Warren's Take

Midnight approaching for the Cinderella Flyers

admin@frustratedphillyfans.com — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Last night’s 4-1 Flyers loss reeked of inevitability. I watched lacking the intensity usually reserved for an exciting playoff game. This was mostly because I couldn’t figure out a way for the Flyers to win. It seems like the Penguins are toying with us this series, and what’s more depressing than being overmatched over 3 games is the feeling that Pittsburgh hasn’t even given us their best yet.

Coach John Stevens has tried tweaking the lineup and done his best to compensate for the loss of his two best defensemen, but the fact is, there was little he could do. The Penguins are the superior team. The Flyers depth, which carried them past their first two playoff foes, is not an advantage in this series, as the Pens are equally as deep, as well as more talented and healthier.

To blame one player (Steve Downie), or an injury or two, or the officiating, would be to ignore the fact that the Flyers are overmatched in this series. Let’s just hope they can take a game at home for the fans before looking forward to a bright future.

Early Phillies thoughts

More than a month has passed in the 2008 season now, and enough time has passed to come to a few conclusions about the Phils and their chances this year. Among the things running through my head….

The NL East is eminently winnable. Again. The Mets starting rotation is already breaking down. The acquisition of Johan Santana keeps them from oblivion; it does not vault them ahead of the rest of the pack. No. 2 starter Pedro Martinez is already on the DL, and the team made no significant upgrades to the lineup that choked away the division last September. The Braves, despite many pre-season predictions, are not the greatest thing since sliced bread. Coming into the season with 2 top starters well into their 40’s is not the foundation for a World Series winner. Opening Day starter John Smoltz will return to the Bullpen after coming off the DL. What this means is that the Phillies lack of starting pitching depth is not the disadvantage it appeared to be as camp broke. The Marlins are hot right now, but they will eventually run out of games against the lowly Nationals and will have to start playing games against major league opponents soon.

The Phillies, however, have come through their usually horrid April with a winning record despite both the injuries to MVP Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino and an epic slump from Ryan Howard. This has been done on the backs of a strong bullpen, a contact – year motivated Pat Burrell, and the torrid Chase Utley. If the Phils continue the recent trend of playing progressively better baseball as the season goes on, another division title seems well within reach.

Several things worry me, though, and among them are:

1.) Ryan Howard – Early season slumps are nothing new for Howard, but this is ridiculous. Howard entered play Tuesday batting .171 with 54 Strikeouts, which puts him on pace to shatter his own major league record of 199 last year. Howard is pretty much an automatic out right now, and the rest of the lineup is really struggling to carry the burden of a major void in the cleanup spot. Utley and Burrell are already starting to see fewer pitches to hit. Howard needs to get his head on straight, and fast. What happened to the MVP who sprayed extra base hits to all fields? Why has he been replaced with a guy who tries to pull everything, and is quickly becoming a poor-man’s Dave Kingman?

2.) Shoddy Defense – Defense was solid to above average last season, but this year, the Phils have been sloppy at best and Keystone Kops bad at worst. With 3, 4, and 5 starters that pitch to contact, this is potentially a major problem if not corrected. The infield (minus Howard, who is a butcher) should be elite, and the OF should be serviceable. Sloppy fielding is sometimes a sign of complacency, something Skipper Charlie Manuel has to take care of.

3.) Adam Eaton has got to go – Eaton was serviceable for 3 or 4 starts, but in his last couple of outings, he has reverted into the nibbler who lacks confidence, the same pitcher who had the worst qualifying ERA in the league last year. Not much is expected from the 5^th starter with the bloated contract, and Eaton is failing to match even that low standard.

All of these problems are correctable. The home 9 has the best team in the division, and it is time for the Phillies, all of them, to take the next step as a team and improve on last year’s “happy to be there” playoff berth.

