With their comeback win over the Royals, the O’s maintained their spot atop the AL East standings as they entered an important series against the cross-state Nationals, who . . . → Read More: Still Atop The AL East, Orioles Have Much To Prove]]>

Adam Jones keeps hitting home runs, but it will take more than that for this team to keep up their pace. (Denny Medley, US Presswire)

With their comeback win over the Royals, the O’s maintained their spot atop the AL East standings as they entered an important series against the cross-state Nationals, who have continued their emergence as a contender in the crowded NL East.  Every series is important for these Orioles however, who have yet to convince anyone (myself included) that their 25-14 (as of Friday) record is anything but a fun diversion before the division reverts back to the standard order of things.  Right now the only thing normal about the AL East is the Blue Jays occupying their usual spot in third.

And there are certainly reasons for concern.  The injuries are starting to pile up on this team, and there aren’t any more reserves left in Norfolk that give me reason for confidence.  Once Bill Hall was plugged back in at the major league level, you knew things were getting desperate.  Mark Reynolds remains out with a strained oblique (which one does not want to risk re-aggravating), and while that gives Ryan Flaherty a good opportunity to develop it strips Buck Showalter of the flexibility to insert anyone other than Nick Johnson into that spot.  With Endy Chavez and Nolan Reimold still out, Xavier Avery has performed admirably (his average may be low but he is showing tremendous poise at the plate) but he is not going to be a season-long answer, at least not yet.  The current roster is performing well, but there is very little depth for a team that was already thin to begin with.

The Orioles have already played two 15 or more-inning games this season, and with Jake Arrieta struggling, Tommy Hunter only in Baltimore because of injuries and Brian Matusz having not yet hit 7 innings in any of his 8 starts, the surprisingly strong bullpen is going to break down as the summer wears on.  It is at that stage that we will know if this team can continue to overachieve and defy all baseball logic.

Then again, weren’t we supposed to learn a lot about this team from their stretch against the Yankees (twice), Red Sox, Rays, and Rangers?  It seems like every win just makes us give another deadline for when we will really know if this team is any good.  Honestly, we might not be able to say for sure one way or another until the season is over.

One thing is for certain though.  This is a more resilient team than past iterations.  A few nights ago when the Orioles trailed the Royals 2-0 in the 8^th J.J. Hardy led off with a double followed quickly by Nick Markakis.  The comeback was on.  Then just as quickly it was off, as Markakis tried unsuccessfully to steal third, an Adam Jones strikeout, and a weak groundout by Matt Wieters.  Since it was getting late I thought to myself “here we go again” and turned my computer off.  I awoke the next morning and decided on a whim to check the score anyway.  This team allowed the Royals to tack that run back on yet still delivered in the 9^th to tie the game up and win it in extra innings.  I wondered, “what is this team and where are the Orioles?”

If you ask me, what we are experiencing right now with this Orioles team will not last.  The bottom will drop out and they will finish below .500.  But to see them, even for a short while, winning seven straight road games (hopefully eight, I am writing this on Friday) is like a long drink of sweet tea on a summer day.  Neither will last, but that doesn’t change how great it feels.

This week has been bookended by two players at the top of their sports being cut down, at least for the year (I am not buying Terrell Suggs’ optimism that he will be . . . → Read More: Athletes Like Suggs, Rivera Deserve Freedom to Train, Not Restrictions]]>

Suggs will be missed this season, but that doesn't mean players shouldn't be allowed to exercise in their own way.

This week has been bookended by two players at the top of their sports being cut down, at least for the year (I am not buying Terrell Suggs’ optimism that he will be back in November).  Suggs tore his Achilles playing a pick-up game of basketball while Yankees star closer Mariano Rivera tore his ACL while shagging fly balls during batting practice, a regular practice for both players and a way they try to stay in shape.  It would be easy to use this as an opportunity to question what players should be allowed to do, but it is important now more than ever to recognize that players need the freedom to exercise on their own terms regardless of what fluky but terrible accidents might happen.

In sports, perhaps more than any other career path, one’s economic wellbeing is determined by their performance.  If they fail to perform in the NFL they will be cut with minimal repercussions to their employer, and even in baseball players are constantly playing for the next contract.  There is no flying below the radar and keep collecting pay in professional sports.  As such, the best keep themselves in incredible shape and constantly train, and it can’t always be under team supervision. 

