LSU Powers Past Virginia

The LSU Tigers made good use of the long ball to put Virginia away. They got a three-run homer by Sean Ochinko and a two-run shot by Ryan Schimpf which gave the Tigers the momentum to win 9-5. Being down by 4-3 as late as the fifth, Ochinko catapulted LSU into the lead by crushing a 2-1 offering from Virginia reliever Matt Packer into the left field bleachers.

This all is going according to my predictions LSU's power is going to help lead them to a National Championship.

Are the Blue Jays Out of the Race Already?

The Toronto Star has reported that Roy Halladay has been diagnosed with a mild groin strain and he's considered day-to-day. Even though the team has said he'll will be back in a week he is still considered day-to-day.

This brings an old saying to mind: one man does not make a team. But in Toronto's case it works in the opposite way: one man can break the team. Without Halladay Toronto has no pitching sensation, no player of particular mention, no person to draw fans to games, and with the loss of Halladay Toronto loses any hope they still had of making the playoffs. Now I know the team has said they won't need him to pitch again till next week and that he should be able to play by then but what if he can't. I believe if he gets put on the DL then Toronto should just call it a season then and there. But lets hope it doesn't come to that.

Mets Choke Again

It happened again but I guess we shouldn't be surprised.



The Mets must have some sort of curse. I mean from everything I've seen in the past couple of years they just can't seem to be able to close anything from a couple of seasons to now this game. I do think it's kind of ironic how announcers are calling this an improbable ending when for the last couple of years the Mets have seemed to snag defeat from the depths of victory. I guess though in all fairness it was one error in one game but I can't help but see the symbolism in this game to the Mets franchise of recent years.

NCAA World Series Predictions

Well the NCAA World Series is about to start and sadly my favorite college team, the Alabama Crimson Tide are not in it. The Final 8 teams are Arkansas, Cal St. Fullerton, Virginia, LSU, Arizona St., North Carolina, Southern Miss., and Texas. Now these are all great teams with talented players and experienced coaches. But for me two teams stand above the rest and they are the two teams I think will be playing against each other in the Finals.

They are LSU and Texas. Now I know most people are picking Texas because they are the juggernaut and right now look like the best choice but I think if you really look at the team they are solid from the ground up. They have very tuned-in hitters with the team average over .300 and led by Russ Moldenhauer with a .355 batting average and Kyle Russell with 19 home runs. Offense was definitely there strong suite 524 runs. There pitching on the other hand struggled slightly with a team ERA of 4.48 but are led by Chance Ruffin who has an ERA of 1.96.

Well pitching is definitely one of the LSU Tigers strengths with a team ERA of 3.99 and three different pitchers with individual ERA's under 3.00. But they are not to shabby on the offensive end either with a team batting average of .315. They also have the long ball with 19 homeruns from Ryan Shimpf, 15 from Blake Dean, and 12 from Leon Landry.

With all this said and the mainstream media going with Texas I'm going to have to differ and say that LSU wins it with pitching in 3 games.

NL West Predictions

I move from AL East predictions all the way to the NL West. Now this one is pretty easy for me so I'll add a catch I'm going to predict the exact number of wins and the number of games back by the second place team.

Well I have to first start off with the Dodgers who right now have the best record in baseball with an outstanding 40-21 record. With or without Manny Ramirez they seem to be dominating not only their division but all of baseball. With no small credit going to Juan Pierre, Manny's replacement. While Mannywood may not be as popular without it's star, his absence seems to have not hurt the Dodgers as much as most thought it would. Although I do think when he returns it will only do the Dodgers good.

As for the rest of the division, the Giants, Padres, Rockies, and Diamondbacks have not put up much of a fight in the wake of the Dodger dominance. Although I have to hand it to the San Francisco Giant's pitchers who have a collective ERA of 3.75 which is the second best in the National League. Although sadly pitching just isn't enough for them. While being 3 games over .500 they are still 8 games back of the leading Dodgers.

