Giving the Devil His Due

It is almost painful for me to say this....kudos to the Boston Red Sox. Ugh, I suddenly feel so dirty.

I have to give credit where credit is due though. In the last week, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein made the kind of shrewd, under-the-radar moves that help teams win championships. After the hoopla and fanfare surrounding the blockbuster signings by the Yankees, the Hot Stove cooled down just a bit. People took this time to reflect on the changing landscape of the AL East with CC, AJ, and Tex all donning Pinstripes. The Rays responded by signing Pat Burrell to beef up their power from the right side of the plate, and Joe Nelson to sure up the bullpen. The Red Sox did....nothing.

Fans and sports writers alike wondered what would Boston do? What COULD Boston do in response to the moves by the Yankees? There were no blockbuster free agents left, and even if there were, how could they possibly match what the Yankees had accomplished with their big 3 acquisitions?

Then last week it was announced that the Red Sox had reached a 1 year deal with Brad Penny for $5 million. A man who only made 17 starts last year because of injuries, and compiled a 6-9 record with a 6.27 ERA. The Sox then signed Rocco Baldelli for 1 year and $500,000. Baldelli has been hampered by injuries throughout his career. Last year he was diagnosed with a mitochondrial disorder that tires his body out very quickly after physical exertion. He managed to come back for the Rays' stretch and playoff run last season. The busy Red Sox then signed 38 year old Takashi Saito for 1 year and 1.5 million. Saito was the Dodgers closer over the last couple of seasons until midway through this past season when his arm began to give him problems and he was eventually forced into a closer platoon because he couldn't handle the workload. The final move was announced yesterday when the Sox completed their 1 year, $5.5 million deal with lifelong Atlanta Brave John Smoltz, who missed most of last season because of arm problems.

At first glance it looks like the Red Sox were picking up bodies off of the scrap heap at a bargain price. The kind of moves a low budget, flailing organization makes in order to try and lend some "credibility" and name recognition to its team. But the Red Sox aren't exactly a low budget, floundering organization. Put these guys on an already well built team, and they suddenly become low risk, very high reward commodities that could pay huge dividends now and in the future.

Here's a rundown of what each could bring to the table for the Sox:

1) Brad Penny: Despite his troubles last season, Penny has been, at times, a dominant starting pitcher, winning 16 games in both 2006 and 2007 for the Dodgers. And as an added bonus, he was one of the young starting pitchers that helped the Marlins beat the Yankees in the 2003 World Series. If he can recover from his injury and get back to where he was in '06 and '07 he slots in as an extremely dangerous number 4 starter for the Red Sox. He's only 30 years old and there is little reason to believe that he can't bounce back, and if he does, it may allow Epstein to trade one of his young starting pitchers for a good starting catcher, which the Sox desperately need now that Jason Varitek is finished in Beantown.

2) Rocco Baldelli: Baldelli effectively becomes the Red Sox 4th outfielder. Early in his career with the Rays, Baldelli was being touted as one of the next great stars of baseball. He was drawing comparisons to Joe DiMaggio, though that may have been due in part to his name and ethnic background. Joking aside though, the kid could play. He was a frightening blend of power and speed. His average always hovering around .300. David Wright comes to mind when you think of comparable numbers.

Then the injuries began. He simply couldn't stay healthy. When he was diagnosed with the mitochondrial disorder it looked as if his career might be over. He worked hard though to get healthy again, and was used delicately in the Rays stretch run this year, showing some of the same potential he had on display at the beginning of his career.

Now the Red Sox will use him in that same delicate manner. He will be there to spell one of the 3 starting outfielders and can be a great player off of the bench. If he is able to stay healthy he becomes an excellent back-up who would be a starter on any other team. And if he isn't able to stay healthy, well, no matter, he wasn't one of the 3 starters anyway.

3) Takashi Saito: He may be the most under-the-radar of the 4 of them. You can immediately slot him into the 8th inning in front of Jonathan Papelbon. He will share that inning with lefty specialist Hideki Okajima. In doing so they will relieve Saito of the heavy workload of a closer and be able to use him as a dominant 8th inning option. Even in a season in which he had arm problems, Saito was able to put up a 2.49 ERA and save 18 games. This could turn out to be a scary good move for the Red Sox.

