Read + Write + Report
Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Blogs | Writers | My Orble | Login

Pro Sports Wrap - Pro Sports Wrap

Well, here is a copy of my post from earlier today

Well it is a very busy Sunday starting right now.

It will all begin with the opening of the Tennis French Open in minutes. Later today the battle at the Brickyard begins with Helio Castoneves leading the drivers from the pole. Then tonight under the lights at Lowe's Motor Speedway is the Coca-Cola 600, a long and grueling race that will probably include some rain delays.

My Picks:

Even though it isn't a shock in the first round - I pick Rafa Nadal. I can't wait to see who gets to face him in the finals next week. Can anyone stop him from winning his fifth title in a row at Roland Garros?

Also I think Safina will defend her #1 world ranking fiercely. Can she finally win that major title? I think she can, and where better than on the clay.

I am picking Castroneves to kiss the bricks for a third time. However I think Ryan Hunter Reay might have a chance, and Danica winning would be so huge.

As for NASCAR - I think Stewart-Haas Racing will score a win in a points race for the first time. I am thinking it will be Ryan Newman also from the pole, like Castroneves. However, Tony Stewart should be there fighting for the lead late. Other than that, as always you have to watch the other cars with those Hendrick motors in them.

For full details on all of those events and more please Click Here

In other events today:

Cleveland Cavaliers will win to take 2-1 series lead.
Detroit Red Wings will win to take 3-1 series lead.
MLB Inter-League Play:
Winners: Detroit, Yankees, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Boston, White Sox, Washington, Texas, St. Louis, Oakland, Cubs, Seattle, Dodgers, and Milwaukee

Let's also predict that Joel Pineiro will top both of the Card's previous two pitching gems. Todd Wellemeyer and the bullpen threw a five hitter on Friday, then Kyle Lohse and Chris Perez combined for another five hitter Saturday. I think Pineiro will toss a complete game shutout while giving up 3 or fewer hits.

---------------------
The Results:

Rafa and Safina actually didn't have a match today, but they both take center stage starting at 11AM local Paris time (4AM CT US).

As for the Indy 500, Helio Castroneves did indeed win for the third time to cap off an amazing return to racing after his tax evasion trial from just a couple weeks ago.
Click Here for full race details.

The Coca-Cola 600 was delayed due to rain. It is rescheduled for tomorrow. FOX coverage begins at Noon ET.

The Magic actually defeated the Cavaliers 99-89 on the strength of 24 points from Dwight Howard. The Magic lead the series 2-1.

The Red Wings blew out the Blackhawks 6-1 to put Chicago on the brink of elimination.

In a minute you will see the reason I stopped betting on Major League Baseball. Out of all my baseball picks here are the ones I got correct.
Washington, Texas, Oakland, and Seattle - the other 11 games I picked wrong.

Joel Pineiro's pitching outing was not so good. He gave up 3 earned runs on 8 hits and got the loss in the Cardinals 3-1 loss against the Royals.

So onto tomorrow we go. I am stil picking the Nuggets to win over the Lakers, to Natalina's shagrin. I am more curious to see where the game will be played. For those that don't know the Nuggets arena was leased out to the WWE for their Monday Night RAW event months ago. They didn't actually expect the team to make the playoffs and advance to the second round. So up until Thursday (the last time I checked) tickets were being sold for both events for Monday night. According to my DirecTV listing Raw says it will be from either the Staples Center in L.A. or the Pepsi Arena in Denver. If they talked Vince McMahon into moving to L.A. you can be sure it cost them a tidy little sum to get the deal done.

My picks for the Coca-Cola 600 remain intact. However, the entire race will be different due to running in the daytime. In the daytime I think Kasey Khane might have a bit more of a chance. Also this could be a huge plus for Jimmie Johnson. He and his team always adjust well during a race, and that is what everyone is going to need to do in the longest race on the NASCAR schedule in the heat of the day.

We will leave the baseball picks to Peter Gammons this time.
44
Vote
   


My picks for this weekend . . .

May 24th 2009 09:33
Well it is a very busy Sunday starting right now.

It will all begin with the opening of the Tennis French Open in minutes. Later today the battle at the Brickyard begins with Helio Castoneves leading the drivers from the pole. Then tonight under the lights at Lowe's Motor Speedway is the Coca-Cola 600, a long and grueling race that will probably include some rain delays.

My Picks:

Even though it isn't a shock in the first round - I pick Rafa Nadal. I can't wait to see who gets to face him in the finals next week. Can anyone stop him from winning his fifth title in a row at Roland Garros?

