Now that the month of April is over, the New York media, Met fans and WFAN AM sports radio station is all over David Wright for his early slump.

He's striking out at a high pace, though still has decent hitting numbers for the month.

But are they being fair to the Mets and ignoring the even-worse start that the $180-million man in the Bronx has had? And if so, why?

Is it merely because the Yankees are one game over .500 and the Mets are 3 games under .500?
Is it because Tex is "the new guy" and there's far too many A-Roid stories to bother mentioning Tex's lack of hitting?
Is it because the NY sports writers are giving Tex more leeway because of the sore wrist problems he had early in the season?
Is it because Mark Teixeira has the built-in excuse of being a slow starter? Well, so does David Wright. Except neither of them has ever hit .200 to begin the first month of the season.

Mark Teixeira:

David Wright:

David Wright is certainly striking out at a much higher clip, but there's a huge difference between hitting .280 and hitting .200 over a month. Yet there's not a NY pundit column to be found about Tex's slumping?

The NY Daily News' Sports Web site currently has a poll asking fans what the Mets should do about David, along with two visible columns on the main page that use David Wright's slump as part of the headline, and one column dedicated entirely to it.

Well maybe New York Newsday's Sports team is more fair? Nope. A whole column dedicated to Wright's slumping, Oh look, an article about Tex! Hey wait a minute... That's a pretty friendly headline here....

Angels' visit brings back good memories for Teixeira. They do briefly mention Tex's "funk," but they hardly rip him the way they do David Wright.

Alright, I'll check the NY Post's Sports page, but I can pretty much guess what they'll do.
One David Wright slump column? Check! Do they have any mentions of Mark Teixeira's slump? Not a one.

Of course, both hitters are going to turn their slow starts around and put up good-to-great numbers over the course of the season. Except that's not the point here.

The point is that while two players on two different New York baseball teams are slumping, only one of them is singled out by New York sports writers and WFAN talk show hosts.

The New York Mets are not off to a good start.

None of the starting pitchers except for Johan Santana are pitching with any semblance of consistency.

With the exception of a winning start over San Diego on April 15, Oliver Perez has been absolutely terrible.

The jury is still out on Mike Pelfrey and John Maine, and Livan Hernandez has so far only been able to pitch well against the Marlins and no one else. As it is, the expectations for Livan Hernandez are quite low.

While Frankie Rodriguez has not blown any saves yet, and he will, JJ Putz and Sean Green have not held leads during the last two games of the series against the Florida Marlins at CitiField. While these things are bound to happen, you don't want to see them happen two games in a row.

David Wright is off to a very bad start, and he's whiffing at a record pace for him. Slow starts are one thing, but striking out like you're Ryan Howard is another. On the other hand, you can see that his numbers for the month of April 2009 are still better than his start to April 2007, with only the strikeouts being the major increase.
April 2005: 17 strikeouts in 76 ABs, 23 games, .303 / .418 / .539
April 2006: 13 strikeouts in 89 ABs, 24 games. .303 / .377 / .584
April 2007: 23 strikeouts in 90 ABs. 24 games. .244 / .370 / .311
April 2008: 16 strikeouts in 96 ABs. 26 games. .281 / .417 / .531 (one game on March 31, 2008 also included)
April 2009: 27 strikeouts in 82 ABs. 21 games. .280 / .372 / .390

The highest amount of strikeouts David Wright has ever had in a single month was May 2006, when he struck out 29 times, but in 27 games and 110 ABs. He still remained far more productive during that period though, hitting .336 / .408 / .500.

However, slow starts do not rule out a team's ability to get to the posteason come October.

Here are the 21-game records of the World Series teams (both winner and loser) dating back to 2000. I use 21 as the benchmark since that's how many games the Mets have played in the 2009 season as of April 30.

