Bulls to hire Cry Baby Doug Collins. Again!

I have no idea why the Bulls would hire Doug Collins back here again. So What? He gets to coach our young nucleus and then be let go after a few years for some other coach to hoist the banner? He's a cry baby and a quitter. It makes me sick.

Rick Monday Saves the Day

The Cubs come back from behind victory yesterday afternoon was nothing short of inspiring. I could almost cry. A 10-9 win over Colorado. Jim Edmunds lives to play another day in Cubbie Blue. A home-run and a double, topped off with Derosa's go ahead homer. Nice work out of the pen, and a great way to make Ted forget that one. I was sent this e-mail, and thought this is worthy of a watch. Rick Monday of the Cubs saves the day.

Cubs looking good, need to improve on the road.

Today the Cubs go for a sweep against the Dodgers at home with Carlos Zambrano on the bump. They also have the Best record in the National League with a handful of teams right there as well. What is alarming is the Cubs 21-8 record at home during very cold months in April and May. Impressive for them. They are in dire need to improve on the road at 10-13. Divisional rivals St. Louis and Houston are hanging around, much to the disgust of Cub fans. The Cards and Astros are a combined 28-26 on the road, and truly a thorn in our side.

The Cubs have been explosive on offense, and have exceeded expectations on the mound. The Cubs lead the N.L in batting with a .284 team batting average, and a team on base percentage of .366. They are first in hits with 523 and look to have all the confidence in the world. I don't doom players coming to bat in pressure situations this year. If unsuccessful, they will get em' next time.

I will break down but one pitcher, and that is Sean Gallagher, who in four starts is 2-1 with a 4.5 e.r.a. He gave up only one run last night, and averages 6 strikeouts per game. Already better than Marquis in my opinion, and should be allowed to stay in the rotation as long as these results keep coming. I fully expect Jim Hendry to try and trade for a reliable starter sometime after the All-Star break. Greg Maddux has been rumored, and I would be just fine with that. In overall pitching, the Cubs are 3rd in the N.L. They own the third best e.r.a. with a 3.62, and are third in strikeouts with 380. Walks are a trouble spot, and complete games are a relic. The rotation has to go deeper a couple times a week to give a break to this bullpen which any team in the league should be envious of.

A couple players of note besides great production From D. Lee and Aramis Ramirez.

Ryan Theriot currently is second in the N.L. in singles with 49, only behind the 53 from future hall of famer Chipper Jones. Not before Ron Santo you don't Jonsey! Great job, and perhaps may solidify that 2 hole.

The real story to me is Geovanny "Han" Soto. He is making a case right now for the All-Star game. Brian McCann seems to be the starter right now, but I see Soto easily being the Reserve. Look at the Stats. 52 hits, 17 doubles, 1 triple, 9 home runs, 35 rbi's and 29 walks. His strikeouts are a bit high at 47, but hey, he's a rookie after all. .304 batting and .403 on base percentage. Both better than Derrek Lee, and right round Aramis. Impresseive, truly impressive numbers. Go Cubs, Go!

Home Run Replay? This Face Say Yes!

Major League Baseball should implement the instant replay on home-runs.
Come on Man, How can you say no to this face.

One day I hope play in the World Series man. Not with Texas of course, we stand no chance man. Maybe in that World Series I hit walk off home run in game 7 man. I would not want that to be double. Double bad. Maybe next batter strike out to end game and lose series bro. Then Blue Oyster Club closed for Ramone. Even with handsome mustache. So please go with replay, I don't want to have to stick the Joker on you.

He bad man, man. He loco. He will really mess you up bro.
Instant replay be easy thing man. First of all I love tennis. Roddick, Roger, Nadal, rock solid man. Don't you love tennis too? Look at my eyes and tell me you don't. Anyway, in tennis, they have a machine that can detect when the ball hit the net for a let ball or faults like that man. Can't we run the same way along the outfield wall? If go over clean it beep or some shit, and if doesn't it is in play. Or we can get a couple of two of those ball boys and make them representitives to major baseball. Ramone like that idea to have one in left and one in right to watch the foul pole's no? Yes!!! Ramone would welcome such boys with open arms. Or we can hire more fat umpires and add more cameras in appropriate places, but would be boring.
One more thing before my cappuccino this fabulous morning. Let us not turn our umpires into NFL referees man. In NFL, referee cowards, letting a penalty go they may not be sure on. They wait for coach to throw flag for replay to get ref of hook. This is no way to behave man. In MLB, home-run instant replay will be easy for the insertion, restoring honor back to our umpires man.
See you after the game.
Stay thirsty my friends.

