It's time for a tradition unlike any other: reviewing preseason predictions of mine that went haywire almost immediately. In the NFL, even when we think we have a good idea of how things are going to go, we don't. More than any other sport, the NFL makes us look like fools, particularly the owner of this humble blog. So how bad did it go? Let's see.
AFC Playoff Predictions (with actual order following):
1. Kansas City 13-3 (Baltimore 14-2)
2. New England 12-4 (Kansas City 12-4)
3. Pittsburgh 10-6 (New England 12-4)
4. Houston 9-7 (Houston 10-6)
5. LA Chargers 11-5 (Buffalo 10-6)
6. Cleveland 9-7 (Tennessee 9-7)
A good healthy does of being wrong here. I, like many, bought into the Cleveland hype, but hedged on them winning the division. They happened to be the Browns again with shinier toys, and the Steelers were decimated by injuries at the skill positions, causing them both to miss the playoffs. Lamar Jackson absolutely did show improvement as a passer, leading the NFL in touchdown passes while his team ran for the most yards in NFL history. No doubting Lamar again. The Chargers also lost many games in typical Chargers fashion as that roster aged and suffered more and more bad luck by the week. It might be the end of an era for that team.
Buffalo turned out to have just enough offense to complement their fantastic defense, and they feasted on a bad enough schedule to get into the dance. Predicting the Titans would make the playoffs wouldn't have been a bold decision, but getting there with Ryan Tannehill emerging would be. The other three in the AFC were about as lock solid picks as you can get.
NFC Playoff Predictions (with actual order following):
1. New Orleans 12-4 (San Francisco 13-3)
2. Philadelphia 12-4 (Green Bay 13-3)
3. LA Rams 11-5 (New Orleans 13-3)
4. Green Bay 11-5 (Philadelphia 9-7)
5. Atlanta 10-6 (Seattle 11-5)
6. Minnesota 10-6 (Minnesota 10-6)
Two whiffs in the NFC to talk about. San Francisco had the potential to emerge after last season, and most certainly did with a dominant defense and a versatile, varied and creative offense from Kyle Shanahan. They're the NFC's favorite to head to the Super Bowl, which is impressive after they spent half a decade in the wilderness. The LA Rams started to fall apart around the edges after their contract situation got messy, and it's only going to get messier while they have no first round pick until 2022. They also have Kyler Murray and Arizona sneaking up behind them.
I'm also mildly embarrassed about buying into the Falcons hype, well not so much hype as believing last season was derailed solely because of injuries. They finished strong, but that doesn't say much, because they did last year to some degree as well. They're also bringing back their entire brain trust, which also doesn't make much sense. Seattle was on the outside looking in for me preseason, and they did get in, but they are too thin at too many positions and had just enough luck to win just enough games to get in.
Award Predictions (with comments following);
MVP: Patrick Mahomes (never a bad guess, but Lamar Jackson locked this up in November)
OPOY: Julio Jones (it won't be him. It could be absolutely anyone though, plenty of choices)
DPOY: Aaron Donald (another solid guess, but it's looking like Chandler Jones of Arizona)
OROY: Miles Sanders (solid, but AJ Brown of Tennessee, Josh Jacobs of Oakland have good shouts)
DROY: Josh Allen (he would win it if he didn't play for a bad team. It will be Nick Bosa)
Comeback: Jimmy Garoppolo (Another QB who made a great comeback will win it, Ryan Tannehill)
Coach; Freddie Kitchens (the less said about this, the better)
My preseason Super Bowl pick was the Andy Reid Bowl, Kansas City and Philadelphia. Both teams at least made the playoffs, but it doesn't look like this is a likely outcome. What do I think will happen now?
AFC:
3) New England over 6) Tennessee
4) Houston over 5) Buffalo
1) Baltimore over 4) Houston
2) Kansas City over 3) New England
2) Kansas City over 1) Baltimore
NFC:
3) New Orleans over 6) Minnesota
4) Philadelphia over 5) Seattle
1) San Francisco over 4) Philadelphia
3) New Orleans over 2) Green Bay
3) New Orleans over 1) San Francisco
Super Bowl 54:
Kansas City over New Orleans
So I didn't change my pick all that much. You can call that hedging. I call it trying to retroactively make myself look good.
Subscribe To Matt's Sports Musings Here
Posts
All Comments
Monday, December 30, 2019
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Hockey's Culture Shock
In hockey's recent history, no two weeks has fundamentally shaken the foundations of the game more. First, Don Cherry was fired from Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada after racist remarks about immigrants during Coaches Corner. Cherry's comments and opinions weren't new, but the environment around him changed while he did not, and after not apologizing for them, he was let go.
Hindsight being 20/20, Cherry's firing was the first domino to fall in a series of earthquakes shaking the very foundations of what hockey has been for generations. When Mike Babcock was fired from the Toronto Maple Leafs last week, stories began to trickle about his tenure and what happened behind the scenes, and some of those stories were not pretty.
By late Monday night, the avalanche was getting bigger and bigger. Akim Aliu, a former NHLer, said that a Babcock protege, Bill Peters, targeted racial slurs at him when they were both in the AHL in Rockford. Next, a former player of his in Carolina, Michal Jordan, said that Peters physically attacked him:
Many of these stories stayed behind dressing room walls for so long because of the culture that enabled this conduct in the first place. People in hockey have looked the same, talked the same and acted the same for generations. When these people stop playing, they become coaches, administrators, managers and in many cases their children, who grow up knowing nothing different, come into the sport in the same way. What is created is an insular, territorial culture of deference to power, fear of speaking up and out and a siege mentality that forever prevented the outside world from being let inside hockey's ivory towers, and this culture festered without anyone able on the outside or inside to stop it.
Hockey is now being forced to reckon with itself over its own past, its own mythologized ethos and existence and its place in a world that is changing while it steadfastly refuses to.
In the case of the Marner-Babcock episode, one player did try to stand up and protect the player, and he paid the price by being scratched and ostracized:
That isn't how this sport has to be, but it is certainly what the culture around hockey has developed into. With these stories now becoming public, the fallout from them growing by the minute, and with certainly more to come, hockey and the people in charge of the game now have to address not just how it got to this point, but why, and how the ball of yarn can be unraveled.
Last spring, in the same plot of concrete outside Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, fans gathered to watch the Leafs and Raptors play in the playoffs, but the groups of fans doing so looked entirely different. For the first time in generations, hockey as a sport had to ask questions about why things looked so different, and why its position as a dominant cultural pillar in Canada was now under some doubt. The culture surrounding the game, and the people in charge of pushing that culture, now had to answer existential questions about themselves and their actions for the first time, and they're going to be under the microscope more and more as these stories multiply.
How can hockey begin to change, and how can the people in this sport begin to find the solutions to problems they never knew existed before? An important first step is to bring more people under the tent; people from outside hockey's small ecosystem. People with different backgrounds, experiences and ideas need to be not just on the ice, but in positions of power in hockey associations to change policies, to embrace new ideas and create channels for more people to brought in. Those people in power will have to cede some to others, because it's clear that many are not equipped to deal with the issues that lead to chronic abuses of power.
If new voices can be brought into places like Hockey Canada, USA Hockey, the NHL and the like, they can bring perspectives to a world that has had so few new ones, and those players who don't fit the typical hockey stereotype can now see that they belong just as much as their stereotypical peers. That means more women, minorities and people who came into hockey from different angles have to be given the chance to lead and the chance to influence people in the sport who otherwise haven't know any different. Some of that is happening because modern players are so different than previous generations, but they cannot do this own their own.
More friction is to come, because people who have power don't give it up willingly, or easily. More prominent people in the sport might not come through the other side with their reputations clean anymore. But if this is the first step in hockey reckoning with itself, its past and its present, then perhaps finally its future will not be what it has so desperately clung to for so long.
When Robin Lehner told the world of his mental health struggles, the sport wrapped its arms around him in support. During the Humboldt bus crash, the hockey world cared for its own and showed why so many people come to this game again and again in spite of its costs. There is plenty of good in this sport and it needs to be amplified, and now is the best chance yet to celebrate that and push it forward.
Hockey own's mythology is being shattered. There is a chance to build something new in its place, and there's no better time than the present to build something new for this sport which desperately needs it.
Hindsight being 20/20, Cherry's firing was the first domino to fall in a series of earthquakes shaking the very foundations of what hockey has been for generations. When Mike Babcock was fired from the Toronto Maple Leafs last week, stories began to trickle about his tenure and what happened behind the scenes, and some of those stories were not pretty.
Babcock asked then rookie Mitch Marner what players had the best and worst work ethic on the team, which was then publicly shared. Babcock did apologize, but the damage was already done. Babcock has a reputation for "mind games" like this that precede him, but there can be no doubt other past and current coaches have done something similar, but have not made it past the dressing room walls.I heard about this Babcock story when it happened, but I didn’t want to bring it up until I could confirm it was true.— Ian Tulloch📊 (@IanGraph) November 25, 2019
The rookie he did this to was Mitch Marner. https://t.co/d6TcayagcS
By late Monday night, the avalanche was getting bigger and bigger. Akim Aliu, a former NHLer, said that a Babcock protege, Bill Peters, targeted racial slurs at him when they were both in the AHL in Rockford. Next, a former player of his in Carolina, Michal Jordan, said that Peters physically attacked him:
When current Hurricanes coach and then assistant Rod Brind'Amour confirmed multiple incidents like Jordan's occurred, the avalanche grew larger still.1) Never wish anything bad to the person but you get what you deserve Bill.After years making it to the NHL had experience with the worst coach ever by far.Kicking me and punching other player to the head during the game...— Michal Jordan (@TheBigCzech23) November 26, 2019
Many of these stories stayed behind dressing room walls for so long because of the culture that enabled this conduct in the first place. People in hockey have looked the same, talked the same and acted the same for generations. When these people stop playing, they become coaches, administrators, managers and in many cases their children, who grow up knowing nothing different, come into the sport in the same way. What is created is an insular, territorial culture of deference to power, fear of speaking up and out and a siege mentality that forever prevented the outside world from being let inside hockey's ivory towers, and this culture festered without anyone able on the outside or inside to stop it.
Hockey is now being forced to reckon with itself over its own past, its own mythologized ethos and existence and its place in a world that is changing while it steadfastly refuses to.
If you're looking for reasons a player might keep racial slurs to himself for 10 years rather than sharing the story publicly as it happened, this quote from Gare Joyce's book Future Greats and Heartbreaks offers a good one.— Jonathan Willis (@JonathanWillis) November 26, 2019
The player being discussed is Akim Aliu. pic.twitter.com/jYp8UjzI5c
Stories like those are far too common, and far too commonly stay behind closed doors, thanks to some of the most common tropes in hockey culture: players don't want to say anything for fear of being "a distraction", for fear of taking away from the team, and for fear of what happen when you do stand up to authority figures who aren't used to being crossed and aren't prepared to be.I have permission to share this message with you all— Daniel Carcillo (@CarBombBoom13) November 27, 2019
Reading this makes my blood boil
This brave young man wants to share his story about the abuse he endured in hockey, in hopes of showing others to not be afraid
Thank you 🙏🏻 #hockey #abuse pic.twitter.com/OeyInek0dW
In the case of the Marner-Babcock episode, one player did try to stand up and protect the player, and he paid the price by being scratched and ostracized:
Because hockey is such an insular world, with such little new blood being accepted into its inner circle, people who grew up used to this power dynamic end up going from players to coaches and managers, therefore continuing the cycle. In this cycle, players are then "programmed" to accept the culture they're in and play a role in it knowing the only way they can achieve their goals is by playing the game they're entered into at whatever cost.Matt Martin is a hero #Isles pic.twitter.com/74CQeBQUAg— Matt O'Leary (@MattOLearyNY) November 26, 2019
That isn't how this sport has to be, but it is certainly what the culture around hockey has developed into. With these stories now becoming public, the fallout from them growing by the minute, and with certainly more to come, hockey and the people in charge of the game now have to address not just how it got to this point, but why, and how the ball of yarn can be unraveled.
Last spring, in the same plot of concrete outside Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, fans gathered to watch the Leafs and Raptors play in the playoffs, but the groups of fans doing so looked entirely different. For the first time in generations, hockey as a sport had to ask questions about why things looked so different, and why its position as a dominant cultural pillar in Canada was now under some doubt. The culture surrounding the game, and the people in charge of pushing that culture, now had to answer existential questions about themselves and their actions for the first time, and they're going to be under the microscope more and more as these stories multiply.
How can hockey begin to change, and how can the people in this sport begin to find the solutions to problems they never knew existed before? An important first step is to bring more people under the tent; people from outside hockey's small ecosystem. People with different backgrounds, experiences and ideas need to be not just on the ice, but in positions of power in hockey associations to change policies, to embrace new ideas and create channels for more people to brought in. Those people in power will have to cede some to others, because it's clear that many are not equipped to deal with the issues that lead to chronic abuses of power.
There is a line between tough love and abuse, and in hockey, that line has been blurred to the point where it is unrecognizable. With a new generation of players emerging having been empowered through social media, and seeing what their peers in other sports, particularly basketball, are capable of, they don't willingly subscribe to the hockey power dynamic without asking questions first. Those questions create tension, tension creates friction, and friction creates heat. In that heat, there is pressure, and the pressure might now finally cause changes in a sport where they are long overdue.The biggest fallacy about coaching #hockey is the idea that u need to break down minors & then build them back up in order 4 athletes to b productive— Daniel Carcillo (@CarBombBoom13) November 27, 2019
Learning from failure is a key ingredient in becoming an exceptional athlete, not having to endure unnecessary suffering#abuse
If new voices can be brought into places like Hockey Canada, USA Hockey, the NHL and the like, they can bring perspectives to a world that has had so few new ones, and those players who don't fit the typical hockey stereotype can now see that they belong just as much as their stereotypical peers. That means more women, minorities and people who came into hockey from different angles have to be given the chance to lead and the chance to influence people in the sport who otherwise haven't know any different. Some of that is happening because modern players are so different than previous generations, but they cannot do this own their own.
More friction is to come, because people who have power don't give it up willingly, or easily. More prominent people in the sport might not come through the other side with their reputations clean anymore. But if this is the first step in hockey reckoning with itself, its past and its present, then perhaps finally its future will not be what it has so desperately clung to for so long.
When Robin Lehner told the world of his mental health struggles, the sport wrapped its arms around him in support. During the Humboldt bus crash, the hockey world cared for its own and showed why so many people come to this game again and again in spite of its costs. There is plenty of good in this sport and it needs to be amplified, and now is the best chance yet to celebrate that and push it forward.
Hockey own's mythology is being shattered. There is a chance to build something new in its place, and there's no better time than the present to build something new for this sport which desperately needs it.
Friday, October 25, 2019
The Human Element, or lack thereof
What drives progress? An insatiable determination to push boundaries, defy expectations and create something new, or making something existing better. Human beings are hard wired to do this; if not, we'd still be living in caves in Africa. We've always asked about what's in the next valley, what's over that ridge, and that is part of how we as a species have gone to the top of the food chain.
Our hunger to explore, push forward and cross boundaries is what has made us successful. That innate desire is manifested into different forms in the 21st century world, and in a sports context, that can be seen in explosion of analytics and new thinking into roster construction and evaluation. Perhaps no team has embodied that more than the Houston Astros, who went all in on analytics, new thinking, innovation and an "us against the world" mentality like no other. It has taken them from doormat to World Series champion and one of the best teams in the sport. But that has come with a cost.
Not only have they made enemies in the sport thanks to their approach and their attitude concerning it, but also because in that culture, they seem to lack something critical: empathy. The actions of their AGM Brandon Taubman, the subsequent defending of his actions and the sudden reversal of their stance only three days later by firing him unceremoniously on a World Series off day, has brought to light not just questions about the Astros culture, but the culture of modern sports and beyond: have we lost the human element?
There was no doubt that Taubman's actions, and subsequent lying about them, merited his firing. But, even in his guilt, he was enabled by those above him who will skate on, with nary a consequence other than some egg in their face. They created an environment in which concerns about the human condition are secondary at best. Trading for Roberto Osuna in the first place, in the middle of a 75 game suspension for domestic violence, was a mistake but one that in the Astros culture was never perceived as one. Osuna was an asset that the Astros could buy low on and use in their ultimate pursuit: winning. Whatever the costs were in this acquisition, they were viewed solely from a transactional context, not a human one. If he could get a few strikeouts and help Houston win, no one would remember, or bring up, that he may have committed a felonious offense.
