Monday, April 28, 2008

Ali v. Frazier

This week brings the first of three matchups between the two heavyweights in 4.5: Kingwood and the Met Hurricanes. I doubt either team will be at full strength so early in the season, but I was taking a look at their rosters the other day and got to thinking: does the Met have a chance to win? I'm not sure. There are a lot of unknowns (Kingwood, in fact, just added a new player: Stephen Valentine. With a big roster, I doubt Jimmy would be adding him if he weren't an impact player) but I thought I'd make a hypothetical "top lineup" and see how they matched up.

1S Omon v. Sarosh
2S Juan Lopez v. Mills

1D Armstrong/Hurlbert v. Duplechin/Vernon
2D Pekar/Wright v. Chec/Hunckler
3D Vu/Huynh v. Regent/Yang

Of course, there are many others (Jannuzzi, Evans, Schornick, Santiago, B. Burris et al) who could be in the lineup at crunch time, but based on this matchup I have to give the edge to Kingwood. The Mills/Lopez matchup would be interesting to me, not having seen either one of them play but hearing rave reviews on both of them. The lower doubles lines are definitely up for grabs. I believe Omon and Armstrong/Hurlbert would be heavily favored.

How would the Mob Squad match up? Not too well, I'm afraid: 1S Phoummarath 2S S. Phan 1D Benzon/M. Phan 2D Santesteban/Pham 3D Chang/Vu would be a pretty big underdog to both teams at this point in the season.

36 comments:

  1. The Kingwood/Met match should be fun to watch. Kingwood has the edge but they will be pushed by this week.

    Still not as interesting as Division II.

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  2. Division II is definitely a tough call. Copperfield, Jedi Knights, and Westside is tough to call. The Knights are good, but they lack the singles firepower: where is Andre Dafel and Ryan Cooper (no ringers, but not slouches on the singles court. Cooper beat one of the Dibua brothers last year at City Playoffs). Copperfield is solid, but no major standouts as of yet. Have to give the edge to Westside in Div II.

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  3. Sarosh playing number one singles against Omon? you're giving him too much credit. there's at least 3 guys on the Met team that are better then him; Hunckler, Yang, Schornick.

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  4. Valentine is as good or better than Armstrong or Hurlbert in doubles, so I would include him in the line up.

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  5. I bet Sarosh pulls out with a late breaking injury just before the match on Thursday. I still think its sad Sarosh forced Freeman to drop Foad from the 4.0 league team just because Sarosh does not like him. Freeman is gutless and a coward to drop Foad just because Sarosh threaten Freemen he would drop from the 4.5 team.

    Freeman you are spineless and gutless.

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  6. He dropped Foad because he sucks not because he's spineless.

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  7. Maybe because Foad is not good enough. If a tourney player cannot get past the first round of a major zone, why would a captain "gunning" for the city playoffs, sectionals, or nationals want to put them on an already FULL roster.

    Please explain to me like i was in kindergarten.

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  8. Foad is a worse player in tournaments this year than: Narajos, Strasser, Morris, Turpen, Martinez and Meyer.

    That doesn't even count guys on Freeman's team like Hau, Dwyer and Perdomo who don't play tournaments.

    Plus, Foad's an ass that everyone hates and jokes about behind his back.

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  9. Foad only respects players that he knows are better than him, and is somewhat of a an "unfriendly" person towards everyone else.

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  10. Lets look at it from a player standpoint: who are Freeman's singles studs on the 4.0 team this year? Can Foad beat any of those guys on any given day without question? If not, then Freeman's team does not need him. Foad is not a doubles player AT ALL.

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  11. Ali, Frazier? Are you kidding me? More like Vanilla Ice vs MC Hammer.

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  12. From Jedi Knights:

    Dafel is not playing this year and Cooper is out with an injury.

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  13. Vanilla Ice v. MC Hammer - I love it!!!

    The match should be fun and competitive (at least I hope it is competitive).

    Sarosh did not "force me to drop Foad" from my 4.0 team. Sarosh is a great guy and close friend. I'm not sure he even knew I had a 4.0 team.

