Talking to a stranger

A very interesting story that proves I can find a job after college

Lebron James took a huge pay cut in order to be the starting small forward for the Miami Heat. If Lebron signed with the Heat because of the other talented players that would be around him (Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade), then it was a good idea. But was Lebron’s decision to sign with the Miami Heat a “snake-like decision”? This is an interesting premise when one considers that the Cavaliers had allstar players like Mo Williams and Antwan Jamison on the roster before he left. As such, Lebron could have toughened it out and dealt with the tough playoff series loss to the Boston Celtics. Lebon was clearly out-played by fellow small forward Paul Pierce, which meant that James was the reason the Cavs fell quite short of an NBA title.

Was Lebron’s exit from Cleveland a cowardly decision? Yes and no. It’s true that the Cavaliers weren’t a bad NBA team (they led the NBA in victories prior to James’ exit on ESPN), but it’s also true that the Cavaliers never had a talented shooting guard like Wade to lower the pressure on Lebron. Lebron became a “point forward”, which meant that he had to be a point guard in a small forward’s body. He had to average 6 assists per game since Mo Williams isn’t that good of a point guard (He has now been relegated to third string point guard in LA if Chauncey Billups is not the starting shooting guard). I understand Lebron’s decision to go to Miami. But why Miami? Why not New York, New Jersey or even Chicago? Miami signed Bosh and Wade prior to the segment “The Decision” on ESPN. When Lebron stated, “I’m going to take my talents to South Beach”, it seemed to me that he was saying that he is such a talented NBA player that his talents deserved to be in Miami in order to obtain an easy NBA championship. His decision to go play for the Miami looked like a seemingly easy way out instead of being like Dirk Nowitzki and dealing with playoff failures. Dirk and the Mavericks showed last year that the most talented team doesn’t necessarily win the NBA title; rather, the most cohesive unit with a very talented best player like Nowitzki can win the NBA title. If Lebron had stuck in out in Cleveland like Nowitzki did with the Mavs, then James’ legacy could possibly be bigger than Jordan since the city of Cleveland hasn’t won anything since the glory years of Otto Graham at quarterback for the Browns. All in all, I’d have to say that Lebron’s free agent signing was a smart decision, but also “snake-like” in how he embarrassed Cleveland Cavalier fans on cable television.

Let’s get this straight. Lebron James isn’t a basketball-playing version of Judas Iscariot. In fact, there have been other “snake-like” free agent signings since Lebron James’ decision to play for the Heat. How about Cliff Lee going back and forth with contract offers from the Rangers and Yankees before suddenly signing with the Philadelphia Phillies? This obviously wasn’t a financial decision for Lee since the Phillies couldn’t offer the kind of money the Yanks (the biggest pay roll) and the Rangers (possibly making him their franchise player) could; they already had the big-3 of Holladay, Hamels and Oswalt before Lee came to the city of brotherly love. The fact remains that Lee could be interpreted as “the Caucasian Lebron James” through the way he never gave the Yankees and Rangers ideas that he really wanted to play for the Phillies. Why is Lebron considered such an enemy for making it seem like he would resign with the Cavaliers when Cliff Lee left the previously bankrupt Texas Rangers? I would have to say that Cliff Lee’s decision to play for the Phillies was a sneaky decision, and he thought he could get an easily achieved championship ring. Justice was served in my opinion when the Cardinals knocked out the Phils in the divisional round. To sum up, Cliff Lee’s decision to play for the Phillies is very snake-like.