If anyone brought up that the Astros were, as an organization, incapable of understanding human beings as human beings rather than just assets, or pawns on a chess board, they'd symbolically point to the rings and banners at Minute Maid Park as a defense. What does it matter that we're not "people person(s)" if we're winning? As it turned out, such a culture breeds contempt, defensiveness and a stunning lack of empathy, all borne out not just in Brandon Taubman's callous comments towards a group of female reporters, but the organization's even more callous and shallow response. The Astros were in this together, in this foxhole, fighting against the rest of baseball. More often not, they won. Except here, they were catastrophically defeated.
Tim Kurkjian has been talking about baseball's lack of feel for people in recent years as the league has gone more knee deep in numbers, information and innovation. For all of the transactions, numbers and information, baseball is still one human being with a bat in his hand at a time against nine other human beings trying to hit a ball, with the key there being human beings. As much as viewing sports from a transactional, asset management perspective has invigorated discussion about these sports, they have sucked away too much of what makes sports so unique in the human experience: human beings and their stories. With Taubman, Luhnow and Crane, there was never a concern about other human beings and their reaction to acquiring Roberto Osuna, and then using him as a shield to defend the organization from their own self-inflicted wounds. The only concerns were winning, but not just that, winning in their way.
Sports teams exist to win, of course. Some do find a way to re-invent the wheel and win "their way". But at what point does that mindset cost too much from a human perspective? At what point can the human cost no longer be ignored? When do people become empowered in this or any other sport not for their intellect, scouting acumen or innovative ideas, but for their empathy? Their understanding of someone else and ability to make them feel comfortable, to be their best selves? And as baseball has to deal with the fallout from the Tyler Skaggs situation with the Angels, a situation very different yet eerily similar to the one in Houston, one has to wonder whether that empathy that made this sport, and so many sports so inter-connected with our culture, our identity and our psyche, is where it needs to be,
One Astros player said this week, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan, "forget about the a-holes in the front office. This is about us". There may be no quote more apt in vividly describing this situation, and so many others in sports, than that. For all of the information, the knowledge, innovation and ideas percolating in player acquisition and evaluation brought over from business, science and elsewhere, sports are still human beings playing games.
Too often, we forget that. And when we do forget that, do we have the ability to see situations like the one Houston coming? And if we do, do we have the tools to prevent them from happening again?
Our hunger to explore, push forward and cross boundaries is what has made us successful. That innate desire is manifested into different forms in the 21st century world, and in a sports context, that can be seen in explosion of analytics and new thinking into roster construction and evaluation. Perhaps no team has embodied that more than the Houston Astros, who went all in on analytics, new thinking, innovation and an "us against the world" mentality like no other. It has taken them from doormat to World Series champion and one of the best teams in the sport. But that has come with a cost.
Not only have they made enemies in the sport thanks to their approach and their attitude concerning it, but also because in that culture, they seem to lack something critical: empathy. The actions of their AGM Brandon Taubman, the subsequent defending of his actions and the sudden reversal of their stance only three days later by firing him unceremoniously on a World Series off day, has brought to light not just questions about the Astros culture, but the culture of modern sports and beyond: have we lost the human element?
There was no doubt that Taubman's actions, and subsequent lying about them, merited his firing. But, even in his guilt, he was enabled by those above him who will skate on, with nary a consequence other than some egg in their face. They created an environment in which concerns about the human condition are secondary at best. Trading for Roberto Osuna in the first place, in the middle of a 75 game suspension for domestic violence, was a mistake but one that in the Astros culture was never perceived as one. Osuna was an asset that the Astros could buy low on and use in their ultimate pursuit: winning. Whatever the costs were in this acquisition, they were viewed solely from a transactional context, not a human one. If he could get a few strikeouts and help Houston win, no one would remember, or bring up, that he may have committed a felonious offense.
If anyone brought up that the Astros were, as an organization, incapable of understanding human beings as human beings rather than just assets, or pawns on a chess board, they'd symbolically point to the rings and banners at Minute Maid Park as a defense. What does it matter that we're not "people person(s)" if we're winning? As it turned out, such a culture breeds contempt, defensiveness and a stunning lack of empathy, all borne out not just in Brandon Taubman's callous comments towards a group of female reporters, but the organization's even more callous and shallow response. The Astros were in this together, in this foxhole, fighting against the rest of baseball. More often not, they won. Except here, they were catastrophically defeated.
Tim Kurkjian has been talking about baseball's lack of feel for people in recent years as the league has gone more knee deep in numbers, information and innovation. For all of the transactions, numbers and information, baseball is still one human being with a bat in his hand at a time against nine other human beings trying to hit a ball, with the key there being human beings. As much as viewing sports from a transactional, asset management perspective has invigorated discussion about these sports, they have sucked away too much of what makes sports so unique in the human experience: human beings and their stories. With Taubman, Luhnow and Crane, there was never a concern about other human beings and their reaction to acquiring Roberto Osuna, and then using him as a shield to defend the organization from their own self-inflicted wounds. The only concerns were winning, but not just that, winning in their way.
Sports teams exist to win, of course. Some do find a way to re-invent the wheel and win "their way". But at what point does that mindset cost too much from a human perspective? At what point can the human cost no longer be ignored? When do people become empowered in this or any other sport not for their intellect, scouting acumen or innovative ideas, but for their empathy? Their understanding of someone else and ability to make them feel comfortable, to be their best selves? And as baseball has to deal with the fallout from the Tyler Skaggs situation with the Angels, a situation very different yet eerily similar to the one in Houston, one has to wonder whether that empathy that made this sport, and so many sports so inter-connected with our culture, our identity and our psyche, is where it needs to be,
One Astros player said this week, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan, "forget about the a-holes in the front office. This is about us". There may be no quote more apt in vividly describing this situation, and so many others in sports, than that. For all of the information, the knowledge, innovation and ideas percolating in player acquisition and evaluation brought over from business, science and elsewhere, sports are still human beings playing games.
Too often, we forget that. And when we do forget that, do we have the ability to see situations like the one Houston coming? And if we do, do we have the tools to prevent them from happening again?
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Reviewing my 2019 MLS Predictions and attempting to predict the playoffs
If you have noticed, my picks and predictions in recent times have been pretty terrible in all leagues. MLS is no different. Looking back at these predictions makes me want to cry, which is why I'm happy I put the disclaimer "here are some predictions that are sure to be wrong in May, let alone October". They were!
East Playoff Teams (My Predictions): ATL, NYRB, DC, PHI, CLB, MTL, NYCFC
East Playoff Teams (Actual): NYCFC, ATL, PHI, TOR, DC, NYRB, NE
Toronto and New England get in over Columbus and Montreal. Not as bad as it could have been.
West Playoff Teams (My Predictions): SKC, LAFC, POR, SEA, LAG, RSL, MIN
West Playoff Teams (Actual): LAFC, SEA, RSL, MIN, LAG, POR, FCD
So only one team wrong, but it was the one I predicted to win the Supporter's Shield. That was #CCLFever. But the other playoff teams, including the Loons, I actually got right. I'm mildly proud of myself.
Award Predictions:
MVP: Zlatan (he played really well! But Carlos Vela had a historically good season)
Coach: Jim Curtin (he could certainly win it. But how can it not be Bob Bradley?)
Defender: Walker Zimmerman (he would have won it if the season was 20 games long. Ike Opara did).
Rookie: Andre Shinyashiki (I got one right!)
Golden Boot: Zlatan (Carlos Vela did set the single season goal scoring record)
Comeback: Jordan Morris (more than likely)
I did predict Sporting Kansas City to beat the Red Bulls in MLS Cup 2019, which was extremely wrong and the playoffs haven't even happened yet. So here I am trying again, and sure to get it wrong:
East:
2) Atlanta United over 7) New England
3) Philadelphia over 6) New York Red Bulls
4) Toronto FC over 5) DC United
4) Toronto FC over 1) NYCFC
2) Atlanta United over 3) Philadelphia
2) Atlanta United over 4) Toronto FC
West:
2) Seattle over 7) FC Dallas
6) Portland over 3) Real Salt Lake
5) LA Galaxy over 4) Minnesota
2) Seattle over 6) Portland
1) LAFC over 5) LA Galaxy
1) LAFC over 2) Seattle
MLS Cup 2019: LAFC over Atlanta United 3-1
If my playoff predictions in baseball are any indication, good luck to these two teams, especially Atlanta United, who might not be immune to the Atlanta sports curse after all.
East Playoff Teams (My Predictions): ATL, NYRB, DC, PHI, CLB, MTL, NYCFC
East Playoff Teams (Actual): NYCFC, ATL, PHI, TOR, DC, NYRB, NE
Toronto and New England get in over Columbus and Montreal. Not as bad as it could have been.
West Playoff Teams (My Predictions): SKC, LAFC, POR, SEA, LAG, RSL, MIN
West Playoff Teams (Actual): LAFC, SEA, RSL, MIN, LAG, POR, FCD
So only one team wrong, but it was the one I predicted to win the Supporter's Shield. That was #CCLFever. But the other playoff teams, including the Loons, I actually got right. I'm mildly proud of myself.
Award Predictions:
MVP: Zlatan (he played really well! But Carlos Vela had a historically good season)
Coach: Jim Curtin (he could certainly win it. But how can it not be Bob Bradley?)
Defender: Walker Zimmerman (he would have won it if the season was 20 games long. Ike Opara did).
Rookie: Andre Shinyashiki (I got one right!)
Golden Boot: Zlatan (Carlos Vela did set the single season goal scoring record)
Comeback: Jordan Morris (more than likely)
I did predict Sporting Kansas City to beat the Red Bulls in MLS Cup 2019, which was extremely wrong and the playoffs haven't even happened yet. So here I am trying again, and sure to get it wrong:
East:
2) Atlanta United over 7) New England
3) Philadelphia over 6) New York Red Bulls
4) Toronto FC over 5) DC United
4) Toronto FC over 1) NYCFC
2) Atlanta United over 3) Philadelphia
2) Atlanta United over 4) Toronto FC
West:
2) Seattle over 7) FC Dallas
6) Portland over 3) Real Salt Lake
5) LA Galaxy over 4) Minnesota
2) Seattle over 6) Portland
1) LAFC over 5) LA Galaxy
1) LAFC over 2) Seattle
MLS Cup 2019: LAFC over Atlanta United 3-1
If my playoff predictions in baseball are any indication, good luck to these two teams, especially Atlanta United, who might not be immune to the Atlanta sports curse after all.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
2019-20 NHL Season Predictions
October is the best month of the year if you're one of the few people who still clicks on this blog, because you get prediction columns and reviews of prediction columns. There's no better content than that, right? When you check back in April, be sure to take it easy on me, because I might be less wrong than someone else, I hope.
Metropolitan Division:
1. Washington
2. Carolina
3. Pittsburgh
4. New York Rangers
5. New Jersey
6. Philadelphia
7. Columbus
8. New York Islanders
There is no more egalitarian division in hockey than the Metro. Every team thinks they have a good chance at the playoffs, and they're all right. There are plenty of reasons for fatalists to satiate their own fears about each of these teams though.
Washington probably has the fewest flaws of any in this division. While their playoff voodoo returned even after winning the Cup, they're still a dominant regular season team. Some of the depth pieces have shuffled, but the core remains the same, though one year older. Since there's no one that can truly contend on that level with them, they're favorites. Carolina has made plenty of moves, and while it's unlikely they're replicating last year's playoff run, they're still incredibly deep, especially on the back end. It's hard to see a team this deep missing the postseason. Pittsburgh is on the decline, and whether it's gradual or sudden is still an open question. With Crosby and Malkin, they're still a playoff team, though their supporting cast continues to decline.
Everyone else is fighting for a wild card that will be hotly contested. The Rangers have made some significant upgrades with Kaapo Kakko, Artemi Panarin, Jacob Trouba and Adam Fox, but they're still not great defensively and many of their young prospects haven't developed in the smoothest of ways. New Jersey certainly went for flash in acquiring PK Subban and Nikita Gusev along with drafting Jack Hughes, but are they deep enough to succeed during the long grind of 82 games, and do they have any hope in net? Philadelphia made plenty of moves on the ice and behind the bench, but it all doesn't add up to very much being different. Columbus is down Panarin, Duchene and Bobrovsky, and while they believe in their kids, can anyone believe in their goaltending? And the Islanders added no one except a goalie to replace one that nearly won the Vezina last season and probably should still be there. Is the system truly king?
Atlantic Division:
1. Tampa Bay
2. Toronto
3. Boston
4. Florida (WC)
5. Montreal (WC)
6. Buffalo
7. Detroit
8. Ottawa
Unlike the Metro, the Atlantic is relatively straightforward. Last year's top three will be the top three again, there will be two teams fighting for a playoff spot, and everyone else is rebuilding to some degree. The order in which the Atlantic's top three will be slotted is a matter of debate. Tampa is still the class of the league, but will what happened in the series against Columbus hang over their heads? We may not find out until April, but the roster is still fairly loaded in spite of the cap crunch they had this summer, so a big drop off isn't expected. Toronto will score a ton of goals, but they may also give up a ton. Have their moves made them considerably better than the team of the last three years? That is also a matter of debate. They will have enough this year to nudge the Bruins out of home ice in their inevitable playoff series. The Bruins are still the Bruins, which means they'll be a tough out every night.
Florida spent big bucks to end their losing drought, and with the rest of the East taking a slight step back, and the Panthers adding one of the league's best goalies and coaches, that should be enough to plug a leaky ship and guide it back to the postseason, though the Panthers always find a way to underwhelm. Montreal got career years out of multiple forwards last year and it wasn't enough to make the postseason, and many of their hopes will ride on young centers Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nick Suzuki if they are to get back to the postseason. It will not be easy. Buffalo has a new coach with a great pedigree, but they don't have a great blueline or goaltending tandem yet. They're closer than they've been to the postseason, but they're both not there yet. Detroit and Ottawa are both in the nascent stages of long rebuilds, and while the long term is bright, the present is concerned with lottery balls.
Central Division:
1. Nashville
2. Colorado
3. Dallas
4. St. Louis (WC)
5. Winnipeg
6. Chicago
7. Minnesota
The NHL's toughest division holds its title for another season, because it holds the defending champs and some of the league's toughest regular season outs. Nashville has regressed since it's 2017 trip to the Stanley Cup Final, but adding Matt Duchene should stem the tide a little, and the loss of PK Subban is offset by the arrival of Dante Fabbro. The Avs are a team everyone loves, and for good reason. They have an incredible future with great players for the present and future. They will be one of the fastest and exciting teams this year, but they had fewer wins last year than Arizona, who only had 86 points. To go from that to Cup favorite is not easy. Dallas added a couple of Pacific division veterans to help a defensively sound team go over the top in the postseason after last year's Game 7 heartbreak, and they'll be good enough to certainly test the best.
The defending champs made their first big move by trading for Justin Faulk, giving up a solid defenseman in Joel Edmunson, and a prospect in Dominic Bokk. Faulk is not much better if at all than what they gave up. But they are still the same aggressive forechecking team they were a season ago, and if Jordan Binnington is still the same goaltender from his run last season, they will be more consistent. They're not quite as talented as their rivals, hence why they're a Wild Card team, though they're still a playoff lock.
Winnipeg's offseason from hell has taken a bite out of what was a team set up to be a juggernaut. If Dustin Byfuglien doesn't return, then their blueline is relying an awful lot on this year's first round pick, Ville Heinola. It looks to be a fatal flaw. While they have plenty of scoring punch, their depth is also incredibly sketchy. They will not make the playoffs without some substantial additions. Chicago scored a boatload of goals last year, and also gave up a boatload. Adding Robin Lehner, Calvin De Haan and Olli Maata might not do enough to counteract all those goals against, though. Minnesota did get rid of their problem GM, but this is still an old team with an old core that is only getting older, with a prospect pipeline that is far from encouraging.
Pacific Division:
1. Vegas
2. Calgary
3. San Jose
4. Arizona (WC)
5. Vancouver
6. Edmonton
7. Anaheim
8. Los Angeles
Watching the Vegas Golden Knights has been an experience in the last two seasons, from their Cup run to how they went out last year. They are, in a weak division, the strongest team, even if their blueline is shallow and Marc-Andre Fleury is being asked to do too much. Calgary, though they traded for Milan Lucic, still have plenty of speed and skill up front with a very good blueline to boot. But can they keep the puck out of the net? It doesn't seem like there's optimism on that front. Speaking of bad goaltending, San Jose had the worst in the league last year and still made it to the Conference Final! They also played with a very broken Erik Karlsson too. But they don't have Joe Pavelski anymore, and their depth from years past is gone. They're still a playoff team, but do they have enough to challenge like they've been able to?