(Teams with below .500 records after 21 games are bolded and italicized.)
2000: New York Yankees (14-7) and New York Mets (14-7)
2001: Arizona Diamondbacks (11-10) and New York Yankees (11-10)
2002: Anaheim Angels (7-14) and San Francisco Giants (13-8)
2003: Florida Marlins (10-11) and New York Yankees (18-3)
2004: Boston Red Sox (15-6) and St. Louis Cardinals (10-11)
2005: Chicago White Sox (16-5) and Houston Astros (8-13)
2006: St. Louis Cardinals (14-7) and Detroit Tigers (13-8)
2007: Boston Red Sox (14-7) and Colorado Rockies (8-13)
2008: Philadelphia Phillies (11-10) and Tampa Bay Rays (10-11)

The 2009 Mets are 9-12 after 21 games.

Is it better to have a strong start than not? Absolutely.
Can teams come back from slow April starts to win the World Series or make the postseason? Absolutely, although you might have to settle for the Wild Card (2002 Angels, 2003 Florida, 2005 Houston, 2007 Colorado,)

It's also important to remember that you can have the best regular season record over the course of a season, and not even make the World Series. Just ask Lou Piniella and his 2001 Seattle Mariners with their 116-46 record. They lost the ALCS to the Yankees in just 5 games. Or last year's Los Angeles Angels that ran away with the AL West crown and an MLB season-best record of 100-62, only to lose to Boston in the ALDS (again... grrrr!) in 4 games.

Can a strong April be absolutely worthless when it comes to the end result in September? Look no further than the 2008 Arizona Diamondbacks, who were 15-6 after their first 21 games, only to end up in 2nd place in the NL West when the season ended. Conversely, the Los Angeles Dodgers started 2008 9-12, and ended up winning the NL West division. The Oakland A's were 12-9 after their first 21 in 2008, and finished the season well below .500 at 75-86.

There's no shortage of examples on both sides of the coin. So when people panic about their team in April if they're not off to a 20+ win month, it's generally unwarranted. Of course, if you're a Washington Nationals fan, you can safely throw in the towel.

The Mets do have cause for concern, and they're going to need to kick things into high gear over the month of May if they want to compete for the NL East crown or the NL Wild Card. With 16 of 29 games against NL East teams in May, the Mets are going to need to win as many of those games as possible to get back into this race.

Allow me to bottom line this...

Oliver Perez was signed by the New York Mets to pitch against 3 teams.

The Philadelphia Phillies, the Atlanta Braves, and the New York Yankees.

Perez has inexplicably owned the Yankees throughout his entire career, (5-1 in 6 career starts, 41.1 IP, 2.61 ERA). While the Mets only face the Yankees 6 times per season, it would be quite fortuitous if Perez were able to have 2 starts against them.

Last year, Perez dominated the Philadelphia Phillies even more than Mets ace Johan Santana did.
In 4 starts against the Phillies, Perez was 1-0 with a 0.35 ERA over 26 IP. He gave up a total of one earned run in 4 games against Philadelphia.

In 2007, Perez posted a 4-1 record in 5 starts against the Atlanta Braves, with a 3.03 ERA over 32.2 IP.
In 2008, Perez had no decisions in 3 starts against Atlanta, with a 3.72 ERA over 19.1 IP.

For all the talk about how "inconsistent" Oliver Perez is, the reality is that he more often than not, pitches very well against any one of those 3 teams, OR in high-pressure situations. When he pitches against other teams that are merely "regular season games," no one really knows what to expect.

His one good performance in 2009 came against the San Diego Padres. It was a high-pressure situation in that the Mets had lost the CitiField opener to San Diego, and the Mets desperately wanted that first home win ASAP.

The way the schedule works out, unless there are any rainouts, Oliver Perez's next three starts will be against Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Atlanta.

Of course, there's no guarantee that Perez will pitch great those games, but the odds are in his favor based on track record.

If he fails to pitch adequately in these games, then I would say there is great cause for concern. As it is, you don't want to see him pitch so extremely poorly against the rest of the league.

But it's too early in the season to panic, especially when Oliver Perez is about to begin facing teams that he was specifically paid to beat.

What a sports-intensive weekend. Unlike a lot of American men, I don't spend my Sundays worshipping the TV when it's time for the NFL season. I prefer college football, but even then, I can only watch so many college football games on a Saturday before my brain fries.

But April is a great month for sports, which would be a lot better if the NBA wasn't part of it. Basketball is truly the most...boring...sport....ever. Yes, I'd rather watch toddler bowling.

