Updated Playoff Races - 9/27 Every week, I will update you on the playoff races going on in the majors along with who those teams will face in the upcoming week. (Take note, All GB are based on loss column ONLY. I don’t believe in the ½ game stat because those are games that can be controlled by a team.) AL East The Yankees held a seven-game advantage over Baltimore and Tampa Bay at the start of the month. The lead is now four. 1. NY 74 – 53 -- (3 vs. Tor 56 - 70, Off ... Read More
Archives for August 2012
Power coming off disappointing season, but head coach Stingley here to stay
The Pittsburgh Power played their final game of the 2012 season on July 20, losing 39-64 to the Jacksonville Sharks, finishing the season with a 5-13 record. Power fans weren’t without something to cheer about, however. Power WR/KR PJ Berry, electrified the crowd all season, much like he did the previous year, leading the AFL for the second straight year in all-purpose yards with 2,024. Berry was as versatile as he was exciting, playing five different positions for the power, including ... Read More
News of Mike Wallace reporting is big for the Steelers
The city of Pittsburgh released a collective sigh of relief today when numerous sources reported Steelers' star wide receiver Mike Wallace’s intention to end his hold out. Wallace spent the entirety of Steeler training camp refusing to accept the team’s contract extension offer, which totaled $2.7 million. Wallace, deeming the sum insufficient, has remained absent from organized team activity since the end of the 2011-2012 season. Now entering his fourth professional season, all spent with ... Read More
Is the fan base expecting too much?
The Pittsburgh Pirates. Yes, our beloved Buccos. The team we watched get embarrassed and become one of the laughing stalks of the league the past two decades. The team we watched put together deals to trade away their best players for practically nothing. The team we watched play in front of home crowds featuring less than a thousand fans. The team we watched six hours of baseball for last year just to see our season collapse on the shoulders of Jerry Meals. The team we all of a sudden expect to ... Read More
Ray Graham back on field gives Pitt a chance in Big East Conference
Pitt Panthers fans have spent the summer talking about plenty different things. The difference new head coach Paul Chryst will make, the impending move to the ACC, or the fact that they have to suffer through another season with Tino Sunseri under center are all popular topics among Panthers faithful. But the hottest topic of the offseason has been the recovery of tailback Ray Graham. Graham hasn't played a game in about a year. We last saw him in uniform in a late October game against ... Read More
Pirates top 20 prospects
1. RHP Gerrit Cole (AA): Cole may not be dominating the minors like some hoped, but he’s been pitching well since joining the Pirates system and his stuff has been as advertised. He still looks like a frontline starter and 200 inning+ workhorse. 2. RHP Jameson Taillon (AA): Taillon joined Cole in AA Altoona last week, and had an impressive debut, pitching five shutout innings while striking out six. Taillon, like Cole has had good but not great minor league numbers. Cole and Taillon are 1a ... Read More
A New York state of mind: Pedro Alvarez embraces his roots
“Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis. When I was dead broke, man I couldn’t picture this. 50-inch screen, money green leather sofa. Got two rides, a limousine with a chauffeur.” – Notorious B.I.G. When Brooklyn, New York native Notorious B.I.G. hit the scene with his breakout hit “Juicy” in 1994, Biggie Smalls, aka Christopher Wallace talked about his rough upbringing and coming from nothing to something. While Pedro Alvarez would probably substitute PlayStation 3 and X-Box for Super Nintendo and ... Read More
Has the extra wild card helped the MLB in general?
This year, the MLB has installed a second wild card spot (per league) to make each league more competitive down the stretch. It was implemented, also, to keep the general fans interested later into the season rather than tailing off then coming back when the playoffs started. It also has made more teams competitive. Rather then packing it in at the trade deadline, more teams were willing to be buyers because they still had a chance for once and it has shown in the standings. So far, I think the ... Read More
Following setbacks, Jeff Clement finds his way back to Pittsburgh
When the Pirates traded fan favorite Jack Wilson to the Seattle Mariners just two days before the trade deadline, the main asset they were getting back was first baseman Jeff Clement. Clement was one of the bigger prospects for the Mariners at the time and to start the 2010 season, he won the everyday job at first. Unfortunately, Clement made a bigger impact in his Pepsi commercial chatting it up with Alfonso Soriano than he did on the field for the Pirates that year hitting just .201. ... Read More
2012-13 Atlantic Division preview: How do the Penguins stack up
Last season, the Atlantic Division was perhaps the toughest division in all of hockey, sending 4 teams to the playoffs all with over 100 points. The division gave us a Penguins-Flyers playoff series so epic that it may have actually registered on the Richter scale. And the excitement certainly didn’t stop there, as the off-season has brought several mega-deals that have reshaped the landscape of the entire Eastern Conference. When (hopefully) the season resumes, will we see a changing of the ... Read More