My NFL Draft Predictions

I've been wasting time on this today so I figured I might as well post my thoughts. Before I do that however, let me just say: WOOHOO! Brett Favre is coming back!!! Ok here it goes, my first round picks:

1. Houston-->Reggie Bush, RB, USC
   
2. New Orleans-->Mario Williams, DE, NC State
3. Tennessee-->Matt Leinart, QB, USC
4. N.Y. Jets-->Vince Young, QB, Texas
5. Green Bay-->A.J. Hawk, LB, Ohio St.
6. San Francisco-->Vernon Davis, TE, Maryland
7. Oakland-->D'Brickashaw Ferguson, OT, Virginia
8. Buffalo-->Haloti Ngata, DT, Oregon
9. Detroit-->Michael Huff, S, Texas
10. Arizona-->Winston Justice, OT, USC
11. St. Louis-->Jimmy Williams, CB, Virginia
12. Cleveland-->Brodrick Bunkley, DT, Florida St.
13. Baltimore-->Santonio Holmes, WR, Ohio St.
14. Philadelphia-->Chad Jackson, WR, Florida
15. Denver-->Donte Whitner, S, Ohio St.
16. Miami-->Antonio Cromartie, CB, Florida St.
    
17. Minnesota-->Jay Cutler, QB, Vanderbilt
    
18. Dallas-->Kamerion Wimbley, DE/LB, Florida St.
    
19. San Diego-->Jonathan Joseph, CB, South Carolina
    
20. Kansas City-->Tye Hill, CB, Clemson
    
21. New England-->Chad Greenway, OLB, Iowa
    
22. San Francisco-->Ernie Sims, OLB, Florida St.
    
23. Tampa Bay-->Eric Winston, OT, Miami
    
24. Cincinnati-->Manny Lawson, DE, NC State
    
25. N.Y. Giants-->Jason Allen, CB, Tennessee
    
26. Chicago-->Marcedes Lewis, TE, UCLA
    
27. Carolina-->Leonard Pope, TE, Georgia
    
28. Jacksonville-->Marcus McNeil, OT, Auburn
    
29. N.Y. Jets-->Deangelo Williams, RB, Memphis
    
30. Indianapolis-->Laurence Maroney, RB, Minnesota
    
31. Seattle-->Ashton Youboty, CB, Ohio St.
    
32. Pittsburgh-->Tamba Hali, DE, Penn State
    

Today We Salute You...Mr. Anonymous

It has come to my attention that I have a slightly larger audience than I was aware of. Let's just say I now have an added incentive to provide accurate forecasts...especially for California, PA. I hope that "Mr. Anonymous" is a frequent visitor to my blog. It would be a great honor to showcase my forecasting skills (on the days I have skills) to someone I respect and appreciate very much. Fortunately it has been "so far, so good" on my first published forecast. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon I will issue a new forecast; although this one still looks pretty good I must say. WARNING...EGO TRIP APPROACHING...What can I say, when you're good, you're good. Ok, that was merely for amusement, but I am proud of my forecast thus far. Hopefully I continue with my recent success.

Now as for fantasy baseball, it appears I am Mr. Mediocrity. Oh well, there is a lot of season left. Time permitting, I will update again tomorrow with a new forecast. Take care.

Cambridge, MD & California, PA Weather Forecasts

This took longer than expected, but here are my forecasts for here and back home. I'm pretty excited that I can post these on the internet now. It is my hope that I can submit new forecasts every few days. Hopefully my schedule will allow me to do that. I won't go into any detail about the forecasts as you probably already know if you are on my weather email list. If you have a little trouble reading the forecast(s), just click the forecast you are interested in for a larger image. Hopefully, this won't be anywhere near as bad as my last forecast. As always, feel free to click the comment link below to let me know your thoughts on this. Catch ya later!

Experimental Weather Forecast

This is just a test to see how well this feature works. My goal is to be able to upload my weather forecasts on here. Your comments are welcome as I work on this.

Who cares?

If you have read this sentence, please post a comment below.

I Love Baseball

What a wonderful time of year. April has arrived and that means two things: 1. It's getting warmer out, and 2. Opening Day has arrived and the new baseball season has begun. While football may be the new national pastime, baseball remains my favorite. I will always love baseball and the Baltimore Orioles. It's one of the few things in life that I remember always having near and dear to my heart. Thanks to my Pop Pop I knew a lot about baseball history at a very early age. When I was learning multiplication at school, I was learning about the Brooklyn Dodgers from Pop Pop. So I owe it to him for making me such a huge fan.

