Pigskin Picking Machine

The PPM concludes the college football regular season and we will be picking each of the conference title games today...

Last Week:5-4
Overall:77-36

College
MAC title
Bowling Green over Northern Illinois 28-19

Conference USA title
Western Kentucky over Southern Mississippi 42-38

Mountain West title
San Diego State over Air Force 22-17

American title
Houston over Temple 31-21

SEC title
Alabama over Florida 24-6

Pac 12 title
USC over Stanford 41-35

Big 10 title
Michigan State over Iowa 17-13

ACC title
Clemson over North Carolina 30-17

Pros
Bengals over Browns 35-14
Panthers over Saints 32-26

Game of the Week
Seahawks over Vikings 27-23

Pedro Alvarez non-tendered by Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates have made the difficult decision to non-tender Pedro Alvarez and allow him to be a free agent.
Alvarez led the National League in homers in 2013,but could no longer play even a below average third base and when a move to first didn't boost his defense any and added to an absolute ineptness against lefthanded pitching-the decision became an easy one,when you consider the price Alvarez would cost.

Alvarez was the first draft pick of the Neal Huntington regime and is now going to be the first notable player in the book of how to cull a roster and attempt to continue to contend in a small market.
When you attempt to build through youth and talent on a budget,who you decide to keep and pay (Andrew McCutchen) and who you decide to allow to walk (Alvarez) is just as important as when you allow them to leave.
In the Pittsburgh (and Cleveland for that matter) markets,you need to pick the few players to build around and be willing to move the players that just become too expensive to keep.
The importance of keeping the system consistently pumping players through is paramount as the Pirates knew with the change of position for Josh Bell enabling the Pirates to replace Alvarez with luck sometime this summer with the cost-protected production of Bell at first base for a few years.

The power that Pedro Alvarez possesses will not be easy to replace,but the money that would have been spent on a one dimensional player (likely around eight million) can now go elsewhere-likely towards the middle to back of the pitching rotation (especially after the surprising turnaround and then loss of JA Happ) and it just didn't seem to be worth cutting the check towards considering that Alvarez would have been a free agent of the end of 2016 anyway.
Pittsburgh will likely try to slide by for a few months of Michael Morse at first base and then perhaps Josh Bell will be ready to step in after a freshening at AAA Indianapolis (and chopping a year off before arbitration doesn't hurt either) as the permanent first baseman...

As for Alvarez,where could he wind up?
Well,considering his clear defensive deficiencies,one would think that American League teams would have far more interest than teams in the senior circuit and I would think that the Indians could be one of those that find Alvarez interesting.
I'd think that they would DH him,but for a year at his cost,Alvarez could be a (not the) big bat that the Indians are looking for.
There are other AL teams that would be a nice fit,most notably the Orioles,in the event that they lose Chris Davis and maybe the Astros as a Alvarez/Evan Gattis would be a nasty DH platoon.

I was never a huge fan of Pedro Alvarez as he struck out a ton,looked like he'd gain weight (and did) and figured to eventually be a long term defensive liability (which happened sooner than even I thought),but considering his contract demands coming out of Vanderbilt and the presence of agent Scott Boras along with the bungled personnel moves of Dave Littlefield-the signing of Alvarez gave Pirates fans hope that a new era was on its way.
The development and arrival of Alvarez then gave fans hope that indeed this management group had an idea of what they were doing.
Now the departure of Pedro Alvarez will offer the next step in the Pittsburgh Pirates plan-being able to contend as players depart....

Three Favorites plus one!

A new recurring series here and maybe a future slot on the podcast.

I'll pick three favorite players of mine from the pre-1985 era who are in the Hall of Fame from a team and then add one player who isn't in the Hall that I think should be.

Of course, We'll start with the Browns!

No better place to start than with arguably the greatest player ever- Jim Brown.
A fullback with the speed of the modern halfback, Brown was two decades ahead of his time.

The speed to run away from defenders yet with the phenomenal strength to run over you, the player that most resembles the modern player in old films- Jim Brown is my favorite Brown in the hall...

My second favorite goes to coach and founder of the team- Paul Brown.
Yes, Brown gets an edge for creating the team, winning all of its championships except one (which was really his team that was built in 1964), but also for all the innovations that he brought to the game, such as calling the plays as a coach, helmet radios, the first facemask, etc,
For more on the innovation of Paul Brown, check out his episode of "A Football Life" on the NFL Network.
Plus, he earned tons of credit for being the first person to sniff out the skunk that was Art Modell...

