A hell of a lot of good basketball just wrapped up with the pre-Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving tournaments the last two weeks, so much so that it would be easy to miss some of the important stuff, especially with all the drinking and eating and football watching and generally being a complete moron doing really stupid stuff going on. So I'm here to help. Tournament by tournament, here's what you need to know:
PUERTO RICO TIP OFF
Championship: Minnesota Gophers over West Virginia Mountaineers
Biggest positive: Minnesota. I wasn't really sure where they'd fall in the Big Ten pecking order. Somewhere in the middle, likely, but towards the top of that middle or towards the bottom? Well, wins over three potential tournament teams help answer that and push the Gophers towards the top of the conference.
Biggest negative: North Carolina Tar Heels. A year after the worst season for UNC in recent memory, the Tar Heels started this year with a lot of positivity and a lofty #8 ranking the country, but losses to both Minnesota and Vanderbilt show that this team isn't quite there yet. A loss to one or the other could be shrugged off, since both are possible NCAA Tournament teams, but losses to both sends up a bit of a red flag.
Also of note: Davidson 64, Western Kentucky 51. This game, as well as WKU's narrow 2-point win over Hofstra, say that the Hilltoppers aren't going to be making the NCAA Tournament as at at-large.
NIT SEASON TIP OFF
Championship: Tennessee Volunteers over Villanova Wildcats
Biggest positive: Tennessee. All their losses from last season had me convinced they were badly overrated and would be in the NIT at best this year, and then all the Bruce Pearl nonsense solidified that thought for me. Turns out their better than I gave them credit for, and the combination of super freshman Tobias Harris on the inside and dynamic scorers Cameron Tatum and Scotty Hopson on the wings is looking like enough to drive the Vols to success.
Biggest negative: Wake Forest Demon Deacons. "Wait, I didn't see them in New York" is what you might be saying, and you're right, but that's because they got bounced out of the qualifying round - the "gimme" round held on their home floor. Of course they also drew Virginia Commonwealth who was probably the favorite to come out of that region, but it just confirms that this is going to be a dark, dark year in Winston-Salem. If this loss to VCU (by 21, if I didn't mention it) doesn't cement it, the earlier loss to Stetson and subsequent loss to Winthrop (both also at home) are pretty big clues. But the biggest clue? Iowa was favored over them in their ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchup tonight, and the game was at Wake.
Also of note: VCU 89, UCLA 85. Not content with just getting to New York, VCU then went ahead and beat UCLA to nab a third-place finish. That's going to go a long way in getting the Colonial multiple bids this year.
COACHES VS CANCER CLASSIC
Championship: Pitt Panthers over Texas Longhorns
Biggest positive: Texas. Last year the Longhorns had all the talent in the world, were ranked #1 at one point, and then death spiraled down and didn't even receive an NCAA bid. This year saw a lot of turnover, and I'm not sure anybody really knew what to expect, as usual with a Rick Barnes team. Beating Illinois and then hanging right with Pitt before losing by two shows they have some talent, it's just a matter of if they put it all together.
Biggest negative: Cory Joseph. In the two games in New York, Joseph shot just 3-13, including 0-4 from three, with 5 assists and 3 turnovers, and threw up a ridiculous shot at the end of the final with the Longhorns down two when he thought he had been fouled in an attempt to get to free throw line. The ref disagreed, and he threw away Texas's chance to win.
Also of note: Maryland Terrapins. They went 0-2 in New York, but they weren't expected to win either game. Losing to Pitt by nine and to Illinois by four bodes well for the Terps' chances in ACC play.
MAUI INVITATIONAL
Championship: Connecticut Huskies over Kentucky Wildcats
Biggest positive: Kemba Walker. Coming into this tournament nobody was really sure what to make of UCONN. Sure, they'd be a middle of the road Big East team most likely, but where would that really put them in the overall pecking order? Well, Walker carried them on his back to the title here with games of 31, 30, and 29 points, and made sure everybody knew that he was good enough, and had enough talent around him, to make the Huskies a threat.
Biggest negative: Oklahoma Sooners. Eesh. The Sooners looked decent in their opener, hanging with Kentucky, but completely fell apart from there. First, they lost by 18 to a terrible Virginia squad who just go rolled by Washington by 40+, then they lost to Chaminade, the little host school who had won just five times in the 26 years prior of the tournament's existence. Not only did they go down, but they went down bickering amongst themselves. This is going to be a long year in Norman.
Also of note: Wichita State goes 2-1, but leaves disappointed after blowing their opening round game against UCONN, a game they led by four with just four minutes to go. It would end up being the only resume-building opportunity the Shockers would get, matching up against Virginia and Chaminade in their final two. That could hurt come Selection Sunday.
CBE CLASSIC
Championship: Duke Blue Devils over Kansas State Wildcats
Biggest positive: Duke. I have no idea how anybody is going to beat this team. Marquette tried to go small to match Duke's quickness and whichever Plumlee it was destroyed them inside, then K-State tried to run with them and Duke ran 'em out of the gym. They are good inside (Plumlees), have great guards (Nolan Smith, the unguardable Kyrie Irving), and have dead-eye shooters who you can't leave to go help (Andre Dawkins, Seth Curry). And that's all without bothering to mention the ACC pre-season player of the year in Kyle Singler. Look out, because they have a chance to go undefeated. No, I'm not crazy.
Biggest negative: Duke. The exact paragraph I just wrote is actually more of a negative because I, and everybody with a soul, hates Duke.
Also of note: Gonzaga 66, Marquette 63. Marquette lost both games in Kansas City, first to Duke by five and then this one to the Zags by 3. Though those are both big missed opportunities, they also signal that for the second straight year a down year in Marquette might not be as down as we think.
OLD SPICE CLASSIC
Championship: Notre Dame Fighting Irish over Wisconsin Badgers
Biggest positive: Notre Dame. The Irish picked up two wins over NCAA caliber teams, beating both the Badgers for the title and Georgia in the opening round. It's very likely Temple and Texas A&M were the only other teams to even pick up one in Orlando.
Biggest negative: Temple. As noted, the Owls did pick up a win over Georgia that looks good, but losses to both Cal and Texas A&M are huge negatives. A&M might be a bubble team, so that one will hurt, and Cal is likely to be a bottom of the barrel Pac-10 team while the Pac-10 is likely to be a bottom of the barrel conference. The Owls were supposed to be the class of the A-10, but they sure didn't play like it.
Also of note: Notre Dame 58, Wisconsin 51. The Badgers came into Orlando with a chance to pick up some nice victories, but Boston College's win over Texas A&M took that game off the board, and Wisconsin blew their chance against the Irish. They come without a high profile win to show-off in March.
CHARLESTON CLASSIC
Championship: Georgetown Hoyas over North Carolina State Wolfpack
Biggest positive: Georgetown. This wasn't exactly a murderer's row of teams, but beating Big South favorite Coastal Carolina by 19, SoCon favorite Wofford by 15, and a very good NC State team by 15 is a pretty nice weekend. The Hoyas will be good, and in an odd-twist, guard dominated - their three top scorers are all guards.
Biggest negative: George Mason Patriots. There's been a lot of early season success out of the Colonial Conference so far this year (VCU, Old Dominion), but George Mason whiffed on their chance to join in by losing to Wofford in the third-place game. It's not an awful loss, but when you're a mid-major you need to win every one of these types of games to have a shot at a bid.
Also of note: Wofford 82, George Mason 79. I already mentioned this above as a negative for GMU, but it's a definite positive for the Terriers. They have a brutal early schedule, but unfortunately missed out on a chance for an even bigger win by losing to Xavier in triple-overtime last week. The 2-5 record also includes a loss to lowly Air Force, so an ambitious schedule goes for naught and Wofford will need to win their way in if they want to play in the NCAAs.
PARADISE JAM
Championship: Old Dominion Monarchs over Xavier Musketeers
Biggest positive: ODU. This is what you need to do if you're a mid-major hoping to be in at-large consideration come March. The Monarchs won the Paradise Jam Championship, beating St. Peter's (doesn't matter), Clemson (possible tournament team), and Xavier (very likely tournament team). That is two huge wins, and assuming they don't falter in a strong Colonial ODU is in great shape.
Biggest negative: Alabama Crimson Tide. From NCAA possibilities to the bottom of the league, the Tide embarrassed themselves, losing to Seton Hall (acceptable), Iowa (not acceptable), and St. Peter's (abominable). Remember in Monson's last year or almost last year when the Gophers went to the Old Spice Classic and went 0-3, including a loss to Montana? This is like that.
Also of note: Clemson 64, Seton Hall 58. Two teams that will likely find themselves in similar spots come year's end, this third place game could mean the difference between NCAA and NIT.
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND INVITATIONAL
Championship: BYU Cougars over St. Mary's Gaels
Biggest positive: BYU. It's questionable how much the two wins BYU picked up will really help them because I'm not sure South Florida or St. Mary's are tournament teams, but the way in which the Cougars won could be valuable in March. The win over South Florida went to double OT before BYU hit a game-winner, and then the win over the Gaels was a one point victory on a 3-pointer by the Jimmer with 10 seconds left. That kind of late game experience could pay-off big.
Biggest negative: Texas Tech. The obvious choice as a downer since they were the team that went 0-2, it's sad for Tech because they have an experienced team with postseason aspirations, but getting blown out by St. Mary's and then blowing the lead against USF late says they suck.
Also of note: Liberty 67, Chicago State 65. This tournament has two brackets, a good one and a crappy one, and Liberty won the crappy one. I can't think of a single reason why that's remotely noteworthy.
76 CLASSIC
Championship: UNLV Runnin' Rebels over Virginia Tech Hokies
Biggest positive: UNLV. Wins over both Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State give the Rebels two quality victories. Since the Mountain West is likely to be very solid again with four very good teams, even if they beat up on each other the Rebels are in good position to nab an NCAA bid once again.
Biggest negative: Murray State Racers. Murray State has been tabbed as this year's Butler - not a bad call considering there stellar play in March last year and that they have essentially that whole team back - but they missed out on a big opportunity here. After beating Stanford in round 1 they lost to both UNLV and Oklahoma State in the next two rounds, and neither game was close. With their earlier loss to Ole Miss and nothing really left on the schedule outside of the Ohio Valley conference games their hopes at an at-large disappeared this weekend.
Also of note: Virginia Tech 56, Oklahoma State 51. The Hokies have missed the tournament the past two years due to weak non-conference scheduling and a lack of quality out-of-conference wins. This at least gives them one good victory - more than they had either of the last two years.
CHICAGO INVITATIONAL CHALLENGE
Championship: Richmond Spiders over Purdue Boilermakers
Biggest positive: Richmond. The Spiders were supposed to be at the top of the Atlantic-10 this year and were considered a very likely NCAA Tournament team. An early loss to Iona, however, had experts like me questioning if this was just another in a long line of A-10 "sleepers" who were actually not very good. This win over Purdue helps put some of that unease to rest.
Biggest negative: Purdue. No surprise here, this was set-up as basically a coronation for Purdue, but Richmond spoiled that, and that's not good for the Boilers.
Also of note: Wright State 82, Oakland 79. Oakland (which is in Michigan) is supposed to be a mid-major sleeper due to the presence of seven-footer Keith Benson, but if you can't even beat Wright State...I mean, come on.
LEGENDS CLASSIC
Championship: Syracuse Orange over Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Biggest positive: Georgia Tech. They aren't going to make the NCAA tournament or anything, but the Yellow Jackets needed some positives after losing to lowly Kennesaw State early this year and looking like they might be nothing more than a big joke this season. Blowing out Albany and Niagara in the early rounds, beating UTEP in the semis, and then losing to the Cuse by just four in the final is a step in the right direction.
Biggest negative: Michigan Wolverines. Michigan started the year playing well, beating up on the cupcakes and then even hung tough with Syracuse in the semis, leading for most of the game before losing by just four. Unfortunately, instead of still salvaging something they ended up losing to UTEP in the third place game instead.
Also of note: Detroit Titans. There was a second, consolation regional held in Michigan, and Detroit won it by beating Albany, Bowling Green, and Niagara in consecutive days. Even if it's not exactly a murderer's row of opponents it's still a nice little run and was highlighted by former Indiana Hoosier Eli Holman who put up a double-double in each game. Detroit is a nice little sleeper in the Horizon.
LAS VEGAS INVITATIONAL
Championship: Kansas Jayhawks over Arizona Wildcats
Biggest positive: Kansas. The Jayhawks stomped MAC favorite Ohio, easily handled a very good Arizona team, now rank sixth in the polls and first according to Ken Pomeroy's tempo-free stats (www.kenpom.com). And they've done all this without the services of their top recruit Josh Selby. When he finally starts playing this team is an instant title contender. Of course, some times a high profile freshman disrupts chemistry to a point where the team gets worse, so let's hope for a little Kris Humphries/Stephon Marbury from Selby.
Biggest negative: Nobody, really. Everybody finished where they should, the good teams stomped the bad, and nobody's play stood out as exceptionally poor. If you had to pick one negative, go with Ohio. Last year's upset winner over Georgetown in the first round of the tournament was picked to win their conference again, and losing by 57 to Kansas is certainly not what they had in mind.
Also of note: Solomon Hill. Arizona has one of the best player's in the country in Derrick Williams, but he can't do it himself. If Hill can play like he did against Santa Clara (20 pts) rather than how he did against Kansas (9 pts) more often, Arizona will have a much better chance of getting back to the NCAA Tournament.
GREAT ALASKA SHOOTOUT
Championship: St. Johns Red Storm over Arizona State Sun Devils
Biggest positive: St. Johns, my Big East sleeper pick, started the season questionably enough, losing to St. Mary's, but handled themselves nicely in Alaska by going 3-0. With no other possible NCAA Tournament teams in this field, the Red Storm basically had to win this tournament. And they did.
Biggest negative: Ball State. Not that Ball State is supposed to be anything (it's been a long time since Theron Smith), but it's never good to lose to non-Division I squad, and the Cardinals were dropped by the host Alaska-Anchorage, and in embarrassing fashion, 62-44.
Also of note: Weber State 82, Drake 81. Weber State won't be an at-large NCAA team, but they are considered the favorites to come out of the Big Sky, and taking third place in Alaska is a solid outing for this team. Plus Mrs. W went to Weber State for a year and I visit Ogden almost yearly, so it's always nice to give them a little pub.
And that should pretty well cover it. There were a few others, but really nobody cares who wins the Cancun Challenge or the Philly Hoop Group Classic because the teams involved are irrelevant, and I think I've typed just about enough for one evening. There are a bunch more of these tournaments coming up around Christmas-time, including a couple involving Big Ten representation (Northwestern in the MSG Holiday Festival and Indiana in the Las Vegas Classic) so I might recap them after the holidays. By then I'm pretty sure there will be nothing left to care about as far as the Gophers are concerned. That team is absolute garbage.
Showing posts with label Cory Joseph. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cory Joseph. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Week in Review - 4/26/2010
Obviously the big news of the weekend was Cory Joseph signing on with the Texas Longhorns for next season. I'm disappointed, of course, but not surprised. When every article discussing him and his possibilities only talked about Villanova and Texas, I started to think that maybe Gopher fans were fooling themselves, much the way Iowa State fans acted about Harrison Barnes - the rest of the world knew they were just in as a finalist as a courtesy. I don't know if that is the case with Joseph and the Gophers or not, but he's going to Texas and should do well. Of course, the delusions are already coming, as I read from one Gopher fan that "Cory isn't as good as Devoe" and expect a lot more to come, as well as quite a bit of reveling in any Texas misery that may come their way this year.
I say good luck to Cory, and I have no real issue with his decision. Texas is a far better program than Minnesota, and I don't know how anybody could argue otherwise. Despite cries that Rick Barnes underachieves with the talent he gets, and he probably does, he still makes the tournament every single year and puts players in the NBA. Really the only thing the Gophers had going for them were that Cory's friend and his brother were here, but Texas had two of his former teammates as well - one of which who was a pretty good friend. I'm pretty sure if I were in the same spot (and didn't have my homegrown Gopher bias) I would have made the same decision. It would have been a hell of a get if Tubby could have pulled this one off. It's time to close up shop and go into next year with what's already in the holster - I don't really like anything that's still out there for 2010. This team should be around a 6-7 seed this year, and hopefully good enough to finally win a first round game.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Justin Morneau. I'm guessing you haven't realized this because you really aren't all that bright, but guess who leads the major league in on-base percentage; yep, the giant-headed Canadian. He's currently reaching base at a .511 clip (including .607 this week), which combined with his .368 average and .647 slugging means he is straight up mashing the ball right now. Even when he's not lacing base hits he's walking like crazy - 20 times already this year, leading the major leagues. That actually brings me to another point, which is that the Twins are actually leading the majors in walks as a team. They're leading the league. Doesn't that just seem bizarre? Did you ever think you'd see the day? Morneau obviously leads at his position, while Mauer is fourth, Hudson fifth, Hardy 7th, Brendan Harris is 12th in limited playing time, and amongst outfielders Span is second and Kubel is fourth. Really out of the important batters only Cuddyer and Delmon don't walk (Thome has more than either of them), and it's just fun to watch a bunch of guys on the same time who know how to get the pitch they want and know how to work the pitcher to get it - and it's effective to, as seen by them having the AL Central basically locked up already.
