Monday, December 10, 2007

Thoughts and Questions

- I love when there is a huge fight in the world of boxing. All of a sudden, you start reading about the "Fight of the Year" and of course, I'm a huge sports nut, but my first reaction was "Who is Hatten? Is he white?" I know nothing about boxing, just like most people know nothing. But it just takes one big, huge card to make all the "fight experts" to come out of the woodwork. All sorts of people have an opinion all of a sudden, like they've been watching boxing every week for the past 15 years on Showtime. Please. What happened was, HBO comes out with what is probably an intersting documentary on the big fight, they make it a weekly show based on their training regimens, and then all of a sudden Joe Boxing is explaining how Floyd Mayweather is the best pound for pound fighter in the world. And you know what? How would I know? How does he know? How does anyone know?

- Isiah Thomas will keep his job for the time being. Next, we'll hear he's getting a raise.

- Eric Gagne, $10 million for 1 year from the Brewers. That's more annually than Tom Brady, and to put that in perspective even further, Eric Gagne really, truly sucks. What would he have earned if he was good? A-Rod money? Honestly, what kind of ship are the Brewers running over there? They don't have any low salaried top prospects who could fill that role? Save your money, and spend it wisely.

- Eric Gagne could conceivably make more this season than the entire Florida Marlins.

- You gotta love the Pats. They say all week how they could care less about what Anthony Smith said. All the comments from the Patriots were following the company line: "We do our talking on the field, not through the media." Or my favorite: "Who is Anthony Smith?" What a numbskull. And you know the Patriots were dying to remind him at every single opportunity yesterday.

- By my count, professional Boston baseball, football and basketball teams have lost a total of three games since my daughter was born. I'm not counting game 3 of the ALCS, since she was born after Dice-K gave up the homer to Kenny Lofton. The Sox lost Game 4, and the Celtics have run off 16 of 18, with their two losses being in overtime and the other by one point (both on the road).

- Dwight Howard, NBA MVP. He's what Shaq was 10 years ago. Except, not fat.

- NBA #1 picks since 1996:
2007: Greg Oden - Jury is still out.
2006: Andrea Bargnani - Nice player, but the beneficiary of a pretty soft class. Certainly not a guy that stands out as a #1 pick, and is currently putting up 12 and 4.
2005: Andrew Bogut - meh. 12 and 8. Solid pro, just not a guy that stands out as a #1 pick.
2004: Dwight Howard - Amazing
2003: Lebron James - Amazing. Just needs his version of Scottie Pippen
2002: Yao Ming - Great
2001: Kwame Brown - Bust
2000: Kenyon Martin - I wouldn't say bust, but I wouldn't exactly say he's lived up to the hype.
1999: Elton Brand - Amazing. How does Chicago trade him?
1998: Michael Olowakandi - Awful
1997: Tim Duncan - Hall of Fame
1996: Allen Iverson - So good, he can skip practice.

Final tally: 6 hits. 2 misses. 1 meh. 1 incomplete. 2 decent foreign whiteys. Pretty good #1 picks overall.

In comparison, let's look at football.
2007: Jamarcus Russell - TBD
2006: Mario Williams - I lean towards "meh."
2005: Alex Smith - Terrible
2004: Eli Manning - Definitely Meh.
2003: Carson Palmer - Certainly worthy
2002: David Carr - Horrible
2001: Mike Vick - Jail
2000: Courtney Brown - Who?
1999: Tim Couch - GROSS
1998: Peyton Manning - Hall of Fame Bound
1997: Orlando Pace - Worthy

Now, let's look at baseball.
2007: David Price - TBD
2006: Luke Hochevar - TBD
2005: Justin Upton - Sky rocketed to the majors this season
2004: Matt Bush - Can't say with any certainty, but I dont think it's working out so well.
2003: Delmon Young - Tampa just traded him. 2nd in Rookie of the Year Voting, though. Plenty of potential and upside. Plus, he's the Dmitri's little bro.
2002: Bryan Bullington - Huh? Who?
2001: Joe Mauer - Off to a good start, though certainly injury prone. I believe he has a batting title, which is damn good for a catcher
2000: Adrian Gonzalez - A starter
1999: Josh Hamilton - After a career derailed by drugs, finally made it to the majors last season and had a nice season as a 4th outfielder. NOT WORTHY of #1, though.
1998: Pat Burrell - Starter. Decent player, not anything to get excited about.
1997: Matt Anderson - What, who?

What's this all mean? I guess, what we've found out is that the NBA is as close as anything to getting between a productive player and a star. Football seems to be a disaster, and baseball #1 picks are pretty much as reliable as not getting blown up in Iraq.

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