The final one goes to deep threat Paul Warfield, who was the best receiver of the Browns, became the best passing threat on the Dolphins champions of the '70s, had a short stint in the WFL, and then returned home for a final two-season run with the Browns.
Warfield's numbers are skewered a bit by the time that he played in and the run-first teams he played on (the Browns with Jim Brown first and then Leroy Kelly and then the Dolphins of Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick), but his speed and flair ranked him as the deep threat of his time.
Warfield caught just 29 passes in 1973, but 11 went for scores.
Had Warfield played a little later, his reception numbers would have been much higher...

My pick for deserving Brown not in the Hall goes to Hanford Dixon.
Dixon was the best cover corner of his time and made a terrific pairing with Frank Minnifield as the best corner tandem of the 80's.
Dixon played his entire career with the Browns and unlike many "cover" corners (Coughs Deion Sanders) knew how to make a tackle.
Hanford Dixon was superior to quite a few corners in the HOF right now and deserves entry.

Honorable mention goes to Jerry Sherk, who I think was of that level before the staph infection that basically ended his career.
Sherk could have been that deserving.

I hope you enjoyed this feature and I may reach out to others to do their teams-Ryan with Packers,Battlin' Bob Steelers,Big Don Bills etc....

Fury upsets Klitschko-Boxing Challenge

Big weekend in the boxing challenge as I retained my five point lead over R.L.Malpica at 141-136 through different means.
Before we start,I watched the HBO replay of the Canelo Alvarez-Miguel Cotto fight and saw it at 116-112 for Alvarez.

The big news of the weekend saw England's Tyson Fury lift the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles from longtime champion Wladimir Klitschko via unanimous decision in Germany.
It was a truly dull fight without action,but I scored Fury a 115-112 winner (8-4 in rounds) after Fury was deducted a point late in the fight for punching behind the head.
Klitschko is contractually to a rematch and he has activated that clause .
Fury may vacate the IBF belt and begin to break up Klitschko's work as the IBF number one contender Vlacheslav Glazkov may not step aside in order to allow the rematch.
Klitschko looked very hesitant to me to throw the right hand and just couldn't "get it off".
It reminded me quite a bit of older Larry Holmes as Klitschko would cock the gun and just couldn't fire.
I understand why Klitschko wants and deserves a rematch,but as far as pleasing fights go,I doubt that it will be any better than this one-even if Klitschko wins....
R.L.picked Fury and added one point to his total as I selected Klitschko...

The fight of the weekend as far as action goes was from Quebec City,Canada as James DeGale took a unanimous decision to retain his IBF super middleweight title of Lucien Bute..
In a great fight,I had DeGale a 115-113 winner and I earned the point back that I lost from R.L with the DeGale win..
DeGale wants to unify titles with Badou Jack of the WBC and I'm all for that.
That may not be a huge fight,but I like seeing titles unified whenever possible,,,,

Neither of us scored points as Elieder Alvarez took a majority decision over Isaac Chilemba in a light heavy bout to become the mandatory contender for WBC champ Adonis Stevenson.
I scored it 114-114,,so my issue isn't Alvarez getting the duke,it's more because of a ridiculous 118-110 scorecard for Alvarez.

We enter the PBC mismatch portion of the show as each of us earned five points for squash matches.
Erislandy Lara knocked out washed up (and he wasn't that good to begin with) former IBF welter champ Jan Zaveck in three rounds.
Jermall Charlo stopped undeserving challenger Wilky Campfort in four rounds to retain his IBF 154 pound belt and super prospect Errol Spence stopped Alejandro Barrera in five.
I really see Spence as a rising star and I look forward to seeing Spence against improved competition whenever that will be,
PBC has tons of welterweight talent,if they would only match them up other than giving us more tired fights like the upcoming Danny Garcia-Robert Guerrero bout in 2016....

Josh McCown done for the season-Now What?

The Cleveland Browns announced that Josh McCown suffered a broken collarbone in their loss to Baltimore Monday night and will miss the remainder of the regular season.
McCown completes a competent regular season with 12 touchdown passes against just four interceptions,but the Browns would win just one game that McCown started (over the Ravens) during the season.

Now that McCown has exited stage left (even),the Browns have some decisions to make.
The first of which is bringing back former Buckeye and was released as the teams final cut before the season Terrelle Pryor.
Pryor will be the third quarterback as he is familiar with the system of John DeFlippo from his days in Oakland and training camp and may get some receiver reps as well.

The bigger of the questions is this-which quarterback will be the starter on Sunday against the Bengals-Johnny Manziel or Austin Davis?

Editor's Note-Davis was announced as the starter after this article was written.

Manziel makes sense as the "what can Johnny do" questions are still as valid as from the first pass that he threw,but Mike Pettine would have to let his personal bias go in order to do that.
Davis makes sense as the Browns signed him to a contract over the next few years and the Browns could argue (in-house of course) that it's Davis that needs to play to show his abilities-not Manziel.

