Monday Morning Quarterback: K-Rod, Tiger Woods, and a Running Back to Watch
Two weeks after the start of Monday Morning Quarterback, and the Chicago White Sox collapse continues much as I had predicted (41-34 overall; 4-8 in last 12 games). The Twins are now within 1 1/2 games of first place in the AL Central (40-36). The Tigers are quietly inching back (36-39, 5 games out). And even the Cleveland Indians are within reach (35-41, 6 1/2 games out). I'm still sticking with Detroit to win the division.
Last week, most commenters strongly opposed my suggestion for the Yankees to move Joba back into the bullpen. On Thursday, Joba made a strong case for why our readers might be right, pitching 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball against the San Diego Padres. Even more impressive for the Yankees, Joba's outing was followed by 2 1/3 innings of one-hit ball from relief pitchers Jose Veras and Kyle Farnsworth, who then turned the game over to Mariano Rivera in the 9th.
With that said, here are the arguments presented in this week's brief:
1. K-Rod will set baseball's all-time single-season save record in September. Currently, Bobby Thigpen holds baseball's record for saves in a season with 57. K-Rod, who already has 30 in less then than half of 2008, will not only break this record, but he will break it with time to spare. It's not about K-Rod being baseball's best reliever (that isn't the argument, although he is probably no. 2). It has to do with the Angels having a great starting rotation that keeps the team in almost every ballgame. Plus, with K-Rod likely to leave the Angels as a free agent after this season, don't expect manager Mike Scioscia to feel the need to save his arm for the long-term.
2. Tiger Woods's injury is actually a good thing for the PGA Tour. Although many sports analysts think Tiger missing the rest of the PGA season is the worst thing that could happen to golf, Tiger's absence is only going to build interest in the world's best golfer, leading up to his 2009 return. Look for Tiger to return in 2009 with a ratings bang, as even many non-golf fans tune in to see if Tiger regain his old form.
3. Laurence Maroney will rush for more than 1200 yards this season. I know Maroney has never rushed for many than 835 yards in a season; however, the shoulder and groin injuries that plagued him for the first half of last season finally seem healed. As opposing defenses focus more on stopping the Patriots passing game, look for Bill Belichick to counter with more running plays, making this the year that Maroney really breaks out. A strong season from him will be the Patriots key to making another Super Bowl run.
So that's my opening brief. File your respondent's brief, or amicus brief, in the comments.
(54) 
This needs to stop.
Lat, please end this.
Claim #2 is ridiculous. Was Monica Seles's stabbing a good thing for the WTA Tour?
1. Who's K-Rod? Does he have a first name?
2. No. Golf is stupid. This becomes clear when Tiger's gone. Golf--such as it is--will recover when Tiger returns, but it'll suck until then.
3. Who cares? Seriously.
Every website that has any sort of humurous slant to it should have some sort of George Carlin post today. Just my two cents.
Yeah, who is "K-Rod"?
K-Rod is the best closer in baseball? There are at least 6 guys having a better year: Rivera, Papelbon, Nathan, Lidge, Jenks, Soria.
It's embarassing that the people who would actually read this entry on abovethelaw don't know who K-Rod is.
10:34 + 10:35 - These posts won't stop as long as you keep posting comments on them, turning them into comment clusterf**ks (or near clusterf**ks).
Commenting on these posts is counterproductive as a way of registering your opposition to them. Best to ignore them, which will hold down the comment count (and page views).
Personally I have no problem with them (despite the lack of legal relevance). I am amused by the misguided views of lawyers about sports.
Baseball's boring. I thought only olds still watched it?
It’s tough to stop the Patriots’ passing game because 1) their offensive line is very capable, despite its poor Super Bowl performance and 2) the secondary concentrates too much on Moss, opening up the rest of the receiving corps (see: Wes Walker’s season). M is a great weapon when they need some quick inside rushes or Tom isn’t performing, but I can’t see the former having a break-out season.
K-Rod is Frankie Rodriguez.
Legal blog: ATL
Sports blog: Deadspin
ATL ≠Deadspin
Seriously, unless it's law related, I don't want to read it here. In fairness, I'd be pissed to read about Milbank layoffs on Deadspin . . . but they're not that stupid.
1. K-Rod the best reliever? Mariano Rivera has a better ERA and WHIP and has been doing it a lot longer. Just because the Angels have had more save opportunities this season does not make K-Rod the best in baseball.
2. Good for the PGA? Tons of ppl watch Tiger when he plays already, what type of "ratings bang" are you expecting a year from now? Getting the same ratings a year from now is not going to make the PGA feel better when no one watches the rest of this season.
3. I mean, this could happen, but your logic is mind boggling. Teams will focus on shutting down the Pats passing THIS season?? uhhh don't you think they tried to do that last season too?? Or did you think it took the whole off season for teams to realize that the Pats have a great passing game?
PLEASE STOP THESE ENTRIES.
