Tim Lincencum,. winner of 2 Cy Young Awards and perennial All-Star, gave up 6 runs in 2 2/3 innings yesterday. The rest of the staff isn’t much better. Cain signed a huge contract and promptly had an ugly start of his own. I didn’t see Bumgarner doing anything much. Ironically, it was ZITO who saved, Zito, the man who we all dreaded taking the mound for the past 4 years. Zito, who has never had an ERA below 4.00 in 4 years as a Giant. All this bad pitching couldn’t have come at a worse time. If you had asked me last year if the Giants would win if they scored 8 runs my aswer, without hesitation, would be “absoloutley”. But now? I’d have to sit on it for a while. The Giants are finally starting to hit, but it doesn’t matter because their pitching is going to give up a ton of runs. I remember the sinking feeling I would get last year when the Giants were down by 1 or 2 late in the game. The certainty that we were going to lose because the offense was going to fall flat. And they did. Everytime. The frustration that I, and Lincencum surely felt, after he’d pitch a gem and make 1 bad pitch that goes out of the yard, and boom, you’ve got a L. Sandoval is off to a hot start this year. We have Posey back. We’re getting suprising contributions from Melky Cabrera and Brandon Crawford. And none of it matters. All the questions this offseason were about the Giants hitting, Can they finally help out their pitching staff, Will they win the west with this joke of an offense, that kind of stuff. So this pitching problem comes in like a blindside hit, leaving you wind and wondering, where in the world did that come from? If they can solve it, they can truly be dynamite. I still believe they have the best pitchng staff in the NL West, are second only to the Phillies in all of the MLB. The hitters did their part. They scored the runs the pitching staff was looking for all last season. Now it’s their time to step up.
Baseball’s Back
Yes it is. And the MLB looks very different than it did 365 days ago. People who we thought would never move left. More than 1 team had their heart and soul ripped from them. Several others gained them back. Who could think of the Red Sox without Terry Francona leaning on the top step? And who, exactly, is going to fill the gaping 3 hole in the Cards order?This offseason could be called “the Winter of the Yankees,” where all the teams threw money at their problems. Some teams even threw money at stuff they didn’t need. For once, it wasn’t the team from the Bronx doing this. It’s the GMs from Miami, Detroit, and Los Angeles, trained in arts of Brian Cashman. Can we fix it? No. Let’s pay someone tons of money to do it for us. I mean, come on Angels, you have two good, promising 1st basemen, Mark Trumbo and Kendry Morales, so you have a backup plan, and you go after Pujols? C.J. Wilson made sense, he filled a need, But there was no need to throw 250 million bucks down the drain. Same with the Marlins, but I’ve been over that. All Detroit needs is another complaining, overweight, overrated first basemen. C’mon, Prince. The Brew Crew needed you, especially with Braun getting busted for steroids. The Cardinals will not be the World Series Champions of 2011 in 2012, or anything close. Not wiht their Hall of Fame manager and franchise player gone. The Red Sox need to shape up, and quick. Years of being good have lulled them into thinking they will always be on top. They need to cut ties with David Ortiz. The Manny and Big Papi days are over in Fenway. Carl Crawford needs to shape up, fast. Clay Bucholz needs to fufill his potential. John Lackey needs to get his act together, too. The Nationals wil be tough this year, finally decent after years of being terrible. The district wide holiday that occurs every 5 days, known as “Strausmas,” will be back, with talented lefty Gio Gonzales as a perfect complement, and the 2 should form a fearsome strikeout tandem. Micheal Morse will serve as most of the offense, at least until the revered Bryce Harper shows up. The Giants will finally have something that resembles and offense with the return of Buster Posey, Freddie Sanchez, and perhaps some help from promising prospect Brandon Belt. Spring Training is here. Adam Wainright is back. So is Buster Posey. And, for better or worse, so is Manny Rameriz. Tony La Russa is gone. So is Ryan Braun,for a while, one of my favorite players. I still can’t believe he took steroids. Jorge Posada is gone. The Yankee Dynasty of the modern era now consists of Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. I wonder what it will be like, starting a new baseball season without someone who you always thought would be there. How would it feel to be practicing with tons of new faces, people you are not sure you will get along with? I can just see Hanley being disgrunteld about moving and starting something with Jose Reyes, and Ozzie Guillen running in a lighting th C4. The guy blows up so many situations you wonder if he does it on purpose. Baseball’s different, but baseball’s back.
What makes a Quarterback Elite?