Coaches the backbone of the Big 5

admin@frustratedphillyfans.com — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

After staring at a city shutout just a couple of weeks ago, St. Joes, Temple, and Villanova all received berths to the NCAA tournament. All 3 are led into the Big Dance by terrific coaches. After 9 Ivy League Titles at Penn, Temple’s Fran Dunphy decided to try coaching scholarship kids two years ago in succeeding the legendary John Chaney at Temple. Dunphy had some rebuilding to do, but has Temple returning to prominence at least a year early. Villanova’s Jay Wright rallied his young squad after a 5-game February losing streak to just enough victories to grab one of the at-large berths. This is Villanova’s 4th straight appearance, which in today’s Big East is quite an accomplishment. Phil Martelli of the Hawks continues to get good players to come to one of the smallest schools around, and continues to field competitive teams. St. Joes also looked to be in trouble 2 weeks ago, but Martelli got his guys to scratch themselves up a berth.

Dunphy is new to the big time college scene, and no longer our city’s best kept secret. Martelli has had opportunities to coach higher-profile programs, but remains at his “dream job.” Wright is also unlikely to be leaving any time soon. Philadelphia is awfully lucky.

Selection Musings

My favorite part of Selection Sunday is watching the TV talking heads talk about schools from big conferences getting jobbed in favor of “mid-major” schools. Jay Bilas and eternal grump and ACC Schill Billy Packer were the two most vociferous. The BCS conferences received 28 out of the 34 at-large bids. Apparently that wasn’t enough for these two ACC’ers (The Acc got only 4 teams). What a crock! None of the schools that got left out were deserving of a bid. Arizona State finished 7th in a 10-team conference. They didn’t get snubbed. All of these teams had plenty of chances to prove themselves, and if any of them won even a single game this week, they may have gotten in.

I also have a problem with Bobby Knight, who is also working for ESPN this year. Knight has quickly proven to be a better analyst than any of the others at the ESPN desk, but his idea for the tourney is borderline insulting, reeking of big conference arrogance. He suggests eliminating all automatic bids for small-school champions and having a computerized system choose the best 64 teams. This is wrong on so many levels, but let me cover a few.

The beauty of the current system is that every team has a chance to get in, regardless of stature. This premise is the backbone of the tournament, and the major reason college basketball is so popular.

Knight tries to prove his point by saying that seeds 14-16 have no chance to win a tournament that determines the National Champion. This is also a load of bull. In 1985 Villanova won the tournament as an 8 seed. Their victory is considered on of the biggest Cinderella stories in sports history. So the teams for whom the bubble burst yesterday have the same 0% chance of winning it all as American U or Mississippi Valley State. Knight should stick to analyzing the game, and not the state of the game.

Win, deal show Flyers ain’t licked yet.

admin@frustratedphillyfans.com — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Last night’s rare shootout win over Buffalo stopped a seemingly endless 10 game skid. Combined with the acquisition of former Flyer Vinny Prospal from Tampa Bay, there is a ray of hope for the Flyers yet, who despite the worst month in recent memory, actually lead for the final playoff spot in the East.

The acquisitions of Prospal and D Jaroslav Modry from the Kings show that GM Paul Holmgren hasn’t given up hope, and that hope trickles down to the team, who came back from a 3-0 deficit in a building where they have had very little success in recent years. If the Flyers can hang on until the injured cavalry can come back, all may not be lost.

What point, Peter?

I realize the Flyers were in a free-fall, but for Peter Forsberg to return to Colorado, who is currently 10^th in the West and with injury problems of their own? I don’t get it. The West is loaded, and the Avalanche aren’t getting in the playoffs, and even if they do, they aren’t going far, no matter how healthy and effective Forsberg is.

As much as I would have loved to see Forsberg back here, Prospal is at least healthy.