Also I think Safina will defend her #1 world ranking fiercely. Can she finally win that major title? I think she can, and where better than on the clay.

I am picking Castroneves to kiss the bricks for a third time. However I think Ryan Hunter Reay might have a chance, and Danica winning would be so huge.

As for NASCAR - I think Stewart-Haas Racing will score a win in a points race for the first time. I am thinking it will be Ryan Newman also from the pole, like Castroneves. However, Tony Stewart should be there fighting for the lead late. Other than that, as always you have to watch the other cars with those Hendrick motors in them.

For full details on all of those events and more please click here

In other events today:

Cleveland Cavaliers will win to take 2-1 series lead.
Detroit Red Wings will win to take 3-1 series lead.
MLB Inter-League Play:
Winners: Detroit, Yankees, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Boston, White Sox, Washington, Texas, St. Louis, Oakland, Cubs, Seattle, Dodgers, and Milwaukee

Let's also predict that Joel Pineiro will top both of the Card's previous two pitching gems. Todd Wellemeyer and the bullpen threw a five hitter on Friday, then Kyle Lohse and Chris Perez combined for another five hitter Saturday. I think Pineiro will toss a complete game shutout while giving up 3 or fewer hits.
57
Vote
   


The eyes of Texas are on NASCAR

April 2nd 2009 21:17
Martinsville shaped up pretty much as we had predicted...with Jimmie Johnson winning holding off teammate Jeff Gordon, who finished fourth. And Denny Hamlin finishing second. Dale Earnhardt Jr. got back on track somewhat with an eighth place finish...lower than we had thought, but still a Top 10 and our final pick Jeff Burton was a disappointing 15th.

The spotlight this week turns to Texas Motor Speedway and Gordon, who is still looking for his first win since 2007. Despite the 47 consecutive races without a win, he is still leading the Sprint Cup standings, as his consistency has been absolutely astounding.
In six races, the No. 24 car has four Top 5 finishes and six Top 10s.
But is Texas where he ends the winless streak?
It's a tough call. His stats here aren't great. It's one of only two tracks Gordon has never won at, though he does have six Top 5s and eight Top 10s in 16 races. Interestingly, it's also the only track where he's finished 43. And he's done that twice. So which Gordon shows up this time.

My best guess is it's a Top 10 for Gordon. He's running too good not to get one, but I don't think he picks up the win.

I like Carl Edwards dominance in Texas, winning both races last year, and winning three total here (the career leader). Just as interesting is that Edwards has run 8 races here. The three wins also represent his only top 10 finishes here. So it's really all or nothing for him here. I'd bet on the all if I had to pick between the two.

This could also be a race the Busch brothers find the winners circle. Neither has won here, but both have been decent.
Kurt has seven Top 10s in 12 starts and Kyle has four Top Tens (three Top 5s) in eight starts. And the way they've run this season, you have to seriously consider them.

The other two drivers I like are Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth, who each have eight Top 10s.

Despite all of that that I just mentioned, for some reason I have a feeling that this is where David Reutimann picks up his first career win.

If you like cautions, don't expect much from Texas. The track had problems in its early days, with drivers complaining about grip among other things. But the track was resurfaced and is one of the better speed tracks around. Very few wrecks and a lot of speed.

This post can also be found at pro sports wrap up
53
Vote
   


Last week wasn't exactly a great week for our NASCAR preview as the five drivers we had to watch, well one didn't even finish the race, a couple probably shouldn't have and well....well, let's just focus on this week, where we don't think a Busch will win.

Martinsville is another short track, but has a different look from Bristol. It's a little bit shorter and has shorter straightaways. There's a lot of strategy in the turns here.
jimmie johnson
Jimmie Johnson has dominated the short track at Martinsville.

One guy who has seemed to figure out that strategy is Jeff Gordon. In 32 races at Martinsville, he has finished in the Top Five 20 times and 26 Top Tens. That's pretty impressive, as is his 6.9 average finish at the track. But this year, Gordon has yet to win a race yet still is the overall points leader.

The one guy who could keep him from winning this week is his own teammate, Jimmie Johnson, who has even better numbers at the track. Johnson had five wins and 10 Top Fives in only 14 races. He has 13 Top Tens here (his only finish outside the Top Ten was his first race here) with an average finish of 5.6.

Between the two of them, they have won nine of the last 12 races here. By contrast, the Busch brothers have only eight Top Tens in 25 races here and Kurt has the only win.

