Patriots vs. Dolphins: Week 1 Preview

Well, it's that time of year again Patriots fans. The beginning of another season. The beginning of (hopefully) another Super Bowl run. It all starts with Week 1, and this Week 1 is on the national stage. Monday Night Football versus one of our bigger rivals, the Miami Dolphins. All I've been hearing from Dolphins fans is complete nonsense. "Chad Henne is going to be a star QB" "Reggie Bush is a stud runningback" "Brandon Marshall is the best receiver in the NFL" Um, no, no, and no. Henne is just bad. You keep saying he's "improved" when all he's done in his career is digress instead of progress. Reggie Bush has been a 3rd down 'back all of his NFL career, he's proven squat. Marshall is good, I'll give them that, but he's definitely not the best. He also needs someone to throw him the ball. Whether it's Henne all year or Moore half way through (maybe even sooner pending how bad Henne plays). I'll get back to the offense in a moment. I want to focus on what worries me the most, the defense. The 'Fins defense is very good. Ranked 6th in the league last year. There are tons of game breakers, some of which include: Cameron Wake, Vontae Davis, and Darnell Dockett to name a few. Then again the Patriots are fielding 2010s unanimous MVP, Tom Brady. Anytime Tom Brady is on the field you can guarantee the Patriots will put up points, and in bunches. Though I don't expect them to win like they did last year on Monday Night. It will be much closer, but I still expect to win. Vontae Davis and Sean Smith are very good corners, yes, but Ochocinco and Branch are very good receivers. When you do cover them, what about Welker? What about Gronkowski? What about Hernandez? You can double cover Welker, sure, then you leave either a safety or linebacker on the two tight ends. Which is exactly what Belichick wants, you bring a safeties on them, they throw it down the sidelines with no safety help. You put a linebacker on them, Hernandez is too fast for them and Hernandez is too big for them. They are match-up nightmares. The run game is much improved. Green-Ellis got 1,000 yards last year, Woodhead gets a full year to learn the playbook, Stevan Ridley looked tremendous in pre-season, and Vereen could be another Woodhead but bigger and stronger. Lets go look at the new defense. The new additions include Shaun Ellis, Andre Carter and oh yeah a very motivated Albert Haynesworth. Remember the last time Haynesworth was motivated? Oh yeah, he had 8.5 sacks and was an All-Pro. Yikes. This time he has the best nose tackle in football, Vince Wilfork, to help him. This is another thing I love about this defense. If you double team Haynesworth or Wilfork then the other is single teamed which is dangerous and then Shaun Ellis and Andre Carter are on their own as well is pretty bad too. The linebackers are solid. Captain Jerod Mayo led the NFL in tackles last year. Brandon Spikes showed flashes last year and Gary Guyton/Rob Ninkovich are solid. The secondary is where people are most concerned but, I think it's just Free Safety. Devin McCourty had 7 INTs last year as a rookie and looks like a shutdown corner in the making, Leigh Bodden is coming back from injury who had 5 INTs in 2009 with the Patriots, Kyle Arrington can finally be a slot corner like he should be, Ras-I Dowling will be very good but it will take time. Pat Chung is a very good Strong Safety. That about covers the Patriots' defense. They greatly improved the pass rush which should help the pas defense as a whole. Getting Bodden back also helps. Back to the Dolphins offense. They lost RBs Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams and replaced them with Reggie Bush, Daniel Thomas, and Larry Johnson. Rookie Thomas is going to be out for the game so it'll be Bush and Johnson carrying the load. Johnson is just flat out old. Does he have enough left to be a feature 'back because Lord knows Bush isn't a feature NFL 'back. Receivers Brandon Marshall and Davone Bess are good but then you have the QB, Chad Henne. This is what ticks me off most about 'Fins fans. They constantly say Henne will lead them to a playoff berth or even a Super Bowl. As Chad Ochocinco would say, child please! Chad Henne is just bad. I would start Matt Moore over him but I guess you have to give him one last look. He is the big downfall for them and I expect him to be the downfall on Monday too. I've covered basically everything. I expect a win on Monday night but I wouldn't be shocked if we lost a close one, but I doubt it. Go Patriots!

My YouTube Channel

I've finally decided to post videos on my YouTube channel. I'm going to make tribute videos for hockey players, basketball players and I'll attempt football players and baseball players too!
I have 3 videos up right now:
Mike Green Tribute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3KZmIVkPXU&feature=related

Luke Schenn Tribute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjZHD5IjAF8&feature=related

Nazem Kadri Tribute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti-aVZSuGLE&feature=related

I'll probably be doing a Martin St. Louis  tribute tomorrow and a Brandon Jennings tribute sometime during the week. Subscribe!

