BSB #16: Wild World of Free Agency

     Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Bach's Sports Box. The NFL free agency is in full swing and there have been some down right shocking moves. Now to make things easier on myself I'm just going to include trades in my free agency post because I can. Creative power and all that good stuff. Besides the fact that there hasn't been a tone of trades so to do a post on just trades would be about four sentences long. So instead of just saying the same thing that ESPN is I'm going to give you my top 3 in these categories: Best Trades, Best Signings, Worst Signings, and Under the Table. So let's dig in.

     So as I was saying there hasn't been very many trades, in fact the have only been three so far which in part is why each category I'm going to talk about is top 3 instead of top 5. 

     Top 3 Trades: 

•      Percy Harvin traded to Seattle from Minnesota. Harvin was traded for multiple draft picks in 2013 and 2014. I think this is the best traded so far of the offseason because Seattle is a team on the rise. Two years ago it was bringing in Marshawn Lynch. Last year it was Russell Wilson and the addition of Harvin gives Wilson that home run threat wide receiver that will carry them deeper into the playoffs.
•      Anquan Boldin traded to San Francisco from Baltimore. Boldin was traded for a 6th round pick in 2013. Are you kidding me? Boldin caught 2 TDs in the Super Bowl! He is a dangerous physical specimen at the receiver position. He is getting a bit older but he has Crabtree and Vernon Davis to help take pressure off of him. Great pick up for a low price. 
•      Alex Smith traded to Kansas City from San Francisco. Smith was traded for a 2013 2nd round pick and a conditional pick in 2014. With the release of Matt Cassel the pressure once again is solely on the shoulders of Alex Smith. Smith once again is going to have to learn a new offense under new KC head coach Andy Reid who has had pretty good success with QBs in the past. Smith also has a pretty good run game lead by Jamal Charles and an underrated target at receiver in Dwayne Bowe.

     Top 3 Best Signings:

•      Mike Wallace signed a 5 year contract with the Miami Dolphins. Miami has a young QB in Ryan Tannehill and the addition of a young elite receiver like Wallace will fill a huge void in Miami that Brandon Marshall couldn't. Miami has been one of the more active teams in free agency with some big defensive signings as well as another offensive player that will make an appearance later on this list. Look for a vast improvement on offense this year in Miami.
•      LaRon Landry signed a 4 year contract with the Indianapolis Colts. The weakest part of the Colts defense last year was their secondary. They make a big improvement signing Safety Landry who comes from the NY Jets. Landry had 99 total tackles, 2 INTs (1 for a TD), and 4 forced fumbles last season. All career highs.
•      Wes Welker signed a 2 year contract with the Denver Broncos. What to say here that hasn't already been said? Well if I'm Tom Brady can I ask Mr. Kraft for the money back I gave up to resign guys like Welker? I mean really New England? You have now just let one of your top contenders sign Peyton Manning a new, younger Brandon Stokley. 

     Top 3 Worst Signings:

•      Danny Amendola signed a 5 year contract with New England. Well Patriots fans say hello to your new Wes Welker. This is my worst signing so far. Now on the other hand New England players tend to be a product of a system. Just look at Matt Cassel. Amendola has only played 12 games in the last two years and he is only heading into his fourth season. Had this only been a 2 year contract for a lot less money it wouldn't have been a bad pick up but Amendola needs to prove he can stay on the field.
•      Reggie Bush signed a 4 year contract with Detroit. In my mind if Bush goes mind to late 2nd round back in the 2006 NFL Draft (where he should have gone) his career would be completely different. Instead he goes number 2 overall and is a huge bust. He has never brought that home run hitting ability he had in college to the NFL. Detroit could have used this money else where. 
•      Shonn Greene signed a 3 year contract with Tennessee. I really don't understand this move. Greene was never a game changer in New York (Jets), and Tennessee has Chris Johnson who although has been slumping is still one of the best backs in the league.

     Top 3 Under the Table Signings:

•      Dustin Keller signed a 1 year contract with Miami. This is my top under the table signing. Keller comes in and replaces Anthony Fasano who signed with Kansas City. The big question mark here is if Keller who has had injury problems can stay healthy. If he can he could be a very dangerous target for Ryan Tannehill. 
•      Erik Walden signed a 4 year contract with Indianapolis. Walden was primarily a back Outside Linebacker in Green Bay but has performed well in big situations. He also has Super Bowl experience  that could come in handy for a young team. The biggest thing with Walden is that he has had problems with late hits on the QB. With Pagano he could emerge as a star in the NFL.

