MLB Playoff Preview- ALDS

It has finally come down to this. The final 8 teams have now been decided after epic collapses by the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves. This should be an exciting playoffs with the teams that are in so lets get started.

Tampa Bay Rays vs Texas Rangers

Tampa Bay is riding a wave of momentum after coming back from 9 games in September to steal a playoff spot on the last day of the regular. Nobody, including myself, expected them to be as successful as they were this season, let alone make the playoffs. The Rays have one of the best starting rotations in the playoffs with ace David Price, James Shield, Jeremy Hellickson and top prospect Matt Moore getting the surprise start for game 1. The Rays also have incredible speed up and down the lineup with the likes of Desmond Jennings, BJ Upton, Sam Fuld and Sean Rodriguez to name a few. Along with this, they have love to take chances by stealing bases, executing hit and runs and even suicide squeezes. The Rays also only committed 73 errors all year which lead the American League for fewest errors this season. The Rays have two flaws however. First, their bullpen is extremely young and hasn't pitched in this type of situation before. They lost almost their entire bullpen from a season ago so this years bullpen is a completely new cast of characters. Second, outside of Evan Longoria, the Rays don't have a steady hitter that is consistently reliable and can get the team out of a whole. Many of the players including Jennings and Upton, have gone through long slumps and if the Rays can't get their offense going early, it will be a long series for them.

Texas is also riding a hot streak of their own. The Rangers won 13 of their last 15 including their last six to win home field advantage for the ALDS. Like the Rays, many doubted the Rangers would make it this far after losing Cliff Lee this offseason to the Philadelphia Phillies. This years Rangers team may even be a better all around team this last years team that went to the World Series. The Rangers have what many think is the most potent lineup from top to bottom when it comes to power and speed. The Rangers have some really heavy hitters like Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton, Michael Young, Adrian Beltre and Mike Napoli who have all had tremendous seasons. Like the Rays, the Rangers also contain some speedsters as well like Kinsler and Elvis Andrus who stole 67 bases between the two of them. The Rangers will also have a really deep bench this year compared to last with the likes of Endy Chavez, David Murphy, Craig Gentry and 2010 playoff hero Mitch Moreland all coming off the bench. The Rangers also have a really strong bullpen and according to most experts, it is the best bullpen in the playoffs. The Rangers bullpen mixes heat throwers like Neftali Feliz, Mike Adams and Alexi Ogando with soft throwers like Koji Uehara and Darren Oliver. While Feliz went through a rough patch during the season, he still was able to get the job done and was untouchable in last years playoffs. The Rangers have one glaring weakness and that is starting pitching. CJ Wilson has been really consistent this year, but on occasion he has control issues which can lead to trouble like in last years ALCS game in Yankee stadium. Colby Lewis, last years huge surprise, has had a similar year this year as last in that he pitched pretty well but he is hit or miss with his starts. Some starts he is great and some starts he is terrible. Behind Wilson and Lewis are unproven playoff pitchers in Derek Holland and Matt Harrison. Holland has had a great year and has finally become the pitcher the Rangers thought he would be. Holland only received limited relief innings in last years playoffs so it will be interesting how he adapts to beings the #2 starter. Harrison missed last years playoffs and had a pretty good bounce back year after coming off an injury the season before. The Rangers success will hinge on their starting rotation.

Prediction: I believe the winner of this series will ultimately make it to the World Series. Both are riding high on momentum and I feel that both present major problems to the Yankees and Tigers. The Rays will keep it close in every game, but I believe their over dependence on Longoria will provide problems when the Rangers pitch around him and force the other players to beat them. I believe the Rangers will win this series in 5 games.

Detroit Tigers vs New York Yankees

Detroit is returning to the playoffs for the first time since their 2006 World Series appearance. With some stellar starting pitching, clutch hitting and a great closer, the Tigers will be a very tough out for the Yankees. With the likes of Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and Alex Avila, the Tigers have mashed their way to a 95 win season. The Tigers approach at the plate is very old school in that they take a lot of pitches, get clutch hits and take what the opposing pitchers give them. Along with this, the Tigers also have a CY Young and MVP candidate in Justin Verlander who has been virtually unhittable all season. Verlander, a 25 game winner, will take the mound for the Tigers in game 1 and will look to his team on the right track. The Tigers also have Doug Fister and Max Scherzer who have also been very reliable throughout the season. Lastly, the back end of the Tiger bullpen has been incredible. Joaquin Benoit lived up to the massive contract he received from the Tigers this offseason which had many scratching their heads. To go with Benoit, the Tigers closer Jose Valverde has been perfect in save situations this season and recorded 49 saves for the Tigers. The Tigers pitchers love to throw heat and first pitch strikes which could pose problems for the Yankees since they are very patient at the plate.

New York has been the best team all year in the American League despite some very shaky starting pitching. The Yankees have a very powerful lineup with MVP candidate Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano. The Yankees scored the second most runs in all the Major Leagues and has been crushing the ball of late. CC Sabathia will lead the starting rotation in hopes of getting the team back to the World Series. Sabathia was 19-8 on the year and has been one of the Major Leagues best the past couple of seasons. Behind Sabathia, however, the Yankees rotation is inexperienced and unreliable. Ivan Nova had a very successful season going 16-4 and looks to take that momentum into the playoffs as he has been tabbed the #2 starter. Nova's only problem is that he is young and has never started a playoff game before. While many say the playoffs aren't any different then the regular season, the fact is it is extremely different especially with regard to the quality of teams as well as the umpire strike zone. Freddy Garcia, the Yankees #3 starter for the playoffs, had a nice comeback season after dealing with injuries and inconsistency in the past few years. The Yankees will need him to continue pitching well if they will have any shot of beating the Tigers. Starting Garcia over Aj Burnett is the right call in my opinion. Burnett has been a disastrous signing for the Yankees and has consistently put up poor performances both in the regular season and post season. Not only did he get kicked around this season, but he also was demolished in the ALCS by the Rangers last year so the Yankees are being wise in putting him in the bullpen and going with a three man rotation. Another problem for the Yankees is their bullpen. While Mariano Rivera is still great, he has proven to be mortal this year by blowing five saves this year. Despite this, I believe Rivera will be reliable when called upon because he is the best postseason pitcher ever and he kicks it into a second gear when the playoffs come around. The bigger problem is the rest of the bullpen especially Rafael Soriano. Soriano underperformed this year by blowing three saves and having an ERA over 4.00. Soriano wasn't as reliable as he was last year with the Tampa Bay Rays,but he will have to be on his A game not only to get the game to Rivera in the 9th, but also if the Yankees expect to make it back to the World Series.

