June 13th, 2009 Picks

(skip recaps)Man, fuck this bull jive picking sheeat. 0-1-1 for me today even with a 7-4-1 blog record. Yea, not only did I fail to build my streak to a lousy 4 games but I lost it altogether. I had Mickelson for the win until some bodacious wind and hail blew 'em out of there. Then I took the Red Wings. I could have won with either of the props, but no. Ah well, congratulations to the Penguin compatriots. It was a sweet win for all 'dem. And so we blast on to the weekend with some more picks.

Recaps

Mickelson, Padraig Blown Away Late

Phil Mickelson -2, Padraig Harrington E (through 15)

A storm with lightning, winds in excess of 70mph and 1" diameter hail stones blew into Memphis and tossed the PGA Tour right out.

``Play was halted and fans and players were cleared from the TPC Southwind course when the horn sounded 10 minutes before thunder could be heard on Friday. Tornado sirens then went off approximately 40 minutes after play was stopped with the storm tossing equipment around the course and knocking power out in parts of town. Phil Mickelson was at 4 under with three birdies and a bogey in his first event since announcing his wife Amy has breast cancer. This is a tuneup for the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, and his preparation showed when he pulled an iron instead of driver or a wood on the tee a couple of times"

Read more....LeaderboardRound 2 PhotosRound 2 Highlights

Fleury, Talbot, Penguins Puff Up, Deny Red Wings Second Straight Stanley Cup

Pittsburgh Penguins 2 - 1 Detroit Red Wings (win series 4-3)

``Slide over Super Mario and make room on the Stanley Cup for a new batch of Pittsburgh Penguins. Max Talbot scored two second-period goals, and the Penguins overcame the loss of captain Sidney Crosby and a whole lot of history to beat the defending champion Detroit Red Wings 2-1 on Friday night in Game 7 and win the Stanley Cup for the third time. Evgeni Malkin, who led the playoffs with 36 points, earned the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason MVP. He assisted on Talbot's first goal. Marc-Andre Fleury was stellar in making 23 saves -- none bigger than the two he made in the final seconds, the last as he dived across the crease and knocked away a shot by Niklas Lidstrom."

Read more....Box ScoreTalbot's HeroicsNotesPhotosVideo

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Highlights
Stanley Cup Presentation
The Final Ticks
Malkin MVP
Crosby Injured

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Picks
1) Tenerife @ Girona - Girona win or draw
2) Arkansas vs. CS Fullerton - CS Fullerton
3) New York Mets @ New York Yankees - N.Y. Yankees
4) Rich `Ace' Franklin vs. Wanderlei `The Axe Murderer' Silva - Franklin
5) LSU vs. Virginia - Virginia
6) Boston Red Sox @ Philadelphia Phillies - Philadelphia
7) New York Liberty @ San Antonio Silver Stars - San Antonio
8) Houston Astros @ Arizona Diamondbacks - Houston
9) Kyle Busch vs. Carl Edwards - Busch has a better finishing position
10) Oakland Athletics @ San Francisco Giants - Oakland

Previews

With one more point Club Deportivo Tenerife will secure their return to La Liga.

Girona F.C. achieved safety a week ago and now hope to give a good result in their final match at Estadi Montilivi this season.

1) C.D. Tenerife make the 1600 mile journey from the Canary Islands to Girona in their penultimate match of the season. Tenerife nearly wrapped up their promotion to La Liga last week with a 2-0 win at home against Xerez. Tenerife still require one point from their last two matches to absolutely guarantee their place in the top flight, but based on this reaction to their victory over Xerez they are fairly confident in their chances of promotion. Looking at the homepages for Tenerife and Girona injury information and team selection was not easily come back, but you can check them out yourself and put your Catalan and Español to the test if you like.

Girona	Tenerife
@Eibar (2:2)	Xerez (2:0)
Gimnastic de Tarragona (2:1)	@Sevilla Atletico (0:4)
@Castellon (1:2)	Alavés (3:0)
@Elche (2:1)	@Hercules (3:1)
Xerez (0:2)	Murcia (3:1)
All scores in (home:away) format

As far as their recent form goes the result of their last 5 matches are shown in the table to the right. Not surprisingly Tenerife have been in better form as they are the better team. This bit of data was contributed from user BigBadMo: ``Against the bottom 11 teams in the league, Tenerife is 13-3-5 with a +23 goal differential, while Girona is 4-8-7 against the top 11 teams with a -11 goal differential." One should keep in mind Girona are one of the best teams of the bottom 11, however, and have only lost 3 matches at Estadi Montilivi this season. Against teams with 4 or fewer losses at their home ground Tenerife are a less impressive 2-4-2 (W-D-L) with a -2 goal differential. I think this is a tough match to read because Girona are clearly not one of the elite teams in the league but they are also not a bottom feeder. Girona were defeated by Tenerife on the road by a score of 4-1 earlier in the season, which sounds convincing, but Girona have also been difficult for teams to earn the double on. They defeated Hercules 1-0 at home, and drew away at Xerez 2-2, with Real Zaragoza being the only top 5 team to double. I think Tenerife has the quality to win this game easily, but if they are distracted by their nearly assured promotion I can see them mailing in a 1-1 draw in this game to accomplish their goal.

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