Raiders select Michael Bush

!!!!!!!

This was my pick for the 2nd round way back when before all of that nonsense occurred (and I'm still not sure about all of it) but the Raiders got him, it just happened to be the first pick of the 4th round!! This is very awesome news, I flipped out when I saw the Raiders had him. I had wanted him all along. There were very few running backs I'd prefer to watch in college than Michael Bush. I know I'm going on a limb here, and I don't quite believe it as much as I did a couple years ago, but I thought Michael Bush had the potential to be the best Bush in the NFL. If you get my drift, he could surpass Reggie. That was the idea. Not sure what the status is now, but it was clear Al Davis & Co. could not pass up that talent finding him still hanging around after 3 rounds. Very very good pick right there. Time to get excited about that one.

Mr. Russell

"I’m ready to go out there and hear the Raiders Anthem and hear things go wild and I’m happy to be a part of that. I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity and chance and now I’m ready to go in and compete. I’m ready to go to work."

Raiders pull off huge trade

The Oakland Raiders traded their 4th-round selection for the Detroit Lions for Josh McCown AND Mike Williams. Not one of them, but BOTH. McCown, you'll remember, interviewed and was though to have the job last year before he accepted the Lions' offer. Mike Williams still has the potential that made him a 1st-round pick in 2005, though he has underachieved this far. Still a pretty solid move, hard to argue with. You're not getting tremendous playmakers, but you're getting two players who can play pretty dang good ball when they are at their best. For a 4th-round pick, that's not bad at all.

Raiders select Zach Miller

Tight end from Arizona State. Let's hope he can hang on to the ball.

Raiders select to trade

With the first pick in the secound round of the 2007 NFL Draft, the Oakland Raiders select..................to swap 2nd-round picks with the Arizona Cardinals and receive a complementary 4th-round pick as well.

Not sure the ins & outs behind the deal as the Raiders drop 6 spots in the 2nd round. Hopefully they will still be guaranteed to get the guy that they want in that spot, and then they would have just picked up another selection. The problem with all that is the fact that I was hoping that the Raiders would pick Alan Branch, seeing to it that he was still hanging around after the completion of the first round. Oddly enough, that's the player that the Cardinals chose with the Raiders' old pick. So that's annoying. Hopefully somebody good is coming our way and hopefully Oakland knows what they are doing.

Dirk Nowitzki "Obviously" Watch

"Obviously, they've been making it tough for me to score," Nowitzki said.

Reds do some things

Reds already got one of their 2 PTBNL's in a guy named Marcus McBeth. Looks decent. Hopefully he will have more success than the Shakesperean character.

Also, in a much-anticipated move, Rheal Cormier has been DFA'd. Let's hope we never see him again. Brad Salmon has been called up and we can probably expect to see him pretty soon.

Face of the Franchise

Raiders select JaMarcus Russell

End the speculation, there it is. Everyone was right. He's the man now.

Senators 5, Devils 4

I wasn't around for hardly any of this game, so I won't pretend like I was. And I'm fairly glad I wasn't, to be honest.

Sure, the Devils came back from 4-0 down to get to 4-3, and then from 5-3 to get to 5-4. But it might as well have been 5-0. A loss is a loss. Not that the positives for the Devils are non-existent, they were able to come back to get within striking distance and they do know that they can score on Emery if they try. But, like I say, a loss is a loss.

Everyone talks about how this series will go the distance, how it will be extremely balanced, how it will be a low-scoring affair. None of that really applied to Game 1, and the Devils might not have the firepower to go the distance for they are surely not the better team.

The thing that bothers me the most is Martin Brodeur's performance. I don't know the whole story, I don't know if the defensemen are more to blame than he is or who is to blame, I will leave that up to the other blogs who know a heckuva lot more than I do. What I do know is that 4 goals were scored on Martin Brodeur, in a row, on 9 shots in the period. We cannot afford to have Brodeur "find himself" somewhere in the middle of the series, he needs to find himself right now. Who knows, chances are high that he will bounce back considerably well in the next few games of the series, and that would be incredible if he could do so. But this may the beginning of the end for his postseason dominance. I just don't understand how it happens. Everyone warned about it, Ottawa was much deeper and much better than Tampa Bay. While they didn't have a single best line, they had infinitely better players. And that was proven, as the #1 line went wild in New Jersey. It's just tough when they clawed back with 3 solid goals, to give up another one right away to put it away at 5-3. And that goal made the difference as Parise was able to get a late goal in the game. For nothing, to be sure, but it could have been for something. Brodeur did get better after that first period, but who wouldn't? When I stopped in to check the score, saw it was 4-0 in the first, I was almost positive I would see a different goaltender in net. I realize it's Brodeur, but still, I was a little surprised. He was able to get somewhat of an edge back, but that's hard to deal with. It's nice to know the Devils can score, that's pretty cool. But they need to play extremely better if they are to have a chance with this team, this team that is dang, dang good. They could be gone pretty soon if they don't.