Injuries, Injuries, Injuries

One of the most commonly-used clichés in sports in that every team has injuries and that a championship team will have to overcome them in order to win. In Philadelphia, though, it is starting to get ridiculous. Is it me, or do our teams get hit worse than most? The Flyers recent losing streak has been rife with injury after injury, all to key players. Simon Gagne and his concussions, Joffrey Lupul, Steve Downie, Derian Hatcher, have all been hurt. Defenseman Braden Coburn suffered a severed artery in his butt. What the heck is that about? How does that even happen? Even in victory last night, D Jaroslav Modry suffered an “upper body injury”, which may be another concussion. To top it all off, Mike Richards, the team’s best player all season long, tore his hamstring on Saturday night.

The Phillies’ biggest off-season acquisition, closer Brad Lidge, hurt his surgically repaired knee on the FIRST WARMUP PITCH OF SPRING TRAINING!!!!!

I could spend all day listing injuries that have crippled the local teams, but I don’t have that kind of time. Maybe you readers can list some of the worst.

It’s just getting really frustrated having any shred of optimism in our town tempered by constant injury news.

Howard’s arbitration win exposes Phils policies

admin@frustratedphillyfans.com — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

An arbitrator ruled in favor of Phillies 1B Ryan Howard today, awarding him $10 million in salary for the upcoming season, at the same time rejecting management’s offer of $7 million. Until today, MLB owners have gone undefeated in arbitration hearings, and this is the first time the Phillies have ever lost in arbitration. What does this mean for the Phillies? It means that Howard’s long-term demands are now going up, and the Phillies had better be ready to pay.

The Phillies’ offer of $7million was just another example of how Phillies refuse to be the team that sets new salary precedents. They offered Howard $7 Million for the same reason they renewed Howard’s contract for $900,000 last season; because no team had ever offered more, and they are loathe to be the team that raises the bar. This is a similar to the JD Drew situation. When the Phillies drafted Drew, they refused to capitulate to his demand of a guaranteed $10 million to sign, mainly because nobody had ever done it before. They ended up losing Drew, who re-entered the draft and was selected the next season by the Cardinals, who gave him his money, which forced the Phillies to pay a large bonus to #1 overall pick Pat Burrell. All the Phillies got in return for taking their “stand” was wasting a top 5 draft pick. The fact that the Phils were better off not paying Drew is beside the point. The point is that the move was made with money in mind, not winning. They have been doing the same thing in the Howard situation, and only bad things can come of it if the Phillies continue their current course of action. To Howard’s credit, this process has yet to affect his play.

Howard is going to get paid one way or another; why risk alienating another superstar to the point that he won’t stay now matter how large the offer? This is why the Phillies suffer the perception of being cheap despite a 2007 payroll over $100 million.

Shutting down Gagne the right move

A concussion specialist yesterday recommended that Simon Gagne, who has suffered three documented concussions this season, sit out the rest of the season to recover. As big of a loss as Gagne’s is, this move is a no-brainer. With or without Gagne, the Flyers are probably not a contender for the Stanley Cup this season, and risking Gagne’s career for a long-shot playoff run would just be silly.

Other Flyers thoughts

Calling up # 1 pick Claude Giroux from Juniors was a good story, but probably a bad idea. The fact that he will probably be sent back this weekend just makes it sillier. With the Flyers battling injuries, Coach John Stevens needs to try and patch together his lines with the players who are going to be here for the duration, which is already a tough task without trying to find ice time for Giroux. Giroux looks like a keeper, and I am looking forward to seeing him next season, but he doesn’t belong here right now with the Flyers trying to come out of their current slump.

Jim Vandermeer was traded to Calgary yesterday. A quick end to a failed experiment. This was a move that needed to be made.

Calling Danny Briere? Hello? Danny? Where are you?

Flyers in deep trouble.

admin@frustratedphillyfans.com — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This past weekend’s sweep at the hands of Montreal leaves the Flyers perilously close to missing the playoffs despites being 2^nd in the conference just 3 weeks ago. Mounting injuries and a relentless schedule, as well as continued strong play from the division rivals are big factors in the slide, but the continued sloppy play is the most alarming trend. Bad penalties and even worse turnovers are leaving goalies Antero Nittymaki and Martin Biron to have to stand on their head in order for the Flyers to have a chance to win. (Nittymaki almost did, playing brilliantly in Saturday’s 1-0 loss).

