All World All Sports Blogs

-Digger's Daily-

We're only a few days away from the beginning of a new decade. I've been busy putting together my personal All Decade teams for our four major sports. Today's blog/team highlights the best of Major League Baseball (2000-09). Players suspected of using performance enhancing drugs need not apply... they're out!

Here it is, All World All Sports first All Decade Team:

Starting Pitcher: Randy Johnson (Diamondbacks, Yankees, Giants) - Let the debate begin. Johnson was the most dominating early on when he was still blowing away hitters on his way to winning the decades first three Cy Young's. Injuries slowed down his effectiveness in recent years but no one put more fear into hitters than Johnson.

Catcher: Jorge Posada (Yankees) - Posada has been every bit as important to the Yankees recent success as Derek Jeter's arrival. Posada is a Yankees legend even though spotlights follow Jeter, ARod and Mo Rivera. 5 time All Star. Batted .338 in '07. 30 HR's in '03. The most consistent non-doper catcher of the decade.

1st Base: Albert Pujols (Cardinals) My MVP pick of this decade. He does it all. Hits for average, power, clutch, slick fielder. Five 40+ HR seasons, over 100 RBI every season, over 100 runs scored all but one year (99). Pujols might be the very best of the best by the time his career ends. 366 decade HR's, .334 cumulative batting average, 3 NL MVP's, 2001 NL Rookie of the Year. Not too shabby.

2nd Base: Jeff Kent (Giants) - Killer Kent was one of NL's greatest run producing 2B ever to lace up. Regularly banged out 40+ 2B's, 20+ HR's and 100+ RBI while flirting with .300 BA.

3rd Base: Chipper Jones (Braves) - Smooth, steady, consistent, clutch. Day in and day out Chipper comes to play. Future Hall of Famer. People will fill my email claiming ARod this and ARod that. Sobeit. Yes, ARod's stats are nice but he juiced therefore disqualified from my consideration.

Short Stop: Derek Jeter (Yankees) - Derek personifies hard work, dedication, team leadership qualities, clutch performances and steady play. All while under an intensified New York media circus always ready to pounce on athletes who stray. Yankees captain surpassed 200 hits 5 times, 100 runs 8 times, .300+ 8 times, 20+ SB 6 times, 8 time All Star. In 2009 became NY's all time hits leader.

Left Field: Carl Crawford (Rays) - Blazing fast LF Crawford has yet to reach his prime. Became Rays full timer in 2003. Recorded 5 50+ SB seasons, led AL 3 consecutive years with double digit triples, .295 BA. A few other names come to mind before Crawford... but, they're dirty.

Center Field: Carlos Beltran (Royals, Astros, Mets) - The only knock I have on Beltran is from when he struck out with the bases loaded, Mets trailing by 1, bottom of the 9th, 2006 NLCS. Yes, I can carry a grudge. Other than that, he put together a fine decade. 8 100+ RBI, 4 30+ SB years, superb defensive CF, 5 time All Star.

Right Field: Ichiro Suzuki (Mariners) - Could you imagine if his entire career was spent in USA? He's first player to record 200 hits in 9 straight years, most 200 hit seasons from start of career, most hits in decade 2,030 (only 9 years), 30+ SB every year but one (26), 8 seasons 100+ runs scored, 9 time All Star, 2001 Rookie of the Year, 2001 AL MVP, 9 Gold Gloves. Hands down best all around RF is Ichiro.

Designated Hitter: David Ortiz (Red Sox) - DH extraordinaire and Mr. Clutch (except in '09). Big power numbers from Big Papi. 3 consecutive 40+ HR's, 5 straight 100 RBI.

Closer: Mariano Rivera (Yankees) - Was there any doubt? Never. The best closer of all time. Eclipsed 500 career saves in '09. 8 time All Star, 2005 Cy Young runner up, 6 years sub 2.00 ERA, 10 30+ Save years (5 40+).

(www.allworldallsports.com)

All World All Sports Blogs

-Digger's Daily-

Philadelphia (9-4) sits alone leading the NFC East after beating up on rival Giants (7-6) coupled with another Dallas (8-5) December loss. McNabb might be playing in another game of the week matchup vs confident San Francisco (6-7). Parts of our country will get blacked out of a big game Saturday night when Dallas heads over to New Orleans (13-0). It's an NFL Network game which isn't carried by all cable operators (NOT by Cablevision in NY!!!). Another Dallas loss could be crippling to their hopes this season.