     Okay so I lied. I only have two under the table signings. The other signing I was gonna use was Conner Barwin signing a 6 year contract with the Eagles but really the only reason I was going to say that is because he is a former Cincinnati Bearcat. So I really only have two.

     Alright so that was this weeks edition of the Bach's Sports Bach. For all of those who take the time to read my posts I thank you. Have a great weekend.

BSB #15: BSB on SB from SB

    Hello all and welcome to the Bach's Sports Box. We have reached post number 15 and it falls on the eve of my Spring Break. So tonight's post is coming to you from my home town of South Bend. This post is going to be short and sweet because I'm on break. Before I start with the main focus of this post I want to give the Chicago Blackhawks a shout out for extending the streak to 21 games tonight in a 4-3 OT win against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Hawks have won 8 games in a row now and travel to Detroit to play the Red Wings on Sunday.

     Tonight I took my first trip to the new Compton Family Ice Arena on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. The Irish hockey team took on the Falcons of Bowling Green in a 4-3 victory. So I decided I would use tonight's post to talk about the new arena. For starters the University did a great job at matching the outside brick work with the Joyce Center (Basketball) and the Football stadium. When you walk in the doors you get that ND atmosphere plus the rush of dare I say "new car smell." The arena consists of ice level seating and an upper deck. I was in the first row of the upper deck just to the left of one of the nets and the band. One thing that Compton has that I haven't seen in any other hockey arena is that the the team benches were on opposite sides of the ice instead of being on the same side. This is due to the lockers rooms being built on opposite sides of the arena. From what I can tell there isn't a bad seat in the house and the seat I was in had a great view. The major issue I noticed is that when the Zamboni resurfaced the ice in between periods one end of the ice seemed to gather water meaning that the facility or at least the ice probably isn't level, but it sure was funny watching the officials grab the ice scrappers the clear it up before the start of the next period. To sum things up the University did a great job with the facility which cost $50,000,000 and holds just over 5,000 people.

     Well that is going to sum things up for this week of the BSB. Like I said short and sweet due to me being on Spring Break. Once again I would like to say thank you to all who actually take the time to read these posts. Hope every one has a good weekend and Happy March!

                                                   !Warning Explicit Content!

BSB #14: Combine and More

     Hello and welcome to BSB #14. In this post I'm going to talk about the NFL Combine a bit which starts on Saturday and last until Tuesday. I will also point out some players to keep an eye on leading into the NFL Draft in late April. Yet before I get to any of that I want to mention my Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks are now 13-0-3 on the season and the only team that hasn't lost a game in regulation yet. This has lead the Hawks to 16 straight games without a regulation loss, tying an NHL record set by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2006-07 season. The Ducks would win the Stanley Cup that season. The Blackhawks can break the record tonight against the San Jose Sharks for the third and final meeting this season.

   
     So for those of you who don't know how the Combine works I will explain. The Combine takes place over four days where the NFL invites some of the best College football players to Indianapolis to show off their skills to the 32 NFL teams. The players are divided into groups based on their position: RB, QB, DE, etc. This year the schedule for position is as follows: Saturday (tight ends, offensive linemen, and special teams), Sunday (quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers), Monday (defensive linemen, linebackers), and Tuesday (defensive backs). The players run through position specific drills and drills that every player does. Now some players might not do every drill and wait to do those during their pro days which lead us up   to the NFL Draft. The 40 yard dash is the drill almost everyone knows about but there is also the long jump, vertical, bench press, and three cone drill. The players also have to take the Wonderlic Test used to determine player aptitude. A 50 is a perfect score and the only player known to do that was Pat McInally who a Punter and Wide Receiver for the Bengals from 1976 to 1985. Offensive tackles average the highest score on the test with a score of 26. Quarterbacks average 24 and most teams look for a score of at least 21.

     Players to Watch:
     Saturday: My player to watch at Tight End is Notre Dame's Tyler Eifert. He is by far the best option at the position in this years draft. The 6'5" 250 lb Eifert is a big red zone threat who can line up at the receiver position. His numbers were down a little this year but he didn't have Michael Floyd to take pressure off of him. Look for the Atlanta Falcons to make a strong push for him on draft day. Another Option: Travis Kelce, Cincinnati.
     As for offensive lineman many think the Kansas City Chiefs will take Texas A&M's Luke Joeckel first overall but my player to watch is Alabama's Barrett Jones. Jones at 6'4" 306 can play ever position on the O line and has performed well on the biggest stage winning multiple National Championships. I think he will be a mid to late first round pick in the draft.

