EVIL~! alkeiper

I'd say it was at least 50% the gimmick. His match against Lex Luger at the 1990 Bash wasn't bad at all, he was greener then and wrestling Luger. He also didn't exactly have the opponents. From his inception his singles opponents were Jimmy Snuka, Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts, Kamala, Kamala again, Giant Gonzalez twice, Yokozuna, Brian Lee, Yokozuna again, Irwin R. Schyster, King Kong Bundy, Mabel, Kama, Mabel again, and finally he got Bret Hart at the '96 Rumble.

I see around 83-86 wins from the Braves, which would keep them in contention right to the end. There's a lot to like. The hitting is there, with stars and solid regulars abound. Two very good pitchers in Tim Hudson and Smoltz, while Chuck James and Tom Glavine can keep them in game. The Braves are a real sleeper team, it would only take one or two breaks to make them division contenders.

Throw out those numbers, Loewen was pitching hurt. Loewen has the pure stuff, but he lacks the command.

Kmart this week (thru Saturday) has a two pack Royal Rumble dvd, 2007 and 2008, for $14.99. Checked out the JBL/Jericho match, WWE actually edited the entire botched bulldog out of the match. The boos are still extremely evident.

MSG has a match featuring Dump Matsumoto and Bull Nakano. It is interesting to see Nakano in her younger days, she was only a few months past her 18th birthday at this point!

The booking is better in the NWA shows with several feuds running at once, angles advanced and explained on a weekly basis, etc. The WCCW shows are running on the strength of the Freebirds/Von Erichs feud with some other groups in between. Of course seeing a new show only every 3-4 weeks it is hard to make a fair assessment.

More steroid hearings today. I want to make a couple quick points. 1. Much of this blasting of professional sport leagues is to do with the Mitchell Report and various internet pharmacy busts leaking out. Most of these involved situations dating back two or three years. It is new information, but it did not happen recently. 2. There is still no reliable test for HGH. How can you blast professional sports for something they can not detect at any level? 3. Is it even constitutional for the government to enact drug testing for professional sports? I've grown real uncomfortable with some of the reporting on the steroid issue. It's gotten to the point where people are literally lusting for the blood of professional athletes. They're entertainers. Sports are not wholesome and pure, and they never were.

I've heard rumblings that Moolah/McIntyre ended early due to McIntyre's ring attire coming loose. She constantly adjusts the straps and the match not only ends quickly, but strangely. That would make a lot of sense.

Of course. It's not like the NFL has been the end-all be-all of sports throughout its entire existence.

I thought it was too. But it's not like they are in the business of pumping up the projection, they're just inputting numbers. If nothing else, it gives you an idea of what kind of upside the team has. I would still lean towards 2009 or 2010 being their year. Upside yes. I think the problem is that it assumes the team will correctly identify the players with the most upside and play them accordingly.

I placed the over/under feature on my blog, for anyone interested.

Hall of Fame profiles are always different. It's usually Mean Gene introducing matches and clips, and ends with the wrestler's Hall of Fame induction speech.

Over/Under I'm establishing a rule for myself. 15 overs and unders. Let's see where that leads. Baltimore Orioles 66.0 66.0 UNDER Florida Marlins 69.0 69.0 UNDER Pittsburgh Pirates 70.0 70.0 OVER Kansas City Royals 71.0 71.0 OVER Washington Nationals 72.0 72.0 OVER Tampa Bay Devil Rays 73.0 73.0 OVER San Francisco Giants 73.0 73.0 UNDER Oakland Athletics 74.0 74.0 OVER Texas Rangers 75.5 75.5 OVER Minnesota Twins 75.5 75.5 OVER Houston Astros 76.0 76.0 OVER Chicago White Sox 77.0 77.0 UNDER Cincinnati Reds 79.0 79.0 OVER St. Louis Cardinals 80.0 80.0 UNDER Colorado Rockies 83.0 83.0 UNDER San Diego Padres 84.5 84.5 OVER Seattle Mariners 85.0 85.0 UNDER Milwaukee Brewers 85.0 85.0 UNDER Toronto Blue Jays 85.5 85.5 UNDER Arizona Diamondbacks 86.0 86.0 OVER Los Angeles Dodgers 86.5 86.5 OVER Philadelphia Phillies 86.5 86.5 OVER Atlanta Braves 87.0 87.0 UNDER Chicago Cubs 89.0 89.0 UNDER Cleveland Indians 89.5 89.5 OVER Los Angeles Angels 92.5 92.5 UNDER Detroit Tigers 93.0 93.0 UNDER New York Yankees 93.5 93.5 UNDER New York Mets 94.0 94.0 UNDER Boston Red Sox 94.5 94.5 OVER I noticed that I tended to go the over on mostly sub-.500 teams and under on mostly over-.500 teams. As a whole, I think most teams are ranked fairly on this list. For example, the Cubs are listed above the Brewers. I took the under on the Cubs and over on the Brewers. I still think the Cubs are favorites, I just think the win margin will end up 88-86. I will be happy to answer questions about individual teams. The Astros replaced three awful players in their lineup (Ausmus, Biggio and Everett) with J.R. Towles, Kaz Matsui and Miguel Tejada. Their rotation sucks, but it sucked last year too, no loss. And it's a weak division. The Pirates will no doubt finish below .500, but 92 losses? Not a sure thing in the NL Central. The Pirates are an odd team in that they are bad, but they lack truly bad players. They just do not have a truly standout player on their team. (Unless Jason Bay rebounds.)