I rebounded from an off week #13 by picking 12 of 16 upping my season w/l total to 136-72. A bunch of so-so games litter this weekends schedule. There will be a few great ones too. Dallas @ NO, Miami @ Tennessee, SF @ Philly, Cincy @ SD and Giants @ Washington. Much is at stake this weekend. AFC has 9 teams engaged in a tough playoff race. NFC appears to have 3 teams fighting for the last slot. Anything can happen in the NFL. I'm thinking Dallas will be odd man out if New York wins in Washington.

Week 15 (home in CAPS):

Indianapolis 30 JACKSONVILLE 24 - (Thursday) Colts declared their intentions not to over do it down the stretch and will rest players whenever they're see fit. A potential perfect season is taking a back seat to staying healthy for a Super Bowl run. Jacksonville (7-6) is in a dogfight trying to qualify for post season play. They may have a shot this weekend as Indy has been playing close games. Jags will come up short just like all other foes.

NEW ORLEANS 51 Dallas 21 - (Saturday) Yes, I'm predicting the Saints to walk all over the Cowboys (8-5). Brees has too many weapons in spread formations for Dallas to cover. If Cowboys can't apply pressure up front (they won't), then this game will be over after 1st quarter.

New England 27 BUFFALO 13 - Turmoil surrounding Pats. Brady chewed out team a couple of weeks ago. Carolina accusing Randy Moss of quitting last weekend. Weaker than normal defense. Head Coach who hasn't figured it out. Nonetheless, Patriots roll.

Arizona 44 DETROIT 7 - Cardinals (8-5) clinch NFC West in a blowout.

Miami 14 TENNESSEE 13 - Huge game for both teams. On paper, it's Ricky Williams (3 100 yard games in 4 starts) vs Chris Johnson (8 straight 100 yard games). If you like games won by line of scrimmage battles... this is the one to watch. Evenly matched teams at the moment with Titans holding edge in passing game.

KANSAS CITY 26 Cleveland 17 - Good news in Cleveland. Mike Holmgren is negotiating to become head of football operations.

Houston 35 ST LOUIS 10 - Schaub's having a good season for fantasy football owners but his stats aren't translating into wins for real life Texans (6-7). They can't win vs teams with winning records. This weekend, they'll beat up on a loser.

JETS 24 Atlanta 14 - Jets might have to win all remaining games to have a shot at playoff football. Falcons are limping into this game with stars QB Ryan and RB Turner banged up. If Atlanta was smart these two wouldn't play another snap in '09.

PHILADELPHIA 27 San Francisco 20 - Eagles (9-4) start pulling away in NFC East with a win over gritty 49ers.

BALTIMORE 30 Chicago 17 - Baltimore will abuse Cubs. Da Bears are nowhere to be found. Ravens remain in the hunt.

Cincinnati 27 SAN DIEGO 24 - Bengals to snap Chargers 8 game win streak and clinch AFC North title. Don't miss this one, it should be a great contest right up to the final play.

DENVER 27 Oakland 0 - I can't remember the last time I tried predicting a shutout. Here it comes. Time for Raiders to fly their flag upside down. Broncos remain in control of their playoff destiny.

Green Bay 31 PITTSBURGH 20 - Pack (9-4) on a 5 game roll. Steelers (6-7) on a 5 game dive. Make it 6 each.

SEATTLE 20 Tampa Bay 10 - Who cares?

Minnesota 27 CAROLINA 14 - (Sunday Night) It won't matter how long Vikings regulars play.

Giants 31 WASHINGTON 23 - New York (7-6) takes a giant step forward towards playoff football after barely holding on vs a suddenly confident Redskins club. Defensive Coordinator Bill Sheridan has been getting burned all season by not calling aggressive defensive plays from stunts to blitzing schemes. Giants front four hasn't stepped up and secondary getting tourched. It happens again but NY survives.

After this weekend.... NFC playoff picture becomes a little clearer. AFC remains up for grabs.

(www.allworldallsports.com)

All World All Sports Blogs

-Digger's Daily-

The sports world has been churning plenty of headlines recently. Rumors, trades, scandals, awards, winners and losers. It's time for my two cents nitpicking the hub-bub.

Heisman Trophy Winner
Alabama RB Mark Ingram won the 2009 Heisman Trophy Award as the nations top college football player. Voting results were closest in the awards 75 year history. I guess playing for an undefeated #1 team helped. Personally, I didn't think Ingram's stats came close to the season dished out by Toby Gerhart of Stanford. I was left scratching my head when learning of the results. Final talley was Ingram (1,304), Gerhart (1,276), McCoy (1,145). Ingram was 4th on my list (Gerhart 1st, McCoy 2nd) ... good thing for him I don't cast an official ballot.

