Masterson's Musings: Bye Week Edition

• Just between you and me, I thought the Broncos looked great today. They didn't commit costly penalties at inopportune times, Cutler didn't throw into triple coverage just to make sure Brandon Marshall was running his routes correctly, nobody strained their groin, and Shanahan's schemes showed no weaknesses whatsoever. What's that? The Broncos were on their bye week and didn't play today? Hmm. That must be why my bottles of Jameson and antacid are still full.
• The Chargers seem fully intent on gift-wrapping the AFC West for the Broncos this year. It's a super-nice gesture for a team that's used us mostly as a moist towelette the past few seasons. Today against the Saints in jolly ol' England, the Chargers D looked almost as pitiful as the Broncos' as Drew Brees sliced his way through what was supposed to be one of the top defenses in the game to the tune of 339 yards passing and 3 touchdowns. With the Broncos division lead now at a game and a half, the Chargers don't seem too motivated to knock the Broncos from their precarious first place perch.
  
• The Phillies-Rays World Series (insert FOX executive suicide joke here) has been a decent show thus far. It's been slightly better than CSI: Cherry Creek, but not as exciting as Law and Order: Mall Security Unit. I really thought the Rays would take this series in 6 because of their strong starting pitching and the question marks in the Phillies rotation after one, Cole Hamels. It's not like the Phillies have set the world on fire by any means, but they still find themselves one win away from the World Championship. Philly fans, prepare your cheesesteaks because this team will finally give you a reason not to boo for the first time since that whole Constitution thing was signed.
  
• A recent poll in the Denver Post petitioned fans to pick which current injured Bronco will be missed the most as they work their way back to the playing field. Not surprisingly, Champ was an overwhelming choice for number one with 86% of the vote. What tickled me most was that our backup quarterback Patrick Ramsey brought home a rousing 1.1% of the fan vote as the player the team will miss most. That's funny. I didn't realize that Ramsey had so many close personal relatives in the Denver area.
• I'm sure that when Adrien Brody and Matthew McConaughey retire from acting and look back on their illustrious, award-winning careers, when asked about the movie they're most proud of, I wouldn't be surprised if they both replied Angels in the Outfield.
  

Masterson's Musings: Judgment Day

So here's what I've been doing the last week:

- I've been dining at gourmet restaurants around the Denver area every night and ordering such "gourmet" items as the Premium Bacon Mac n Cheese in hopes that I will be tricked and that Pizza/Pasta Hut will have switched the restaurants 'sghetti for their own. I've struck out thus far.

- I still can't, in good faith, find the strength inside my soul to root the Red Sox onto victory against the Rays, but my cousin (Justin Masterson) is really making it hard on me. Inserted into the 9th inning in a 7-7 game, in the most crucial inning of the Red Sox season in which Sox manager Terry Francona put his faith in a 23 year old rookie, Justin came through in a big way by working around a hit and an unintentional intentional walk of BJ Upton by inducing a double play ground ball off the bat of Carlos Pena. The Sox capped off their impossible comeback win to stave off elimination in the bottom of the 9th and Justin got the win. His ERA in the ALCS now stands at 1.93 and 2.09 overall in the postseason. As a rookie. He's done more than could have possibly been asked from him and will be a fixture for the Red Sox for years to come......that is unless he gets traded the offseason. Hmmm, I hear that the Sox are in the market for a third baseman with Lowell shelved for an unknown period of time.......I believe the Rockies are shopping their own third baseman in Garrett Atkins.....I think Justin would fit in just fine in the purple pinstripes in Colorado. I'm just sayin.

- As for the Red Sox: seriously, think of another way to win a playoff series. This whole come-from-behind-when-everyone-thinks-you're-dead-thing is getting really old.

- So the Avs finally got their first win of the season last night by trouncing the Philadelphia Phlyers 5-2. Not surprisingly, the Avs finally got a mediocre-plus performance from their goaltender. Not Peter Budaj, the "number 1" starter, but backup Andrew Raycroft. After an abysmal season last year in Toronto, Raycroft, the Calder Trophy Winner in 2004 for Rookie of the Year, showed flashes of brilliance while only facing 18 shots. The only two goals he gave up last night were on a penalty shot and a 5 on 3 power play for the Flyers, two very low percentage opportunities for goaltenders. Every other year, Raycroft has had major success. After his Rookie of the Year campaign, he sucked in 05-06 (8-19, 3.71 Goals Against Average), regained his confidence in Toronto in 06-07 (37-25, 2.99 GAA), and then regressed to the aforementioned abysmalness last year. That means he's due this year. And when the number 1 goalie has surrendered 13 goals in only 74 shots (4.38 GAA, yikes spikes) he should get his number called a few more games a week. At least give him a shot to see what he can do because he looked very sharp last night.