    I also consider Foad a friend and I wish him nothing but the best. We did discuss playing league tennis but ultimately our paths went in different directions. At the time I felt like we both made the right decision (who knows).

    With that being said I completely agree that I am most definately "gutless" (not physically though), "spineless" and probably a "coward" in most instances.

    Good luck to all this Thursday and good luck to all Houstonians going down to Corpus this weekend.

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  14. Mark my words. SAROSH will not play against Kingwood. He's had a broken toe nail for what is it 6 months now? No way he will come back to get embarrased in league this week.

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  15. LOL, you guys are so funny with your sarosh obsession. I saw him at the Gallery open, and his ankle was swollen like a mother. So I'd reckon he's maybe 75-80% healed now at best. But I'm sure he'll still play very competitively despite that.

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  16. 1S Omon v. Sarosh

    2S Juan Lopez v. Mills

    1D Armstrong/Hurlbert v. Duplechin/Vernon

    2D Pekar/Wright v. Chec/Hunckler

    3D Vu/Huynh v. Regent/Yang

    Some good matchups here. I don't think this is the way it will match up though. I'd be surprised if any of those actually happen. If they do, then:

    Kingwood wins #1 singles as Dibua beats Sarosh in straight sets

    Not familiar with either of the guys at 2 singles, but both look good on paper.

    #1 dubs edge goes to the known commodity Armstrong/Hurlbert, but the Veron guy looks like he has some good wins this year.

    #2 dubs looks like an easy win for Kingwood as Pekar and Wright are solid

    Met would win this #3 matchup in my opinion..

    My prediction if these are the lines, 3-2 Kingwood Crush. But, I doubt any of these lines will actually happen.

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  17. They should cancel the rest of the matches so everyone can come watch. In fact, we should all chip in and present Thursday's winner with a check to cover their expenses going to Dallas. Wake me up when we start discussing something other than the same 2 teams in the SAME division in 4.5

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  18. Just rename the blog the"foad and Sorosh blog" unbelievable

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  19. I am on one of those teams and get tired of hearing it. If its not Sarosh and Foad, its Kingwood and the MET.

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  20. If we want to mix it up some we can always talk about Kallus.

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  21. Go back to the tournament blog for Kallus talk.

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  22. Mills is overrated. He is an average 4.5 at best. With Dibua, Hanley, Hurlbert etc Kingwood is far better in fact do not be surprised to see a 5-0 sweep.

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  23. I seriously doubt Kingwood will sweep the MET team. Both teams have 3 chances to prove who is better.

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  24. I will bet my left testicle that Kingwood does not sweep the Met 5-0!

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  25. If Kingwood does not sweep it is because they are protecting ratings. Half the team is strong 5.0.

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  26. I will bet u that testicle, and raise you my right testicle to the fact that Kingwood will not sweep.

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  27. If the previous poster thinks that half of Kingwood are strong 5.0, then he is delusional. There are 3-4 players on Kingwood that could compete at 5.0, but the rest are very good 4.5.

    Do you think Kingwood's top 3-4 players could beat Lost Forest's 5.0 players?

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  28. Locally, most the of good league players could compete at 5.0, but in Sectionals and Nationals they would get spanked.

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  29. I bet you those testicles and raise you a vagina that Kingwood will not sweep.

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  30. Ok fine, those testicles, a vagina, two nipples, and a belly button that Kingwood will sweep.

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  31. Great, then when Kingwood sweeps, I win Reader.

    Balls for posting under his own name.
    Vagina for the stuff that comes out of his mouth.
    Pretty sure his nipples are also pierced.
    Can't really come up with anything interesting for belly button.

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  32. The only thing Kingwood will sweep up are the pieces of their once feared team after they are beaten this evening.

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  33. Kingwood is unbeatable and will sweep tonight! Long live Jimmy!

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  34. Did the match get rained out? Did the teams start and if so what were the lineups?

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  35. Kingwood/MET did start their singles lines before the rains came:

    #1 Mills led Dibua 4-3
    #2 Lopez led Hunckler 5-2

    Don't know the doubles lines but they did not get started due to rain.

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