Another Landmark Win for Major League Soccer

For the second time in as many matches, a Major League Soccer Club has gone into Mexico and won. Up until last week this had never happened, but the Seattle Sounders followed in FC Dallas's footsteps and knocked off the defending Champions League Champion Monterrey 1-0 at Estadio Tecnológico tonight thanks to a first half goal from Uruguayan midfielder Álvaro Fernández. Playing without Kasey Keller, Mauro Rosales and Fredy Montero, Seattle was on the defensive for most of the match getting outshot 17-7 by Los Rayados. But 29 year old goalie Terry Boss, brother of New York Giants tight end Kevin Boss, was up to the challenge making 4 saves and keeping strikers Aldo De Nigris and Humberto Suazo off the board. This was no small feat as Monterrey had just won their opener 5-0 over Herediano of Costa Rica last week. These two teams aren't strangers to one another as they were also matched up in the same group in last year's Champions League. Monterrey got the better of them in both matches last year winning 2-0 in Seattle and then overcoming a 2-0 deficit at home en route to a 3-2 win. With tonight's win, Seattle has now already won more games than they did in last year's Champions League when they finished 1-5 at the bottom of Group C.

Photo Credit: mlssoccer.com

The Colorado Rapids weren't quite as fortunate in their match tonight drawing with Real España 1-1 in Honduras, but they still extended the MLS unbeaten streak to 7 in this year's Champions League (6-0-1). Jeff Larentowicz, wearing the captain's armband for the Rapids tonight, gave Colorado a first half lead in stoppage time that nearly held up, but Uruguayan Julio Rodríguez drilled home a volley in the 88th minute for the home team to salvage a draw.

Photo Credit: mlssoccer.com

The only other game on the slate tonight between Herediano and Comunicaciones was postponed until tomorrow due to heavy rain. Two more MLS sides will be in action tomorrow as well with FC Dallas taking on Toronto FC in Group C action.

Is Verlander an MVP Candidate?

Justin Verlander became the league's first 19 game winner last night after tossing 7 innings of 3-hit ball with 8 strikeouts against the Tampa Bay Rays. Verlander is now 19-5 with a 2.28 ERA (2nd in the league) and leads the league with 212 strikeouts. More importantly, the Tigers, currently 5 games up on the Indians atop the AL Central, have won 20 of the 28 games that he has started and Detroit actually has a sub-.500 record when someone other than Verlander is on the mound. As a result Justin Verlander's name has been tossed around in the MVP conversation which has sparked a great deal of debate.

It's not unprecedented for a pitcher to win the MVP award, but it certainly isn't common. Over the past 40 years, the award has been won by a pitcher 5 times: Dennis Eckersly (1992), Roger Clemens (1986), Willie Hernandez (1984), Rollie Fingers (1981) and Vida Blue (1971). All five pitchers were in the American League. To find the last NL MVP who was a pitcher you have to go all the way back to 1968 when both the AL and NL MVP awards were won by pitchers. Bob Gibson was the recipient of the NL MVP Award that year with 31-game winner Denny McLain winning the award for the AL. How does Verlander's season compare to the past winners?

Interestingly enough, Eckersly, Hernandez and Fingers were all closers when they won the award. So only two starting pitchers have won the MVP Award since 1970. Clemens won the award at age 23 when he was 24-4 with a 2.48 ERA and 238 strike outs. Blue was only 21 when he won the award in 1971, but went 24-8 with a 1.82 ERA, 301 strike outs, 24 complete games and 8 shutouts. Verlander's numbers certainly are comparable, but think of some of the great seasons in recent years by pitchers that DIDN'T win the award. In 1995 Greg Maddux was 19-2 with a 1.63 ERA, but he finished 3rd in the MVP voting that year. In 1999 Pedro Martinez was 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA, but struck out an absurd 313 hitters in just 213 1/3 innings. Still, he was unable to finish better than second in the MVP voting losing out to Ivan Rodriguez. Bob Welch won 27 games for the A's in 1990, but only finished 9th.

So back to Verlander. The one thing he has going for him is that there isn't really a clear-cut MVP among the AL's position players. Jose Bautista is hitting .315 with 36 home runs and 80 runs batted in, but his case is hurt by the fact that he plays for Toronto (4th place in the AL East). Both the Yankees and Redsox have candidates: Curtis Granderson (.279 35 HR 98 RBI 24 SB) and Mark Teixeira (.248 34 HR 95 RBI) for New York and Adrian Gonzalez (.346 20 HR 97 RBI) and Jacoby Ellsbury (.312 22 HR 79 RBI 34 SB) for Boston. While all four have produced big numbers, they'll be hurt by the fact that they play for the same team and risk stealing votes from one another.