Tiger Woods Saga...
Tiger's women keep lining up to tell tales of swinging romances, lavish gifts and more. Why not? Our crazed media has hung on to and published nearly every word these loose women have to tell. Tiger's strumpets have hit gold selling their stories for 2 minutes of fame. Some might get much more than 2 minutes. Anything from rumored Tiger buy-offs for silence to story telling contracts to new jobs. Go figure.
The White House must have loved this story. Don't forget, various spokesman from Rahm Emanuel to Hillary Clinton to the President himself have previously declared "Never waste a good crisis." And, they haven't. This week alone, as media outlets of the world were looking into the Tiger Woods story, plenty of news was left uncovered. Senate closed door health care meetings. Raising of the debt ceilings. News of Iran's nuclear capacities dating back to 2007. "Climate-Gate" scandal. Mostly left without any type of "investigative" journalism. Tiger was the media's main prey. If only these drive by cheeerleaders would have covered news worth of importance. What ever happened to investigative journalism. Heck, Tiger's headlines and deep coverage into the past of nearly every woman he's been accused of cheating with greatly outweighs the depths journalists looked into anything coming out of Washington these days.

Baseball Trades & Free Agents
Baseball's winter meetings were relatively quiet. Plenty of free agents remain with very few stars being signed. However, there's been two blockbuster trades. A three team trade brings Curtis Granderson to the World Champion New York Yankees. Yanks gave up future star CF Austin Jackson (to Detroit), RP Cooke (Detroit) and left for dead Ian Kennedy (Arizona) who never lived up to NY hype. Arizona nabbed Edwin Jackson from Detroit. In addition to Cooke and Jackson (from NY), Detroit also acquired SP's Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth from Arizona. All 3 teams got what they wanted.

Another 3 team big name trade rumor surfaced 2 hours ago. Slim details have surfaced. It appears Halladay is going to Philadelphia from Toronto. Playoff star Cliff Lee heads to Seattle. Phils are nuts to part with Lee. Have they forgotten what he did for thim this past postseason? Halladay, Lee & Hamels would have made a great trio. Add emerging JA Happ plus powerful lineup and Phils could have a dynasty in the making. Lee (2008 Cy Young winner) and Halladay are almost a wash. Philly giving up it's top prospects in addition to Lee stymies the deal for me.

Red Sox signed John Lackey to a five year deal. Welcome to AL East baseball. I was hoping the Mets would sign him even though odds were slim at best. A great move for Boston. Lackey's a gamer.

Hideki Matsui seems destined for Angels territory. Mr Clutch will be missed here in NY. Looks like Vlad Guerrero needs a new home. Wonder if he's to be found on the Yanks radar? Yanks are starved for right handed bats and Vlad is a good fit if the price is right even though he's coming back from an off year due to multiple nagging injuries.

Pittsburgh Steelers
What in the world is happening to the Steelers? Five straight defeats including three to bottom dwellers. No offense continuity. A good matchup right now would be Pittsburgh vs Dallas.

Dallas Cowboys
December football is here. So are the same old Cowboys. 0-2 in December 2009. Next up, a trip to play 13-0 Saints. Brees at home will have his pick of 4 wide open receivers. Doomsday talk surrounds all facets of Dallas. Coach Phillips has been criticized. Offensive coordinator Garrett. Tony Romo still hears calls from commentators and former successful QB's to step up and "lead". 8-3 to missing the playoffs? A loss this weekend vs NFC's top team and these guys might as well start making vacation plans.

Martin Brodeur to set another NHL record...
Add another notch in Brodeur's NHL record belt. He's one game away from tying Patrick Roy's mark of 1,029 games played. That's an awful lot of hockey. Only the best can do it and Brodeur has certainly been one of the best ever to lace up in the NHL. Before this season ends, Brodeur will also set the record for most 30 win campaigns by goalies (13, tied with Roy 12). If he shuts out one more team in playoff action then he sets another record. One of my favorite players of all time.

NFL MVP?
I've been very surprised at the lack of MVP talk. It's been a great season so far. Early on I was leaning towards Favre. He's been great all year. However, there's a gang of players making plenty of noise. Here's my short list as of now:
Peyton Manning (Ind), Brett Favre (Min), Chris Johnson (Ten), Philip Rivers (SD), Drew Brees (NO) & Thomas Jones (NYJ). I'm not sure which player ranks highest on my list. They're all having tremendous seasons. I'd bet 2009 voting results are closest in history.

(www.allworldallsports.com)