My MLB Predictions Update (you were right Meggie, Jonathan, Noth, you Twins and Cardinals fans and me, the Mets stink...longest post title ever!)

August is always a fun time for me. School starts up, summer is coming towards and end and I can finally focus on watching baseball and preparing for the NFL season.

However, with the Olympics taking up all of my sports viewing along with July being a huge month in mixed martial arts, I’ve fallen behind on my baseball viewing.

I wrote about the Manny Ramirez trade so I haven’t been totally out of the loop. I continue to see my Mets blow any chances of making the playoffs, good times, but besides that, I haven’t watched a full MLB game in a month. It’s been so bad that I had to look at the calendar and realize that I haven’t done an update on my MLB predictions.

As you will see, my prediction skills aren’t the best, but its always fun to look back

Let’s get to the picks.

Here were my choices before the season started for the National League:

NL East- Phillies (They’re going to win this division by default. The Mets disgust me.)
NL Central- Milwaukee (They’re only four games out, but I think that the Cubs take this one.)
NL West- Arizona (Talk about winning a division by default. I think that the first team to win five games in a row in the next month is going to win it)
Wild Card- Colorado (Terrible choice, seeing how they’re 15 games out. When I did this a month ago, St. Louis was in the lead. However, the Brewers have it now and I think that they hold on.)
NL Champions- Arizona (If the Cubs or the Brewers aren’t in the Series this season, I’ll be surprised)
NL MVP- Prince Fielder/Ryan Howard (This race is so wide open right now. Chase Utley has hit the tank. I would look at Chase, Henley Ramirez and of course, the Hebrew Hammer, Ryan Braun!)
NL Cy Young- Johan Santana (I guess this goes to Brandon Webb, especially if the Backs win the West. I still like Volquez but the Reds are so far out of it right now. Look out for CC Sabathia to maybe get consideration at the pace he’s going.)
NL Manager of the Year- Bob Melvin (Arizona was doing well but they have been below average. I think it comes down to Tony LaRussa and Gonozalez at Florida.)
NL Surprise Team- Cincinnati (They started off well, stumbled a little bit and were only a few games below .500 in early July. Not anymore. They’re definitely going for the future and it was nice to see them get rid of Dunn and Griffy. Those two guys are professionals, but it was time for a change. I like the youth movement led by Jay Bruce, Cueto and Volquez, who’s a stud. They’re not going to make the playoffs, but if they may have a future. The Marlins and Cardinals have to get looks in this one.)
NL Disappointment- Chicago and San Diego (This Cubs pick continues to look worse and worse by the day. I was on with San Diego).
NL Worst Team- San Francisco (even worse than Pittsburgh) The Giants are still terrible and getting worse by the day, making my pick look better. I’m actually cheering for them to lose more and more to make me look better. Go Nationals and Padres. The National League is terrible.

My standings predictions for each division and the current ones:

My NL East:

1) Philadelphia
2) New York
3) Atlanta
4) Washington
5) Florida

Current NL East:

1) Philadelphia
2) New York
3) Florida
4) Atlanta
5) Washington

Thoughts: The standings haven’t changed in a month and I think this is how the season is going to finish out. None of these teams are great, but I guess Philly has the best one of the lot. I’m not saying that I expected the Mets to win the World Series. Heck, I predicted that they wouldn’t make the playoffs. However, seeing how average Philly is, the Mets should win this but keep finding ways to lose. I don’t even get mad at it anymore. The Marlins have been a pleasant surprise. Washington is Washington.

I have to place the Braves in a separate category. The run is over and I couldn’t be happier. Now those spoiled Braves fans can get a taste of losing and like it! They just aren’t a good team. Their fans have been getting mad with their performance the past two and a half years, but they should save their anger. They want to blame injuries, but if the entire Braves roster was healthy the whole season, which is not possible, the Phillies and Mets are still better. Braves fans, it isn’t going to get better. Expect this for another few years. And one more thing. I love McCann, but to all of you idiots who told me that Jeff Francoeur was better than David Wright a few years ago, who’s laughing now bitch!!!! Suck on that losers!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moving on…

My NL Central:

1) Milwaukee
2) Cincinnati
3) Chicago
4) St. Louis
5) Houston
6) Pittsburgh

Current NL Central:

1) Chicago
2) Milwaukee
3) St. Louis
4) Houston
5) Pittsburgh
6) Cincinnati

Thoughts: Milwaukee may actually finish in first, so not too bad there. The Natti’, not so much.

