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Armadillo: Thursday's six-pack
-- Thunder 111, Spurs 105-- Durant had 36 for Oklahoma City.
-- Raptors 93, Mavericks 85-- Toronto is 21-20, leads Atlantic Division.
-- Richmond 58, UMass 55-- Only second loss for 16-2 Minutemen.
-- Wake Forest 83, Virginia Tech 77-- Deacons are quietly sitting at 13-6.
-- Minnesota 81, Wisconsin 68-- Two weeks ago, Badgers were 16-0; now they're 3-3 in conference play. Teams are very fragile.
-- 76ers 110, Knicks 106-- Knicks are 15-27, a joyless team to watch.
*****
Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud.......
13) Masahiro Tanaka gets seven years, $155M from the Bronx Bombers, 5th-highest salary ever for a pitcher. He is 25 and was 24-0 in Japan last year. Supposedly the four teams Bronx beat out for his services were the Dodgers, Astros and the two Chicago teams, but its hard to believe Houston was serious. Chances are they kept their name in the mix to placate their shrinking fan base after LY’s debacle of a season.
In reality, the contract is four years, $88M; Tanaka can opt out after years 4,5,6, so the only way it plays out to $155M for seven is if Tanaka isn't that good and doesn't want to be a free agent again.
12) I’ve been trying to read about Tanaka, but not lot of info out there; one red flag is that in his last Japanese start, in Game 6 of their championship series, he threw 160 pitches, as in 1-6-0. Teams here have a coronary if a guy throws 115. Even at age 25, you wonder how much wear and tear he’s already had.
11) Tanaka has thrown 1,315 innings by age 24; in the last 50 years, only three major leaguers had thrown that many innings by age 24: Larry Dierker, Frank Tanana and Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven.
All three were very good pitchers, but all of them were also age 24 in the 60’s or 70’s. Curious to see how this all works out, him pitching in a tiny ballpark in the league with the DH.
10) Guy named Al Melchior does fantasy baseball work for CBSSports.com; his initial projection for Tanaka this season was 13-9, 3.55 with a 1.22 WHIP. For $22M a year, I’d expect more than 13-9, 3.55, but that’s just me.
In non-Tanaka-related items…….
9) Since spring training is so long, I’m assuming MLB will use the month of exhibition games to iron out the kinks in its new instant replay system. You know, screw up a few times in exhibition games when no one cares who wins, so the system runs flawlessly starting on Opening Day. Is that too big an assumption for me to make?
8) Former Texas Longhorns’ DC Manny Diaz surfaced at Louisiana Tech; Diaz was once a production assistant at ESPN who impressed Bill Parcells with his knowledge/enthusiasm, so Parcells got him started in coaching.
7) Harvard got waxed by 7-12 Florida Atlantic Tuesday, which will hurt their seeding in March; doubtful anyone in the Ivy will beat them out for the automatic bid. Should they somehow not win the league (Princeton already has a loss and Ivy doesn’t have a postseason tournament), it isn’t going to look good to get pounded by a weak C-USA outfit.
6) Atlanta Falcons signed Scott Pioli as an assistant to GM Thomas Dimitroff; the two used to work together in Foxboro.
5) Peyton Manning made $336,135 more per week this season than Russell Wilson made for the entire season. Think about that for a second. Wilson made less than $550,000 this year, Manning makes around $860,000 a game. Someone’s going to be writing Wilson a very big check very soon.
4) Debut of Horseplayers on the Esquire Channel Tuesday night seemed realistic for my experiences at the racetrack; have to see what KL Wheat says when he sees it. Esquire also has a show called Friday Night Tykes, about Pee Wee football in Texas. Can’t make myself watch that yet; youth sports is a whole different story for a whole another day. LOL
3) NBA teams are 5-6 vs spread in game after beating Miami Heat; 3-5 if favored, 2-1 if an underdog.
2) Three ACC games Tuesday were all played at a snail’s pace, with 61-59-58 possessions for each side.
Typcial game would be more like 68 possessions; with each possession 17.6 seconds, roughly half the shot clock. Trying to keep the ACC relevant in football has really hurt its basketball product, though adding Louisville next year will help. North Carolina's decline isn't helping any.
1) Walking the three blocks from my office to my car Tuesday at 4:00, my face was the coldest it has ever been. Ever. I’m beating a dead horse here, but having the Super Bowl in New Jersey at 6:30 pm on a Sunday night in February is just plain stoopid. Just. Plain. Stoopid. It’s the JPS Super Bowl.
