Blake Murphy Sports Writing

Title: This Week’s Random Thoughts
Date: March 1, 2008
Original Source: The On Deck Circle
Synopsis: Another week-in-review type of article, where I scattered a few random thoughts in with a review of our week at The ODC.

This Week in Review column, as I’ve tested in the past, is now an official weekly feature and will be coming at your every Saturday to review the news from the business week in sports. Take a look back at some of the older editions and tell me if you like the sport-by-sport format today best or some other format.

“Alien: Resurrection” and Other Basketball News
*Sam Cassell was waived by the Los Angeles Clippers, as expected by the entire basketball world. No word on how big a pay cut Sam I am took, but it’s safe to assume he was willing to give up a lot of his $6.1M contract for this season for the chance to rejoin former teammates Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in Bean Town. Though not yet official, he’s a huge addition for the Celtics and gives them a clutch shot maker, a veteran presence, and a load of experience. The only negatives that may evolve from this are that it may hinder Rajon Rondo’s development by limiting his minutes (especially in crunch time, though the C’s could go small with a Rondo-Cassell-Allen-Pierce-Garnett line up that would terrify everyone), and it could lead to Sam taking crunch time shots, a role he is used to but not the best suited (on this team, anyways) to fill.

*Yao Ming is out for the season, but the Rockets are yet to falter. I should have blogged about this, I know, but ESPN let the NHL Trade Deadline get overshadowed by Yao and The ODC wasn’t going to do the same. The Rockets haven’t lost without him yet (their 14 game winning streak is still intact), and they don’t even look that at-risk to lose a playoff spot. One questions how they matched up with the West’s elite even with Yao, so with the glut of dominant big men (and now, big men duos) in that conference, I don’t like Houston’s chances at all with a big-man platoon of Scola, Mount Mutumbo, Carl Landry aka Carl Landry, and Chuck Hayes.

*I predicted the end of the Lakers’ winning streak last night, making Portland +7 at home my shoe-in of the night. A little bragging. My bad.

*Jason Kidd was benched in crunch time by Avery Johnson. The whole Blogosphere got riled up about this, and the biggest question is this: why would you acquire Kidd because you lack late-game poise, veteran presence, and killer instinct, and then not play him in clutch situations? Dallas lost, by the way.

*Raptor News: John Hollinger may have given the Raptors the kiss of death by hyping up their final trimester chances in the East. Hollinger’s statistical system obviously overrates the Raptors a little bit (it ignores the fact that we’re yet to determine a ‘go-to’ guy, we don’t have a stand out ‘lock-down’ defender, and our steady bench has wildly inconsistent individuals) but it’s nice to get some love since on the whole we’re underrated. TJ Ford is back playing like his old self and Jose struggled this week, so maybe it’s time to revisit this debate. Primoz Brezec debuted, making a lot of fans wonder who he is. Oh ya, and Bosh hurt his knee last night as the Raps played their worst defensive game of the season, losing to a bad Pacers team missing their three top scorers.

“Hossa for Prospects and Keith Van Horn” and Other Hockey News
*Hey, I don’t know if you noticed when visiting the ODC this week, but the NHL had its trade deadline on Tuesday. We had unbelievable coverage of it here. If you didn’t pick up what Paul and I were putting down, Deven took a look, too. Stu viewed The Pens’ perspective, Kevin will miss Belak, and the debuting Ian Cass took a look at the power structure of the post-deadline NHL. Paul had mixed feelings about Sundin staying put, and I reflected on my deadline experiences.

*Hossa is hurt immediately after being traded to the Pens. While he’s only out a week, let the Ewing Theory chatter begin. Oh, and Gino Malkin may be the first 2nd-best-on-his-team player to win the Hart Trophy this year. Kid is unreal. In other new beginnings, Mike Smith beat the Leafs in Tampa, Brad Richards had a 5 assist debut in Big D, and Cristobal Huet posted a shutout for the Capitals.

*With an OT Loss last night, the Leafs are just 5 points out of the playoffs!

