Wisconsin Sports Nation

by South Side Rob

Sorry but I’m counting the two games played in Japan as well as the Braves/Nationals game played on Sunday night opening Nationals Stadium. Also, Sunday’s game between the White Sox and Tigers is still in progress as I do my research.

Offense:

In batting average, the award goes to the Brewers hitting .303. The Angels are 2nd at .301. Bringing up the rear is the Rockies at a dismal .209.

In on base percentage, the Cardinals win out with an OBP of .373. The White Sox are 2nd at .360 and that number is going up as we speak. At the bottom, you have the Giants at .274 and the Astros at .275.

In slugging percentage, the White Sox win out with a slugging of .491 plus all the damage they are inflicting on the Tigers right now. The Brewers are 2nd with a .488. In last, we have the Giants at .297.

The Brewers and Braves both scored 40 runs in 6 games to lead the majors. At the bottom of the list is the Rockies who managed just 10 runs in 6 games.

In the hits category, the Angels had 75 and the Padres had 66 keeping in mind that both those teams played 7 games. Tied for 3rd again is the Brewers and Braves at 64. Bottom of the list again is the Rockies at 42. The Tigers were at 41 but they have more than 2 hits against the White Sox tonight so the dubious award goes to the Rockies.

In home runs, the Diamondbacks hit 12 of them over 6 games. Counting Swisher’s bomb tonight, the White Sox are 2nd with 10. 3 teams hit just 2 home runs this week being the Dodgers, Giants, and Mets. Footnote. The Mets only played 5 games while the Dodgers and Giants played 6.

In total bases, The Angles win out thanks to playing 7 games with 112. Again, the Brewers and Angels tie for 2nd with 103 over 6 games. Not surprisingly, the Giants bring up the rear with just 58 total bases.

In steals, the Brewers lead the league with 9. The Astros are 2nd with 8 thanks mostly to Michael Bourne in center field. The Yankees are at the bottom with a big fat 0 although they did make two steal attempts.

Pitching:

For pitching wins, the Brewers and Cardinals lead the league with 5 wins. Bringing up the rear is the Tigers at 0 (Currently, they are trailing 9-1 to the White Sox on Sunday night).

For earned run average, the award goes to the Dodgers with a 1.70 covering 6 games. Surprisingly, the Cardinals were 2nd with a 1.83. At the bottom is the Marlins at 6.05. Usually, the Rays are at the bottom of this list which shows you they may have improved pitching.

For hits allowed, the diamondbacks win that award with just 36 given up. The Orioles were 2nd with 37 but played only 5 games. Then, its the Reds with just 38. At the bottom and in this case, the most hits given up belongs to the Astros 77. The Marlins gave up 68.

For earned runs allowed, the Dodgers gave up just 10 earned runs. The Cardinals gave up just 11 earned runs. The Marlins gave up a league most 37 earned runs and the Pirate pitchers gave up 35 earned runs.

In home runs allowed, the Dodgers win again giving up just one dinger. On the launching pad side of this stat, you have 3 teams, the Reds, Rockies, and Pirates all giving up a league high 9 home runs.

In strikeouts, the two teams that went to Japan lead which makes sense since they both have played 7 games. The Red Sox have 59 and the Athletics have 58. Bringing up the rear are two teams that played just 5 games in the Orioles 23, and the Rays at 28.

Defense:

In fielding percentage, the Royals and Nationals lead the week with a fpct of .996. At the bottom, you have the Pirates at just a .961. For Brewer fans, the Brewers finished 9th at .991.

The team of the week is up for debate. The Brewers and Cardinals both had 5 wins (I thought the NL Central was the worst division in baseball?) They did feast on some bad teams at home in the Giants and Nationals. The White Sox, Royals, and Rays all had some impressive wins this week. The Diamondbacks were strong. The Rockies and Tigers were horrible.

Your thoughts…

Hey everyone, I just wanted to start out by thanking SSR for allowing everyone to have a voice and opinion on many views on many different types of sports. For those who don’t know me I am advid baseball, college basketball, golf watcher. There will be a lot of posts about those but occasionally I will write about other sports when I feel there is an issue that needs to be brought up or something I need to get off my chest. Hope you all enjoy my writing and comments and if you don’t, I don’t care I am allowed to say what I want and I will do that.

