Saturday, March 10, 2007

Big East Tourney - Finals preview

Ten games. 9-1 record. Correctly called the Catholic confrontation nailbiter. I've ordered a wheelbarrow to haul my balls around in for the rest of the weekend.

Before we preview G'Town/Pitt, Cardinal relief specialist Josh Kinney will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery on Tuesday. Kinney had thrown 2 ineffective innings this spring, giving up 6 runs total. It seemed odd that a guy who was virtually unhittable during last Sept/Oct would regress so badly in such a short time. I'm actually relieved that the root cause was something he had no control over, and had been (apparently) tearing for quite some time.

This makes it even more important that Jason Isringhausen is able to go for the season opener. Losing him would shift Wainwright back in to the bullpen, throwing a spot in the starting rotation open, meaning one of the long/middle relievers would shift into the rotation, meaning 2 spots would open up in the bullpen - just a mismash of issues. So here's hoping Izzy's first appearance this coming Thursday goes well.

On to the tourney.

Game 11: Pittsburgh vs. Georgetown. G'Town won the only meeting between these two schools in the regular season. Pitt was one of the top 5-10 teams until late in the year; G'Town has been on a roll of late. Win for the Hoyas may mean a #1 seed in the NCAAs; Either way, these two teams will be #2's when the brackets come out tomorrow. I dislike both these teams, so I probably won't watch the game (because they both can't lose); but I'm going to ride the hot hand here, and go with the Hoyas.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

So when shall I meet you in Chicago? UK travels wells so the boys from the Main Line are going to need all the support they can get. And what better place to celebrate St. Patrick's Day than Chicago? Well, Lexington comes to mind. I can't wait until X gets to face the traitor Thad Matta. Death to the Buckeyes! Oh, they still have Greg Oden? Damn.