For the first time since Game Two, the Danny Briere, Vinny Prospal, and Mike Knuble line found the back of the net.
Briere's goal couldn't have come at a better time.
With the clock ticking away in the third period in a tie game and all the momentum on Montreal's side, Briere showed why he's worth 52 million dollars. His power play goal gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead and the goal was his eighth of the playoffs, but only second of the series.
The Canadiens couldn't find the back of the cage for the first 52 minutes of the game, but once Tomas Plekanec scored, it took only 37 seconds for another Hab to tickle the twine. Saku Koivu redeemed himself for a previous penalty that led to a Flyers goal by beating Marty Biron to tie the game at two.
The Flyers crawled out to a two nothing lead as it took the R.J. Umberger seven minutes into the second period to score the first goal of the game and his sixth goal of the playoffs. Umberger hadn't scored goals in back to back games all year, but now he's done it in the playoffs.
In the third period, Scottie Hartnell notched the Flyers second goal after he followed the rebound of a Prospal shot that went out in front of net. Hartnell slapped into the right side of the net and the Flyers had their patented 2-0 lead.
Of course as we all know, no two goal lead is safe for the Flyers. They had already blown four two nil leads, losing three of those games. As mentioned above, a few minutes later Montreal had the game tied at two and Philadelphia scrambling to retake control.
More on the game later.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Danny Briere Line: Welcome to the Canadiens Series
Flyers Try to Take Both Home Games Tonight
Philadelphia looks for a repeat of the Capitals series by winning both home games to take a 3-1 series lead.
Of course that will allow the Flyers to subsequently blow the next two games, put Flyers fans on the edge of their seats only to pull off a Game Seven shocker.
But let's hope it doesn't get to that point.
The 700 Level says Mike Knuble has been cleared to play, but also raises the question: where does he play and where do the Flyers move R.J. Umberger to? Umberger has been too good to knock him down to the fourth line so Knuble can move back with his linemates Scottie Upshall and Jeff Carter. It will be interesting to see what Coach John Stevens does with the lines.
The Flyers' attack no matter what way its shaped must go after Carey Price. They shook his confidence in Game Three so what better way to see what he's made of than aggressively going after him.
The Flyers have kind of laid back in the first three games and let the Canaidens come at them. It's led to a ridiculous shot advantage for the Habs, but it's something that hasn't hurt the Flyers because of the stellar play of Marty Biron.
This is Price's first year in the NHL, and Price has played a lot down the stretch. His struggling could just be a matter of some fatigue. Unfortunately Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau doesn't really have the option of benching him to give a rest until either Game Five or Game Six. Those games are back to back so I wouldn't be surprised if the Habs play Jaroslav Halak in one game and Price in the other.
The Flyers also need to stay off the penalty kill. Legitimate penalties here and there most fans can live with. But Derian Hatcher putting the Flyers down a man for five minutes that's 100% unacceptable. Dumb penalties will cost the Flyers a game just like in the first round it was almost guaranteed Alexander Ovechkin was going to single handily win a game for the Capitals.
Side Note: I didn't realize how much Canada as a whole hates the Flyers.
The Pension Plan Puppets Blog which is a Maple Leafs Blog linked to my game story yesterday and the comments in response were so anti-Flyers. Here's a taste:
Chemmy wrote, "What sort of Leafs fans root for Philly over Montreal?"
The response he got from a writer for PPP wrote, "
We all should. You can't put aside over 80 years of rivalry and hatred just because the Flyers have recently been a pain in the ass. The greater evil is the Habs getting past Philly. After this round, we can cheer against Philly again. Although, realistically, we're all cheering on the meteor."
Chemmy later wrote, "The thing is, Montreal already has 24 cups. If they win another one who cares? If Philly wins the cup this year we'll all have to hear about how they went from 30th to 1st in one season, and not about how they're cheapshot goons who injured a lot of players (Patrice Bergeron anyone?). Sorry, I don't want Montreal to win the cup, but their team isn't hockey cancer like Philly.
The poster by the name of Leosc named his comment Flyers=Satan and said this, " I don't even allow Philadelphia cream cheese in this house. Phillies, hate them. 76ers, hate them. F**king Flyers, hate them to the nth power. Philadelphia and Philadelphians show their crack, even on a bell. Philadelphia Flyers have been a bunch of goons all their life, it doesn't matter who they were before they don that stinking sweater. They won the cup twice by injuring the opposition. Because of them the NHL had to impose the anti-bench clearing rule. Bobby what's-his-name is the worse one. Once the other teams stood up to them, they disappeared from the playoffs. Now its time for the Habs to take them out."There's even more comments to read here.
Plus The 700 Level also had this story from a Philly.com writer asking if the Flyers are playing Canada's team.
And of course we cannot forget the Pig Man for desecrating Philadelphia's Rocky Statue.
This is absolute war. Send out the war kittens!
This post just lost all credibility because of that but frankly I don't care.
189 Days til We Start Hyping Up the UCONN Game
College Basketball always begins around November 5th or so which means college basketball is approximately 189 days away. Everyday I will have a new reason to look forward to the 2008-2009 season. I started this countdown about 205 days before the season, so some of these are going to be lame, but hey I need 205 freaking reasons why you should be looking forward to the 2008-2009 season.
Reason 189: Hasheem Thabeet is returning to UCONN for the 2008-2009 basketball season. If both Syracuse and UCONN pan out to be top 25 and even top 15 teams, this game could be one of the best in the rivalry in recent memory. UCONN basically loses no one from the 2007-2008 team while SU only loses Donte' Green, but gets back Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins.
Philadelphia's Ageless Wonder Gets His Turn Tonight
Last night San Diego's 42 year-old Greg Maddux took the mound for the Padres, but tonight it's 45 year-old Jamie Moyer.
Moyer will try to get better results than Maddux who went six plus innings, allowed three runs, and came away with a loss.
The slow throwing south paw will attempt to win the Phillies eighth game out ten and put Philadelphia at 16-12 which would be their best record in April since 2003. Considering the Phillies ended up around 88 wins the last four Aprils, it's a good sign the Phillies are off to even better start because of their tendency to get hot after the All-Star break.
Opposing Moyers is 6'10'' Chris Young who in starts has shut the Phillies down. He's 1-1, but has 1.46 ERA, .89 WHIP and 12 strike outs in almost as many innings.
Shane Victorino should be back in the lineup tonight. He came off the bench last night to pinch hit.
Tonight's projected starting lineup and career numbers vs. Chris Young:
1. Shane Victorino 0-3
2. Jason Werth never faced Young
3. Chase Utley 2-5
4. Ryan Howard 0-0 with three walks
5. Pat Burrell 2-6
6. Pedro Feliz 1-12
7. Chris Coste never faced Young
8. Eric Bruntlett 0-1
CuseAdelphia Prediction: Phillies 6 Padres 5. Chris Young has been awful since coming back from an injury last year. He's just 1-7 with 5.20 ERA in 15 starts since returning from a strained left oblique. The Phillies will make that number 1-8 after tonight.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Syracuse Isn't Going Bowling in 2008-2009
SU despite what looks to be a new and improved offense and well still a pretty sub par defense isn't going to one of at least 28 bowl games in the 2008-2009 season. Well that's according to Sports Projections.com
Sports Projections already has who they think will be playing in those wonderful bowls like the Papa John's Bowl and Pointsettia Bowl. Six Big East teams will make a playoff game with the only two being left out: Louisville and Syracuse.
Now it seems surprising that they are projecting six teams in bowl games this year from the Big East because this year is setting up to be an awful year for Big East football.
Pitt and West Virginia look like the only two teams that will consistently play Top 25 caliber football. After that Cincinnati and South Florida look like the next two best teams that could squeak into the Top 25 for a week or two.
A lot of projections have Rutgers and UCONN down towards the bottom of the Big East again in 2008. So at this point, it doesn't seem like more than five teams will be bowl eligible. The team that finishes sixth might squeak in with a 6-6 record.
Now SU probably isn't going to win six games, but it's a realistic chance in 2008. Look at the schedule: Northwestern, Northeastern, and Akron could easily be wins although Northwestern does look to be much improved in 2008 after having an okay 2007.
Penn State has a lot of issues on the field and off the field and everyone knows about Notre Dame's 2007, but of course the Fightin' Irish will also be much better in 2008.
SU could come away with three maybe even four wins out of conference if they can pull things together.
Then there is Big East play. Louisville is going to be very beatable, plus that game is in the Dome. UCONN and Rutgers also look beatable. If SU can take two of those three games and spring an upset against one of the top four teams in the league, they are suddenly bowl eligible.