The defensive woes are definitely more pronounced during this losing streak, but they have been giving up too many shots all year; they were just scoring enough to cover up for a couple of mistakes. There is much blame to go around, but let me point out a few who are underachieving:

Danny Briere – 1 goal in the last 10 games, and offers little on the defensive side. Seems completely devoid of confidence. This team really needs him now.

Scottie Upshall – While he is certainly hampered by a nagging ankle injury, he takes too many penalties for someone who hits little and scores even less. He needs to be more disciplined.

Jim Vandermeer – Was brought in for toughness, but just isn’t playing well enough to justify his spot in the lineup; he just turns the puck over way too much. Lasse Kukkonen has been (until recently) a healthy scratch, and Phantoms Ryan Parent and Alex Picard are more deserving of his ice time. His continued presence in the lineup is puzzling to me.

With games this week against Ottawa and San Jose, breaking this streak will be tough to do, but the Flyers have to find a way, or risk another early summer.

Phils-Mets a rivalry – finally!

New York Mets CF Carlos Beltran took a page out of Jimmy Rollins’ book last week and declared his squad the “team to beat” in the NL East. The back and forth trash talking between the two teams finally brings a full blown rivalry to the Phillies-Mets series. Since the Mets came along in the early 1960s, both teams have rarely been good at the same time. But with last year’s race going down to the wire, the Mets epic collapse, and the their subsequent acquisition of ace pitcher Johan Santana, this season’s 19 games between the two teams should provide great theater. If the Mets have any sense of pride, they will come at the Phils with everything they have, and I don’t see the Phillies, who now know they can win, backing down.

It’s going to be a fun season.

Sports, media, and Congress

Why is Andy Pettitte getting a free pass? He seems like a nice guy, but he also lied several times about his HGH use. His humility in now coming clean (is he telling the whole truth even now?) Doesn’t make him any less of a cheater or a liar to me.

Why is Arlen Specter taking so much media heat for holing the NFL accountable for its actions during "Spygate?" Didn’t any of these media people ever question how this probe was cleaned up and swept under the rug so quickly? I’ve heard that it isn’t congress’ job to hold Commissioner Roger Goddell accountable? If not the government, then who? If the tapes Goddell confiscated were so benign, why were they destroyed so quickly? Why wouldn’t he let some media members see them before he destroyed them?

I don’t think any of Senator Specter’s questions are all that crazy. Are these not legitimate questions? Now, about that magic bullet…….

Again I ask where the media is. They are quick to dismiss the government’s involvement in sports as unnecessary. This would be true if the media hadn’t turned a blind eye to steroids and baseball, and hadn’t also been more than willing to let the NFL off the hook for “Spygate.”

The media needs to investigate more and to facilitate spring-training pranks less.

That being said, if you, like Kyle Kendrick, don’t know that you cannot be traded to Japan, than you deserve to get “punk’d.”

Flyers getting sloppy

admin@frustratedphillyfans.com — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Catching up

admin@frustratedphillyfans.com — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Catching up

I haven’t written for a while, and I plan to change that, so here’s a big blog to clear my head.

Where’s our title?

I hate to be a whiner, but the with all due respect to the Giants, their title win was a very improbable one, culminating in the upset of the undefeated Patriots. As I watched this Super Bowl not being able to pull for either team, I just got depressed at the thought of how the Giants seemingly pulled a championship out of thin air, wondering when we in Philadelphia can catch similar lightning in a bottle. The Phillies were poised to be that team, getting hot in September and being the recipient of an epic Mets collapse, only to be outdone by the insane Colorado Rockies, who will almost certainly return to also-ran status this year.

More Eagles thoughts.

