Hokies fall into the trap again.

So this weekend did not go well for the Hokies and once again fans are left to wonder why this seems to happen every year. You could point to many things but the only real reason in my mind is over confidence and under performance. I believe that Frank Beamer has to absorb a huge share of the blame for this problem. In my opinion the issue of over confidence on any team has to begin with the head coach. At no point, in any sport, should a team feel that it is unbeatable by a certain team and games like this are the reason why. I am sure that no player on that Virginia Tech roster went into that thinking that there was a legitimate chance that they could lose that game. And that is a huge issue, because when a team as a whole believes that where is the drive to up their game and perform to the best of their abilities. In short it isn't there, it takes a huge amount of preparation to win any football game and part of that preparation has to be respecting the opponent. It is even in some of Virginia Tech's, you see the phrase "respect the opponent" on cups and billboards and see it in commercials on game day. To me respecting the opponent doesn't just mean don't maim them on the field on purpose but also  respect their ability to play the game because when you don't, things like this past Saturday happen, it just happens that our team hasn't learned this lesson and I am not sure if they can/ or will.

Of course we heard the typical coach speak of not knowing why the team took them lightly and to me that is in excusable. I know there is no comparison but even having coached little league football games I learned when the players were in the right mind set that week and they weren't we did our best to motivate. I know it is on a much larger scale with many more people but Frank and the other coaches have to be able to tell what their player's mind sets are through out the week and if they can't that is a big problem. Unfortunately I believe that our coaches fall victim this over confidence as well and if that is the case more than likely this will never change. It takes a great amount of ability to motivate a team to win week in and week out. But it has to be done in order to put your best product out on the field. If you were a coach and these wins and losses affected your resume wouldn't you want every player on your team to be as motivated as possible to win? I know I would, but this leads me to my next area of worry with the Hokies.

It seems to me that in general there is a sense of entitlement in almost every area of this sports program. Whether it be the coaches, players, administrators or the fans. There seems to be an overall feeling that we should win certain game sno matter what and that when we are given a perceived "easy" schedule we should easily be able to go undefeated. This to me is ridiculous and I fall prey to those thoughts as well, it just took another one of these losses along with another round of the "I don't know why we weren't prepared"'s to show that we are not a team that can take anyone lightly no matter what. We should have learned this a long time ago but we haven't. As much as we like to say that we aren't that far away from maybe getting to a national championship the facts are that we just aren't. We aren't at the talent level nor do we recruit the types athletes to be at that level. And very few teams are, it takes a special set of circumstances to build teams like that as well as many more resources than I believe VT has. To close, I think we all need to take a step back and realize that we may never have a team that can step on the field with the likes of a Pitt team that lost to Youngstown State and win while being in low gear the whole game. But we should strive to be better prepared for each game and encourage the players we know or have any contact with to do the same. The proof is in the pudding that when you constantly build players up and tell them how much better they are it will not end well. Obviously most of us don't have much contact with the players but somehow how the word has to be sent out that these guys need more motivation because I know that when they are at their best they are much better than what we saw Saturday. I hope Frank can figure out how to get that of every team somewhere down the line but until that happens we will just have to enjoy our bowl game every year. Go HOKIES!

Hoki Hoki Hoki Hi

I have missed writing on the first two weeks of the season so I have to play a little catch up here. First the game against Georgia Tech was a great game and I think probably the best possible result for a team looking to build on a success from the last season. Going into the game the Hokies didn't have a very good record in this early season big games and GT is definitely a big game. This game had impact on the ACC championship game and to have that in the player's minds has to have an effect on how they play. For the most part the Hokies showed up and took care of business. Of course it took some extra time to put it away and a 44 second drive for a field goal to get to that extra time. But these Hokies showed that they won't give up and I think it is going to be very hard for a team to put them way this year. The defense was great against GT especially in the running department and even though they gave up a few big plays I think this unit will live up to the preseason hype.

As for the Austin Peay game, I still haven't watched the entirety of the game but I did listen to it on the radio live. For the most part what happened was what should have happened with the Hokies winning 42-7 but I think I am with many Hokie fans when I say that the first half was little disappointing. I am not one to wish for 70 points against a team of this caliber but it would be nice to get off to a good start and put teams like this away early so the starters can rest even more. That said there was no let down and the team did what they needed to do to get the W and move on to the next one.

That leads to this weekend's game against Pitt, this game could also be considered a trap game as if the Hokies have payed any attention to what Pitt has done as of yet they are probably thinking this will be a cake walk. And by all accounts it probably should be. Pitt is off to a 0-2 start and have lost to Youngstown State and Cincinnati by a combined score of 65-27. That is pretty rough especially considering YSU scored almost half of those points against. I don't know much about YSU but I assume I am not going to see them win many more games in that fashion this year. So it looks like Pitt's defense is sloppy to say the least and hopefully Logan Thomas and the young running backs will get it going early so they maybe they can get some more rest in the second half. Also the defense should be more than able to keep these guys down as they don't have much confidence already and if we can smack them in the mouth early they seem like a team that will just roll over.

All that said this team still needs to focus and get better while trying to stay as healthy as possible. I would like to see the "change of tempo" offense work more smoothly in this game and the running game needs to start showing some results as we are going to need that as the year goes along to get some pressure off of LT. The emergence of Tony Gregory against Austin Peay was a good sign and hopefully he can help lead the younger runners to some better games yardage wise. That wasn't against great competition but it was still nice to see a runner seem to build momentum and carry a few drives. Also I think something to follow would be the punt return unit. I think Kyshoen Jarrett looked very good back there last week and more than likely he will carry the load there this week but you never know what Frank has up his sleeve. I wouldn't mind seeing Kevin Asante get some looks in the return game but as of now Kyshoen seems to be the best for the job. Also Kyshoen is in beast mode right now playing safety. Easily the hardest hitter on the team right now. Here's hoping we get another W and every player contributes and improves so we can get better as a team as this year moves along. Also no injuries! Let's Go HOKIES!

What a difference Manny makes.

I'll start with a correction, I got a little ahead of myself yesterday when I said we had a one game lead on the Yankees. As we sit currently we have a half game lead on the Yankees and now we wait on tonight's Yankees vs. Redsox game to see if we will have sole possession of first place.

Moving to Manny and his impact on this team over the last two days Manny has basically won two games for the Orioles and it is more prevalent with each game how important he is to this team. In yesterday's game he made a key play to end the ninth. When he had runner coming from second base and he faked a throw to first to pull the runner off of third then quickly spun and got the ball to JJ Hardy who got the runner into a rundown with Matt Weiters eventually applying the tag. That was a play that I don't think I have ever seen and it shows how smart Manny is as a defensive player. On the other side of that JJ had to be in the right place as well and that shows how hard this team has worked to improve their defense. It seems like more and more players are in the right place at the right time and even though we are still leading the AL in errors we don't look like that kind of a team anymore. Of course Manny was first up to bat after his great defensive play and he came through with a single to set Robert Andino up with the opportunity to sacrifce which lead to Nate Mclouth's walk off single. It was a great game and one that only builds on Manny's already great story.

That lead to today's game which unfortunately I couldn't see but did get to listen to most of it. While last night's game ended in a ninth inning walk-off today's took extras to the toon of a 14 inning epic with what sounded to be a great crowd especially for a Thursday afternoon game. I don't have much of the details but I know it ended up with Manny at the plate and him delivering with a walk-off single and once again he was the hero. The commentators mentioned his defense on the day so I can only assume that he had an all around game once again. We could not have asked for more when the O's decided to bring this kid up and it is awesome to see just what kind of things he can do. He has cut down on the errors from the left side of the field and proven that he can be leader at the plate as well.

So now we make the trek to Oakland and go up against a very good A's team. I know the A's lost today but until then they had one six straight and have a pretty firm hold on the number one spot in the wild card. With all that success you hope to maybe get them in a slump of some kind. But it is going to take more good defense and hitting to make this a good road trip. Of course these games don't start until 10 on my coast so I don't know how much I will see live but I think this team has the character and stamina to take a game like today's and turn it in to momentum heading into another big series with PLAYOFF implications (I love saying that). Let's GO O's!

Let's Go O's!

So it's been a while since I have posted, but now I am back at it and the first topic I come back too has to be the Orioles. I can't tell you how awesome it has been to watch this team throughout the summer. As we stand right now the team is one game ahead of the Yankees in the ALEast on September 12th. And as we all know this is the first time we have had a lead in the division this late in the year since 1997. It seems we can't go a day without being reminded how long it has been but who cares because this year is just different. As a fan who has struggled with the team through the last 14 years I can tell you that at many times this year I have expected the slide to begin but this team is different.

In my mind it all starts with Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette of course that isn't too hard to see. With basically the same team as last year ( a team that won 69 games) Buck Showalter has managed this team in a way that has changed these player's mindsets. As one could imagine playing so long for a bad organization could change someones outlook on what they could accomplish in this game. But somehow Buck showed these guys that it didn't matter what happened in the past all that matters is what you do now and the players are responding. Not only has he reinvigorated players like Nick Markakis but he has also dealt with a revolving door in the rotation with only one holdover from the opening day staff in the current rotation. It seems like every move he makes ends up working and we haven't had a manager with the feeling for the game like he does in a long time.

