Eagles Sign Dennis Dixon

Chip Kelly has added another option to his quarterback list with the signing of Dennis Dixon. The former Pittsburgh Steeler will join Michael Vick and Nick Foles for the quarterback job. Dixon was the quarterback at Oregon from 2004 to 2007 and was the starter in 2006 in 2007. Hi senior year also happened to be Kelly's first year as offensive coordinator at Oregon. He threw for over 2,000 yards both his junior and senior year but his senior year was much better than his junior. During his junior campaign Dixon had a not so hot 12:14 TD/INT ratio but dramatically improved to 20:4 his senior year. Dixon was also a running threat for the Ducks rushing over 90 times his junior and senior years. He rushed for his 1208 yards in 4 years. He was named Pac-10 offensive player of the year in 2007 and was a finalist for the Davey O'Brien Award and Maxwell Award. Not only was 2007 a big year for Dixon the gridiron; he also played minor league baseball in the Atlanta Braves system. That really didn't work out too well as he hit .176 with a .322 OBP in 28 games at rookie level. DIxon's NFL career started in 2008 when he was drafted by the Steelers in the 5th round. He appeared in one game his rookie year completing one pass for three yards and compiling -3 rushing yards. He made one start in his sophomore season completing 12-26 passes for 145 throwing one TD and one interception. 2010 was his last year of competitive play starting in two games for the Steelers and winning both. He had a 68.8 % passing percentage in those two games but then finished the season on the IR. He did not appear in any games in 2011 for the Steelers and in 2012 he was signed briefly to the Ravens' practice squad but was cut early on in the season. Dixon had a lot of success under Kelly so it will be interesting to see if he is able to win the Starting job this year.

NBA Recap
Only two games last night but they were marquee matchups between the Heat and Thunder and Clippers and Lakers.
In Oklahoma City the Heat held onto their lead despite the Thunder winning the 4th 31-22 for a 110-100 Miami victory. The two stars of the night did not disappoint with Lebron James scoring 39 points and 12 rebounds while Kevin Durant went for 40 and 8.
In a very high scoring affair the Clippers beat the Lakers 125-101. Kobe Bryant led the Lakes with 20 points and 11 assists while Chris Paul did something similar for the Clippers coring 24 points and dishing out 13 assists.

All NBA
With only two games there has to be some repeat teams.

Guard- Chris Paul- LA Clippers As mentioned before he scored 254 points and had 13 assists. His 3 turnovers were a little high but not too bad. He shot a perfect 5-5 from the line and 3-5 from 3pt land.
Guard- Russell Westbrook- OK City He did commit a costly 6 turnovers but he made up for it in other parts of the game. He finished the game with 26 points and 10 assists. He was a below average 7-19 from the field but his 12-13 from the line almost makes up for it.
Forward- Lebron James- Miami *Player of the Night* Hard to argue with this one as he led his team to victory against the Thunder in a repeat of last years Finals as well as a matchup between two teams that don't have an S in their name. He shot 58.3% from the field including 4-8 from long range. HE also dished out 7 assists and grabbed 12 rebounds in addition to his 39 points.
Forward- Kevin Durant- OK City Should be mentioned that he played all but 28 second of the game and he put them to good use. He committed a high 5 turnovers but his 40 points made up for it. He was an incredible 15-15 on free throws.
Center- Chris Bosh- Miami I really don't care for him too much but Bosh played a good game last night. He was 10-14 from the field but he failed to make it to the free throw line (and that is troubling for a big man). He finished the night with 20 points (you could probably have figured that out from the last sentence) and 12 rebounds.

NHL Recap
Three of the six games last night went to overtime last night and we will start with a shootout in New York.
The Rangers defeated the Islanders 4-3 thanks to goals by Frank Nielsen and John Tavares in the shootout. Tavares also scored in the second period.
The Hurricanes picked up their third straight win with a 3-1 Jussi Jokinen's goal in the second put the Hurricanes up 2-1.
Eric Fehr scored two goals in the Capitals 4-3 defeat of the Lightning. This is the 6th straight loss for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Rene Bourque scored two minutes into overtime to give the Canadiens a 1-0 win in Florida.
The Predators handed the Coyotes a 3-0 defeat. Pekka Rinne made 19 saves for his second straight shutout.
In Minnesota, the Wild and Avalanche decided things with a shootout.Milan Hejduk and Matt Duchene both converted for the Avs in the shootout on their way to a 4-3 victory.