Love, Ramone

Not That There's Anything Wrong With That.

Wow! I mean... That's really something.

Talk about that bad May for the Cubs. May us never see this gayness for a while. Bob Brenly on guitar, Len Kasper on vocals.

NBA MVP Value.

I got into a discussion on the value of the NBA's MVP award when Pacifist Viking set Kareem's six awards up, along with Jordan's 10 scoring titles and Russel's 11 Championships, as a career accomplishment that stood out above all others. I'm still not sure I agree that it is, but it appears that my reason for criticizing it were incorrect.

I took the viewpoint that the MVP was essentially a popularity contest, voted on by cranky sportswriters, without using any real data or statistics. I tend to be unimpressed, though admittedly I employ them when measuring a player, with most awards for this very reason. Bob Dylan has many a Grammy, but I would never defend the quality, or impact, of his music by listing his Grammy awards. Its quality is completely subjective, and the awards he receives can only be a portion of his total impact.

Different than other art forms, sports offer us results and statistics to support our positions. Which is why Ron Santo not being in the Hall of Fame is so galling, though statisticians all agree his credentials are HOF worthy. I assumed if you held various MVP winners stats up against other players, like Jordan vs. Malone in '96-'97, you would find that the player having the best season did not always win the MVP. That like in Santo's case, they let personal biases cloud their voting.

I emailed Mike McGraw at the Daily Herald, who voted this year and was cool enough to respond the same day, to ask if there was a list of voters anywhere. He didn't know of any list and explained that each team chooses three people to vote and these three people can change every year. A certain number of national media get a vote, and that's it. This seemed to support my theory the voting was treated casually at best.

All wrongo.

Michael 'wiLQ' Wilczynski over at 82games.com has done an exhaustive study of the the MVP award going back to '84-'85. Using his own formula, that I barely understand and could never describe to you, he found that the voters had awarded the proper player every year.

Every year.

This is amazing to me. That the voters, who are again, just sports writers I find fault with everyday, could be correct some 22 times in a row. I think I'm interpreting the data correctly.

I think.

Someone please check me on this.

I guess the NBA MVP is one of, if not the most, consistently correct and reliable award given out.

You learn something new everyday.

Sweet Home Sports - The Bear Cave.

Phil also posts for The Bears Cave. Check it out.

Anicdotal Off-Season Analysis Of The Bulls. The Coach.

I'm going to take a look at the different areas of the Bulls off-season. There wont be much "statistical evidence," or "well reasoned arguments," but hopefully we'll all learn something.

Today's subject: The Coach, Scott Skiles.

Skiles received a lot of criticism this past season. Some appropriate, some not so much. In many people eyes, the Bulls underachieved. After two straight play-off appearances, and the signing of Ben Wallace, expectations were very high. Conference games high. Finals appearance high.

We know they didn't get there, but what did they accomplish?

The head coach is responsible for a lot that is difficult to quantify. Let's look at a couple that I think we can.

Team regular season record, and play-off record.

Forty-nine wins in the regular season, good for third place in the division, (giving second place/second seed away on the final game) and fifth seed in the play-offs. A first round sweep of the Champs, and an inconsistent six game, second round, elimination.

That's an eight game improvement over last season, and a play-off series win that hadn't occurred since '98.

Losing the second seed against NJ was tough, and goes hard against Skiles. The Bulls play in the Detroit series was hot and cold to say the least. But you have to value the improvement.

Player improvement.

Skiles has had the task of developing a very young team. I broke down their age earlier, but we all know, they young. Of their top eight players, six are in their fourth year or less in the league. Glancing at their stats, everyone, save Duhon, improved their numbers.

To go back to their play-off performance, they sweep the Heat. They showed the ability to exploit a teams weaknesses and bury them.

I gotta give this area to Skiles as well, each player has improved in the three years under him.

Criticism.

The knocks I heard about Skiles were twofold. First, he was to rigid. An example of this is the headband issue. Headbandgate was just silly, on both sides. But the team had a rule, and Skiles enforced it. A rules a rule. What would you rather have? A head coach with authority, or one who bends rules for a specific player? A player that has had problems showing up on time, and problems playing hard every game. If he's your coach, you must trust him. If you trust him, you want him in control. That's why you put him in charge. I side with Skiles here.