Warriors 109, Mavericks 91

I really don't know what to say about this one, except for the Golden State Warriors, at least for one night, had the biggest home-court advantage I'd ever seen. That place was simply electric. Wow. You get the impression folks in Dallas are just so dang used to it all, they practically applaud with golf claps compared to the fans in Oakland. There was nothing like it. And it wasn't like the Warriors weren't giving them anything to cheer about, they were amazing yet again. Maybe all the homers in Oakland are right - the Warriors really will wipe the floor with these Mavs. We can hope not, for the sake of all things holy, and the sake of what a truly horrendous offseason these Dallas Mavericks will face, getting the 4th-best record in the NBA to do what with it? Not show up come playoff time? That doesn't make any sense. For a team that was talking about only the playoffs the ENTIRE YEAR with just a shrug about the regular season, as if it was some annoyance they had to trudge through to get to where they want to be, sure are acting like the opposite. It's true the Warriors have their number, that much is evident. It's just sickening how poorly the Mavs are playing. It's clear they understand the trouble that they are in, first #1 seed to go down to a #8 seed in the history of a 7-game series. Losing back-to-back rounds in the playoffs, albeit competely different circumstances but with the same style of chokery that allows them to forget playing defense and missing all their jumpers. Can we say gut-check time? Or should we have said that a long time ago?

Reds woes

It started with a 7-5 loss to the Cardinals, one of the many losses this year when the Reds had a healthy lead. This time, the bullpen didn't blow it. Lohse blew it, giving up 3 runs in the 5th and two others in different innings. It's a sad feeling when you're pleased by the fact that, well, you lost, but at least the bullpen didn't blow it. But they sort of did because if they don't let 2 more runs score, then Freel's wild pitch run score ties the game. But it wasn't meant to be. A lot of people are getting on Jerry Narron for screwing things up, and that's true to a certain extent. He's having trouble pulling some pitchers too early and letting others stay in when it's too late. Case in point - pull Lohse after his disastrous inning, or maybe even take him out during the 5th. But no, he went in to start the 6th as well. I know he would be cautious about starting the bullpen too early, but at other times he is confident in the bullpen when he pulls the starter (usually Harang or Arroyo) too early. Ah, it just sucks right now. I don't think there's been a time where both cylinders are running at the same time, or when the whole team is in sync. It just doesn't last very long.

After that loss, the Reds extended Coffey's contract out another year. That's not really a woe, but it might be. I like the guy a lot, he's been struggling early, but I think he'll be fine. He better be.

The big news, at least to me, is the Reds letting Chris Denorfia go. For nothing. Nothing at all. Some cash and 2 Players To Be Named Later. We all know how those deals work out. What makes it slightly easier to deal with is the fact that Denorf wasn't going to be able to play at all this year, so we won't see him flourish in Oakland until 2008. But he will do a fine job. What's the rationale? I don't get it. Somebody will need to explain it, and I'm sure they will at least try. When I heard he had been traded, I thought it was for bullpen relief as I always do, but this was for nothing and is hard to comprehend. I'm going to miss the guy because he was good, is good, and will be even better.

Ken Griffey Jr. continues to be as fragile as the wind. Broken bones started it off, then he had some infection of the colon, then he had stomach & chest pains, and now he has been diagnosed with pleurisy, which is an inflammation of some type surrounding the lining of the lungs. Who is this guy? Yikes, man. Let's hope he heals up from all of this nonsense, this is quite ridiculous. So that's a problem we're dealing with right now.

And the latest woe, if we needed any more, was the loss last night to the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, who aren't all that lowly anymore. Reds lose 3-1. It was a Guaranteed Loss Night, as Milton picked up the tab like he so often faithfully does. You know the story, he wasn't great, he was maybe even mediocre, didn't pitch well enough to inspire confidence, and the Reds' bats didn't want to seem to wake up to prove him wrong at any time. Adam Dunn blasted a solo homer in the 9th, but that was all the fun these Reds have. Let's hope they start learning how to play baseball fairly soon.

Mavericks 112, Warriors 99

That sound you don't quite hear is a collective sigh of relief coming up from within the bowels of Dallas, Texas. Where the Mavericks could not afford to go down 2 games to n0ne. And thankfully they didn't. Hard to say how much they actually earned it when Golden State's best player, Baron Davis, was ejected at the end of the third quarter and their second-best player, Stephen Jackson, was thrown out with 4 minutes left in the game. Not sure how much they earned it, but what I do know is that they got it. They got the win. I wish they would have gotten it without any question marks, but that's just now how it went. I'll take the win for now.