Now as for my actual predictions I have the Dodgers winning of course but with an outstanding 105 wins. I then have the Giants an amazing 20 games back but still competing for the Wild Card but not getting it.

A-Rod more Steroid Accusations

This was the scene where several thousand Red Sox fans simultaneously accuse Alex Rodriguez of steroid use. Not only do stunts like these add tension to the already tense rivalry between to the two teams it also shows that public opinion (or at least the opinion of Boston fans) has started to really turn against A-Rod after his steroid confession.

Now, I personally believe A-Rod did use steroids like he said. Only while he was at Texas. Now I don't really like A-Rod but I do think he has been clean since he's been with the Yankees.

NCAA College World Series

2009 MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES SCHEDULE
Saturday, June 13
Game 1 - 1 p.m. (ESPN HD) (V) Arkansas (39-22) vs. (H) No. 2 Cal St. Fullerton (47-14)
Game 2 - 6 p.m. (ESPN HD) (V) Virginia (48-13-1) vs. (H) No. 3 LSU (51-16)

Sunday, June 14
Game 3 - 1 p.m. (ESPN HD) (V) No. 5 Arizona St. (49-12) vs. (H) No. 4 North Carolina (47-16)
Game 4 - 6 p.m. (ESPN2 HD) (V) Southern Miss. (40-24) vs. (H) No. 1 Texas (46-14-1)

Monday, June 15
Game 5 - 1 p.m. (ESPN2 HD) Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
Game 6 - 6 p.m. (ESPN2 HD) Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2

Tuesday, June 16
Game 7 - 1 p.m. (ESPN2 HD) Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4
Game 8 - 6 p.m. (ESPN2 HD) Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4

Wednesday, June 17
Game 9 - 6 p.m. (ESPN2 HD) Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 6

Thursday, June 18
Game 10 - 6 p.m. (ESPN2 HD) Winner Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8

Friday, June 19
Game 11 - 1 p.m. (ESPN2 HD) Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 6
Game 12 - 6 p.m. (ESPN2 HD) Winner Game 10 vs. Winner Game 8

Saturday, June 20
Game 13 - 1 p.m. (ESPN HD) or 6 p.m. (ESPN) Game 13 will be necessary if the winner of Game 9 also wins Game 11. If it is the only game scheduled for that day, the game will start at 6 p.m.

Game 14 - 6 p.m. (ESPN HD) Game 14 will be necessary if the winner of Game 10 also wins Game 12. If it is the only game scheduled for that day, the game will start at 6 p.m.

Sunday, June 21
No games scheduled

MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES FINALS
Monday, June 22
Game 1 - 6 p.m. (ESPN HD) Bracket One Winner vs. Bracket Two Winner

Tuesday, June 23
Game 2 - 6 p.m. (ESPN HD) Bracket One Winner vs. Bracket Two Winner

Wednesday, June 24
Game 3 - 6 p.m. (ESPN HD) (if necessary) Bracket One Winner vs. Bracket Two Winner



This is the schedule according to the NCAA.

Predictions of the AL East

Now I have already said that the Braves are my favorite team but the local team that I have to root for is the Tampa Bay Rays. Now I love the Braves but alas I can't go watch them play so I settle for watching the Rays. Now I have to say I'm not just some ban wagon fan after their ALCS run last year. I have been going to Rays since the franchise started. I believe last years success was no fluke but the culmination of hard work and great coaching.

Now to my predictions.

Well right now Boston is leading the division followed by the Yankees, Toronto, Tampa, and Baltimore. I believe that the three major powers of this division are the Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays and that Toronto is playing well right now but they do not have roster to stay around. The Rays who are 6 games off the lead are still a pretty young team and I see them finding their groove and catching up to Boston. Now I think Boston is a great team and they have a great roster and coach in Terri Francona but I don't think they can keep it up the way David Ortiz has been playing this year. I just think that his mental struggles will be contagious and the hole team will have difficulties this year. Now as for the Yankees I think that they started slow and are picking up speed with C.C. Sabathia hitting his stride and with A-Rod in the lineup I have them winning this division. But like I said early I see Tampa Bay getting Better and even winning the AL wild card.