However, we got baseball, and we got hockey playoffs galore. And then there's always a plethora of MMA to be found.

I won't get into too much detail about all of the games, considering a lot of it is old news at the point I'm writing this, so a brief summary should suffice.

So, this weekend began on:

Friday, April 24:
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim vs. Seattle Mariners at Angel Stadium

Shane Loux took the mound for the pitching-decimated Angels against Mariners ace Erik Bedard.

Loux pitched pretty well for 4 innings, only getting stung by a Russell Branyan solo blast in the 2nd inning.
Then the 5th inning came, and Loux just died. Ichiro led off with a single. Endy Chavez, single. Griffey, single. Beltre just missed a grand slam with a double off the left-centerfield wall, scoring Ichiro and Chavez. Russell Branyan then walked to load the bases. Jose Lopez hit a chopper towards 3rd for a single, scoring another run.

By this point, it was 5-0, there were no outs, and Loux had come apart. Manager Mike Scioscia went to the bullpen, but another 2 runs scored before the Angels could get out of the inning.

Erik Bedard pitched fantastic for Seattle, only giving up 1 hit in the first 4 innings, a double to Erick Aybar which was also the Angels' sole baserunner. He gave up a dinger to Mike Napoli in the 5th, and the Angels scored twice more in the frame to bring the score to 7-3, but Bedard still had a healthy lead and pitched into the 7th inning before Shawn Kelley finished out the game for the Mariners.

So the Angels lost by a score of 8-3, and here are some photos from my less-than-good seats in the rightfield loge.

AngelsvsMariners042409_1

AngelsvsMariners042409_2

AngelsvsMariners042409_3

AngelsvsMariners042409_4

AngelsvsMariners042409_fireworks1

What was supposed to be a pitchers duel was anything but. But what a wild exciting game. The Yankees sent AJ Burnett to face Boston's Josh Beckett, and this was one of those games you figured would be a low-scoring affair. If only.

The Yankees went up 6-0 on Boston by the time the 4th inning was over, and there was no reason to think that the fairly solid AJ Burnett would surrender this lead. Then Boston began their comeback, scoring 5 runs in the bottom 4, with 4 of those runs coming off a Jason Varitek GRAND SALAMI.

But this game was only getting started. In the 6th, Boston scored 3 runs going up 8-6 on the Skanks.

Then in the next inning, Johnny Damon hit a 2-run homer to tie the game at 8.

Boston then goes ahead 9-8 in the bottom of the 6th.

And then the lead switched AGAIN in the top of the 7th when the Yankees went up 10-9.

With all the back and forth in this ballgame, it was just super fun to watch. Mind you, I love a pitcher's duel more than anything. The best games are the 0-0 games that go into extra innings, but when both teams score a bunch of runs back and forth in every inning, that's pretty damn exciting as well.

When it was all said and done with, Boston outslugged the Yankees by a final of 16-11. There were 28 hits in the game, 6 of them home runs (3 for each team).

NHL Playoffs:
Game 5: Anaheim Ducks vs. San Jose Sharks

With the Ducks already possessing a 3-1 lead in this best of 7 series, every game was now a "must-win" for the Sharks, and with their backs to the wall at home in the HP Pavilion (aka: Shark Tank), the Sharks put up the early 1-0 goal at 7:25 in the 1st from Co-Captain Joe Thornton. The Sharks went up 2-0 in the 2nd.

But hold on, the Ducks came back with 2 of their own in the 3rd period thanks to Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, and the game went into OT.

The Sharks stayed alive in the series when Co-Captain Patrick Marleau jabbed in a goal past Anaheim goaltender phenom Jonas Hiller at 6:02 of the first OT period to win the game 3-2.  Even still, the winning goal was ultimately pushed past the goal line by the leg/skate of Hiller. Unfortunate, but so it goes.

This was another great game in what has been a thrilling series, thanks to the unlikely 8th seed Ducks taking it to the team that had the best record in the NHL regular season.

Sunday, April 26th, 2009
NHL Playoffs:
Game 6: New York Rangers vs. Washington Capitals

With the Rangers up 3-1 in this series, they didn't have Coach John Tortorella on the bench because he was serving a one-game suspension for losing his mind and throwing water at Capitals fans behind the Rangers bench.

What followed from Rangers' GM Glen Sather was one of the most laughable reactions in the history of the sport. Sather complained that Washington Capitals security should be disciplined. Why? Because Washington Capitals fans were verbally harassing/abusing the Rangers bench from their seats, and CHILDREN were able to hear this.

Apparently Sather has never been to one of his own team's games, or at least never sitting in the MSG seats, where this kind of behavior, and FAR worse, occurs every single game. The Rangers proved themselves to be a classless organization from top to bottom. A coach who benches Sean Avery (the scummiest player in all the league) because he wanted to set an example about keeping your emotions in check during the game, loses his cool because of the verbal taunts from Capitals fans. Sean Avery may be a giant piece of shit, but he can be pretty effective when he's able to taunt and agitate the opposition into taking stupid penalties, so as long as Avery doesn't take them himself. In Game 4, he did. But for Tortorella to go after Caps fans, who never threw any objects at the Rangers bench or did anything PHYSICAL to provoke Torts, proves he's as big of a dick as Avery. And then Sather's letter, hoo hee! Whattalaff!!!!

I hope the Capital fans rip the Rangers bench (verbally, of course) even moreso during Game 7 so they can make Tortorella's head literally explode.

The Rangers got destroyed on MSG ice this game by a final of 5-3, and while the final score sounds close, it's misleading. The Capitals made Ranger goalie Henrik Lundqvist look very very mortal, going up 3-1 in the first. 5-1 in the 2nd, and held on to a 5-2 lead until a 3rd Rangers goal scored with 6 seconds remaining in the game.

I can't wait until Game 7, even if I won't be able to actually watch it. The Capitals will have home ice, and they're not losing to this joke of a Rangers team, who should never have won 3 games in this series to begin with.

New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox

This ESPN Night game was actually the pitcher's duel that we were supposed to get on Saturday between Beckett and Burnett. This time it was Andy Pettite against Justin Masterson. Masterson, normally a reliever for the Red Sox, pitched a second start for Boston in place of Daisuke Matsuzaka. And he pitched brilliantly.

Masterson scattered 6 hits over 5.1 IP, walking 1, striking out 4, and giving up 1 earned run off a Hideki Matsui sac fly.
Boston's bullpen of Hunter Jones, Michael Bowden and Takashi Saito (pitching in place of closer Jonathan Papelbon, who needed some rest) stymied the Yankees for the rest of the game.

But the real story of this game?
Jacoby Ellsbury STOLE HOME! I would put the video up here but MLB will just yank it off YouTube, so... you should be able to find it quite easily in other places. :-)

In any case, with a 2-1 score in the bottom of the 5th, Andy Pettite pitching to J.D. Drew with a 1-0 count and bases loaded, Ellsbury stole home in what has to be one of the craziest plays in this early season. But Ellsbury is so fast, Pettite is a lefty pitching from the stretch, third-baseman Angel Berroa wasn't holding Ellsbury on, and the Yankees were caught completely off-guard. Posada made the tag on Ellsbury just after he had touched the plate, and the Red Sox went up 3-1.

J.D. Drew then doubled to rightfield, scoring David Ortiz, and that was all the offense the Sox needed to SAHHHHWEEEP the New York Yankees in 3 games.

With the Rangers and Yankees losing, Sunday was a very very very good day.

And finally, to top it off:
Monday, April 27, 2009
NHL Playoffs:
Game 6: Anaheim Ducks vs. San Jose Sharks

Hiller if ya hear me!! The Ducks won by a final score of 4-1, taking the series from the NHL-best San Jose Sharks in 6 games, and most importantly, doing it on home ice in front of a rabid crowd at the Honda Center (aka: The Pond).

You knew this was going to be a helluva physical game when 2 seconds into the game, immediately after the puck was dropped, centers Ryan Getzlaf and Joe Thornton went at each other in a fight. Thornton may have won that fight, but he did not win the war.

