Crede Fills Twins Needs

The Minnesota Twins filled not just one, but several needs with one signing today.  In case you missed it, they agreed to terms with free agent Joe Crede and will introduce him as their new third baseman tomorrow morning. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the deal will pay Crede $2.5 million in base salary with incentives based on plate appearances that could push the total to $7 million.  That’s a heckuva bargain for a player who, as I said, fills several needs.

If Crede is healthy enough to reach the $7 million mark, he will likely have given the Twins their money’s worth and lined himself up for a bigger contract next offseason. He will also put to an end the Twins revolving door at third base that has existed ever since Corey Koskie left.  The forgettable cavalcade of cast-offs have included Tony Batista, Mike Lamb, and Terry Tiffee.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire had been tentatively planning to employ a platoon at the hot corner with Brian Buscher and Brendan Harris, but now the two of them become valuable bench players in case Crede’s back flares up again. Joe has missed 180 games the last two seasons because of back injuries, but surgery has allegedly alleviated his pain and solved the problem.  I hope it has.

When healthy, Crede is an All-Star caliber hitter (as he was just last season when he had 16 home runs and 49 RBI prior to the break) and a very good fielder.  In his last full season (2006) he batted .283 with 30 home runs, 94 RBI, and an .829 OPS.  If he comes anywhere close to those numbers, he will provide excellent balance and protection to the Twins lineup that is in need of both power and right-handed bats.

It may seem weird to suggest because after all we’re talking about Joe Crede, not Mike Schmidt here, but this move puts the Twins right back in the thick of the AL pennant chase.  Not just because Crede is a good player, but because he fills so many holes in the Twins lineup and affords them much better depth.  If they can shore up their middle relief (Juan Cruz?) look out!

Super Close

Missed it by THAT much!

Super Bowl XLIII Most Valuable Player Santonio Holmes.

Specifically, I missed nailing my predicted outcome of Super Bowl XLIII by 36 seconds.  Need proof? Scroll down to the blog post immediately prior to this one. In it I forecast a Cardinals victory by a final score of 23-20. The prediction looked more like prophesy when Larry Fitzgerald (who by the way went to high school in my hometown of Richfield, MN) took a pass from Kurt Warner and sprinted 64 yards with 2:37 left to put the Cardinals up 23-20.  It was almost a supernatural feeling as I watched him fly past the Steelers defenders. Could it be that I actually nailed the final score of the Super Bowl? I was ready to fly to Vegas and capitalize on my Bo-stradamus-like powers until the Steelers burst my bubble with 35 seconds to go.

Alas, Santonio Holmes made an incredible catch to give the Steelers the victory in dramatic fashion. The thoughts of going to Vegas subsided and even though I was no longer a genius I was happy for those friends of mine who are big Steelers fans (cheers J.R. , Jen, and Mike!)

In all, it was a fantastic Super Bowl… the most exciting one I can ever remember.  It would have been cool to nail the prediction dead on, but a fantastic game with my wife’s favorite artist as the halftime entertainment (Bruuuuuuuce!) is good enough consolation for me.

For more of my thoughts on Super Bowl XLIII, visit my blog at Fantasy Football Champs.

Why the Cardinals will Win

Adrian Wilson and the Cardinals defense have been great this postseason.

I suppose since I use my blog in large part to comment about sports, I can’t escape this week without making some kind of final Super Bowl prediction.  I’ll do so with one disclaimer: I have been anything but accurate this postseason. This year’s NFL playoffs have thrown all kinds of curveballs my way, not the least of which has been the surprising play of the Arizona Cardinals. How a 9-7 team that looked utterly lost and complacent the final month of the season managed to flip the switch and do a complete 180 once the playoffs started is still a mystery to me.

That’s why I’m picking the Cardinals to win.

They have stunned me every step of the way… why not do it on the biggest stage of all? Of course, I need to have more reasons for picking them than simply going against the safe pick (i.e. my better judgment) and I do.

The two units getting the most headlines entering this game have been the Steelers dominant defense and the Cardinals high-octane offense, in particular the passing game.  However, the unit that could very well decide this game in my opinion is the Cardinals defense.  That’s right, the same defense that has ceded more than two touchdown passes per game since the season started right on through the playoffs.  No, I have not started my pregame partying just yet. Adrian Wilson, Dominique Rodger-Cromartie, Karlos Dansby et al have taken their game to a new level this postseason.  In three playoff games, they have intercepted eight passes and shut down three of the best running backs in the NFL, Michael Turner, DeAngelo Williams, and Brian Westbrook.  That’s impressive. This is not a defense to be taken lightly, especially against the run.