4) John Smoltz: Smoltz seems to be the biggest question mark. We all know his track record, but last year he was only able to make 5 starts before he had to pack it in for the season because of major arm trouble. This is the second time in his career that Smoltz has had to deal with a serious arm problem. He turns 42 this year and one has to wonder how much he has left. But you can never question Smoltz's abilities though. If he is able to regain even a modicum of the success he has had over his illustrious career he can be a dominant #5 option in the starting rotation, or even become another excellent set-up man for Papelbon. Whether he can get completely healthy remains to be seen, but with all the pieces that the Sox already have in place, this is a very low risk signing.

So kudos to you Theo. You have shown once again why you are one of the best GM's in baseball.....and now that I've said that, I think I need to take a shower.

We're Talkin' Football

As we say good-bye to the first round of playoff castaways and near the end of another controversial (if not exciting) bowl season, I wanted to share some thoughts.

Raise your hand if you were even just a little upset that the Indianapolis Colts never even touched the football in their overtime loss to the Chargers. I'm pretty sure I've made my feelings clear on this, but in case you've forgotten....IT'S THE DUMBEST RULE IN ALL OF SPORTS!!!!

There NEEDS to be an equanimity of opportunity. An entire team's season was just ended because of a coin toss. The Colts (whose QB just happened to be the league MVP) never even got a chance to play on offense. What a shame. Nothing against the Chargers. They may be the best 8-8 team ever, but you have to feel bad that Peyton didn't even get a chance to do his thing in the OT.

I had a discussion with my dad about this rule and we both had a similar idea on how to solve it. Credit to fellow sports enthusiast Bob Dealy who reminded me that there are 3 phases to the game and that the college system of OT leaves out Special Teams. Please share your thoughts on this solution:

The coin toss decides who gets the ball to start the OT, just as it does now. If the team who gets the ball first does not score and has to punt, or turns the ball over -- then we play a normal, sudden death overtime. However, if the teams who has the ball first scores, they then have to kick off to the other team. The other team now has to match or best the first team. If at any point they turn the ball over, whether it be on downs, fumble of interception, the game is over.

If Team A starts with the ball and kicks a field goal and Team B scores a touchdown on their possession, Team B wins. If Team B kicks a field goal and matches Team A, then we continue in this fashion.

I am calling it the Extra Innings Rule. Like in baseball, the team who hits in the top half of the inning has a chance to score. The team who hits in the bottom half then has to do the same or better.

Other Playoff Curiosities:
There has been a lot of screaming and yelling over the past few days about regular season records and how teams are seeded in the playoffs. The venom here has been primarily directed at the 8-8 Chargers hosting the 12-4 Colts and the Giants facing the 9-6-1 Eagles instead of the 9-7 Cardinals.

This argument is pretty simple. You have to give credit to the team that wins their division. Just because their record is not as good as some other teams that might not even make the playoffs, you cannot discount the fact that you won your division. This year is odd because the Cardinals and the Chargers both won with mediocre records in extremely weak divisions. However, what if you have a division where all 4 teams are incredibly well balanced? Let's say each team goes 1-1 against their division opponents. Now everyone stands at 3-3. They also all have an equally tough non-divisional schedule and the best team in the division finishes up 9-7, while the last place team is 8-8. By winning that tough division, they have earned the right to host a playoff game.

Using this same argument we can immediately shoot down the complaints from certain Giants' fans (and I am not among these complainers) that the G-Men should be playing the Cardinals this week instead of the Eagles. Giants fans are simply upset because the Eagles are a hot team right now and managed to barely hold on for a win against the Giants in the regular season (mind you that game was played days after the Plaxico Burress incident and the team had already solidified a playoff spot the previous week by improving their record to 10-1). If the shoe were on the other foot and the 9-7 Cardinals were the hot team going into this round of the playoffs, Giants fans would be saying, "Whew, it's a good thing the rule states that we play the lowest seed." Every fan wants the rules to be convenient for their team. Simply put, the Giants play the lowest seed; which right now is the Eagles. The Cardinals and the Chargers have earned their places in the post-season by winning their division.

