Jeff Allen Sportstalk

Miss me?

4/25/2016

I took a little break from the blog after the NCAA tournament. Since then, the baseball season is about to finish it’s first month and the NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing. So, I’ll borrow from myself and utilize my quick blast format from my podcast in today’s blog.

So it looks like Steph Curry will miss about two weeks with his knee injury. Golden State is good enough to finish off a weak and uninspired Houston team without him. They won’t be able to finish off the likes of the better Western Conference teams, ie. San Antonio if Curry has to miss significant time against them. The Golden State coronation as repeat champs in the NBA suddenly has a new subplot.

Fans of the Washington Capitals have to be breathing a sigh of relief. A team that has history of first round chokes had probably raised big concerns after taking a 3-0 lead and then dropping two straight to the Philadelphia Flyers, you could almost see the “here we go again” scene playing out. Luckily for the Caps, they found a way to close it out and move on.
I’m glad Charlie Hoffman won the Valero Texas Open, not only because he’s one of the better unheralded players on the PGA Tour, but that his moment of chunking a ground ball drive could be looked in amusement versus costing him a tournament win.

And congrats to Brandon Turnage, he was the winner of NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge and a $50 gift card.

My pick for the NCAA Title Game / Opening Day Baseball

4/4/2016

I did get the Final Four picks right so for tonight's Villanova-North Carolina title affair, I am picking the Tar Heels to take the crown. If TBS goes with the low camera angle that picks up the glare of ribbon boards in the arena, I'll switch again to one of the team streams that has the higher mid-court camera angle. Hopefully tonight's game will be a close one and not like the semi-final games.

MLB got it right with a Sunday opening day. It creates some appointment television on the off day of NCAA. I'd prefer to see more than 3 games but I'll concede that might be nitpicking. Let's hope MLB repeats the formula.

The first few weeks of the MLB season bring me some extra enjoyment as there are more day games during the week. Nice to be able to listen on the MLB app in the office and on the commute home. The MLB app by the way, is the standard bearer for all sports apps in my opinion.

Final Four Picks and Baseball Begins

4/1/2016

Well, I went 0 and 4 on my Elite 8 picks...so I’m completely trustworthy for my Final Fours picks, right? I'm going with Villanova over Oklahoma and North Carolina over Syracuse on Saturday night to make it to the Championship Game. Hard to pick against Sooners Head Coach Lon Kruger though. He is a great coach who is only missing a national championship on his resume.

The baseball season kicks off Sunday. My old school ways mean that I miss the traditional weekday afternoon season opener in CIncinnati and full slate of games, but at least this year we get three games on Sunday beginning at 1:00 instead of having to wait until Sunday night. They at least get it right by starting with a day game. As far as the season goes I think 2016 will be somewhat similar to 2015 as far as division winners and wild cards go. In the American League, I’m going with Toronto to win the East, Kansas City the central and Houston in the west with the Wild cards being Minnesota and Boston, In the National League I like the NY Mets in the East, Pittsburgh in the central to finally avoid the Wild Card one game playoff, and San Francisco in the West with the Wild cards being Chicago and Arizona.

I've posted my latest podcast below. Enjoy!