You would expect with football season about to start and baseball...well nevermind.  What baseball around the stateline is watchable right now?  Maybe we could just lend some fans to Tampa...they need some baseball fans for October.   But Antti Niemi going to the San Jose Sharks is a very interesting turn of events.  More than likely, the Sharks will be the biggest competition for the Hawks in the West this year and for good reason.  They bring back several of their starters from a season ago and let's face it, have one of the most formidable offensive attacks in the game.  Then this point was brought up to me...Niklas Hjalmarsson was given a nice offer sheet by the Sharks which ultimately handcuffed the Blackhawks in the free agent market for the rest of the offseason.  San Jose GM Doug Wilson said it had nothing to do with the Niemi move, but that just seems a little too odd for me to just shove aside.  Wilson can deny this up and down, but hey...that's the way the game is played.  Plain and simple.  Niemi did win a Stanley Cup, but he also had a very strong defense and offense with him on that team, and it was definitely the offense that won that Stanley Cup.  It's only a one year deal for Niemi so maybe he can repeat magic again, but let's hope for all the Hawks fans out there (including myself) that some weaknesses will be shown and another nice sweep in the playoffs is on the way.

So supposedly 1/6th of the Big Ten's conference realignment got out with word of Wisconsin and Iowa being split into separate divisions.  This makes for a very interesting turn of events.  Badgers head coach Bret Bielema said he believes that Wisconsin should play Nebraska in the final regular season game.  Iowa's board of directors believed as soon as Nebraska split from the Big 12 that they should become the main rival of the Huskers.  At this point I feel like Merle Haggard should be singing "Who Gets the Family Bible".  That's going to make for an interesting division change.  For right now, that means a team will play the other 5 within their division and then 3 teams from the other conference's division.  Luckily in 2015, this will be expanded to 9 conference games making more desirable in-conference matchups.  The downside?  A weak Big Ten could do in a team in the BCS rankings with one less non-conference game. 

Anyways...things got A LOT more interesting with a report that Ohio State wants to be split away from Michigan.  This makes sense because it means there's a chance of an Ohio State/Michigan Big Ten Championship.  The only problem is that how will this affect the annual Buckeye/Wolverine game finishing out their regular seasons?  Play the same team two weeks in a row?  Meh.  The same thing happened a few years back when they were ranked 1 and 2 respectively in the BCS rankings.  It was an amazing game, but the people didn't want to see it again and I can't blame them.  I don't want to see a strong team destroy the same team two weeks in a row if it ever comes down to that.  Also found in that report regarding OSU and UM was that Ohio State president Gordon Gee said 90 percent of the e-mails he has gotten want that final regular season matchup to stay in place.  Look...every team is going to have to make sacrifices when a conference realigns, but regardless of who it is, I don't want to see the same matchup two weeks in a row.  Now I'm surprised enough that Iowa and Wisconsin were split because I was imagining this alignment:

Division 1:  Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern

Division 2: Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue

Instead...I think we're headed towards something like this:

Division 1: Wisconsin, Nebraska, Michigan State, Michigan, Northwestern, Indiana

Division 2: Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State, Purdue, Penn State, Illinois

Personally, I thought for sure it would be split East and West.  Now I'm not sure where or how they'll divide the teams.  Better yet, why don't they get a bunch of cubes, shake them around and see where they land.  Pretty sure it may be just as jumbled as the final result.  Boggle anyone?

I've always been a big fan of ESPN's "Outside the Lines" because it goes beyond what many people see in the world of sports...which I guess is why they decided to call it "Outside the Lines"...fancy that.  Anyways, a new study just came out from the fine folks of OTL and this is how it started:

Researchers used broadcast footage of all Major League Baseball games from June 29 to July 11 -- 184 in total -- and reviewed every call, with the exception of balls and strikes.  The verdict?  An average of 1.3 calls per game were close enough to require replay review to determine whether an umpire had made the right call. Of the close plays, 13.9 percent remained too close to call, with 65.7 percent confirmed as correct and 20.4 percent confirmed as incorrect.  TWENTY PERCENT!!  ONE IN EVERY FIVE PLAYS!!