As for Dan Duquette, I remember some criticizing the team when they hired Dan and many thought that with his time away from the game he would not have the knowledge of the current players to help the organization get better. And just as with Buck he has shown an uncanny ability to pick up players that produce and at some points carry this team. His accomplishments must not go unnoticed, such as bringing in Nate McClouth or trading for Jason Hammell. Even though I have questioned some of his moves he has shown that he knows what this team needs and he knows how to go get it.

As I am writing this the O's are tied with Rays in the bottom of the sixth inning in a huge game with playoff implications at Camden Yards and it has been a long, long time since I have been able to say that during football season. I hope to be writing much more about how well the Orioles are doing in the near future. And for now I am going to enjoy every game we left because this is the team I have wanted to see in Baltimore and I know they won't let us down. Let's Go O's!

Os vs Red Sox

Tonight the O's start a three game series versus the Red Sox and hope to maintain their momentum that has seemed to have been building all season long. I still find it hard to believe that most mornings I wake up to see the birds in first and I can say that that is an awesome feeling especially this late in the season. I thought this past weekend would have been a much tougher test against the Nationals, honestly I wasn't sure they could take two from them. But the Orioles pitchers showed up and the hitters showed they could stand their ground against a very good Washington rotation. Sunday wasn't as good, it is especially embarrassing to give up a home run to Strasburg but for the most part we had another great series against a very good team.

Moving on to the Red Sox, this series should be very different from our first series which ended up being a three game sweep in our favor. At that point of the season the Sox were woeful at best and did little to slow us down, we ended up out scoring them 23-12 over that series in their house. Right now the sox are surging they are on a two game win streak and have won eight of their last ten. All phases of their game have improved and you can bet they will be looking to get some revenge on the first place O's. Also the Sox play a little better on the road so it may not be to our benefit that we are home for this series. The pitching match ups look pretty good with Tommy Hunter vs. Clay Bocholz in game one, then Brian Matusz vs. Felix Doubront, and ending up with Jake Arrieta vs. Daniel Bard. I am most comfortable with Jake the snake in their, which of course means Daniel Bard will probably no-hit us. Tommy Hunter has also seemed to lower his fastball a bit which has helped keep the extra base hits down a bit. Brian Matusz is still the wild card, as. he has been all year long. He might only give up three runs and go six innings or he could give up six runs and only go three innings. You can pretty much count on him giving up a few runs but he has been slightly better as of late. Hopefully playing the Sox will crank him up a bit for this series.

All in all I think this series being a good one and I think we could win two out of three but it is hard to tell how much better the Sox are as I haven't watched them play a game since our last series. As for the season, I know it is still early yet but as Buck said the other day we are a quarter of the way through the season and we are still in first place, we are 12 games above .500 and we aren't showing signs of that changing any time soon. We have fought through every injury, bad start, and 17 inning game so far and came out on the winning end of almost every one of those tests. Most importantly to me we are hearing all the right things come out of the club house. I haven't heard any of the guys start running their mouth about how much better we are than anyone else, in fact the one thing you do hear is the guys saying how much more professional this club house is compared to years past, which is a very welcome change. I can't pinpoint what the biggest change is this year from last year but there is just something different about this team. They don't flip out when they strike out or make a bad play. And the pitchers don't implode when they give up a run. They are vastly improved from last and they still have room for improvement. Hopefully everyone can come back strong from the DL and keep this thing going all year. I know there will be low points but I think this team will be able to break out of those much easier than we have seen recently.

One last note, Dylan Bundy is freaking amazing, the kid has yet to give up an earned run in something like 30 innings of professional ball. I don't care what level you are playing at that is crazy production and I can't wait to see this kid live. I wish we were hearing more from our other pitching prospects but for now it looks like we will have to be patient until this kid breaks through. Also I would like to give some kudos to whoever made the call on Xavier Avery and called him up. I remember seeing him in the past and was not that impressed but he seems to be much better this year and it was definitely time for him to move up. Of course that happened partly due to injury but it was easily the best move to make. Any of you wishing we had hung on to Matt Angle now?  Let's hope we come ready to hit tonight and keep the sox in last place, Let's Go O's!

Mother's Day Baseball

Today the O's face off against the Rays and hope to improve their record in these Mother's Day games. We are on a five game losing streak in such games and that includes the Mother's Day massacre. A game in which Dave Trembley pulled Jeremy Guthrie in the ninth inning with a 5-0 lead. We ended up losing that game and many more after a decent start up to that point. Hopefully today will be another massacre just with us on the winning side of it.

This has been a crazy week for the O's and honestly they probably got the most they could get out of it. It was certainly disappointing to drop 3 of 4 to Texas but you have to remember we had played 13 and 17 inning games over the weekend and our pitchers were pretty much gassed. Something that is not good at all heading into a series with probably the toughest lineup in baseball and includes a guy on pace to break Barry Bond's record for homers in a season. But to get one against them and be able to rest some pitchers and then move on and get the first 2 of 3 from the Rays is quite a feat in my mind.

Also we had 4 guys go on the DL this week and after today we will have something like 5 guys make their Orioles debuts. Today Xavier Avery will start the game and lead off against the Rays and this will be his major league debut. Hopefully he can make a similar impression to what the guys have made as Bill Hall hit a homer in his O's debut and Steve Tolleson has played some great defense as well as aquitting himself well at the plate. We shall see, it isn't an easy task but it seems like they know when to bring these guys up and they all seem to make a positive impact.  Happy Mother's Day and to every mother out there, Thank You for all that you do.Let's Go O's!

Orioles are awesome!

Ok, I know it has been over a month since and I wish I didn't have to wait this long to write something. In short me and my family are going through a lot at the moment but hopefully soon I will be able to write with more regularity. For now I just wanted to comment on a few things that I am excited about. First and foremost are the mother f@#*ing Orioles! They have gotten off to an incredible start and I can honestly say that this is the most excited I have ever been as an Orioles fan. To see this team finally compete at a high level has just been awesome. Hopefully they can maintain some of this early production through out the year but the odds are not with us. Right now I am just enjoying this to the fullest because I know the other shoe will eventually drop, it always does. I plan to get more in depth with the Orioles later this week as long as I can find the time to do so.

Second, the mother f@#*ing Devils! They have been awesome in the playoffs and remind me of those early 2000's teams that made me a fan. Obviously part of what made me a fan was that they won a lot but also I liked the kind of defense they played even though most others bitched about it, also they had and still have Martin Brodeur who is, in a word, awesome. This team seems faster and while the defense isn't quite as stifling and slow it is still effective. It's a great feeling to beat any team from Philadelphia and it feels even better when it happens in the playoffs, as it did last night when we sent the Flyers home for the rest of the year. Next up we will face either the Rangers or the Capitals. My money is on us having to beat the Rangers to make it to the finals as the Capitals seem to be following their script of forgetting how to win in the playoffs. Obviously this year's Capitals weren't expected to do as much in the playoffs but after their round one win some thought they might have turned a corner. They do still have a chance as the series is 2-3 in favor of the Rangers, and honestly I feel a bit more comfortable playing them than the Rangers, but I doubt they have 2 wins left in them especially with their anemic offense. The good news is we won our series and are currently resting up for whomever we get next. Gotta love playoff hockey, it doesn't get much better.

Next has to be the basketball coaching situation at VT. This has been one of the crazier off seasons for any VT team in a long time. I don't remember a situation quite like it but that may selective memory as well. Seth Greenberg's dismissal came as somewhat of a surprise but with everything leading up to it I believe it was the only acceptable outcome. Three more assistants were choosing to leave VT and there was word that player's were starting to lean that way as well, and this is not the first time this happened under Greenberg. Almost every year there has been turnover in the coaching ranks and usually a kid or two would decide to transfer. None of that is terribly uncommon in NCAA basketball but for a school at our current level of competitiveness that much turnover does nothing to help build something bigger. In the end the school decided to go with someone who might be able to bring the same kind of family atmosphere to basketball that Frank Beamer has done with football. The man they chose was James Johnson, one of the three assistants who had accepted a job elsewhere before Greenberg got fired. I don't know much about him but he always seemed like a good motivator and an energetic coach on the bench. I like the hire, I do wish Seth could have done a bit more in his time at Tech but apparently he hurt himself when it came to keeping people around him. Hopefully James can hang on to some of our recruits and next year won't be a complete wash. It's hard to tell how things will go until we know who exactly will stay on the roster and we get to see how they play together. Congrats and good luck JJ here's hoping for a great first year.

There is much more to discuss, RGIII is a REDSKIN!!! and that's pretty awesome, however I need much more time to write about the Redskins and the draft as whole. Also the Hokies spring game got cancelled due to lightning but many people around the team expect this year's squad to be even better than last years. I think the defense will definitely be better but it may be hard for the offense to improve with basically a brand new line in front of LT3 etc... I need more time to get into all of that as well. Also Kevin Harvick has done fairly well, he is still in contention for the chase but he better get some points from wins before to long as he needs all the bonus points he can get. I am sure they are things I am missing but hopefully soon I will be able to get to everything. Thanks to everyone who reads me and soon I hope to be more prompt with this stuff. As for now, Let's Go O's and Devils!

Donovan McNabb: got payed and killed worms.