I think the Browns should be considering quarterback anyway in the draft,but if I had to make this difficult decision,I'd go Manziel very reluctantly.
Simply because we have one thing on Austin Davis that we don't on Johnny Manziel-a sustained run of playing time of Davis taking snaps with the Rams.
Davis played with ten games with the Rams,starting eight,going 3-5 with 12 touchdowns against nine interceptions,while Manziel would have to start these final five games to match that level of playing time.

I don't think that there is a wrong way to go as legitimate reasons can be given to start either and I'd wouldn't have any problem with either player getting the start.
I think the Browns are going to go 1-4 at best down the stretch and I don't think either player is going to have a better chance than the other to better that possible record.
What it has become is a typical Browns season-Looking towards next season and that season's reason to hope....

Goodbye to Bob Foster

Former light heavyweight champion Bob Foster passed away at the age of 76 in his long-time home in New Mexico recently and I wanted to write a few words about the dominant 175 pounder of my youth.

I asked Showtime's Al Bernstein (my favorite boxing commentator for years) for his thoughts on Foster- "Bob Foster was one of the greatest light heavyweights who ever lived.
Great power, especially in the left hook-he is one of the top five light heavyweights of all time"

It's too bad that one of the top five light heavyweights ever (That gives me a future blog idea or even podcast) is more remembered for his heavyweight failures than his light heavy championship reign,
In fact, if you remove two losses from an ill-conceived comeback in the final two fights of his career, Bob Foster lost just once at 175, only a loss to the talented (and consensus number one contender) Mauro Mina on the road in Brazil blots that ledger.

Foster was generally avoided by the best light heavys (other than Mina) as he moved through the ranks, so he took bouts against heavyweights of world-class talent such as Doug Jones (too close to call vs Muhammad Ali), Zora Folley (World title challenger vs Ali) and Ernie Terrell (WBA champ and lost a unification bout to Ali) for money and exposure.
All beat Foster as, despite his height (6-3), his frame just didn't lend itself to the heavyweight division in a time before the existence of the cruiserweight division (175-200).
1967 saw Foster devote himself to 175 with wins over former top contender Eddie Cotton and Sonny Moore among five victories to send Foster into 1968 as the number one contender to two division (middle and light heavy) champ Dick Tiger at Madison Square Garden.
The size difference was startling as Foster was clearly the naturally larger man and crushed Tiger with one left hook in round four.
As huge of a punch as that hook was, Foster would throw another later in his career that has been a boxing staple of pictures and videos for years.

Foster would defend the title four times over the next two years with plenty of non-title bouts to keep busy before a heavyweight title shot vs Joe Frazier.
The tank-like Frazier disposed of Foster in just two rounds and Foster returned to the light heavyweight division without his WBA title.
Even in the era of just two sanctioning bodies, they did stupid things as Foster was stripped for not fighting their top contender-Vicente Rondon.
18 months and four defenses of the WBC belt later. Foster stepped into the ring with Rondon to unify the division and Foster conclusively unified in his favor with a two-round demolition of Rondon.
Now that his throne was solidified, Foster took on Mike Quarry on ABC on the same card as Muhammad Ali vs Jerry Quarry.
Remember when the networks televised great fights on free tv?
Jerry Quarry was a top contender at heavy, while Mike was more of a fringe contender at 175, but "the Quarry brothers vs the world" angle was a decent one, and putting Foster on the bill as a showcase for an Ali fight was good for buildup with an expected Foster win.
Quarry was competitive for three rounds before being dispatched with one left hook for what perhaps was the knockout of the decade as Quarry's foot uncontrollably twitched as he lay on his back on the canvas.

After a trip to England with a stoppage of Chris Finnegan in the 14th round in what was voted the fight of the year by Ring magazine, Foster would be given his fight vs Ali (Ali was not the champion at this time) and lived up to past form as Ali, not known as a huge puncher, dropped Foster eight times and finished him in round eight.
Foster would take two bouts with South Africa's Pierre Fourie by unanimous decision in 1973 before struggling to a draw with Jorge Ahumada in 1974 that many thought could have gone to the Argentine challenger.
Foster then was having issues with the sanctioning bodies as both the WBA and WBC were demanding that Foster fight their top contender (Victor Galindez and John Conteh) next or lose recognition as champion.
Being that both were excellent fighters and had a decent chance of defeating the 36-year-old Foster, yet neither would bring Foster a large payday,a frustrated champion decided to retire.
Foster would come back in two years, winning five and losing two against less than tough competition before hanging the gloves up for good.

Bob Foster would work full time as a detective with the Albuquerque police department and train fighters in his spare time during his post-boxing days.
No matter whether you rank him as the all-time best light heavy or not, Foster certainly ranks as one of the game's all-time best punchers and his highlights certainly ensure that his career will not be forgotten...

