Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The MLB's Five Worst

You have already read about this years five best teams. Now it is time to read about the five worst, or in business world speak the five teams with the most room for improvement. All of these teams definitely have room for improvement. While you are reviewing the list you will probably see a lot of the the same teams that are bad every year. This isnt a cop out. As pointed out in a previous post, Baseball just doesn't have that much parity. I have present the teams in reverse order from bad to worst. So, with out further ado, here are the five worst teams coming into the 2011 MLB season (oh yeah sorry for the lack of pictures, use your imagination or something).

Monday, March 28, 2011

Journeys in Jogging: A Sounders Adventure

"Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down."
Recently, at the behest of my conscience, I attend a soccer game.  After the World Cup and the joys it brought, I couldn't live with myself without giving the sport its full due and letting its lower level have a shot at my viewership.  As such, it was off to Qwest Field to view the Seattle Sounders, the pride and joy of the Puget Sound (sad that it has come to that, but that's a topic for another day).

Immediately upon exiting the Sounder tram, I was taken aback with how different this was than any sporting event I'd ever been to.  Mariners games are defined by their laidback atmosphere.  Sonics games had passion, but seemed driven by the canned music and forced chants form the announcer.  The Sounders, however, incorporated the joys of tailgating from the Huskies with a passion unlike most any other game.  Every fan there (and it was definitely a soldout stadium) showed up early and crowded around the outside attractions, be it the foosball tourney, the band, or the raucous season-ticket holder march to the stadium.

Once the game started, the excitement only rose.  Every fan there participated in the chants and cheers, overcoming the awkwardness one feels at most sporting events when they start any cheer (beyond booing Yuniesky Betancourt, which is fun for the whole family).  The game itself certainly wasn't the main attraction, something that doesn't make sense unless one attends.  The Sounders in and of themselves were plagued by a lack of energy, epitomized by Steve Zakuani jogging at best and standing still at worst, and questionable officiating, though both groups heard it from the crowd.

In short, the Sounders have shown me that soccer can not only be fun, but can be the sporting spectacle that most other leagues seem to deemphasize or lack entirely.  By pushing for the fan being a part of the community rather than an individual entity in and of themselves, the Sounders create the loudest, most exciting event one could possibly imagine from a regular season sporting event.  Now if only they could get rid of those pesky ties and flops Manu can only dream of matching.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Top 5: MLB's Best

"Hahaha, I am sure I will fit in here!"
In honor of the beginning of the MLS season, we at Unique Sports Theme Name have decided to write about the five best teams in major league baseball and the five worst.  This is, of course, because every team between 6 and 25 are failures in every regard.  For this, I apologize to Todd Helton for his career.  And now, in no particular order:

The Texas Rangers
Yes, getting to the World Series earns you some cred among us esteemed blog writers.  The offseason news was unfortunately all around the Rangers losing out on Cliff Lee, which is certainly a significant loss.  However, the team has a solid rotation even with the loss, with CJ Wilson (3.35 ERA), Colby Lewis (196 Ks), and Tommy Hunter (3.76) heading a group of solid men.  Similarly, the offense lost the revived Vladimir Guerrero, only to replace him with Adrian Beltre, who could either continue last season (7.1 WAR) or go back to his normal, half-assed hitting from Seattle.  There just isn't a hole anywhere in this offense and every position both in the pen, the rotation, and the field has room to improve with their young talent.  Things look good indeed.

The New York Yankees
To continue with the great offense, questionable pitching thread I just started, we go to the Yankees.  Robinson Cano (6.4 WAR) and Brett Gardner (5.4 WAR) were revelations last season, especially Gardner's defense (21.9 UZR, rickdicalus).  Posada will be able to DH fulltime now, which will keep him strong at the plate all year, and the only real problem could come from Derek Jeter's overrated production.  Unfortunately, the pitching isn't so good.  After CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes, the rotation is pretty awful.  AJ Burnett looked terrible last year, walking almost 4 per game and racking up an awful 5+ ERA.  Beyond that, the staff will be filled with old men (Freddy Garcia?) and unproven youngsters (Ivan Nova).  Luckily, the pen looks strong, though one can never really count on the success of bullpen arms from year to year.

