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The Zulewski report
By Tom Zulewski
January 4, 2010
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Hard to believe it's 2010 and the Red Sox have made their first biggest deal of the off season signing Adrian Beltre who became a free agent after playing with the Mariners last season. Beltre is expected to sign a deal worth $10 million with his second year as an option year depending on Beltre's plate appearances.
Beltre started his career with the Dodgers in 1998 and in 2004 he was came to the Mariners and wound up hitting .334, 48 homers, with 121 RBIs after that year he never hit over .280 also in 2005 Beltre signed on for $64 million a four year deal.
The Sox are sure that Beltre is their catch and would be able to hit for power at Fenway Park much better than he did at Safeco Field where Beltre said balls go out to die. Meanwhile the Mariners are considering bringing back Ken Griffey Jr. for another year, with Chone Figgins at third, and pitcher Cliff Lee and Junior at either DH or center the M's have insured themselves of at least a couple of drawing cards.
Raiders fans up to here with Davis want changes: You know its bad when the Raiders who drew 38,000 fans at the Coliseum last Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens in a tough loss season finale. As much as the Raider fans have a reputation of getting into some trouble and maybe some getting arrested those fans were seriously outnumbered by the delegation of Raven Nation that showed up at the park Sunday.
There were around 1,000 fans in black and purple the Raven colors and after Raider fans started departing the Coliseum it felt like the Raven fans out numbered Raider fans especially at the midway point of the fourth quarter.
There are some numbers that are truly disturbing for Raider Nation, they were fabulous in the first part of the decade up until the Super Bowl year. The Raiders up until they got into the Super Bowl were 33-15. Since then they have won only 29 in 112 games and have a winning percentage of .259.
Broncos Josh McDaniels on hot seat?: A 6-0 start and a 2-8 finish? That's not healthy in Broncoland that's completely understood. Knowing the team chemistry is an issue, they may stick with McDaniels one thing they have to consider that they overachieved at the start and the cast has changed so much with wide receiver Brandon Stokley, wide receiver Eddie Royal, it was just a bad finish for McDaniels.
With this its kind of a cover, they had the same bad developments as last year and right now the Broncos are dysfunctional as anything right now.
The Sharks and the streak: Despite getting behind the eight ball earlier in the game the San Jose Sharks in their quest for continuing their win streak that ran up to eight games. The Sharks playing host to another hot NHL team the L.A.Kings saw six unanswered goals sail by goaltender Evegeni Nabokov before finally answering back in the third period with a pair of goals and the Sharks are struggling to nail down a victory in one of two NHL games on the Monday night docket.
The Kings are ten points behind the Sharks in the standings but are trying to build their nest egg and they came to battle and shut San Jose down on Monday night. But still a tribute to the Sharks eight game win streak a monument hard to achieve at the NHL level and proving once more the Sharks carry some superiority each time they step out onto the ice.
Dan Heatley has produced dividends and Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau are certainly helping out picking up the slack. Always remember you can have a great first round but it always counts when yoy get to the first round and that's something that San Jose has to be concerned about.
NASCAR update: With Danica Patrick coming to NASCAR it's almost a non-story as much as it is a story. We have been sent piece meal stuff with what she's going to do. She's going to run in the race in Daytona on the 5th of February.
We still don't know if she's going to run in the Nationwide series opener at Daytona but we do know she's going to be at in Southern California and Las Vegas which I'm quite frankly pumped for because Nationawide Race now is a story for a change as oppose to Cup Daddy kicks butt. But where Danica is going to end up is anyone's guess right now.
Frankly it's a little annoying if you got schedule try racing more.
Tom Zulewski files the report each week on Sportstalk Radio
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