2. Mike Leake. He didn't have two wins this week and wasn't especially dominant, but he did pick up his first career win so it's time to recognize him a bit. Snake is the one who tipped me off to the Cincinnati rookie, so of course he's on our fantasy team, and he's looking really solid this year - just one year removed from Arizona State. He was picked by the Reds ninth overall last season, and made his debut this season with no minor league ball in between - something the Nationals are too stupid or too cheap to due with Strasburg. He's gone at least 6 and 2/3 innings in each of his three starts this year, and his overall numbers are a 1.55 WHIP, 3.92 ERA, and a 13/13 K/BB ratio. None of those are especially impressive, but remember those are through just three professional starts at any level. Once this kid makes the adjustment he's going to be very, very good. Think Mike Mussina-like.
3. San Diego Padres. I suppose it's time to recognize that the Padres have a good team. There's still a chance it's all a fluke, and a good chance at that, but with a - record it's time to at least consider the possibility that the Padres have turned it around and are a quality team again. They're 11-7 now after losing to the Reds on Sunday, but before that they had won 8 in a row, and still sit atop the NL West, ahead of the Giants, Rockies, and Dodgers. And, as you would probably guess, they are doing it with pitching. Their team ERA is just 2.73 - tops in the majors - and both the starters and the bullpen and having great years thus far. They'll most likely fade by the all-star break, but there are enough good young arms here that if they get any offense at all they might be able to play the spoiler. In any case, it's a lot of fun having the Padres be a good team.
4. Ike Davis. The Mets promoted Ike to the majors a bit early in order to jump start their offense and fan interest, and so far Mr. Davis has responded well and done exactly what they needed him to. He has hit .318 since he was called up on Monday, has reached base in every game except last night's shortened game, and the Mets have gone 6-1. They're still a crappy team, but they are playing quite a bit better in the last week. Clearly, it's all because of Ike Davis. This guy must be the next David Eckstein - you know, how he makes everybody else on the team better. Or he's the Mets answer to Jeter, but far less gay and annoying. Looking like a Twins vs. Mets World Series. Book your tickets now.
5. Doug Fister. You've probably never heard of this guy, I know I certainly hadn't, but he's a second-year starter for the Mariners and he's putting up some pretty impressive numbers so far this year. He'd be sitting at 3-1 right now if the world's worst closer other than Bobby Jenks, David Aardsma, hadn't blown his win on Saturday. Fister went 8 strong innings, giving up just 2 runs on 8 hits, which followed up his earlier outing on Monday, when he went seven solid against the Orioles, allowing just 1 run on 3 hits. He's currently at just a 1.67 ERA with a WHIP of 0.93. His lack of strikeouts (just 4.5 per 9) and a sickly-low BABIP against (.212) say that he's not the kind of ace who is going to be able to keep this up, but for now at least he's looking like a pretty solid middle-of-the-rotation type starter. And also "Fister? I hardly knew 'er!"
WHO SUCKED
1. Royals' Bullpen. Seriously, how many games of Greinke's are these guys going to blow? Zach's struggled a bit out of the gate, but on Wednesday he left the game after the 7th with a lead after giving up just two hits (of course, one of the was a 2-run home run) and then people named Josh Rupe and John Parrish take just three batters to blow the lead. And I guess I just answered my own question. Look at these names before you get to Soria: Josh Rupe, John Parrish, Dusty Hughes, Robinson Tejeda, Juan Cruz, and Kyle Farnsworth (and we saw most of these guys melt-down to varying degrees in the Twins series over the weekend). Pretty much all these guys have already failed elsewhere, and I don't mean failed as starters I mean they've already failed at being middle relievers. The only guy who was every good was Farnsworth, but along with the weird perm and nerd glasses he's lost the ability to pitch as well. Just brutal. And I know you don't care about mine and Snake's fantasy team, except that really you do if you just admit it to yourself, but we need those wins from Greinke. It looks like he's going to have to go 8 innings to get to Soria or just finish it out himself if he's ever going to win again. And if he keeps not throwing enough strikes he's never going to get there. Nobody can hit you Zacky, just toss that pill over the plate. And win, baby. Win.
2. Carlos Zambrano. There really isn't a good way to spin getting demoted from #1 starter to bullpen set-up guy into a positive. So, uh. I guess that's it then.
3. Pittsburgh Pirates. So much for the great Pirate resurgence. They started out pretty well, but unlike the Padres have been unable to sustain it, going - this week, and man, the fall has been spectacular. They started the week 7-6 and are finishing it 7-12 after getting swept by the Brewers and the piss-poor Astros. And that Brewer series was especially horrible, with the Pirates losing 8-1, 8-0, and 20-0. Overall for the week they were outscored 55-9. Special shout-out to their pathetic offense, by the way. Akinori Iwamura 1-18. Ronny Cedeno 2-17. Lastings Milledge 2-14. Delwyn Young 1-14. Just a really spectacular effort all around.
4. Seattle Seahawks. I suppose on the weekend of the NFL draft it's inevitable that I'd have to comment on something football related, and the Seahawks are the lucky team to draw my considerable wrath. This is about their draft, which based on my limited knowledge actually looks like a really good one, but it's based on their brand new stable of running backs. The returners are Julius Jones and someone named Justin Forsett, and they actually traded for LenDale White and Leon Washington this weekend. Like, actually traded for them, not just signed them to a minor-league deal or whatever. Look at those four running backs. You know, you can keep throwing turds in a bowl, it doesn't make it a salad. And, more importantly, you don't win friends with salad.
5. Jason Kubel. You know I frickin' love the guy, but what in the holy hell is going on? This week was just a complete nightmare (1-19, 1 single, 8 Ks), which dropped his season average to .169 and his slugging to a Punto-esque .288. He's still walking (13 this year) so even when he isn't hitting he brings value to the team, but he needs to stop being so crappy or I will totally break up with him. I still have faith, but I'm pretty sure he's getting benched for this fantasy week.
I feel like I should have had some kind of NBA playoffs thing in here somewhere, but so far they've been pretty boring. Also, in my defense,
"FISTER? I damn near killed 'er!"
I say good luck to Cory, and I have no real issue with his decision. Texas is a far better program than Minnesota, and I don't know how anybody could argue otherwise. Despite cries that Rick Barnes underachieves with the talent he gets, and he probably does, he still makes the tournament every single year and puts players in the NBA. Really the only thing the Gophers had going for them were that Cory's friend and his brother were here, but Texas had two of his former teammates as well - one of which who was a pretty good friend. I'm pretty sure if I were in the same spot (and didn't have my homegrown Gopher bias) I would have made the same decision. It would have been a hell of a get if Tubby could have pulled this one off. It's time to close up shop and go into next year with what's already in the holster - I don't really like anything that's still out there for 2010. This team should be around a 6-7 seed this year, and hopefully good enough to finally win a first round game.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Justin Morneau. I'm guessing you haven't realized this because you really aren't all that bright, but guess who leads the major league in on-base percentage; yep, the giant-headed Canadian. He's currently reaching base at a .511 clip (including .607 this week), which combined with his .368 average and .647 slugging means he is straight up mashing the ball right now. Even when he's not lacing base hits he's walking like crazy - 20 times already this year, leading the major leagues. That actually brings me to another point, which is that the Twins are actually leading the majors in walks as a team. They're leading the league. Doesn't that just seem bizarre? Did you ever think you'd see the day? Morneau obviously leads at his position, while Mauer is fourth, Hudson fifth, Hardy 7th, Brendan Harris is 12th in limited playing time, and amongst outfielders Span is second and Kubel is fourth. Really out of the important batters only Cuddyer and Delmon don't walk (Thome has more than either of them), and it's just fun to watch a bunch of guys on the same time who know how to get the pitch they want and know how to work the pitcher to get it - and it's effective to, as seen by them having the AL Central basically locked up already.
2. Mike Leake. He didn't have two wins this week and wasn't especially dominant, but he did pick up his first career win so it's time to recognize him a bit. Snake is the one who tipped me off to the Cincinnati rookie, so of course he's on our fantasy team, and he's looking really solid this year - just one year removed from Arizona State. He was picked by the Reds ninth overall last season, and made his debut this season with no minor league ball in between - something the Nationals are too stupid or too cheap to due with Strasburg. He's gone at least 6 and 2/3 innings in each of his three starts this year, and his overall numbers are a 1.55 WHIP, 3.92 ERA, and a 13/13 K/BB ratio. None of those are especially impressive, but remember those are through just three professional starts at any level. Once this kid makes the adjustment he's going to be very, very good. Think Mike Mussina-like.
3. San Diego Padres. I suppose it's time to recognize that the Padres have a good team. There's still a chance it's all a fluke, and a good chance at that, but with a - record it's time to at least consider the possibility that the Padres have turned it around and are a quality team again. They're 11-7 now after losing to the Reds on Sunday, but before that they had won 8 in a row, and still sit atop the NL West, ahead of the Giants, Rockies, and Dodgers. And, as you would probably guess, they are doing it with pitching. Their team ERA is just 2.73 - tops in the majors - and both the starters and the bullpen and having great years thus far. They'll most likely fade by the all-star break, but there are enough good young arms here that if they get any offense at all they might be able to play the spoiler. In any case, it's a lot of fun having the Padres be a good team.
4. Ike Davis. The Mets promoted Ike to the majors a bit early in order to jump start their offense and fan interest, and so far Mr. Davis has responded well and done exactly what they needed him to. He has hit .318 since he was called up on Monday, has reached base in every game except last night's shortened game, and the Mets have gone 6-1. They're still a crappy team, but they are playing quite a bit better in the last week. Clearly, it's all because of Ike Davis. This guy must be the next David Eckstein - you know, how he makes everybody else on the team better. Or he's the Mets answer to Jeter, but far less gay and annoying. Looking like a Twins vs. Mets World Series. Book your tickets now.
5. Doug Fister. You've probably never heard of this guy, I know I certainly hadn't, but he's a second-year starter for the Mariners and he's putting up some pretty impressive numbers so far this year. He'd be sitting at 3-1 right now if the world's worst closer other than Bobby Jenks, David Aardsma, hadn't blown his win on Saturday. Fister went 8 strong innings, giving up just 2 runs on 8 hits, which followed up his earlier outing on Monday, when he went seven solid against the Orioles, allowing just 1 run on 3 hits. He's currently at just a 1.67 ERA with a WHIP of 0.93. His lack of strikeouts (just 4.5 per 9) and a sickly-low BABIP against (.212) say that he's not the kind of ace who is going to be able to keep this up, but for now at least he's looking like a pretty solid middle-of-the-rotation type starter. And also "Fister? I hardly knew 'er!"
WHO SUCKED
1. Royals' Bullpen. Seriously, how many games of Greinke's are these guys going to blow? Zach's struggled a bit out of the gate, but on Wednesday he left the game after the 7th with a lead after giving up just two hits (of course, one of the was a 2-run home run) and then people named Josh Rupe and John Parrish take just three batters to blow the lead. And I guess I just answered my own question. Look at these names before you get to Soria: Josh Rupe, John Parrish, Dusty Hughes, Robinson Tejeda, Juan Cruz, and Kyle Farnsworth (and we saw most of these guys melt-down to varying degrees in the Twins series over the weekend). Pretty much all these guys have already failed elsewhere, and I don't mean failed as starters I mean they've already failed at being middle relievers. The only guy who was every good was Farnsworth, but along with the weird perm and nerd glasses he's lost the ability to pitch as well. Just brutal. And I know you don't care about mine and Snake's fantasy team, except that really you do if you just admit it to yourself, but we need those wins from Greinke. It looks like he's going to have to go 8 innings to get to Soria or just finish it out himself if he's ever going to win again. And if he keeps not throwing enough strikes he's never going to get there. Nobody can hit you Zacky, just toss that pill over the plate. And win, baby. Win.
2. Carlos Zambrano. There really isn't a good way to spin getting demoted from #1 starter to bullpen set-up guy into a positive. So, uh. I guess that's it then.
3. Pittsburgh Pirates. So much for the great Pirate resurgence. They started out pretty well, but unlike the Padres have been unable to sustain it, going - this week, and man, the fall has been spectacular. They started the week 7-6 and are finishing it 7-12 after getting swept by the Brewers and the piss-poor Astros. And that Brewer series was especially horrible, with the Pirates losing 8-1, 8-0, and 20-0. Overall for the week they were outscored 55-9. Special shout-out to their pathetic offense, by the way. Akinori Iwamura 1-18. Ronny Cedeno 2-17. Lastings Milledge 2-14. Delwyn Young 1-14. Just a really spectacular effort all around.
4. Seattle Seahawks. I suppose on the weekend of the NFL draft it's inevitable that I'd have to comment on something football related, and the Seahawks are the lucky team to draw my considerable wrath. This is about their draft, which based on my limited knowledge actually looks like a really good one, but it's based on their brand new stable of running backs. The returners are Julius Jones and someone named Justin Forsett, and they actually traded for LenDale White and Leon Washington this weekend. Like, actually traded for them, not just signed them to a minor-league deal or whatever. Look at those four running backs. You know, you can keep throwing turds in a bowl, it doesn't make it a salad. And, more importantly, you don't win friends with salad.
5. Jason Kubel. You know I frickin' love the guy, but what in the holy hell is going on? This week was just a complete nightmare (1-19, 1 single, 8 Ks), which dropped his season average to .169 and his slugging to a Punto-esque .288. He's still walking (13 this year) so even when he isn't hitting he brings value to the team, but he needs to stop being so crappy or I will totally break up with him. I still have faith, but I'm pretty sure he's getting benched for this fantasy week.
I feel like I should have had some kind of NBA playoffs thing in here somewhere, but so far they've been pretty boring. Also, in my defense,
"FISTER? I damn near killed 'er!"
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Cory Joseph Odds
As made up by me
Villanova -200
Texas -150
Minnesota +125
UCONN +180
UNLV +500
My money is on Texas.
Villanova -200
Texas -150
Minnesota +125
UCONN +180
UNLV +500
My money is on Texas.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Latvian dude committs to Gophers
Pioneer Press link.
Tubby has been busy securing commitments here in the late signing period for 2010, snagging his second one in a week in 6-6 Latvian forward Oto Osenieks, late of Illinois. He's an interesting dude, given that he's a 6-9 Euro whose most often cited skills are his outside shot and his ball-handling, and that he weighs just 215 lbs. and would get snapped in half by the average big ten power forward.
I can't find a whole lot about him since he's fairly new to the national picture, playing just one year in the U.S., but it seems there are a lot of questions about his size and athleticism, but he's got a high basketball IQ and a dead-eye shot - he's also 20 years old, which I see as a positive in this type of player. He's probably already close to his overall potential, but he's also probably honed his on-court smarts more than your average freshman and knows his limits. When I picture him and try to project him into the big ten based on the limited info and few youtube highlights I've seen I'm seeing an upside of a John Shurna with the downside of can't play defense and is killer in mop-up duty.
Osenieks is the fourth player to sign for the class of 2010 and the fourth player who projects to more of a role-player/contributor than a star. Not that there is anything necessarily so bad about that. After two consecutive top-25 nationally ranked classes, sometimes you just need to fill in some gaps. But, really, it's a pretty underwhelming class so far. Mo Walker looks like the only guy who's going to be a contributor right away, so the returnees better all continue to improve or we're looking at another 10 seed at best. We can evaluate this class better down the line, obviously, so I'm not going to rip Tubby for this. I'll save my Tubby ripping for the mistakes he makes during games this season and his lineup choices.
Make sure you check out this link of Oto in action. Seriously. You need to see this (and yes, it's really him). I'd just embed it, but youtube is being a real douche right now.
Tubby has been busy securing commitments here in the late signing period for 2010, snagging his second one in a week in 6-6 Latvian forward Oto Osenieks, late of Illinois. He's an interesting dude, given that he's a 6-9 Euro whose most often cited skills are his outside shot and his ball-handling, and that he weighs just 215 lbs. and would get snapped in half by the average big ten power forward.
I can't find a whole lot about him since he's fairly new to the national picture, playing just one year in the U.S., but it seems there are a lot of questions about his size and athleticism, but he's got a high basketball IQ and a dead-eye shot - he's also 20 years old, which I see as a positive in this type of player. He's probably already close to his overall potential, but he's also probably honed his on-court smarts more than your average freshman and knows his limits. When I picture him and try to project him into the big ten based on the limited info and few youtube highlights I've seen I'm seeing an upside of a John Shurna with the downside of can't play defense and is killer in mop-up duty.
