Hello all,
I’ve set up a fantasy basketball league at Yahoo. The season is set to start on OCT 30th. It’s an automated draft, so you just have to rank the players and the computer will conduct the actual draft. I will set the draft to run approximately 48 hours after the league is full, or the evening of the 28th, which ever comes first.
Thanks,
Andy Wellman
The Raider’s dream season came to an end this rainy evening on Field 1 at the Pleasant Prairie RecPlex. After starting out 0-3, they went the rest of way 5-0-1 to finish second in the 5th-6th grade division. Last Tuesday they won their first round playoff game, and met the 6-2-1 Cardinals in tonight’s championship game.
The same Cardinals that they tied in the season finale exactly one week ago. The same Cardinals that handed them two of their three loses. The same Cardinals they beat back on October 2nd. You could say that this had developed into quite the rivalry. And it showed tonight.
Penalties for tackling and flag guarding were being handed out left and right in a see-saw battle that ended with a Raiders game tying drive coming up just short as time expired. At least one Raider’s player chalked up the disappointing result on the weather. “We would have beat them if it wasn’t raining”, said star center and defensive lineman Jake Wellman. “The Cardinals were like fish, and we are more like squirrels. They do good in the water where we would have done better if it were dry out”.
And with that we say goodbye to the 2012 season. Great job Raiders!
Five weeks into the 2012 season, and this year’s Packer squad still remains an enigma. A prime example was yesterday’s game; a first half domination on both sides of the ball followed by a near historic collapse in the second. After last year’s 15-1 regular season, many fans expected a repeat performance this year, with a hopefully better defense. The only change in the formula would be to not rest too much heading into the playoffs, to keep the momentum rolling through a glorious, home field advantage run to a another Superbowl title. However, it has become quite apparent that this will not be the case this year. While the defense has at times played much better than in 2011, the offense isn’t anywhere near what it was a year ago. So onto plan B.
Much has been made about the teams of the last two championship runs; the Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants. The fact that they headed into the post season as wild card teams, and rolled to the Lombardi trophy. Speculation has been that it is no longer necessary to be a dominate team during the regular season, as long as you can get hot towards the end and carry the momentum through the playoffs. And so far this season, it seems that this will be the formula that the Pack will have to use if they are to fulfill the promise so many of us felt heading into this year.
The Packer’s season is one quarter over, and they sit at an even 2-2. That means they are on pace to finish 8-8, and more than likely out of the playoffs, and quite frankly, that’s what they deserve. Just kidding. We all know that if it weren’t for some highly incompetent officiating, they would be 3-1 and tied for the division lead. And if you continue to break out the rest of the season in quarters, I think they will continue to go 3-1 and finish with 11 wins and 5 loses. Hopefully that will translate into a division title and a first round bye. But they’ll miss home field advantage throughout by one game, and then we’ll have plenty to talk about regarding the week 3 debacle!
The opening to this post was obviously sarcasm, and it is aimed at those who believe that this year’s Packer squad “sucks”. Of course, this line of thinking can be traced back to last years record breaking 15-1 season. Those people need to step back, take a pill and realize that last year was truly a once in a generation occurrance. And let us not forget, that as well as that team performed during the regular season, they were one-and-done in the playoffs. So I would eagerly accept an 11 and 5 finish with an NFC Championship game on the road if it ends in the same magical fashion as the 2010 season.
Sure, the offense is not performing at the same level as it did last year. And the offensive line looks like it’s going to get Aaron Rodgers killed sometimes, but they did start to show flashes of brilliance against the Saints on Sunday. Combine that with the much improved play of the defense and I don’t think we have so much to worry about.
…but here come your surging Milwaukee Brewers! After being as much as 19 games under .500 at one point, they have climbed above the Mendoza line and joined the Wild Card race discussion. And with the prospect of an 0-2 start by the Packers, they have created a nice little positive diversion for Badger State Sports Fans.
Of course, the Phillies have decided to throw their hat into the ring as well, which makes the prospect of post season baseball in Brew Town an even longer shot. Never the less, it has created a nice little diversion from a very disappointing week of football in Wisconsin.
When Barry Alvarez took over the moribund football program at the University of Wisconsin, an invite to the Billy Bob Bowl would be enough to get most Badger fans to do cartwheels in their underwear. But several Big Ten titles and Rose Bowl Championships later, and the bar was moved exponentially higher. When he stepped down to become the AD at Madison and handed the reigns over to Brett Bielema, he had built a perennial Conference Championship contender and a near lock for a January bowl game. The one thing that was never really considered was the possibility of a National Championship, and most fans were content with that. Afterall, we were in the same conference with recruiting powerhouses Michigan and Ohio State,
Then the Big Ten instituted a Conference Championship game and suddenly the idea of UW getting a shot to play for the AFCA Trophy became a real possibility. Along came Russell Wilson, and even the national pundits were seriously considering the idea of the Badgers playing for the National title. The problem was that over the years, Beilema’s teams had gathered the reputation for playing some very flat games. Usually one or two, enough to ensure that there would be no undefeated season and or a shot at finishing #1 on the polls. For whatever reason, he has been unable to keep his squads fully focused through every week of the regular season. And once again, today, this year’s team came out flat in an inexplicable loss to Oregon State. And once again, we will not have a BCS title in Madison thanks to Brett Beilema.
