The New York Yankees.

Is it just me, or have they reached the pinacle of destroying pitcher careers?

The list is astounding.

- Randy Johnson (highest ERA (coming into last night's win) since 1989!... < 1 K/IP for first time since 1990 (no other years were even as close to this bad (much better even in his most down years of 1998 (9-10, 1.33) and 2003 (6-8, 1.09)), most home runs since 1999 (2 more makes it the most of his career)

- Carl Pavano (the young guys see the worst of the destruction, as there are quite a few pitchers who are just establishing themselves before finding oblivion in New York... highest ERA and WHIP since moving to Florida in 2002, gave up more HR than last year in 122.1 less innings (two less than the 2003 season which had 101 less innings) (he only pitched 100 this year)

- Jamey Wright (definitely not the quality pitcher that the others on this list are, but turned a great year last year into a horrible thing this year. Maybe the Yankees should've noticed vomitous numbers in 1999 (8-10, 6.06 ERA, 1.65 WHIP), 2001 (2-2, 6.52, 2.00), and 2003 (2-5, 7.38, 1.91) (though his 2-3 record with a 15.71 ERA and 3.22 WHIP has to be one of the most revolting I've ever seen in 8 games in Cleveland in 2002))

- Keith Brown (though he has fought back problems for many years now, and had some up and done years, this year is by far the worst (worst win percentage since 1994) (4 wins in 13 games = 30.7% versus 44.3% average for his career), worst WHIP since Reagan was president (1.76 in only 23.1 innings in 1988), and by far the worst ERA of his career (6.50 versus career 3.28)))

That's just this year's crowd. You can't say that the Yankees catch pitchers when their careers are declining either, as many have slowly built back into their potential before Yankee-dom.

- Javier Vazquez (One of my favorite young pitchers, last season really saddened me. His worst WHIP and ERA since 2000. Even though he still managed 14-10 last season (his second best career win-loss %), and is only 10-13 this year, the numbers are very deceptive. His ERA (4.59 this year, 4.91 last) and WHIP (1.24 this, 1.29 last) are only slightly better... but it's his other numbers that tell what an aberation last season was. He averages almost 2 1/2 complete games a year... but had none in 04 and his K-BB ratio was only 2.5 in 04, versus a career 3.23 (it's 4.28 this year!). I think he still has a great career ahead!)

- Jeff Weaver (One of the most horrific disasters ever to happen to a pitcher. Came from hapless Detroit to New York at the deadline in 2002 for peanuts. Had a 45-59 record coming (pretty darn good considering the team), and a career 4.33 ERA, 1.37 WHIP. In New York went 12-12, 5.35 ERA, 1.54 WHIP. Almost immediately found himself as a middle reliever after being the ace for Detroit. ERA has declined each season since he left, and he turned in a 13-13 year last year before what will be best season yet, currently at 12-8. His career is slowly but surely getting legs oncemore, even as he's battled some lingering injuries.)


- Roger Clemens (The ultimate evidence. Had one good year in New York (01), but also turned in 4 of his highest 8 ERAs of his 22 year career (including two of his three highest), 3 of his highest 6 WHIPs (including his highest ever in 1999), 2 shutouts (compared to 46 lifetime), and a 2.58 K-BB ratio (versus 4.38 career). And we've all seen his return to dominance since. His ERA has dropped almost a full point a year the last two years (4.35 in 2002 in NY, 3.91 in 03 in NY, 2.91 in 04 in Hou, 1.56 this year in Hou). His K/IP (1.30) the past two seasons blows his efficiency in NY (0.94) out of the water. And he is 29-10 verus 30-15 in his final two seasons in New York. His HOF career is back to cruise control... though he's not paying any attention to that!)