The Boston Red Sox
I don't want to talk about it.

The Philadelphia Phillies
For all the great things being said about their rotation, and that rotation is great, I don't think the Phillies are as otherworldly as people seem to believe.  The offense is entirely on the wrong side of 30 with the exception of rightfield, which will be a platoon between the unproven (yet monsterous) rookie Domonic Brown and the 29 yr. old journeyman Ben Francisco, who had his best season ever last year with a .329 OBP.  So the offense does little to even suggest it will be league average, though five years ago it would be an amazing set of bats.  Right now, the Phillies will have to rely on the starters going deep and Brad Lidge providing stability that he hasn't done his entire career outside of that World Series trip.  Which people seem to remember.

Chicago White Sox
Alright, I am going out on a limb here, but the rest of the pack doesn't look great.  One could choose the Giants, but they are playing Pat Burrell every day.  In the outfield no less!  The White Sox, however, have a rotation filled with proven guys who could be great (Buehrle, Peavy, Danks, Floyd, Edwin Jackson before he gets traded inevitably).  The offense has some interesting pieces, like an outfield relying on Juan Pierre, Carlos Quentin, and Alex Rios to do stuff that is good, but it should be solid.  Adam Dunn finally doesn't have to play in the field and can team with Konerko to provide some excellent power.  Beckham and Ramirez are solid up the middle, with room to grow.  Omar Vizquel exists.  The bullpen seems like it could be shutdown as well, though (as I mentioned earlier) nobody can ever be too sure with bullpen arms.  Thornton's been great for years, Sale is extremely promising, and the rest of the group has had solid careers.  All in all, they look like they could be damn good.  That, or Ozzie Guillen could just piss off everybody even more.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Naismith Winners

As the NCAA Men's Basketball season progresses the race for the Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year Award heats up. As they continue to dominate the opposition, the best players distance themselves from the pack and really begin to stand out. This year guys like Jimmer Fredette and Jared Sullinger are the favorites. They have put up big numbers all year while carrying their teams to victory. As a reaction to this, speculation about their potential professional careers begins to surround the best players. Fans and front office types for NBA teams begin to ponder the future success of these super talented college athletes. Will their collegiate dominance translate into professional success? Although I don’t have an NBA team to root for, it was that question that caused me to look at the NBA careers of the last 20 winners of the Naismith Award.

Below you can see a list of the last 20 winners (Before I had even pulled up their NBA stats a trend about the winners struck me , 5 of the last 20 winner were from Duke.) along with their career NBA stats. Career stats aren't much help for the three most recent winners. Of those three only one, Tyler Hansbrough, has finished an entire NBA season. The other two are still in the middle of their first. Although some might say Blake Griffin has already proved himself, it is just to soon to judge the success these guys have had. So, if we only look at the other 17 winners, what do the numbers tell us about college success translating into professional success?

Of the 17 past winner I examined only three can be considered busts at the professional level, J.J. Reddick, Jason Williams and Calbert Cheaney (weird, two of the three are from Duke). Considering Jason Williams a flop comes with one large caveat, he was in a life threatening motorcycle accident which cut his career way short. Who knows what he would have done had he not been so severely injured? So, if we remove Jason Williams from the list of flops, we are left with only two. Depending on your definition of a bust, it could even be argued that Cheaney wasn't one. Despite his meager 9.5 ppg, he did managed to hang around the league for 13 years. That just leaves poor J.J. Reddick all by his lonesome. However, for this exercise I am going to consider all three of these guys busts, giving us 3 out of 17 Naismith Award winners whose NBA career's just didn't meet expectations. 3 out of 17 is actually a pretty good ratio. That mean 14 of 17, or 82%, past player of the years had successful NBA careers.

That ratio of busts tells us, if you win the Naismith award you are pretty much a lock for a successful run in the NBA. Knowing that you are most likely going to be able to compete at a high level and make a good living has got to be encouraging for this years crop of potential Naismith winners. However, if you are a fan or a front office type you probably want more from your big name draftee. You want a genuine super star.