I just wanted to write a quick post about the bs Donavan McNabb was throwing around on Thursday's "First Take". First, let's look at what he said. When asked whether Baylor QB and likely #2 pick in this year's draft Robert Griffin III would thrive under Mike Shanahan's leadership McNabb responded with this:"No. I say. that because a lot of times, ego gets too involved when it comes to being in Washington." In response to that I will say this, the only ego that seemed to get in the way in Washington while McNabb was in Washington was McNabb's. The coaches tried time and again to make him successfull and McNabb responded by looking like a scared 40 year old qb who, when he could get the ball out in time, mostly threw in to the ground. Admittedly, the Skins did not have the talent to help McNabb win, but I think Minnesota proved last year that most teams don't and won't have enough talent to make McNabb a winner. Most of the time you look for a qb who can improve his team mates, which is what the Redskins are looking to do with the draft of RGIII, but with McNabb there are always excuses for his shortcomings and most of the time it is his team mates or, like in the case, his coaches getting thrown under the bus. McNabb came from a fairly similar system in Philadelphia and just couldn't produce in Washington. I am not sure what else the coaches can do to help a QB other than give them the plays and let them play. McNabb got every chance to prove himself in
Washington and just couldn't do it. When he arrived in Washington I was one of the suckers who but a jersey and imagined McNabb bringing glory back to D.C. I should have payed more attention to his time in Philly  and realized that no matter what the team does around him McNabb would never bring glory. In the end he is an old runnning qb who's arm is slightly better than Tebow's and now I am stuck with a jersey I couldn't give away and he is on tv blaming every one but him self for not being able win with a Hall of Fame coach. RGIII, if he lands with the Skins, will thrive under Shanahan because he is vastly more talented then McNabb ever was and no coach, no matter how big the ego, can hold that down. Hail!

NCAA Tournament 2012

I'll start this by saying that being a Virginia Tech fan has severely jaded my opinion of the tournament and it's selection process. I still respect it as one of best and most entertaining ways to determine a champion and I wish the Hokies could make it there more often. Alas we seem to have burn some bridge with those who make the decisions on who gets to play and we may never get in unless we win a conference championship. Moving on, this year's tournament started with a bang and seems, at least to me, as if it has lost some of it's luster. I am sure some people enjoy seeing the top seeds battle it out but I think the majority of people, especially the casual fans, the David vs. Galiath match ups much more. This year we don't really have that. Early on we saw VCU and Norfolk State with some big upsets but now it is down to Louisville, Ohio State,  Baylor, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Kansas. There aren't many scrubs in that group and I know I have used this line before but if there was a way for them all to lose I might enjoy that a bit more than any of them winning. Not that I dislike the schoold individually, there just isn't a team to root for as an underdog. If I had to pick a team to root for it would have to be Baylor and that is mostly due to the fact that I am a Redskins fan and it looks like we might have a Baylor alum at the helm next year. I expect the final to come down to Kentucky vs. Louisville and I don't really care who wins out of that match-up but it looks to me like Petino has the Cardinals rockin and I think this will be. their year. Let's hope for some more good games even though there isn't a David to root for and maybe next year the Hokies will be able to punch their ticket to the dance.

Wizards pick-up of Nene

I just wanted to share my thoughts on the Wizards trade for Nene even though it happened a few days ago. At first I wasn't sure how this would pay off as we gave up Javale Mcgee and Nick Young for Nene and Brian Cook. Obviously I think Nene is an improvement over Mcgee but I have never heard much Brian Cook. A couple games after the trade it looks like my initial thoughts were pretty accurate, however it seems I under estimated the effect Nene could have on a game. Since he has been playing with the Wizards our assists have gone up especially from the post and I believe are offensive efficiency numbers have drastically improved. It just goes to show what having a 7 footer with talent and knowledge of how to play the game can do for your team. We are only 1-2 with him but the 2 losses were by a combined 4 points and I think everyone who has watched can see the difference on the court. We look like a much better team with Nene and honestly at this point he is helping me to forget Young and Mcgee rather quickly. I liked both of those players but they obviously didn't have the basketball IQ to help this team progress. I feel that they are better as role players coming off the bench to provide a spark for their teams rather than starters. I wish them the best and hope they find better luck in their new homes. The trade deadline had past now but I hope moving forward the Wizards make more moves like this one and aquire guys that not only have the talent but also the smarts to improve this team with both individual production and the ability to improve those around them. Right now this looks like a great move and let's hope they keep it up so maybe we can gain some momentum at the end of the year. Go Wiz!

Orioles Spring Training

It has been a while since I have found the time to write and I am glad I get to do it today. As we all know the start of the season is fast approaching and as with every other season I am probably getting too excited for season that will more than likely end with disappointment. However today I will harness my excitement and try to focus on the positive because right now we are all tied for first and anything can happen. It is hard to know what you can take from spring training games in terms of how performances will translate to the regular season, but winning is always a positive, spring or not. Right now we aren't blowing the grapefruit league away, but with a record of 10-9 I think we are showing some progress. An 83-81 record at the end of the regular season would be very much a reason to celebrate in Baltimore. The focus of the spring has been on pitching, defense, and on-base percentage.

Starting with pitching, I think there have been more positives than negatives. The worst of the negatives has really been injuries rather than poor outings. The biggest injury is probably the news that Matt Hobgood is injured again and it looks like he will miss the entire season. You have to feel for this kid even though the decision to draft him wasn't exactly welcomed by all of Birdland. There have been other various and minor injuries, however too many to mention here. It looks to me like the heart of the rotation is still intact with big performances coming from Jake Arrieta, Brian Matusz, and Jason Hammel. I think some combination of those three will be the top 3 on our staff with Wei Yi Chen and Tommy Hunter looking like the best to round it out right now. Zach Britton will probably miss the early part of the season but I am sure he will start in the majors before the end of the season, as well as Aramando Gallaraga and Chris Tillman with outside shots at a starting spot. Overall the outings for the starters have gone well and I think you have to give some of that credit to Matt Weiters who looks like he has taken another step forward and should challenge for a golden glove and perhaps a silver slugger if he progresses at the plate. The bullpen still looks solid and hopefully some of the younger guys can continue to improve out there as well. Jason Berken and Tsuyoshi Wada look to be the long men, with Zach Philips and Troy Patton for the leftie specialist. Look for Jim Johnson, Kevin Gregg, and Pedro Strop in the late innings, and Alfredo Simon, Dontrelle Willis, and others looking for a place to fit in. There is a lot more competition this year with the pitchers and it looks to me like the added competition could be helping to improve what we have. If Brian Matusz can find his old form and perhaps Tillman and Arrieta taking a step forward you could be looking at a huge improvement in the runs per game department. As always, fingers are crossed, it seems like we are consistently putting our money on these young guys and eventually that will pay off, right?

Defensively the O's don't seem to be showing much improvement now and that is a harder stat to judge in the spring as many of the fielders playing and accruing errors may not make the team. So sometimes it is hard to tell what combination of fielders will perform the best. Right now the only improvement I see is on the bench as the starting lineup will be very similar to last year's and I just don't see that lineup playing defense at a much higher level. I think the guys we have have basically shown what they are capable of and that isn't that great. But playing in the AL East sometimes you have to keep some liabilities on defense in order to provide the offense needed. Mark Reynolds looks slightly better carrying less weight around and I do think Andino could be improved as he is going into this season knowing he will be the starter at second base. The same goes for Nolan Reimold in my opinion and personally he is the player I am pulling for the most. Since he came up the first time in 2009 and showed flashes of his talent I think many O's fans have wanted to see him play more. Unfortunately injuries have derailed that plan a bit, but this year he is healthy and expects to be the every day left fielder and hopefully that provides him with the confidence to carry some of the load offensively and defensively. Adam Jones and Nick Markakis should be steady as usual and hopefully JJ Hardy can maintain his defense from last year. Maybe Chris Davis knowing he will be the first baseman will help him as well but at this point I think he is who he is.

Lastly, on-base percentage was a big focus in terms of players that we picked up in the off season and this seems to have payed. The biggest production is coming from Endy Chavez and it is a welcome sign to see a bench player who looks to be able to produce just as well if not better than a starter. It is still strange to think of Wilson Betemit as a DH, at least to me, and especially strange to see a DH hitting in the 7-9 spots in the order. Betemit does seem to have a good eye and make good contact but I wonder if the lower power numbers from the DH spot will hurt our over all production. However you don't have to knock em in with home runs and hopefully he can at least provide more opportunities to score runs than Vlady did last year. I loved Vladimir Guerero as a player but it was painfull to watch him try to run last year. If nothing else I think Betemit can stretch a double into a triple a little easier. Also Ryan Flaherty and Nick Johnson are producing well in the spring and hopefully they can all help to inspire all the hitters to be patient and hopefully that will turn in to more early exits for opposing starters and more runs put up on the board.

So that is what I have seen this spring, hopefully the guys continue to improve and we can head into the regular season with some momentum. As we all know the pitching will be the biggest key and fingers crossed these good starts in spring translate to good starts in the regular season, also let's hope we can avoid the injury bug. On a side note if you want some new O's gear, check out protectthisyard.spreadshirt.com. I don't have any affiliation with them but they have some awesome t-shirts and I just made my first order today. Their designs are the best for any Baltimore fan. Let's Go O's!

