American League Eastern Division Predictions

AL EAST

1) New York Yankees
2) Toronto Blue Jays
3) Boston Red Sox
4) Baltimore Orioles
5) Tampa Bay Devil Rays

LEFT FIELDERS
1) Manny Ramirez, BOS
2) Carl Crawford, TB
3) Hideki Matsui, NY
4) Reed Johnson, TOR
5) Jay Payton, BAL

CENTER FIELDERS
1) Vernon Wells, TOR
2) Johnny Damon, NY
3) Rocco Baldelli, TB
4) Corey Patterson, BAL
5) Coco Crisp, BOS

RIGHT FIELDERS
1) Bobby Abreu, NY
2) Alex Rios, TOR
3) JD Drew, BOS
4) Delmon Young, TB
5) Nick Markakis, BAL

Overall Outfield Rankings
1) New York
2) Toronto
3) Boston
4) Tampa Bay
5) Baltimore

First Base
1) Ty Wiggington, TB
2) Lyle Overbay, TOR
3) Kevin Millar, BAL
4) Kevin Youkliss, BOS
5) Doug Mienkewitz, NY

SECOND BASE
1) Robinson Cano, NY
2) Jorge Cantu, TB
3) Brian Roberts, BAL
4) Aaron Hill, TOR
5) Dustin Pedroia, BOS

SHORTSTOP
1) Derek Jeter, NY
2) Miguel Tejada, BAL
3) Julio Lugo, BOS
4) Royce Clayton, TOR
5) Ben Zobrist, TB

THIRD BASE
1) Alex Rodriguez, NY
2) Troy Glaus, TOR
3) Mike Lowell, BOS
4) Melvin Mora, BAL
5) Akinori Iwanura, TB

CATCHER
1) Jorge Posada, NY
2) Ramon Hernandez, BAL
3) Jason Varitek, BOS
4) Gregg Zaun, TOR
5) Dioner Navarro, TB

Overall Infield Rankings
1) New York
2) Baltimore
3) Toronto
t4) Boston
t4) Tampa Bay

DESIGNATED HITTER
1) David Ortiz, BOS
2) Jason Giambi, NY
3) Frank Thomas, TOR
4) Jay Gibbons, BAL
5) Johnny Gomes, TB

SP 1
1) Roy Halladay, TOR
2) Scott Kazmir, TB
3) Chien Ming Wang, NY
4) Curt Schilling, BOS
5) Erik Bedard, BAL

SP 2
1) Mike Mussina, NY
2) AJ Burnett, TOR
3) Josh Beckett, BOS
4) Kris Benson, BAL
5) Jae Seo, TB

SP 3
1) Andy Pettite, NY
2) Daisuke Matsuzaka, BOS
3) Daniel Cabrera, BAL
4) James Shields, TB
5) Gustavo Chacin, TOR

SP 4
1) Jaret Wright, BAL
2) Jonathan Pappelbon, BOS
3) Tomo Ohka, TOR
4) Carl Pavano, NY
5) Casey Fossum, TB

SP 5
1) Tim Wakefield, BOS
2) John Thompson, TOR
3) Adam Loewen, BAL
4) JP Howell, TB
5) Kei Igewa, NY

Overall Starting Rotation Rankings
1) Boston
2) Toronto
3) New York
4) Baltimore
5) Tampa Bay

CLOSERS
1) BJ Ryan, TOR
2) Mariano Rivera, NY
3) Chris Ray, BAL
4) Seth McClung, TB
5) Craig Hansen, BOS

QB Prospect #4: Troy Smith

4) Troy Smith
Ohio State
Height 6-1
Weight 215
40-time 4.60
Senior

Strengths: Good leader. Accurate passer, who doesn’t throw a lot of interceptions. Pure athlete, with great speed. Can scramble, and throw on run. Hurts teams with his feet. Powerful. Improved as a passer during senior season.

Weaknesses: Short for the position, which hinders his ability to spot throwing lanes. Has had some discipline problems early in his career. Only started for 2 seasons. Sloppy mechanics. Possible product of the system he played in.

