Sportsmeat

One Little, Two Little ...

As much as people want to analyze the Indians' collapse, the bottom line is that it comes down to Sabathia and Carmona. If you take the two worst starts of the regular season for both Sabathia and Carmona, they combined to throw 16.2 innings and give up 26 earned runs. In the Boston series, they combined for 16.1 innings and 23 earned.

So basically, their two best players performed as poorly as anyone could have reasonably expected. Simply put, no team will overcome that.


A Giant House of Cards

The latest SI.com power ranking has the Giants at #5. The ESPN equivalent has them at #4. Despite being Giants fan, I have to admit to having little faith in this team, and the rankings were a little bit shocking. So I went through and created the Thunderrankings for this week:

1. Pats
2. Colts
3. Cowboys
4. Packers
5. Jags
6. Chargers
7. Titans
8. Steelers
9. Giants
10. Redskins

The Giants have won their last 5 games. The last three of these were against the Jets, Falcons and 49ers, three of the six worst teams in football (sorry EJ). One was at home against an Eagles team that started the most overmatched offensive tackle that I have ever seen, which played directly into the Giants' biggest strength. So basically, they won 4 games that any middle-of-the-road team should win. I do admit that their Redskins victory on the road was a quality win though.

A further reason for having little faith is that we've been here before. This is the fourth straight season that the Giants have started 5-2 through 7 games. This kind of start hasn't exactly been a recipe for success. In two of those three years, the G-men failed to post a winning record.

This year's outlook is hazy. In the remaining 9, I think they have 2 definite wins (Miami in England and at Buffalo), 3 definite losses (Dallas, at Chicago - who I think will be back in form by then - and New England), and 4 games that could go either way (at Detroit, Minnesota, at Philadelphia, and Washington). All things equal, I think their most likely finish will be 4-5 over the last nine, putting them at 9-7, and likely in the playoffs.


Googling the Series

Slate recently ran an entertaining feature. You know that when you start typing a search into the Google toolbar, as you type, the most popular searches that start with what you have typed pop up on screen. (That just made no sense, but I think you know what I mean). It basically shows what people are searching for regarding certain topics. Slate's article was on presidential candidates (unfortunately, I can't find the link now). For example, if you type in "Rudy Giuliani," one of the ten options that comes up is "Rudy Giuliani cross dressing." Or if you try "Hillary Clinton," you are offered "Hillary Clinton cleavage." And let's face it -- none of us have been offered Hillary Clinton cleavage recently. So I decided to try this with the World Series. What do Googlers truly think of the participants? Here are some of the more interesting results:

• Here's a newsflash: people on the internet are looking for hot women. Therefore, people like searching for the wives of : Theo Epstein, Jon Papelbon, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Dustin Pedroia, Mike Lowell, Jason Varitek, Dice-K, Bobby Kielty, Matt Holliday, and Brad Hawpe. Its not just the married players. Popular girlfriends include those of Josh Beckett (and his exes), Kevin Youkilis, Troy Tulowitzki, and Ryan Spilborghs.
• People are also interested in other people's salaries, including those of Terry Francona ($1.65 M), Theo Epstein (unclear, but in the $2 M range), David Ortiz ($13.3 M), J.D. Drew ($14 M), Dice-K ($6.3 M), Doug Mirabelli ($750,000), Bobby Kielty ($2.1 M) and Jeff Francis ($750,000).
• Some players suck, despite the fact that they have made it to the World Series. Namely, J.D. Drew, Dice-K, and LaTroy Hawkins.
• Finally, people are interested in the Jewishness of Theo Epstein, Kevin Youkilis and Ryan Spilborghs.

Other popular searches:

• Clint Hurdle 64
• Josh Beckett necklace
• Jonathan Papelbon dance
• Manny Ramirez helmet
• Dustin Pedroia slap
• Todd Helton Peyton Manning
• Willy Taveras Diving Catch
• Josh Fogg Dragon Slayer

Labels: 2007 World Series, Cleveland Indians, New York Giants