The second is in-game player management. A stubborn habit of sticking with veterans over rookies. Virtually every coach in the league is guilty of this. Until a G.M. forces them to play rookies through roster manipulation, they will always go with the guy, they know, will be in the right spot. They trust their knowledge of the game plan, and their ability to execute.

I have trouble holding this against Skiles because most of his players are young, even the vets. As the players age and develop, I think a player like Tyrus Thomas will separate himself from Nocioni. Thabo Sefelosha will overtake Duhon coming off the bench, and maybe even Gordon in the starting lineup. When the individuals reach their peak and achieve consistency we wont be hoping Thomas will play better, we, and Skiles, will know it.

If you fire him, who you gonna get?

Skiles has been compared to Doug Collins in Chicago. This is short-hand for, not being able to take a team to the next level. Collins took the Bulls to the Eastern Conference Finals, got fired and replaced by Phil Jackson, and the rest is history. But this doesn't happen to often.

If winning a championship is the goal, lets look at the last ten Finals winning coaches. It's a short list.

Phil Jackson has five wins.
Gregg Popovich has three wins, and likely another this year.
Pat Reilly has one, to add to his previous four.
Larry Brown has one.

So that's ten trophies going to four coaches, and only two of those ten going to a first time championship coach. When you talk about replacing a coach, you want to get someone who can win the big one. Unless you get one of those four, I'm going to say you are just moving pieces around.

I think you need to be patient with Skiles, as long as we continue to improve, he's a coach I'm happy to have.

Carson Palmer Eats Hotdogs!!! Hard!!!

Put yourself in the meeting when they went with this image. There were probably dozens of shots spread out on a table, or presented by powerpoint.

When they got to that one, a John Morrell exec say, "Stop. This one. It's perfect. Perfect for Carson. Perfect for John Morrell."

Palmer turns to one of his suits, "You guys think so? You like this one?"

Suit responds, "I like the way they think. It's perfect."

"Are you sure, cause it kinda looks, to me, like I'm about to devour a hot dog, that looks like a huge cock dressed up with mustard, to look like the stitching on a football. And I'm not looking at the cock, I mean, hot dog. I'm looking at the audience. As if I'm doing what I'm doing BECAUSE they are watching. Like I LIKE to be watched. I'm kinda uncomfortable looking at it myself."

Suit soothes Carson, "No man. Would I steer you wrong."

This comes via With Leather.

Game 5 Recap.

Not to much to say, the Bulls shot a crazy good percentage and got Billups in foul trouble.

Game over. Ass kicked.

I never thought the 3-0 series count was a reason to break-up this team, but I saw the same thing everyone who did suggest that saw. The Bulls looked bad and played worse. They did not look like they deserved to be out there with Detroit.

But now the fight has been met. The Bulls got up and punched back.

Grab your balls, Detroit. Game 6 tomorrow. Go Bulls!!

Live-Blog: Bulls Vs. Pistons, Game 5, Third Quarter.

This is the big quarter. So far... Historically, the good teams come out of halftime with adjustments that carry them to victory. Can't wait to see what they have come up with. More trapping? More zone? We haven't seen much of Noc, will he get in more or less? Thomas has played great, along with Thabo. Here we go!

10:06 left in the third. The Bulls have had alot of success fronting the post guy. That's it.

9:28 left in the third. With the paint closed, Detroit passionlessly hit their jumpers. Constant pressure.

7:36 left in the third. Billups just picked up his fourth foul. Hinrich took the charge. I take back what I said about flopping.

6:24 left in the third. More boards for Detroit. But Hinrich hits a three for a 75-64 lead!

5:41 left in the third. 'Sheed gets a tech and begs to get tossed. I love it when they go to commercial, they show the last good play the Pistons made. Jerks. They are losing by 11.

4:17 left in the third. Detroit is feeding Wallace the ball, but the fade away isn't falling. With Hinrich on the line and the Bulls up by 16, 'Sheed and Billups are on the bench. we could really extend this lead.

Holy crap!! As I wrote that last bit, with 3:21 to go, Thomas stuffs a Deng miss over a Pistons defender. YES!! That kid is a freak, I can't wait till he 'gets it.'