Chipper Jones

Chipper Jones is at it again. After flirting with a .400 batting average last year Chipper is finding his stroke during the braves current homestead. He is hitting .379 since the brave have started the homestead and his hitting .471 since leaving the game early on Sunday. This performance like last years is proof of two things. It shows that even at the age of 37 Chipper can still be one of the most dominant hitters in the league. It also shows that switch hitters have a natural advantage over other hitters this is further proved by Mark Teixeira switch hitting dominance in the powerful Yankee lineup.

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Draft

Well the Headline of the draft is Stasburg, the righty out of San Diego State, who was drafted number 1 overall. He was drafted by the Washington Nationals who seem to be following the trend of Drafting a pitcher with the number 1 overall pick for the third time in four years. The Nationals expect him to be an immediate impact on there roster; they even plan on hopefully promoting him to the big leagues this year. Although because of all this hype he is most likely to ask for over $50 million which would be the largest contract for any Major League Draftee in the 45 year history of the draft. If the Nats are willing to sign him it should be just a matter of time to see if the deal was worth it.

More Manny

This just in (even though it was probably to be expected) the L.A. Dodgers have been contacted by Major League Baseball regarding Manny Ramirez and his comments to reporters the other days. According to the rules no suspended player is allowed to have contact with reporters while in the clubhouse or even be in the clubhouse at the same time as reporters. I'm not sure what ramifications this will have but I am sure that some will most likely say this isn't just another case of Manny being Manny.

Manny Ramirez

Now everyone probably knows by now that Manny Ramirez was suspended 50 games for using a banned substance. And most everyone also knows that this banned substance was actually a female fertility drug which led to some laughs but because this drug was used by steroid users to restimulate their own testosterone production after relying on on steroids to produce artificial hormones. Manny did not tell anyone in the organization about his use of the fertility drug which helped lead to his suspension.

But I'll tell you that the reason he didn't tell anyone was most likely cause he was embarrassed that he needed to take the female fertility drug in the first place. And that he had a legitimate need to use it not to get pregnant but to produce testosterone like a normal person but not from the use of steroids. I'm saying that maybe he really did need this drug but did not use steroids, but I could just be fooling myself but I know if I got suspended for a female fertility drug I would be so embarrassed that I just wouldn't want to talk about it and take the suspension without saying anything.

But that's just me.

Congratulations Bobby Cox

I know its a little late but I have to say congratulations to Bobby Cox the manager of the Braves on win number 2000. Really though at the time of me writing this post he already has his 2001st win. I believe that Bobby Cox has to be one of the best managers of all time and should be an automatic for the hall of fame.

Intro

This is my first post and I just want to set up what this blog will be about. As you can tell by the title I'm going to be talking a lot about Baseball, the sport I love. Just a little about myself would be my favorite MLB team is the Atlanta Braves. Even though I don't live in Atlanta it was the city I was born in and I can't help but love the team. Up until a few years go they had the longest streak of making it to the post season of any team. And not until recently they were a team to be feared in the NL East but even with their years of dominance lasting over a decade they only earned one world series championship. With in the past few years the Marlins an the Phillies have both won championships, the Phillies winning just last year.

The Braves being my favorite baseball team my favorite player is obviously the best player on the braves: Chipper Jones. Although I do have to say I use to be a big fan of Andru Jones (I even modeled my baseball swing after his) but his trade and subsequent decline led to me not being as big of a fan anymore. While the two Jones boys use to be my favorite position players, my favorite pitchers would have to be the greatest pitching trio of all time: Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine. These three were the main driving force behind the braves historic run. All three more than Hall of Fame worthy but I believe Greg Maddux in particular should be considered the greatest right hand pitcher of this era.