• It's the Washington Nationals after they signed free agent righty Max Scherzer to a seven-year, $210M contract.
• According to Sheehan, the Nats now have "six above-average starting pitchers to go with a strong everyday lineup ..."
• He also explains why he considers Washington the best team "in a decade."

The Nationals have a chance to provide something that hasn't been seen in years: a great baseball team to follow all summer. Regular-season greatness is out of fashion these days, with the expanded postseason lowering the bar for entry and division titles reduced to what they are in the NBA, NFL, and NHL: little more than a means to a better playoff seeding. The new model for MLB teams? Be just good enough to squeak into the postseason, then see what happens in October. Last season, neither Series team won 90 games, but fans of the Giants (88 wins) and the Royals (89 wins) wouldn't trade their years for those of the Angels (98 wins), Orioles (96 wins) or Nationals (96 wins).
Moreover, 2014 was the third consecutive season in which no team won 100 games, the first time that's happened across three full seasons since both leagues went to a 162-game schedule in 1962. There have been only three 100-win teams in the last nine years: the '08 Angels, the '09 Yankees and the '11 Phillies. Only one of those teams won even a single playoff series. The modern game encourages teams to roll the dice on an 85-win team. It's economical, but it makes for dull summers waiting for the only real intrigue of the season, a surge by one of the .540 teams to capture the fifth playoff spot or the warmed-over chase for home field advantage in the Division Series.

A record number of former LSU Tigers played in at least one game with NFL teams this past season. The total was 44, three more than the previous season high in both 2009 and 2010.

First, here's the rookie Tigers who began their NFL careers in 2014.

1. Lamin Barrow LB - Denver
2. Odell Beckham WR - New York Giants
3. Alfred Blue RB - Houston
4. Ego Ferguson DT - Chicago
5. Jeremy Hill RB - Cincinnati
6. Anthony Johnson DT - Miami
7. Jarvis Landry WR - Miami
8. Craig Loston SS - Jacksonville
9. Zach Mettenberger QB - Tennessee
10. Tharold Simon DB - Seattle
11. Trai Turner G - Carolina
12. Brad Wing P - Pittsburgh
13. James Wright WR - Cincinnati

That baker's dozen joined 31 veteran NFL Tigers. The number in parentheses is the player's years in the league through 2014.

1. Joseph Barksdale OT (3) - St. Louis
2. Dwayne Bowe WR (8) - Kansas City
3. Michael Brockers DT (3) - St. Louis
4. Ron Brooks LB (3) - Buffalo
5. Morris Claiborne DB (3) - Dallas
6. Ryan Clark S (13) - Washington
7. Glenn Dorsey DT (7) - San Francisco
8. Lavar Edwards DT (7) - Tennessee
9. Matt Flynn QB (7) - Green Bay
10. Trindon Holliday KR (4) - Tampa Bay
11. Tyson Jackson DE (6) - Atlanta
12. Ricky Jean-Francois DT (6) - Indianapolis
13. Donnie Jones P (11) - Philadelphia
14. Brandon LaFell WR (5) - New England
15. LaRon Landry S (8) - Indianapolis
16. Bennie Logan DT (2) - Philadelphia
17. Tyrann Mathieu DB (2) - Arizona
18. Danny McCray DB (5) - Chicago
19. Barkevious Mingo DE (2) - Cleveland
20. Kevin Minter LB (2) - Arizona
21. Sam Montgomery DE (2) - Houston
22. Patrick Peterson DB (4) - Arizona
23. Rueben Randle WR (3) - New York Giants
24. Eric Reid S (2) - San Francisco
25. Steven Ridley RB (4) - New England
26. Perry Riley LB (5) - Washington
27. Russell Shepard WR (2) - Tampa Bay
28. Kelvin Sheppard LB (4) - Miami
29. Andrew Whitworth OT (9) - Cincinnati
30. Kyle Williams DT (9) - Buffalo
31. Al Woods DT (5) - Tennessee

15 NFL Tigers played offense, 26 played defense, and 3 performed in the kicking game.

Here are the Tigers who played in the league in 2013 but did not make a roster in 2014. Again, the number in parentheses is years he played in the NFL.

1. Michael Ford RB (1)
2. Quinn Johnson FB (5)
3. Drake Nevis DT (3)
4. Marcus Spears DE (9)
5. Craig Steltz S (6)
6. Curtis Taylor DB (3)
7. Spencer Ware RB (1)
8. Corey Webster DB (9)

As stated earlier, the 44 participants in 2014 set an LSU record for most in a year. The top five season with the most LSU NFLers now looks like this.

1. 2014 - 44
2. 2010 - 41
    2009 - 41
4. 2012 - 40
5. 2011 - 39
    2008 - 39

So the period 2008-14 has been the golden age of Tigers in the NFL.

Which LSU teams have produced the largest number of NFL participants?

1. 2003 - 29
2. 2001 - 27
    2002 - 27
4. 2011 - 26
    2010 - 26

While baseball offenses are declining, NFL attacks are producing more points.

Bad trend for the 2015 Saints: 28 teams went from winners to losers from one year to the next in the last 10 NFL seasons. Only 12 managed to emerge as winners the following season.

