A while back I mentioned that during some post-Christmas giftcard shopping I made an impulse buy purchasing a DVD box set titled College Football's Greatest Games: University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish Collector's Edition. Even though I'm not a Notre Dame fan I purchased the set due to it being the only one if it's kind out there for college football and it was released by A&E Home Video who did the World Series box sets that I've done write ups for. Now since the set is geared torwards No
After the Bills shocking loss to the Patriots last week I suppose anything is possible but I certaintly didn't think the Bills would lay another egg against the 2-7 Packers but that it is indeed what happened. With the Bills' second straight loss, the Dolphins have now moved into to tie for first place in the AFC East. Once you get past the two AFC East powers, Raiders, and Oilers, the rest of the conference is a mess with five teams at 5-5 going for the last two wild card spots. The Vikings had
49ers edged the Saints for the eighth straight win to wrap up the NFC West, although I don't think the game takes into account tiebreaks until the end of the season as it doesn't recognize it yet. Best the Rams can do is tie the 49ers for 1st but the Niners swept the season series. The Giants have almost wrapped up the NFC East as they now have a three game lead on the Redskins and Eagles but they still play the Redskins one more time and the Skins won their first meeting. In the AFC both the Ra
It seemed liked a forgone conclusion the Raiders would take the AFC West but not anymore. They lost to the Chargers this week for their third straight loss and the Bolts have now moved into a tie for 1st at 9-5. Oilers beat Steelers 21-9 in order to reclaim sole posession of 1st place in the AFC Central. The Bills have clinched the AFC East but again the game won't recognize it yet since the Dolphins can tie for 1st still but the Bills swept the season series. The Giants lost to the Eagles but t
We're down to the wire and a lot of movement still going on. Big story this week was the Browns scoring 24 points in the 4th quarter to come from behind to beat the Oilers 30-21. The Steelers won their game to once again move into a tie for 1st. I was slightly less lazy this time around, figuring out some of the easier tiebreaks, and the Steelers control their own destiny for the division as if they beat the Browns in Week 17 they'll end up with a better division record than the Oilers. In the A
The season ends with plenty of drama. The best game of the week was the Oilers/Giants with the Oilers prevailing 30-24 in overtime and to go along with the Steelers getting crushed by the Browns, the Oilers win the AFC Central. Steelers though ended up beating out the Browns for the final playoffs spot by tiebreak, or at least that's what the game says as I'm not sure it properly does tiebreaks. In the AFC West, the Raiders beat the Chiefs while the Chargers lost to the Broncos thus handing the
For the two of you who care, I'll try to get around to finish my Tecmo Super Bowl sim at some point this month.
Last year I did weekly entries wrapping up the previous day of college football until I ran out of bad jokes which was about three weeks into the season. But never the less I'm going to give it a shot again this year making short and completely un-insightful observations about every game from the weekend that I watched for more than two seconds. My favorite thing about college foo
My Week 2 Useless Comments on Games I Watched for More than Two Seconds
Texas Tech 49, SMU 9. Given this result and their struggle to beat North Texas maybe the Ponies won't break their post-Death Penalty bowl drought after all.
Clemson 24, Florida State 18. When will the Bobby Bowden Retirement Tour begin already?
Louisville 58, Middle Tennessee State 42. If you give up 42 points at home to a Sun Belt team you're probably not Top 10 material.
Cincinnati 34, Oregon State 3. T
For the two of you who liked the TSB entries I know I said I'd get around to finishing this month but doesn't look like that'll happen. I've been doing a ridiculous amount of overtime at work lately and my time on the board is spent working on my pick 'em contest. Also after next week I'll be working on my end of the season 2007 MLB Player Rankings for the blog so the TSB is just going to have to wait.
So we're down to 23 undefeated teams in I-A/FBS/Whatever football so obviously my "only r
Before I get to my awards picks, here's my quick rundown of what I want out of this postseason.
1. No Red Sox/Yankees ALCS. Do I need to explain?
2. No Rockies/D-Backs NLCS. Do I need to explain?
3. D-Backs don't win the World Series. We have one 90's expansion team with two world championships already, we don't need another.
4. Indians win the ALCS. Besides the Giants, there are no teams in baseball that I would rather see less in a World Series than the Red Sox, Yankees, and Angels.
It's that time of year again where I tell you who were best and worst players by position in MLB for the past season, in case you already forgot what did happen this past season. Starting with position players I will rank the Top 30 players in plate appearances at each position, based on the player's primary position for the season. For the position players I take into account five statiscal categories: OPS+, VORP, Equivalent Average, Runs Created (ballpark adjusted per hardballtimes.com), and W
I decided to throw the DH rankings into the first base entry. Only difference from the other positions is I rank 14 players instead of 30.
