alright so I know that I am not the only one to comment on the fact that the Nationals have not accomplished anything this offseason but from what I see as a lack of effort to improve the team just really frustrates me. With the whole issue about obtaining a front of the order pitcher to mentor the young arms in the rotation ( zimmermann and strasburg) it is reported that we want to go out and get Roy Oswalt who couldnt pitch more than 25 games last year because of a bad back (which I also dont understand why you would try and rely on someone that couldn't finish an entire season as your mentor to your young pitchers). Then comes the rumors that we want to go after Mark Buerhle and we low ball what we offer him. Lets be honest, I dont think anyone could reasonably expect Buerhle to pick up and leave Chicago, a city that he has played in his entire career, to potentially make just as much or less money than what he was offered by the White Sox. Now dont get me wrong, at least we put in a bid for his services but to not put in a bid for Darvish or Aoki makes absolutely no sense in my opinion.

The main frustrating point about the Nationals this offseason in my opinion is the fact that they came out and said last summer after signing Jayson Werth that we were turning the corner and entering "Phase II". This offseason, what I can figure phase II to be is letting everybody else in the division get better while we sink back to last place next season. To let the Marlins, a team that was pretty dreadful last season come out and completely outspend you and in my opinion surpass you talent wise is completely unacceptable. Yes the Marlins had good talent last year in Johnson, Stanton, Morrison and Ramirez but you pretty much let them get Heath Bell, Jose Reyes, Mark Buerhle and they are talking about signing Prince Fielder as well, this just doesnt make sense. I think that based on the effort the front office has put forth this offseason is completely pathetic and it will show come opening day.

I also just wanted to throw another idea out there for ya'll to think about which I think is very evident right now. I believe that the fiasco that went on with the Nationals last year with Jim Riggleman is really coming back to haunt the front office. Not being willing to even talk about an extension with your current manager and just letting him walk out the door because you dont want to discuss a new contract with him sends a really bad message to free agents and I think that is a main reason why we are having a problem getting people to want to come here and play so at the end of the day, I say thank you Rizzo for putting us in this position because you werent even willing to discuss a contract extension with our manager at the time.

Like everyone has said...this is definitely not one of the best free agent classes that the NBA has ever seen but at the same time....I think there is a lot of potential to get very key players to make a significant impact on your team and that is where the Wizards come into this. The Wizards need some veteran leadership and that should be one of the main goals of the free agency period. Here are a couple guys that I think the Wizards should try and pick up and if they are successful.....they could contend in the East this season.

1) David West - Drastic upgrade at the Power Forward position and averages about a double double a night. Gives John Wall a nice safety valve if things break down and they need a quick shot. Also provides some toughness in the post cause in past years.....it seems that the wizards have not had anyone that likes to go down in the block and bang to get boards and points.

2) Marcus Thornton - He is listed at a Shooting Guard but I believe he has the skill set to run the point as well and that will be a tremendous asset having him as a backup to John Wall. Usually scores a decent amount of points a night....solid pickup for the team.

3) Tracy McGrady - I know this sounds kind of weird but I believe he could be a tremendous asset to the Wizards. He is a veteran that could provide leadership. Knows how to get his own shot and if he is forced.....he can take over a game ( see T-Mac with the Houston Rockets). If they offer him an incentive ladden deal....there really is not risk in this signing and if it doesnt work out....cut him. But on the off chance he can get back to his old form and you have to remember.....this is a shortened season.....so his legs might keep up a lot better with about 15 less games than they would in a normal regular season.

4) Jeff Green - Great small forward that gives you points and rebounds....great addition and gives us a true 3 man. He could start and Rashard Lewis could either move to the 4 or be the 6th man and become a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses. The Orlando Magic were so successful with Lewis because he created major match up problems.....the Wizards need to create that as well.

