Pretty Girl 02.17.11 - Jwoww

Leave it to MTV to take a used up piece of Jersey trash and make her look this good.

#1 Stunner

Lakers 99,  Cavliers 104?  The team that put up 57 points in 48 minutes at the Staples Center last month dropped 51 in the first half and won a hard fought victory against the reigning world champions.  Who knows if Byron Scott has figured something out, but the Cavs won tonight with defense.  Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga each had 3 steals as the Wine and Gold scored 26 points off of turnovers and held the Lakers to 42% shooting.  Sessions led the way with 32 points off the bench after Mo Williams left 3 minutes into the game and did not return.  LA won by 55 on January 11, but seemed out of sync all evening in losing its third in a row.  Kobe Bryant spent most of the 1st quarter on the bench with 2 fouls and shot just 8-for-24 from the field. 

The difference between this team and the one that went nearly 3 calendar months without a win in regulation is most definitely energy.  If Scott can keep his team's pedal pushed to the floor though the second half of the season, we might just avoid being the most embarrassing team in the league.

P.S.  That's win #10, passing the 72-73 76ers and removing any possibility of our Cavaliers tying Philly for the worst record in Association history.

Cheers.

Pretty Girl Update! - Brooklyn Decker

Brooklyn Decker SI Swimsuit 2011
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How is this not SI's cover girl?

But I Wanna Be In Arizona

Orlando Cabrera has passed his physical and took ground balls at second base today.  The 1-yr deal is worth a cool million, give or take some chump change.

Speaking of which, did you know that minor leaguers don't get paid during spring training?  They get room and board, which is about $25 bucks a day for food.  The big league players get $125 per!  Unless I was consuming a few I would hard pressed to drop that kind of coin on my gullet.

Follow this link to an outstanding piece on the relative success and failure of the kids ranked in Baseball America's top 100 prospects.  The study followed the players from the 1990-2003 lists and qualified each as either bust, success or superior (based on WAR).  Surprisingly, only about 30% pan out.  The article throws a lot of numbers at you, but it is heartening to find that the Indians are the very best with a success rate of just over 42%.  Also, unless the guy is in the top 40, it's basically a crap shoot.  Check it out.

Then there's this (HB JV that might have been shot on VHS) -

Pretty Girl 02.16.11 - Ashley Harkleroad

Tennis, anyone? This isn't some model dressed up for a pictorial, girl's won 213 matches and over a million bucks on the WTA tour.

Goosebumps

Seriously.  Aaron Craft sprinted the length of the floor to chase down a ball that everyone else had given up on.  He grabbed it, beat two defenders for a reverse layup +1 on the foul.  Michigan State had thrown the ball away into the back court and the Spartans were conceding the over and back violation.  From the far baseline came Craft, like Value City Arena was the Salt Flats.  Talk about an intangible that makes all of the difference.

The Buckeyes bounced back and won the game that they had to.  If they hold serve, they'll get their AP #1 back.  On a night where Jared Sullinger was limited by a physical MSU interior, William Buford led the parade.  The team simply has too many weapons to overcome on the offensive end.  Their perimeter defense faltered against Wisconsin, but I doubt Michael Jordan and Gary Payton could have put the cuffs on Jordan Taylor in the last 12 minutes.  From a first half during which the official seemed dead set against calling any sort of foul on the opponent, OSU got back off of the mat to outscore Sparty 23-6 on the line.  The team has grit, the team has character and the team values every possession.  Nothing puts the cherry on the sundae like Dallas Lauderdale coolly knocking down 2 foul shots with a minute on the clock and raise his free throw accuracy from 29% to 35% .  Keep on keepin' on boys, March awaits.

Check out some cool footage courtesy of The Lantern (The Ohio State student newspaper) from the Iowa Game.  And, of course, Go Bucks.

Suicide Squeeze - Rickey Henderson ('92 Upper Deck)

Pretty Girl 02.15.11 - Amy Taylor

Australian for "Take top o...."  Wait.  She did take her top off.  Nice.

At Least We Were #1 For More Than 10 and 1/2 Hours

(And didn't lose by 16.)

'Nuff said.  Now we get split #1s.  Michigan State is a must win.

From the Bill James Handbook, courtesy of the PD, here are projections for the Indians most likely staring 9 -

• CF Grady Sizemore: .265, 38 doubles, 23 HR, 105 runs.
• SS Asdrubal Cabrera: .292, 33 doubles, 59 RBI, 78 runs.
• RF Shin-Soo Choo: .299, 33 doubles, 85 RBI, 88 runs.
• C Carlos Santana: .280, 32 doubles, 91 RBI, 83 runs.
• DH Travis Hafner: .268, 24 doubles, 16 HR, 52 runs.
• 2B Orlando Cabrera*: .268, 35 doubles, 61 RBI, 77 runs.
• 1B Matt LaPorta: .257, 29 doubles, 22 HR, 74 runs.
• 3B Jason Donald: .261 20 doubles, 29 RBI, 42 runs.
• LF Michael Brantley: .268, 22 doubles, 46 RBI, 81 runs. 
 

* -- Cabrera still has to pass a physical before he officially becomes an Indian. 

Projected games played for Indians starters: Sizemore 158, A. Cabrera 141, Choo 149, Santana 149, Hafner 114, O. Cabrera 150, LaPorta 143, Donald 88, Brantley 148. 

 I say that if these numbers come to pass, the Tribe wins 85 games.

Got $15?  You should spend it on this -

Cheers.

Suicide Squeeze - Satchel Paige ('92 Upper Deck)