Perhaps this pick is aspirational, but I really want the Coyotes to make the playoffs. I like the moves that they have made, and Rick Tocchet got a broken, injured group to within earshot of the postseason. He is also a Phil Kessel whisperer, and getting him to score is what the Coyotes desperately need. If some of their young talent like Clayton Keller, Barrett Hayton and others finally come good, they can get in. Vancouver will challenge them because of Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes, but the veterans are what will let them down, because they just don't have enough good ones. Edmonton has McDavid and Draisaitl, but little else, and there's very little reason to believe that Ken Holland and Dave Tippett can make lemonade without any lemons to use. Anaheim is finally rebuilding, and some of their young forwards have promise. They also have John Gibson, who could win the Vezina on a better team. But their great defense pipeline is now barren. The Kings went sour gradually, and then suddenly, and now they're in a full rebuild mode again. Alexis Lafrieniere would look good in black and silver.
Playoffs:
Eastern Conference:
Washington (M1) over Florida (WC1) in 7
Carolina (M2) over Pittsburgh (M2) in 5
Tampa (A1) over Montreal (WC2) in 6
Toronto (A2) over Boston (A3) in 7
Carolina (M2) over Washington (M1) in 7
Tampa (A1) over Toronto (A2) in 7
Tampa (A1) over Carolina (M2) in 5
Western Conference:
St. Louis (WC1) over Nashville (C1) in 6
Colorado (C2) over Dallas (C3) in 6
Vegas (P1) over Arizona (WC2) in 5
Calgary (P2) over San Jose (P3) in 6
Colorado (C2) over St. Louis (WC1) in 6
Vegas (P1) over Calgary (P2) in 6
Vegas (P1) over Colorado (C2) in 6
Stanley Cup Final:
Tampa over Vegas in 6
Awards:
Hart: Nathan MacKinnon (COL)
Art Ross: Connor McDavid (EDM)
Rocket Richard: Alex Ovechkin (WSH)
Rocket Richard: Alex Ovechkin (WSH)
Norris: Victor Hedman (TB)
Vezina: Frederik Andersen (TOR)
Vezina: Frederik Andersen (TOR)
Calder: Kaapo Kakko (NYR)
Jack Adams: Rick Tocchet (ARZ)
First Coach Fired: Paul Maurice (WPG)
Happy Hockey Season! I hope I didn't pick one of your favorite teams and favorite players to do well.
Monday, September 30, 2019
2019 MLB Season Predictions in Review + Playoff Predictions
More cheap content for this old blog with the same design it has had for eight plus years, but is the perfect place for said content that doesn't fit anywhere else and is fun to write up. How badly did I do with my 2019 MLB Predictions? Badly, let's say.
Actual standings in parenthesis.
NL East:
1. Philadelphia (ATL)
2. Washington (WSH)
3. Atlanta (NYM)
4. New York Mets (PHI)
5. Miami (MIA)
Atlanta is becoming a quiet juggernaut with a great young lineup and rotation. They've won the NL East for the second straight year and are second favorites to win the NL. Philly didn't have the rotation and bullpen to buoy all the money they spent this offseason, and Gabe Kapler's seat is getting toasty. Washington did end up making the playoffs after their awful start after all.
AL East:
1. New York Yankees (NYY)
2. Boston (TB)
3. Tampa Bay (BOS)
4. Toronto (TOR)
5. Baltimore (BAL)
In spite of the litany of injuries the Yankees endured, they still won 103 games. It truly is a remarkable achievement. Boston's World Series defense went poorly, like most of theirs have since 2004, and Tampa Bay continues to do the absolute most with the least to make the playoffs again. No wonder everyone in the league wants everyone in their front office. The back end of the division was as bad as predicted.
NL Central:
1. St. Louis (STL)
2. Chicago Cubs (MIL)
3. Milwaukee (CHC)
4. Cincinnati (CIN)
5. Pittsburgh (PIT)
Saying the Cubs were long in the tooth turned out to be prescient after their September collapse, which allowed the Redbirds to sneak up and win the NL Central while getting Milwaukee back into the postseason minus a potential league MVP in Christian Yelich. Joe Maddon is gone, so the Cubs in many ways are going back to the drawing board. The NL Central was the most equal division this year, and some big runs, positive or negative, drew the lines for the playoffs.
AL Central:
1. Cleveland (MIN)
2. Minnesota (CLE)
3. Chicago White Sox (CHW)
4. Kansas City (KC)
5. Detroit (DET)
Hitting the most home runs in a single season in MLB history helped propel the Twins back to the postseason for the second time in three years, but they have to play the Yankees again. They had a little more consistency everywhere than the Indians, who had the same 93 wins they did a year ago, but last year that was enough to win them the AL Central, and this year they just missed the playoffs with a historically high win total for a team to miss. They would have won the NL Central, for instance. A frugal offseason really did cost them. Everyone else ranged from scuffling to outright tanking and historically bad.
NL West:
1. Los Angeles (LAD)
2. Colorado (ARZ)
3. San Diego (SF)
4. Arizona (SD)
5. San Francisco (COL)
The Dodgers are still the Dodgers, and everyone else is playing catch up. Arizona's rebuild on the fly allowed them to have a positive season with a platform to build on for the future. San Diego and Colorado both underwhelmed in a major way after their preseason expectations, and that cost San Diego manager Andy Green his job. It doesn't look like anyone is challenging the Dodgers any time soon.
AL West:
1. Houston (HOU)
2. LA Angels (OAK)
3. Oakland (TEX)
4. Seattle (LAA)
5. Texas (SEA)
The Astros are still the Astros, and no one gave them much of a run in the AL West again. The A's continue to do quite a bit with not very much and make the playoffs again, but it's going to be tough to see them winning a series if they do make it to play their division rivals. Mike Trout is still being let down by everyone around him, and perhaps Joe Maddon is the solution to that problem. Everyone else is rebuilding to varying degrees, and the order is shuffling deck chairs.
Preseason Playoffs Predictions:
NL: 1. LAD 2. PHI 3. STL 4. WSH 5. CHC
AL: 1. NYY 2. HOU 3. CLE 4. BOS 5. LAA
Actual Playoff Order:
NL: 1. LAD 2. ATL 3. STL 4. WSH 5. MIL
AL: 1. HOU 2. NYY 3. MIN 4. OAK 5. TB
5 out of 10 playoff teams predicted isn't great! When the league is so clearly sorted into teams that are trying and teams that aren't, those predictions feel even worse! But there are only a few teams who really failed to live up to the hype this year, which include Boston, Philly and Colorado.
Preseason Award Predictions (with comments):
NL MVP: Paul Goldschmidt (Going to be Cody Bellinger, could have been Yelich if he didn't get hurt)
AL MVP: Aaron Judge (Spent too much time injured. Going to be Mike Trout again because he's simply not human)
NL Cy Young: Max Scherzer (Jacob DeGrom outpitched him again, but he'll be in the conversation)
AL Cy Young: Chris Sale (Like the rest of the Red Sox, he flopped. It'll be either Justin Verlander or Gerrit Cole who both had super seasons)
NL Rookie: Fernando Tatis Jr. (Pete Alonso made history every time he took an at bat, and Tatis had too many injuries)
AL Rookie: Vlad Guerrero Jr. (not quite there yet. Yordan Alvarez was insane for the Astros)
NL Manager: Dave Martinez (he took his team back from the brink, but he got them there in the first place. Craig Counsell has does another good job with the Brewers, but Brian Snitker deserves love for the machine he's built in Atlanta)
AL Manager: Aaron Boone (slam dunk considering the injuries his team has gone through)
New Playoff Predictions:
NL:
Wild Card Game: Nationals over Brewers
NLDS: Braves over Cardinals in 4
Dodgers over Nationals in 4
NLCS: Braves over Dodgers in 7
AL:
Wild Card Game: Rays over A's
ALDS: Astros over Rays in 3
Yankees over Twins in 4
ALCS: Yankees over Astros in 7
World Series: Yankees over Braves in 6
These will end up going wrong too, I bet.
Actual standings in parenthesis.
NL East:
1. Philadelphia (ATL)
2. Washington (WSH)
3. Atlanta (NYM)
4. New York Mets (PHI)
5. Miami (MIA)
Atlanta is becoming a quiet juggernaut with a great young lineup and rotation. They've won the NL East for the second straight year and are second favorites to win the NL. Philly didn't have the rotation and bullpen to buoy all the money they spent this offseason, and Gabe Kapler's seat is getting toasty. Washington did end up making the playoffs after their awful start after all.
AL East:
1. New York Yankees (NYY)
2. Boston (TB)
3. Tampa Bay (BOS)
4. Toronto (TOR)
5. Baltimore (BAL)
In spite of the litany of injuries the Yankees endured, they still won 103 games. It truly is a remarkable achievement. Boston's World Series defense went poorly, like most of theirs have since 2004, and Tampa Bay continues to do the absolute most with the least to make the playoffs again. No wonder everyone in the league wants everyone in their front office. The back end of the division was as bad as predicted.
NL Central:
1. St. Louis (STL)
2. Chicago Cubs (MIL)
3. Milwaukee (CHC)
4. Cincinnati (CIN)
5. Pittsburgh (PIT)
Saying the Cubs were long in the tooth turned out to be prescient after their September collapse, which allowed the Redbirds to sneak up and win the NL Central while getting Milwaukee back into the postseason minus a potential league MVP in Christian Yelich. Joe Maddon is gone, so the Cubs in many ways are going back to the drawing board. The NL Central was the most equal division this year, and some big runs, positive or negative, drew the lines for the playoffs.
AL Central:
1. Cleveland (MIN)
2. Minnesota (CLE)
3. Chicago White Sox (CHW)
4. Kansas City (KC)
5. Detroit (DET)
Hitting the most home runs in a single season in MLB history helped propel the Twins back to the postseason for the second time in three years, but they have to play the Yankees again. They had a little more consistency everywhere than the Indians, who had the same 93 wins they did a year ago, but last year that was enough to win them the AL Central, and this year they just missed the playoffs with a historically high win total for a team to miss. They would have won the NL Central, for instance. A frugal offseason really did cost them. Everyone else ranged from scuffling to outright tanking and historically bad.
NL West:
1. Los Angeles (LAD)
2. Colorado (ARZ)
3. San Diego (SF)
4. Arizona (SD)
5. San Francisco (COL)
The Dodgers are still the Dodgers, and everyone else is playing catch up. Arizona's rebuild on the fly allowed them to have a positive season with a platform to build on for the future. San Diego and Colorado both underwhelmed in a major way after their preseason expectations, and that cost San Diego manager Andy Green his job. It doesn't look like anyone is challenging the Dodgers any time soon.
AL West:
1. Houston (HOU)
2. LA Angels (OAK)
3. Oakland (TEX)
4. Seattle (LAA)
5. Texas (SEA)
The Astros are still the Astros, and no one gave them much of a run in the AL West again. The A's continue to do quite a bit with not very much and make the playoffs again, but it's going to be tough to see them winning a series if they do make it to play their division rivals. Mike Trout is still being let down by everyone around him, and perhaps Joe Maddon is the solution to that problem. Everyone else is rebuilding to varying degrees, and the order is shuffling deck chairs.
Preseason Playoffs Predictions:
NL: 1. LAD 2. PHI 3. STL 4. WSH 5. CHC
AL: 1. NYY 2. HOU 3. CLE 4. BOS 5. LAA
Actual Playoff Order:
NL: 1. LAD 2. ATL 3. STL 4. WSH 5. MIL
AL: 1. HOU 2. NYY 3. MIN 4. OAK 5. TB
5 out of 10 playoff teams predicted isn't great! When the league is so clearly sorted into teams that are trying and teams that aren't, those predictions feel even worse! But there are only a few teams who really failed to live up to the hype this year, which include Boston, Philly and Colorado.
Preseason Award Predictions (with comments):
NL MVP: Paul Goldschmidt (Going to be Cody Bellinger, could have been Yelich if he didn't get hurt)
AL MVP: Aaron Judge (Spent too much time injured. Going to be Mike Trout again because he's simply not human)
NL Cy Young: Max Scherzer (Jacob DeGrom outpitched him again, but he'll be in the conversation)
AL Cy Young: Chris Sale (Like the rest of the Red Sox, he flopped. It'll be either Justin Verlander or Gerrit Cole who both had super seasons)
NL Rookie: Fernando Tatis Jr. (Pete Alonso made history every time he took an at bat, and Tatis had too many injuries)
AL Rookie: Vlad Guerrero Jr. (not quite there yet. Yordan Alvarez was insane for the Astros)
NL Manager: Dave Martinez (he took his team back from the brink, but he got them there in the first place. Craig Counsell has does another good job with the Brewers, but Brian Snitker deserves love for the machine he's built in Atlanta)
AL Manager: Aaron Boone (slam dunk considering the injuries his team has gone through)
New Playoff Predictions:
NL:
Wild Card Game: Nationals over Brewers
NLDS: Braves over Cardinals in 4
Dodgers over Nationals in 4
NLCS: Braves over Dodgers in 7
AL:
Wild Card Game: Rays over A's
ALDS: Astros over Rays in 3
Yankees over Twins in 4
ALCS: Yankees over Astros in 7
World Series: Yankees over Braves in 6
These will end up going wrong too, I bet.
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
2019 NFL Season Predictions
The National Football League, the world's greatest reality show, has returned for it's 100th season. Nothing in the NFL is ever short of storylines, intrigue and drama, and this season should be no different. Is this the year someone other than the Patriots dominates the AFC (don't bet on it)? Is this the year where the Cleveland Browns awake from their decades long slumber of irrelevance (more than possible)? Is this the year that I finally do somewhat decently in this predictions piece? Probably not, but that's not going to stop me from trying!
AFC East:
1. New England: 12-4
2. Buffalo: 8-8
3. New York Jets: 7-9
4. Miami: 3-13
Since 2001, the Patriots have failed to win the AFC East only twice. In that time, they've won six Super Bowls. With a league that is more even than ever, that is truly an incredible accomplishment. The defending champs are a little weaker this year without Gronk and irreplaceable center David Andrews, but Bill Belichick and company always find players to plug in those gaps, and they do it better than anyone else. While it looks like the AFC East might be finally catching up, that Brady guy, if he's still healthy, is hard to beat.
Buffalo has a solid roster behind Josh Allen, who I'm personally not a fan of, but his skillset works well with the up-and-coming squad they have. They aren't quite contenders yet though. The same can be same of the Jets and Adam Gase, even though the new coach pulled off an amazing coup to get front office control after previous management threw money at anyone who would listen this offseason. Gase has the chops though. And for his old team, they're tanking. Watch Alabama and Oregon games instead, Dolphins fans, your next QB is on one of those two teams.
NFC East:
1. Philadelphia: 12-4
2. Dallas: 9-7
3. New York Giants: 5-11
4. Washington: 5-11
I'm not going out on a limb when I say the Eagles are one of the best run teams in the league. They always find a way to acquire, develop and manage not just talent, but assets. Even when their franchise QB gets hurt, and the Super Bowl MVP backup leaves, they still can feel decently confident in the roster they've built. There are few spots where they are thin on their roster, and that depth is enough to pull away from the pack.
Dallas' drama is going to hurt them at some point, and they took advantage of an incredibly mediocre division last year to win it. With the Eagles reloading, that's not happening this year. They are solid, especially in the trenches, but do they have the gamebreaker needed to take them over the top? That's a question yet to be answered. Both the Giants and Washington are in similar spots with talent deficient rosters and rookie QB's waiting in the wings. It's a matter of when not if both of them start. Both have also been chronically mismanaged to boot. There is very little separating them, including how sports talk radio phone lines will explode with "when should Haskins and Jones start" takes.
AFC North:
1. Pittsburgh: 10-6
2. Cleveland: 9-7
3. Baltimore: 8-8
4. Cincinnati: 4-12
It's been 30 years since the Cleveland Browns won their division, and it feels like now more than ever is their best chance to. They had a spectacular offseason in bringing in loads of talent, and with a QB primed for a major jump in Baker Mayfield, it seems like this could be the year football in Cleveland is finally back. But not so fast my friends... the Steelers are still here. With everyone discounting them after the drama from last season, could it be that Pittsburgh is in a promising position now, one where they are the underdogs? Possibly. Replacing Brown and Bell is hard to do, but they basically had to do that last season and still nearly made the playoffs, and their defense is better now too. At some point, the pressure and expectations may weigh heavy on the young Browns shoulders.