Analysis: Was the heisman winner in 2006, so it may be surprising that he is ranked behind 3 QBs and will be a late 2nd round pick at best. He doesn’t have as much experience as the players ahead of him, and is a little bit too short which could be a problem. After similar styled QB Vince Young’s success this past season though, a team might be more likely to take a chance on Troy Smith.

Career Statistics
Year- GP – Comp - Att – Yds - Comp % – TD – INT
2002- Redshirted
2003- 11 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0.0 % – 0 – 0
2004- 8 – 68 – 122 – 896 – 55.7 % – 8 – 3
2005- 11 – 149 – 237 – 2,282 – 62.9 % – 16 – 4
2006- 13 – 203 - 311 – 2,542 – 65.3 % – 30 – 6

85 out of 100 overall

QB Prospect #3: Drew Stanton

3) Drew Stanton
Michigan State
Height 6-3
Weight 230
40-time 4.70
Senior

Strengths: Good size, and frame. Excellent arm strength. Great all around athlete. Can throw well on the run. Displays good accurany. Great timing. Smart, and good leader. Competitive and tough. Still has great upside.

Weaknesses: Lacks consistency, and isn’t clutch at all. Doesn’t handle pressure well. Has durability concerns due to his many injuries. Hasn’t worked in a pro-style offense. Stares down his target. Throws too many interceptions.

Analysis: When this guy is one, he is one of the best quarterbacks in the nation. He is much too inconsistent though, and doesn’t handle tight ballgames well. He has a lot of potential, but his only full season of play was his junior season in 2004.

Career Statistics
Year- GP – Comp -  Att – Yds – Comp % – TD – INT
2002- Redshirted
2003- 13 – 2 – 3 – 39 – 66.7 % – 0 – 0
2004- 10 – 141 – 220 – 1,601 – 64.1 % – 8 – 6
2005- 11 – 236 - 354 – 3,077 – 66.7 % – 22 – 12
2006- 11 – 164 – 269 – 1,807 – 61.0 % – 12 – 10

87 out of 100 overall

QB Prospect #2: Brady Quinn

2) Brady Quinn
Notre Dame
Height 6-4
Weight 227
40-time 4.80
Senior

Strengths: Typical size. Hard worker, and great leader. Smart, doesn’t make too many mistakes. Very strong. Excellent arm strength. Great mechanics. Experienced against top competition. Clutch player. Used to the spotlight.

Weaknesses: Struggles with accuracy. Doesn’t respond well when defense brings pressure. His numbers slightly went down during his senior year.

Analysis: He is the safer quarterback choice, but doesn’t quite have the upside of roster. He had an outstanding junior year but didn’t perform quite as well as expected during his senior year. Threw for 69 touchdowns and just 14 interceptions during the past 2 seasons but struggles a bit under pressure. Still an elite prospect though, and if he isn’t picked in the top 10 than it is a crime.

CAREER STATISTICS (Notre Dame)
Year- GP - Comp - Att - Yds - Comp % - TD - INT
2003- 12 – 157 – 332 – 1,831 – 47.3 % – 9 – 15
2004- 12 – 191 – 353 – 2,596 – 54.1 % – 17 – 10
2005- 11 – 263 – 405 – 3,633 – 64.9% – 32 – 7
2006- 13 – 289 – 467 – 3,426 – 61.9 % – 37 – 7

 93 out 100 overall

QB Prospect #1: Jamarcus Russell

1) Jamarcus Russell
LSU
Height 6-4
Weight 227
40-time 4.85
Junior

Strengths: Has great size. Strongest arm in college football. Great natural athlete. Powerful. Enough mobility to avoid pressure. Throws well on run. Good leader. Has improved every season.

Weaknesses: Doesn’t have great throwing mechanics. Not great in accuracy. Has good speed, but not great. Numbers may be inflated due to the system he played in.  