First Basemen
2004
1. Albert Pujols
15. Ben Broussard
30. Doug Mientkiewicz
2005
1. Derrek Lee
15. Ryan Howard
30. Phil Nevin
2006
1. Albert Pujols
15. Kevin Youkilis
30. Travis Lee
2007
1. Albert Pujols, Cardinals
2. Carlos Pena, Devil Rays
3. Prince Fielder, Brewers
4. Mark Teixeira, Rangers/Braves
5. Rya
Third Basemen
2004
1. Adrian Beltre
15. Corey Koskie
30. Mark DeRosa
2005
1. Alex Rodriguez
15. Joe Crede
30. Sean Burroughs
2006
1. Miguel Cabrera
15. Morgan Ensberg
30. Vinny Castilla
2007
1. Alex Rodriguez, Yankees
2. David Wright, Mets
3. Miguel Cabrera, Marlins
4. Chipper Jones, Braves
5. Mike Lowell, Red Sox
6. Ryan Braun, Brewers
7. Aramis Ramirez, Cubs
8. Chone Figgins, Angels
9. Garrett Atkins, Rockies
10. Ryan Zimmerman, Nationa
Thank you to Oregon State Vanessa Hudgens I do not have to worry about a Cal national championship, although still need to some help to avoid them getting to the Rose Bowl.
With the BCS Rankings out I probably shouldn't even bother with this anymore but maybe one more week. Pretty simple there are five undefeated BCS teams so they make up my Top 5. This week though I now have to include two loss teams in the rankings and even rank some of them above one loss teams but I will rank all one l
For middle relievers, the first two years I took the top 60 in games pitched and then last year I did the top 60 in Holds. This time around I tried to get a combination of both and put an arbitrary number of at least 70 games pitched or at least 15 Holds to work with at first and purely by accident I ended up with exactly 60 relievers. This of course excludes those who will appear on the Closers list.
I take into account six statistical categories: Component ERA, K/BB Ratio, WHIP, VORP, Fie
For closers the list includes the top 30 in Saves. Only difference from middle relievers is I do take into account Win Shares.
2004
1. Brad Lidge
15. Octavio Dotel
30. Shawn Chacon
2005
1. Mariano Rivera
15. Jason Isringhausen
30. Keith Foulke
2006
1. Jonathan Papelbon
15. Francisco Cordero
30. Derrick Turnbow
2007
1. J.J. Putz, Mariners
2. Takashi Saito, Dodgers
3. Jonathan Papelbon, Red Sox
4. Joe Nathan, Twins
5. Bobby Jenks, White Sox
6. Joak
This was actually relatively uneventful Saturday and after all the chaos in the previous weeks I get the feeling we may have a boring November. We're down to only 10 BCS conference teams with one loss or less compared to 18 at this time last year so I think law of averages this past week might be a sign of things to come. Even now in the era of a 12 game regular season and conference championships I still don't see us having the first two loss, post-bowls national champion. Believe me though I w
And finally wrapping up the 2007 Player Rankings with my favorite and longest list, starting pitchers. Only difference from closers is I do take into account ERA+. The list includes the top 120 pitchers in games started.
2004
1. Randy Johnson
15. Odalis Perez
30. Josh Beckett
45. Joe Kennedy
60. Randy Wolf
75. Jon Garland
90. Aaron Harang
105. Jose Acevedo
120. Brian Anderson
2005
1. Roger Clemens
15. Brandon Webb
30. Kenny Rogers
45. Derek Lowe
60. Livan He
I decided to give up on doing a Top 25 since my Top 10 wouldn't be a whole lot different from the BCS Top 10 at this point. So instead I'm going to go conference by conference to see what teams are on the bubble to make it to a bowl game. Any BCS conference team with seven wins at this time is a lock and some with six wins are as well although it all depends on if their conference is going to have too many or too few bowl eligible teams. There are no preset open bids this year although a couple
Here's a quick revision to the Bowl Bubble entry after yesterday's results.
ACC
Bowls: BCS/Orange, Chick-Fil-A, Gator, Champs Sports, Music City, Meineke Car Care, Emerald, Humanitarian
Locks: Boston College, Clemson, Virginia, Virginia Tech
Near Locks: Florida State, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest
On the Bubble: Maryland, Miami, N.C. State
Maryland's upset of Boston College has increased the chances of possibly ten bowl eligible teams in the conference which means getti
ACC
Bowls: BCS/Orange, Chick-Fil-A, Gator, Champs Sports, Music City, Meineke Car Care, Emerald, Humanitarian
Locks: Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
Near Locks: None
On the Bubble: Maryland, Miami, N.C. State
Maryland/N.C. State is a loser goes home game this Saturday and the winner likely goes to a bowl. I only say likely because if Miami some how gets it's shit together and upsets Boston College that will give
