With the Bulls season set to start at home agaisnt the San Antonio Spurs, next thursday, the Bulls are looking to piece together their rotation and season ahead.  Tonight, the Bulls will take on the Washington Wizards with out Jameson, along with the absence of D-Rose.  Now at the Madhouse on Madison look for the Bulls to close out preseason with a victory over the Wizards.  The Bulls look to have a starting line up some where in the like of Derrick Rose, John Salmons, Loul Deng, Joakim Noah, and the wild card of (Tyrus Thomas or Taj GIbson).  Due to an early preseason injury to Tyrus Thomas Bulls fans were able to get a good look at the Rookie Taj GIbson, whom makes this transition into the NBA look almost flawless. GIbson, is not only well aware on the court but also shows to have a high basketball IQ.  With Tyrus in a contract year, which can boost his production for the future money that he may be coming his way.  If you ask me whom the better basketball player is right now Gibson vs Thomas, I would definatly have to side with Thomas, mostly because of this NBA experience.  However, I do believe that Thomas is a spark off the Bulls Bench that will be greatly needed to take advantage of some other teams 2nd units and the balance the Bulls first and 2nd unit.  I think the Bulls will show a great one two punch with the likes of Tyrus, Kirk and Miller coming off the bench to give the Bulls a little extra offense.  Yet, this can lead to an unhappy Tyrus Thomas and a downward spiral for the Chicago Bulls early on in the year.

Tonight, I believe the Bulls will go with a starting line up that features Captain Kirk, John Salmons, Loul Deng, Joakim Noah, and TT (Tyrus Thomas).  I believe Bulls will take and early lead on Washington and just continue to build the lead going into half time. Bulls will look inside to try to take cotroll of the paint with the absence of Jameson, whom is one of their top weapons. To be up 51-43, with the early lead the Bulls, are able to put away the Wizards and prepair for their TNT matchup against passed up Blair, and the Spurs. I will take the Bulls, in their last Pre-Season game 103 to 89.  Bulls fans get ready for your free Big Mac.

The Bulls projected opening day roster is; D-Rose, Kirk Hinrich, John Salmons, Tyrus Thomas, Joakim Noah, Janerro Pargo, Loul Deng, Brad Miller, Taj Gibson, James Johnson, Lindesy Hunter, Derrick Byars with Jerome James and Aaron Gray to start the season on the IR

Here is a few more projections for the Chicago Bulls and lines to take.  If you like to put money on season games, and wait to the year end to cash in here is the chance to take the Bulls at o40.5 games. Bulls will finish over .500 percent for the season and look to grab either the 4/5th seed in the Eastern Confrence.  2nd in the central only behind Shaq and Lebrons Cavs.  Along with those early projection look to take the Bulls agaisnt the Spurs in the season opener in Chicago but to fall to Boston in Boston on the 2nd game of the back to back.  For the Bulls first ten games of the season look for the Bulls to fair ok at 5-5 before they head to LA and play Kobe and the Lakers.

Thatsa look into the Bulls early 2009-2010 season.

The Chicago Blackhawks eliminated the Canucks in the Western Conference semifinals last season. Yet, this is a new year for both. Both teams are going to need improved play from their goaltenders to have any chance of advancing that far again. The Canucks look to get their first road win against the Blackhawks, which doesnt look to promising. Blackhawks defense looks to continue to prevent the number of Canuck shots on goal like they have been doing all season. The las meeting between the two ended in a 7-5 win for chicago advancing them to the next rouns of the western conference. This game was held in chicago so look for taking the possible over 5.5 in this game tonight.  Yes, the blackhawks have a different goal tender in net, but look for the Canucks to come on strong early trying to catch the blackhawks off gaurd.  As for the Hawks offense looks to get a spark from Patrick Kane whom has not received a point in his last three games. I feel that he will turn that around in tonights matchup and will go as far as saying he will have a goal tonight.  I think the Canucks will keep the game close and will fall to the Hawks in Chicago 4-3, for their 4th road lose of the season and may not be able to collect a road win until November 5 against Minn. 

