Pitchers and Catchers: The Biggest Non-Event of the Year

PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT TODAY!!!!!!!! YES, GET PSYCHED OUT OF YOUR SKULLS!!!!!

I’m sorry friends, but I just can’t. I realize this is the symbolic “starting of baseball” and all that crap, but c’mon, you’re going to get psyched today, and then until spring training games start in another 10-14 days, literally nothing is going to happen.

Breakout Candidate Profile: James Paxton

Six-foot-four, 220 pounds, a power left handed arm with a career 2.66 career ERA. Who would you think I AM talking about? David Price? Clayton Kershaw? Chris Sale? Aroldis Chapman?

No.

Seattle’s James Paxton.

Rapid Reaction: Illini Storm Back To Stun Michigan

Wasn't it nice to be on the other end of one of those games where a team completely falls apart, opening the door for an exciting finish?

Nice to be on the other end of this type of a game for once #Illini #ILLvsMICH
— Seth (@Seth_SportsTalk) February 13, 2015

The Illinois Fighting Illini had been on too many of the wrong end of that scenario, being the team that fell apart. Thursday night, with about five minutes to play in the game, Illinois found their groove and their rhythm, stormed back to completely stun Michigan and put a dagger into the NCAA  tournament hopes of the Wolverines.

Breakout Candidate Profile: Kennys Vargas & Oswaldo Arcia

Ladies and gentlemen, all those of you who follow me know I’m high on the Chicago Cubs and their future. No I’m not a Cubs fan, but it really doesn’t take a genius to sit back and see what that franchise is doing and think, “my God, it’s not will they win a championship, but how many”, amIright?

Well I come to to you today to say, they may be butting heads in an October near you with the Minnesota Twins.

No I’m not doing do my Twins preview early, I’m here to profile two mighty powerful hitters you may, or may not, know about, that are going to have tremendous 2015 campaigns.

Breakout Candidate Profile: Marcell Ozuna

Friends, I come to you today with a question for you.

Do you ever get in the draft room, your draft is going great; you’ve got all your sleeper picks, Zack Greinke fell to you in the fourth round after you passed because you needed power, you’ve found that under the radar guy, or a guy you think no one knows about, and then your buddy, the only guy you’ve told about this particular player, goes and grabs your mancrush? Or even worse, the guy in your league who has no idea who he is grabs him because he saw his picture in a Matthew Berry article or in a Tweet by some second rate fantasy service?

We’ve all been there, am I right?

Breakout Candidate Profile: Travis d'Arnaud

Readers, believe it or not, we are literally days away from pitchers and catchers reporting. I don’t get excited like the overzealous baseball fan does because honestly 9 weeks of over analzying and over-discussing everything just gets tiresome, not to mention there’s a perfectly awesome college basketball season and NHL campaign going on that should more than hold the sports fan’s attention for at least another month.

But that said, it is never too early to start thinking fantasy baseball. I don’t know how deep some of you play, but I’m in a league that goes almost year ‘round. (We take a break for about two weeks after the World Series and every body is in full fledge get better mode)

Purdue Win Opens Door for Strong Finish For Illinois

Let me say up front, I could not watch the Illinois basketball game Wednesday night as they hosted Purdue, but I intently followed on Twitter and watched highlights on a couple different sites.

So that said, here’s what I took away:

Strugglin' Illini Looking For Good News

Thursday afternoon, another big time prospect targeted by Illinois coach John Groce snubbed the program for yet another powerhouse program. So where does this leave Illinois basketball and the program’s leader?

Before I go much farther, I want to be clear, I’m not calling for Groce to lose his job, nor am I saying he is not the right man to lead the program. If you follow me on social media, you might think I am anti-Groce.

The Case For Jay Cutler

I'm laughing out loud looking at Jay Cutler's 2014 stats and trying to figure out why HE'S getting benched Sunday.

I’ve maintained since the beginning of time, Jay Cutler was the right move for the Bears to make if they wanted to move their franchise forward and compete with the Green Bays and New Orleans Saints of the world. As I sit back and look at what Jay Cutler has done this year, and in year’s past, I just can’t help but scratch my head at the amount of illogical thinking going on in Chicago (nothing new for that town), and here’s where I’m at.

The Good and the Bad of the 2014-15 Fighting Illini

The Illinois basketball program enters perhaps one of the most important weeks under John Groce as they play at “neutral” sites against Villanova and Oregon.