All NHL
Forward- Zach Parise- Minnesota Minnesota's newest addition netted one goal on his 9 shot attempts. Finished the game with a +2 rating and 4 hits.
Forward- Eric Staal- Carolina Dished out an assist but made his mark defensively with 4 takeaways.
Forward- Matt Duchene- Colorado Similar to Staal in that neither of them are strangers to this list. He scored one goal last night in addition to 2 blocks, 2 hits, and one takeaway.
Forward- John Tavares- NY Islanders Scored one goal in regulation and one goal in the shootout to lead the Islanders to victory.
Defense- Dan Girardi- NY Rangers In 26 minutes of ice time Girardi scored a goal, had three takeaways, two hits, and 2 blocks.
Defense- Tyson Barrie- Colorado Got a powerplay assist in the second period for the Avs and also blocked 3 shots.
Defense- Joe Corvo- Carolina Recorded two points on a goal and an assist, both in the second period.  Finished the game with a +2 +/-.
Goalie- Carey Price- Montreal Made 26 of 26 saves in his team's 1-0 defeat of the Panthers.
Goalie- Jose Theodore- Florida The former Hab was against his former team and despite the loss he saved 31 of 32 shots. His .969 SV% was the highest last night of any non-shutout performance. (Pekka Rinne had a shutout but only faced 19 shots)

Keep the Kids in Mind

 Last night, the Cardinals-Brewers NLCS game started at 8:05 ET; a good time to start the game for the local fans as in central time it would be 7:05 ET. May I remind you though that the majority of baseball fans live on the east coast, and baseball needs to appeal to the younger audience as less and less kids are playing baseball each year. Most studies show that a teenager needs about 9 hours of sleep to be fully ready for the day. A game that starts at 8:05 ET would usually end at about 11, unless it is a Red Sox game and then it would between 12am and 1 am. Here are three ways to keep all of America happy for baseball.

  1. Start the Game Earlier
         The most obvious of the reasons, the earlier the games start the earlier they will end. Sunday night games are tough because you do don't want to have to compete with the 4pm football games, but there is always a night marquee game. This poses a question for MLB; pit a game against a typical 4 o' clock game or against the 8pm game that has been advertised for heavily for the past week. Personally, I would rather go up against two fan bases instead of a national audience.
        A 7 CT game starts at 5 o'clock west coast time, very early in the day, but starting the game at 4pm wouldn't make that much of a difference in viewership. I believe that baseball wouldn't lose viewers by starting earlier, but definetly loses them by starting the games so late. A 7pm start time on the east coast would end at 10, allowing the youth to watch the whole game. Last night, I made it to the top of the 4th inning, sure I was tired from the day, but I should be able to watch more than half the game.
    On a side note, in my opinion that game was lost for the Brewers in the first inning when Weeks
didn't pick Lucroy's throw on the stolen base attempt. After that, Pujols and Berkman get on then Holliday grounds out to end the inning.

2. Find Ways to Speed Up Play
 The game of baseball should not take three and a half hours to finish. A game should reasonably end within 2 and a half hours. The problem is that pitchers take 40 seconds in between pitches and the last 2 innings of a close game usually take an hour. Some may blame the slow pace of play on commercials between innings, but baseball is a sport that commercials fit in perfectly with the framework of the game. Pitchers need about a minute and a half to warm up, perfect for 2 or 3 commercials.
 The problem with the game is batters stepping out of the box for 10 seconds between pitches and pitchers taking 40 seconds to check the runners and take the sign. With no one on base, there should be about 10 seconds between each pitch, the pitcher has no need to shake off signs unless they are in Toronto and there are no runners on base for them to check on. When runners are on base, 20 seconds should be the goal for pitchers. This gives enough time for the catcher to run through the complex signal order to keep their signs from being stolen and for the pitcher to look at each runner and decide whether or not to pick off. People who say that baseball should come up with a game limiting pick offs don't realize that would just increase scoring by a bizarre number and make catchers with good arms almost useless.

 Another problem is that the catcher has no limit on the amount of times he is allowed to call time to talk to the pitcher. Baseball has a rule in place to limit coaching visits, one time an inning and the second time the pitcher must come out. I propose a rule that limits player called time outs to 10. This only covers players who do not have the ball in their hand. If a fielder decides to call time so they can send the ball back to the pitcher without worrying about players advancing bases, they should be allowed to do so as long as they do not create a conference on the mound. Everytime a catcher or a hitter calls time, that counts. This would cause players to think a lot more during the course of a game, is it worth it for a hitter to call time in the 2nd inning when their pitcher could use that during the 8th inning when the game is tied.

3. Expand the Strike Zone
  Since the 90s the major leauge strike zone has been almost wider than it is tall. Going from above the knees to the belt and about 4 inches off each side of the plate. I feel that they need to make the strike zone the width of the plate again, stop rewarding pitches that are thrown almost nowhere near the hittable zone.

If only they would call the right strike zone

The zone should also be expanded upwards to halfway up the chest. Right now umpires don't call anything above the belt a strike. Personally as a hitter I believe that the way outside pitch is harder to hit than a pitch up. Pitchers would no longer try to pitch around guys as they would be able to challenge them up, meaning less at bats that are 5 to 8 pitches. That may not sound like a lot but it could add up to 20 minutes by the end of the game.

 The truth is that baseball needs to start appealing to younger viewers and right now they are doing a terrible job. All baseball needs to do is move up start times, change the strike zone, and get players to play the game.

Cruz Cruisin

I've got some beef. Why in the world was Nelson Cruz allowed to hit six home runs in one play off series? It defies all logic and I simply cannot believe that the Tigers were so blind that they couldn't make an adjustment to get him out. Nelson Cruz is not that great of a hitter. He isn't Albert Pujols, Ryan Braun or Miguel Cabrera. He is not a hitter that makes good pitches look like meatballs and he doesn't do crazy things with a bat that mortals can't fathom.

Case in point, game 5 of the ALCS. Granted he was facing Justin Verlander arguably the best pitcher in baseball right now and without a doubt one of two pitchers with absolutely unhittable stuff. Following is the pitch sequence to Nelly Cruz. Pitch 1 - Fastball that is so right down the middle that I'm sure Nelson couldn't believe it was happening. Pitch 2 - Fastball up in the strike zone that Cruz apparently didn't agree with despite the fact that it was belt high over the middle. Pitch 3 - A hanging curveball that should've been hit 98375789235 feet. Cruz almost crapped his pants and made a swing that would make every little league uncoordinated benchwarmer everywhere proud. Three pitches, one out.

Nelson Cruz receiving ALCS MVP

Nelson is a professional hitter and he gets paid to mash the ball all over the park, but he is also facing professional pitchers and their staff of video watching, chart making, analysts. One would think that eventually someone in the Tigers organization would say hey, Nelson Cruz can't hit a pitch low and away and throw every pitch of every at bat there. Look at his slugging chart which is a tomato red over the middle of the plate, inside, high, low, but wait! What is this blue/black we see on the outside corner? Thats exactly where anyone with half a brain should pitch Nelson Cruz until he proves he can hit it.

The same problem occured last year with the Philadelphia Phillies in their NLCS matchup with the San Francisco Giants. They ran up against the Cody Ross brigade who apparently loves to hit pitches on the low inside corner and apparently the Phillies pitchers loved getting whiplash from watching Cody Ross destroy balls over the left field fence. I know blind men who could tell you where you absolutely couldn't throw a pitch to Cody Ross. However, the Phillies pitchers didn't get it and got hurt again, and again, and again.

My problem is not that Nelson Cruz broke the record for hitting the most homeruns in a playoff series. Congratulations to Cruz. My problem lies with pitchers who get paid to throw pitches, coaches who get paid to tell them where to pitch it, and analysts who tell the coaches where hitters can't hit. All I'm saying is that if any team out there needs someone with a little common sense, I'm available.