Maddux Sports Blog

I talked about Joe Torre’s roster moves on Thursday, and by Sunday they had already come back to haunt him. As you may recall, Torre deactivated Jeff Weaver and Jon Garland, and activated Hiroki Kuroda in their place. Kuroda had been out for the first round with a back injury. I said then that  it seemed like a very odd decision – surely a healthy Garland or Weaver was better than a rusty and likely sore Kuroda. It turns out, for once, that I was right. Kuroda was terrible last night – allowing six runs while recording just four outs – and is the main reason why the Phillies are holding a 2-1 lead. Far be it from me to second guess Torre, but I really don’t get it.

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Well, it’s been an interesting day in professional football. The hallmark story involves the legendary Brett Favre, who, at 39 years old, turned down the starting spot with Minnesota today. Additionally, QB Michael Vick is certainly a person of interest these days and there are a few other guys who are worth considering.

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We’ll delay our PS2 simulations for a day because there are just too many interesting stories bouncing around out there that need to be looked at:

1. Lane Kiffin – I can’t believe what a bizarre mess this has become, and given that it was the Raiders I expected it to get ridiculous. By leaving Kiffin twisting so long, Davis seriously damaged any progress his team could ake this year. BY getting rid of him in the ridiculous way he did – refusing to pay him what he is owed and then unleashing in a bizarre, barely coherent press conference – he has alienated any players that were still loyal to Kiffin, and has ensured a split in the locker room. It’s almost as if Davis doesn’t want to exist. I certainly won’t be touching this team in their next game, but my guess is that they are going to come out flat. I just don’t know how they can play well through this circus.

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The betting public is composed of suckers. That, of course, is why sportsbooks exist. I’m sure that every time a reasonably unexpected player has a big performance the books just laugh and figure out how they are going to spend all of the extra money that they are going to make. That’s because the public assumes that any performance, no matter how gaudy or unexpected, is completely sustainable. If a players has a huge game this week, public logic dictates that they wll do it again the next week, and they bet accordingly. They usually won’t, obviously, and that will often cost the overly eager public some cash. Here are five players (six, actually) who could prove costly:

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I was going to call this post Monday’s Insights, but this first weekend of the NFL has made it perfectly clear to me that insights are an endangered species. The Vikings were the latest problem. I have been high on this team for more than a year now. Tonight they rewarded my faith by looking very, very average. Tarvaris Jackson made it increasingly difficult to imagine he has a bright future with a lackluster performance that was short of compelling excuses. Adrian Peterson was Adrian Peterson, with 103 yards and a touchdown. I have one huge question for the Minny staff after watching the game – why in the world did Peterson only get 19 touches? He was effective. Not much else was. What were you waiting for? You only lost by five, so another 10 carries could have made the difference.

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