Let me know what players you think the Wizards should go after in Free Agency

Iight so I read a post on a different blog earlier on today and it asked the question of which two schools should the ACC look to add if they do decide to go to 16 teams. I think that everyone can pretty much agree (for the exception of Boston College) that Connecticut is a pretty obvious choice. The 16th team in my opinion is a little more interesting question. I have heard some people say they would like to see Notre Dame in the ACC (which I would absolutely hate BTW) and others consider Rutgers the automatic choice. I am not of that opinion at all. The school that I feel that is prime for picking (and it would mess over the Big East even more).........TEMPLE OWLS. If the ACC is serious about becoming the best basketball conference in the country again then they should really contemplate Temple really hard. Temple is a great academic institution, very solid basketball program and a football program that is building into a respectable program (They stomped Maryland in College Park so they cant possibly be as bad as they used to be when they were in the Big East for football). Let me know what other schools ya'll think the ACC should go after for the 16th school or both the 15th & 16th schools if you think Connecticut gets in

Well, now that Texas A&M is now going to be heading to the SEC ( as long as they can appease Baylor and stop them from suing the SEC), i think that Syracuse's best option at that point, if all the indicators are correct is that they should jump ship to the ACC if and when they get the offer. I think that everyone on this blog has believed for a while that the Big East wasn't going to be able to last at it's current structure.....that is just coming to fruition a lot sooner than any of us expected.

As I alluded to before, West Virginia is considered to be a very serious candidate, according to reports, to join the SEC as their 14th member (which personally, I have absolutely no idea why they would want to do that......yes, they would get into the best football conference in the country but the basketball competition would suffer other than Kentucky and they would never be able to compete with the Alabama's, Florida's, LSU's and Georgia's of the SEC).

If the Big East does indeed lose West Virginia.....lets face it.....the Big East will no longer exist as a football conference and we will be out in the cold. Some people have also brought up the point that the B1G might be a option for us but in my opinion, we would end up being like a West Virginia in the SEC.....we would dominate in basketball and never win in football.  So, we definitely need to move to the ACC as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

In recent news, the big thing going on with both college and professional teams is who should have a statue of themselves put on the grounds of the stadium in which they used to play. Kareem Abdul Jabbar thinks that he should have a statue of himself outside of the Staples Center in LA ( Which I totally agree with). Shaq is getting a statue of himself put outside of the Pete Maravich Events Center on the campus of LSU. So my question is, who should the next statue be of on the Syracuse Campus. In my opinion, the candidates are (by sport and not in any particular order):

Football:

Jim Brown- No explanation is needed for this one.

Donovan McNabb- Great QB is SU history and is on the board of trustees ( which might be actually kind of weird and might actually disqualify him from actually being able to put a statue of himself on campus)

Don McPherson- QB that led SU to the undefeated season in the late 1980s

Basketball:

Carmelo Anthony- Lead the Orangemen (yep I said it) to their first National Championship in the common era of the NCAA Tournament

Jim Boeheim- I just think it is a matter of time before there is a statue of him outside the Carrier Dome

Gerry McNamara- Very instrumental in the National Championship win with Carmelo Anthony, big fan favorite and current assistant coach on the basketball team (Which might also disqualify him right now from getting a statue of himself on campus)

John Wallace- Fan favorite and lead the Orangemen (Uh Oh, I'm going to get in trouble for this) to several deep NCAA tournament runs

Lacrosse: 

Mikey Powell- Great Lacrosse player in school history, won National Championships for the school.

Jim Brown- They could do a two figured statue that shows him playing lacrosse and football on campus

Also, I think that they should move the statue of Ernie Davis to the front of the Carrier Dome (down near the parking lots below the Dome and diagonal to Sadler Hall) and add any other statues that they decide to make and put them over there and name it like legends row ( I know that sounds really lame/cheesy but I cant think of a better name for it right now).

So, lemme know what you think, who should be the next Syracuse great to get a statue outside of the Carrier Dome and should they move the Ernie Davis statue so that if they do add other statues they can be together ( because in its current location, there is no room for others to be around it.