There are many free agent signings to analyze. For the sake of saving time, I am going to analyze Mark Buehrle’s decision to sign with the Miami Marlins. Yes folks, they are called the Miami Marlins now. Wait….WHAT? The same Mark Buehrle that directly said, “If I couldn’t play for the White Sox, then I would play for the Cardinals. I grew up rooting for the Cardinals and I lived close to St. Louis.” SO IF YOU LOVE THE CARDINALS SO MUCH MARK, WHY DIDN’T YOU SIGN WITH THEM???? They obviously had some money to throw your way since they didn’t resign Albert Pujols. Also, Edwin Jackson is still a free agent so they needed to fill a need in their starting rotation. Their only other left-handed starting pitcher is currently Kyle Lohse. If you really like playing for Chicago, why not just resign with the White Sox? I know that Adam Dunn was basically a worthless baseball player this past season, but they still have a decent starting rotation and one of the best first baseman in the league named Paul Konerko. There’s some room to grow in Chicago, especially if Rios and Dunn can drive in runs like they have in the past. The Tigers aren’t THAT good, especially when you consider their 2011 division title was their first division title since 1987. There are a lot of “what if’s” on the south side of Chicago in order for the Sox to win the A.L. Central division title, but if Jake Peavy can go back to his Cy Young form, then you never know. Mark Buehrle’s decision to sign with the Marlins was purely a financial decision. Money talks…I guess. But wait….of all the teams that were interested in you besides the Sox (Washington Nationals, Texas Rangers, etc). you pick the Marlins? The same cheap franchise that allowed very good players to leave like Miguel Cabrera, Rob Nen, Edgar Renteria, etc. in order to save money? The chances of the Marlins making noise in the N.L. East are bleak at best when one considers that Josh Johnson is very injury-prone and the Phillies  have the big-3 currently on the roster (Holladay-Hamels-Lee). The Braves have an excellent bullpen, and if the Nationals can get Jordan Zimmerman AND Stephen Strasburg both healthy, then they can become a force to be reckoned with the N.L. East. If Mark signed with the Marlins so that he can win another World Series or even another pennant, then he has another thing coming his way. The Marlins possibly have as many “what if’s” as his old team the White Sox have. What did Buehrle gain? Money. That’s it. His statement about playing for the Cardinals was bogus and all he really cares about is making money. That’s fine, but don’t make statements that aren’t true. To sum up, Buehrle’s decision to sign with the Marlins over the White Sox, Rangers, etc. was a 100% snake-like decision. He better hope that Josh Johnson can stay healthy, or the Marlins might not finish above third place in the N.L. East during Buehrle’s 4-year contract.

tumblrbot asked: ROBOTS OR DINOSAURS?

Neither.

itsbrittneybitch asked: HOW ARE YOU!

I’m pretty good, how about you?

This is why Sunday is a fine day.  DA BEARS! (Even though they currently suck, they’ll be back….)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hISpJuscBkY

(via itsbrittneybitch)

First of all, let me briefly discuss my background knowledge of sports, including football. I regrettably have to say I only played one year of organized football, and I played middle-weight football in eighth grade; I mostly played defensive end. I played organized hockey from ages 7-17 and baseball from ages 7-20. My high school rugby team won state, and I started at wing for most of the season. My college-level summer league baseball team won the league championship, and I went 4-4 at the plate in the championship game. I played center, right wing and left wing during my hockey career. My dad has season tickets for the Chicago Bears and Chicago White Sox. I have been to numerous major sporting events, including Game 2 of the 2005 ALCS and the 2007 NFC Championship Game. I did a special one-day internship with the Milwaukee Admirals, which included me interviewing play-by-play radio announcer Aaron Samuels.

Now that I have briefly discussed by “sports expertise”, let’s get into Tim Tebow. Is Tim Tebow a “phony” starting quarterback? Is he just lucky? Is on track to be the greatest Denver Bronco quarterback since John Elway. Well, let’s dig deeper into what makes Tim Tebow great and what makes Tim Tebow not so great.

A lot of talk has been going around NFL-based shows like ESPN First Take about starting quarterback Tim Tebow. Stephen A. Smith says Tim Tebow isn’t an efficient starting quarterback. Skip Bayless says, “All he does is win. Unleash him!” As a sports analyst, I’ll give my analysis of the current starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos.

First of all, I’m not a fan of Skip Bayless. He’s not a former athlete and he leaves his collar button “un-buttoned”, which I believe is unprofessional for cable television audiences. That being said, I agree more with Bayless’ thesis than the one proposed by Stephen A. Smith. If I were to have lunch with Smith, I would tell him, “The stats don’t lie Steve. Tim Tebow’s quarterback rating with 2 minutes or less remaining in the fourth quarter is 5th in the NFL. The Broncos are 6-1 with Tebow at quarterback. The guy is an efficient quarterback in the ‘clutch sense’”

However, let’s not forget that Tebow has serious accuracy issues. Good mobile quarterbacks that have accuracy issues will eventually lose their starting job in the NFL. (Remember David Garrard, Troy Smith, Vince Young, Bobby Douglass, etc.) A good starting quarterback does not have to throw 40-50 passes per game in order to be considered a “franchise quarterback”. Rather, accuracy and decision making can lead to a successful career in the NFL. Tebow’s completion percentage this year is 49! (It’s really 48.5, but I rounded up to 49) That’s 9% worse than Kyle Orton, the guy who was supposedly so bad that Tebow needed to take Orton’s job. In his latest victory over the Chicago Bears, Tebow completed only 21 of 40 passes. The 4th quarter comeback was very impressive, but the fact remains that Tebow’s lack of accuracy allowed the Bears to stay in the game. In fact, Marion Barber could have easily gotten the game ball from John Fox by his action of running out of bounds, which gave Tebow 58 seconds to drive down the field. Did Tim Tebow kick a 59-yard field goal to tie the game, or did Matt Prater kick that amazing field goal. Matt Prater folks….

