The past 48 hours have without a doubt been among the craziest in my time as a Buc fan. It is going to take another day or two to shake off the disapointment I have been feeling all day. Before all this crazynes started I had already given up on Brett comming to Tampa, even though I have wanted it to happen ever since he said he was ready to play again. And I was feeling pretty good about the QB situation except for the fact that I really don't like Garcia anymore. I'll probably get that feeling back again in a couple of days or at least when I see the team play without him on Saturday.

And now Bruce Allen is trying to make us believe that there were absolutely no negotiations going on at any point? I don't know if I really believe that. That was a heck of a lot of smoke without a fire if that is the case. If he is telling the truth then somebody in the Packers organisation has been real busy filling the media with lies. I think they dropped the ball a little bit on this if Bruce is telling the truth. You can't just let two days go by with such a massive amount of rumors that get your fans' hopes up without addressing the situation and explaining that it isn't true if there really was nothing to it. They didn't even explain where Bruce had gone until he was back again. I realize you can't spend your time denying all rumours that are being spread through the media but I think this was a special case with such a high profile player and so many local and national media outlets reporting the same thing, that they should have addressed it.

At least it is over now and we can start looking forward. Here is my take on the QB situation at this point and how it could have been affected:

1 - Jeff Garcia
As mentioned I'm fed up with him and have been for a couple of months. I know the team seems to be behind him and support him as their leader but I really don't like the attitude that we have seen from him all offseason. However, he does seem to be the starter for now and I will admit he played really well for us last year. He needs to stay healthy though. He has already missed a lot of camp and missed games last year so I am not convinced he can stay healthy throughout the season.

2 - Brian Griese
I'm glad Brian is still with the team. I'm not completely sure if Garcia or Griese would have been cut if Favre had come into town but one of them would have to go and I'm glad Griese isn't going anywhere. I liked the way he played the last time he was with the team and Gruden has been praising him a lot ever since we traded to get him back. He is going to be a solid veteran backup to put in during a game if Jeff goes down.

3 - Luke McCown
My favorite of the bunch and might be the one who won the most by Favre not comming in. The way I see it Griese is the guy to go in and finish a game but if they know a week in advance that Jeff won't be ready to go I think Luke gets the start. There is no doubt the chance of him getting a start this year is a lot bigger with Garcia as the #1 instead of Favre. Also, I think that they would be very tempted to bring back Favre for another year next year if he had come in. It doesn't seem like they are too crazy about handing Garcia a new contract and I'm starting to think that they probably won't. If Garcia is gone there is a very good chance of Luke going into the season as the starter next year. Especially if he has a couple of good games this year.

4 - Josh Johnson
He'll probably just be taking up Cadillac's rosterspot until he is ready to be activated from the PUP list and it is fairly safe to sneak Josh onto the practise squad. Nobody is going to clear a roster spot for a rookie QB, 5th round draft pick who needs a couple of years of coaching before he is ready to see the field. They might even try and put him on the PS at the final roster cut down date. Patience is the key word with him.

? - Chris Simms
He has turned out to be quite a joker this year. People are still talking about him being traded but shouldn't it have happened by now? According to the reports I have read he has been doing really well. Even changing his release a little to better be able to avoid batted balls by the opposing d-line. On one hand I have gotten so used to Simms not really being a part of the team for the past two seasons that I still almost forget about him from time to time. But on the other hand if he is really doing well and nobody wants to trade for him at this point I'm starting to wonder if he might actually make it onto the team. If they are going to try and get Josh onto PS before the season starts Simms might make it as the #4 qb again. I definitely don't think they want to just cut him after everything they have invested in him. He could also knock Griese off but Jon doesn't like cutting QBs without having a really good reason to do so and it seems like he likes Brian so I don't think that will happen either. Especially not with a pretty fragile starting QB. And of course he could still get traded. I guess we'll just have to wait and see a little longer about what is going to happen to him.

 

With or without Favre we do have probably the deepest group of quality QBs of any team in the league and a starter who was a pro bowler last season and now has one more season under his belt in this system and with his teammates.

And now maybe it is time to start focusing on the rest of the team again and the rest of the camp and preseason.