- Why is no one calling Bill Beeeeelichick a genius this year without Tom Brady? Anybody? Bueller?

-The Pats looked Detroit Lion-esque against the Chargers last Sunday night and the Broncos will need to capitalize on the fact that the Pats will most likely not have either of their top two running backs in Lawrence Maroney and Lamont Jordan. Make Matt Cassel beat you. They're not going to be able to run the ball effectively (even on the Broncos D, Elway willing), and Cassel hasn't shown very much skill in reading defenses, getting rid of the ball, or throwing the ball down the field. That being said, the Broncos D hasn't been good at defending any of those things either.

Masterson's Musings: Return of the Jedi

- Thank Elway for the new South Park episode completely validating everyone here at Frost Brewed Baseball's opinions of the new Indiana Jones movie. Though we didn't take our criticisms as far as Trey Parker and Matt Stone did, we agree wholeheartedly nonetheless.

- To everyone who thinks that Ryan Howard should be the NL MVP because he led the NL in HRs and RBIs (but hit .250)......don't watch baseball anymore because you obviously have no idea how the game works or what it takes to be the best player in your league. Go live on an island somewhere where you're unable to follow the game or get internet access (no matter what Bill Curtis tells you) because you're a horrible fan of the game and should be banned from watching the sport altogether. Albert Pujols is the hands-down pick to win the MVP this year (.357, 37, 116 with a .462 obp on a team that has literally no other offensive threat or pitching to speak of.) Anyone who votes against him is un-American and slits the necks of baby seals on top of Old Glory.

- While watching Game 1 of the NLCS tonight (and pouring out a cold one in remembrance of what we were doing at this time last year,) I was marveling at Joe Buck trying to explain how Manny Ramirez had transformed the Dodgers from an also-ran into a playoff team. In one sentence he said that the Dodgers had finished with an 84-78 record, 15th among Major League teams. Maybe two sentences later he made the statement that until Manny arrived on the LA scene, the Dodgers were a .500 team.............last time I checked 84 wins wasn't really that far off from a .500 team. In fact, it's about 3 wins. Yeah, Manny hit a ton when he got to California, but he didn't really make the Dodgers that much better of a team alone. Andre Ethier started hitting everything from here to Kathmandu and you could easily argue that Greg Maddux had a much stronger influence on the pitching staff than Manny had on the Dodger hitters (you really think Jeff Kent would take time off his motorcycle riding, wrist breaking, teammate pushing schedule to listen to a guy with 500 homers?) Maddux, one of the greatest pitchers of all time, has had a calming effect on everyone on that staff. Derek Lowe thinks it's 2004, Chad Billingsley has harnessed his immense talent, hell, even Hiroki Kuroda has stopped doing his Hideki Irabu impression since Maddux joined Los Doyers. Here's what I'm getting at: Manny sucks. Maddux is smart. Joe Buck says contradictory things.

-The Avs had their opening game tonight (yeah, that's right, hockey's back...you had no idea it was gone, did you?) Well, good thing the offense showed up because we might as well have played with an empty net. We still lost 5-4 but at least our O showed some skill. Peter Budaj, however, should be perusing the want ads come tomorrow morning. Here's the deal: We've given this guy a chance, many chances in fact, to be our number 1 goaltender and he has never taken the initiative and ran with it. Hell, even Jose Theodore came around when given the reins last year. Tonight, we outshot the Bruins 39-20, but still came up on the losing end. 5 goals on 20 shots? Couldn't we just stick a fat guy between the pipes and reap the same results? What's Roseanne doing nowadays? I'm sure she's free.

-So the Rockies decided to fire pretty much all of their coaches? Most, but not all. In fact, only pitching coach Bob Apodaca and first base coach Glenallen Hill were spared. I have to wonder why them? With the pitching suffering the way it did this year, why didn't Apodaca get the axe? The hitting slumped and hitting coach Alan Cockrell got canned. Did O'Dowd just throw a bunch of darts at a board with all the coaches names on it? Shouldn't the firings have started with Clint and ended with Hurdle? In any other city he'd have been fired 5 years ago. But not here, we don't seem to care enough to make any major changes. We'll just sit on our laurels of our World Series appearance from a year ago and think that our fans are dumb enough to not notice/care.

