October 5th update

Wednesday Spotlight: Ryan Fitzpatrick

• Possibly the biggest breakout star of this year’s NFL season has been Ryan Fitzpatrick, the starting quarterback of the surprisingly 3-1 Buffalo Bills. The Bills surprising start (the only game they lost was on a field goal as time expired) as well as the emergence of their star quarterback caught everybody by surprise.
• Fitzpatrick, who went to college at Harvard, was drafted in the 7th (and final) round of the 2005 NFL Draft by the St Louis Rams. Prior to the draft, Fitzpatrick scored a reported 48 out of 50 on the Wonderlic test given as a test of intelligence. This is an incredibly high score (most people believe scoring in the 20s is a sign of passable NFL intelligence).
• Fitzpatrick played in only six games his first three years in the league, but his fourth year would see him emerge as a solid contributor. Now with the Cincinnati Bengals, Fitzpatrick took over when the opening day starter for the Bengals, Carson Palmer, was injured. In a mostly run-oriented offense, he threw for almost 2'000 yards and 8 TD's. To put his numbers in perspective, 6 players threw for 4'000+ yards and 3 threw for 30+ TD's so he didn't exactly set the world on fire right off the bat.
• He signed with Buffalo prior to the 2009 season as a backup but Fitzpatrick took over for half the season after starter Trent Edwards got injured. At the start of the ’10 season Edwards was again named the starter, but Fitzpatrick was able to quickly supersede him on the depth charts. This season Fitzpatrick has blossomed into a top-10 quarterback (ranked 9th in the quarterback efficiency rankings) and ranked 5th in ESPN’s new QBR ranking which takes into account the game situation.


Division round of MLB Playoffs kicking into high gear

• The Texas Rangers put an end to the miraculous season of the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday afternoon. Fueled by 3 homeruns by 3rd baseman Adrian Beltre the Rangers defeated the Rays 4-3 in the fourth game of their best of five series. This gave the Rangers a 3-1 series victory and they will move on to the ALCS.
• In the other AL matchup, the New York Yankees staved off elimination defeating the Detroit Tigers 10-1 to tie their best of five series at 2 games a piece. Mercurial starter A.J. Burnett pitched a great game only giving up 1 run in 5 2/3 innings. The real star of the game however was former Tiger Curtis Granderson. Granderson, who was traded to the Yankees from the Tigers prior to the 2010 season, made two magnificent catches in center field and batted in two runs.
• In the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies slid past the St Louis Cardinals 3-2 to take a 2-1 series lead. The Phillies were bolstered by a 3-run home run by pinch hitter Ben Francisco in the 7th inning. Cole Hamels pitched 6 strong innings before being replaced by Francisco.
• Finally, the Arizona Diamondbacks avoided a sweep by the Milwaukee Brewers by defeating the favorites 8-1 in game 3 of their series. The Diamondbacks, on the back of two rookies, Paul Goldschmidt and Josh Collmenter defeated the Brewers. Goldschmidt hit a grand slam and Collmenter pitched 7 innings only giving up the one run.