 

I'm on board with the notion that the Rays is an all star team without a whole lot of all star players on it. But even though Kazmir and Navarro already made it in, and deservedly so,  the guy I always hoped for the most was Evan Longoria. In a season where the Rays' top stars has played slightly under their previous level the rookie has come in and performed above and beyond what anybody could have reasonebly been expecting from him.

Compare the numbers between Longoria and the other four AL nominees and they are really pretty similar. Roberts stands out a little bit because he has a lot more stolen bases but fewer HRs and RBIs. So to determine the true allstar you need to look past the numbers. Longoria didn't even start the season in the MLB but he has been performing like a veteran. He plays for the #1 team in baseball who has had the toughest schedule of all and he has played a big part in turning the franchise around. Most importantly he is a complete player with a fast glove who has been outstanding on defense. Looking at all the x-factors I don't know how you don't decide to vote for Longoria.

Get your vote in before Thursday at 5 pm and help give the soon to be rookie of the year the experience of a lifetime.

It is about time that I come out of my hiatus. At least I'm done with school for now but studying in the US is not cheap so I've been working a lot lately to raise money for the fall. Not too much to keep up with some sports though. I like the spring and the autumn seasons. Some leagues starting, others having their playoffs. Lots of hope and the excitement of championships. But seriously, nothing beats the three month stretch of June to August. Euro soccer championships, Wimbledon, Tour de France, NFL training camps, Olympics, back to back to back. I'm probably not going to write about the Wimbledon. My arefavorites, Djokovic and Caroline Woszniaki is out anyway. And my other favorite Ancic just got beat today. Now I'll have to rely on Safin to create a surprise result. I don't have anything against Nadal or Federer but each year those two reach the final it gets more and more boring. I miss the day an Ivanisevic  could win it. The Tour however I'll probably be writing a little bit about. But more importantly for most of you in the US I'll soon be posting more on the Bucs and the Rays as the Bucs open training camp and the Rays are entering the really important part of the season.

After this way too long intro (hope you are still with me) it's time to get to what I really wanted to write about this time. Actually it is mostly a question for all of the people out there way smarter than me on this topic. I like hockey a lot. I've been following the sport for way longer than football or baseball since it is pretty popular in Denmark as well. But I'm not nearly as much into the NHL as I am the MLB and NFL and especially not all of their new free agency and cap rules which at first glance looks way too complicated.

So my question goes out to all NHL fans; what do you think of everything that has been going on with the Tampa Bay Lightning lately and what do you think of the future of the team?

A few points of discussion:

Will Stamkos really have the kind of impact the Lightning are trying to make us believe with all of the hype?

Is Melrose the right coach for the team? Is he even any good as an NHL coach at all? It seems like he has got a LOT of critics out there, especially among Lightning fans, but also some very passionate supporters at ESPN and in the sport in general, like Gretzky. 

It is still very early in FA but have they been spending their money wisely so far?

What do you think of Koules and the way he has been handling things so far?

Join in and enjoy!

Since I plan on blogging about the Bucs here for a while I thought I should probably start by giving my opinion on the one big topic that has divided Buc fans i two groups for the past 6 years, Jon Gruden.

I'll gladly admit to being a Gruden fan. Anybody that knows me will tell you that. He is a big part of why I even became a Bucs fan when I first started watching football in 2002. However, I do think that I have a much more objective and balanced view of his personality and coaching abilities now than I did just 2-3 years ago. The man is certainly not without flaws, but I still think he is a good coach.

He has been labeled an offensive genius based on his work with the Eagles and especially the Raiders. In 6 seasons with the Bucs he has yet to put together a high scoring offense. I think his main problem has been a lack of available talent. He had some pretty good players in Oakland and most importantly he had Rich Gannon. He hasn't yet been able to create that same bond with a QB in Tampa and then keep him around for the next season. I have never read an NFL playbook so when guys like Garcia and Griese and several others say that he is one of the smartest offensive minds they have ever been around, I'm going to take their word for it. But you can get a little too smart for your own good. The Xs and Os from the playbook haven't yet translated into production on the field with the Bucs and he deserves some blame for that. I think this year he has one of the most talented offenses since he got here and most of the starters are returning from last year. This should be a good year for him to finally get the offense going a little bit even if some would claim that he does lack talent at WR. I'll have to see it first to believe it though.