Sean from Troy Nunes reported three more bowls are in the works with one of them having a spot for another Big East team. That means six spots would be guaranteed to bowl eligible Big East teams. Sean also pointed out that a team can use a win against a Divison I-AA team towards becoming bowl eligible once every three years.
The Orange becoming bowl eligible in 2008 is a distinct possibility. Will it happen? Better than 50% chance no. Is it a realistic possibility? 100% yes.
But for now, here's Sports Projections' Big East Bowl Projections:
Pointsettia Bowl: Utah vs. Cincinnati
Papa John's.com Bowl: Rutgers vs. Marshall
Armed Forces Bowl: TCU vs. UCONN
Meineke Car Care Bowl : Miami, Florida vs. South Florida
International Bowl: Bowling Green vs. Pittsburgh
Orange Bowl: Clemson vs. West Virginia
After looking closer at the projections. There's obviously a major flaw. There is no bowl given to the Big East number two team. Obviously they are forgetting Syracuse as the number two team in the Big East and left them out of a bowl game.
Haha who am I kidding?
Phillies Eighth Inning Explosion Downs Padres 7-4
The Phillies nearly blow an eighth inning lead, but instead blow up open the game in the bottom half of the frame.
Cole Hamels went seven very strong innings, but for the second straight game, he ran into trouble in the eighth. Against Milwaukee he surrendered a two run home run to Prince Fielder which cost Philadelphia the game.
Tonight, Hamels allowed a first and third situation with one out in the eighth with a 3-1 lead when skipper Charlie Manuel pulled him in favor of lefty specialist J.C. Romero. He walked the first batter he faced and was lifted in favor of Flash Gordon. He worked the outside of the plate against Tadahito Iguchi and Kevin Kouzmanoff to get both to ground out. One run scored, but the Phillies still held a 3-2 lead.
That's when the fun began. Three doubles, a single, and a walk later and the Phillies had four more runs on the board. Of course who better to start the rally off than Chase Utley who doubled on a fastball that hung out over the middle of the plate. He continued his MVP campaign with a 2-4 effort to raise his average to .364.
Cole Hamels put the Phillies in a position to win this game through his absolute stellar pitching. He allowed just two extra base hits, both to Scott Hairston Jr. who had a monster game with two home runs and a double. The Camel struck out six and walked just two. King Cole moves to 3-3 on the season.
Ryan Madson made things a bit interesting at the end allowing Hairston's second home run on the day.
It was nice to see the Phillies get a little production out of the bottom of the lineup. Pedro Feliz and Carlos Ruiz both came through in the eighth inning with hits and were both 2-4 on the day.
After Jason Werth, Pat Burrell and Chase Utley, the Phillies lineup has been severely lacking. Check out Phillies Flow to see how bad the rest of the lineup has been.
Tomorrow night will feature Jamie Moyer vs. Chris Young.
The Soul Dominates Desperados
Philadelphia absolutely pounds Dallas in the the battle of two AFL undefeated teams 57-28 in a game that showed the Soul can play some defense to compliment the explosive offense.
This game wasn't even close at any point. The Soul scored the first 21 points of the game and held Dallas scoreless in the first quarter.
One of the best quarterbacks in the history of league, Clint Dolezel had one of his worst games in his career. The Soul got to him on the very first play from scrimmage. Soul defender Mike Brown intercepted Dolezel to set up Philadelphia's first touchdown.
It wouldn't get any better for Dolezel the rest of the game.
The next series, the Desperado offense stalled and resulted in a turnover on downs. Philadelphia would score on the following possession.
The Dallas QB met his nemesis on the next series. Soul DB Eddie Moten took over the game intercepting Dolezel for the first of his three times on Dallas's third series.
The Soul rolled through the rest of the game behind QB Matt D'Orazio and the wide receiving tandem of Chris Jackson and Larry Brackins.
D'Orazio finished the game 20-29 with six touchdowns while the two wide receivers combined for 14 receptions and 160 yards.
D'Orazio's play is setting up a QB debate between he and injured starter Tony Graziani. I haven't watched enough of each to really have an opinion on who should start.
The announcers did make a good point last night, D'Orzaio has this offense running the best it has all year, so it does seem logical to keep with the hot hand. If D'Orazio starts to struggle, get Graziani and his veteran leadership back in there.
The most entertaining part of last night's game was the jawing that took place between Eddie Moten and Clint Dolezel. The two have a history going back to 2007 and continued their rivalry last night. Moten continued to get into Dolezel's face at every chance he took. Moten got in Dolezel's head to the point that Dolezel was called for an un-sportsmen like conduct penalty for spiking the ball after scoring.
Moten did show restraint when most thought that was impossible. After Moten's last interception, he went to rub in Dolezel's face but realized he was down injured. Moten stopped 15 yards away and turned to celebrate with his teammates after realizing Dolezel was injured after the play.
Maddux Goes for Milestone Win Tonight
The former Braves Cy Young hog Greg Maddux will try to pick up win number 350 tonight against the Phillies.Maddux set himself up to bring home the historic win during his last outing, but closer Trevor Hoffman blew the save. Tonight, the Phillies will try to prevent the game from even being Hoffman's hands.
Maddux has revived himself a bit during the early going in 2008. He's given up three earned runs or less in every start but one. Unfortunately for Maddux, that one start was a career high nine earned runs in his first attempt at win 350.
One reason for Maddux's resurgence is it seems like he's retuned two-seam fastball which was always one of his best pitches in the 90s. Every time he pitches, it seems like his two-seam fastball shows up on Baseball Tonight during the "That's Nasty" segment.
His pinpoint control is as good as its almost ever been. Maddux issued a mere 25 walks in about 200 innings in 2007, and is off the same strong start in 2008. The former Cy Young winner has just six walks in 2008. The Phillies have typically been very good at working pitchers and creating base runners so tonight the Phillies might need to manufacture an extra run or two because Maddux is going to keep base runners to a minimum.
Shane Victorino will most likely be back in the lineup tonight to face Maddux giving the Phillies another solid left handed bat.
Here's the projected lineup and how they've fared against Maddux.
1. Shane Victorino (1-3)
2. Jason Werth (0-3)
3. Chase Utley (1-4 with a home run)
4. Ryan Howard (1-3)
5. Pat Burrell (15-41 with two home runs)
6. Pedro Feliz (5-22)
7. Chris Coste never faced Maddux
8. Eric Bruntlett (1-7)
Cole Hamels throws tonight for the Phillies. He's been a hard luck loser twice this year which makes his 2-3 record not representative of how he's pitched this year. Manager Charlie Manuel left Hamels in the eighth inning to pitch to the heart of the Brewers lineup last time out and got burned.
Hamels's overall numbers are still very strong. He's got 30 strike outs in 36 innings and a phenomenal WHIP and ERA of 1.08 and .275. He's basically two bad breaks from opening the season 4-1 and in the early season Cy Young talks.
The Camel has pitched well against his hometown team in the past. He lost a tough start last year when Chris Young out dueled him 1-0 in San Diego.
CuseAdelphia Prediction: Phillies 5 Padres 3. The Phillies really like to bash pitchers who don't have a pitch with a ton of extreme movement. Ryan Howard hits another home run tonight (last time I predicted it, I nailed it right on the head).
190 Days Until Collegiate Roundball
College Basketball always begins around November 5th or so which means college basketball is approximately 190 days away. Everyday I will have a new reason to look forward to the 2008-2009 season. I started this countdown about 205 days before the season, so some of these are going to be lame, but hey I need 205 freaking reasons why you should be looking forward to the 2008-2009 season.
Reason 190: The start of basketball season means we begin a new countdown until Syracuse plays UCONN in women's basketball. I'm looking forward to it after getting a response from the director of women's basketball at UCONN almost four months after I emailed him my post on good old Geno Auriemma. Coach Eisenmann thanked me for my comments and appreciated my input. Overall the email was very nice and I don't want to criticize Eisenmann since he actually got back to me, but his email came off like he didn't read my post on Geno. Who knows, maybe Coach Eisenmann is just a really nice guy and really has nothing negative in response. Anyways, I really appreciated him getting back to me and hope he responds to the next email I sent him further explaining my stance.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Flyers Escape with 3-2 Victory
The Flyers have kept fans on their seat by blowing several leads in the playoffs, and tonight almost wouldn't be any different.
Philadelphia's ability to squander leads during the last portion of the regular season and the playoffs almost cost the Flyers a chance at the playoffs and the first round series against the Capitals, but did cost Philly Game One against Montreal.
