Vikings playoff loss, Lakers offseason, 3 things

Vikings Wild Card Game

Well, this is typical for us Vikings fans. I already saw on twitter comparing Blair Walsh's kick to Gary Anderson's missed FG against the Falcons in 1998 which would have just about sealed that game. The game plan could not have been executed any better, they took advantage of the conditions and played conservative. There were people saying the Vikings would have been better off losing to the Packers in week 17 so they could play them again in the wild card round, I thought that notion was ludicrous. Even though the Seahawks were one of the hottest teams in the NFL, you always want to play at home especially in January in Minnesota.

And like most playoff games there were a handful of key plays that decided the game. If Wilson just dives on the football on that mishandled snap or Munnerlyn keeps him in the pocket after he recovered the ball, he doesn't complete a pass to Lockett on the broken play. The Seahawks actually were better off with the miscommunication on the snap because the Vikings secondary were distracted and let Lockett end up wide open. Then we have the AP fumble, which the Seahawks scored a FG on the ensuing drive to take the lead. I think due to AP's career long issues with fumbles will prevent him from ever winning the "GOAT" argument. I just looked at some career stats to put this in perspective:

Name	Seasons	Fumbles	Fumbles per year
Adrian Peterson	9	38	4.22
Barry Sanders	10	27	2.7
LaDainian Tomlinson	11	31	2.82
Emmitt Smith	15	54	3.6

Then we also had the dropped interception by Sandejo which could have changed that last drive, but of course it comes down to the missed FG. Yes, Mike Zimmer was right; it was a chip shot and Blair has to make it. And I don't think much blame can go towards the holder Jeff Locke. Blair had already made a fourty-some yard FG with the laces in, and Locke said himself he didn't feel comfortable spinning the ball. I am sure he was not able to feel his fingertips, and am not sure what grip he had with the extra thick gloves he was wearing due to the weather. I give credit to Blair not only for knocking 3 FG's through the middle, but for taking the blame for the loss. This instantly reminded me of Scott Norwood, the Buffalo Bills kicker that missed the FG in the super bowl. If you haven't seen the 30 for 30 on those Bills that lost 4 straight super bowls, I would advise doing so. But in that film, Scott Norwood takes the blame and his teammates and city support him 100%. Now onto next year, I think the Vikings have the talent to be back as long as Teddy improves, and hopefully Blair Walsh kicks a game winning FG in the playoffs next year and totally redeems himself!

Lakers 2016 offseason

Yes it is never too early to start thinking about next year when you are 8-31. But I have a plan for the Lakers (hopefully this somehow gets to them).

    1. Fire Byron Scott and hire Kevin Ollie

Now why hire an inexperienced NBA coach?

    2. Give Kevin Durant whatever he wants

Kevin Durant has publicly endorsed Kevin Ollie and said his veteran leadership is what started OKC down a path to contending for championships. If KD wants a one year deal so he can enter free agency again, a la Lebron, then give that to him. But you will need a contending team to be able to lure him.

    3. Sign Al Horford (and one other legitimate NBA starter)

This as well as re-signing Roy Hibbert or acquiring Festus Ezeli changes the front court of the Lakers. This will give them flexibility to either play small with Horford at the 5 or big with him at the 4. You would still have Nance Jr. and Randle to play with him in the small ball lineup. Then if there is money left over you try to lure DeMar DeRozan or Arron Afflalo on a hometown discount as both are originally from the LA area.

    4. Trade Brandon Bass, and Nick Young for future assets

No matter how much you get for the return, these guys are not going to help us this year. Bass is just taking minutes away from Nance Jr. and Randle. And no team needs Lou Williams as well as Nick Young. If you can just get 2nd round picks for these guys you take that deal.

    5. Hope you keep your draft pick

The Lakers 2016 draft pick is Top-3 protected, if it is outside the top 3 it goes to the 76ers. This is still fallout from that now awful Steve Nash trade. Getting Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingram would be, in the words of Donald Trump, huge.

