Broad Street Sports

The past 4 seasons for Philadelphia’s major professional sports teams have all ended in missing the playoffs.  Currently the Phillies are hoping to make a playoff push as their window of opportunity is closing fast.  The Flyers and Sixers are fresh off of disappointing seasons, and both will most likely be making some big changes in the off season.  The Flyers will have to figure out if they want to keep players like Ilya Bryzgalov and Danny Briere, while the Sixers will have to decide if they want to make an offer to Bynum who basically cost them the opportunity of a playoff run this year.  Bynum and Bryzgalov hopefully will go because I feel like they wouldn’t mesh well in the locker room next season with their respective teams if they come back.  I would hope the Danny B comes back to the Flyers, because if/(hopefully) when we make the playoffs next year it’ll be nice to have Danny Playoffs back in action.  The Eagles were a disgrace last year, but with some key changes in players/personnel let’s see if they can make some noise this year.

Either way, I’m excited to see if the Phillies can keep in contention this summer, or at least be relevant until football starts.  Hopefully 2013-2014 will bring a lot more success than 2012-2013!

The City of Brotherly Love

Below is the Eagles upcoming Regular Season Schedule

Prediction: 9-7

After analyzing the schedule, I think (hope) the Eagles will go 9-7.  Honestly I don’t find this number out of the question, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if they go 6-10.  This year is a huge question mark in areas of QB, Head Coach, and Defense.  Who knows if 9-7 will even get us into the playoffs, but that is what I’m sticking to.  All Eagles fans can do is hope for the best, and at the bare minimum anything but another disaster like last season.

In 34 games, Michael Young has posted a solid .322 batting average so far this season.  This puts him as the team leader in batting average, which usually doesn’t say a lot when talking about the Phillies, who rarely have a consistent .300 hitter year in and year out.  But having Michael Young batting .322 about 1/5 done the season is a start.  With Halladay out, the Phillies bats really need to help out their pitching staff if they want to get wins.  The Phillies are looking pretty solid at 3rd base this year with Michael Young and Kevin Frandsen thrown in there every now and then.  Now Michael Young may be batting .322, but he only has 9 RBI, which puts him with J-Roll as tied for 4th on the team.

At 36 years old, a good mix of Young/Frandsen will hopefully be a good combo for the 2013 Fightins.

The Goalie

This interview was one of my favorites that Bryz had this year.  He is one entertaining goalie if you ask me, but I don’t know if he will be in the orange and black next year.  I don’t think it is fair to put the entire blame of the season on his shoulders because there were a lot of problem areas that this team had.  I just don’t know if Brzy will be worth the money on his contract as a Flyer, and wouldn’t be surprised if the Flyers choose to go in a different direction next season.

First off, I would like to give a shout out to Doug Collins for putting up with these scrubs all year.  I think that Doug Collins was a great and hard working coach, but just did not have the tools to succeed in Philadelphia.  I don’t even want to get into all the problems the team had this year because this was one of the most difficult years to be a Sixers fan.  I’m glad that Doug Collins can live a stress free lifestyle when next season rolls around and he doesn’t have to worry about players like Bynum who basically ruined the season.  When management goes out and makes big moves, the coach is expected to get the job done, but when those moves just blow up right in front of them you can’t point the finger at Doug Collins.  The big men were inconsistent this year, Spencer Hawes showed flashes of being a good big man, but I think Lavoy Allen disappeared since last year’s series against the Celtics, and Kwame Brown is well Kwame Brown.  Overall, good for Doug, and thanks for everything he’s done for the city of Philly throughout his career.

Doug Collins running it back in the day

1. Big 5 Team La Salle: Sweet 16 Bound

2. Top 3 Athletes that Need to Pack Up and Leave Philly

3. Tough Loss as the Sixers enter the All Star Break

4. Philadelphia Sports – Playoff History Infographic

5. Khalif Wyatt Puts Team on His Back in Loss to Indiana

When it comes down to it, I think the Eagles made a solid selection in picking up Matt Barkley in the 4th round.  The risk of the pick wasn’t too high, and had Barkley entered the draft last year he most likely would’ve been a 1st or 2nd round pick.  With the uncertainty of Foles as a second year QB, and Vick getting up there in age, selecting Barkley as a 4th rounder can’t hurt.  He seems to be a hard worker, and come training camp there will definitely be a lot of inter-squad competition for the QB position.  As said before in a previous post, I’m pulling for Foles, I don’t know why there’s just something about him that I like as a quarterback.  Barkley seems like he could be a good fit for the future of the franchise, but then again he is from USC and in the same category as other NFL busts such as: Sanchez, Leinart, and John David Booty.

Over/Under?Number of starts for Barkley in 2013: 1.5  

Below is my list of current/former athletes that I think would be most fun to party with.  Chase Utley at #5 because he is just the man, and played a big role in winning the World Series.  Wilt was #4 because the man scored 100 points in one game, and hearing stories of his dominance would be pretty cool.  Richards/Carter are group together because they pretty much go hand in hand.  I can’t imagine what those two would do on a night out down the shore in Sea Isle City.  Chuck is #2 because he would be very entertaining to have in your crowd, the laughs and stories would be endless from this knucklehead.  And #1 is definitely Pat the Bat, from his days at the U to the early 2000s on the Phils, and into the end of his career, Pat Burrell may not have been the best, but definitely one of the coolest Phillies from my generation.

P.S. – Does Rocky count?

5. Chase Utley              

4.  Wilt Chamberlain

3. Richards/Carter                                                                 

2. Charles Barkley                                  

1. Pat Burrell

Phillies former ace, Roy Halladay, needs surgery to remove a bone spur and repair a partially torn rotator cuff and frayed labrum.  This injury may set him back around 3 months, making it more difficult for the Phillies to come up with wins this season.  The 35 soon to be 36 year old righty has had a rocky start to the 2013 season.  He started out getting shelled a few time, but looked like he was turning it around a little when he won a few games.

What does this mean for the Phillies? –  It means that someone is going to have to come in and do the best they can to fill the void.  Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee are going to have to try and carry the load at the top of the rotation, and Kendrick and Pettibone have to keep doing what they’re doing, which is pitching well and picking up wins.  When a team loses a competitor and leader like Roy Halladay they have to rally around each other to get the job done.  Baseball is a team sport, and winning ball games comes from good starting pitching, a good bullpen, and manufacturing runs.  Poor performance one of those dimensions of the team results in losses, no matter how good the other guys are playing.

Image courtesy of : http://media.philly.com/images/050513_Roy_Halladay_600.jpg

At the end of the Andy Reid era we saw Big Red go with rookie Nick Foles at the end of the season.  In a small sample size, we saw Foles have a better ability to read opposing defenses and get rid of the football quicker than Michael Vick.  I was looking forward to seeing the Eagles go with Nick Foles as the man behind center next year, but with the hiring of Chip Kelly it looks like Vick will be the starter on opening day.  I personally am not thrilled about having Vick as our starting quarterback, and I don’t think that a coaching change will prevent him from throwing interception, fumbling the football, not reading defenses, and staying healthy for 16 games.

Michael Vick has not been the same quarterback ever since the miraculous comeback at the Meadowlands against the Giants, and here is a statistical comparison of Michael Vick since that game and Nick Foles’ rookie year.  The stats are very close, and I do not think Michael Vick is worth the money he will be paid if he plays out his contract.

What direction should the Eagles go in this season, and who do you think will be the starting QB come 2014?