The Sharks took the 1-0 lead in the middle of the 1st period, making one wonder if Hiller was going to be ok this game. Luckily, that was the only goal that Jonas Hiller let in. Hiller outclassed San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov during the entire series. In this game, he stopped 36 of 37 shots. While Hiller has emerged as the top goalie on the Ducks team, with J.S. Giguere now serving as his backup, Nabokov still had far superior statistics with the Sharks during the regular season.

But finally with this 1st round series of the postseason, Jonas Hiller proved that a hot goaltender with a defense that has never looked better (Pronger, Niedermayer, Whitney, Beauchemin, Wisniewski), is going to be able to stop a high-powered offense that outshot Anaheim the entire series by a ridiculous amount.

Despite all that, Jonas Hiller posted two shutouts during the 6 game series.

A fantastic series, a huge upset, and perhaps a sign of things to come. Still, the Ducks have a tough road ahead of them as they'll face the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference semis. The Red Wings are well-rested, having easily swept the Columbus Blue Jackets in 4 straight games. But the Ducks could just be the Cinderella team once again.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-spmets2112675834apr20,0,20743.story

While it's certainly early, Luis Castillo is (so far) having the bounceback season I said he would. Pain-free and injury-free. He'll never hit 20 HRs, but with his improved mobility, solid contact hitting and a great eye for bad pitches (meaning: he's really good at taking walks), Castillo SHOULD end up with close to a .300 BA on the season, and an OBP in the high .300s.

Will he be like this all season? That remains to be seen.

There are runs. There were 26 of them at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, but only 4 of them belonged to the Yankees.

If Thursday's home opener at Yankee Stadium was an assraping, then today's 22-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians was a pubic scalping. Someone oughtta let the Tribe know that the Home Run Derby isn't until July.

Just when you thought, "Hey, Chien-Ming Wang can't get any worse than his last two starts," he managed to show you "Oh yes I can!" Wang's ERA ballooned to a whopping 34.50.

But then, even knowing full well that Wang might be a problem today, the Yankees brought up AAA pitcher Anthony "Rhymes with" Claggett just in case. And he pitched just as badly as Wang did. Maybe worse.

Wang's line today was 1.1 IP, 8 hits, 8 runs (all earned), 0 walks (silver lining!), 1 strikeout, 1 home run.
Claggett's line? 1.2 IP, 9 hits, 8 runs (all earned), 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, 2 home runs.

Claggett's ERA is now 43.20. Welcome to the bigs, kid.

The rest of the Yankee bullpen wasn't much better. Between Edwar Ramirez, Jose Veras and Damaso Marte, the three relievers managed to let another 6 runs score before the game was finally over. Only Veras could really be considered to have done a good job during the game, with his only mistake being a solo blast given up to Travis Hafner over the course of 3 innings.

But what was truly record-setting about this game, is that the Indians scored 14 runs in the 2nd inning. That is the highest number of runs ever given up in one inning in all of Yankees franchise history. It's also the first time in MLB history that any team has scored 14 runs in the 2nd inning of any MLB game.

The Yankees HAVE however, given up 22 runs before. 22-0 to the Cleveland Indians on August 31, 2004.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090418&content_id=4330040&vkey=news_cle&fext=.jsp&c_id=cle

There is no truth to the rumor though, that any time the Indians score more than 20 runs against the Yankees, that all fans in attendance receive a free smallpox blanket.

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And then there was a run.

The one run that belonged to the New York Mets. Johan Santana can't get no run support, but he's definitely getting the bullpen support.

Johan Santana pitched 7 innings of shutout ball against the Milwaukee Brewers, scattering 5 hits, seven strikeouts, and didn't walk a soul.

Unfortunately, Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo pitched 6 innings of shutout ball against the Mets, and it wasn't until the bottom of the 7th when a Jose Reyes liner that ricocheted off of reliever Carlos Villanueva's glove, knocking the glove off his hand, scored backup catcher/pinch-runner Omir Santos from 3rd base.

And that's all the runs the Mets needed, although Johan really could use some more in future starts. In 3 starts this season, he's given up a total of one earned run in 19.2 innings pitched, and that one run was from a Brandon Phillips sacrifice fly in the season opener against Cincinnati in which the Mets held on 2-1 for the win. That translates to a 0.46 ERA out of the gate.