The Flyers scored the first goal, then got another short handed and before they could even begin to lose the lead R.J. Umberger scored a third before the second intermission.
The Flyers practically buried Montreal before they could blink.
A scoreless first period filled with hard hits and multiple wasted chances by the Habs to take an early advantage and take the boisterous Flyers crowd out of the game.
It was obvious that Montreal's inability to score put the pressure on Habs's goalie Carey Price to stand on his head and keep Montreal in the game.
The key time to this game was after the first Flyer goal. How was Price going to respond?
He didn't respond well. Price gave up a soft goal and then a rebound on another shot that led to a third Flyers goal.
At that point, the game was far from over. Derian Hatcher took another dumb penalty giving Montreal a five minute power play. Hatcher's penalty was a five minute boarding major in retaliation for a hit on R.J. Umberger. The Canadiens score twice on the major penalty making it a one goal game with ten minutes left to play.
The first three quarters of the final period belonged to the Canadiens. The Habs controlled the first 15 minutes notching 16 of the first 18 shots on goal in the period. The Flyers made it easy on the new Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak who replaced Price in the third period.
The first two periods were pretty clean, a few penalties and only a little extra curricular action after the whistle.
The third period - much different. After almost every whistle there was some kind of extra pushing and shoving. The Canadiens tried to push the Flyers around as long as the refs would tolerate it and it worked.
Another penalty against the Flyers with six minutes left put the pressure on the Flyers penalty kill once again. A Canadien goal could have been an absolute series changer, but Philly was able to kill off the Lasse Kukkonen interference penalty.
Instead, the Flyers killed it off and killed off the rest of the Canadien's charge.
The Flyers survived probably the most one sided period of the series and took a 2-1 series lead.
Notes:
- Who didn't enjoy the graphic for too many men on the ice at the end of the game when the technical crew froze the shot at the wrong time so that there would only be five Habs on the ice. Smooth Versus. Real Smooth.
- Mike Richards took a shot at Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak during the Kukkonen penalty. That was about the worst time to hit Halak in the head. The last thing the Flyers need is to have to kill off another penalty with under four minutes left.
- The Flyers won another game with no contributions from the Briere line. This is like the Capitals series except its the other way around, Ovechkin wasn't scoring in that series.
CuseAdelphia Weekly Preview
Monday: Canadiens vs. Flyers 7:05 PM. Game Three.
Desperados vs. Soul 7:05 PM. Both teams are undefeated.
Tuesday: San Diego vs. Philadelphia 7:05PM. Greg Maddox (2-1) vs. Hamels (2-3)
76ers vs. Pistons 7:00 PM. Gave Five
Wednesday: San Diego vs. Philadelphia 7:05PM. Chris Young (1-2) vs. Jamie Moyer (1-1)
Canadiens vs. Flyers 7:00PM. Game Four.
Thursday: San Diego vs. Philadelphia 7:05PM. Adam Eaton (0-0) vs. Randy Wolf (2-1)
Pistons vs 76ers TBD. Game Six
Friday: San Francisco vs. Philadelphia 7:05PM. Kyle Kendrick (2-2) vs. Barry Zito (0-6)
Saturday: San Francisco vs. Philadelphia 7:05 PM. Brett Myers (2-2) vs. Matt Cain (0-2)
76ers vs. Pistons TBD if necessary. Game Seven.
Flyers vs. Canadiens 7:00PM. Game Five
Sunday: San Francisco vs. Philadelphia 1:35 PM. Cole Hamels (2-3) vs. Tim Lincecum (4-0)
Canadiens vs. Flyers 7:00PM. Game Six if necessary.
The Philies need to come away with at least four wins in the six game home stand. Two anemic offenses should help the Philly pitching continue to excel if the offense cannot get hot. The Phillies get lucky and don't have to face one of the National League's best in Jake Peavy.
The scheduling the Flyers series is just dumb. Back to back nights for Games Five and Six if the series gets that far? I could maybe see that if the games were in the same city, but that means both teams have to travel that night and play the next day. Seriously NHL, what's the deal with that? It's just a stupid move.
191 Days Until We Begin Wondering When Sean Williams Is Going Pro
College Basketball always begins around November 5th or so which means college basketball is approximately 191 days away. Everyday I will have a new reason to look forward to the 2008-2009 season. I started this countdown about 205 days before the season, so some of these are going to be lame, but hey I need 205 freaking reasons why you should be looking forward to the 2008-2009 season.
Reason 191: As soon as someone on any college basketball team who has NBA potential has a monster game, people begin asking is he leaving school and going pro. So I declare if Sean Williams sees action next year and has a breakout game, the Syracuse sports world begin question when he's going pro to mock the ridiculousness of sensational journalism.
Eagles Draft Breakdown
Okay, so every blog, website, and TV station has covered the Eagles draft ump-teen times.
But I'm still going to provide my perspective.
I'm fairly happy with this draft and the moves the Eagles made. Now a couple of the picks were a little questionable, but overall I think the Eagles did a pretty solid job with the draft.
I wouldn't give them an A or A-, but probably a B or B+. The Eagles made three very solid moves and a few not so solid.
- The trade with the Panthers was very good and a little bad at the same time. It was bad from the stand point the Eagles haven't drafted in the first round for two years now. For a team that finished 8-8 and last the division it would have been nice to get a player who could make an impact now. With that said, the haul of picks the Eagles brought in was quite impressive. When I first saw the trade I was like oh yay! they got a second and fourth, but then it was announced they also got the Panther's first round for next year. There is a realistic chance Carolina is going to be awful next year and that pick will be a top five or ten pick. I think the window is closing on this group of Eagles within the next two or three years, so to have potentially a great pick next year will definitely help put the Eagles over top.
- The next move is getting DeSean Jackson in the second round. He's got first round talent, mid-round size. He's got tremendous potential as a kick returned and a burner downfield. He should see playing time right away with the lack of talent the Eagles have at the wideout.
- The final move is a move that didn't happen. Not trading Lito Shepard means the Eagles have one of the deepest secondaries in the league. The Eagles will have three solid corners with Asante Samuel, Shepard, and Sheldon Brown. With the questions the Eagles have at safeties with Brian Dawkins's age and health of Sean Considine/can Quentin Mikell be an every down player allows the Eagles to move Shepard to safety if they absolutely have to.
- I'm not really a fan of the Jack Ikegwonu pick. From what I've read, he's high risk, high reward, but the guy had a devastating knee injury and has some legal issues. I'm skeptical he'll ever step on the field as an Eagle with those issues.
- A lot of teams made a lot of solid picks in the late rounds, but the Eagles didn't with the exception of the 7th round. I really liked the King Dunlap pick. A lot of experts projected him in the fourth round, but he slipped down to the Eagles in the seventh. He's got excellent size at 6'8'' 310 pounds. If he matures well, he could fit in nicely with the gigantic line the Eagles are used to having.
Flyers Head Home Looking to Gain Control
The Flyers have jumped out to 2-0 leads four times in playoffs thus far, including the first two games of this series, but are only .500 in those games.
The Flyers have had difficult holding leads as teams begin to get overly aggressive and put the pressure on Marty Biron. He's not been up to the task in several of the playoff games this year and has let the lead slip away.
Saturday night was much different. Montreal dominated the game, out shooting Philadelphia 36-23. Biron stopped all but two of those shots and withstood a first period flurry to keep Montreal off the board.
The Flyers have been able to send this series back to Philadelphia tied at one despite getting almost no contributions from the top line. In Game One, the Briere line was a non-factor; in Game Two, Briere did score a second period goal to make it 3-1.
What the Flyers need to today tonight to win:
- Stay back and let Montreal come at you. The Flyers have typically been keeping an extra man back off the rush to prevent Montreal's speed and depth from beating the Flyers. It's worked very well so far despite the shot differential between the two teams.
- Avoid the stupid penalties. The Hab's top ranked power play has been fairly silent so far due to the lack of chances they've had.
- The Briere line needs to score at least once and set up power play opportunities through getting extra pressure on Montreal. The Flyers need more than two power plays in a game in order to control the game.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Sobs: Best Player Quote
Thanks Sean from TNIAAM for handing the SOBs off to me to give out the award for Best Player Quote.
For a player quote to stick out in the minds of bloggers for a whole season, he had to have said something profound and meaningful.
The quote had to be in a critical moment in the season and represented something greater.
There was a general theme among a lot of the Syracuse Bloggers on this one. A few bloggers nominated quotes about Donte' Greene's draft status.