Lamar Jackson took over towards the end of last season and lit up the league with inspired play running, but not so much throwing. The struggles in the Wild Card game against the Chargers might be an omen for 2019, especially because they've suffered through a major talent drain. Suggs, Mosley among others are not there, and that is going to catch up with them at some point. Jackson must show improvement as a passer, especially so the Ravens can win critical division toss-up games. And as for the Bengals, the Sean McVay coaching tree didn't drop a great apple here, with Zac Taylor struggling to build a staff and a healthy roster, especially with another awful AJ Green injury. Don't look now, but the Bengals are also very much in the Tua/Justin sweepstakes.
NFC North:
1. Green Bay: 11-5
2. Minnesota: 10-6
3. Chicago: 8-8
4. Detroit: 6-10
Matt LaFleur, another Sean McVay coaching tree apple, tries to ripen a bunch of stale Packers in cheese country. Aaron Rodgers seems on board, for now, and with that, plus a heavily revamped and revitalized defense, are the Packers back to being favorites again in this division? Seems so. Minnesota thought they were one great QB away last season, and they were right, because Kirk Cousins is not a great QB. But the offensive line did fail him, and they couldn't really run the ball nearly as well as they should have considering their talent. Some of that will regress back to "normal", which should make Vikings a playoff team.
There's something incredibly eerie about these Bears, namely that they remind me of last year's Jaguars. A team with a dominant defense that did things that are probably not replicable, and a QB that did barely enough to let the defense do what it needed to do. Mitch Trubisky should shudder at hearing Blake Bortles comparisons. Jacksonville finished 5-11 last season, and that was because the offense totally fell apart. That's not likely in Chicago, but some of those games that defense won in Chicago last year won't happen again this year. As for the Lions, Matt Patricia finds his team in limbo again. Not truly bad enough to tank, but not good enough to fully compete in the NFC for the playoffs. How much longer can that last?
AFC South:
1. Houston: 9-7
2. Tennessee: 8-8
3. Jacksonville: 7-9
4. Indianapolis: 5-11
Jeff Fisher, he very much the most AFC South coach of all time, said he wouldn't settle for 7-9 BS as coach of the Rams. His old division is very much the embodiment of 7-9 BS, with every team having a fatal flaw, but not so fatal that it could cost them the division. Houston (Bill O'Brien) traded away their entire future for an offensive lineman that they desperately needed in Laremy Tunsil, but they massively overpaid for, right after trading away former first overall pick Jadaveon Clowney for peanuts. But because Houston has DeShaun Watson, De'Andre Hopkins and JJ Watt, they may have enough to squeak the division out, even though they've mortgaged their future and could easily fall off again.
Tennessee is stuck with a QB in Marcus Mariota that is mediocre and unimpressive, which is also true of his skill position players, but buoyed by a solid defense, they should still be in contention, but just. The Jaguars realized their Blake Bortles mistake and overpaid Nick Foles to be their savior, and since he's a better QB than Bortles, and their defense is still one of the best in football, that should mean the Jaguars take advantage in this division, right? Speaking from experience, trusting them is incredibly difficult and finding consistency is even harder. They'll be better, but not playoffs better. And no matter what people say about Jacoby Brissett, he cannot lift the Colts to the playoffs, even though the roster around him is solid. An off year to draft/luck into a good QB might just be what's needed in Indy.
NFC South:
1. New Orleans: 12-4
2. Atlanta: 10-6
3. Carolina: 8-8
4. Tampa Bay: 6-10
After two of the most heartbreaking playoff exits in NFL history, the Saints try to regroup for one last ride with Drew Brees, who even through his Bayou superpowers might be starting to fade just a little. But with the talent around him, that won't hurt the Saints just yet. The postseason will once again define them. Atlanta lost practically their entire defense to injury last year, a defense that was extremely solid when put together. Matt Ryan also had a historically good season and is never really given his due. The Falcons will be back in the postseason this year.
Cam Newton is a beat up man, and while when healthy he is fantastic, he's just not healthy all that much anymore. They're still light in depth on offense, and that defense just isn't what it once was. They're not bad, but the NFC is too crowded for a team like them to make the postseason. Bruce Arians will try to revive Jameis Winston's career, and he's got a good chance of doing that with his offensive know-how. But their defense is awful, and no offense can outpace that bad a defense for long.
AFC West:
1. Kansas City: 13-3
2. Los Angeles Chargers: 11-5
3. Oakland: 5-11
4. Denver: 4-12
Kansas City has the league's MVP, some of its most explosive offensive weapons, and a thoroughly revitalized and improved defense. What's not to like? They're going to be one of the fastest teams in the league, and speed kills, especially with Pat Mahomes in control. There are some concerns at running back, but adding LeSean McCoy might just address those issues. How defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo holds up might be the difference between winning the Super Bowl and coming up short again.
Once again, the Chargers are solid all around, even without Melvin Gordon, Derwin James and Russell Okung. It's a testament to how well built that roster is. However, that game against the Patriots in the playoffs showed last year that they may have bumped up against the glass ceiling and have no further up to go. They're a no doubt playoff team, but they're not quite championship material. Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock have tried to drastically revamp the Raiders, and it feels like this is a pause year before moving into taxpayer paradise near Paradise, Nevada next year. They added big names, but the roster, particularly on defense, is shallow. The Broncos still think Joe Flacco is the same QB that beat them in the playoffs seven years ago, which isn't true. They have an OK defense, but this is a team primed for the bottom to really fault out. If not for some upper management issues, would John Elway still be running football ops?
NFC West:
1. Los Angeles Rams: 11-5
2. Seattle: 9-7
3. San Francisco: 7-9
4. Arizona: 5-11
Sean McVay himself still knows what he's doing, and even with a banged up Todd Gurley, they're still the team to beat in the NFC West. The Rams are not quite as deep as they once were, particularly on defense, but they have more than enough to win the division for a third straight year. Seattle has Russell Wilson, which makes them more than good enough to compete so long as he stays upright, and now they have a fearsome pass rusher in Jadaveon Clowney, but they may not have enough wholesale like some of their NFC playoff competitors now.
If Jimmy Garoppolo stays healthy, the 49ers have a chance to make the playoffs, especially considering how decent some of the backups looked last year. But they have too many other teams to pass to get there. Kyler Murray will be fun to watch this season when he has his moments of magic, but there are too many concerns about the rest of that roster, and the coaching staff, to get them beyond the basement.
AFC Playoff Order:
1. Kansas City
2. New England
3. Pittsburgh
4. Houston
5. LA Chargers
6. Cleveland
NFC Playoff Order:
1. New Orleans
2. Philadelphia
3. LA Rams
4. Green Bay
5. Atlanta
6. Minnesota
AFC Playoff Predictions:
3. Pittsburgh over 6. Cleveland
5. LA Chargers over 4. Houston
1. Kansas City over 5. LA Chargers
2. New England over 3. Pittsburgh
1. Kansas City over 2. New England
NFC Playoff Predictions:
3. LA Rams over 6. Minnesota
5. Atlanta over 4. Green Bay
1. New Orleans over 5. Atlanta
2. Philadelphia over 3. LA Rams
2. Philadelphia over 1. New Orleans
Super Bowl LIV: Kansas City over Philadelphia 34-27
The Andy Reid Bowl would pit two well constructed teams against one another, and two teams with so many connections from the front office down to the field. It would be a triumph of roster building, planning and coaching. Kansas City has just enough to squeak by and end their 50 year championship drought.
Award Predictions:
MVP: Patrick Mahomes (KC)
OPOY: Julio Jones (ATL)
DPOY: Aaron Donald (LAR)
OROY: Miles Sanders (PHI)
DROY: Josh Allen (JAX)
Comeback: Jimmy Garoppolo (SF)
Coach: Freddie Kitchens (CLE)
Sorry to everyone in Philadelphia and Kansas City in advance for these predictions, since it will inevitably jinx them. Enjoy the new season!
AFC East:
1. New England: 12-4
2. Buffalo: 8-8
3. New York Jets: 7-9
4. Miami: 3-13
Since 2001, the Patriots have failed to win the AFC East only twice. In that time, they've won six Super Bowls. With a league that is more even than ever, that is truly an incredible accomplishment. The defending champs are a little weaker this year without Gronk and irreplaceable center David Andrews, but Bill Belichick and company always find players to plug in those gaps, and they do it better than anyone else. While it looks like the AFC East might be finally catching up, that Brady guy, if he's still healthy, is hard to beat.
Buffalo has a solid roster behind Josh Allen, who I'm personally not a fan of, but his skillset works well with the up-and-coming squad they have. They aren't quite contenders yet though. The same can be same of the Jets and Adam Gase, even though the new coach pulled off an amazing coup to get front office control after previous management threw money at anyone who would listen this offseason. Gase has the chops though. And for his old team, they're tanking. Watch Alabama and Oregon games instead, Dolphins fans, your next QB is on one of those two teams.
NFC East:
1. Philadelphia: 12-4
2. Dallas: 9-7
3. New York Giants: 5-11
4. Washington: 5-11
I'm not going out on a limb when I say the Eagles are one of the best run teams in the league. They always find a way to acquire, develop and manage not just talent, but assets. Even when their franchise QB gets hurt, and the Super Bowl MVP backup leaves, they still can feel decently confident in the roster they've built. There are few spots where they are thin on their roster, and that depth is enough to pull away from the pack.
Dallas' drama is going to hurt them at some point, and they took advantage of an incredibly mediocre division last year to win it. With the Eagles reloading, that's not happening this year. They are solid, especially in the trenches, but do they have the gamebreaker needed to take them over the top? That's a question yet to be answered. Both the Giants and Washington are in similar spots with talent deficient rosters and rookie QB's waiting in the wings. It's a matter of when not if both of them start. Both have also been chronically mismanaged to boot. There is very little separating them, including how sports talk radio phone lines will explode with "when should Haskins and Jones start" takes.
AFC North:
1. Pittsburgh: 10-6
2. Cleveland: 9-7
3. Baltimore: 8-8
4. Cincinnati: 4-12
It's been 30 years since the Cleveland Browns won their division, and it feels like now more than ever is their best chance to. They had a spectacular offseason in bringing in loads of talent, and with a QB primed for a major jump in Baker Mayfield, it seems like this could be the year football in Cleveland is finally back. But not so fast my friends... the Steelers are still here. With everyone discounting them after the drama from last season, could it be that Pittsburgh is in a promising position now, one where they are the underdogs? Possibly. Replacing Brown and Bell is hard to do, but they basically had to do that last season and still nearly made the playoffs, and their defense is better now too. At some point, the pressure and expectations may weigh heavy on the young Browns shoulders.
Lamar Jackson took over towards the end of last season and lit up the league with inspired play running, but not so much throwing. The struggles in the Wild Card game against the Chargers might be an omen for 2019, especially because they've suffered through a major talent drain. Suggs, Mosley among others are not there, and that is going to catch up with them at some point. Jackson must show improvement as a passer, especially so the Ravens can win critical division toss-up games. And as for the Bengals, the Sean McVay coaching tree didn't drop a great apple here, with Zac Taylor struggling to build a staff and a healthy roster, especially with another awful AJ Green injury. Don't look now, but the Bengals are also very much in the Tua/Justin sweepstakes.
NFC North:
1. Green Bay: 11-5
2. Minnesota: 10-6
3. Chicago: 8-8
4. Detroit: 6-10
Matt LaFleur, another Sean McVay coaching tree apple, tries to ripen a bunch of stale Packers in cheese country. Aaron Rodgers seems on board, for now, and with that, plus a heavily revamped and revitalized defense, are the Packers back to being favorites again in this division? Seems so. Minnesota thought they were one great QB away last season, and they were right, because Kirk Cousins is not a great QB. But the offensive line did fail him, and they couldn't really run the ball nearly as well as they should have considering their talent. Some of that will regress back to "normal", which should make Vikings a playoff team.
There's something incredibly eerie about these Bears, namely that they remind me of last year's Jaguars. A team with a dominant defense that did things that are probably not replicable, and a QB that did barely enough to let the defense do what it needed to do. Mitch Trubisky should shudder at hearing Blake Bortles comparisons. Jacksonville finished 5-11 last season, and that was because the offense totally fell apart. That's not likely in Chicago, but some of those games that defense won in Chicago last year won't happen again this year. As for the Lions, Matt Patricia finds his team in limbo again. Not truly bad enough to tank, but not good enough to fully compete in the NFC for the playoffs. How much longer can that last?
AFC South:
1. Houston: 9-7
2. Tennessee: 8-8
3. Jacksonville: 7-9
4. Indianapolis: 5-11
Jeff Fisher, he very much the most AFC South coach of all time, said he wouldn't settle for 7-9 BS as coach of the Rams. His old division is very much the embodiment of 7-9 BS, with every team having a fatal flaw, but not so fatal that it could cost them the division. Houston (Bill O'Brien) traded away their entire future for an offensive lineman that they desperately needed in Laremy Tunsil, but they massively overpaid for, right after trading away former first overall pick Jadaveon Clowney for peanuts. But because Houston has DeShaun Watson, De'Andre Hopkins and JJ Watt, they may have enough to squeak the division out, even though they've mortgaged their future and could easily fall off again.
Tennessee is stuck with a QB in Marcus Mariota that is mediocre and unimpressive, which is also true of his skill position players, but buoyed by a solid defense, they should still be in contention, but just. The Jaguars realized their Blake Bortles mistake and overpaid Nick Foles to be their savior, and since he's a better QB than Bortles, and their defense is still one of the best in football, that should mean the Jaguars take advantage in this division, right? Speaking from experience, trusting them is incredibly difficult and finding consistency is even harder. They'll be better, but not playoffs better. And no matter what people say about Jacoby Brissett, he cannot lift the Colts to the playoffs, even though the roster around him is solid. An off year to draft/luck into a good QB might just be what's needed in Indy.
NFC South:
1. New Orleans: 12-4
2. Atlanta: 10-6
3. Carolina: 8-8
4. Tampa Bay: 6-10
After two of the most heartbreaking playoff exits in NFL history, the Saints try to regroup for one last ride with Drew Brees, who even through his Bayou superpowers might be starting to fade just a little. But with the talent around him, that won't hurt the Saints just yet. The postseason will once again define them. Atlanta lost practically their entire defense to injury last year, a defense that was extremely solid when put together. Matt Ryan also had a historically good season and is never really given his due. The Falcons will be back in the postseason this year.
Cam Newton is a beat up man, and while when healthy he is fantastic, he's just not healthy all that much anymore. They're still light in depth on offense, and that defense just isn't what it once was. They're not bad, but the NFC is too crowded for a team like them to make the postseason. Bruce Arians will try to revive Jameis Winston's career, and he's got a good chance of doing that with his offensive know-how. But their defense is awful, and no offense can outpace that bad a defense for long.
AFC West:
1. Kansas City: 13-3
2. Los Angeles Chargers: 11-5
3. Oakland: 5-11
4. Denver: 4-12
Kansas City has the league's MVP, some of its most explosive offensive weapons, and a thoroughly revitalized and improved defense. What's not to like? They're going to be one of the fastest teams in the league, and speed kills, especially with Pat Mahomes in control. There are some concerns at running back, but adding LeSean McCoy might just address those issues. How defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo holds up might be the difference between winning the Super Bowl and coming up short again.
Once again, the Chargers are solid all around, even without Melvin Gordon, Derwin James and Russell Okung. It's a testament to how well built that roster is. However, that game against the Patriots in the playoffs showed last year that they may have bumped up against the glass ceiling and have no further up to go. They're a no doubt playoff team, but they're not quite championship material. Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock have tried to drastically revamp the Raiders, and it feels like this is a pause year before moving into taxpayer paradise near Paradise, Nevada next year. They added big names, but the roster, particularly on defense, is shallow. The Broncos still think Joe Flacco is the same QB that beat them in the playoffs seven years ago, which isn't true. They have an OK defense, but this is a team primed for the bottom to really fault out. If not for some upper management issues, would John Elway still be running football ops?
NFC West:
1. Los Angeles Rams: 11-5
2. Seattle: 9-7
3. San Francisco: 7-9
4. Arizona: 5-11
Sean McVay himself still knows what he's doing, and even with a banged up Todd Gurley, they're still the team to beat in the NFC West. The Rams are not quite as deep as they once were, particularly on defense, but they have more than enough to win the division for a third straight year. Seattle has Russell Wilson, which makes them more than good enough to compete so long as he stays upright, and now they have a fearsome pass rusher in Jadaveon Clowney, but they may not have enough wholesale like some of their NFC playoff competitors now.
