Sports Time

Nothing says Sunday like some sports rants.

• The NHL still exists, and they are actually playing playoff games on NBC today. That either tells you that enough people out there still care about the NHL or NBC Sports department is doing that bad.................
• I am sitting here wondering what year it is. Is it 2009 or is it 2006? Suppan actually looked okay today. He gave up a lot of hits, but only allowed 1 run in 6 innings, not too bad. I am not back on board the Suppan train by any means. He is still useless and should be put out of his misery and get a job bagging groceries at the same grocery store that Ned Yost works at.
• Coffey is the only reliable pitcher out of the bullpen currently. He did have a lot of luck on his side with those two miracle double plays, but still he is yet to give up a run this year. Stetter once again proved that he is worthless. I know he is a leftie and all that, but come on, we have to have some kind of pitcher in the minors better than this guy.
• The NBA Playoffs started today and now in 2 1/2 months we will know who wins this. I put some math behind this today to see how obnoxiously long the NBA Playoffs are: In the NFL the most games you can play in the playoffs is 4 (which is 25% the length of the regular season) and the least you can play is 3 (which is 18% of the regular season). In Baseball the most you can play is 19 (which is 12% of the regular season) and the least you can play is 11 (which is 7% of the regular season). In the NBA the most you can play is 28 (which is 35% of the regular season) and the least you can play is 16 (20% of the regular season). If the NBA shortened every round except the finals to Best of 5 all problems are solved. Then the most games you could play would be 22 (27%) and the least would be 13 (16%). On the non-math side of things if every round was Best of 5, there might actually be some upsets. A team on a hot streak could rattle off 3 wins against a better team, but in a Best of 7, there is almost no upsets. (I know that upsets is exactly what David Stern is trying to avoid. He wants a combination of Cleveland, Lakers, Miami, Boston in the finals every year.)
• I had an interesting observation yesterday that I am still working into a theory about winning baseball teams. I was watching the Cardinals game and noticed that they had almost all new players from last year except Pujols, Duncan, Molina and Ankiel. Also, Pujols and Carpenter and Molina are the only 3 players left from when the won it all. Basically they have chosen to each year build a team around Pujols, the rest of the players don't matter. They had Renteria at short, then they went with Eckstein and now Khalil Greene. Renteria was a fan favorite, but when they were done with him they moved him, same for Eckstein. The same thing has happened at 3rd and 2nd for them. My theory is that the Brewers are trying to build around too many players. They should just pick a few players (Hart, Braun, Hardy, Gallardo) and build around them. Throw money at those players so they are here and happy for awhile. The rest of the players can be shuffled around. Each year pick up players in free agency and bring up players when needed. Why are we worried about making Suppan, Weeks, Fielder, Hall, and other players happy year after year. They are nice guys to have now, but we should not have such deep allegencies too them. Everyone was so worried if Kendall or Cameron didn't come back. Why? They should be replaceable. We are not going to have money to keep everyone, so why try. Teams like the Marlins, Cardinals, A's are good or pretty good almost every year with totally different lineups out there every year. It can be done.