My Thoughts

Every year I patiently wait for my favorite sports time of the year. I watch every game and critique almost every move leading up to the fall classic. This year, however, is slightly different.

With the World Series now tied one a piece heading back to Philadelphia it made me think. Watching Pedro Martinez return to the Bronx and pitching in the World Series was an image I have been visualizing for the last couple of years. With one exception: I thought his long curly hair would be pushing out of a Mets cap, rather then a red Phillies hat as he walked off the mound with a gutsy pitching performance pointing to the sky.

As a die hard New York Mets fan I am torn this October. This is a position that I do not like being in nor am I familiar with it.

Do I root for the Yankees? A team that every Mets fan dislikes. The empire that has taken the back tabloids from the Metropolitans almost every day. Or do I root for the Phillies? A team that comes out openly and speaks about how they love beating the Mets. The Phillies are public enemy number one in Queens.

Yankees? Phillies? Such a tough decision, especially because I still find myself rooting for Pedro Martinez, despite him wearing red pinstripes.

After a couple of weeks, I have finally made my verdict. Even though I cannot see myself rooting for Derek Jeter or Jorge Posada I will be pulling for New York to win the series. Deep down I just cannot stand to see the Phillies, the team I hate most in professional sports, win another World Series. Last year was heart wrenching and I can only imagine what could be.

Once again, this is a position no Mets fan should be in. I will watch the rest of the World Series and do my best to try and root the Yankees on, but by no means necessary am I going to get used to this. Personally, I like to say I am rooting against the Phillies rather then rooting for the Yankees.

-Greg

Leon Washington lost for year

First Kris Jenkins. Now Leon Washington. Many fans may even start to think the New York Jets have become the New York Mets.

For the second week in a row, the New York Jets received disastrous news. During the first quarter in Sunday’s blowout, Washington suffered a broken right fibula and underwent surgery immediately. The injury was very horrific as teammates said they could see the broken bone poking through the skin.

Washington, who made the Pro Bowl last season, is New York’s most explosive player on offense. Last year, he led the league in all purpose yards. The Jets were able to use Washington in many different ways to try and get him in the open field. Washington excelled as a kick returner, change of speed running back and leading the Seminole formation.

Like Jenkins, Washington will be extremely tough to replace.

Fortunately, the Jets saw some promise from rookie running back Shonn Greene, who he had 144 yards and two touchdowns against the Raiders. Greene will be heavily relied on in Washington’s absence. Before Sunday, Greene only had eight career carries. Greene will immediately be placed into the fire as Thomas Jones’ backup.

-Greg

Cuban Star ready for Majors

Not many people may be familiar with the name Aroldis Chapman. That is going to change relatively soon.

According to ESPN, Cuba’s top pitching prospect is ready to start meeting with MLB teams this week in New York to discuss his status as a prized free agent this winter. Chapman defected from the Cuban National team earlier this summer when he walked out of his hotel in the Netherlands and never returned.

Chapman, who is considered alongside Yu Darvish and Stephen Strasburg as one of the “three great pitchers in the world right now who are not in the majors,” has many teams drooling over his services. Chapman is a tall southpaw whose fastball has been clocked as high as 102 mph.

The 21-year-old is still raw and considered a project. In the 2008 World Baseball Classic, his performance was average posting a 5.69 ERA in 6 1/3 innings. However, many scouts saw how good Chapman can be.

Many teams are expected to enter a bidding war to obtain the best lefty prospect in the world. Along with his dominant fastball, Chapman also has good secondary pitches. I expect Chapman to receive around a six year deal in the $40 million range.

One ESPN expert considered him as the left handed version of Strasburg, who was picked first overall in the 2008 draft by the Washington Nationals.

The phenom will become the biggest defect since Jose Contreras signed with the New York Yankees earlier in the decade. However, unlike El Duque, Contreras and Matsuzaka the former Cuban ace is much younger and more talented. Chapman has a great personality and a lot of charisma that may translate well into the majors.