     Sunday: This is one of the weakest QB classes we have seen in several years and one of it's stars, USC's Matt Barkley wont be throwing at the Combine due to the injury he suffered late in the season. I actually have two QB's to watch. The first is Oklahoma's Landry Jones. Jones has played well the last to season for Bob Stoops. My other pick is Tyler Bray out of Tennessee. He is a 6'6" big armed QB but he does enter the Combine with questions about his durability. Yet he did break a few of Peyton Manning's records while at Tennessee. Look for Bray to be a day 2 pick to a team like Houston or Arizona.
     For the running back position I'm looking at Wisconsin's Montee Ball. The kid is a workhorse and he came pretty darn close to Barry Sanders' record for touchdowns in a season from the 1988 season. I think it makes perfect sense for him to go to Green Bay but then again it made perfect sense for Steve Alford to go to the Pacers in the 1987 NBA draft but that didn't happen. Also keep an eye out for Ray Graham from Pittsburgh.
     For wide receiver look no further that Robert Woods out of USC. Woods at 6'0" 201 has good speed and hands. He can also get behind defenders for deep balls. I see him as a mid to late 2nd, early 3rd round pick when the draft comes in April.

     Monday: This will be an interesting day because of the linebackers. Manti Te'o will get a lot of attention and it's not only for the whole girlfriend issue. Te'o didn't show up in the National Title and that has some scouts worried about him in big game situations. Yet anyone who watched the ND vs. Oklahoma game knows Te'o made a key interception late in the game that sealed the deal. Te'o will slip to the end of the first round and I think he will fall right into the Baltimore Ravens lap. Also keep an eye on the two Georgia linebackers Jarvis Jones and Alec Ogletree.

     Tuesday: The defensive backs are the last to go on Tuesday and everyone is talking about Dee Milliner from Alabama and they should, but I'm not going to because his presence is obvious. I say keep an eye on Jamoris Slaughter the safety from Notre Dame. Even if he doesn't partake since he missed most of the season due to an injury the guy will get a chance somewhere even if he goes undrafted. Many forget ND played most of this past season with only one of their original starters in the secondary. Slaughter by far was their best DB and I think if he comes back right from his achilles tendon injury he could land somewhere this season but not on draft day.

     Well that should do it for this edition of the Bach's Sports Box. I wont do an extended ending since this post was a bit longer than the last couple. So the last thing I will say is thank you to all who actually take the time to read my posts every week.

BSB #13: Sport Roulette

     Welcome everyone to the Bach's Sports Box post number lucky 13. As you can probably guess by the title of the post I'm going to be jumping all over everything sports for this post because I fell like it. First thing that I'm going to knock out right now is if your looking for something to watch Sunday afternoon in place of football you can check out PBA League Bowling at 3 pm on ESPN. Now for those of you who are asking yourself PBA? Just look back to the end of BSB #12. Also speaking of Sunday Mr. Air Jordan himself is turning the big 50. Yet if you watch ESPN on a regular basis like some people who write a certain blog you would already know this. I believe this Sunday ESPN is going to show Michel Jordan's top 50 plays of his career.

     Now talking about MJ helps me transition into baseball, well I wont inevitably go back to basketball wearing a different number in this post. The MLB season is rapidly approaching and the team that is favored to win the World Series is a shocker. The freakin' Toronto Blue Jays are the favorites to win the Series! Are you kidding me? They favored a team that is in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox. Oh and don't let me forget the Rays and a much improved Athletics team. I guess we will see what happens come October.

     As far as news for the NFL it's just the usual off-season stuff. Players getting released, traded, and signing contract extensions. The newest piece of news as far as I can see was Green Bay released Charles Woodson which hurts me a little but lets move on. 

     When I said move on I actually meant that it's time to wrap this edition of the BSB. I was little random and all over the place for this post but that's better than no post. So until next weekend, I hope you enjoyed this look into my box and Happy Birthday Micheal!

