Friday, January 23, 2009

Rip Hamilton Coming Off the Bench

Not sure how I feel about that change for the Pistons starting line up. Clearly the small ball line up they had been using of starting 3 guards was not going to win on most nights. It was a gimmick that made us extremely small and got us killed ont he boards. It appears, at least for now that Amir Johnson has replaced Rip in the starting line up.

If it were up to me I probably would have put AI on the bench instead of Rip, but we'll see how it goes. I think Rip fits better with Stuckey than he does with AI, but one thing I will say is that Rip has lost his game. He is not playing to his strengths anymore. He is not running marathons anymore like he is hopped up on Ephedrasil hardcore and seems to think that he is a great one on one player now. HE is not.

I wonder how he will adjust to this exactly. I get the impression that he has the mindset he is now a superstar in the NBA. A "go to" guy. He is the captain, but is neither a superstar, nor a go to guy. He is a guy that can score, and a very good player, but he is not the guy you go to so he can create his own shot. He's a mid-range shooter (may be the best in the league) that comes off screens, or spots up for the occasional 3. A future Reggie Miller if his range is more consistent behind the arc.

Rip has not adjusted well to AI coming to this team. He is missing Billups quite badly. At least he seems to be making an effort to miss Billups by not adjusting to the new game this team plays. He is becoming Sheed in a sense. What i mean by that is that he seems to go out of his way to play against his strengths. Sheed is a post up nightmare for anyone, but he would rather jack 3s. Rip is a guy that will kill you if you have to chase him around all night, but now he would rather try to prove he is an iso player.

You can blame Coach Curry as much as you want, and I do for a lot of things, but these guys are playing like idiots. Away from strengths, and selfishly it seems.

Tigers Agree with Brandon Lyon

Well...it looks like the Tigers have finally decided to pay a reliever to come here. That man is Brandon Lyon who closed a bit for the Arizona Diamondbacks last year. Lyon was 3-5 for the Diamondbacks in 2008 with 26 saves and a 4.70 ERA. He had a tough second half of the season and ultimately lost his closer's job.

Perfect for the Tigers. The falling a part and all.

Of course this guy has some injury history and it appears we are still waiting on him to pass his physical so this isn't a done deal by any means, but at least they went out and got a RP.

I have to be honest here since I have just got done watching some Christian videos that tell me not to lie. I can't remember seeing this guy ever pitch before. I can look at stats all day, but when it comes to pitchers I at least want to have "seen" them toss a bit before I pretend to know what I am talking about n regard to how good they are. Can't do that here because I simply haven't seen him that I can recall.

All I can say is that I would have never had this guy on my fantasy team because he doesn't strike enough people out for a "closer". It isn't clear what role he is going to assume in Detroit yet. I'm sure that he will be looked at for the closer's role, but I am not optimistic that he is the man to be the closer. OF course our options are rather limited in that regard.

Just more gambling on the part of DD to try and put together some sort of MLB bully. Quite a bit of "If's" going into this season. Going to need a ton of luck, and career years from about a dozen players to really have a shot at doing anything.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Your New Coach Jim Schwartz Hires an Old Defensive Coordinator

Well...it has been a while since I have posted anything. Kind of in mourning over the Lions going 0-16 this year I guess. Kind of lost my fire for Detroit sports in general with the way the Pistons are playing and the lack of Tiger signings as well. Everything is just in a sad state.

As for Jim Schwartz and the Lions, I guess I didn't really care a whole lot about it. Knew when the search began that it wouldn't make much of an impact on me one way or another who it was. This is still the Lions. Where coaches go to die in a sense. All that matters is how well the new GM Martin Mayhew (It would take me a month to tell you how much I hate this "promotion") is going to draft and evaluate the talent he brings in. IF this guy doesn't "get it" this is just another coach in the long line of failures to come through here. Whether he is a great coach or not is besides the point. Fans will want to take him back to the return counter and pass him back over the barcode scanner like all the rest if the talent doesn't arrive.

So...he goes out and name Gunther Cunningham as the new Defensive Coordinator to his staff. A guy that just a few days before I was mocking on various message boards as someone who would "be a ridiculous" hire. Joke is on me I guess. He is the new DC.

He comes from Kansas City. The team that might be just as bad as the Lions. A team the Lions might have actually beaten had they played this year.

Let's throw some very limited numbers up about Cunningham in his past few years.

These are KC's Defensive ranks for yardage allowed since 2006 where they went 9-7 before they proceeded to go 4-12 and 2-14 record-wise in 2007 and 2008.

2008: 158 RYPG (Rank 30 above us and Oakland, Total D=31)
2007: 131 RYPG (Rank 28, Total D=13)
2006: 120 RYPG (Rank 18, Toatl D=15)

Worse every year. They lost talent of course over that time, but they got much worse every year regardless. Their defense was the WORST defense in the league of teams that actually won a game. So all other teams besides the Lions. What does that tell you? This guy blows with little talent. What does that mean in Detroit? This guy is gonna blow in Detroit because we have NO talent.

Yeah Yeah...Schwartz is going to run the D. Good luck with all that. The suckiest sucks that ever sucked will continue to do so friends.