It’s safe to say Chapman will be pitching in the majors within the next two years.

-Greg

Jenkins Out for Year

On Monday, the New York Jets announced that they will be playing the rest of the season without Pro Bowl nose tackle Kris Jenkins. Jenkins tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a 16-13 loss to Buffalo.

At 6-foot-4 and 360 pounds the Jets will have huge shoes to fill. Jenkins commanded a double team on every play and was an essential piece in stopping the run. Expect Rex Ryan to use more four man fronts in the future with Sione Pouha and Howard Green to help replace Jenkins.

If there was one player the Jets could not afford to lose it would easily be Jenkins. The four-time Pro Bowler was the anchor on one of the top ranked defenses in the league. With Jenkins attracting two blockers, holes were able to open up for linebackers Bart Scott and David Harris to apply pressure on the offense.

The Jets have now lost three straight games since starting out the season 3-0. The loss of Jenkins may continue their losing streak. The Jets may have been able to lose Thomas Jones, Kerry Rhodes or even Mark Sanchez to an injury but not Kris Jenkins. He is simply irreplaceable.

-Greg

The Weekend has Begun

Gotta love Thursday nights in Autumn.

With the snow falling here in Happy Valley, the sports weekend got underway with crucial games in two warm southern cities. The Phils got off to a good start in the NLCS with an 8-6 victory over the Dodgers. Three run homers by Carlos Ruiz and Raul Ibanez carried Philadelphia to its fifth win in six LCS games against LA.

Pedro Martinez will get the ball for the Phillies in game two against one-time Phils’ ace Vicente Padilla. The talk during the past few weeks has been about Pedro’s inability to pitch in the cold. Temperatures will be in the 70s at game time, but will that be enough to mask the fact that he is nearly 38 years old? We’ll see if Pedro can re-kindle his magic of a decade ago.

Meanwhile, on the east coast, the Cincinnati Bearcats lost their starting QB, Tony Pike to a left-arm injury—nothing new to the quarterback who has played this entire season with a plate in his forearm. But the Bearcats continued their Big East title hunt with a convincing 34-17 road victory at South Florida. The contest was arguably the Bearcats’ toughest hurdle on their way to an unbeaten season.

The Bearcats will have a couple of weeks to rest Pike. They aren’t quite bye weeks, but consecutive matchups with Louisville and Syracuse might be the next best thing. Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly has already said he will sit Pike next week.

In the last few years we have seen mid-major schools like Boise State and Utah finish undefeated and get snubbed out of a BCS title. The question this year with Cinci is: How long until we start the debate about an unbeaten BCS-Conference champion getting left out of the national title to a one-loss SEC or Big 12 team?

We discussed the Bearcats’ chances, the NLCS and more on today’s show with special guests Sweeny Murti and Wayne Staats. Check back here in the next week for an archived version of the show.

-AJ

Big East football is back… At least for one night

Go ahead. Watch game 1 of Phils-Dodgers Thursday. In all likelihood I’ll be doing the same thing.
But when the game cuts to its commercials (30 seconds longer than usual thanks to Bud Selig) don’t forget that another title is on the line just a few channels over on ESPN.

Sure in the past few seasons the Big East football championship hasn’t meant much, but this Thursday’s South Florida-Cincinnati game will be the toughest test of the year for a pair of unbeaten teams. The Cincinnati Bearcats, currently ranked eighth in the country have legit BCS title hopes if they can get by USF as well as games against West Virginia, Illinois and at Pittsburgh to close the season.

South Florida would likely be a national title contender as well if it weren’t for the loss of Matt Groethe, who holds just about every passing record in school history. But the Bulls haven’t missed a beat since the senior quarterback went down with a left knee injury. Freshman quarterback BJ Daniels led USF to a victory at Florida State followed by a sloppy, but convincing win over the lowly Syracuse Orange.