Finally, some College Football Thoughts:

I think ESPN needs to tone down the over-coverage of certain players' parents. In both the NU-Mizzou game and the Texas-OSU game, it seemed that after every play that Texas and Mizzou played on offense, ESPN showed a picture of the quarterback's parents and girlfriend. You want to show them after big plays, fine, but enough is enough! And don't the Wildcats and Buckeyes have parents too? I'm pretty sure CJ Bacher (NU quarterback) has parents. In fact I met them on my way to a game when I was living in Chicago. They're lovely people. I would have liked to have seen how they reacted when their son threw a 45-yard TD pass in the 2nd half of the Alamo Bowl.

My last point of the day is probably a touchy subject, but one I feel necessary to bring up. I think it might be time to start telling players to ease up on the religious talk in post-game interviews. Hearing what Colt McCoy (Texas QB) had to say after the game last night, I felt it was time to speak up. This has nothing to with my own religious beliefs, I just feel that this kind of speech is out of place at the end of a football game -- comments like, "I'd like to thank Jesus, our Lord and Savior, for giving me the strength to throw those passes like I did today." or, "God was on our side today. God gave me the will to catch that ball that helped us win the game." Again, it's not that I have a problem with their religious beliefs, but with all the horrible things going on in the world today, don't you think God and Jesus have more important things to worry about than a college bowl game? And besides Colt, what if God is an Oklahoma fan?

And if you disagree....go ahead and tell me I'm wrong.

20-20 Hindsight

First off, I wanted to wish everyone a very happy new year!

With the NFL playoffs starting this weekend some fans are hoping their teams can become last year's Giants, while other fans are left wondering what went wrong? NY Jets fans seem to be doing a lot of that these days, and a lot of them are answering that question with two words: Brett Favre.

Isn't 20-20 hindsight a beautiful thing?

Before this season started Jets fans were screaming about getting Brett Favre. There was no way they could go into the season with Chad Pennington as their starting QB. Pennington is washed up, he can't throw the ball downfield, he can't stay healthy, etc. So Mike Tannenbaum listened to the fans, went out and got the future hall of fame quarterback, and said good bye to the aforementioned Pennington. Pennington signed with the hapless Dolphins and the Jets stood poised to make a big post-season run with Favre at the helm.

Isn't 20-20 hindsight a beautiful thing?

If you asked ANY Jets fan right now who they would rather have as their starting QB, they would answer Chad Pennington. "How could we let him go? Look what he did with the Dolphins this year. We missed the playoffs with a washed up QB. What a stupid move it was."

I bet they wouldn't have been saying this when the Jets stood at 8-3 after they beat the undefeated Titans and rival Patriots in consecutive weeks. The Favre move looked like a stroke of genius at that point. A mere 5 weeks later and it looks like the bonehead move of the year.

Isn't 20-20 hindsight a beautiful thing?

This is what makes sports so interesting and so exciting. Who would have thought that an injury-prone, much-maligned quarterback would lead a team that went 1-15 in the previous season to a first place finish in a division that boasted a team who last year was the first team ever to go 16-0. Yes, I know that the Pats lost Tom Brady for the season in the first game, but that is the beauty of sports. No season is ever decided on paper. Nothing is ever a certainty.

I think the Jets GM made the right decision to bring in Favre. It was the LOGICAL decision. Pennington had run his course in NY. They needed something new. Which is why I get a kick out of hearing fans (in any sport) complain at the end of the season "How could we have traded this guy?" or "What were we thinking signing this guy?"

The simple answer: because you just don't know what will happen. GM's have to make decisions based on past performance, team goals, instinct, and so many other factors. If it works they look like geniuses, and if it doesn't, they look for new jobs.

20-20 hindsight is a beautiful thing.....if you're a fan trying to explain what went wrong.


Enjoy the NFL playoffs everyone!

Oh and um, if you disagree....go ahead and tell me I'm wrong.