Week 2 of the NFL season kicks off tonight, in Foxboro, as the New England Patriots host the New York Jets. Here is a preview of that game.
My thoughts on this game: The Patriots are favored by 11 points. They struggled to get past the Buffalo Bills last week, beating them 23-21 on a late field goal, while the Jets came back to beat the Tampa Bay Bucs 18-17, after a stupid penalty on the Bucs gave them the opportunity to kick the game-winning three-pointer. Call me crazy, but as good of a motivator as Jets head coach Rex Ryan has been, I can’t pick against the Pats and Bill Bellichick, especially at home. Even though 11 is a HUGE number, I’ll take the Patriots and give the 11 points.
Speaking of picks, I finished the week 3-2-1 on my picks against the spread. Not a bad start. I’ll try and do better this week.
A good week as well in my Fantasy League, as I managed to win 177.28 to 161.18.
Here is the complete schedule for WEEK 2:
In tomorrow’s blog, I will have the point spreads for all this week’s games with my five picks for this week’s games.
Here is Armando Salguero with all the latest from the Dolphins practice facility:
Here’s ESPN’s NFL Nation Blog, with more news from all around the league:
Of course, we can all continue to sleep at night, knowing full well that Aaron Hernandez remains in jail, where he belongs.
Let’s go out to the ballgames
First of all, congratulations to the 25,111 fans that attended yesterday’s game between the Marlins and the Braves. Good job in supporting the kid, Jose Fernandez, in his last start of this season. After reaching the pre-determined 170 innings mark, the rookie will be shut down until next season. (BTW, who determines that 170 innings is the magical number? Why not 180 or 190?) Although I don’t necessarily agree with that whole train of thought, I understand trying to protect the best young pitcher in the game, especially when your team is going nowhere.
In the game, he was terrific again, giving up just one run, a monumental home run by Evan Gattis (more on that later), in his seven innings of work and also homered himself on his last at bat (more on that later, as well). Giancarlo Stanton homered and finished with three RBI and the Fish beat the Braves, 5-2.
The Marlins are now 6-12 against Atlanta this season, and will close out the season series today in a 12:40 pm matinee at Marlins Park. Brian Flynn will start for the Fish, while the Braves will counter with veteran Freddy Garcia. The Marlins need to split their remaining 18 games of the season to avoid finishing with 100 losses.
After today’s game, the Fins will head to the Big Apple to take on the Mets in a weekend series, that includes a doubleheader on Saturday. Here are the probable pitchers for those four games:
FRI Nathan Eovaldi vs Jon Niese 7:10 pm
SAT Henderson Alvarez vs Daisuke Matsuzaka 4:10 pm
Jacob Turner vs Carlos Torres TBD
SUN Brad Hand vs Dillon Gee 1:10 pm
The Marlins are still the worst offensive team in the majors. The Fish have been held to three runs or less 89 times this season, and their record in those 89 games is 17-72. Taking it one step further,
When scoring three runs in a game - 6-17
When scoring two runs in a game - 9-18
When scoring one run in a game - 2-21
Of course, they lead the majors in getting shutout, having been blanked 16 times so far this season. Ouch.
The Marlins are still at the bottom of the list in runs scored in MLB, scoring only 471 runs in their 144 games, an obscene 3.27 runs per contest. Here are the rest of the bottom-dwellers:
TEAM W-L Runs
Marlins 54-90 471
White Sox 58-87 537
Phillies 67-78 545
Padres 66-78 553
Giants 66-80 556
In contrast, the Boston Red Sox (89-58) lead MLB with 766 runs scored and the Detroit Tigers (84-62) have plated 739. The Sox have played one more game than the Tigers.
TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION: Jose Fernandez finished this season with a 12-6 record and a miniscule 2.19 ERA, and was even better at home, where he finished 9-0 with a 1.19 ERA. Since the Rookie of the Year award was instituted back in 1947, only three other rookie pitchers with enough innings pitched to qualify for the ERA title, have finished with an ERA under 2.25. Who are they? The answer comes later, alligator.
In the Major Leagues yesterday, here are the capsules and summaries from all the games.
First, in the National League,
Over in the American League,
Today in MLB, in the National League,
Braves @ Marlins 12:40 pm
Freddy Garcia vs Brian Flynn
Nationals @ Mets 1:10 pm
Tanner Roark vs Aaron Harang
Cubs @ Pirates 7:05 pm
Chris Rusin vs Jeff Locke
Padres @ Phillies 7:05 pm
Tyson Ross vs Roy Halladay
Brewers @ Cardinals 8:15 pm
Tyler Thornburg vs Joe Kelly
Giants @ Dodgers 10:10 pm
Matt Cain vs Zack Greinke
Over in the American League,
A’s @ Twins 1:10 pm
Sonny Gray vs Mike Pelfrey
Yankees @ Orioles 7:05 pm
Phil Hughes vs Wei-Yin Chen
Angels @ Blue Jays 7:07 pm
Garrett Richards vs JA Happ
Red Sox @ Rays 7:10 pm
Jake Peavy vs Jeremy Hellickson
Indians @ White Sox 8:10 pm
Corey Kluber vs John Danks
Now, back to last night’s Marlins-Braves encounter.
