Bleacher Report - Articles by Eric Balkman

Root for the Yankees? I Wish

Eric Balkman — Wed, 13 May 2009 00:29:23 -0400

If only I was a Yankee fan.

Rooting for the Bronx Bombers really is baseball nirvana, isn’t it? After all, New York is seemingly in the pennant chase until at least mid-September every single year. And it would be so nice to cheer for a team that considered anything less than perennially winning the World Series a colossal failure.

Honestly, I am pretty sure that Yankee owner George Steinbrenner would rather have his team contracted from baseball than try to endure a rebuilding season. Say what you want about Steinbrenner, but he simply tries harder to win than any other owner, even if it means splurging on the most irresponsible spending spree since Paris Hilton discovered Louis Vuitton.

Steinbrenner is not oblivious to our nation’s economy, either. He knows just as well as anyone that the U.S. is suffering through its worst recession since World War II. While almost every single other baseball franchise slashed payroll in these tough times, Steinbrenner doled out cash so fast that his checkbook started smoking.

New York signed three free agents this offseason—A.J. Burnett, CC Sabathia, and Mark Teixeira—to contracts totaling over $420 million. And if that’s not enough, New York opened up the brand new Yankee Stadium this season, which cost only a mere $1.6 billion.

When all other baseball teams zig, the Yankees zag.

Fans everywhere covet the seemingly-bottomless money bin that Steinbrenner uses to snatch their home team’s superstars. In fact, every year the Yankees are always one or two players away from being involved in the “greatest team of all time” discussion.

And this is why I wish I was a Yankee fan.

Every team in major league baseball—no matter its size in the market or payroll constraints—has the option to spend frivolously, but New York is the only team that takes full advantage of it. Because of Steinbrenner’s addiction to winning, the Yankees will always bring in the best available talent—regardless of cost—which their fans adore. In the eyes of many Bronx supporters, “buying a championship” is the same as “winning a championship”—and I must admit, I don’t see a difference, either.

It’s for these reasons that the New York Yankees are a necessary evil—every great drama needs a bad guy. Star Wars needs Darth Vader. Batman needs the Joker. Major League Baseball needs the Yankees.

And this is why I can’t root for New York.

After all, if we were all Yankee fans, who would we hate?

Portland Trailblazers' Larry Miller Going the Extra "Mile"

Eric Balkman — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:31:23 -0500

What would happen if you realized you screwed up big time at your job and you knew everyone would notice? What would you do? Would you try and sweep it under the rug and play it off as a minor misstep?

Would you issue a massive apology through your company's PR department and hope that the sympathy created is enough to save your career?

Or would you go on the offensive—proclaiming that anyone trying to take advantage of that mistake would find many more hassle than success if they chose to tangle with you?

Based upon the situation, I might choose differently, but I certainly can't fault Blazers' President Larry Miller for what he did regarding the Darius Miles mess. The mistake in the first place for Portland was taking on Miles and his inflated contract.

But Miller certainly took some controversial steps to ensure that he and the Blazers would not be crippled by that deal.

After waiving the often-injured Miles, Portland had no reason to believe that he would surface in the NBA again—at least not for a meaningful amount of time. His knees were shot and he was already facing a 10-game suspension handed down by the NBA.

Yet, when it did indeed look like that Miles would once again sniff the stink of an NBA locker room and squeak his sneakers on hardwood floors in front of thousands, Miller went into crisis mode.

According to some NBA GMs, Miller and company ripped into Miles' work ethic and potential future productivity to NBA squads.

After Memphis cut Miles this season, the Blazers sent out a league-wide memo threatening legal action against any team that signed him. You see, if Miles played in enough games, his salary would be counted against Portland's cap which in turn would make it extremely difficult for the Blazers to sign an impact free agent in the impending future.

Not that there is going to be anyone imminently available (LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony...just to name a few).

Now here's the reality of the situation: Miles is going to play in enough games, and it is going to hurt the Blazers. The NBA, nor the Players Union, is going to take any legal action against the Blazers because it seems as if Miles was not adversely affected by the threat—after all the Grizzlies did indeed sign him to a 10-day contract.

So I ask you again. If you were Miller, what would you do? Now what he did was far from innocent and certainly isn't in any danger of epitomizing good ethics, but in a profession as transparent and as high profile as running a professional basketball franchise, it's hard not to be the aggressor and bare some teeth once in awhile.

If Miller wants to keep his job, the Blazers need to be successful. In order for the Blazers to be successful, they must have impact players.

But now with Portland finding itself among the youngest and most prolific teams in the Western Conference, the draft is hardly an option to acquire a game changer—free agency is the preferred and seemingly only route.