Nick Loucks chose a quote from Donte' after the UMass game,
"I just didn’t want to lose the game. I can’t even remember what was going through my head, really."The Three Idiots on Sports went with Paul Harris after Kyle McAlarney tore SU a new one,
"He had a huge game. His game was so good, it was like we didn't even know the scouting report. He just hit everything.''The runaway winner for this category however, is something Paul Harris said.
Matt Glaude from Hoya Suxa,
"Paul Harris talking about mentally checking out of the Villanova debacle: "Jonny kept telling me, come on when are you going to be ready to play? I don't know. It is what it is." Nice.Brian Harrison from Orange:44,
"I shot a three and coach yelled at me. It kind of threw me off and I didn't play after that." – Paul Harris after the Villanova regular season loss. Oh Paul, you actually admitted to dogging it during a game. While I gave him points for honesty, it was something that would not please any fan of the team. He more than made up for it the rest of the season, but when you are a sophomore you are not supposed to act like that anymore."Josh from Cuse Country,
"I didn't even really try to go get rebounds." Paul had a number of 'brutally honest' postgame quotes this year, I respect him for that.Sean from TNIAAM,
"[Paull Harris's quote is] not a "favorite" per se but it was Paul Harris stripped bare. And from that game on he rebuilt himself, on and off the court."So this year's award for Best Player Quote goes to Paul Harris for admitting he quit after the Villanova game.
Back to Troy Nunes for the Final Award at 7PM.
76ers Need to Take Game Three Tonight
The 76ers are almost facing a must win already in Game Three tonight. Yes, they've shown the ability to win in Detroit.
But let's face it, Philadelphia needs to take at least of their three home games to win this series, if not all of them.
That's going to be a tough task after the way Detroit completely took every 76er starter out of the game. The Philadelphia top five tallied just 38 points, the lowest total in the playoffs in the last two years.
Detroit limited the 76ers transition game in Game Two and completely shut the Sixers down in the half court.
I don't have much too say pre-game on this one since its already less than two hours from tip and about nine people are going to read this from now until then.
I will give a prediction though.
CuseAdelphia Prediction: Pistons 98 76ers 88. The Sixers will win one of these two home games. I'm thinking it's Game Four.
Yes, I'm Covering the Philadelphia Soul
The Arena League Football team Philadelphia Soul is off to a GREAT start in the 2008 season. Bon Jovi's team is undefeated and has its biggest game of the season coming Monday night.
Who would be Philadelphia's biggest rival this year? Of course it has to be the Dallas Desperados.
The Desperados are also undefeated this year. The two will square off in Philadelphia on national television. Of course the Flyers also play Monday night in Philly. So if you aren't headed off to the Flyers game, head over to the stadium complex, enjoy some Flyers tailgating and catch the AFL game.
Or just watch both on TV.
If you aren't familiar with the AFL. The field is half the length of an NFL field, the goal posts are much narrower, a rushing offense isn't really necessary, and you can slam guys into the padded walls.
Wide Receivers can move vertically in motion before the play giving them a running start before the play as long as they don't cross the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped.
Games are obviously much higher scoring. It has only taken Philadelphia wide receiver Chris Jackson to score a half dozen more touchdowns than Randy Moss did in an entire 16 game season.
Jackson's 29 touchdowns make him the most explosive wide receiver in the AFL right now. He's second in league in receiving yards with 915, but it's his ability to score is what makes him so special. He catches the ball anywhere in the end zone without problem.
He has SEVEN more touchdowns than anyone else in the league through eight games. That's almost a touchdown a game more than anyone else!
The Soul's second receiver is more of their threat. Larry Brackins averages over 14 yards per catch which is a pretty high number for the AFL. He's got 16 touchdowns in eight games this year. He's a big target down field at 6'4'' 225.
To catch that many touchdowns, the Soul receivers need a solid quarterback.
Well they have two.
Tony Graziani opened the season as the QB, but missed four games with a sprained knee. He injured the knee in week three, but returned against Columbus. He didn't last long; he re-injured the knee in the second quarter. He's listed as day-to-day for the Dallas game.
His replacement has exceeded Graziani's stud numbers. Graziani connected for 24 touchdowns and two interceptions, but Matt D'Orazio has gone above and beyond that. He's got 31 TDs and just two picks. His QB rating and completion percentage are both higher than Graziani's.
CuseAdelphia Prediction: Soul 62 Desperados 56.
The Battle of Pennsylvania
Now that the Pennsylvania Primaries are over, the Pirates and Phillies can duke it out for best team in the state.
This shouldn't be too much of a battle. The Phillies enter the game winners of four of five games while the Pirate's pitching cannot get anyone out.
Feast away Pat Burrell and Chase Utley. I wrote yesterday about the absolutely ridonkulous numbers the due are putting up. Zack Duke hasn't really been getting anyone out this year or last year or the year before that. It's been a rough three years for him since having a great rookie season (8-2, 1.81 ERA in 2005).
In 2008, Duke has pitched a little better than 2006 and 2007, but has still struggled. He's 0-1 with a 4.37 ERA and very high WHIP at 1.76. Hitters are smacking him around at a clip of .347. Duke's ERA is still respectable despite the BAA because he still hasn't allowed a home run in 2008.
Here's what tonight's projected lineup has done against Duke:
Jason Werth: Never faced Duke
So Taguchi: 5-17
Chase Utley: 2-7
Pat Burrell: 2-6
Greg Dobbs: Never faced Duke
Pedro Feliz: 1-5
Carlos Ruiz: Never faced Duke
Eric Bruntlett: 1-3.
Ryan Howard is not expected to be in the lineup again. Look for Greg Dobbs to fill in at first. If Charlie Manuel doesn't want Dobbs in the lineup for the lefty-lefty, Utley might move to first. Brad Harman would play second base.
Adam Eaton pitches for the Phillies. He was cruising in his last start against the Mets until the sixth inning when he got hit around quite a bit. Overall, Eaton has kept the Phillies in every start, allowing no more than four runs in any start. He's allowed just one home run all year which is the biggest reason he's had much more success in 2008.
CuseAdelphia Prediction: Phillies 7 Pirates 5.
SU Lax: Seniors Look for Revenge Saturday
UMass will enter the Dome Saturday trying to ruin senior day for the Orange's top four year players.
Tewaaraton Trophy finalists Mike Leveille and Steven Brooks will step on the Carrier Dome turf for the last time ever as players tomorrow. Their four years has seen some disappointing losses to UMass so what better way to leave your mark on the Dome by obliterating the men who have caused you so much pain.
The Minutemen are awful this year. They are just 5-7 on the season, but in their defense, eight Minutemen were suspended before the season for off the field actions.
This series isn't really a rivalry since SU has dominated overall 26-8, but it does have historical significance. A big win would be some sweet revenge for the Orange.
UMass has ended two of the Orange's most prestigious streaks during the last few years. In 2005, the 'Cuse didn't reach the final four for the first time in over 20 years after UMass defeated the Orange in the first round of the NCAA tournament 16-15. Little known face, the Orange actually played the Minutemen to end the season as well and lost in overtime.
In 2007, the Orange clinched their first losing record in decades with their 9-7 loss at Garber field in Amherst.
SU shouldn't have too much trouble with UMass. The Minutemen's best player is their goalie Doc Schneider who has a solid .610 save percentage. He leads the nation's top man-down defense.
Offensively, UMass is lacking. They've got one solid scorer in Tim Balise who has 30 goals. Basically the Orange need to do what they did against Albany. Clamp down on the rest of the team because one player, in this case Balise, isn't going to single handily beat you.
Hopefully the Orange can blow UMass out in order to get senior goalie Peter Coluccini back in the cage for a few minutes in his last game in the Dome.
The game is at 2PM in the Dome.
Troy Nunes has the women's lacrosse team and their trip to the Big East Tournament covered already. If I wrote something on them at this point it would just be over kill. So enjoy TNIAAM's coverage.
194 Days Until SOB Moments Start Happening Again
College Basketball always begins around November 5th or so which means college basketball is approximately 194 days away. Everyday I will have a new reason to look forward to the 2008-2009 season. I started this countdown about 205 days before the season, so some of these are going to be lame, but hey I need 205 freaking reasons why you should be looking forward to the 2008-2009 season.
Reason 194: At the end of every season Syracuse Orange Bloggers give out the SOBawards for many different categories. We are just 194 days away from experiencing moments that will be SOB worthy.