Lets look at that side of things, the guys that had down right terrific NBA careers. Maybe not HOF worthy, but still note worthy. Well if you look at the names and the numbers of the list, I think you can safely say 8 of the 17 qualify. These guys are: Larry Johnson, Glenn Robinson, Marcus Camby, Tim Duncan, Antawn Jamison, Elton Brand, Andrew Bogut and Kevin Durant. I think you could also say that there are several guys on the bubble, guys like Christian Laettner and Kenyon Martin. Lets just stick with 8 of 17. This ratio is good for 47%. That means roughly half of the past Naismith Award winners have gone on to have terrific NBA careers.

This is much more encouraging for the fans and front offices. If your team take a Naismith Award winner you are taking a pretty safe bet. 82% gone on the successful careers and 50% turn into stars. I am sure it is also a confidence boost for the guys, like Fredette and Sullinger, who are thinking about their potential basketball lives after college. After watching all the other busts taken in the NBA draft (Here is looking at you Robert Swift, Johan Petro and Mohammed Sene) I think most front office guys would jump at those kind of ratios.














Sources: The Naismith Awards, Basketball Reference

Monday, March 14, 2011

Isaiah Thomas Wins the Pac-10 Tournament

Over the weekend Pac-10 basketball fans watched in awe as Guard Isaiah Thomas won the Pac-10 Tournament. The tournament victory was clinched by Thomas when he sank a buzzer beater in overtime to defeat the Arizona Wildcats. The game has been described by some (Dave "Softy" Mauler, etc) as one of the greatest college basketball games ever played and Thomas dominated it. However, it wasn't just the finale that Thomas dominated. During the tournament, he played 123 out of the 125 possible minutes, scored 59 points, accumulated 30 assists (A tournament record) and grabbed 10 rebounds. All and all he was a unstoppable force during the three day stretch.

Against his hated rivals, the Washington State Cougars, Thomas started out slow and struggled to stop the Cougar star Klay Thompson who scored 43 and setting a Pac-10 Tournament record. At half time it looked liked the Cougars were ready to run away with it leading 40-32. However, with Thomas's help, this game turned into a real nail bitter. Thomas dropped 21 points on 8-13 (61.5%) shooting and dished out 11 assists to squeak by the Cougars 89-87.
In the semi-final, against the University of Oregon Ducks, Isaiah scored 10 points, a rather pedestrian total as far, as he is concerned. However, to counter his low scoring output, Thomas stepped up his passing game. He finished the game with 12 assists. He so overpowered the ducks that Coach Lorenzo Romar even let him sit for 2 minutes. In the end, the Ducks were just no match for Isaiah and lost 69-51.
 
Then for the biggest game of the entire tournament, against a national ranked opponent, Isaiah produced his greatest performance. During the Arizona game Thomas scored his tournament high of 28. He complimented his impressive point total with 7 more assists and 5 rebound. Even more important with his back to the wall and the Wildcats closing in on victory Thomas hit a 3 pointer and then setup to more to push the game into OT. It was there that Thomas completed his biggest moment yet. In the final seconds of OT, with the scored tied at 75, Thomas drained a jump shot to clinch the Pac-10 Tournament victory and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Isaiah Thomas is no stranger to the NCAA Tournament. He made it to the sweet 16 last year. Now, with this years NCAA Tournament bracket set, if Isaiah Thomas is to keep winning he has his work cut out for him. In the first game, he faces the Georgia Bulldogs. If he can keep up his torrid pace and move onto the second round he will, most likely, be forced to play a perennial powerhouse in the form of the North Carolina Tarheels. Neither of these games will be easy wins and Thomas is to advance to the sweet sixteen again, he will have to play his heart out. I for one am hoping he can do just that.

"Thank you for winning"

Source: Yahoo Sports






Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Tony Wroten: The Tale of Two Guards

The biggest star of the 2011 UW incoming class is Garfield Guard Tony Wroten. The talented guard was rated the 31st best high school player in the country by ESPN.com. Over the weekend I got to watch Wroten play at this year's Washington State High School Basketball Championships. His team, the Garfield Bulldogs, defeated the A.C. Davis Pirates 75 to 68 to win the 3rd place game for Boys 4A. During the game Wroten scored a double-double. However, neither the final score of the game nor Wroten's box score do a great job of describing how the game went. To best describe the game and Wroten's performance you have to examine each half individually.

