January 29, 2012

Being a Yankee fan, I just realized I've said nothing about the acquisition of Michael Pineda. I think its a great pickup. Pineda has a live arm and actually had quite a few wins in the first half of last season on a bad team. He's a good pickup to put in a rotation with CC and Nova. It also gives the Yankees the option of putting Burnett in the pen or as a 6th starter, somethings the Yankees did down the stretch of last season. Because its almost a guarantee a starter will go down at some point, having depth at that position is key. It also gives the Yankees another arm to compete with the staff the Rays always seem to put together. True, the Yankees lost a good prospect in Jesus Montero, but it shouldn't matter as the Yankees are loaded in catching prospects and have a pretty good one right now in Russell Martin. Also, Pineda is very young, so the future is not sacrificed in this situation.

I also think Bernard Pollard added to his reputation in a big way last Sunday by knocking out Rob Gronkowski. I really think Pollard has become something of a legend. Every time he plays the Patriots, he lays a big hit on some important player that not only affects the impact of that particular game, but the entire season. From knocking Brady out of the season, to forcing Welker to miss a playoff game the Pats were routed in, and then to potentially make Gronkowski miss the Super Bowl is a bit of a legend. Potentially costing the Patriots 3 Super Bowl victories is probably enough to get Pollard in the Hall of Fame (in my opinion). If I'm the New York Jets, forget acquiring Peyton Manning, I need Pollard to knock out some Patriots.

There has to be some kind of conspiracy in the AFC. Starting with Super Bowl XXXVIII, only three different teams have represented the AFC in the Super Bowl, the Patriots, Steelers, and Colts. No other team has gotten that opportunity. Over the same period of time, 8 NFC teams, the Eagles, Panthers, Seahawks, Bears, Giants, Cardinals. Packers, and Saints (half the conference and 2 teams from each division) have gone to the Super Bowl and counting this year, only the Giants have gone twice. In that same stretch of time, the only "other" AFC team to have a home field advantage has been the Chargers, while there have been 8 NFC teams, the Eagles, Seahawks, Bears, Cowboys, Giants, Saints, Falcons, and Packers, to get te 1 seed. In fact, 14 of the 16 NFC teams since Super Bowl XXXVII have won playoff games (the Buccaneers and Lions haven't) and one of those teams won Super Bowl XXXVII (the Buccaneers). Either the NFC is more evenly matched or there is some sort of conspiracy in the AFC. I vote for the latter. NFC teams seem to fit the mold of free agency more, going from worst to first and putting teams that didn't have the best record in the Super Bowl. In the AFC, however, there have been teams like the Browns and Bills who seem to be downright terrible every single year (I will admit those teams occasionally have good stretches, but most often they finish last and get high draft picks). The only reason I can think of for these streaks of success are dominance on one side of ball, whether it be the Steeler and Patriot defenses of the dynasty years or the great Colt and Patriot offenses in recent years, and just enough of the other phase to be decently rounded. These teams have also had dominant quarterback play. Or maybe, they just have more clutch players than other teams. Whatever the case, the AFC has been dominated by a handfull of teams, something the modern free agency and salary cap systems are supposed to prevent.