Welcome to this week's edition of Five Cents, where the entire column will be dedicated to the start of the NHL season. Oh wait, nobody would actually read that, so football and baseball it is. Wait a minute, nobody reads this anyway. Whatever, let's get this over with.
1. The loss of Pedro will not cost the Mets a World Series victory.
No, that statement does not mean that I am not being a homer and picking my favorite team to win the World Series. Sadly, I believe that the Mets would not have won the World Series this year, even if Pedro was pitching. Despite tying for the best record in baseball, the Mets would only be the fourth or fifth best team in the AL. They had a 3-6 record in the AL stadiums this year, including an ugly sweep at Fenway in which they were outscored 23-8. With the AL having home field advantage in the World Series, no NL team has a good shot at winning.
That being said, the Mets are still the best team in the National League and will most likely make the World Series. Even with Orioles castoff John Maine pitching just 4 1/3 innings in Game 1 against the Dodgers, Carlos Delgado and David Wright provided enough offense to win, a trend that should carry the Mets to a win the NLCS.
2. If the A's manage to not blow their 2-0 lead, they have the best shot at beating the Yankees.
If Francisco Liriano were healthy, the Twins would definitely have the best chance to prevent the Yankees from winning the World Series, but he isn't. With the Tigers looking like they don't belong in the playoffs and the NL looking like the NIT to the AL's March Madness, that leaves the A's as the lone hope for all members of the Anti-Yankee Nation (it's like the Red Sox Nation, only if you add in everyone else and don't make a bad Jimmy Fallon movie about it).
The A's have a pathetic offense, but the Yankees have a weak pitching staff, so the match-up would come down to the A's pitching and defense against the Yankees lineup. The Yankees may have the best offense in the game, but the A's have a ton of good pitchers to throw at them. Sure, Barry Zito has been awful against the Yankees in big spots so far in his career, and Esteban Loiaza doesn't have the stuff to get through that lineup more than once. However, Rich Harden, Dan Haren and Joe Blanton all have great stuff, and while they lack experience, their youth might help them loosen up enough to be effective.
After the first two games in Minnesota, it just feels like the A's might have something special going this year, and they are exactly the kind of loose, quirky bunch of guys that could end up taking out the team that made Sal Fasano hack off his facial hair.
3. Brett Favre is officially terrible, no matter how many excuses ESPN makes up for him.
The Packers were on Monday Night Football this week, and we were all treated to four hours of every announcer and sideline reporter drooling over Favre. Over the weekend, ESPN billed the game as a match-up of "two of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL," raising the question, "Who actually believes that Farve is still an elite quarterback?"
Let's take a look at the numbers. Favre has thrown 72 interceptions since losing 27-7 to the Falcons at home in the 2002 wild card round. In the 2004 playoffs, most Packers fans blame the defense for letting up the fourth and 26' reception to Freddy Mitchell, but the Eagles won that game because Farve threw a lame duck up in overtime that Brian Dawkins picked off.
Obviously after all he has done Favre deserves to be the Packers' starting quarterback, but there is no need for ESPN to keep trying to make us believe that the Packers' struggles are not his fault. On Monday night, Favre's first interception was tipped off a wide receiver, and immediately Mike Tirico and Joe Theismann jumped to Favre's defense. Even when Favre threw an awful interception in the fourth quarter, instead of criticizing him, the commentators just said "Brett is so mad at himself, what a competitor." Hopefully Favre will retire after this season, so the Packers can move on and Favre can get a job with ESPN, because they all clearly want him so bad.
4. JP Losman is the Next Big Thing.
Since the beginning of the school year, I've been hearing my roommate Mike talk about how great Bills quarterback JP Losman is. While this may be because he has a man crush on the former Tulane star (not that there's anything wrong with that. You know you'd have David Wright's children), Losman has undeniably had a great start to the season. His numbers (4 TD's, 1 INT) may not be overwhelming, but Losman has led the Bill to two wins, as well as a near upset of the Patriots in Week 1.
The biggest improvement that Losman has shown is in his efficiency. His numbers aren't flashy, but he has completed 64 percent of his passes, and has a quarterback rating of 90.6. The Bills may not be good enough to contend for a playoff spot, but Buffalo may have finally found their franchise quarterback after years of trying to replace Jim Kelly.
5. Dusty Baker should return to manage the San Francisco Giants.
The Giants have several outstanding young pitching prospects. After running Mark Prior and Kerry Wood into the ground during the 2003 season, Baker is the perfect choice to speed along the development of San Francisco's pitching staff. Of course, by development, I mean prepare Noah Lowry and Matt Cain for Tommy John surgery; they might as well get it over with early in their careers.