Ok, so I'm a real big college football fan so today's news about Texas A&M leaving the Big XII to go to the SEC, I thought it was real big news. So, after I heard about their departure, I decided to check out other blogs of schools that would be affected by the Aggies move out of the Big XII. I ended up heading over to Burnt Orange Nation, the home of Texas Longhorns fans, and I saw something that raised a question about things in relation to Syacuse athletics. On BON, there was a poll and the question was should Texas continue playing Texas A&M in the Long Star Showdown after they leave for the SEC and the overwhelming majority of Longhorns fans said no. So I was thinking, with all the rumors going around that the SEC might take a school from the ACC and the ACC would in turn raid the Big East, If Syracuse were to be that team that the ACC targeted ( especially since they targeted us the first time), which games should we continue playing. On the football side, I think that we should make it a point to establish a rivalry with UCONN, play for a trophy and make it the last game of the season. In basketball, I know a lot of people say we should no matter what continue the SU vs. Georgetown rivalry but are there any other teams from the current Big East we should continue to play in the OOC???
Personally, I think we should continue playing Georgetown, UCONN, and St Johns. One thing that also comes into play that I am personally in favor of if we shift to the ACC is that we will no longer be in the Big East Lacrosse conference. With this happening, we would only have 4 in conference games a year and we could revitalize our rivalries that we had to give up when we joined the Big East lacrosse conference (AKA Loyola and Hobart). Let me know what you all think about who we should continue playing from the current Big East lineup.

Since the end of the season is approaching very quickly, one thing that needs to be considered is who are the Nationals and Mike Rizzo going to bring in to replace Davey Johnson (because he most likely will go back to his previous job). I have put a lot of thought into this and I feel there are two paths that the Nationals can take in terms of getting a new manger.

1) They could go with a coach in their organization already ( Bo Porter, Randy Knorr) and give them those conditional one year contracts, essentially what they did with Jim Riggleman's contract. OR

2) They could go out and get a head coach and pay him up front with the hopes that could possibly stop what happened with Riggleman and the Nationals from happening again any time soon.

Personally, I believe that they need to go out and get someone that might not necessarily be a manager but someone who has served as a base or bench coach and earned his stripes in the major leagues. Someone like that I believe will work harder to be successful because they want to make sure they hold onto that position and potentially have another opportunity down the road. Some people that I believe should at least get a look are (these are not in any kind of order in terms of who I would like to see):

1) Tony Pena

2) Ryne Sandberg

3) Willie Randolph

4) John Russell

5) Dave Martinez

Comment and say who you think should be the next Nationals manager

Ok, its been a couple weeks now since it was announced that we are going to be playing Colgate as our 12th opponent for the upcoming football season ( which means we have to win 7 games instead of 6 to qualify for a bowl game). So, since that fiasco is officially over, its time that Marrone and Gross get on trying to schedule our 11th and 12th opponents on the 2011 schedule so that we are not stuck in that same predicament next season like we are now. As far as I know right now, this is where our schedule sits right now.

Vs. Rhode Island ( 1AA opponent I believe)

@ Southern California

Vs. Wake Forest

Vs. Cincinnati

@ Connecticut

@ Louisville

@ Pittsburgh

Vs. Rutgers

Vs. South Florida

Vs. West Virginia

So, we have 2 slots left for out of conference games and this is where I believe that we need to do this as strategically as possible. There are a couple of opponents that I think that Marrone and Gross need to look at:

Maryland- The Terrapins could give us another place to get into the Washington DC recruiting base and depending if this whole catastrophic conference expansion thing takes place and we could possibly end up in the ACC after all.

Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio St, Mich St or Illinois- If we do intend to move to the Big Ten Conference if they come calling, this group of players needs to get accustomed to playing the big boys in the conference. This game would probably preferably be on the road because this would give us a good since of if we would be able to compete in that conference or if we need to look at other options in respect to conferences.

Navy- Another team we could play that would give us more exposure in the Washington DC recruiting base.

Miami (FL)- Re-institute a old Big East conference rivalry. We also have been recruiting heavily in FL and this would make sense at least in that respect.

NC State- We supposedly just agreed to play a home and home with them in basketball, why not do it in football as well?

