Stupid NBA stuff

Last night I was at the local hangout and I started talking to one of my friends about the NBA. I am not a big follower of the league, but I do have an idea of what's going on. He asked me who I thought should win the MVP award and I said that it's Lebron James, without a doubt. I mean, all of the stats point towards him, and looking at his efficiency rating he is having one of the best seasons ever, like his sh*t is Jordanesque right now. Well, I told him my pick and he called me a dumbass. He said that Dwayne Wade is far and away the more valuable player, with absolutely no statistical evidence to back it up. He was like, "Wade has carried them the last month and he's hit big shots at the end of the game." OK, that really pisses me off. I didn't argue too much because, one I was fairly inebriated, and two he is a much bigger man than me and he can be quite the frightening individual. Here's what makes me mad about a statement like that, Wade has really carried his team the last month. That's awesome, but to my understanding the season is more than a month and the games played two months ago still count in the win loss column. So, because the Cavs have racked up wins all season it makes LBJ less valuable because he hasn't "carried" his team recently, that is a F**KING stupid damn argument. Also, Wade has hit big shots at the end of games. Really, this is truly great, it's important for the team, it helps them gain momentum, and all of that great team spirit stuff......super. Well, the Cavs keep winning and LBJ puts up monster numbers every damn game. Just because Wade hits an important shot at the end doesn't mean he was worth more. Seriously, if that's how you measure value we would think that Robert Horry and Steve Kerr are the best players ever, EVER. LBJ puts up big numbers and most nights he doesn't have to hit a game winner because the game is already won.

Wade is having a great season, he has great numbers, and his value for his team can't be understated, but he's not Lebron. People argue that Lebron has better players around him. I say it's about equal. If you take Wade and Lebron off of their respective teams who would have more wins? I think the Heat would have more. They would both suck, but the Heat would have more wins. The Cavs would really have like 15 and half wins. Yes they would manage to get a half in there. I don't know how that happens, but it would. Ilguaskas would be drunk by half-time and the two teams would agree to split the win, simply because Big Z might kill everyone if he's drunk. It would be inadvertent, but imagine how clumsy he would be hammered, scary. I understand the Mo Williams and Big Z are solid players, but without Lebron creating for them, they would turn into Brad Miller and Jamaal Tinsley. Lebron is better, he's MVP, He's awesome, I'm not a Cavs fan, and just shut the hell up about Wade, Lebron is the MVP.

Baseball Season is Here

First of all I would like to point out that the new triumvirate of Joe Morgan, Steve Phillips, and John Miller on Sunday Night Baseball is going to be hilarious all year. Morgan's crazy talk has rubbed off on Miller, in Sunday's game John Miller said "slidepiece," a nonsensical term used Morgan to describe a slider. I cracked up, he sounded like a friggin' idiot. Needless to say I quit watching after that. I just hope Phillips and Miller don't say consistent 100 times every broadcast like Morgan does.

More importantly, let's talk about some of the actual games. I will start with my favorite team, the Cardinals. I was absolutely disgusted at Tony LaRussa's lineup yesterday. Brendan Ryan always sucks, Chris Duncan sucks most of the time at the plate and all of the time in the field, and Jason Motte shouldn't be in the bigs. Yes, I am overreacting after one loss, and I am fine with that, but when you have a stud prospect like Colby Rasmus sitting on the bench in favor of Chris Duncan, then there is a problem. By the way Duncan reminds of that big lumbering idiot from "Happy Gilmore" with the nail in his head, I swear to god the run exactly the same. Jason Motte throws hard, that's great, a lot of guys throw hard. It doesn't matter too much when your fastball is flat and your slider has no break, that's a recipe for lots of hits and homers. Give the job to Chris Perez right now. He'll have his bumps in the road, but at least he can throw more than one pitch. Wainwright did pitch well, but his command got shaky later in the game, I was still happy with his performance. Pujols hit, as he always does, and Ludwick did well to hit his bomb. I don't think Ludwick does what he did last year, but I do think he will have a decent year.

Other games of note: Sabathia got rocked in his first start for the Yanks, and yes he's still fat. Verlander got smacked around too, I don't know if he'll ever get back to his 06' form, he must have some kind of lingering injury.

I was very impressed with Jordan Schafer, the rookie center fielder for the Atlanta Braves. He has a good swing, he's a very good fielder, and it looks like he has enough power to be at least a 20 home run guy. Add that to above average speed and he could be a 20/20 guy very soon. Much better than what they had last year.