Orioles vs. Redsox at 1 on MASN

The Orioles have a spring training match up with the Redsox today and luckily for me I will get to watch this one. I haven't gotten to see much about the Orioles on tv as I was traveling this past week and they basically zero national coverage, and for good reason, just saying. I would have liked to have seen yesterday's game versus the Phillies as from what I have read Brian Matusz and Alfredo Simon pitched really well. I know it is only spring training and you can't read too much into these early innings, but any good sign from Matusz is huge considering the year he had last year. The same goes for Simon after missing much of the year with his whole murder charge situation in his home country. The two of them went 7 scoreless yesterday and the team combined to shutout the Phillies. The Phillies didn't have all of their starters out there, sitting the likes of Ryan Howard and Chase Utley. However that is still a formidable lineup and a good one to get a win against. Chris Davis scored the only run with his, and the O's, first homerun of the spring. You would like to see a little more power a week and a half into spring, but as Davis said at this point teams are working more on contact than power. And as we all know a lot of this season is going to come down to how well our guys can get on base in order to give our pitchers a bit of a cusion to work with.

I also missed the Rays vs. O's game in which Reimold got hit in the left side of his face. The good news he has already returned to the club house the question now is how will his return to the plate go. We have all seen players affected by getting hit by a pitched or batted ball with differing levels of severity. It will be interesting to see if Reimold can step up and not show signs of being afraid of the ball or if he will look more like Daniel Cabrera after he got hit by a batted ball, I think we all remember how hard that was to watch. More than likely he will end up some where in between as most players who go through this do. It has to be one of the hardest things to do in sport, to get back in the batters box and face a pitcher knowing that you could get hit again and might not turn out as well. We should see fairly soon how it has affected Nolan as some reports have him returning by the end of the week. We will have to wait and see but that is a pretty quick turn around for a guy who just got hit in the face.

Today's game versus the Redsox should be another good test against an AL East lineup. The Redsox aren't throwing all of their starters out there but most would say that their backups should beat us the majority of the time. The big test will be for Dana Eveland and I am extremely interested in seeing how he performs. Much was made of us picking him up and giving him a shot, today should be a good early sign of whether this move will pay off or not. Let's hope the offense turns it up a little bit as well, I know it is only spring training but I love beating the Redsox, who doesn't? Go O's!

Hokies Basketball season over.

From all acounts the Hokies season will not continue in any post season tournament. They are far from being eligible for the NCAA tourney and it looks like the NIT will also pass them by considering their losing record. The school stated that it would not accept an invitation to the CBI or the Collegeinsiders.com tournament. While that decision is a little confusing considering a team with four freshmen could use every bit of time on the court they can get, I can see why these guys might be ready to pack it in and look forward to next year.

As we all know this was a tough year for the Hokies and while being in almost every game proves to be the silver lining heading into next year, it makes the losses that much harder to swallow when you know they were close enough to win if they just had a little more help. They only lose a couple of players this year, although they are big contributors in terms of minutes points and rebounds. Dorenzo Hudson is really going to be missed, although his career never blew up into what we thought it would be following the '09-'10 he was still a leader and provided some late game heroics for this year's team. He is one of my favorite Hokies and hopefully he can find some work overseas and continue his career on the court. Victor Davila is the other big loss and although he was missing for the last couple of game s of the year due to a hamstring injury, he will also be missed. Victor showed how good Greenberg is at developing talent in my opinion. In his freshman year he was extremely raw, as most freshman are, but I don't think anyone expected the improvement  in Davila offensively through out his career and especially in his senior year. I will personally miss seeing that hook shot next year. He should be able to find work overseas as well. The only other seniors were Joey Racer and r-senior J.T. Thompson who will eligible to play next year after spending two years off due to injuries to his knees. Racer was a walk-on who received a scholorship for the second half of the year after performing well in practice. He didn't receive hardly any playing time but I am sure the team will miss him.

Next year I look for some big things for this team and I expect the media to put some pressure on this group as well. More than likely Erick Green will be a pre-season all ACC pick and Dorian Finney-Smith might get mention for the second team. Also they add two freshmen forwards in Montrezl Harrell and Marshall Wood, both of whom are well respected and should push for playing time early. Also J.T. Thompson will be looking to prove he can still play and be a high energy player. I hope he is able to do that as most of us remember the kind of effect he could have on a game in his freshman and sophomore seasons. I am sure there will be a couple more walk-ons added and hopefully they can pick up some more depth at guard so Erick Green might be able to rest a bit and have more energy at the end of games. I am not sure that we will have the depth that all of us yearn for but the talent should be better and I think there will be more "starters" on the bench than in years past. Next year should be just as exciting and hopefully we end up on the right end more often than not. Go HOKIES!

Kobalt Tools 400 starts at 3:00pm, Kevin Harvick starts 3rd

Kevin Harvick will start the race to day in third place and coincidentally he also starts the day at third place in the Sprint Cup Standings. After two good showings to start the year we now get a chance to see if he may be able to close out a race. As we all know wins are more important than ever and if Kevin and his crew can take care of the car and track position today they have a great shot at picking up a win and ten points towards the chase at the end of the year. Starting up in the pack is always an advantage and if this team wants to win they need to take more advantage of that and get as many bonus points as they can before the chase starts.

Las Vegas has been a pretty good track for Harvick, however he has been a little more inconsistent here. His average finish is 13th with a worst of 27th and a best of 2nd. Although he hasn't won at this track he has has some great runs there. In 2005 he started 42nd and worked his way all the way to finish 5th. And in 2010 he started in the 34th spot and got all the way to 2nd for his best finish ever at the track. He has also had some good luck at Las Vegas, staying in 98% of the laps available. A lot of racing comes down to luck, hopefully Kevin can hang on to some luck and continue his success on Sunday. In my opinion he should at least get a top ten finish given his starting position and past history. As long as the luck holds out he should be able to keep pace with Denny Hamlin et al in terms of the points race.

I predict Dale Jr. to have another good finish and sooner or later he will break that losing streak. Also look for Carl Edwards to come from behind and challenge, he starts 21st today but has had some very good showings at Vegas in the past. Let's hope for a good race, Go Harvick!

RGIII and the Redskins

So the Redskins decided to pull the trigger and trade up for the 2nd pick in this year's draft. Now all we can do is wait watch to see if A. the trade holds up. and B. if this whole thing ends up as a positive for the struggling franchise. Personally I have stated that I do not think it is worth it to give up that much for one pick and I still believe that. Although I am not upset by this trade, I am more cautiously optimistic than anything else. The odds are in our favor that Griffin will at least be better than any qb we have had in the last 13 years so in terms of improving the position I think we will be okay. I just worry about how quickly we will be able to help RGIII get all the tools he needs to bring this team back to contention. With giving up our second round pick this year we will have to go to the free agent market to fill the biggest holes, in my opinion, which are wide receiver and offensive lineman. That could work out just fine as if the trade works out and we end up with RGIII we could be pretty attractive to some of the younger players in the league which hasn't been the case in the past. Most years we end up with older free agents who know Dan Snyder will help their retirement plans.

The other thing I worry about is whether we will end up with RGII or not. Many people assume that the Colts are gonna take Andrew Luck without question and the odds are that that will happen. However there is an outside chance that the Colts buy into the hype, see what we did to move up, and decide to use their pick on the most popular qb in the draft. Now the only downside to that, if you can call it one, is that we would end up with Andrew Luck I know it isn't really something to worry about, but being a Redskin fan I can see this trade blowing up in our face before we even get to draft in the two spot. I think Andrew Luck is a great qb as well but he is not who the Redskins are trading for and it would be interesting to see if they even kept the second pick if that situation happened. Just something to think about.

In the end I think we will be better for making this move. I don't think the Skins are done making moves before the draft and I expect they will be looking to replace that second round pick for this year as well as the number one for next year and the year after. Perhaps a sign and trade for Laron Landry will be in the works. It is hard to tell at this point, But Mike Shanahan doesn't normally part with picks without a plan to get them back somehow. It will be hard to get all those picks back but if the plan works well we get RGII, then get better on the field, then trade for other teams picks. If that all works we could end up with a franchise qb plus, if our record improves, we could receive better picks than we normally would have had through trades. Who knows how it will work out, but I will say this, RGIII will be on my back heading into the season in August. Let's hope the Redskins have turned in to geniuses and the days of these trades blowing up in our faces are in the rear view. Go SKINS!

On the road trying to keep up with the Hokies, O's, and Wizards.

My cousin and I are on a road trip to Houston this week which is the cause for the lack of posts. We saw ZZ Top at Reliant Stadium last night and we are heading back to Virginia today. Although I won't be back home until; Saturday night so watching any sports is still a ;ittle up in the air. Luckily I have my smart phone and am able to keep up for the most part, at least with updates if not actual video.

It looked the Hokies played well yesterday against Clemson. I am glad to see the type of game that Dorenzo Hudson had, I just hope he has finally realized that these are his last games and will keep it up for the entire tournament. Also Erick Green seemed to really take over. I wish i had been able to watch but it looks like I will have to wait until I get home to see the replay. That leads us to today and the matchup with Duke. Obviously I think we can beat Duke and I would think the boys are motivated as the only shot of getting to the tourney is winning the whole tournament and in order to get a good seed in any other tourney we better win this one at least. Of course it is going to be extremely tough to beat the dookies as Coach K always has them ready for these games. They are going for their fifth in a row and I am sure they will be motivated to play well heading into the NCAA tourney. Also we are without Vic Davila again which hurts on the inside. In the end this game will come down to energy and who is more focused. If Dorenzo shows up again along with EG and hopefully a big game from Cadarian Raines we might just pull this one out. Fingers Crossed. Go HOKIES!