And don't forget David Cone, Jason Giambi, and Chuck Knoblauch (those just off the top of my head) whose careers flopped in New York to some degree or another. Let this be a lesson to Georgy and all sports enthusiasts. I spend a while listening to my dad complain that a player for his D1 soccer club in England (the Bournemouth Cherries) had jumped to a higher league at the offer of a better contract. He was very pessimistic that our business sports was reaching so deep these days in the UK (and, yes, soccer fans, between my dad's background and Chad's interest in England soccer, you'll hear some about that too!). He described it as another example of a program with more money buying the better players. I don't quite see the parallels here, but that doesn't matter. The point is the Yankees are buying players without any thought to how they may struggle to adjust. I believe this goes to show that when you call upon pitchers to perform in foreign roles (like setup man and spot starter), you are asking too much. This also has to call into question the managerial skills in New York. But the fact is you can only do so much to keep a team together when it has more turnovers than the 2004 University of Central Florida. Athletes develop under a consistant system and build upon fan loyalty. Going after players who had one home in their careers (Weaver, Vazquez (and I'm also considering Pavano, who's only played at two spots)) and trying to throw them into the ace role (or the setup role) just doesn't work. It's the true representation of what happens when you take on that win-only mentality. You lose. When you take on that mentality, instead of enjoying a World Series crown, you are always looking ahead to the next one. Can I point out that the lowly Florida Marlins have won 2 world series in the past 8 seasons, the Yankees only 3. The Yankees try to bend the rules of sports and indeed life itself by buying championships. But just as you can't truly buy love or loyalty, you can't buy championships.

I just saw this:

"Nearly a dozen other teams have legitimate national title chances, including Southeastern Conference powers Tennessee, Florida and LSU; Michigan, Ohio State and Iowa of the Big Ten Conference; Miami and Virginia Tech of the Atlantic Coast Conference; Texas in the Big 12 Conference; and new Big East Conference member Louisville."

The writer, Aaron Rennie of SportsTicker College Football Editor (http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=overview&prov=st&type=lgns), seems to have lost his mind.

He acts as if this is his comprehensive set of teams. But how could he put Miami ahead of two Big 12 teams that certainly have a shot, albeit an outside one, this year: Texas A&M and Oklahoma. I'd even give Georgia and DJ Shockley more credit than Miami.

He also said this:
"While this means games may take up to four hours on any given Saturday - or in Louisville's case, also on Sunday, Thursday and Friday - it certainly will be worth it if the correct calls are made.
Or merely to spend a few extra minutes each week trying to watch Leinart, Bush and the rest of Carroll's Trojans try to make history. "

This guy makes the obvious pick here, and I'm guessing does every season. But to write the other teams off is ludicrous. Lest we forget, SC only beat Stanford by 3 last year, and UCLA by 5... plus the Cal game came down to a late goalline stand, and we all remember the close game that was the Fog Bowl. They also only beat VTech by 11 to start the season. This year they have to travel to the Tempe to play the second best team in the conference (Arizona State), as well as to Oregon and Washington (you know every team will be gunning for them). And Notre Dame games are historically archaic, as anything can happen when you arrive in South Bend (and we haven't seen just how well Weis will make this team yet). Then there's the final week battle with a possible surprise team in UCLA... and Arkansas, which has had a penchant in the past for making Texas' life horrible. And then there's my dream: Hawaii 42, USC 38. We'll just have to see how that one goes.

To write off Texas A&M (with a great core of returning players, including Reggie McNeal) which gave Oklahoma and Texas heck last year, and Oklahoma, a team that has constantly produced top teams in the past 5 years (they have only lost 7 games in the past 5 seasons; remember that after Heupel and 5 defensive players left in 2000, they came one Thanksgiving travesty from returning to the National Championship game). I see that Paul Thompson has been selected as starter, whereas I would have rather seen Bomar line up, giving them a better deep threat and a great young core, but Bob Stoops has made three different quarterbacks into winners, and although OU has some questions, particularly at WR, on the O-line, and in the secondary, they still have the Heisman runner-up in Peterson and Davin Joseph (the second OU CBS Sportsline preseason All American, with Peterson) manning the offensive line, and a strong defensive core including Rufus Alexander and Dusty Dvoracek, who returns after after missing last season.

To put Miami, who lost their starting quarterback and running back to the draft, and not remember to mention TAMU and OU seems a little stunning to me. But we'll get to more of that in our season previews coming up soon!