Analysis: He has tremendous upside, but he is also a risk at being a tremendous bust too. He isn’t the safest possible choice, but he has the strongest arm in the entire draft and has improved tremendously during his college career. He did struggle against the best defenses that he played, which is a concern. Still due to his potential, it is impossible not to rank him number 1 in this years quarterback class.  

CAREER STATS (LSU)

Year- GP - Comp - Att - Yds - Comp % - TD - INT

2003- Redshirted

2004- 11 – 73 – 144 – 1,053 – 50.7 % – 9 – 4
2005- 12- 188 – 311 – 2,443 – 60.5% – 15 – 9
2006- 13- 232 – 342 – 3,129 – 67.8% – 28 – 8

Overall Rating: 95 out of 100

Music that teachers like

The world of music for teachers is a quite diverse and interesting place. Teachers have a diverse ammount of ages, and grew up in various different ages of history and in some cases different countries.

Some teachers have family interest such as Spanish teacher Ms. Cano who’s son is the drummer of the band Soulfound. She also likes other stuff such as Queen, Chicago, and The Eagles.

Others like Mr. Z do not listen to that much music “I have an MP3 player at home, but have yet to use it. However I listen to the radio, stations like Q105 and 93.3 FLZ because my daughter is a hip hop dancer. I also like the 4-10ers but that is it” explained the computer teacher.

Even our own assistant principal Mr. McKnight has his own cornocopia of music that he enjoys listening to. “I like the band that Fergie is in (Black Eyed Peas), the Eagles are a good band. Fleetwood Mac is good, and also Etta James” explained Mr. McKnight.

Volleyball coach Mr. Sneed on the otherhand has one genre he prefers over all others, country. “Racal Flatts is one of my favorites. I also like Faith Hill, because she is hot. Kenny Chesney is cool, and I like Trace Adkins because of the Honky Tonk Badakadonk”

Former football coach, and current weight training teacher Mr. Davis has a more old fashioned taste in music citing Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Queen, and The Bee Gees as his top 4. Art teacher Mr. Wood was also old fashioned with Van Morrison, Ben Harper, and Yes as his 3 favorite musical groups.

For those of you who like a teacher with a more modern taste, Girls Basketball coach Mr. Margarella is your guy. “Jack Johnson, Bob Marley, and the Beatles are my favorites. I also like Incubus a little bit. Those are my favorite rock groups, as far as rap goes I like Outkast, and Wu Tang. My music taste is fairly diverse”

Band director Mr. Ford was fairly limited in his discription of favorite groups, but cited classical and jazz as his 2 favorite genres. He mentioned John Mayer as a favorite of his as well. ECE teacher Mrs. Hanson only offered her favorite genres which were country, oldies, jazz, and classical.

New Kids on the Block

What do the new head coaches for the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, and Pittsburgh Steelers have in common? Their both below the age of 35. Both coaches were introduced as the new head coaches of their respective teams yesterday.

 Mike Tomlin, the 34 year old defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings is going to suceed Bill Cowher who was also a 34 year old coordinator when he became head coach of the Steelers in 1992. Tomlin will be the 16th head coach in the history of the Steelers franchise.

 USC’s offensive coordinator, Lane Kiffin accepted the head coaching position of the Oakland Raiders. Kiffin is 31, which is 3 years younger than Mike Tomlin who was the youngest head coach of the NFL for just a few hours. Kiffin takes over a Raiders team that went 2-14, one of the perks of taking this job however is that he will get the #1 overall pick in this spring’s NFL draft.

 After the sucess of Sean Payton with the Saints this year, NFL teams have turned to younger less seasoned guys to take over their jobs this year. There are not too many veteran candidates around this season, and Sean Payton showed than an inexperienced coach can have sucess right away. Both coaches have been sucessful at their previous jobs, and they also won out due to other coaches choosing different jobs.

 The Steelers originally intended to hire their own offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt. He chose to go coach the Arizona Cardinals, and replace Denny Green instead. The Raiders expressed interested in a different USC coach, assistant and QB coach Steve Sakarsian first but settled on Kiffin after Sakarsian’s pullout.

