Kaspers Korner

The New York Yankees have one problem, and that is a perpensity to buy the fancy toy.  The thing is though they have been doing this for years, and it has been costing them.

 Yankees after years of trading prospects finally have a stable of young upcomers.  However, a trade for Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins could end all that.

The Yankees for years have only had one pitcher that they brought up through the system, and that is Andy Pettite.  Well now they have two on the verge, and now they want to trade the one away.

Phil Hughes was 5-3 last year, which is respectable considering the other pitchers the Yankees have brought in.  The fact is that they have soemthing that could be successul right in front of them, and could blow it.

The other big problem is that Melky Cabrera would be the other player included in the deal.  They need Cabrera considering that starter Johnny Damon is not getting younger, and does get hurt every year.

Melky plays a vital role in the fact that when one player goes down in the outfield they still have a suitable replacement for them.

The Yankees feel the pressure from the outside to do something to better their team.  However, teh best thing for them to do it wait, and develop their own prospects. Unless they can get a free agent like Mike Mussina when he first came to the Yankees.

With the death of their teammate Sean Taylor the Washington Redskins have a difficult task ahead.  That being suiting up, and playing the Buffalo Bills.

As trajic as it is expect the Redskins to come play.  Afterall, that is the way Taylor would have wanted it.  Not only Taylor would want it that way, but every football player would want it that way.

When a person puts on the helmet they understand that anything can happen, even dying out on the field.  With that in mind we suit up to play anyways, because we love the game, and no matter what happens we always want out team to win the game.

Taylor’s death will most likely be a rallying cry for the Redskins this year.  That will most likely carry them to the end of the year.

No matter what happens this weekend everyone is a winner.  Afterall, we are all brothers in arms no matter what level of footall we played. We have all sweat, gave blood, and broken bones for the game that we love. 

Rest in Peace Sean, and may your killer be found quickly, so your family may heal.

With a F.U.B.A.R. start to the regular season many people were left wondering if the Buffalo Sabres would even make the playoffs.  Now, with the Sabres rattling off five games in a row they look to be back in form.

The main problem with the Sabre was many stars were thrushed into prominent roles.  Then when they first found themselves struggling many players put even more pressure to perform, and get the job done.

However, they still have Lindy Ruff as their head coach, and if there is one person that can turn a team around it is him.  Which, is exactly what he did after constantly preaching the basics to the team.

Many players like wingers Thomas Vanek, and Maixm Afinogenov put undue pressure to themselves.  That turned into them trying to make individual plays that turned out to be nothing but real dumb.

Now, they got back to the basics of hockey, and are back to form, eventhough they are without Chris Drury and Danny Briere.

That tough stretch sure of had to made leaders out of some of the players.  Tough stretches, and adversity, is where the real leaders shined, and carried the team through.

It should not be long before a permanant captain is named for the team.  It may not even come till next year though.  However, when Ruff is sure who the real leader in the lockerroom is then we will know as well.

One other major positive to come out from the early stretch is that the farm system for the Sabres is very deep for both  offense and the defense.

Offensively everyone knew that the Sabres had some good solid young talent in the wings.  With the sabres suffering some extended injuries to the defense, and Teppo Numinen still recovering from hear surgery, the Sabres had to go to the farm early

Defensemen Mike Webber and Andrej Sekera  saw extended action already, and surprised their head coach.  Weber played consistent solid defense by playing within himself.  Sekera improved vastly from last year, and with the call up now knows what he needs to work on.

The Sabres still can make a push towards the Ottawa Senators for the division.  Heck they even might take it if they play like this the rest of the season.

Many people make the mistake of rushing to judgement when it comes to players within the National Football League. That goes the same for Buffalo Bills quarterback Trent Edwards.

Already, many people have labeled Edwards as the next Chad Pennington, due in part to the fact that he has not thrown any deep balls yet. Unfortunately many people are wrong about that perception.

