tireball.com

The New Orleans Saints won Super Bowl 44.

Despite the Colts doing little to nothing following the first quarter the game remained close but a little boring throughout considering the players on the field.

In the end a on-side kick to start the second half by New Orleans surprised Indianapolis, while a late Peyton Manning interception returned for a touchdown ultimately ended their season.

I suppose congratulations are in order to the Saints but frankly I don’t give a crap about Tom Benson, Jeremy Shockey or the city of New Orleans.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees tied an NFL Super Bowl record with 32 completions on his way to capturing the MVP award.

I know the Saints will eventually return to their home city of New Orleans but they are all probably headed to Disney World first. Hah!

Popularity: 1% [?]

After nearly two weeks of speculation the Colts announced that RE Dwight Freeney is active for Super Bowl XLIV.

The news is not very surprising and earlier today it was reported that Freeney was walking around without a limp and wasn’t showing any signs of being in pain.

Frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole story was made up by some combination of ESPN and the Colts front office.

The Colts do have some people who won’t be playing, K Adam Vinatieri, G/C Mike Pollack, DT Fili Moala, OT Michael Toudouze, WR Sam Giguere, TE Colin Cloherty, DE Ervin Baldwin, and DL John Gill are all listed as inactive.

Colts kicker Matt Stover will become the oldest player in Super Bowl history during tonight’s game.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Super Bowl 44 is just hours away. Can Peyton Manning lead the Indianapolis Colts to the Lombardi trophy again or will Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints bring the big easy it’s first?

Both teams finished the regular season the best in their conference with the Colts at 14-2 while the Saints were 13-3.

Many “experts” are picking the Colts based on the fact they have Peyton Manning, which overlooks the fact that the Saints have Brees who was voted Offensive player of the year.

I was surprised to hear on the radio that many of the current NFL players are actually picking the Saints to win the game, which may be a knock on the Colts defense.

Most expect there to be plenty of points in this one but I think defense will play a larger role then they expect.

I guess we shall see. For what it’s worth the betting line has gone from 5.5 to 4.5  in the week leading up to the game.

Popularity: 1% [?]

It’s not very often I can predict who will win a race. After all there are 43 cars and while some are more like anchors then fine tooled machines any mixture of the two can have devastating results.

We’ll I’d like to pat myself on the back on this one. Yesterday I told the wife I figured Kevin Harvick, who hadn’t practiced, or Jamie McMurray would win the But Shootout.

Sure enough both were up front when the race ended with Harvick winning the race for the second year in a row. For McMurray who finished second last year he took home third this year with the Ford of Kasey Kahne taking home second.

Obviously the race has no point impact on the series going forward but for Harvick who had the worst season of his career last year, and who is expected to leave Richard Childress Racing at seasons end, it’s putting last year so far behind you that you can’t even see it in the mirror.

Many are expecting the RCR cars of Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer to be better this year and at-least for one night the driver of the red and yellow Shell/Pennzoil Chevy gave hope.

Harvick is becoming a bit of a star to start the year. In 2007 he won the Daytona 500, and now has won the Bud Shootout the last two years.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Washington Nationals have signed left hander Shawn Estes to a minor league contract which would be worth $600,000 plus another $400,000 in performance bonus’ should he be added to the clubs 40-man roster.

People projected Estes off the charts when he first entereted the league with San Fransico based largely on his first pro season in which he won 19 games had a 3.18 ERA and sturck out 181. Sadly for Estes he’s never again approached those numbers which were accumulated in 1997.

The last time Estes spent a considerable amount of time in the majors was in 2005 when he made 21 starts with Arizona going 7-8 with a 4.80 ERA. Since then he’s been riddled with injuries and has made just 10 appearances.

Estes made 13 starts for the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in Albuquerque, this past season, going 3-4 with a 3.07 ERA, before semi-retiring in June because he said he didn’t want to pitch in Triple-A.

For his career the soon to be 37 year old has a 101-93 record and a 4.71 ERA.

Roughly a week ago I said everyone should be thankful that Livan Hernandez had not been signed by the Nationals yet. Estes isn’t much different. He’s hanging on by a thread, has been a huge injury risk and hasn’t been all that effective when he’s been healthy.

Sure it might make for a nice warming story early in the year if Estes made the Nationals but the numbers likely will be hideous. I suppose that Estes is the lesser of the two evils since no one expects him to even last 50 innings opposed

to Hernandez who has been one of the most durable pitchers of the last 10 years. That being said Estes likely will do less harm for the club.

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Daytona 500 may be the first official race on the NASCAR schedule but all the action of the sport starts later today when 24 drivers compete in the Bud Shootout.

A non points race the goal in this event is simple: Win. At 8 p.m. tonight 24 drivers start their 2010 season hoping to get a glimpse of victory lane.

Some have found the Bud Shootout dis-interesting since theirs no points involved, winning means nothing and the field is capped but for others it’s the first chance of the year to rev up the sound on the big screen,crack open a beverage and well lets face it you can wear all your NASCAR gear at places other then Wal-Mart.

Winning the Shootout ultimately means nothing aside from winning some cash but you’d have a tough time convincing anyone of that when the green flag drops for the event.

It may have just been November 22 when the 2009 season ended but that’s an eternity for a sport that goes 200 mph.

Popularity: 9% [?]

The Washington Nationals agreed to a deal with Adam Kennedy late Thursday night. The team had been in the market for a starting second basemen with Kennedy and Orlando Hudson being the teams primary targets.

In recent weeks it appeared that the club was heading towards a signing with Hudson but with his salary demands being at $5 million the club began to sour on him earlier this week. Hudson has since signed with Minnesota where he will take over at second.