Parts of the media in Tampa ('cough' Duemig) has tried to paint the picture of Gruden being an unsympathetic egomaniac who lies to his players and doesn't have their support. That part I will almost completely disagree with. Almost, because there have been some players and coaches that have voiced their displeasure with him. But not at all in the scale that has been claimed. A head coach who is loved by all of his players is extremely rare anyway. A head coach that never receives a few tough words from players on their way out the door is even rarer. And most of the guys that have been critical are no longer with the team.

He is a very intense guy and I'm sure that playing for him is not for everyone. But I have read from several players in this offseason alone that they love playing for him and more than one free agent has mentioned him as one of the main reasons they chose to come to Tampa. If he is as horrible as some say I'm sure other players around the league would know about it. Even Sapp, one of the unhappy departed players who I actually though wasn't too crazy about Gruden, said in an interview recently that he loves the guy. Heck even Keyshawn has said in the past year that he has no problem with him. Some of the harshest criticism so far has come from RB coach Art Valero earlier in the year but honestly, after reading a lengthy interview with him on pewterreport.com he sounds like a big whiner. He has got a few points of possibly valid criticism but most of it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Alstott has been another controversial topic. Duemig claims that Alstott has been lied to repeatedly and been told in the offseason that he would be a lot more involved in the offense than has turned out to be the case once the season started. I'm actually inclined to believe that. And I think that Gruden has actually wanted to him to get more involved. But he also wants to get the other backs involved a lot and the fullback just doesn't get a lot of carries in his offense. Especially not when it is clear that he is no longer the back he once was. The offense not being in a lot of 3rd and short situations didn't help either.

Again, I don't think that he is perfect. Far from it. There are no doubt players who have felt that they were treated unfairly who were probably right. I just think that some of the criticism pointed towards him has been way too harsh and not really backed up by what the players are saying. It should be noted though that it has been said by several sources that it seems like he has softened up a bit in the past year or two and that he has gotten a lot better at handling the players. Which of course would mean that there have been some problems in the past.

As for Gruden never taking responsibility for it when the team is losing, try and go back and listen to some of the old press conferences. Every single time he says that he takes the blame for it and he needs to do a better job.

It has been quite a rollercoaster ride to be a Buc fan the past six years. It would definitely be nice if they can finally put back-to-back winning seasons together. If you look around the league though, you will see the same pattern with a lot of teams. There are a few that are consistently bad and a few that are consistently good but the rest are all pretty inconsistent. There is a lot of roster turnover each year, strength of schedule varies a lot from year to year, some years you are hit harder by injuries than others and so on. There are a lot of factors that play in.

In the first two years after the Super Bowl they tried to keep the team going by patching up holes with aging veterans. Most of who turned out to be busts. And of course they missed those four draft picks they had given up for Gruden. Bruce Allen inherited a team with some serious cap problems and basically had to blow the thing up and start over. I haven't checked this but I am pretty sure the Bucs are among the top in the league in roster turnover over the past 5 years. With all of the changes it is not really any wonder that there have been a lot of inconsistency. It wasn't until this past year that you could finally say the team had a core of young, talented players who has proven that they can perform well in the league now and who they can build around in the future.

I really like the direction that this team is headed in and honestly I don't see a whole lot of reasons to be negative about it. They've got a very strong, young defense, an offensive line with potential to dominate for years to come and a pretty strong group of TE's. Garcia and Galloway will keep the team competitive this year but the future at the skill positions are probably the biggest question mark on the team right now. They did pretty well with the team last year and even though they didn't bring in any immediate huge upgrades, except maybe at center, they did strengthen some of the weaker spots on the team and added depth. The biggest upgrade might come from the fact that all of the rookie starters from last season now have a full year under their belt and the players should be more familiar with each other and the system than they were last year. And they will get back some pretty important players who suffered injuries at the end of last season.

I'm a positive person by nature and I prefer to look forward to the next season with hope instead of fear. I think that Gruden, Allen and Kiffen have done a real good job lately and this is a team that will continue to improve over the next couple of years. The fact that they have been inconsistent in the past can't really be used as much of an argument for why they won't succeed this year ‘cause the situation is different from what it was in the past. Being positive doesn't necessarily mean that you are not objective though. Somehow a lot of fans and media got the terms mixed up and thinks that objectivity means being negative. I would claim that the most negative fans are at least as biased as the most positive. Even though I think we will have a good season with a real opportunity to win the division again I will acknowledge that there are potential weaknesses on the team and that the Saints and the Panthers have improved their teams as well. Predicting the NFL is one of the harder things to do in sports and until I'm proven wrong I will claim that the Bucs are finally going to have back-to-back winning seasons and that Gruden will prove the doubters wrong.