3 Things Things I know.....

1. Adam Gase will be a good hire for Ryan Tannehill. This guy won a playoff game with Tim Tebow as his QB when he was the OC at Denver. He orchestrated Jay Cutler to a career year in Chicago. He also learned a lot from Peyton Manning with the years they shared in Denver.

2. Kobe Bryant should start the All-Star game. This is an exhibition game for the fans. Everyone wants to see Kobe d-up Lebron and dare him to shoot again like he did in the 2012 All-Star game.

3. Tommy Armstrong has to improve for Nebraska to be any good next year. That one is pretty self explanatory.

3 Things I don't know....

1. How Jonathon Papelbon is still a Washington National? He choked the NL MVP, teammate Bryce Harper, in the dugout last year. Then on top of that he filed a grievance against the team about the ensuing four game suspension they gave him.

2. How Ken Griffey Jr. wasn't unanimously elected into the baseball HOF? There is no sane person that would say Griffey was not a HOFer, the only explanation I could come up with is that some old geezer thinks the Hall is this mythical place. And that if Ruth didn't get in unanimously then no one can. It is stupid and part of the reason some people hate the MLB.

3. Why the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired Lovie Smith? They improved over the two years he was there. They improved their win total by four over the previous year. This is the same coach that brought Rex Grossman to the super bowl. He could have coached up that defense, that along with the play of Winston could have seen them as a playoff team within the next couple of years. I don't Carolina is as good as their 15-1 record states and everyone else in the NFC South is in flux.

Justin Morneau, Salary Caps, World Cup

Justin Morneau: A feel-good story

Yes, I will start off by stating that I am biased. I am a Twinkies fan and dreamed of Mauer and Morneau the Minnesota version of the M&M boys mauling opposing pitchers and winning more MVP's and maybe even a world series. GASP! Obviously we all know that didn't happen, Justin got a freak concussion sliding into second base and was never the same. Joe had 'leg weakness' and his one year of hitting home runs was truly a fluke. He is still a great player but this segment isn't about Joe its about the only Canadian in sports I like, just kidding (can't forget my boy Robert Sacre). Morneau some how took his career from already falling off the cliff and brought it back to being on the fan vote for the All-Star game. If you read this article go to here to vote for him. And also if he wins I hope his teammate Troy Tulowitzki selects him to be apart of the home run derby. That would be something for a Twins fan, seeing Justin hitting homers somewhere we thought we would be seeing a lot of them and never did. He never lived up to his MVP expectations at Target field. However, even through all the surgeries and missed time you never heard Justin complain in the media. I am guessing the Rockies couldn't have found a better veteran presence to replace Todd Helton.

Side note: apparently if you're an ex-Twin and need to revive your career go to the Rockies!

Salary Caps: Confusing

There is a lot of articles on cap-ology and what not going on in this NBA offseason. First some facts, the NBA has a soft-cap with severe tax penalties for going over the tax apron ($4 million higher than the projected cap). Every team has the same cap limit, the penalties are how much tax you have to pay per dollar and they get worse the farther you exceed the cap. There are also repeater penalties for franchises that continually go over. Also there is a minimum percentage of the cap that you have to spend. Some of these things were just added in the last CBA in 2011. But what is confusing for me, is that owners and fans are complaining when players don't take pay cuts to be team players. The salary cap is the amount of money a team can spend on players, so what you have to know is when a player gets paid more that is just less money other players can get. The owner gets everything else. The owners signed this CBA because now they can hide behind tax aprons and player acquisition restrictions when they are over the cap, when really they just like pocketing profits. They never have to make any financial sacrifices for the betterment of the team. This isn't like baseball where if the owner wants to get that final piece he thinks he needs for a championship he can just pull out the check book. The players have a limited amount of time they can make money, the owners can make profits until...well ask Donald Sterling. And even he is selling, his fighting the sale is another matter altogether, for an absurd profit. He bought the Clippers for $12.5 million dollars and 30 years later is selling it for $2 BILLION. That is not a bad return on your investment for a racist old jerk. Not someone I would say is a team player. So stop ragging on Lebron, Carmelo, Bosh, or Pau for wanting money. And how is the salary cap doing for parity in the NBA? The Lakers, Celtics, Bulls (Jordan), and Spurs (Duncan) have combined to win nearly two-thirds of all the NBA championships.