Check back at 6PM today for the award for Favorite Player Quote.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Canadiens Comeback to Take Game One
I've mentioned several times during the playoffs, the Flyers have been playing incredibly unpredictable. As soon as you think Philadelphia is going to close out a game, the team blows it. When the odds are against them, the Flyers set themselves up to win again...
...but then that's what makes sports great.
Tonight of course was no different. The Flyers were playing the top seed Montreal, the game was the Flyers' third game in four days, and the game was in Montreal.
But it didn't appear to matter.
The Flyers stayed back in all game and started their rushes from their own zone. It neutralized the Canadiens rush and speed throughout the Habs' top three lines. Montreal won the face-off battle by a lot 41-27. This should have stalled the Flyers offense.
But it didn't.
The Flyers out shot Montreal and drew more legitimate power plays (see below for details). The Flyers got goals from two unlikely sources: R.J. Umberger and Jim Dowd in the first period.
But the lead didn't last.
Montreal came storming back in the second period. The Habs controlled the pace, out shooting the Flyers 13-9 and out scoring them 2-0. Andrei Kostitsyn scored his fourth playoff goal and with less than four minutes left in period, Alexei Kovalev scored short handed.
But the Flyers came back.
The third period belonged to the Flyers. A shot advantage of 13-9 led to the Flyers controlling most of the period. Joffrey Lupul scored just 19 seconds into the period on a power play that carried over from the end of the second period.
But it didn't matter.
A penalty on Mike Richards with just over a minute left gave Montreal a six on four when the Habs pulled their goalie. Fast forward to 29 seconds left and the puck is in the net thanks to Alexei Kovalev. The Habs had all the momentum going into the overtime period.
And this mattered.
First shift in overtime, Tom Kostopoulos scored for Montreal and it was over. Two goals in the last 1:17 meant Montreal escapes with a 1-0 series lead.
__________________________________________
The Flyers did several things very well. Philadelphia limited the amount of penalties they took big time. Dumb penalty after dumb penalty against Washington allowed the Caps to stay in several games they should have been out of early.
That just wasn't the case tonight. The Canadiens' only power play for the majority of the game came early in the second period.
The Flyers also managed to stay in this game without any contributions from Philly's top players. Daniel Briere in his return home to Quebec, Scott Hartnell, and Vinny Prospal didn't notch a single point.
__________________________________________
The Flyers had this game stolen from them. I didn't get to watch, only was able to listen to the radio coverage. I did get to see the highlights which showed the wrong calls.
The second Montreal goal cannot be a goal in any way. There's no justifying it. How could Kovalev scored? His stick came down on the top of the goal after he hit the puck. That is a TEXT BOOK high stick. I don't understand how that can possibly be anything different. You clearly see his stick come down after he hits the puck, it's not like it went upwards after he hit the puck and then down onto the goal. That shouldn't have been a goal.
The Mike Richards penalty that gave Montreal a power play with under a minute left was not a penalty. It was ruled kneeling. His knee never makes contact with the Canadiens' player. That was a clean hit. Philadelphia has legitimate gripes in this game.
Chase Utley and Pat Burrell are Officially Ridonkulous
Chase Utley and Pat Burrell have opened the 2008 season hotter than probably any duo has in the last decade.
The two have combined for 18 home runs, 46 RBI, 15 doubles, two steals, 35 runs, a .371 BA in just 23 games. They've out homered 12 teams in the Major Leagues. Kansas City has scored 64 runs all season. Utley and Burrell are responsible for almost that many.
Against the Brewers today, Burrell doubled home Utley and Greg Dobbs for the go ahead runs in eighth inning to give the Phillies a 3-1 lead. A Jason Werth sixth inning homer run accounted for the Phillies first run.
Burrell and Utley were responsible for basically the rest of the Phillies offense. They reached base six times on four hits and two walks. Utley raised his batting average to .385 with his 3 for 4 day.
One of the biggest things responsible for their hot start is their ability to put the ball in play. They've combined for just 29 strike outs in over 160 at bats. That's less than one K per five at bats.
That's a lot different than in the past. Burrell had been striking out almost 25% of the time and Utley just over 20%.
The three runs Werth, Burrell and Utley produced was more than enough for soon to be AARP member Jamie Moyer. He threw six stud innings working in and out of jams all game. He allowed 11 base runners, but only one made it home. Moyer's last solid start against the Mets went without reward as the Phillies couldn't give him the run support. He surrendered just two runs in six innings against New York.
The 45 year old handed the ball over to 41 year old Flash Gordon who handed the ball over to 32 year old J.C. Romero, who handed the ball over to 28 year old Ryan Madson who handed the ball over to....not someone younger. 32 year old Brad Lidge threw a solid ninth inning for the save.
Lidge's fifth save extended his scoreless streak to open the year to ten innings.
Quick Hits:
- Ryan Howard didn't start, but came into the game as a pinch hitter. He stayed in the game and replaced Greg Dobbs at first base. The former MVP is three for his last 28 after going 0 for 2 this afternoon with two strikeouts. He started off slow last year partly because of his injury. Hopefully this is just a funk and there's not something wrong with his knee again.
- I mentioned above Jason Werth hit his fourth home run of the year. He's 14 for 44 with four home runs since moving into the everyday lineup after Shane Victorino went down.
- The National League's best bullpen gave up just two base runners in three scoreless innings tonight.
SOBs: Most Disappointing Player
A.E.M from The Orange Squeeze doesn't disagree,
"My most disappointing player has to be Josh Wright. Had he stuck it out and finished his education (which is most important) and played he could have been part of the team and probably helped them enough to get to the NCAA's."
"if you add in the rest of his [Josh Wright] career, this could become kind of a Lifetime Achievement in Disappointment award."
"Donte' Greene. I was under the impression that he was going to come in and score a lot down low and be a great rebounder who could shoot the three if he had too. Turns out he was the complete opposite."Nick from Nick's 2 Cents knows where I'm coming from,
"Donte' Greene - Hard to bag on the team's top scorer, but I've seen better shot selection in 6th-grade All-Star games."
"Last year I tagged Paul Harris here, not because I was severely disappointed with him but just because he didn't live up to the hype that proceeded him. Same went for Donte Greene this year. Clearly Mr. Greene thinks he's good enough for the NBA but the jury's still out for most Syracuse fans. Greene has great moments, but he also had some pretty bad ones as well. We'll miss his abilities and potential but we won't miss his shot selection."
Three Idiots on Sports went with Scoop,
"Getting suspended when the team was already short handed, not smart. Hopefully it's a learning a experience."
"After a nice start being added into the lineup when Devendorf went down he was playing very well. Then he laid a goose egg at the Georgetown game in DC. Immediately upon his return to CNY he was suspended for the SUpercard incident."So with all that said....
Former Winners: 2007 Josh Wright.Orange:44 will have Best Video at 4 PM.
Time to Get to Know the Canadiens
The Eastern Conference Semifinals begin tonight as the Flyers travel to Montreal (say it in a fake French accent...it's a good time).
It's a tough turn around for the Flyers since they played back to back nights on Monday and Tuesday. It's a little surprising that the NHL is making them play three games in four nights, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and play.
The Habs dominated the Flyers during the regular season. They outscored Philly 15-6 and won all four games. That reason alone makes me want to pick against the Flyers, but the series will be closer.
The Flyers are playing much better and after watching Montreal struggle a little bit against Boston, I do think they are beatable. The Flyguys should be able to take a few games, but if Philadelphia is going to win this series its going to be in at least six games, probably the full seven.
Montreal is just too strong across the board. They are fast and they can score. The Habs are widely considered one of the fastest teams in the NHL with three lines that can score. They are very reminiscent of the Buffalo and Ottawa teams the first two years after the lockout.
The Canadiens were second in the league in scoring at 3.09 per game. Defensively, the Habs were middle of the pack at surrendered 2.59 goals a game.
Carey Price has stepped up in goal after the Habs traded away the last goalie the Flyers faced. Montreal shipped off Cristobal Huet in late February for a second round pick in the 2009 draft.
This series will feature the two best powerplays from the regular season. The Canadiens cashed in on almost a quarter of their man up opportunities while the Flyers score on just over a fifth of their powerplays.
Penalties could be the major turning point of every game in this series. The team that can control the puck usually draws penalties. Which ever team can do this, will be able to turn games around with their powerplay.
Montreal doesn't kill penalties well; they are in the bottom of half of the league at 82%. The Flyers are just over a percent better at 83%, but that's good for 10th in the league.