By the way, we are up by 18, in Detroit. Getting very interesting...

2:30 left in the third. Gordon strokes a three to put us up 21. I've become nervous about anything I type that might be bad luck. We are smoking them...

1:45 left in the third. Gordon is on fire. Another three!! 90-67 Bulls lead. My goodness...

1:00 left in the third. Tyrus Thomas is jumping over everyone. Another dunk-O-rama. Props to Skiles for just sitting Noc, who's clearly hurt, and playing Thomas. And props to Thomas for being a stud.

End of the third, the Bulls lead 92-71. I'm not gonna blog the fourth, I'll just write a recap.

Start thinking about what a Bulls win would mean.

Live-Blog: Bulls Vs. Pistons, Game 5, Second Quarter.

11:05 left in the second. 34-27, Bulls. Not sure if the refs are calling this game loose, or the Bulls are playing smart, but they are avoiding fouls so far.

10:13 left in the second. Scratch that last entry. Hinrich just got his second foul and exits towards the bench. Kinda weak foul...

9:51 left in the second. An important moment perhaps. The Pistons save a ball going out of bounds and the crowd volume grows, but Webber throws it out of bounds. Detroit can't get the 'Mo' going.

8:55 left in the second. Thomas with a dunk! Now a block, down the floor to Duhon for three! Oh no. Yes!! Time out Detroit! 39-28, the Bulls lead!!

8:04 left in the second. Rasheed with the put back. 9 offensive boards for Detroit. Too many.

7:13 left in the second. After a three by Thabo and a F.G. by Gordon the lead is 13. Keep it up...

6:30 left in the second. Thomas with a spinning hook for 2. A fast break dunk by Thabo! The Baby Bulls will be heard!!

5:52 left in the second. Time out Chicago, leading 47-32. More Sonic drive-thru commercials. Hey, I've met alot of those guy. The more I see it the happier I am. The difference between this game and the first two is night and day. You can see the gain in experience all of the Bulls play right now.

Who thinks 'house of payne' is gonna redefine sitcoms as we know it? Yeah, me neither.

4:25 left in the second. The Bulls break a tough Pistons trap. Barely. Deng hits a runner and goes to the line. The breaks keep going our way...

3:22 left in the second. Time out Chicago, leading 52-41. We are getting killed on the offensive glass. 'Sheed hit a long two after another Maxiell board. No one needs to see that.

The Bulls continue to shoot lights out. 77%.

2:47 left in the second. 55-41 Bulls ahead. Chicago has hit nine straight shots. Man, we look so good when our shots fall, the mellow confidence in the Bulls persists.

1:31 left in the second. Hinrich picks up a blocking foul. Kirk is doing to much flopping as it is. Billups is serious. He just drained a bail out 3 with Kirk hanging all over him.

:51.7 left in the second. Deng hits his sweet elbow jumper. Detroit has done a great job denying him that shot all series, but that time it was money.

:00.6 left in the second. Gordon hits a 2 for a 59-51 Bulls lead.

Halftime and Bulls fans couldn't have asked for a better half. The Bulls might lose this game, but the steps forward for this young team are happening before our eyes. They have adjusted and they could make this interesting.

Live-Blog: Bulls Vs. Pistons, Game 5, First Quarter.

7:23 left in the first, the Bulls are up 14-6. Detroit looks like they may be taking it easy right now. Come on guys! They brought a knife! This is a gunfight!

6:26 left in the first. The Bulls are calmly hitting all their shots. They seem very business like tonight. Maybe the overwhelming circumstances will be freeing for them. Come one guys, Be The Ball.

6:00 left in the first. Ben Wallace just missed an open lay-up. Watching him on offense makes me think I could have been an NBA player, if I wasn't 5' 10", cause he shots exactly like I do. Man. We cannot miss any opportunities tonight.

5:30 left in the first. Ben Gordon just tripped pushing the ball to the hole. Ben, you will live the entire off-season with a basketball in your hands.

4:35 left in first. 20-12 Bulls. Excitement growing...

4:00 left in the first. I just love the Ben Wallace bail-out drive to the hoop for the foul. Fantastic.

1:22 left in the first. Detroit is starting to hit shots with hands in their faces. The giant awakens...

End of the first. Bulls lead 31-25. Shooting 77.8% in a quarter is a scorching pace I doubt they can maintain. Detroit shot 43.5%, which will improve.