• Can you imagine an NBA game where the teams use different basketballs? "Anthony Davis gets the rebound for the Pelicans. TIME OUT to change the ball. Oops, the Mavericks stole the ball. TIME OUT to change the ball." Or hockey? ("The Rangers have a breakaway. Whoops! Wrong puck.") Or baseball? (The team at bat objects that the pitcher is using a baseball with seams raised above the legal limit.)
• Why doesn't the league supply the footballs? A member of the officiating crew sees that the balls are inflated the proper amount and supervises the ball crew, which works for the league, not the home team.
• Why has it taken so long for this loophole to surface? Who knows how many times the Patriots (and other teams) have used over- or underinflated balls?

In 1972, the year before the American League instituted the Designated Hitter to spark offense, the league stats looked like this:

Here are the figures from the 2014 season - both leagues combined, plus some other stats.

A number of factors explain the drop of offensive production.

• Tougher testing for performance enhancing drugs has reduced the number of players using steroids, HGH, and other banned substances. No more Mark McGwires, Sammy Sosas, and Brady Andersons,
• Detailed, computer-generated scouting reports that pinpoint where each fair ball of each hitter has traveled. So shifts are rampant and have seriously cut into the batting average of pull hitters like Mark Texeira, Brian McCann, David Ortiz, and Chris Davis.
• Starting pitchers are expected to go only six or seven innings. So they're not as concerned with "pacing" themselves.
• Almost every team has a bullpen full of strong-armed pitchers who are used for one inning each. Batters who are just getting in synch after three ABs against the starter now face a new flamethrower their 4th AB and the team's closer in AB #5.

Some points being made by analysts:

• Having hitters work pitchers into deep counts, as the Yankees and Red Sox did in winning eight pennants from 1996-2007, has become an antiquated strategy. The idea was to run up the starter's pitch count to get him out of the game sooner and bring in a (presumably) weaker reliever. But all that does today is bring in a fresh arm throwing 95+. Former hard-hitting C Ted Sim­mons, now a member of the Mariners' front office, says, If you see the starter only twice and then two different relievers, you're basically pinch-hitting three times in a game. As a hitter, you'd rather face the starter the third time through the lineup, because you've had a couple of looks at him. Who wants to see a reliever coming in fresh and throwing 97 mph, then know­ing the next one will throwing 98 and the one after throwing 99 ..." Simmons thinks hitters should be more aggressive earlier in the count.
• Rangers manager Jeff Banister thinks platooning will help. Not only will it provide more lefty-righty and righty-lefty matchups for hitters but position players won't play as many innings and will stay fresher throughout the season.
• Fewer and fewer batters seem to "hit to all fields." More and more try to pull the ball every time. Seattle manager Lloyd McClendon: "If more hitters would be willing to change their approach ... and not be so stubborn, you'd see the end of a lot of the shifting really fast. If the defense is giving you half the field, why wouldn't you take it?"
• It's long past time for the National League to adopt the Designated Hitter. Pitchers average .167 at the dish. How does that contribute to a better game?
• Some advocate illegal defense rules. For example, prohibit three infielders on the same side of 2B.
• New Cubs manager Joe Maddon thinks the downward batting cycle may end for reasons we can't predict. "There has to be something different out there, some new idea or innovation that can help a team score more runs. I know it's out there, and someone is going to figure it out."

5:29 PM CST, Sunday, January 18.

That's when the 2013-14 football season ended for me. Oh, there's two more games to play (I don't count that farce called the Pro Bowl), but I'm not interested. Let me explain why.

Two years ago, the Baltimore Ravens reached the Super Bowl - and won it - with a player who turned my stomach, Ray Lewis. I didn't like their opponent either, the 49ers, because of their jackass coach. But I watched in hopes SF could win.

But two Seattle players, Richard Sherman and Marshawn Lynch, and the coach, Pete Carroll, nauseate me. Since I don't have the stomach to watch them in the Super Bowl (and in the excruciating two-week buildup in which they'll be called the greatest team of all time with the greatest fans), there's no point in watching the AFC Championship Game tonight.

Part of my disgust is the way Green Bay lost.

• The only way the Seahawks could win the game was to get the onside kick. And even that didn't guarantee victory because they needed a TD.
• But #86, Brandon Bostick, will now win (?) inauguration into the Goat Hall of Shame, joining Bill Buckner (Red Sox, 1986 World Series), Don Denkinger (umpire, 1985 World Series), Ralph Branca (Brooklyn Dodgers, 1951 NL Playoff), Tony Romo (fumbled snap on easy winning FG against the Seahawks in 2006), Wrong Way Roy Riegels (1929 Rose Bowl), Kyle Williams (two fumbled punts in 2011-12 NFC Championship Game against the Giants), Steve Bartman (Cubs fan 2003), Chris Webber (Michigan, 1993 Final Four), and numerous others.
• The onside kick was not even a good one because it bounced right to Bostick, who presumably earned a spot on the "Good Hands Team" by having, uh, good hands. [UPDATE: No, he didn't have good hands. He was out there to block so that WR Jordy Nelson, behind him, could catch the ball.] But the ball went right through both hands, hit him on the helmet, and bounced right to a Seahawk.
• Then the Green Bay D collapsed and let Seattle zip right down to score the go-ahead TD. The only good result of that was the Packers had time to march to the tying FG. But that would have been the winning FG if Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (What mother names her child "Ha Ha"? put her in the Hall of Shame in his place.) had knocked down Russell Wilson's desperation let-her-fly-because-I've-got-nothing-to-lose two-point conversion pass - although Clinton-Dix gets a reprieve because of his two earlier INTs.

Now the most stuck-up team in history will be even more obnoxious. No, thanks. I'll pass.

AND ALL THIS WAS POSTED BEFORE DEFLATEGATE.