Surprise AL Contenders

By Marcus Perry

At the beginning of this MLB season most analyst had their AL playoff contenders lined up as The Yankees winning the East, the Tigers winning the central, the Rangers winning the west and the Angels and Red Sox/Rays as the two wild cards. Boy has that been shaken up.

With the regular season about to come to a close in two weeks the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox and  Oakland Athletics  all look to be in strong positions to get a birth in the playoffs.

Baltimore is only a game and half behind the Yankees for the lead in the AL east and the leader atop the wildcard board.

Chicago now leads the Tigers by only one game. It will be an interesting one to watch as they have no more games against each other and Detroit seems to have an easy road with all their games left against the Royals and Twins.

Oakland sits 5 games behind the Rangers and has a slim but surprising lead on the Angles by two games.

The Wildcard standings are pretty tight. Baltimore and Oakland are tied for that top spot which makes them the two wildcard teams, but The Angels are two back, the Rays three, and the Tigers five and half. If there is anything we learned from last year it is that no leads are safe.

So how is it that these low payroll teams (beside Chicago) have been able to contend this whole season and potential make a serious push to a world series?

The Orioles have done it in maybe the unsexiest way possible. They have little star power and no stud pitching.  They rank 18^th in the league with a team 3.99 era and their stud hitters, Matt Wieters and Adam Jones both are hitting below .300 and neither has more than 80 RBI However the Orioles have found a way to outscore their opponents by 23 runs, have scored a 27-7 record in one run games and a 13-2 record in extra inning games.

Baltimore has done this with some really key relief pitching, timely hitting, good management, and lets face it a little bit of luck. The relievers have posted a 30-10, have 49 saves and record a 3.09 era which is below the league average of 3.66.

Manager Buck Showalter has utilized over 150 different variations of lineups with this Orioles team and every time he fills a hole in the lineup it seems to work. I don’t know how long this run for the Orioles can last but it sure does seem like it will carry over into October.

The key to Oakland’s success has been their pitching. They are fifth in the bigs with a team ERA of 3.50 and have the third most shutouts with 13 while only having one complete game thrown. That being thrown by one of their young stud Tommy Milone.

Going into the season it was thought that they were going to have rely heavily on Dallas Braden and Brett Anderson to anchor their pitching staff but the two have been hurt. The real catalysts for this staff have been Tommy Milone and Jarred Parker. They have a combined 24 and 18 record and a 3.63. Now with Anderson back in the rotation the young top 3 of this rotation can look to compete with anyone. The San Francisco Giants just a few years ago showed us once you get into the playoffs it’s about timely hitting and solid pitching and that is what I’m sure Oakland is banking on.

What could be the potential biggest surprise is if the Chicago White Sox hold their lead and keep the Detroit Tigers out of the postseason. The signing of rookie manager Robin Ventura has assured to a be a success at least in year one and the decision to move Chris Sale from the bullpen to the rotation has developed a potential cy young candidate for years to come.

Sale has been absolutely outstanding going 17-7, a 2.82 ERA and 181 strikeouts which has put him in the cy young conversation. Veteran Jake Peavy has had some back injuries this year but still has given Chicago 203.2 innings, 3.40 era and 180 strikeouts. The top of Chicago’s rotation is something that can carry them in the postseason.

The middle of the lineup has been key for Chicago as well.  Adam Dunn and Alex Rios seemed to be on the decline of their careers just a season ago, but both have bounced back tremendously. Dunn turned 11 homers in 20111 into 41 this season, while Rios has a career high .299 average and 24 dingers. He is also creeping close to his career high in RBI, 88, as he is at 87.

Younger players like Dayan Viciedo have shown production promising production. Viciedo at only age 23 has shown to be the power bat the white sox may be looking for to replace Dunn one day. Viciedo has 21 homers and 66 RBI in 141 games.

As September comes to a close and October approaches it should be fun to see how the AL playoff picture 

shapes out.

Cowboys and Giants: The consistent of inconsistent

Last night the New York Giants went into Carolina and were hitting on every aspect of their gameplan. One week prior, the Giants struggled to defend a weary offense and needed a second half comeback to defeat a last place team from last year. The Cowboys in Week 1 seemed to silence all critics, as Tony Romo looked like a top Quarterback and the team as a whole took out the Super Bowl champs. Through three Giants games and two Cowboys games, a pattern is starting to form that these two teams are consistently inconsistent.