There was a benches-clearing moment last night when Jose Fernandez homered in the bottom of the sixth inning against Mike Minor. Fernandez flipped his bat, stood at home plate for what seemed to be an eternity as he admired the blast. When he rounded third base, he spit at the bag and when he got to the plate, Braves catcher Brian McCann basically told him that you don’t do that in the major leagues.
Fernandez had also exchanged “pleasantries” with Braves third baseman Chris Johnson and some players in the Braves dugout after a monstrous homer by Evan Gattis the inning before. Gattis himself nodded at Fernandez right after he hit the homer, but nothing else seemed to have been said. In fact, replays showed Fernandez making a “WOW” gesture as he faced centerfield, almost in awe of Gattis sending his best fastball on a 400-plus foot ride.
I agree totally with McCann, who forged a good relationship with Fernandez during the all-star break, along with Braves 1B Freddie Freeman. We all need to remember that the kid is only 21, and got caught up in the moment. Fernandez needs to learn to control his emotions and not show anyone up on the field. It is one thing to have fun and enjoy the moment, it is another thing to do something that shows up the other team and is embarrassing to your own team and to yourself.
I grew up watching the Miami Dolphins when they were on top of the world in the early 1970’s and that is when all the end zone celebrations started (remember Elmo Wright of the KC Chiefs and his TD dance?). I loved watching Paul Warfield of the Dolphins, who would score touchdowns on a regular basis, and after each score, would just hand the ball to the nearest official. Never a spike, never a dance, never a celebration. Once, he was asked about his demeanor after a TD, and he replied something along the lines of “act like you’ve been there before”.
Kudos to Marlins manager Mike Redmond, who closed the clubhouse immediately after the game and talked to Fernandez and also to the entire team. Redmond was embarrassed and said so in no uncertain words and said that he is 100% positive that nothing like that will ever happen again. Redmond may have gone a overboard on jumping all over Fernandez, especially doing it in the manager’s post game press conference, but he may have had his reasons. I’ll reserve any further judgement since I am not inside that clubhouse every day.
Kudos also to Fernandez, who sought out McCann, Johnson, and Braves pitcher Mike Minor after the game and apologized in person for his behavior. He also apologized to everyone during his post-game press conference and in post-game interviews. His apology seemed sincere and from the heart, not anything like the empty apologies we’ve gotten used to from the cheaters that are caught cheating.
This has been a great season for the kid, and yesterday’s situation does not in any way put a damper on what Fernandez has been able to accomplish this year. Let’s hope that the voters in the Rookie of the Year selection get it right. Jose Fernandez is, by far, the best rookie in the National League.
It is now official: Jose Fernandez’ next start will be on Marlins opening day, March 31, home at Marlins Park, against the Colorado Rockies. I will post the complete schedule once it is available on the web.
The 2014 season will open in Sydney, Australia on March 22 and 23, as the Dodgers take on the Diamondbacks in the land down under. This will be the first time that regular season baseball games will be played in the Southern Hemisphere, which also means that the season will both open and close in the fall.
In other baseball news, Derek Jeter is officially out for the year:
Here are the up-to-the-minute standings in MLB:
Here are the individual league leaders in MLB:
The Herald’s Manny Navarro and Susan Miller Degnan have the latest scoop from the University of Miami, as the Canes return to the practice field and will enjoy a bye week this weekend:
FIU’s next game is tomorrow at 6:00 pm, at FIU Stadium, against Bethune Cookman, who pummeled Virginia Union 66-7 this past saturday. FIU opened as a three-point favorite over Bethune, but after just a few minutes, the line had moved to Bethune Cookman being favored by three.
It getting uglier by the day at FIU. Reaction after their second blowout loss from the FIU faithful at the game was bad, and the disgruntled FIU fans have started a web site asking for the firing of FIU’s athletic director Pete Garcia - www.firepetegarcia.com - and there are rumblings that many in the university have had more than enough of the present Athletic Department hierarchy and staff.
If the FIU football team loses to Division 1-AA Bethune Cookman this week . . . . . . . .
Here’s the latest football news from the Westchester campus of FIU:
Here’s the latest from Tallahassee and FSU:
From Gainesville and the University of Florida:
Here are this week’s top-25 in college football:
Here is the complete schedule for NCAA football this week, including TV:
In Miami Heat news, Michael Beasley is back:
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THE ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION: Jose Fernandez finished this season with a 12-6 record and a miniscule 2.19 ERA, and was even better at home, where he finished 9-0 with a 1.19 ERA. Since the Rookie of the Year award was instituted back in 1947, only three other rookie pitchers with enough innings pitched to qualify for the ERA title, have finished with an ERA under 2.25. Who are they?
Dave Righetti 2.05 ERA (1981) and Stan Bahnsen 2.05 (1968) of the Yankees and Jerry Koosman of the Mets 2.08 ERA (1968). By the way, Righetti and Bahnsen both won Rookie of the Year honors, while Koosman finished second to some guy named Johnny Bench.
Behave yourselves, and always remember that tomorrow will bring us a brand new day.
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