NL East Preview

Philadelphia Phillies

2008 Record: (92-70)

Key Arrivals: Raul Ibanez, Chan Ho Park,

Key Departures: Pat Burrell, Tom Gordon, Geoff Jenkins

Strength: The Phillies strength lies with their offense and with their closer. With a line up that has Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley runs with come early and often. Even with the likes of Jason Werth, Matt Stairs and Raul Ibanez the big guns don’t have to perform on a nightly basis to give the pitching staff support. Brad Lidge returned to form recording 41 saves and if that keeps up you can count on the Phillies taking their fair share of close ball games.

Weakness: The pitching staff has a lot of potential but is not that intimidating. Plus after a long championship run last season fatigue might catch up with the defending champs.

It’s going to be another interesting season in for the defending NL East champs. With the Braves beefing up there pitching staff and the Mets determined to reclaim the division, Philadelphia is going to be in tough to Repeat. Raul Ibanez helps fill the void of Pat Burrell and with Ryan Howard slimming down 20 pounds and rejecting to play in the World Baseball Classic the offence should stay ahead of the class. If the Phillies can get from starter to closer without any major hiccups from the relievers than they can re-capture their form from a year ago.

2009 Projection: (88-74) 2nd in the NL East

New York Mets

2008 Record: (89-73)

Key Arrivals: Francisco Rodriguez, J.J Putz , Tim Redding

Key Departures: Endy Chavez, Aaron Heilman

Strength: The Mets are a well balanced team, but the one strong thing about them THIS YEAR is, their Bullpen. Not only did they sign single season saves leader Francisco Rodriguez but they acquired J.J Putz from the Seattle Mariners. That gives them a deadly one, two punch in the late stages of ball games. They also added Ron Villone from St. Louis Cardinals to strengthen the middle rotation.

Weakness: It’s hard to focus on one thing to be a weakness for the Mets. What they need to do is win in September. Period.

There is going to be a lot of excitement this year for the Mets, they will open a new stadium and hopefully that will bring the Mets some luck. The last 2 seasons the Mets have choked late in the season and than missed the playoffs. Additions like K-Rod and Putz, help the bullpen dramatically. They have an offense that gives pitchers fits. With Jose Reyes bouncing around on the base pads and David Wright and Carlos Delgado taking pitchers deep into the New York night this could be a memorable year for Mets faithful.

2009 Projection: (91-71) NL East Champions

Florida Marlins

2008 Record: (83-79)

Key Arrivals: Scott Proctor

Key Departures: Kevin Gregg, Mike Jacobs

Strength: The Marlins Pitching Staff is Young and Talented. Rickey Nolasco, Josh Johnson and Chris Volstad showed flashes of greatness last year. If they can build on that then the Marlins will steal some games in the NL East

Weakness: After sending Kevin Gregg to Chicago the Fish have handed the closers job to Matt Lidstrom, who looked good in that roll late last season. If he doesn’t perform look for Royal Leo Nunez to pick up the slack.

They’re young, they’re the lowest payroll in the Majors but the Marlins are fun to watch. There are still tons of questions surrounding this team, Can they perform at high level all season? Will the young pitchers wear down late and Can the Marlins close out games consistently? , but they should still make the NL East an interesting race.

2009 Projection: 80-82

Atlanta Braves

2008 Record: (72-90)

Key Arrivals: Garret Anderson, Derek Lowe, Kenshin Kawakami

Key Departures: John Smoltz, Scott Thorman

Strength: Pitching, what was once a rich tradition in Atlanta seems to be back. The Braves improved their starting rotation this off-season by adding Derek Lowe, Javier Vasquez and Kenshin Kawakami. Also, the in-field should help keep a couple runs off the board of the opposition, Kelly Johnson and Yunel Escobar are a deadly combination up the middle and with Chipper and Casey Kotchman patrolling the corners should make for some highlights in Hotlanta.
Weakness: Consistancy is going ot be the biggest problem for the Braves this season, its gonna take some time for the team to come together but they're on th right track to compete in sucha competative division.

2009 Projection: (82-80)

Washington Nationals

2008 Record: (59-102)

Key Arrivals: Adam Dunn, Kip Wells, Daniel Cabrera

Key Departures: Tim Redding, Chad Cordero

Strength: The Nationals need help but there pitching staff has improved, even though they lost Tim Redding, they added the likes of Daniel Cabrera, Kip Wells and Scott Olsen. This should help them win more than 59 games this season

Weakness: The Nationals need a lot more help than Adam Dunn and Josh Willingham to compete this season. Even though Dunn and Willingham are great pick ups the line-up is still looking weak.