World Cup

All I wanted to say is that even in this country where soccer is a little farther down the totem pole, the USMNT got the attention they deserved. They snuck one out against Ghana outplayed Portugal who was the more talented team on paper, and gutted out what they needed against Germany to advance. They were outplayed totally by Belgium but Tim Howard captivated the US and the world. It is easy to be patriotic every four years, and it is something that is fun to be get involved in. So any article/personality that spits any negativity towards the World Cup is just dead wrong. I had a blast watching the Americans play hard this tournament, and am looking forward to the next one.

The Hall, Red Wolves, and Vikings

I didn't write a post over the holidays so there are a lot of potential things to cover, but I settled on the MLB Hall of Fame, Arkansas State Red Wolves (yes that is not a typo), and the Vikings.

MLB Hall of Fame:

First and foremost the rule of only being able to vote for ten players needs to removed; even if it is only temporary. There were over ten hall of fame worthy candidates and the only reason there is a back log is because of this steroid controversy. Speaking of that, I am starting to not understand the mission of the hall of fame. Is it to honor the best players that have ever played the game of baseball? The best players that were also good people? The best players that didn't break any MLB rules? Because not voting for someone because there is suspicion of steroid use goes against all three of these proposed missions. The beginning of the "steroid era" there was no testing and it wasn't technically against the rules. Do I think taking banned substances is wrong? Of course, and players that want to stay clean should be able to do that and earn a living. But how you could not vote for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens? Both of them are terrible people, but were arguably two of the greatest players of all time. I think the Hall of Fame needs to stop trying to be the Temple of Fame and honor great players.

Arkansas State:

The reason I bring up this Sun Belt football program is because this coming season they will have their 5th coach in the last 5 years. This is crazy to me, their AD is the John Calipari of college football. After firing a coach they had for 9 years after going 4-8 they hired Hugh Freeze (recruiting like a champ at Ole Miss), Gus Malzahn (offensive wizard that brought Auburn to the national championship), Bryan Harsin (taking over for Chris Petersen at Boise State). And get this, they have been 20-3 in conference play over the last 3 years. They have built a program they can sell to coaches and recruits where it is a place to be successful. It is obvious that coaches come and go, but building an environment of success can be a stabilizing force.

Minnesota Vikings:

The Vikings are going to draft a quarterback good or bad with their first pick. They reached for Christian Ponder and there could be a possibility that Manziel, Bortles, and Bridgewater are gone by the time the Vikings draft at 8 and I beg them to look at their defense. It was atrocious this past year. It is easy to place blame on our quarterbacks and deserved but the defense was just as bad. The offense will be better next year with a rookie or Cassel with a healthy AP and an emerging Cordarrelle Patterson. They just need consistency and not a coaching firing hanging over the entire teams head. But I would like to propose an idea, let's say that the top 3 QB's are gone by the time we draft; why don't we sign Mike Vick? He would be an upgrade over Cassel and we could draft an Aaron Murray or Bret Smith in the later rounds. I know Norv Turner hasn't been known for mobile quarterbacks but honestly what he as done lately hasn't been very good. And at Vick's age he doesn't need any designed runs, he can just use his speed when the play breaks down. One could only dream of a video game backfield of Vick and Peterson with Patterson and Jennings on the outside.

Tanking and Collisions in the MLB

I read a Rick Reilly article today that posed the question why do players with association to PEDs get disregarded by the hall of fame, but managers who used those players to succeed are given a pass? This comes up with the soon to be inductions of Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox, and Joe Torre. Great question to ponder. Some other things to think about:

Tanking:

With all this talk about NBA teams tanking, ESPN is even ranking teams by their level of tanking, I wanted to give my thoughts on it. First off in the NBA you have to know how the draft works, they have a weighted lottery system where the teams that don't make the playoffs have a chance to win a top three pick. The worse the record the higher percentage you have of being selected through the lottery. If you end the season with the worst record you have a 25% chance of winning the first overall pick, which for those non-math people out there, means there is a 75% chance you won't win the first pick. The last team to win the first overall pick after having the worst season was nearly a decade ago in the 2004 draft where the Magic ended up picking Dwight Howard. So in normal years where there are only one, two, or even no franchise players in the draft tanking doesn't make a lot of sense. I think that is why the lottery system was implemented.