Boise State- They said that they would go anywhere and play anyone, lets put that theory to the test.

Nebraska- I remember reading that we were trying to add them to the football schedule a couple of seasons ago, why not try and get them on now since we have these 2 openings. Also, they are rumored to be another school talked about as a expansion candidate to the Big Ten Conference.

So, those are the teams which I think make the most sense for us to schedule. What do you all think????

I think that Mike Shanahan and the Redskins brass need to look into doing this deal. Getting a quarterback that knows how to win in our division would definitely give us an advantage. If we did indeed do this deal, we could package our 2nd round pick this year and Phillip Daniels ( because they say that he is the odd man out in the new 3-4 defensive scheme) and drastically improve our team. Also, with this deal we would be able to keep our 1st round pick and pick Russell Okung or that offensive lineman out of Maryland (forget what his name is). This deal could help us sure up two problem areas that we had last year:

1) Quarterback Play

2) Offensive Line play ( and now that Chris Samuel just retired, this is key).

Either way, I think that we would be better off with Donovan McNabb because all of the top quarterback prospects in the draft had injury problems last season.

Jimmy Clausen had Plantar Fasciaitis (or however you spell it)

Sam Bradford for all intents and purposes didn't play at all with the shoulder problem.

Tim Tebow changed his throwing motion and that will affect how good he is because he has never used it during a game.

Colt McCoy went out of the National Championship game and said that he couldn't feel his arm at all.

I think that it makes the most sense that we go out and trade for McNabb this season and let Campbell and Grossman walk after this season and look next year for our quarterback of the future.

As we all know, Conference expansion is a hot topic going on right now and a lot of scenarios are being talked about and all conferences might be affected. So, if conference re-alignment actually happened, what do you all think about Maryland moving to the Big East???Granted, the rivalry games with UNC and Duke in basketball are gone from the conference schedule but you Maryland could potentially add Georgetown as a Conference rival and if the Big East expands to make a championship game, they might get Navy and those are 2 local conference rivals. So, what do you all think, is Maryland moving to the Big East a good idea or should they stay in the ACC????

As soon as the Big Ten decides to do their raid to get a championship game, if it happens to the Big East it will probably disband as a Football conference and this is how I think the College Football landscape should look after all the shifting by conferences is done:

Big Ten-

Syracuse (added from the Big East, revitalize the Syracuse v. Penn State rivalry)

Michigan

Ohio St

Michigan St

Penn St

Purdue

Wisconsin

Illinois

Minnesota

Northwestern

Indiana

Iowa

Mizzou (added from the Big 12)

Pittsburgh (added from the Big East, revitalize the Pitt v Penn State rivalry)

ACC-

Maryland

Virginia

Virginia Tech

Duke

UNC

Wake Forest

Florida St

Miami

Boston College

Clemson

NC State

Uconn (added from the Big East, gets the potential rivalry game of Uconn v Boston College)

West Virginia (added from the Big East, rivalry between Virginia v West Virginia)

South Florida (added from the Big East, moves rivalries with Miami and Florida St into conference play)

Rutgers (added from the Big East)

Cincinnati (added from the Big East)

SEC-

Alabama

Auburn

Georgia

Vanderbilt

Kentucky

Arkansas

Mississippi St

Ole Miss

Tennessee

South Carolina

LSU

Florida

Georgia Tech (added from the ACC, get them back in the SEC and revitalize the rivalries with Georgia and Alabama for conference play)

Louisville (added from the Big East, also moves the Louisville v Kentucky rivalry into conference play)

Big 12-

Oklahoma

Texas

Texas A&M

Texas Tech

Oklahoma St

Nebraska

Kansas St

Kansas

Iowa St

Baylor

TCU (added from the MWC, get rivalry games between them and Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech)

Boise St (added from the WAC)

Pac 10-

USC

UCLA

Oregon

Oregon St

Washington

Washington St

Arizona

Arizona St

Cal

Stanford

BYU (added from the MWC)

Utah (added from the MWC)

Colorado (added from the Big 12)

Hawaii (added from the WAC)

This way no school is left upset that they don't have a chance for the BCS National Championship

Let me first say that I am totally against Syracuse leaving the Big East. But, there are certain advantages for all three of Syracuse's major sports that we could have for joining the Big Ten that if several years ago the ACC got us to join we would have had.