-- Thunder 111, Spurs 105-- Durant had 36 for Oklahoma City.
-- Raptors 93, Mavericks 85-- Toronto is 21-20, leads Atlantic Division.
-- Richmond 58, UMass 55-- Only second loss for 16-2 Minutemen.
-- Wake Forest 83, Virginia Tech 77-- Deacons are quietly sitting at 13-6.
-- Minnesota 81, Wisconsin 68-- Two weeks ago, Badgers were 16-0; now they're 3-3 in conference play. Teams are very fragile.
-- 76ers 110, Knicks 106-- Knicks are 15-27, a joyless team to watch.
*****
Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud.......
13) Masahiro Tanaka gets seven years, $155M from the Bronx Bombers, 5th-highest salary ever for a pitcher. He is 25 and was 24-0 in Japan last year. Supposedly the four teams Bronx beat out for his services were the Dodgers, Astros and the two Chicago teams, but its hard to believe Houston was serious. Chances are they kept their name in the mix to placate their shrinking fan base after LY’s debacle of a season.
In reality, the contract is four years, $88M; Tanaka can opt out after years 4,5,6, so the only way it plays out to $155M for seven is if Tanaka isn't that good and doesn't want to be a free agent again.
12) I’ve been trying to read about Tanaka, but not lot of info out there; one red flag is that in his last Japanese start, in Game 6 of their championship series, he threw 160 pitches, as in 1-6-0. Teams here have a coronary if a guy throws 115. Even at age 25, you wonder how much wear and tear he’s already had.
11) Tanaka has thrown 1,315 innings by age 24; in the last 50 years, only three major leaguers had thrown that many innings by age 24: Larry Dierker, Frank Tanana and Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven.
All three were very good pitchers, but all of them were also age 24 in the 60’s or 70’s. Curious to see how this all works out, him pitching in a tiny ballpark in the league with the DH.
10) Guy named Al Melchior does fantasy baseball work for CBSSports.com; his initial projection for Tanaka this season was 13-9, 3.55 with a 1.22 WHIP. For $22M a year, I’d expect more than 13-9, 3.55, but that’s just me.
In non-Tanaka-related items…….
9) Since spring training is so long, I’m assuming MLB will use the month of exhibition games to iron out the kinks in its new instant replay system. You know, screw up a few times in exhibition games when no one cares who wins, so the system runs flawlessly starting on Opening Day. Is that too big an assumption for me to make?
8) Former Texas Longhorns’ DC Manny Diaz surfaced at Louisiana Tech; Diaz was once a production assistant at ESPN who impressed Bill Parcells with his knowledge/enthusiasm, so Parcells got him started in coaching.
7) Harvard got waxed by 7-12 Florida Atlantic Tuesday, which will hurt their seeding in March; doubtful anyone in the Ivy will beat them out for the automatic bid. Should they somehow not win the league (Princeton already has a loss and Ivy doesn’t have a postseason tournament), it isn’t going to look good to get pounded by a weak C-USA outfit.
6) Atlanta Falcons signed Scott Pioli as an assistant to GM Thomas Dimitroff; the two used to work together in Foxboro.
5) Peyton Manning made $336,135 more per week this season than Russell Wilson made for the entire season. Think about that for a second. Wilson made less than $550,000 this year, Manning makes around $860,000 a game. Someone’s going to be writing Wilson a very big check very soon.
4) Debut of Horseplayers on the Esquire Channel Tuesday night seemed realistic for my experiences at the racetrack; have to see what KL Wheat says when he sees it. Esquire also has a show called Friday Night Tykes, about Pee Wee football in Texas. Can’t make myself watch that yet; youth sports is a whole different story for a whole another day. LOL
3) NBA teams are 5-6 vs spread in game after beating Miami Heat; 3-5 if favored, 2-1 if an underdog.
2) Three ACC games Tuesday were all played at a snail’s pace, with 61-59-58 possessions for each side.
Typcial game would be more like 68 possessions; with each possession 17.6 seconds, roughly half the shot clock. Trying to keep the ACC relevant in football has really hurt its basketball product, though adding Louisville next year will help. North Carolina's decline isn't helping any.
1) Walking the three blocks from my office to my car Tuesday at 4:00, my face was the coldest it has ever been. Ever. I’m beating a dead horse here, but having the Super Bowl in New Jersey at 6:30 pm on a Sunday night in February is just plain stoopid. Just. Plain. Stoopid. It’s the JPS Super Bowl.
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