Where to start with all the observations of the Chargers’ collective choke job?

-Throughout the season, it was remarked on that the Chargers had one of the worst per carry averages in the NFL, but people explained that it would be okay since the Chargers throw the ball well. Since when does that work in the playoffs? Even teams like the Super Bowl winning Rams had to rely on Marshall Faulk to win the big games.

-A large part of that low per carry average is due to the pathetic running of Ladanian Tomlinson. Constantly falling down even before contact, he broke less tackles this year than any starting running back I’ve seen in years. Formerly great, no doubt, but it’s time to put pride aside and retire. Schottenheimer’s coaching style simply dos not allow long careers, and he’s no different.

-Norv Turner – despite idiots on sports sites who wanted to give him credit for a nice regular season in a horrible division – is still meant to be a coordinator, not a head coach. There is no amount of experience that will change this. Going for the onside kick meant that the second most successful result (stopping the Jets on three downs) still would result in you having to go the full length of the field and rely on Nate Kaeding to not choke again. In addition, the play calling for the hurry up offense run by the Chargers made almost no sense, at least in terms of there only being one play called at a time. How are you not calling 2 plays every time you break huddle in that situation? The penalties and miscues can also be attributed to him, as his teams have never shown discipline.

-Shawne Merriman solidified his status as the most overrated “big name” defender in the league. He was being single blocked all game – at times by tight ends – and still had no impact on either run or pass. Without him contributing San Diego’s hardest hitter was Jammer, who is of course a Cornerback. Meanwhile every Jets defender was lighting people up.

-There is a complete lack of fear of all opponents coming to San Diego. When the Patriots won a few years ago, New England players celebrated by mocking Merriman’s “lights out” dance. Today, Shonn Greene celebrated a 53-yard run by mocking Tomlinson’s ball flip. None of them are punished, and none of them fear anything except maybe a few “those guys are meanies” comments in the post game locker room. Eric Weddle won a fundamentals award for his sure tackling this year, and was promptly run over by Greene on that same game clinching score. The team is soft. Period.

-When Antonio Cromartie was still a nickel back a few years ago people wondered why. Now that he’s spent two years getting beat regularly and almost had a key special teams turnover today, let’s give the definitive answer. Cromartie is athletic, but he’s not very strong and his spatial awareness is terrible. As a result he’s great in nickel situations where he can rove, avoid having to press Recievers, and keep plays in front of him. If you ask him to walk (stay with a man) and chew bubble gum (find the ball) at the same time he simply can’t.

The Nate Kaeding criticisms are obvious, he choked, but if anything that makes him more of a Charger than ever.

what caused the long delay in the Cards/Bucs game, it was this old guy trying to field a foul ground ball and failing miserably.

While we sit in break during baseball’s dead period ( I don’t watch the All-Star games in any sports), time to take a look back over the first half of the 2009 MLB season.

-Only slightly related to the topic, MLB ’09: The Show is an amazing title that stands as one of PS3′s best exclusives without fanfare. Still a few AI bugs like fielders taking forever to throw the ball if they think a runner isn’t going to try to score, etc. but a great game overall and maybe the best baseball game ever.

-Billy Beane, long a target of my hatred, is fielding yet another lousy offensive team. His fellow moneyball enthusiasts, Paul Depodesto and Sandy Alderson, are currently fielding the very worst offense in the majors with the San Diego Padres. Idiots try to say that the Red Sox are a success story and that GM Epstein uses moneyball principles. Let’s get something out of the way, Theo is a Beane disciple who values walks, but if he has a $100+ million payroll every year and can afford to pay the posting fee for Dice-K, the Red Sox are NOT a moneyball team.

The Holliday trade has brought absolutely nothing to the lineup. Jason Giambi, Orlando Cabrera, and Nomar Garciappara are all flameouts, in fact Giambi is hitting .192 in 260 at bats. He got rid of Danny Haren a couple of years ago, Haren is now one of the top 5 starters in the entire league and was already well on his way to being that a few years ago. The A’s got six players for Haren: Dana Eveland, Brett Anderson, Greg Smith, Chris Carter, Aaron Cunningham and Carlos Gonzalez. The biggest contribution this year among those players has been from Anderson, who has an ERA in the mid 4′s in 83 ip this year. In other words, still no impact.