Much love to the Cubs. I thought that they would be a disappointment, but they have delivered.

I’ve said this every time I do a review and I know that she reads this blog, so, once again Meggie, you were right.

The Cubs are going to make the playoffs, that much is certain. What they do afterwards is the key. St. Louis has continued to surprise. Houston and Pittsburgh aren’t worth discussing.

Actually, I’ll take that back. I like what the Pirates are doing. They are going to stink for a while but they have hope. There is no reason that they couldn’t have some successful moments like the Twins and A’s have had the past few years.

My NL West:

1) Arizona
2) Colorado
3) Los Angeles
4) San Diego
5) San Francisco

Current NL West:

1) Arizona
2) Los Angeles
3) Colorado
4) San Francisco
5) San Diego

Thoughts: Arizona was doing so well and then something happened. The Dodgers are the team that I think is going to pull this division out especially with Manny playing hard all of a sudden. This is the worst division in baseball, pathetic play and I don’t want to discuss it anymore.

On to the American League:

AL East- Boston (Tampa is for real. No one saw that coming)
AL Central- Cleveland (oy vey as in the second worst record in the AL. Same as last month. There’s no excuse for this.)
AL West- Seattle (terrible, terrible, terrible pick)
Wild Card- Toronto (They’re only eight games out, they can do it right? Yeah, I know, terrible pick)
AL Champs- Cleveland (my AL picks were terrible, weren’t they!)
AL MVP- Manny Ramirez (Well, seeing how he’s in another league right now and quit on the Red Sox, this pick is probably not going to happen. This race is wide open as well. It can go to anyone on the Angels, Red Sox or Rays. K-Rod from Anaheim is still a sleeper here.)
AL Cy Young- Roy Halladay (Another open race but watch out for K-Rod once again.)
AL Manager of the Year- Terry Francona (this is Joe Maddon’s award, manager of Tampa Bay, right now. Terry has done a good job and you have to consider that loser manager of Anaheim, the manager of the Twins and wait for it…Ozzie Guillen! Oz can pull this one out. Gotta love it. He’ll probably curse at everyone while accepting the award, looking forward to it.)
AL Surprise Team- Kansas City (terrible choice by me and I thought that they would show some signs of life for the future like Cincinnati. Not happening.)
AL Disappointment Team- Yankees and Anaheim (Yankees, yes…Anaheim’s in first place and cruising. Mixed bag.)
AL Worst Team- Baltimore (the Orioles aren’t that bad. Oakland, Kansas City, Cleveland and Jesus Christmas Seattle have worse records.)

My AL East:

1) Boston
2) Toronto
3) New York
4) Tampa Bay
5) Baltimore

Current AL East:

1) Tampa Bay
2) Boston
3) New York
4) Toronto
5) Baltimore

Thoughts: Last month, I said that the Rays are the story of baseball, but the season is long. Not only are the Rays still the story, they are for real. I still hold out hope that Boston will catch them and win the division but that’s just for my predictions.

I LOVE THE RAYS!

The Yankees weren’t going to make the playoffs before the season started and I’m sticking to it. They are too old and too young at the same time. Toronto has disappointed me a little and Baltimore is actually not a terrible team.

My AL Central:

1) Cleveland
2) Detroit
3) Kansas City
4) Chicago
5) Minnesota

Current AL Central:

1) Chicago
2) Minnesota
3) Detroit
4) Kansas City
5) Cleveland

Thoughts: The White Sox are doing well right now, so respect to Jonathan and Noth.

The Twins continue to surprise me. I thought that they would be terrible this year, but respect to them. If Liriano can come in and make a major contribution, watch out for these guys.

Detroit, Kansas City and Cleveland, nothing more needs to be said.