It’s been a little under a decade since the Big East has had a matchup with national title implications – albeit small ones – for both teams. Not since Ken Dorsey and the Canes were battling Virginia Tech for the conference crown every year has the conference had a game as important as this one.

Need more reasons to watch? Cinci quarterback Tony Pike is establishing himself as a Heisman Candidate, and a national televised game against a top-25 team could go a long way in determining if he is a real contender for the award. He has a 67 percent completion percentage and nearly 1500 yards, all while throwing 13 tds and just three picks.

Mardy Gilyard, Pike’s main target, is quietly becoming one of the nation’s best receivers with over 500 yards and seven touchdowns this season. Aside from the finale at Heinz Field, this is the Bearcats’ toughest road matchup of the year. The easy schedule and combination at WR and QB, coupled with the conference’s best coach in Brian Kelly make Cincinnati a threat to finish the season unbeaten. Whether they receive a crack at the national title is a debate for another day.

So instead of flipping to the Office during Thursday’s breaks between games, don’t forget there is actually a very meaningful game going on in Big East country.

Yeah. It’s been a while.

-AJ

MLB off-day thoughts

Whew. Time to take a breath. With three postseason series ending in sweeps and another in a four-game, snow-delayed, Phillies victory, the MLB playoffs will be put on hold for a couple of nights, to let fans, managers and players take a break and reset themselves for the second round.

This year marks the third postseason played with Bud Selig’s newly-implemented four off-days. For a lot of players and fans it gets tough to handle. The Yanks, Angels and Dodgers each have a four-day break between games. During the season the same teams could go a month and only have four days off.

Going around the fact that the extra days off for weather (which the league wouldn’t have needed if it was wise enough not to schedule a nighttime first pitch on a Saturday in Colorado in October) has brought each of the last three postseasons to a grinding halt at one point or another, the day off presents teams with some interesting question marks regarding their pitching staffs.

Bullpen-wise (and we saw this in the first round) there is no need at all to save arms. With the abundance of rest days – including one between games 4 and 5 that isn’t even used for travel, managers can throw the idea of saving a bullpen out the window. In round one we saw this with Papelbon, Rivera, Street and Broxton. In fact, the Sox’ game 3 loss could be attributed to Jonathan Papelbon being put in an inning early.

But starting rotations have seen the most alterations because of the off days. Teams that used a five-man cycle for 162 games now have the option of pitching only three. Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi has already said he will go with a three-man rotation, and as a result, CC Sabathia will be the only pitcher forced to go on short rest – something he is certainly not afraid of doing.

No other team remaining has the same kind of top-heavy rotation that the Yankees do, but LA got a lot out of Clayton Kershaw in game 1. He may be young, but as the Dodgers’ best arm (and a lefty against a lefty-loaded Philly lineup), the prospect of him pitching three times in one series is a daunting one. The Phillies and Angels have announced four-man rotations, but if they are desperate Lackey and Lee are both names opposing batters wouldn’t want to hear three times in a series.

The extra days off for weather have certainly added a new dimension to what managers must think about come playoff time. They have also distanced the postseason even further from the regular season. Major League Baseball is a league in which the “best team” and the “best playoff team” are rarely ever the same. For six months these four teams used a five-man rotation (six for a couple of weeks in Philly). With the year’s most critical games looming, rotations have been reduced to three or four, and Girardi, Scoscia, Torre and Manuel will all be faced with a tough choice in the next few days.

