The Wiesguy is a newcomer to the handicapping scene. Hailing from Toronto, Canada he is always sweet on the underdogs and you can often find his thoughts, musings and picks at moneydogs.blogspot.com.
Baltimore is working their way up the coast trying to steal some wins against struggling National League teams to stay afloat in the American League Wild Card race. They took two at San Diego and are now hoping the Giants will be equally hospitable.
Detroit is wicked hot right now. Not only have they won 12 games in a row but they just walked into the second place team in their division’s house – Cleveland – to take the last 4. They have now built a 7 game cushion and asserted their dominance over the division.
There is little doubt that the Houston Texans are the top team in the AFC South. The question is whether or not they are a true Super Bowl contender. On paper it looks like they are but I think this team lacks some of that grittiness you expect to see from champions.
Carolina finished the season as one of the hottest teams in the NFL but it can be easy to play loose when there is no pressure on you. The Panthers have one of the most dynamic players in the NFL in Cam Newton but the rest of their playmakers are probably on offense are not quite good enough to push this team into serious contention.
In the NFC South you have stalwart Atlanta, resurgent New Orleans and intriguing Carolina thanks to Cam Newton. The one team that no one seems to be paying much attention to is Tampa Bay, who should be much better than they were a year ago as coach Greg Schiano waded into the NFL pool for the first time.
There is probably no city with as much anticipation for the 2013 NFL season as New Orleans. Last year was a complete writeoff with Bountygate leading to a 0-4 start that had the Saints eliminated from contention before October. This year things should be much different.
The Falcons have proven they know how to win games during the regular season but the playoffs have been a different story. They caught a break last year with New Orleans in disarray but with the Saints “back” and Tampa and Carolina improving it might be harder to maintain their recent success.
The Boston Red Sox have been the hottest team in the division of late rebuilding a little cushion between them and Tampa.
It only took Los Angeles 2 pitches to knock Cardinals starter Shelby Miller out of the game last night – courtesy of a Carl Crawford liner to the elbow. After he was ready to go they absolutely drilled Jake Westbrook who was supposed to start today’s game and in hindsight was obviously not ready to go.
The brand new American Athletic Conference should be pretty competitive in its first season. I see a couple of teams that could finish 11-1, with the favourite Louisville Cardinals reaching that record and possibly being joined by Cincinnati too.
The ACC is on an upswing. Right now Clemson is about as good as it has ever been, Florida State is getting back its expected heights and Miami seems to be righting itself as well, although more slowly.
June Jones is an established coach and when he left Hawaii for SMU big things were expected. After a disastrous 1-11 start the Mustangs have played .500 or better each season since, participating in bowl games the last 4 seasons – winning 3.
Los Angeles continued their winning ways with a ho-hum victory over Chicago Friday night.
The New York Mets jumped all over the Washington Nationals in the day game of their doubleheader with Washington. They won 11-0 as they smacked around Nats starter Jordan Zimmerman, who is having a great season.
Los Angeles jumped on A’s starter Bartolo Colon in the first but could do no damage after that in losing the first game of their set against Oakland last night.
Chicago is definitely playing for next year at this point so it is going to be tough to try and forecast them for the rest of the season.