Athletes are not gerbils.  We cannot put them on a regimen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the entire year, moving from the hamster wheel to a specially approved diet.  Fans can’t put them in a box and keep them from harm.  These are athletes; they need the license to be athletic.  If Terrell Suggs wants to play basketball in the offseason, let him.  If Mariano Rivera wants to stay in shape by shagging fly balls in the outfield before games he should be allowed to.  However these players made it as far as they did in terms of conditioning they should be allowed to continue.

I am not talking about riding a motorcycle without a helmet, skydiving, parkour, rock climbing without a harness, or any other activity that is excessively dangerous.  But if someone wants to go jogging in their neighborhood, go bowling with friends, help a family member move, or, yes, play Guitar Hero like a madman, let them.  The fact that they are being paid millions of dollars gives teams the license to control their every movement during the season, but even teams don’t have the time to control everything.

If Suggs was on his treadmill and slipped our reaction should not be to ban treadmills.  If Rivera got in a car accident our reaction should not be to ban athletes from driving.  Things happen in life, freak accidents that can bring down even the most physically imposing athletic specimen.  They don’t happen to the rest of us as often because we are not out there doing athletic activities nearly as often.

When a player goes down our instinct is to do something to make sure that it never happens again.  In this case I hope all of my team’s players are doing everything they can to stay in shape.  It is better for one of them to go down in the offseason than all of them to wind up unprepared for the season.  Let them train they way they are accustomed and more than that, let them have their own lives.  If they don’t play they will suffer far more than the fans.

While the city of Baltimore remains inexplicably allied to the Washington Capitals’ playoff run (Why?! I will never understand it. I wouldn’t root for the Wizards and the Redskins and Nats are not my #2 teams in . . . → Read More: O’s Success Brings Mixed Emotions As Gauntlet Looms]]>

Don't smile. Whatever you do, don't smile. This is not funny... (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

While the city of Baltimore remains inexplicably allied to the Washington Capitals’ playoff run (Why?! I will never understand it. I wouldn’t root for the Wizards and the Redskins and Nats are not my #2 teams in football and baseball so why in god’s name would I root for the Caps?  Go Flyers.), the NFL draft drones on (what is it now, three more weeks to go?), the Orioles continue to torment me with their success.  Why torment?  Because this team is so epically bad on paper, it is the team that truly looked like a rebuilding team, the kind of rebuilding that happens when you are building a sand castle at low tide.  The kind of rebuilding that causes you to ditch the few assets with any value for a bunch of assets with even less value.

2011 looked like a team ready to make a leap based on what would turn out to be unfounded optimism.  2010 had a number of proven pieces that resembled a .500 team back in March.  We know how those years turned out. Yet here we are about to turn the calendar to May and no matter what happens the Orioles will still be over .500 on May 1.  So… what gives?

The schedule, for one, has been kind.  After the Orioles face off against the Oakland A’s in a three game series this weekend they get the Yankees, Red Sox, Rangers, Rays, and Yankees again before the schedule eases up a bit.  If the Orioles are over .500 after that gauntlet (the Red Sox have too much talent to stay in the cellar) fans can have something to get excited about.  With just two series against pre-season division contenders (Angels and Yankees) the Orioles are just 1-5, including a home sweep at the hands of the Yankees.  They will have to do better than that if they are going to break their interminable losing streak.

But there are things to appreciate in the meantime.  For one, Nolan Reimold seems to be finally showing the promise he had as a rookie in 2009 and holding down the Left Field job and, surprisingly, the lead-off spot.  Like too many major league teams, the Orioles lack a true lead-off man.  Since Brian Roberts can’t be relied on to stay healthy, this will be a problem that is going to haunt this team down the stretch.  This team lacks a traditional lineup, with a lot of hitters playing out of their natural position in the lineup due to a lack of other options.  Wherever he is hitting, Matt Wieters has also begin to fulfill his offensive potential, slugging a whopping .610 and tying for third in home runs with 6.  Small sample sizes of course, but trends that Orioles fans were looking for and have begun to come to fruition.

