Top 20 Countdown: No. 16 Jeff Burton (Yahoo! Sports)
Top 20 Countdown: No. 16 Jeff Burton (Yahoo! Sports)
Editor’s note: Yahoo! Sports is counting down the top 20 drivers of the 2012 season, as predicted by the Yahoo! Sports NASCAR staff: Jay Hart, Jay Busbee, Nick Bromberg and Geoffrey Miller. The countdown will conclude Feb. 17 with the unveiling of the No. 1 driver. 2011 statistics Finish Poles Wins Top 5 Top 10 20 0 0 2 5 The countdown No. 20: Marcos Ambrose | Career stats No. 19: Kurt Busch | Career stats No. 18: Martin Truex Jr. | Career stats No. 17: Juan Pablo Montoya | Career stats No. 16: Jeff Burton | Career stats No. 15: Revealed Monday, Jan. 30 2011 finish: 20th Our 2012 predictions:• Jay Hart: 14th• Jay Busbee: 20th• Nick Bromberg: 18th• Geoffrey Miller: 13th Crew chief: Drew Blickensderfer Offseason action: Lost Clint Bowyer as a teammate; gained Blickensderfer as his new crew chief. 2012 outlook: Was anyone more excited for the 2011 season to end than Burton? Without question, 2011 was one of the worst seasons in Burton’s 18-year Cup career. His first top 10 didn’t come until Aug. 15, he only had four more after that and wound up 20th in the standings – his lowest finish since his sophomore season back in 1995. In short, it was a nightmare from beginning to almost the end for a driver used to running up front. The “almost the end” part is the good news for Burton. Because while the first eight and a half months were miserable, Burton posted top 10s in four of the final five races of 2011, including a near win at Talladega in October. To get back to running up front, Burton must gel with new crew chief Drew Blickensderfer, who’s a bit of an enigma himself. Blickensderfer won his first two races as a Cup crew chief, including the 2009 Daytona 500 with Matt Kenseth, but since then has experienced a rocky road. Jack Roush yanked him from Kenseth’s pit box just one race into the 2010 season, relegated him to the Nationwide Series, then gave him another Cup opportunity with David Ragan. Now Blickensderfer is on the move to Richard Childress Racing, which is one car lighter with the departure of Clint Bowyer and the No. 33, which presumably means Burton and the 31 will get that much more attention. The question Burton faces in 2012 is whether 2011 was an aberration or, at 44, are his skills on the decline? Considering he’s made the Chase in four of the last six years, Burton deserves the benefit of the doubt. Point of interest: Burton’s winless streak sits at 113 races. His last win came at Charlotte on Oct. 11, 2008.
Darvish excited to be with Rangers (AP)
Darvish excited to be with Rangers (AP)
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP)—Yu Darvish is coming to America to pitch, for the team he really wanted to join for his next challenge. Japan’s best pitcher will play for the Texas Rangers, who scouted him for more than two years and then needed nearly every minute of a 30-day negotiating window before finalizing a $60 million, six-year contract Wednesday. It is a total investment of more than $111 million with a record posting fee. “The Rangers more so than any other team showed great, not only interest in scouting him, but a lot of personal time in developing a relationship with him,” said Arn Tellem, one of Darvish’s agents. “That personal connection was very significant to Yu and his family.’ There is also the much-anticipated boost the 25-year-old Darvish could provide to the Rangers, who have been to the last two World Series without winning the title. “Yu is excited about helping a team that has not won achieve that goal,” Tellem said. “He’s really thrilled to be coming here. This is where he wanted to be.” In addition to the salary, the Rangers will pay a posting fee of $51,703,411 to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Pacific League. The last two numbers in that amount are the jersey numbers of Rangers President and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan (34) and Darvish (11). “When you talk about those kind of dollars, it’s high risk, but I also think he’s probably the most upside player I’ve ever seen come out of Japan,” Ryan said. “Having a free agent of that age, and with the fact that he’s been durable and has such feel for the baseball, I just think that he’s extremely unique.” The Rangers’ window to exclusively negotiate with the pitcher began Dec. 19 when their bid was accepted by the Fighters. The contract was finally completed a few minutes before the 4 p.m. CST deadline Wednesday, or Darvish would have stayed in Japan. Rangers general manager Jon Daniels, who described the move as a “step-out deal” for the team, said negotiations were never contentious. He said there were good reasons for Texas to want a six-year deal. “How often do you get a chance to sign a 25-year-old free agent? It’s a pretty unique opportunity, so you tend to look at things a little differently when you look at somebody that age and the years of the deal take him into his prime,” Daniels said. “And secondly, with the nature of the posting process and the size of the post, size of our bid, it made sense to amortize it out over a longer period.” Darvish was home in Japan, where he returned for offseason training after his first and only visit to Texas two weeks ago. The Rangers plan to formally introduce Darvish on Friday night. On his website, Darvish posted a note acknowledging his new team. “I will have a press conference first in America and then come back to Japan at which point I will express my gratitude to my fans here in Japan,” he wrote. Darvish had a 93-38 record with a 1.99 ERA over the past seven seasons in Japan. The 6-foot-5 right-hander was a two-time Pacific League MVP and a five-time All-Star. He led the league in strikeouts three times, in ERA twice and won two Gold Gloves. “The thing that stood out probably is just his passion for the game and trying to be the best he can possibly be,” said Ryan, the major league strikeout king who pitched a record 27 seasons. The deal surpasses what Daisuke Matsuzaka got when he left Japan and signed with the Boston Red Sox just more than five years ago. Dice-K got a $52 million, six-year deal and the Red Sox also had to pay a $51.111 million posting fee that was the highest for a Japanese player before what the Rangers bid for Darvish. When Ichiro Suzuki used the posting system in 2000 to get to the major leagues, the Seattle Mariners won the right negotiate with a bid of about $13 million, then signed him to a $14 million, three-year contract. Through last season, 38 Japan-born pitchers had appeared in the major leagues. There were nine last season, including relievers Yoshinori Tateyama and Koji Uehara with the Rangers. Both are still on the 40-man roster in Texas. Matsuzaka is 49-30 with a 4.25 ERA in 106 games (105 starts) in five seasons with the Red Sox since his high-profile move from the Seibu Lions to Boston in December 2006 when he was 26 years old. He missed most of last season after right elbow surgery and is going into the final year of his contract, worth about $10 million. Darvish, the son of an Iranian father and a Japanese mother, went 18-6 with a 1.44 ERA last season in Japan, when he made the equivalent of about $6 million. He had 276 strikeouts to lead the Pacific League. Darvish, who turned pro at 18, pitched in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was a member of the Japanese team that won the 2009 World Baseball Classic. The right-hander has superb control and throws as many as seven effective pitches.
