Both bring different elements to the game

Carlisle also understands the young player possesses smooth, athletic talent and needs minutes to learn on the fly. The same process took place with Barea over the past few seasons and he’s shown tremendous improvement.The Mavericks’ roster contains four to six guards, all capable of playing 30 solid minutes per night. Jason Kidd , Jason Terry , and Howard (when healthy) consume the bulk of the minutes. However, it’s impossible to satisfy everyone, which remains one reason Barea and Beaubois compete for playing time.Both bring different elements to the game.Beaubois fills the shoes of Howard by launching the team off to quick starts with his lightning speed, scoring ability, and length on defense.Barea enters and orchestrates the offense when Kidd rests, and looks for his shot when playing in the three-guard lineup Carlisle favors during games.Beaubois shows glimpses of excellence and he’s impressing fans and his teammates “He has really impressed me so far.

He is very quick off the dribble and he has a nice little touch in the paint He can finish, he is athletic. He looks really, really good to me,” said Dirk Nowitzki .Barea is no stranger to praise either. Having two young players who possess the ability to play either guard position provides the Mavericks with depth and confidence. Barea and Beaubois go hard at one another in practice and even harder against opponents on game nights. If they both continue to improve by fighting for those minutes, I say let the battle continue.. Debate continues nearly every year about what the “Most Valuable Player” award in baseball means.The best player in the leagueT he best player on the best teamT he best player out of all of the playoff teams A guy whose team just missed the playoffs, but couldn’t have done anything about itDoes it mean the player who got a few key hits when its team was making a run for the playoffs It seems to change every year, but most years, the voters end up guessing correctly regardless.Sometimes, however, they get it completely wrong, but in their defense, baseball is probably the hardest sport to pick an MVP in since pitchers and hitters can’t control one another (unless they are voting on little league MVPs when the best players usually do both, but that’s a different Top 7).When they do get it wrong, it’s out of an infatuation with a certain player, player’s story, or their inflated worth to their team, or sometimes just for a completely bizarre reason.That leads us to this week’s Top 7.7. Sammy Sosa, 1998Personally, I will argue this one with Cub fans until I die.Yes, Sosa’s team won the Wild Card, and it was a huge story.But the Cardinals finished five games behind them, and it sure as hell wasn’t McGwire’s fault that Jeff Brantley was the Cardinals closer, their bullpen blew an extraordinary amount of games, and their starters were not very good either.I won’t even bother with all of the stats that clearly favor McGwire just because this argument can never be won.6.

Andre Dawson, 1987You may think that this is included because Dawson’s Cubs were the last place team that year.Not the case – there isn’t anything wrong with a player winning MVP if his team sucks, as long as he is easily the best player in the league that year, which Dawson was not.It was similar to last year’s MVP “debate,” when some thought that Andruw Jones was MVP of the league only because of his HR and RBI totals.In on-base plus slugging, Dawson was 10th in the league.There were other guys who played for winning teams with better years, and other guys on non-winning teams with much better years, including Dale Murphy, Jack Clark, Will Clark, Darryl Strawberry, Tim Raines, Eric Davis, and Tony Gwynn.5. Ichiro, 2001Everyone in the media had a man crush on Ichiro in the 2001 season, but this was ridiculous.Yes, Ichiro had a better AVG (.350 to .342), more runs (127 to 109), and way more stolen bases (56 to 2) than the guy that should have won, Jason Giambi.But Giambi annihilated Ichiro in doubles (47 to 34), home runs (38 to 8), RBI (120 to 69), OB (.477 to .381), and SLG (.477 to .388). Barry Larkin, 1995Larkin did have a great year in ‘95 as the Reds made the playoffs, hitting .319 with 15 homers and 51 stolen bases in the strike-shortened year.It was just that there were other guys more worthy–this one was more of a lifetime achievement award and a pat-on-the-back for being a “good clubhouse guy” and friendly with the media.One is Mike Piazza, who hit .346 with 32 homers and 93 RBI and the Dodgers also made the playoffs.Barry Bonds that season had to suffer with some of the worst pitching in the league, or he probably would have won the MVP easily this year – he played in all 144 games, had the highest OPS in the league (barely edging Piazza), stole 31 bases, but still finished an astonishing 12th in MVP voting.2. Miguel Tejada, 2002This was the year that the A’s had the 20 – game winning streak, and Tejada had game-winning hits in the 18th and 19th games of that streak.That is why he won the MVP – he had huge hits in games that had tons of attention.Never mind that Alex Rodriguez played the same position and destroyed Tejada in nearly every single category.This is the year that the “he played on a bad team” argument came into play, which became such a stupid argument the next year that it’s mind-boggling.In 2003, A-Rod was MVP of the AL, still on a last-place team, and he had a worse year than he had in 2002.How did the rules change in one yearIs it A-Rod’s fault that the Rangers had guys throwing underhanded on the moundDoes anyone in their right mind think that the A’s would not have made the playoffs in 2002 with Rodriguez and not Tejada at shortstopThis one truly makes no sense because of what happened later.1. Mo Vaughn, 1995Albert Belle was the MVP.Both teams made the playoffs, with the Indians winning 14 more games.Belle led in runs (121 to 98), doubles (52 to 28), homers (50 to 39), average (19 points), on-base (13 points), slugging (115 points), and they were tied in RBI.There is not one single legitimate argument as to why Belle did not win over Vaughn except for the fact that Belle was completely insane.Subscribe (for free!!) to our weekly sports podcast, deemed "incredible" by two out of three of our moms. JoeSportsFan , 2009. Permalink Tweet This This article is also featured on JoeSportsFan . In the wake of Ladell Betts' 114-yard performance against Denver, this question has arisen: Has he surpassed Clinton Portis as the team's best running back While it may be too early to give a definitive answer to that question, the results speak for themselves (for at least one game).

The Washington Redskins put on their best offensive performance of the year versus the Broncos. Jason Campbell was not prolific, but he was efficient enough in the passing game to allow Washington to win. Denver was not able to apply constant pressure, because the Skins' running game was churning out yards. Anyone who has watched Washington play this year would have to admit that Clinton Portis has been hesitant at times. He ran with power, forced missed tackles, and showed good speed and quickness. So, now come the Cowboys. With a better defense than Denver, Betts will have a more difficult time finding yardage. With that said, what if Betts has another good game What if Jason Campbell actually has time to complete passes because Dallas has to respect the running game If Betts has another solid performance against Denver, Washington should not look back. Regardless of his huge contract, Portis should be benched in favor of the better running back.. Some of the blame at the end of the game though has to fall on Larranaga.