It’s also more likely that Hudson will benefit the Twins then he would have the Nationals. The Twins are a contender for the AL Central while the Nationals are trying to climb out of the cellar in the NL East.

The result was the signing of Adam Kennedy, 34, who had a bit of a resurgence last season batting .289/.348/.410 with 11 homers and 63 RBI while playing with Oakland.

Kennedy is simply a solid veteran player who will buy the organization some time.

The biggest plus to signing Kennedy over Hudson is there will be no $5 million obstacle in the way of the team bringing up prized prospect Ian Desmond.

Desmond, 24, combined to hit .330/.401/.477 between Double-A and Triple-A last season while notching 7 homers, 24 doubles, 32 RBI and was 21-for-26 on the base-paths. While the Nationals hinted earlier this winter that they would entertain the idea of starting Desmond at second base, this buys the team some additional time to work on a smooth transition.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Today’s signings of Jeff Weaver by the Dodgers and Guillermo Mota by the Giants have really got me wondering.

With the value of their contracts being below what Kevin Gregg signed with Toronto for it speaks strongly about how well saves pay. Between the three pitchers one could make quite a convincing case that Gregg was actually the worst of the three.

That both Weaver and Mota signed minor league deals tells you one of two things: Teams aren’t expecting them to repeat last seasons success or there simply isn’t enough money to go around these days.

In the off-season following 2007 both pitchers would have figured to land guaranteed jobs with multiple years to top it.

Weaver is hardly the pitcher he was believed to be 10 years ago but as a swing-man out of the Dodgers pen last season he managed a 6-4 record along with a 3.65 ERA despite a 1.52 WHIP.

Mota, who also pitched with teh Dodgers last year, had a 3.44 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP in 61 appearances out of the bullpen. He had a 4.11 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP in 2008 while with the Brewers.

Kevin Gregg’s deal is worth $2.75 million. There are also options attached to it which means there will almost certainly be more money coming to Gregg via a buyout at the seasons end. Gregg was the closer for the Chicago Cubs last season where he struggled. Gregg recorded 23 saves in 30 chances along with a 4.72 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP before he lost his ninth inning job to Carlos Marmol.

Gregg converted just 29-of-38 chances in 2008 while he was with Florida. Gregg has converted 76.4% of his save chances over the last two years. In Toronto he becomes the instant favorite for saves but he’s likely to be one of the worst closers in baseball and those who play fantasy baseball likely won’t consider him an option until the latest of rounds.

That Gregg got guaranteed such a sum larger then the combined contracts of Weaver and Mota just point to something that has never seemed to be right in baseball. Saves pay, no matter how many of them you fail to convert or how ugly the numbers that accompany them are.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Frank Catalanotto has signed a minor league deal with the New York Mets. The 35 year old was somewhat productive last season after signing a minor league deal with Milwaukee finishing with a .278/.346/.382 line with one home run and nine RBI while wrestling playing time away from Corey Hart.

With the Mets he’d figure to be used primarily as a pinch hitter and may see some playing time at first or the corner outfield positions. A left handed swinger he’s got a .819 career OPS against right handed pitchers.

Despite Catalanotto’s short comings it’s quite surprising he couldn’t get a guaranteed contract entering this year, then again I suppose I said the same following his release at the end of spring training last year.

While the Mets had still occasionally been linked to Carlos Delgado this likely closes the door on that as the Mets likely would be better off with Catalanotto occasionally appearing in the lineup opposed toe Delgado who apparently cannot field grounders without hobbling

.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Last year one of my favorite times to write was during spring training. It was during that time that I began a little segment entitled the non-roster invitee report. At that time I continued what I had started the year before by selecting a player on each team I predicted would make the major leagues.

Looking back I am proud to note that I was correct on 26-of-30 or 86.6% of my picks. Considering I also guessed an extra 5 for the Texas Rangers I could say I was 31-of-35 for a success rate of 88.6%

Some would say it’s easy to predict a non roster invitee who will make the team. Well tell that to me as Brad Wilkerson retired,  Jailen Peguero got released and how exactly does someone pick anyone on the Los Angeles Angels considering the talent level was baron from the start. Though looking back I’ll admit picking Gary Majewski was probably silly.

Oh I won’t complain though. I don’t know what my success rate will be in 2010 but if it’s near the 90% of last season I’ll have to give myself a pat on the back again.

Matt Wieters – Baltimore

Brad Wilkerson – Boston
Mike MacDougal – White Sox
Vinnie Chulk – Indians
Fu-Te Ni – Tigers
Lenny DiNardo – Royals
Ben Johnson – Angels
R.A. Dickey – Twins
Shelley Duncan – Yankees
Edgar Gonzalez – A’s
Chris Shelton – Mariners
Jason Isringhausen – Rays
Andruw Jones – Rangers also predicted Omar Vizquel, Jason Jennings, Kris Benson, Elvis Andrus and Eddie Guardado would make team
Kevin Millar – Blue Jays

Jailen Peguero – Diamondbacks
Jordan Schafer – Braves
Chad Fox – Cubs
Jonny Gomes – Reds
Randy Flores – Rockies
Kiko Calero – Marlins
John Gall/Chris Johnson – Astros
Doug Mientkiewicz – Dodgers
Chris Duffy – Brewers
Livan Hernandez – Mets
Gary Majewski – Phillies
Craig Monroe – Pirates
Shawn Hill – Padres
Rich Aurilia – Giants
Colby Rasmus – Cardinals
Jordan Zimmermann – Nationals

Popularity: 6% [?]