IMHO-In Mike's Humble Opinion

I am an absolute nut when it comes to sports.  More specifically I love team sports.  I may occasionally watch tennis, winter sports, Indy car racing, horse racing etc. but I am for the most part a fan of team sports.  I follow all of the major US based leagues (NHL, MLB, NFL, MLS, NBA) and I follow a specific team in each league (Washington Capitals, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Redskins, DC United, Washington Wizards).  There are some leagues I follow more closely than others (NHL, MLS, NFL) but I would undoubtedly be considered a geek by some with the knowledge I have of things in other leagues (MLB, NBA, college football).  To me sports is  reality television.

Due to my interest in sports I am going to do frequent comments on things going on in sports particularly those things that are local to our area.  I will begin by offering a few thoughts on various current happenings.

Baltimore Orioles-I have been disappointed with the Orioles to date.  While I am not surprised with the struggles of the young pitching staff I am surprised with the struggles at the plate.  They were supposed to be a formidable line-up from top to bottom this season but they are 22nd in batting average, 25th in on base percentage, and 21st in slugging percentage.  Their bats should be more productive than they have been so far.  

Washington Redskins-For the first time in a very long time I am optimistic about the direction the Redskins are headed.  Based on the draft, the talk that things are different now appear to have merit.  Instead of drafting the sexy player with the 10th pick they traded down and took a blue collar guy.  Further, trading the 10th pick ultimately resulted in the acquisition of four more picks than they originally had when the draft began.  Lastly, the majority of players they drafted were team captains in college.  This shows that they are going for qulaity people as well as talented athletes.

DC United-I don't know what to make of DC United thus far.  They have been extremely erratic.  Some would say this is to be expected due to the youth of the roster but this yo-yo is ridiculous.  One week they will look competent in victory (Toronto 3-0, Seattle 2-1) and then the next week they look as bad they were in recent seasons in defeat (New York 0-4, Houston 1-4). 
I thought the Boskovic injury would be very damaging to their season, but based on the Seattle and Dallas results I appear to be wrong.  I will reserve judgement on DCU for now as we will probably know a lot more about this team by this time next month.

Cheers!

Mike Thompson
DEC Appraisal Services