I have been able to keep up with the O's spring training games pretty well thanks to updates from Roch Kubatko and the like. The O's look to be doing fairly well so far, these games are hard to get a read on, but in general the pitching looks to be keeping most teams down. The offense looks to be producing adequately as well for March. The big news for me is about Dylan Bundy and Jake Arrieta. The hype around Bundy is steadily picking up and although there is probably a zero chance to see him this year it is good to hear there is a little talent to come up in the minors. The news about Jake is all good because he had a bone spur removed and says that he has never felt better. Roch reported today that he threw 97 several times and in a post game interview said he felt like he could have gone the whole game. Of course it is still spring training and hearing guys brag about health at this point always puts me a little on edge but is still a good early sign of where he is at. Let's hope the O's keep it up on the field and build some momentum heading into the regular season. I heard the bad news about Nolan Reimold as well. Right now it is hard to tell how bad the hit he received on the left side of his face by a fastball is but I am sure he will be out for at least a week. This is terrible news for Reimold as it seems like he just has bad luck in terms of staying healthy and being able to contribute consistently. Hopefully he can leave the hospital soon and have a quick recovery. Go O's!

Lastly I missed the Lakers vs. Wizards game but I was following on my phone and was completely shocked by the final outcome. Not just because we beat the Lakers, but because we beat the Lakers after being down by 21 and we did it with mostly back ups from it looked like. Trevor Booker had a huge game and it looks like who ever played D against Kobe really showed up in the second half. It looks like Randy Wittman calling the team out after the Golden State game may have actually worked. All you can do is hope that it worked for more than game. We should find out Saturday against the Trail Blazers. Go Wizards!

Hokies vs. Clemson

Tonight the Hokies face off against the Clemson Tigers and look to salvage what is left of this season. Although to most I don't think these last couple of games mean much but I believe that these can be important building blocks towards next year. Obviously every game is a chance to improve and this team needs as much improvement and experience as it can get heading in to next year. I think these next two games specifically and the tournament could be huge for this team as the competition in particular could be difficult for us and provide valuable experience. Clemson has always been tough and especially at Little John. Hopefully the Hokies come out hot tonight and if they play as hard as they have been they could pick up a huge win for this team, on the road, in a hostile environment. I haven't looked at the stats too much for this one but I would expect the big match ups to be: first, Erick Green vs. whoever is guarding him. Duke certainly showed what a team focused on shutting him down can do. But in that game the rest of the team stepped up and kept the game as close as they could. The next big match up would have to be Cadarian Raines vs. Devin Booker. Devin isn't quite as good as his brother, in my opinion, but he is still a very solid post player who can score and make it hard for us to score at the same time. Cadarian has been huge in the last few games after Vic Davila had to sit down due to injury and let's hope he can continue at his current pace. If it wasn't for his high level of play in the dook game I fear that would have have been a blow out. This should be another close one, as they all seem to be, and. hopefully the basketball gods smile on us a bit to push us over the edge. Go HOKIES!  

Robert Griffin III and the Redskins

Almost everyone has weighed in on this issue and I figured I would as well. Obviously I have no real knowledge of the situation or how much interest the Redskins have in moving up in this draft to get Griffin. All I can do is say what I think would be the best plan for this team at this point in time. First I will say that RG3 is a great talent and you don't have to be an expert to see that. Also he seems like a great student and person. I haven't heard much about his past so I assume it can't be that bad if there is anything at all to worry about. His stock seems to continually rise which in turn continually raises the price for being able to draft him.

Of course the Redskins need a quarterback and the sooner the better. Watching Rex Grossman start almost every game last year was nothing short of painfull and John Beck was no better. And RG3 definitely seems to be a can't miss prospect and would be worth every penny to sign him. The issue I have is with what it would cost the Redskins outside of money to secure his services. Many are saying that it would take this year's first, next year's first, plus two more picks anywhere from round 2-5 in this year's draft. In my opinion that is just too steep for this team. If we were a quarterback, and only a quarterback away, from winning then this would make perfect sense. However anyone who watches the Skins knows that we are way more than just a quarterback away.

To start we need offensive lineman. to protect whatever quarterback we have back there. This has been the biggest factor determining how the skins perform in my opinion. I believe that if you have a great offensive line you don't have to have a great qb, you still need a good one, just not one you have to break the bank/draft for. I believe if you have a system like the Shanaplan which uses a strong running game first to set up things in the passing game you shouldn't need the second biggest arm in the draft. And of course that strong running game is driven by the offensive line. There are plenty of lineman available in this draft and I think it would be a much more prudent use of picks to draft down, get more picks, and select offensive lineman early and often. As hard as it is to find a franchise quarterback I feel it is equally hard to find a franchise lineman. Just recently the skins selected Trent Williams as their franchise left tackle and I think the only way to judge his sophomore year would be to say it was a complete failure. He didn't seem to take any steps forward and got suspended at the end of the year for four games, pathetic really. That is why you have to stock up on good lineman and use the later picks on skill positions. To me the game is still won in the trenches and if the skins had focused more on this instead of signing the Albert Haynesworth's of the world we would be a much better team now.

I know linemen aren't the sexy picks,  but if you want a winner it is the only way to go. Do you really want what the Panther's had last year? A great rookie qb and a crappy record to show for it. I think we should surround our new qb with what he needs before he gets here and that means protecting him first. If I were to guess right now, I would probably lean towards the Skins moving up, just because right when you think you know the plan it seems to change. Either way we should be better this year, I just think we would be betterer with as many picks as possible to build depth and provide protection for whoever the new qb will be. Go Redskins!

Crazy Daytona 500

So the race on Monday turned out to be a pretty memorable one and I was pretty dang close in predicting the winner. First, congrats to Matt Kenseth on the win, he seems to be one of the good ones in this sport and I don't mind him gettin to victory lane every now and again. Next, some congrats go to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his second place finish. I know it must have killed his fans to see him finish so close but this is a great start to a new year for him. If Jimmie Johnson has more struggles like he did on Monday I would expect more resources to be funneled junior's way and he could end up in very good position at the end of the year.

To some of the bad, first there was Jimmie Johnson and Danica Patrick. I know it was Danica's fault but 3 wrecks in 3 races, do you think she's starting to think "hell maybe it's me"? It was nice to get Jimmie out of the way early although I am sure for some fans it was a little deflating to see him wreck so early. After all if your guy isn't running well and Jimmie is already done what do you root for? Which leads to Jeff Gordon's "engine situation" you know the more I think about it this may have been the perfect race except for the fact that a Ford won. Finally there was Juan Pablo Montoya vs. jet dryer truck. The jet dryer truck won and Juan Pablo is probably having the worst week he has ever had just due to the flurry of jokes that I am sure he has been dealing with on a daily basis. I know it wasn't his fault,  although I haven't heard what broke on his car to make that happen, but unfortunately he will forever be known as the guy who crashed under caution. Unless. he can start winning of course.

Kevin Harvick had a decent race and finished in 6th. I had hoped for a little better considering he started 13th but to survive this race at all is important enough and top tens are what keep you in the chase. I did have a hard time figuring out if he waited too long to make a move or he just didn't have a good enough car but it was probably a bit of both, as well as not having a good partner to make a move with. He did have a couple of nice pit stops which hopefully is a sign of things to come for this season. Next on the schedule is Phoenix International Raceway and qualifying should start tomorrow. Phoenix has been pretty good to Kevin and hopefully that trend will continue this weekend. In 18 career starts at Phoenix Kevin's average finish is 14 th with 7 top tens and 2 wins (both in 2006 for the season sweep).  He has also qualified well there with an average starting position of 19th.

Some predictions for this week: I think Harvick will get another top ten. I think Jimmie Johnson will continue to struggle, maybe it is wishfull thinking but I can't help but think that with the horrible finish on Monday combined with the penalties handed down by Nascar for chesting it is going to be hard for him and his team to start anew especially with his crew chief suspened. I also expect Dale Jr. to stay hot and challenge for another win. I just think this is going to be a break out year for him and if Hendrick starts focusing on him I feel that "the torch will be passed" and you can look for some shuffling to go on after this season. Let's hope for a good race and hopefully they only fill up the jet fuel dryers half way this week. Just in case. 

Daytona 500

I will write this quick as the race is going on right now, I meant to have this out before the race but I got stuck writing about the Hokie's football schedule. I am not a huge gear head but I do like watching the races. There is something very American about drinking some cheap beer and watching fast cars go around in circles for hours that just appeals to me. Personally I follow Kevin Harvick the closest and he is by far the most successful racer I have ever followed. I started out rooting for Chad Little (not sure why, probably the John Deere thing (I was young)) and followed that up with a run with Ward Burton probably because I worked for Caterpillar at the time and it just made sense. I went to Harvick when Ward retired and I don't really have a firm reason for it except that I respected the struggle he must have went through effectively replacing Dale Earnhardt in the Goodwrench Chevrolet. Since then things have been on the up tick in the racing department. Kevin seems to be a very competent driver and doesn't hurt the team by doing stupid things. Hopefully this year he can maintain some of the momentum from last year and with a little more luck during the chase, along with some improved work from his pit crew. He could make another push for a championship. He has decent teammates in Paul Menard and Jeff Burton, not that that matters a whole lot but the main thing is that you hope they all get along and are able to help each other when needed. I have heard some good things about the RCR engines this year, it is still very early I know, but that could be a good sign for improvement as well. Alright back to the race Go Kevin!

