Stuff
Alrighty folks, took a one-night breather in Dave's World's official Most Underrated Small City in America: Olympia, WA. Great little town. State capitol; college town; the downtown is zoned in a manner that keeps out the big box stores; the people are 1,000 times friendlier than in Seattle; great restaurants and bars.
Anyway, got home just in time to see David Wells give up 45 consecutive hits to start the Sox-Tigers game today. Some random stuff:
*Kevin Youkilis complained when he got sent down to Pawtucket again. Boo-hoo. He's the No. 25 guy, and is never going to be anything more. I'll never grasp why Red Sox fans fall in love with the last guy on the roster, whether it is Youkilis, Lou Merloni, Brian Daubach, and so on. They're all your stereotypical "Quadruple-A" players who make decent fill-ins but are never going to be everyday players unless a team is really weak at their position. Out here in Seattle I don't hear anyone pining for Chris Snelling to get everyday play.
*Ahem -- all 30 of you who were reading in the early days of the site might remember I basically handed the AL West to the LAA of A and definitively wrote off Oakland. Ummmm ... guess I was wrong. I do that, sometimes (like, last week I had a note pointing out Mariano Rivera's 30 consecutive save conversions. He's blown two, since). Anyway, Sherriff Sully pointed this out a couple days ago and I will back him on this -- Oakland's success has little to do with walks and OBP and almost everything to do with pitching. Few staffs were better than the Barry Zito-Mark Mulder-Tim Hudson trio, and it is no accident the A's turned it around when Zito shook off his early-season slump and Rich Harden and Dan Haren got their acts together. And hell, Kirk Saarloos is 6-2 in his past nine starts. Not to mention, Octavio Dotel and his gopher balls have been replaced by possibly the best young closer in the game in Huston Street, who has 14 saves since July 19.
*Speaking of "Best young ...:" Mariners righty Felix Hernandez -- wow. 19 years old, three starts, 21 strikeouts and three walks in 21 innings, three walks, two earned runs. And he apparently decided to wait until he got to the majors to add a nasty curve to go with his heaters. Hernandez's starts are quickly becoming appointment viewing in Seattle like Roger Clemens' in 1984. For those of you with the MLB package, he goes against Minnesota on Saturday and at the White Sox on Friday the 26th.
*Didn't comment much on the Patriots exhibition opener because it wasn't on national TV, but we'll be in front of the TV watching on Thursday night. And, we'll be getting the DirecTV NFL package in time for the regular season. So I'll offer observations when I actually get a chance to see them. In the meantime, Dave's World's incognito football correspondent, Senor Mysterioso, checked in with his thoughts on ex-Game 1:
Matt Cassel is possibly the most physically gifted QB on the team. He can run pretty well for a big guy and he has a strong arm with accuracy, which Rohan Davey can't say. He could be the next Mark Brunell in another year or two. Notice I didn't say Rob Johnson. Cassel I expect would be more than just a one-game wonder.
Talking about Rohan, he still throws high. This might be his last year with the Pats because he hasn't gotten better.
I can see why Bill Belichick signed Rodney Bailey now. He was very disruptive, shedding his blocker and making tackles.
He might be a no-name right now, but Chapman had a very good introduction. If he can't make the roster, maybe Bill tucks him away on the practice squad.
*And finally, I dropped by the place that is supposedly authoritarian about sports yesterday. It was about the 23rd or so consecutive time I have gone into one of these places and been unable to find what I wanted. Am I the only person that has had this experience? How is it that a store that insists on having a bare minimum of about ten million square feet per location never has anything you're actually looking for? And I've experienced this on both coasts, now.
<< Home