  

BSB #12: The Aftermath and Seasons End

       Hello and welcome to The Bach's Sports Box and post number 12. For those of you who are reading this I'm sure you were aware that the Super Bowl was last weekend. I thought I would take a quick moment to pat myself on the back for some spot on predictions...not that I'm gloating or anything. I guessed the winner (Baltimore Ravens) and MVP (Joe Flacco) correctly and I was only off by a few points of the score. The final was 34-31 when I predicted it to be 38-28. Now to the part were I share my thoughts on the game. I'm just going to say straight up that if the power doesn't go out we might have seen the biggest blowout in Super Bowl history. At 28-6 with just over 13 minutes to go in the third quarter the Ravens were rolling in every phase of the game and Kaepernick and the 49ers offense couldn't find a rhythm. After sitting of the bench for 84 minutes it's not surprise that the Ravens offense seemed flat. The game also saw an officiating crew seemed to leave their yellow flags at home. I saw several occasions for both teams where players where jumping offside and nothing was called. In my mind though that was the circle coming round on an overall shitty season for the NFL officials.

  
       As a fan of the NFL I was glad to see Ray Lewis go out on top and perhaps Ed Reed. I know Reed has said he plans on returning but who knows what could happen during the off-season. Also speaking of the off-season, we have officially reached it. This is the point of the year where I start to get depressed until I remember that it's about time for Baseball Season!! I'll save the baseball talk for future posts though. What I will say is that I can't wait until the end of April when the NFL Draft will take place.

       Well that's it for this edition of the BSB. Now I know what "Oh no the football season is over he isn't going to post every week." That's not the case, I will talk about the freakin PBA if I have to just to put up a post weekly. The last thing I wanted to say is that I thought the commercials were a bit lacking this year and although I thought Beyonce did a good job during halftime, her performance seemed short compared to previous years. That being said I think my favorite commercial was Audi's prom night commercial.

BSB #11: The Super Bowl Cometh

       Welcome to the eleventh edition of the Bach Sports Box. We are now officially less than 48 hours away from Super Bowl XLVII or for those of you who don't read Roman Numerals that's Super Bowl 47. This year for the first time ever the coaches of the two teams are brothers. This has lead to many different names for the game such as The Harbowl and the Superbaugh. Which ever name you decide to call the game it doesn't change that fact that it is being held in New Orleans for the tenth time in NFL history. The last time it was in New Orleans was 2002 when the Patriots beat the Rams for their first championship in franchise history.

       Going into Sunday's game the Ravens and the 49ers have a combined 6-0 Super Bowl record. The 49ers' last championship came in 1995 against the Chargers. With five championships the 49ers could tie the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most Super Bowl wins in NFL history if they win on Sunday. The Ravens won in their only Super Bowl appearance back in 2001 against the NY Giants. They will be looking to send Ray Lewis out on top with another championship, that is if he still plans to retire.

       Now for what I'm sure you all have been waiting for. It's time for me to make my pick and predictions for the game. I am going with the Baltimore Ravens to beat the San Francisco 49ers. I think the game will be close until the 4th quarter and that the final score will be 38-28. Joe Flacco will be the game's MVP finally showing the NFL that he should be right on the cusp of being considered an elite quarterback. And finally in the end the lack of experience is finally going to get to Colin Kaepernick as well as the Ravens defense.

       Well I hope you enjoyed this weeks look into my sports box. Until next weekend keep sporting.

BSB #10: Pro Bowl Weekend

     Hello all and welcome to the tenth edition of the Bach's Sports Box or maybe I should call it the David Tennant post. Sorry I've been watching a lot of Dr. Who as of late, so lets move on. This weekend is the NFL All-Star game or as it's known the Pro Bowl. Speaking that it's not really an all-star game since several players are in the Super Bowl so they can't compete since the Pro Bowl is now held before the Super Bowl. Also there are the players who are smart enough to not attend since no one takes the game seriously anymore anyway. To tell you the truth I'm already tired of talking about the Pro Bowl so I'm just going to make my prediction. The AFC squad is going to win in a barn burner 52-49 and my MVP choice is Andrew Luck who replaced Tom Brady on the AFC squad.

     Tom decided he would rather go here on vacation:

     Look he brought Romo with him.

     All jokes aside I realize this post is pretty shitty but none of the sports stories really interested me this week. So I can assure you that next weeks post will be better. Plus it will include my Super Bowl pick and a recap of the Pro Bowl. Just kidding on the last part. Also a quick update on the NHL season, my Chicago Blackhawks are 4-0 and then I don't care about the rest of the league. So until next weekend I hope you've enjoyed my Sport's Box.

     Chills every time.