Prediction: If the Tigers are going to win this series, they absolutely have to win tonight. This would give them a huge advantage since Verlander will also pitch game five of this series. I believe the Tigers will win tonight, however, I expect the Yankees to bounce back and force a deciding game five. Although the Yankees have some glaring weaknesses, I believe they will overcome them in this series against the Tigers, but they will need to fix them before their next series. I believe the Yankees will win this series in 5 games.

NCAA Realignment Culprit

Hello everyone. It has been way too long since my last post which is my fault for letting school come first before discussing my real passion of sports. Today's topic is NCAA Realignment.

Whose fault is it that the NCAA is about to change to four conferences consisting of 16 teams. Certainly it must be UT's for the creation of the Longhorn Network right? The creation of the Longhorn Network put many schools in a tizzy and is portrayed as the cause of realignment. UT is not the cause behind realignment. The fact is the other Big 12 schools, including Texas A@M, knew that not only was the Longhorn Network being created at last year's realignment talk, but also the programming that would appear on it. The fact is A@M's board of regents were "butt hurt" by the fact that UT was given this opportunity and they weren't. In fact, UT approached the Aggies five years ago with the idea of creating the "Lonestar Network" which would be a shared regional network between the Longhorns and the Aggies. Texas A@M declined because they didn't believe it would create enough revenue compared to its start up costs. When A@M realized the network was worth the investment, it was too late because the Longhorns realized they could do it on their own by partnering with ESPN so A@M should be kicking themselves rather than putting the blame on the Longhorns. Lastly, it doesn't matter if the network was for Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Baylor, or Michigan, the fact is, every college in America would have jumped all over ESPN's $300 million offer to create their own network. The fact is there are only five teams that had the ability to create their own network (Texas,USC,Alabama,Florida, Michigan) and Texas generates the most athletic revenue every year hence why ESPN went to the Longhorns first. If the Longhorns had denied, they would have gone after someone else.

This means it must be the Aggies fault since the shift started happening when they decided to take it upon themselves to get out of Texas' shadow by applying to the SEC right? Wrong again. While what the Aggies did was extremely radical, who's to say Michigan State wouldn't have done the same thing if Michigan were offered the network instead of UT. The Aggies were tired of being second fiddle and wanted to start fresh in a new conference that they knew UT wouldn't join because of the high academic standards UT has compared to the SEC schools. The reason why the Aggies leaving is radical is because by leaving the Big 12, they will make less TV revenue in the SEC than they currently make in Big 12. The Aggies also have to pay an exit fee in the area of $15 to $20 million just to join the SEC. Contrary to popular belief, the exit fee is not being provided by the SEC so the Aggies are taking a huge financial hit, as well as joining a more difficult conference.

No, the real culprit behind college realignment is Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe. Why you ask? Two reasons. First, when Nebraska and Colorado left, the Big 12 was reactive rather than proactive. Instead of trying to replace those TV markets, Beebe believed that the remaining Big 12 teams would stay because they would make more in TV revenue, since there were two fewer teams. What he didn't think through is if one of the remaining teams left, the entire conference would fall apart.

There were very attractive options available to the Big 12 at the time to fill in for the departing teams. BYU was leaving the Mountain West Conference because they were being shafted by the conference with their team network. By snatching BYU, this could have provided two things for the Big 12. First and foremost it could've replaced the Denver market that was lost with Colorado's departure. Salt Lake City is the #33 television market compared to Denver which is #18. BYU not only has a strong fan base, but they are also strong in other non football sports like basketball. Secondly this might have helped other teams in the Big 12 get used to a team having their own network. While BYU's network is non profit based, it has all the other features that the Longhorn Network currently has. TCU was also available and was also leaving the Mountain West Conference to pursue Big East membership. With the acquisition of both of these schools, the Big 12 could've not only protected itself from realignment, but also the rest of the NCAA.

The second mistake Beebe made was with the television contracts. The Big 12 has constantly been near the bottom when it comes to TV revenue. This isn't because of the teams in the conference, but because of Beebe's lack of ability to brand the Big 12 as a viable and attractive conference. The SEC has been branded as the best football conference. The Big East has been branded as the best Basketball conference. Beebe's lack of ability to brand his own conference caused Regional Sports Networks to short change the Big 12 and pay them less compared to other conferences. Beebe could've branded the conference as the "Rivalry Conference" with historic rivalries like Texas- Oklahoma, Texas- Texas A@M, Oklahoma- Oklahoma State etc. Lastly, the Big 12 was the only major conference to not have equal revenue sharing. This created tension among all the schools, which could've been prevented by Beebe if he had included equal revenue sharing in the new Big 12 TV deal that he signed this past April.

While many are pointing the finger at each other, the finger should be pointed at the top. You live with good leadership and die with bad leadership. The Big 12 is living proof that bad leadership can only take you so far.