Can it get any crazier? Browns blocked by Baltimore 30-24

It appeared that the Cleveland Browns were in a position to win Monday Night as Travis Coons prepared to attempt a 51 yard field goal to win and end the game.
I had tweeted earlier in the game whatever happened-win or lose,that I was sure that it would be the worst thing for the Browns.
Whether the result is the worst thing for the Browns in the long run remains to be seen,but when Baltimore's Brent Urban rejected the kick and Baltimore's Will Hill grabbed the bouncing ball and headed toward the goal line-the storyline was set-Tackle Hill and go to overtime,if Hill reaches the end zone,the game is over.
You know the result by now as the Ravens took a 30-24 win in Cleveland.
The floundering 2-9 Browns were led by Josh McCown and Austin Davis throwing for 275 yards and each threw a touchdown in the loss.
Cleveland will continue their three game homestand against Cincinnati next week....

Brownie Bits

1) Right off the stick-the Browns bungled the final drive after a interception should have put them in a better position to win.
Mike Pettine for having two timeouts allowed far too much time to run off the clock (I counted over 20 seconds before one play) and then called a run that lost yardage,when the running game had been a non-factor all evening.
That was poor clock management and that goes on the coach.

2) Want to feel worse? Brent Urban's block came between BOTH of the Browns first round picks!
I realize Danny Shelton is just a big body used in these situations and not an offensive lineman,but still the irony!!!

3) The final play ruined what could have been a great Browns debut for Austin Davis,who was bumped up with the Mike Pettine/Johnny Manziel fiasco to the second quarterback slot.
Davis and his game tying touchdown to Travis Benjamin  gave the team and the crowd a little life.
I don't think Davis is the next Kurt Warner,but for the price he cost (waiver wire addition),Davis was a worthwhile addition,even in the role that he is now in.

4) Josh McCown played reasonably well and his courage is unquestioned,but he entered the game battered,continued to be hammered by the Baltimore defense and Mike Pettine continued to send him out onto the field.
I have no question that McCown wished to continue and he shows the heart of a champion by continuing to play,but sometimes you have to save a player from himself and "stop the fight in the corner".
McCown may have broken his collarbone and if that's so----

5) The circus begins,Austin Davis or Johnny Manziel?
Does Mike Pettine continue his childish dislike of Manziel?
Does Manziel continue to act like a 16 year old who watched his parents leave home for a week?
Beats me,but I can tell you the worse scenario- One or the other patches together another decent run of play to convince someone that quarterback isn't a need...

6) Zero running game again with 63 yards for the game.
The number appears worse when you take away 10 on a Travis Benjamin gimmick play and 19 from the quarterbacks.
What has happened to Isaiah Crowell? Seven carries for seven yards.A very disappointing year..

7) Super play on the interception and run TD by Karlos Dansby.
Dansby has done this six times in his career and the second this season with the Browns,
Full credit to the veteran on that and for the surprising burst of speed down the sideline too!

8) Travis Coons had connected on every field goal he had attempted (18)but his long was 44 and the Browns seemed to be keeping him out of situations where he would miss.
Contrast that to elite kickers such as Justin Tucker,Stephen Goskowski and Mason Crosby,where their teams will run them out at every opportunity,unafraid of a miss that could cost field position.
The Browns had to take the chance and Coons had never been in the situation of a kick this long,let alone with the game on the line-Coons kicked it low to give the extra distance and that set up the block...

9) Cleveland special teams handed Baltimore 13 of their 30 points between the block and a punt return for a score by Kaelin Clay (playing his 2nd pro game),the Browns special teams,which usually are at least decent,cost this team a win..

10 ) Since Josh McCown looks to be done for the year,let's give him one more note of credit,his final TD pass of the season to Marlon Moore,looked like one of those old NFL films of Archie Manning,running,slipping and sliding  and then tossing to Moore for the score.
Whether you think Josh McCown is or should have been the number one quarterback in Cleveland-the guy has played his guts out and been very classy in all areas...

11) Just terrible tackling.
I'm not going to cover them all because I just don't have the time,but it seemed so frequent that you could count multiple missed tackles on almost every play that gained even moderate yardage..

12) The play that I think showed the lack of respect for a sad franchise came in the fourth quarter when the Ravens had a 4th and 1 inside their own 30 in a tie game and they go for it!
Matt Schaub goes right at Danny Shelton and gets it on the sneak.

13) Now we move on to the important things-draft talk.As of now,the Browns would pick second behind Tennessee.
The Titans have Marcos Mariota,so second would be fine,but San Francisco and Dallas are each right behind and both need QB"s.
The game vs the Niners in two weeks might go a long way towards the Browns getting their young quarterback,Joey Bosa or none of the above...