-I'm only rooting for my cousin to do well in the Red Sox/Rays series. I can't in good faith root for the Red Sox after what they did to my Rockies and Indians last fall. Though it would be cool to see a World Series ring in person.

Masterson's Musings Part Deux

- So it appears the Broncos have gone back to the tradition of playing glam-rock supergod Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part II" after every Broncos touchdown. They had shied away from it the last few years after Gary's, ahem, "unflattering transgressions" had come to light. Child molestation charges be damned! That song gets me fired up!

- The Mets and Brewers both put their September chokes on hold for at least one night by winning both of their games in dramatic, walk-off fashion. It's a good thing too. Both Mr. Met and Bernie Brewer had mysteriously disappeared before their respective games. After the wins, it was discovered that Bernie had ridden off on his Harley with a 30 rack of Beast Light, leaving Mrs. Brewer alone with their handicapped child, Beast Ice. Mr. Met, stumbled into Shea Stadium in the 9th inning, a blue ribbon attached to his jersey proclaiming he had finished 4th in a Barry Bonds look-alike contest in a Staten Island bar. More to come on the status of these two mascots after this weekend of play.

- Jorge de la Rosa picked up his 10th win of the year tonight for the Rockies as he shut down the almighty powerful (AA) Giants lineup in San Fran. Though he did have an odd sequence to start off the second inning. He crossed up his catcher, fired one to the backstop, and then proceeded to do the same thing again, but magically kept a run from scoring when one of his Dontrelle Willis' bounced right back to Chris Iannetta and he tagged the runner out at the plate. No word yet on whether Kevin Costner told him to do this.

- So I was watching The Patriot starring Mel Gibson today and it got me thinking. Instead of Mel Gibson for the role of Benjamin Martin, what about a real Patriot, like Tom Brady? I can see it now.....his son, passionately telling his father that he must fight for his country.

Tom Brady's son: I am not a child!
Tom Brady: You're my child!.......I think, wait, which one's your mother again? You were the little bastard I had with Bridget Moynahan, right? Or were you Gisele? Shit, I can't keep track of all that hot chicks I've banged in my life. Ah, what the hell, go to war. I'll still look good on the cover of GQ talking about God and how he guides all of my touchdown passes with his loving hand.

Or better yet, how about America's Golden Boy, Brett Favre? ESPN says he loves America. They also say he singlehandedly ended the War on Terror by playing in a homo-erotic, multiracial flag football game with Osama bin Laden. Can't you imagine this scene from the Patriot? Favre with the American flag, charging the limey British general, making sure his Wranglers are spotless, he pops a Prilosec OTC (or was that a pain pill?) and jams the soul of America into the heart of those cheeky Brits. I think a tear just fell from my eye...

-I'm almost positive that we could cut down on violence in this country by about 57% if every year, we had a National Punch AJ Pierzynski In The Face Day.

-Go Broncos.

Masterson's Musings...

A few true statements about the world of sports that you may find hard to believe...

- Baseball is actually NOT disbanding as a sport just because Yankee Stadium is closing its doors. There will be a 2009 season and probably many seasons after that. Someone should let the suits over at ESPN know that.

- If ESPN doesn't mention either the Yankees or Brett Favre at least once every 7 minutes, Jean Claude Van Damme gets to nutpunch Stuart Scott on national television.

-Speaking of Stuart Scott, in an intro to his own conversation with, you guessed it, Brett Favre, he actually compared Brett Favre to the Pope. He then went on to justify New York's newspaper coverage of Favre's introduction to the city (17 pages!) to the Pope's visit earlier this year (a measly 12!) by stating that after all, the Pope hadn't thrown for over 400 touchdowns and wasn't coming to a new team after 16 years. Yeah, the Pope knows a thing or two about not switching teams for the money considering he's been with the same one for about, oh, 2000 years.

-Things that don't exist: a bad Will Smith movie, the tooth fairy, Al Davis' eHarmony account, young Republicans, and the Broncos defense.

-Willy Taveras has flied out to right field in 87% of his at bats this season.......or at least that's just what it feels like.

-Greg Reynolds and Jason Hirsh have a lot of work to do during the offseason if they're even going to be in the mix for next year's starting rotation.

- The Broncos are 3-0. That's all you need to know.