It just so happens that the Steelers like to chew up clock with Willie Parker and the running game, score maybe 20-something points, and then let their incredible defense do the rest. That game plan won’t work this Sunday. The Cardinals will shut down Fast Willie and probably hold him under 50 yards.  As a result, Ben Roethlisberger will have to throw more than he wants to against this suddenly ball-hawking secondary.  Complicating that scenario for Pittsburgh is the fact that their No. 1 receiver Hines Ward is still recovering from a sprained ligament in his knee and will not be anywhere close to 100 percent for this game.  Who’s going to pick up the slack on offense? Santonio Holmes? I think not.

Having said all that, unless the Steelers defense scores some points, I seriously doubt Pittsburgh will crack 20 points this Sunday.   In must be noted at this point that in every game the Steelers lost this season they scored 20 or fewer points.  Now, will it be tough for the Cardinals to crack 20 points in this game as well? Sure it will. The Steel Curtain allowed a league-low 13.9 points per game — an average aided by two games each against the Ravens, Bengals, and Browns.

However, I see this game resembling the Steelers Week 9 matchup with the Colts, a game that Peyton Manning and the boys won 24-20.  Kurt Warner has rediscovered the mojo he temporarily lost the last month of the season, Larry Fitzgerald has been unstoppable, Edgerrin James has turned back the clock a few years, and Anquan Boldin is allegedly healthy (albeit not particularly happy).  Edge won’t be a factor against the Steelers; it’s Warner who clearly holds the key. He won’t be fazed by the big game pressure because he’s played in two Super Bowls already. Nor will he be fazed by the Steelers pressure. Pittsburgh generates their pass rush with the blitz, something that Warner showed last week that he handles with aplomb when Jim Johnson’s Eagles threw the kitchen sink at him.  More often than not, Warner will counter-punch the Steelers blitz with quick strikes over the middle. And when the Steelers don’t blitz and he gets some time… look out for Fitz.

My final prediction: the Cardinals will win Super Bowl XLIII by a final score of 23-20. That’s two Cardinals touchdowns and three Neil Rackers field goals.  In other words, given my “success” thus far this postseason, go put your money on the Steelers to win one for the other thumb.

Do the Cardinals Have a Chance?

Here are my thoughts on this year’s Super Bowl, originally posted in my blog over at FantasyFootballChamps.com:

I’m not a betting man at all so I had to do some searching to find out what the spread is for Super Bowl XLIII. After some Googling I see that the sportsbooks have the Steelers favored by 6.5 to 7 points and I guess I’m not surprised. The Cardinals are definitely the underdogs in the eyes of the betting public and sports media alike. Again, I won’t be betting on this game, but if I were my money would be on the Cards. Do I think the Steelers are the safe bet to win this game? Yes. If these two teams played 10 times, do I think that the Steelers would win more than five of those games? Absolutely. We’ve all heard that defense wins championships, and no team had a better defense than the Steelers this season.

That being said, the Cardinals have been playing some defense this postseason as well. They have shut down a pretty impressive trio of running games so far this month — all three of them better than the rushing game that Willie Parker and the Steelers have. The pass defense has yielded the normal number of thouchdown passes (for them) with an average of two per playoff game; however, they have really ratcheted up the takeaways with eight interceptions. Ben Roethlisberger is hardly on a different level than Donovan McNabb and Matt Ryan. We won’t talk about Jake Delhomme. And with Hines Ward gimping on a sprained knee, I have to think the Steelers passing game might be borderline inept in Tampa this Sunday.

In other words, if the Cardinals can score more than 20 points in this game, I like their chances of not only covering the spread, but winning the game outright. Heck, Larry Fitzgerald will score at least once so they just have to come up with two more touchdowns. Of course, the Steelers defense could score a defensive touchdown or set up short fields for the offense with takeaways and that could prove to be the difference. In short, I think this is going to be a more interesting game than most people give it a chance of being.

Do the Cardinals have a chance? Hey, I didn’t think they’d win any of the three playoff games they’ve played so far… nothing would surprise me.

So I’m saying there’s a chance.