One final thing. This article: http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=citadel-2_429088_184&prov=citadel&type=story Almost humorous that Scout.com let a fan this biased write an article. There's tales of conspiracies abound in this one. Everyone is out to get South Carolina. I'm surprised myself that USC (the other) fell to such mistakes... that Lou Holtz' was involved in this (I didn't realize that this was why he left... that makes me sad, because he really had built a great team, and he really is one of history's greatest coaches)... that Steve Spurrier now will face three years playing from behind before the season even starts, which will slightly weaken the program for probably 4-5 years. Maybe sometimes the NCAA goes one step too far with its rules and punishments (though the punishment here really isn't that harmful). But to say the NCAA is in the back pockets of both Tennessee and Clemson!?! Fans just never cease to amaze me!

Two players that aren't being drafted that have the potential to be major fantasy players this year:

Frank Gore, RB SF. Obviously SF isn't the greatest offensive juggernaut any longer, but with Kevin Barlow as the only thing between him and the starting lineup, Gore has great potential to ring up some great stats this year... and in an era where starting running backs on the waiver wire are about as rare as south Atlantic hurricanes, he's worth a look. I believe me and Chad agree that he has a great chance to crack the starting lineup by week 4 or 5.

Stephen Davis, RB Car. They paid the farm for him, then his knee went caputz last season after the NFC Championship run with him the year before. With 4 1,000 yard seasons in the 5 seasons prior to 2004, he's still got some great talent. He is 31, kind of old for running backs in the NFL, and he has to displace DeShaun Foster, as well as newcomer Eric Shelton, and one name you may actually remember, Nick Goings. Foster was to be the guy this year. He exploded onto the scene last year with 172 yards in week 2 after Davis was injured in week 1 (Davis only played in week 1 and week 5 last season). However he only picked up 51 yards in 9 carries in week 4 and only 18 yards in 5 carries in week 5 before breaking his collarbone. Shelton is young, and I don't know too much about him, but from what I've heard, he'll be mainly a goal line/3rd down back. Goings was the man fantasy surprise of the year (ok, maybe not... that was probably Rueben Droughns, but still, he came out of nowhere as well), racking up 821 yards, almost 700 of which came in the final 8 weeks of the season. He started with 4 straight 100 yard games, and added 6 td (3 against Arizona in his first game as starter). But he also has the knock that he struggled down the stretch, rushing for only 61, 127, and 46 in the final weeks of the season, and no tds in the last two weeks. It's going to be tough getting into this mess of a possible committee approach (Denver, Cleveland, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh also are scary places to fantasy owners)... but you still may find a diamond here, and my bet is that it will be Davis All I know is that Carolina was 6-0 in 2004 when they had a 100 yard rusher, while 1-9 without one (and with the losses by only an average of 8 1/2 points, it's not like they were being forced out of the running game) and made the NFC Championship game with a healthy Stephen Davis. Worth a look!

Some other names I'm abnormally high on this season: Joey Harrington, Eli Manning, J. J. Arrington, Ron Dayne, and maybe even Derrick Blaylock.

Hey everyone!

I would be Shane, and that would make the other half of this team that I believe has a lot of exciting sports insight to share. We are constantly discussing/arguing over some sports topic, and I believe we both have a talent for adding/finding an interesting spin to a current issue... or creating a new one!

A bit about us:
We are both meteorologists (how many sports blogs by meteorologists do you read!?!). We both got our undergraduate degrees at the University of Oklahoma, so there's definitely some loyalty there (though I believe we're both pretty good about putting our loyalties aside and giving you some real insight. I now attend Florida State University as a graduate research assistant, and Chad attends North Carolina State University as the same. We grew up in yet other areas (so we've both done some serious wandering about the country). I was born in Copehnagen, Denmark, but grew up in Orlando, Florida (after a brief stay in Lansing, Mi). Chad is from Wise County in western Viriginia.