The Nationals did a lot of upgrading over the off-season adding Adam Dunn , Josh Willingham, Daniel Cabrera and Scott Olsen. However, this will not translate in to a winning season. The Nationals will improve on the 59 win total they tallied from a year ago but they will not get out of the basement of NL East.

2009 Projection: 71-91

The NL East is going to be very competitive this year . Almost every team tried to upgrade their rosters so they can compete against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Braves and Marlins should keep the division close all year but the two real contenders if the division are the Mets and the Phillies. Judging by the last 2 seasons this should be one of the more interesting division races in the Majors.

NL East Standings

New York Mets 91-71
Philadelphia Phillies 88-74
Atlanta Braves 82-80
Florida Marlins 80-82
Washington Nationals 71-91

Nelson "Demon Seed" Swan

Madness 101: Day 2 Sweet 16

Just another day in the life of March Madness. Missouri absolutely ran all over Memphis, what was suppose to be a track meet turned out to be a one sided affair. The Tigers from Missouri ran up and down the floor on a Memphis team who looked like they had no idea who there Go to Guy was. They did however make it close at the end but a 24 point deficit will getcha ya everytime. Duke shot themselves into a deep hole against Villanova and just kept trying to dig themselves out by the jumpshot and it didn’t work. What was supposed to be a tight affair ended up being a thumping in favour of the Wildcats. As for the two number one seeds, UCONN looked like championship material, Purdue was in it early but UCONN pulled away late. As for Pittsburgh they really like to make things interesting don’t they? But they came thru for the, which has a shot for an all Big East Final Four.

Now on to today’s action, if it’s anything like yesterdays games we are in for a great night. Louisville and UNC look to advance and keep all 4 number ones hopes alive to repeat the all Number One seed Final Four. Also the best player in the country, Blake Griffin, looks to take on the Country’s hottest team in Syracuse.

Arizona vs. Louisville

Well for the Wildcats of Arizona this is better than anyone expected. Selection Sunday they were said to be lucky to make it, Round one they were seeded up against Utah, and Round 2 well who would of thought a 12 would face a 13 but it happened and Arizona has the toughest task of the 2009 Tourny, the Big East Champions Louisville Cardinals. The Cardinals had a tough time against upstart Sienna but eventually pulled away late. They might be in tough early against Arizona but I expect the Cardinals to win by 10 or more

My Final Prediction- Louisville wins big

Syracuse vs. Oklahoma

The best player in the Country takes on the hottest team in the Nation. This game could be the game of the night. Syracuse 2-3 zone has been giving fits to offences over the last 2 or 3 weeks and well Blake griffin has been giving fits to coaches around the Nation all season. Against Michigan he had a ridiculous 33 and 17 and he was getting elbowed and undercut all game. As for the ‘Cuse, well they have been shooting the lights out from beyond the 3 point line thanks to Devendorf and Rautins. Plus the way that this team is coming together the last couple of weeks it looks like a tough match up for the Sooners.

My Final Prediction- Oklahoma wins thanks to Blake Griffin

Kansas vs. Michigan st

The Defending National Champions are back in the sweet 16 and they are in tough against MichiganS. The Spartans and Jayhawks played earlier this season with the Spartans beating Kansas by 15. But that was before Kansas had an identity. The Jayhawks now know what it is they have to do to win and the last 3 weeks proves that. They are playing like the defending National Champions and that’s not good for Michigan St. Who had trouble against the surprising Pac 10 champions USC Trojans. If anything, Michigan St. has the power down low to contain Cole Aldrich and the speed at guard to stop Sherron Collins. Michigan St. Should get one step closer to the Final Four in their own back yard.

My Final Prediction- Michigan St in OT

UNC vs. Gonzaga

In the last game of the night you have the WCC Champions Gonzaga Bulldogs going up against pre-season favourite to win the National Title North Carolina Tar Heels. The Tar Heels seem to be running on all cylinders getting Ty Lawson back for the LSU game and Ellington and Green finding there scoring touch again. As for Gonzaga, they have spent the last 10 years trying to prove they can bang with the best and after receiving a number 4 seed in this years tourney it’s time to show it. I am hoping for an upset here just cause of where my heart lies in the ACC but with all the talent on North Carolina that might be hard to do

My Final Prediction- UNC wins big

Gotta Love the Madness

Nelson “Demon Seed” Swan

Madness 101: Sweet 16, How Sweet It Is!

