Redskins Defense

Defensive Line: On the defensive line they have Andre Carter, Phillip Daniels, Cornelius Griffin, and Kedric Golston. Each one of these players is solid and has experience, except Golston. But at 6'4, 320 pounds, he should take up a lot of space.

Linebackers: Here, they have Marcus Washington, London Fletcher, and Rocky McIntosh. Washington is a great linebacker, he can stuff the run as well as anybody. McIntosh is their second round pick from last year, he should be good. Their new acquasition, London Fletcher is a complete beast. He consistantly puts up monster numbers. He should be special.

Defensive Backs: This is probably the biggest strength of the defense. With Sean Taylor, LaRon Landry, Carlos Rogers, and Shawn Springs. Springs is a proven quality corner, Taylor can run with anyone in coverage, and is a missle running down field to tackle someone. Landry is the newest addition, he's one of the best safties ever coming out of college, he should be special. And then theres Rogers, a top pick a few years ago, he's now getting a chance to show what he can do, and so far its looked great.

This defense is better than the defense from 05 that took them to the playoffs and past round one. Last year most of the starters were injured and playing hurt. It was a disaster everywhere on defense. This year so far they've played extremely well together.

This year with Jason Campbell, they should be at least average on offense. They went 10-6 in the 05 season, look for the same, if not better, in my opinion. Right now, they are being highly underrated.

My Fantasy Baseball Team

Unlike last year, I did research before I drafted. Last year I relief purely on my baseball knowledge and not fantasy baseball knowledge. I went more with big names than with the better fantasy player. This year my researched helped alot. I drafted every single player with something positive that I can look forward to. I acted as if my 21st pick was just as important as my 1st. In reality, its not, but I was researching and comparing stats like it was. This was a traditional head to head, 5x5, 10 man league. I made a few changes after I drafted, I dropped Jacque Jones for Danial Cabrera almost immediately after the draft, and I dropped Chipper Jones for Weathers.

I've never been so confident in a fantasy team before, in any sport. Once Howard and Atkins get it going (Looks like today), my offense will be completely dominating. The one thing I lack is steals. Byrnes had 4 steals this past week, but I don't expect that to continue, I'm projecting 30 steals tops. Upton is also running this year, I'm expecting around 30 steals from him as well. Delmon Young could also give me a solid number of steals, around 20.

My pitching is strong as well. Sheets could be great, he looks to be completely healthy. Just about all my pitchers have high potentials. 5 of them have 200k potential. My closers aren't great but they're sufficient. Jenks and Isringhausen will be consistant, hopefully so will Weathers. Dempster has been very good so far. But if he blows more than one save, his time will be extremely short.

I'm trying to pick up Kenny Lofton, but I can't figure out who to cut.

C: Jorge Posada
1B: Ryan Howard
2B: Josh Barfield
3B: Garrett Atkins
SS: Miguel Tejada
OF: Vladimir Guerrero
OF: Delmon Young
OF: Eric Byrnes
Util: Todd Helton
BN: B.J. Upton

SP: Ben Sheets
SP: John Smoltz
RP: Bobby Jenks
RP: Jason Isringhausen
P: Ryan Dempster
P: David Weathers
P: C.C. Sabathia
BN: Bronson Arroyo
BN: Justin Verlander
BN: Aaron Harang
BN: Daniel Cabrera

Don't Let Lofton's Low Avg Fool You

Before this season, he was a career .300 hitter. Now he hits at the top of a powerful Rangers lineup. Behind him is Hairston, Young, Teixeira, Sosa. Right now his average is very low, .133, but don't let that fool you, he is a very good hitter in fact.

He has a contact rate of 93% with only 1 strikeout. He's putting the bat on the ball, its just not landing in the right spot, and thats unlucky. Because of that, he's not getting on base, which means his runs are down. He's gotten 2 hits and 1 walk, so he's reached base 3 times. He also has 2 steals. Clearly he wants to run and clearly he can. Such a high contact rate tells us his average will definitely go up, and for such a high rate, an average of .300 or well beyond is reasonable. Once he starts getting on base more, we'll see plenty of runs and steals. Its all a matter of time.

High Strikeout Pitchers

Thanks to Doug's MLB Stats, I can rank players and compile stats in any way imaginable. The first thing that I wanted to know was who the best strikeout pitchers are in the league. Pure strikeouts can't tell you much because the innings pitched are all different. I compiled Strikeouts per Innings pitched, here are the ranks that I got:




















From that list, Kazmir and Hamels are availible in the mid-rounds. Cabrera is availible way in the late rounds, if he doesn't go undrafted. We all know they are high strikeout guys, but just how high, might be overlooked. (Note: This only applies to pitchers with over 100 innings pitched, this is to exclude the relievers)

Next, I did K per Walk. Sheets was by far the best with a ratio of 10.54. The next closest was Schilling with a ratio of 6.53. Then Johan with a ratio of 5.2. This can be a good indicator of control that the pitcher has. It can tell you whether that player's ERA and Whip are inflated or deflated by other factors. Clearly Schilling is overlooked in this aspect. Sheets still has an injury risk. Another Note, Wickman was the only pitcher better than Sheets with a ratio of 12.5, but thats only with his tenure with the Braves. With the Braves he was a complete beast. Infact, he also has the best Save per Blown save ratio.

This stat sheet is very fun to play around with. If anyone has any numbers/ranks they want to compile, just leave a comment and I'll have it done by the next day. I can do hitters and pitchers.

