The State of Sports Jan 22nd

-Baseball

Theo and The Front office
Chris Snows article on the Red Sox front office is what I call riveting. Snow has had some excellent coverage in the last month, and it shows here when he interviews Blue Jays GM J.P. Riccardi, Damon and Varitek agent Scott Boras, and Padres GM Kevin Towers. Its long, but a good read and I highly suggest you read it.

This article backs up what ive been saying all along. People think that Epstein is going to use Ben and Jed as puppets, and he is going to run the background of the front office. I for three months have been saying otherwise, and Snow basically says that Epstien still would have made the same moves.

The sooner people begin to understand this the sooner they begin to relize that Epstien will be annonced as a consultant to somebody next week. But O'Shaunnessy, Olney, and Pete "The Meat" Sheppard will still cry murder over the fact that Epstien is the man behind the mask of the Red Sox front office. I emplore you to watch the stories come out saying that whatever role for Epstien that is given, he's just going to run the office. I emplore you to watch how people are going to say that Epstien should be the Red Sox President of Baseball Operations.

I love how the Globe has the following poll on its website. What should Theo's role be, is with his return? The number of responses is 24,945 people.
-53.3 percent of the people think he should be the President of Baseball Operations
-24.8 percent of the people think he should be the new GM
-17.4 percent of the people think he should have Lucchino's job
-4.6 percent of the people think he should be a consultant
Thats what people think, and thats what people want to hear. And I predict we will be hearing more of it.

If anything is not positive about the article, is that Towers thought the process in talking to the Red Sox about possible deals, is it took time. But things like that happen in an organization. People need to get caught up to speed and deliberation must be made on what the next move is going to be. While this may be a drawback in the Sox front office, it is nothing like how unorganized the Baltimore Orioles are described to be.

Playoff Preview
I think Carolina isnt going to get the job done today. They have Julius Peppers and Deshaun Foster out today. Not only that, but Nick Goings is thier starting running back. He could come out of nowhere like Samkon Gado did, but I highly doubt it. The reason why the Panthers beat up on the best defense in the league is because thier running game was so good. The Bears gave up a season high 434 yards. This is because they pounded the ball down a defense that I think just got worn out. Even though they were coming off a bye, the Panthers kept the defense on the field all game. And Delhomme got the job done in the air with AP Comeback Player of the Year Steve Smith.

Another reason the Panthers were so good last week is because of Julius Peppers stopping the run. Peppers is so good at what he does for this Carolina defense. The Panthers must have depth, but their run defense is going to be at the mercy of Shaun Alexander. I'm going with Seatle in a blowout.

Pittsburg is just a team that never gives up. I hate the Steelers with a passion, but think they stand a chance against this the Denver Broncos. Unlike the Patriots, Pittsburg doesnt turn the ball over much. The Patriots just didnt have a good game, and turned the ball over a lot. I also think the Pittsburg has a better chance of stopping Denver's lethal running game. I pick Pittsburg in a low scoring 20 point (for both sides) game.