BSU baseball can't field worth a darn...

The 2009 Ball State Cardinals are 12-12 through April 1st. While that may seem like a decent record, they should be 18-6 if the defense was anywhere near average. Un-earned runs have cost them 6 games so far this year. With 55 errors in 24 games, they have a .940 fielding percentage, the worst in the past ten seasons at least.

The pitching staff has an ERA of 3.99, which ranks 40th in all of college baseball. Their opponents have a 6.19 ERA, which would rank 196th in the NCAA. That's a difference of over 2 runs a game and yet the team is 12-12.

This atrocious fielding has affected the RPI for the Cards. Their current RPI rank is 233rd, but with those 6 extra wins their RPI rank would be 122nd, a jump of 111 places. In a normally one-bid conference, every little bit of RPI helps. This year, it looks like they will have to win the MAC tourney to go to the NCAA tourney.

Lost, where have you gone? (get it? hahaha!)

I was watching Lost last night and realized that I have stopped caring about what is going on. If everything that has happened will still happen, then why does it matter? It's like watching Revenge of the Sith, you knew what was going to happen because you had to connect Attack of the Clones with A New Hope. With Lost, you know what happens to all of the non-Oceanic people because it's still their 1977, but it is 2007 for Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and all the others. Hurley and Miles tried to explain what was going on, and I do understand, but it takes away from the show that I started watching 4 years ago. The show is becoming one big flashback, it's showing how the others and the Dharma Initiative became what they were when our main characters first landed on the island. We are getting the answers to questions we have been asking for years, but I don't know if I like the way they are doing it. I'll still watch because I am invested in the story and it doesn't hurt to have Evangeline Lilly and Elizabeth Mitchell around.....

I do want to say that Micheal Emerson (older Ben) and Terry O'Quinn (Locke) completely stole the entire show in their one minute of screen time. Locke only said one line and Ben didn't say anything, but their expressions told an entire story in one small scene. I still don't understand how Micheal Emerson has not won an Emmy for his work on this show. He's been nominated twice and deservedly so. What started out as a two episode role turned into a role as the leader of the "others". Only a superior actor can take a guest star role and turn it into one of the main focuses of a huge TV show.

The Biggest Loser wasted an episode?

After watching The Biggest Loser last night, I wondered if I had just wasted two hours of my life to get to the same point in the show that we were at last week. This week, Nicole was put back on the show because she had lost the most weight at home....but then gained 5 pounds on campus and was voted out at the end. So, we are left with the same 8 people that we started the day with. After reading some of the forums, I guess that TBL was trying to cover their asses in case Ron's hospital visit did not allow him to come back to the show. Anyway, Nicole has lost 105 pounds and went from a size 24 wedding dress to a size 12 and wants to be in a size 8 for the wedding.

Tara has lost the most weight, percentage wise, so far but it would only take one bad week for her to be voted out by the rest of the group. Mike's weight loss has been the most impressive, but he may be considered a threat also....but as long as his father Ron is on campus, he may be OK. Right now, I think Laura may win. She's been up and down on the chart, including this week's one pound gain. I don't think the others see her as a threat, so she may slide by for a while and then turn it on at the end. Plus, I would like to see Tara's face when her former model teammate wins instead of her.

Where did he go???

I know it's been 6 months since I posted on this blog, but I have taken a break and now I have some time and definitely some things to write about. We'll start today with a preview of the Atlanta Braves 2009 season and see where it goes from here.

After a 72-90 season in 2008, the Braves needed to shake things up...and they certainly did that. John Smoltz and Mike Hampton are gone from the rotation, but they were replaced with Derek Lowe, Javier Vazquez, and Kenshin Kawakami. Jair Jurrjens and former long-time Brave Tom Glavine will fill out the rotation. I think this rotation will be strong and will last until the 6th or 7th inning in most games to take the pressure off of the bullpen. Last year, the bullpen broke down because many of the starting pitchers could not last into the 6th inning. This year things should be different.

The offense hasn't changed a whole lot. Garrett Anderson was singed as a free agent and he will start in left field. Jeff Francouer will start in right field and hopefully return to his 2007 form after a dismal 2008. Center field will be patrolled by a combination of Gregor Blanco, Jordan Schafer, and Omar Infante. The infield will stay the same: Brian McCann, Casey Kotchman, Kelly Johnson, Yunel Escobar, and Chipper Jones. The bench will consist of free agent signing David Ross, Matt Diaz, Martin Prado, Clint Sammons, an pinch-hitter extraordinaire Greg Norton.

This season can't be as bad as last season, so I am hopeful that a new spring will be a new hope for the Braves.