February 2011
Super Aaron
After beating the Steelers and winning Super Bowl 45 Sunday night, Aaron Rodgers is now officially an
elite quarterback. In my opinion, you have to do to things to be an elite
quarterback in the National Football League.
First, you have to be well . . . great. You
have to make other guys better. Do you think Wes Welker would put up the stats
he puts up with Tom Brady if say Colt McCoy was throwing at him?
The second thing is pretty simple, yet
hard to accomplish. You have to win at least one ring. When you win a ring it
means that the quarterback is great and tough. He makes his teammates better,
and he is a leader on and off the field.
For example look at Aaron Rodgers, Drew
Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady
(the quarterbacks of last six Super Bowl champions) and tell me that they
aren’t great, they aren’t though, they don’t make their teammates better, and
they aren’t a leader on and off the field. You can’t.
In the case of Roethlisberger I question
his leadership after his actions that got him a four game suspension from the
NFL. After that, his teammates didn’t even select him as a team captain. I mean
most teams have their quarterback as their captain.
At the end of the day though the Packers
won and will be going to the Whitehouse (they has potential for awkwardness
since Obama is a Bears fan).
Saltalamacchia
His last name barely fits on his jersey, he
couldn’t throw the ball back to the pitcher last year, and he’s only hit
twenty-three home runs in his career. Yet, Jarrod Saltalamacchia will be catching Josh Beckett, Jon
Lester, John Lackey, Clay Buchholz, and Daisuke Matsuzaka in 2011.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia was drafted by the
Atlanta Braves with the thirty-sixth pick in the 2003 draft, one pick before
Orioles all-star outfielder Adam Jones.
In 2006 with the braves class A
affiliate, the Rome Braves, Salty had his best year of his young career. He hit
.314, with nineteen home runs, and eighty-one runs batted in. After his
breakout season Baseball America ranked Saltalamacchia as the eighteenth best
prospect in Major League Baseball.
The following year, Saltalamacchia became
the starting catcher for the Mississippi Braves (AA). In twenty-two games,
Salty hit .373 with seven big flies.
The same year, in 2007 Saltalamacchia was
called up on his twenty-second birthday after an injury to Brian McCann and
then made his major league debut.
On July 31, 2007, also in the same year, Elvis
Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison, Beau Jones, and Saltalamacchia were
traded to the Texas Rangers for Mark Teixeira and Ron Mahay.
Fast-forward three years latter and
Saltalamacchia was put on the disabled list after the first two games of the
2010 season. He was then sent down to AAA because he couldn’t do one of the
simplest things in baseball. Eventually and thankfully, Salty learned how to
throw the ball back to the pitcher.
On July 31, 2010 Jarrod Saltalamacchia
was traded to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Chris McGuiness, Ramon Mendez, a player to be named later (Michael
Thomas), and some money. He was then sent to Pawtucket.
Saltalamacchia was eventually called up after
an injury to Kevin Cash. In his first appearance in the Red Sox starting line
up on August 12, Saltalamacchia went 2-4 with a run scored.
So far, in his time in Bean town, Salty went
just 3-19 (.158), with one RBI, two runs scored, and no home runs. Yet, despite
those stats, the Red Sox are letting Jarrod Saltalamacchia control one of the
best pitching staffs in baseball.
bob3472
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