From the Red Sox to the Patriots, it's September

It's been a while since I posted anything about sports, and this is an odd time since the most likely candidate to post any comments is Ryan, who is getting married this weekend (I'm the best man!) and will probably not make his new wife happy by checking the ole blog-of-danny. This will be fairly random, just so you know.

I hate to admit it, but Derek Jeter really stuck it good to Big Papi this week. For those who don't know, David Ortiz (that's Big Papi, for those who really don't follow sports, but if you don't there's a good chance you're not ready this post anymore) commented to the media that his road to the MVP is tougher than Jeter's because of the weaker Boston lineup. He said of Jeter, "Don't get me wrong -- he's a great player, having a great season, but he's got a lot of guys in that lineup ... Come hit in this lineup, see how good you can be." Jeter responded with, "I don't have to do it in his lineup. ... I'm not thinking about the MVP right now. We're thinking about winning a division. We've still got something to play for." And followed that with, "No one here's focused on individual awards." Ouch. There is no better response than "I can't worry about that, I'm too busy winning." Not only does he make Ortiz out to be selfish, he makes him out to be a loser. Mind you, Ortiz is neither of those things, but in a war of words, Jeter blew Ortiz out of the water.

This Sox season has really fallen apart. The truth is that when you have a team that is weak offensively and multiple starters get hurt, you don't stand a chance. I'm not sure they were going to win the division anyway, but it doesn't help when you lose your starting catcher (didn't the pitching staff fall apart after Varitek got hurt?), your starting right fielder, your starting left fielder who happens to be one of the best bats in all of baseball, your DH and baseball's premiere clutch hitter, and even your starting short stop, one of the top gloves in baseball. Add that to injuries to the pitching staff, both starters and relievers, well, you just aren't going to win.

Everyone in Boston is getting on Theo Epstein for not making any moves at the trading deadline. It is noted how he has "failed" miserably. The problem with that is that they are judging him by a different standard than what he is going by. I don't think Theo is trying to win right now, I honestly think he looked at this team and said "we don't have a deep enough team to win." And he was right. So, he decided against trading his future stars for overpriced veterans who wouldn't have been enough to win the division anyway, let alone a World Series. Honestly, can you name me one (or even two) players who they actually had a shot at getting in a trade who would have put them over the top? Let me answer that for you, you can't.

Thank God for the Patriots! Although they didn't play all that well in their 1st game, I'm still excited. As my dad pointed out the other day, they've won 2 Super Bowls in seasons where they started 2-2, most notably their 2nd Super Bowl season when they were blown out 31-0 by Buffalo in the opening game. The fact that they didn't play well in Game 1 (and they certainly didn't) doesn't mean much. Thankfully.

As for this whole Deion Branch situation, it's rather unfortunate. I liked him, and I suppose I still do. But is it that hard for him to honor the contract that he signed with the Patriots? Either way, in the end I think the Pats did the right thing. If he was really wanting a 6 year, $39 million contract, well, goodbye. I'm of the belief that almost no receiver is worth that money (the exception being Jerry Rice in his prime). Wide Receiver, though important, is a position that is completely dependent on other positions, moreso than perhaps any other position on the field (I'm open to other suggestions). Remember, the Patriots won their first Super Bowl with Troy Brown, David Patten and some other guy I can't remember right now as their 3 receivers. Not one #1 receiver in that group (Brown was no longer a #1 at that point). Branch is definitely good, but not $39 million good.

Think about this for a second. Branch has never had a 1000 yard season (998 last year, so I guess that counts) and has averaged 3.5 touchdowns a season. This is worth $39 million? Let me type that out so you can see all the 0's: 39,000,000. I realize that in the Patriots offense players will not put up the huge numbers, that just isn't the way they work. But still, this is something Seattle will regret. It reminds me of us Red Sox fans when we got Josh Beckett. We talked about potential, made excuses for his lack of big numbers in his short career (blisters, etc) and would constantly bring up the fact that he won the MVP in the World Series in 2003 against the Yankees as proof of his great potential. In the same way, Branch is being touted as someone who hasn't been able to put up big numbers in the Patriots offense (which as I noted is true) and won a Super Bowl MVP, which shows just how good he can be. Well, year 1 of the Beckett era hasn't worked out too well, and I'm not sure the Branch era will be looked at all that fondly either.

As for the current Pats lineup, they do need help at receiver (which sounds funny considering what I just wrote about letting Branch go). The Pats have two good tight ends in Watson and Graham, and that is nice. But it jams up the line of scrimmage too much. They don't really have anyone who can stretch the field, and I'm not sure where they'll find someone. I don't necessarily think that this will preclude them from winning it all, I just think it'll make things harder and force Belichek and friends to work overtime.

More important than fixing the receiving corps is fixing the offensive line. They played horribly on Sunday. It'll certainly help the receivers if Brady had a little more time to get them the ball. But when he's rushed on every play and has to throw off his back foot, well, bad throws will be made. That's just the way it is. That line needs some work.

One final note, Brady made some interesting comments the other day, and I'm not talking about the statements regarding being distracted because Branch is a good friend. During his weekly interview on a local sports station he took the blame for the offensive line's poor play, saying that he didn't make very good reads of the defense, which caused all the problems. Let it be known that no one buys this, everyone knows that the line stunk up the joint and that had nothing to do with Brady. It's just refreshing to see someone, who is the best QB in the NFL, by the way, deflect criticism of his teammates onto himself. Just the opposite of Eli's brother in the playoffs last year, who made sure to note in the media that they lost in part due to the "protection problems" the offensive line was having. I think that shows you why one quarterback has 3 rings, and the other has none.