TheSportsCommish

The Commish has 5 observations from yesterday.

1. Stephen Strasburg is the real deal.  Yes he pitched against a horrible offensive team in the Pirates (They are last in the MLB in average, 25th in homeruns & last in runs scored), but he still fanned 14 in 7 strong innings.  His next start will be against an equally bad offensive team in the Cleveland Indians (They are 26th in the MLB in average and runs and 28th in homeruns).  Those are 2 good teams for him to start his career against.
2. Another young phenom started their MLB career yesterday.  The Florida Marlins RF Mike Stanton went 3-5 in his debut.  He is a 20 yr old man child.  He stands at 6’5” and weighs 240, and watching his highlights from his debut he can run.  Lets not mention the cannon of a right arm he has.  I don’t know who will have the better career between Stanton and Strasburg, only time can tell and it will be fun to watch.
3. Derek Fisher was the man in the 4th quarter of yestedays NBA Finals game 3.  Take Fisher off the court and the Celtics win that game easily.  Fisher was hitting floaters in the lane, jump shots and driving to the basket like no one was defending him.  I think game 3 can be summed up very easily from the last bucket Fisher scored, when he caught an outlet pass raced to the basket while 3 Celtics stood as if they had cement blocks on their feet.  The Celtic defenders finally realized the game was not over yet, regrouped only to foul Fisher and still let him get the bucket, GAME OVER!  It just seemed that in the 4th quarter Fisher was playing faster and harder then everyone else.
4. Mark Teixeira got three hits.  Enough said. (I really hope he gets going soon)
5. After game 3 this is my NBA Finals prediction.  The Lakers win in 6.  The Lakers will win on Thursday (playing with 1 days rest in between), loose on Sunday (after 2 days rest in between games so the Celtics get extra rest) and win it in LA Tuesday (after only 1 days rest in between, do you sense the trend I am following).  I said it before, and I actually thought I might be eating my words after the Celtics dismantled the Cavs and Magic, but the Celtics age will catch up to them and I think it finally is. 

Last night, as The Commish was relaxing and catching up on the late night news, my better half attempted to sucker me into one of our typical and at times heated Yankees/Red Sox debate.  I still don’t know exactly how we came to that discussion but it is typical for me and my better half to have these “talks.”  The specific topic that was being broached was who is the better 1st baseman, Kevin Youkilis or Mark Teixeira.  As you all know The Commish is a Yankee fan while my other half is about as big of a Red Sox fan, so these discussions are always interesting.  In this instance though, I did concede that up to this point in the young baseball season Youkilis is playing a better 1st base then Teixeira being he is having a horrendous year at the plate.  I thought that would end the debate, but I was wrong.  The argument continued as my better half wanted to argue that Youkilis is the better 1st baseman, not just this year, but for his whole career.  The Commish would not concede to that, so I figured I would take it to my boardroom and see what you all have to say.  But before I ask for your decision take into consideration these stats:

Mark Teixeira: 30 yrs old, 7 yrs of MLB experience, in his 7 yrs of experience he has not played fewer then 130 games.

Kevin Youkilis:  31 years old, 6 yrs of MLB experience, in his 6 yrs of experience he has played 140+ games in 4 of them, in his ’04 season he played 72 and in his ’05 season he played 44.

On to the actual stats (career stats through 6/7/2010):

Batting Average:

• Teixeira: .286
• Youkilis:  .294

On Base Percentage:

• Teixeira:  .376
• Youkilis:  .396

Slugging:

• Teixiera:  .535
• Youkilis:  .497

Hits:

• Teixeira:  1,214
• Youkilis:  768

Runs Batted In:

• Teixeira:  832
• Youkilis:  446

Home Runs:

• Teixeira:  250
• Youkilis:  105

Gold Gloves:

• Teixeira:  3
• Youkilis:  1

World Series Championships:

• Teixiera:  1
• Youkilis:  2

Also, keep in mind that Teixeira’s stat line does include the horrible season he is having this year where his line is:  AVG-.211, HR-8, RBI-34, OBP-.326 & SLG-.363.  The Commish promises that he will not finish with a stat line that bad.

The Commish’s final pitch is this:  Both are top players at their position, but The Commish would take Teixeira, who is younger, hits for more power and plays ridiculous defense at 1st base.  Who would you rather have?

