SB Nation Blog: JakeTheSnake

Know Your Colts History: Start the Countdown

JakeTheSnake — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:28:31 -0000

Independence Day. Isn't it grand? American spirit! Fireworks! Hot dogs! Will Smith fighting aliens! Barbecue! Fun with friends and family! Localized traditions that no one outside of your community cares about! All of these things are great but for me, there's one thing that gets me more excited than anything else going on today.

There's lless than a monthh to go until the pre-season starts.

Sure, pre-season games aren't the most exciting brand of football you'll ever see, but you know what? After 6 months without any football action, I'll take it wherever I can get it.

As we get closer to football action, here's what I'm most looking forward to this season:

No more injury reports! (pound on wood): Throughout most Colts' success during the last decade, we've been able to avoid the injuries that can end a season before it starts. Then last year we did a pretty good job of catching up in the injury department. I'm not sure how this year will go in regards to injuries, but I'm fairly optimistic that it won't be as bad as last year. But if it does happen, we know from last year that the backups are capable of holding down the fort in their absence.
Less turnover = More success: One of the staples of the Polian regime has been the constant cycle of players being drafted, becoming successful, and signing with other teams for inflated value while Bill replaces them with cheaper rookies. This year, our only biggest loss was Jake Scott. Since there's less to replace, the Colts don't have to devote as much time to getting new players integrated in the system as they have in previous years. Being able to hit the ground running this year will go a long way in getting to where they want to go.
A breakout to Addai for: Even though Joseph was selected to his first Pro Bowl last season, you could tell that he was wearing down at the end of the year. With the addition of Mike Hard and the return of Dominic Rhodes, Addai should have plenty of help to keep him fresh this season, which will only lead to good things for #29.
We still have the best player around: Seriously, how lucky are we to have this guy?

I'm still not quite sure what we're going to do when he retires. I think I've narrowed it down to public weeping or gnashing of teeth. It's not going to be pretty.

With that said, Peyton if you're reading this please don't put us through this when you do decide to hang 'em up. Our hearts won't be able to take it.

Veterans Andray Blatche, Nick Young, Dominic McGuire, Oleksiy Pecherov, rookie JaVale McGee and 2...

JakeTheSnake — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:32:41 -0000

Veterans Andray Blatche, Nick Young, Dominic McGuire, Oleksiy Pecherov, rookie JaVale McGee and 2006 second-round pick Vladimir Veremeenko already have spots on the team. The rest of the list for now is: Georgetown's Jonathan Wallace, George Mason's Will Thomas, College of Charleston point guard Dontaye Draper, former Indiana standout A.J. Guyton, former UMass and UVa swingman Gary Forbes, Fairleigh Dickenson forward Mike Peeples, former Wake Forest forward Vytas Danelius from Lithuania, Winthrop forward Taj McCullough and Drexler center Frank Elegar. An additional name or two could also be added to the list, which is expected to be finalized on Monday.

Will he stay or will he go? The Results

JakeTheSnake — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:16:12 -0000

Back on Monday, we ran the "Will he stay or will he go?" series where you could rate how confident you were that our three free agents would return for next season. Of course, just hours after I posted the polls, Jamison had to throw a monkey wrench in the process by signing, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Today, I tallied up the votes and tried (emphasis on tried here people, I got my math skills at community college) to average them out to get an average confidence rating of the BF community for each of our free agents. Here are the results, together with some notes of importance

Antawn Jamison: 82.8%

I forgot to close the poll after the Jamison deal was done, so the vote may be slightly skewed by some rogue voters, but in the end he still has less 100% votes that Gilbert, so I'm going to assume the damage was minimal.
Less than 12% of voters rated their confidence at less than 70%
26% rated their confidence in Jamison's return in the 70-79% range, the highest percentage of any choice in the poll.
Nobody voted in the 0-9% range or the 10-19% range for Antawn.

Roger Mason: 30.8%

73% of voters had their confidence in Roger's return at 39% or lower, with 19% having Roger at 0-9%.
The largest chunk of the pie goes to those who voted 10-19% range as they took 21% of the vote.
Roger received only one 100% vote.

Gilbert Arenas: 82.1%

19% of you voted that you had 100% confidence (a.k.a. I agree with Roger) that Gilbert would be back next season, the highest percentage of votes for any player at 100%.
On the other end, 2% of you felt that there a 0-9% chance of Gilbert returning, which is higher than Antawn's percentage, but (much) lower than Roger's.
Less than 6% of voters had their confidence at lower than 50%.

So there you have it, we were ever so slightly more confident that Antawn would be back than we were with Gilbert, and it looks like it's played out that way, with Antawn getting his deal done and Gilbert seems to be a lock to be back, barring some unforseen revelation during his trip. Just remember to take all of this information with a grain of salt. After all, "people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that."

Let's take a moment to step away from all of the free agency hoopla and talk about the draft again for a moment. Yesterday, the Wizards had their press conference (which you can see here) to introduce JaVale to the world. My immediate reaction: We need a higher roof.

JakeTheSnake — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:56:00 -0000

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/1914/mcgee380080630ra7.jpg

Heavy Hefting Hagler Hurts Himself

JakeTheSnake — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:17:02 -0000

(Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Adam Schefter dropped a (relatively unimportant, but eventful because there's nothing else to talk about during the off-season) bombshell on NFL.com (HT: borninblue) today regarding our favorite linebacker with a first name that kind of sounds like an Asian island:

In Indianapolis, Colts starting linebacker Tyjuan Hagler suffered a torn pectoral muscle while lifting weights last week.