So, how good is Edwards arm?  His high school head coach Butch Cattolico stated this on his arm,”Trent has the greatest deep balls I have ever seen. He can throw about 75 yards and on a dime.”  Cattolico went on to say this about Edwards, ” In my 31 years of coaching Trent is the best quarterback I have ever coached.”

Another thing that people feel that he is not good at is his athleticism.  That being in most part due to the fact that he does not take off and scramble out of the pocket.

Well that is also wrong folks.  Jim Martin the athletic director of Los Gatos high school was the gead coach of the basketball team when Edawards was there and had this to say of Edwards, “Edwards was one of the stars on our team, and he is a very good athlete.”

There is one thing that many people have pointed out that is correct about Edwards.  That being he is one cool cat out there on the field.

In his Junior year Edawards set a state record by completing 78.1 percent of his passes, while also throwing for 2,534 yards passing, and 29 touchdowns in just thirteen games. 

With the pressure to follow up his junior year Edwards complete 73 percent of his passes throwing for almost 2600 yards, and threw 29 touchdowns again.

Coming out of highschool he was ranked the number one prospect by the USA Today. 

His career at Stanford statistically was very similar to JP Losman’s.  Both played in over 35 games, actually 38 for Losma, and 35 for Edwards.  Both of their completion percentage are similar 57.7percent for Losman, and   56.3 percent for Edwards.  Losman had 987 attempts completing 570 of them, and Edwards 865 attempts, while completing 487 of them. 

The only difference between Edwards and Losman in college is that Edwards threw 33 interceptions, while Losman only threw 27.

The reason that he fell into the third round of the NFL draft was the fact that each year, except one, he missed time due to injury.

The fact of the matter is that Edwards does not need a great arm to be successful in the NFL.  Did Joe Montana get to four superbowls by throwing deep balls.  No.  Nor, has Tom Brady that way either.

According to Calhighsports.com the offical state record keeper of the state of California, Edwards was on winning teams, and Losman wasn’t.  It is that time that Edwards spent under Butch Cattolico that has made the difference between them.  Parents send their kids to Los Gatos to just be coached by Cattolico

If you do not believe about how good Los Gatos highschool is go ask Ewards former teammate, when he was a sophmore on the Varsity squad, Kansas City Chies  defensive end Jared Allen, who transfered there for his senior year.

Edwards is a winner, and with a good solid offensive line could make the offense into an elite force, because he knows that his job is to get it into receivers hands so they can make a play. 

If dumping off to the running back makes him Chad Pennington, well how about this statistic.  From 1989-1992 Thurman Thomas averaged 58 catches a year and over 600 yards receiving.  Well I guess that makes Jim Kelly Chad Pennington also.

The Buffalo Bills loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars has pretty much just ended the Bills playoffs hope.  In the loss Bills quarterback JP Losman gave a horrible performance.

Losman’s performance has sealed his fate as a Bill.  You can sum up his career as a bill in one word, and that word being bad.

Only a handful of times Losman has put together great performances. The rest were nothing, but plain old duds.

THere is only so much a person can withstand of the insanity.  The main knock on Losman is cannot read defenses very well, nor is he accurate. Both were true today against the Jaguars

All that needs to be said is goodbye JP has been nice.

The Jacksonville Jaguars since coming into the league have had a problem selling out home games. Accorrding to the team itself that will not be a problem in the near future.

The Jaguars right now are a small market team.  However, the city of Jacksonville is growing by 20,000 people each year.  Which, would take them out of the small market category by 2015, according to the Buffalo News.

That would mean that the two most logical to go to Los Angles would either be the Minnesota Vikings, or the Bills themselves.

However, there is one bit of hope for Bills fans.  The Canadian Football League’s commisioner has acknowledge that there is a good possibility that there might be a National Football League team that comes to Toronto.

he went on to mentioned that he would like to work on a deal with the NFL.  Most likely that the Bills would only play a certain amount of games per a year in Toronto, and maybe some kind of minor League affiliation with the NFL since they do not have one.

While the news can be alarming for some Bills fans.  People need to remember where there is a will there is a way.

