Wednesday, March 28, 2018

2018 MLB Preview: AL West

And so we've come all the way across the country. Five divisions down, one to go.

I broke one tradition with my 2018 MLB previews in condensing this down from six days of posts to three. But one tradition I didn't break was the alternating of leagues and working across the country.

And now, we conclude with the division that contains our defending champion: the AL West.


2018 MLB Preview: NL West

Opening Day is tomorrow! Excitement is in the air, everyone is a contender (...well, except for the Marlins) and hopefully the weather will warm up so taking a trip to the ballpark will be a little more pleasant.

I've condensed my process down to three days' worth of posting instead of six, so we're down to just two divisions to preview. We're back to the National League one more time with one Wild Card berth still up for grabs.


Tuesday, March 27, 2018

2018 MLB Preview: AL Central

We're onto the second preview of the day as we pass the halfway point of a look at the 2018 Major League Baseball season. I've condensed the process down this year to three days instead of six, going through two divisions a day. Tomorrow I'll look at the west coast.

I got a look this morning at my most familiar division. Today, I go to my second most familiar division as we stay in the Midwest and take a look at the AL Central.


2018 MLB Preview: NL Central

We're onto the second day of MLB previews as I've condensed this year's batch down to three days instead of six. We're still working our way across the country, alternating leagues, before ending with the division containing the defending World Series champion.

This brings us to the country's center, and after ending yesterday in the American League, we go to my division of greatest familiarity in the NL Central.


Monday, March 26, 2018

2018 MLB Preview: AL East

I'm changing up the rate at which I'm cranking out previews this year. If you're reading this and are surprised that I put out a pair of previews in one day, that's the plan.

I'm doing two divisions a day for the next couple of days as well, rounding things out with the division of our defending World Series champion. This year we're starting out east again and after covering the National League side of this geography, we're moving on to the AL East.


2018 MLB Preview: NL East

It's kind of crazy to think that we're already in late March, and that the 2018 Major League Baseball season is upon us.

This year I'm not plugging a Tournament of Champions with the MLB one concluded last year. Instead I'm focused solely on the upcoming season.

As is my custom, I go through one division per post, but this year I'm condensing stuff down to three days, with two posts coming per day leading up to the start of the season. As usual, I'm alternating leagues and working my way around the country, ending with the division of the defending champion. With that thought in mind, let's kick things off with the NL East.


Monday, March 19, 2018

The Future of Confessions of a Sportscaster

Okay, I know this is kind of a cryptic post title. But let me set your minds at ease: Confessions of a Sportscaster is not going anywhere.

I started this in the fall of 2011, mainly as a way of branching myself out and getting some writing experience in an attempt to market myself. It helped get me a gig writing for UKEndzone for a couple seasons, but as far as professionally, that's been about it. For the most part, it's just something I write on the side for fun that gets read by friends and family. And for me, that's enough.

I wondered with each new full time job whether Confessions of a Sportscaster would survive. But it thrived at my last job, and I don't see it going away at my current one.

But here's what I'm looking at for the future of this blog. There are a number of recurring features on here: annual previews of the MLB and NFL seasons, sometimes NHL postseason series by series previews (that I may not even continue this year with the Blackhawks being as bad as they are), the recurring Pigskin Pick 'Em series with Adam that I enjoy every fall, and following North Central's men's and women's basketball teams. I have no reason not to continue these; I should have the time to get to them and I enjoy them all.

But there's one feature that, while I enjoy it, I don't know that it will continue in 2018. And that is my annual following of college football and the Death to the BCS Playoffs.

Last season proceeded as any other might. I followed the college football campaign for its entirety. I started doing mock brackets when the situation arose where no undefeated teams would be left out. Then after championship weekend, I set up the 2017 bracket.

But then a curious thing happened. In the first several years I ran the simulations for those playoffs, WhatIfSports would have the current year's teams ready to go in its simulators in time for bowl season, which lined up perfectly with the first round of the Death to the BCS Playoffs. Last December, I pre-wrote the first round post with the framework around the games and waited for the teams to drop into the simulator on cue. The opening weekend of bowl season began... and the teams never showed up. No matter; I adjusted my post to account for what I figured was a slight delay with the site and prepared to post. Christmas came and went, and we entered 2018... and the 2017 teams still never entered into the simulator. It is March 19th, and those teams are still not in the system.

Now in August of 2017, WhatIfSports was bought by a company called Sportshub. The initial promise was for updates to a lot of the paid games that I don't play, but reading through that thread I linked to, it sure seems like Sportshub doesn't seem to care about the site at all. Many users who have poured years and lots of money into the site are complaining and fully expect the site to shut down.

What's relevant here is that from what I can tell, all future attempts at the Death to the BCS Playoffs won't work because the simulator I relied on won't bother to update. As such, I've cancelled the 2017 Death to the BCS Playoffs, something I should have done a couple months ago when it became apparent the teams weren't coming. It probably also means that I won't bother covering the 2018 college football season. I enjoy doing it and crunching the numbers, but what's the point if there's no playoff to simulate at the end of it? I'm putting in a lot of work for nothing.

Again, Confessions of a Sportscaster isn't going anywhere. But all future projects that would require a simulator, meaning the Death to the BCS Playoffs and all future Tournaments of Champions, are off the table unless I can find another alternative. In the meantime, you'll have to settle for COAS content that's limited to me and Adam trading barbs during the NFL season, stories of Division III women's basketball referees on power trips with unnecessary play stoppages, and the Grey Giovanine Jacket Watch.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

2018 March Madness Preview

After months of focusing on Division III basketball and paying little to no attention to Division I... the most magical time of the year is upon us and I'll try to pretend I know what I'm talking about with the NCAA Tournament.

After the debacle that was the Selection Show, we now know the field that began with the First Four in Dayton the past two days, and now begins in earnest today. This first weekend is the greatest four day stretch in sports, and hopefully there will be plenty of buzzer beaters and upsets like Aurora University toppling Wash U a couple weeks ago (don't let anyone tell you D-III basketball is a garbage product).

Adam Quinn, my partner in the weekly Pigskin Pick 'Em feature during football season, asked if we were doing anything for the NCAA Tournament this year, and because I'm a sucker I couldn't say no. We're condensing it down to one post this year though (a couple years ago we went through each region individually). So below, we'll go region by region with our Final Four picks, dark horses, disappointments, best matchups, and ultimately our national championship picks.

Monday, March 5, 2018

2018 NCC Men's Basketball Recap

I mentioned this at the outset of my women's recap: I hate writing these posts. The last three years, this has been the second of two I've written and it's always sucked that I've had to write it. I kind of feel like with this year's, it's more true.

North Central was on the right side of the bubble a week ago and it earned them an invitation to Minnesota for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, including a tough first round opponent in Wisconsin-Stevens Point. I listened to most of the first half of that game on WONC, where the Cardinals got off to a fairly cold start, the Pointers used a 12-0 run to effectively end the game early, and the Cardinals were unable to dig themselves out of that hole. So for the third straight year, the team didn't make it out of the first weekend, and for the second time in three years, they're a one-and-done.