SpongeWorthy

The guy with the horrible hat who came in with the lead and crumbled is the guy who choked. Phil made it interesting on a tough day for just about everybody. Damn, Duval looks like just about every weekend hacker I've seen play. Glover for par with a big breeze forcing him to take a step back. Now he's got to think about it. It's good. Duval with a potential birdie coming up on 18. Phil bogeyed 15 and 17 after being tied with Glover. That is Phil's MO at the U.S. Open when he's in contention. Barnes was smoke and mirrors with that crappy swing of his.

Phil chokes again. Barring a Winged Foot type disaster Glover SHOULD have this.

Awesome Gooz.

That is one sweepy slider.

BS strike.

Crap.

That 2-1 pitch was begging to be hammered.

Park one, Adolfo.

O'Neill is an extremely underwhelming hire. Dixon was a pipe dream. He's already at a big time program. Why would he want to go to a 2nd fiddle program (2nd fiddle in both the city and university) with possible sanctions on the way? Not to mention a school that has lost almost every significant contributor and recruit.

For the love of God.

Also, someone needs to school me on James Johnson because it seems the Bulls are interested in him. From what little I've seen and read he looks like another tweener forward like TT but with a better brain and less athleticism.

Man, I like Flynn too. But I don't understand the chatter about the Bulls going PG in round 1. Some reasons: 1) I think the Bulls think Rose is less of a pure point guard than they thought when they drafted him. That's not a bad thing because he looks like a much better pure scorer than they thought as well. 2) If Ben Gordon leaves, there is going to be a lot of mixing and matching between the guard spots. Salmons would be the only primary SG on the team. Hinrich can play both, and I bet Rose would get some looks at SG as well and may end up developing into one. 3) Of course you can say well why don't they just draft a SG then? The Bulls probably think the available PGs have more upside than the available SGs. I don't understand the first point. Rose isn't a pure PG? He's not a pure facilitator/passer, that's for sure, because he does have explosive scoring ability and insane athleticism. But he seems like a dream prototype for a PG if you ask me and he'll only improve on the duties of a PG. He is effective off the ball too (although I thought there was too much of that last year instead of him letting run the show) but that's not where I want him playing in the future. The part about the mixing and matching without Gordon makes sense but I think a solid rotation guy in the front court is a bigger need than Flynn, Lawson, et. al. I do think it's very possible, even likely, that one of the point guards in our sights will be a better overall player than someone we draft for need in the front court but that doesn't bother me much as long as the guy who we do get is effective at his role.

Man, I like Flynn too. But I don't understand the chatter about the Bulls going PG in round 1.

Speaking of Rafa, the NY Times Magazine has a nice, long feature on him this week. It's a good read: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/magazine/21nadal-t.html Although not nearly as good a read as the David Foster Wallace piece he did on Federer which is maybe the best sportswriting ever: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html?pagewanted=all

Harden started to suck at the end of last season and it hasn't really stopped since. He can be dominant at times. I'm not sure what it is about him but he I feel like he's kind of smoke and mirrors. Not in the junk ball sense but he works so many long counts before he puts guys away. Usually they don't square him up like they are today but getting guys out seems like more of a struggle for Rich than it is for other pitchers with high K rates.

Two pitch Rich.

Wow, David Duval making like it's 1999 and shooting an opening 67. I hope he can stay in contention.

Stoudemire to the Wolves for Jefferson and the #6 pick is being rumored. Not sure why the Wolves would do that one. I wouldn't trade Jefferson for Amare straight up at this point (unless you think Jefferson's knee isn't going to be healthy in which case I wouldn't do that if I were Phoenix). Edit: Bloops, here's the link http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/59885/20090618/jefferson_for_stoudemire_in_the_works/

I like Lawson but I don't get him for the Bulls at all. They need a solid rotation guy who can contribute right away with rebounding and defense or with length and 3 point shooting, IMO. Why would they take Rose off the ball? It's an intriguing thought but Lawson only makes sense if you're planning on playing them together quite a bit. If he's just a backup PG it's not worth it.

Weirdest mock I've seen: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/ian_thomsen/06/16/mock.draft3/index.html

I'm with you. The guy was a freakin' giant the second he came into the league. I'd be surprised if it came out that he roided. Thomas had a very consistent and typical career arc for a traditional power hitter. He never hit over 43 HR's in a season and during the "height" of the steroid era from 1998-2003 he only averaged 26 HR. He did however have a brief power resurgence in 2006 when he hit 39 HR. Nevertheless, he never had an out of character spike in power like most of the known juicers did. Not to mention he was a tight end at Auburn in the mid 80s. He was 6'4" 250 back then. Dude was always a beast. (Disclosure: I have always been a big Frank Thomas fan).

I'm trying to think of a worse hypothetical person than someone with all the worst qualities of NYers and Quebecois, and i'm drawing a blank. That plus being a Notre Dame alum.

The difference is that people actually care(d) about Sammy Sosa and Donte Stallworth is a slightly above average NFL wide receiver. That's hardly the difference. The NFL has multiple DUI killers who virtually skated free of punishment. They also have players who test for steroids routinely, and they never get anywhere close to the scorn that baseball players do. I blame the fans and media who decided that baseball was more than a game and needed poetry and mysticism to sell it. If those saps never over romanticized the sport people would apply a little more levelheaded reasoning to the issues. Also, this country has a very weak stance on DUI. For as puritanical as we can be about sex, drugs and drink, for some reason we don't take DUI seriously. No, it most certainly IS the difference. If Sammy Sosa killed someone driving drunk and Stallworth got fingered for PED use what story would get more attention? Obviously Sosa. What you're talking about is the reason why the fans/media care a lot more about PED use in baseball than they care about PED use in football where it's more or less accepted due to the lack of romanticism surrounding certain records in the NFL.

The difference is that people actually care(d) about Sammy Sosa and Donte Stallworth is a slightly above average NFL wide receiver.

2.5 months to football season. Crap.