During the first two quarter of the third place game, the A.C. Davis Pirates used their swarming D to frustrated the higher rated Garfield Bulldogs. Led by their own talented guard Jackson Marquis, the Pirates made me wonder what all the hype surrounding Tony Wroten was about. He looked like your stereotypical ball hogging 17 year old as he tried in vain to force shot after shot. Wroten's insistence on shooting while under pressure did allow him to get to the line several times. However, once there, he failed to capitalize from the charity stripe. He made somewhere around 50% of his free throws in the first half. He certainly didn't look like the 31st best high school player in the country. The blame for the poor first half shouldn't all be placed at Wroten's feet. His Garfield teammates didn't help the cause much either. None of them managed to step up and fill in for the struggling star. The A.C. Davis Pirates looked like the much better team as they pulled ahead by 12 at half time and appeared to be ready to run away with it.

The second half was much different. The Bulldogs came out of the locker room looking like a new team with Tony Wroten leading the charge. Wroten was able to take advantage of his size and talent and truly dominate the game. Using a combination of driving and jump shooting he scored with ease. When he didn't score, Wroten setup his teammates with good passes. In fact, in a few cases his passing was too good and caught his teammates off guard. Wroten complimented his impressive offensive game by grabbing rebounds like crazy and playing stifling D. He looked every bit like the player the Huskies are expecting to get and Garfield's team was able to erase away their half time deficit and replace it with a 7 point lead. If it hadn't been for the Pirates Cooper Cupp and the Bulldogs inability to consistently shoot free throws (~66% for the game) things might have gotten really out of hand.

After watching the two starkly different halves, I was left wondering, which Tony Wroten is going to show up at UW next year? If the first half Tony Wroten shows up I wont expect to see him play much. The Huskies don’t need a poor decision maker forcing shot after shot. They especially don’t need another guard incapable of hitting his free throws consistently. However, if the second half Tony shows up the Huskies will truly have something special. Wroten showed he can be a dynamic guard capable of doing everything. That is something any team can use.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Jon Brockman, American Ninja



WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW!?

Top 5: MLB Fanship

Recently, I was reading the USA Today sports section, as I often do before heading off to talk to my CEO friends about fiscal conservatism.  In it, I found an interesting graphic, showing the Top 5 MLB teams of all time in losing percentage.  That is, the 5 teams who have the worst historic winning percentage out of every MLB team ever.  Coming in at number 2, my favorite team: the San Diego Padres.  Coming in at number 3, my second favorite team: the Seattle Mariners.

That's right, two of the three worst teams ever happen to be the ones I root for (first place went to the relatively young Tampa Devil Satanists/Rays franchise).  Somehow, I managed to not only live in an area with a terrible team (curse you, Paul Swanson!), but choose another team from an entirely different league that is equally terrible.

Could I have chosen someone else?  The Twins, perhaps?  Maybe even the Phillies?  Sure, I could of, but I didn't.  I happened to grow up in the greatest of times for both franchise, that certainly influenced my decision.  But I like to think I was drawn to these teams by something else.  Both are in beautiful cities, characterized by friendly fans and likeable players (Whats that?  No, the Mariners never employed Carl Everett.  You are wrong).  Guys like Tony Gwynn and Ken Griffey Jr. were just too damn likeable to resist.  Even now, both teams are populated with mostly interesting and fun guys, Milton Bradley and Josh Lueke withstanding.

It's just too damn hard NOT to root for a team that has so many problems to overcome as the Padres do, with their small market, ownership problems, and ballpark the size of India.  How CAN'T you love a team that relies on every member essentially being a mini-David Eckstein?  On a different note, do you realize how small that makes their players?  Like four foot three, tops.

And the Mariners?  Well, that's just what I grew up with.  My family taught me their ways, and it's certainly helped that so many Mariners players are exactly what I want in athletes: people who adopt the city of their team and stay there.  Whether it be Jay Buhner, Dan Wilson, or Edgar Martinez, countless Mariners played ONLY for the Mariners and are still active members of the community.  Until I find another team that I can think that way about, it's time for me to stick to the losers.  Maybe I'll add the Sounders too, once they figure out how to lose like pros.