Story after story about Giants coach Tom Coughlin focused on how he assessed his coaching style and changed for the better. The same players who ripped him to the media and despised him in past years loved the guy and respected his willingness to change, and in turn played their butts off for him. As I watched this I wondered if Andy Reid was watching. His players have always played hard for him – that’s not the problem. But Reid is, philosophically, very set in his ways. He is as stubborn as they come. I wonder if he is capable of the same self assessment that Coughlin underwent this season, because the Eagles need to change, at least on offense.

Donovan McNabb said that the Eagles need more playmakers, and was widely criticized for it. Brian Westbrook said the same thing, but received a fraction, if any of the criticism. Never mind that the prevailing wisdom, as well as the opinion of the fans, is that, shockingly, the Eagles need more playmakers! Earlier in his career, McNabb was criticizing for not taking on management more often, and now that he is, he gets ripped for that too. Never mind that he is right. I’m slowly becoming more and more convinced that a change of scenery would be good for all involved. I mean, McNabb could be quoted tomorrow as saying that the earth is round, and be widely criticized for it.

I’m done ranting about McNabb. I’m afraid that he will inevitably be just the latest star player to be chewed up and spit out by this town. And we wonder why a championship is so elusive.

Spring is almost here.

Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in 1 week, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what this season holds for our beloved Phillies. While I still think they could have done more to improve this off-season, there have been some solid improvements. One major loss was CF Aaron Rowand, who signed a ridiculous contract with the SF Giants (good for him). But the signings of Pedro Feliz and Geoff Jenkins should offset the offense that was lost, Shane Victorino will be fine in CF, and there are enough leaders in the locker room to pick up the slack. Hopefully, the Feliz signing will solve the 3B problem. Before the games are played, I think the key to everything is the performance of new closer Brad Lidge. If he returns to form, the bullpen will still be the strength it was at the end of last season, and it will justify moving Brett Myers back to the rotation as the best way to upgrade the staff. If Lidge struggles, we are looking at a repeat of last season’s scrambling to find good arms.

Not quaking in my boots.

Count me among those who aren’t all that worried about the Mets’ acquisition of Johan Santana. Don’t get me wrong, he’s one of the 3 best pitchers in the game, and a coup of a deal if you are Mets. But Santana is the only real addition to the team that monumentally choked away a comfortable September lead last season. Their veterans are a year older, and their bullpen is still shaky. The trade for Santana, in my opinion, returns them to viable contender status, not as the favorite. I still like out lineup, our bullpen, and I even think our starting rotation can compete. With apologies to J-Roll, I still see the Phils as the team to beat in the NL East.

Flyers rolling, but some uneasiness.

The Flyers have only lost 3 games in the last month, continuing their improbable turnaround from NHL’s worst, to first place. In a wide-open Eastern Conference, a deep playoff run is not out of the question. So now that we are contenders, I have a couple of concerns.

First of which is the seemingly inevitable return of the annual Flyers goalie controversy. Martin Biron carried a roster full of new players to a strong start, and when he struggled, Antero Nittymaki has showed that he has recovered both physically and mentally from last year’s season to forget and thrown his name in the ring to be the starter. Coach John Stevens now finds himself juggling like the last 4 or 5 coaches before him. As the playoffs get closer, he needs to commit to a goalie and get him ready for the playoffs. I cast my vote for Biron.

Second on my mind is the possible signing of Peter Forsberg. Don’t get me wrong, he would be hard to pass up on, but I’m not certain what effect bringing him in will have. They are solid at center, with Danny Briere, Mike Richards, and Jeff Carter. Is Forsberg willing to play wing? Carter and Richards have earned their ice time, and we aren’t paying Briere all of that money to play wing. When Joffrey Lupul returns in a week or so from injury, he should be slated for the top line spot with Gagne and Briere (currently occupied by Scottie Upshall). The Flyers already have a powerful offense and a top-ranked Power Play. Forsberg doesn’t fill a major hole, but if you bring him in, he will command major ice time. His arrival would probably facilitate a trade of either Carter or RJ Umberger. But if Stevens revamps the lineup, then Forsberg gets hurt again, what has been gained?