P.S. I predict Earnhardt Jr. to win this one, just feels right  don't it?

ACC releases 2012 schedule, Hokies look to prove them selves.

This year's schedule in football looks pretty exciting. We have known who the opponents would be for a while but now we know who we get at night, who we get on short weeks, and who we play back to back. To start it is going to be a Monday night game vs. Georgia Tech which hopefully will set the tone for this season. If you recall the last time we had Georgia Tech on the schedule for the first game of the year it was the infamous lightning game where Lee Corso's car got struck just a few hours after picking Georgia Tech with the upset. I was "lucky" enough to be present for this game that wasn't. There is nothing quite like waiting until the kids are on the field to kick off before the refs call it when you could see what was coming from miles away.That was in 2000 and we were coming off a National Title run. Not much has changed since then, except that we are now in the ACC, Paul Johnson has brought the least entertaining brand of football to Atlanta, and now you can find college football on any night of the week. This is an early test for the Hokies and one that I expect them to pass fairly easily. First of all the game is at home and we have already shown that we can stop GT's tricky offense. The only worry I have is that we typically don't show up for these early season tests in the best shape mentally and it has hurt us many times in the past. That being said I just don't see an Al Groh lead defense ever stopping us. Should be exciting no matter what.

After that we get to the out of conference games which include (in order) Austin Peay, at Pittsburg, Bowling Green, and Cincinnati at FedEx Field. Austin Peay and Bowling should be easily dispatched as they shouldn't have any where near the talent that we possess. We do have to face Austin Peay just five days after GT but come on, I didn't see another jmu happening any time soon, if nothing else there are enough guys still on the team that went through that game to remind the others never to take an opponent lightly. Pittsburg could be interesting because over the last couple of years in the Big East they had our number especially at home. I still think we have the talent advantage in this one and we should come out on top. That leaves the Cincinnati game and another one which I think we should handle fairly easily. Cincinnati hasn't performed that well since we met them in the Orange Bowl in 2009 and I haven't heard much about their incoming recruiting class. All in all the out of conference schedule is one of the easier ones in recent years. As always though if we don't come into each game with the proper amount of focus there will be a few upset opportunities that we have to avoid. We should be favored in all of these games and I predict we will be 5-0 at the end of this stretch.

That leads us into the thick of ACC play. We start off with a road game against UNC and hopefully that will mean a strong start. From everything I have read about UNC  they have not been able to maintain their recent success in recruiting and they have had a huge question mark at the head coach position until December when they hired Larry Fedora. Fedora seems like a decent coach as he had some good seasons at Southern Mississippi but we all know that the reason UNC was thriving in football was because Butch Davis and his boys were cheating to bring in big name recruits. Once you take cheating away it seems like a pretty tough job to recruit football players to Chapel Hill, we will get to see early on how Fedora plays at a higher level and it will be interesting to see if he can build a winner without the kids that Butch was getting.

After UNC we get a home game against dook. Although dook has figured out how to score in football and they played us close in 2011 I don't think this years game will that close. I expect the Hokies to be better on offense and defense this year and unless dook was hiding some major fire power last year I don't think they will be able to hang this year. In my opinion we should be 7-0 at this point as long as we health on our side. A lot of this season will hinge upon health and the biggest deciding factor will be the health of Logan Thomas. If we lose him for any stretch of the season your guess is as good as mine as to what we would be able to do without him. Mark Leal looks like he has a good arm and seems to be like a smart player, but he just doesn't have the experience and if he were in the game the offense would have to switch to more of a running, option based offense because I don't believe with his height he could be as efficient passing as Logan is and will be this year. Fingers crossed.

From there we head to Clemson and the first of a three game stretch that I think will decide our season. We all know what happened against Clemson this year and most of us wish we could forget it. The fact is we have to figure out why we played so poorly against this team and what we can do to change the outcome this year. In the two games last year we looked over matched and out coached at almost every position. I personally believe that we can do more with our talent and Frank Beamer is 100 times the coach that Dabo Sweeney is. Time will tell I guess but for whatever reason, last year we just didn't have it against these guys. Hopefully they watch the tape of Clemson's bowl game because wvu definitely figured out how to score against them. Our guys should have all the motivation they need from last year to take it to these guys but you never know. Clemson still recruits well and if there are able to put that horrible bowl loss behind them Clemson could be very good again. This one is a toss up to me, I think we could win, but I was very confident going into the rematch in the ACCCG and we all know how that ended up. If I were a betting man right now I would have to bet on Clemson just because of last year's results. The tape doesn't lie and I can't be sure we will be improved enough to say we can win this one for sure.

Next up is Miami on the road and another very winnable game. This is a Thursday night game in Miami and we all know that last year's game was a little to close for comfort at home. But these teams bring the best out of each other and I think VT's best is still ahead of Miami's at this point. Miami had another good recruiting class but they lost a ton of guys from this year's team and who knows when the sanction bug will finally bite them. Also Al Golden seems to be a really good coach especially considering what he did at Temple but it should take him a couple of years to build that type of team in Miami. And the type of player is completely different from one school to the other. The kids he had at Temple probably fell right in line with what he was preaching because they probably didn't have opportunities elsewhere. At Miami he is going to be managing much bigger egos and it will be interesting to see if the kids in South Beach respond as well. Lastly we get a couple of extra days to prepare for this one and I expect the guys to be focused for this fight. Prediction to this point: 8-1.

Then there is Florida State, at home, on Thursday night. This game should be the biggest of the year by far. I know we will have been tested by the time we get to this one and if we can get past any early struggles there is a very real possibility that we could enter this game undefeated along with Florida State. If that is the case you are looking at a top five match up at Lane Stadium in the middle of the season. That scenario sounds amazing to me and I am going to do anything I can to get a ticket to this one. Lane Stadium is definitely going to be rocking that night no matter the records and I am sure every Hokie who can will be in Blacksburg. As for the match up, it is a little hard for me to call. Florida State had a very good team last year and they have the second ranked recruiting class heading in to this season. They also lost some key players but they should be very strong again overall. My head says Florida State but my heart says Hokies and although I am not sure we will be undefeated to this point, I think the Seminoles will be sent home with at least one defeat. The conditions at Lane Stadium in this type of situation are hard to match and I don't give any team very good odds at beating us. So we could be looking at 9-1 to this point and with a win against a possible top five team we could be in that 3-8 range where who knows what could happen in terms of bowl selection.

That leaves two games. At Boston College and at home for uva. Both of these game should go our way in a big way. Boston College is a shell of the program that was with Matt Ryan and Tom O'Brien. They still are a division one team and we have to play them on the road after some big games on Thursday nights. But we have some extra time to recuperate from the Florida State game and if we are in the spot that I predict we should be able to maintain focus and head in to BC with zero distractions. If that happens I don't give the Eagles much of a chance. As for our little sister, I just don't see it happening for them this year. Even if we lost every game this year heading in to this match up I would still predict us to win and win big. I know Mike London is a good coach and he has a couple of good recruiting classes under his belt. But last year he won 8 games with seniors that he didn't recruit and got obliterated by the Hokies at home. If you recall London won a championship at UR with somebody else's seniors and we see where that program is now. Say what you want but it seems to me that he left that cupboard pretty bare. I don't know that that will happen again at uva but I do think this year will be a huge test for uva's football program. They have gained slightly in recruiting but it seems as though Frank and Shane have shut the door on that situation. Now it is down to system and development and this year could make or break him at uva. I will never give a wahoo team much of a shot against us, especially when we are at home.

So I predict us to be in great position by the end of the regular season and if all goes as planned we should end up right back in the ACCCG against either Clemson or Florida State. I know I am very optimistic and all of this is pure speculation. But I also know that the clock is ticking on Frank Beamer being able to coach this team and I know he wants to win one before he is gone. That doesn't mean that that will happen by any means but I think the writing is on the wall that this could be a great year with a once in a life time quarterback and Frank probably doesn't have many of these runs left in him. I expect to see much more aggressive offense and special teams. As well as a return to form for the defense, last year had some good improvement, but if we really want this year to be good are defense better become dominant again. Now we wait and see what the spring brings. I hope it brings health,strength, and mental toughness. And if it does bring all those we are in very good shape. Go Hokies!

Orioles spring training, typical so far

There isn't a whole lot changing for the Orioles early on in spring training. We have a ton of pitchers out there trying to prove they can make it at the major league level and I think we all have our fingers crossed that a decent rotation will come from the competition. I think all of us would have liked to see some higher echelon pitchers brought in for this competition, but as many have said it's hard to talk a good pitcher in to playing for the worst organization in the AL East. Not only do you have to face the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, and Blue Jays most of the time but you have to do it with a mediocre defense behind you and a pretty pedestrian offense providing support. If I didn't have orange and black running through my veins I would have a tough time coming to Baltimore just for the money. It is what it is, as they say, and we should know pretty early if shear numbers can motivate pitchers enough to become winners.