Good morning Boardroom.  Before I run down the athletes who suffered a rough weekend and now have a worse case of the Monday Morning Blues then The Commish, I need to make a quick shout out to Ed “Truck” Gordon.  This weekend The Commish and some of my college buddies attended his first amateur MMA fight.  He did not disappoint. He took the win.  The atmosphere for his fight was awesome. The majority of the crowd was there for his support and chants of “Lets go Truck” & “Lets go Eddie” rang out throughout his fight.  Congrats!  But on to those players/teams that are suffering a serious case of the MMB.

Tiger Woods

He finished 19th in this weekends Memorial golf tournament.  Since his return, when he took 4th in the Masters, Tiger has pulled out of a tournament and finished 19th.  That is not exactly Tiger like.  However, he says he is on pace and pleased with his progression for the U.S. Open.  I guess only time will tell if Tiger will regain his dominant form.

Philadelphia Phillies

They are my biggest disappointment so far in this young MLB season.  In The Commish’s opinion they are the most talented team in the national league but as of Sunday night they are 2 games back in the NL East as well as the NL Wildcard.  Just this past week they were swept by the NL east leading Braves.

And keeping with my team theme of the MMB:

LA Lakers:

They had a good chance to take both games at LA and head to Boston with a commanding 2-0 lead, but they let it slip away.  They had no answer for Ray Allen, who had 27 in the first half on 7-7 shooting from 3 point land.  At least it seems like this is going to be a series.

Jim Joyce must be the sickest man in the world.  If you don’t know who Jim Joyce is check the video below. 

He is the 1^st base umpire who blew the call in last nights Detroit Tiger vs Cleveland Indian game. If you don’t know exactly why he would be the sickest man in the world for getting a simple call on the diamond wrong, let me explain.  In last night’s game, Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga was in the midst of throwing a perfect game.  At the point that Joyce got the call wrong, it was in the ninth inning, with two outs. If Joyce gets the call correct, Galarraga would have been the 21^st pitcher in MLB history, and the 3^rd pitcher this year to throw a perfect game.  After the game, Joyce admitted that he got the call wrong and that he cost Galarraga a perfect game.  The Commish gives Joyce a lot of credit for manning up and admitting his mistake.  As Jim Leyland, the Tigers manager, said after the game we are human and make mistakes.  However, why in this day of video technology do we subject sports crucial moments to human error.  Instant replay should be implemented and that is The Commish’s Thursday Throwdown topic.  The MLB needs to broaden its use of instant replay and needs to do it immediately.

The current Baseball instant replay system only applies to determining if a homerun is fair or foul or if there was fan interference.  As we saw last night, this is not enough.  Baseball needs to do something similar to the NFL.  Currently in the NFL coaches have 2 challenges and when the half gets under two minutes tough calls are reviewed by the booth.  Baseball can employ a similar replay system very easily.  Here are my suggested changes:

The Current Replay Rules:

• Homeruns are reviewable to determine if it was fair or foul at any time.
• Replay is used to determine if there was a case of fan interference.

 The Commish’s New Replay Rules:

The old rules will remain.  Homeruns and fan interference are reviewable at any point in the game.

• New Rule:  Managers will receive one challenge per game, if they win the challenge they are awarded a second (challenges are capped at 2).
• New Rule:  Managers can only challenge a play up to the 8^th inning.
• New Rule:  From the 8^th inning on any replay decision will be made from the booth.
• New Rule:  Balls and strikes are not challengeable.

These are simple adjustments to the current replay system.  If these rules were in play, then Galarraga and the fans of Detroit would not have missed out on being a part of baseball history.  Baseball owes it to the fans to make sure games are decided correctly.  Baseball did the fans of Detroit a huge injustice and needs to fix the problem (The Commish would love to see the MLB overturn the call thus officially giving Galarraga a perfect game).  The Commish does not entirely blame Jim Joyce.  He is human and is trying to make a correct call on a play that happens in tenths of a second.  It is baseball’s fault for allowing 99% of the game to be determined by umpires and not having a replay system that can correct human error.  In The Commish’s opinion history was made last night, the 21^st perfect game and 3^rd this year was thrown.  Congratulations Armando Galarraga, you were perfect