NBA Season Award Predictions

   The the All-Star break now in the past, now is the time that NBA teams make their final pushes for the playoffs, and making a championship run. With pedal to the medal time upon us, this is when we see the MVPs and the future leaders of the game reveal themselves. This is the time when the real frontrunners for end-of-season awards emerge. For that reason, I am here to give you my predictions for those awards, so let's get started:

Steph Curry dribbles
past a defender

NBA Most Valuable Player: Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors) There are many great players in the league this year who may deserve consideration for this award, but for me, this is no contest. Steph Curry has been far and away the best player in the league this year. Curry is averaging 23.8 point, 7.9 assists, and 4.6 rebounds per game. He is sixth in the league in scoring, sixth in assists, fourth in free throw percentage, and only Atlanta's Kyle Korver is the only player to make more three pointers than Curry. He also leads the NBA in steals per game (2.19)...not to mention that he plays on the best team in the NBA this season. All of these numbers add up to a no doubt MVP in my book. Oh yeah, and winning the NBA All-Star 3-point contest isn't too bad either.

NBA Rookie of the Year: Andrew Wiggins (Minnesota Timberwolves) Coming into the season,my money was on Jabari Parker for Rookie of the Year, but after an injury sidelined him for the season, the race for the award became wide open. However, the competition for the award isn't staggering. This seems to be an award no one wants to win. Granted, the draft class was sub-par, but it seems that this year's rookies are underachieving. Therefore, I give my ROY nod to Wiggins. His numbers aren't great, but he has put up a solid 15.6 points per game for a struggling T'wolves team. Coming out of college, many scouts worried about Wiggins' ability to produce offensively, but it seems as though he's doing so nicely in Minnesota. In a weak rookie class, someone's gotta win the award, right?

Atlanta Hawks head
coach Mike Budenholzer

Coach of the Year: Mike Budenholzer (Atlanta Hawks) This is a more tightly contested category than the others. Many might advocate for Steve Kerr or Jason Kidd, and both of those would be great choices, but I have to go with Budenholzer. The Warriors have a great team and everyone expected them to be good. Kidd is doing the same with the Milwaukee Bucks that he did with the Brooklyn Nets last year, and turned the team around. Kidd would get my vote if it weren't for the
Atlanta Hawks. The Atlanta Hawks surprised some people by taking the Indiana Pacers to 7 games as an eight seed in last year's playoffs. With less than 25 games left this year, the Hawks are running away with the Eastern Conference, and it's safe to say that nobody saw that coming. Fans have waited for the other shoe to drop on the Hawks impressive run, but this truly is a strong, dangerous team, despite not having a superstar on the team. The league-wide surprise team turned threat has Budenholzer in the driver's seat for Coach of the Year.

Anthony Davis blocks a shot
by the Thunder's Kendrick Perkins

Defensive Player of the Year: Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans) Anthony Davis is quickly becoming one of the best players in the NBA, and his defensive ability is a huge reason why. He leads the NBA in blocks by a large margin, and is also pulling down 10.3 rebounds per game. He is currently missing a couple of weeks due to a minor injury, but he will soon be back to his antics. It also helps that early in the year, he was even the topic of some MVP discussions.

Sixth Man of the Year: Tony Snell (Chicago Bulls) Tony Snell may not pour in a lot of points of the bench, but he is a solid contributor to the Bulls bench. When the starters are resting, it is Snell's toughness that provides a spark for the Bulls. Chicago has followed a trend this season in which they start slow and then begin to heat up when the bench comes in. Tony Snell's aggressiveness and leadership off the bench is a big reason why.

   The final stretch of the NBA season is here and we'll see who steps up and who backs down. Time will tell if these predictions hold true. See y'all next time!

Game Changer

   It was recently revealed that Major League Baseball has voted to implement a few tools that is going to speed up the game. Many fans have voiced their concerns about the fact that the games take too long, and are therefore losing viewers due to slow pace.

   Therefore, Major League Baseball has some new policies:

1. Hitters must keep one foot inside the batter's box unless an exception applies: One of the things that seems to be slowing down the game is when a hitter steps out of the box between pitches to take a breath, recollect, throw off the pitchers timing, or whatever the case may be. Now, to fix this, hitters will be required to stay in the box unless exceptions apply. While the exceptions have not been specified yet, we can assume that one of them will be official timeouts. This change alone will undoubtedly give a few minutes per game back to the viewers.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez
talks with umpire during challenge

2. Mangers must stay inside the dugout during a challenged play: When instant replay was introduced into baseball last season, many fans disliked it because they worried that it would slow down an already slow game. According to new Commissioner Rob Manfred, they were right. The new rule will force managers to stay inside the dugout during reviews. Managers will signal a challenge from the dugout and remain there until the play has been reviewed. This will prevent the delay that stems from the manager walking out to the umpire and standing there talking to him until he gets the signal to challenge or not. More time saved.

MLB considering use of pitch clock,
similar to shot clock used
in NBA

3. Possible pitch clock: While this was not one of the rules stated recently, a pitch clock has been a idea that has been kicked around a lot. Much like a shot clock in basketball, a pitch clock would clock a pitcher from the time he throws one pitch to the time he throws the next, trying to keep pitchers from taking an extended period of time between pitches. Pitchers whose routines between pitches takes a long time are known as "human rain delays", and this is one of the biggest time wasters in the game today.

    There is no timetable for when these rules will be implemented in Major League Baseball, but the league will probably test these rules in the minor leagues before bringing the them to the MLB, like they do with most proposed rule changes.