Why not 65-97? You may not have noticed, but their starting shortstop has a career .619 OPS in the EASTERN LEAGUE.

I'll save my over/unders for a blog post, later today. KKKtookmybabyaway and I did a sort of challenge on the subject last season, I barely edged him out. Hopefully he will add his picks later.

Honestly, I'm wary of predicting 100 wins/losses for ANY team, unless they have a track record. Teams tend to bunch towards the middle of the pack so much nowadays.

Last year they won 69 and they since traded their ace and shortstop.

What are your feelings on the Phils chances this year Al? I was really high on them last season (and correctly picked them to win the division), but I'm not sold on this year's team. I expect a moderate regression from Utley, Rollins and Howard. Combined with the loss of a productive Aaron Rowand and Pedro Feliz getting the lion's share of at-bats at third and the team could see their high octane offense take a step back. Even more troublesome is their rotation. Cole Hamels is an ace, but I worry about his health after an increased workload last year. Myers will be good, but after that the whole rotation is a bunch of question marks. I just see this as an 85 win team that will come up short against the Mets and probably the Braves. I'll address the offense first. Howard already regressed last season. At this point you have a player with 1700+ plate appearances and a .297/.391/.610 career line to show for it. He is not past his prime yet, so no reason to think that is not a reasonable standard. Chase Utley took a step forward, but he was even more valuable in 2006 since he did not miss a month. If he falls back to that level, still no problem. Rollins yes, again could fall to his previous levels. That still makes him a league average hitter at shortstop, an asset. Aaron Rowand is gone, but the Phils acquired Geoff Jenkins. At their career marks they have similar ability as hitters. On defense, I honestly think Victorino is a superior defender. At third base, Feliz's low OBP will improve with a move to a favorable hitters park. Last year, the Phillies' composite 3Bmen hit .255/.321/.368, with Abraham Nunez getting the most at bats! I think the defense is key. The Phillies already led the NL in runs scored in 2006 and '07 and finished 2nd in 2005. How much more offense do they need? On defense though they had two guys at third (Greg Dobbs and Wes Helms) who really didn't belong out there. Feliz will help a pitching staff that frankly, needs all the help it can get. Pitching is the big concern. There are no exciting arms that COULD step in, just a group of journeymen to fill out the last few spots. The upside of Kris Benson, Adam Eaton, Chad Durbin etc. hardly excites anyone, and if Hamels and/or Brett Myers falter things could get ugly. The bullpen is just as ragged, a severe lack of exciting arms. I see them second, a step behind the Mets. Probably the wild card favorites though.

My offseason wait is over as the Phillies kick off now against the Cincinnati Reds.

Some of the stuff like Hogan/Bundy is certainly passable for a big show. The two tag team matches were pretty good, in the three star range. The two biggest problems were first, that the three-location format really led to a disjointed show. Second, the boxing match was really, really awful. I'm about finished watching the New York segment. The Orndorff/Muraco match was the best on the card but the non-finish pissed off the crowd. Savage/Steele was a bad match even by their standards. (I disagree that another match would've been suitable though, it was a memorable feud.) Jake Roberts/George Wells was just a showcase for the Snake. And the boxing match is perhaps the worst Wrestlemania match ever.

Here's a link to Baseball America's Top 100. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prosp...008/265655.html Pleasantly surprised to see three Phillies in the top 100. Adrian Cardenas isn't often mentioned, but he seems legit. Savery is easily a top prospect if the health fears do not materialize.

Marvin, you should know I meant steroid scandal without outright saying it.

It's all nitpicking of course. A 3% drop in attendance could be statistical noise. It certainly wasn't the result of disgusted fans turned away by Sosa's possible PED use. And it is of course worth noting that Sosa has yet to be named in any scandal whatsoever.

Since it is currently airing on 24/7 and we've seen the TNT buildup on that program, I figured this show deserved its own thread. I'm giving the show a fresh look and I'll have more thoughts later. From what I've seen of the hype it's essentially a six match show. Hogan-Bundy (Cage) NFL/Wrestler Battle Royal Bulldogs/Dream Team (Tag Title) Savage/George Steele (IC Title) JYD/Santana vs. Funks Mr. T/Roddy Piper (Boxing) Those were the matches with some kind of backstory. The other matches are essentially filler material, maybe mentioned beforehand but not given a lot of buildup. Each segment has two hype matches and two filler matches.

The Orioles were actually in first place until June that season. From June 21 to the end of the season, they compiled a 32-60 record.