Osenieks is the fourth player to sign for the class of 2010 and the fourth player who projects to more of a role-player/contributor than a star. Not that there is anything necessarily so bad about that. After two consecutive top-25 nationally ranked classes, sometimes you just need to fill in some gaps. But, really, it's a pretty underwhelming class so far. Mo Walker looks like the only guy who's going to be a contributor right away, so the returnees better all continue to improve or we're looking at another 10 seed at best. We can evaluate this class better down the line, obviously, so I'm not going to rip Tubby for this. I'll save my Tubby ripping for the mistakes he makes during games this season and his lineup choices.
Make sure you check out this link of Oto in action. Seriously. You need to see this (and yes, it's really him). I'd just embed it, but youtube is being a real douche right now.
Week in Review - 4/19/2009
I was really hoping to be able to write up how Cory Joseph decided to sign with the Gophers on Saturday since he had said he'd make his decision after the Jordan Brand game, but apparently "after" didn't mean right after like it did for Josh Selby and Doron Lamb, but instead means "eventually." The good news is that at least he didn't declare for somebody else yet, so the Gophers are still alive. The latest rumor is that he's already made up his mind and it's been a three team race for quite some time, which probably means it was down to Minnesota, Texas, and Villanova. I'm still guessing he ends up at Texas, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The final date to sign is May 19th, so I guess we'll know by then.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Francisco Liriano. I'm not ready to go with the whole "he's back" thing or anything, but Thursday's outing against the Gay Sox was a very good sign. Looking a bit deeper into the numbers, Liriano seems to be closer to the 2006 version of himself than last year's. After the injury, he was too reliant on his fastball, throwing the pitch over 50% of the time (54% in 2008 and 56% in 2009) compared to 44% in 2006 despite having lost velocity (90.9mph average in 2008 and 91.7 in 2009 compared to 94.7 in 2006). The good news is he's very close to recapturing his 2006 numbers so far this season. He has thrown his fastball just 46% of the time and the velocity is back up at 93.6mph on average). He's also throwing more strikes, with 64% of his pitches going for strikes compared to just 60% last year (and he was at 66% in 2006). He's also working the change up more often, throwing it 24% of the time, a career high by 4% thus far. Like I said, I'm not saying he's back, but to be able to thrown 7 shutout innings with 8 Ks and to do it throwing just 96 pitches is huge for Liriano. Backing it up with the numbers above is a good sign. Now, his overall K/9 are down, his BB/9 is up, and his BABIP is a fluky low .238 right now so I'm not jumping into the bandwagon with both feet just yet, but things are heading in the right direction.
2. Chase Utley. Hey guy. Small white second-basemen aren't supposed to rake like this, just ask Steve Lombardozzi or Wally Backman. But instead, Utley just does his own thing and continually hits the ball out of the park, something he did five times this week in six games, including four in his three games against the Nationals. This guy is just an absolute stud. If you look at his last five years, and take the worst year he had in each statistic and combined them, he still ends up at .282-22-93. Those are his worst numbers, and don't forget we''re talking about a second basemen, something that of course means nothing to Dawger who probably thinks Utley is no better than Michael Cuddyer. That is if Dawger has even heard of Utley. That guy's knowledge of national league players is on par with my cat. Oh, and I looked up Utley's height and he's actually 6-1 so he's not really all that small, just seems like it because he's so white.
3. Matt Garza. Two weeks into the season, and two weeks that Garza has made this list. On Sunday all he did was shut down the Red Sox, giving up no runs and just four hits in 8 innings of work, and that followed up his outing on Monday, where he shut down the Orioles giving up just one run and six hits in 8 more spectacular innings. That runs his season totals now to 3-0 with a 0.75 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP, and he's struck out more batters than he's allowed hits. Sigh. At least Delmon is starting to hit the ball - the numbers might not show it but he's raking the ball, just not getting hits out of it - but I think this trade goes down as a suck no matter what. Ignoring the peripheral players and just look at the main pieces, Delmon would basically have to end up hitting like Albert Pujols or A-Rod to make this into a fair deal. Seriously Garza has become a top shelf stud. He has a fastball that reaches the mid-90s and has a foot of tail, a mid-80s slider that breaks two feet, a killer slow curve and has finally developed that change-up that caused all the drama back in the day. Plus he has a cute little beard. Sigh.
4. Livan Hernandez. I'm trying to think of things that are less likely than Livan throwing a complete game shutout, which he did on Saturday against the Brewers. So far all I've come up with is a threesome with Brad Pitt, Rosie O'Donnell, and Roseanne, Al Nolen leading the conference in three point percentage, Colt Iverson hitting a shot from further than 8 feet out, and Snacks becoming a big fan of Mike Cuddyer. There are a whole lot Brewers who need to be embarrassed. Not Rickie Weeks though. That guy is the shit.
5. Ubaldo Jimenez. The funny thing about Jimenez tossing a no-hitter on Saturday against the Braves is that my co-worker, Elk, was just telling me about how he was coming around and looking really good this year. Since Elk has him on his fantasy team, I was pretty sure he was just talking up his own player, like how Gardy tries to keep telling us all that Matt Tolbert is awesome. Turns out, the guy can sling the pill. I caught the last inning of the game, and Ubaldo was still hitting 98 on the gun in the 9th. That's pretty impressive. So maybe this guy is pretty good. If only a regular reader and commenter on this blog was a Rockies' season ticket holder, maybe we could get some real insight. Oh, and you better hope Huston Street comes back quick, because Morales is freakin' terrible. You can't trust a left-handed closer, everybody knows that.
(what the holy hell is the point of this stupid thing?)
WHO SUCKED
1. Jose Mijares. If there is a dark lining to this silver cloud of a Twins season thus far, it was been the struggles of Jose Mijares to get anybody out, now culminating in a trip to the DL in what I suspect is as much of a "figure this thing out" kind of move as it is an injury move. Mijares has thrown a total of 3 innings over five appearances, and is allowing nearly three base-runners per inning (6 hits, 2 walks) and currently sports a 6.00 ERA and has struck out just two batters so far this year - not exactly the kind of numbers you want to see from an eighth inning guy. I don't know if it means anything, but his fastball is down about 1.5 mph compared to last year and he's throwing his changeup about twice as often this year as he used to. Has he lost something off his fastball and subsequently lost faith in it? I don't know, but I do hope whatever is going on this little DL trip can fix it, because as much as I like Duensing him and Mahay as the lefties out of the bullpen doesn't fill me with confidence.
2. Jason Marquis. Hey, remember when the Nationals signed Marquis to a 2-year/$15 million deal this offseason coming off a 15-win season for the Rockies? And remember how Rockies' fans were like, "take him" and everyone else was kind of like, "whoa, really? $15 million for Marquis?" Well, his living up to that this week. In his two starts this week he managed just 4 and 1/3 innings, allowing thirteen base-runners - every single one of which scored. Yes, that's 13 earned runs in 4 and 1/3 innings. His season numbers right now are and 0-3 record with a 20.52 ERA and a 2.88 WHIP. Yes, and ERA over 20. He's certainly earning that $7.5 million this year. My favorite part was when he pitched against the Brewers on Saturday and it went single-single-single-hit by pitch-walk-hit by pitch-single-Marquis yanked. Quality outing.
3. Jason Frasor. You wanted him to be a Twin, which once again proves you don't know what the holy hell you're talking about. You're also probably really impressed that he has three saves, paying little attention to the fact that he's blown two also and is currently rocking a 5.68 ERA, which is already improved from the 6+ number he was carrying at the beginning of the week. At least the Blue Jays are paying attention, and they've yanked the closer role away from Frasor and given it to the decidedly average Kevin Gregg. What this all means is that the guy you wanted to the Twins to trade precious prospects for to close games for them was beaten out for the role on a crappy Blue Jay team by a guy who put up an ERA north of 4.70 the last time he was closing games. Good call, genius.
4. Cincinnati Reds. The Reds were so awesome this week they were actually swept by the Pirates, in what was the first Pirate sweep since 1987, or so I assume without looking anything up. And it wasn't just during that series that the Reds sucked, they've been pretty rough so far this year and sit at 5-8. Out of their players who qualify for the batting title, Joey Votto is the only one hitting over .250 - Jay Bruce and Drew Stubbs are hitting under .200. And it's not just the hitters. Aaron Harang looks to have fallen off the cliff, Johnny Cueto isn't developing, and speaking of not developing Homer Bailey is starting to look like the type of prospect who has all the tools on paper but can't ever pull it together - like David West but with more talent. They have yet another new little youngster arm in Mike Leake who has looked really good so far, but if the rest of the youngins' don't start playing and stay just "potentially good", it's going to be yet another losing season in Cincy.
5. Chef Boyardee. Can someone please tell me why the Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs has a different sauce than every other Chef Boyardee? The Ravioli is top notch, and the peripheral spinoffs like Beef-a-roni and Lasagna are basically the same thing, but then you get to the spaghetti and meatballs and it's like WTF, Mr. B? We shove this at WonderbabyTM every so often and she likes most of it (as do I, if we're being honest here - try the mini raviolis, top notch) but we tried the spaghetti the other day and it seriously made her angry, like an old man sending back soup at a deli. So I tried it, and it was like eating evil. Why would you use the exact same, deliciously sodium-filled sauce on the majority of your project and then detour into some sort of unholy combination of what I can only assume is fire and brimstone on what should probably be your flagship pasta variation? For shame. And did you know there isn't even an actual Chef Boyardee? So nobody actually has to answer for this abomination. Except for the sham executives. You know who you are. Between this and all the dead hookers, I bet you can't even sleep at night.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Francisco Liriano. I'm not ready to go with the whole "he's back" thing or anything, but Thursday's outing against the Gay Sox was a very good sign. Looking a bit deeper into the numbers, Liriano seems to be closer to the 2006 version of himself than last year's. After the injury, he was too reliant on his fastball, throwing the pitch over 50% of the time (54% in 2008 and 56% in 2009) compared to 44% in 2006 despite having lost velocity (90.9mph average in 2008 and 91.7 in 2009 compared to 94.7 in 2006). The good news is he's very close to recapturing his 2006 numbers so far this season. He has thrown his fastball just 46% of the time and the velocity is back up at 93.6mph on average). He's also throwing more strikes, with 64% of his pitches going for strikes compared to just 60% last year (and he was at 66% in 2006). He's also working the change up more often, throwing it 24% of the time, a career high by 4% thus far. Like I said, I'm not saying he's back, but to be able to thrown 7 shutout innings with 8 Ks and to do it throwing just 96 pitches is huge for Liriano. Backing it up with the numbers above is a good sign. Now, his overall K/9 are down, his BB/9 is up, and his BABIP is a fluky low .238 right now so I'm not jumping into the bandwagon with both feet just yet, but things are heading in the right direction.
2. Chase Utley. Hey guy. Small white second-basemen aren't supposed to rake like this, just ask Steve Lombardozzi or Wally Backman. But instead, Utley just does his own thing and continually hits the ball out of the park, something he did five times this week in six games, including four in his three games against the Nationals. This guy is just an absolute stud. If you look at his last five years, and take the worst year he had in each statistic and combined them, he still ends up at .282-22-93. Those are his worst numbers, and don't forget we''re talking about a second basemen, something that of course means nothing to Dawger who probably thinks Utley is no better than Michael Cuddyer. That is if Dawger has even heard of Utley. That guy's knowledge of national league players is on par with my cat. Oh, and I looked up Utley's height and he's actually 6-1 so he's not really all that small, just seems like it because he's so white.
3. Matt Garza. Two weeks into the season, and two weeks that Garza has made this list. On Sunday all he did was shut down the Red Sox, giving up no runs and just four hits in 8 innings of work, and that followed up his outing on Monday, where he shut down the Orioles giving up just one run and six hits in 8 more spectacular innings. That runs his season totals now to 3-0 with a 0.75 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP, and he's struck out more batters than he's allowed hits. Sigh. At least Delmon is starting to hit the ball - the numbers might not show it but he's raking the ball, just not getting hits out of it - but I think this trade goes down as a suck no matter what. Ignoring the peripheral players and just look at the main pieces, Delmon would basically have to end up hitting like Albert Pujols or A-Rod to make this into a fair deal. Seriously Garza has become a top shelf stud. He has a fastball that reaches the mid-90s and has a foot of tail, a mid-80s slider that breaks two feet, a killer slow curve and has finally developed that change-up that caused all the drama back in the day. Plus he has a cute little beard. Sigh.
4. Livan Hernandez. I'm trying to think of things that are less likely than Livan throwing a complete game shutout, which he did on Saturday against the Brewers. So far all I've come up with is a threesome with Brad Pitt, Rosie O'Donnell, and Roseanne, Al Nolen leading the conference in three point percentage, Colt Iverson hitting a shot from further than 8 feet out, and Snacks becoming a big fan of Mike Cuddyer. There are a whole lot Brewers who need to be embarrassed. Not Rickie Weeks though. That guy is the shit.
5. Ubaldo Jimenez. The funny thing about Jimenez tossing a no-hitter on Saturday against the Braves is that my co-worker, Elk, was just telling me about how he was coming around and looking really good this year. Since Elk has him on his fantasy team, I was pretty sure he was just talking up his own player, like how Gardy tries to keep telling us all that Matt Tolbert is awesome. Turns out, the guy can sling the pill. I caught the last inning of the game, and Ubaldo was still hitting 98 on the gun in the 9th. That's pretty impressive. So maybe this guy is pretty good. If only a regular reader and commenter on this blog was a Rockies' season ticket holder, maybe we could get some real insight. Oh, and you better hope Huston Street comes back quick, because Morales is freakin' terrible. You can't trust a left-handed closer, everybody knows that.
WHO SUCKED
1. Jose Mijares. If there is a dark lining to this silver cloud of a Twins season thus far, it was been the struggles of Jose Mijares to get anybody out, now culminating in a trip to the DL in what I suspect is as much of a "figure this thing out" kind of move as it is an injury move. Mijares has thrown a total of 3 innings over five appearances, and is allowing nearly three base-runners per inning (6 hits, 2 walks) and currently sports a 6.00 ERA and has struck out just two batters so far this year - not exactly the kind of numbers you want to see from an eighth inning guy. I don't know if it means anything, but his fastball is down about 1.5 mph compared to last year and he's throwing his changeup about twice as often this year as he used to. Has he lost something off his fastball and subsequently lost faith in it? I don't know, but I do hope whatever is going on this little DL trip can fix it, because as much as I like Duensing him and Mahay as the lefties out of the bullpen doesn't fill me with confidence.
2. Jason Marquis. Hey, remember when the Nationals signed Marquis to a 2-year/$15 million deal this offseason coming off a 15-win season for the Rockies? And remember how Rockies' fans were like, "take him" and everyone else was kind of like, "whoa, really? $15 million for Marquis?" Well, his living up to that this week. In his two starts this week he managed just 4 and 1/3 innings, allowing thirteen base-runners - every single one of which scored. Yes, that's 13 earned runs in 4 and 1/3 innings. His season numbers right now are and 0-3 record with a 20.52 ERA and a 2.88 WHIP. Yes, and ERA over 20. He's certainly earning that $7.5 million this year. My favorite part was when he pitched against the Brewers on Saturday and it went single-single-single-hit by pitch-walk-hit by pitch-single-Marquis yanked. Quality outing.
3. Jason Frasor. You wanted him to be a Twin, which once again proves you don't know what the holy hell you're talking about. You're also probably really impressed that he has three saves, paying little attention to the fact that he's blown two also and is currently rocking a 5.68 ERA, which is already improved from the 6+ number he was carrying at the beginning of the week. At least the Blue Jays are paying attention, and they've yanked the closer role away from Frasor and given it to the decidedly average Kevin Gregg. What this all means is that the guy you wanted to the Twins to trade precious prospects for to close games for them was beaten out for the role on a crappy Blue Jay team by a guy who put up an ERA north of 4.70 the last time he was closing games. Good call, genius.
4. Cincinnati Reds. The Reds were so awesome this week they were actually swept by the Pirates, in what was the first Pirate sweep since 1987, or so I assume without looking anything up. And it wasn't just during that series that the Reds sucked, they've been pretty rough so far this year and sit at 5-8. Out of their players who qualify for the batting title, Joey Votto is the only one hitting over .250 - Jay Bruce and Drew Stubbs are hitting under .200. And it's not just the hitters. Aaron Harang looks to have fallen off the cliff, Johnny Cueto isn't developing, and speaking of not developing Homer Bailey is starting to look like the type of prospect who has all the tools on paper but can't ever pull it together - like David West but with more talent. They have yet another new little youngster arm in Mike Leake who has looked really good so far, but if the rest of the youngins' don't start playing and stay just "potentially good", it's going to be yet another losing season in Cincy.