So again im taking Blackhawks in chicago over the Canucks ML along with 0 5.5 with final score of 4-3

Nashville Vs Boston:

Bruins already lost key forward Milan Lucic last week and now have recieved the news that they will be with out their leading scorer Marc Savard againt the Nashville Predators.  Bruins (3-4-0) announced Savard would miss four to six weeks with a broken left foot. He’s led the team in scoring each of the past three seasons and was doing so again this season with four goals and three assists. Boston has been having problems lately in the net as well with penetly kills.  Yet the bright side is Nashville is only 1 - 24 on power plays this year.  Nashville looks to be with out their captain as well Jason Arnott (their leading scorer as well).  Tonights matchup is truely a wild card. I look to see Boston come off strong with the young guys and take an early 2-0 lead on Nashville. I think Nashville will get their first power play goal since opening night but the Bruins will finish tonights match up winners at a score of 3-2.

Again my pick for this evening is Boston ML wins 3-2, Boston vs Nashville u 5.5.  Home team gets the edge in this match up.

Colorado vs Minn

Avalanche close a seven-game road trip Wednesday seeking a fifth straight win when they visit the struggling Minn Wild. The Wild are returning home after a terrible road trip of their own. Colorado is out on a mission early this year to show people they have made a change from last year and their western confrence last place points finish.  The Avalanche have passed the test, as solid goaltending has put  them to a 4-1-1 mark on the trip and a tie with Calgary for the early conference lead with 13 points. Colorado is off to their best start since 2000-2001 the season that they had won the stanley cup. Is this a fluke or are they for real. It would nice to determine if Colorado is False or Fiction but tonight will give us a false reading on on good this team really is. Look for this match up to start off close but than fade away from Minn. Look to see the Wild pick up their second victory of the year against the Saint Louis Blues on October 23 and than again on Octover 24. But as for now. I think Minn Wild score first in this match up take an early 1-0 lead but by the end of the first peirod find themselves down 2-1. Final score of 5-2 Colorado.

So recap on my play for tonight is Colorado ML with a projected final score 5-2, Minny scores first goal of the game. I would also take the over in this game 05.5. 

Lets see how well these play out for the night and how close i can be with my projection.

Two other games i like tonight is Buffalo and Dallas.

Angels in the outfield (part 2) thats right.  We might be seeing a preview for Disney's updated version of the movie with the early season death of one of the Angels very own, Nick Adenhart. Aside from the fact that the Los Angeles Angels has their very own spirt watching from above, they just have a better team to tie the series up today at 2-2 and possibly taking all 3 in LA to go back to NY up 3-2.

As many Yankee fans may be excited to see CC Sabathia take the mound and dominate the Angels I would think again. Yes, the Yankees have a high power offense and a stud on the mood for this evenings game but the stats will tell us other wise. CC has pitched 14 games against the Angels in his career and has recorded a 5 wins 7 loses with an era of 4.72.  As for Kazmir whom has the same number of games agasint the Yankees (14) is posting a slightly better record of 6 wins and 5 loses with a much better era of 2.67.  Yes, baseball is full of stats and the season totals would allow most people too give the edge to the Yankees and CC, but I believe the Angels want this more than the Yankees and will show it into nights game.

(I will give the advantage to Kazmir pitching at home agasint the Yankees)

Aside from the pitchers duel I would like to address the A-Rod situation. Our I should say the A-Rod coming to life party. Lets face it yes, A-Rod is hitting like he is paid to and putting on one of his best performances in the playoffs ever. Yet, this doesnt shock me nor shouldnt shock any baseball fan. A-Rod for as long has he has played has dominated the Angels with a batting average of .328 40 points more than his season average and has recored 67hrs 3 3bs not to bad if you ask me. However, he hasnt faired well against Kazmir with only 3 hits out of 24 abs equaling a horrible .125ba.  So will A-Rod be back to his normal playoff self tonight against a pitcher that has had his number in recent times. I will have to go with YES. Now on the Angels hot corner they have Chone Figgins. Career numbers agasint the Yankee's batting .327 and a solid .313 agasint CC. Look to see Chone get on base and look to run whenever the oppurtunity allows him to.  3b advantage (Angels)