Suffice it to say, how Verlander pitches down the stretch, and how Detroit finishes will go along way in determining Verlander's candidacy. If he wins his last six or seven starts and finishes with 25 or 26 wins, and none of the other candidates do anything to distance themselves from the pack, it will certainly improve his chances. Still, it's possible that Verlander could do everything right and still not win the award. In 1999 during Pedro Martinez's MVP-type season, two of the voters didn't even include Martinez on their ballot ultimately costing him the award. The fact of the matter, fair or unfair, is that not everyone believes pitchers should be eligible to win the award believing instead that the Cy Young Award alone should honor their performance. With that mindset it is very difficult for any pitcher to win and that's what Verlander will have to overcome. We'll see what Verlander does over the final weeks of the season and where everyone stands when all the pennant races conclude. Stay tuned!

WPS Championship Preview

The Western New York Flash will take on the Philadelphia Independence in the 3rd Women's Professional Soccer Championship on Saturday. It's a showdown between the league's top two teams as Western New York finished with the best record during the regular season (13-2-3) with Philadelphia right behind them (11-4-3). The two sides met three times during the regular season with Philadelphia dealing New York both of their regular season losses.

Photo Credit: womensprosoccer.com

New York won the first game in Philadelphia by a score of 2-1, but Philadelphia stole a 1-0 win on a 90th minute goal in the second game and won the third at home by a 2-1 score. Both sides are heavy on talent featuring a number of players from the Women's World Cup. Philadelphia has Amy Rodriguez, Lori Lindsey, and goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart from the U.S. National Team while New York has Canada's all-time leading scorer Christine Sinclair, 5-time player of the year Marta of Brazil, her Brazilian teammate Maurine, and the U.S.'s Alex Morgan. The two teams feature 3 of the league's top 4 scorers with Sinclair and Marta netting 10 goals apiece for New York and ex-U.S. National teamer Tasha Kai scoring 9 to lead Philadelphia.

Photo Credit: usatoday.com

New York has the advantage of being rested as they got a bye until the championship by winning the regular season title. Philadelphia earned their way to the Championship with a 2-0 over Abby Wambach and magicJack on Saturday. Tasha Kai gave the Independence an early 1-0 lead and Amy Rodriguez sealed the win with a goal in the second half.

Despite Philadelphia winning the season series between the two teams I have to think the edge in this one goes to the Flash. With everyone back from the World Cup, the combination of Sinclair and Marta will be a difficult one to stop and I see them just being too much for the Independence to handle giving them their second straight  loss in the WPS Championship. Prediction: New York 2 Philadelphia 0. Kickoff is Saturday afternoon at 4 pm at Sahlen's Stadium in Rochester.

Pryor To The Raiders

Terrelle Pryor is finally headed for the NFL. The former Buckeye was the only player selected in today's NFL supplemental draft taken with the 18th pick of the 3rd round by the Oakland Raiders. Pryor played 3 years at Ohio State leading them to a Rose Bowl victory in 2010 and a Sugar Bowl victory in 2011. He finished the 2010 season with a career high 2772 passing yards to go along with a career best 27 touchdowns and just 11 interceptions while also running for 754 yards and 4 scores. 

Photo Credit:

Still, despite his gaudy college numbers, there are doubts about whether or not his game will translate to the professional level. There's no questioning his athletic ability, but he is not a pure passer and some doubt that his best contributions at the NFL level will be made at the quarterback position. Listening to some of the folks on ESPN today, they made it sound like his best bet would be to play some sort of receiver or H-back type position comparing him to Seneca Wallace or Brad Smith, but it remains to be seen if that's the Raiders vision. Some reports have the Raiders viewing Pryor as a franchise quarterback, which I honestly think is a mistake. And let's be honest. In recent years the Raiders haven't exactly been the best at evaluating young quarterback talent. Let's look at the last three quarterbacks the Raiders have drafted:

Marques Tuiasasopo - 2nd Round 2001 -13 career games played, 2 TDs, 7 INTs

Andrew Walter - 3rd Round 2005 -15 games played, 3 TDs, 16 INTs

JaMarcus Russell - 1st Round, 1st Overall 2007 - 31 games played, 18 TDs, 23 INTs

None of them are still playing in the NFL. Makes you wonder about their scouting department. Regardless of what role the Raiders have in mind for Pryor he's not going to be doing anything for a while due to the suspension imposed on him by the league. Pryor isn't even allowed to practice until the end of Week 5. 

It's also interesting to note that by drafting Pryor in the 3rd Round, the Raiders now forfeit their 3rd round pick in the 2012 Draft. That in itself wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that the Raiders already didn't have a 2nd or 4th round pick in next year's draft so now they'll have to wait until the 5th Round to make their 2nd pick. 

Bottom line, I wouldn't expect to see anything out of Pryor in 2011. He'll be getting such a late start that it's unlikely he'll know the offense well enough to play quarterback at a high level, and he'll be WAY behind the learning curve as a receiver in terms of running routes and such. We'll see what happens. It's certainly going to be something to keep an eye on later this season.

Top Tens

Men's Tennis Rankings

1. Novak Djokovic (Serbia) - 13920 points
2. Rafael Nadal (Spain) - 11420 points
3. Roger Federer (Switzerland) - 8380 points
4. Andy Murray (Great Britain) - 6535 points
5. David Ferrer (Spain) - 4200 points
6. Robin Soderling (Sweden) - 4145 points
7. Gael Monfils (France) - 3165 points
8. Mardy Fish (USA) - 2820 points
9. Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) - 2690 points
10. Nicolas Almagro (Spain) - 2380 points


Out: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (11)


Women's Tennis Rankings

1. Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) - 9335 points
2. Vera Zvonareva (Russia) - 6820 points
3. Kim Clijsters (Belgium) - 6501 points
4. Maria Sharapova (Russia) - 6346 points
5. Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) - 5995 points
6. Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) - 5685 points
7. Li Na (China) - 5671 points
8. Francesca Schiavone (Italy) - 4855 points
9. Marion Bartoli (France) - 4225 points
10. Samantha Stosur (Australia) - 3930 points



FedEx Cup Points Leaders

1.Nick Watney 1906 (1)
2. Steve Stricker 1865 (2)
3. Webb Simpson 1861 (-)
4. Luke Donald 1856 (3)
5. Keegan Bradley 1621 (4)
6. K.J. Choi 1601 (5)
6. Phil Mickelson 1601 (5)
8. Bubba Watson 1577 (7)
9. David Toms 1538 (8)
10. Gary Woodland 1466 (9)


Out: Mark Wilson (11)



AL Leading Hitters (through Sunday)

1. Adrian Gonzalez BOS - .343 (173/505)
2. Michael Young TEX - .337 (170/505)
3. Casey Kotchman TB - .328 (124/378)
4. Victor Martinez DET - .324 (132/408)
5. Miguel Cabrera DET - .321 (144/449)
6. Jose Bautista TOR - .318 (126/396)
7. Paul Konerko CHW - .317 (138/435)
8. Jhonny Peralta DET - .313 (129/412)
9. Jacoby Ellsbury BOS - .313 (158/505)
10. Dustin Pedroia BOS - .306 (149/487)



NL Leading Hitters (through Sunday)

1. Jose Reyes NYM - .336 (144/428)
2. Ryan Braun MIL - .330 (142/430)
3. Matt Kemp LAD - .322 (150/466)
4. Joey Votto CIN - .322 (149/463)
5. Daniel Murphy NYM - .320 (125/391)
6. Michael Morse WAS - .319 (125/392)
7. Shane Victorino PHI - .314 (118/376)
8. Todd Helton COL - .312 (119/381)
9. Matt Holliday STL - .309 (109/353)
10. Starlin Castro CHC - .308 (164/532)




AL Home Run Leaders (through Sunday)

1. Jose Bautista TOR - 36
2. Curtis Granderson NYY - 35
3. Mark Teixeira NYY - 34
4. Paul Konerko CHW - 28
4. Mark Reynolds BAL - 27
6. Nelson Cruz TEX - 26
7. David Ortiz BOS - 24
7. Carlos Quentin CHW - 24
9. Miguel Cabrera DET - 23
9. J.J. Hardy BAL - 23
9. Mark Trumbo LAA - 23



NL Home Run Leaders (through Sunday)

1. Albert Pujols STL - 31
2. Mike Stanton FLA - 30
3. Dan Uggla ATL - 29
4. Lance Berkman STL - 28
4. Prince Fielder MIL - 28
4. Matt Kemp LAD - 28
7. Ryan Howard PHI - 26
7. Jay Bruce CIN - 26
9. Troy Tulowitzki - 25
9. Justin Upton ARI - 25



AL ERA Leaders (through Sunday)