On a related note, I’m a law student and I don’t know how to play golf. Should I learn for careerism purposes? (I’m a competent basketball player, if that makes any difference.)
Ow, Charlie bit me... Charlie, that really 'urt.
/Seriously, stop this nonsense.
No one cares about this.
How about some articles about white guys with asian girls (which has as much to do with the law as most of your posts do)?
- King of WGWAG
K-Rod is Frankie Muniz.. Do your homework.
18-1 = second place
10:46 destroyed the third argument. Give that man a sports editor position!
edelman you need to wake up! not only is rivera the best closer in baseball; but he is the best pitcher, if not the best player, in baseball period!!!
LAT PLEASE MAKE THESE POSTS STOP.
1. TOO LONG.
2. BORING AS MY BALLS.
3. NOT LAW RELATED.
IN THAT ORDER.
what the hell does this have to do with law?
Retarded. All of you. Except 10:40
Lat, you don't have to compensate for your fabulousity by having a sports-dork muck up your front page with over-dry irrelevancies.
It's like Erwin Chemerinsky talking about baseball.
For *good* sports posts on a law blog, check out David Post's soccer ramblings on volokh.com.
"1. K-Rod the best reliever? Mariano Rivera has a better ERA and WHIP and has been doing it a lot longer. Just because the Angels have had more save opportunities this season does not make K-Rod the best in baseball."
You may be right but your arguments are only slightly stronger than Edelman's, and that's not a compliment.
ERA and WHIP...yawn...what is this 1994?
You should be pointing to Rivera's ridiculous K:BB ratio and career high 10 K/9 IP. Not to mention that he hasn't blown a save this year.
Not sure what longevity has to do with who has been best this year.
Lat, fuck you for having this crap on your blog.
10:39,
While we all know that Papelbon is the best closer, the original post -- unless it was edited between the time you posted and the time I read it -- said that K-rod is the best reliever.
11:02 -- unless you're Hillary Clinton.
First time poster, long time reader.
WTF is going on here? Must be a slow legal news day. Seriously, please don't ever post something this irrelevant again.
Worst...thread...ever. This entire sports thing needs to stop now. Just absurd and pointless.
I just updated this week's post about K-Rod, as it was not being interpreted as I had intended. The point I intended to make was that earning a lot saves is not just about being the best reliever. Earning saves also involves pitching on teams that play in close ballgames, and being used frequently.
The original post was never intended to be read as saying K-Rod is actually the best in the game.
Go on, debate!
I GOT IT!!! Somebody hacked into ATL and posted this worthless crap to get a rise out of us!!! I bet over at SI.com blog, somebody posted a comment about a summer associate fiasco and the people over there are getting the exact reaction!!! This is awesome! Job well done, Mr. Hacker. But please, pretty please, don't ever do it again.
All right, another picture of a kitty! Wait, that's a Tiger.
K-Rod is Frankie Muniz.. Do your homework.
Here's some Monday morning quarterbacking for you, what moron starts his ATL debut with a post on sports? Bite it Edelman. Edelman to ATL lynching.
"Earning saves also involves pitching on teams that play in close ballgames, and being used frequently."
"It has to do with the Angels having a great starting rotation that keeps the team in almost every ballgame."
Stop the insanity!
Teams cannot control whether they play in, and win, close games. It is random. What you meant to say was, "Earning saves also involves . . . [luck], and being used frequently."
What team lead the league is SaveOps last year? The Washington Nationals. Who had one of the worst starting rotations? The Washington Nationals.
All of the data I've seen indicates that there is really no way to predict what teams in a given year will produce the most SaveOps.
I strongly disagree with #1. K-Rod will NOT break the save record.
While both 10:46 and Edelman (in the edit) correctly recognize K-Rod's inflated save number is on account of his having many opportunities. However, they both ignore an important point: the Angels aren't providing him with save opportunities because their pitching staff is good enough to keep them in the game- its because their pitching staff and offense are MEDIOCRE enough to keep the OTHER team in the game. (Take the Cubs as an opposite example: much better starting pitching and hitting, and MANY fewer save opportunities.) Only if you play close games will your closer have opportunities. BUT, if you continue to play close games, you will begin to lose many of them. The Angels have been lucky so far this season in that the are winning these games, but this cannot continue. Either they need to start winning games by larger margins or they will start losing close games. The problem: if you blow out opponents, your closer won't pitch; and if you lose close games, your closer wont pitch (or won't get the save). Either way, K-Rod gets fewer opportunities in the second half, and he will not, therefore, get the chance to break the save record.
12:50 here. Hadn't seen 12:43 when writing my post. Would've agreed and not been so wordy with my explanation if I had.
Oh, and go Cubs!
That reminds me: how about a "The Cubs Will Win the World Series" post? Not law related? Apparently that doesn't matter. Wait! I know the reason: NEW YORK BIAS. Yuck the Fankees.
No, "saves" reflect nothing more than luck. "Saves" is one of the most meaningless statistics in all of sports.
stop the sports posts.
boring. fire this guy.
