October 4, 2007

First Pitch:

Well it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Now I am sure many of you maybe scratching your heads over my first sentence since it's October in New England and the trees are still green and the temperature is approaching 80 degrees, but the reason I am so giddy on this day is that the NHL season kicked off last night. Alright, I am just kidding, I don't give a flying hoot that the NHL regular season started, in fact I am still channel surfing trying to find Versus on my television. All joking aside though, this past week was an amazing week in sports. Baseball concluded a very exciting September and are now into the playoffs and College Football this past weekend was full of more upsets than I can ever remember happening in one weekend. I usually start my rants with my thoughts on College Football but with baseball now being in the playoffs, I will start off with a trip around the Majors.


MLB:

As a lifelong Red Sox fan, this past week was one of great joy. For the first time since 1995 the Red Sox won the American League East. Now I know the Red Sox have been to the playoffs numerous times since 1995 as a Wild Card, but there is something very satisfying about getting the "Wild Card Monkey" off our backs, after holding the title for so long. It was also nice to know that the Sox will have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Sox may have stumbled in August and September and almost had a Mets like collapse, although I don't know if any team could ever have a collapse like the Mets did in the final two weeks of the season, by blowing their huge lead to the Yankees, but they finished strong and built up some much needed momentum as they head into the playoffs.

Now I know the MLB playoffs started yesterday, so it is a little late to be giving my predictions on what I think may happen, but I promise all the predictions that I am about to give are what I thought since the match-ups were first put out.

I would also like to start off by saying that if you did not see the play-in game between the Padres and Rockies on Monday night you missed out on what I think was the best baseball game of the whole season. Moving on however here are my predictions for the playoffs.

NL:

Rockies vs Phillies: I think it's fair to say that no two teams are hotter going into the playoffs than the Phillies and Rockies. The Rockies finished their season winning an astonishing 14 out 15 games to basically come out of nowhere to win the Wild Card. For a team that usually gets criticized for their lack of pitching, largely due to the thin air in Denver, their pitching staff has had an amazing second half of the season. Besides their pitching though, the Rockies wouldn't be where they are without the stellar play of MVP candidate Matt Holliday, potential rookie of the year in Troy Tulowitzki and the veteran leadership from Todd Helton. With that being said however I still think the Phillies have the edge. The Phillies like the Rockies played an amazing final month of baseball and overcame a once perceived insurmountable deficit to the Mets to win the NL East. The reasons I like the Phillies in this series is that I think the Rockies could be fatigued by having to play a play-in game on Monday and then having to travel cross country and play the early game on Wednesday. Also, in a short series it is my thought that the team with home field has a distinct advantage. A final reason why I like the Phillies is that the heart of their line-up, led by another MVP candidate in Jimmy Rollins, along with Ryan Howard and Chase Utley have been as hot as any line-up coming into the playoffs. Final prediction is Phillies in five.


Cubs vs Diamondbacks: On paper I think the Cubs are a far superior team, but I think the Diamondbacks are proof that games are not won on paper. The Diamondbacks to me are one of the great mysteries in baseball. Yes, they do have one of the great pitchers in baseball in Brandon Webb, but besides that no one on their roster sticks out to me. When Tony Clark, the same Tony Clark who I may add was a total bust with Boston in 2002, is the D'backs' cleanup hitter with only 17 home runs on the season, that usually is not a good thing. Despite a lack of power, the D'backs have been able to scratch and claw for runs all season, and combined with their ability to win close games, they could be a very dangerous team in the playoffs. Despite all of that however I do like the Cubs in this series. The Cubs, although they limped into the playoffs, have the makings of a very dangerous team. They have a good 1-2 punch in Zambrano and Lilly at pitching, they have have fairly powerful team led by Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee, and they have a veteran manager in Lou Piniella who has great playoff and championship experience. It is for these reasons that I think the Cubs will win this series in four despite the fact that the D'backs have home field advantage.

AL:

Yankees vs Indians: To me this is the most intriguing match-up of all the divisional series'. The reason for this, is that every time I think about who is going to win this series I always come up with a different answer. The logical winner would be the Yankees. They have the most potent offense in all of baseball, they have Derek Jeter who always seems to elevate his game to new heights in October and they are the Yankees, they are supposed to win. Despite all this however I am still not sold on the Yankees. Yes, I think the Yankees could win it all, but at the same time I can easily see them losing this series. The Yankees have had a roller coaster of a season. They go on winning streaks where they look like no one in all of baseball can compete with them, and then they go into slumps where you start asking yourself "Is this the same team that just won 9 out of 10 games two weeks ago?" If the Yankees team that wins 9 out of 10 shows up then to me they are the clear favorite in my mind to win it all, but if not then I can see the Indians winning this series. The reason why the Indians could very easily win this series is because of their starting pitching. In playoffs the old adage is pitching wins titles, and the Indians have two of the top pitchers in the majors in C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona. If both these pitchers can play like they have all season I can see the Indians winning this series. Finally, the one wild card in this series is Alex Rodriguez. Without question A-Rod is the AL MVP this year. He put up remarkable numbers, but the big question is will the A-Rod of the regular season show up or will the A-Rod of playoffs past show up. For those of you who don't know, the A-Rod of playoffs past is not a good thing. Well enough debating here, I am going out on the limb here and saying the Indians will win in 5.