If Jimmy Garoppolo stays healthy, the 49ers have a chance to make the playoffs, especially considering how decent some of the backups looked last year. But they have too many other teams to pass to get there. Kyler Murray will be fun to watch this season when he has his moments of magic, but there are too many concerns about the rest of that roster, and the coaching staff, to get them beyond the basement.
AFC Playoff Order:
1. Kansas City
2. New England
3. Pittsburgh
4. Houston
5. LA Chargers
6. Cleveland
NFC Playoff Order:
1. New Orleans
2. Philadelphia
3. LA Rams
4. Green Bay
5. Atlanta
6. Minnesota
AFC Playoff Predictions:
3. Pittsburgh over 6. Cleveland
5. LA Chargers over 4. Houston
1. Kansas City over 5. LA Chargers
2. New England over 3. Pittsburgh
1. Kansas City over 2. New England
NFC Playoff Predictions:
3. LA Rams over 6. Minnesota
5. Atlanta over 4. Green Bay
1. New Orleans over 5. Atlanta
2. Philadelphia over 3. LA Rams
2. Philadelphia over 1. New Orleans
Super Bowl LIV: Kansas City over Philadelphia 34-27
The Andy Reid Bowl would pit two well constructed teams against one another, and two teams with so many connections from the front office down to the field. It would be a triumph of roster building, planning and coaching. Kansas City has just enough to squeak by and end their 50 year championship drought.
Award Predictions:
MVP: Patrick Mahomes (KC)
OPOY: Julio Jones (ATL)
DPOY: Aaron Donald (LAR)
OROY: Miles Sanders (PHI)
DROY: Josh Allen (JAX)
Comeback: Jimmy Garoppolo (SF)
Coach: Freddie Kitchens (CLE)
Sorry to everyone in Philadelphia and Kansas City in advance for these predictions, since it will inevitably jinx them. Enjoy the new season!
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Andrew Luck and Moral Courage
In professional sports, almost no one gets to retire on their own terms. Even for these exceptional athletes, the harsh realities of professional sports forces players to leave their games far earlier than anyone would want to. To be good enough to retire on your own accord is a great luxury afforded to very few.
Andrew Luck is one of those few lucky athletes. His powers and potential seemed limitless from the moment he stepped foot on a college football field, let alone in Indianapolis. Because of that, it seemed like his decision to retire would come long in the future, with rings on his fingers and with a gold jacket waiting for him one state over. But it came, shockingly, when he was still at the height of his powers, as a Super Bowl contender and one of the best quarterbacks in football.
Football is a grueling game. Getting physically ready to play becomes a task in of itself, and Andrew Luck's injury history is proof positive of that.
It's this cycle of pain and rehab, pain and rehab that never ceased which broke Andrew Luck's infectious love for football. He is a player who congratulated opposing defensive linemen who sacked with a big smile on his face, and almost never showed frustration. His happy go-lucky nature almost seemed misplaced in the cold, sometimes heartless NFL of today. But that happiness and childlike joy hid the real pain he went through; the pain of having to do the same thing over and over, while never getting a different result.
He was also, in another word, wordly. Football was his anything, but not his everything. He told Zak Keefer of the Athletic last year after the blowout loss to Kansas City in the playoffs that "if my worth as a human was going to be tied into how I did- the result of a performance in a football game- then I was going to have, pardon my French, a really s***ty life."
Luck might be one of the few football players who has ever earned the right to say that. Too often we see athletes as machines, robots, assets, pieces on a chess board in the game that has become so much a part of our collective self-worth, our identity and our sense of belonging. But human beings, with feelings, ambitions and complex emotions, are far more than that. Luck seemed keenly aware of it, even though he would never show it. He could proudly exclaim to the world he still owned a flip phone and people would not knock him for it because he's Andrew Luck.
So many people in life work their rear ends off to do what they love for a living, and so few get to do it. That love makes it easy to go through the ups and downs of the work of the job itself. Luck started to feel that football, specifically the grueling grind it takes physically and mentally just to play, was becoming work, which obfuscated the love of the game. He is certainly not the only one who feels this way in professional sports right now, but so many of them do not have the luxury of being a player who can dictate their own terms and say confidently, though still somewhat shaken, that this life isn't everything.
Very few professional athletes are wired like Andrew Luck, but so many go through those same experiences as he did. Too many never get the chance to say what he said, not just because of the money involved, but because these games were their entire life from practically birth until now. Giving it up means shifting to a world without control, which these players have given everything to acquire. As physically draining as these sports can be, the mental grind of just getting to the games can be even more grueling. And it is this affect that causes players to go through not just the physical labor of professional sports, but the emotional labor too.
For Andrew Luck to retire now with seemingly so much more to give is shocking, but also comforting. He recognized something that so many of his peers may never will, and so many wish they could. While the life of a professional athlete is one so many of us lay people would give everything for, there is something so wonderful about living life on your own terms. By the time a professional athlete reaches the pinnacle, they are often not in control anymore, becoming slaves to the game they love because they have nothing else to fall back on. Andrew Luck proved to the world that even at the very top of the top of the pyramid of professional sports, there is another way forward.
Perhaps Luck's decision offers a path forward for other athletes in a similar position, even though they are far less wealthy. Professional sports are not the be all and end all of life, even though for so many it feels like it. Short term pain for long term gain for many means playing through injuries and giving everything just to get another game check, but thanks to Andrew Luck, it may now mean that while giving up the game you love can be gut-wrenching, the other side of the mountain that is life can be more fulfilling even while doing so.
Mark Twain said that "it is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and yet moral courage so rare." Physical courage is a professional sports hallmark, yet moral courage, the courage of one's convictions, isn't. Andrew Luck showed moral courage to stand up for himself, against the whims of the professional sports machine and all that goaded him back into it, to live life on his terms, not someone else's.
His fellow professionals see that intrinsically, applauding publicly while silently nodding, many wishing they could do the same thing.
And on't we all wish we can do what he did, go out on our own terms to live life as we wish we could, confident in our own sense of self to do so?
Andrew Luck is one of those few lucky athletes. His powers and potential seemed limitless from the moment he stepped foot on a college football field, let alone in Indianapolis. Because of that, it seemed like his decision to retire would come long in the future, with rings on his fingers and with a gold jacket waiting for him one state over. But it came, shockingly, when he was still at the height of his powers, as a Super Bowl contender and one of the best quarterbacks in football.
Football is a grueling game. Getting physically ready to play becomes a task in of itself, and Andrew Luck's injury history is proof positive of that.
Physical toll on Andrew Luck through 6 NFL seasons:— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) August 25, 2019
» Torn cartilage in 2 ribs
» partially torn abdomen
» a lacerated kidney that left him peeing blood
» at least 1 concussion
» a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder
» and this mysterious calf/ankle issue that led to this
It's this cycle of pain and rehab, pain and rehab that never ceased which broke Andrew Luck's infectious love for football. He is a player who congratulated opposing defensive linemen who sacked with a big smile on his face, and almost never showed frustration. His happy go-lucky nature almost seemed misplaced in the cold, sometimes heartless NFL of today. But that happiness and childlike joy hid the real pain he went through; the pain of having to do the same thing over and over, while never getting a different result.
He was also, in another word, wordly. Football was his anything, but not his everything. He told Zak Keefer of the Athletic last year after the blowout loss to Kansas City in the playoffs that "if my worth as a human was going to be tied into how I did- the result of a performance in a football game- then I was going to have, pardon my French, a really s***ty life."
Luck might be one of the few football players who has ever earned the right to say that. Too often we see athletes as machines, robots, assets, pieces on a chess board in the game that has become so much a part of our collective self-worth, our identity and our sense of belonging. But human beings, with feelings, ambitions and complex emotions, are far more than that. Luck seemed keenly aware of it, even though he would never show it. He could proudly exclaim to the world he still owned a flip phone and people would not knock him for it because he's Andrew Luck.
So many people in life work their rear ends off to do what they love for a living, and so few get to do it. That love makes it easy to go through the ups and downs of the work of the job itself. Luck started to feel that football, specifically the grueling grind it takes physically and mentally just to play, was becoming work, which obfuscated the love of the game. He is certainly not the only one who feels this way in professional sports right now, but so many of them do not have the luxury of being a player who can dictate their own terms and say confidently, though still somewhat shaken, that this life isn't everything.
Very few professional athletes are wired like Andrew Luck, but so many go through those same experiences as he did. Too many never get the chance to say what he said, not just because of the money involved, but because these games were their entire life from practically birth until now. Giving it up means shifting to a world without control, which these players have given everything to acquire. As physically draining as these sports can be, the mental grind of just getting to the games can be even more grueling. And it is this affect that causes players to go through not just the physical labor of professional sports, but the emotional labor too.
For Andrew Luck to retire now with seemingly so much more to give is shocking, but also comforting. He recognized something that so many of his peers may never will, and so many wish they could. While the life of a professional athlete is one so many of us lay people would give everything for, there is something so wonderful about living life on your own terms. By the time a professional athlete reaches the pinnacle, they are often not in control anymore, becoming slaves to the game they love because they have nothing else to fall back on. Andrew Luck proved to the world that even at the very top of the top of the pyramid of professional sports, there is another way forward.
Perhaps Luck's decision offers a path forward for other athletes in a similar position, even though they are far less wealthy. Professional sports are not the be all and end all of life, even though for so many it feels like it. Short term pain for long term gain for many means playing through injuries and giving everything just to get another game check, but thanks to Andrew Luck, it may now mean that while giving up the game you love can be gut-wrenching, the other side of the mountain that is life can be more fulfilling even while doing so.
Mark Twain said that "it is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and yet moral courage so rare." Physical courage is a professional sports hallmark, yet moral courage, the courage of one's convictions, isn't. Andrew Luck showed moral courage to stand up for himself, against the whims of the professional sports machine and all that goaded him back into it, to live life on his terms, not someone else's.
His fellow professionals see that intrinsically, applauding publicly while silently nodding, many wishing they could do the same thing.
And on't we all wish we can do what he did, go out on our own terms to live life as we wish we could, confident in our own sense of self to do so?
Thursday, August 8, 2019
2019-20 Premier League Predictions
The transfer window has shut in England, Jim White has been put back in his cryogenic storage chamber until January 31 thanks to the new money from Comcast, and the Premier League's new season is just around the corner. More than ever, the league feels like an hourglass: very little in the middle, but quite a bit at the top and the bottom. Liverpool vs. Manchester City part two will be a spectacular show, the race for the top four will be entertaining as always, and a whole host of teams will try to stay in the big time. There's nothing quite like the Premier League on the planet, and this season should be no different.
Here are predictions you will probably discount and that will probably look dumb by November, in inverse order of predicted finish:
20. Norwich City
Copycats about in English soccer. When Jurgen Klopp proved that a German manager with a German style could bring reward, soon came the imitators on a lesser scale. Huddersfield pulled off multiple minor miracles with David Wagner which earned them two top flight seasons. Daniel Farke at Norwich has practically done the same. With a good dash of German nous, plus some promising young players, he transformed Norwich into a great attacking side. He will be relying plenty on players like Teemu Pukki, Max Aarons along with a couple of new loanees to keep the Canaries up. Farke hasn't exactly been backed with cash though. Their outgoing spend according to Transfermarkt was 3.75 million pounds. Can Norwich do what Huddersfield did a few seasons ago? They have more goals in them than the Terriers did, but they're not quite as solid defensively. Huddersfield staying up was a miracle, and Norwich staying up also will be a miracle.
19. Sheffield United:
Chris Wilder could be the next Eddie Howe, i.e. the next next big thing. Not too long ago, the Blades were in the third tier. They're in the Premier League now, well ahead of schedule. They haven't spent ridiculously, and have picked up quality in players like Oli McBurnie, Mo Besic and they even took a flyer on Ravel Morrison. Continuity will help in a major way, and their manager has proven he can do more with less, but does this group have the same potential as Bournemouth did? Probably not. Like with all teams at the bottom though, they have a punchers chance.
18. Brighton
Any Brighton fan would have taken two seasons in the top flight when they were promoted a couple of seasons ago, but it feels like they aspire to be more than a team that scrapes by to stay up, which is what Chris Hughton brought. Hiring Graham Potter, a manager who cut his teeth in Sweden with Ostersunds and took them from the fourth tier to the Europa League Round of 32 playing Arsenal in eight seasons, is certainly going in a different direction. He wants to play beautiful soccer, which is not exactly what they've been playing in the Premier League. They've made a couple of signings from the Championship, including big scorer Neal Maupay from Brentford because their big signings haven't exactly worked out. When Glenn Murray is still the club's leading marksman, that shows there have been problems in recruitment.
Potter took Swansea to 10th place last year, which isn't exactly amazing. But he could stay with the club for the long haul even if they're relegated. That, sadly, looks like it's in the Seagulls future.
17. Crystal Palace
When the calendar turns to December, that's when Palace wakes up and finally starts winning, no matter the manager. Roy Hodgson has done an incredible amount with what little he has, and what he nearly could have lost if Wilfried Zaha left this window. Thankfully for Palace, he didn't, but that situation is unsettled still. The big additions are James McCarthy from Everton who was lost in the shuffle and Victor Camarasa who was a very good player for a quite bad Cardiff team last term. They still don't have enough goals in their team, but with Roy's "magic" and some veteran experience, they'll have enough to scrape by, but it'll be a close shave.
16. Newcastle
Rafa Benitez finally had enough with the boardroom politics at St. James Park and departed for China, taking a huge amount of success with him. Not only did Newcastle finally feel safe from relegation for the first time in forever, Rafa felt like the glue holding the club together. But now that he's gone, the risk is back. Everyone sided with the Spanish manager and not ownership, which was the correct decision. Steve Bruce doesn't feel like an inspiring choice to replace him, but he has been backed with big signings Joelinton from Hoffenheim and Allan Saint-Maximin from Nice, who both have big potential. But do the players believe in the same way in Bruce as they did in Benitez? Whatever the case may be, the boardroom politics always translate to the pitch in the Northeast, and that means Newcastle are going to have to work hard to stay up, again, which they never should.
15. Aston Villa
Last year when Fulham was promoted, they spent the big bucks on trying to stay up and it flopped spectacularly. Aston Villa, back in the big leagues for the first time since 2016, are trying to do the same. They've spent a lot on players like Tyrone Mings, Matt Targett who have experience in England's top two flights, as well on other like Wesley, the Brazilian striker who came over from Belgium and Marvelous Nkamba, a midfielder who also came over from Club Brugge. The spending is always a risk, especially when it comes to building an entirely new squad. Dean Smith seems like a manager who is able to put it all together, however, and with far more stable ownership than when they went down, Villa looks to be on the right path to sustained success again. But the first year is always one of the toughest, and their saving grace might be just how many other teams are in their position.
14. Southampton
For the last few seasons, the Saints spent a lot of time dancing around possible, if not sometimes probable relegation. Ralph Hassenhuttl, the man who brought RB Leipzig into our lives, did a ton of work to keep Southampton up last season with not all that much. The signings haven't been there either, though there is potential with Che Adams from Birmingham City and Moussa Djenepo from Standard Liege. The squad is still a little bloated, but at times last year, Saints did look truly impressive. They're not what they were when they were a team challenging to break the Sky Six, but they may have enough this year to not dance around relegation for the first time in a while. However, teams like them, including Villa, Swansea and Sunderland, eventually did go down dancing around that fire for too long. There is major risk for Southampton now, but they seem to know just what to do to get out from under the trap door.
13. Burnley
Burnley are the new Stoke. They don't play beautiful soccer, they don't have the most talent around, but they always do enough not just to annoy you, but beat you by being their annoying selves, and they always stay up. In the new fast and fluid Premier League, a club like Burnley should have been relegated ages ago. But they're not going to be, not so long as Sean Dyche is at the club. They're managed well and run well, even though they don't spend a ton of money. Their biggest impact player could be Dwight McNeil, the young attacking midfielder from their academy who really picked up his form at the end of last season. They may never do what they did in finishing seventh a few seasons ago ever again, but until something major changes, rightly or wrongly, they're a Premier League club.
12. Bournemouth
What is more surprising: Bournemouth being in the top flight for their fifth straight season, or that Eddie Howe is still their manager? Both are pretty surprising, but since the latter directly influences the former, it's not as big of a surprise as it once would have been. They will never been in a direct relegation scrap, and they'll probably never push much higher than where they are right now, but so long as Eddie Howe is there and not at a big club, they'll be a consistent Premier League club. Their signings confirm that this summer. David Brooks had a really good season, and he alongside Leicester's James Maddison feel like the next big movers to big clubs in short order.