Overall, Montreal is going to try to wear the Flyers down with their depth. The Flyers defensively don't have three lines that can match up well against the Canadiens. Philadelphia will probably come out Game One a little slow due to playing three games in four days.
CuseAdelphia Prediction: Canadiens 4 Flyers 2. Philadelphia just doesn't have the talent to match up well in this series. That's going to be evident in the very first game. Montreal rolls to a Game One victory.
195 Days Until a Potential Kansas Game
College Basketball always begins around November 5th or so which means college basketball is approximately 195 days away. Everyday I will have a new reason to look forward to the 2008-2009 season. I started this countdown about 205 days before the season, so some of these are going to be lame, but hey I need 205 freaking reasons why you should be looking forward to the 2008-2009 season.
Reason 195: Mike Waters reported the CBE tournament the Orange will be playing has the four host schools play each other at the finals location. That means Syracuse will have the opportunity to play two of three following schools: Kansas, Florida, and Washington. That will be a big time strength of schedule booster.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Hamels Labors Into 8th Inning, Brewers Win
You would never know sometimes that Charlie Manuel managed in the American League before moving to the Phillies. Usually AL skippers can manage pitchers better than hitters because of the lack of the double switch and pitching spot in the lineup.
That's just not the case for Manuel. The Good Phight reported that the Phillies were first in the league in both bullpen ERA and pinch hitting in 2008. Manuel's worked his bench to absolute perfection. He's great at double switches and making the necessary fielding and hitting substitutions.
What he doesn't do well is manage the pitching staff. He's not terrible at managing the staff, but he makes a lot of bonehead decisions. The worst of the year so far, tonight against the Brewers.
Cole Hamels went into the eighth inning with around 110 pitches and had given up three runs in the game. Granted he'd given up none since the first inning, but he was going to face the meat of the Brewers lineup in the eighth with a 4-3 lead.
The Phillies bullpen is relatively rested. Ryan Madson would be the only guy I would stray away from tonight. That leaves Tom Gordon, J.C. Romero, Chad Durbin, and Brad Lidge in the pen ready to go.
Charlie, you need two innings from the pen! Just go to it. It's early in the season, no reason to put extra strain on a fragile body.
The Brewers threw their ace Ben Sheets a few extra innings late in games earlier this year and he was scratched from today's start with shoulder soreness.
There's no reason to risk Hamels in this situation.
With all this said, Hamels surrendered a double to Rookie of the Year Ryan Braun and then served up a fat home run to Prince Fielder (pun intended). The game went from 4-3 to 5-4 in an instant.
It ruined a superb outing for Hamels. His final line: seven innings, two walks, three runs, and 11 Ks. He gave up three first inning runs and then settled down until the eighth.
The Phillies got another MVP performance from Pat Burrell and Chase Utley. The two combined for two more home runs and went 3-7 on the day. Burrell now has eight homers and 23 RBI while Utley is 10 and 21.
After the two of them, the rest of the lineup essentially did nothing except for Greg Dobbs. He hit a two run home run to tie the game at three in the fifth inning.
Ryan Howard took an oh-fer with two more strikeouts and Geoff Jenkins went hitless in his return to Milwaukee.
The Phillies also blew a chance in the ninth to score off of Derrick Turnbow who was filling in for Eric Gagne. Gagne had pitched very poorly in several consecutive games and got a much needed day off.
So Taguchi reached third with one out. He walked, stole second, and went to third on an error on the throw by Jason Kendall.
Jason Werth struck out on the seventh pitch of his at-bat. He swung at a pitcher that according to MLB's Gameday was a 93MPH fastball that looked right of the middle of the plate at the knees. He had to get the ball in play and bring Taguchi home.
Pedro Feliz was the Phillies last chance. He swung at the second pitch that was out of the strike zone and grounded out to J.J. Hardy. Game over, Brewers win.
The SOBs Are Back!!!!!
No, no, the SOBs aren't something derogatory, but the Syracuse Orange Blogger Awards!!!
This is my first year participating in the awards.
To get a full feel of what the SOBs are check out last year's awards at Troy Nunes.
For the full schedule of when the awards will be handed out check out Troy Nunes again.
I'll be awarding the Most Disappointing Player Award tomorrow at 3 PM.
At 6 PM on Friday I'll present the Favorite Player Quote Award.
The Flyers Need to Win to Save the City of Montreal
I'm thinking something like this:
Current Canadiens Patrice Brisebois, Steve Begin, Mathieu Carle, Mathieu Dandenault, Yann Danis, Maxim Lapierre, and Guillaume Latendresse are from the Province of Quebec. Save your homeland! Take a dive (like throw the game, not flop when a Flyer touches you)! Give the series to the Flyers. Do you want your homeland looking like war zone?
And now I call on current Flyers Marty Biron, Daniel Briere, and Simon Gagne too save your homeland by going on the greatest quest ever and defeat the Canadiens. Gagne lace them up, be like Willis Reed. Hobble out onto the ice dizzy and get the first shot on goal. You will fire up your teammates to save the Province of Quebec.
Briere: you turned down the Canadiens during the off-season to play for the Flyers. Show them it was your secret plan to come back to Montreal in the playoffs and save the city from itself by defeating Montreal in the playoffs.
Do not let a Canadiens victory destroy the land you love and call home.
Photo Credits: USA TODAY, History Channel
Pistons Preview Game Two
The 76ers look to defy all odds and take two from the Pistons in Detroit. Most experts, media members, average Joes picked the Pistons to win this series in four or five games.
The Sixers will try to make all the haters look like idiots tonight by jumping out to the 2-0 lead and forcing the Pistons to play at least six games if they want to win the series.
So what do the 76ers need to do to make it two in a row?
The 76ers need to be able to take the ball inside without Rasheed Wallace being a big time defensive factor. 'Sheed blocked seven shots and forced the Sixers to change their game plan at times because of his presence.
Sammy Dalembert and Reggie Evans need to draw Wallace away from the basket, opening up the lane for the more athletic Sixers' guards and forwards to move through the paint freely.
The 76ers also need to shoot better from the field. They shot just 43% from the field in Game One and that's not going to cut it in most games against the Pistons.
The 76ers forced the Pistons into 39% shooting in Game One and the 76ers only won by four points. It's going to be tough to keep the Pistons down around that mark consistently as the Pistons shot 45.8% from the field during the regular season.
Each game the 76ers will need someone off the bench of have a very, very strong game. In Game One, Philadelphia got that from Reggie Evans. He scored 11 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, he also hit two key free throws. They'll need one of either Evans, Thaddeus Young, Lou Williams, or Jason Smith to contribute each game to have a chance in this series.
The Piston's bench is too good with Jason Maxiell, Ronny Stuckley, and Lindsey Hunter for the 76ers to survive without strong contributions from their sixth men. In Game One, the 76ers' bench outscored the Piston's bench 22-17.
Philadelphia also needs to finish every transition opportunity they get. The Pistons are very solid in the half-court defense which means the 76ers' transition game must continue to be their strength.
Brew Crew Preview
Cole Hamels takes the mound tonight looking to extend the Phillies win streak to four games against the Brewers.
Hamels is coming off a loss against the Mets in which Johan Santana out-pitched the Phillies ace. The Cole Train still enters this game with very solid numbers; 1.86 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 19 strike outs.
Hamels has a high ERA against the Brewers, but overall has solid numbers against Milwaukee. His ERA, 4.22, isn't quite indicative of how he's pitched against Milwaukee. He's got three starts against the Brewers, a 1-0 record, 21 strike outs in as many innings, and a 0.89 WHIP.
Tonight's projected Brewers lineup is a mere 7-39 against Hamels with three home runs and 16 strikeouts.
For Milwaukee, David Bush will toe the rubber. To put it lightly, Bush has been awful this year. He's got a healthy 7.02 ERA and an 0-3 record to boot.
He hasn't fared well against the Phillies in his career either. He's also thrown 21 innings against the Phillies like Hamels against the Brewers, but with much different results.
His 6.23 ERA and 1.57 WHIP say it all. The projected lineup's success means Bush could and should be in for a very short outing.
1. Jason Werth (never faced Bush)
2. Geoff Jenkins (never face Bush, but was his teammates for several years)
3. Chase Utley (2-5 with two walks)
4. Ryan Howard (3-8 with a home run)
5. Pat Burrell (3-7 with two home runs)
6. Pedro Feliz (3-12 with two home runs) or Greg Dobbs (3-7 with a homer)
7. Carlos Ruiz (2-4)
8. Eric Bruntlett (0-1)
9. Cole Hamels (0-2)
CuseAdelphia Prediction: Phillies 8 Brewers 2. The meat of the Phillies lineup has blown Bush up in three starts. Look for more of that. I think Howard will homer tonight and break out of his funk for at least one night. Cole Hamels goes seven innings and strikes out five.