There is blurred line that seperates the very good from the very best. Elite is not a title you can honor someone with from stats, or from the regular season. It’s something you have or you don’t. There are players who are steady, there are players who are spectacular, and there are players who are steadily spectacular: Those are the Elite. Those are the ones that make it look easy, the ones who don’t look like they are having and incredible game because those numbers are common. But as I said, there is more to the story of an elite quarterback. Take for example, the careers of Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan. Both were drafted in the first round in 2008, and they have often been compared. They had very good rookie seasons. In 2009, Ryan struggled while Flacco excelled. The next year, Ryan bounced back and ended up a Pro Bowler, and Flacco was coming up strong, just a whisper from one of the best quarterbacks in the game. Ravens fans were hopeful that behind Flacco, Ray Rice, and Anquan Boldin, the Ravens would finally have a great offense to complement and take pressure off their defensive dynasty. In 2011, they traveled down unexpected roads. Matt Ryan had a very good year and netted the Falcons a postseason berth, behind his 4,000 yards passing and 29 TD’s. But Flacco regressed. He went from playmaker to game manager. The Ravens were winning, but the offense no longer relied on him. He was ineffective and suffered terrible passing statistics for part of the year. Yet one could argue that he has it, he has what other QB‘s don’t, with his brilliant 4th quarter comeback against the Steelers. Ryan, on the other hand, puts up the numbers and continues to improve, yet he has yet to win a playoff game in 3 tries. Some players just don’t have it, no matter how high they are drafted, because College isn’t the NFL. Some have the physical gifts but have trouble dealing with the new game, and don’t work hard. JaMarcus Russel had a cannon. His accuracy struggled, but that’s something you can work on. However, he took his ridiculous contract and proceeded to slack off, get out of shape, and get himself released. Others, work hard, don’t give up, and just don’t have it. Jim Harbaugh has helped Alex Smith so much, but that long bomb accuracy isn’t there, and I don’t think it ever will be. However, he can definitely be an effectibe NFL quarterback. Eli Manning. Inconsistent for most of his career, except for when it mattered most, in the playoffs. This year, he said he was in Tom Brady‘s class. The media ate him up. They could have absolutely wrecked him. But no, he went out and put his money where his mouth was. That seems to make most people pipe down. Eli’s finally got some consistency to go with his great talent, and look what he turned in: A season, that in any other season than this one, where Tom Brady and Drew Brees smoked Dan Marino’s record for passing yards, might have won him an MVP. There are no questions about his playoff performance. He won the Superbowl with his arm, that play to David Tyree and the touchdown to Buress. So, what makes an elite quarterback?
Consistency.
Stats.
The Ability to carry their team.
Playoff Performance.
The true test of and elite quarterback is what their team would be like without them. The Colts? It goes with out saying that Peyton’s in that class. He is maybe the greatest quarterback ever. Brady’s Patriots would sunk without him, the Saints would stink without Brees,a nd although the Packers might survive without Rodgers, he is an unquestioned member of that class and I predict he will be an even better Packers quarterback than Brett Favre.
Here’s my list:
Peyton Manning
Eli Manning
Drew Brees
Aaron Rodgers
Tom Brady
Who do you think should be on that list?
2012 Predictions
Week 17 of 2011 ended a season of surprises and disappointments. The Colts and the Eagles flopped, and the Bengals and Broncos surprised. I have some predictions for 2012.
The surprise Team: Jacksonville Jaguars. Maurice Jones-Drew is the best combination of power and speed in the NFL, and I’m curious to see what Blaine Gabbert can do with a quality receiver. They should draft Justin Blackmon out of OSU. If they don’t, there’s no hope for this franchise in the near future.
The Flop: The Cowboys. Tony Romo has repeatedly fell short in the clutch, and he might not even be there next year. The team is short on talent. DeMarco Murray was a 3rd round steal, but aside from him, the inconsistent and mouthy Dez Bryant, and DeMarcus Ware, they have little else. The secondary is old. The O-line is unimpressive. America’s Team might not be that for much longer.
My Superbowl Pick: Houston Texans. The Texans got their first playoff berth in their short history this year-with a 3rd string, 5th- round pick, rookie quarterback. They lost their best player on defense, Mario Williams, in the middle of the season. Top wide receiver Andre Johnson, one of the best in the league, missed significant time with 2 hamstring pulls. The team is still young, and have a superb running back tandem of Arian Foster and Ben Tate. Brian Cushing is becoming one of the NFL’s best middle linebackers, only a short way behind the likes of Ray Lewis and Patrick Willis. They are loaded with talent and depth on both sides of the ball. How can they go wrong? Of course, that’s what people said about the Eagles. Just make sure their backup quarterback keeps his mouth shut about some “Dream Team” and they’ll be fine.
The Rebounders: Colts and Eagles. Once they have Peyton Manning back, the Colts will become one of the NFL’s better teams again. I mean, c’mon, he’s Peyton Manning. If he never fully recovers, they have Andrew Luck. This season really exposed how thin on talent and one-dimensional the Colts are. Of course, you can afford to be one-dimensional when your quarterback is so good he can put the ball exactly here he wants and is a Hall of Famer. That doesn’t work with Kerry Collins or Curtis Painter. Anyway, the Colts are Peyton. They weren’t themselves without him. The Eagles were very disappointing, but still have Micheal Vick, Jeremy Maclin, Jason Babin, and that terrific secondary Even without DeSean Jackson. If they change their system to better fit their player’s needs, maybe they finally will live up to all the hype.
2012 Breakout Player: 49ers QB Alex Smith. Under offensive-minded Jim Harbaugh, Smith finally passed for over 3,000 yards. He could have a lot more, but the Niners relied on the ground game more than the air attack. Also, Smith really struggled with his accuracy on long bombs deep downfield. If he can fix that, and with a little confidence,who knows what he could do?
Pigskin and Pine Tar 