All that being said, I hope he comes back. I worry too much.

Fulfilling Sixers-writing obligations

They play hard for Coach Maurice Cheeks. The compliments end there. This team needs players. Once they get cap space, they need good players. The next year or two will chart the course for the next 4-5 years. I hope new GM Ed Stefanski is up to the task.

I also hope that every two weeks, that shameless mutt Chris Webber receives his pay from the Sixers in un-rolled pennies. To think that a large chunk of the revenue generated from the few loyal fans that are shelling out the money for tickets this season is going to pay him makes me want to puke.

Lean year for local college hoops.

Looks like St. Joes is the city’s best shot at a tournament. Hopefully they can continue their solid A-10 play. Villanova need to get hot, really hot to make it in, Temple is a year away, Penn and Drexel are down, and LaSalle is, well, LaSalle. Go Hawks!

ETC….

Bill Belichick is a douche bag. The most arrogant sore loser in sports. This guy is such a grump, that someone needs to either pour some sugar in his gas tank of leave a flaming bag on his doorstep.

The Phoenix Suns traded for Shaquille O’Neal. Didn’t know he was still playing.

Note to Roger Clemens: Nobody believes you, and nobody cares. Just go away. Go play golf with Bonds, McGwire, Palmiero and the rest of the ‘roiders, shoot a few beers into your asses and compare ill-gotten records and count your money.

Dick Vitale returned to broadcasting last night. I think it’s time to relocate the mute button on the remote.

Am I getting old, or has the Wing Bowl outlived its usefulness?

Flyers will be fighting for playoff spot right down to the wire

admin@frustratedphillyfans.com — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Last night’s victory over Atlanta brought the Flyers to within 5 points of 1^st place New Jersey in the Atlantic division. The Flyers recent streakiness combined with the total bunching of most teams in the East has their respective playoff position changing daily. The presence of the shootout really hurts the Flyers in the standings, since they just aren’t very good at them. The Flyers will just have to win a couple of extra regular season games to make up the difference.

Some quick hits mid way through the season:

MVP – Mike Richards. His giant leap in production this season is reason number 1 for the Flyers turnaround. He has already set a career high for goals in a season, plays the point on a potent power play, is the best penalty killer, and will also drop the gloves if necessary. The fact that he is also the leading scorer is just an added bonus. If he stays healthy, his 12-year contract will end up being a bargain.

Best Defenseman – Kimmo Timmonen. Timmonen is the steadiest D-man the Flyers have had since Eric DesJardins. He logs the most minutes of all the Defensemen, is the best puck mover, and plays on the first PP unit.

Most Improved (non Richards division) – Jeff Carter and Randy Jones. Jones is noticeably more confident, and is a steady puck mover who plays mistake-free hockey. Carter has also set a career high for goals, and while streaky, provides solid secondary scoring. Also kills penalties.

Best trade Acquisition – Joffrey Lupul. Before being injured on Saturday, Lupul has been a revelation as a scoring threat, softening the blow of Simon Gagne’s long-term injury. Luckily, Gagne is due back Thursday night.

Ticking Time Bomb – Steve Downie. Downie is a dynamic young player reminiscent of a young Rick Tocchet. But his history of being unable to control his temper is something he is going to have to overcome to stay in the NHL. He narrowly avoided another suspension after a sucker punch Saturday in Toronto. The league is watching him closely, so he’d better find a way to play on the edge without crossing the line.

Withholding Judgement (for now) –

1.) Danny Briere. He is the second leading scorer, and has played well despite playing with many different linemates. Gagne’s return should send him on a hot streak.

2.) Scott Hartnell – is finally starting to score, let’s see if he keeps it up. Since he doesn’t really kill penalties, he needs to be more than a $5 million pest.