Women's BBall in 196 Days
College Basketball always begins around November 5th or so which means college basketball is approximately 196 days away. Everyday I will have a new reason to look forward to the 2008-2009 season. I started this countdown about 205 days before the season, so some of these are going to be lame, but hey I need 205 freaking reasons why you should be looking forward to the 2008-2009 season.
Reason 196: When TNIAAM linked to this article, I realized that I was leaving out women's basketball in my countdown. So today's reason is what's pointed out in the article linked to. Coach Q turned this team around by 13 games, in 2008-2008 we will see another solid improvement for the women's team.
Howard Cosell Tribute
Cosell died 13 years ago today from a heart embolism in New York City. I thought I would honor his great work with some YouTube clips of him in action.
Cosell influenced popular culture more than probably any other sports broadcaster. He was the face of broadcasting. His legacy still lives on in movies today.
In Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Cotton McKnight, the announcer, makes the epic call "Down Goes Goodman! Down goes Goodman." It's a spoof of Cosell's call the 1973 George Foreman and Joe Frazier fight. When Foreman knocks Frazier out, Cosell calls it as "Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!"
Cosell was not afraid to call out an athlete or speak his mind about him. He claimed Muhammad Ali would lose to George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle and then Ali would retire promptly after the fight. Cosell gave Ali bulletin board material with what he had to say.
Cosell and Monday Night Football had an odd relationship with John Lennon. The former Beatle appeared on MNF as a guest with Cosell talking about the differences between rugby and American football.
John Lennon would reappear on MNF, but for the wrong reason. Howard Cosell broke the news to the country that Lennon had been killed outside his apartment. The YouTube clip of this isn't embeddable, so here's the link.
Cosell also was a columnist for the New York Daily News. Here he does a Daily News commercial with Mike Lupica all the way back in 1985.
Cosell also hosted his own comedy show on ABC called "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell." The show only lasted three months, but it gave us this great skit with Dean Martin and Dick Martin.
"This is the theme of MNF WAY before Hank and are you ready stuff. This is for us old timers who remember when MNF was great and looked forward to. "
R.I.P. Howard Cosell (3/25/1918 - 4/23/1995)
Photo Credit: kipadotta.com
Fightin' Phils Win Again!
Pat Burrell and Chase Utley continued their hot hitting to send the Phillies to their sixth comeback win in just 21 games.
The dynamic duo combined for five RBI in the Phillies 8-6 win over the Rockies. Utley knocked home two runs in the third to gives the Phils an early 2-0 lead. Burrell did it when it mattered in the ninth. Pat the Bat drilled a bases clearly double to left-center to give Philly an 8-6 lead.
The Phillies need the offense after Brett Myers looked as hittable as I can ever remember. He lasted seven innings, but surrendered 11 hits and two walks. Myers kept the ball over the middle of the plate all game and the Rockies made him pay. Luckily he mostly scattered the 11 hits to only give up the six runs, but it could have been much, much more.
Unlike Myers's last start against Houston, he didn't go after each hitter with fastballs. He started many hitters off with sliders and his cutter. This change in approach could be due to the catching change. Chris Coste caught Myers's last start and went with a fastball heavy approach. I remember noticing other games Coste caught, he tried to get his pitchers to go with the fastball first.
Carlos Ruiz caught Myers tonight and called a game heavy on the breaking pitches. I'm going to try to keep track of this and see if it's a trend that Coste calls for fastballs and Ruiz for the breaking pitches.
Chase Utley did it all for the Phils tonight. He had the RBI double mentioned before, but his biggest hit of the game came in the ninth. With one out and So Taguchi on first, Utley singled, but made the hustle play to get to second on the throw to third base. This set up an intentional walk to Ryan Howard and then the bases clearing double for Burrell.
Plus, Utley made another defensive gem which made top plays on SportsCenter. It's always nice to see his defense get recognized after he struggled a bit earlier this year with the glove.
Side note, did anyone notice on the Burrell double that Ryan Howard was literally ten feet behind Utley? He must have gotten one heck of a jump on the ball and Utley must have been holding at second in case Willy Taveras caught the ball in left-center. Even if this was the case, I would have thought Utley could out run Howard from second to home by more than ten feet.
Just thought I would point that out.
So far so good in the Brad Lidge experiment.
Lidge pitched a perfect ninth for the save. He struck out two Rockies in the process. He's now thrown eight scoreless innings to open the year with eight strike outs. The six walks are a little worrisome, but he's only surrendered four hits.
Quick Hits:
- Pedro Feliz notched three hits. He's starting to look more comfortable in this lineup.
- Jason Werth homered for the second straight game. He cleared the fence tonight, instead of going the inside the park fashion like last night.
- Ryan Madson pitched a scoreless eighth.
- Both Garret Atkins and Matt Holliday homered and doubled for Colorado.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Thank You Joffrey
The Flyers live to play another day after defeating the Capitals in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
Joffrey Lupul knocked home a rebound into essentially an empty net on a power play in overtime for the game winner. The goal was Lupul's first of the playoffs and it couldn't have come at a better time.
The Flyers were trying to avoid becoming the 21st team out of 225 to blow a 3-1 series lead in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They avoided this fate well after let the Caps knot the series up at three.
The Flyers blew two straight chances to knock the Caps out of the playoffs, but very strong goal tending from Marty Biron kept the Flyers in the game. Biron recorded 39 saves in 41 chances including 16 saves in the third period alone.
Biron didn't have to be flashy, just good. He stopped everything that came at him including several point blank chances for Alexander Ovechkin in third period and overtime.
Biron made the saves, the second and third lines scored the goals. Unlikely names like Sami Kapanen, Joffrey Lupul, and Scottie Upshall came through with the goals. The usual names, Mike Richards, Scott Hartnell, Vinny Prospal, and Jeff Carter couldn't find any part of the score sheet.
One of the most controversial goals in the entire playoffs gave the Flyers the lead in the second period 2-1. Sami Kapanen brought the puck into the Caps zone, twirled around on the right side of the net. Patrick Thoresen checked his man into goalie Cristobal Huet knocking all three players to the ice. Kapenen recognized the open net and flung a wrist shot at the empty net for the goal.
Alexander Ovechkin wouldn't be out done. He tied the game up at two later in the second period.
The third period feature the Caps really going after the Flyers. They outshot the Flyguys 16-5, but somehow couldn't get the puck by Biron.
The goal-less third period set up an up and down overtime as both teams got quality chances in the first several minutes. Tom Poti made a really stupid mistake and tripped up R.J. Umberger in a situation where Poti just didn't to commit a penalty to stop a play.
It lead to an aggressive powerplay as the Flyers started blasting away at Huet. It eventually lead to Kimmo Timonen shot. The rebound trickled off to the right of Huet, but he looked left thinking he deflected the rebound in that direction.
Lupul knocked the puck into an uncontested net and that was it. Game over. Flyers win.
Slapshots:
- Derian Hatcher committed a really stupid penalty in the first period that led to a Washington powerplay goal.
- Philadelphia blew another 5 on 3 powerplay opportunity that lasted the full two minutes. A four minute slash followed by another penalty led to two full minutes of five on three action for the Flyers.
- Cristobal Huet deserves a lot of credit for how well he played and how many great saves he made in this series.
- The Flyers will play the Canadians who also won their series in seven games.
Rocktoberfest Revenge Part Two
The Phillies look to finish enacting their Rocktoberfest Revenge tonight behind Brett Myers's arm and Chase Utley's bat.
Brett Myers looks to continue his strong pitching in Coors Field. The right hander has toyed with the Rockies in eight career appearances against Colorado. Myers has never lost to the Rockies and has a very low 2.21 ERA against them.
The former closer opened the year with two straight disappointing starts suggesting he may not have finished the transition of moving back to the starting rotation. That changed quickly during his last two starts.
Myers was flawless against Cincinnati and Houston throwing 15 innings and the only runs he surrendered were four solo home runs. Myers has kept the walks down the last two starts which has helped keep those four home runs as solo blasts.
The Rockies will send Jeff Francis to the mound. Francis hasn't fared to well against the Phillies historically, but pitched well when it counted. In Game 1 of the NLDS last year, he gave up just two runs in six innings in the Rockies 4-2 win.