With all the hype over college basketball and opening day looming in the near future, I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the greatest golf tournament in the world to start, The Masters. You cannot beat Augusta National Golf Club and the feeling of serenity in the American golfer each April. I know as a golfer myself who lives in Wisconsin it is almost the unoffical start of the golf season whether there is snow on the ground or not. The mystic of Jack in 86′, Tiger in 96′, O’Meara in 00′ and Hefty Lefty in 06′. The dramtatics, dominance and history is all behind The Masters which seems to be brought to us the viewer, year in and year out. Playing a championship at Augusta National every year is special and pure. Purity, something we don’t seem to have in sports today. This championship is an American Championship; it is the 1950’s American Dream tournament. It allows us to stop take a step back from painting our white picket fences and washing our cars with our children in our driveways. It allows us to sit down with our family on that aluminating Sunday afternoon and watch the purest enviorment, challeneged by the world’s best in their craft. It is also golf season, welcome back.

by Big Rygg

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any easier for Kansas to make the Elite 8, along comes Davidson to knock out the #2 seed on behalf of the Wisconsin Badgers, helping to hopefully make things a bit easier for them as well.

Personally, I’m hoping that Wisconsin’s #1 defense in the country (yeah, all those D1 schools) can contain Davidson’s only real threat. They contained Kansas State’s Michael Beasley well enough to win, so I like our chances just fine…especially since our best individual defender Michael Flowers just happens to be a guard too.

Tough loss for Marquette against Stanford (even though I had it that way in my bracket, I would’ve rather seen Marquette win, just like I’m stoked Duke lost even though I had them winning), but I’m still looking forward to the next round of games thanks to the Dub’s involvement and an until recently fairly unheralded Davidson.

by South Side Rob

Ok. I had 10 losses in the first round. I can deal with that. That’s what happens when your dealing with a one and done situation. I can hear my friend Sherby (I haven’t talked to him yet) about the Big East going 7-1 with UConn’s loss coming after one of their best players was injured for the majority of the game with San Diego. San Diego, there’s a college basketball factory

Ok. For today’s games, my picks are pretty easy to understand:

1. Duke over West Virginia
2. Wisconsin over Kansas State
3. Purdue over Xavier
4. Washington State over Notre Dame
5. Marquette over Stanford
6. Kansas over UNLV
7. Michigan State over Pittsburgh
8. UCLA over Texas A&M

The Wisconsin and Marquette picks are obviously homer picks but I think Wisconsin will settle in much quicker than they did with Cal State Fullerton. With Marquette, the victory over Kentucky has given them a lot of confidence. With that, I think they can beat Stanford by running them off the floor and driving right into their twin-towers and get them in foul trouble. The key for Marquette is to not get in foul trouble themselves. For Wisconsin, they can let Beasley go off, they just have to stop everyone else. Wisconsin cannot afford to go cold offensively. On Thursday, they took a lot of bad shots before settling down in the 2nd half. Flowers and Bohanan from behind the line are key for Buch and Landry down low. Look for Leuer and maybe even Gullickson may earn some minutes helping to contain Beasley. Beasley proved against USC that he is prone to getting into foul trouble himself so that might be something the Badgers may try to do early on.

Enjoy the games and feel free to share your thoughts before, during, and after the games. I’m spending the next 9+ hours watching college basketball so I will be checking in from time to time…

by South Side Rob

In a year where I don’t have many upsets at all, I do have a few Thursday upsets as it pertains to seeding. They are:

1. Kent State over UNLV
2. Texas A&M over BYU

On Firday, I have:

1. Oregon over Mississippi State
2. Saint Mary’s over Miami

Please share your first round upsets.

by South Side Rob

Welcome to my new blog Sports Nation. I really don’t have much to say tonight as I have spent most of the night launching this blog and getting things setup. There will be much more writers on this blog besides myself. Bring your game and your loyalty and we may allow you to write for us as well.

OK. College hoops. I just watched Ohio State take apart UNC-Ashville in an N.I.T. opener at Ohio State. To be honest, I just wanted to see that 7′7″ player for UNC-Ashville. He’s not bad but man, he’s a load.

With 48 hours left, I plan on filling out a few brackets which I hate. People who don’t even watch college basketball can compete because this is a one and done tournament. With the exception of 1-16 match-ups, every possible upset can take place.

My allegiance is with the Wisconsin Badgers of the Big 10 but I will pull for the Marquette Golden Eagles as long as they can last. Should the Badgers face the Golden Eagles, I always go with the Badgers.

On that note, I’m NOT a fan of the Big East. Watching the NCAA tournament committee award them with 8 teams in the tournament obviously has my dander up. I’ve already gone on record with friends and family that I expect only 1 Big East team to survive the opening weekend. A better prediction would have been 2 but I highly doubt there will be more than that.