Goaile thoughts

Antero Nittymaki has obviously bounced back from last season’s nightmare. His performance on Saturday was record setting. It hasn’t been often in the last decade that A Flyers goalie has stolen 2 points for them, but he did it on Saturday night, saving the Flyers in one of the most one-sided officiated games I’ve ever watched. Martin Biron carried the team in the first month and has been solid, if unspectacular, ever since. For the first time in years, the Flyers appear to be set in goal.

What to look for in the second half

I’d like to see a tighter defensive approach. The Flyers still seem to give up too many quality scoring chances. Once the lineup stabilizes, hopefully so will the D.

The Flyers myriad of suspensions this season has given them the reputation of being dirty and really is starting to affect how their games are being called. The Flyers have earned this rep, and now will have to play their way through it.

Who will be the first line? When Gagne returns, it will be interesting to see his level of aggressiveness. The Flyers have plenty of offense, but seem to lack a go to line right now. They have the players, but it will be on Coach John Stevens to stop experimenting and get his lines set as the playoff approach.

Eagles need players

The 3 game winning streak to end the season could end up being a double-edged sword if Andy Reid and Company decides that they aren’t that far away from contention. In assessing needs in the off-season, most agree on the obvious needs (TE, DE, WR, DB). But what seems to have been lost is overall depth. Andy Reid pinned this year’s struggles on injuries several times. But in reality, they were healthy compared to other more successful seasons. The difference is that the overall depth of past seasons has been lacking. Suitable replacements were not available for players that were injured. In the past injuries were shrugged off and the next guy stepped in and was ready to play. That did not happen this season. The lack of depth also contributed to the lackluster special teams.

The solution to this problem can only be a change in approach to the draft. Reid rarely expects immediate impact from his draft picks, and depth in past years has been able to accommodate that philosophy. But no matter what the Eagles do in free agency, some of next year’s draft picks have to have immediate impact next season.

Mitchell report brings confirmation, not closure

admin@frustratedphillyfans.com — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Names of 80+ players were named in yesterday’s Mitchell report on steroid use, including Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Gary Sheffield, and Miguel Tejada. With a lack of cooperation from the players and no subpoena power, Mitchell’s hands were tied. The fact that he still found 80 names has to be disturbing.

I was always of the opinion that honest players would want their cheating peers to be exposed and punished, since steroid use puts honest players at a disadvantage. But the lack of cooperation and the depth of this report leads me to believe that steroid use was (is) more widespread than even the most cynical observers would have imagined, and that those honest players were in the minority, not the steroid users.

Few of the names listed on the report are surprising, and the majority of them were insignificant. For me, the report just brings more questions that will perhaps never be answered.

Selig plays the buffoon one more time.

Commissioner Bud Selig gave his own press conference after Mitchell yesterday, again patting himself on the back for a job well done. What a crock. The same commissioner who cancelled the 1994 World Series is now passing himself off as some kind of steroid cop. The steroid era was born out of the ’94 strike. The sport was slow to recover in many markets, brought out of the doldrums for many during the 1998 season of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Problem is that both of these men along with Barry Bonds are obvious juicers. Selig and the owners turned a blind eye to steroid use while it was making them money hand over fist. To know proclaim to be some beacon of integrity is a joke. Home run records are now bastardized forever, all in the name of the almighty dollar. Nothing insults me more than Selig’s holier-than-thou, after the fact “investigation”.

Flyers getting locked in, for better or for worse

One of the offshoots of the new salary cap era in hockey is the poaching of team’s restricted free agents. Young players that are years from free agency sometimes get lucrative offers those teams would have to match, and if your team is up against the salary cap, the GM is in a real tough spot. An example of this is Edmonton’s offer to Anaheim’s offer to Dustin Penner. Buffalo’s Thomas Vanek also received a lucrative offer which was matched by the Sabres.

It is this environment that led to the 12-year contract signed by Mike Richards yesterday. Richards, the Flyers’ leading scorer and touted as the future captain, is exactly the kind of player that opposing teams would try to steal away with a cap-busting offer. Since the Flyers are always a team that will spend near the cap limits in order to win, GM Paul Holmgren acted swiftly to avoid such a quandary.