If you're a fan of baseball, you know how many close calls can be seen in a single 9 inning game.  We've already seen a few calls be completely butchered and now we see this.  Is this year an exception to the rule?  Who knows, but it definitely is a growing concern.  I'm sure after this, the question will explode again, "When will Major League Baseball expand instant replay?".  It has been an issue riding the fence for years and in all honesty, I'm not sure which way I lean.  Do I want a more accurately called game?  Of course.  Will instant replay remove some of the most intense moments in a season?  Definitely. 

Look at it this way, imagine a questionable call on a close play.  Now imagine the manager of your team.  Would you rather see your manager signaling for an instant replay?  Or would you rather see your manager get face to face with an umpire, screaming at the top of their lungs, pumping up the crowd and (hopefully) providing some kind of spark to their team?  Any time a manager comes out of the dugout fuming, it can make for one of the best moments of the game regardless of the outcome of the call.  For me, I wouldn't want to get rid of that.  Ejections are part of the game...and an exciting part at that. 

So what do you do with possibly keeping both the umpire arguments and the instant replay?  Give a manager just one challenge?  But then again, what happens if there's multiple wrong calls...do you continue giving challenges until they lose one?  Baseball is one of the tougher sports to add replay to.  You have the legends saying the game should be left as is, and you have the newcomers saying that the game needs to see a refreshing change.  But this study showing 20 percent of close plays are called wrong bothers me way too much. 

I'll leave it with this, because I think Tony Gwynn couldn't have put it better any other way, "Whatever the mechanism, accuracy should be baseball's top priority." 

As we all know, just one play can change a season.

Growing up as a Chicago Bulls fan, I was used to spending not being a hot commodity for the team.  Ownership didn't see fit to spending millions of dollars to toss a team together, but instead build through the draft and trade.  Luckily, things are finally turning around.  When I got word that Chicago was talking with Joakim Noah about a long-term contract extension, I couldn't have been happier.  When Noah was first drafted, I wasn't much of a fan considering I despised everything Florida basketball.  But as Noah slowly turned into a strong defensive minded player, I began to enjoy his play for the Bulls more and more.  Joakim Noah has been the strong, confident voice that this team has missed for quite some time.  He is never afraid to speak his mind and becomes the hardest working player on the court regardless of the situation.  And I LOVE IT!  Knowing that Noah wants to stay in Chicago and the fact he skipped out on playing for the French National Team to help work on a new contract shows just how loyal he is to the Chicago Bulls organization.  Here's to hoping he spends the rest of his years with the Bulls, and the same goes with Derrick Rose when his time comes for a contract extension.

I’ve been following the Blackhawks for quite some time…not just since 2008 like some people.  But when the news came that the Hawks were cutting ties with goaltender Antti Niemi, I was baffled at the amount of people who said this was the worst move possible.  So before I begin my case against that statement, I will list off the playoff statistics I will focus on: save percentage, goals against per minutes played score (the lower the number, the better), age, shots faced per contest and career save percentage.  Where is the goals against average, you ask?  That number can be extremely skewed pending other numbers.  And the win-loss record?  As useless as a baseball pitcher’s win-loss record.  So…without further ado, let’s take a look at the past 15 Stanley Cup champions and the goalies that started for them.

