Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Pat Gillick is the worst GM; Schilling re-signs w/BoSox

I'm going to start by saying, I hate Pat Gillick. Always have and always will. I never liked him, even before he came to the Phillies. He's a primitive GM. He's stuck in the 80's with the way he thinks about building a baseball team. He's a caveman. Thank god this will be his last season as GM, cause I can't take another 3 years of this crap. My feelings for Gillick erupted after I read the Philly.com article this morning. "I don't know that [third base] is going to be addressed," Pat Gillick said as the annual general manager meetings got under way yesterday at the posh Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress resort. "We'll go with [Wes] Helms and [Greg] Dobbs. Because we're going to concentrate on pitching. If we go in any direction, we're going to concentrate on pitching.'' Greatttt. This numb nuts can't figure out a way to get a little bit of an upgrade at 3B. That's his job. Instead we get another season to watch that bum Helms fumble around third base. This just boggles my mind. I understand the need for pitching but, there is an immediate need at 3B also. And at this point do you trust Pat Gillick with making any trades or signings for this team. He was handed the team that we have right now. All the good things* you like about the Phillies come from Ed Wade. Not Gillick. He's a smug old fart. We need some new blood in the front office. Someone along the lines of a Theo Epstein or Billy Beane type. That will think outside the box, not some old hack GM who is 15 years past his prime. But we all know that the job probably will be gift wrapped and handed to Ruben Amaro Jr. Another thing, Curt Schilling re-signed with Red Sox for $8M. Schilling said he was contacted by several teams and at the time would not specify who they were. Today we found out who didn't contact him. And guess who did not make the effort to talk to Schill. You got it, Pat Gillick.

Q: Have you heard from Pat or Ruben?
A: I have not, no.

Schilling Interview.

This is what bothers me. Schilling was in Philadelphia for 2 days this past weekend. He hosted a golf tournament, he watched the Eagles-Cowboys game with Jeffery Lurie and Gillick didn't give any effort to reach out to Schilling. As much as he says he wanted to stay in Boston, Schill liked the idea of being on the Phillies. At least make the effort. They did not even call him to see what he was looking to get. The Sox signed him for $8M. You can't tell me, if Gillick had offered him $11M with some bonus' totaling $2M-$3M, he wouldn't sign here. That's crap. Just try, give some damn effort.


*Except Aaron Rowand. Doesn't matter cause he will not be in Philly this season.

Monday, November 5, 2007

The Philadelphia Eagles: The Abusive Spouse

It's good when they win, but man is it bad when they lose, especially to the Cowboys. But those are the rules of being a fan. You have to stick by rou team through thick and thin. When McNabb was throwing 5 TD's on a broken leg he was a god, when he's having a bad season or a couple of bad games, images of Bobby Hoying and others come flooding into your brain. I will say, McNabb is not the only thing wrong with this team right now. As Andy Reid said in his press conference today, everybody has a piece of the pie when it comes to the Eagles awful play, not just the QB. It is hard to watch an end of something great. That's truly what this is. It's probably one of the greatest runs of any Eagles teams, and sadly its almost over. What makes it harder is that everyone knows its the end, except for the people its actually happening to. And if you don't think its the end of an era, you're in denial. Which I honestly have no problem with. But its Reid, the management, and most of the players that just don't realize it yet. That's not their fault though. They actually think if they tinker with this and adjust that, poof, they will be on their way to the playoffs. In the word's of Ross Perot via Dana Carvey, "Not gonna happen." The team is getting older with every passing minute. I never thought I would say this, but I honestly think Brian Dawkins should be a back-up at this point. I love Dawk, everybody loves Dawk, but his play is in a tailspin. Missing tackles, out of position defending the pass, and last night he just seemed to disappear. It's all very sad. And it is hard to cut your loss' sometimes, but at the end of this season, its time to snip away. The only problem with what this team is doing right now is if the Eagles win next week when they play the Redskins, there will be some who will believe that the season still can be saved, but they will continue to be disappointed. Being an Eagles fan the only way I can think to describe this relationship is that of an abusive spouse. The spouse who gets smacked one day, then told that they are loved the next. Then the next week, smack. At this moment we are currently being smacked, and if the Birds win next week everybody will get their hopes up thinking they'll never be smacked again only to be disappointed with a sudden kick to the shin. At the moment I'm seperated. I love the Eagles but will not fall into the trap. To me its over and time to start the rebuilding. Now how and where do you start, I don't know. But I know having a top ten draft pick sure would help.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Eagles vs. Cowboys Preview.