Eric Chavez, one of the few players Beane has seen fit to reward with a huge contract, is out for the season again after only 30 at bats, and his career might be over. Beane’s most productive years as a GM came when he had a roster full of steroid users like Giambi and Miggy Tejada. He’s done absolutely nothing without them, other than overlook potentially good managers within the organization — like Ron Washington who’s left for success in Texas. Yet somehow this guy is lauded as a genius for having a small payroll and doing nothing with it. He’s given credit as a talent scout for what.. thinking that Dan Johnson was the 1b of the future? For acquiring Arthur Rhodes as a closer? For saying Charles Thomas was the leadoff man they needed? Rarely is someone not only given this much of a free pass by the media but actually treated as some kind of a hero. I guess this is what happens when the media and fanbase are filled with stat geeks jacking off at the fancy way Beane makes his spreadsheets in Excel. BTW, according to the sabermetrics geeks, Raul Ibanez’ contract with the Phillies was terrible. Nice work guys.

-The one stat however that NEEDS to be invented is something that more accurately measures wear and tear on a pitcher’s arm than innings pitched. If innings pitched are such a big deal wouldn’t pitchers be on an innings count? Instead they’re put on pitch counts, because that’s the true measure of how much a pitcher had to work, in addition to looking at how often they were in difficult situations — whether that be via a long at bat or pitching out of the stretch. If Greg Maddux throws a complete game shutout on 87 pitches am I supposed to believe he was under more duress than a Joba Chamberlain 104 pitch, 4.2 inning outing? Of course not, so why emphasize ip so much?

-Another long time pet peeve – the calculations by the sports media of the number of games a team is under .500. You cannot calculate a team’s distance from a .500 record based on potential games played, you have to calculate it on actual games played. If a team is 10-20 in 30 games played, they are commonly referred to as being 10 games under .500. In the case of a team that has played 30 games (10 + 20) a .500 record would be 15-15. That means that subtracting the win total of a .500 record from the current actual record gives you 15-10 which is 5. The team, then, is five games under .500 because 5 more wins would have put them at that mark. The current usage indicates that if a team won 10 games in a row they’d be at .500, which is true but has nothing to do with actual games played. In addition, it eliminates the possibility that a team has finished all of their games. If a team is 71-91 did they finish 20 games under .500? Of course not, because there are no ties in baseball, and there are only 162 games in a season so there is no chance of them “winning their next 20 games in a row”. Rather, they finished 10 games under .500. Yes it’s nitpicking but the expression, as currently used, makes no sense.

-I wrote awhile ago about the treatment of Barry Bonds vs. other convicted or suspected steroid users. Little did I know that Arod would only have it mentioned for a week or two upon his return, and Manny would actually be cheered regularly as soon as he came back. I’d do a follow-up to the article if the situation weren’t so sickening.

“Not everyone is perfect and I am not going to judge what anyone does in their lives,” McCourt said. “But he has paid the penalty and it is now up to us to welcome him back to the team. It is up to the fans to decide how he is embraced and so far they have been supportive.”

ESPN Article: Fans being supportive of Manny

-Congrats to Pittsburgh’s Zack Duke on his rebound from a horrible couple of years. Not a guy with big talent or an impressive fastball, but a competitor who easily could have given up on himself after Jim Tracy tried to ruin his career. Great story, as is Grienke’s comeback from mascumeunstration disease.

-Lost in all the coverage of the firing of Manny Acta, Nationals manager, was the fact that this team was constructed by a now absent Jim Bowden. After leaving the Reds, Bowden made a series of confusing decisions, including stacking the roster with far more mediocre outfielders than they or any other team needed. Congratulations Nick Saban, we’ve found your long lost brother.