Thanks to Greg Auman from the St. Pete Times for linking to this video on his USF blog (by far the best blog by any beat writer with the Times or Tampa Tribune by the way).

I know lots of crazy things are going on in baseball clubhouses but this is one of the more entertaining things I've seen in a while. Good to see college athletes just having fun out there and building team spirit. Might have to show this to my own softball team.

While the Buccaneers are already working hard to get ready for the next season in OTAs, the talk of the town has centered more about what is going on in the front office. B.J. Askew just signed a contract extension and negotiations should be going on with Greg White, Jovan Haye, Phillip Buchanon, Earnest Graham and Jeff Garcia.

Some of those guys probably deserve a new contract more than others. But it is hard to judge when you don't know how much money the players are asking for and what the Bucs are offering. And as long as they are still in negotiations it doesn't really matter. You just have to trust that they will work things out and have a little patience.

I will say this though, people are making too big a deal about Graham not being at OTAs and Garcia needs to shut up and let his agent do his job.

I've tried to look back in some news archives to see if anything has been written about Graham and OTAs in the past two years. I didn't find his name mentioned once. Guess he wasn't that important until now. But I have seen mentioned a couple of times that him missing OTAs are far from something new. Even Bruce Allen has said that he is working out on his own and they expect to see him when the mandatory workouts start. Graham hasn't said anything about being unhappy about his contract. In fact the last time he was asked, about a month ago, he didn't seem too worried about it. People have just been assuming that he is holding out without facts to support it.

It is a pretty obvious conclusion to draw though and Graham could have helped his situation a lot by explaining exactly what is going on. But his agent is no other than Drew Rosenhaus who hasn't been affraid to ask his players to hold out in the past. It seems to be a strategy that he thinks is effective. So even though Graham might not be doing anything differently than he would have if he had a new big contract, Rosenhaus doesn't mind that it looks like a hold out. I'm not a big fan of young players not showing up for OTAs whatever the reason might be. Especially not when it is someone fighting for a job as a starter. He has got some tough competition this year and is only making it harder for himself to keep his job. But I'm not going to get too worried about his contract situation before he starts staying away from mandatory workouts.

The one guy I'm really having a problem with is Jeff Garcia. He is supposed to be one of the most experienced guys and the leader of the offense but right now he isn't acting like it. As I mentioned before I don't know what he is asking for or what the Bucs want to give him so I can't choose a side based on what I think he is worth. But I don't like the way he is dealing with the situation. Just like teams sometimes ask players to take a pay cut Jeff has every right to ask for a new contract. But you don't see managers going to the media complaining about a player that doesn't want to take the cut. Taking it to the public has never helped anybody.

Interesting quote by Phillip Buchanon in a pewterreport.com article yesterday: "Personally for me, if I was younger I would speak out," said Buchanon. "Now I'm more mature, and now I'm just one of those guys that feels that things will work out [with a new contract]. If it doesn't work out, well, it's a business. Sometimes things work out for the best and sometimes they don't."

It wasn't an attack on Jeff but maybe he should be listening. Even B.J. Askew who is even younger seems to have figured it out and he has already got his extension. What makes it worse is that there are negotiations going on between his agent and Bruce Allen. It would have been different if there were no talks at all and the Bucs flat out refused to give him a new contract. Now Jeff is complaining repeatedly simply because things aren't moving fast enough. But Bruce has got several other players to look out for and probably a lot of other things to spend his time on as well. I'm sure that Jeff's behaviour doesn't exactly make him Bruce's number one priority. Camp is still over a month away so there is absolutely no rush to get it done. If he is going to let that bother him mentally already that only tells me one thing. Nothing is more important to Jeff than making money. Not the kind of behaviour I like to see from a veteran starting quarterback.

For all the Rays fans out there, looking for some news and talk about our favorite baseball team you should check out On Deck that airs on 1470AM ESPN Tampa. A weekly 1 hour radio show all about the Tampa Bay Rays.