So if Miles' contract kills any chances that Portland has at acquiring a championship player for their lineup, can you really fault Miller for trying to save his job?

He violated no laws and committed no crime. Sure, he said some nasty things and flexed his legal muscle. Is that a violation?

The Association is not blowing the whistle and calling a foul on this one, neither should anyone else. After all, nice guys will be eaten alive in this business if they pull their punches.

So before we as fans criticize Miller and call him a chump for what he did, let's be sure that we realize the situation that he's in--trying to keep his job.

It's very easy for us to sip our coffee in front of our computers at work or at home and judge Larry Miller; we can call him every name in the book to our friends and everyone will agree with us.

But for just one second, put yourself in his shoes--what would you do? It's a completely different world when your the head honcho in the lime light isn't it?

So let's at least pull some of our punches for now, while Miller goes on the attack.

After all--in his case--sometimes it's better to swing softly and miss than it is to stand by and get hit hard—especially in the pocketbook.

Jet-Tisoning Favre the Wrong Move? Not So Fast

Eric Balkman — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:46:02 -0500

Before you dismiss my opinion, let me say that I am a Brett Favre and Green Bay Packer fan. Now, I am rarely on one end or the other in most polarizing discussions, but I was definitely in the Favre court before Green Bay traded him.

As soon as he said he wanted to come back, I would have welcomed him back, traded Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, etc., and groomed Brian Brohm as my quarterback of the future.

Favre was a better choice at quarterback at the time and he gave the Pack a much better chance to win than Rodgers did.

Obviously, that wasn't the route that Ted Thompson chose to go, and that's fine—I am not an NFL GM and I trust Thompson to be a lot more informed about the subject of professional football than me.

Now, I'm a big Rodgers fan, too—he seems to have broken the Jeff Tedford curse, plays really well in cold weather, and has a great season going as a first-year starter. Let's break it down a little further:

The Jets, who finished 4-12 last year had the third-easiest schedule in the NFL this year (according to Pro Football Prospectus). Their out-of-division opponents featured "cupcake" games against Cincinnati, Oakland, Kansas City, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Seattle (combined record 17-68-1).

Their "tough" games were against Arizona, Tennessee, and Denver (combined record 28-14). Green Bay's non-division "cupcakes" were against Jacksonville and Seattle (combined record 8-20—the only two sub-.500 teams GB has played overall except for one game against Detroit).

Their "tough" opponents were Dallas, Tampa, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Tennessee, and Carolina (combined record 60-24). Say what you will about the two teams' talent levels, but it's obviously pretty clear that Green Bay has had an incredibly tougher schedule.

Another thing to look at is that the Packers were 5-2 (including playoffs) in games in 2007 decided by a touchdown or less. This year? 1-6. Now you can say that, "Well, Brett Favre is Captain Comeback and he would have led the Pack to wins in all of those games.

Rodgers would have choked those close wins all away in '07." Maybe you're right. But I'll submit that over the past decade in the NFL, most teams are so closely balanced that it is nearly impossible to win a high percentage of close games year after year. The law of averages is probably showing itself here.

Also, Aaron Rodgers—always much maligned for his inability to stay healthy—has been the iron man this year, playing through a pretty gruesome shoulder injury for the better part of a month.

And for a team that was relatively injury-free in 2007, Green Bay has been decimated by injuries this year, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

(Note that Rodgers and his offense have rarely been blamed for losses this year. And when they have, it was usually because of their inability to run the football. Rather, it has been the defense that has periodically let the team down late in games.)

The trade of defensive tackle Corey Williams has been huge, as teams have gutted the Pack's run defense up the middle en route to dominating football games against Green Bay. There's no Nick Barnett (torn ACL) to stop running backs there, and an out-of-position A.J. Hawk has also struggled to shake a nasty chest injury that has obviously affected his play.

Atari Bigby—who broke out in 2007—has also finally admitted what we kind of knew all along: He has been playing hurt since Week Three. That injury, along with Nick Collins inability to stay healthy, has forced Charles Woodson to play safety—a position that he has never played before in his career.

And without him chucking and smothering a wide receiver at the line every play, opposing pass-catchers are able to get much better breaks on their routes and shake coverage a lot easier.

Rodgers has given his team chances to win this season, too. With highly-questionable late-game play-calling by Mike McCarthy, Ryan Grant looking about as schizophrenic as Robert Downey, Jr. in Tropic Thunder, and Mason Crosby missing big-time, high-pressure kicks, I find it hard to put the entire blame on Rodgers.