Buffalo Bills running back Marshawn Lynch was officially ruled out for sunday’s game agaisnt the Jacksonville Jaguars.  That means the Bills will get pass happy with Anthony Thomas at running back.

What will also force the Bills to get that way is if the Jaguars control the clock most of the game with their running game.  Last week the New England Patriots controled the ball most of the game, and the Bills had to pass the ball the rest of the game.

The Bills style of deense will not help either.  With the Bills mostly going with zone in their cover two scheme you can bet even Jaguars quarterback David Guarrad.

With the los to Patriotsw being so bad as it was the Bills will have to reach deep if they are going to win this week.  If they do nto they will lose easily.

Earlier in the season the Buffalo Bills went up against the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are second in the league in rushing yards per a game with 147.5.  Now, they will face the third team in the league in the Jacksonville Jaguars, with 140.0 yards per a game.

The Bills were blown out in the game against the Steelers earlier in the season.  Which does not bode well for the Bills, who are ranked 22 against the run.

The unit to watch will be the defensive line of the Buffalo Bills  Especially, with the amount of money that Bills general manager Marv Levy gave to defensive ends chris Kelsay and Arron Schobel.

Schobel has clearly been the disappointment this year.  He is weaker agaisnt the run than he is agaisnt the pass.  This year he has been bad agaisnt both. After ten games Schobel only has two and a half sacks.

It would help if the defensive tackles were able to penetrate the offesive line.  Penetrating will lead to less double teams on the ends, which should lead to more plays being made.

That in the end is what the Bills must do on defenseto defeat the Jaguars.  For if they lose then it will be Edwards time.

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez completed a new deal with coming to terms with the Yankees.  The deal was completed without his agent Scott Boras leaving people to wonder if agents are worth while.

In the age of technology, and information, you think a person would be able to handle their own contract negotiations.  Unfortunately, many players believe the opposite in the matter.

The fact is that when agents are not involved things get done much faster.  However, when a person has a agent you can forget about getting it done anytime soon.

Rodriguez contract negotiations shows the proof that if a player does the contract, and takes less money they are still better off.  How is that when they are taking less money.

An agent gets paid with a percentage of the negotiated contract. If I recall it correctly the fee is four percent, so four percent of 300 million is 12 million. Rodriguez in the end takes home only 288 million. 

In the end Rodriguez took 13 million less to stay with the same team.  No amount of money can buy the happiness and joy of a child being able to have the same surroundings.

I myself moved six times by the time I had graduated highschool.  In the end I became a loner, because it was easier, and less painfull that way. 

I remember the first time I was told I was moving, and let me tell you it was horrible.  It was like the world was ending, and it was exactly that.

Without agents more players would more inclined to stay with the same team.  That would lead children to having more stable lives, which in the end is worth more than any amount of money.

Rodriguez did deserve a raise, but also did the right thing in staying with the Yankees.  Not just only for his teammates, but also his family.

Once again Buffalo Bills quarterback JP Losman was a no show for the game against the New England Patriots.  One has to wonder when the Bills coaching staf will just junk Losman, and go with quarterback Trent Edwards for the year.

It was the typical performance against a good opponent.  That being absolutely nothing, but a [utrid inaccurate performance.

Losman was all over the place, and the worst part of it is that balls hit the ground with receivers wide open.  A simple five yard out was at the feet of Josh Reed once.  Then later wide receiver Lee Evans was wide open on a post route, and Losman typically throws it in the dirt.

You think that after four years Losman would learn how to read defenses.  The Patriots blitzed all nite long, and Losman still did not audible down to hot routes, and kept getting sacked time after time.

Lets also include his decision making also.  Losman made a horrible decision early in the game, wheh Josh Reed stopped his route while being blanketed.  Then just after Reed stops his route Losman threw the ball where he woudl of went, and it was picked of by Patriots corner Ellis Hobbs.

One can only hope Bills head coach dick Juaron makes the right call and pulls Losman for good.  As long as Losman is the quarterback the Bills will go nowhere.