11. Watford
By Watford's standards, this summer was fairly quiet. The major outgoings were players who were either on loan or on the fringes, and they brought in fliers like Danny Welbeck in addition to their big signing of Ismaila Sarr to augment a squad that was already solid. Keeping Abdoulaye Doucoure, who is one of the most underrated midfielders in England, was a good piece of business. Nothing about Watford is spectacular, but they've become a pretty solid Premier League club that can always pull a shock against one of the league's big boys, as evidenced by their FA Cup Final run last year. It also feels like Javi Gracia is a manager that one day will be destined for a bigger club, too.
10. West Ham
It feels like West Ham are suffering from an old creed from "Bill Nye": inertia is a property of matter. They're never going to be in a relegation scrap ever again, but they never feel like they'll ever seriously challenge for Europe. Sebastian Haller and Pablo Fornals are ambitious signings, but ones that carry enough risk that the big boys stayed away. They have potential as ever. Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmolenko are players who have bigger clubs in their future, but something always holds them back, something that the three clubs above them always seem to possess.
9. Wolves
They had a spectacular season last term playing exactly the way Nuno wanted them do, and they did it to the effect of being the most successful newly promoted team ever. There's no reason to think that they can't do that again with the entirety of their squad back plus smart additions like Patrick Cutrone and Jesus Vallejo, but there is an elephant in the room: Europa League. It's called a poisoned chalice for a reason. Bigger and better clubs have been tripped up by Thursdays in random parts of the Schengen area and beyond, and Wolves have to contend with that and with the grind of another Premier League season with clubs knowing what to do against them now. That's a tough needle to thread. Expect a little regression this year, but they'll still be a top half side.
8. Everton
Remember when the thing holding Everton back was ambitious ownership that would spend big? Well that's not a problem anymore, and they still always hit the glass ceiling no matter the manager. Marco Silva hit it last year, in spite of Everton spending gobs of cash and not doing it so well. They've done it again, but this time losing quite a bit more from their squad, including Idrissa Gana and Ademola Lookman. They've reinvested well in Moise Kean, Fabian Delph and perhaps Alex Iwobi, but it still feels like something is missing. They're deeper than Wolves and West Ham, but they're not seemingly what they want to be, strive to be; mostly because they are what they can be and no more. They could make a European appearance this year, but finishing a relatively mediocre but safe eighth seems like it's Everton's destiny.
7. Leicester
They are not the team that won the Premier League in 2016, far from it. That's not something that will ever happen again. But every summer, they lose a critical piece (last year Riyad Mahrez, this year Harry Maguire) and they don't lose a step. Brendan Rogers has a very good squad to work with this year including two great young Belgian midfielders in Youri Tielemans and Dennis Praet, a budding superstar in James Maddison and that Vardy guy. Bu they're not as strong in central defense as they once were, and if Vardy's not scoring goals, who is? They are the best of the rest in England, especially with their manager (I know we all laugh at Deluded Brendan but he's not really that anymore). It's hard not to be impressed with what they've done.
6. Manchester United
Into the Sky Six we go, and we find Manchester United in a very weird spot. They've spent big on three British players that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wanted, but yet something is missing. Romelu Lukaku is gone with his replacement possibly being a revitalized Alexis Sanchez or maybe a 17 year old. Paul Pogba is still evidently not happy, and after that initial burst when Solskjaer arrived, Manchester United scuppered to the finish. Would anyone be shocked to see United sack him if they're hovering around 10th in November? Probably not, but the club's problems go deeper than him. Recruitment, structure, vision are all missing. The other five above them seem to have more of that in spite of their issues. United seem not just stuck, but listless.
5. Chelsea
Frank Lampard, after one season of nearly taking Derby County to the Premier League, is now Chelsea's manager. He comes in after Maurizio Sarri won the Europa League and finished third, but left a sour taste in Chelsea's mouth on the way out. Chelsea were also on a transfer ban, so their winter signing of Christian Pulisic is their only true new incoming, if you don't account for young players like Mason Mount. Losing Eden Hazard, the one true transcendent player they had through all the ups and downs, means this club is going to look quite strange. No Ruben Loftus-Cheek for a while will also hurt. Will some of the loan army that is returning give Chelsea a chance at the top four? Yes. Will Christian Pulisic be good, but probably not live up to his transfer fee? Probably. Were they handcuffed this window to do anything notable? Yes. All of this means that while they made the Champions League a season ago, they may not make it again.
4. Arsenal
I'm an unabashed Spurs supporter, and still laugh at pretty much everything Arsenal has done in the last four or five years as their North London neighbors basically lapped them. But this summer, they did put their money where their mouth is and made some good additions. Nicolas Pepe has a chance to be a star forward and combine well with Aubamayeng, Lacazette and perhaps even Mesut Ozil. Dani Ceballos isn't an Aaron Ramsey replacement, but he's going to help fill the void. Torreira and Guendouzi is a wonderful midfield duo for Unai Emery to build around. But that defense is still an absolute mess, particularly at centerback. David Luiz still looks and defends like Sideshow Bob, and who else is going to help him out? At least with Bellerin and Kieran Tierney, they have the fullbacks to cover up some of those ills.
But after what happened at the end of last year with the collapse in league form and the second half in Baku, questions still must be asked. But with United and Chelsea in various states of transition and disarray, the Champions League beckons because at least Stan Kroenke put his money where his mouth is... that is if he ever talked publicly.
3. Spurs
Last year for Spurs was a season of miracles coming together to create magic when it looked like inertia was going to hit the blue half of North London. The stadium didn't open until April, they made no new signings and injuries ravaged just about everyone. Mauricio Pochettino took a team put together with spit and duck tape, got them safely in the top four and they made the Champions League Final. It was an insane ride.
And after an 18 month wait for new signings, the incoming names were major. Tanguy Ndombele is a midfield star in the making, and he already performed on the big stage with Lyon, so slotting in next to Moussa Sissoko or Harry Winks could create a dominant central midfield which Spurs have used so spectacularly in the past. Giovani Lo Celso could be a Christian Eriksen running mate or replacement, and he has all the tools to be one of the best young attacking midfielders in Europe. Ryan Sessesgnon is a young player with promise that Spurs under Pochettino have turned into gold.
So why can't they challenge for a Premier League title? They still lack depth behind Harry Kane, their defense is not spectacular, especially at right back, and that run last year took a lot out of them. While they don't have to worry about the concerns of an entire squad coming in late for the season because of World Cup excursions, it still feels like they're not totally right until the frontrunners are well out of the blocks already. But with the new signings, and the new stadium, it feels like Spurs are finally on solid footing. Maybe this year, it finally leads to a trophy.
2. Manchester City
What City did last year domestically was absolutely insane. They almost never put a foot wrong, and as Pep often does, he recreates his tactics and takes everyone by surprise every time he does. They had a real sparring partner last year in Liverpool and still outlasted them. Getting good work out of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Phil Foden certainly helps, and if they take another step, then that could be it for everyone else. Rodri is also going to be a star. But there are worries. David Silva and Sergio Aguero can't keep this up forever, can they? Leroy Sane's ACL injury is a major concern too. And will they put more resources in the Champions League to finally win it after so many close calls? A triple Premier League winner would be fitting for Pep, but considering their big rival from last year has everything but a domestic crown now, and considering that the allure of Europe is still super strong, perhaps it means there's a swap at the top coming.
1. Liverpool
Liverpool did everything right last year, and still didn't win the Premier League. But once they got a little fortune in Europe, they hoisted another European crown. For this new campaign, they bring back basically everyone, but very little has changed. That's not a bad thing for a team that last year was better than everyone except City, but a little freshening up in some key areas, like up front, may have helped add a new dimension to a team that was already frightening. Perhaps a step up for Naby Keita could be just that.
Having won in Europe, but being denied in England could be an interesting motivator this campaign. Do Liverpool go all out in the league, leaving a little in Europe, to win the one trophy they haven't won? It seems like it's destiny for them to complete that mission, and even after a rough preseason, it seems like that may be the aim. If Liverpool win the league, and City win the Champions League, it would feel fitting. Maybe most fitting would be if those two played in the Champions League final too.
So these are my Premier League predictions, sure to fail as they always tend to. But it's good to have the world's biggest sporting circus back, we all kinda missed it.
Here are predictions you will probably discount and that will probably look dumb by November, in inverse order of predicted finish:
20. Norwich City
Copycats about in English soccer. When Jurgen Klopp proved that a German manager with a German style could bring reward, soon came the imitators on a lesser scale. Huddersfield pulled off multiple minor miracles with David Wagner which earned them two top flight seasons. Daniel Farke at Norwich has practically done the same. With a good dash of German nous, plus some promising young players, he transformed Norwich into a great attacking side. He will be relying plenty on players like Teemu Pukki, Max Aarons along with a couple of new loanees to keep the Canaries up. Farke hasn't exactly been backed with cash though. Their outgoing spend according to Transfermarkt was 3.75 million pounds. Can Norwich do what Huddersfield did a few seasons ago? They have more goals in them than the Terriers did, but they're not quite as solid defensively. Huddersfield staying up was a miracle, and Norwich staying up also will be a miracle.
19. Sheffield United:
Chris Wilder could be the next Eddie Howe, i.e. the next next big thing. Not too long ago, the Blades were in the third tier. They're in the Premier League now, well ahead of schedule. They haven't spent ridiculously, and have picked up quality in players like Oli McBurnie, Mo Besic and they even took a flyer on Ravel Morrison. Continuity will help in a major way, and their manager has proven he can do more with less, but does this group have the same potential as Bournemouth did? Probably not. Like with all teams at the bottom though, they have a punchers chance.
18. Brighton
Any Brighton fan would have taken two seasons in the top flight when they were promoted a couple of seasons ago, but it feels like they aspire to be more than a team that scrapes by to stay up, which is what Chris Hughton brought. Hiring Graham Potter, a manager who cut his teeth in Sweden with Ostersunds and took them from the fourth tier to the Europa League Round of 32 playing Arsenal in eight seasons, is certainly going in a different direction. He wants to play beautiful soccer, which is not exactly what they've been playing in the Premier League. They've made a couple of signings from the Championship, including big scorer Neal Maupay from Brentford because their big signings haven't exactly worked out. When Glenn Murray is still the club's leading marksman, that shows there have been problems in recruitment.
Potter took Swansea to 10th place last year, which isn't exactly amazing. But he could stay with the club for the long haul even if they're relegated. That, sadly, looks like it's in the Seagulls future.
17. Crystal Palace
When the calendar turns to December, that's when Palace wakes up and finally starts winning, no matter the manager. Roy Hodgson has done an incredible amount with what little he has, and what he nearly could have lost if Wilfried Zaha left this window. Thankfully for Palace, he didn't, but that situation is unsettled still. The big additions are James McCarthy from Everton who was lost in the shuffle and Victor Camarasa who was a very good player for a quite bad Cardiff team last term. They still don't have enough goals in their team, but with Roy's "magic" and some veteran experience, they'll have enough to scrape by, but it'll be a close shave.
16. Newcastle
Rafa Benitez finally had enough with the boardroom politics at St. James Park and departed for China, taking a huge amount of success with him. Not only did Newcastle finally feel safe from relegation for the first time in forever, Rafa felt like the glue holding the club together. But now that he's gone, the risk is back. Everyone sided with the Spanish manager and not ownership, which was the correct decision. Steve Bruce doesn't feel like an inspiring choice to replace him, but he has been backed with big signings Joelinton from Hoffenheim and Allan Saint-Maximin from Nice, who both have big potential. But do the players believe in the same way in Bruce as they did in Benitez? Whatever the case may be, the boardroom politics always translate to the pitch in the Northeast, and that means Newcastle are going to have to work hard to stay up, again, which they never should.
15. Aston Villa
Last year when Fulham was promoted, they spent the big bucks on trying to stay up and it flopped spectacularly. Aston Villa, back in the big leagues for the first time since 2016, are trying to do the same. They've spent a lot on players like Tyrone Mings, Matt Targett who have experience in England's top two flights, as well on other like Wesley, the Brazilian striker who came over from Belgium and Marvelous Nkamba, a midfielder who also came over from Club Brugge. The spending is always a risk, especially when it comes to building an entirely new squad. Dean Smith seems like a manager who is able to put it all together, however, and with far more stable ownership than when they went down, Villa looks to be on the right path to sustained success again. But the first year is always one of the toughest, and their saving grace might be just how many other teams are in their position.
14. Southampton
For the last few seasons, the Saints spent a lot of time dancing around possible, if not sometimes probable relegation. Ralph Hassenhuttl, the man who brought RB Leipzig into our lives, did a ton of work to keep Southampton up last season with not all that much. The signings haven't been there either, though there is potential with Che Adams from Birmingham City and Moussa Djenepo from Standard Liege. The squad is still a little bloated, but at times last year, Saints did look truly impressive. They're not what they were when they were a team challenging to break the Sky Six, but they may have enough this year to not dance around relegation for the first time in a while. However, teams like them, including Villa, Swansea and Sunderland, eventually did go down dancing around that fire for too long. There is major risk for Southampton now, but they seem to know just what to do to get out from under the trap door.
13. Burnley
Burnley are the new Stoke. They don't play beautiful soccer, they don't have the most talent around, but they always do enough not just to annoy you, but beat you by being their annoying selves, and they always stay up. In the new fast and fluid Premier League, a club like Burnley should have been relegated ages ago. But they're not going to be, not so long as Sean Dyche is at the club. They're managed well and run well, even though they don't spend a ton of money. Their biggest impact player could be Dwight McNeil, the young attacking midfielder from their academy who really picked up his form at the end of last season. They may never do what they did in finishing seventh a few seasons ago ever again, but until something major changes, rightly or wrongly, they're a Premier League club.
12. Bournemouth
What is more surprising: Bournemouth being in the top flight for their fifth straight season, or that Eddie Howe is still their manager? Both are pretty surprising, but since the latter directly influences the former, it's not as big of a surprise as it once would have been. They will never been in a direct relegation scrap, and they'll probably never push much higher than where they are right now, but so long as Eddie Howe is there and not at a big club, they'll be a consistent Premier League club. Their signings confirm that this summer. David Brooks had a really good season, and he alongside Leicester's James Maddison feel like the next big movers to big clubs in short order.
11. Watford
By Watford's standards, this summer was fairly quiet. The major outgoings were players who were either on loan or on the fringes, and they brought in fliers like Danny Welbeck in addition to their big signing of Ismaila Sarr to augment a squad that was already solid. Keeping Abdoulaye Doucoure, who is one of the most underrated midfielders in England, was a good piece of business. Nothing about Watford is spectacular, but they've become a pretty solid Premier League club that can always pull a shock against one of the league's big boys, as evidenced by their FA Cup Final run last year. It also feels like Javi Gracia is a manager that one day will be destined for a bigger club, too.
10. West Ham
It feels like West Ham are suffering from an old creed from "Bill Nye": inertia is a property of matter. They're never going to be in a relegation scrap ever again, but they never feel like they'll ever seriously challenge for Europe. Sebastian Haller and Pablo Fornals are ambitious signings, but ones that carry enough risk that the big boys stayed away. They have potential as ever. Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmolenko are players who have bigger clubs in their future, but something always holds them back, something that the three clubs above them always seem to possess.
9. Wolves
They had a spectacular season last term playing exactly the way Nuno wanted them do, and they did it to the effect of being the most successful newly promoted team ever. There's no reason to think that they can't do that again with the entirety of their squad back plus smart additions like Patrick Cutrone and Jesus Vallejo, but there is an elephant in the room: Europa League. It's called a poisoned chalice for a reason. Bigger and better clubs have been tripped up by Thursdays in random parts of the Schengen area and beyond, and Wolves have to contend with that and with the grind of another Premier League season with clubs knowing what to do against them now. That's a tough needle to thread. Expect a little regression this year, but they'll still be a top half side.
8. Everton
Remember when the thing holding Everton back was ambitious ownership that would spend big? Well that's not a problem anymore, and they still always hit the glass ceiling no matter the manager. Marco Silva hit it last year, in spite of Everton spending gobs of cash and not doing it so well. They've done it again, but this time losing quite a bit more from their squad, including Idrissa Gana and Ademola Lookman. They've reinvested well in Moise Kean, Fabian Delph and perhaps Alex Iwobi, but it still feels like something is missing. They're deeper than Wolves and West Ham, but they're not seemingly what they want to be, strive to be; mostly because they are what they can be and no more. They could make a European appearance this year, but finishing a relatively mediocre but safe eighth seems like it's Everton's destiny.
