The deadline for withdrawing from the draft is today, so we get to decide find out if Georgetown will be a final four contender next year, if Georgia Tech will have any hope of winning games, if Cal will threaten the big dogs in the Pac-10, and if Sean Singletary will be first-team All-ACC twice in a row.
Top pitching prospect Yovani Gallardo makes his debut for the Brewers. Scouts are comparing Gallardo to Fransisco Liriano from last year. Reports are he's got a mid-90s fastball and an absolutely devastating curve. More exciting for me is that I've got Gallardo on my strat-o-matic team (for those of you who not familiar with strat-o-matic, I'll probably write a post about my team a little later and explain it), and the faster my elite prospect gets me good starts, the better.
If you haven't seen it yet, go to ESPN.com and check out the video of Prince Fielder's inside the park home run. I don't think I've ever seen a centerfielder misjudge a ball that badly. Fielder, all 260 pounds of him, can't even slow down as he passes home and is still running when he hits the dugout. High comedy.
I'm not a big golf fan, but my friend pointed this out to me today. Tiger Woods is 12 for 12 on majors when he's leading going into the final day. Pretty impressive. However, he's never won one coming from behind on that final day. That's unbelievable to me. For all the hype that Tiger has gotten (deservedly), he's never made a final day comeback at a major.
You know, I thought it was a pretty well-acknowledged point that Tim Duncan is the greatest power forward of all time, but I've been amazed at how many people will vehemently argue that point. I might have to post about this soon.
I love statistics. I'm a basketball statistics nerd, and I've just gotten into it with baseball the last few years. It kills me that no one has come up with a decent defensive statistic in basketball. Blocks and steals are a poor indication of how good a defender somebody is. Hollinger over at ESPN has come up a slightly better statistic (points saved), but even that has huge holes in it. I'd love to see some sort of better defensive statistic. I also wonder why they plus/minus isn't a standard statistic for b-ball, it seems like it would be pretty useful.
Just on a random tangent, I was perusing Chad Ford's top 100 prospect list for the draft, and noticed that Glen Davis has been rising up that list. So, I clicked on Davis to see his profile, and the player similarity they mentioned was Oliver Miller. Now, I'm a big fan of Davis, but how are you a first rounder if your closest comparison is someone I've never heard of? (Just looked him up. Played for 6 different teams and averaged 7 and 5 for his 11 year career. meh)
I saw some of the Fielder highlights, after severly spraining my ankle, in my indoor soccer game. I'm starting to respect good soccer players more, but I still prefer watching baseball, basketball, and football more.
Hmm, Tim Duncan as the best Power Forward of all time? I don't know. I can't cite anybody who's better but I have a gut rejection any time I hear somebody's the greatest. I'll have to do some research on that one.
I totally agree about the defensive stats in basketball. So many steals and blocks are the result of OTHER's defense. But I don't know what concrete measurements there are for defense so it would be something to work on.
This is a very neat blog, Xan. You write in a very clear and pithy way that makes it easy to read.
I am one to think that Duncan is probably the best power forward in history. With his latest championship I think that he surpasses Bob Petit.
A question...what would you suggest the Bobcats do with their two first round picks next year? I have always thought that they had some of the most young talent in the NBA. That is until I saw the potential roster of the Portland Trailblazers.
Good hearing from you Xan and keep up the good work.
The Duncan post will be coming soon. I think he's pretty clearly got the edge on most of the great PFs.
Portland is my team to watch, I love what they're doing. As for the Bobcats, I think the first pick should pretty clearly be the best SF on the board there (since Horford, Yi and Wright will be gone), which will probably be Jeff Green. Honestly, I think Thornton has more breakout potential than Green, but Green's probably the safer bet and he's higher on most boards. At 22, I think Tiago Splitter would be a great pick if he's still around. He's a lottery talent, but they'd have to wait one more year to bring him over b/c of his contract. Another option there (and I hate to say this) is Sean Williams, who's kind of a wild card. They obviously need another post though, given May and Okafor's injury history. The other route to go is Hawes at 8, Almond or Byars at 22, and make a run at Lewis or Carter in free agency (which they'll be doing anyway).
I'm planning on doing a team-by-team draft preview soon (not a mock draft, I hate mock drafts).