5. Chef Boyardee. Can someone please tell me why the Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs has a different sauce than every other Chef Boyardee? The Ravioli is top notch, and the peripheral spinoffs like Beef-a-roni and Lasagna are basically the same thing, but then you get to the spaghetti and meatballs and it's like WTF, Mr. B? We shove this at WonderbabyTM every so often and she likes most of it (as do I, if we're being honest here - try the mini raviolis, top notch) but we tried the spaghetti the other day and it seriously made her angry, like an old man sending back soup at a deli. So I tried it, and it was like eating evil. Why would you use the exact same, deliciously sodium-filled sauce on the majority of your project and then detour into some sort of unholy combination of what I can only assume is fire and brimstone on what should probably be your flagship pasta variation? For shame. And did you know there isn't even an actual Chef Boyardee? So nobody actually has to answer for this abomination. Except for the sham executives. You know who you are. Between this and all the dead hookers, I bet you can't even sleep at night.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Fare thee Well, Justin Cobbs
As you have probably heard by now, Justin Cobbs is "probably" transferring, presumably to be closer to home in California, and I'm pretty sure the "probably" means "definitely but not quite committing to anything just in case." I'd expect him to turn up at a second-tier school in California like Fullerton or Pepperdine and he'll probably turn out to do quite well.
I know a lot of people thought Cobbs was pretty bad and not really a Big Ten caliber point guard, but I saw a freshman with potential who never felt confident in himself. Now, by potential, I don't mean star potential, but I think he would have been a solid back-up and possible starter by his senior year. Sure, he made a good amount of mistakes, but he was a freshman. Freshman make mistakes, and when they're pulled from the game as soon as they make one it limits their minutes considerably and each miscue seems magnified. I saw the mistakes, but I also saw what looked like a smart player who understood how to play the point as a pass-first guard, to the point where he seemed to rarely even look for a shot. This, despite the fact that he won the team's preseason three-point contest.
I really do just think it was a matter of confidence and time, and Cobbs didn't have enough of either. All in all, going someplace like a Santa Clara or Long Beach will be good for him, and I wish him luck. I wouldn't rank losing Cobbs up there with losing Carter, in fact, it will probably affect the team little, if at all, so everybody wins.
Naturally, rumors abound that Cobbs decided to transfer because Cory Joseph has let it be known to the team that he's coming to the Gophers, but these reek of homerism and/or blind optimism. Cobbs seemed unhappy almost the entire season, things were pretty clearly not working out, and rumors about his transferring have been buzzing since mid-year, so I don't think this has anything to do with Cory Joseph (and please please please please please stop calling him CoJo. Please). Of course, I hope it does, but I also hope the Deschanel sisters show up at my door step one day and say "choose." (To which I'd say "both" and then they'd say "ok.")
Things do get interesting if Joseph doesn't choose the Gophers and Cobbs does end up leaving, because the academically and offensively challenged Al Nolen becomes the only actual point guard on the roster. Despite his Jacque Vaughn/T.J. Ford-level jump shot there's no doubt Nolen is a Big Ten starting point guard, and Devoe did do an admirable job filling in, but the team would be well served to get some PG-depth if not for next year, then for the future.
For 2010, it sounds like the Gophers have some interest in 3-star PG Ben Brust, a former Iowa commit who luckily escaped due to the coaching change and is also getting heat now from Wisconsin, Cal, and Wake, but he looks like one of those annoying white dudes who always go to Iowa or Purdue and he's more of a combo guard anyway, so I'll pass. There is also a rumor that Johnnie Lacy, late of Providence College, is interesting in becoming a Gopher, but he's facing assault charges for putting the beat down on some poor sap who shouldn't have been standing there so I'd imagine there's no way Tubby would be interested in dealing with another legal headache.
I'm much more intrigued by Shane Larkin, Rivals #22 point guard and #96 player for the Class of 2011 who is described as a "floor general" and a player who excels at the "drive and kick" offense. Sounds perfect. The Gophers haven't offered him yet, and right now his only high-major offer is from Clemson, but it sounds like Georgia Tech, Wake, and Cal are getting into the mix as well as the Gophers. He's from Florida and likes to play a wide-open style so I'd bet he ends up in the SEC some where (I'm going to predict Arkansas), but he's a name to remember for the future and a player I'm interested in. Not sexually, though, perv.
Oh, and if you are thinking Bryant Allen is the answer at point guard you are completely out of your damn mind.
I know a lot of people thought Cobbs was pretty bad and not really a Big Ten caliber point guard, but I saw a freshman with potential who never felt confident in himself. Now, by potential, I don't mean star potential, but I think he would have been a solid back-up and possible starter by his senior year. Sure, he made a good amount of mistakes, but he was a freshman. Freshman make mistakes, and when they're pulled from the game as soon as they make one it limits their minutes considerably and each miscue seems magnified. I saw the mistakes, but I also saw what looked like a smart player who understood how to play the point as a pass-first guard, to the point where he seemed to rarely even look for a shot. This, despite the fact that he won the team's preseason three-point contest.
I really do just think it was a matter of confidence and time, and Cobbs didn't have enough of either. All in all, going someplace like a Santa Clara or Long Beach will be good for him, and I wish him luck. I wouldn't rank losing Cobbs up there with losing Carter, in fact, it will probably affect the team little, if at all, so everybody wins.
Naturally, rumors abound that Cobbs decided to transfer because Cory Joseph has let it be known to the team that he's coming to the Gophers, but these reek of homerism and/or blind optimism. Cobbs seemed unhappy almost the entire season, things were pretty clearly not working out, and rumors about his transferring have been buzzing since mid-year, so I don't think this has anything to do with Cory Joseph (and please please please please please stop calling him CoJo. Please). Of course, I hope it does, but I also hope the Deschanel sisters show up at my door step one day and say "choose." (To which I'd say "both" and then they'd say "ok.")
Things do get interesting if Joseph doesn't choose the Gophers and Cobbs does end up leaving, because the academically and offensively challenged Al Nolen becomes the only actual point guard on the roster. Despite his Jacque Vaughn/T.J. Ford-level jump shot there's no doubt Nolen is a Big Ten starting point guard, and Devoe did do an admirable job filling in, but the team would be well served to get some PG-depth if not for next year, then for the future.
For 2010, it sounds like the Gophers have some interest in 3-star PG Ben Brust, a former Iowa commit who luckily escaped due to the coaching change and is also getting heat now from Wisconsin, Cal, and Wake, but he looks like one of those annoying white dudes who always go to Iowa or Purdue and he's more of a combo guard anyway, so I'll pass. There is also a rumor that Johnnie Lacy, late of Providence College, is interesting in becoming a Gopher, but he's facing assault charges for putting the beat down on some poor sap who shouldn't have been standing there so I'd imagine there's no way Tubby would be interested in dealing with another legal headache.
I'm much more intrigued by Shane Larkin, Rivals #22 point guard and #96 player for the Class of 2011 who is described as a "floor general" and a player who excels at the "drive and kick" offense. Sounds perfect. The Gophers haven't offered him yet, and right now his only high-major offer is from Clemson, but it sounds like Georgia Tech, Wake, and Cal are getting into the mix as well as the Gophers. He's from Florida and likes to play a wide-open style so I'd bet he ends up in the SEC some where (I'm going to predict Arkansas), but he's a name to remember for the future and a player I'm interested in. Not sexually, though, perv.
Oh, and if you are thinking Bryant Allen is the answer at point guard you are completely out of your damn mind.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
PLACEHOLDER: Mo Walker committs to the Gophers
Star Trib Link Here
Or maybe we need to slow down on this. Despite reports from everyone from Rivals and ESPN.com that Maurice "Escalade" Walker will be committing to your Golden Gophers tomorrow when the spring signing period officially begins, there seems to be some question as to just how much of a "lock" this "lock" is.
From what I've picked up from various sources culled from the Gopher Hole posters, both Walker and his father have backed off a bit, with the dad reporting that Pitt, Virginia, Indiana, and Kentucky are all still in the mix and Walker himself telling GopherLady that he hasn't made a decision yet. Of course, these reports directly conflict with some earlier reports, including a text directly from Walker saying that he has decided to play for the Gophers but was asked by Tubby not to announce anything until tomorrow so "out of respect I'm waiting until tomorrow to make everything official."
There seem to be two schools of thought as to what's going on. The first, most optimistic and I think most likely is that Walker has made up his mind to play for the Gophers but for whatever reason - Tubby, his dad, wanting to make his choice a bigger media spectacle - he's backing off so he can make an official announcement with at least a little drama. The second, which seems a bit too doom and gloom even for me, is that he really is changing his mind due to Cory Joseph.
If you follow Gopher recruiting, you know that Walker and Joseph are good friends, good enough even that Walker was trying to get Joseph to come play with him wherever he signed. It was also obvious that Walker loved the Gophers and Tubby, and was basically ready to sign before he even stepped foot on campus. So the conspiracy thought is that Walker decided to be a Gopher and was expecting Joseph to follow him, but has since talked with Cory and found out that he has either decided on another team (Texas) or has eliminated the Gophers from his list without making that info public.
Personally, I think it's the first one. Or at least I hope so. Walker is a great get - 6-10, 300 lb. centers with offers from Kansas don't exactly come knocking at the door often - and I love the idea of sticking somebody with that kind of size next to Mbakwe next year at times. Hell, Ralph can play small forward.
Let's hope this is all nothing and we'll get official word tomorrow that Walker has signed and that we hear Joseph is following him here a few days later. If not, I don't know what plan B is, but the Gophers would end up with one of the worst recruiting classes in the Big Ten, and I would probably cry for three days.
Speaking of crying for three days, JaJuan Johnson has entered the NBA draft, thus ending his reign as "The college KG" and giving the NBA a Hakim Warrick clone. I won't miss him lighting up the Gophers, but I'll miss watching that sweet J and his excellent work on both ends of the floor. I won't be following his career further because I don't watch the NBA because I'm not retarded.
Or maybe we need to slow down on this. Despite reports from everyone from Rivals and ESPN.com that Maurice "Escalade" Walker will be committing to your Golden Gophers tomorrow when the spring signing period officially begins, there seems to be some question as to just how much of a "lock" this "lock" is.
From what I've picked up from various sources culled from the Gopher Hole posters, both Walker and his father have backed off a bit, with the dad reporting that Pitt, Virginia, Indiana, and Kentucky are all still in the mix and Walker himself telling GopherLady that he hasn't made a decision yet. Of course, these reports directly conflict with some earlier reports, including a text directly from Walker saying that he has decided to play for the Gophers but was asked by Tubby not to announce anything until tomorrow so "out of respect I'm waiting until tomorrow to make everything official."
There seem to be two schools of thought as to what's going on. The first, most optimistic and I think most likely is that Walker has made up his mind to play for the Gophers but for whatever reason - Tubby, his dad, wanting to make his choice a bigger media spectacle - he's backing off so he can make an official announcement with at least a little drama. The second, which seems a bit too doom and gloom even for me, is that he really is changing his mind due to Cory Joseph.
If you follow Gopher recruiting, you know that Walker and Joseph are good friends, good enough even that Walker was trying to get Joseph to come play with him wherever he signed. It was also obvious that Walker loved the Gophers and Tubby, and was basically ready to sign before he even stepped foot on campus. So the conspiracy thought is that Walker decided to be a Gopher and was expecting Joseph to follow him, but has since talked with Cory and found out that he has either decided on another team (Texas) or has eliminated the Gophers from his list without making that info public.
Personally, I think it's the first one. Or at least I hope so. Walker is a great get - 6-10, 300 lb. centers with offers from Kansas don't exactly come knocking at the door often - and I love the idea of sticking somebody with that kind of size next to Mbakwe next year at times. Hell, Ralph can play small forward.
Let's hope this is all nothing and we'll get official word tomorrow that Walker has signed and that we hear Joseph is following him here a few days later. If not, I don't know what plan B is, but the Gophers would end up with one of the worst recruiting classes in the Big Ten, and I would probably cry for three days.
Speaking of crying for three days, JaJuan Johnson has entered the NBA draft, thus ending his reign as "The college KG" and giving the NBA a Hakim Warrick clone. I won't miss him lighting up the Gophers, but I'll miss watching that sweet J and his excellent work on both ends of the floor. I won't be following his career further because I don't watch the NBA because I'm not retarded.
Monday, March 29, 2010
The Big Ten 2011
As I was sitting here watching Cory Joseph win the McDonald's All-American game three point contest tonight (something that had Mrs. W contemplating divorce when I told her I was watching a High School three-point contest) I couldn't help but think about how good the Gophers could be next year if he (and Maurice Walker) signed here. Which got me to wondering about how the rest of the Big Ten will shake out with graduations, early entries, and incoming classes. And when I get to wondering about something, I generally have to research it, and as along as I'm researching it, I might as well share what I find with you. Because don't you, constant reader, deserve to be informed. I know damn well you aren't coming here to be entertained, so you might as well be informed.
Here are my ultra early rankings for the Big Ten in 2011. Obviously we're working with some assumptions here, and I'm going with Evan Turner gone and Manny Harris staying in the draft. I'm also going to assume the recruiting classes stay as they are currently and nobody else enters the NBA draft early. So let's do this thing, times-a-wastin'.
1. MICHIGAN STATE. In the Final Four for the second year in a row, and all they lose of this team is Raymar Morgan and Isaiah Dahlman. Morgan has been been in a stagnation period since his sophomore year, so he'll be easily replaced. Assuming nobody (Durrell Summers) makes an ill-advised decision and goes pro early, they are going to be stacked. Joining all that awesomeness is another excellent recruiting class highlighted by Adreian Payne, the #4 center in the country according to Rivals. They have so much talent that Draymond Green is going to likely be the best 6th man in the Big Ten for the second year in a row. They are in very, very good shape for next year; assuming they can figure out a way to replace Dahlman.
2. PURDUE. Assuming all of the big three are back they should be able to challenge the Spartans atop the division. They do lose Chris Kramer (allegedly, I'll believe it when I see it, you know he's coming back for yet another year somehow the guy just won't die he's like Jason) and Keaton Grant, both of whom filled valuable roles for the Boilers, but another solid, but not spectacular, recruiting class should help fill that void. Not to mention the current collection of role players look to have enough talent to fill in. I particularly like Lew Jack, and soon-to-be-sophomores Kelsey Barlow and D.J. Byrd, athletic wings in the E'Twaun mode. Yeah, even if Johnson and/or Moore do something stupid and go pro, the Boilermakers are going to be fine. And they already have an annoying white guy to carry on the Brian Cardinal torch in Ryne Smith. Even his name is annoying.
3. OHIO STATE. If David Lighty and William Buford are both back, as they likely will and should be, they will be joined by another out of this world recruiting class on it's way to Columbus. They're getting the #3, #18, #37, #104, #124, and #137 ranked recruit on Rivals list, and that #3, Jared Sullinger, is an absolute beast of a center. He's like what LeBron James would have been in High School if he had been more Barkley and less Magic. He's going to destroy people next year. Plus the Rich Man's Blake Hoffarber will be back, and there's nobody important leaving. Unless you're Bill Simmons and you worship Mark Titus for some reason, then you'll probably have to cry yourself tonight.
4. ILLINOIS. If Demetri McCamey goes pro for some strange reason that drops the Illini ranking quite a bit because other than Michael Jordan's crappy kid there's no other point guard here. For some reason Bruce Weber is religiously against recruiting point guards, but he's doing a hell of a job pulling in athletic wings. This year's hot shot freshmen, Brandon Paul and D.J. Richardson, are both wings who showed flashes of brilliance last year but disappeared at times too, and they'll be joined next year by a couple more highly regarded wings in Jereme Richardson (#36 Rivals) and Crandall Head (#81). And yes, captain annoying Mike Tisdale is back, and he's bringing his crazy monkey arms with him.
5. MINNESOTA. There's a ton of uncertainty here, as I'm sure you're aware. I'm assuming Trevor Mbakwe is actually on the team and nobody of consequence transfers. If Royce ends up joining the team and/or Cory Joseph and/or Maurice Walker sign with the team, it could shoot them up. If Mbakwe ends up not on the team for some reason and/or somebody who matters transfers and/or Tubby leaves, you could probably drop them a few notches. Too many unknowns to evaluate them properly, especially nine months before the season starts. It's pretty stupid to be doing this so far in advance, isn't it? God I hate myself.
6. NORTHWESTERN. There are a couple of issues they'll need to figure out, such as who gets to be the alpha dog out of Shurna and Coble and how they are going to replace Jeremy Nash at the head of that press, but this is definitely the most talented Northwestern team of my lifetime and it's not even close. Beyond the guys coming back, they're also adding a top 100 recruit in SG Jershon Cobb, who, along with Drew Crawford, gives them back to back year's with very good, athletic freshmen coming in. If they don't finally snag that first ever NCAA bid, it'll be a pretty massive failure. Like the G.I. Joe movie.
