Monday Musings

I was actually going to bring back the good ole Weekend Review since we have three sports running right now, but then i was like meh.  So here's some thoughts from the weekend.

-  I know it would be in bad taste, what with the Coach Kill stuff, to badmouth the Gophers about losing to New Mexico State so I'm not going to do it.  Also making fun of the Gophers for losing to stupid shitty teams has kind of gotten old.  Instead I'll put on my happy sunshine magic ice cream glasses and look at the positive.  In that case I need to point out that Da'Jon McKnight is really damn good at catching the ball and also getting open.  McKnight had 9 catches for 146 yards and a score on Saturday, which was 50% of the teams catches and somewhere in the 60% neighborhood of their receiving yards.  And also he just looks like a player out there.  Catching that many balls from a wide receiver forced to play QB and a freshman is a testament to his ability.  Guy's solid.  Might end up actually being even better than Eric Decker, but far less sexy.

-  So you're Michigan.  You have the fastest quarterback in the NCAA since Major Harris.  The type of QB you never have, tending to stick to the tall, white, immobile pocket passer type like Jon Navarre and Elvis Grbac.  So you decide to implement the west coast offense?  Just stupid.  And I know they won, but you know why they won?  Because in the second half they were like, "Denard, go be Denard" and that's mostly what he did.  Did he miss some wide open receivers?  Yes.  Did he make some terrible decisions?  Yes.  Did he make some incredible plays with arm and legs?  Yes, yes he did.  That is why you let Major Harris loose.  He completed less than 50% of his passes, but still threw for over 300 yards and 4 TDs while rushing over 100 yards.  That's what guys like this do.  And, if you're a good coach, you realize this and mold your offense to fit him, not try to cram Major Harris into a Joe Montana bit.  Whoever the Michigan coach is recognized that in the second half, it'll be interesting to see if he recognizes that for the rest of the year(s).  Also yeah that probably doesn't warrant a place in the suck column but I'm sure as shit not going to devote an entire post to fucking Michigan football.  And also I started this post when they were down 24-7, so I'm kinda stuck.
-  How about Austin Jackson's week?  Jesus what an asshole.  Here's how it went down:  0-5 2 Ks, 1-5 2 Ks, 1-6 3 Ks, 0-4 2 Ks, 0-2 2 Ks, and 1-4 with 2 Ks.  That's 3-26 with 12 strikeouts, 3 runs scored, 0 rbi, and 0 steals.  You know how I know how shitty he was?  Because the fantasy baseball playoffs started this week and not only do we have this cock mouse on our roster, but we stared him.  Why would we start him you ask?  Because the week prior he went 18-34 with 3 doubles, 3 triples, 2 homers, 5 rbi, 8 runs scored, and 2 steals.  So yes, he's quite an ass.

-  Speaking of that, how about that Donovan McNabb this weekend?  I actually thought he looked pretty spry and his piss poor numbers are probably more the fault of that crappy offensive line than actually McNabb's fault, but any time you fail to crack 40 passing yards and you play the entire game that clearly isn't good.  Defense looked good at least and AP is a stud and it's not like they got blown out against a clear playoff team so I'm not panicking or anything just yet, but that line needs to get it figured out in a hurry.

-  Since the Twins have no hope, and as such I don't currently see any reason to discuss until the season's over and we can figure out which bums we hope get booted, let's talk about two of the top prospects in baseball who are now up with the big clubs:  Jesus Montero, C, Yankees and Matt Moore, P, Rays.  Montero, who has been the Yankees #1 prospect for like 10 years, has been up now for about a week and a half and has smoked the ball, hitting .308/.400/.654 with 3 homers and basically been somewhere between Ryan Braun and Jose Bautista.  Moore has been tabbed the #1 pitching prospect in baseball by some and considered a future ace by most.  The Rays don't have him slotted in a rotation spot yet, so I'm guessing he'll be used out the pen similarly to how they used David Price a few years ago. 

Meanwhile the Twins top prospects have either regressed or are 17 years old.  It's gonna be a long couple of years, boys.  I suggest you jump on over to the Royals bandwagon with me.

- Lastly, since we're talking about hope and how there is none for Minnesota sports teams, the Houston Cougars are about to become the newest mid-major who can do some serious damage after an epic weekend of signings.  The Cougars, who I can only assume are cheating, signed SF Danuel House and PF Danrad "Chicken" Knowles.  Why this is notable, besides someone voluntarily going by the name Chicken, is because House is the #15 player in the class of 2012 according to Rivals.com, and Knowles is ranked #47 so this is a huge step for Houston.  Both are from Texas, which helped Houston out at least somewhat, but both also had offers from Baylor and Arkansas (which is practically Texas) and House chose the Cougars over the Longhorns (as well as Kansas, Ohio State, and Arizona).  So not only is this one huge get for a completely unknown coach at a subpar program, but it's two huge gets. 

Sigh.