SS- Aybar vs Jeter: Just due to leadership and experience I will have to give the nod to Jeter. Aybar has hit the Yankees well and look for him to continue to do so on the bottom of the lineup to start a fire with Figgins to follow. Jeter, just like A-Rod have failed to have any success agasint Kazmir and has even worst BA at .111.  It looks like Mike  Scioscia and his crew have really done their homework trying to even up the series by giving Kazmir the nod to just slow down the Yankee's high powered offense. (I like to give Aybar advantage in this match up)

RF- Match up Swisher vs Abreu 

Swisher is just well an average/below average utility guy. A man with all the engery and potential to be more but has yet to really crack out of his shell. The numbers once again are stacked against Swisher batting career .213 against the Angels and only .185 against Kazmir. As for Abreu the numbers are a little below his average career vs Yankees but still a solid .282 and a .333 against CC ( yet, that is only with 9 ab, and hate to use that as any true reading of his match up agasint CC.) Abreu is out to show everyone the Yankee's made a mistake and he is right because into nights game advantage Abreu.

I can go on and on down the line up and contiue to give break down on tonights game. For you Yankee fans out there look for Melky Cabrera to have some success tonight as it looks to have Kazmir's number batting .400. I think this will be yet another great matchup between both the Angels and Yankees. Yet in the end Angels will out manage the Yankees and tie the series up at 2 a piece, as Nick Adenhart looks down with a smile.

Bulls Vs Orlando (Preseason)

This year the Bulls look to make there way past the first round, into the second round and so on if luck is on their side. Yet, although the Bulls have lost a major part of their offense it might have been a bigger gain. With the absene of Ben Gordon, the bulls look to move the ball around the court more often and hit the open man.  This Young bulls team looks to have what it takes to bring it to the next level and heck they should have their first All-Star since the Jordan era.  Yet, the Bulls have a bigger mountain to Climb this year with the strength of power getting even stronger with Gilbert healthy and back with Was and Diesel with Bron Bron and the Cavs.

Right now I like to believe it is safe to say Cavs, Orlando, Boston, Atlanta, and the Bulls should be clear to make the playoffs. The question is, is the top 3 teams in the east to big to knock down and is this year a preseason for 2010?  What i see from the bulls now is leadership and confidence that they are one of the elite teams, even if player by player they are a handful of all-stars away from. But does confidence and playoff experience all that it is cracked up to be to make a team better than they really are. Bulls young rookies look to make an immediate impact. Taj Gibson looks to be everything the Bulls thought he would be and more.  Which brings the question to all NBA fans and team owners should they go with a seasoned rookie with maturity and a 3/4 year college experience. Taj looks to play with in the game and find ways  for the bulls to keep him on the court. Yes he is the rookie, but he is older than Tyrus and looks like the 4 years a USC has allowed him to grow into the mature, strong player he has shown to be this preseason. 

I like to believe the bulls will finish 48- 24 (as a bulls fan) lets hope this comes true but first we need Rose to be healthy. Go Bulls

The After math of Sunday 10/18 NFL games. I hope most of you had a good weekend for most of the games were meaningful until the end of the game.

I am happy to see that my Houston Texan decided to have the offense flowing and put the points up on the board against a questionable Cincy team. So here is my question I leave out there is Cincy a good team or have they just been a lucky team thus far or are they just an average team? If you ask me going back to my last blog I have learned that even Cincy doesnt not know whom they are and for that reason It is a hard team to put money on or against. But going against my own rules of keeping my heart out of it. I believe Next week 10/25 Bears over Cincy

Now the game i am sure many of us had been on the wrong side of things this week was Philly high scoring offense agasint Oakland (do we have a QB) Raiders. I guess Philly decided to go out and have a good time in the bay area this weekend and forget that they had a football game to play and it was not a charity event where they just show up say hi, wave to a handful of people put in their 3hrs and than go home on top. Wrong!!!! I couldnt figure out why the team with 3 qbs couldnt beat the team with maybe half a QB?? What happen to using the wildcat with Vick? Just poor coaching and both coaching staff and players were checked out for the weekend.