7. WISCONSIN. Yeah, yeah, I'm probably underrating the Badgers and your boyfriend Bo Ryan for the millionth year in a row, but it's pretty tough to replace your starting back court especially when it's manned by two solid, smart veteran players in Hughes and Bohannon. Are you really ready to hand the team over to Jordan Taylor? Ug. Still, Leuer is back and he'll be annoyingly good and the incoming class is loaded with white guys with size who don't look good on paper which means they're Bo Ryan's "guys" and will fit the system and blah blah blah. Expect Wisconsin to outperform this prediction and make the NCAA tournament again even though they shouldn't. F Bo Ryan. F Bo Ryan, indeed.
8. INDIANA. The first of four teams with no real shot to make the NCAA Tournament, that talented group of freshmen will be back with another year of experience and presumably more skill. Unfortunately for the Hoosiers, Crean wasn't really able to follow it up with anywhere near the same level of talent after missing out on Josh Selby, the #2 ranked recruit in the country who had Indiana in his top 7 before cutting them out when he narrowed it to four, but he did get two guys ranked in the 130s so they aren't exactly taking a step backwards. I like Creek and I really like Watford, but there's still a serious talent deficiency here. Like that "adult" club in Albert Lea.
9. PENN STATE. Talor Battle, assuming he's back, will finally have another highly rated player joining him when incoming freshman Taran Buie, #136 on Rivals list, comes on board, but I'm afraid it's probably too little too late to help Battle. Everybody is back from last year, literally everybody, but who cares, really? Do you really expect guys like David Jackson, Chris Babb, or Andrew Jones to make any kind of significant improvement? Sorry, Crispin-lover, not going to happen. That's Crispin-lover, not Crispin Glover, weirdo.
10. MICHIGAN. DeShawn Sims and Manny Harris are gone, and whoa, this team is a mess. The incoming class is very meh with just two players, there's nobody over 6-8 who has ever played a minute of college ball, and the leading returning scorer is Zack freaking Novak who averaged all of seven points per game last year. The only reason they don't rank last is because Darius Morris might end up being pretty good, they have a chance at getting Trey Ziegler who ranks as the 26th best recruit in the country, and Iowa is still in this conference. For now.
11. IOWA. What are you getting yourself into Fran? This is not a good move for anybody right now. Take a read at that returning roster. Go ahead. Did you look? You're laughing now, aren't you? Seriously, outside of Gatens and maybe Eric May and/or Aaron Fuller I don't think there's a single player there that would crack any other rotation on any other Big Ten team - and that includes Michigan and Penn State. And if you're wondering if there's an impact class coming in let me save you the suspense - there's not. And that's all before anybody has reacted to the Lickliter firing. Who knows, there could be a bunch of mass transfers, crippling them even worse. Sweet. Good call McCaffery. You display the decision-making skills of a drunk frat girl on spring break.
It's early, but that's how I read it. Obviously a million things could happen to change it, but right now I see three really tough teams, four teams in that next "bubble team" tier, two more who won't make the tourny but could be dangerous at times, and two crap sandwiches.
Expect baseball predictions later this week, if that's your thing.
Here are my ultra early rankings for the Big Ten in 2011. Obviously we're working with some assumptions here, and I'm going with Evan Turner gone and Manny Harris staying in the draft. I'm also going to assume the recruiting classes stay as they are currently and nobody else enters the NBA draft early. So let's do this thing, times-a-wastin'.
1. MICHIGAN STATE. In the Final Four for the second year in a row, and all they lose of this team is Raymar Morgan and Isaiah Dahlman. Morgan has been been in a stagnation period since his sophomore year, so he'll be easily replaced. Assuming nobody (Durrell Summers) makes an ill-advised decision and goes pro early, they are going to be stacked. Joining all that awesomeness is another excellent recruiting class highlighted by Adreian Payne, the #4 center in the country according to Rivals. They have so much talent that Draymond Green is going to likely be the best 6th man in the Big Ten for the second year in a row. They are in very, very good shape for next year; assuming they can figure out a way to replace Dahlman.
2. PURDUE. Assuming all of the big three are back they should be able to challenge the Spartans atop the division. They do lose Chris Kramer (allegedly, I'll believe it when I see it, you know he's coming back for yet another year somehow the guy just won't die he's like Jason) and Keaton Grant, both of whom filled valuable roles for the Boilers, but another solid, but not spectacular, recruiting class should help fill that void. Not to mention the current collection of role players look to have enough talent to fill in. I particularly like Lew Jack, and soon-to-be-sophomores Kelsey Barlow and D.J. Byrd, athletic wings in the E'Twaun mode. Yeah, even if Johnson and/or Moore do something stupid and go pro, the Boilermakers are going to be fine. And they already have an annoying white guy to carry on the Brian Cardinal torch in Ryne Smith. Even his name is annoying.
3. OHIO STATE. If David Lighty and William Buford are both back, as they likely will and should be, they will be joined by another out of this world recruiting class on it's way to Columbus. They're getting the #3, #18, #37, #104, #124, and #137 ranked recruit on Rivals list, and that #3, Jared Sullinger, is an absolute beast of a center. He's like what LeBron James would have been in High School if he had been more Barkley and less Magic. He's going to destroy people next year. Plus the Rich Man's Blake Hoffarber will be back, and there's nobody important leaving. Unless you're Bill Simmons and you worship Mark Titus for some reason, then you'll probably have to cry yourself tonight.
4. ILLINOIS. If Demetri McCamey goes pro for some strange reason that drops the Illini ranking quite a bit because other than Michael Jordan's crappy kid there's no other point guard here. For some reason Bruce Weber is religiously against recruiting point guards, but he's doing a hell of a job pulling in athletic wings. This year's hot shot freshmen, Brandon Paul and D.J. Richardson, are both wings who showed flashes of brilliance last year but disappeared at times too, and they'll be joined next year by a couple more highly regarded wings in Jereme Richardson (#36 Rivals) and Crandall Head (#81). And yes, captain annoying Mike Tisdale is back, and he's bringing his crazy monkey arms with him.
5. MINNESOTA. There's a ton of uncertainty here, as I'm sure you're aware. I'm assuming Trevor Mbakwe is actually on the team and nobody of consequence transfers. If Royce ends up joining the team and/or Cory Joseph and/or Maurice Walker sign with the team, it could shoot them up. If Mbakwe ends up not on the team for some reason and/or somebody who matters transfers and/or Tubby leaves, you could probably drop them a few notches. Too many unknowns to evaluate them properly, especially nine months before the season starts. It's pretty stupid to be doing this so far in advance, isn't it? God I hate myself.
6. NORTHWESTERN. There are a couple of issues they'll need to figure out, such as who gets to be the alpha dog out of Shurna and Coble and how they are going to replace Jeremy Nash at the head of that press, but this is definitely the most talented Northwestern team of my lifetime and it's not even close. Beyond the guys coming back, they're also adding a top 100 recruit in SG Jershon Cobb, who, along with Drew Crawford, gives them back to back year's with very good, athletic freshmen coming in. If they don't finally snag that first ever NCAA bid, it'll be a pretty massive failure. Like the G.I. Joe movie.
7. WISCONSIN. Yeah, yeah, I'm probably underrating the Badgers and your boyfriend Bo Ryan for the millionth year in a row, but it's pretty tough to replace your starting back court especially when it's manned by two solid, smart veteran players in Hughes and Bohannon. Are you really ready to hand the team over to Jordan Taylor? Ug. Still, Leuer is back and he'll be annoyingly good and the incoming class is loaded with white guys with size who don't look good on paper which means they're Bo Ryan's "guys" and will fit the system and blah blah blah. Expect Wisconsin to outperform this prediction and make the NCAA tournament again even though they shouldn't. F Bo Ryan. F Bo Ryan, indeed.
8. INDIANA. The first of four teams with no real shot to make the NCAA Tournament, that talented group of freshmen will be back with another year of experience and presumably more skill. Unfortunately for the Hoosiers, Crean wasn't really able to follow it up with anywhere near the same level of talent after missing out on Josh Selby, the #2 ranked recruit in the country who had Indiana in his top 7 before cutting them out when he narrowed it to four, but he did get two guys ranked in the 130s so they aren't exactly taking a step backwards. I like Creek and I really like Watford, but there's still a serious talent deficiency here. Like that "adult" club in Albert Lea.
9. PENN STATE. Talor Battle, assuming he's back, will finally have another highly rated player joining him when incoming freshman Taran Buie, #136 on Rivals list, comes on board, but I'm afraid it's probably too little too late to help Battle. Everybody is back from last year, literally everybody, but who cares, really? Do you really expect guys like David Jackson, Chris Babb, or Andrew Jones to make any kind of significant improvement? Sorry, Crispin-lover, not going to happen. That's Crispin-lover, not Crispin Glover, weirdo.
10. MICHIGAN. DeShawn Sims and Manny Harris are gone, and whoa, this team is a mess. The incoming class is very meh with just two players, there's nobody over 6-8 who has ever played a minute of college ball, and the leading returning scorer is Zack freaking Novak who averaged all of seven points per game last year. The only reason they don't rank last is because Darius Morris might end up being pretty good, they have a chance at getting Trey Ziegler who ranks as the 26th best recruit in the country, and Iowa is still in this conference. For now.
11. IOWA. What are you getting yourself into Fran? This is not a good move for anybody right now. Take a read at that returning roster. Go ahead. Did you look? You're laughing now, aren't you? Seriously, outside of Gatens and maybe Eric May and/or Aaron Fuller I don't think there's a single player there that would crack any other rotation on any other Big Ten team - and that includes Michigan and Penn State. And if you're wondering if there's an impact class coming in let me save you the suspense - there's not. And that's all before anybody has reacted to the Lickliter firing. Who knows, there could be a bunch of mass transfers, crippling them even worse. Sweet. Good call McCaffery. You display the decision-making skills of a drunk frat girl on spring break.
It's early, but that's how I read it. Obviously a million things could happen to change it, but right now I see three really tough teams, four teams in that next "bubble team" tier, two more who won't make the tourny but could be dangerous at times, and two crap sandwiches.
Expect baseball predictions later this week, if that's your thing.
Friday, January 22, 2010
2010 Big Ten Recruiting
I'm sitting here being totally awesome and interesting on a Friday night perusing ESPN.com with my exciting life, and I noticed that the ESPN recruiting rankings were updated today. I have no idea how often they are updated, but it seems a stroke of good fortune that they are hot off the presses. I might as well share. Here are your top Big Ten freshmen for 2010 with their overall ESPN ranking:
#2 Jared Sullinger, PF, OHIO STATE - I caught a bit of one of his high school games, he's going to be a superstar from Day 1
#7 Josh Selby, PG, INDIANA (possibly) - if the Hoosiers snag him it will be a big help towards fixing that program
#12 DeShaun Thomas, SF, OHIO STATE - nicknamed "The Diesel", basically a lefty Evan Turner
#21 Cory Joseph, PG, MINNESOTA (possibly) - pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease
#23 Jereme Richmond, SF, ILLINOIS - supposed to already be a total lockdown defender at four positions
#24 Adreian Payne, PF, MICH STATE - amazing athlete
#30 Trey Ziegler, SG, MICHIGAN (possibly) - can also play the point
#31 Keith Appling, SG, MICH STATE - scorer
#55 Meyers Leonard, C, ILLINOIS - big dopey white kid
#61 Russell Byrd, SG, MICH STATE - another dopey white kid, but this one is supposed to be an incredible shooter
#72 Crandall Head, SG, ILLINOIS - Luther's brother, same athleticism
#73 Lenzelle Smith, SG, OHIO STATE - combo guard who can shoot, but is a bit of a chunk
#80 Evan Smotrycz, PF, MICHIGAN - no way a white kid with that name ends up being good
#92 Tim Hardaway Jr., SG, MICHIGAN - yes, the son
Geez, this entire list is basically Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Illinois. I'm more than a bit surprised there is no Purdue on here. Wow. And the Gophers really need to get Joseph. Really, really, really need him.
#2 Jared Sullinger, PF, OHIO STATE - I caught a bit of one of his high school games, he's going to be a superstar from Day 1
#7 Josh Selby, PG, INDIANA (possibly) - if the Hoosiers snag him it will be a big help towards fixing that program
#12 DeShaun Thomas, SF, OHIO STATE - nicknamed "The Diesel", basically a lefty Evan Turner
#21 Cory Joseph, PG, MINNESOTA (possibly) - pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease
#23 Jereme Richmond, SF, ILLINOIS - supposed to already be a total lockdown defender at four positions
#24 Adreian Payne, PF, MICH STATE - amazing athlete
#30 Trey Ziegler, SG, MICHIGAN (possibly) - can also play the point
#31 Keith Appling, SG, MICH STATE - scorer
#55 Meyers Leonard, C, ILLINOIS - big dopey white kid
#61 Russell Byrd, SG, MICH STATE - another dopey white kid, but this one is supposed to be an incredible shooter
#72 Crandall Head, SG, ILLINOIS - Luther's brother, same athleticism
#73 Lenzelle Smith, SG, OHIO STATE - combo guard who can shoot, but is a bit of a chunk
#80 Evan Smotrycz, PF, MICHIGAN - no way a white kid with that name ends up being good
#92 Tim Hardaway Jr., SG, MICHIGAN - yes, the son
Geez, this entire list is basically Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Illinois. I'm more than a bit surprised there is no Purdue on here. Wow. And the Gophers really need to get Joseph. Really, really, really need him.
Monday, November 2, 2009
World Series Game 5 Live Blog
It could be the last game of the baseball season, so I might as well Live Blog this crap, right? Plus we'll see if my man-crush on Cliff Lee grows, or just disappears like a john, with nothing more than a crisp new fifty on the night stand and a slight burning sensation during urination. We're picking this game up in the top of the second after finally getting WonderbabyTM ready for bed. She's a bit wound up after her first day of pre-pre-school today, and I'm a bit concerned because the majority of her classmates look like Sloth from the Goonies. On to the show.....
- It's 3-1 Phillies thanks to Chase Utley continuing to be a P.I.M.P. And I turned it on just in time to hear McCarver say, "American League batters are used to Mariano Rivera breaking bats, but not many of them know about Cliff Lee........even though he was with the Indianas............Lee's a different pitcher with Philadelphia." Dude. Just stop. It makes me glad I've been watching most of this with no sound - which I'll be doing again shortly once Mrs. W gets back from putting the baby down.
- Speaking of Lee and pitching game five, I think he should have been moved up and pitched last night, but this yahoo article is quite harsh and mostly retarded (like Dawger). I hardly think that decision "blew the world series" or that Charlie Manuel is like Forrest Gump and "stupid is as stupid does." He also calls Cliff Lee "not an ace" because he didn't demand the ball for game 4. I'm seriously stumped. I didn't like it at the time, but I'm thinking that it was actually a good decision by Manuel. Think about it - Blanton pitched well enough for the Phillies to win, Lidge blew the game. If they can steal a win with Blanton going against Sabathia, suddenly the Phillies are in the driver's seat, and they damn near did it, again, if it wasn't for Lidge - not Blanton and not Manuel. I'm willing to bet Passan had this article typed up before even the first pitch of Sunday night's game, and when the Phils lost he just hit send on his little mac-book. It's not even surprising, that seems to be the standard for journalism these days. Except me. I'm really good.
- Boy has Texeira been brutal. Another weak grounder with a runner on base, and he's now at .062 for the series. And yet since the Yankees will win, nobody will say a word. This is so unfair to A-Rod.
- There is way too much being made of Damon stealing third after stealing second on the same play. Yes, it was totally heads up and a great, smart, alert play - no doubt. But also let's try to remember that A-Rod doubled two batters later - Damon is scoring from any base. I'm just thankful Jeter isn't the one who made that play, can you imagine? It would make the Madden/Favre love fest look like Twilight. Because it's a chastity parable. Shut up. No, you're gay.
- Utley walks and steals second - any chance we can get a losing player winning the World Series MVP? I don't think it's ever happened, right? I know some defensive guy from the Cowboys won the Super Bowl MVP even though the Cowboys lost back in the 70s, but I don't think it's happened in baseball. Of course, seeing as how Jeter is on the Yankees and everyone loves him more than life itself, he'll get it for hitting .360 with no runs batted in and just two extra-base hits. What a joke. God I hate you Derek Jeter. You know that scene is Se7en, where Kevin Spacey ties that guy to the bed and like cuts his hand off and somehow tortures him but keeps him alive for like a year? What? I'm just asking if you remember that scene, I ain't sayin' nothin'.
- The NL's Jason Kubel knocks in Utley. Burnett getting rocked. And trust me, A.J. Burnett doens't have the mental capacity to recover when he's getting smoked. Might as well pack up and head to New York, folks, this one's over.
- Ibanez knocks in another one, and that'll do it for fragile little A.J. We're going to David Robertson here folks, although if I'm Girardi I call this one over and go to Mitre or Gaudin.
- Wow, base hit for Cliff Lee. We're at 6-1 here, and Rollins can break this baby wide open. Well, wide opener.
- Strikes out like a jerk.
- Link to Blue Ribbon's preview of Gopher basketball. It points out something I had either forgotten or never knew: The Gophers had more turnovers than assists last year. Ouch. Damian Johnson, Al Nolen, and Kevin Payton were the only ones with more assists than TOs, and Westbrook (1/1.5), Iverson (1/2.2), and Busch (1/2.l) were absolute killers. Let's go ahead and put that as priority #1 for next season, shall we? Also note that with rounding, future Big Ten P.O.Y. Ralph Sampson was one of only four players with a 1-to-1 ratio or better (and, of course, the preview doesn't fail to compare him to his "Heroin Satan" father - god that must get old).
- FYI, Colbie Smulders recently had a baby, and she has lost the baby weight, but she hasn't lost it from everywhere, if you know what I'm saying. (NOTE: I'm talking about her boobs.) This is her, if you are unaware:
- Derek Jeter got a hit. MVP! MVP! MVP! MVP!
- Don't worry, nothing came of it. And a great catch in left-center by Brett Gardner. He's 10 times the fielder Melky is, too bad he can't hit for shit. Sounds an awful lot like Carlos Gomez, no?
- Iowa is ranked #4 in the latest BCS. Serious question, how many other top 10 teams do you think Iowa would beat more often than not? Florida? Texas? Alabama? Boise? Georgia Tech? Cincy? TCU? I'm not sure there's a single team here they are bettre than..
- Ok, actually they got a run somewhere back there, and it's now 6-2. I would have known that, but I have become a bit distracted by facebook, and everybody trying to sound cool and ignore the fact that I was part of a group interview of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird today. You are all jerks.
- Oh, yeah. So I was part of a conference call of a bunch of writers who got to do a group interview of Magic and Larry today. Of course, it was only an hour and there were people from like, ESPN and The Sporting News and USA Today, etc., so I didn't get a chance to actually ask a question since I'm pretty sure I'd be the Pittsburgh Pirates of the invitees, but it was still cool.
- Cliffy keeps rolling along, now through seven with just the two runs allowed. It certainly wouldn't hurt for the Phillies to pick up a couple of more runs here.
- This probably deserves it's own post, but here is a report on Corey Joseph's reaction to his official visit on Saturday. Sounds good, folks, sounds really good. In particular pay attention to the first two comments below the article - very insightful.
- Utley just destroys a pitch down the line, but foul. Dude, that guy is so dialed in right now it's ridiculous.
- And the very next pitch he goes yard. Again. This guy is a second basemen, it just isn't right. That's five in this series, which I think is some kind of record. And we could have two more games. I'm actually kind of starting to believe the Phillies can come back and win this - delirious, I know.
- Ibanez goes yard. This Phil Coke guy sucks. Let me remind you all that Pedro's career postseason WHIP = 1.07. Bring it Yanks, because I feel a career defining Pedro performance on Wednesday. Yes, another one.
- Cliffy gives up three straight hits, including a double that probably should have been caught but Ibanez is 100 years old to A-Rod and it's 8-4, and we get Chan Ho Park for like the 10th time this series. Confidence = ug.
- Park gets three straight guys out, but another run comes in when Ben Francisco - in at CF for the Flyin' Hawaiian who may or may not have injured his hand after taking a Burnett fastball off it - totally lolligags the throw to home and A-Rod tags up from third. Really a very good, smart play. He did the bluff-type thing, saw Francisco kind of wasn't really trying, and then just kept going and beat the throw. Good play. 8-5 Phils, but the Yanks will get one more crack at it.
- T-Wolves down 25-23 in the first. I benched Kaman on my fantasy basketball team tonight and put in Ryan Anderson because I need more three-pointers. Kaman has 8 points and 6 boards already. Why the hell would I bench a center against the Wolves? Dumb. And speaking of fantasy, I now have the details on my fantasy college basketball league. I'll be posting those sometime this week.
- Oh yeah, my fantasy basketball (NBA) team includes LeBron, Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum, Joe Johnson, and Derrick Rose. Yeah, I'm dominant. Also when I just looked up my roster right there I realized that Kaman is still starting until tomorrow, so disregard all that "I'm dumb" talk. Plus, you should have tried to make me feel better and you didn't. Why are your feelings the only ones that matter?
- 8-5 still, but Madson gives up a lead-off double to Posada. Seeing as how you not only can't trust Lidge, but he's probably not available anyway, I'd assume this is Madson's show. If he sucks and they end up bringing in Brett Myers at any point, we might as well just engrave the trophy for the Yanks right then and there.
- I just saw Danielle Harris's boobs. God bless you free Showtime preview.
- Base hit for Matsui. If I used swear words on this blog, this would be the part where I would type fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
- Jeter grounds into a double play. Ha ha, way to be a True Yankee, Jeter. Awesome.
- Damon base hit. A Tex home run here ties the game. Awesome. Nice bullpen Philadelphia.
- Nevermind, he strikes him out proving that there is at least one person on this planet with the last name Madson who you can trust, and we're going back to New York where the Yankees will almost certainly win it. But I really hope not.
- It's 3-1 Phillies thanks to Chase Utley continuing to be a P.I.M.P. And I turned it on just in time to hear McCarver say, "American League batters are used to Mariano Rivera breaking bats, but not many of them know about Cliff Lee........even though he was with the Indianas............Lee's a different pitcher with Philadelphia." Dude. Just stop. It makes me glad I've been watching most of this with no sound - which I'll be doing again shortly once Mrs. W gets back from putting the baby down.
- Speaking of Lee and pitching game five, I think he should have been moved up and pitched last night, but this yahoo article is quite harsh and mostly retarded (like Dawger). I hardly think that decision "blew the world series" or that Charlie Manuel is like Forrest Gump and "stupid is as stupid does." He also calls Cliff Lee "not an ace" because he didn't demand the ball for game 4. I'm seriously stumped. I didn't like it at the time, but I'm thinking that it was actually a good decision by Manuel. Think about it - Blanton pitched well enough for the Phillies to win, Lidge blew the game. If they can steal a win with Blanton going against Sabathia, suddenly the Phillies are in the driver's seat, and they damn near did it, again, if it wasn't for Lidge - not Blanton and not Manuel. I'm willing to bet Passan had this article typed up before even the first pitch of Sunday night's game, and when the Phils lost he just hit send on his little mac-book. It's not even surprising, that seems to be the standard for journalism these days. Except me. I'm really good.
- Boy has Texeira been brutal. Another weak grounder with a runner on base, and he's now at .062 for the series. And yet since the Yankees will win, nobody will say a word. This is so unfair to A-Rod.
- There is way too much being made of Damon stealing third after stealing second on the same play. Yes, it was totally heads up and a great, smart, alert play - no doubt. But also let's try to remember that A-Rod doubled two batters later - Damon is scoring from any base. I'm just thankful Jeter isn't the one who made that play, can you imagine? It would make the Madden/Favre love fest look like Twilight. Because it's a chastity parable. Shut up. No, you're gay.
- Utley walks and steals second - any chance we can get a losing player winning the World Series MVP? I don't think it's ever happened, right? I know some defensive guy from the Cowboys won the Super Bowl MVP even though the Cowboys lost back in the 70s, but I don't think it's happened in baseball. Of course, seeing as how Jeter is on the Yankees and everyone loves him more than life itself, he'll get it for hitting .360 with no runs batted in and just two extra-base hits. What a joke. God I hate you Derek Jeter. You know that scene is Se7en, where Kevin Spacey ties that guy to the bed and like cuts his hand off and somehow tortures him but keeps him alive for like a year? What? I'm just asking if you remember that scene, I ain't sayin' nothin'.
- The NL's Jason Kubel knocks in Utley. Burnett getting rocked. And trust me, A.J. Burnett doens't have the mental capacity to recover when he's getting smoked. Might as well pack up and head to New York, folks, this one's over.
- Ibanez knocks in another one, and that'll do it for fragile little A.J. We're going to David Robertson here folks, although if I'm Girardi I call this one over and go to Mitre or Gaudin.
- Wow, base hit for Cliff Lee. We're at 6-1 here, and Rollins can break this baby wide open. Well, wide opener.
- Strikes out like a jerk.
- Link to Blue Ribbon's preview of Gopher basketball. It points out something I had either forgotten or never knew: The Gophers had more turnovers than assists last year. Ouch. Damian Johnson, Al Nolen, and Kevin Payton were the only ones with more assists than TOs, and Westbrook (1/1.5), Iverson (1/2.2), and Busch (1/2.l) were absolute killers. Let's go ahead and put that as priority #1 for next season, shall we? Also note that with rounding, future Big Ten P.O.Y. Ralph Sampson was one of only four players with a 1-to-1 ratio or better (and, of course, the preview doesn't fail to compare him to his "Heroin Satan" father - god that must get old).
- FYI, Colbie Smulders recently had a baby, and she has lost the baby weight, but she hasn't lost it from everywhere, if you know what I'm saying. (NOTE: I'm talking about her boobs.) This is her, if you are unaware:
Now imagine that with some C+ cups.
- Derek Jeter got a hit. MVP! MVP! MVP! MVP!
- Don't worry, nothing came of it. And a great catch in left-center by Brett Gardner. He's 10 times the fielder Melky is, too bad he can't hit for shit. Sounds an awful lot like Carlos Gomez, no?
- Iowa is ranked #4 in the latest BCS. Serious question, how many other top 10 teams do you think Iowa would beat more often than not? Florida? Texas? Alabama? Boise? Georgia Tech? Cincy? TCU? I'm not sure there's a single team here they are bettre than..
- Ok, actually they got a run somewhere back there, and it's now 6-2. I would have known that, but I have become a bit distracted by facebook, and everybody trying to sound cool and ignore the fact that I was part of a group interview of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird today. You are all jerks.
- Oh, yeah. So I was part of a conference call of a bunch of writers who got to do a group interview of Magic and Larry today. Of course, it was only an hour and there were people from like, ESPN and The Sporting News and USA Today, etc., so I didn't get a chance to actually ask a question since I'm pretty sure I'd be the Pittsburgh Pirates of the invitees, but it was still cool.
- Cliffy keeps rolling along, now through seven with just the two runs allowed. It certainly wouldn't hurt for the Phillies to pick up a couple of more runs here.
- This probably deserves it's own post, but here is a report on Corey Joseph's reaction to his official visit on Saturday. Sounds good, folks, sounds really good. In particular pay attention to the first two comments below the article - very insightful.
- Utley just destroys a pitch down the line, but foul. Dude, that guy is so dialed in right now it's ridiculous.
- And the very next pitch he goes yard. Again. This guy is a second basemen, it just isn't right. That's five in this series, which I think is some kind of record. And we could have two more games. I'm actually kind of starting to believe the Phillies can come back and win this - delirious, I know.
- Ibanez goes yard. This Phil Coke guy sucks. Let me remind you all that Pedro's career postseason WHIP = 1.07. Bring it Yanks, because I feel a career defining Pedro performance on Wednesday. Yes, another one.
- Cliffy gives up three straight hits, including a double that probably should have been caught but Ibanez is 100 years old to A-Rod and it's 8-4, and we get Chan Ho Park for like the 10th time this series. Confidence = ug.
- Park gets three straight guys out, but another run comes in when Ben Francisco - in at CF for the Flyin' Hawaiian who may or may not have injured his hand after taking a Burnett fastball off it - totally lolligags the throw to home and A-Rod tags up from third. Really a very good, smart play. He did the bluff-type thing, saw Francisco kind of wasn't really trying, and then just kept going and beat the throw. Good play. 8-5 Phils, but the Yanks will get one more crack at it.
- T-Wolves down 25-23 in the first. I benched Kaman on my fantasy basketball team tonight and put in Ryan Anderson because I need more three-pointers. Kaman has 8 points and 6 boards already. Why the hell would I bench a center against the Wolves? Dumb. And speaking of fantasy, I now have the details on my fantasy college basketball league. I'll be posting those sometime this week.
- Oh yeah, my fantasy basketball (NBA) team includes LeBron, Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum, Joe Johnson, and Derrick Rose. Yeah, I'm dominant. Also when I just looked up my roster right there I realized that Kaman is still starting until tomorrow, so disregard all that "I'm dumb" talk. Plus, you should have tried to make me feel better and you didn't. Why are your feelings the only ones that matter?
- 8-5 still, but Madson gives up a lead-off double to Posada. Seeing as how you not only can't trust Lidge, but he's probably not available anyway, I'd assume this is Madson's show. If he sucks and they end up bringing in Brett Myers at any point, we might as well just engrave the trophy for the Yanks right then and there.
- I just saw Danielle Harris's boobs. God bless you free Showtime preview.
- Base hit for Matsui. If I used swear words on this blog, this would be the part where I would type fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
- Jeter grounds into a double play. Ha ha, way to be a True Yankee, Jeter. Awesome.
- Damon base hit. A Tex home run here ties the game. Awesome. Nice bullpen Philadelphia.
- Nevermind, he strikes him out proving that there is at least one person on this planet with the last name Madson who you can trust, and we're going back to New York where the Yankees will almost certainly win it. But I really hope not.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
2010 Gopher Hoop Offers
With the recent news that #1 recruit for 2010 Harrison Barnes has knocked the Gophers off his list of possibilities, it dawned on me that the team still doesn't have a commitment for 2010. I believe they will have three scholarships open (L-Dub, DJ, and Bostick) assuming Ralph doesn't go pro. It's not necessarily a huge worry, since the team has plenty of young talent and can roll scholarships over if need be, but with four more coming available in 2011, I doubt Tubby wants to have to fill 7 spots in one year. That was hard as hell to fill all your spots when you had that many open in College Hoops 2k6 on the playstation.
Anyway, according to Rivals, these are the players the Gophers have made an offer to for 2010, not including offers that have already been spurned (besides Barnes, Jordan Sibert (#37 recruit) has declared for Ohio State, Tim Hardaway (2 stars) to Michigan, and Zach McCabe (3 stars) to Iowa.
- Vander Blue - Madison, WI - #22 overall, #6 PG. Other than being sweet to steal a kid out of Madison, and this dude having a sweet name, it would be great to get a real point guard so we don't have to watch Al Nolen fumble around any more. Blue had verbally comitted to Wisconsin, but backed out in May after realizing that Bo Ryan looked exactly like Richard Vernon and taught the most boringest brand of basketball in existence. Unfortunately the Gophers seem to be on the outside looking in with Blue, who plans to visit Flordia, Arizona, UCLA, Tennessee, and a fifth school. The Gophers have a shot at being that fifth school. I hope so. Then we can say things like, "You're my boy, Blue!"
- Cory Joseph - Henderson, NV via Canada - #7 overall, #3 PG. I've written plenty on Joseph here in the past, but in case you have good taste and don't usually read this blog, he is current Gopher Devoe Joseph's brother, and has shot up the rankings over the past year. Joseph recently spent some time on the Minnesota campus hanging with his brother, and has also visited Marquette with trips to Villanova and UCONN coming up. Joseph is #1 on my wish list for the team now that Barnes is off the table.
- Trevor Releford - Shawnee Mission, KS - #98 overall, #24 PG. There's been a lot of chatter about this dude and the Gophers, but naturally I haven't paid that much attention to it. It seems I probably should of, because I think it's looking extremely likely that Releford ends up a Golden Gopher. In a recent interview when he was asked which schools were recruiting him, the only two he could name were the Gophers and Arizona. He also mentioned not only being impressed with Tubby Smith, but always having enjoyed Minnesota when he has been here for a tournament. He is described as being a pass first point guard, which is absolutely what this team will need with all the scoring talent coming in.
- Trey Ziegler - Mount Pleasant, MI - #26 overall, #4 SG. Ziegler is, like Cory Joseph, another fast riser who is finding himself high on many team's priority list, including Michigan State, Oklahoma, Pitt, and UCLA among several others, with UCLA recently really upping their efforts to land the swingman. Interestingly enough, despite a name like Trey, his strength isn't his perimeter shot. He's known for being strong with the dribble and being very strong at the rim, along with a solid mid-range game.
- Casey Prather - Jackson, TN - #64 overall, #13 SF. The last of the truly elite prospects on this list, Prather recently narrowed his list down to seven schools and, like with Barnes, the Gophers did not make the cut. He's only included here because I already started typing this before I realized he had removed the Gophers from consideration.
- Chad Calcaterra - Cloquet, MN - 3 stars. The good news on Calc is that the Gophers are the most high profile school on his list. The bad news is that the Gophers are the most high profile school on his list. Diamond in the rough, or not that good? Based on the reviews of his play in the Howard Pulley League, it's looking like he could be a diamond in the rough. He's very physical when he goes to the rim, has an excellent jump hook, and a good mid-range jumper, although at 6-10, 210 lbs. he needs to add some muscle. He also sounds like a nerd, since Harvard and Stanford are two of the schools he plans to visit - although this makes me like him better.