GTA 4 - First Look

The long awaited first trailer came out for Grand Theft Auto 4. Its availible on the GTA 4 site, on YouTube, GameTrailers, and theres even a torrent. Its a short trailer, about a minute. Theres not much action, but we do get to know the basics of the game. It revolves around an immigrant who was involved in Human Trafficking apparently (This could get Ugly for Rockstar). It takes place in Liberty City once again. A lot of people don't like this, but personally I don't mind. Liberty City is a great city for a setting. They can always refurbish parts, add more things, change things, etc., I think by now we should learn to trust Rockstar. Thats enough of me rambling about the Trailer, you can check it out for yourself.

This first glimpse however gave me enough material to create me first mock cover. I used various screens from the trailer on the cover, the traditional GTA font, and the "IV" font that was on the GTA website. I applied very simple photoshop filters to make the pictures look more cartoonish. I didn't spend more than an hour on this. I do plan on making it better, with better screens, and better vectors, and eventually I'll make a back cover. But for now, this is what I have.

GTA 4 Cover - Version 1.0

(Click to Enlarge)

Final Four: Georgetown

Up to now I have 93 points, and all my 4 final four teams are still in. I have OSU beating UCLA in the finals. That Georgetown game was a classic. I was praying the whole way that Gtown would come back. It was a complete effort by everyone. It was amazing how they came through in the clutch. Whenever it seemed like UNC was dominating, they would score key shots to keep it close. The worst they were down by was 11, but for most of the game they were down by 5-7 points. Finally at the end they went on a spree and were unstopped.

Georgetown was the better team in my opinion, by far. Hibbert was the key, on defense he would block shots and keep them in check, and on offense he would be a solid scorer. He was in foul trouble the whole game, and the way John Thompson managed him was excellent. He left him in when everyone else questioned him, and it payed off bigtime. What else amazed me was the passing of Georgetown. They made crisp passes inside. This is the best passing team I've ever seen in college. Hansborough had a very good first half, but was completely invisible in the second half. Georgetown deserved that win. Hibbert vs. Oden will be the game of the year in my opinion. I missed the other three games though, that sucks.

'300' A Short Non-Spoiler Review

I only watch a few movies every year at the theaters, only special movies that I know will be worth the money. 300 was one of these movies. The movie is adapted from the comic written by Frank Miller based on an old battle between 300 Spartan warriors and the Persian army of thousands. As expected the visuals were breathtaking. Someone described the movie as "a mix of Gladiator and Lord of the Rings" which I believe to be very true. The battle scenes are similar to those of Lord of the Rings. At times the LotR fight scenes seemed to be dry and repetitive, this is not the case in 300. The entire movie was very entertaining and left the viewer wanting more.

Children watch fantasy movies like Harry Potter, Narnia, Bridge to Terebithia, movies that ignite their imagination and absorb them completely in the movie. 300 is a movie like that for adults. It would seem that the plot is weak looking at the type of film that it is, but that is not the case. Its a simple story, but a very good one.

In the end, we have to look at this movie for what it is, a story told on film, which the movie does perfectly. This is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. If you liked Gladiator and Lord of the Rings, you will love this movie. Everything about this movie is high quality.

Overall: 9/10

(I'm not trying to project what the rating would be overall, that is just my personal rating)

Suggestions for Digg.com

I'll cut to the chase with the suggestions. Digg this if you like it.

1. Make comments appear in real-time - When you Digg an article, you can see the Digg number increment in real-time. Do the same for new comments. Why? Because of stories have a large number of comments, and refreshing the page every time to post a new comment or check for newly posted comments by others takes some time. Refreshing it over and over can get annoying for these more largely commented articles.

2. Comment Pagination - This branches off the same idea as the previous suggestion, refreshing pages with many comments takes a while, so why not have pages of comments? The number of comments displayed can be set in the user profile, like 10, 20, 50, etc.


That is all.

My 2006 Miami Dolphins Madden Video

I've officially begun working on my new video, 2006 Miami Dolphins Season Review NFL Films Style with Madden. Here is the 2005 version. There are several mistakes in the old video. The video skips, the Audio is scratchy, the entire video has margins, the text is hard to read and goes by fast, some of the video is slow, some is fast, etc. Honestly, I rushed the old video, I was so excited with what I had, I couldn't wait to put it out. I'm taking my time with this to make it perfect.

Ever since I made the 2005 Video, I've been thinking of ideas. Now I have officially begun. I'm going to choreograph it all first with a script, then follow the script. If you have any ideas, please leave comments. If you ever wanna chat or anything, just leave you're AIM sn in the comments.

O and last thing, if you would have to put a title to the Dolphins' 06 season, what would that title be? Thanks.

Superbowl Prediction

Just like last year, I'm here to predict the superbowl.

In my opinion it comes down to this: Which matchup do you prefer, Colts Offense vs Bears Defense or Bears Offense vs Colts Defense? This brings up a issue that most forget about, how well the Colts defense is playing. Their defensive philosophy is to not allow the big play, which is all Grossman is, a big play. So they can shut down Grossman, but the Bears running game is still here. Thus I come to the conclusion that the Bears running game must win this game all by itsself. Which is unlikely considering how the Colts D has been playing against the run this post-season. Next, looking at how Manning played the second half of the pats game, I give the advantage to the Colts offense. Manning looked unstoppable.

I can see Thomas Jones and Benson combining for two touchdowns, and Hester getting another 1-2 touchdowns. The colts special teams defense looked very weak against the patriots. But I think Colts will still come out on top, simply because of Manning and Viniteri.

Final Score: 27-20 Colts