The 2009 NFL Draft was another exciting and interesting draft with lots of good choices, some poor ones, and some big shocks. The first five picks were made by teams with new head coaches. Cleveland traded their pick 3 times in the first round. Here is an overview of the first ten picks in the first round:
1. Lions- Matthew Stafford (QB): After going 0-16, you might as well start a long rebuilding process with the best quarterback in the draft. Maybe the Stafford-Calvin Johnson tandem can bring some excitement and joy to an economically depressed Detroit. Grade: A+
2. Rams –Jason Smith (OT): The Rams will try again to build a strong offensive line that can’t seem to get better. Grade: A
3. Chiefs- Tyson Jackson (DE): From the best defensive conference in college football, Jackson should help the Chiefs’ new 3-4 defense. Grade: A+
4. Seahawks- Aaron Curry (OLB): Another young linebacker for the Seahawks could help their speed, but they are inexperienced. Still, it always helps to get one of the best defensive players in the draft. Grade:A
5. Jets from Browns- Mark Sanchez (QB): This was a phenomenal deal for the Jets despite losing a couple of good defenders. It’s simple, the Jets needed a quarterback and they got the 2nd best one in the draft. Grade: A+
6. Bengals- Andre Smith (OT): After the college season ended, Andre was thought to be the best offensive tackle in the draft. Then he had a dreadful pro day, leading to the thought that he might not be picked in the Top 10. But the Bengals obviously are going to take their chances with another questionable prospect instead of a highly talented Eugene Monroe. Grade: C
7. Raiders- Darrius Heyward-Bey (WR): This is by far the biggest shock and mistake in the draft. The front office made this pick solely based on his excellent 40-meter dash time. This was an obvious error with superstars Michael Crabtree and Jeremy Maclin still available. Grade: D-
8. Jaguars- Eugene Monroe (OT): Monroe was expected to be picked much earlier, but the Jaguars are all but sad about that. Grade: A-
9. Packers-B.J. Raji (DT): The best defensive tackle in the draft was picked a little late, but he will increase the number of sacks for the Packers. Grade: A
10. 49ers- Michael Crabtree (WR): The 49ers lucked out with this one. It was an astounding pickup for Mike Smith, who can control young players if they get out of hand (Crabtree failed a drug test). The most entertaining player in the draft might finally be able to put San Francisco in a position to finally be better than .500. Grade: A
Biggest shock outside the Top 10: Rey Maualuga was thought to be a Top 20 pick in the first round at line backer. Instead he was picked 6th in the 2nd by the Bengals, behind his two fellow linebackers from Southern Cal (Brian Cushing, Clay Matthews).
The New York squads seemed to accomplish good things with their picks in the first few rounds. The Jets got highly-rated QB Mark Sanchez and a very talented running back Shonn Greene. The Giants added Hakeem Nicks to replace Plaxico Burress, instead of trying to trade for veteran Anquan Boldin. Talented tackle William Beatty also fell to the fortunate Giants. Hopefully Nicks will live up to the hype and make an impact for the Giants’ passing game.
This draft was very strong in offensive and defensive lineman and wide receivers, but not in running backs, with just 3 drafted in the 1st round. But 4 o’clock was a very special and busy time yesterday for sports fans. At the same time the draft was going on, the classic rivalry of the Yankees and Red Sox was on Fox. Also at four were the Penn Relays, one of the biggest track events in the country, and the NBA playoffs, where the Mavericks overcame 43 points from Tony Parker to beat the Spurs. The Penn Relays had a record number of fans supporting the runners representing various countries. It is thrilling and exciting when so many great sporting events are on at the same time, even though you can’t see all of each game. A sports writer’s dream is fulfilled when sports can make a huge impact on the world, and yesterday’s events showed just that.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Saviors
Deception and regret. Two things in abundance during baseball’s Steroid Era, which can’t seem to end. When we thought that Bonds and McGwire were the main offenders, out come Pettitte and Clemens. And just when we thought we were past it, we learn that superstar Alex Rodriquez was using earlier in his career. Just when we thought we had a clean hero who could take down the dirty career home run record held by heavy steroid user Barry Bonds, Alex turns out to be just another cheater. How far could it go? Exactly who cheated? All of this treachery has tarnished America’s former pastime.
This tragedy is similar to the infamous Black Sox scandal in 1919, when Chicago lost the World Series intentionally to the Reds to win a bet. This event as well as the strike in 1994 brought baseball into a time of despair. Thankfully, the sport was saved both times. Babe Ruth took minds away from the Black Sox scandal by hitting home runs unlike anyone before him. The race to beat Babe Ruth’s home run record between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, who were later found to be cheaters, brought baseball back to its glory days in the late 1990’s. So what will resurrect baseball’s grand reputation this time? There are some bright stars in the dark night that baseball has become.
Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera are incredible all-around players who bring excitement and flare to the game. Pujols, who was the 5th youngest player to hit 300 homers in MLB history, led his St. Louis Cardinals to a World Series championship in 2006. If he can stay healthy, his numbers could put him up with the best in the game’s long history when he hangs up the uniform for the last time. He and Cabrera each have a shot at winning this year’s Triple Crown. Cabrera is first in the American League in batting average, 2 home runs behind the AL leader, and 4 RBI behind the AL leader. Pujols is 1 home run and 2 RBI’s shy of the National League leaders, but will need a big boost in his batting average to claim the lead. But it is early in the season, so the averages fluctuate more than later in the year. These young studs can help get our minds away from the filth of the long-lasting Steroid Era.
They are plenty of other interesting twists in baseball to get fans excited. We have had three thrilling cycles, one from Orlando Hudson, one for Ian Kinsler on a day that he went 6 for 6, and one for Jason Kubel that he completed with a grand slam.
The standings have been extremely surprising and contradictory to what experts and logic believed they would be. After years of dominating the AL East, the Red Sox and the Yankees are struggling mightily while the Orioles and Blue Jays have found themselves out of the cellar for the first time in years. People thought that the Seattle Mariners would easily repeat the feat of 100 loses suffered last year again this year when star Ichiro went down with an ulcer. But the Mariners are 8-4 and comfortably in the lead in the AL West. The Padres were predicted to be one of the worst teams in baseball before the year mainly due to a low budget. Well, somehow the Padres are 9-3 and tied for first in the NL West. Amazingly, the Florida Marlins are in first place in the NL East at 10-1 despite sharing the division with the defending World Series champs in the Phillies and the bullpen-strong Mets.
Unfortunately, there have been significant struggles in New York. The Yankees are 7-6 and are having severe bullpen problems. Their greatest problem is the dismal pitching of Chien-Ming Wang. The two-time 19-game winner is 0-3 with an astronomical 34.50 ERA. He gave up 8 runs while just going 1 and a third innings in a 22-4 drubbing of the Bronx Bombers courtesy of the Cleveland Indians. The Indians scored 40 runs on the Yankees in the series. The Mets are sitting at 6-6 despite good starting pitching. Johan Santana has a chance at the pitching Triple Crown; he leads the NL in strikeouts and ERA and is one win behind the leaders. Main flaws for the Mets are stranded base runners and errors. Daniel Murphy’s dropped ball against the Marlins lost the game for Santana. The Amazins’ are four games back of the first-place Marlins.
The New York squads have plenty of potential and have a shot at the playoffs if they can turn things around. Hopefully baseball will continue to recover from the Steroid Era and supply kids with good role models for their futures.
This tragedy is similar to the infamous Black Sox scandal in 1919, when Chicago lost the World Series intentionally to the Reds to win a bet. This event as well as the strike in 1994 brought baseball into a time of despair. Thankfully, the sport was saved both times. Babe Ruth took minds away from the Black Sox scandal by hitting home runs unlike anyone before him. The race to beat Babe Ruth’s home run record between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, who were later found to be cheaters, brought baseball back to its glory days in the late 1990’s. So what will resurrect baseball’s grand reputation this time? There are some bright stars in the dark night that baseball has become.
Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera are incredible all-around players who bring excitement and flare to the game. Pujols, who was the 5th youngest player to hit 300 homers in MLB history, led his St. Louis Cardinals to a World Series championship in 2006. If he can stay healthy, his numbers could put him up with the best in the game’s long history when he hangs up the uniform for the last time. He and Cabrera each have a shot at winning this year’s Triple Crown. Cabrera is first in the American League in batting average, 2 home runs behind the AL leader, and 4 RBI behind the AL leader. Pujols is 1 home run and 2 RBI’s shy of the National League leaders, but will need a big boost in his batting average to claim the lead. But it is early in the season, so the averages fluctuate more than later in the year. These young studs can help get our minds away from the filth of the long-lasting Steroid Era.
They are plenty of other interesting twists in baseball to get fans excited. We have had three thrilling cycles, one from Orlando Hudson, one for Ian Kinsler on a day that he went 6 for 6, and one for Jason Kubel that he completed with a grand slam.
The standings have been extremely surprising and contradictory to what experts and logic believed they would be. After years of dominating the AL East, the Red Sox and the Yankees are struggling mightily while the Orioles and Blue Jays have found themselves out of the cellar for the first time in years. People thought that the Seattle Mariners would easily repeat the feat of 100 loses suffered last year again this year when star Ichiro went down with an ulcer. But the Mariners are 8-4 and comfortably in the lead in the AL West. The Padres were predicted to be one of the worst teams in baseball before the year mainly due to a low budget. Well, somehow the Padres are 9-3 and tied for first in the NL West. Amazingly, the Florida Marlins are in first place in the NL East at 10-1 despite sharing the division with the defending World Series champs in the Phillies and the bullpen-strong Mets.