My AL West:

1) Seattle
2) Anaheim
3) Oakland
4) Texas

Current AL West:

1) Anaheim
2) Texas
3) Oakland
4) Seattle

Thoughts: First, they will always be Anaheim or California and not this LA crap. Next, you know that I will always resent the Angels and hope that they lose because of their manager. If you need a reminder, http://pourtoutpancakes.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-five-saddest-moments-as-sports-fan.html. God, I dislike that manager. They are the strongest team in the league and should make the World Series. However, they seem to have trouble with Boston in the playoffs, so look out for that.

Seattle sucks, its that simple.

Texas is a fun team to watch because they can score some runs. The pitching just isn’t enough. Oakland is whatever.

That’s all. I was listening to some Mars Volta and Evanescence. BTW, Amy Lee. Let's see, rocker, dark hair, beautiful eyes, great voice, she can get it anytime if you know what I'm saying!

Enjoy some of their music below:

What type of college program do you want to work for?

What’s up everyone? Hope things are well for you.

Sports Illustrated had an interesting article on its Web site about the top-25 Division I schools in athletics for the 2007-08 season. Here it is: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/sioncampus/07/01/2008-top-25-ncaa-rankings/index.html?eref=T1

It was similar to the Director’s Cup which is compiled by the Collegiate Directors of Athletics, which uses a complicated point system based on how each school’s athletic team places in its respective national championship. Of course Stanford won the Cup for the 14th consecutive year.

The Cardinal finished second in the SI standing while Arizona State took the title. The article does a good job of breaking down how they came up with the standings so I won’t repeat it here.

The article did get me thinking about some of the schools on the list and made me wonder how some of these programs dominate everything and some are lacking.

I’ve never been to Stanford but I heard it’s an amazing place. The crazy thing about that program is that they win at everything, have such high academic standards and are a private school. Usually high academics and private school equals struggles in some sports (see Rice, Northwestern, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and some others). In the last 15 years, Stanford has been to a baseball College World Series, a men’s basketball Final Four and a Rose Bowl. That’s incredible.

I’ve actually been to UCLA, North Carolina and Georgia, the number 3-5 schools on the SI list and I understand why they do so well. UCLA is like a college heaven on earth. Amazing weather, beautiful people, tons of things to do, I didn’t want to leave. The campus was also so beautiful and I saw every type of hot woman possible.

UNC and UGA were just as majestic with a southern twist. I wanted to sit on a bench, grab a cup of iced tea and just chill. Hot women there too.

The rest of the list has typical schools. I was glad to see Virginia on there because first my cousin went to law school there, I got wasted there when I visited there as a high school student and it’s a fun place overall.

I think about these types of things (not the drunken nights) when I look at colleges that I may work at in the future.

I’ve had this conversation with some of my fellow grad school classmates. What type of athletic department do you want to work for? Sometimes the bigger the school you work at and the bigger the financial stakes, the potential for the abuse of integrity is higher. I’ll put it this way. The stakes for a team in the Pac-10 or the SEC is a lot higher than a mid-major conference like the Atlantic Sun or the SoCon.

I’m not saying that all schools in major conferences cheat or that mid-major teams don’t bend the rules.

The thing is that when there are such high financial stakes in place, things can happen. I’ve spoken with people in compliance departments at schools and they’ve told me that they couldn’t work at certain big schools because they know that some illegal things are going down.

When the difference of millions of dollars for your athletic department comes down to winning a BCS bowl game, a conference championship or making it to the Sweet 16, that can be a recipe for bad things.

I know that personally, I would like to work at a school that is competitive in as many sports as possible. As much as I like college football, I like “Olympic” sports as well. However, if the school that I’m working for compromises it integrity to win championships, I’ll have a problem with that.

I know this was a random post. I’ll expand on some of these thoughts another time.

Here’s some John Fruciante, guitarist from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. As much as I love Omar Rodriguez-Lopez from the Mars Volta, John is on another planet guitar-wise. It’s funny that those two men collaborate on musical projects all the time.

