Release Therapy

Ok after a couple weeks off the grid due to a hectic schedule, I've been able to sit down and go over the off season happenings of the Carolina Panthers. Initially I was excited to see that Dom granted me one of my Christmas wishes 3 months later by giving me Moose back...giving me a recieving core of... Mushin Muhammed, Steve Smith, Drew Carter, and Dwayne Jarrett. Not too shabby at all, in fact I'm pretty excited seeing as how Delhomme is progressing nicely post-surgery. However, Moose seems to be the only transaction that has been positive for Carolina. Mike Wahle, Dan Morgan, Deshaun Foster, and David Carr were cut, with Carr being the only one I was happy about(I've seen more athletic charisma at a pick up game of basketball in the Philippines). Since we cut one of our most valuable defensive assests in Dan Morgan, we've pretty much screwed ourselves, hoping for a steal on the Free Agent market, or end up doing some dumbass trade closer to the season to get a linebacker that's sub-par. With Foster cut, we have D'angelo Williams - who I'm a big fan of due to his explosiveness/quickness - and Nick Goings - who has been injured more times than Dan Morgan in the last couple years and is much less productive than a thumbless film critic. Now I know it was kind of weird that Foster was a starter on an offensive that should've been geared towards a more charismatic game plan - aka starting Williams- but he got the job done this year after Delhomme went down. So to repay him for a good job we cut him. Now we are left with two scat backs, when in all honesty its 1 1/4 scat backs with Nick Goings chasing the Steve Young concussion record. Given there are many good running backs coming into the draft this year, but I personally think we should sign a power back with a few years under his belt and concentrate on our sodomized defense. Kris Jenkins went to the Jets, Mike Rucker is officially a Free Agent and we're looking at Rod Coleman who's been plagued with injuries - wait wasn't that why we cut Morgan?- and the Bears still have the secondary, which according to Dom should be given back anytime now. Waiting sweetheart, waiting.

Bottom Line: we need to make moves quickly, because this is ridiculous. The managerial moves made here are about as consistent as John Fox's season-to-season records. Sign Derek Smith, stop destroying our defense, and for the love of god, start replacing/resigning people. Draft picks won't solve last year's mistakes.
More after the jump...

MLB Free Agency: Time to Make Your Team a Contender

We’re about fifteen days away from pitchers and catchers reporting and that means it’s time to make that push for the remaining free agent gems. The biggest blockbuster so far is the Mets signing Johan Santana from the Minnesota Twins. Santana turned down an extension from the Twins worth $80 million over the next four years. Instead Santana will get his $13.25 million for next year while in negotiation for a contract extension that will reportedly earn him $20 million a year for four to seven years. The Twins get four prospects in exchange for Santana’s two Cy Young awards.

• OF Carlos Gomez
• RHP Phil Humber
• RHP Delois Guerra
• RHP Kevin Mulvey

Twin Rebuild. Mets Contend.


Bonus Free Agency Knowledge:
In case you didn’t know or were too scared to ask.
Free Agency works like this: Free Agent players are ranked by a number of statistical categories by the Elias Sports Bureau and broken up into Type A and Type B. Type A players are the top 20% at their position while B are the next 20%. When a deal happens with a Type A free agent the team signing the player must give up their first round pick in the draft to the team losing said player. The losing team also receives a pick in a special round between the first and second rounds called the sandwich round. Those who give up a Type B player do not receive a first round pick, but are awarded a pick in the sandwich round. The only exception is for teams who currently have a top 15 pick in the draft. If they were to sign a Type A player they would give up their second round pick instead of their first.

I’ve been looking over who the top free agents left on the market are, and should be posting predictions and speculations on where they should end up in the next day or so. You have no idea how much I missed baseball.

4Real Out….
More after the jump...