Tebow suffered rib, lung, chest injuries (AP)
Tebow suffered rib, lung, chest injuries (AP)
Tim Tebow remained in the AFC divisional playoff game despite injuries and Denver’s big deficit.(Getty Images) ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP)—Tim Tebow needs more R&R than anyone thought. The Broncos quarterback played through rib, lung and chest injuries he sustained in Denver’s 45-10 loss at New England in the AFC divisional playoffs last weekend. He won’t need surgery, is expected to make a full recovery with some down time and his offseason training program shouldn’t be affected in any way. ESPN first reported Wednesday that Tebow got hurt on a third-quarter tackle, then had trouble sleeping because of the pain and underwent an MRI on his chest Monday. Team spokesman Patrick Smyth said that while he couldn’t confirm the exact extent or nature of the injuries due to team policy, he acknowledged that Tebow finished the game in considerable pain. Backup Brady Quinn quickly got ready to go into the game after Tebow was hit by Vince Wilfork and Rob Ninkovich, but Tebow stayed in and finished up. “It’s just the physicality of playing football. Sometimes you get hit and it can hurt a little bit. But, I wanted to play a lot of the game,” Tebow said after the game. The outcome had long been decided by the time Tebow got hurt. “I just wanted to show character. You just continue to fight and it doesn’t change who you are, how you play, how you go out there, you should be the same at all times,” Tebow said. “That’s what I wanted to show, it didn’t matter if it was the first play or the last play or you were down by 42. I was going to be the same player and I was still going to give everything I have. Because that’s all I have to give.” Tebow, who had an ice pack on his non-throwing shoulder after the game, wasn’t in the locker room during a one-hour media window on Sunday, emerging with a smile from the trainer’s room as reporters were filing out as the players streamed to their end-of-season meeting with coach John Fox. Recovery from such injuries can take several weeks, and it’s highly unlikely Tebow would be able to play in the Pro Bowl on Jan. 29 if he’s selected as a second alternate. On Monday, Broncos boss John Elway declared Tebow the incumbent starting QB entering training camp next summer and reiterated his plan to work with him during the offseason to help polish his passing game. Tebow went 8-5 as the Broncos starter after supplanting Kyle Orton following a 1-4 start. He engineered a six-game winning streak that included four straight fourth-quarter comebacks that sent Tebowmania into full pitch. He faded at the end, losing his last three starts, including one to the Kansas City Chiefs and Orton, but the Broncos backed into the playoffs nevertheless at 8-8 as champions of the middling AFC West. Tebow had the best game of his pro career in the wild card round, when he averaged 31.6 yards per completion, the best in the NFL in 40 years, and threw an 80-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas on the first play of overtime for a 29-23 win over heavily favored Pittsburgh and the league’s No. 1 defense. That was Denver’s first playoff game in six seasons. While the Broncos brass was delighted at returning to the postseason party a year after a franchise-worst 4-12 season, they said the 35-point loss to the Patriots showed just how far they need to go to return to the AFC’s upper echelon. Tebow, who didn’t get the first-team snaps during training camp or for the first month of the season, realizes he has a long way to go himself. “Just work and improve, fundamentals, understanding defenses, footwork, everything,” he said. Tebow might also have to get accustomed to a new offensive coordinator in 2012. Mike McCoy has interviewed for head coaching vacancies in Miami and Oakland. McCoy is a hot commodity after retooling Denver’s offense midstream to capitalize on Tebow’s unique skill set. He implemented the read-option that turned the NFL on its ear at midseason and resulted in the Broncos soaring to the top of the league in rushing. Tebow ran for 660 yards, most by a quarterback in team history, in the regular season and another 63 in the playoffs, leading to concerns among some that he was exposing himself to injury. But Tebow noted that he actually takes glancing blows, if any, from smaller defenders while on the run, making him less vulnerable than when he stays in the pocket and might get sandwiched by 300-pound linemen. He took every snap for Denver after replacing Orton at halftime Oct. 9 against San Diego. Tebow ran for six TDs in the regular season and one in the playoffs while averaging 5.3 yards a carry. But he completed just 46.5 percent of his passes last season and just 40.4 percent in the playoffs. “We’re always looking for balance,” Elway said. “Balance is what we won Super Bowls with.” Elway and Tebow are eager to see what a difference an offseason can make— they didn’t have that luxury last year during the NFL lockout. “I feel like I’ve improved a lot in a lot of different forms of my game,” Tebow said. “And I continue to improve and continue to get a lot better, and I believe I can, and I’m looking forward to putting in work.” ——— Follow AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton
