than Griffey during his period.  These are coming off the top of my head, so dont debate numbers with me just take overall production and lineup stature into effect……

• Barry Bonds – CHEATER
• Mark McGwire – CHEATER
• Juan Gonzalez – CHEATER
• Jeff Bagwell – CHEATER
• Sammy Sosa – CHEATER
• Frank Thomas – CHEATER
• Gary Sheffield – CHEATER
• A-Fraud – CHEATER
• Raphael Palmerio – CHEATER

I believe that all these players at one point in their careers were on some type of illegal juice.  Otherwise how could you explain the size of thier bodies and pop in their bats?  The only other two players that even come close to the production of Griffey and were not juiced is Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez.  I know what you are thinking. That is just because I am an Indians fan.  Wrong.  You can ask any of my buddies if you like, I can’t stand the worst baserunner and worst defensive player in the history of baseball Manny Ramirez.  And also have a grudge with Thome for taking off on us for Philly and his hitting coach Charlie Manaul.

So my instincts as a little league baseball player and fan were right when I started to love baseball.  I didnt pick a cheater in the long run and I wish all the young baseball fans today could have someone to look up to like Griffey in baseball today.  He has taken some flack for his injuries and maybe didnt give the Reds the total years they wanted out of him, but he gave me enough memories to call him the best player of my generation and one of my all-time sports heros.

The latest news about Griffey is that he may be going back to Seattle to play for the sorry Mariners.  This coming off last season where they only had 61 wins, no one on the team likes the catcher, Ichiro is starting to age and the acquisitions of Silva and Bedard were flops at best.  They do have Beltre again at third and I think he is a great talent when he has the confidence, but their projected clean up batter is Russell Branyon.  Branyon?  Oh no.  Mariners fans can plan on seeing more strikeouts in the three and four posistions in the order than any other combination ever.

So of the list above, I have only not seen Barry Bonds play live at a game and really glad I never have.  Of course I have seen Thome and Ramirez play being an Ohio native.  But never have I seen Griffey Jr. play live.  This year I am going to make it a priority to catch a Mariners v Tribe game and see some strikeouts by Branyon, Johnny P.’s weak range at shortstop, the Tribe bullpen blow a late inning lead and most of all my boy hood favorite player Griffey play.

Thats right.  There are four teams in the NBA that have 30 wins already this season.  If you follow the NBA at all you know that those teams are the Magic, Celtics, Cavs and Lakers.  This is the first time in the history of the NBA that this has happened.  So what is the reason?

Aren’t you glad that we don’t have to hear the story about how great the Western Conference is anymore.  Sure the Lakers are still great, but they still have the best player in the NBA. ( Which will soon be another upcoming blog discussion on my page ) And the Spurs have maybe the best coach in the leauge and in the words of former Houston Rockets coach, Rudy T.,  have the “heart of a champion”.

But of these four teams, three are in the Eastern Conference.  The Celts are the champs having acquire the big ticket KG. from the T-wolves to capture a NBA crown last season.  The Cavs have had an amazing start fueled by finally having a point gaurd Mo Williams to run the attack with LBJ. And the Magic for some reason continue to fly under the radar lead by the young combination of Superman Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson. Not to mention that Rashard Lewis remains to be an overlooked amazing long talent.

So given the great starts of all these 30 win teams, how would you rank them 1-4?  I will give you my rankings. Feel free to comment and argue your ideas on how these teams should be ranked keeping in mind how they will end the season, just not who is better right now.

#1 – Los Angles Lakers.  Ran into a destine Boston Celtics team in the finals last year.  The Lake Show has the best coach in the NBA, the best player in the NBA, the best clutch player in the NBA and enough supported cast to go with them.  Bynum is healthy and still has the raw athlertism needed to match up defensively against any other poward forward in the West and KG should they meet up again in the finals.  Also Gasol playing now a full season with LA gives them the nod as the best team in the NBA.

#2 – Boston Celtics.  They are still the reigning champions so have to be put ahead of the Cavs and the Magic at this point.  The Boston Three Party is a year older, but a year wiser.  The best start in NBA history was followed by a 2-7 run that brought them back down to earth somewhat, but the loss of James Posey is killing the Celtics from reamining number one on this list.

#3 – Orlando Magic.  Only get the spot over the Cavs because they have 3 main scorers.  Howard, Nelson and Lewis.  Not to mention that they also have a pretty clutch shooter in Turkulu. The question I have with the Magic is have they ever been there?  This could make a difference when coming to the playoffs, because they have never been there, but could still be a factor and can still get to the finals.

#4 – Cleveland Cavaliers.  Zydrunas Ilgauskas is not going to be coming back at full health if at all in my opinion.  The lack of scoring provided by Big Ben and Wild thing is not going to be enough to get the Cavs in the top three of this list.  And is not going to be enough to get them deep in the playoffs.  The Cavs are high on JJ Hickson, but that is all they got right now.  They are going to have to make a serious move.  I would like to see them package gibson, wally and hickson for Brad Miller and Kevin Martin of Sacremento.  Basically Lebron had his chance in the finals with Cleveland two seasons ago, if he wins a ring it is not going to be in Cleveland.

So there ya have, please comment and argue your points.

**PS…..You heard it hear first……Don’t count out the the Houston Rockets.  They will make a serious push in the Western Conference Playoffs.