Playoff Save Percentage

2003 Martin Brodeur - .934

2001 Patrick Roy - .934

2004 Nikolai Khabibulin - .933

1999 Ed Belfour - .930

2008 Chris Osgood - .930

2000 Martin Brodeur - .927

1995 Martin Brodeur - .927

1997 Michael Vernon - .927

2007 Jean-Sebastien Giguere - .922

1996 Patrick Roy - .921

2002 Dominik Hasek - .920

2006 Cam Ward - .920

1998 Chris Osgood - .918

2010 Antti Niemi - .910

2009 Marc-Andre Fleury - .908

Goals Against Per Minutes Played

2008 Chris Osgood - 2.59

2000 Martin Brodeur - 2.69

2003 Martin Brodeur - 2.75

1995 Martin Brodeur - 2.78

1999 Ed Belfour - 2.78

2001 Patrick Roy - 2.82

2004 Nikolai Khabibulin - 2.86

1997 Michael Vernon - 2.92

2002 Dominik Hasek - 3.09

2007 Jean-Sebastien Giguere - 3.28

1996 Patrick Roy - 3.50

1998 Chris Osgood - 3.53

2006 Cam Ward - 3.56

2009 Marc-Andre Fleury - 4.35

2010 Antti Niemi - 4.38

Age

2006 Cam Ward – 22

1995 Martin Brodeur – 23

2009 Marc-Andre Fleury – 24

1998 Chris Osgood – 25

2010 Antti Niemi – 26

2000 Martin Brodeur – 28

1996 Patrick Roy – 30

2007 Jean Sebastien Giguere – 30

2003 Martin Brodeur – 31

2004 Nikolai Khabibulin – 31

1997 Michael Vernon – 34

1999 Ed Belfour – 34

2001 Patrick Roy – 35

2008 Chris Osgood – 35

2002 Dominik Hasek – 37

Shots Faced Per Contest

2008 Chris Osgood – 22.63

1995 Martin Brodeur – 23.15

2000 Martin Brodeur – 23.35

2002 Dominik Hasek – 24.43

1997 Michael Vernon – 24.7

2007 Jean Sebastien Giguere – 25.05

2006 Cam Ward – 25.39

2003 Martin Brodeur – 25.91

2004 Nikolai Khabibulin – 26

1998 Chris Osgood – 26.73

1999 Ed Belfour – 26.83

2001 Patrick Roy – 27.01

2009 Marc-Andre Fleury – 28.58

2010 Antti Niemi – 29.3

1996 Patrick Roy – 29.5

Career Save Percentage

Dominik Hasek - .922 in 16 Seasons

Martin Brodeur - .914 in 17 Seasons

Patrick Roy - .910 in 19 Seasons

Jean Sebastien-Giguere - .910 in 12 Seasons

Antti Niemi - .910 in 1 season

Nikolai Khabibulin - .908 in 14 Seasons

Ed Belfour - .906 in 17 Seasons

Marc-Andre Fleury - .906 in 6 Seasons

Chris Osgood - .905 in 16 Seasons

Cam Ward - .905 in 5 Seasons

Michael Vernon - .890 in 19 Seasons

The closest thing to the top of the list that Niemi gets in these lists is career save percentage and age, ranking 5^th in both.  Comparing to the other Stanley Cup champions, his numbers aren’t overwhelming and now comparing them to Marty Turco’s…

Niemi

Career Save Percentage: .910

Career Playoff Save Percentage: .910

Career Goals Against Per Minutes Played: 3.86

and just for the fun of it…Goals Against Average: 2.32

Turco

Career Save Percentage: .911

Career Playoff Save Percentage: .914

Career Goals Against Per Minutes Played: 3.85

Goals Against Average: 2.31

So where’s the drop off?  Turco has only had the honor of playing for just one #1 Western Conference seeded team in his career and let’s be honest, some of those Dallas teams just stunk on defense.  Coming to the Blackhawks, he arguably gets the best defensive unit in the league at his disposal and not to mention he took a HUGE pay cut (he will collect $1.3 million) coming to the Windy City.  With Turco, Chicago gets a seasoned veteran between the posts instead of taking the risk of signing a goaltender to a multi-year deal (i.e. Huet and Khabibulin).  And the biggest part of all of this?  If Niemi did stay, that probably means goodbye to another player like Niklas Hjalmarsson or Patrick Sharp.  Instead, Chicago is now left with more cap room to sign better players…there’s even an outside chance John Madden could return.  So tell me, was it really that bad of a move?

So the White Sox traded away pitching prospect Daniel Hudson and David Holmberg for the Diamondbacks' Edwin Jackson.  First thoughts, not a fan of the trade.  I understand that Hudson's stats weren't phenomenal and that Jackson did throw a no-hitter this year (with 8 walks no less), but really, where is positive in this trade?  Hudson is only 23 years old and has plenty to improve upon while Jackson who has been in the league 7 years already is running with a 5.16 ERA and 60 walks to 104 strikeouts.  Is that something you really trade away a guy like Hudson for?

There's only one way this really works for the Sox, and that's if Jackson gets thrown into another trade for Nationals slugger Adam Dunn.  If that doesn't happen, prepare for a rude awakening, Sox fans.  Jackson is signed through 2012.