Week in Review - 5/3/2010

 Sorry for the delay this week, but I've basically been on a 48-hour bender and couldn't find the time to post.  See if you can tell which entries below I wrote earlier in the week, and which I just slapped up there right now.

WHO WAS AWESOME

1.  Wilson Ramos.  Time to trade Mauer now while he has the most value, we don't need him.

2.  Justin Smoak.  Finally got his first hit and first home run, and although the numbers don't look all that great now, he's still walking and the hits are going to start to come as he tears up pitching on his March to rookie-of-the year.  It's a lock.

3.  Colorado.  I'm talking the college basketball team here.  I know, you're all like "say what?" but the Buffaloes caught a huge boost when freshman stud Alec Burks decided not to enter the NBA Draft, despite a decent chance that he'd be a late first-round pick and the fact that you've never heard of him.  Burks was the Big-12 freshman of the year (suck it, Xavier Henry) and had NBA scouts slobbering all over him most of the year, despite very little high-major attention coming out of high school (which would explain how he ended up in Boulder).  He's now back, super stud and Big 12 third-teamer Cory Higgins is back, and new coach Tad Boyle is basically guaranteed to be better than Jeff Bzdelik (he's done a nice job with No Co).  I'm not quite ready to say things are looking up for the Buffaloes, but they're looking slightly better - like working at Taco Bell instead of Taco Johns's.

4.  NC State.  Sticking with the college hoops theme, it looks like the Woflpack are back, for the first time since the days of Julius Hodge.  This assumes that Tracy Smith's entry into the NBA draft is similar to when Dan Coleman and Spencer entered a few years ago and isn't anything real -although don't mistake what I'm saying, T. Smith is far better than either of those two clowns (I will admit I kind of might be starting to like Spencer as a radio guy).  They just picked up a commitment from C.J. Leslie, an outstanding swingman and McDonald's All-American who ranks as the 14th best recruit in the country according to Rivals.  He joins fellow recruits PG Ryan Harrow (ranked #19), SG Lorenzo Brown (#36), and a very talented group of sophomores (as well as Smith) to give NC State as much talent as they've had in a long time.  They also have a good shot at inking the #45 recruit PF Luke Cothron.  Of course Sid Lowe couldn't out-coach a wet paper bag or medium-sized rock, so there's a ceiling to their potential success.

5.  Chris Tillman.  If your firs reaction was that this guy is some kind of cornerback, congratulations you're wrong.  And also an idiot.  No, Tillman is a minor-league prospect of the Balitmore Orioles - a pitcher, to be precise - and is looking like he's every bit as good as advertised.  He one-upped a much publicized outing by Stephen Strasburg where he threw five no-hit innings in AA by throwing a full-game, 9-inning no hitter in AAA.  Tillman, who was acquired in the Erik Bedard trade, was ranked by Baseball Prospectus as the #3 talent under the age of 25 on the O's (behind #2 Adam Jones and #1 Adult Jesus (Wieters)) and is one of a slew of good looking pitching prospects that have brought a little bit of optimism back to Camden Yards.  With the back end of the O's rotation struggling and this outing, expect to see Tillman hit the bigs sooner rather than later.

WHO SUCKED

1.  Tiger Woods.  I suppose it has to be said that if you thought Tiger was all the way back, he's probably not.  Not after shooting 74-79 at Quail Hollow and missing the cut by 8 shots.  Eight!  Out of 152 players, he finished better than nine of them, and his 79 on Friday (highlighted by back-to-back double bogeys) was better than only five rounds shot in the entire tournament.  That 79 was the second worst round of his career, and his 153 is his worst outing through 36 holes - ever.  Simply put, this wasn't just an off weekend, it was a complete disaster.  Clearly he is a golf robot fueled by sex with hookers and he's running pretty low on fuel.  Might be time to get back on that horse there, guy.  And I said horse.  Not whores.

2.  Dallas Mavericks.  Remember how the Mavs were supposed to be a sleeper to make the finals from the west?  :fartnoise:  Good work guys.  In case you missed it, the #2 seed in the West got bounced 3 games to 2 by San Antonio, once again proving that the Spurs will never die - like Al Davis or Jesse Crain.  Combine an inability to guard Manu Ginobilli's nose, Jason Kidd's Colt Iverson-like three-point shooting, and the curse of Mark Cuban, and the Mavs were doomed.  Seriously, these guys had one shot in the 2006 finals versus Miami and got screwed by the league mandate to give Dwyane Wade every call.  Now, no matter how many trades they make, whether good  (Josh Howard for Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood) or bad (Jason Kidd for Devin Harris), they aren't getting back to the finals any time soon.  Plus that team is WAY over their allotment of Mexicans.

3.  Ben Sheets.  Two starts this week, and he got absolutely shelled in each.  I'm thinking that experiment is not exactly going according to plan.

4.  Trevor Hoffman. Never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.  Hells Bells indeeed.   

5.  Jevan Snead.  You know how you hear about guys who go early-entry into the NBA draft and don't get drafted?  Well, that's exactly what happened to Ole Miss QB Jevan Snead, except it was the NFL draft he entered early, and instead of not getting drafted in a two-round draft, it's a seven rounder.  Ouch.  Evan more confusing is that it wasn't exactly like his stock was rising.  Snead was supposed to be a fringe Heisman candidate to start, but after a Junior year that was worse than his sophomore year and inconsistently play all-around, it should have been clear he wasn't ready for the NFL draft.  And now 32 NFL GMs agreed, an average of 7 or so times a piece.  What's the NFL equivalent of the D-League?  The CFL?  Arena League?


And yes, the NFL draft was technically last week, but I didn't know about Snead until this week so I'm including it here.  Sorry, those are the rules.  The moose out front should have told ya.