Once the Mets got their one run, it was time for the bullpen to do their job. With Santana going 7, there was no need for Sean Green or Pedro Feliciano in this game. It was Putz for the 8th, and Frankie for the 9th.

No Brewer made it past 1st base all game. Ryan Braun was thrown out trying to steal 2nd base for the final out of the game by Santos.

That's the template the Mets want for all close games that the Mets have the lead in. Starter goes 6, Green/Feliciano in the 7th, Putz in the 8th, Frankie in the 9th. So far only Santana has been able to deliver each time out.

-----------------------------------

So the New York Mets now stand 6-5, having remained competetive in all of their 5 losses. Losing 4 of them by 1 run, 1 by 2 runs.

The New York Yankees now stand 6-6, having been absolutely blown the fuck out in 3 losses, losing convincingly in the season opener to the Orioles, only remaining competetive in 2 of the other losses in which they lost by 2 runs.

Let's start with the New York Mets.

They're 5-5. Not a great start, but it's still .500 ball. What is overlooked is that unlike another team in New York, the Mets have been in every single one of their losses until the very last pitch of the game.

They're not getting obliterated (like the Yankees were 15-5 by Tampa Bay when Nick Swisher had to pitch.)

Nor are they getting completely embarrassed (like the Yankees were at their home opener once CC Sabathia left the game and the bullpen gave up NINE RUNS in the 7th inning, leading to a 10-2 Yankee Stadium opening destruction.)

Of the Mets 5 losses in this early 2009 season, the Mets lost 4 of those 5 games by 1 run, 1 of them by 2 runs. You often have to judge teams not only by their wins, but by their losses. Are they in the game until the end? Are they playing exciting baseball? Is the game over in the 9th inning or the 5th? Teams that play until the final out are going to allow themselves a greater chance of success and comebacks, and so far the Mets are doing just that. Of course, it'd be much nicer for them to win more of those close games, but there are 152 games left to play.

Tonight's game against Milwaukee was another nailbiter for the Metropolitans that saw Gary Sheffield get his 500th career HR in a key situation with the team down by a run, tying the game and allowing the solid bullpen to keep them in the game until Luis Castillo became the hero in the bottom 9 by hitting an infield single with 2 out that scored Carlos Delgado from 3rd for the CitiField walkoff victory.

Of course had the Mets lost tonight, fans would somehow find a way to blame Willie Randolph again.

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It's still very early in the season, and most teams seem to have their fair share of problems right now except perhaps for the Florida Marlins. The Red Sox are in the AL East cellar, and a lot of the standings 10-11 games in, are a tad lopsided. But fans and media pundits alike have to remember that what happens in April rarely reflects the final results at the end of September.

Both the Marlins and Padres are off to very hot starts. Are both going to win their division? Not likely with the Marlins, and no way in hell with the Padres. Is Toronto going to win the AL East? Not a chance. But it always leads to a never-ending string of panic from each team's fanbase that "drastic actions" must be taken in order to right the ship immediately!!!!

Maybe these same people forget how hot the 2008 Arizona Diamondbacks were for most of the season, only to fade away when August (and Manny Ramirez) came around.

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One team that's already had enough problems both on and off the field, are my 2nd favorite team, the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim).

Three of their top starters in their pitching rotation began the season on the DL: John Lackey, Ervin Santana, and Kelvim Escobar.

While Lackey began last season the DL as well (and Escobar spent the entire season on the DL),  Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana stepped up to hold the team together along with Jered Weaver and Jon Garland, until mid-May when ace Lackey came back.

This season, it's even rougher, certainly off the field. The tragedy that all of baseball suffered with the loss of Nick Adenhart, which has affected both the team and fanbase on multiple levels.

Add to that the injury to slugger Vladimir Guerrero, who will be out for at least a month with a pectoral muscle tear injury. There's hope that Vlad can heal without the need for surgery, but losing the team's power bat for any length of time is never a positive, and could potentially shake things up in the AL West. As it is, the Angels are off to a slow start, and Seattle is on fire.