Unfortunately, there have been significant struggles in New York. The Yankees are 7-6 and are having severe bullpen problems. Their greatest problem is the dismal pitching of Chien-Ming Wang. The two-time 19-game winner is 0-3 with an astronomical 34.50 ERA. He gave up 8 runs while just going 1 and a third innings in a 22-4 drubbing of the Bronx Bombers courtesy of the Cleveland Indians. The Indians scored 40 runs on the Yankees in the series. The Mets are sitting at 6-6 despite good starting pitching. Johan Santana has a chance at the pitching Triple Crown; he leads the NL in strikeouts and ERA and is one win behind the leaders. Main flaws for the Mets are stranded base runners and errors. Daniel Murphy’s dropped ball against the Marlins lost the game for Santana. The Amazins’ are four games back of the first-place Marlins.
The New York squads have plenty of potential and have a shot at the playoffs if they can turn things around. Hopefully baseball will continue to recover from the Steroid Era and supply kids with good role models for their futures.
Friday, April 17, 2009
The true meaning of the playoffs
8-8. That was the record of the San Diego Chargers, who made the playoffs this past NFL season. They won their weak division with that record to get in, while the New England Patriots missed the playoffs with an 11-5 mark. It turns out that the Chargers were able to beat the Colts in the first round, but I like when teams that deserve to go to the playoffs more get in. I understand that people love when the Cinderella team shocks the world by beating supposedly better teams, which I admit adds flavor to the playoffs. But I also like to think that the teams that did better than most other teams should get in over these heart-warming little guys.
I don’t mind if good teams like the Patriots miss the playoffs because all of the teams in the playoffs had a better record than them. In the NBA for example, the Phoenix Suns posted a 46-36 record, which is a nice achievement, but wasn’t quite enough to make the postseason. I believe that the playoffs are more interesting when teams with a respectable record are left out. There are fewer chances for extreme blowouts and more teams can seemingly have a shot to win the championship. I understand the surprise element that teams with worse records might bring with runs deep into the playoffs, but I would rather have a team who worked harder and was more successful during the regular season than a team that wasn’t taken seriously and wasn’t serious until the playoffs.
There is another argument that the playoffs are a “whole new season”, but why should worse teams get a chance to play in this new season if they weren’t as successful?
Every series in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs has a chance to go the seven game maximum, other than the Lakers-Jazz matchup, because all of the teams had respectable regular season records and finished close together in the standings. In fact, on the last day of the NBA regular season, the 2 through 7 seeds in the Western Conference were up for grabs and could have gone to anyone.
So even though surprise runs by weak teams are exciting, I would rather have some good teams that aren’t in the playoffs in order to have close to equal teams and close to equal matchups in the postseason. Let’s just leave the Cinderella teams to March Madness in college basketball.
I don’t mind if good teams like the Patriots miss the playoffs because all of the teams in the playoffs had a better record than them. In the NBA for example, the Phoenix Suns posted a 46-36 record, which is a nice achievement, but wasn’t quite enough to make the postseason. I believe that the playoffs are more interesting when teams with a respectable record are left out. There are fewer chances for extreme blowouts and more teams can seemingly have a shot to win the championship. I understand the surprise element that teams with worse records might bring with runs deep into the playoffs, but I would rather have a team who worked harder and was more successful during the regular season than a team that wasn’t taken seriously and wasn’t serious until the playoffs.
There is another argument that the playoffs are a “whole new season”, but why should worse teams get a chance to play in this new season if they weren’t as successful?
Every series in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs has a chance to go the seven game maximum, other than the Lakers-Jazz matchup, because all of the teams had respectable regular season records and finished close together in the standings. In fact, on the last day of the NBA regular season, the 2 through 7 seeds in the Western Conference were up for grabs and could have gone to anyone.
So even though surprise runs by weak teams are exciting, I would rather have some good teams that aren’t in the playoffs in order to have close to equal teams and close to equal matchups in the postseason. Let’s just leave the Cinderella teams to March Madness in college basketball.
Friday, April 3, 2009
the winner of the losers
You are devastated. Your team’s hard work all year long didn’t pay off. Your team just wasn’t good enough to make the cut. This is what members of teams like Saint Mary’s and Penn State were experiencing after learning that they had just missed being in the NCAA tournament, an experience that may come only once in a lifetime. But don’t get too down on yourselves, guys. There is a consolation prize in all this chaos. You get to be frontrunners in the NIT tournament, which includes the best 40 teams to not make the NCAA tournament. But winning the event at Madison Square Garden and proclaiming yourself the best non-NCAA tourney team is not guaranteed. There are schools like Notre Dame that had a great start to the regular season (they began 12-3) and then plummeted off the radar (they finished 6-11), who are just happy to be in the postseason. Notre Dame actually won in the first 3 rounds of the NIT before losing to Penn State. Many experts thought that St. Mary’s should be in the NCAA tournament. They showed their anger over missing the Big Dance by winning their first two NIT games before losing in the quarterfinal to San Diego State. In the end, Penn State beat another Notre Dame- like team in Baylor to win the championship game. They didn’t make it to the main attraction, where the 65 best teams face off to decide who the best team in the country is. But the Nittany Lions did get to prove that they were the winner of the losers.
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