In the NFL, quarterbacks and head coaches get way too much credit when a team wins and way too much blame when a team loses. I still do question Rodgers ability to play big late in close games, but we have seen with many other recent quarterbacks that it can take some time to learn how to win those games (i.e. Favre, both Mannings, and Donovan McNabb—Tony Romo still hasn't learned).

Give Rodgers time, and his chops will match his stats—I'm a big believer in that.

So which games exactly would Favre have won for Green Bay if he was still leading the Pack this year? Well, he wouldn't have stopped Marion Barber, nor could he have played safety when Drew Brees and Matt Schaub shredded the Packers' secondary.

Rodgers lit up Tennessee, Jacksonville, and Atlanta, so we can't assume that Favre would have made a difference there. No. 4 has always struggled in the Metrodome, so he is far from a safe bet there—besides Mason Crosby missed the game-winner there after Rodgers had already put Green Bay in position to win.

I can't really put the Carolina loss squarely on Rodgers shoulders, either. He threw for 300 yards and three scores against a stellar defense. I know he forced up that pass that was picked at the very end, but can't we chalk up Favre to doing that at least once this season?

I have a hard time believing Favre wouldn't have done the same thing, if not in this game, then in another loss.

So let's say that Brett would have been the sole difference in the nine-point loss at Tampa. That puts the Pack's record at 6-8 this season, still three games out with two games to go. That means even with Brett, it wouldn't have made a difference for Green Bay in the loaded NFC this year. In fact, a 6-8 record would only give them the 12th best record out of 16 teams in the conference.

It's easy to say that Green Bay wasn't going to go 13-3 again, especially since Vegas projected their wins total at 9.5 before the season even started. Even with Favre, I knew that the Packers were not going to get all of the great breaks they caught last year—that's just the natural ebb and flow in the NFL.

So, long-term, Rodgers is the best man for the job in Titletown. And after looking at all this, I hardly think that Thompson cost himself a Super Bowl victory this year by "Jet-tisoning" Favre. (Pun intended.)

NL Central: High Expectations Brewing in Milwaukee

Eric Balkman — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:16:46 -0400

Prince Fielder is now a vegetarian.

Does this scare any other Brewer fans out there?

If it doesn’t, it should. The Milwaukee Brewers’ MVP candidate drastically changing his diet is just one of many red flags that have me tempering my expectations for the Crew this season.

Also, the man hitting behind Fielder—left fielder Ryan Braun—is a candidate to suffer the dreaded “sophomore slump”. With the entire National League now having a season’s worth of film to study Braun’s weaknesses at the plate, the 2007 Rookie of the Year will not have the luxury of sneaking up on opposing pitching like he did last year.

And how will Braun adapt to playing outfield? After being just short of a defensive disaster at third base last year, Braun moves to a position he has never played at any level. For that matter, how will Milwaukee’s super utility man Bill Hall respond to replacing Braun at third? After all, it’s Hall’s third position in as many years, and we saw how mightily he struggled last year when switching from shortstop to center field.

Milwaukee chose to replace Hall with the inconsistent and injury-prone free agent Mike Cameron. And from the Not-Making-The-New-Boss-Happy Department, Cameron is already suspended for the first 25 games this season for violating Major League Baseball’s steroid policy.

All these problems aside, another challenge that faces Milwaukee is getting strong production from their schizophrenic pitching staff. Currently the Brewers are relying on Ben Sheets—whose entire body is made of glass—and Yovani Gallardo—who is recovering from preseason knee surgery—to be the backbone of their rotation.

As far as the rest of the pitching staff goes, Jeff Suppan has done little to merit his exorbitant free agent contract that he signed before last season. If you ask any Brewer fan, Carlos Villanueva has all of the talent in the world. But with that said, why then has it taken him so long to finally secure a rotation spot? And while current #5 starter Manny Parra has shown flashes of brilliance over the last year, he has battled the injury bug for most of his minor league career.

Perhaps the biggest question mark for the 2008 Brewers is their revamped bullpen. Newly-anointed closer Eric Gagne simply has not been the same since his elbow injury a few years ago. Yet Brewers’ GM Doug Melvin still felt that Gagne was worth $10 million per year despite rampant steroid accusations and poor performance over the last two seasons.

I hope that many of these questions will be answered with strong pitching production, timely hitting, and clutch defense. With the Cubs and even the Reds contending with Milwaukee for the Central Division crown this year, the Brewers’ margin for error will be razor-thin.

And as far as Prince goes, I’ll be sure to send him a case of Omaha steaks if his batting average dips below .250.