NFL Coaches: Winners and Losers

     Before I get into the topic of this post I need to comment on my Super Bowl picks. Both Green Bay and Houston got beat last week, well beat might be the soft way of putting it. So for this weekend I'm going to put my fictional money on Baltimore to beat New England in the AFC Championship game and San Francisco to beat Atlanta in the NFC Championship game.

    Alright now for the point of this post. Actually I'm going to side bar here for a second and make two comments. First, I am thankful that starting tomorrow at 3:00 pm on NBC my Chicago Blackhawks will kick off the start of the NHL season against the reigning Stanley Cup Champion LA Kings. Second, anyone who has read any of my previous posts know that I am extremely inconsistent with my post. So starting with this post I will be doing a post a week on either Fridays or Saturdays. So if your bored come read the Bach's Sports Box and I will add to your growing boredom.

    We entered the year 2013 with a bushel of NFL coaches losing their jobs. We witnessed coaches of all different shapes and sizes (yes that is a fat joke about Andy Reid) fall prey to the ax this season. And with every coach fired a new one must be hired and this season there was 8 vacant head coaching jobs. So with my "expert" experience I am going to tell you 5 readers who the winners and losers were this year in filling the head coaching void.

     Winners:

      Arizona Cardinals: Arizona fired Ken Whisenhunt after 6 seasons and one Super Bowl appearance. Arizona made what I believe was the best hire going with Colts offensive coordinator and interim head coach Bruce Arians. Arizona is in dire need of a QB and Arians is the Willy Wonka to the Chocolate Factory that is QB development. Just look on his resume under the name Manning. It will be interesting to see what Arians does with Kevin Kolb and John Skelton, but my money says that probably one, maybe both will be looking for a new team this season.

     San Diego Chargers: Here is a perfect example of a team that was mismanaged. I'm not even going to go into how Norv Turner screwed up in San Diego, but it was bad. Instead I'm going to tell you that the Chargers hired divisional rival the Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy. The Chargers job is similar to the Arizona job but it comes with an established QB in Phillip Rivers. Rivers isn't the best QB that McCoy has worked with but he is defiantly better than the worst (cough* Tim Tebow).

     Jacksonville Jaguars: Yes you read right. I think Gus Bradley can make Jacksonville a winner, but he needs to do what he does best which is make tough defenses and he needs to find a QB because Blaine Gabbert and Chad Henne are not the answer. This is a team that desperately wants to return to the Mark Brunell days.

     Losers:

     Cleveland Browns: WTF? I can't stress how happy I am that I'm not a Browns fan. Cleveland hired Rob Chudzinski the offensive coordinator from the Carolina Panthers. In Cleveland you have Brandon Weeden who is on the complete other side of the spectrum from Cam Newton. Plus they hired Norv Turner as their offensive coordinator. This franchise just needs a purging where the only survivor is Trent Richardson.

     Philadelphia Eagles: Let me just say right now that if any of my Loser choice are wrong this will be the one. I think Chip Kelly is a good coach but I don't like what he did to Oregon. I understand he had a change of heart but in this situation you have to go with your first instinct. He is going to regret leaving Eugene plain and simple. The Eagles are an all-star team and when I say all-star I mean they don't play as a team. Maybe Chip can get them all on the same page but that's just the start of the problem in Philly.

     Kansas City Chiefs: Speaking of the Eagles, Kansas City hired Philly's former coach Andy Reid. Reid had been in Philadelphia for 14 seasons but I doubt a change of scenery will help his struggles. I'm guessing it's a safe bet that Matt Cassel will not be in KC by the start of the season and Brady Quinn is not a full time starter. They are already in a tough division and an elite running back doesn't mean as much as it used to.

     Stupid or Lucky?

     Chicago Bears: Marc Trestman? Really? For those of you who don't know Marc Trestman he was the Head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. For those of you who haven't heard of the CFL your not missing anything. Trestman does have NFL experience as a coordinator with a few teams. He will be tasked with trying to make an inconsistent offense and QB consistent. There is another factor that needs to be consider though, this defense is starting to get old. Will this prove to be a stupid or lucky hire? We will have to wait for the season to know.

     Buffalo Bills: This team isn't that bad they just play the machine that is the Patriots twice a season. Which is why I was surprised they hired Doug Marrone and not Lovie Smith. This team could have used Smith's defensive knowledge. Instead they went to the the college ranks and hired Marrone from Syracuse. I've never heard of him which is shocking so I'm gonna call this the wild card of the bunch. If they win they win and if they lose well that's no big surprise.

So you now have seen inside my sports box. So until next weekend I leave you with this video: