The common mistake I made was when they bring a guy in front of you and sit him down and the quarterback looks at you and you don’t realize there’s a guy behind you and he just wants you to come up so he can throw that thing behind you. So you just have to be like a kung fu master just feeling it and kind of drift back.
–Redskins LB Marcus Washington on learning how to play zone pass defense
Suns/Sonics Over 223
Record: 1 for 3
Maybe gambling (if it were legal) on the NBA is out: of the three bets I made last night only one (the one I bet the least on naturally) came through. Sigh.
The Orioles have allowed 30 runs in a game and been no-hit by a rookie with only two major league starts. So what’s next? Someone accidentally takes the field naked, assuming he’s having one of those weird dreams you had as a kid?
Redskins training camp opens today. My dear friend The Mexican sent me this video to get me pumped up. It does the trick quite well. Watch till the end to check out the Japanese TV commentary. Hysterical. Lets go Skins.
Sean Taylor Being A Beast - The most popular videos are here
Jon Heyman gives Jeremy Guthrie an honorable mention for AL Rookie of the Year, do mostly to lack of run support.
Jayson Stark gives two Orioles honorable mentions in his mid-season awards column: Jay Gibbons for AL Least Valuable Player and Jeremy Guthrie for AL Rookie of the Half-Year. Congrats to Jeremy and, uh, sucks to be you Jay.
….in a column talking about this year’s free agent busts YOUR ENTIRE BULLPEN is listed. Sigh. From John Donovan:
The Orioles’ bullpen
Baltimore had the right idea in beefing up its bullpen. The Orioles just picked the wrong guys to pull it off, and paid them way too much money. The team shelled out around $42 million for Danys Baez (three years, $19 million), Chad Bradford (three years, $10.5 million), Jamie Walker (three years, $12 million) and Scott Williamson ($900,000 for ‘07). Baez was ineffective (6.52 ERA) in his 31 appearances and he’s currently sitting on the disabled list with a forearm injury. Williamson made a brief stop on the list, too. And the bullpen, as a whole, has a 5.16 ERA, 11th in the league. That’s a lot of dough to pay for below-average results.
Not much to argue with here. I might half-heartedly mention that Williamson hasn’t really been given that many opportunities, when he’s healthy but Baez has been beyond awful. In the end the O’s bullpen has 20 losses, which leads the majors. Its all very depressing.
Finally, after days and days of anticipation, the NBA Draft is upon us. It kind of sucks that the Wizards aren’t really involved in any of the exciting rumors; we aren’t in the lottery and we aren’t trading for Kobe or KG or Amare (at least, not that I’ve heard). So really, for the most part, Wizards fans are just looking in from the outside at #16. Having said that, here’s who we are rumored to be considering, at least according to this Washington Post graphic:
PG Javaris Crittenton, G-Tech
SF Thaddeus Young, G-Tech
SG Derrick Byers, Vandy
SG Nick Young, USC
SF Julian Wright, Kansas
If you ask me, both Youngs and Wright will probably be gone by the time we draft but I’d be thrilled if one of them fell to us. I like Derrick Byers alot, the fact that he is regarded as a good defender is a plus, playing in the stacked SEC (and playing well) doesnt hurt either.
Ivan Carter posted some thoughts on the Wizards Insider and apparently Byers is well liked by the Wizards. Also if D.J. Strawberry is there in the second round we’re taking him. I like that idea alot, I think Strawberry, at the very least defensively, has a future in the NBA.
Anyway there you have it. I’d like to see Byers and Strawberry drafted. Who knows, maybe we’ll even trade away Haywood for a pick or something? Either way it should be an exciting night, even if the Wizards aren’t really involved. Sadly I wont be able to watch live as I will be attending a concert but I’m taping everything and hoping to avoid tv/radio/internet until I can watch it tomorrow morning. Thats most likely not going to work out but I’m giving it a shot.