Football- Recruiting is down, program is down. We play modest opponents that usually don't fair very well against big programs from other conferences. We don't play in exciting or big road stadiums or unless they are on the out of conference schedule. By Syracuse joining the Big Ten, we would play in 3 stadiums with 100,000 seats ( Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan) which could work to our benefit in recruiting because if nothing else, recruits will think that they can play in front of large crowds, not like playing at Rutgers or South Florida.

Basketball- Don't get me wrong, the Georgetown, UCONN, St. Johns and Villanova games are the games that I most want to see every basketball season. Joining the Big Ten would in essence not effect this all that much. In terms of basketball, we would play the conference schedule

-Penn State

-Ohio State

-Michigan

-Michigan State

-Minnesota

-Indiana

-Purdue

-Northwestern

-Iowa

-Wisconsin

-Illinois

Now, we all know that Northwestern, Iowa, Michigan, Penn State and Minnesota aren't really that good in basketball. We could still get out of conference games against the likes of Georgetown, UCONN, Villanova and St. Johns and still maintain our strength of schedule while also adding programs that are usually good like ( Indiana, Michigan St, Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio State) which would definitely overshadow some of the games we currently have in the Big East like ( USF, Seton Hall, Depaul, Rutgers, Providence and usually West Virginia). We could still have our best games be against our traditional Big East foes but just out of conference.

Lacrosse- Lacrosse is probably the sport that it would benefit us the most if we were to move to the Big Ten. Firstly, the Big Ten doesn't have a lacrosse conference so we would by default become an independent again so that we could get the likes of Loyola and Binghamton back on our schdule. We could play Ohio State in lacrosse that has gotten better over the years to stay somewhat within our conference and we could get away from playing the likes of Villanova, Rutgers, Providence and St. Johns in lacrosse.

The second reason is because as it stands right now, Syracuse would have to win the Big East in Lacrosse every year to be guaranteed to get into the NCAA tournament. If I am not mistaken, there are only 4-6 at large bids in the NCAA tournament which if for some reason we have a down year in lacrosse, we might not make the NCAA tournament.

I personally think that the Orioles need to find a more viable option at first base. I also believe that they could definitely use another starting pitcher to sure up the starting rotation and not some of the prospects we have up to Baltimore too quickly. The Orioles could go after pitchers such as Jon Garland, Wang from the Yankees, Erik Bedard or someone like that. At first base, if im not mistake, Hank Blalock is still a free agent and I would love that signing.

What do you all think?

Plain and simple, the caps need to be in the Winter Classic next year. We have the best and most exciting player in the game and the best collection of young talent in the NHL. We need to get a match up against any of these teams:

- New York Rangers @ Citi Field ( Because Yankee Stadium is booked for a bowl game near new years day starting next year)

-New Jersey Devils @ New Meadowlands Stadium

-New York Islanders @ Citi Field

or do a game against a west team such as

-Minnesota Wild @ TCF Bank Stadium ( new home to the Minnesota Golden Gophers)

-Detroit Red Wings @ Comerica Park ( yea they have been in it before but i think it would still be cool)

-Columbus Blue Jackets @ Ohio Stadium (aka the Horseshoe)

-Colorado Avalanche @ Invesco Stadium ( home of the Denver Broncos)

what do ya'll think???

Does anyone know anything about who we are possibly getting to finish our football schedule for next season. I think that we need to get a well known program ( if there are any that have slots left) to come to the dome. Im not sure which conferences haven't released their schedules but i would like us to play a team from the Mountain West like a TCU, BYU or Utah that or a Big 12 team like Nebraska, Kansas ( bring Turner Gill back to CNY for a game) or Texas A&M.