Still, they played with quiet, deliberate execution, winning the first quarter.

Dan Patrick is full of crap

As I walked into the house after taking the kids to the park, it's an impossibly beautiful day in the Western suburbs, I clicked on the radio, and tuned to AM-1000. The only reason I do this is, it's after 12 p.m., so I know Cowherd is over. Plus, I've forgiven them a bit since they dumped Rosenbloom & Salsbury.

Anyway...

Dan was opining about the need for changes on the Bulls. I didn't catch his whole argument, as my sons needed help with their shoes, but what caught me was he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "The Bulls aren't to young and that shouldn't be an excuse. I looked up the age of the Pistons in '04, and they are the same age. So, age isn't an excuse."

Well, my first thought was, "Bullshit, Dan."

So lets check it out.

Starting point guards:
The Pistons: Chauncey Billups, in 2004, was a 27 year-old, sixth year vet.
The Bulls: Kirk Hinrich, right now, is a 26 year-old, fourth year vet.

Conclusion: Dan is full of crap. Billups has both age and NBA experience over Hinrich.

Starting Shooting Guards:
The Pistons: 'Rip' Hamilton, in 2004, was a 26 year-old, fifth year vet.
The Bulls: Ben Gordon, right now, is a 24 year-old, third year vet.

Conclusion: Dan is full of crap. Hamilton's' age and experience both trump Gordon's.

Starting small forwards:
The Pistons: Tayshaun Prince, in 2004, was a 24 year-old, second year vet.
The Bulls: Luol Deng, right now, is a 22 year-old, third year vet.

Conclusion: Dan is full of crap, though not as obviously. It depends on what you place more value in. NBA experience or actual age, and does an extra year in the league make up for being two years younger when comparing the two.

Starting power forward:
The Pistons: Rasheed Wallace (we'll call him the starter even though he didn't start for them all season, but came in a trade late), in 2004, was a 29 year-old, nine year vet.
The Bulls: P.J. Brown, right now, is a 37 year-old, fourteen year vet.

Conclusion: Dan is not so full of crap here, but I would say that Rasheed was always a superior player, with better all-around skills, to Brown and age has little to do with anything when comparing them.

Starting center:
The Pistons: Ben Wallace, in 2004, was a 29 year-old, eighth year vet.
The Bulls: Ben Wallace, right now, is a 33 year-old, eleventh year vet.

Conclusion: Dan is not so full of crap. Since Ben doesn't have control over time and space, it's impossible for him to be younger now than he was then. In this case, age hurts the Bulls as Big Ben's skills have diminished.

Sixth men and the benches:
The Pistons: Mehmet Okur, 25/2. Corliss Williamson, 30/9. Elden Campbell, 35/14. Chucky Atkins, 29/5. Bobby Sura 31/9. Lindsey Hunter, 33/11. All this for an average of age of 30.5 years old and 8.3 years in the NBA.

The Bulls: Andres Nocioni, 27/3. Chris Duhon, 24/3. Tyrus Thomas, 20/1. Thabo Sefolosha, 23/1. Malik Allen, 28/6. Adrian Griffin, 32/8. The Bulls main bench players have an average age of 25.6, with a 3.6 average NBA experience.

Conclusion: Dan couldn't be more full of crap if he was some kind of crap-holder thingy. Basically, the Pistons averaged five more years of age with a nearly five year difference in NBA experience.

Overall conclusion:
Average age of starters on the Pistons: 27. Average years in the league: 6.
Average age of starters on the Bulls: 28 Average years in the league: 7.

You might say, "Slow your roll, Phil. Looks like the Bulls are older than the Pistons." Well, if you consider the starters only, than yes, they average a higher age. But that age comes from two players, and speaks more to the imbalance in the ages of the Bulls starting five.

Average age of players listed by Phil (starters and bench): Pistons, 28.9. The Bulls, 26.9,
Average experience of player listed by Phil (starters and bench): Pistons, 7.2. the Bulls, 5.1.

So, overall, the Pistons of '04 average 2 extra years in both age and experience.

The Bulls ARE young, especially where their best players are concerned, and age should be considered when deciding what types of moves you want to make. It is one of their flaws, and I hope they are given time after this season to mature and continue to play together.

Also, Dan Patrick is full of crap.