My only problem is the length of the deal. Richards, while only 22, will almost certainly live up to his end of the deal; unless he gets hurt. Hopefully he can avoid the concussion bug that seems to follow the Flyers around (see Lindros, Eric and Primeau, Keith).

With Richards locked up for 12 years, Danny Briere for 8 years, and Kimmo Timmonen for 6 years, the Flyers are banking a decade of cap space on this nucleus. Let’s hope it’s the right decision.

This ain’t college, Bobby

Falcons coach Bobby Petrino bolted this week after 13 games to take the University of Arkansas job. Petrino was hired from the college ranks, where contracts for coaches aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. Petrino, who preached commitment from his players, started Tuesday morning as the Falcons coach, then ended the day chanting “Pig Suey” in Little Rock, leaving his former players behind with nothing more than a form letter. He quickly found that it doesn’t fly as well in the pros.

How can this coach ever ask for commitment from any team he coaches ever again, and what parent would send his kid to play for such a man? Petrino may not like the answer, especially having taken over for a winning coach who got fired for not winning enough.

Any college coach who has NFL aspirations should send a stocking full of coal to Petrino, who just made it almost impossible for an NFL team to hire from the college ranks for a very long time.

Sixers’ move comes at a strange time.

admin@frustratedphillyfans.com — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

When the 76ers Fired GM Billy King and replaced him with Nets’ GM Ed Stefanski on Tuesday, most of us were caught off guard. After trading Allen Iverson to Denver a year ago, the plan was to go young and clear salary cap space for after this season. This season was expected to be a tough one, where a mostly young roster was going to have to take its lumps. King was allowed to make the Iverson deal, execute the buyout of Chris Webber, and make the 3 1^st round draft picks last June, so conventional wisdom was that King would/should be around to finish the job. But Chairman Ed Snider comes from his hockey background, where an entire roster can be rebuilt in one off season. Patience and rebuilding are not words in his vocabulary, and hence King is gone. After the bloated contracts that Willie Green, Kyle Korver, and Samuel Dalembert are playing under, I’m not so sure that King was the right man to handle the new found cap space, anyway.

Let’s hope Stefanski knows what he’s doing.

Nittymaki is ok.

Going into last season, Flyer’s goalie Antero Nittymaki was expected to take over the starting job and be the long-term answer. When he suffered a torn muscle in his hip in the pre-season, the team and Nittmaki decided that forgoing surgery (which would have required 3 month’s recovery) for periodic cortisone shots would be the best way to get through the season. In the following months, however, bad defense, injury, and loss of confidence was a significant part of the worst season in Flyers history. You had to wonder if Nittymaki could ever regain the form that made him such a prospect, of if his confidence had been shattered forever. The Flyers themselves made contingency plans when the brought Brian Boucher back to play for the Phantoms.

But Nittymaki has finally gotten a chance to play recently when Martin Biron’s cooled off after his hot start. And in back-to-back road wins over Ottawa and Minnesota, Nittymaki again looked like the goalie the Flyers thought they had, and can now count on if Biron goes down for any period of time.

Bye, Bye, Aaron.

It’s hard for me to bash the Phillies for the impending free-agent departure of CF Aaron Rowand. When Tori Hunter signed with the Angels for $16 million a year, I thought it was excessive, but understandable; you sometimes have to overpay for a player. But when Andruw Jones signed with the Dodgers yesterday to a 2 year, $36 Million contract last night, I was aghast. Jones hit .222 last season with a .311 on-base %. If he’s worth $ 18 Million, what does that make Rowand? You figure he will get his 5 year deal for $14-15 Million per. And that contract could end up being worse than the albatross that has been Pat Burrell’s deal. I love Rowand, and stats don’t tell the whole story, but he had a career year, and his playing style doesn’t seem to indicate 5 years of continued high-level production.

My only concern is that instead of spending elsewhere, the Phils will just pocket the money.