1. Jered Weaver LAA - 2.10 (14-6)
2. Justin Verlander DET - 2.31 (18-5)
3. Josh Beckett BOS - 2.46 (10-5)
4. Justin Masterson CLE - 2.71 (10-7)
5. Ricky Romero TOR - 2.73 (12-9)
6. CC Sabathia NYY - 2.96 (17-7)
7. Dan Haren LAA - 2.98 (13-6)
8. Jeremy Hellickson TB - 3.04 (11-8)
9. James Shields TB - 3.05 (11-10)
10. Ervin Santana LAA - 3.12 (9-9)




NL ERA Leaders (through Sunday)

1. Johnny Cueto CIN - 1.89 (9-5)
2. Ryan Vogelsong SF - 2.47 (10-3)
3. Tim Lincecum SF - 2.53 (11-10)
4. Roy Halladay PHI - 2.56 (15-5)
5. Clayton Kershaw LAD - 2.60 (15-5)
6. Cole Hamels PHI - 2.62 (13-7)
7. Cliff Lee PHI - 2.82 (13-7)
8. Jair Jurrjens ATL - 2.84 (12-5)
9. Matt Cain SF - 2.86 (10-9)
10. Hiroki Kuroda LAD - 2.88 (9-14)




WNBA LEADING SCORERS

1. Diana Taurasi - Phoenix - 21.0 ppg
2. Angel McCoughtry - Atlanta - 20.3 ppg
3. Sylvia Fowles - Chicago - 20.3 ppg
4. Crystal Langhorne - Washington - 18.5 ppg
5. Cappie Pondexter - New York - 18.0 ppg
6. Tina Charles - Connecticut - 17.7 ppg
7. Penny Taylor - Phoenix - 16.8 ppg
8. Becky Hammon - San Antonio - 16.6 ppg
9. Seimone Augustus - Minnesota - 16.5 ppg
10. Matee Ajavon - Washinton - 16.1 ppg



COLLEGE FOOTBALL PRESEASON RANKINGS - AP Top 25
*USA Today Poll Ranking in Parentheses

1. Oklahoma (1)
2. Alabama (2)
3. Oregon (3)
4. LSU (4)
5. Boise State (7)
6. Florida State (5)
7. Stanford (6)
8. Texas A&M (9)
9. Oklahoma State (8)
10. Nebraska (11)



Photos Courtesy (in order of appearance):

tennisnow.com
bbs.chinadaily.com.cn
kterrl.wordpress.com
zimbio.com
zimbio.com
zimbio.com
zimbio.com
zimbio.com
zimbio.com
zimbio.com

Altidore Scores Twice for Alkmaar

It appears Jozy Altidore is starting to find his niche in Europe. The 21 year old striker scored a pair of goals today in AZ Alkmaar's 4-0 win over NEC Nijmegen giving him three goals through the league's first three matches. By comparison, Altidore only scored one league goal in each of his first three seasons in Europe bouncing around on loans after failing to make an impression on Villareal's first team. Altidore's recent success is something to keep an eye on. It's no secret the U.S. is in desperate need of a true goal scorer up top, and if Jozy can finally put it all together, that could be a huge lift for the Americans. Altidore wouldn't be the first striker to use Holland as a jumping off point for international success. Uruguay's Luis Suarez led the Dutch Eredivisie in scoring during the 2009-2010 season with 35 goals and has since turned in tremendous performances in the 2010 World Cup, the 2011 Copa America, and last year earned himself a transfer to Liverpool of the English Premier League. I'm not saying Altidore has turned the corner yet, three games isn't enough to really be able to make that judgment, but the fact that he's on the field and scoring goals is great news no matter how you look at it.

Photo Credit: mlssoccer.com

Immediate Results

David Beckham to Robbie Keane. Music to Galaxy fans ears. It took only 21 minutes for Robbie Keane to score his first MLS goal as he took a long ball from David Beckham and easily beat Jon Busch for an uncontested finish. Keane would be subbed off in the 72nd minute and his replacement Mike Magee would add an insurance goal as the Galaxy defeated San Jose 2-0. The win, coupled with Dallas's loss extends L.A.'s lead to six points over now second place Seattle atop the Western Conference. With eight games remaining in the regular season and Champions League matches ongoing, it will be interesting to see how Bruce Arena chooses to use Keane in the upcoming weeks. Regardless, the Galaxy couldn't have asked for a better start to the Robbie Keane era.

Photo Credit: lagalaxy.com

Interestingly enough, Juan Pablo Angel, the player that was let go to make room for Keane on the roster also scored tonight in his debut for Chivas USA. It was just Angel's 4th goal of the season after scoring 13 last year for the Red Bulls.