-AJ

Sabathia

The Wildcat

Last night, the Miami Dolphins ran 16 plays out of the wildcat formation for 110 yards and a touchdown. The wildcat has become one of the most successful formations of the NFL. The Jets defense tried everything they possibly could by playing numerous amounts of packages and looks to stop the wildcat. The wildcat was reinstalled in the NFL around a year ago by Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano. Last year, the wildcat helped guide the Dolphins to 11 wins and a division crown. There are a lot of copycats in the NFL. Many teams saw how successful the wildcat was and tried to put their own version of it in their playbook. The New York Jets run the “Seminole,” where Leon Washington will take a direct snap and either run or hand it off to a sweeping Brad Smith. Last week we saw how successful the “Wild Horses” package was against the New England Patriots as Kyle Orton starts off in the slot and motions back to his normal position. This gave Orton a chance to scan the defense from a different spot on the field and also kept the Pats guessing in case Knowshon Moreno decided to run with the ball on a direct snap. The Philadelphia Eagles signed Michael Vick mainly for the reason of putting him in a wildcat formation. The only thing is nobody can run the wacky formation better than the Dolphins. For the first time all year, Ronnie Brown threw a 21 yard pass to tight end Anthony Fasano in the first quarter. The wildcat has developed so much from last season with tons of variations and looks.

-Greg

Dolphins Defeat Jets in Last Seconds

The Miami Dolphins scored the game winning touchdown in the final seconds against the New York Jets as Ronnie Brown ran out of the wildcat formation to defeat the Jets 31-27. Chad Henne, who was making his second career start, looked like a veteran and was able to make big plays for his team when they needed it. Trailing 20-17 with just over 10 minutes to play, Henne threw a perfect 53-yard touchdown strike to wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. who burned the Jets secondary. On the last drive, Henne was able to march the Dolphins down the field, which eventually set up the game winning touchdown. The New York Jets defense did not play well at all. The Dolphins held on to the ball for over 30 minutes and rushed for 151 yards, which is exactly what Miami drew up. The Jets could not stop the wildcat and barely put any pressure on Henne. “I used to see all those gimmicks when I was coaching back in college,” Rex Ryan said. “I’ve been a part of some bad performances before on defense, just not this bad.” There were some bright spots for the Jets though. Newcomer Braylon Edwards had a great debut as he caught five passes for 64 yards, including a touchdown on his very first catch as a New York Jet. I was also impressed with wide receiver David Clowney. In my previous post I mentioned how the departure of Chansi Stuckey might open up some playing time for Clowney. That is exactly what happened as Clowney played and delivered leading the game with 72 receiving yards on a career best four catches. Once again, the Jets running game was not impressive. Although Thomas Jones scored two touchdowns, him and Leon Washington combined for 86 yards on 26 carries. Mark Sanchez was average. He constantly had to move around the pocket to avoid pressure from the defense, but he did make some beautiful throws tonight. If it wasn’t for some fake punts and penalties the Jets might have gotten blown out. The Jets are now 3-2, which puts them in a tie atop the AFC East with the New England Patriots. Suddenly the Miami Dolphins have entered the race.

-Greg

Abraham-Taylor to Square off Saturday Night

Former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor will head to Berlin, Germany to fight Arthur Abraham, who is 30-0 with 24 knockouts. Taylor is coming off three brutal losses in his last four matches to champions Kelly Pavlik and Carl Froch. The first time against Pavlik, Taylor knocked Pavlik down in the second round but began to get fatigued and eventually wore down against the hard-hitting Pavlik, who was able to knock Taylor out in the seventh round. Taylor renewed his rematch clause and fought Pavlik again. He looked much better but Pavlik was able to outbox Taylor and win on a unanimous decision by the judges. After the fight, Taylor moved up to the super middleweight division to fight former Olympian Jeff Lacy. Taylor won every round with ease and looked extremely good. In his most recent title fight, Taylor was ahead on two of the judges scorecards entering the twelfth and final round against WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch. However, once again, Taylor was not able to finish the fight and was knocked out in the final seconds. Heading to Berlin will be no easy task for “Bad Intentions.” Abraham has a solid chin and is a hard puncher. In the end, I believe Taylor’s all around boxing skills will be able make him victorious. This fight is a must-win for Taylor or his career in the ring may be over. For Abraham, this fight will give him a great opportunity to fight for a title belt if he is able to win.

-Greg