Things I Noticed: Week 1

We're back with another season of football, where I'll once again be re-capping each week with some thoughts on each game.  A re-match of last year's playoff match-up between the Ravens and Broncos kicks off the season Thursday night.  Denver is looking to avenge a humiliating loss that helped pave the path for the Ravens to become the eventual Super Bowl Champions.  The bad blood between these two AFC contenders spilled into the off-season, when a botched contract restructuring led to the Ravens stealing Elvis Dumervill.  With tensions sure to be running high, what better way to start the year!

• The pre-game show includes a video of NFL legends representing every team counting down to the start of the game, while the song Final Countdown blares through the speakers.  Of course, once the countdown ends, it's announced the game is actually going to be delayed due to lighting storms in the area.  So what exactly were we counting down to?  Not to worry, the season will begin tonight! Eventually....  
• Ok, so after a 33 min delay, plus a few extra minutes while the Ravens casually strolled out on to the field... plus their mandatory five minute warm up... wow, it's 9:15 already and we're just getting started?!
• There was some concern that the Broncos could get off to a slow start this year due to a declining
  
  defense.  Not only did they lose Dumervill, but they are still missing Von Miller (6 game suspension) and Champ Bailey (injury).  That's their three best defensive players from last season!  Scratch those concerns, as Peyton Manning has ensured that the Broncos explosive offense will more than make up for any defensive decline.
• Manning had a career night - 462 yards and a record tying 7 passing TDs!  Let me reiterate that for emphasis.  The four time MVP just had the best game of his life!  
• Wes Welker didn't wait long to entrench himself as a key cog in the offense for his new team, hauling in a team high 9 catches for 67 yards and two scores.  He is now the only player to ever catch a TD pass from both Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.  Of course given Manning's huge game, Welker couldn't have been the only one getting in on the fun.  Demaryious Thomas (161 yards, 2 TDs) had a huge game, mostly due to catching a 78 yard TD pass in garbage time.  Then there was 3rd year TE Julious Thomas, who entered the game with 1 career catch for a meager 5 yards.  He has quickly become the new sleeper TE that will send fantasy owners frantically to the waiver wire to scoop him up after his 110 yard, 2 TD breakout performance.  We know Manning likes his TE's, but who saw this coming?
• Dallas Clark dropped what should have been a walk in TD just before halftime to force Baltimore to settle for a FG, so his former Colts teammate is still Peyton's favorite TE!
• The turning point in the game came early in the third quarter, when Welker was credited with a catch for 10 yards on a 3rd and 9 play.  Replay clearly showed the ball hitting the ground for an incomplete pass, but John Harbaugh never bothered to challenge the call.  Maybe he'll blame the Broncos hurry up offense for not giving him enough time to ponder the decision.  On the very next play, Manning found Demaryious Thomas for a 34 yard gain down the left sideline.  Two plays later the Broncos would be in the end zone with their first lead of the game.  

2013 NFL Preview

Winter is coming!  No wait, that's a line from Game of Thrones.  Football season is coming!  Yeah, that's more like it.  What's the most exciting part about a new season beginning?  No replacement refs!  So we're already off to a better start than last year. With the first kick-off of the regular season right around the corner, it's time to look at some predictions for the upcoming season.

AFC East
New England Patriots (11-5)
Miami Dolphins (9-7)
Buffalo Bills (5-11)
New York Jets (4-12)

The Patriots still rule over the division with an iron fist, but their grasp may be slipping. You may have heard this before, but Tom Brady's top five targets from last season won't be on the field when the Patriots open in Week 1.  Of the 401 passes Brady completed last season, only about 10% of those completions were caught by a player still on the roster.  Granted, that doesn't include the production of Rob Gronkowski, who should return to the team at some point.  We just don't know when.  The rest of the Patriots top targets from last season were either released, walked away as free agents or probably murdered a guy.  The good news is that the offense does still have some options.  Danny Amendola has long been considered a Wes Welker clone and should be able to handle the majority of the production lost from his departure.  Rookie receivers Aaron Dobson and Kenbrell Thompkins have looked good in camp and in the pre-season.  With Brady under center, the offense may not struggle as much as you might expect, especially if Gronk doesn't miss too much time.  Even if developing chemistry with these new receivers leads to a slow start, the Patriots are dominant enough to win the division.


Of course that says as much about the dismal state of the rest of the division as it does about the Patriots. Miami is considered an up and coming team based on the amount of money they spent in free agency, but how often do spending sprees work out in the NFL?  The addition of Mike Wallace gives Ryan Tannehill a deep threat to work with, which should help with his development, but he's still a long ways from being an elite QB.  The season ending knee injury to Dustin Keller deprives them of one of their key pick ups.  As many headlines as they grabbed with their free agent signings, they also lost a lot too - Reggie Bush, Jake Long and Carlos Dansby, to name a few.  The Bills and Jets both have QB issues and may end up relying on rookies to lead them.  Expect some growing pains there.

