It's All About DeSean

As training camp quickly approaches, the X-factor and secret weapon for this team is undoubtedly DeSean Jackson. In his years with Donovan, Desean had 62 and 63 receptions in 2008 and 2009 respectivly. Last year was his best as he caught 9 TD passes, but I think DeSean's best days as an Eagle are yet to come. DeSean is young and explosive he has lightning quick speed, and when he has the ball in the open field and after catches he is extremely dangerous. While Jackson had very good numbers during his time with Donovan, I don't feel that he ever truly reached his true potential. In other words, I think the Eagles and Donovan were using DeSean in all the wrong ways. This year is going to be different. This year the Eagles are going to start getting the ball to Jackson way more and letting him make plays. Desean is going to run a lot of quick slant routes and Kolb is going to feed the ball to him in a hurry. The most dangerous aspect of DeSean Jackson is his ability to make plays after he catches the football. He's got the speed, the moves, and the jukes to make guys miss in the open field. When you have someone as dangerous and as explosive as Jackson it opens up many things for the rest of the offense. Defenses will be forced to double cover DeSean and this opens up things for not only other wide recievers but also the run game. The run game is something the Eagles have to focus on in this upcoming season. DeSean does so much for this team, and he is an extremely exciting player to watch week after week. With the talent and natural raw ability that DeSean has, the sky is the limit not only for him but also for the Eagles.

Flyers Looking Toward Future

After the Flyers painful defeat in the Stanley Cup, the best thing that they can do now is move on and focus on next season. The Flyers captivated this city and made everyone a believer in this team. They gave everyone magical memories and never, ever gave up. Even after such a thrilling playoff run the Flyers fell short of their ultimate goal, the Stanley Cup. While people may say that the Flyers should consider this season a success, I strongly disagree becasue a successful season means you won a championship. The Flyers have the talent to make another championship run next season. Guys like Brierre, Gagne, Richards, Carter, Giroux, and Pronger will all be back next season. They just need a few tweaks, a few additions here and there to put them over the top. At this point, the Flyers can't dwell too much on the past season. The front office has to focus on free agency and look for guys that can come in and help this team. The players need to first take a deep breath and take a long well deserved vacation. After resting and regrouping they need to hit the weight room and train extremely hard because they know that they have the team to win a Stanley Cup. Going into this off season, personell and players alike will be extremely motivated to work hard because they know how close they came to winning a championship. In the back of everyone's mind this offseason is what can I do to help my team not only get back to the Stanley Cup, but win it and give this city another championship.

Draft Prievew: Evan Turner

If you have been following the Sixers offseason moves, you have definitely heard the name Evan Turner. Evan Turner is a guard from Ohio State and is one of the most taleneted players in the country. Last year, Turner averaged 20.4 points per game and he won many awards including the AP player of the year. It can be argued that Turnere is the best player in the draft so adding him to this team could help the Sixers greatly. Although he is aruably the best player in the draft, Turner is projected to go number 2 overall. I am extremely happy that the Sixers are going to have a real shot at getting this guy. He seems like a smart humble individual who can really contribute to this Sixers team. While he is not a LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, I feel that Turner has the talent and skills to be an All Star in the NBA. His work ethic is also extremely impressive and that could rub off on some of the other guys on the team. Turner also has the mental capability to be a leader, something the Sixers have not had in a while. Turner is someone you can build your franchise around and provides a ray of hope for this struggling team. Evan Turner is the guy I want, hands down. I just pray and hope that come June 24th, the Sixers make the right decison.

Goalie Problems

Heading into this off season, the biggest question surrounding this Flyers team is who will be the goalie next year? While Michael Leighton at times in the playoffs looked like a hall of famer, he also looked at times like he didn't know what sport he was playing. There is no doubt in my mind that Leighton contributed greatly to the Flyers run to the Stanlye Cup. He had the best numbers out of any other goalie in the playoffs, and his home record and goals against average were remarkable to say the least. Still, Michael Leighton is not a number 1 goalie, at least not in the NHL. He is a very solid backup who just happened to be playing with an unbelievably hot Flyers team. And when it came down to the pressure situations, Leighton let the Flyers down big time. There were some goals in games 5 and 6 that could have and should have been stopped. The clinching goal that he gave up to Patrick Kane was a terrible way to end such a hard fought playoff run. I don't want to blame Leighton too much, but if the Flyers had a true number 1 goalie on their team in the Stanley Cup, I might be writing an article about how awesome the parade was. Instead, I am discussing what they need to do deffensively to get better for next season. While the other goal tending options in free agency look to be extremely expensive, there is a good chance that Leighton is your starting goalie next season. If the Flyers do decided to go this route, it is imperative that they sign highly talented defenseman to help Leighton out around the net. Early this offseason the primary focus for the Flyers is defense, because in the end defense wins Stanley Cups.