After beating the Super Bowl Giants in Week 1 at Metlife Stadium on banner night, the Cowboys were set to have an impressive season. Romo threw for 307 yards with three touchdowns and outplayed the two time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning. Dallas' run game, headed by Demarco Murray was strong, breaking through the defensive line of Osi Umenyora, Jason Pierre Paul, and Justin Tuck. The shock of them all was that Romo seemed to find a new target in Kevin Ogletree, who had 114 yards and two touchdowns. Everything on opening night was working for the Cowboys.

The next week seemed like a cupcake game for Dallas, as they were going up against Seattle, who took a loss the week before to Arizona. Defensively, Dallas gave up 27 points and let rookie Quarterback Russell Wilson pass efficiently (15-20, 151 yards, one touchdown). The offensive side of the ball was putrid, only scoring once and Romo was a ghost of the week before. He threw 17 incomplete passes and only averaged 6.3 yards per completion. Ogletree was only targeted once after the stellar opening game.  Dallas missed on a huge opportunity to be 2-0, and now will play host to the Buccaneers Sunday.

The Giants fell flat on their face opening night to the Cowboys as they were outplayed and coached in every aspect of the game. Last week, the Giants hosted Tampa Bay, who was riding high after defeating division rival Carolina in Week 1. After a struggled first half, behind three Eli Manning interceptions, the Giants trailed 24-13. After halftime though, Eli started playing ELIte. Throwing for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, Manning finished his day with an outstanding 510 yards. Both Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz had over 175 yard receiving and over 10 catches. The Giants woke up and over came a second half 14 point deficit.

Last night, despite not having starters Ahmad Bradshaw, David Diehl, and Hakeem Nicks, the Giants stepped up once again. Bradshaw was not missed, as fill in Andre Brown carried the ball 20 times for 113 yards with two touchdowns. The same could be said for Nicks, as no name Ramsey Barden caught 9 passes for 138 yards in the winning effort. The defense was all over Cam Newton, as the former number one pick was held to 40.6 Quarterback rating. Newton, who seemed frustrated all night, looked like a shell of himself. The Giants improved to 2-1, and will now wait over a week to play the currently undefeated Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football.

Two and a half weeks in we have seen the best and worst of both the Giants and Cowboys. Attempting to gauge where these two teams will be at season end is impossible. The little we can gauge though, is that both teams have shown their flashes of greatness. In a division loaded with talent, the question is: can these two inconsistent teams survive their grueling 16 game schedule?

Clemson/Florida State: For a national title spot?

This Saturday night's ACC contest between Clemson and Florida State has become nothing short of the conference's biggest game of the year. What some may not realize is that not only is it the biggest game for the ACC, but may be the most important for the national title picture so far.

Last Saturday the ACC saw one of it's major players in the title picture fall, as Virginia Tech's sloppy play cost them a game against a putrid Pittsburgh team, who already lost to an unknown Youngstown State and been blown out to Cincinnati. With Tech out of the race, #10 Clemson will visit #4 Florida State in a game that may ultimately catapult the winner into the National Title game. With plenty of teams undefeated, it may be hard to tell who will be there at the end still standing, but for both Clemson and Florida State the road may be easier.

After Saturday's contest against Clemson, Florida State will have only ONE game remaining against a top 25 team (November 24th vs #14 Florida). Although the rankings of a team may not matter much earlier, this is significantly easier then an LSU or Oregon. LSU still has four games against top 25 opponents, including a November 3rd match up vs #1 Alabama. Oregon has two left against the nation's finest, as they are still set to play #9 Stanford and Matt Barkley's #13 USC Trojans. The road to being undefeated is at the winner of Saturday's contest fingertips.

Clemson will be coming off three straight wins, with Quarterback Tajh Boyd playing some of the best football in his young career. Boyd has over 700 yards in the air to go with six touchdowns and one interception. On the other end, Florida State is going about business per usual, sporting a 3-0 record and owning the nation's top defense. The Seminoles defense has only given up three points total in three games played (Field Goal to Murray State). The offense has also been something on the positive end, as they are the nation's second best offense (58.7 ppg). Florida State is hitting on every cylinder coming into this match up.

With Florida State's national championship hopes being tarnished last year by Clemson, the Seminoles will likely be all business Saturday. Even though college football is only in it's fourth week, the stakes could not be higher when these two ACC power houses collide.

QB competitions play out in week 1

By Marcus Perry

Refer back to http://highheatnet.blogspot.com/2012/08/quarterback-competitions.html

The most compelling story was how Russell Wilson did as the Seahawks starting quarterback this week. It is fair to say that he was not terrible this weekend but he definitely struggled. He completed only 18 of 34 passes with 185 yards and a touchdown. Pretty average day, but it was his two turnovers that truly hurt Seattle. His interception at the end of the second quarter, when it seemed Seattle was going to be in position to score before the half, may have been one of the most crucial moments in the game. However, Wilson did show promising poise in the fourth quarter when he drove Seattle down the field for a last second drive that came up short due to a Braylon Edwards drop on a quick slant in the endzone.  Wilson would have never had the chance to make that throw if Seattle wasn’t mistakenly granted a fourth timeout.

It is not believed that Wilson’s play in that game should warrant a loss of his job, but it is a safe assumption to say that Matt Flynn is a few steps closer to that spot. Seattle did come out and say that Wilson is still their starting quarter back.

In that very same game we saw both the quarterbacks from the Arizona Cardinals. As Skelton did win the job during the preseason, he did not play well in this game and would leave in the 4^th quarter with a high ankle sprain. Before his departure Skelton completed only 50% of his passes and threw a pick. Accuracy has been something that Skelton is said to struggle with and it showed.

Skelton’s injury gave Kevin Kolb a chance to be the hero as he led the Cards down the field in a no huddle offense completing 6 of 8 passes for 66 yards and what was essentially the game winning touchdown. It is said Skelton will be out 2 to 6 weeks and this could open the door for Kolb to prove to the organizations that he should be their quarterback moving forward.

Jake  Locker was relatively impressive as he completed 72% of his passes, threw for over 225 yards and had a touchdown pass.  The one interception Locker threw was a jump ball to Nate Washington that was actually pretty well thrown but even better played by Patriots safety Tyvon Wilson. However Locker’s poor ball handling near his own endzone led to a Donta Hightower fumble recovery for a touchdown.

Locker did leave the game after tackling Pat Chung and injuring his left arm. Matt Hasselbeck did get to play a drive and was not overly impressive. Locker is said to be fine and will be the starter week 2 as he is the future of this Titan’s franchise and this game was a solid start even though it ended in loss.

The least impressive of those who won a starting job was Ryan Tannenhill, the rookie quarterback in Miami. Tannenhill faced by far the toughest defense out of any of the other quarterbacks I’ve mentioned. Houston was top 5 in all three major team defensive stats last season. The most outstanding of which is the fact they were second only to the Steelers in Yard Per Game averaging only 285.7.

Tannenhill had his hands full as he was constantly under pressure and forced a lot of his throw down field. He completed 56% of his passes but could not find the end zone and threw three interceptions. This is Tannenhill’s first game and he was playing one of the NFL’s top defenses so, just like Wilson he gets a pass and this shouldn’t change his status as the starter. Miami is not expected to compete much this year so this could potentially be a tough learning year for Tannenhill.

Blaine Gabbert was in my mind the most impressive of the few Quaterbacks fighting for a position. During camp Jags always stated that this was Gabbert’s job but with a veteran guy like Chad Henne around one had to wonder. Gabbert completed 59% of his passes for 260 yards and two big touchdowns for the Jags. Unfortunately he did lose a fumble and the Jags ended up falling to the Vikings in overtime. With that being said any Jags fan has to be encouraged by the fact that Gabbert did not throw any picks and completed a fairly high percent of his passes. Also the fact that all of their offensive scoring came through the passing game is a breath of fresh air considering that a majority of the Jags scoring is based around Maurice Jones Drew.

 This weekend games gave us some insight to how the season will play out for these quarterbacks but does not tell the whole story. We will have to continue to watch and see how the season plays out for each team and each quarterback.