As this weekends game approaches all the talk has been about how the Eagles might be able win, I'm not totally sold yet but I am leaning towards the Birds, and more or less about Tony Romo's contract. Add in Andy Reid's family problems, and there has been little T.O. talk. Not that he isn't trying to get the attention. He has said this week that him and Donovan have cleared the air, which Donovan confirmed, and that he's looking forward to playing in front of Philly fans again. As far as the game goes, I really am starting to believe that the Eagles can beat the Cowboys. The Cowboys have been getting a slow start in games this season but Tony Romo is red hot in the third quarter, which I will show in later on in this preview. The Eagles have to get going early, keep the Cowboys offense cold, and create turnovers. Bottom line, create turnovers. If the defense can contain Romo in the pocket and not let him roll out and create plays, the turnovers will come to them.

Philly Fans do the T.O (OD) Chant. You might not have heard it if you were watching on TV, but it was a classic moment.



Some stats and stuff I found to be interesting. NFL Rank in parenthesis.

Cowboys Pass Def. : 208.9 ypg (13)
Eagles Pass Def. : 210.3 (15)

Cowboys Run Def. : 87.0 (5) , 3.6 ypc
Eagles Run Def. : 90.4 (8) , 3.7 ypc

Cowboys PPG Allowed : 22.6 (21)
Eagles PPG Allowed : 16.7 (7)

Cowboys Int. : 10 (6), Forced Fumbles : 8 (13)
Eagles Int. : 5 (25), Forced Fumbles : 3 (30)

The Cowboys and Eagles are really close defensively, except when it comes to turnovers. The Eagles have only 5 picks, and have forced only 3 fumbles the whole season, 3rd worst in the NFL. I did hear on WIP that the Eagles were practicing stripping the ball all week during practice so hopefully that pays off this Sunday.


Now I will put my attention on Tony Romo and Donovan McNabb. They will be the keys to winning this game. More Romo then McNabb though. I will start with the generic, Romo has 9 ints this season which is bad compared to McNabb's 2. But Romo takes more chances kind of like Brett Favre. McNabb will not make a throw unless his WR is open. The Eagles allow the 2nd most sacks in the NFL with 27. The Cowboys are the second highest scoring team in the NFL scoring 32.4 ppg.

1st half QB rating : Romo: 78.6
1st half QB rating: McNabb: 107.4

2nd half QB rating: Romo: 118.8
2nd half QB rating: McNabb: 72.8

QB rating inside the opp 20: Romo: 85.1
QB rating inside the opp 20: McNabb: 84.8

QB Rating away: Romo: 75.3
QB rating home: McNabb: 106.1

3rd & 8+yds : Romo: 24%
3rd & 8+yds: McNabb: 18%

Basically after looking at this it shows McNabb plays very good at home. It also shows he has poor second half's though. As for Romo, he struggles a little bit on the road, but at halftime seems to make the right adjustments to come our firing. Now here is the part that blew me away.


Tony Romo's 3rd Quarter Stats

39 of 62, 612 yds, 65% completion percentage
15.7 YPP
8 TD passes. First in the NFL.
0 Interceptions. First in the NFL.
152.1 QB rating. First in the NFL.


The Cowboys are probably the best 3rd quarter team in the NFL right now, so the Eagles need to come out after halftime and contain Tony Romo.