Now that Greg Jennings has gotten a new contract, perhaps the Packers can focus on a new deal for Pro Bowl FS Nick Collins.  Collins showed up for the mandatory minicamp, but clearly is not excited about the $3 million he’ll be making this year.  Now, if my boss came to me and said I had such a great year that I’m going to get a 600% raise over last year, I’d being doing backflips down the hallway.  Unfortunately, in the wide world of sports, that’s just not enough money.

I’ll grant you that a Pro Bowl free safety is worth more — we’re talking professional football players reality now, not the rality most of us live in — than $3M a year.  So, I can see why he’d like to have an extension done.  But, look at what Jennings did to get his.  He showed up and worked his arse off doing what he said he’d do when he signed his contract.  Thompson rewarded his good little soldier with a deal that is front loaded with guaranteed millions.  Other people who were unhappy with their contracts or other things in the organization and complained publicly (Brett Favre, Javon Walker, Mike McKenzie, Corey Williams, Ryan Grant, etc.) are either not there, or they came up short of what they were looking for.  People who showed up and did their jobs (Aaron Rodgers, Greg Jennings, Aaron Kampman, etc) all got their extensions for the money they wanted (granted we’ll see if Kampman gets a second extension or not).

I sure hope Nick is taking notes.

What a lovely sound — the beeping of your emergency backup sump pump telling you it had been activated.  Unfortunately, I had been so tired as the thunder and lightning made it difficult enough to sleep earlier in the night.  I went downstairs and was trying to reconstruct what happened.  You see, we hadn’t lost power, so why did the emergency pump kick in?  I was also dissappointed to see that some water had made it’s way out of the sump crock to meander it’s way to the floor drain on the other end of the basement.  There were no high water marksand most of the basement floor was dry, so things never actually flooded.  The extra scrap pieces of carpeting that I slip under my wieght bench were soaked, but they were also in between the sump crock and the floor drain.

So, I cranked up both of our dehumidifiers (during last year’s flooding we had bought an extra to dry things out) and went upstairs trying to figure out why the emergency pump had even run.  Then I looked out my front window.  Our neighbors are getting their drive way re-paved and yesterday the asphalt company had removed the old driveway and placed a new gravel bed and steel culvert in place for the paving they were going to do today.  I say going to do because the steel culvert was halfway down the block and the compacted gravel was washed down the street.

My yard has a hill down to the street, so our house sits about 12′ in elevation higher than the road.  You would think flooding shouldn’t ever be a problem for us.  At least that’s what I thought but Mother Nature has proven she can pretty much do whatever she wants whenever she wants.  The high water mark — as evidenced by every last piece of my neighbors’ mulch making a line across my yard — was about 1/4 of the way up my driveway.  So, at some point in the night, my street was really more of a river.  I turned on the news to find out that Captial Drive, Greenfield Drive, Miller Park Way and many more streets were also flooded.  Video of stranded cars with water rushing haflway up their windshields.  That video was followed by live shots taken a mere hour later of the no longer flooded street and a tow truck taking away the same car.

So, my latest hypothesis is that the regular pump couldn’t keep up with the amount of water rushing into the drainage tiles.  The emergency pump kicked in as the water level rose.  Since some of the water still found its way out of the crock, that wasn’t quite enough.  Given that amount of water that was rushing outside the house, things worked out pretty well.  I highly recommend the emergency battery backup pump.  But, I might go to one of the big box stores and buy the biggest damn sump pump they sell in hopes that I don’t have problems with the pump keeping up in the future.

Perhaps hanging on is a bit of an exaggeration.  However, despite MIP award candidate Ricky Weeks going down with a season ending injury, they are still in first place of the NL Central.  They had to come from behind twice against the Indians and pull one out in 11 innings to get the sweep this last series.  But, they did it.  And they’ve done it with unlikely heroes.  Casey McGehee, Mitch Stetter, Mark De Felice?  Hell, even J.J. Hardy, Bill Hall, and Corey Hart have got out of their slumps a bit lately.