7. Leicester
They are not the team that won the Premier League in 2016, far from it. That's not something that will ever happen again. But every summer, they lose a critical piece (last year Riyad Mahrez, this year Harry Maguire) and they don't lose a step. Brendan Rogers has a very good squad to work with this year including two great young Belgian midfielders in Youri Tielemans and Dennis Praet, a budding superstar in James Maddison and that Vardy guy. Bu they're not as strong in central defense as they once were, and if Vardy's not scoring goals, who is? They are the best of the rest in England, especially with their manager (I know we all laugh at Deluded Brendan but he's not really that anymore). It's hard not to be impressed with what they've done.
6. Manchester United
Into the Sky Six we go, and we find Manchester United in a very weird spot. They've spent big on three British players that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wanted, but yet something is missing. Romelu Lukaku is gone with his replacement possibly being a revitalized Alexis Sanchez or maybe a 17 year old. Paul Pogba is still evidently not happy, and after that initial burst when Solskjaer arrived, Manchester United scuppered to the finish. Would anyone be shocked to see United sack him if they're hovering around 10th in November? Probably not, but the club's problems go deeper than him. Recruitment, structure, vision are all missing. The other five above them seem to have more of that in spite of their issues. United seem not just stuck, but listless.
5. Chelsea
Frank Lampard, after one season of nearly taking Derby County to the Premier League, is now Chelsea's manager. He comes in after Maurizio Sarri won the Europa League and finished third, but left a sour taste in Chelsea's mouth on the way out. Chelsea were also on a transfer ban, so their winter signing of Christian Pulisic is their only true new incoming, if you don't account for young players like Mason Mount. Losing Eden Hazard, the one true transcendent player they had through all the ups and downs, means this club is going to look quite strange. No Ruben Loftus-Cheek for a while will also hurt. Will some of the loan army that is returning give Chelsea a chance at the top four? Yes. Will Christian Pulisic be good, but probably not live up to his transfer fee? Probably. Were they handcuffed this window to do anything notable? Yes. All of this means that while they made the Champions League a season ago, they may not make it again.
4. Arsenal
I'm an unabashed Spurs supporter, and still laugh at pretty much everything Arsenal has done in the last four or five years as their North London neighbors basically lapped them. But this summer, they did put their money where their mouth is and made some good additions. Nicolas Pepe has a chance to be a star forward and combine well with Aubamayeng, Lacazette and perhaps even Mesut Ozil. Dani Ceballos isn't an Aaron Ramsey replacement, but he's going to help fill the void. Torreira and Guendouzi is a wonderful midfield duo for Unai Emery to build around. But that defense is still an absolute mess, particularly at centerback. David Luiz still looks and defends like Sideshow Bob, and who else is going to help him out? At least with Bellerin and Kieran Tierney, they have the fullbacks to cover up some of those ills.
But after what happened at the end of last year with the collapse in league form and the second half in Baku, questions still must be asked. But with United and Chelsea in various states of transition and disarray, the Champions League beckons because at least Stan Kroenke put his money where his mouth is... that is if he ever talked publicly.
3. Spurs
Last year for Spurs was a season of miracles coming together to create magic when it looked like inertia was going to hit the blue half of North London. The stadium didn't open until April, they made no new signings and injuries ravaged just about everyone. Mauricio Pochettino took a team put together with spit and duck tape, got them safely in the top four and they made the Champions League Final. It was an insane ride.
And after an 18 month wait for new signings, the incoming names were major. Tanguy Ndombele is a midfield star in the making, and he already performed on the big stage with Lyon, so slotting in next to Moussa Sissoko or Harry Winks could create a dominant central midfield which Spurs have used so spectacularly in the past. Giovani Lo Celso could be a Christian Eriksen running mate or replacement, and he has all the tools to be one of the best young attacking midfielders in Europe. Ryan Sessesgnon is a young player with promise that Spurs under Pochettino have turned into gold.
So why can't they challenge for a Premier League title? They still lack depth behind Harry Kane, their defense is not spectacular, especially at right back, and that run last year took a lot out of them. While they don't have to worry about the concerns of an entire squad coming in late for the season because of World Cup excursions, it still feels like they're not totally right until the frontrunners are well out of the blocks already. But with the new signings, and the new stadium, it feels like Spurs are finally on solid footing. Maybe this year, it finally leads to a trophy.
2. Manchester City
What City did last year domestically was absolutely insane. They almost never put a foot wrong, and as Pep often does, he recreates his tactics and takes everyone by surprise every time he does. They had a real sparring partner last year in Liverpool and still outlasted them. Getting good work out of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Phil Foden certainly helps, and if they take another step, then that could be it for everyone else. Rodri is also going to be a star. But there are worries. David Silva and Sergio Aguero can't keep this up forever, can they? Leroy Sane's ACL injury is a major concern too. And will they put more resources in the Champions League to finally win it after so many close calls? A triple Premier League winner would be fitting for Pep, but considering their big rival from last year has everything but a domestic crown now, and considering that the allure of Europe is still super strong, perhaps it means there's a swap at the top coming.
1. Liverpool
Liverpool did everything right last year, and still didn't win the Premier League. But once they got a little fortune in Europe, they hoisted another European crown. For this new campaign, they bring back basically everyone, but very little has changed. That's not a bad thing for a team that last year was better than everyone except City, but a little freshening up in some key areas, like up front, may have helped add a new dimension to a team that was already frightening. Perhaps a step up for Naby Keita could be just that.
Having won in Europe, but being denied in England could be an interesting motivator this campaign. Do Liverpool go all out in the league, leaving a little in Europe, to win the one trophy they haven't won? It seems like it's destiny for them to complete that mission, and even after a rough preseason, it seems like that may be the aim. If Liverpool win the league, and City win the Champions League, it would feel fitting. Maybe most fitting would be if those two played in the Champions League final too.
So these are my Premier League predictions, sure to fail as they always tend to. But it's good to have the world's biggest sporting circus back, we all kinda missed it.
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
The @footballergay hoax, and what's next in helping athletes come out
On July 5, a Twitter account came into life. It was called "the Gay Footballer". On that day, its first tweet said that the owner of the account was a player in the EFL Championship, England's second tier soccer league who had come out to his family, was under 23 and was getting ready to tell the world his story. For 19 days, the account picked up nearly 50,000 followers while tweeting play-by-play of the process of meeting high ranking club officials to carefully plan the next steps. All seemed positive. On July 21, the account tweeted the date July 24, 2019 with a rainbow flag emoji, signifying that would be the day when the player would reveal who he was. But on July 23, after cryptically deleting more than 60 tweets and unfollowing the nearly 1,500 accounts it had followed, the account was deleted after sending tweets saying the player "wasn't strong enough" and couldn't come out while furiously denying that this whole episode was a hoax.
It's clear that this account was a well constructed, incredibly insidious and evil hoax. I wanted to believe it was real even though my first thoughts when seeing the account pop up were, "that's odd." Most high level celebrities and athletes when they come out have not narrated their climbing of that mountain through anonymous social media accounts. All of the hard work happens behind the scenes, with little indication that an announcement is coming publicly until it happens. When Collin Martin, Robbie Rogers and Jason Collins came out publicly, the announcements in many ways came out of nowhere. Knowing that made the circumstances regarding this account questionable, but as time passed, I began to believe that it was real, not because of anything it was saying, but because creating a hoax like this would be a gigantic risk to whoever constructed it. The English tabloids, though they didn't cover this story as intensely as you think they would when it first emerged, would be all over trying to figure out who was behind the account and exposing them if it wasn't real. For the person who constructed the lie, they'd be putting themselves in hot water knowing they'd have to put even more work into the cover up than the account itself.
Since the account is now gone and no one publicly came out, the skepticism turned out to be correct. Instead of focusing on who concocted the lies and why they did it, it's time to focus on why in 2019, there are so few high level male athletes that are out worldwide and how we can help change that.
Part of the amazing story of the US Women's National Team winning the World Cup the way they did was how openly queer they were. Megan Rapinoe especially made no bones about her sexuality and embracing it, which along with the five other out players on that team, made a statement that has not been made in sports like that before.
But while their unabashed queerness is trendsetting and groundbreaking, it's not entirely analogous to the situation with the now deleted twitter account. There's an insidious expectation that high level female athletes are automatically gay because high level athletics is "manly", and queer women are expected to try to act like men. That isn't why there are scores more openly queer female athletes than male, far from it. But watching Kelly O'Hara, who wasn't previously out publicly, walk up to her girlfriend in the stands in Lyon after winning the World Cup and kiss her, you understand just how different the playing field is for out female athletes and out male athletes, and just how different the expectations and stereotypes are.
Sports are supposed to be "manly", "tough", and a host of other synonyms for those two words, and gay men are decidedly not that, according to popular, deep-rooted and factually incorrect stereotypes. Being "feminine", as gay man are assumed to be is not possible in sports because you need to be a "man" to deal with the raw physicality, toughness and other stereotypes that dominate the perception of sports to this day. None of that is anywhere near close to true obviously, but those regressive ideas are still stuck in too many corners of the male sports world, which is why you get stories about how overwhelming majorities of teenage queer athletes are not out and feel afraid to be, and a not insignificant number feel unsafe in locker rooms. That culture translates to the language used, which includes a number of demeaning slurs including calling people girls for not being "tough" and of course, the British slang term for a cigarette I won't use here.
The irony is that most athletes who use this language aren't homophobic, far from it. Mostly, they're saying it because they think it's either funny, or that it's "normal", because no one has ever told them said language is neither of those things. Most would be perfectly fine with a gay teammate, but don't realize the impact their language has on closeted individuals.
"The use of this language also appears to be motivated by a desire for social acceptance", researchers at Monsah University in Australia said in their study on the issue, "rather than overt homophobia or sexism and players had misconceptions around how others on their team view this language, and also around how this language use would create an unwelcoming environment for LGB people and women."
Those words make people not only feel like they don't belong, but they are lesser than, and that is not an environment conducive for success. These closeted athletes then more than likely leave before ever reaching a high level, and those that end up breaking through are still deeply closeted when they do succeed. And once those kids, who have been raised in a conforming, non-questioning culture end up staying in it as coaches to teach a new generation, the cycle repeats itself. Only now has the cycle started to break with a higher interest in addressing this problem, but this is still a major problem all across male sports, particularly male team sports.
That culture still exists in many ways even at the highest levels of all sports, certainly still in English soccer. And while the leagues are starting to realize what they have to do in order to foster culture that allows queer athletes to feel open to be themeselves, let alone feel safe in these spaces, there is a long way to go. When Collin Martin, Robbie Rogers, Jason Collins among others came out, they rose above the fray because they were uniquely situation to overcome the challenges that an openly gay male athlete still faces, but they still vividly documented the difficulties they had in accepting themselves in that space to get to that point. They are certainly not alone.
It's extremely unlikely that there are zero other high level gay professional soccer players playing right now across the globe; it is statistically impossible. It's also highly unlikely that in the four major leagues in this country, there are zero gay athletes in those locker rooms too. There are perhaps hundreds of untold stories past and present waiting to be told, but these people never received the direct or indirect support to tell them. They never felt anywhere near safe enough to do so.
Put all of this into a blender, and you can see why so many were hopeful that @footballergay was real, and not what it turned out to be. Sports seems to be the final frontier for the queer community, particularly queer men, and that finish line is getting ever closer, but still so far away. As societal attitudes change, someone soon is going to come out. They will not be anonymously tweeting the play-by-play of their behind the scenes process; they will come out much like how Rogers, Martin, Collins and others did. How can we help them do so, so that they feel comfortable being themselves by default?
If you hear homophobic language and slurs, tell those people not just to stop saying them, but why they hurt and what you can say otherwise. While you'll inevitably get some resistance, the large majority of people don't know what damage those words can do, and don't want to hurt anyone. Newly out Australian soccer player Andy Brennan recently told a story about how he did that during a game and how the reaction was of shock and regret from that player about his words, not resistance and anger.
Progress here is not linear. We are thankfully light years ahead of when Graeme Le Saux was rumored to be gay because he read the Guardian and wasn't interested in the typical lifestyle of a high level English soccer player, and where hockey coaches would call places on the ice where you shouldn't pass the puck "queer street", but not far enough ahead for episodes like this one to be a fear, not a reality. Someone, somewhere, is preparing to come out, and they need support not just from their own circle, but beyond to feel safe in doing so.
The fevered interest in @footballergay and it's story, and the largely positive support it got when people believed it was real shows that at the very least, something here has changed for the better.
"It is a not a personal desire to be perceived as a pioneer of any kind," the account wrote early on. "My hope is simply to be able to pursue the career and dream I've had since childhood, while simultaneously being permitted to be myself". Obviously, the person behind that account had no desire to do any of that, but people who have come out did that and those who will follow will want to do that too. They need the chance to do so, and it's incumbent on all of us, even those who already came out to make that possible.
We can all be angry at this particularly false dawn, but know that there is hope in that disappointment. Hopefully it isn't just people like me who have a vested interest in these stories who are angry and hurt. But that anger can be channeled into doing actual good for people who desperately need it so when they feel it's time to tell the world their truth, they can do so confidently, safely and freely.
For the heartbroken and closeted young soccer player who desperately wanted this to be real, there needs to be hope that one day a story like this will be. We all, queer or not, have a responsibility to help make that a reality. Hopefully after this sad episode, the lessons learned will make it easier for someone to feel free and safe to tell their truth, and be celebrated for doing so.
It's more than past due.
It's clear that this account was a well constructed, incredibly insidious and evil hoax. I wanted to believe it was real even though my first thoughts when seeing the account pop up were, "that's odd." Most high level celebrities and athletes when they come out have not narrated their climbing of that mountain through anonymous social media accounts. All of the hard work happens behind the scenes, with little indication that an announcement is coming publicly until it happens. When Collin Martin, Robbie Rogers and Jason Collins came out publicly, the announcements in many ways came out of nowhere. Knowing that made the circumstances regarding this account questionable, but as time passed, I began to believe that it was real, not because of anything it was saying, but because creating a hoax like this would be a gigantic risk to whoever constructed it. The English tabloids, though they didn't cover this story as intensely as you think they would when it first emerged, would be all over trying to figure out who was behind the account and exposing them if it wasn't real. For the person who constructed the lie, they'd be putting themselves in hot water knowing they'd have to put even more work into the cover up than the account itself.
Since the account is now gone and no one publicly came out, the skepticism turned out to be correct. Instead of focusing on who concocted the lies and why they did it, it's time to focus on why in 2019, there are so few high level male athletes that are out worldwide and how we can help change that.
Part of the amazing story of the US Women's National Team winning the World Cup the way they did was how openly queer they were. Megan Rapinoe especially made no bones about her sexuality and embracing it, which along with the five other out players on that team, made a statement that has not been made in sports like that before.
GAYS rule. It’s science. And you are welcome. https://t.co/Cc2qC1NfIE— Ashlyn Harris (@Ashlyn_Harris) July 7, 2019
But while their unabashed queerness is trendsetting and groundbreaking, it's not entirely analogous to the situation with the now deleted twitter account. There's an insidious expectation that high level female athletes are automatically gay because high level athletics is "manly", and queer women are expected to try to act like men. That isn't why there are scores more openly queer female athletes than male, far from it. But watching Kelly O'Hara, who wasn't previously out publicly, walk up to her girlfriend in the stands in Lyon after winning the World Cup and kiss her, you understand just how different the playing field is for out female athletes and out male athletes, and just how different the expectations and stereotypes are.
Sports are supposed to be "manly", "tough", and a host of other synonyms for those two words, and gay men are decidedly not that, according to popular, deep-rooted and factually incorrect stereotypes. Being "feminine", as gay man are assumed to be is not possible in sports because you need to be a "man" to deal with the raw physicality, toughness and other stereotypes that dominate the perception of sports to this day. None of that is anywhere near close to true obviously, but those regressive ideas are still stuck in too many corners of the male sports world, which is why you get stories about how overwhelming majorities of teenage queer athletes are not out and feel afraid to be, and a not insignificant number feel unsafe in locker rooms. That culture translates to the language used, which includes a number of demeaning slurs including calling people girls for not being "tough" and of course, the British slang term for a cigarette I won't use here.
The irony is that most athletes who use this language aren't homophobic, far from it. Mostly, they're saying it because they think it's either funny, or that it's "normal", because no one has ever told them said language is neither of those things. Most would be perfectly fine with a gay teammate, but don't realize the impact their language has on closeted individuals.