I'm not even sure at what time it airs live since I just subscribe to the show on iTunes. I do know that it is every Monday evening though. You can listen to their last two shows here http://ondeck.podbean.com/. They changed the name of the show and got a new website two weeks ago, that's why there aren't more archived shows on that site.

It is very clear that the hosts are big fans of the team but to be honest there haven't been a whole lot to be overly critical about so far this season. I definitely prefer their approach over some of the old, bitter journalists and radio hosts in the city. Listeners can call in and they usually play interviews with a few players and other people around the organisation. It is a fun show to listen to.

Besides, anybody who has the guts to stand up and absolutely rack Steve Duemig for 5-10 minutes on air deserves respect and a little free promotion.

The young Tampa Bay Rays pitcher have yet to play in a pro game but the expectations for his future remain very high.

He sprained his left elbow in spring training, probably because he hadn't played much in a long time and overworked it a little bit. He is now close to the end of his rehab and is expected to play for Class-A Vero Beach on Thursday. But even though it was just a rehab session in an extended spring training game today was a day to remember for the young pitcher. The team he was going up against was the Yankees with no other than Alex Rodriguez playing in his first rehab game after straining his quadriceps.

Price had a good day with 10 strikeouts, one walk and four hits in five innings. Since A-Rod was leading off in every inning Price got to face him five times. Hopefully it was only the first of many times those two faced each other and hopefully the results in the future won't be too different from today's. A-Rod did manage to hit a home run on a pitch that tought Price the importance of keeping the ball down in the strike zone. But other than that he walked him once, flew out once and got struck out twice. Those two strikeouts came on his first and last at bats. After the game A-Rod had high praise for the young pitcher. "I wish he was on our team," Rodriguez said. "He has a very bright future."

First Steinbrenner wants his Yankees to play more like the Rays and now A-Rod wishes that one of the young Rays prospects was on his team? This baseball season keeps getting stranger every day. With the way the current pitchers are playing there is no rush at all to get him to the big leagues just yet but I'm looking forward to when it does happen. Hopefully they can take full advantage of their many talented pitchers and trade one of them for another bullpen arm, a right fielder or wherever there might be a need at that point.

I knew this year was going to be different. In the 4-5 years that I have followed the Rays there had always been talks of next year. I've seen several players that I liked get traded for minor league prospects and now be starters somewhere else. Always building for the future. But this entire offseason you could feel it. The future is now.

It already started during one week in November that might end up being one of the more important weeks in Rays history. First they got rid of locker room cancer Delmon Young and two unimportant players in exchange for two important starters and a minor league player. I would take a promising young starting pitcher in Garza and a shortstop with good defensive abilities like Bartlett over most outfielders in the league any day. Bartlett might not be the greatest shortstop out there and he has made his share of errors but he also makes some great plays and definitely is an upgrade at the position. And just two days later they made another big move, signing Troy Percival. Finally, some long needed help for a bullpen that have made Rays fans cover their eyes in the 8th and 9th innings for years.

Suddenly they were bringing in players to help right now. But they also made some moves to make sure that they keep winning in years down the road. Handing out new contracts to several young, important players. Pena, Shields, Longoria and Kazmir have all signed extensions. B.J. Upton could be next and they picked up an option for Crawford to keep him around a couple more years. No doubt they will try and extend his contract as well at some point. Gone is the ghost of former owner Vince Naimoli. Stuart Sternberg has lived up to his promise and opened up the wallet a bit and spends the money wisely.

The craziest part about the Rays leading the AL East in the middle of May? They have had plenty of bad luck along the way, even leading the league in players on the DL for a while. The Rays offense have always been good but they have been let down by the bullpen over and over again. This year the entire pitching staff have stepped up their game 2-3 notches and the defense is much better. And that has happened in spite of two of the top three starting pitchers and a couple of relievers spending time on DL.

I can't completely shake the thought that what is going on right now is a little too much too soon. They are the big story right now and people are even starting to talk about the playoffs. I'll save that for September. I'm on board for the ride right now but won't be too disappointed if they start slipping a little bit. During spring training I said that this team can go above .500 and that is still the only goal I have for them. But the great thing about being a Rays fan right now is that you know that even if they do slip in the division and people start forgetting about them again, that wouldn't be the end of the story. This is just the beginning.