Catching Up

Well I took some time away from writing for the holidays, but now I am back and there is a lot to talk about.

Happy Halladays!

Since the last time I posted an entry, The Phillies acquired Roy Halladay from Toronto and for Michael Taylor and Kyle Drabek. In addition to that the Phil’s shipped Cliff Lee to Seattle for three prospects in return.

At first, this trade looked to be very bad for the Phillies. Cliff Lee was money in Philadelphia and the Phil’s gave up two of the best prospects in the farm system. After thinking about it however, this trade made sense for the Phil’s in a couple different ways.

First, the Phillies have the best pitcher in baseball for the next four years after signing Halladay to a three year extension.

Second, essentially the Phillies re-gained the three prospects they gave up for Cliff Lee in the first place and they were able to hold on to J.A. Happ and Dominick Brown.

Rumor Has It


Rumor has it that Tracy McGrady is on the trading block. It is also clear that Philadelphia has inquired on what it would take to acquire T-Mac.

The Sixers would like to get rid of the contracts due to Elton Brand and Samuel Dalembert. It is very unlikely however that Houston would go for that trade. In order for Philadelphia to drop those players they might have to get a third team involved. But it is highly unlikely that the Sixers will be able to dump off either of those players.

It has been noted that Houston would be interested in a trade containing Sixers wing man Andre Igoudala. That trade however would also have to include some young talent such as Thaddeus Young and Marreese Speights.

That trade would be counter-productive. The odds of T-Mac coming to Philly are very slim.


Third time's a charm

After blowing the Cowboys out on the last day of the regular season last year, the Eagles were blown out by Dallas on the last day of the regular season this year. Now the Eagles will have to turn around and play the Cowboys again in the first round of the playoffs.

The Eagles were terrible against the Cowboys last Sunday on all sides of the ball and now they will have to take on the Cowboys a third time this season on Saturday. It should definitely be interesting.

Change is coming

Change. It is something that every professional sports franchise experiences. Whether it is change in the offseason or mid-season, it is something pro athletes and coaches have to deal with.

There have been some major changes in the city of Philadelphia in the past week. The first of which was the re-signing of former 76er all-star Allen Iverson. The second was the firing of Flyers head coach John Stevens.

Let’s take a look at Iverson first. As I previously wrote, Iverson got a second chance from the organization that drafted him out of Georgetown in 1996. A.I., also known as the Answer, held an emotional press conference late last week as he began to cry said he “felt at home in Philadelphia.”

Plenty of emotion also flowed at the beginning of last night’s game against the Denver Nuggets, one of the three teams Iverson played for since leaving Philadelphia in 2006. Prior to the game A.I. danced on the Sixers logo at mid-court and bowed to the packed house all wearing No. 3. Iverson dropped 11 points.

Unfortunately for the 76ers, the Answer wasn’t enough as the Sixers fell to the Nuggets. That is the tenth straight loss for Philadelphia. Andre Iguodala showed that this slumping Sixers team was still his as he dropped 31 in the losing effort.

Now that the Sixers have their star back and they finally got some fans to attend a game, let’s take a look at another slumping team. The Flyers as I mentioned above, fired head coach John Stevens this past Friday. They immediately hired a replacement in Peter Laviolette. Laviolette led the Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup in 2006.

Under Stevens, the Flyers made it to the Conference Championship 2007 and 2008. Recently however, the Flyers had lost six of their last seven, two were shutouts. Since the replacement, many of the players took the blame for the firing. Danny Briere claimed that as a team needed to “play with more passion.”
That passion has yet to hit the Flyers as the team has dropped two in a row under their new head coach. In Laviolette debut the Flyers lost 8-2 to Washington and then again last night to Montreal with a final score of 3-1.

So far the changes that have been made over the past week have yet to have a positive outcome. Iverson says the Sixers will, “get it together.” What about the Flyers? One thing is sure for both teams, change is upon us. It is still pretty early in both seasons and there is a lot of improvement that needs to be done at Wachovia Center.