“Needles Won’t Be the Only Thing in Roger’s Butt” and Other Baseball News
*The government has decided there is enough evidence against Clemens to start an FBI probe into the situation. If Clemens is found guilty, he faces serious prison time and perjury charges. I just don’t understand his strategy here – why lie about the tiny things that can get you caught (see: the Canseco party)? If you get caught on a little lie, there’s no way people believe you on the big lie. It’s kind of like saying “no, I wasn’t even at that club” instead of “no, I didn’t cheat on you,” then Facebook photos surface of you at the club and you’re entirely busted.
*Spring training has begun! Alex Snyder took a look at the Jays’ spring, as did Jack. The Jays are 0-2 so far but I’m not worried, because Jordan Bastian told me not to be. The Jays signed Shannon Stewart on Monday, creating a logjam in Left.

*Scott Spiezio is wanted for six different charges stemming from a December 30 traffic incident. I believe one of the charges has to do with his stupid red facial hair. The Cards cut him, but he’ll catch on somewhere – who doesn’t need a .255 career hitter with mediocre power, speed, and fielding who is willing to die himself team colors?

*Hank Steinbrenner is throwing fuel on the Red Sox-Yankees fire by claiming Red Sox Nation is a fabrication made by ESPN during their first World Series run, and the Yankees are still the dominant American Franchise. Maybe so, but to this blog you’re both over hyped. Hank said this year the Yankees will ‘restore the universe to order,’ so I guess the AL East will finish NY-Boston-Toronto again.

“Yes! The Jags Have a Receiver! Finally!” and other Football News
*The NFL’s Free Agency period has begun. I won’t detail too much of it for you, but you can check ESPN’s free agent tracker here. The biggest signings so far? Jerry Porter on a much-too-long contract to the Jaguars (much needed, thank Bosh), Asante Samuel to the Eagles, Jonathan Vilma traded to the Saints, and…you know what, this has been an especially active free agent season for the NFL already, so just check the above link. Josh Brown headed to the Rams is a big one, too (he has to be a top-5 fantasy kicker now that he’s in a dome).

*The NFL Combine went down, with some amazing results and yet another positive sign for top prospect Darren McFadden. Something most people don’t know and didn’t show up in the combine – McFadden never once fumbled in 785 career carries at Arkansas. You can’t miss DJ Gallo’s combine coverage.

*If free agency and the combine aren’t enough for you, Alex took a look at the best games of this season in his new Thursday Top 10 feature.

“Great Kimbo Coverage” and Other Miscellaneous Sports News
*The mixed martial arts promotion Elite XC has signed a deal with CBS to bring MMA to network television for the first time. Kyle reported on it and is pretty pumped. He was a little late with his UFC 82 predictions but it was a good main event analysis. He’s probably afraid I’ll out-predict him yet again. That goes down tonight, for those of you not in the know.

*Umm, Kent State was ranked #24 in college basketball this week. As of Monday, they had two losses in a very bad conference and haven’t beaten a ranked team all year. Throw in today’s loss to a bad Bowling Green team, and I’ve got to wonder if it was just the cool Golden Flashes team name getting them into the rankings.
*Floyd Mayweather will wrestle The Big Show at Wrestlemania and is getting paid $20M to do it. You can expect a weekly Wrestlemania update in this weekly review until the Big Night on March 30. Just 29 days left people, and the following matches have been announced: Mayweather vs. Big Show, Batista vs. Umaga in a Raw vs. Smackdown match for brand supremacy, John Cena vs. Randy Orton vs. Triple H for the World Title, Undertaker vs. Edge for the other World Title, a tag team match with some hot girls, Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair in what could be Flair’s last match ever, plus the annual 8-man Money In the Bank ladder match with a title shot on the line. You can expect some serious Wrestlemania analysis in the near future from yours truly.

*We added three new writers this week because I haven’t been editing enough, apparently. Welcome to Adam Conn, Ian Cass, and Alex “Three Alexes on One Site is Confusing” Jackson, who had a nice debut today. We also opened up a March Madness pool and got a MySpace, and you can check the sidebars for more details. Oh ya, we threw down our third Podcast and it’s getting better each week, I think.

*Because I’ve linked to every other ODC article posted this week and because Trev is the man, Trevor also debuted his weekend hangover feature and took a great look at Tiger’s dominance.

Enjoy the weekend people, and be sure to holler back!