27-Th to First

The Oakland Athletics clinched the AL west title for the second straight year. This is the most interesting and underrated stories in Major League Baseball the last 2 seasons. The team with the 27-Th highest payroll among the 30 teams in the league has finished first in the difficult AL West. This division was supposed to be all about the high-spending Anaheim Angels and Texas Rangers. They had the money and some big name talent and I still remember the A's fans taking about their team with a sense of resignation a couple of years back. And then magic happened last season. When the movie Moneyball came out in late 2011, it looked like a bad time for a Billy Beane biopic. He had not been in the playoffs in 5 years and there was no apparent light at the end of the tunnel or a plan in sight to compete against the new found money in Anaheim and solid talent in Texas. But then he pulled a moneyball-2 in 2012 with nobody looking. The A's clinched the division title in the last series of the year behind a bunch of solid, rookie pitchers and a couple of good hitters.

Coming into this season, the Angels and Rangers added more talent and even the die-hard A's fans were wondering if last year was nothing but a fluke. The hope was that the young pitching was real and when you have pitching, you have a lot going for you. The hitting was always a question mark. And then Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick decided not to show up at the level we expected them to. Given that they were the only pop in the lineup in 2012, this should have been disaster, but Josh Donaldson saved the day for the A's all season. Between him and timely home runs from others, the offense actually improved from 2012. And Reddick and Cespedes have also joined the party late in the season. The pitching was still there and old man Bartolo Colon was a true ace for a majority of the season. He slipped a little and seemed to have found his rhythm again the last couple of weeks, but his season ERA is still a robust 2.64. Both the starting pitchers and the bullpen have gone through ups and downs, but the pitching has been there as a unit all season long.

After a rough August where the schedule was difficult, the A's started rolling again in September. The rangers started slipping around the same time - bad timing for them, and when the A's swept them last week in Texas, this division was over. Now the A's have officially won the division with a week to spare after sweeping the Twins and taking all drama out of this race. This team is on a roll and I can't believe what will happen to this world if they won the World Series. Thats no dream. I think this team has enough weapons to make it happen. I have always maintained that the MLB playoffs are a crap-shoot. A team on a roll with good pitching can make anything happen as the other Bay Area team - the Giants, have shown us 2 out of the last 3 years. It would be awesome to have the national media and the baseball establishment deal with Billy Beane and the A's winning a championship. I like and respect Billy. It's about time he wins the big one. Congrats to him on building a division champion out of the 27-Th ranked payroll. Good luck to him the rest of the way this season and post-season. Go, get em all Billy.

Random Musings from Week 1 of the NFL

The return of NFL is so exciting and fantas(y)tic that I can't even muster a cogent blog post. I just decided to list some random musings from what I saw in week 1.

1. The Steelers are a bunch of hot garbage. I can't remember the last time they looked this bad. Mike Tomlin better have a lot of cute one-liners ready to deal with this mess. He once told us there is a difference between smashing grapes and drinking wine. His team is currently doing neither.

2. Peyton Manning is back all the way. His throws were wobbly early last season, but 7 TDs to open this season is all you need to know if you are wondering how his arm is doing these days. He has always been a definition of a franchise QB, but he has now elevated another franchise to the Super Bowl level all by himself.

3. I wonder how many years Peyton's got left in that 37 year-old body. Some Colts fans are probably missing him, but I still prefer the talented Lucky boy who is 14 years younger.

4. Tom Brady needs receivers. If Gronk is not back soon, Danny Amendola will be in a body-bag by week 6. But he will probably be on the injury report by then anyways. So that's neither here nor there.

5. Raiders are not as bad as we thought. Terrelle Pryor could be this year's Tim Tebow. And by that I don't mean he will be out of the league in 2 years.

6. Saints won the game against the Falcons, but didn't look super impressive doing so. Coach Sean Payton better bring his supposed magic to the party starting with game 2.

7.  I was surprised that the horrible late hit call in the Jets-Bucs game didn't create more controversy. Jets won the game because of it and only because of it.

8. Colin Kaepernick almost proved Jaws's point in week 1. He seems to be as legit as they come. He is not a running QB. He is a good QB who can run if needed.

9. What a start to the season for Adrian Peterson. He took the first hand-off to he house. But Ponder has to improve for this team and AP to realize their potential.

10. Carson Palmer once again played good enough to give his team some hope, but not good enough to give his team a win. Nobody fumbles the ball from blind-side hits more consistently than Palmer. But the Cardinals at least have somebody they can finally call a NF quarterback.

11. Happy to see Alex Smith and Andy Reid start off in style for the Chiefs. AFC West suddenly looks better than expected, but are they good to disturb the peace in Peyton's division? Time will tell.

12. Same old Chargers and Rivers. They gave the game away to Houston in a way that would have impressed even Norv Turner.

13. NFC East is competitive as always. Dallas. New York, and RGIII played horrible first halves and a slightly better second half. Philly under Chip Kelly looked great on offense and might be fun to watch all year if Vick stays healthy. But thats a big if.

That's my baker's dozen from week 1. At least it's not just 10 things. If you still accuse me of being a Peter King wannabe, I will take that as a compliment.