Red Sox vs Angles: As a die hard Red Sox fan I am going to try to be unbiased as possible. With my allegiances put aside and looking at this series in an objective manner I still like the Red Sox to win this series and it would not shock me if they end up sweeping the Angles. The reason for this is Pitching. Josh Beckett, whom I think will end up being the AL Cy Young award winner this year, has not only had a tremendous regular season, but he also has had great success in the playoffs, as was best seen in his performances in the 2003 Playoffs when he led the Marlins to a World Series victory. Also, although Curt Schilling has transformed himself this season from a power pitcher to a finesse pitcher, he is still one of the great pitchers in playoff history. I love how Francona is starting him in game three instead of two, because he knows Schilling has had great success in Anaheim in the past and he knows no opposing crowd can rattle him. The one wild card of the Red Sox lineup is Daisuke Matsuzaka. Daisuke, like the Yankees, has had a roller coaster of a season. If the dominant Daisuke shows up, to me there is no better 1-2-3 punch in the playoffs than the Red Sox, and this will prove to be a lot more important once the series go from five to seven games. Another reason why I like the Red Sox is they are finally healthy again with Manny and Kevin Youkilis back in the line-up and they also have one of the most clutch players in October in David Ortiz. Finally, the Red Sox have had great success against the Angles number one pitcher in John Lackey. With the Red Sox superior pitching and hitting I like them in three.

ALCS:

Sox over Indians

NLCS:

Cubs over Phillies

World Series:

Red Sox over Cubs


COLLEGE FOOTBALL:

Due to the fact that I spent so much time on the baseball playoffs I am going to be brief this week on my college football and NFL thoughts.

If you were to tell me there would be a day when Kentucky, South Florida and my beloved Boston College Eagles were all in the top 10, I would have asked you how many beers have you had that night? But the reality is all three of those teams are in fact in the top 10, and the main reason for that is this past week saw so many upsets of top 10 teams. Oklahoma lost to Colorado, Florida lost to Auburn, West Virginia lost to South Florida, Texas lost to Kansas State and Rutgers lost to Maryland. I am still a believer that by the end of the season the teams that lost with the exception of Texas and Rutgers will rebound and find themselves in the top 10 again, but it was still a thrill to see the huge shakeup in the polls.

The reason why I love college football so much is one loss can totally change a team's season. Last week I wrote about how Florida, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Clemson all had shots at making National Title runs, but with their one loss now those hopes for the most part are completely diminished. USC, LSU, Ohio State and I will now put Cal in this category, based on their victories over Tennessee and their win this past weekend at Oregon, have separated themselves from the rest of the pack as the favorites to go to the BCS National Title game. LSU has a huge game this week against Florida but if they can get over that hurdle, which I predict they will since they are at home, they should control their destiny for the rest of the season. I also predict that the winner of the Cal vs USC game later in the season will also go to National Title game.

Even though some games this coming week have lost a lot of their luster with so many teams losing last week, there is still a great slate of games this coming weekend and here are my top 5 games to watch:

1) Kentucky vs South Carolina
2) Florida vs LSU
3) Ohio State vs Purdue
4) Oklahoma vs Texas
5) Georgia vs Tennessee

NFL:

Now shifting gears to the pro game. I would like to start off this week by congratulating the Bengals defense for holding the Patriots to a season low 34 points. Four weeks have passed and each week I still am in awe of the Brady to Moss connection. I also don't want to sound like a broken record but each week the same teams thus far have continued to impress me with those teams being the Patriots, Colts and Cowboys. I would like to say though that the Titans, Packers and Buccaneers are swiftly moving up the charts as the best teams in the second tier of the NFL.

One final NFL note that I would like to mention is about Chargers coach Norv Turner. Way back in the beginning of the calendar year I made a comment on my weekly radio show "Tuesday's with Boyceee," about the stupidity of the Chargers front office for firing Marty Schotenheimer and replacing him with Norv Turner. The Chargers fired Marty Schotenheimer after a 14-2 regular season and a loss to the Patriots in the playoffs, which is nothing to be ashamed of. In most instances coaches would be getting a raise after such a season, but instead Marty got fired and replaced by Norv Turner, who has been known as the consament loser as a head coach. Turner thus far has lived up to his reputation and has the Chargers off to a 1-3 start and has fantasy hero LT well below his career averages. I knew the Chargers made a huge mistake with the hiring of Turner and I hope the Chargers front office are men enough to stand up and admit that they indeed made a mistake. I am sure wherever Schotenheimer is now he is having a real good laugh over the horrid start by the Chargers and I am sure he found their loss to the lowly Chiefs this past week to be particularly amusing. Now here are my 5 top games of the week:

1) Jets vs Giants
2) Seahawks vs Steelers
3) Buccaneers vs Colts
4) Bears vs Packers
5) Lions vs Redskins

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

I am going to keep my closing thoughts brief this week, and basically bash TBS for their broadcasting thus far of the MLB playoffs. I find comedian Frank Caliendo to be very funny, especially with his impersonation of John Madden, but the amount of advertising that went on yesterday promoting his new show "Frank TV," was way over the top. Playoff baseball is baseball at it's finest , and too me it is getting greatly diminished by the constant bombardment of "Frank TV" advertisements. I thought Id never see the day that I would say this but where is FOX with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver when you need them?