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| March Madness-TBone messes with Hoops, College no Less! Just when you thought I was going all baseball, I throw a curve at you. Here's my take on the upcoming NCAA Tournament. You might not ever see me write about hoops again, so enjoy!March Madness. The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament has become a gargantuan, media-fueled, hypefest comparable to the Super Bowl. Media outlets begin handicapping the possible participants in December, and the debate continues through the conference championships, right up to the day the brackets are announced. Announcement day has become an all day event itself, with camera crews posted at all of the schools that are breathlessly waiting to hear whether they are in, or if their bubble is going to be burst. Teams that were a “lock” to make the big dance sit around waiting for their opponent to be announced and we get to watch them watching TV while the matchups are revealed. The East bracket appears to have the heavyweights in it this year with North Carolina, Georgetown, Texas, and Southern Cal. all looking like contenders. Boston College will make some noise, with ACC Player of the Year Jared Dudley leading the way, but they won't get past mighty Georgetown. It should come down to North Carolina vs. Georgetown for the right to go to Atlanta for the Final Four. Ohio State is the big dog in the South bracket, but there are several teams in here that could emerge to beat the young Buckeyes. They should breeze through the first two rounds, but they will meet up with either Tennessee or Virginia in the Regionals, either of whom could unseat Oden and company. If they should manage to get past that point, they'll face either Memphis or Texas A&M, both defensive monsters. I love the Buckeyes, but I've got a feeling that Texas A&M, playing in their own backyard, will end up in Atlanta. In the Midwest, there are plenty of folks who believe that Florida is bound for a repeat this year. I'm not sold on the Gators, who have been inconsistent down the stretch, despite their SEC tournament win. If the Gators manage to beat Arizona in the second round, they'll likely face Maryland, the best team in the ACC. The other end of the bracket could feature the biggest upset of the tournament with this year's “Cinderella story”, Winthrop. They've won 18 straight games on their way to the Big Dance, and could easily be this year's George Mason. In the end though, it should be Maryland punching their ticket to Atlanta. UCLA got a gift from the bracket committee, which placed them on their home turf in the West bracket. They shouldn't find it too difficult to make the regionals, where they'll likely face Pittsburgh. Duke is in that bracket too, but they simply don't have the makings of a Final Four contender this year. Kansas is in the other end of the West, where Kentucky and the Southern Illinois Salukis will just be bumps in the road on the way their matchup with UCLA. Expect the Bruins to march off to Atlanta. So, I'm calling for a UCLA, Maryland, Texas A&M, Georgetown Final Four. Now go fill in your brackets and win the office pool. Remember, you heard it here first. BTW- the winner will be Georgetown! Shake it easy! | | |
| TBone's MLB NotesToday marks the beginning of my "Almost Daily" MLB Notes. I'll do my best to update this daily, but I'll have to see how time allows. I expect this to be a compendium of news, links to interesting stories, and my own views on which players are worth a look. Here goes: American League Looks like the Detroit Tigers are going to platoon their leadoff hitters this season. Centerfielder Curtis Granderson gets the nod against righthanded pitchers, while catcher Ivan Rodriguez will leadoff against lefties. This makes sense since Granderson was absolutely dreadfull against lefties last year (.218), while Rodriguez hammered lefties (.340). Oddly enough they were comparable in the SB dept last year, as both had just 8 steals. Granderson should improve on that, while it's doubtful that Rodriguez will. Even so, "Pudge" should be good for a handful of SB's, maybe 7 or 8. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are realigning the top of their order, putting Rocco Baldelli at leadoff, followed by Carl Crawford, then Delmon Young. This puts all their speed at the top and puts Young and cleanup hitter Greg Norton in line for some decent production. Baldelli should be good for a 20/20 season, while Crawford should do something like 15/35-40. Look for Young to nail 100+ RBI's if he can show a little more patience at the plate. Last year he swung at something like 68% of the pitches he saw, so he needs to cut down his freeswinging ways before pitchers figure out that they need not throw him strikes. National League After thumbing through the Baseball Prospetus 2007 Edition, and reading various and sundry projections, here are a few NL players that are high on my draft lists this spring: Michael Barrett - (C, Chi) He's going to break the 20 HR ceiling this year and hit .300 while he's at it. Adam LaRoche - (1B, Pitt) Playing every day will net him 40 HR's to go with a .300 avg if he can figure out how to hit lefties (.241 last year). Ray Durham - (2B, SF) He should post similar numbers to last year if he hits behind Bonds again. Carlos Quentin - (RF, AZ) He's going to play every day. 25+ HR and a .290 avg easy, maybe more. James Loney - (1B, LA) If the Dodgers go through with moving Nomah to 3rd base, Loney becomes the everyday 1B. Can you say Rookie of the Year? Kelly Johnson - (2B, Atl) He's got double digit steal potential, good patience at the plate, and emerging power. OK, that's it for today. Shake it easy! | | |