Now, I am more of a fan than ever before. I regret not being able to play ball anymore, but I enjoy watching, and I keep up to date on everything through fantasy baseball...the biggest addiction ever. Money is tight, but hopefully I can go see a game or two this summer. There's nothing like catching a ballgame in person.

Another thing that happens this time of year, I usually make my baseball predictions and try to convince Mike on reasons why we should be optimistic in the O's. In the end, I am typically wrong on both accounts, but maybe one day it will all work out the way I hope. I'll close for now with my official 2006 MLB predictions, as posted on the message board of my fantasy baseball league. I'll reflect on these at the All-Star break to see how I am holding up. Talk to you again this weekend.

AL East
xz-1. Boston Red Sox (94-68, -0)
2. New York Yankees (91-71, -3)
3. Toronto Blue Jays (84-78, -10)
4. Baltimore Orioles (80-82, -14)
5. Tampa Bay Devil Rays (68-94, -26)

AL Central
x-1. Cleveland Indians (92-70, -0)
y-2. Chicago White Sox (92-70, -0)
3. Minnesota Twins (81-81, -11)
4. Detroit Tigers (75-87, -17)
5. Kansas City Royals (65-97, -27)

AL West
x-1. LA Angels (88-74, -0)
2. Oakland A's (88-74, -0)
3. Texas Rangers (79-83, -9)
4. Seattle Mariners (72-90, -16)

NL East
x-1. Atlanta Braves (87-75, -0)
y-2. New York Mets (87-75, -0)
3. Philadelphia Phillies (83-79, -4)
4. Washington Nationals (80-82, -7)
5. Florida Marlins (69-93, -18)

NL Central
xz-1. St. Louis Cardinals (97-65, -0)
2. Milwaukee Brewers (83-79, -14)
3. Houston Astros (82-80, -15)
4. Chicago Cubs (82-80, -15)
5. Pittsburgh Pirates (74-88, -23)
6. Cincinnati Reds (72-90, -25)

NL West
x-1. San Francisco Giants (81-81, -0)
2. San Diego Padres (80-82, -1)
3. Los Angeles Dodgers (78-84, -3)
4. Arizona Diamondbacks (78-84, -3)
5. Colorado Rockies (70-92, -11)

x-Division Winner
y-Wildcard Winner
z-Homefield Advantage throughout playoffs

2006 AL Playoffs:
1-Boston Red Sox over 4-Chicago White Sox (3 games to 2)
3-LA Angels over 2-Cleveland Indians (3 games to 1)

2006 NL Playoffs:
1-St. Louis Cardinals over 4-New York Mets (3 games to 1)
2-Atlanta Braves over 3-San Francisco Giants (3 games to 1)

ALCS:
1-Boston Red Sox over 3-LA Angels (4 games to 2)

NLCS:
1-St. Louis Cardinals over 2-Atlanta Braves (4 games to 1)

World Series:
1-St. Louis Cardinals over 1-Boston Red Sox (4 games to 3)

-------------
AL MVP: David Ortiz (BOS)
NL MVP: Albert Pujols (STL)
AL Hank Aaron Award Winner: Alex Rodriguez (NYY)
NL Hank Aaron Award Winner: Albert Pujols (STL)
AL Cy Young: Josh Beckett (BOS)
NL Cy Young: Jake Peavy (SD)
AL Comeback Player of the Year: Jim Thome (CWS)
NL Comeback Player of the Year: Scott Rolen (STL)
AL Rookie of the Year: Nick Markakis (BAL)
NL Rookie of the Year: Jeremy Hermida (FLA)
AL Manager of the Year: Eric Wedge (CLE)
NL Manager of the Year: Bobby Cox (ATL)
Delivery Man of the Year: Mariano Rivera (NYY)

AL Batting Leader: Ichiro Suzuki (SEA)
NL Batting Leader: Albert Pujols (STL)
AL Homerun Leader: Mark Teixeira (TEX)
NL Homerun Leader: Albert Pujols (STL)
AL RBI Leader: Alex Rodriguez (NYY)
NL RBI Leader: Albert Pujols (STL)

-- Yes that's right, I'm predicting Albert Pujols will win the NL Triple Crown...the first time it has been won since 1937 (Joe Medwick). Note: Although the NL Triple Crown has not been achieved since 1937, Carl Yastremski last won the AL Triple Crown in 1967.