We need more of these posts.
Marc, some friendly advice. There is a reason why everyone hates your posts -- this is a legal blog and you write about a running back's chances of gaining 1200 yards. You are not Peter King and this is not si.com. Your post has nothing to do with law and does not belong here.
Now, your last post on who owns home run balls was very good. It actually touched on the legal aspects of sports. Follow that vein and write about antitrust exemptions or the federal case on Barry Bonds. There are a ton of things that are legally relevant and interesting to this readership. Today's post is neither.
god damn it... enough with this shit already.
PLEASE END THIS FEATURE.
1. boring. 2. has nothing to do with law.
I get it. Edelman wasn't insightful enough to get a position writing about sports on a sports blog, so he applied to write about the interplay of sports and the law for ATL. Then he realized he wasn't insightful enough to write about the law on a law blog, so he dropped the connection, hoping that most lawyers don't know enough about sports to realize his incompetence. I've got news for you Edelman; we figured it out.
Lat -- This isn't working. If I wanted sports news, I wouldn't be reading ATL. Law related stories that have a sports link (like Kash's article on Duke foosball) are enjoyable because of the legal connection. Articles like these (which I begin reading in the hopes of finding a legal connection, only to be disappointed after I've wasted 2 minutes reading useless crap) are inappropriate.
Rivera hasn't blown a save yet this season because he hasn't yet faced the Red Sox in the playoffs.
Red Sox fans think nothing is better looking coming out of the Spankee bullpen than Rivera trying to look like a hard ass. He chokes more often against the Sox than Bush 41 at a Chinese buffet.
Oh yeah, that joke is so old, it has dust on it.
"Then he realized he wasn't insightful enough to write about the law on a law blog, so he dropped the connection, hoping that most lawyers don't know enough about sports to realize his incompetence. I've got news for you Edelman; we figured it out."
That really hits the nail on the head.
"Marc, some friendly advice. There is a reason why everyone hates your posts -- this is a legal blog and you write about a running back's chances of gaining 1200 yards. You are not Peter King and this is not si.com. Your post has nothing to do with law and does not belong here."
I disagree. I think as much, if not more, of the hatred comes from the fact that the sports angle to the posts is often egregiously uninformed. That's not to say that there shouldn't need a required sports/law connection, but I don't think people would be as outraged if the sports was done well.
this is exactly like something my 13 year old sister would write if she had to write a sports blog entry.
stop this nonsense
I like the change of pace. Tell all these sports-hating law nerds to shut up.
1. K-Rod is vastly overrated because the stat is vastly overrated. His rates all show that he is far inferior to Joe Nathan, Mariano Rivera, and a host of other closers. He gets more saves because of the way the Angels use him. That being said, each of the last three years, his pre-All Star break saves numbers have gone up (17, 21, 24), while his post-All Star break saves numbers have gown down (28, 26, 16). Do I think this means anything? No, it's just an interesting coincedence, but it will probably continue this year, as well. The total number of wins that the Angels have will stay stable, and the number of save situations that they'll have will stabilize. It's rare to have a run of so many games that aren't victories that are neither blowouts nor walk-offs, but it will balance out, and K-Rod will end with about 49 saves.
2. No. No one pays attention to anyone in golf besides for Tiger. I will not watch another minute of golf this year, and I'm an obsessive sports fan.
3. I agree with Maroney.
I find it very comical that so many people need to write how a sports post should not be on this blog. If you don't want to read or debate any of Edelman's thoughts, just scroll by. Clearly some people find it interesting enough to debate these points and they do.
1. Admitted (I really hate baseball and could care less if it disappeared tomorrow).
2. Denied. While your argument is a unique look on the situation, at the end of the day, I think the PGA would prefer to have the steady stream of viewers & revenue that a year worth of Tiger brings than the immediate, but short lived boom that will likely occur when Tiger re-emerges from injury.
3. Denied. While 1200 sounds do-able, it has yet to be proven that Maroney is one of those guys that is a feature back. The argument that defenses will key in on the Patriot's air attack is rebutted by the fact that by Week 5 of the 2007 season, the entire league knew what the game plan was and the Patriots (successfully) threw the ball anyway. It has yet to be proven that Maroney can withstand the beating an every-down back can take. He has formidible, reliable (and aging) backs to split carries/downs with as well. All-in-all, this argument of a Maroney-explosion was made last pre-season to no avail and I think it should be avoided this season as well.
Finally, can these folks just stop with the hating on this post? If you don't like it, skip to the next post!
How do you think that opposing defenses will attempt to stop the Patriots' passing game? Nickel? Dime? Will they go man-to-man or zone? I'm sure teams have tried that in the past. It's not as if these are new defensive schemes.
If there's going to be sports commentary on ATL, can we at least make it more insightful?
10:48:
Golf is more important for clients, basketball is more important for the firm. Get really good at both and you'll be partner in 2 years.