Odds and Sods

And thank the good lord!

England came our roaring in the 2nd half of today’s match.  Motivated by a subpar 1st half, the brave boys led by Capt. John came out of the lockerroom with a chip on their shoulders.  Lt. Steven G MBE poured in 2 second half strikes.  Young David Nugent capped it off at the end with a third.  England came out of hostile territory 3-0 victors and earning a vital 3 pts to aid their faltering EURO 2008 qualification campaign.

One problem, THEY WERE PLAYING ANDORRA!!!

Ah, mighty Andorra!  The ski resort with a population of 71,000 is ranked 163rd in the FIFA rankings, tied with the Solomon Islands.  Though those ratings are surely inaccurate (the USA was ranked 5th going into the last World Cup and Italy was ranked 13th), surely there is enough of a difference between 6th (England) and 163rd that this match should have been a laugher.

Andorra fielded a side that featured one full-time professional, who plays for a Spanish 2nd division club.  It also featured a couple shopkeepers, a ski instructor, and an insurance salesman.  The nation did not even have a suitable football stadium to accomodate the English fans, and the match had to be moved to Barcelona.

Yes, that is right.  The England national team, with highly priced stars playing for such great clubs as Chelsea, Manchester Utd., Liverpool, and Bayern Munich struggled to defeat a club that would struggle to defeat a non-league club.  The putrid performance was lambasted by the fans who serenaded the squads with chants of “You’re not fit to wear the shirt” and “There’s only one David Beckham.”

We here at Odds and Sods railed against those too quick to fire off sweet rounds of vitriolic critiques at McClaren.  We fought mightily to hold back our rage, hoping that it would dissipate as time passed.  It only got worse.

He is, quite simply, incompetent.  As the international manager he is charged with 4 basic tasks.  He needs to (1) choose the right tactics and starting XI (2) adjust as needed during the match and (3) not piss anyone off.  He merely has to do these three things.  He doesn’t have to sign players.  He doesn’t have to train them.  He has an average of about 1-2 months between meaningful matches to prepare.  Compared to most managers, he doesn’t really have that tough of a job.

In his brief tenure, he has made it plainly clear that he is completely incompetent at doing any of these.

A ten year old with a solid 20 min of Championship Manager experience would realize that one should play players in their natural positions.  He/she would probably consider playing consider playing at least one natural left-sided player in the squad, and might realize that after 3+ years of not working well together Lampard and Gerrard just can’t play with each other.

Said ten year old would also be able to handle substitutions as well.  Is it really that hard to, when things aren’t going well, take off the players who play badly and replace them, rather than the two players who were causing the opposing defense any semblance of havoc?  Or is it so radical of a concept to put players on at the 60 minute mark with enough time to actually make a difference?

Would the ten year old berate his players for lack of effort, when his own managerial performance has done nothing to aid them?  Would the ten year old spout meaningless maxims and treat the media and fans with such dishonesty and condescension by trying to fool them through the Bush method of stating something stupid and clearly wrong with conviction?

What exactly is McClaren offering more than John Q. Ten Year Old? Absolutely nothing!

The struggle with Andorra preceded by an abysmal stretch where England managed just one goal in 5 matches, has shattered the fans faith, the players faith, and possibly even Second-Choice Steve’s faith.  While England supporters once dreamed of winning Euro 2008, it will now be an arduous task for them merely to qualify.  To adequately portray how bad things have become, our editorial staff came across an article pushing for Cynical Sam Allardyce to take over for McClaren.  It didn’t sound half bad…

The San Diego Padres won their 2nd straight NL West Title in 2006.  They tied the Dodgers for 88 wins, but held the tiebreaker.  Despite having home field advantage, the Cardinals defeated them in the division series 3-1.

Starting Pitching

The Padres should quite simply have one of the best rotations in baseball.  Jake Peavy had a subpar season last year (11-14 4.09 ERA) at least partially due to shoulder tendonitis, but he was 28-13 in the previous two seasons with an ERA under 3.  He will only be turning 26 this season.  He has arguably the best stuff in baseball if he is on.  Look for him to have a big bounceback season.

Greg Maddux should nail down the #2 spot in the rotation.  The 4-Time NL Cy Young and 333 game winner is no longer the dominant force that he once was, but can still be counted upon to win 15 games and post an ERA of about 4.  The extra large ballpark in San Diego, should help him.

Chris Young is a solid #3.  He was 11-5 with a 3.46 ERA last season.  He did have a problem with inefficiency last year, as he led the league in pitches per plate appearance.  However, he will be working with one of the most efficient of all time with Maddux, and his performances this spring have been much better.

Veteran David Wells will check in at the #4 slot.  Fluke injuries slowed down Boomer last season, though even into his 40s he has normally been very effective and durable with a combined 42-22 record from 2003-5.  Health will be an issue once again, but for a different reason as Boomer has been diagnosed with Type II diabetes.  Listed at 250lbs, he has not been known for his physical conditioning over the years, though his mechanics have been impeccable.  It remains to be seen how the dietary restrictions regarding fast-food and alcohol affect his pitching.

Clay Hensley is also a solid #5, who went 11-12 with a 3.71 ERA in his first season as a starter last year.

The rotation has a dominant ace in Peavy.  Two extremely experienced veterans with Maddux and Wells, who also still happen to be durable and relatively effective pitchers.  Young and Hensley still have some upside, and shold benefit learning from the two veteran guys.  Their pitching was the key to their success last season, and this year should be no different.

Bullpen

Trevor Hoffman is one of the best closers of all time.  His 482 career saves are the most all time.  He will be gunning for his 4th straight year of over 40 saves.  The only concern will be how long the 39 year old will be able to continue throwing a hard enough fastball to adequately pair with his wicked changeup.

Scott Linebrink, though falling off a bit last season, is still a very good setup man for Hoffman.  They have a good mixture of veterans and young arms to throw in behind them.  They should provide a perfect compliment to the rotation.

Lineup

What the Padres lineup lacks in star power, it makes up for in depth.  Nearly every player from 1-8 is capable of putting up 15-20 home runs, even in the death valley of their ballpark.  Adrian Gonzalez was finally given the opportunity to play every day in SD and took advantage (.304 24HR 82RBI).  The Giles brothers are decent veteran hitters.  Josh Bard hit .333 with 9HR and 40RBI in only 249AB last year.  They will also look for production from rookie 3rd Baseman Kevin “The Crushin Russian” Kouzmanoff.  They don’t have any overt power threats , but they should score enough runs to help out their pitching.

Scuttlebutt

The Padres have few juicy tidbits for newspapers and bloggers to salivate over.  Manager Bruce Boche leaving to take over the Giants’ job is about as good as it gets so far.  We here at Odds and Sods will predict that David Wells will find a way to make a story.  It may be negatively with his mouth, but hopefully it will be positively with a winning record and a successful coping with his Diabetes.

Outlook:Very Nice

The Padres had the lowest team ERA in the NL last year at 3.87, and with the talent on their staff they look to be up near the top again.  Their lineup should be fairly decent as well.  There is no reason they can’t repeat or even expand on their success from last year.

P.S. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get rid of those special camo-unis!