These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

If you’ve read my articles on Associated Content then you’ll know that I like making lists. Today I’m going to make another list, a list of my favorite things. You might be asking, “favorite what?” Favorite everything. These are just the 10 things I’m loving right now. It could be a person, it could be a game, a movie, a food, an idea, a math equation, a quote. it can be anything. So here it goes…

1. Mike Pelfrey – Like always the media has blown the New York Mets problems way out of proportion. Even though Pedro Martinez and El Duque are both injured I have no problem with that because Johan Santana, John Maine and Oliver Perez is still a great top three. But Mike Pelfrey, one of the Mets best prospects for a few years now, has made things even easier by starting the season 2 – 0 with a 1.50 ERA. Imagine at some point if Pedro and El Duque are healthy. The New York Mets will have SIX starting pitchers. As I said, their pitching “problems” have been blown way out of proportion.

2. My pink iPod – I got my pink iPod and I’m enjoying it so far. It fits about 50 songs and some of my daily audio bible readings, which is plenty for my 1 – 2 hour exercise routine. It fits in my hand and is easy to carry. I have had the battery die a couple of times but since it runs on a AAA battery and not its own battery on the inside, I can just carry an extra battery with me.

3. NHL Playoffs – My sister is always talking about the NHL so I’ve really gotten into this year and have been keeping up with what’s going on. All of this despite the fact that I haven’t seen a single playoff game yet because there are no hockey games airing in Alabama. Just imagine how much I’d like the NHL if I could actually watch the games.

4. MK vs. DC – In case you don’t keep up with the video game world it was announced today that the newest Mortal Kombat game will be a Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics game. This is the most excited I’ve ever been about a fighting game. It better have Flash and Green Lantern, and I don’t mean John Stewart. So far the only characters announced are Scorpion and Sub Zero from Mortal Kombat and Batman and Superman from DC Comics.

5. Woot.com – I love Woot.com. If you’re not familiar with Woot.com it is a website that sells electronics and gadgets like cell phones, computers, mp3 players, etc. They only sell one item a day though, but it’s usually a very good product for a very good price. A few days ago they sold a very nice computer for $649.99. The deals are so good that If I actually had a regular well paying job that I’d probably buy their item just about every day.

6. Doctor Who – I’ve really gotten into the television show Doctor Who lately. Unfortunately I’m skeptical about Season 3 and Season 4 (I’ve only seen 1 and 2) because I like Christopher Eccleston better than David Tennant (although I do like David) and Billie Piper was way better than Freema Agyeman. It’s disconcerting that each season the cast has gotten worse.

7. YouTube Video – I love YouTube and my favorite video is constantly changing right now it has to be a movie trailer for one of those crazy Japanese movies. This movie is about a one armed boxer and his evil nemesis. This nemesis has a hat that he can throw at people and it lands on their head and goes down over their head. Suddenly spikes come out of the hat and chop the victim’s head off. This evil man is a serial killer knocking off one armed men for some reason until he comes face to face with the one armed boxer. Enjoy this trailer of The One Armed Boxer and the Master of the Flying Guillotine!

8. Bossaball – I wish I could find people to play bossaball with. Bossball is a sport invented in Belgium that combines volleyball, soccer and a trampoline. Basically there is a volleyball court but in the middle/front position of the court there is a trampoline so that the spiker can jump and get extra height. Bossball players are also allowed to kick the ball. To really get the full jist of it you must watch this video.

9. Mass Effect – I just played Mass Effect for the first time and enjoyed it. It probably doesn’t hurt that I played it on my friends HDTV, which unfortunately I don’t have. It should still be fun on my regular television though.

10. French Toast Bagels from Panera – Mmmmm.

Bold Baseball Prediction

I know a lot of my faithful readers on this blog will probably be coming over here from Associated Content and most of those people are not fans of my sports articles, but my other articles. So I won’t bore you all with my season predictions for this upcoming baseball season, especially since my predictions aren’t a whole lot different from many others. There is one prediction that I’m going to make unlike anybody else. I’m taking a step out on the limb and making one very bold prediction. Here it goes:

2008 National League Cy Young = John Maine

Yes, I know it sounds crazy. Everybody is talking about the New York Mets acquisition of Johan Santana and the health of Pedro Martinez and John Maine at this point is an after thought, but I think it’s possible. Let’s take a look at the reasons.

Last Season – Last season at the All-Star break John Maine was 10 – 4 with a 2.71 ERA. Only three National League pitchers were having better seasons: Brad Penny, Jake Peavy and Chris Young. Maine struggled the second half of the season and ended up with only 15 wins and a 3.91 ERA. Maine’s second half struggles were talked about a lot but what people failed to mention was that there was a perfectly good reason. Before last season John Maine’s career highs were 15 games started and 90 innings pitched. Last season John Maine pitched 32 games and 191 innings pitched. He pitched a full 100 innings more than the previous season. Maine will be better prepared for a full season this year and he won’t falter in the second season like he did last year.

Offense – A lot of people are talking about Carlos Delgado’s injury and I’m certainly concerned but Delgado’s injury will not ruin the Mets offense. Last season Delgado didn’t hit, Beltran didn’t hit, Reyes played awful the last month of the season and the Mets were still the fourth best offense in the National League and two of the teams ahead of them (Philly and Colorado) have offense friendly fields. The Mets role players didn’t get nearly enough credit for playing well the past few seasons and they have plenty of offense for John Maine to win a lot of games. If Carlos Beltran hits like he did two years ago they can lead the league in runs.

Age -John Maine is still only 26 years old and during this seasons John Maine will turn 27 years old. What is significant about that? There is a popular theory in baseball that the age of 27 is when a player hits his prime. It’s possible that this year John Maine becomes an even better pitcher than last season.

Rotation – Last season the Mets didn’t have Johan Santana or Pedro Martinez. John Maine had never played a full season and was counted on to be the ace pitcher. This year John Maine only has to be the number three pitcher. That is a ton of pressure off of Maine, especially in a city like New York.

Bullpen – The Mets finished just one game out in division despite everything bad possibly happening to them. Two of those things were Duaner Sanchez being injured for the entire season and Aaron Heilman being ineffective. I doubt both of those things happen again this year. If the bullpen is better then that helps the starting pitching a great deal and if by some chance Heilman and Sanchez revert back to two years ago then the Mets don’t have to worry about their starters going more than 5 – 6 innings.

Bottom line is a John Maine was a 15 game winner last season. He’s likely to get better and more experienced. He has less pressure on him, the pitching will be better and he has plenty of offense behind him. I don’t think it’s impossible to think that all of those things can equal in 5 more wins than last year and a 20 win season easily puts you in the Cy Young race.