For better or for worse, most of the pitfalls in that lineup have come from newly acquired players, most notably Nick Johnson, Endy Chavez, and Wilson Betemit.  Robert Andino will not hit .300 this season and  Nolan Reimold will not continue at his current torrid pace.  Baltimore needs their new pieces to start to pick up their play (in addition to J.J. Hardy, I have given up on Mark Reynolds) if they have any hope of creating the kind of balanced lineup that can survive a season of ups and downs.

I am also skeptical that Jason Hammel will suddenly have a better season than the remarkably consistent mediocrity he put on display in Colorado and Tampa Bay.  When Jake Arrieta pitches like an ace for an entire season and Wei-Yin Chen stays healthy I will start to believe that this team is on the right track, but we are far from that.  It’s amazing how in baseball a month of games is still too small a sample size to draw any conclusions from.

The next two weeks of Orioles baseball will give us a clue as to whether this team is as horrifically awful as I thought they would be before the season.  In the meantime I guess we have to enjoy it.  I just don’t want to enjoy it too much, because in the AL East there is no easy path, even to mediocrity.

The Dwight Howard saga is done for the remainder of the season.  Correction: Dwight Howard is done for the remainder of the season.  Thanks to machinations both externally and of his own creation, the . . . → Read More: Howard Done for 2012 But Drama Continues to Start for Magic]]>

There is a lot to like about Dwight Howard. His relationship with the Magic is not one of them.

The Dwight Howard saga is done for the remainder of the season.  Correction: Dwight Howard is done for the remainder of the season.  Thanks to machinations both externally and of his own creation, the star center- one of the few true centers with anything resembling a well-rounded game- the headlines aren’t set to quiet down very soon.  While he will be sitting on the sidelines in a suit with his herniated disk, I am sure Coach Stan Van Gundy would much rather he stay home altogether.  It’s a sad end for a year that started with anticipation and ends with just discomfort- and I am not talking about Howard’s back.

If the LeBron James Cleveland experience has taught us anything, it should be that teams are incapable of keeping a star player by prostrating themselves at his feet and trying to build a team to win a championship right now.  All that has created is a scenario where the Magic are on the hook for Gilbert Arenas’ albatross of a contract and have compounded a long-term salary disaster over the past several years.

This is a team that still has Hedo Turkoglu until at least 2013 for $53 million and the enigmatic Jameer Nelson for $35 million.  This team has two pending free agents this coming offseason and less than a million coming off the books with them.  The Magic were not going to compete this season, and it looks like in retrospect the worst thing they could do was have Howard come back for just one year.

Yet on the day of the trade deadline that’s exactly what Howard agreed to do.  One more year with Orlando, opting not to exercise free agency as soon as possible.  What exactly does he expect to change? Despite his alleged demands to replace Stan Van Gundy, there are few coaches who can do more with less than Van Gundy, a coach who has never won fewer than 52 games with the Orland Magic and never finished a season with a losing record in his head coaching career.  In short, despite his bombastic and sometimes controversial nature Orlando will not find a better basketball mind to take over.  Van Gundy is incapable of packing it in however, and has shown surprising thoughtfulness and effort in the eight games since Howard went down.

And let’s say that Howard successfully gets Van Gundy replaced and a more pliable coach comes in.  That coach is stuck with the same team and a player who has learned that if he pouts this team will give him anything he wants.  But this team, as it is currently constructed, cannot give him a ring.  Somehow this team willed its way to the 2009 NBA Finals but was exposed by the veteran Lakers.  So projecting out to the end of 2013, it would look like another ignominious first or second round exit for the Magic with a new and less talented head coach and a star player who has the option to bolt for another team that is more prepared to win now.

It isn’t hard to see how that ends.  If the Magic stick with Van Gundy and let Howard walk after 2013 or trade him along the way they can use those assets to rebuild.  No team wants to let go of one of the top five players in the NBA (top three when Howard is giving his best effort), but if you aren’t going really compete at the upper echelon in the East, what’s the incentive for Howard to stick around past 2013?  If they continue the Dan Gilbert plan of appeasement they wind up at the end of 2013 with a worse coach, without their superstar player and a roster still loaded with bad contracts.  A team in a small market like Orlando cannot afford to be riding against the salary cap, especially in the more punitive new CBA.