Overall against the Phillies, Francis is 2-1 with a 7.08 ERA in four starts.
Here's how the projected line up has done against Francis:
1. So Taguchi, 4-13 with a home run
2. Jason Werth 3-10 with three doubles
3. Chase Utley 2-8 with a home run
4. Ryan Howard 2-5
5. Pat Burrell 3-8
6. Pedro Feliz 8-38 with a home run
7. Chris Coste 1-3
8. Eric Bruntlett 0-1
9. Brett Myers never faced Francis.
Quick Hits: Chase Utley hit his ninth home run of the year last night. He's hit six in five games, and homered in five consecutive games. Pat Burrell also jacked his seventh home run and team leading 19th RBI. Burrell and Utley are going to be fighting for the Triple Crown at this rate.
Last night Kyle Kendrick wasn't keeping his pitches down and it cost him dearly. He's going to put his spot in the rotation in jeopardy pretty soon if he doesn't return to his 2007 form. Kendrick has struck out eight batters in four starts. That's awful. More hitters putting the ball in play naturally means they are going to get more hits. Kendrick has got to find a way to start k'ing his opponents up.
Paul Harris Flops 197 Days Away
College Basketball always begins around November 5th or so which means college basketball is approximately 197 days away. Everyday I will have a new reason to look forward to the 2008-2009 season. I started this countdown about 205 days before the season, so some of these are going to be lame, but hey I need 205 freaking reasons why you should be looking forward to the 2008-2009 season.
The title of this post gives away reason 197 to be excited for basketball season. Do it all Paul really does it all. At least acting wise. He flails arms and body in the air, flops, pretends to get hit a lot harder than he really does. As annoying and Duke-like this is, it actually works. Now it can get frustrating and overdone, but that one time a game Harris goes flying or flailing makes for a good time.
Groundhog Day for the Flyers
I'm absolutely awful at Photoshop. Enjoy!Washington at this point has all the momentum in the series and has home ice advantage for game seven. Plus the Flyers have to bounce back one day later from a really bad home loss (more on that in a minute). All the signs up towards Washington taking this game, but with how back and forth this series has been, I don't know if anyone can really predict what's going to happen.
The Flyers need to aggressively go after the Caps. Hit them until they can't skate. Get an early lead and don't let up. The Flyers have been great at blowing leads this year. Philly takes the lead and doesn't necessarily sit back, but lets the opposing team put the pressure on them. I don't know what school of hockey Coach John Stevens went to, but he's got to change his mentality when he's got a lead.
Tonight the Flyers have three keys: Contain Ovechkin, limit penalties, and fore check.
Onto last night now. I've been saying it all series. Alexander the Great makes every series almost a best of six series. He's going to single handily win the Caps a game. That game finally came last night. Tied at two, Ovechkin scored two goals to break the tie.
I didn't get to watch the game, Versus was carrying the Montreal-Boston game where I was. So I'm not going to comment on the game itself too much. I will say, after looking at the box score and the ridiculous number of shots, this game must have been really up and down. I don't think that plays into the Flyers' hands because of Ovechkin and really also Nicklas Backstrom's ability to score and create in the open ice.
CuseAdelphia Prediction: Game seven will go to the Capitals. They are going to do the improbable and comeback from 3-1. The Flyers too many opportunities to take this series in the first six games and it's going to comeback to haunt them. I think a late three period goal will decide this game.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Don't Get Eliminated MXC Style!!!!!!!
That's going to be a tough task since the game will be in Philadelphia in front of the rowdy Flyer crowd. Washington struggled in the first two games in Philly against the strong Flyer fore check.
The Flyers fore check has kept the puck off Alexander Oveckin's stick; he's scored just one goal all series. I've been saying since after game three, A.O. is going to explode, it's only a matter of time. I still think the Flyers are really playing a best of six series since Ovechkin should in a seven game series single handily win one game.
While Oveckin has struggled, Flyers star Daniel Briere has played some of his best hockey as a Flyer. He's got multiple points in three of the first five games and his nine points total lead are the most in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Briere is finally showing why he deserved the eight year-52 million dollar contract the Flyers gave him.
Briere and the rest of the Flyers will have to rebound from Game Five. Washington completely out played the Flyers for about the first 50 minutes of the game. Solid goal-tending from Marty Biron kept this game close and gave the Flyers a chance to tie in the last minute.
Washington controlled the flow of the game, forcing the Flyers into several stupid penalties. The puck stayed in the Flyers' defensive zone for essentially minutes on end. The Flyers went over 12 minutes during the end of the first period and start the second without a single shot on goal.
The biggest key to Game Six for the Flyers will be re-establishing the fore check. Philadelphia won games two through four by not allowing the Caps to move the puck up ice. If Philly can get back to that pressure, the Flyers will run away with this game again.
CuseAdelphia Prediction: Flyers 5 Capitals 3. I'm going to get specific with this prediction; Flyers jump out to 2-0 lead in the first period, Capitals comeback, draw the game within 4-3 in the third period. The Flyers then add an empty net goal to seal the deal and eliminate the Caps.
Rocktoberfest Revenge
Rocktoberfest swept the nation last year and a playoff series against the Phillies. The Rockies entered the playoffs winning 14 of 15 games and made it three more in a row in the NLDS against the 'Fightin's.
Tonight the (9-9, 2nd place NL West) Rockies host the Phillies (9-10). Left hander Mark Redman takes the mound for the Rockies. He's 2-1 with a 4.60 ERA. He's got two straight solid starts (not quality, only went five innings in each).
Redman isn't going to strike out a lot of batters which plays into the Phillies hands. Ryan Howard and his 26 strike outs in 19 games might actually make some solid contact tonight. Add in the Coors Field effect and the Phillies could tee off tonight.
The Phillies as a whole have struggled however against Redman.
Here's the projected lineup and how each has fared against Redman:
1. Jason Werth (1-3 vs Redman)
2. So Taguchi (3-9 and 2RBI)
3. Chase Utley (2-7 and 3BB)
4. Ryan Howard (0-5)
5. Pat Burrell (4-19 and one home run)
6. Pedro Feliz (1-12)
7. Chris Coste (1-2)
8. Eric Bruntlett (1-3, triple and 3 RBI)
9. Kyle Kendrick (never faced Redman)
Mark Redman was an all-star for the 2006 Royals. Yes, the Royals were that bad in 2006 that he was the "best" player on that team.
CuseAdelphia Prediction: Phillies 9, Rockies 7.
Be prepared for lots of runs, early and often from both teams. Scoring in Colorado has been down the last few years, but this will have an old time feel for it. Chad Durbin picks up the win in relief.
198 Days til Tip
College Basketball always begins around November 5th or so which means college basketball is approximately 198 days away. Everyday I will have a new reason to look forward to the 2008-2009 season. I started this countdown about 205 days before the season, so some of these are going to be lame, but hey I need 205 freaking reasons why you should be looking forward to the 2008-2009 season.
Reason 198: SU will open the season against some cupcake like Cansius or Fordham and steam roll them by 25. This will spur talk about how weak the schedule is. That will end when SU hosts Virginia in the Dome and goes on the road against Memphis. Plus the CBE classic will give SU a chance to play the likes of Kansas, Florida, or Washington.
So Reason 198 to be excited for basketball is a strong strength of schedule will put SU near the top of the RPI ratings heading into the conference season.
Weekly Preview
Here's a look at what's going on in CuseAdelphia for April 21st-April 28th.
Philadelphia Phillies head out Colorado to face the Rockies for the first time since the Roctoberfest.
Probables: Today, Kyle Kendrick vs. Mike Redman
Tomorrow: Brett Myers vs. Jeff Francis
It's only a two game series, followed by another two game series. I cannot remember the last time the Phillies played back to back two game series.
The Phillies then travel to Milwaukee to play the Brewers.
Wednesday: Carlos Villaneuva vs. Cole Hamels
Thursday: Ben Sheets vs. Jamie Moyer
After that the Phillies play Pittsburgh for three games into Pittsburgh.
The Phillies should come away with at least four wins from this road trip.
76ers: Game two is Wednesday night in Detroit
Game three and four are in Philly on Friday and Sunday night.
Flyers: Game six and seven are tonight and tomorrow at home, then on the road.
Eagles: NFL Draft this weekend. We'll see if the Eagles screw it up or get it right. It never seems like its in between.
Syracuse Lacrosse: UMass in the Dome Saturday at 2 PM. The WLax team is in action tomorrow night on the road against Cornell and then the Big East Tournament begins. On Friday, SU plays Rutgers in South Bend.