Next that is on my mind is, Let me just say this I hate NE. No i did not lose any money on this game. I have lost all faith in Titans this year i feel like the death of mcnair has put a death on the team (possible vudo???). Just why, i have to ask why does NE feel the urge to run up the score? I mean seriously where in the first half after they were up 31-0 did they think they still needed 2 more TD's and Brady to be in there. Bill Belichick, is a piece of shhh88t is simply an ass. Just because he was shown up last week doesnt mean it was just to just demolish a dying team. What was the reason behind having Brady throw for a butt load of Td's in 15mins? I'm going for person goal and accomplishments and better solidify his future in the hall of fame and (future glorry). Because of their actions i hope TB stuns them in London.

Now for the Chicago Bears vs Atlanta Falcons Sunday Night Match Up. The game started of well for the Chicago Bears that seemed to have control of the game on both ends of the field. Yet, once Atlanta decided to go with the No huddle it was like Lovie Smith had never seen that done before and couldnt get the play calls in quick enough to his bangup def. Now, yes the defense did do pretty well for the Bears and in every game there is going to be a miss communication but the look of confussion on your coach's face just doesnt show any answers just questions and screaming help. Now i cant put all the blame on the Bears miss assignments but they yet again had failed 3x in the red zone. 1nt, 1fumble on the 1 yard line and the last drive of the game to tie for possible over time false start by your vet Probowler to move your 4th and 1 to a 4th and 6 situation. Bears can move on from this game like they did when they played their last Sunday Night Football game vs the Packers and win the next 3 (Very POSSIBLE) things can be ok. Lets just hope that his Falcon win doesnt leave the Falcons with a false reasurance in how "good" they are. Lets face it Matt Ryan executed but the offense was not amazing against a decent def. Run game was stoped once the run game was stoped it forced the air assult to be very minimal and could have been easily a Bears Victory. So if you take anything from this match up Bears showed that even against a solid contender on a BAD day they still can go to the end of the game to possibly win. Still Like Bears next 2 weeks money line bears over CINCY and 11/01 bears over Browns and can possibly go on to win their next 5 games.

So All in all those 4 games needed me to let you know how i feel. As for week 6 of the NFL i continue to stay in the positive cash flow but most of my parlays feel short due to Phillys failure to win. =0( Feel free to express what gets to you from this weekends game line up. If you like horse racing here is a link to my horses Victory on saturday.

http://www.hawthorneracecourse.com/live_racing/instantreplays/091017-03.asx

Now I am going to go on a slight limb on this and because of my hunch on this weeks NFL games there are 2 games that i have stayed away from.  These games are:

Hou vs Cincy   along with DET vs GB.

Its hard to really get to know HOU this year with there on and off play. They can have a shoot out with you or can be a lame duck tomorrow. Yet, Cincy has not really showed me anything to be a believer. All i have learned in the past is CINCY is a stay away bet for me every week. Going back 3 years ago in my survior league picking them as "LOCK" having them lose and turn the tables on me. Also, seeing them take down GB. Now some will say they are a good ball club or is it they are just lucky and their luck is about to run dry with a decent on and off hou team, which has a higher power offense.

Now on to DET and GB. Well lets face it one win for DET against well another horrible team in the league doesnt say much but than again that is a little ego boost for them they are starting to feel good about themselves, (just like an ugly girl that developed breast and getting all teenage boys attention, she is still ugly but they allow her to feel otherwise.) They might just have that believe or Obamas "CHANGE" on their minds.  With that being said, i think GB is an average team nothing amazing but the bye week could have hurt them and allowed them to get even more laid back for a division rival .  Im sure they will hold on tight but im sure im not the only one here that would like to see DET pull on out and stun GB just like Cincy did

BOL to all you tomorrow. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!