Draft Prievew: John Wall

With the number 2 overall pick in the upcoming NBA draft, the Sixers have many highly talented players to choose from. While it is very likely that Washington, who has the number 1 overall pick will select John Wall, point guard out of Kentucky, there is a chance that he could be in a Sixer uniform next fall. John Wall is one of the most explosive players in the country. Wall as a freshman, averaged 34.8 minutes per game and 16.8 points. He also averaged 4 rebounds per game and 6.5 assissts. Wall led Kentucky to a 35-3 season and is a pure scorer, and a pure scorer is something the Sixers desperately need. There has been alot of skepticism about drafting another point guard when you already have Jrue Holliday who you drafted last year. My answer to that is who cares. If you have the chance to draft this guy, do it. John Wall is an explosive scorer who can take over games. He is a future super star in my mind and can lead this Sixers team to victory. I realize that it is a long shot that the Sixers will get Wall, but if the Wizards decide to go in another direction and Wall falls into the Sixers lap, it would be huge and just the break that this franchise needs. There are other players that Sixers can draft and we will look at all of them in the next 2 weeks leading up to the draft.

Phillies Pitchers Getting No Help

Since May 17th, the Phillies are 8-14. Since that time they have struggled greatly to produce runs and have failed miserably to find ways to win games. As of last night, the Phillies are currently tied for second place and 2.5 games behind the first place Braves. Last nights 2-0 loss to the Florida Marlins was a microcosm of the entire Phillies losing stretch. Last night the Phillies got an extremely strong pitching performance from Roy Halladay. Halladay pitched 8 innings and gave up only 1 earned run, but suffered the loss because the offense took the night off. This is exactly what has happened during their losing streak, they have gotten strong pitching and their offense has been non- existent. The Phillies have gotten strong pitching performances from their starters including Roy Halladay, Jamie Moyer and Cole Hamels. They have also gotten strong bullpen help from guys like Jose Contreras, and Brad Lidge. Their pitching has been extremely solid during the past couple of weeks but the Phillies have been unable to put together a strong pitching performance and a strong offensive outing. Right now the Phillies have to find a way to support their starters and give them plenty of run support, because right now the pitchers are the only guys out their playing hard. After a quick home stand in which the Phillies went 3-3, they now face a tough inter league schedule in the upcoming weeks. This weekend the Phils will take on the Red Sox in Boston and then head to New York to take on the Yankees. The next couple of weeks are going to be crucial for the Phils who want to finish up strong before the All-Star break. In addition to taking on the Yankees and Red Sox in inter league play the Phillies will also have to play the Twins, Blue Jays and Indians. The next few weeks will be a real test for this struggling Phillies team, and we will all see what this team is truly made of. The Phillies need to dig deep and find the answers to their offensive struggles. This team is too talented and too experienced to be playing like this, and they need to find a way to win ball games once again.

So Close

On Wednesday night, the Flyers magical playoff run came to an abrupt halt. It was a truly unbelievable run that started way back when the Flyers won a shootout on the last day of the regular season against the Rangers. From there the number 7 seeded Flyers then beat the Devils and faced and in their next series an improbable 3 games to none deficit against the Bruins. The Flyers defied the odds and beat the Bruins in 7 games becoming just the 3rd team in NHL history to come back from 3-0. The Flyers took on a hot Montreal team and beat them quickly in 5 games. Already the Flyers had achieved a lot. The Flyers went from being a team who almost missed the playoffs to a team ready to win a Stanley Cup. The Flyers had to get through an extremely talented Chicago Blackhawks team in order to bring this city a championship. The Flyers lost the first 2 games of the series but battled back at home to even the series at 2 games a piece. The series shifted back to Chicago where the Blackhawks won a decisive game 5. Game 6 in Philadelphis was another back and forth close game but Chicago eventually won 4-3 in OT off a goal from Patrick Kane. Kane imediately started celebrating after he scored, but there was a sense of confusion as to whether the puck actually went in. When I finally saw the replay, reality quickly set in. The Flyers magical fairy-tale play off run was sadly over. As I watched the Chicago players hoist the coveted Stanley Cup, I couldn't help but think that we really should have won, that that was our trophy. And maybe if we could have stolen game 1 or gotten a few lucky bounces to go our way the Stanley Cup would be back in Philadelphia. Even though they lost the Flyers gave this city an amazing run and something that I know I will never forget.

New Quarterback, New Team

When the Eagles traded Donovan McNabb to the Redskins early this off season, Kevin Kolb quickly became the new face of the franchise. Kevin Kolb, as the starting quarterback of the Eagles, ushers in a new era of football to this city, the Kevin Kolb era. This new era is extremely exciting because having a quick and accurate quarterback like Kevin Kolb allows you todo a large variety of things on offense. As good as Donovan McNabb was for this team, over the years he turned away from his quick and explosive form to a pocket passer where he relied to heavily on the long ball. Donovan also had problems getting rid of the football. He would go through way too many reads and was unable to hit guys in stride, something a quarterback in this style of offense needs to be able to do. Kevin Kolb brings with him a quick release, and the ability to hit guys like DeSean Jackson in stride. You will see a lot more quick passes this season, and it will be interesting to see how Kolb handles his new role as leader of this team.