To sum up, Tebow’s accuracy isn’t very great. However, I said earlier that good decision making makes a great starting quarterback in the NFL. Tebow has only thrown 2 INT’s this season. Pretty darn good if you ask me. This start proves that Tebow doesn’t “ruin” a drive by throwing into double or triple coverages; he merely just throws the ball away. He needs to work on protecting the football (4 fumbles, although none of these fumbles have been lost. These fumbles come him from him running the football, so he needs to protect the ball more if he is to continue to be running the football).

Tim Tebow is a running quarterback. This means he will use his legs to his advantage like Michael Vick and Vince Young (Mobile quarterbacks like Donovan McNabb, Steve Young and Aaron Rodgers are pocket passers that have the ability to move outside of the pocket to make plays with their legs. There’s a difference between McNabb and Vick). We as football fans watched as Michael Vick looked unstoppable since he used his old skills of running the football, but he also became an accurate passer in the pocket. Vick was always an impressive athlete during his tenure in Atlanta, but he had accuracy issues similar to Tebow. If Tebow can be more of a pocket passer, then I can see him being better than Vick since he is more durable than Vick. Vick has never gone an entire season without getting injured and Tebow has never sniffed the injury report.

Is Tim Tebow the next Michael Vick? Well, they have vast similarities. They are both left-handed quarterbacks, and they both have/had accuracy problems early in their careers. Let’s look at the statistics: Mike Vick’s completion percentage through his first season (23 games) was an average of 49.55 completion percentage. Tim Tebow’s completion percentage through his first 20 games is 48.9. He still has three more games to go, and all three of these games come against favorable defenses. Tebow has rushed for 744 yards for an average 5.4 yards per carry through 20 games. Vick’s stats were over 1,000 yards for an average of over 8 yards per carry.

The Tim Tebow era is still in its beginning stages. We can’t really say if Vick is better than Tim Tebow because Tebow hasn’t played in a playoff game, and he hasn’t even finished his second NFL season yet. That being said, Tebow has definite room for improvement if he’s allowed to be “unleashed” as Skip Bayless says. For a quarterback to be “unleashed”, this means that the head coach gives “the keys of the offense” to the quarterback. If I were John Fox, I would not unleash Tebow yet. He’s still very young, and he hasn’t proven that he can be a good passer through the first 3 quarters of a football game. Why put that kind of pressure on Tebow when the offensive game plan is a run-first offense? Willis McGahee is proving that the Bills and Ravens made a mistake in letting him go. Also, the offense during Tebow’s leadership is still mediocre at best. They scored 13 points against Chicago, 17 points against the Jets and 16 points against the Chargers.

Tim Tebow is not a Pro Bowl quarterback this year. The 3 AFC Pro Bowl quarterbacks should be Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Flacco. Tim Tebow just hasn’t played in enough games as Flacco has. In order to say Tebow is more deserving than Flacco or Andy Dalton, then the statistics have to say Tebow has been outstanding throwing the football AS WELL as running the football. The statistics, especially completion percentage, beg to differ. Remember: Tebow and the Broncos lost to the Lions 45-10 this year. His statistics against the Dolphins were also anemic. (They were down 15-0 to the then winless Dolphins).

I’m not a “Tebow basher” and I’m not a “Tebow lover”. I’m just stating the obvious: history has proven through the years that you should live a year-to-year basis for a left-handed quarterback. Do supposed “Can’t-miss” left-handed quarterback prospects like Rod Marinovich and Cade McNown ring a bell? In fact, besides Boomer Esiason, Vick, Mark Brunell, Steve Young and Ken Stabler, can anyone reading this blog name another good left-handed quarterback? The real story behind Tim Tebow are the odds are stacked against him. But, as we saw this past weekend against the Bears, Tebow can rise against the odds and win football games. The Tim Tebow we are seeing right now needs players around him to help win football games. He doesn’t necessarily need Matt Prater to kick 59-yard field goals every Sunday, but he needs to hit field goals 40-yards and below. This is because this is not a pass-friendly offense that can always drive down the field and get points. Tim Tebow is magic in the fourth quarter. The fact remains though that Tebow needs to perform well through all four quarters, not just the fourth quarter. If he can ever start off passing efficiently from the first whistle, then it’s valid for Denver Bronco fans to chant, “MVP, MVP!” Right now, he looks like a more durable version of Michael Vick. However, there’s always a chance that he can become a franchise quarterback like John Elway.