The Angels opened a 3-game series tonight in Minnesota at the MetroDome, and pretty much every one of their pitchers did horribly tonight with the exception of Justin Speier, who ironically enough, usually is terrible out of the bullpen. He pitched 2 IP, 4 Ks, no hits. Everyone else, an utter disaster.

That was capped off by a Jason Kubel grandslam in the bottom of the 8th off of Angel reliever Jason Bulger which took the Twins from down 9-7, to an 11-9 victory taking the opener.

The Angels' bullpen, usually one of their greatest strengths, has not been too strong this season ever since Frankie Rodriguez went to New York. Jose Arredondo and Scot Shields, normally rocks of this team's 7th and 8th innings, currently have 7.20 ERAs on the season. I'm confident things will normalize over the course of the next couple of months, but it does raise an eyebrow or two.

I've never been a big fan of a playoff system that allows more than half of the teams in any league to make the playoffs. 16 out of 30 teams to be exact. But, more games = more revenues for the NHL. Even though it is really kinda ridiculous.

It really SHOULD be limited to the top 4 teams in the East and West, which would eliminate 1 round from the NHL playoffs. I blame the NBA for setting this silly precedent.

Regardless, here are my predictions for the 1st round of the NHL playoffs...

Eastern Conference:
Boston Bruins (1 seed) vs. Montreal Canadiens (8 seed)

8 seeds rarely do well in th NHL playoffs, because you know, they're not nearly as good as the top team in the conference? This matchup will be no different. Plus with Bruins goalie Tim Thomas possessing the best goalie save percentage and GAA numbers in the league this season, Montreal is going to have a helluva time scoring goals against Boston.

My pick: Boston sweeps in 4 games.

Washington Capitals (2 seed) vs. New York Rangers (7 seed)
The Rangers only have one hope of winning this series. And his name is Hendrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist has been a fantastic goalie for the Rangers this season, even though his team has struggled mightily on offense most of the season. Players like Markus Naslund and Chris Drury have failed to produce at top-tier levels. But you know who has?
That Alexander Ovechkin fella.

Speaking of Ovechkin, I love this:
Ovechkin said following the Caps' practice Tuesday to the NY Daily News: "I like playing over there. Sometimes the ice is no good over there because (of) lots of concerts, lots of dog shows, something like that coming over there. It kind of smells no good over there sometimes."

The truth is, it's the stank of Ranger fans.

My pick: Washington Capitals in 5 games.

New Jersey Devils (3 seed) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (6 seed)

This is actually one of the more intriguing matchups of the 1st round, as it's not as cut and dry an end result as the aforementioned series.  The Devils are not as strong as they have been in recent years, and the Hurricanes have had a very strong finish to the regular season going 13-3-2 over the final 18. Goalie Cam Ward has been extremely solid for Carolina in goal. When New Jersey dominates the regular season, they're a strong favorite to win it all. But the Devils weren't the best team in the East this year, even though they won the Atlantic division.

I'm leaning towards the upset here, so...
My Pick: Carolina in 6 games.

Pittsburgh Penguins (4 seed) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (5 seed)

Malkin, Crosby, Bylsma, Fleury. The Flyers? Uhhhh, Carter? Yeah, the battle for Pennsylvania is going to Pittsburgh, again. Philly will put up a fight and make it interesting, but a series win is not in their future.

My Pick: Pittsburgh in 6 games.

Western Conference:
San Jose Sharks (1 seed) vs. Anaheim Ducks (8 seed)

Full disclosure: I'm an Anaheim Ducks fan.

The knock against San Jose is that despite them making the playoffs every year for a decade now, they can't get to the Cup Finals and only once got to the Western Conference finals in 2003-2004 when they lost to Calgary.

But in goal, Evgeni Nabokov is far more dependable this season than either Jonas Hiller, and certainly better than the shaky J.S. Giguere, who hasn't been himself this season at all. While Giguere has the postseason experience and may start a game or two, the Ducks have to depend on Hiller this time out. The Sharks were a little shaky towards the end of the season, and the Ducks finished strong enough to just squeak into the 8th seed.

Ultimately though, San Jose was the best team in the NHL winning the Presidents' trophy, and they're not losing in the 1st round. Much as it pains me...

My Pick: San Jose in 6 games.

