Early March Thoughts

When news came out this morning of Brad Penny's issues last season with his arm angle due to elbow problems, it made me think of Mark Prior and how doing just that ruined his career.

I'm obviously hoping Penny is back at full strength this season but after seeing what has happened to Prior and others when they toy with their delivery I'm wondering how this was allowed to transpire. Isn't it the job of a pitching coach to watch the delivery of his pitchers and see even the slightest variation in their motion? Messing around with a windup is something that should be detected early on and corrected.

-I really am surprised the Yankees aren't going to be more cautious with Arod. If they've miscalculated his ability to come back from this hip injury with the same agility at third base the Bombers might have a $25 million DH on their hands.

-Trent Edwards had difficulty getting the ball to Lee Evans last year so are there any bets as to how long until T.O. complains Edwards can't throw a fade route? I hope the quarterback comes back with a funny one-liner about T.O. dropping balls. This should prove to be an interesting season in Buffalo, which is more than the Bills can say in recent years.

side note: Isn't it funny how T.O. is getting all of this attention when Marvin Harrison is a free agent and Torry Holt is available for trade? Harrison and Holt have both been better and more consistent than Owens for the past 10 years (look at the stats) but because they kept their mouths shut the spot light isn't focused on them.

-Celtics are the walking wounded but even if the Cavs end up with the top seed, Friday's win gives me hope they can take on the mantra of the Lakers of the early 2000s and go into the playoffs healthy with their championship experience. Yesterday's loss to Orlando hurt but the way the Celtics were able to win a game they were clearly expected to lose showed me a lot about the character of this team. If this team hadn't gone through the adversity of the pair of game 7's last year I would be more concerned about this year's postseason.

-I Hope Shawn Springs is closer to Ty poole than Duane Starks. He doesn't need to be the Shawn Springs of '98 or even '04 (5 picks, 6 sacks) but if he can adapt to the Pats' zone he can be a huge asset to this team. I feel much more confident in him communicating with the safeties on obvious passing plays than Deltha O'Neal.