The thing I like about John is that he’s versatile. He can give you heavy guitar riffs, acoustic melodies, soul, blues, jazz and everything in between.

I want to work for an athletic department similar to John. Versatile, flexible, willing to compromise and able to play anything, anytime well.

Good fight, good night.

Sunday Reflections (on a Monday)

Hey everyone who actually reads this blog (I’m not even sure how many of you that is at this stage).

Sorry that I didn’t have Sunday Reflections for you yesterday, I had internet problems.

I promise a week-long post fest with various topics.

They will include:

>My MLB midseason predictions review (damn Mariners)

>My Mixed Martial Arts Update. Two major shows are taking place this Saturday with the UFC and a new promotion, Affliction. I’ll give my thoughts on these shows and the MMA world in general.

>Why your boy won’t have any children anytime soon. It involves finances, straight talking to toddlers and used baby car seats.

>Updated Top-Five Women list.

>Maybe a top-five Family Guy moments.

>My final analysis of the concept of pimping being easy!

>The Josh Hamilton story, from my prospective. BTW, I don’t ever watch the Home Run Derby because of Chris Berman of ESPN. Let’s keep it real out there. Anyway, I flipped over and saw some of the homeruns that he was hitting. He has the most pure swing from a lefty that I’ve maybe ever seen. More on this when I talk about him.

This weekend, which will include Monday for our purposes wasn’t bad. Here were some highlights:

-I played video games with my friend Joel all night Friday and that was awesome. I’m now hooked on playing Splinter Cell, I think that was the name of the game. I love playing video games.

-In fact, that’s how I spent my time early

Actually on Saturday, I started by playing video games until early evening. It’s an obsession at times. I then headed over to the Green Hills Mall to walk around and read some books. That’s something that relaxes me so much, reading books in a bookstore for hours. After that, I was going to head home but two things happened.



First, I saw a long line outside of the Apple store and I later found out that a new IPhone was being released. Why were people waiting for this phone? Someone please explain this to me.

Second, I saw one of the nastiest lightening storms develop and got an up-close view of it from the Mall. It was sick. I call it nature’s fireworks show for a reason.

Because of these things I was there longer than expected, but I did get home.



-I watched The Love Guru, the new movie with Mike Myers, which wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be. I gave it a chance and I actually laughed at some moments. I had such low expectations for it. Myers is decent and Jessica Alba really, really can’t act. She’s hot and all, but I need more then eye candy. My main man Romany Malco, or Conrad from the TV show Weeds, does an awesome job as a hockey superstar. Even Justin Timberlake does well in his role, especially his nickname in the movie. Plus Steven Colbert and Jim Gaffigan! What more do you need?

The movie is way too goofy to be taken as literally, especially the part about a star Black hockey player. That was the most unrealistic part of the movie. I mean, that can’t happen in real life. The movie lost some marks for that.






-I was kidding about that last paragraph, or was I? You and I will never know. However, its funny how the two players above grew up in Alberta, Canada. What is it about Western Canada and Black hockey players. In fact the one in the Oilers uniform is from the same hometown as Nashville's own Jordin Tootoo and hero to all, Mark Messier.

That’s all for now. See some of you around.

Here’s music from De Facto, the music project of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Cedric Bixler and Ikey Owens from the Mars Volta and the deceased Jeremy Ward. It’s a Dub group and they’re amazing. I wished they played under this outfit more, even though Jeremy’s death probably puts an end to that dream. Also, their albums are hard to find, even at Grimeys. Good fight, good night.

Elite XC Review, from a 'Pancakes' prospective

This was an interesting weekend for all of us MMA fans as we had two major events take place in the span of two days.

On Saturday, the EliteXC had their event on CBS for the masses and featured the main event was Mr. Kimbo Slice.

On Sunday, the WEC was having an event on the Versus Network and it featured two title bouts, one featuring bantamweight champ Miguel Torres and the main event, a featherweight title match between champ Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver.

The event on Saturday was a mixed bag. I thought the matches were OK overall. Before the event started, I thought that the main event should have been the middleweight title match between champ Robbie Lawler and Smith, but I understood why they made Kimbo the main event.