Both coaches have a good chance at suceeding though. Kiffin’s expectations wont be all too high with the Raiders, getting around .500 would suffice for next year and he’ll get some pretty good draft picks so he’ll have a chance to build some talent. Tomlin on the otherhand inherits a team that was thriving under Bill Cowher and had won the Super Bowl 2 seasons ago. This year the team got off to a slow start but was hot at the end of the year, and will likely be picked to win the AFC North next year.

 It will be interesting to see how both of these young coaches fare in their first tours of NFL head coaching.

Bill Parcells: Retirement Part 4

The 65 year old coach of the Dallas Cowboys, in his fourth tour of NFL head coaching has made an announcement that has already been made 3 times before.

“I am retiring from coaching football,” Parcells said in a written statement. “I want to thank (Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones for their tremendous support over the last four years. Also, the players, my coaching staff and others in the support group who have done so much to help. Dallas is a great city and the Cowboys are an integral part of it. I am hopeful that they are able to go forward from here. “

 The legendary coach also retired from jobs coaching the New York Giants, New England Patriots, and New York Jets.

He led the Giants to 2 super bowl victories, in 1986 and 1990 while coaching the team for 7 years from 1983-90. He retired after their super bowl win but returned to coaching just 3 years later with New England.

 He led New England to the 1996 AFC Championship, and a Super Bowl appearance but coached them for only 4 seasons before retiring for the second time. That retirement didn’t even last a season though, he returned in 1997 with the division rival New York Jets.

He went to the 1998 AFC Championship game with the Jets, but his team failed to meet Super Bowl expectations in 1999. Afterwards he retired from that job but would remain with the team for one last year with the Jets as General Manager.

The Tampa Bay Bucs expressed interest in the 2 time super bowl champion after the 2001 season when they let go of Tony Dungy. He appeared ready to take that job, but eventually backed out. He got lured back into the game by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones though, and started coaching the Cowboys in 2003.

His teams never lived up to expectations though in the big D. He made the playoffs in 2003, but lost in the first round to Carolina. After a 6-10 2004, the Cowboys went 9-7 in 2005 missing the playoffs by just one game. Another first round loss in 2006 sent him back to the retirement block.

 I wonder if he is done for good, or if he will be back once again. I don’t think he will be coaching again next year, but there is a chance that this could be a short hiatus. If he’s gone for 3 years again, i’d say the chances are pretty good that he wont come back.

 Also, one interesting thing i’d like to add is that each of his jobs have been more unsucessful than the preceding jobs. He won 2 super bowls with the Giants, only went to 1 as a Patriot, only made the AFC Championship game with the Jets, and failed to advance past the first round with Dallas.

Cubs sign pitcher Jeff Samardzija

   

When the Cubs picked Notre Dame wide reciever Jeff Samardzija in the 5th round of last year’s MLB draft I had mixed emotions. Sure, he had a 21-6 record in 50 college appearances with Notre Dame as a pitcher. However, it was quite obvious he was going to go back to Notre Dame in the fall to play his senior season of football.

Samardzija decided to exchange the chance to be a first round pick in the NFL draft, to play the sport that he loves. He agreed to a 5 year contract worth 10 million. His deal includes a 2.5 million dollar signing bonus and the Cubs hold options for sixth and seventh seasons. If the Cubs exercise these options, the deal could be worth 16.5 million over 7 years.

Samardzija did pitch a little bit for the Cubs after being drafted, before returning to the Irish. He went a combined 1-2, with a 2.70 era in 7 starts for class A Boise, and Peoria in the Cubs farm system.

Personally I am happy that the Cubs were able to sign this guy, but at the same time he is making quite a bit of money. I don’t blame him for picking baseball considering that in baseball the money is guaranteed for the most part. In football, only the signing bonus is.

He will add a quality arm to the Cubs farm system, and will likely start the season at Class A Daytona. He might move up the farm systems fairly quickly though, considering he is older than most prospects. He will be 22 in 2 days, many prospects in baseball are only 19 when they sign. Still, he has more experience than most pitchers coming into the majors and has already made it clear that he is leaving football behind him.