Hagler now is expected to be sidelined at least two months, meaning he will miss training camp and could be out for the Colts' Sunday night regular-season opener against the Chicago Bears.

Needless to say, that's the last time they're letting Hunter Smith be a spotter for Hagler.*

As both Schefter and Naptown's Finest mention, this injury sets up an interesting battle in training camp for Hagler's spot, with Clint Session and Philip Wheeler being the two players most likely to fill the void or possibly even replace Hagler depending on how well they perform in camp. If Dungy values diving interceptions off of player's back as much as I do, Session will be holding down the fort until Hagler returns.

But that's just my two cents, fell free to use this nifty poll to voice your opinion.

* - Hunter wasn't actually Hagler's spotter when he was injured. If Hunter was spotting, Tyjuan would've torn a lot more than his pectoral muscle.

Marc Stein: Antawn re-signing is "imminent."

JakeTheSnake — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:10:45 -0000

It looks like Mike Jones' sources were on to something. There is, however, a discrepancy between the reports on how much Jamison will earn. Jones had Jamison at 4 years/$44 million, Stein says 4 years/$50 million. In other news, former Minuteman Gary Forbes will be playing on the Wizards summer league team.

I'm hearing from sources close to both parties that a deal between the Wizards and Antawn Jamison...

JakeTheSnake — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:19:20 -0000

I'm hearing from sources close to both parties that a deal between the Wizards and Antawn Jamison will be completed very quickly after midnight. It looks like Wizards brass will reward Jamison for his 21.4-point, 10.2-rebound All-Star season with a four-year deal worth roughly $11 million a season.

Will he stay or will he go? Gilbert Arenas

JakeTheSnake — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:39:08 -0000

Free agency starts tomorrow, and with it comes the chance that some current Wizards might find new homes this off-season. Today, we give you the chance to weigh in on whether or not you think our free agents will stay in D.C. or be with new teams next season. In our final installment, we'll be taking a look at Gilbert Arenas.

Why he'd stay:

Washington loves Gilbert Arenas. Arguably the most popular Washington athlete that isn't a Redskin and one of the NBA's most entertaining players, he's gotten people excited about the Wizards. That's something Michael Jordan (He got people excited about the Michael Jordan experience more than he got people excited about the Wizards, big difference.), Chris Webber, Mitch Richmond, Juwan Howard, and Moses Malone can't say. Unless the Wizards could somehow pull in a player with more star power than Gilbert, most of the fans that Gilbert has drawn to the franchise in the last few years will lose their interest in the team.
Roger Mason is 100% sure that he'll back next season.
There might be a "secret agreement" that's already in place.
The Wizards are the only team that can offer Gilbert a six-year contract, a big sticking point for someone who's looking for commitment in the wake of his knee injuries.
As Dan Steinberg put it:

If the Wizards could be a 52-win team without Gilbert, people in this town would saddle up. If they're going to be a 42-win team without him, what's the point? I was in the arena only off-and-on this year, but the most electric moment I saw was Gilbert hopping on the scorer's table before Game 3 at home and waving that towel. Caron has deservedly built a huge local following, but he doesn't cause that silly elation that has washed over large sections of the crowd during Gilbert moments.

Why he'd go:

Simply put, Gilbert is crazy. It's a good crazy and it's a fun crazy, but it's still crazy. Since Gilbert is representing himself in negotiatioins, he can follow his gut instincts as far as he wishes to follow them. He could sign with the Wizards for a max deal or he could sign with the Orange County Gladiators for 25,000 a year and it wouldn't surprise anyone.
If Ernie doesn't think Gilbert is worth max dollars, there could be some problems during negotiations.
Perhaps while he was listening to The Circle of Life on Thursday night, he came to the realization that he needed a change in his life. (Like I said, he's a little crazy.)
He fears the backlash from D.C. residents over his new beard.

So do you think we'll see Antawn back next season? With 0 being "I already have my Zero Chance of Coming Back to Washington headline prepared" and 100 being "I have a Gilbert Arenas = Mayor For Life bumper sticker" rank how confident you are that Agent Zero will be back next season.

Previous Installments:

Will he stay or will he go? Roger Mason

JakeTheSnake — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:04:40 -0000

Free agency starts tomorrow, and with it comes the chance that some current Wizards might find new homes this off-season. Today, we give you the chance to weigh in on whether or not you think our free agents will stay in D.C. or be with a new team next season. In our second installment, we'll be taking a look at Roger Mason.

Why he'd stay:

Roger is from the D.C. area, so a
Last season, Roger gave an inexperience and streaky bench a steady contributor that could come in and produce.
Without question, Roger has enjoyed the most success in his NBA career while in Washington. Why mess with success?

Why he'd go:

With Nick Young slotted as the shooting guard of the future for the Wizards, and DeShawn Stevenson slotted as the shooting guard of the present, it doesn't leave a lot of room for someone who doesn't fill either spot.
Gilbert and Antawn's salaries will take up most of the available cap space, so Roger will probably be able to get a better contract somewhere else.

So do you think we'll see Roger back next season? With 0 being "I've already sold my Roger Mason bobblehead on eBay" and 100 being "I just ordered a new, authentic Roger Mason #8 jersey" rank how confident you are that The Potomac Rainmaker will be back next season.

ESPN ranks the top free agents this season

JakeTheSnake — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:36:28 -0000

DeSagana Diop is the 4th best unrestricted FA out there? Oh dear.