Category: Sports

The Ravens are rolling into the AFC Championship game – tweets on the Divisional game

The first half of the divisional game was tied but the second half was all Ravens. The defense was great all game – they allowed only three points and the Texans never got in the red zone.

Lamar Jackson showed why he is the MVP. I think they will beat the Chiefs and move on to the Super Bowl.

Tweet on Bill James’s top 100 players

Bill James is one of the pioneers of advanced baseball statistics. He showed us there’s a world out there beyond obvious stats like batting average and RBI.

Here’s his list of the 100 greatest players. He has addressed historical greatness in his excellent book, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract.

James is also an excellent writer. As I recall, he said in his newsletter that the 1982 Angels lineup which featured old guys was older than prostitution.

I got to meet him in 1984. I was in a very early fantasy league and our commissioner had corresponded with him. James came to our draft.  He was really nice and unpretentious. He knew lots more than we did but didn’t act like it. Pictures of my signed copy of his annual book are below.

The Ravens will beat the Houston Texans today

Ravens fans are nervous because of what happened in 2019. The Ravens were the top seed then too and lost in a shocking upset. This year is different. This team is more mature and balanced. I predict the score will be 31-20. The weather here will be terrible – wind chill will be around 10 degrees.

The Ravens are favored by 9.5 points and the over/under is 43.5 points.

The Ravens have had a great season. I have written about most of these before.

  • They won 10 games vs teams that finished over .500, an NFL record.  The prior record was 8.  They tied an NFL record with 14 games vs. teams that finished over .500
  • They are the first team to lead the NFL in all three of these defensive statistics: sacks, lowest points allowed, and takeaways (tied for first)
  • Of the 14 playoff teams, they had the best strength of schedule and second-best strength of wins.  They had the best record in the NFL this year even with a tough schedule.  
  • They led for 11 hours, 32 minutes and 57 seconds of game time.  This is the second-best total since 2000.
  • They were never behind by more than seven points until the meaningless last game. In that game, they were behind by 10 for about three minutes.
  • Second-highest point differential ever against playoff teams

There is an urgency to win this year. Over 20 players are free agents after this season and there is now way the Ravens can keep them all. In addition, they will probably lose coaches and front office guys too. Both offensive and defensive coordinators have been interviewed for head coaching jobs, Three other coaches have been interviewed for coordinator jobs. Two front office members have been interviewed for jobs with other teams.

A couple examples of how special this year has been:

  • Tylan Wallace is a wide receiver who had one reception this year. He had to return punts for the first time in the NFL in the Rams game. He returned one 76 yards for a game-winning touchdown in overtime.
  • Some people think the 49ers could beat the Ravens in a rematch. I don’t see it. Sure, there were some tipped balls but the 49ers could have gotten them too. The Ravens scored on seven consecutive drives. That’s not luck.
  • Lamar Jackson is a better QB than he was in 2019. He is making great decisions. Roquan Smith brings leadership on the defensive side that the Ravens haven’t had since Ray Lewis was here.

Samuel Basallo is the next Orioles hot prospect

A take on Samuel Basallo from a coach he is very close with

The Orioles are loaded with minor league prospects

Jackson Holliday will be in the majors sometime in 2024, maybe even on opening day. I think he’ll play second base with Henderson at short

Samuel Basallo could make it to the majors this year. He is only 19. I think he could catch some to give Rutschman a rest and also DH.

Coby Mayo, to me, is the third untradeable prospect. He should be in the majors in 2024 playing some 3rd base, 1st base and DHing.

Bleacher Report top 100 prospects

More tweets on the Polo Grounds

More tweets about Dick Allen and pictures of his book

I have an autographed copy of his book:

Tweets on the great 2023 Ravens defense

Tweets and more on the 2023 Ravens record

The 2023 Ravens had a great regular season. Hopefully, they can follow it up with a Super Bowl win.

Here are some statistics and tweets.

Of the 14 playoff teams (per the standings on ESPN), The Ravens had the best strength of schedule. They had the second-best strength of wins. The were behind the Steelers who beat the Ravens twice including the meaningless last game. So, they had the best record in the NFL: with a really tough schedule.

The fact that the 2023 Ravens played one more game is irrelevant – they never led in the final game.

Some people have credited the win over the 49ers to the tipped balls that became the Ravens’ interceptions. That’s nonsense. The Ravens scored on seven possessions in a row and dominated the game. Also, the 49ers could have recovered the tipped balls but they didn’t.

The Ravens were never behind by more than seven points until near the end of the 4th quarter of the meaningless 17th game. They were down 10 and scored to bring the final margin to 7 so they were down by more than 7 for about 3 minutes.

The Ravens scored more than 30 points in eight of their last 10 meaningful games – I didn’t count the 17th game when reserves played. They had the highest point differential this year and the second highest ever vs. playoff teams.

The great Pop Tart mascot