What a first weekend it was for college basketball fans. The first round had everything you could possible ask for, and more. We had upsets, we had surprisingly close games, we had games that came down to the last shot and we had blowouts, pretty much everything you could have expected. So what is in store for this weekend? Well.......let me try to predict what will happen.

Purdue vs. UCONN

UCONN is playing some of their best basketball of the season. The Huskies haven’t really been tested this tournament having two easy wins against Chattanooga and than in the second round against Texas A &M but none the less they have looked like a championship calibre team. Stanley Robinson has come to play and has shined as well as the known stars in Thabeet and Price. For Purdue, they’re going to need everyone on the roster to beat the Huskies. Coming of two close games in the first 2 rounds, the Boilermakers and Hummel are going to have to have the game of their lives just to have a chance against the number one seeded Huskies. If they can get Thabeet into foul trouble early than the Boilermakers have a chance to open the middle of the floor and attack the basket.

My final prediction- UCONN wins easily

Xavier vs. Pittsburgh

This Sweet 16 tilt is an interesting one. The Panthers have an arsenal of talent on their squad with the likes of Sam Young, Dejuan Blair, and Levance Fields and that alone should help them past the Xavier Musketeers. But Xavier isn’t going down so easily. They have a ton of talent on their team and can’t wait to show the world that this ``Mid Major`` team can beat a big school like Pittsburgh.

My Final Prediction- Pitt advances in a close affair

Missouri vs. Memphis

This game should be one of the more interesting games of the night. Not only does the teams share nicknames (Tigers), but they also share the same playing style. Both teams play with speed and intensity and this just makes for a great matchup. The interesting thing about this tilt is the last time the Memphis tigers lost a C-USA game to UAB about 62 games ago, the coach of that team was Mike Anderson, who just so happens to be the Coach of the Missouri team that plays Memphis tonight.

My Final Prediction- Memphis wins in a thrilling Victory

Villanova vs. Duke

What a way to cap off the night, NOVA and Duke. This game is unpredictable, the way that both teams have played , not only in this tournament but in the regular season as well, who knows what is going to happen in this game. Duke all year has had let downs in the second half of games and if that happens against the wildcats than Duke will be looking at a short visit to Boston. However Gereld Henderson dad`s won Championships with the Celtics in so I am sure he is going to want to show daddy he can ball in Boston too. Than again, Villanova is going to want to show the rest of the Nation that they can win in places other than Philadelphia and that they deserve to be mentioned with the likes of Pittsburgh, UCONN, Louisville and Syracuse. This one should be a doozy

My Final Prediction- Duke wins in a shocker

Now take what you want from my predictions and less than stellar blurbs of info. I don’t claim to be an expert just a long time fan but judging by my Brackets I might know a think or 2 about this tourny . Enjoy another wicked night and this weekend ill be on top of my game and preview every day this weekend

Nelson “Demon Seed” Swan

Madness 101: Breaking down (Day 1) of the Dribble

Sooo, after months of waiting, days of bracketololgy, it finally came. March Madness, one of the best times of the year. Now, people are probably wondering why i didn’t come out with a March Madness preview piece. Let’s be serious though, previewing or predicting the March Madness tournament is one of the hardest things to do. However, I will break down the first day and recap the best moments.

First up, Big shout out to the Boys from Ann Arbor , who haven’t been in the tournament for 11 years and still came up with an upset win against 7th ranked Clemson. Michigan seemed to run away with the game earlier, but Clemson didn’t go down without a fight and made it close, but not close enough. The Wolverines came away with a 3 point victory.

Congrats to VCU for coming 2 seconds away from another Eric Maynor Miracle. What a game that was. UCLA kept wanting to pull away but VCU kept hanging around, until finally it came down to Eric Maynor and the last shot of the game, unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be this year and UCLA squeezed by with a victory.

Memphis survived a scare from Cal St Northridge, if it wasn’t for Roburt Sallie the Tigers would have got bounced from the first round and we all know that most peoples brackets depend on Memphis going deep. Even Villanova had trouble with there first round match up on there home court no less, which is a blunder from the selection committee. Other than that all the top seeds advanced in convincing fashion. Yes even Duke did...no seriously they did.