This year the media and scouts are saying this draft class has several franchise altering players, so if you do end up with the worst record and worst case scenario you get the 4th pick; you will still get a star. As an organization I guess that makes sense, but as a fan I hate it. You never want to associate yourself with quitting, but teams are being obvious with their attempts to tank: Celtics trading away everyone including their coach, Bucks last year drafting a European kid that has upside but isn't ready to contribute right away, Suns giving away Gortat, Jazz not re-signing any veterans and taking on salary dump trades. Now some of those teams have surprised; but I bet you Boston and Phoenix didn't think their coaches were going to be THAT good. But tanking is apart of the NFL as well, do you think the Texans had the ulterior motive of tanking in mind when they fired Kubiak mid-season? Well I do. I guess I can just be happy that none of the teams I cheer for are no-good tankers. Even if the reason is because the coach is fighting for his job.
*Vikings* cough.

So the question is losing fans and revenue for one season worth the chance to get a star that can change the fortunes of your franchise for more than a decade?

MLB Collisions:

This decision seems to be opposed, on ESPN their poll had that over 60% of people didn't like it. However I am for it. Talk about a defenseless receiver! The catcher is stationary while a base runner gets a thirty yard head start to pummel him. In a game like baseball where success is determined by concentration, skill, intelligence, and little luck; removing this aspect of unnecessary physicality makes sense. The catcher doesn't need to block the plate and the runner doesn't need to tackle him. Sure, it was fun as a base runner to lay out the catcher, but I bet every catcher is happy to see this go into effect. The penalties for this should the same as interference calls anywhere else on the base paths. Wonder if they will attempt to change breaking up a double play? That change doesn't seem as obvious to me.

CFB Playoffs, Lakers

I probably won't do a post every couple of days, but since I just started I wanted to post another one. So let's get started.

College Football Playoffs:

What if in some alternate universe the college football playoff system started this year and we had to pick the top 4 teams to play in the semi-finals? The top three seem obvious to me: 1. Florida State, 2. Auburn, 3. Alabama; but the controversy is who the number 4 seed would be. For me it would have to be Michigan State. They have momentum, a conference championship, just proved they can beat better talent, and the old adage of defense wins championships is on their side. So what if in an even crazier universe we had a 8 team playoff? Well then the top 4 would of course stay the same but my bracket would look like this:

1. Florida State
8. Oregon

4. Michigan State
5. Baylor

3. Alabama
6. Stanford

2. Auburn
7. Ohio State

The controversy for 8th seed is just as intense as the 4th seed. The teams I chose from were UCF, Oregon, Oklahoma, Missouri, and South Carolina. This was a really hard choice, UCF won their conference, if you can call that a conference. Then do you really want to punish Mizzou for going to the conference championship game and losing to a red hot Auburn team? But then South Carolina beat Missouri straight up, albeit by a field goal off the upright. They also beat UCF. For Oklahoma I just couldn't get over the beatings by Baylor and Texas so they were the first team eliminated for me. Ultimately, it just came down to choosing a team that I thought had a chance to win the whole thing, and with Oregon's offense they were that team. There could be some controversy for Ohio State but their only loss was to the 4 seed in this bracket and 2 losses compared to 1 is important to me. However, for UCF the conference they play in, and the close games against bad teams, that let Oregon jump them.

Lakers:

The two things I wanted to cover here are Kobe's extension and the possible line-up next year. Before I start in I want it to made clear that I am a Lakers fan, and an even bigger Kobe Bryant fan. So the remaining parts of this post are going to be extremely biased. Glad that's covered. Now I have absolutely no problem with the Lakers giving Kobe the 2 year north of 48 million they gave him. It does make him the highest paid player in the league, but I believe Kobe when he says that he made no negotiations and accepted the only offer they gave him. People are saying he owes the Lakers, owes them what? We have seen over the past 17+ years is that he has gave the LA Lakers his body. He also took a 23 percent pay cut but no one wants to mention that. The other reason I have no problem with this deal is that the Lakers are setting a business model. If you play for LA and become Magic or Kobe (a star) they will reward you. This will make every young star want to go to LA because if he can win them a ring, they will make him the highest paid player. They will still make money off of this deal, and they could have given Kobe another max contract and they would have still made money off of it.