It’s that time of the year again in Major League Baseball. The time for GM’s to decide if they’re all in for this season, or if it’s time to trade their best players for prospects (of course some will choose to stand pat, but there’s no fun in that!). And the Brewer’s Doug Melvin will be no different.
Most times when a team chooses to sell one of it’s top players, it’s because they have an expiring contract and the team feels that they won’t be able to resign them. So it’s better to try and trade them for something than let them walk away for nothing. The Brewers benefitted from such a situation a few years back when the Cleveland Indians decided to “sell” on C.C. Sabathia.
Now the tables have turned with our own Zach Grienke. His contract is up at the end of this season, and the Brewers need to decide if they are going to hang onto him and risk not being able to sign him, or if they will essentially give up on this season and try to trade him for some other teams prospects. And thus the debate begins.
Is the Brewer’s season over, and if so, do they give up on the current make up of the roster in an attempt to become competitive again some time in the future? For what it’s worth, I’m for standing pat. Use the money that wasn’t paid to Prince Fielder and get Grienke signed. It was the injuries that sank this season (along with a freakishly bad showing from Rickie Weeks), and with a solid offseason to get healthy and tweak the roster, the Brewers should be very competitive in the NL Central next year.
The NCAA Tournament
Both the Wisconsin Badgers and the Marquette Golden Eagles made it to the dance this. And while it probably was never a concern that they would, I have to admit that I am surprised by their seeds, particularly the Badgers. While both go in as 4th seeds, Bucky doesn’t usually get much love from the selection committee. Of course, this just plays into all of the pundits who are waiting to line up for the boring Badgers are a first round upset. Personally, I’ll have both Marquette and Wisconsin going to at least the Sweet 16.
The Cadillac Championship
Steve Striker finished tied for 8th at 11 under par, five strokes behind the winner. He started out looking pretty good, holding or hovering around the lead through much of the first round. But hovering wasn’t good enough as others in the field began to pull away. This does, however, give him three top 10 finishes, including a win in the season opener at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, in the first 4 events so far this year.
The always fun and interesting sports talk question, “The best player to have never won a championship”, presented itself once again last week. Of course, all of the usual suspects were brought up; Dan Marino, Charles Barkley, Ted Williams, and that started me thinking about the best players from Wisconsin’s pro teams that never “won the big one”. I was going to post a blog on that very subject, when I decided to take it a step further. Over the next couple of posts, I will be putting together the best starting line-ups of ringless players for the Packers, Bucks and Brewers/Braves.
The list of Packers players that have excelled on the field of play is long, and many of them did win championships. But there were some players between Lombardi and Wolf that were all pros on some pretty mediocre to bad teams. As for the Bucks, you could simply pick any number of Don Nelson’s teams for your starting line-up of all stars that fell short of the championship win. And with the Brewers, and to a lesser extent the Braves, it could be the most challenging of the three.
So, I invite you to join me on memory lane and give me some of your own suggestions for these stellar starting line-ups, and let the debate begin!
…that’s all I can say.
Now I should write something about the Packers playoff loss at home to the New York Giants. Where should I begin?
DEFENSE
This was a 15-1 regular season team that made the playoffs without a playoff caliber defense. They were statistically ranked last in the league, and tonight it was easy to see why. They could not generate any kind of consistent pass rush against Eli Manning. He was allowed to stand back and calmly survey the field while his receivers were able to run their routes and improvise themselves open for easy completions and big gains. Big gains that usually came on 3rd down and long situations, keeping drives alive and adding confidence to the Giant’s offense. Big gains that often came by way of very poor tackleing efforts, all of these things that were very apparent throughout the regular season. So for the defense it could be said that tonight the chickens came home to roost.
OFFENSE
Dropped passes and fumbles, combined with a less than sharp Aaron Rodgers, equaled a completely unrecognizable offensive performance. The players were the same, but the group than ran roughshod through the regular season schedule forgot to show up for this game. The Giants defensive front produced constant pressure while their secondary apparently had the Packers receivers on lock down. How many times did Rodgers wind up running for his life, having to pull the ball down and try to make something happen with his feet? What happened to the quick slant, that combined with yard after the catch would produce some of the most exciting plays of the season?
COACHING
Again, what happened to the quick slant? The book on Eli Manning says that if you get him under pressure, he makes mistakes, yet we continued to use a completely impotent three-man front that allowed him to sit back and wait for his receivers to work themselves open. And what was with the call to go for it on 4th down when the game was still within reach and there was plenty of time left on the clock? A surprise onside kick, really? The playoffs are no time to get cute!
So now a historic season has come and gone, ended by a historically bad game. When do pitchers and catchers report?
Badger State Sports 