Denny Hamlin, who settled for second place last week while concentrating on holding off Johnson while Kyle Busch won the race, can make a good run this week too. His win here last year was his only win here in seven races, but has six Top Ten finishes and four Top Fives.

We also like the third Hendricks driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., to be in contention here. He has eight Top Fives.

And for a fifth drive, watch Jeff Burton. He won't won (he never seems to want to win nowadays, just happy to finish strong), but could make the top three.


Last year this race saw 18 cautions, and 17 drivers finished on the lead lap. We like only about 10 drivers on the lead lap this year, with about the same number of cautions (18). It should be a fun race.



Don't forget to check out the new blogsite prosportswrapup where myself and a lot of your favorite orble.com bloggers have begun bloging.
46
Vote
   


NASCAR at Bristol

March 19th 2009 23:31
After a week off, NASCAR heads to the short track of Bristol in a race that has extra importance with it setting the top 35, which determines the automatic qualifiers for each week's races.

We've already briefly explored who is where on that list, so now lets focus on Bristol and who will be the person to beat


[ Click here to read more ]
57
Vote
   


Off week for NASCAR

March 12th 2009 17:38
There isn't a NASCAR Sprint Cup race this coming week, so we'll look instead at where NASCAR stands four races in.

Of course last week the winner, Kurt Busch, wasn't on our radar. We weren't thinking about back-to-back Busches so we admit we overlooked that one


[ Click here to read more ]
75
Vote
   


NASCAR in Atlanta

March 4th 2009 09:32
If you've been paying attention to our NASCAR posts so far, you've no doubt noticed the winner of the last two races have been in our short list of guys to watch for each time. And last week, of the seven drivers we spotlighted (including Brian Vickers and both Busch brothers, even though we looked mainly at Kyle), we had the winner, the third place, 7th place and 8th place finisher. Most race teams would be thrilled with that percentage of top tens.
So now that NASCAR is going to Atlanta and getting out of the western time zones, what do we look for this week?

[ Click here to read more ]
79
Vote
   


NASCAR heads to Vegas

February 25th 2009 18:31
Last week in this space we semi-predicted back-to-back wins for Matt Kenseth and also said to watch out for Jeff Gordon. Kenseth won and Gordon finished second and the finish wasn't that close.

Jimmie Johnson had a rough day on the track, never finding the right car set up, but still held on for a top 10 finish


[ Click here to read more ]
68
Vote
   


Can Kenseth add to Daytona win?

February 18th 2009 06:22
Even though it was shortened due to the weather Matt Kenseth’s win at the Daytona 500 was huge. While it’s just one race, Kenseth’s 17th career win puts him in good position to possibly knock down Jimmie Johnson and claim the 2009 Sprint Cup championship.
Kenseth
Matt Kenseth won the Daytona 500 and should make a strong bid to win in California


[ Click here to read more ]
63
Vote
   


As Peter Griffin Would Say, ‘You Know What Grinds My Gears?”

Carl Edwards doing a backflip
I am sitting here watching the beginning of the Nascar season finale. The final race of the year at Miami Homestead. At the start of the race Jimmie Johnson is in first place in the Nascar Sprint Cup Standings. Carl Edwards has a chance at taking over the lead. It looks even more promising since Edwards starts near the front of the pack, while Johnson starts back in the pack in the 30th spot where anything can happen to take him out of the race early.

[ Click here to read more ]
84
Vote
   


NASCAR Chase to the Sprint Cup Preview

September 14th 2008 09:02
NASCAR Chase to the Sprint Cup Preview

NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup
The twelve driver's in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup (image: Getty Images)

[ Click here to read more ]
76
Vote
   


Tony Stewart Will be Released from Joe Gibbs Racing Contract

Tony Stewart image
Tony Stewart is moving on to Stewart Haas Racing.

[ Click here to read more ]
84
Vote
   


NASCAR Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway

Kyle Busch Daytona image
Kyle Busch won his 6th race of the season at Daytona this week.

[ Click here to read more ]
73
Vote
   


NASCAR Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola from Daytona International Speedway

Paul Menard car image
Paul Menard will start from the pole in the Coke 400 at Daytona.

[ Click here to read more ]
87
Vote
   


Robert Porta's Blogs

I have no other blogs :(
Moderated by Robert Porta
Copyright © 2006 2007 2008 On Topic Media PTY LTD. All Rights Reserved. Design by Vimu.com.
On Topic Media ZPages: Sydney |  Melbourne |  Brisbane |  London |  Birmingham |  Leeds     [ Advertise ] [ Contact Us ] [ Privacy Policy ]