What was with the brutal refing in the Western Kentucky game? The refs almost gave the game away to Illinois with a brutal call late in the game. With 32.6 seconds left Western Kentucky has to inbound the ball and as the player is doing so it bounces of the hand of the Illinois defender and bounces off the ground out of bounds and an Illinois player picks it up while standing out of bounds. The guys in stripes even looked back at the replays and still gave the ball to the Fighting Illini. Thank god Western Kentucky held on for the win and more importantly the win for my perfect round 1 bracket.

Blake Griffin was throwing over a Morgan State players’ back near the end of a blow out win. Watch to see how many times that will happen as 2 players this year have already been suspended for taking cheap shots at the National Player of the Year.

Well that’s day one in a nutshell, be sure to stay tuned for the daily updates from yours truly.


Nelson "Demon Seed" Swan

Madness 101: The Battle of Tobacco Road

This Sunday will renew one of the biggest rivalries in College sports. Duke vs North Carolina. It’s a rivalry that is 89 years in the making. The schools are separated by roughly 8 miles and every time these two powerhouses meet it’s a game for the ages and Sunday will be no different. With a win on Sunday UNC can capture the ACC regular season title, with a loss they will share the title with The Blue devils. Of course this is just the calm before the storm.

These two teams will close out the ACC regular season playing each other and most of the time it will determine who will win the ACC regular season title. Combined these two North Carolina based teams have 79% of the conference's regular season titles and 58% of the tournament titles since the ACC's founding in 1953. With the ACC being one of the toughest in Men’s College basketball it’s amazing that the percentages are so huge. Both Schools are in the top 5 for most victories programs (UNC 2nd, Duke 4th) and both schools are in the top 5 for national Championship (UNC 4, 4th all time, Duke 3 tied for 5th).

The Tar Heels are coming of a win over Virginia Tech, as for the Dukies there coming off a close win over no. 25 Florida State. Both have been ranked in the top 25 for the whole season and whoever wins on Sunday will help cement there number one spot for the ACC tournament.

Head to Head


W-L PF PA HOME ROAD STK
DUKE 25-5 79.0 65.2 16-1 6-4 W5

UNC 26-3 91.7 72.7 13-1 10-2 W2

Leading Scorers:

Gerald Henderson 16.7 Tyler Hansbrough 21.3

Leading Rebounder:

Kyle Singlar 7.7 Tyler Hansbrough 7.8

Leading Assits:

Jon Sheyer 2.8 Ty Lawson 6.5


All signs point to a North Carolina Tar Heels win, however in sports you just never know and Sunday at 4pm we shall get our answer.

Nelson "Demon Seed" Swan

Madness 101: 57 and Counting

As we get closer to the Madness, there is an outstanding story that is getting no recognition. Has anybody noticed that the Memphis Tigers have reeled off 57 straight Conference USA wins? Anybody? They stand 15-0 in the conference after their 69-60 win in Houston on Wednesday night. If they win their last game against Tulane and at least 2 more times in the C-USA tournament-which is on the home floor no doubt- than the Memphis Tigers will own the 2nd best conference winning streak in NCAA Division 1 history. To add to that if they win with 3 more wins this season they will have put together the best four year stretch of victories with 134. And now one seems to care

Coming into the year the Tigers were not expected to be in the position they are in today. By Monday the Tigers could end up being ranked number one in the Country. After losing Chris Douglas-Roberts, Joey Dorsey and eventual number one pick Derrick Rose to the NBA draft; everyone thought that Memphis would take a step back. That is the furthest thing from the truth. The Tigers are almost exactly where they were last season sitting at 27-3 and one win away from another perfect regular season. Yet there are still people that doubt them, having only played one other team ranked in the top 25 in their conference (UAB #25 2006) during this streak I can see why people think the Memphis Tigers are “Paper Tigers”. But let’s not forget those same people last year who thought that Memphis was over rated were shocked when they up 50-20 on Michigan State, or even whey they beat Texas by 18 in Houston. They even beat UCLA by 15. And how could we forget they were one game away from a National Championship and if it wasn’t for Mario Chalmers hitting a huge 3 in the late stages of that game, or Coach John Calipari forgetting to call a time out, who knows what would have happened.

Even though the Tigers are not in on of the Major Six Conferences in Division 1 its still amazing to me what that School has done in the last 4 years. So when it comes to bracket time and your thinking of having Memphis bow out in the early rounds…..I suggest you think better of it.