Perhaps this is what’s different with this team.  Everyone understands the importance of each game, and people are stepping up when the opportunity presents itself.  The results are 8 games over .500 after 66 games.  If they keep up that pace you’re looking at 91 wins this season.  If they only manage .500 ball the rest of the way, you’re looking at 85 wins.  The way the Central is going, that might be enough.  I don’t know how LaRusa has the Cards winning, but I don’t think they’re as good as they’re record.  The Cubs are…well…being the Cubs.  They look great on paper, but not so much on the field.  The Reds are still a year or two away and the Astros and Pirates are farther out than that.  So, 85 might do it.  I’d much rather have the 91 since at worst that should be a wild-card.

It sure is nice having a team I care about actually winning some games!

I’ve been busy lately, and thus the month long absence of posts.  But, leave it to the players of the NFL to provide some tragedy in the off season to be post fodder.

I ripped Michael Vick when he was caught with the dog fighting and the interstate gambling.  And you know what?  He deserved every bit of it.  Now he’s done his time and wants to play in the NFL again.  Fine.  You did your time and served your debt to society.  If you can find a team that wants to endure the media circus that will follow your re-entry into the NFL, go for it.  Let’s face it folks, their will be a media circus.  The President swatted a fly and PETA is calling it an “execution”.  What do you think they’ll do to Mr. Vick?

Which brings me to Donte Stallworth.  Can someone explain to me how you can be responsible for killing another human being and you get 30 days in jail?  Michael Vick got a couple of years for his crimes, and he should have been.  A love dogs as much as anyone, but Stallworth killed a human being and has to serve 4% of the time Vick did?  A father, brother, son, friend, etc. was taken out of this world because Stallworth was too stupid to get a driver, call a cab, walk home, or not drink so damn much in the first place.  That equals 30 days?!?!  I’ve heard people say that he did the right things afterward, like staying on the scene, dialing 911, apologizing to the family and his insurance company came up with a monetary settlement for the family.  So, to sum things up, apparently if you have enough moneyand fame, you can kill someone but as long as you say you’re sorry and part with some of your money, you don’t have to do any real time.  Remember he’s going to jail not federal prison.

Dogs vs. people?  Perhaps Lady Justice really should take off that blindfold once in a while.  Fortunately, Rodger “The Hammer” Goodell has the opportunity to bring a small bit of sense to this whole thing.  He kicked PacMan Jones out of the league.  He suspended Tank Johnson.  He’s tried very hard to clean up the image of football players and the NFL by making them responsible for their actions off the field.  Vick got what he deserved, and Stallworth deserved more than Vick.  My only hope is that Goodell sticks to his precedent and Stallworth doesn’t see a football field for a while.  He shouldn’t be a free man, but some punishment is better than none.

The Milwaukee Brewers are currently the hottest team in baseball.  That would be quite a surprise if I made that statement in August or September, but is it really much of a shock in May?  There’s a different manager in town, Rickie Weeks is actually hitting the ball with relatively low amounts of errors, and a starting rotation that looked mediocre at best is pitching very well.  But, is it really a different year?  This is a team that has historically done well before the All Star break only to collapse as the dog days of summer wear on.  So, should we be surprised that the Brewers are 16-5 over the last 21 games and haven’t lost a series since the April 17 – 19 Mets series?

The cynic in me says no, but I do think this is a different team.  They’ve been in a pennant race before.  They’ve made it to the playoffs.  Now they know what it takes.  But, most importantly, they’ve been winning games differently each time out.  Different players have been the hero. 

They aren’t relying on Ben Sheet’s pitching (remember he started for the NL in the All Star game last year for a reason) or Fielder and Braun hitting jacks over the fence.  Some days its great pitching.  Some days like last night, it’s Rickie Weeks swinging the bat, or Craig Counsell, or Mike Cameron getting on base rather than striking out.  And some days Gallardo shuts down the opponent and rips his own HR to win the game by himself.

Granted Fielder and Braun are still there and Braun’s got a sick OBP and slugging percentage — he gets on base roughly every other trip to the plate, and when he does hit the ball more than half the time he’s got extra bases involved — to go along with a very nice .333 batting average.  But the HR’s have been nicely spread around.  Fielder’s got 7.  Braun’s got 8.  Weeks has 9.  Cameron has 7 and even Hardy who was in a prolonged slump to start the year has 5 and his average has gone up to .221 after slugging .591 over the last week (at one point this season his average was .125).

So, while it seems like more of the same, the season has all the makings of being different.  We’ll check back in July and August and see if its any different or not.

A friend of mine set me this link to a New York Times story on the Dutch social welfare system, including health care.  It’s a very interesting read (it might take you a little bit of time), and it makes you wonder if we truly could meld public good with free enterprise.

The idea of having the state provide for all of those things that fall through the cracks in the U.S.A sounds kind of nice.  Everyone gets access to housing, health care, vacations, etc.  People work when it’s time to work and the pager rarely goes off when you’re not working.  Why?  No one else is working either.  Who wouldn’t want such a paradise?

The problem, as I see it and as the author illudes to at the end of the article, is the American culture itself.  Americans pride themselves on individuality and the entrapaneural spirit.  The idea of upward mobility is the most American of notions.  We are pioneers settling the wild West.  That rides smack into the face of the social welfare state of things where conformity is prized and individuality a no-no.  The idea of being a lemming is one most Americans bristle at.

But, wait, isn’t that what the Moral Majority and evangelical right wing conservatives actually want?  They want you to behave within a set of parameters they’ve prescribed when it comes to personal behavior.  Yet those same folks begin wailing when you suggest anything in the economic realm that differs from Adam Smith’s view of the world.  They’re already trying to create a strange dichotomy that contradicts itself, aren’t they?  Or how about the left wing liberals who want to help out those less fortunate and are okay with taxing you to do it, yet scream bloody murder if your personal freedoms are impeeded upon to to make sure everyone stays honest.

We seem to be a nation of contradiction.  Why is it that the party that is against abortion is for the death penalty and vice versa?  Who knows, maybe the Dutch are onto something.  Maybe we wouldn’t really be giving up much more of our freedoms than our ruling parties want us to.  Just trading them for different ones.  On the other hand, our government seems to have a nasty habit of taking new things away without ever giving back the things they’ve already taken.  We may just end up with the worst of both worlds.  Maybe that’s not such a good idea.

I must have some kind of new powerful mojo that I was unaware of.

First, I call out the Brewers hitters for not doing their jobs.  Since that posting the Brewers have been 5-1 and outscored opponents by a margin of 15.  Next, I concede that the Ted Thompson probably won’t listen to me and take Raji and it wouldn’t surprise me that he takes someone else or trades down.  And what does he do?  He not only takes Raji, but trades up to take Matthews. 

Hmm, I must remember this.  These powers need to only be used for the power of good.  Or at least, improving sports in SE Wisconsin.  Now let’s see…what can we do about the Bucks…

Ted Thompson traded up?!?!?  He’s got to stop making these kinds of bold moves and drafting good players.  This is not the Ted Thompson I know.  How can I criticize him if he doesn’t make some kind of serious mistake?

It will be interesting to compare the careers of Clay Matthews and Ron Brace.  The Packers weren’t going to take Brace after getting Raji, but Brace and Raji played next to each other at Boston College and some people were very high on Brace.  Matthews on the other hand worked very hard to make it into the starting lineup at USC as a senior.

My instant analysis?  The Pack still has 6 picks left today, but I’d have a hard time figuring out how they could have gotten better players at positions of need than they did.  Matthews still needs some work on his game given his lack of experience, but he has the tools to become that other starting outside linebacker.  He’s a smart football player.  Ted likes those guys.  Raji should make an instant impact.  He and Pickett can rotate so they’re both fresh.  On passing downs when the Pack switches to the 4-3, you could have both 330 pounders in the middle collapsing the pocket.

The defense looks better today than yesterday.  Ted did a prettty darn good job on Saturday.  Let’s hope he keeps it up today.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t take a punter in the 6th or 7th round.  There are some decent TE’s and OG’s left in the draft and mostly prospects at OT that need some work or a kick in the pants.  There is still some depth talent out there on defense, espcially in the defensive backfield.  Let’s see what Ted ends up with.

Now what do I do?  If the pick doesn’t work out, I can’t call Thompson an idiot.  It’s much harder to be a critic when someone agrees with you.  I think Raji was the right pick here.  Although, I didn’t expect Crabtree to be available here.  I wouldn’t have beat Thompson up to much if he would’ve tried to team up Jennings and Crabtree for the next 10 years.

All I can say is, well done Ted.  I’ll provide a more in depth review of all of the Saturday and Sunday picks in the next few days,

The local sports radio morning guys asked an interesting question this morning, “Do you trust Ted Thompson with the draft?”  Why do I find it interesting?  Well, I’m not the biggest Ted supporter in the world.  I think there are 3 tools at your disposal when building a team in the NFL:

1. The draft
2. Trades
3. Free Agency

Ted seems to try to see if he can build a team using #1 only.  Why would you do that?  But, its a good thing for Ted he’s pretty decent at that option otherwise he’d be unemployed.

So, do I trust him?  Yep.  Except for the first round maybe.  Aaron Rodgers was a gift that he was smart enough not to screw up.  I remember listening to that draft on the radio when it became the Packers pick.  I was actually standing in my yard with a shovel full of dirt shouting at the radio, “You better take Rodgers!”  He did, and I calmed down.  Next came A.J. Hawk.  He was a safe pick.  Someone who could start for your team for a long time, but he never looked like he’d be special.  He continues to look that way.  A top five draft pick needs to be special or you didn’t get enough value for your pick.  Next up, Justin Harrell.  Well, so far the 2,000+ folks in the Lambeau Atrium who booed Thompson when he drafted him appear to have been right.  Last year, Thompson got wiser and traded out of the first round lest he screw up another first round pick.

Which brings us to this year.  I’ve stated that I’d like to see them draft Raji.  I know there might be some character/motivation concerns there but he’s upside is tremendous and that’s what you’re looking for drafting high and paying that big salary before they ever step foot on a field.  No risk, no reward.

But, if I had to pick I think Thompson will take one of Everette Brown, Andre Smith, or Tyson Jackson.  I know Jackson has the perfect body to play DE in the 3-4, but in that scheme it’s generally not a position you spend a lot of money on.  Plus, a month ago no one knew who he was and he suddenly comes flying up the boards?  Those guys always scare me because they tend to be “look like Tarzan, play like Jane” workout warriors with great measurables.  It’s the exception that those guys can actually play at the next level.  Brown is a defensive lineman from Florida State.  Maybe switching him to an OLB in the 3-4 might be a way to get around that schools history of bad D-linemen in the NFL.

But, if it came down to those guys I’d take Smith.  He fits a need at tackle and started three years in the SEC.  I know, he showed up way out of shape at the combine and left early.  He needs to grow up a bit.  But, the SEC is not an easy place to play OT, and he started there for 3 years and did a pretty darn good job doing it.  He’s a RT in the NFL and I think he’s better than any option the Packers currently have on their roster.  And remember folks, you build from the line out, not the other way around.

So, there’s my pick, Andre Smith RT from Alabama.  Although, I’d be happier if they took B.J. Raji, DT from Boston College.  Tune in tomorrow around 4:15 when the Pack makes their pick and see if I’m anywhere in the ball park.