Sunday, September 5, 2010

Cuts,losses and more

The Pirates 9-2 loss to Washington was a rarity-I gave up on the game and watched something else (ESPN3's coverage of the WBA Middleweight title fight between Felix Sturm and Giovanni Lorenzo from Germany).
Sue me.
7-0 by the middle of the fifth does that to a person,although I didn't stop until the end of the sixth.
I did see Andrew McCutchen's homer (13),but that was about the only highlight.
Paul Maholm dropped to 7-14 after allowing all seven of the early runs.
The series concludes today with a battle of struggling pitchers as Charlie Morton (1-10) takes on Jason Marquis (1-7).
Considering Marquis has an ERA over eight and Morton's is over ten,look for lots of runs this afternoon....

Cleveland Browns fans looking for rookie Montario Hardesty to be a huge part of the running game can forget that after tearing his ACL and will miss the season.
Big loss for the Browns after moving a third and two fives for a player that will miss the season.
Hardesty was a risk going into the draft after an injury-plagued career at Tennessee.
The Browns gambled and lost.

Cleveland trimmed their roster to the limit of 53,but look for plenty of changes before the opener in Tampa.
Why? Well,they have three corners and twelve linebackers on the roster.
Some new players are coming in and some of the players currently on the team are going to leave.
The interesting names on the cut list included 5th round safety Larry Asante,corner Brandon McDonald,veteran pass catcher Bobby Engram and running back Chris Jennings,the star of last years upset win over Pittsburgh.
I am not sorry to see McDonald and his soft tackling go,although I wish Asante would have stuck,considering he was a 5th rounder and the trade of 2 other fifth rounders to move up for Montario Hardesty makes it look even worse....

The big news in Seattle is the release of T.J. Houshmandzadeh.
The release of the former Bengal means the Seahawks paid him roughly fifteen million for one season by the time all is said and done.
Mike Williams has looked super in the pre-season,but he will need to continue to do in order for this to look decent.
The remainder of the releases were pretty non-descript other than releasing J.P.Losman.
Losman isnt a huge loss,but for now that means that Matt Hasselbeck and Charlie Whitehurst are the only QB's on the squad.
Look for Seattle to possibly add Patrick Ramsey (cut by Saints) or maybe even Matt Leinart (released by Cardinals) to fill the final slot....

Seattle also shipped a seventh rounder (seems they are always dealing 7's) to Philadelphia for
tackle Stacy Andrews.
Andrews started for the Bengals for three years before joining the Eagles in the off-season.
The Seahawks acquired another tackle in Tyler Polumbus a few days back for a undisclosed future pick from the Lions.
Polumbus was waived by Denver,but was claimed by the Lions after the release.
Detroit was preparing to waive him and the Hawks wanted to make sure that they added their man this time....

I have been critical of female football announcer Pam Ward in the past,mainly because she is terrible,but that's beside the point.
Last nights Cincinnati-Fresno State game featured Beth Mowins,a staple of low revenue women's sports (and basketball for men and women) for ESPN for years teaming with Trent Dilfer and I thought both were very good.
Mowins called the game and deferred to Dilfer on things that she didn't know or was unsure of.
Ward often is trying so hard to show you that she knows football that she comes off screechy and overbearing.
Mowins blended into the game and told you what happened,not her thoughts-that is what the color analyst is for.
Hope to see more of the Mowins-Dilfer pair on ESPN this season.

Wish I could say the same for the halftime bunch of Wendi Nix,Todd McShay and former Buckeye Robert Smith,who come off as unprepared (Nix),self important (McShay) and downright somnambulant (Smith).
The worst studio bunch for college football that I have seen in quite a while.

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