Here's a little bit more about me:
Favorite NFL teams: Bucs
Favorite MLB teams: Marlins, Devil Rays, Braves (sometimes)
Favorite NBA teams: Magic
Favorite NCAAB teams: Duke, Georgetown, Oklahoma, and Florida
Favorite NCAAF teams: Sooners and Gators
Teams I tend to dislike: Yankees, Cowboys, Raiders, Lakers
I like the underdogs. I get tired of the same teams winning all the time (Spurs, Patriots, USC)
Least favorite sports: soccer and hockey (though I still enjoy both, they just aren't something I can pay attention to for too long a period)
Other interests: weather (obviously), including storm photography, games, Christianity and the Bible, golf (I suck... maybe I'll finally change that someday), and bowling (my average is between 170 and 180).
Expertise if any: golf... I'd argue predicting as well! Maybe know a bit more about baseball than Chad... maybe.
Play fantasy sports at: Yahoo, ESPN, Sportsline (college football). Hope to someday create my own keeper league database/system.
Sports beliefs: Call me conservative, but I'm still a sports purist. That's not to say that I'm not open to new ideas and such... but my love will always go back to the traditions we've developed. New traditions are great too, but we try too hard to make things into traditions that just can't be. Traditions develop on their own in very peculiar ways. I disdain steroids, contracting teams, and the money-driven, booster-driven world that is the new face of college sports. I'm not sure if more teams and playoffs spots are good or not, but generally I'll take them. Sports are about the fans. Players are paid too much. Owners make too much (in general). Tickets cost too much. It drives me insane when longtime tv traditions end (the BCS on FOX!?!?!?!, no more Monday Night football!?!, I miss the days of 90s with NFL on NBC and MLB on NBC and NBA on NBC and Saturday baseball on CBS). I may go truly nuts if sports continue more and more to become corporate, and I hate when companies destroy improvements and creativity by monopolizing (EA Sports owning the NFL right's now is ludicrous). In the end, I love sports. I can get into a playoff game from basically any sport (I love watching the Stanley Cup and World Cup). Still, each sport has its own identity, which is what really makes it what it is. So I'm strongly passionate about keeping every sport from having the same playoff system or same rules. Difference makes the world.
All-in-all, I love sports. And I'm really looking forward to writing about my love of sports and getting others to think about things from new perspectives.
Play on!


My hope is that our site rivals my very favorite sports writer, Matt Hayes (http://www.thesportingnews.com/experts/matt-hayes/) in insightfulness and interesting stories, and Pardon The Interruption (ESPN tv show) in its friendly arguements over some very important sports topics.

Some things I know you will see discussed somewhere down the line:
- Is the BCS a good thing or a bad thing? (we're pretty polarized on this one!)
- Should college players be paid?
- Minimum age limits in sports
- Conference team changes (the ACC)
- Players unions versus owners
- Maria Sharapova
- Tons of college football talk


To Chad's random thoughts:

--The MLB playoff race is indeed going to be a memorable one! The NL East will be the best "pennant" race maybe ever. It's going to come down to the last week, and I still believe all 5 teams will be there. Keep in mind any NL East team would win the NL west right now, and they are all within 2 games (at last check) of the Wild Card spot. The AL East, West, and wildcard races will also be a blast down the stretch. I'm still holding to my preseason predictions. If the Yankees win the East, the Angles the west, the Red Sox the Wilid Card, the Marlins the NL East, the Padres the west, and the Mets the wild card, I believe I'd have predicted all 8 playoff teams perfectly. Tha'd be awesome, so that's still my desire!

--This time of the year is great, but I have to bow to March. College basketball is awesomeness. The Master's is coming up (and the Florida swing is in full force). NBA and NHL seasons winding down. And the spring tornado chase season and summer are right around the corner. Either that or November into December, with the NFL playoff races coupled with NBA and NHL kickoffs and college football's stretch run as well. Chad, you missed some things about now, though... the PGA Championship and the US Open tennis tournament. Boy, it's tough to pick a favorite!

My predictions for NFL and NCAA football are coming in the next few days as well! Chad, you should post your NCAA rankings, they were really good!


Well that's about it from my corner. Really looking forward to this!

Take care everyone,
Shane