    I am a huge baseball fan, and unlike most, I don't believe that the game needs to be sped up. I think the game is perfectly unique and if these rules were to enter the game-especially the pitch clock-it would just cause confusion. Upon hearing the news of the proposed changes, many MLB players were quoted as saying that they didn't think the game was too long, and therefore, didn't think the rule changes were necessary. If we complicate a beautiful game with a bunch of new rules, soon enough, the game we love will become an unrecognizable shell of what it used to be. Tread carefully Manfred.

2015 MLB Division Preview

Opening Day of the 2015 Major League Baseball season is less than two months away. With that comes many predictions of how the season will shake out, and here are my complete standings by division:

American League East:

1. Baltimore Orioles-It's hard to bet against a team who made it to the American League Championship Series, which is why I'm not. Even after losing Nelson Cruz to the Mariners, this team still has plenty of talent to win the East again-especially with depleted competition.

2. Boston Red Sox

3. Toronto Blue Jays

4. New York Yankees

5. Tampa Bay Rays

American League Central:

1. Kansas City Royals-This will once again be a very good team. They are still intact from their World Series run a year ago, with the exception of Billy Butler and James Shields (most likely), so look for similar results in 2015. 

2. Minnesota Twins-New additions to the team (Torii Hunter and Ervin Santana) add fire power to the Twin Cities. The Twins were also ranked as having the second best farm system in the league, so you know that if the Twins run into any rough spots, they have plenty of backup plans.

3. Detroit Tigers-Detroit was a team that was in the World Series two years ago, and saw the playoffs again last year, but with their competition improving and 2013 Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer leaving town, it's going to be pretty tough for Detroit to reach the playoffs this year. 

4. Cleveland Indians-Hard to believe that the team with the reigning Cy Young Award winner will come in fourth, but with all the improvements to the division, I think that the AL Central will be the toughest division to win.

5. Chicago White Sox

American League West:

1. Los Angeles Angels-The AL West will be another tough division, and it helps that the Angels still have reigning MVP Mike Trout and are seeing the return of their ace starting pitcher Richards. Look for the Halos to be a big threat in the American League this year.

2. Houston Astros-The Astros are shaping up to be the surprise team in 2015. With plenty of young talent, a good pitching staff, and some quality additions, including former Atlanta catcher fan favorite Evan Gattis, look for the Astros to make some noise this year.

3. Oakland Athletics

4. Seattle Mariners

5. Texas Rangers

National League East:

1. Washington Nationals-With a surplus of aces, look for the Nats to pitch their way to NL East dominance in 2015.

2. New York Mets- I actually spoke to Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy about their chances in the division, and he was confident. The return of pitcher Matt Harvey and another year with Zach Wheeler give him good reason to be. It also helps that Washington's defense is consistently less-than-stellar and the dismantling of Atlanta makes the East a dismal and up-for -grabs division in 2015.

3. Miami Marlins

4. Atlanta Braves-The Braves have been dismantled coming into 2015. Atlanta has traded away all of their best hitters and have stockpiled pitchers and outfielders in return. If injury problems arise in the infield, the Braves do not have the depth. However, if the Nationals experience injury issues, as they often do, the East will be anyone's game.

5. Philadelphia Phillies

National League Central:

1. Chicago Cubs-The Cubs probably have the most promise heading into 2015. With the additions of starting pitchers Jon Lester and Jason Hammel, the best prospects in baseball, and the long-awaited arrival of sure-to-be superstar Kris Bryant, the Cubs are looking good. Could this be the end of the 106-year championship drought in the Windy City?

2. St. Louis Cardinals

3. Pittsburgh Pirates

4. Cincinnati Reds

5. Milwaukee Brewers

National League West:

1. San Diego Padres-It looks like the Padres are in it to win it in 2015. They have been very busy this offseason. They have revamped their outfield with the acquisitions of Wil Myers, Justin Upton, and Matt Kemp. With all of this power added to their lineup, all they need is a solid pitching staff, and talks are intensifying between San Diego and free agent pitcher James Shields

2. Los Angeles Dodgers

3. Arizona Diamondbacks

4. San Francisco Giants-Since 2010, the Giants have been on an awful streak where they win the World Series one year, and miss the playoffs the next year. I haven't quite figured out why this is, but with championships in 2010, 2012, and 2014, and playoff misses in 2011 and 2013, history suggests that San Fran will stay home this postseason, so I have to believe that to be true...at least until they prove me wrong.

5. Colorado Rockies

Super Bowl XLIX

Today is Super Bowl XLIX (49) between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. Tonight's Super Bowl has many interesting story lines:

1. Best Offense vs. Best Defense: This is an intriguing match-up because of the fact that New England is regarded as the NFL's best offense and Seattle is the league's best defense. This seems to be what the Super Bowl was always meant to be about: the NFL's two best teams

2. Defending Champions: The Seattle Seahawks are defending Super Bowl champions. They are looking to become the first back-to-back Super Bowl winners, since their opponent, the Patriots in 2004-05.

3. Deflate-gate: Two-weeks removed from the accusations of purposely under inflating footballs during the AFC Championship Game, the Patriots are still denying any knowledge of any wrongdoing. A report released this morning said that only one of the footballs was "a few ticks" below the minimum PSI and that the rest were within regulations. This seems to technically clear the team from any penalty.

4. Baby Sherman: One of the most important factors in this game is the stout Seahawks defense, led by cornerback Richard Sherman. However, Sherman is expecting a baby with his girlfriend, who is due any day, and by the sound of it, if his girlfriend goes into labor today, Sherman may not play in the Super Bowl. This would be a big hit to the Seattle defense.

With all of these story lines, this Super Bowl is bound to be a great one. Every year, EA Sports does a Madden simulation of the Super Bowl, and if their simulation is any indication, the game will be an instant classic.

Here is the video of the Madden simulation...and enjoy the game!