The 2014 Lakers is what everyone is worried about with Kobe's extension, but I say don't worry. With the free agent class this could potentially be the Lakers starting line up next year:

PG Eric Bledsoe
SG Kobe Bryant
SF Wesley Johnson
PF Pau Gasol
C Greg Monroe

Bench:
Jodie Meeks, Steve Blake, Jordan Farmar, Xavier Henry, Nick Young, Shawnee Williams, Robert Sacre, Ryan Kelly, Draft Pick

Now that is what is possible, Pau would have to take a pay cut (~50%) and we would have to be able to sign two restricted free agents (Monroe and Bledsoe) to reasonable contracts (~ 12 million). This includes using the stretch provision on Steve Nash and waiving him. Sorry Steve but you have the back of an 80 year old. Maybe if he can't get healthy this year, he just retires. This team would cost around $75-78 million if everything worked out and I do think if Kobe can be his usual Black Mamba self then that team can compete for an NBA championship. Also, that total would be close to what the Lakers are spending this year.

Yankees, BCS, and coaching changes

This is my first blog, and I decided to start one simply because I really enjoy sports and always have a strong opinion about them. I am not a journalist by any means, I am just a fan who thinks he knows more than he actually does. So let's jump right in.

Yankees:

Three things the Yankees have done this off season makes sense: signing Brian McCann, not over paying Cano, and getting Kuroda to not retire. I am okay with the Ellsbury signing because you take arguably one of the best players on your rival's team, and put him in your outfield. However, he is a slightly better Brett Gardner. So now you have two 30+ year old outfielders who are contact hitters and depend on their speed. Then the signing of Carlos Beltran baffled me, this is the Yankees outfield now: Gardner, Ellsbury, Alfonso Soriano, Ichiro, and Beltran. So now you have five decently paid outfielders for 3 spots and a DH. Also, only two of those players can play any defense, Ellsbury and Gardner. But I guess in that ballpark for ants, if its a fly ball its a home run. If Tanaka isn't available for the Yankees to sign they will not be any better than last year, the offense has potential if Ellsbury and Gardner get on base and Beltran defies age for another season. However the rotation is not good. CC is the top of the line starter and he wasn't what he was a couple of years ago. Nova could be another solid starter but I wan't to see another good year first.
But after the Beltran signing I wanted to put my name out for the GM of the Yankees, I will have more logical signings and will take a tenth of the salary Cashman gets. (I want to mention that I despise the Yankees and am a Twins fan so I may not be the guy for job.)

BCS:

I keep hearing that should Auburn win then they should jump Ohio St, and play in the National Championship game. Why? Is this because the SEC has won the last 7 NC games? If this is the case then we are taking past seasons into consideration, then if that is the case Ohio St was undefeated last year as well! No team has beaten them in two years, which is more impressive than a win over Alabama. (Alabama lost a game in both of their last 2 NC seasons, Urban Meyer has yet to lose at OSU.) So in my opinion no matter the score of the big ten championship game, if OSU wins they should play in the NC game.

Coaching Changes:

I want to applaud Washington, their coach left them for another school and then they hired a better coach. Coach Petersen has been mentioned in every major coaching vacancy since he ran the statue of liberty against Oklahoma. In all speculation, I think he wanted to stay in the west and go to a school where the media scrutiny isn't that tough. He waited for what he thought was the best fit and now is going to be in a BCS conference (if the Big 12 adds Boise St then Petersen stays, which they should have.) His former defensive coordinator is already employed by Washington and his former offensive coordinator just got fired from Florida, coincidence? I think not. I am going to say it right now Washington won this break up and I think Petersen will have more success that Sark at USC.