| Zito Pitching Differently This SpringThe San Francisco Giants thought they signed up an ace pitcher for their staff, but what pitching coach Dave Righetti saw today made him a little nervous. "Yeah," he said. "He said he was going to do a little something different. He was right. That's a little bit different. That's a first. I got my measuring stick out. He was talking about being bound up and having some freedom on the mound. He's doing all right. We'll get used to watching it. ... We'll see if he can make pitches doing that. He'll end up finding out." Huh? Evidently, Zito has changed his delivery. He now bounces a bit before taking a big step back. Then he drives the pitch forward using more of his legs than in the past. This is supposed to make his stride longer and more fluid. When he releases the ball, and sticks the landing, he gestures delicately with his hand as though raining pixie dust on the pitch. Zito says, "It's an old-school kind of delivery." While Coach Righetti seemed to have other things on his mind, "We'll see how sore his groin is tomorrow. Most guys won't do that, they'll think about it, he continued. They won't really take it all the way unless they've had an injury or unless they've been getting killed. It's very rare that you see this. He's been successful. He must have felt pretty strong about it." Huh? | | |
| Baseball's Steroid Issue is Eroding Our Rights TooThere is a story on ESPN.com today outlining an appeal by the Major League Baseball Players Union of the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals to allow drug test results of some 100 players to be used by investigators in the steroid scandal. The results were parked on a computer that was seized by government investigators in a 2004 raid of the company that conducted the tests. The tests were agreed to by the Players Union and MLB with the condition that the results be kept confidential. If the government is allowed to use the results to subpoena players to testify it will set a dangerous precedent for us all. Basically, it means that investigators can seize a computer under the guise of looking for a particular piece of evidence and then peruse the full contents of the computer and use whatever they find against the owner of the computer. One aspect of this that I find surprising is that the testing grew out of an agreement between two parties and anonymity was promised between them. That anonymity went out the window once the federal government became involved. How is it that the privacy of the parties involved was so easily scrapped? I thought the right to privacy would trump all here and that an agreement between two parties would be protected as long as it was lawful. Now it also seems that if the government decides it’s going to find evidence of crime, presenting paper results won’t be enough. If the information they want is parked on a computer, they can seize the whole thing and scrutinize everything on it to find what they want. Naturally, if they find evidence of some other crime they will probably be able to prosecute based on the evidence they find on the seized computer. It’s just another example of our civil rights eroding away folks. I don’t feel badly for, or care about the baseball players who may have their drug use exposed by this. But I am worried about the legal precedent being set. It affects us all. And that is scary.
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| TBone's Bones to Pick - A Quick Look at the NewsThere was an interesting story in the Chicago Daily Herald this week about baseballs. The Commissioner’s office is now mandating that teams keep their baseball stored at a uniform temperature once they are delivered by the league. It goes on to say that it’s recommended that they be kept at 70 degrees Fahrenheit with a relative humidity of 50%. According to Joe Garagiola Jr. all 30 teams will be keeping their baseballs in temperature controlled environments this year. The Commissioner’s office isn’t suggesting that teams need to use humidors, or that teams have mistreated their baseballs. In fact, there is no word on what will happen to teams that don’t take proper care of their baseballs. Of course, this is an outgrowth of the humidor that has been in use at Coors Field during the past few seasons. During those seasons the Rockies offense has withered with the use of the humidor. When the Rockies stopped using humidor balls in September of ‘06, their offensive numbers rose to their pre-humidor levels again. Obviously, how the baseballs are kept has a dramatic effect on how they react on the field. Who would like to bet that the next great scandal in baseball will have to do with a team that has “mistreated” their baseballs?
OK, let me see if I’ve got this straight. The Giants and Barry Bonds reached agreement on a contract for 2007 that pays Bonds roughly $16 million. The Giants are happy because they got rid of Barry’s clubhouse entourage and a clause that gets them out of the deal should Bonds be indicted for perjury. But wait! The Commissioner’s office rejected the deal because of a personal appearance clause, and Bond’s agent, Jeff Borris says the language that allow the Giants out of the deal is unenforceable. So the Commissioner’s office sent the contract back to Borris with documents suggesting necessary changes, but Borris is now advising his client not to sign the deal. What this all means is that spring training is just days away now and Barry Bonds is still not signed. Is it possible that he won’t play? Will the Giants even bother anymore? If the Giants opt out will any other teams be willing to take Bonds in at any price, let alone $16 million? Is it even remotely possible that I’ll get my wish that Bonds retire and Hank Aaron’s record remains untainted?
Finally, from the strange ideas about parenting department. This Rhode Island couple regularly had sex in front of their 9 year old daughter because “we wanted to prepare her so she would know how.” I’ve seen some strange parenting in my day, but this pair takes the cake.
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