Let the offseason begin

Holy smokes. This was quite an exciting and entertaining week of sports thus far. The world series has concluded and the NBA has begun in its spot. College Football is still going strong and so is the NFL. Exciting times.

But let's talk baseball, shall we? You may say that it is the offseason now so nothing is happening. That is not true. Free agency has begun and the Padres have already made some minor moves to their roster. 1) The Padres declined Josh Johnson's option of $4 million for 2015 although it is expected he will come back with a lesser deal. He signed a 1-year, $8 million deal for this past year but after a couple of starts in spring training started complaining about some elbow soreness. That resulted in his second round of Tommy John surgery in 5 years. This surgery requires a 12-18 month recovery time (which would pinpoint his return sometime during the next season) however, with medical advances reducing recovery times, he may be ready for the season. We'll see. "I look at [my time in San Diego] as unfinished business," Johnson said to padres.com reporter Corey Brock. Johnson won the ERA title with the Marlins in 2010 with a 2.30 clip. That is amazing. 2) Tim Stauffer became a free agent. He wants to start again in the majors, which would be very tough to find in SD. He was mostly a long reliever out of the bullpen over the past two years and was roughed up at times, so I do not expect him to return. I predict he will sign a minor league deal to some team who needs pitching (like the Rockies or Phillies). Free agency will really gain some momentum during the GM meetings from November 10-13 in Phoenix and then even more steam from December 7-11 in San Diego. Hopefully new GM AJ Preller can make some magic and produce a winning team this offseason. I sure hope so. I still have a sour taste from game 163 on a cold October 1st 2007 Denver evening.
In other baseball news, the World Series ended in dramatic fashion on Wednesday night. After the Royals pummeled the Giants with a 10-0 barrage in game 6 Tuesday, game 7 was certainly going to be exciting. Tim Hudson started for the Giants and only pitched 2 1/3 innings. The Royals' starter, Jeremy Guthrie, only lasted about the same as well before giving way to the bullpen. In the top of the fourth, the Giants' Michael Morse gave his team a 3-2 lead. Nobody thought it would hold...not until the Giants sent in Madison Bumgarner who just 3 days prior threw a 117-pitch shutout in a 5-0 victory in San Francisco came into the game to pitch 5 innings of shutout ball to seal the deal for the Giants third title in five years. I was disappointed with the result but I just witnessed arguably the best world series pitcher in the history of the game dominate a team that dominated everybody else throughout the playoffs. It was the first time that a home team lost a world series game 7 since the Pirates beat the Yankees in 1979. But an amazing pitching performance brought even the most passionate Giants haters to their knees in respect and honor. So for that, I applaud the Giants (mainly just Bumgarner).

NBA! LeBron James returned home to Cleveland Thursday night. However, they Cavaliers fell to the Knicks 95-90 at home. A revived city, a revived team - priceless. The Cavaliers beat the Bulls tonight in Overtime 111-106. The Bulls are predicted to be one of the top contenders to the Cavaliers in the eastern conference. In the west, both Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook are out for a few weeks with broken bones on an already depleted Thunder team. The Spurs are again the favorites to win it all. All of these story lines are attractive to any level sports fan! What is to be an exciting season has begun!

In college football, 2Florida State played Louisville last night and the results will make my Mom mad. The Cardinals were ahead most of the game but Jameis Winston led a mad second half comeback to seal the victory 41-31. I am bummed, but I don't think they will be National Champions again. At least, I hope not. Other games of note are 10TCU heads into Morgantown to take on 20West Virginia in a crucial conference game 3:30 ET on ABC (or ESPN2), 11K-State plays host to Oklahoma State at 8 ET on ABC in Manhattan, Kansas (my last area!), and Stanford at 5Oregon 7:30 p.m. ET on FOX. However, the biggest game of the day has to be 4Auburn taking on 7Ole Miss at Ole Miss. That will be at 7ET on ESPN. I am excited for that one. So another exciting week in College Football looks to unfold!

In the NFl, Peyton Manning is still being Peyton Manning: throwing touchdowns and breaking records. The Chargers are struggling and yet to have beaten a difficult opponent. They will have their hands full this Sunday as they head to Miami to take on the Dolphins. Well I believe that is just about it! Thank you for taking the time to read this and have a lovely day and Happy Halloween!

It ain't over 'til it's over

This post is going to be brief because I have to get up super early in the morning tomorrow. But I wanted to first discuss baseball. I wanted to express my condolences to Oscar Tavaras. I bet nobody who reads this knows who he is. He is the future right fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals who was ranked as the #3 prospect in all of baseball entering the 2014 season. He is 22 years old and has been compared to Albert Pujols. He hit a big home run in the NLCS which led to a Cardinals victory. Now, he has passed away in the Dominican Republic. What shock came to me. How grateful I am for the knowledge that if that were to happen to me, I would still be okay because my family has been sealed for time and all eternity.

When it comes to the world series, however, things are looking bleak. The Giants won last night and also tonight to take a 3-2 series lead heading back to Kansas City for games 6 and 7. I predicted that the Giants were going to win the world series from the start of the playoffs, now look where they are: one win from doing it again. How depressing. Nothing much has happened with the Padres. They fired their hitting coach...again. It's, I think, the 5th hitting coach the Padres have fired since moving into Petco park. Phil Plantier was his name. The Padres were historically bad on offense this past year and even posted a .171 team batting average in the month of June. During that month, they were no-hit by Tim Lincecum. Pity.

In terms of college football, my LSU tigers beat Ole Miss in Death Valley! That made me happy. Also, K-State rolled over Texas. they are very much alive in the playoff chase. I was happy to see the Tigers win despite turning the ball over four times. That made me happy. Ohio State was almost upset had the darn zebras made the correct call on an interception that was supposed to be incomplete. Auburn almost lost to South Carolina at home but another botched call by the refs aided the Tiger victory. Two players with the same numbered jersey were on the field at the same time on the last play of the game. That is supposed to be a 15 yard penalty but it wasn't called. The penalty would've given the gamecocks one final chance to score, but I guess not.

In the NFL, the Broncos beat the Chargers in Denver. It was a very predictable outcome and in fact, I may have predicted the exact score (35-21) at one point. I can't remember though. My fantasy team is doing well. They scored close to 200 points this week; the most in the league this year and the most I have ever scored by a large margin.

Anyways, I told you this was going to be short. Sorry I didn't have more time to go into more detail. I would like to also start putting analysis videos of myself on here once I get a particular piece for my camera that I left at home. A bonehead move by me. Please comment if you have any further questions. I need more followers! This is my career field and I love it!