The position players reported this week as well and many of them reported early, although most the competition among them is markedly less there still are a couple of spots to keep an eye on. To me the biggest question is Brian Robert's situation and if he might get on the field this year. I think the early signs are pretty good, he is able to complete most of the drills and they have him in the major league camp now after starting with the minor league crew. Obviously he has a huge impact on this team, if he can come back and play like he did 3 years ago, I feel you are looking at a potentially great offense. He would become your lead off hitter and also provide more power from the 2nd base position coupled with his great defense his infusion could really change this team for the better. Of course no one knows if it would work out that way and odds are that it won't. He has basically spent almost three years with very limited baseball action which affects any player, even the good ones , negatively. I can  hope he will come back and tear it up early but more than likely he will start the year on the DL and we will see Robert Andino as our everyday second baseman. Let me be clear, I like Robert a lot and he acquitted himself well last year, by playing good defense and showing his versatility by being able to play all over the diamond. The only problem with Robert is offensive production and the question of where to put him in the lineup. Hopefully his offense has improved and he has worked on his batter's eye, because if he ends up playing everyday, he is going to need to get on base a lot more.

Another question for me is who will be DH and who will stick at first base. Both of these positions are power positions offensively and they can either make a line up deadly or kill it from the start. The most likely candidate for DH right now is Wilson Betemit who is not known to be a masher but does get on base. This to me is a high risk high reward situation, it looks like what we are going to do is hope that he can continue to get on base and hopefully he does through hitting well instead of getting a lot of walks. If he does that and is able to knock people in while getting on base it would be an improvement over Vladdy but the worry for me is that you are going to have a traditionally power position filled by a walk machine. I know on base % is very important but if you can't score runs while getting on base how important is it really. Next is first base and the question of whether Chris Davis can hold down that spot for a season. I think anyone can see the potential in Davis but I also think most people are questioning when/if that potential will ever show up consistently on the field. We should see early on if he is still flailing at breaking balls and that will tell the tale of whether he has learned how to find the pitch he wants. It could be exciting to see a younger guy brought up like Joe Mahoney just to see what they could do better as Davis' defense has always been a little suspect and the strike outs have to go down. Also Nick Johnson was added to provide some more competition at first if he can get past his health issues he could provide a big spark.

This early in the year we should just hope for health and development. If we can make it through camp with no major injuries and a few signs of improvement that would be a best case scenario in my opinion. We are so far behind other clubs right now that the focus must be on the small things and not playing out side of the player's own capabilities. We don't have many super stars to lean on so the players that we do have need to get everything out of themselves in order for us to compete at all. Recently the O's brought in a sports psychologist and who knows how those guys are really used but you hope they can help in that area of keeping focus and staying positive. Here's to a great spring and hopefully we find a rotation out of all these arms. Go O's!

Rough week for Hokies Basketball

This week didn't go quite to plan for the Hokies, they played hard and showed how well they stick together but they just didn't have enough in two close losses to ranked teams. We have known for a while now that it would come down to the ACC tournament for us to have any shot at the NCAA tournament and of course that remains the case. But it sure would have been nice to close out a couple of these games against strong competition, if nothing else to help build some momentum. However that didn't happen and now we are hovering above .500 and each game I just wonder what is gonna cost us in the end. In the uva game it ended up being poor referee eye sight and horrible clock work. And against dook it was poor free throw shooting and weak legs (in my opinion).

I won't get into the uva game too much as I was working that night and without good reception I couldn't watch or listen to much of it. I did however get to see the three that made the difference and that should have been called off because of a shot clock violation. I think Jontel Evans was the culprit and clearly he didn't get the shot off, however he should not have been that open and while normally you would concede a shot from that distance, I still feel someone should have been out there to prevent the heave. As I said that shot ended up being the difference, but as usual we had our chance to close the gap and ended up missing free throws and open shots that could have swung the game the other way.

In the dook game it was a pretty similar situation all though I feel the writing was on the wall right from the start. We started out the game shooting fairly well and played some great defense , but we could not hit our free throws going 1-8 in the first ten minutes. I know typically you wouldn't count a team out for missing 8 free throws but for this team, in my opinion, it is a tell tale sign. If we can't hit the free throws early we sure as hell ain't gonna hit them late and more often than not that has been the case, which has proven to be one of the most frustrating parts of watching this team. It all just gets magnified against the better competition, because you can see the talent and will in these guys to win, but for whatever reason they can't make the easy plays that could push them over the top. This was personified with the last possession of regulation, when Erick Green (who had been shut out in the first half but poured it on in the second scoring 16 points and maintain his streak of double digit games which is at 30 now) held the ball for the last shot, drove to the lane, went for the layup, and left it just short hitting the front of the rim. That was followed by a Cadarian Raines attempted tip in which hit of the back board and nothing else.

As frustrating as this season has been I can say honestly that next year, if we can keep everyone who is not a senior, this team will be a contender. I just don't say how these guys don't get better and after going through a season like this, you know they will have the mental toughness to play anybody. Also you can see the development almost every where on the court. The most interesting thing to me is that where the elders have seemed to have faltered the young guys have stepped up and to me that shows that Seth Greenberg has not only gotten  players with a high level of talent but players that also know what it takes to put the team on their back and keep pushing when a leader has an off night.

This week provides two more opportunities to show more growth and development and with any luck we will have the legs and focus to close the last two out. After Clemson and N.C. State it is off to the ACC tournament and who knows what will happen there. Due to the way this season has gone, more than likely we will have an early exit, but as I have said before with this team playing so many close games and now playing close games against great competition anything could happen. You just never know when the light will go off for some of these guys. And just Cadarian Raines has showed up in the last couple games, providing a lot of production on offense and defense, if any of the other players can get it going on offense before the tourney I would look out cause with our defense we could do a lot of damage. As always Go HOKIES!

Orioles pichers and catchers report

Well spring is coming and that means baseball is a s well. For me it looks to be another year of wondering what our off season moves actually improved and hoping some young pitchers can figure the majors out. This off season was particularly perplexing as an Orioles fan, we brought in a ton of pitching that basically no one knows much about and did almost nothing to improve the line up. Arguments could be made that our lineup didn't need much improving but as a team with 69 wins last year improvement is always needed no matter where you look. I do think there are more pressing matters than our offense but with each day of Brian Robert's extended stay on the injured list it would have been nice to try to pick up a productive 2B.

Anyway the big question is about all the pitchers the O's brought in and how much they will be able to provide for the major league team. To me it is obvious that most of the young guns will not start out with the big club especially if they have an option left to go to the minors. I would guess that the only one who will crack the rotation at the start of the year might be Arrieta with Britton also being a possibility but like I said if they have an option they better tear it up in spring ball if they want to start out with the big boys. Dan Duquette has said publicly that the young guys were pushed to fast, as we all feared while it was happening, but he also acknowledges that it was done out of necessity. Now it looks like he is going to do what he can to try and help those young guys get back on track and hopefully push their own way up either late this year or next spring. Who knows how this situation will end up as most people would say the people he brought in to push those young players down aren't as good as those young players but this spring should tell us a lot.

They are some kind of exciting prospects brought in by Duquette. It will be interesting to see how Chen and Wada adapt to living in America and it will also be interesting to see how they fit in on this staff with the other pitchers. As we all know Koji ended up being a very good back of the bull pen pitcher but it took almost two years to figure that out. Hopefully this spring shows where these two guys should be quickly so that we can get the most out of them right away instead of waiting till the end of their time here to see what they could have done for us. Also I am excited to see the race for second base, it looks to be a two man race with Andino and Adams being the main players in my mind. Andino obviously has the edge after receiving the bulk of playing time there last year but it could be interesting with Buck wanting Andino to be his utility man off the bench and Adams having played 2B in the past. Left field could be interesting as well, but I think I feel like most fans of the team in that if Nolan Reimold doesn't get his chance there this year we probably should try to trade him. Not that I want that to happen, I think he would do just fine in left and hopefully he could find his stroke at the plate, but if we aren't going to use him I think we could receive at least one B maybe C prospect for him and with our minors as depleted as they are, we need all the help we can get.

The most important thing this year is just to improve in general, we need to do something better this year than we did last year and I don't care what it is (hopefully pitching) just improve somewhere. We have a horrible reputation right now and with each draft class it seems to get worse. I think it is obvious that we are miles away from contending but if we can improve in our minors and in the majors by doing small things right and letting that grow we could start this rebuild the right way. Sooner or later our guys have to learn what is like to win, I think it was Dave Johnson who said that if you come up through the minors and you are never on a wining club, why would you expect to win in the majors? Basically for the last 15 years our guys that we drafted have looked up at something that they don't aspire to be. I think every kid wants to be great at something, especially coming into a professional sports organization, but when that organization shows that they don't really know how to build a team that can win how excited are you to get to the highest level?

Hopefully all the new pitching will help to push the younger guys and help them win in the minors which you hope would help them win in the majors. Time will tell but starting with the group we have from last year, I am not sure how else to attack the problem of pitching. We are not going to go out and spend for the big guys so the only other route to go, it seems, is to create competition and hope it breeds production. Who know how this will work but it should be an interesting experiment.

If the offense can stay where it was I think that would be great. I think we scored enough runs last year to have a winning team, we just didn't have the pitching and defense to match that offensive production. I think they will stay about the same if not maybe slightly better. You probably won't see 30 homers from JJ again, but he still should get on base and be able to score runs in other ways. Also I think the bench is slightly improved with some guys that have put up better offensive numbers in the past. It will be a little strange to have a guy like Betemit at the DH but I think that shows a good trend of a new direction in looking for guys who know how to get on base, instead of looking for retreads and hoping they have a few drops of production to squeeze out before retiring.I think it is reasonable to expect a bit more from Markakis and Jones, Jones has improved almost every year in most categories, and Markakis's production was a bit off last year.

The defense needs a ton of work but unfortunately with Reynolds at third and Davis at first I am not sure how this will improve. Most think that Reynolds had an off year defensively at third and he reported to camp at 20 lbs under last years weight, but he has a lot of improvement to do to be a good defensive third baseman. I love his bat, but you just don't know what you are gonna get on the hot corner, it would be nice to see him at first as he played well there late in the year, but it seems as though Chris Davis will get another shot there. You hope Davis improves offensively as well because I am just not sure the defensive ability is there, I guess we will find out. The outfield is pretty solid with Reimold, Jones, and Markakis projected to start. You know what you will get from Jones and Markakis and I think if Reimold is given that left field spot he can get the confidence to play at a high level defensively. Other than that you know what you are getting at catcher with Weiters, he is a game changer for us behind the plate and I can't wait to see him improve this year. And JJ Hardy and Robert Andino should perform well up the middle, hopefully another year together will help each player improve.

My predictions for this year aren't great as there doesn't seem to be a whole lot added, but if the pitching and defense can just do their part to hang with the offensive production we could get close to .500. Which for the Orioles is no small task. Go O's!

Hokies Basketball: up and down, progress

I know I didn't do a write up on the Florida State loss and I hope as a fan you could understand why I didn't jump at the chance to do so. That game was a great game, it was a game where the Hokies played tough, through a lot of injuries, and it came down to the very last second. It just didn't go Tech's way and fan's can blame whomever they like but in the end we lost by one point to a ranked team that was able to play roughly twice the amount of scholarship players on that night. In short it was a hard pill to swallow and I wanted to write that night about poor coaching, poor recruiting, poor execution, poor time management, and poor free throw shooting. But in the end I decided to sleep on it, which was pretty hard to do, and I woke up the next day with a different attitude. Of course I was still upset and it was one of those days where I did everything I could to avoid espn, but I ended up being able to focus more on the positive.

In the Florida State game we were short handed to an extent where anyone going in to that game must have felt like we had zero chance to win. But by the time the game was over I think we were able to prove that we were tough enough, had enough leadership, and had the talent to play with anyone in the ACC. We just didn't have the legs and that is the true disappointment, this game proved that we are too thin on the bench as it seems we are year in and year out. I think Seth Greenberg, not unlike Frank Beamer, gets more out of his kids than most coaches could. I think he gets the type of kids that he knows he can motivate and I think he looks for kids with higher upside that he can develop in to what he believes will be a winning team. I think you can see these traits in almost every kid on this Hokie team, our highest rated recruit (Dorian Finney-Smith) had a stretch where he missed 25 shots and required some extra coaching from Greenberg and since then has played at another level. Seth shows that he can help kids develop and help them get through slumps and turn them into winners.

The struggle comes when you have that type of plan where you recruit talent that might need some work and couple that with injuries and your core graduating. Basically you end up with a lot of young talent that needs work to improve and sometimes that is tough to watch especially on this four year cycle we seem to be on. Every four years we have a big group graduate and big group of young guys come in and unfortunately it seems that most of the recruits that came in in the middle of that group of four years, who would have been the leaders for the young guys, have transferred elsewhere due to lack of playing time or ____ you fill in the blank. Luckily we have Erick Green, Dorenzo Hudson, Victor Davila, and Cadarian Raines to help show the younger guys how to play tough and get stronger and just compete in the ACC. But as the injuries keep popping up I think it shows that no matter what type of talent you recruit you better have a lot of it if you want to compete every night in the ACC. Hopefully we can hang onto to everyone on this current team, except the seniors of course, and add some guys with staying power to go into next year, because this year may be tough but I think the system shows that if the team can stick together we will see some great things next year and these close games will start going our way.

Moving on to the Georgia Tech game, I was able to attend this game and I am glad I did. After a game like the heart breaker we had at Florida State I was worried about how the team would respond and how the fans would respond. The team played as well as one could expect them to, being short handed again with no Victor Davila, and everyone having to play more minutes at different positions to shoulder that loss. I think the team missed Davila but Raines and C.J. Barksdale both stepped up and provided some great production, combining for 21 points and 8 rebounds. It really is a shame that C.J. twisted his ankle against Boston College because he had practiced well enough to get the start for that game, he came out strong in that game, and I have to think if he hadn't gotten hurt he would have made the Boston College win a little more comfortable and I know he could have provided the difference against Florida State. C.J. is another great example of a kid who is finding himself as a player late in this season and I am sure will only progress into next season where he will challenge Cadarian Raines for the starting center position.

All in all this was another good team win, I know it would be nice to get a win against one of these bad teams with a little more cushion instead of a last second three pointer (thank you Dorenzo) but this young team just needs to learn how it feels to win and what it takes to win in the ACC. The blow-outs will come and maybe they are saving up to hand the waaahoos one on Tuesday. You never know with this team and against uva anything can happen, it certainly would be sweet to sweep the hoos.

To my second worry about how the fans would respond. Again after a loss like the one we had to Florida State you just don't know what is going to happen with the players or the fans. I should have known that Hokie fans are too good to give in as they showed me once again why I am a Hokie. I don't get to go to many games, this one will probably be my only trip this year, but I am glad that this game was the one got to go to. Not just because we won, or because we won on a last second three pointer  in overtime against a team we love to beat at home, but because I got to see the fans respond to a heart breaking loss in a great way. I am not saying every seat was filled and people screamed the whole time, but there was a great crowd and for fans who just lived through that loss I think we mustered everything we could. When Dorenzo got that shot off and the final buzzer sounded there was a palpable sense of joy and relief, and I think everyone in there realized that no matter what these guys are giving us everything they have and if nothing else they deserve our support. I look forward to the rest of this year no matter how long it lasts and can't wait for next year because if these guys keep improving and playing as hard as they are we are in for a great year. Go HOKIES!

Hokie's Win, Doe-Doe plays big

Monday night the Hokies played a bad Boston College team at home and narrowly escaped with a 66-65 win, needing a tip-in by Dorian Finney-Smith (affectionately called Doe-Doe) with 1.8 seconds left to close it out. This game didn't feel like it would end up good for the Hokies right from the start. They didn't turn the ball over at an alarming rate, giving up 10 possessions for the game, but they did turn it over at the wrong times. Now a turnover is never good but when the game is close and you are on a run to perhaps take a lead or tie that is the worst possible time to have a turnover. I haven't watched the replay yet but from what I remember they turned it over in that situation at least half of the time and that just kills any momentum you had building up. This team has talent and athleticism and a great leader in Erick Greene but they still have a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot by either turning it over or taking bad shots at big moments in the game. They also just need to focus more on the easy plays and not try to make circus passes that have a low rate of conversion. Once they past this hump, figure out their individual roles, and just focus on the game plan instead of trying to do too much I think they could make a run in the ACC Tournament. The emergence of Doe-Doe is going to have a huge impact on the chance of that happening.

On Monday night Doe-Doe took over he finished with 17 points, 8 rebounds (7 offensive),2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block. And he played like the player Seth Greenberg has been telling us about all season. He didn't try to do too much and you can tell that as his confidence builds and he gets bigger he definately be a force in the ACC. I know I have said this before, but with all of the close games this year if Doe-Doe could have maintained even half of or a third of that point production throughout the year we would be in a completely different position right now and probably looking forward to another NCAA snub at the end of the year. Instead we play every game with the thought of avoiding being last in the ACC and hoping to find the chemistry that will help to make a push in the ACC tournament.

Moving forward I think there are more positives than negatives to look towards. Erick Greene is playing at an all-ACC level and still holds the current streak for double-digit games scoring in the ACC. I think the MVP for the ACC right now should be him, because without his production and leadership this team would be lost. Marquis Rankin seems to be finding himself and gaining valuable experience towards next year. C.J. Barksdale is coming on too and if he hadn't gotten an early injury in this game I think he was going to have a big one as he played his way into the starting lineup and was producing early. Victor Davila is a force offensively, you wish he could step up a little on defense, but if the Hokies can get him the ball a bit more I think it would open more shots for the shooters. Cadarian Raines plays great defense and whoever teaches the big men their hook shots is doing a great job as he is starting to hit those on a consistent basis just like Davila. Jarrell Eddie, while some times inconsistent has also showed that he can takeover games and the combination of him and Doe-Doe on the wings will be fun to watch for a long time.

All in all this is still a very young team but a young team that is showing they can learn. I think Seth Greenberg is a great teacher, he develops his talent well, and most of his players progress at a good rate. I look for more good things this year and in the years to come as these young guys come together. As we all know winning cures all that ails a team and if this team can stay strong and play tough through these next couple of weeks they really could make a run and end up where they want to be. It isn't going to be easy starting with Florida State this Thursday, but they have a chance and that is all they need to win. They already have the tools  and hopefully with some confidence in themselves and each other they will take advantage of that chance and I look forward to that. GO HOKIES!