Franchise On The Rise

The Sixers finished the 2009-10 season with one of their worst seasons in franchise history. With coaching problems and lack of a desire to win, the Sixers failed to reach the playoffs and were left with many difficult decisons to make at the end of the season. The Sixers started their off season by first firing head coach Eddie Jordan. GM Ed Stefanski admitted that his decison of hiring Jordan was a mistake, and focused his early off season efforts to find a good coach. After many weeks of many candidates and long, tough interviews, the Sixers signed former Sixer player Doug Collins. Doug Collins brings a lot of coaching experience, and he is looking to build on the success that he had with the Sixers as a player. The Sixers also landed the number 2 spot in the upcoming NBA draft and garunteed them either John Wall or Evan Turner. A franchise that looked down and out just a few weeks ago, suddenly looks promising and draft night will be a huge night for the future of this Sixers franchise.

Battling Through The Tough Times

It has been almost a month since my last blog post and a lot has happened in that time. At the time of my last blog post, the Phils were flying high in first place with a comfortable 5 game lead. The weekend after that post they went to Milwaukee and swept the Brewers but when they came home, thats when the problems really began to start. Let's recap and go through series by series and see where the Phils began to struggle and what they can do to become a first place ball club once again.

The Phils returned home from their sweep against the Brewers for a nice homestand which included a 2 game series vs the Pirates, a 2 game series vs the Cubs and a 3 game affair against the Red Sox. The Phils started their homestand in a big way by beating the lowly Pirates by a score of 12-2. They then lost the next game 2-1 and had to settle for a split. Next the Cubs came into town and they split them also. I know that you may be thinking what is so bad about splits? The problem is that you are at home, the teams they split with stink, and when you think about it, apart from the 12-2 bashing they werent hitting the ball that good, and that is not a good sign especially when you are facing lower caliber teams. Next the Red Sox rolled into town and the Phillies started that series off with a win by getting a strong outing from Hamels. The Red Sox took the next 2 games and the series by winning on Saturday 5-0 and on Sunday 8-3 in Roy Halladay's worst outing of the year. Besides the win on Friday night, the Phillies did not play well at all. They got shutout on Saturday and got absolutely destroyed on Sunday. The week to come would not be much better.

After going 3-4 in their homestand, the Phillies traveled to New York to take on the Mets. I really don't want to elaborate too much on this series. In a nutshell, the Phillies got swept, and got shutout in every game. I think it's best to not talk about the series so let's move on to the next series where the Phillies took on the Marlins.

The Phillies finally scored a run on Friday night and ended a horrific streak of shutout innings. After the dismal series in New York, it seemed that the Phillies would never score another run or win another game ever again. Nevertheless, the Phils were able to win a tough game by a fianl of 3-2 and in doing so snapped a 5 game winning streak. On Saturday night Roy Halladay was perfect, literally. Roy Halladay pitched a perfect game, 27 up and 27 down. Luckily for Roy, the Phils were able to muster a run and secure a lead for him. I personally did not get to see the game, but I can assume that he was lights out seeing as nobody got a hit or walk or run off of him. Even though it was a night of celebration and happiness, real Phillies fans were still worried because the Phils were only able to produce one run, an unearned run at that. On Sunday the Phils lost 1-0 and left Florida to take on the Braves next.

The Phillies got swept in Atlanta. The only silver lining in the series was the fact that you could see that the offense was slowly but surely beginning to come out of the slump. The Phils offense scored only 7 runs in the series but sooner or later the Phils had to come back to life. The Phillies ended their disastrous road trip with a record of 2-7. They got swept by the Mets, took 2 out of 3 from the Fish, and got swept by the Braves. The only positive that could be taken was that even after playing their absolute worst baseball of the season, the Phils were only 2.5 games out of first place behind the Braves. The Phillies stumbled home to take on the Padres next.

On Friday night, the Phils got a solid outing from Roy Halladay and won by a final of 3-2. The win snapped a 4 game losing streak and offered a little hope to the fans that maybe the drought was over. Saturday was also another impressive win as Jamie Moyer pitched his second complete game of the season and helped the Phillies win 6-2. The Phillies finally got some offensive production from Shane Victorino, Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth. The Phils were not able to win the 4 game series and dropped the final 2 games of the series by finals of 6-5 and 3-1. The Phils took on the Marlins last night and won a high scoring affair by a final of 10-8 which brings us to the present date. Overall since May 18 (the date of my last post) the Phils went 6-13. That time span saw 2 losing streaks, a catastrophic offensive drought and a perfect game. At present date, the Phils are only 2 games out of first behind the Braves so even though they played like crap during that span, they still found a way to win ball games. Even when they were playing their worst baseball they were still able to battle through and pick up tough wins, and that is what the truly great teams do. Even when they can't hit the ball to save their life they battle, and keep battling and try to find ways to come out of the slump on the top. So hopefully the drought is over. Hopefully the Phillies worst baseball is behind them, and hopefully they can now focus on being an elite baseball team once again.