I don’t fault Howard for wanting to join another team, but I do fault him for not sending a consistent message to management that they could reliably act on.  No matter what Orlando’s management does they are going to be harassed for it.  Either they are lambasted for letting go of a top player for less than his value (inevitable since no team can put together a package that rivals Howard’s value and remain a contender) or they are lambasted for holding onto Howard and being worse in the end for it.  I hope Orlando will do the smart thing for their future.  For Howard’s sake I hope he really does have a herniated disk, or he is even less mature than he seems.

Bobby Petrino is a great football coach, and despite his ignominious background and unceremonious ouster from the University of Arkansas, he will find a job somewhere else- and sooner rather than later.  But Petrino is not unique, as countless coaches have found themselves . . . → Read More: Petrino Set New Low in Morality, Even For The SEC]]>

I consider that face the least that kharma could do.

Bobby Petrino is a great football coach, and despite his ignominious background and unceremonious ouster from the University of Arkansas, he will find a job somewhere else- and sooner rather than later.  But Petrino is not unique, as countless coaches have found themselves on the wrong end of a scandal in the last few years.  He is also not unique in his affair, as men in power sleeping with attractive young women is almost a cliché in today’s society.  No, Petrino’s crime, aside from lying to his boss, family, and the public, goes far deeper than that.  It is the very thing that put Jessica Dorrell on the staff in the first place.

She was named Player Development Coordinator for the football team just a month ago, in front of 160 applicants for the position in an abbreviated hiring process (great SI story here on the details) that was spurred on by ex-Coach Petrino.  He fast-tracked his mistress into a job that literally hundreds wanted because she was sleeping with him.  This may not seem like a big deal on the outset, but in today’s economy the hiring process must be more sacrosanct than ever.  There is no place for nepotism, for cronyism, for filling the ranks of your staff with friends and girlfriends when qualified people are waiting in the wings.

I am sure everyone reading this knows someone who is out of a job, someone who is looking for a job and would have loved the kind of position that Ms. Dorrell had gift-wrapped at her doorstep.  Now, I will not use this as a forum to attack Ms. Dorrell.  If I was job hunting, I would love it if a friend or colleague would tell me they know the hiring manager and will make a call on my behalf, or help me out in some other way.  As the applicant I would look for any possible advantage.  If someone straight offered me a job I would jump at it.  The onus is not on me or Ms. Dorrell to ensure the integrity of the process, it’s whoever is in charge- in this case, Bobby Petrino.

It is this sort of callous behavior that shows that Petrino is not only out of touch with his familial obligations and the basic morality of being true to your wife and family, but that he has a disregard for the men and women of Arkansas who are struggling with a lower-than-average but still high 7.6% unemployment rate.  I know it is only one job, but Petrino has used up any benefit of the doubt from his past positions.

This is the same man who bailed on the Atlanta Falcons 13 games into the season with barely so much as a goodbye, a 78-word note that hardly did his team justice.  This is not the kind of man who stands by his obligations to anyone.  Look, I do not call out anyone who wants to make a career move to find his best fit in this world and to advance from one position to another.  But he has a duty to at least finish the season.  Even if that could be overlooked, this can not be.

At the end of the day he did lie- to the public, to his boss, to his family, and anyone else who would listen.  He stood at that first press conference after the accident like a victim, smiling and believing in his heart that he would never be called out.  But he wins games, and that will be enough for some school that desperately need to turn things around.  When he does it will be simply transactional, there will be no trust.  Petrino has yet to show he has what it takes to earn it.

Baseball fans everywhere had to be ecstatic- or at least interested- when Frank McCourt finally let go of the Los Angeles Dodgers (or as he must have called it, the expense account) to a group led by . . . → Read More: McCourt Sets Chilling Stage for Future Franchise Sales]]>

Believe it or not, this is the face of a winner. (Photo Credit: CC BY-ND/dushawndaily/Daily, Doosh)

Baseball fans everywhere had to be ecstatic- or at least interested- when Frank McCourt finally let go of the Los Angeles Dodgers (or as he must have called it, the expense account) to a group led by NBA star Magic Johnson.  It is important to note that while Magic’s face was at the front of this push, it was more of a PR move (and a brilliant one at that) than a representation of where most of the money is coming from.  Mark Walter, CEO of Guggenheim partners, will be the controlling owner and will be footing the bill as he looks to recoup that record-shattering $2 billion price tag for one of the nation’s most storied baseball franchises.

It left me wondering whether Peter Angelos would ever do us a favor and be careless enough with the team’s finances to be forced to sell.  There is one big piece that is missing in the celebration, however.  One that may very well play a role in any future financial mismanagement by team owners.  At the end of the day, Frank McCourt won and baseball fans lost.

No one is happier right now than Major League Baseball, who gets to see their product as the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise- anywhere.  While football may be dominant to American fans, baseball just set a new standard for the cost of doing business in their elite 30-member club.  After purchasing the team for $430 million in 2004, McCourt racked up almost $600 million in debt and lost another $131 million in his divorce settlement with Jamie McCourt and still winds up doubling his investment with a $860 million profit.  Sports might be the only business in the world where one can purchase a company (or in this case a licensed subsidiary), drive it into the ground, and sell it for far more than you purchased it.  The brand is simply that strong.

Given Angelos’ clawing and scratching for MASN TV revenue over the entire Maryland-DC area and his conservative spending habits, it is beyond doubtful that he would ever sell the Orioles without profiting handsomely.  He and his representatives will surely seek another earth-shattering deal, despite the fact that Baltimore, while it has a loyal fan base (everyone has their limits however) and higher potential revenue than most markets of the same size and affluence (as evidenced by past payrolls when fans were in attendance), is no where near the brand power of the Dodgers.  It didn’t matter that the Dodgers’ finances and reputation with their local fans were in the gutter either after a vicious attack outside the stadium and horrible security, either.

Frank McCourt knew he had to sell… eventually.  And that was the key.  He stalled as long as he possibly could and forced his bidders to come with something that would blow him away- and in doing so giving him a de facto reward for all of his irresponsible actions.  Any owner now knows that if you tie up Major League Baseball long enough, you will make a profit and it doesn’t matter what you do to your team in the meantime.  Higher franchise costs are great for the league and great for the owners, but only because it helps their bottom line when they choose to sell.

Fans of the Royals, Orioles, Pirates, and other franchises suffering from incompetent or ambivalent ownership just saw the odds of their teams getting rescued get a little longer as the cost of anteing into this game just got a lot higher.  This is a great time to be a Dodgers fan, and for their sake I hope that they can finally get a return on the talent they have in stock and fine personnel folks they have running that team.  They were the only ones in the room interested in winning on the field.  For the rest of the fans of struggling organizations, they will just have to wait a little longer.

I thought I would mix things up a bit this year in my bracket.  I saw all my family members picking Kentucky or North Carolina to win it all with a couple of lower seeds making it to the Elite . . . → Read More: Few Compelling Storylines Remain in This March’s Madness]]>

Kentucky continue to roll through a suddenly less interesting tournament. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

I thought I would mix things up a bit this year in my bracket.  I saw all my family members picking Kentucky or North Carolina to win it all with a couple of lower seeds making it to the Elite Eight.  I thought after all the tumult of the last two seasons things in March Madness would start to return to the norm this season.  To separate myself from the fans of pure chalk I decided I would go with Missouri as my dark horse to win it all.  I say that because my bracket has been dead for so long I think it gives me enough context to say that this has been one of the most mundane tournaments since the all- #1 seed Final Four of 2008, without many more opportunities for teams to make it truly compelling.

Of course there are a lot of ways to consider what is “compelling.”  Some would say seeing the “best” teams play in the Final Four is compelling because there is higher quality basketball.  Well if we watched sports simply to watch the highest quality of play we would throw our hands up when the Orioles beat the clearly superior Red Sox on the last day of the regular season to knock them out of the postseason.  In fact, how do we define quality except by who wins the game?  I am sure that some Ivy League teams play more sound, disciplined, and refined basketball than the Kentuckys of the world, but Kentucky makes up for it by having simply incredible athletes.

Sure, Ohio (13 seed) made it to the Sweet Sixteen and was a missed free throw away from forcing a decisive possession from UNC.  Louisville is playing the part of 2011 UConn, making their run from the Big East Tournament, and their win over offensively challenged and overachieving Michigan State can hardly be called a true upset.  Even Duke (and I suppose in retrospect Missouri) was never really the best team in the country after they were stomped by North Carolina in the regular season’s second meeting.

All in all what are we left with?  High seeds from name programs with the exception of perhaps Baylor (though they have some history in basketball).  I don’t count Florida since Billy Donovan is not far removed from his own set of championships.  The second day of the tournament was great for upsets and compelling stories, but those stories have petered out.  And that’s what this tournament is missing for me: stories.

There may be a UConn (Louisville) but there isn’t a Kemba Walker to awe at as he raises his play to a brand new level.  There isn’t a new exciting coach who is making his first foray deep into the tournament.  There isn’t an upstart team proving that it belongs among the elite.  So-called purists will lambast me for this, but sports is just more interesting with the stories to tie them together.  Those who disagree may want to ask themselves how much they stick around for ESPN’s stories about Manning, Tebow, or the rest of the 95% of coverage that has nothing to do with the game on the field.  Heck, we follow players tweets, read articles about what management might be thinking, etc.  If we really only cared about the play on the field we would wait until moves are actually made to consider the impact on the game itself.  But we love the theatre.

And I suppose we are missing some theatre this year.  Sure, a Kansas/Kentucky or Louisville/Syracuse matchup would be a great game from a basketball standpoint, but in either case a great team gets another banner and a great coach gets another ring.  Give me the comeback story, the underdog, the true Madness that makes March so special.

The Peyton Manning sweepstakes is on, with the latest report putting the former Colts legend on a flight to Denver to talk with the currently Tim Tebow-led Broncos.  I imagine when John Elway said . . . → Read More: Manning is NFL’s The Top Prize, Flynn The Biggest Mystery]]>

Is one great game against the Lions enough to hand the keys to an offense over to Matt Flynn?

The Peyton Manning sweepstakes is on, with the latest report putting the former Colts legend on a flight to Denver to talk with the currently Tim Tebow-led Broncos.  I imagine when John Elway said that the Broncos would look to add a few quarterbacks Tebow wasn’t thinking about Peyton Manning walking into the locker room.  But this won’t be the last visit Manning makes, nor the last visit that Matt Flynn makes as he takes his sterling record as a starter to franchises across the NFL looking for a savior.  But of course that record is shining because it comes in just 132 career passing attempts and sporting 9 touchdowns to 5 interceptions.  Already it is being debated which teams will snatch up Flynn after Manning signs.  One thing is for certain- whichever team signs Flynn will be getting far from a sure thing.

This is by no means a knock on Matt Flynn, unless it’s a knock to say that a lot of quarterbacks can look very good in two games of work.  In Green Bay he was operating with some of the best receivers in the game in a pass-friendly offense.  In his coming out party against the Detroit Lions in Week 17, Flynn torched a defense that ranked in the bottom third of the league and lacked any depth at the cornerback position.  I would talk about the rest of his 2011 production but there wasn’t any of significance.  Is one game against a suspect secondary enough to put the future of your franchise in his hands?

Flynn started just one season at LSU, his senior year when he completed 56.3% of his passes for 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, with 6.7 yards per attempt.  If he had finished the season with stats like that (with the exception of TDs and INTs since he only had 12 games) his yards/attempt would put him 22^nd out of 33 qualified leaders in the NFL, and his completion percentage would have been among the very worst.  Now, this is not to say that he hasn’t grown as a quarterback since then, especially with Aaron Rodgers and the exemplary staff in Green Bay as tutors.  But history has shown us that small sample sizes from unheralded backups can lead to some poor decisions by general managers.

How long will Kansas City fans wait until Matt Cassel shows the ability he did in his season in New England?  They are already getting impatient, and for good reason.  Cassel’s injury-shortened 2009 featured a 59.5 completion percentage and 6.37 yards per attempt, a far cry from the 63.4 and 7.16 he carried with him before the Chiefs spent a second round pick to pluck him from the Patriots (along with Mike Vrabel).  Cassel even carried with him a year’s worth of film to pore over.  Flynn has just one game and a lot of patting on the back from Aaron Rodgers and others.

The love of Matt Flynn likely boils down to the affection for what we don’t know.  It’s like that girl you glance for a second walking down the street causing your mind to wander, thinking about how amazing she could be.  But even if she turns out to be wonderful she isn’t perfect, and the more you learn about her the more you have to grapple with her flaws (and your own, but that’s another kind of blog).  Matt Flynn is that girl.  We have seen very little of who he is, just a glimpse in that tremendous performance against the Lions.  How much of a relationship do you want to commit to based on that peek?

One team will make a great commitment and will either find the missing piece in the franchise or have buyer’s remorse in a year.  The top two quarterbacks on the market are an aging, established MVP and a complete unknown.  Unfortunately, the history of paying a lot for relatively unknown quarterbacks tends to be about a 50-50 proposition.

I have to be honest; I am lukewarm on the addition of two new playoff spots for major league baseball.  It feels like terribly manufactured drama to me, where we are content with days off between games in the . . . → Read More: Expanded MLB Playoffs Solve One Problem, Create Another]]>

The expanded playoffs may make baseball more dramatic, but baseball wasn't designed for one-game series.

I have to be honest; I am lukewarm on the addition of two new playoff spots for major league baseball.  It feels like terribly manufactured drama to me, where we are content with days off between games in the playoffs yet this sudden death game is crammed right after the regular season, one contest which is completely anathema to the spirit of a 162-game season.  The playoffs already have systems that work against the best teams making the World Series, and while this system solves some of those issues it doesn’t solve them all.

For instance, I love that the sudden death game occurs right after the regular season.  Too often you have teams that are able to go through the playoffs with just 3 starters due to the excessive days off, failing to play 40% of their starting rotation.  Would we shorten football games because one team tends to tire more easily than another?  Then why would we allow some teams to possibly omit a serious weak point in their team (a poor back-end of the rotation) due to conditions that are completely different than the regular season?  Just look at last year’s playoffs.

In the Divisional Round, there were off days between games 1 and 2 and games 4 and 5 despite the fact that there was no travel on those days.  In the Championship series there were a whopping three days off in six game series’, so half the time teams could just rest up.  The World Series had another three days of rest.  Counter that with the regular season, when management has players agree to play up to twenty consecutive days if the schedule demands, and players typically look at about 3 days off a month (a glance at the Orioles 2011 schedule shows that to be accurate).  How are these playoffs an accurate continuation of the regular season?  The rules ought not be different, particularly in such an important aspect of pitchers’ rest between starts.  A team should have to play its whole team as it would in the regular season, and if that means more back-to-backs well that is why you sign a player in the first place.

So the elimination game now forces teams who may have been going full-bore at the end of the season to maybe have to pitch their #4 starter if need be since just a day later will be the playoffs. However, it opens up a brand new issue.  Baseball, unlike football or even basketball is about length of the season.  Players go in slumps, balls bounce strangely, the umpire has a “unique” strike zone, all things that increase the randomness of the sport more than other sports.  There is a reason that the top teams in baseball will finish with an impressive 100 wins, though that is only a 61.7 winning percentage.  In football the top teams have 13 or more wins, 81.2 winning percentage, and in the NBA the best teams win 60 games, or 73.1%.

This randomness compels the sport to use 5 and 7-game series’ (not necessary in the NBA but they do it for the money), yet baseball is hinging their playoffs to one-game eliminations that will be dramatic sure, but hardly more than a coin flip.  The playoffs should be about more than that.  I am not about to use the “make sure the best teams always make it to the finals” argument that causes people to grumble about the legitimacy of Butlers or VCUs, since they had to play 5 (in VCU’s case) games against many different teams, all top competition, to get to the Final Four.  This is one-and-done in a sport that is far more random and involves just 20% of the starting pitching at play.

However, I have seen a lot of deserving teams not make baseball’s strict playoff limit and I think expanding is a good idea.  My modest proposal is this: cut out the off days unless it’s a travel day for night-to-day games, make it a 3-game opening round playoff that begins right after the regular season ends (unless there is a tie-breaker day).  This at least involves some semblance of adherence to baseball’s schedule in the regular season and reduces the randomness just a tad.  If you are the better team in October you will still make it to the World Series.

But then again, I am thinking about the integrity of the sport first and foremost.  I guess that’s why I am not the commissioner, huh?  I should instead be thinking of ways to both drive away fans through bone-headed rules and make short-term bucks.  I don’t think I’ll ever learn.