AL Wins Leader: Josh Beckett (BOS)
NL Wins Leader: Mark Mulder (STL)
AL ERA Leader: Josh Beckett (BOS)
NL ERA Leader: Jake Peavy (SD)
AL Strikeouts Leader: Randy Johnson (NYY)
NL Strikeouts Leader: Jake Peavy (SD)

It's been a while

I have been a little busy as of late, so I have not really had the spare time to blog. I know I said I would try to post something every couple days, so I regret my recent hiatus. Hopefully, I can get back into the swing of things now. In my last post I brought up the topic of the Gonzaga Bulldogs and the conclusion of their season. I wanted to discuss more on it, so here it goes. For now, I'll devote this post solely to the Zags and will talk about other sports topics later.

What a heartbreaker. As you may know, Gonzaga had a 17-point lead in their Sweet 16 game against UCLA, only to blow it and the game in a 73-71 loss. UCLA scored the last 11 points of the game. I actually stopped watching the game when the Zags were up 71-62 with 2 minutes left. I thought sure we had it wrapped up. Foolish me. How could I make that decision when I watched in horror a couple years ago as the Maryland Terrapins blew an 8 point lead with 1 minute left against Duke? I should have known better, especially considering UCLA was playing much better in the second half. Maybe it was for the best, I think if I watched that live, I may have had a heart attack. But I digress...

Blowing the lead was bad enough, but here's my biggest beef with the Zags loss: J.P. Batista. Gonzaga had a narrow 71-70 lead with about 30 seconds left, as well as possession of the ball. The ball was inbounded to Adam Morrison (co-player of the year) who was double-teamed. His only option was to pass the ball to an open J.P. Batista. When Batista caught the pass, he too was immediately double-teamed. Now let's break this down, you have the ball, you're team has a 1-point lead, what do you do?

A. Try to pass the ball and risk getting it stolen by the opposing team.
B. Hold on to the ball with your dear life and make them foul you before you give up the ball.


Yes, most rational people would choose option B. Not Batista, he thought it was a good idea to hold the ball above his head and try to pass it. Needless to say he might as well have handed the ball over as UCLA easily stole the ball and made the game-winning basket. I hope he's not as stupid of a man as he was that night on the basketball court. No matter what the sport, if you're winning late in the game, you protect that lead at all cost. Never should you take any risks. All he had to do was securely hold on to the ball and make UCLA foul him to stop the clock. Instead he made one of the dumbest decisions of his life. Batista, you idiot.

In his defense, Gonzaga had already blown almost all of the lead. Also, one way or another, something unexpected happens to Gonzaga every year that prevents them for advancing as far in the tournament as some expect. So I guess being a devoted Gonzaga fan, I suppose I should have had the foresight to recgonize something like this would happen. Oh well.

What sucks is that in the 8 or so years I have been a Gonzaga fan, this was their best team. Morrison was everything to the team and their success depended on him. Batista is a gifted athlete who could be a strong presence under the basket, yet he falls short of expectations. For some reason or another, he doesn't continuously play to the talent level he has. Maybe he just doesn't realize how good he could be. I had mentioned earlier in the basketball season that Gonzaga's success in the tournament will not be based on how well their star player, Morrison, plays; but rather how much help he gets from his teammates. In the end, UCLA the team, beat Adam Morrison the player. Had they played Gonzaga the team, perhaps it would have been Gonzaga vs. Florida in the national championship...not UCLA vs. Florida. Then again, one can only speculate. In the end, this was still a great season for the Zags, finishing 10th best in the country. I am very happy for them and am proud to say I am a diehard Gonzaga Bulldogs fan. As far as I know from the time I have spent on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and southwest Pennsylvania, I am the only Gonzaga fan I know of in these parts. If there ever was a true fan, it is me. I care very much about my sports teams, especially the Gonzaga Bulldogs. They may not have as good of a season next year since Morrison is leaving for the NBA, but rest assured, I will be cheering for them just as much. Go Zags!