- Elliott Eliason - Chadron, NE - 3 stars. Another midwestern big man, Eliason also can count the offer from the Gophers as his most prestigious, but it sounds like it will be tough to dislodge him from Creighton at this point. He did take an unofficial visit here, and must have enjoyed himself because he's coming back again for an official visit September 12th, although he is also hitting Stanford over Labor Day weekend.
Overall, it looks like Tubby has set his sights pretty high, but as more and more recruits Tubby has shown interest in either drop the Gophers from consideration or commit elsewhere (besides the above, Ricky Kreklow is going to Missouri, Alex Kirk isn't interested, Frank Williams has made it clear he wants to play for Kansas State, and something weird happened with Aaron Cosby that now has him as a class of 2011 player), you have to wonder when Tubby is going to capture that first comittment.
I'm not exactly worried, more like curious. I expect to see Releford and one of the big men likely come here, with Joseph, Blue, and/or Ziegler a bonus. Plus who knows with Tubby, he's probably after some dude nobody has heard of yet who will end up being a five star. Like Fred Durst said, "You gotta have faith."
Anyway, according to Rivals, these are the players the Gophers have made an offer to for 2010, not including offers that have already been spurned (besides Barnes, Jordan Sibert (#37 recruit) has declared for Ohio State, Tim Hardaway (2 stars) to Michigan, and Zach McCabe (3 stars) to Iowa.
- Vander Blue - Madison, WI - #22 overall, #6 PG. Other than being sweet to steal a kid out of Madison, and this dude having a sweet name, it would be great to get a real point guard so we don't have to watch Al Nolen fumble around any more. Blue had verbally comitted to Wisconsin, but backed out in May after realizing that Bo Ryan looked exactly like Richard Vernon and taught the most boringest brand of basketball in existence. Unfortunately the Gophers seem to be on the outside looking in with Blue, who plans to visit Flordia, Arizona, UCLA, Tennessee, and a fifth school. The Gophers have a shot at being that fifth school. I hope so. Then we can say things like, "You're my boy, Blue!"
- Cory Joseph - Henderson, NV via Canada - #7 overall, #3 PG. I've written plenty on Joseph here in the past, but in case you have good taste and don't usually read this blog, he is current Gopher Devoe Joseph's brother, and has shot up the rankings over the past year. Joseph recently spent some time on the Minnesota campus hanging with his brother, and has also visited Marquette with trips to Villanova and UCONN coming up. Joseph is #1 on my wish list for the team now that Barnes is off the table.
- Trevor Releford - Shawnee Mission, KS - #98 overall, #24 PG. There's been a lot of chatter about this dude and the Gophers, but naturally I haven't paid that much attention to it. It seems I probably should of, because I think it's looking extremely likely that Releford ends up a Golden Gopher. In a recent interview when he was asked which schools were recruiting him, the only two he could name were the Gophers and Arizona. He also mentioned not only being impressed with Tubby Smith, but always having enjoyed Minnesota when he has been here for a tournament. He is described as being a pass first point guard, which is absolutely what this team will need with all the scoring talent coming in.
- Trey Ziegler - Mount Pleasant, MI - #26 overall, #4 SG. Ziegler is, like Cory Joseph, another fast riser who is finding himself high on many team's priority list, including Michigan State, Oklahoma, Pitt, and UCLA among several others, with UCLA recently really upping their efforts to land the swingman. Interestingly enough, despite a name like Trey, his strength isn't his perimeter shot. He's known for being strong with the dribble and being very strong at the rim, along with a solid mid-range game.
- Casey Prather - Jackson, TN - #64 overall, #13 SF. The last of the truly elite prospects on this list, Prather recently narrowed his list down to seven schools and, like with Barnes, the Gophers did not make the cut. He's only included here because I already started typing this before I realized he had removed the Gophers from consideration.
- Chad Calcaterra - Cloquet, MN - 3 stars. The good news on Calc is that the Gophers are the most high profile school on his list. The bad news is that the Gophers are the most high profile school on his list. Diamond in the rough, or not that good? Based on the reviews of his play in the Howard Pulley League, it's looking like he could be a diamond in the rough. He's very physical when he goes to the rim, has an excellent jump hook, and a good mid-range jumper, although at 6-10, 210 lbs. he needs to add some muscle. He also sounds like a nerd, since Harvard and Stanford are two of the schools he plans to visit - although this makes me like him better.
- Elliott Eliason - Chadron, NE - 3 stars. Another midwestern big man, Eliason also can count the offer from the Gophers as his most prestigious, but it sounds like it will be tough to dislodge him from Creighton at this point. He did take an unofficial visit here, and must have enjoyed himself because he's coming back again for an official visit September 12th, although he is also hitting Stanford over Labor Day weekend.
Overall, it looks like Tubby has set his sights pretty high, but as more and more recruits Tubby has shown interest in either drop the Gophers from consideration or commit elsewhere (besides the above, Ricky Kreklow is going to Missouri, Alex Kirk isn't interested, Frank Williams has made it clear he wants to play for Kansas State, and something weird happened with Aaron Cosby that now has him as a class of 2011 player), you have to wonder when Tubby is going to capture that first comittment.
I'm not exactly worried, more like curious. I expect to see Releford and one of the big men likely come here, with Joseph, Blue, and/or Ziegler a bonus. Plus who knows with Tubby, he's probably after some dude nobody has heard of yet who will end up being a five star. Like Fred Durst said, "You gotta have faith."
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Where the Hell are all you People?
Seriously, I didn't grant writing privileges to four other people as well as giving Super Sioux Fan free reign to email me her random thoughts at any time for nobody to write anything when I'm busy for a stupid crazy month. I've made it abundantly clear that this month I won't really be able to keep up with the blog regularly, and yet we got one SSF post and nothing from anybody else. You people suck. Now I have to spend time writing about things I don't care that much about, just to make sure all the slack-jawed cretins out there keep coming back. Thanks assfaces.
- Well, first things first, Brettly Favre-i-licious will not be a Viking this year (allegedly). Which is really just confusing. What was all this for then, exactly? I mean, he even had the arm surgery. What was the point of that? This was just one big tease. This was pretty much the football equivalent of a strip club - all that anticipation and excitement with no payoff.
Of course, Brett being Brett, would it surprise anybody if he changes his mind again in a week? Hell, even tomorrow. If I woke up tomorrow and heard on the radio that he had changed his mind again and was going to be a Viking, I would be the least bit shocked. It makes me think of the part of a horror movie where you think the killer is dead, only to have him rise and kill again two minutes later. And you know damn well that even if he doesn't still end up coming back this year his name is going to be out there again next offseason - and don't count on him to put any speculation to rest either. Good riddance. I hope to god he at least stays out of the headlines until after the next Super Bowl.
My new favorite guys are the people who special ordered their Vikings #4 Favre jerseys. Nice job, morons.
- Sticking with morons, I've already heard from one guy on the radio and read from one guy on the internet that "Michael Vick would be a great fit for the Vikings." STOP. Lunacy. That's the kind of thing I'd expect Bogart to say because he's had his head up Vick's ass for years. And no, I don't really care about the dog fighting thing, he's just a god awful QB. The only thing he'd be good for is to come in and run the wildman or the wildcat or the catman or whatever it is, the one where the QB runs the ball half the time. An option with Vick and AP might work a handful of times a game, but anybody thinking this poor man's Vince Young can be a full-time QB is more deluded than Dawger and his Cal Ripken = Mike Cuddyer take.
- This batting stance guy shtick is just god awful. Where did they find him, youtube? I'd rather have the bat trick flipper guy. But I suppose they had to do things the Twins' way, and find the cheapest way possible to bring non-entertainment to the fans. I'm guessing the guy agreed to do it for like, $10 per segment filmed. Seriously, this is less entertaining than watching Delmon Young take batting practice.
- Pawing through the latest updates in Gopher hoop recruiting, I'm hearing a lot about this Kevin Noreen kid, a 6-5 wing from Minneapolis. He's not ranked in any meaningful way (class of 2011), and doesn't appear to be on the Gophers' radar, but Iowa and Wisconsin are starting to sniff around (his only offer so far is from Liberty), but it wouldn't shock me if he moves up lists the next couple of years. It sounds like with his long reach he's already an excellent, pesky perimeter defender, and he can hit the outside shot and led his team in scoring at the Best Buy Summer Classic. He's also got a nice pedigree, with a relative (too lazy to look up if it's his brother or cousin or what) in the class of 2010 committed to Boston College.
Remember the name.
- I kind of think this whole "All Metrodome team" is kind of stupid. It hasn't been around long enough for any meaningful debate. Who is going to be the second basemen if not Knoblauch, Lombo? I don't think so. Or catcher, Mauer vs. Laudner vs. Harper (not to mention J. Ortiz and Tom Neito). With only basically three sets of players, you aren't going to have many debates. Except of course at first base (Morneau vs. Hrbek) where they magically decided to award both guys spots on the team. Totally frickin' pointless. Just an excuse for everybody to pat everybody else on the ass and tell them the Metrodome doesn't suck. Oh, and Snacks actually likes watching baseball at the Dome, if that tells you anything about how stupid he is.
Even better is I heard Gladden and Gordo debating the All-Metrodome team of opponents, and they came up with obvious guys like Thome, but then they get to relief pitcher and Gladden comes up with Jeff Reardon, "because when he was with Boston he always shut us down."
Well Dazzle, I hate to bring facts to an idiot fight, but you're wrong. As a visiting pitcher at the Metrodome, Reardon pitched five innings, ringing up an ERA of 5.06 and a WHIP of 1.69. Sure, he had three saves, which I'm assuming is pretty much as far as Gladden's brain goes anyway. Bravo.
- The Gophers lost out on class of 2010 forward Zach McCabe, who recently comitted to Iowa. Tubby had extended an offer to him, but he verballed to the Hawkeyes a couple of weeks ago, and was starting to see interest from teams like Kansas and Notre Dame. I don't really know much about him, but based on the teams who were sniffing around and his junior season stats (16pts, 9 rebs, 6 assists with 43% three point shooting tells me Lickliter managed to actually get a good one - perhaps his first.
- Oh, and Cory Joseph is really god damn good.
- Well, first things first, Brettly Favre-i-licious will not be a Viking this year (allegedly). Which is really just confusing. What was all this for then, exactly? I mean, he even had the arm surgery. What was the point of that? This was just one big tease. This was pretty much the football equivalent of a strip club - all that anticipation and excitement with no payoff.
Of course, Brett being Brett, would it surprise anybody if he changes his mind again in a week? Hell, even tomorrow. If I woke up tomorrow and heard on the radio that he had changed his mind again and was going to be a Viking, I would be the least bit shocked. It makes me think of the part of a horror movie where you think the killer is dead, only to have him rise and kill again two minutes later. And you know damn well that even if he doesn't still end up coming back this year his name is going to be out there again next offseason - and don't count on him to put any speculation to rest either. Good riddance. I hope to god he at least stays out of the headlines until after the next Super Bowl.
My new favorite guys are the people who special ordered their Vikings #4 Favre jerseys. Nice job, morons.
- Sticking with morons, I've already heard from one guy on the radio and read from one guy on the internet that "Michael Vick would be a great fit for the Vikings." STOP. Lunacy. That's the kind of thing I'd expect Bogart to say because he's had his head up Vick's ass for years. And no, I don't really care about the dog fighting thing, he's just a god awful QB. The only thing he'd be good for is to come in and run the wildman or the wildcat or the catman or whatever it is, the one where the QB runs the ball half the time. An option with Vick and AP might work a handful of times a game, but anybody thinking this poor man's Vince Young can be a full-time QB is more deluded than Dawger and his Cal Ripken = Mike Cuddyer take.
- This batting stance guy shtick is just god awful. Where did they find him, youtube? I'd rather have the bat trick flipper guy. But I suppose they had to do things the Twins' way, and find the cheapest way possible to bring non-entertainment to the fans. I'm guessing the guy agreed to do it for like, $10 per segment filmed. Seriously, this is less entertaining than watching Delmon Young take batting practice.
- Pawing through the latest updates in Gopher hoop recruiting, I'm hearing a lot about this Kevin Noreen kid, a 6-5 wing from Minneapolis. He's not ranked in any meaningful way (class of 2011), and doesn't appear to be on the Gophers' radar, but Iowa and Wisconsin are starting to sniff around (his only offer so far is from Liberty), but it wouldn't shock me if he moves up lists the next couple of years. It sounds like with his long reach he's already an excellent, pesky perimeter defender, and he can hit the outside shot and led his team in scoring at the Best Buy Summer Classic. He's also got a nice pedigree, with a relative (too lazy to look up if it's his brother or cousin or what) in the class of 2010 committed to Boston College.
Remember the name.
- I kind of think this whole "All Metrodome team" is kind of stupid. It hasn't been around long enough for any meaningful debate. Who is going to be the second basemen if not Knoblauch, Lombo? I don't think so. Or catcher, Mauer vs. Laudner vs. Harper (not to mention J. Ortiz and Tom Neito). With only basically three sets of players, you aren't going to have many debates. Except of course at first base (Morneau vs. Hrbek) where they magically decided to award both guys spots on the team. Totally frickin' pointless. Just an excuse for everybody to pat everybody else on the ass and tell them the Metrodome doesn't suck. Oh, and Snacks actually likes watching baseball at the Dome, if that tells you anything about how stupid he is.
Even better is I heard Gladden and Gordo debating the All-Metrodome team of opponents, and they came up with obvious guys like Thome, but then they get to relief pitcher and Gladden comes up with Jeff Reardon, "because when he was with Boston he always shut us down."
Well Dazzle, I hate to bring facts to an idiot fight, but you're wrong. As a visiting pitcher at the Metrodome, Reardon pitched five innings, ringing up an ERA of 5.06 and a WHIP of 1.69. Sure, he had three saves, which I'm assuming is pretty much as far as Gladden's brain goes anyway. Bravo.
- The Gophers lost out on class of 2010 forward Zach McCabe, who recently comitted to Iowa. Tubby had extended an offer to him, but he verballed to the Hawkeyes a couple of weeks ago, and was starting to see interest from teams like Kansas and Notre Dame. I don't really know much about him, but based on the teams who were sniffing around and his junior season stats (16pts, 9 rebs, 6 assists with 43% three point shooting tells me Lickliter managed to actually get a good one - perhaps his first.
- Oh, and Cory Joseph is really god damn good.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Monday Musings
- First off, as you can probably read right above this, Down with Goldy is now on Facebook. I'm not exactly sure why or what the point is, but most likely I will be updating the status whenever those little thoughts pop into my head that don't quite deserve a post of their own. So go be my friend. I promise you'll like it.
- In Gopher hoops news, it seems Tubby has stayed busy and made two offers to big men towards the end of May - which I somehow missed. The first went to noted ginger kid Alex Kirk out of New Mexico, who just picked up an offer from Arizona as well to go with his whole mess of Pac 10 offers. The second was to another big man, 6-11 center Elliott Eliason from Nebraska, where he was the high school player of the year last season. Eliason is on his way up, but Minnesota is probably his most impressive offer. Both of his home state schools have also given Elliott an offer (Nebraska and Creighton), and are said to be in the lead to gain his commitment.
Keeping up on the 2010 recruiting trail, it's obvious Tubby is really going after a big man or two. I can only assume it's because he expects Ralph Sampson to be heading pro after next season. Personally, I'm still awfully concerned about point guard. GET CORY JOSEPH. The problem? Louisville has said Joseph is their #1 target for the class. Yikes. I still don't think the program is quite there yet, but being legitimately in the game for guys like Joseph and Harrison Barnes is an awesome, awesome step, even if they don't get either of them.
- El Tigre won yet another tournament this weekend, this time the Memorial - the fourth time he's won at Muirfield Village. I was watching, and I was all prepared to write a post complimenting Jonathan Byrd, who held a two shot lead over Tiger, Jim Furyk, and Davis Love III through twelve holes. Despite the charge by Woods (he was -5 on the day at this point), Byrd just kept doin' it and doin' it and doin' it well, and was looking like he wouldn't follow Sean O'Hair and Alex Cejka as guys who recently collapsed with the lead on Sunday.
Of course, he then proceeded to three-putt for a bogey (including a miss from four feet) on 13 and double-bogeyed 14 to cough the lead right back up, before birdying fifteen to stay in the mix. It was very entertaining golf in the end, with Tiger, Furyk, Woods, and Byrd all holding the lead at different points before Tiger, of course, pulled away with back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 with two of the best approach shots you're ever going to see. God he's freaky good. And it was awesome to see some good golf on Sunday instead of the usual collapses we've been seeing lately (yes, the two guys tied for the lead after 54 holes shot +1 and +3 to drop out of contention, but there were enough good players and good golf to make it a fun tournament.) US Open in two weeks at Bethpage should be awesome. And I already know who's gonna win. I can't tell you yet, he's quite the sleeper pick, but I'll let you know in a couple weeks.
