Friday, November 17, 2006

NFL "Expert" Picks

DISCUSSION TOPICS

Good Morning! I am trying to find ways to make this site a little more interactive. I want to encourage people to use the Comments and participate in the conversation. I appreciate that so many people come to this site every day, but a big part of the fun of doing a site like this is interaction with the reader either with Comments or e-mails. I try to provide information, but I think that a good debate in the Comments can make the site even better!

So today I am going to post several Discussion Topics/Questions for today and for the weekend. Hopefully you will want to post some Comments in any or all of them. Thanks!

Discussion Topic #1

Twenty to twenty five years ago, over 20% of Major Leaguers were African-American. Now that number is about nine percent. The number of Latin American players has gone up exponentially in the last two decades. Hideo Nomo started the trend of players from Japan coming to the county. Ichiro created a craze, and now Daisake Matsuzaka is going to get a huge contract to come over. Players have defected from Cuba. So, think for a moment... Where will the game be? Where will players be coming from? Is it truly America's game anymore, or is it just where it is played? Does it matter to you? Does it matter to the league? Should their be a world-wide draft? Let me know your thoughts.

Discussion Topic #2

If you could take over Terry Ryan's job for the rest of the offseason, name the top three free agents that you would go after, and explain why. Also, tell me how much you would offer for him, and how it might affect the Twins roster.

Discussion Topic #3

If you could take over Terry Ryan's job for the rest of the offseason, name the three players that you make a trade for, and explain why. Also, tell me who you would offer in exchange for him, and how it might affect the Twins roster.

Discussion Topic #4

I have not been as much of a movie watcher in the last months, so I am always looking for people's recommendations for good movies. I have found that sometimes the lesser known movies are better, or at least as good, as the highly publicized one. So, please, give me three underrated movies that you think I should watch. My choice is Class Act. It is the story of mixed identities for Kid and Play. One is a great academic mind, the other is a delinquent. It is just hilarious! The second is Cool Runnings! I know, it's corny, and John Candy is in it, but don't let that affect your thinking! The story of the Jamaican bobsled team is fun yet in the end, I admit that my eyes always end up watering!

Discussion Topic #5

Did you see that the Cubs hired Bob Dernier as a roving minor league outfield and base running coach, and Mike Harkey as their AAA pitching coach. It just got me thinking again about players from the late '80s and early '90s. This one should just be a fun little chat. Name a few lesser known ball players that give you some sort of memory. For me, Claudell Washington was the man! But by watching all those Braves games on TBS when I was 10 or so, I remember the names like Terry Harper, Rufino Linares and Andres Thomas. But Pascual Perez was another big favorite of mine. There are also guys like Biff Pocaroba and Buddy Biancalana who just have great names. Speaking of which, did you see that Razor Shines was named the new third base coach of the White Sox, replacing Joey Cora? They may not have been great players, but big leaguers no less. And, if nothing else, they bring back old memories of watching a ball game, or an autograph given, or opening up packs of baseball cards. I remember John Henry Johnson tossing me a baseball during batting practice of a game in 1984 or 1985. I got it autographed by Kirby Puckett and Dave Engle. I dropped the ball down to Engle, and he said "Thank you! We needed some more baseballs", and he pretended he was going to throw it in a ball bag. He turned, saw that I was about to cry, and said he was kidding before signing it and tossing it back up to me. Anyway, share a story, or just name a couple of your favorite players or names. I always enjoy such things and I know many of the readers do as well.

Are there other topics that you would like to discuss? Please e-mail me your ideas for future Discussion Topics for this site. The questions/topics can be deep to make people think, or they can just be a lot of fun. I know this is technically my site, but let it become your site too. If you want.

Other Thoughts/Topics

• Check out the massive stock of Beloit Snappers Game-Used jerseys which will go on sale on Monday. You will want to check out this link to see how much the jerseys cost and how to get yours!!

• To absolutely no one's surprise, it appears that Billy Beane will hire his long-time friend Bob Geren as the Oakland A's next manager. Geren was the best man in Beane's second wedding.

• John Sickels gives us a preview of his Top 20 Minnesota Twins prospects on his site. His list is interesting. I was happy to see him rank a couple of players as high as he did, and I was also happy to see some drop as they have.  There are also some great comments!  As a reminder, here are my Top 50 Twins Prospects.

• Roger Rates the Relievers... in his most recent article.

• Don't forget, if you're in the Twin Cities area tomorrow (Saturday), Pat Neshek will be signing autographs from noon to 1:30 at Moundsview Square Shopping Center (County Road 10 at Long Lake Road). It will cost $5 for an autograph, but all proceeds will go to the United Way.

• For winning the World Series, the Cardinals will split $20.02 million dollars. That is $362,173 per share. Not a bad little bonus!

• Did you know that Joe Randa decided to retire?

• And, ho-hum, Johan Santana picked up another Cy Young Award yesterday, his second unanimous selection for the award in the last three years. Of course, he should have won it last year too since he was baseball's best pitcher. Nick N. discusses it on his site today.

NFL "Expert" Picks

Well, things are getting pretty close at the top of our standings. Anyway, here are our Week 11 picks. If you have any questions or comments, e-mail me or leave comments below. If you would like any information on the panelists, or the updated standings, check out the Official SethSpeaks 2006 NFL "Experts" Picks page.  

SUMMARY

Here is how the collective "We" picked this week:

St. Louis @ Carolina - Panthers 15-1

Washington @ Tampa Bay - Buccs 13-3

Tennessee @ Philadelphia - Eagles 16-0

Chicago @ NY Jets - Bears 16-0

Cincinnati @ New Orleans - Saints 11-5

Minnesota @ Miami - Dolphins 11-5

Oakland @ Kansas City - Chiefs 16-0

New England @ Green Bay - Patriots 15-1

Pittsburgh @ Cleveland - Steelers 13-3

Indianapolis @ Dallas - Colts 15-1

Atlanta @ Baltimore - Ravens 11-5

Buffalo @ Houston - Texans 12-4

Seattle @ San Francisco - Seahawks 15-1

Detroit @ Arizona - Cardinals 11-5

San Diego @ Denver - Broncos 11-5

Monday -

NY Giants @ Jacksonville - Jaguars 9-7

out it in the Comments here. 

 

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