What Will The Toronto Blue Jays Look Like in 2018?

This will be my first blog post about baseball and my favorite team is my hometown Toronto Blue Jays. I have been tortured by hearing that they are building for the future every year for the past 5-6 years now. So I have taken it upon myself to write about what will this team look like in the future. The future in this case being 7 years. I chose 7 years because most of the starters now probably will either be retired, traded or too old to be relied upon. So, without further ado here are my predictions for what the Toronto Blue Jays will look like in 2018 using only prospects and some starters now.
Catcher: Travis d'Arnaud. Age in 2018: 29. With 3 great catching prospects right now (JP Arencibia, d'Arnaud and Carlos Perez) I believe that at least one of them will be traded but I don't think it will be d'Arnaud. The back-up will either be Arencibia (age: 32) or Perez (age: 27)
1st Base: Michael McDade. Age in 2018: 28. McDade was drafted as a catcher in 2007 but was moved to 1st base shortly after. He fields extremely well with .993 FLD% this year in AA. His bat is really coming along hitting .290 with 14HRs in AA this year. His back-up I would assume to be a veteran Adam Lind or David Cooper.
2nd base: Kellen Sweeney. Age in 2018: 26. The Jays have 2 2B prospects, Sweeney and Ryan Schimpf (Age: 26) I haven't heard much on either but from the little I have heard, Sweeney will probably be better than Sweeney. Both have below average minor league stats this year but Schimpf has the better stats but Sweeney has higher potential.
3rd base: Brett "God" Lawrie. Age in 2018: 28. As I write this Lawrie has just hit his first Major League home run. This kid will be a star. He's a Canadian boy and he will be the pride of Canada's team. Other 3B prospects: Christopher Hawkins, Sean Ochinko, and Gabriel Cenas.
SS: Adeiny Hechavarria. Age in 2018: 29. 'Hech was signed as a Cuban free agent and has flown through the system. His bat still needs to develop but he has Gold Glove potential in the field. Other SS prospects: Dickie Joe Thon, Shane Opitz, and Gustavo Pierre.
LF: Travis Snider. Age in 2018: 30. I still think that Snider will still be a very great player. The kid has so much potential its ridiculous. He just needs to figure it out and I think he will.
CF: Colby Rasmus. Age in 2018: 31. Yes, Anthony Gose has Gold Glove potential but Rasmus has the great defense and a terrific bat. Rasmus will still be productive at 31 when Gose is 27. But Gose would probably take over in a couple year after.
RF: Jake Marisnick. Age in 2018: 26. The youngster of this outfield will be another star. I really like this guy from what I hear. In A this year he's hitting .309 with 10 HRs, 66 RBI and 27 SB. Something has to go horribly wrong for him not to make the majors.
As for the 4th outfielder it should be Anthony Gose.
DH: Eric Thames. Age in 2018: 31. If Thames can keep up what he's doing now in the majors he should be around on this team for a long time. If not then you should expect Arencibia as the DH or an old Adam Lind.
Now lets get to what most people are excited about, the pitching.
SP1: Kyle Drabek. Age in 2018: 30. Drabek will be the ace of this team for a looong time. He has great stuff and will even out this Halladay trade.
SP2: Aaron Sanchez. Age in 2018: 25. Sanchez has ace stuff but Drabek has just too much potential to have Sanchez over him.
SP3: Deck McGuire. Age in 2018: 27. We drafted McGuire last year as our top draft pick and I expect that he will be in our rotation for the future.
SP4: Asher Wojciechowski. Age in 2018: 29. I like to refer to him as Asher Wojnfsonsonsf.Whoever the play by play guy is for the Jays in 2018 will have a tough time pronouncing his name while hitters will have a tough time hitting his pitches.
SP5: Noah Snydergaard. Age in 2018: 25. I was debating whether the 5th spot should go to Snydergaard or Drew Hutchinson. I decided on Snydergaard because of the fact that he will be younger and may have the potential to work up even higher in the rotation in his career while Hutchinson will just be hitting his prime.
Long reliever: Drew Hutchinson. Age in 2018: 27. Drew missed out on the 5th starting spot but still gets to be a big man in the bullpen as long reliever.
Closer: Henderson Alvarez. Age in 2018: 27. Alvarez is a starter at the moment but if you have a guy that can throw up to 100mph in you system he'll eventually become the closer with that kind of stuff. We may even see Alvarez in the majors this year as a September call-up.

I did not want to do the middle relievers because that is too hard to predict because a lot of them may end up being free agents signings and whatnot.
Thank you for reading!