Nelson "Demon Seed" Swan

Madness 101: The Curse of Number One

For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to be number one, in whatever I was doing. Whether it is in sports or in academics I always wanted to be ranked number 1. It’s just in human nature to strive to be the best. Or is it? If we take a look at what has taken place atop the polls throughout this current NCAA Men’s Basketball season it looks like there is a Curse of the Number One Seed.

At the start of the season the pre-season polls had North Carolina ranked number one, and rightfully so. On paper they had the best talent in the country and they had senior Tyler Hansbrough returning for his final season and coming of a year were he accepted numerous awards, including Player of the Year. They also had Ty Lawson coming back after he decided to stay for his junior season. UNC rolled through the first half of there schedule romping teams by 10, 20 and even 30 points a game. Than when Conference play started the Curse of the Number One seed hit. North Carolina had what was thought to be an easy match up against Boston College in their conference play opener and it was far from it. UNC ended up losing there game to BC and to follow that up their next game against a conference opponent was against undefeated Wake Forest and the next thing the tar heels knew they were 0-2 in ACC play and bounced from the number one spot.

For the next 2 weeks the number one spot was held by Pittsburgh from the Big East. They, like UNC, were rolling through there non conference schedule and even had a 4-0 record in Big East play. One of those wins coming against Georgetown who for the last couple of years seemed to rule the Big East and seemed to be in for a good season even this year. But all those wins did not matter to Louisville. They didn’t care about Pitts 4-0 conference record or the fact they handed Georgetown a big loss on Georgetown’s own court. All Louisville knew was they had a date with the current number one ranked team in Pittsburgh and they wanted to prove to the world they should be considered a contender. And they did, after they beat Pitt at home in an entertaining game 69-63. 1 day after being ranked # 1 for the second straight week.

Wake Forest didn’t mind that Pittsburgh was bit by the Curse because after surprising the world and beating UNC wake went on to beat up on Boston College and than went into Clemson and beat the undefeated Tigers on their home court. Then the Curse struck again. Wake had what was thought to be a walk in the park game against Virginia Tech, but that was far from the case. The Hoakies went in to Wake Forest and stunned the freshly crowned # 1 seed 78-71. But Wake Forest would get its revenge on the curse

Duke who as a whole seemed to be cursed for one reason or another, had its date with the number one seed in the country and boy was it short lived. Coming a massive thrashing of Maryland, Duke was looking at a road game against Wake the team that they just over took in the Polls as the number one seed. The Blue Devils, which has had much luck in recent years, looked sluggish all game and even trailed by double digits late in the game. But Duke made a push late and ended up tying the game and it almost looked like they looked the curse in the face and said “Not This Week”, but the curse proved to be more powerful than the great wizard Dumbledore for the harry Potter novels and Wake ended up scoring on an easy inbound play with 2 seconds left.

UConn who is currently ranked number one has the longest ranked streak after UNC with 3 weeks atop the polls but after their loss on Monday to Pittsburgh at home, Connecticut looks to be dethroned by the Curse. They had a nice run at the top beating some big teams and having a 13 game win streak going into the game against Pittsburgh. This game was huge not only for the polls but also the Big East in general. Sophomore Dejaun Blair was tired of hearing about how good Hasheem Thabeet was and decided to use this game to show the world he was the big man in the Big East. Blair held Thabeet to 5 points and 4 rebounds while collecting 22 points and an outstanding 23 rebounds against the Big East rivals. Not to mention the Huskies lost Jerome Dyson in a game against Syracuse while being ranked number one.

But the most surprising case of The Curse of the Number One Seed is how badly it hit Oklahoma. After UConn lost to Pittsburgh all Oklahoma had to do was win its only game of the week against Big 12 rival Texas and the Number one seed was all Oklahoma’s. But the Curse struck them in the middle of the game against Texas before the new polls were even released. Right before the half Blake Griffin was hit in the nose by Texas Centre Dexter Pittman accidently and Blake griffin sat out the rest of the half. Trailing 34-29 the doctors on the Oklahoma bench decided to keep Griffin out with what appeared to be a concussion. Talk about your bad luck. The Sooners tried to make a run for it but the loss of Griffin was too much even behind Freshman Willie Warren’s 27 point performance.

Believe what you want, bit from what I have seen with my own eyes its apparent there is a Curse of the Number One Seed. If you don’t believe me see what happens to the team who gets the ranking for week 15 of the NCAA season. Or just watch the March Madness and see how well number one seeds will fair.

Nelson “Demon Seed” Swan