"The use of this language also appears to be motivated by a desire for social acceptance", researchers at Monsah University in Australia said in their study on the issue, "rather than overt homophobia or sexism and players had misconceptions around how others on their team view this language, and also around how this language use would create an unwelcoming environment for LGB people and women."
Those words make people not only feel like they don't belong, but they are lesser than, and that is not an environment conducive for success. These closeted athletes then more than likely leave before ever reaching a high level, and those that end up breaking through are still deeply closeted when they do succeed. And once those kids, who have been raised in a conforming, non-questioning culture end up staying in it as coaches to teach a new generation, the cycle repeats itself. Only now has the cycle started to break with a higher interest in addressing this problem, but this is still a major problem all across male sports, particularly male team sports.
That culture still exists in many ways even at the highest levels of all sports, certainly still in English soccer. And while the leagues are starting to realize what they have to do in order to foster culture that allows queer athletes to feel open to be themeselves, let alone feel safe in these spaces, there is a long way to go. When Collin Martin, Robbie Rogers, Jason Collins among others came out, they rose above the fray because they were uniquely situation to overcome the challenges that an openly gay male athlete still faces, but they still vividly documented the difficulties they had in accepting themselves in that space to get to that point. They are certainly not alone.
It's extremely unlikely that there are zero other high level gay professional soccer players playing right now across the globe; it is statistically impossible. It's also highly unlikely that in the four major leagues in this country, there are zero gay athletes in those locker rooms too. There are perhaps hundreds of untold stories past and present waiting to be told, but these people never received the direct or indirect support to tell them. They never felt anywhere near safe enough to do so.
Put all of this into a blender, and you can see why so many were hopeful that @footballergay was real, and not what it turned out to be. Sports seems to be the final frontier for the queer community, particularly queer men, and that finish line is getting ever closer, but still so far away. As societal attitudes change, someone soon is going to come out. They will not be anonymously tweeting the play-by-play of their behind the scenes process; they will come out much like how Rogers, Martin, Collins and others did. How can we help them do so, so that they feel comfortable being themselves by default?
If you hear homophobic language and slurs, tell those people not just to stop saying them, but why they hurt and what you can say otherwise. While you'll inevitably get some resistance, the large majority of people don't know what damage those words can do, and don't want to hurt anyone. Newly out Australian soccer player Andy Brennan recently told a story about how he did that during a game and how the reaction was of shock and regret from that player about his words, not resistance and anger.
Progress here is not linear. We are thankfully light years ahead of when Graeme Le Saux was rumored to be gay because he read the Guardian and wasn't interested in the typical lifestyle of a high level English soccer player, and where hockey coaches would call places on the ice where you shouldn't pass the puck "queer street", but not far enough ahead for episodes like this one to be a fear, not a reality. Someone, somewhere, is preparing to come out, and they need support not just from their own circle, but beyond to feel safe in doing so.
The fevered interest in @footballergay and it's story, and the largely positive support it got when people believed it was real shows that at the very least, something here has changed for the better.
"It is a not a personal desire to be perceived as a pioneer of any kind," the account wrote early on. "My hope is simply to be able to pursue the career and dream I've had since childhood, while simultaneously being permitted to be myself". Obviously, the person behind that account had no desire to do any of that, but people who have come out did that and those who will follow will want to do that too. They need the chance to do so, and it's incumbent on all of us, even those who already came out to make that possible.
We can all be angry at this particularly false dawn, but know that there is hope in that disappointment. Hopefully it isn't just people like me who have a vested interest in these stories who are angry and hurt. But that anger can be channeled into doing actual good for people who desperately need it so when they feel it's time to tell the world their truth, they can do so confidently, safely and freely.
For the heartbroken and closeted young soccer player who desperately wanted this to be real, there needs to be hope that one day a story like this will be. We all, queer or not, have a responsibility to help make that a reality. Hopefully after this sad episode, the lessons learned will make it easier for someone to feel free and safe to tell their truth, and be celebrated for doing so.
It's more than past due.
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
2019 Stanley Cup Playoff Predictions + a look back at Regular Season Predictions that went wrong
In another installment of this blog's "cheap content" machine, here we'll look back on my regular season predictions for the last NHL season that went terribly, while also giving out my sure to be wrong predictions for the playoffs. Some content is better than none.
Division Winners (predicted): PIT, TB, NSH, SJ
Division Winners (actual): WSH, TB, NSH, CGY
Not too bad. Pittsburgh finished third in the Metro and San Jose finished second in the Pacific, and would have won the division if Martin Jones could have stopped a beach ball.
East Playoff Teams (predicted): TB, TOR, BOS, FLA, PIT, WSH, PHI, CBJ
East Playoff Teams (actual): TB, BOS, TOR, CBJ, WSH, NYI, PIT, CAR
Overrating the Panthers and Flyers might be a sad new trend I've started that I will be sure to end in October. Both teams should have been far better than they were, but a gross combination of bad coaching and bad goaltending sunk them. I had Carolina as team nine in the East, and they ended up being team seven, and I thought the Islanders would be one step removed from the Senators in the East's basement, and they had the fifth best record. Barry Trotz is a wizard.
West Playoff Teams (predicted): NSH, WPG, STL, DAL, SJ, VGK, LA, CGY
West Playoff Teams (actual): NSH, WPG, STL, DAL, CGY, SJ, VGK, COL
Those LA Kings..., I deserve no credit for predicting the Central as it happened because it didn't sort itself out until the last day of the season, and I looked pretty dumb in January when the Blues were terrible. No one saw the Flames being this good, although I did have them sneaking into the postseason.
Awards (prediction then comments):
Hart: Connor McDavid (he could win it every year, but Nikita Kucherov is running away with this)
Art Ross: McDavid (again, Kuch ran away with this)
Rocket Richard: Patrik Laine (he has goalless streaks that make your mind go numb. Also Ovi is immortal).
Norris: Erik Karlsson (spent too much time injured, although over a full season he would have been in the race. Mark Giordano has won this)
Calder: Andrei Svechnikov (good, but not great season. Elias Pettersson has it locked up)
Jack Adams: Jim Montgomery (he did a good job, but not "best NHL team in a quarter century" or "reviving the Islanders from the scrap heap" good.)
First Coach Fired: Todd McLellan (4th of 4 fired in November. Congrats to John Stevens!)
Preseason Conference and Stanley Cup Finals Picks:
TB/PIT, SJ/NSH, TB/SJ.
All could happen, but they don't look as likely now.
Postseason Predictions:
East:
TB over CBJ in 5
BOS over TOR in 7
WSH over CAR in 6
PIT over NYI in 6
TB over BOS in 6
WSH over PIT in 7
TB over WSH in 6
West:
NSH over DAL in 7
STL over WPG in 6
CGY over COL in 5
VGK over SJ in 7
STL over NSH in 6
VGK over CGY in 6
VGK over STL in 6
2019 Stanley Cup Final:
TB over VGK in 6
Conn Smythe: Nikita Kucherov
Pretty chalky. Enjoy the playoffs!
Division Winners (predicted): PIT, TB, NSH, SJ
Division Winners (actual): WSH, TB, NSH, CGY
Not too bad. Pittsburgh finished third in the Metro and San Jose finished second in the Pacific, and would have won the division if Martin Jones could have stopped a beach ball.
East Playoff Teams (predicted): TB, TOR, BOS, FLA, PIT, WSH, PHI, CBJ
East Playoff Teams (actual): TB, BOS, TOR, CBJ, WSH, NYI, PIT, CAR
Overrating the Panthers and Flyers might be a sad new trend I've started that I will be sure to end in October. Both teams should have been far better than they were, but a gross combination of bad coaching and bad goaltending sunk them. I had Carolina as team nine in the East, and they ended up being team seven, and I thought the Islanders would be one step removed from the Senators in the East's basement, and they had the fifth best record. Barry Trotz is a wizard.
West Playoff Teams (predicted): NSH, WPG, STL, DAL, SJ, VGK, LA, CGY
West Playoff Teams (actual): NSH, WPG, STL, DAL, CGY, SJ, VGK, COL
Those LA Kings..., I deserve no credit for predicting the Central as it happened because it didn't sort itself out until the last day of the season, and I looked pretty dumb in January when the Blues were terrible. No one saw the Flames being this good, although I did have them sneaking into the postseason.
Awards (prediction then comments):
Hart: Connor McDavid (he could win it every year, but Nikita Kucherov is running away with this)
Art Ross: McDavid (again, Kuch ran away with this)
Rocket Richard: Patrik Laine (he has goalless streaks that make your mind go numb. Also Ovi is immortal).
Norris: Erik Karlsson (spent too much time injured, although over a full season he would have been in the race. Mark Giordano has won this)
Calder: Andrei Svechnikov (good, but not great season. Elias Pettersson has it locked up)
Jack Adams: Jim Montgomery (he did a good job, but not "best NHL team in a quarter century" or "reviving the Islanders from the scrap heap" good.)
First Coach Fired: Todd McLellan (4th of 4 fired in November. Congrats to John Stevens!)
Preseason Conference and Stanley Cup Finals Picks:
TB/PIT, SJ/NSH, TB/SJ.
All could happen, but they don't look as likely now.
Postseason Predictions:
East:
TB over CBJ in 5
BOS over TOR in 7
WSH over CAR in 6
PIT over NYI in 6
TB over BOS in 6
WSH over PIT in 7
TB over WSH in 6
West:
NSH over DAL in 7
STL over WPG in 6
CGY over COL in 5
VGK over SJ in 7
STL over NSH in 6
VGK over CGY in 6
VGK over STL in 6
2019 Stanley Cup Final:
TB over VGK in 6
Conn Smythe: Nikita Kucherov
Pretty chalky. Enjoy the playoffs!
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
2019 MLB Season Predictions
I do apologize for those of you who remember when this blog had fleshed out ideas for columns beyond making jokes about Mike Milbury and prediction pieces to populate the blog with cheap content. Sometimes, the sports media world can chew up your will more than you expect. But for now, here comes another prediction piece, this one for the upcoming MLB season!
After an offseason of drama because of "collusion", big name free agents being frozen out from signing until the start of spring training and long features on how minor leagues can't make minimum wage because of somewhat shady lobbying, the baseball itself can finally begin. Even though baseball's system has created more parity in recent years, the sport has never felt more top heavy with just as many teams openly tanking and tearing down as there are trying to win at the highest level. Such intrigue leads more to talk about the next CBA rather than who wins the World Series, but with baseball to be played, there are predictions to come. And here they are:
NL East:
1. Philadelphia
2. Washington
3. Atlanta
4. New York Mets
5. Miami
The Phillies said openly that they were basically going to spend funny money, and they did. They added not just Bryce Harper, but J.T Realmuto, Jean Segura, Andrew McCutchen and David Robertson. While their rotation and bullpen are not deep, and Gabe Kapler hasn't exactly endeared himself to Phillies fans yet, sometimes talent may just win out in the end. Washington has an even deeper rotation now that Patrick Corbin is added to the mix, and having super prospect Victor Robles take up some of the Bryce Harper airspace will only help the Nats transition away from him. Atlanta snuck up to win an open division last year, but it feels like the other two teams ahead of them took their shine a little bit, though they will be competitive. It seems as if the Mets picked the wrong time to contend as the rest of the NL East loaded up, but if they can stay healthy and get offense from some unlikely sources, they can be a playoff team. And the Marlins will be good one day, so let's celebrate how awesome their new look is so we can say something nice about them in the present.
AL East:
1. New York Yankees
2. Boston
3. Tampa Bay
4. Toronto
5. Baltimore
Everything last year seemed to go perfectly for the Red Sox, from Mookie Betts to J.D Martinez, Chris Sale and Craig Kimbrel. Repeating all of those tricks again seems hard, especially if there are more questions at the back end of the rotation and bullpen that are still unanswered. For that, and since the Yankees made a deep bullpen even deeper, and they still have that lineup. It seems like it's their time. For how much everyone hates "the Opener", it certainly worked for the Rays, and for all of their limitations, they manage to find great talent and cultivate it well. It's certainly not enough in the AL East, but perhaps it's enough for a Wild Card. In Toronto, we're all waiting to see Vlad Guerrero Jr., and the sooner the better. And in Baltimore, what's the baseball equivalent of tanking for Tua?
NL Central:
1. St. Louis
2. Chicago Cubs
3. Milwaukee
4. Cincinnati
5. Pittsburgh
Adding Paul Goldschmidt is a big deal for the Cardinals, who needed that extra pop in the lineup last year and didn't get it. They have plenty of young pitching, and it's certainly provided more upside for the predictions machines than a certain rival, who those predictions weren't exactly bullish on. While St. Louis made some upgrades, the Cubs basically stood pat, and that was a team last year who seemed a bit long in the tooth, particularly on the mound. That difference is going to be enough to swing the division. Milwaukee took such a great step forward last year and it couldn't close the deal in Game 7 against LA, and it remains to be seen how long that window for them will stay open. It's good to see a team like the Reds spending and trying to compete even when the in-vogue logic would tell them not too, but losing Scooter Gennett for nearly three months hurts. And for the Pirates, balling on a budget is pretty dang hard to do.
AL Central:
1. Cleveland
2. Minnesota
3. Chicago White Sox
4. Kansas City
5. Detroit
Once again, the AL Central seems to be about the Indians and everyone else, and the Indians are starting to falter. They're not as deep as they've been, and Francisco Lindor is already fighting major injury problems. The only issue is that there's no one else in the AL Central that can really touch them, with Minnesota being the closest. Do they have enough with some of their additions to really push the Indians, or is it token competition? The White Sox went big game hunting this offseason, didn't get anyone, and are handing out mega-contracts to players who haven't played a major league game yet. At some point, all their talent has to come good, right? Kansas City is a long way away from the team that won the World Series, and the Tigers are trying to rebuild the old fashioned way, which maybe is the new market inefficiency if you squint hard enough.
NL West:
1. Los Angeles
2. Colorado
3. San Diego
4. Arizona
5. San Francisco
The Dodgers have been left at the altar the last two years in the World Series, and they still don't seem to be a team that got that final piece of the puzzle. Clayton Kershaw not being healthy to start the year doesn't help, but they were awful early in 2018 and that didn't seem to matter. Are the Dodgers going to be able to pitch well enough to win at the highest level? The Rockies were dispatched easily from the playoffs because their highly paid bullpen collapsed, but after re-upping MVP candidate Nolan Arenado, there's a good feeling in Denver. The NL Wild Card race is crowded, but that slight uptick in bullpen performance could get them there. San Diego signed Manny Machado, and brought up a top prospect for an opening day assignment. That will make them interesting, but not necessarily a contender. Arizona wanted to contend, saw how difficult it will be, and decided to tear it all down again. And the Giants would be a World Series contender if this was 2012.
AL West:
1. Houston
2. LA Angels
3. Oakland
4. Seattle
5. Texas
It's all about the Astros here again, but now that some of their World Series building blocks are elsewhere, how high is the ceiling? They're certainly good enough to win the division, but the Red Sox handed it to them in the ALCS last year. Speaking of ceilings, will the Angels finally be good with Mike Trout in his prime putting up Mickey Mantle like numbers? They should be, but it's still an open question. After last year's impressive run to the Wild Card with seemingly so little, especially in the rotation, one wonders if the A's can hold it together for one more run. Seattle, like Arizona, saw that contending would be hard so they sold off just about everyone and are trying to rebuild from the ground up, though they have a little bit more in the stable than other rebuilding teams. The Rangers are going to open up a new ballpark with a roof in 2020, that's exciting.
NL Playoff Teams: 1. LAD 2. PHI 3. STL 4. WSH 5. CHC
AL Playoff Teams: 1. NYY 2. HOU 3. CLE 4. BOS 5. LAA
NL Playoffs:
Wild Card: Cubs over Nationals
NLDS: Dodgers over Cubs in 4, Cardinals over Phillies in 5
NLCS: Dodgers over Cardinals in 7
AL Playoffs:
Wild Card: Red Sox over Angels
ALDS: Yankees over Red Sox in 5, Astros over Indians in 3
ALCS: Yankees over Astros in 6
2019 World Series: Yankees over Dodgers in 5
Awards:
NL MVP: Paul Goldschmidt
AL MVP: Aaron Judge
NL Cy Young: Max Scherzer
AL Cy Young: Chris Sale
NL Rookie: Fernando Tatis Jr.
AL Rookie: Vlad Guerrero Jr.
NL Manager: Dave Martinez
AL Manager: Aaron Boone
These are sure to go wrong quick, so sorry to all who I picked to do well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)