- Watched some of the Twins game as well, which they lost of course because that's what they do, and at one point Mauer took a strike to fall behind in the count 1-2. Dick says, "Most hitters struggle with two strikes, but with Mauer the count doesn't even matter." Since I like accuracy, I naturally had to look it up to see if there was any truth to this, or if it was another example of Dick wildly throwing out words that may or may not be true.
Guess what? Dick was just making shit up. I know, I couldn't believe it either. For his career, Mauer hits .323/.405/.476, but with two strikes he drops to .262/.316/.379. Maybe he was talking about this year alone, you say? More of the same. Overall he's at .419/.507/.812, but with two strikes drops to .270/.343/.444.
So despite all anecdotal evidence to the contrary, Joe Mauer is a human being who is affected by many of the same things other mortal human hitters are, such as a 2-strike count. Consider my world rocked.
- We rented The Uninvited this weekend, and I would recommend it. It's a horror movie, a remake of a Japanese horror movie, about a hot chick (Emily Browning) who comes home from a mental institution to her hot sister (Arielle Kebbel), dad (the guy who played Eddie Cicotte) and his hot new, younger wife (Elizabeth Banks). There's a ghost, some scary dreams, and the hot sisters become convinced their new hot step mom killed their real mom - the event which sent sister #1 to the nut house. It's got some legit scary moments, and is more of a psychological thriller than a supernatural thriller, which gives it a nice edge. If you're looking for something to watch, you could do a lot worse.
- The MLB draft is Tuesday, and our beloved Twins are picking 22nd. The first mock draft I found by using the Google has them taking a high school outfielder named Evert Williams. I have no idea who that is. I have heard of only a handful of guys who are going to get drafted, and other than Stephen Strasburg that's only from a little bit of reading I did this weekend. After the draft, I'm sure I'll have more opinions as I read them from other people. As for the #22 pick, Glen Perkins was picked there by the Twins. David Aardsma, noted Twins killer, was a #22. As were Gil Meche, Rick Helling, Steve Karsay, and Jayson Werth. So it's impossible to get a good player at #22.
- Finally, I was watching the NBA Finals and J.J. Redick proving he's the only shooting specialist in the league who can't make a wide open shot, and they had one of those "Where Amazing Happens" commercials featuring this shot:
This shot continually appears on lists as one of the greatest moves of all-time, but can somebody please explain to me why? I didn't get it then, I didn't get it year after year when it is always replayed, and I still don't get it now.
First of all, it's not hard. In my very short basketball prime I couldn't jump and my strengths did not include athleticism, and yet I could go up with one hand and switch to the other and make the shot without much trouble. Secondly, he didn't even need to do it. There's no reason when he goes up with his right hand to even switch to the left. There's NOBODY there. Just lay it in with your right hand, show off.
Can anyone explain this to me? Is it just because it was Jordan and everybody wants to make out with him? Is it because Marv Albert reached Kevin Harlan levels of excitement? I don't get it. At all. And yet that play is always included in all sorts of all-time lists, so either everybody is an idiot or I just don't get it.
I'm open to all possibilities.
- In Gopher hoops news, it seems Tubby has stayed busy and made two offers to big men towards the end of May - which I somehow missed. The first went to noted ginger kid Alex Kirk out of New Mexico, who just picked up an offer from Arizona as well to go with his whole mess of Pac 10 offers. The second was to another big man, 6-11 center Elliott Eliason from Nebraska, where he was the high school player of the year last season. Eliason is on his way up, but Minnesota is probably his most impressive offer. Both of his home state schools have also given Elliott an offer (Nebraska and Creighton), and are said to be in the lead to gain his commitment.
Keeping up on the 2010 recruiting trail, it's obvious Tubby is really going after a big man or two. I can only assume it's because he expects Ralph Sampson to be heading pro after next season. Personally, I'm still awfully concerned about point guard. GET CORY JOSEPH. The problem? Louisville has said Joseph is their #1 target for the class. Yikes. I still don't think the program is quite there yet, but being legitimately in the game for guys like Joseph and Harrison Barnes is an awesome, awesome step, even if they don't get either of them.
- El Tigre won yet another tournament this weekend, this time the Memorial - the fourth time he's won at Muirfield Village. I was watching, and I was all prepared to write a post complimenting Jonathan Byrd, who held a two shot lead over Tiger, Jim Furyk, and Davis Love III through twelve holes. Despite the charge by Woods (he was -5 on the day at this point), Byrd just kept doin' it and doin' it and doin' it well, and was looking like he wouldn't follow Sean O'Hair and Alex Cejka as guys who recently collapsed with the lead on Sunday.
Of course, he then proceeded to three-putt for a bogey (including a miss from four feet) on 13 and double-bogeyed 14 to cough the lead right back up, before birdying fifteen to stay in the mix. It was very entertaining golf in the end, with Tiger, Furyk, Woods, and Byrd all holding the lead at different points before Tiger, of course, pulled away with back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 with two of the best approach shots you're ever going to see. God he's freaky good. And it was awesome to see some good golf on Sunday instead of the usual collapses we've been seeing lately (yes, the two guys tied for the lead after 54 holes shot +1 and +3 to drop out of contention, but there were enough good players and good golf to make it a fun tournament.) US Open in two weeks at Bethpage should be awesome. And I already know who's gonna win. I can't tell you yet, he's quite the sleeper pick, but I'll let you know in a couple weeks.
- Watched some of the Twins game as well, which they lost of course because that's what they do, and at one point Mauer took a strike to fall behind in the count 1-2. Dick says, "Most hitters struggle with two strikes, but with Mauer the count doesn't even matter." Since I like accuracy, I naturally had to look it up to see if there was any truth to this, or if it was another example of Dick wildly throwing out words that may or may not be true.
Guess what? Dick was just making shit up. I know, I couldn't believe it either. For his career, Mauer hits .323/.405/.476, but with two strikes he drops to .262/.316/.379. Maybe he was talking about this year alone, you say? More of the same. Overall he's at .419/.507/.812, but with two strikes drops to .270/.343/.444.
So despite all anecdotal evidence to the contrary, Joe Mauer is a human being who is affected by many of the same things other mortal human hitters are, such as a 2-strike count. Consider my world rocked.
- We rented The Uninvited this weekend, and I would recommend it. It's a horror movie, a remake of a Japanese horror movie, about a hot chick (Emily Browning) who comes home from a mental institution to her hot sister (Arielle Kebbel), dad (the guy who played Eddie Cicotte) and his hot new, younger wife (Elizabeth Banks). There's a ghost, some scary dreams, and the hot sisters become convinced their new hot step mom killed their real mom - the event which sent sister #1 to the nut house. It's got some legit scary moments, and is more of a psychological thriller than a supernatural thriller, which gives it a nice edge. If you're looking for something to watch, you could do a lot worse.
- The MLB draft is Tuesday, and our beloved Twins are picking 22nd. The first mock draft I found by using the Google has them taking a high school outfielder named Evert Williams. I have no idea who that is. I have heard of only a handful of guys who are going to get drafted, and other than Stephen Strasburg that's only from a little bit of reading I did this weekend. After the draft, I'm sure I'll have more opinions as I read them from other people. As for the #22 pick, Glen Perkins was picked there by the Twins. David Aardsma, noted Twins killer, was a #22. As were Gil Meche, Rick Helling, Steve Karsay, and Jayson Werth. So it's impossible to get a good player at #22.
- Finally, I was watching the NBA Finals and J.J. Redick proving he's the only shooting specialist in the league who can't make a wide open shot, and they had one of those "Where Amazing Happens" commercials featuring this shot:
This shot continually appears on lists as one of the greatest moves of all-time, but can somebody please explain to me why? I didn't get it then, I didn't get it year after year when it is always replayed, and I still don't get it now.
First of all, it's not hard. In my very short basketball prime I couldn't jump and my strengths did not include athleticism, and yet I could go up with one hand and switch to the other and make the shot without much trouble. Secondly, he didn't even need to do it. There's no reason when he goes up with his right hand to even switch to the left. There's NOBODY there. Just lay it in with your right hand, show off.
Can anyone explain this to me? Is it just because it was Jordan and everybody wants to make out with him? Is it because Marv Albert reached Kevin Harlan levels of excitement? I don't get it. At all. And yet that play is always included in all sorts of all-time lists, so either everybody is an idiot or I just don't get it.
I'm open to all possibilities.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Pete Rose is Back! (+ Gopher Recruit stuff)
No, not the ultimate compiler and horrid human being Pete Rose, or his piece of crap son and his fourteen career at bats. I'm talking about the Pete Rose of football, the Vicodin Kid, the Drama Queen of the last three offseasons, the one and only Brett Farve.
I'm as sick of the circus every offseason as you are, and it looks like it's happening again this time with Favre planning to meet at a top-secret undisclosed location with Vikings' "Head Coach" Brad Childress to discuss the possibility of him coming to play for the Vikings next season. The Jets straight up released the world's biggest drama hog after drafting pretty boy something I don't remember (Mark?) Sanchez to play QB, which eliminates the clause which essentially barred Captain Percoset from playing for the Vikes last year. My reaction: What the hell, go for it.
Sage and T-Jax aren't exactly super bowl caliber QBs. They are more of prayers at this point, hoping to god one of them doesn't make too many mistakes to screw up a good team. That's pretty much Favre's downside here, as much as I hate him, his upside is far greater than either of those two clowns.
I see this going down one of two ways, and both involve him being all fired up to be in the NFC North and wanted to prove himself to everyone, and especially Green Bay.
One way is he hits all the mini-camps. All the optional training camps. Works out like a young person to get back in young person shape. Gets the gold medal in his training drill and jacks up his ratings by seven points. He comes out like the Favre before he became this Favre, lights the world on fire, and leads the Vikings to a Super Bowl. I can get on board with that, even with the world's richest redneck leading the charge.
The other way is he really wants to prove himself to Green Bay, but insists, as he has for the last several years, that he knows best how to do it. He doesn't need to work out with the team or hit the mini-camps or do anything other than show up, play a little grab-ass, halfway study a playbook, and hit the field. In this instance he throws a ton of picks (wow imagine that), can't lead the team to the victories they need because he keeps forcing the ball where he can't get it anymore, gets ripped to shreds, and eventually loses his job to either Sage or T-Jax, completely sullying his legacy to the point where he becomes a running joke. Honestly, I might even prefer this version.
Either way, the circus is clearly in town, and the man who gave his wife cancer is on the high wire without a net. And I'll watch in rapt attention for the same reason I listen to my trainwreck of a co-worker describe her love lift every week - it is a trainwreck from which I cannot avert my gaze. Sit back, relax, and love every minute of it. The only way we lose here is if he never signs at all.
[EDIT: I mentioned to Mrs. W that I was blogging about Favre and how it looks like he's probably coming here. She replied, "Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. He's all old and injured and super annoying." So there you go.]
- As long as I'm here, I might as well keep on going, and next up is a very brief look at the Players Championship. Held every year at the TPC Sawgrass, home of the most famous island green in the world, this is the tournament where my homey Sergio Garcia finally breaks out this year. The Spanish Catapult hasn't been great this year (13th at the Honda is his best finish), but also hasn't been terrible and has made every cut this year with, of course, the exception of last week at Quail Hollow.
Normally all this would tell me to stay away, but the guy is one of a handful of guys who you could consider a top-five golfer and you know he isn't going this whole season without contending. Even better, dude loves Sawgrass, winning here last year after finishing as runner-up in 2007. I don't know if he'll win, but I'm seeing a top five for sure.
If you want more of a sleeper, look to the Swede Henrik Stenson. He's only played in three tournaments this year, but has a third place finish at Houston. He is like Garcia and loves this course, who has finished tenth, 23rd, and third here the last three years.
- Gopher hoops is pretty set for 2009, especially with those two boners leaving the team, but how about 2010? According to Rivals, these are the uncomitted players the Gophers have offers out to:
PG Cory Joseph. #110 on Rivals150, 24th best PG in the class. Also has offers from Georgetown, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Louisville, Marquette, Texas A&M, and UNLV. He's also visited Cal and is quickly moving up prospect lists with a very good year and his ability to play both guard spots and might soon jump from a 3-star prospect to a five-star. Given the questions the Gophers have at point with a rapidly approaching Terrance Simmons-level Al Nolen and the mystery that is Justin Cobbs, Joseph is probably the Gophers' most important recruit. It's a matter of if he wants to play with his bro Devoe or not. Let's hope so.
SG Aaron Cosby. 3-stars, not ranked in Rivals rankings, he also has offers from Oklahoma State, Indiana, Butler, Dayton, and Western Kentucky. Cosby might be the least impressive of the recruits in terms of his numbers on Rivals, but Tubby has been after him for a while, and I trust Tubby. According to his scouting report he can already score and has the ability to be a big-time on-ball defender with some effort. Those both sound good, but it still makes me nervous that he seems to be more of a target of the mid-majors.
SG Tim Hardaway, Jr. 3-stars, not ranked in Rivals rankings, he also has offers from Michigan with Kansas State involved. Not really highly sought after yet, it's probably only a matter of time for the first of the next generation of Run-TMC. He's already thought of as an elite shooter, but can do even more as shown by his averages of 23 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists last season. Michigan is and has been after him hard, and his three-point ability would fit well in Beilein's offense, but the Gophers are also in the picture. A big time elite shooter always gives me a little boner, so I'd be very much in favor of him showing up in Minneapolis.
SF Harrison Barnes. #4 on Rivals150, #1 small forward. Also has offers from Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Iowa State, Kansas, UCLA, and pretty much everybody. I mentioned that I thought Joseph was the Gophers' most important recruit, but Barnes is by far the best, and to the team's credit he is at least showing a modicum of interest. The real issue is that this kid can pick where he goes from essentially anybody (he's known as Kansas's #1 target, for example). The Gophers best bet is to hope he wants to stay close to home, but the issue there is that he's actually right from Ames so if he wants to stay close to home he's got Iowa State. Of course, if he wants to stay close to home and play for a great coach, that's where the Gophers have the advantage since Lickliter and whoever the hell is coaching the Cyclones right now suck. Don't expect to get this kid, but if it happens it's bigger than Royce and Rodney combined.
SF Casey Prather. #30 on Rivals150, #7 Small Forward. Also has offers from Michigan, Alabama, Clemson, and pretty much every mid-tier SEC and ACC school. He sounds essentially like a Rod-Will clone, but there's really no point in focusing on Prather in any way because there's no chance he comes to Minnesota. In a recent interview he detailed his thoughts on his top five schools, and the Gophers weren't part of the discussion. He does mention the in his TOP 14, but come on, who are we kidding here?
PF Chad Calcaterra. 3-stars, not ranked on Rivals. Offers from Auburn, Colorado State, Northern Iowa, UW-GB, and NDSU. Look at those schools, and look at that rank. I have no idea why he's been extended an offer other than the fact that he's from Cloquet so everyone has a boner for him. I'm pretty sure he's another Kevin Loge. With the upside of a Kyle Sanden. Have fun at NIU.
Lastly on the Gopher front, my main main Eric Bledose still hasn't picked a school, but he's clearly not coming to Minnesota and that still hurts me. It looks like he's outgrown UAB - which had looked like a perfect fit, and has it narrowed to Kentucky and Memphis. Basically the news is that he's going to Kentucky, unless John Wall goes to Kentucky, in which case he's going to Memphis. I'd look up if John Wall committed yet since I don't know how old my info is, but I've had a couple of drinks and also I'm quite lazy, so I'm not going to.
- Finally, the Twins finally bit the bullet and sent Alexi Casilla down today, recalling Matt Tolbert to take his place. I'm not Matt Tolbert fan, but it was time for Casilla, and it may be time to ship him off while he still has some value. That may be jumping the gun considering he's not even 25, but his suddenly sloppy defense can't offset his terrible offense anymore. He was never a great hitter, hitting just .257 in parts of three seasons in triple A, and burst on the scene last year hitting over .300 through July before fading to hit just .281/.333/.374. More alarming, check this out:
May, 2008: .340/.417/.520
June, 2008: .304/.330/.412
July, 2008: .308/.333/.385
August, 2008: .234/.260/.362
September, 2008: .221/.321/.253
April, 2009: .174/.231/.202
May, 2009: .135/.233/.135
Yikes. His OPS has declined every single month since he was recalled last year.
That can't be good.
RIP Scrubs. I can't remember a show that I cared about this much ending. Seinfeld, sure, but that show never connected emotionally the way Scrubs could (insert gay joke here, but Dr. Acula knows what I'm talking about). Bye show. I love you.
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