Detroit Red Wings (2 seed) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (7 seed)

Congratulations to the Blue Jackets for making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. A big part of that success is due to outstanding rookie goaltender Steve Mason, who recorded 10 shutouts this season to lead the NHL, along with the 2nd best GAA numbers in the league behind Boston's Tim Thomas.

But Detroit has Osgood and Conklin, both very good goaltenders in their own right. Heck, Osgood is one of the best goaltenders of all-time and has a ton of postseason experience, even if Ozzie's regular season numbers were terrible.

The bottom line is that no matter how strong Steve Mason has been this season, Detroit's offense (Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Hossa) is a big red machine of huge proportions.

While this may be the NHL's equivalent of Michigan vs. Ohio State, Columbus is at a huge disadvantage this time around. Even though they split the season series 3-3, the Red Wings are too dominant not to heavily favor.

My Pick:
Detroit in 5 games.

Vancouver Canucks (3 seed) vs. St. Louis Blues (6 seed)

Two Western Conference teams that had excellent second halves. Vancouver gets home ice, and they have Roberto Luongo healthy. The Blues still have too many of their better players injured and they won't be playing in the series.

My Pick: Vancouver Canucks in 5 games.

Chicago Blackhawks (4 seed) vs. Calgary Flames (5 seed)

Blackhawks goalie Nikolai Khabibulin has a  career record of 22-5-2 against Calgary. That's pure pwnage.
And Chicago won all 4 games this season from Calgary. The Flames should however, put up a tough fight, but the youth of Chicago combined with the resurgence of the Bulin Wall, should get Chicago past the 1st round.

My Pick: Chicago Blackhawks in 7 games.

Man stabbed after Dodger Stadium home opener

7:38 PM | April 13, 2009

The Dodgers home opener against the San Francisco Giants was marred by violence Monday afternoon when a man was stabbed multiple times after getting into an argument with several men in a pickup truck, Los Angeles police said.

The stabbing was reported at 5:43 p.m. in parking lot 6 at Dodger Stadium, said Officer Karen Rayner. The victim, who was not immediately identified, was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in serious condition.

Police are searching for the assailant, who fled with two others in a black pickup truck, Rayner said.

"Officers have a good description of the vehicle and the suspects, and we expect to make arrests," she said.

About the same time,  police received a report of a man with a gun in parking lot 4. Rayner said police later determined that the man had been vandalizing cars and was unarmed. He fled before officers arrived.

Despite scattered incidents of violence at the stadium, there have been no cases of significant  violence in recent years.

Complaints about unruly fans at the ballpark continue, and the stadium has a history of problems that critics have blamed on lax security.

In 2003, Marc Antenorcruz of West Covina was walking out of the stadium after a game when he got into an argument with a group of men that included Pete Marron. Marron was later convicted of shooting Antenorcruz to death.

Fan misbehavior stemming from a club promotion early in the 2005 season led the Dodgers to hire uniformed Los Angeles Police Department officers to patrol the stands. 

Later that year, a clash between private security guards and unlicensed vendors working near the stadium turned into a violent brawl after a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, leaving several men hospitalized with stab wounds.

-- Andrew Blankstein

By now, the story of Angels' rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart is quite well-known. Just hours after his 4th MLB appearance with the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, April 8th, pitching 6 shutout innings against the Oakland A's, Nick and 2 friends were killed as a result of a drunk driver in the morning hours of Thursday, April 9th. The driver of the minivan, identified as Andrew Gallo, 22, from Riverside, CA, was going approximately 60 mph when he plowed into the silver Mitsubushi Eclipse that Nick and 3 friends were in.

Only one of the passengers from the crash survived.

There's not much more to the tragedy that I can write about here. I was supposed to go the Angels-A's game on Thursday, but obviously with the terrible events that day, the game was postponed.

Below is the opening Fox Sports broadcast from the Angels-Red Sox game on Friday night, April 10th.

For reasons unknown, the portion which I really wanted to find, a montage video of Nick Adenhart set to Train's "Calling All Angels," a song that is basically the anthem of the Los Angeles Angels played before every home game, was removed from the web version of the video. 

If anyone knows where that video can be found, I'd love to see it.