The production value was OK and I personally could have gone without Gus Johnson but once again, I understand why CBS choose him for the play-by-play.

I know that many of you aren’t fight fans, so I’ll save the complete fight breakdowns for another forum. If you really want an in-depth analysis, just ask me.

Let’s stick with the main fights. I’m just as big of a fan of Gina Carano, aka Crush, but she should have shown up in better shape for the fight. I know that she got only a few weeks notice for the event, the one thing that you can’t do in fighting is show up overweight, that’s disrespectful to the sport, her opponent and the fans. She ended up winning the fight and the stoppage was fair. I know some may think that since it was a girl fight that CBS wasn’t going to let the girls get too beat up, but if it was a guy fight, the doctor would’ve stopped the fight anyway. A similar situation happened in the WEC event and a fight was stopped. Gina just needs to make a choice if she wants to be an elite fighter or continue with her celebrity stuff like modeling and American Gladiators. Either choice is fine, she just needs to decide. If Gina focuses on fighting, she can be the best in the world because her skill set is that good, but I can understand if she wants to go a different route.

Next was the Lawler/Smith fight, which was solid. These were two legit MMA fighters going at it and showed the positive, skilled side of fighting.

BTW, those assholes out there, I’m looking at you Michael Wilbon, Woody Page and Jemele Hill who say that there’s no skill in fighting in MMA and no strategy. Why don’t you two old fat asses and lady step into the ring and train for months on boxing, mui thai, jui jitsu, wrestling and other disciplines and tell me that there’s no strategy. I’m seriously going to stop watching ESPN if these jackasses continue with the bullshit.

Sorry about that.

Anyway, Lawler and Smith did their thing. The stoppage of this fight was weak, because they didn’t give Smith enough time to recover from the poked eye he suffered. That was kinda fishy, but when you’re dealing with Gary Shaw, nothing shocks me. He runs Elite XC and let’s just say he isn’t the cleanest guy around.

Speaking of which, we move on to the main event featuring Kimbo and Thompson, his opponent.

People are going to look at this fight and see the negatives, Kimbo didn’t knock him out, Kimbo looked tired, Kimbo is overrated.

Kimbo is overrated and he and most true MMA fans know this. Kimbo knows that he has a lot of work to do to become an elite fighter, no pun intended. He’s working with Bas and getting better. I saw some positives in his ground game, especially his guard control. It wasn’t great, but it’s improving.

Two things from the fight have me a little perturbed. Kimbo did tap in the first round, I’m sorry, he just did. This whole “I was telling the ref that he was ok” stuff is crap. The fight could’ve been stopped then. Second, the end of the second round, when Kimbo was getting elbowed and punched on the ground for a whole minute and wasn’t responding, fight should have been stopped. However, it wasn’t because they were letting everything go Kimbo’s way.

The only way that Kimbo was losing was for him to get knocked out. Heck, one judge had Kimbo winning the second round, which was pathetic. Once again, Gary Shaw has a dirty background in boxing, I’m just saying.

I’m not saying that Dana White of the UFC is an angel, but still.

So, in the end, Kimbo won with a questionable stoppage and the world now reacts to the event.

The hardcore, web-site viewing, internet radio show-listening, forum-posting, blogging fans like myself are going to see a lot of the negatives of the event like the commentary, the fighters, the judging, the entire presentation, etc.

However, fans like me need to fall back and be happy that the event was even on TV at all. I still prefer the UFC and WEC, but Elite XC is ok.

It’s just not the best MMA product out there. It’s like minor league baseball.

However, I had two co-workers, Greg and the legendary and hero to the youth Sean Sawyer come to me today and want to talk about the event, which is a good indication that people are caring.

That’s all I ask for as a fan. I just want people to watch it and give it a chance. If you watch it and don’t like it, cool. Just don’t be like these jackasses like Wilbon and Page and Hill and just dismiss it.

No strategy, my ass.

I want to put those haters in a rear naked choke and make them tap out.

BTW, this was what I was listening to while making this post. Its a collaboration between Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and John Fruciante. Good stuff as usual.