The future is here

There are few things that make baseball enthusiasts more giddy than the hype of a top prospect.  The last couple seasons have seen young players take the league by storm, injecting fresh excitement into a sport desperate for a distraction from the scandals and tarnished reputations brought on by PEDs.  Mike Trout quickly established himself as one of the game's best players, nearly winning an MVP award in his first full season last year.  Bryce Harper, Manny Machado and Yasiel Puig are just a few of the other young position players making a name for themselves early in their careers.  Calling up a promising prospect to the big leagues can reignite a team and electrify a fan base.

The Boston Red Sox now have their own young star.

Xander Bogaerts made his major league debut last night during the Sox trip to San Francisco.  He went 0-3 with two ground outs and a strikeout, before being replaced late in the game by Stephen Drew.  Not exactly the coming out party Sox fans were hoping for.  When Bogaerts came to bat with the bases loaded, we all hoped we'd see a Daniel Nava type debut, with a grand slam to punctuate his arrival.  But it was not to be. Not yet anyway.  But it's coming.

Bogaerts debuted as the top prospect in the Red Sox system and is widely regarded as one of the top position player prospects in the league. He started the season in the minors, hitting .311/.407/.502 at Double-A Portland, then .284/.369/.453 at Triple-A Pawtucket. Those numbers are even more impressive when you consider that at only 20 years old, Bogaerts was the youngest player in the Eastern League and International League.  He's also a natural short stop, which is a position that it's typically difficult to find quality hitters of this caliber.  He started learning to play third base during his time in Pawtucket as a way to help speed his path to the majors, since the Sox at the time had a pretty glaring hole at the position and were more stable at SS.  As he continues to grow and fill out a bit more he may eventually need to move over to the hot corner anyway, but with a bat like his, they'll find room for him either way.

2013 Patriots Preview

The end of August can bring out conflicting emotions.  On the one hand, summer is almost over.  The warm beach weather will soon slip away into a cool Autumn breeze and kids must be dreading the thought that school is about to start up again (although if you're a parent, this is probably something to look forward to).

Then you realize something - football season is almost here!

Maybe the thought of another season starting doesn't stir the same level of excitement for all fan bases (how excited can you really get if you live in Cleveland?), but here in New England there is plenty to be excited about.  The Patriots come with high expectations, so the start of a new season is just another chance to get back on the path for another Super Bowl.

Any time you have a team led by Tom Brady and coached by Bill Belichick you can consider yourself in the mix of contenders.  However, this season there seems to be some legitimate concerns due to the amount of change this team has gone through during the off-season - particularly with the offense.  That's without even mentioning the PR disasters that plagued the franchise this off-season, which could continue to pose as a distraction.

Peavy changes Sox

As the trade deadline quietly passed this week, many teams around the league were disappointed to find there wasn't much to buy on the market this year.  The addition of a second Wild Card spot has convinced more teams they are still in the race for a playoff spot, leading to a decline in the number of teams willing to sell.  The new CBA rules that prevent teams from picking up an extra draft pick for losing players to free agency that didn't spend the entire previous season with the team has made many teams reluctant to make a deal for a rental player on an expiring contract.  These factors combined to make for a fairly uneventful end of July, when contending teams are typically trying to load up for a postseason run.  One of the few contenders that did make a splash was the Boston Red Sox.

Boston filled the need for a front line starter by acquiring Jake Peavy from Chicago.  The 2007 Cy Young award winner will change his Sox from White to Red to help bolster a rotation struggling with the uncertainty of Clay Buchholz's health and Jon Lester's inconsistency.  The Red Sox were in the market for a starting pitcher, but wisely balked at the Phillies asking price for Cliff Lee - both in terms of top prospects they were asking for and Philadelphia's refusal to eat any of the $25 million per year salary.  That turned Boston's attention to the next best option on the market, which found them engaged in talks with Chicago regarding Peavy.  It seemed as if the teams wouldn't be able to find the right match, until Detroit jumped in as a third team to help facilitate the deal.

In exchange for Peavy, Boston sent Jose Iglesias to the SS needy Tigers.  His elite defensive skills will greatly improve a sluggish infield and provide them with insurance against a potential season ending suspension for Jhonny Peralta.  A trio of lottery ticket prospects from the low minors will also head to Chicago.  None of them are close to major league ready and are long shots to ever come back to haunt Boston.  Chicago will receive outfielder Avisail Garcia from Detroit, giving them a prospect with a potentially bright future that they are very high on.  It seems each team ended up a winner in this deal, with two playoff hopeful teams finding key improvements and Chicago shedding salary while adding a promising prospect.