Wade, Bosh Heating up

By Dan Rodgers

ESPN reported that according to a source with knowledge of the situation, Dwayne Wade will resign with Miami and he will have a new playmate in former Toronto Raptor Chris Bosh.

This move isn't a surprise, or shouldn't be, to anyone. It was fairly anticipated that Wade wanted to resign in Miami with the assumption that the Heat would being in another big name to play along side him.

This will have a fairly large impact on LeBron James' decision because now we now he won't go to Miami and he may not stay in Cleveland. James was lobbying for the Cavs to sign Bosh which could have guaranteed him staying in Cleveland. Now, he may be inclined to head to Chicago or New York.

The Bulls already have a good supporting cast with Rose, Deng and Noah. The Knicks just signed Stoudemire and will give LeBron the Garden if that's what it takes to get him. Should be interesting; tune in tomorrow night to the LeBron James special on ESPN at 9 PM.

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Amar'e to the Big Apple

By Dan Rodgers

Today the Knicks agreed, in principle, with Amar'e Stoudemire to a five-year deal worth just under $100 million. The deal reunites the ex-Phoenix Sun with former coach, Mike D'Antoni. However, I'm not quite sure it puts the Knicks any further ahead of where they started before the free agency period.

PF/C David Lee is a free agent and they just signed a player older than him at the same position. If the Knicks can't resign Lee and also get LeBron/Wade, they might be scratching their head. New York did make sure that this would not impede their ability to go after Dwayne Wade or LeBron James in terms of . They are obviously looking for another big name player to fill-in the void.

Personally, I think Bosh is leaning towards teaming up with Wade in Miami. LeBron is probably going to want to go to Chicago if he doesn't resign with Cleveland.

I'm curious to see what the Knicks plan to do because they have a lot of old shooting guards and Gallinari/Chandler at SF...should be an interesting summer.

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MLB award predictions

By Dan Rodgers

This is just a continuation of the previous post. However, this one will only be dealing with the awards races.

AL MVP candidates: Robinson Cano (NYY), Miguel Cabrera (DET), Vlad Guerrero (TEX)

NL MVP candidates: David Wright (NYM), Albert Pujols (STL), Joey Votto (CIN)

AL CY YOUNG candidates: David Price (TAM), Jon Lester (BOS), Andy Pettite (NYY), Jered Weaver (LAA)

NL CY YOUNG candidates: Ubaldo Jimenez (COL), Adam Wainwright (STL), Chris Carpenter (STL), Mike Pelfry (NYM)

AL ROOKIE: Brennan Boesch (DET), Austin Jackson (DET), Mitch Talbot (CLE), Neftali Feliz (TEX)

NL ROOKIE: Gaby Sanchez (FLA), Jason Heyward (ATL), Ike Davis (NYM), Jaime Garcia (STL)

AL MANAGER: Ron Washington (TEX), Cito Gaston (TOR)

NL MANAGER: Bobby Cox (ATL), Bud Black (SD)

Here is a nice clip from a July 4 that happened just a few years back...enjoy...





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Midway point in MLB

By Dan Rodgers

We have reached the midway point in the Major League Baseball season. The all-star break is approaching and every team has played about 80 or so games. The all-star lineups were listed today, but I will write another post on that closer to all-star weekend.

This post is for predictions the rest of the way.

AL EAST
1. New York (1 seed)
2. Boston / Tampa Bay (tiebreaker for 3 seed)
4. Toronto
5. Baltimore

AL CENTRAL
1. Minnesota (4 seed)
2. Detroit
3. Chicago
4. Kansas City
5. Cleveland

AL WEST
1. Texas (2 seed)
2. Los Angeles
3. Seattle
4. Oakland

NL EAST
1. New York (2 seed)
2. Atlanta (3 seed)
3. Philadelphia
4. Washington
5. Florida

NL CENTRAL
1. Cincinnati (4 seed)
2. St. Louis
3. Milwaukee
4. Chicago
5. Houston
6. Pittsburgh

NL WEST
1. Los Angeles (1 seed)
2. San Diego
3. San Francisco
4. Colorado
5. Arizona

Divisional Round
New York (AL) over Minnesota
Tampa Bay over Texas
Los Angeles over Cincinnati
New York (NL) over Atlanta

Championship Round
New York (AL) over Tampa Bay
Los Angeles over New York (NL)

World Series
New York (AL) over Los Angeles
^Six game series in a rematch of the classic New York Yankee/Brooklyn Dodger series.

Look for an awards prediction post in a bit.

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NHL Free Agent Frenzy

By Scott Antoszewski

The NHL’s free agent signing period opened at noon on July 1. Free agency in the NHL is handled a bit differently than the other major sports.

Baseball and football players tend to take a slow, methodical approach to where they will sign and for how much. Hockey players on the other hand, sign very quickly starting almost exactly at noon.

I’m writing this at about noon on Friday July 2, we are less than 24 hours into the signing period, and as of now 39 players have signed new contracts, totaling over $270 Million in contract value. I won’t list them, since most of the players aren’t household names, in fact only one notable player is amongst the players who have signed. He is Sergei Gonchar who left Pittsburgh and signed with Ottawa. The terms are 3 years at $5.5 million per year.

Goalies have been the most active with at least five goaltenders changing teams, but the biggest fish left in the free agent pool is Ilya Kovalchuk. Rumors have him connected to the L.A. Kings, but there are also rumors that he will go home and play in the Russian Kontinental Hockey League. I’m interested to see what he chooses. The money he will get from a KHL contract will be much higher than here in North America, but he won’t be playing at the highest level. Does he want the money, or the Stanley Cup? It will be interesting to find out.

The other thing that is fun to keep track of during free agency is how many general managers sign players to deals that are way too big and make that player unmovable. It seems to happen to at least two or three teams every year. Once the player signings slow down, I’ll review the list and put a post together that deals with that issue. Free agency is the last big event of the hockey year, so I don’t expect there to be a lot of news until we get closer to training camp in September.