Week 5 Picks; Eagles and Phillies Thoughts
If Matt Holliday could catch a line drive, my baseball playoff predictions would be looking brilliant. Now it’s time to return to the National Football League where last week’s 3-4 record qualified as a good week.
Slim pickings aren’t helping this Sunday with several double-digit spreads in the NFL. I wouldn’t give the Philadelphia Eagles 15 points against anybody, but I just can’t bring myself to touch Tampa Bay. But there are a couple games I like a lot:
New England –3 over Denver
Indianapolis –3.5 over Tennessee
And since that’s all I like, and I know the smart people out there want more from me so they can make some money by going the other way, I have a college pick:
Alabama –4.5 over Mississippi
That’s nothing more than a gut pick.
Eagles. Did the Eagles seriously sign Jeremiah Trotter? So much for all the confidence in Sean McDermitt replacing the late Jim Johnson. Trotter couldn’t cover tight ends three years ago. He is going to be the most literal coach on the field ever.
Phillies. Cole Hamels let the Phillies down yesterday, and, I hate to say it, but the questions about his toughness are back. He left the ballpark after being pulled from the game to be with his wife who had gone into labor. I guess he had to go, but it plays into the perception that he’s soft, or not dedicated enough, or whatever. . . . On the field, it’s easy to say now, but anyone who questioned Charlie Manuel for pitching Cliff Lee in Game 1 is nuts. Lee is the Phillies “number 1” pitcher right now. . . . I have grown to love the baseball playoffs, but MLB has got to do something about playing baseball in winter-like conditions and the lengths of the games. It’s ridiculous that a summer sport is facing a possible snow out Saturday and there’s still about a month left. TBS already starts overlapping games on its sister station TNT. Every network carrying baseball has at least two stations. The solutions are easy: Stop giving each game its own time slot (people like flipping channels anyway and networks already flash ads on the screen during the game), stop with the extra days off, and, if baseball wants a Wild Card (which I like), make room for it by cutting two weeks off of the schedule. And, oh by the way, start enforcing the pitch clock that is already in the rule book.
Slim pickings aren’t helping this Sunday with several double-digit spreads in the NFL. I wouldn’t give the Philadelphia Eagles 15 points against anybody, but I just can’t bring myself to touch Tampa Bay. But there are a couple games I like a lot:
New England –3 over Denver
Indianapolis –3.5 over Tennessee
And since that’s all I like, and I know the smart people out there want more from me so they can make some money by going the other way, I have a college pick:
Alabama –4.5 over Mississippi
That’s nothing more than a gut pick.
Eagles. Did the Eagles seriously sign Jeremiah Trotter? So much for all the confidence in Sean McDermitt replacing the late Jim Johnson. Trotter couldn’t cover tight ends three years ago. He is going to be the most literal coach on the field ever.
Phillies. Cole Hamels let the Phillies down yesterday, and, I hate to say it, but the questions about his toughness are back. He left the ballpark after being pulled from the game to be with his wife who had gone into labor. I guess he had to go, but it plays into the perception that he’s soft, or not dedicated enough, or whatever. . . . On the field, it’s easy to say now, but anyone who questioned Charlie Manuel for pitching Cliff Lee in Game 1 is nuts. Lee is the Phillies “number 1” pitcher right now. . . . I have grown to love the baseball playoffs, but MLB has got to do something about playing baseball in winter-like conditions and the lengths of the games. It’s ridiculous that a summer sport is facing a possible snow out Saturday and there’s still about a month left. TBS already starts overlapping games on its sister station TNT. Every network carrying baseball has at least two stations. The solutions are easy: Stop giving each game its own time slot (people like flipping channels anyway and networks already flash ads on the screen during the game), stop with the extra days off, and, if baseball wants a Wild Card (which I like), make room for it by cutting two weeks off of the schedule. And, oh by the way, start enforcing the pitch clock that is already in the rule book.
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