The Mavs got off to another slow start, though it wasn't nearly as disastrous as Game 1's sluggish beginning. But it wasn't much to get excited about either. I was fairly concerned, the Warriors looked good again and had early sizeable leads while the Mavs looked like they weren't in it a whole lot. That changed over time, thankfully and believeably so. The Mavs eventually took control of the game bit by bit and were helped out enormously by the ejections, though that's no consolation to the Warriors at this point.

Baron Davis, even before he got thrown out the game, was not the same Mavs Killer as he was in Game 1. He left with 13 points on 5-12 shooting, a good testament for the Mavs playing a much better defensive game, even though both teams scored far more than they did in Game 1. Stephen Jackson was the best threat Golden State put on the floor, and he got kicked out. He left with 30 points, but had 8 turnovers. Jason Richardson had 14 and 10 and Monta Ellis threw in 20 points.

Jason Terry was the man in this contest, playing all but 7 minutes of the game. He ended up with 28 points on 23 attempts, shooting barely over 50%, but it was enough. He was ice cold from 3-point land, going 1/7 but was strong when it counted. Nowitzki was next with 23, even though everyone was predicting a 40-point, or even 50-point explosion from him due to his lack of anything in Game 1. I wasn't expecting that and he delivered a solid, unspectacular game. He also chipped in 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. Josh Howard had 22 points and 11 rebounds. Jerry Stackhouse made a complete turnaround from his 0/7 Game 1, with 17 points in this one. He went to the free throw line often, which was great to see. He also ended up with 8 rebounds.

Shooting was fairly even, Mavs had the edge 49%-47%. Nobody could hit a 3, as the Warriors were 4/20 and the Mavs were 1/16. Free throws were 86%-85% in favor of Dallas, and that figure could stand to improve. The Mavs outrebounded 41-34. Assists were very low for both teams, the Mavs with 15, but the Warriors with only 9. That's pretty sickening right there. Especially when you consider the Warriors had 24 turnovers. Turnover-to-assist ratio was 24/9, one of the worst figures of the entire season I would imagine. Dallas had twice as many steals, 14-7, and the Mavs blocked 9 shots. Stats clearly in favor of Dallas, if not even, so it's somewhat a concern that they didn't win by a wider margin, especially considering the Warriors' two hot shots were holed up in the locker room unable to play the late stages of the game. Hopefully the win will be enough to give the Mavs some confidence heading into Oakland.

Cardinals 5, Reds 2

Guaranteed Loss Night. Just after you witness what a great team the Reds could be after they put a win together like last night, they go out and do the usual: solid starting pitching, not enough hits, shaky defense, and a give-it-up bullpen.

NOTABLE THINGS

Pitching: Bronson Arroyo goes 7 innings, giving up 5 hits and a walk, K'ing 2, and ends up with an earned run, bringing his ERA further down to 2.86. What more do you want from the guy? And yet, you know the Reds will lose when he pitches. It's been done all 5 starts, while Arroyo personally remains at 0-3. Hard to be that man, but hopefully it won't get to him. Just sad is all. A great effort. SaarLOSE came on in the 8th and didn't get anybody out, walking 2 and allowing 2 hits, giving up 4 runs, 2 of them earned. Once again, I ask if you remember how we wanted this guy to be our 5th starter and were pumped up to have him in the bullpen. Do you remember? I do, because I was excited. Not anymore. Coutlangus came on and got his out, then Santos got the remaining two outs, giving up a walk.

Hitting: Hamilton was pretty much the only highligh, leading off and going 1/3 with his 6th homer of the year. Dunn hit a double and Hatteberg knocked him in for a single in the 9th. Alez Gonzalez had the most hits with 2, but they didn't amount to anything. Good to see him doing so well, though. The Reds didn't put up much of a fight offensively, but they leave their fair share of men on base. That's a stat that I haven't looked through. Most times a man has been left on base. I am sure the Reds are pretty dang high in that category, due to a fair amount of hits but not a lot of RBI's. Somebody should check that out.

Fielding & such: Gonzo was the culprit again, and now I'm REALLY not buying into the defense only approach from this guy, just like Narron, who tells people constantly he wasn't signed only for his defense, but you can tell with his offense that Gonzo is a good player. And that's been true, but now he's all about offense, as he makes his 3rd error of the year, and maybe the most costly one of the season. His bad throw allowed a run to score on the actual play and prolonged the inning, adding another run on a sacrifice fly that would not have happened if the throw was made. Score could have been 3-1 Cardinals, and sure the Reds only got one run but maybe mentally they would have been ready to get 2 runs instead of having to get 4. It's hard to get on a guy like Gonzo when he has been swinging the bat very well and had some great moments in defense, but I'm pretty sure we signed him to be flawless defensively and he hasn't been that. Maybe that's a high standard, but he was treated like a god so maybe he should act like one.

Mock Draft

Yahoo! Sports goes final with Russell:

The Raiders have plenty of options, but this will come down to picking a quarterback or wide receiver. Johnson has the highest grade, Russell has the strongest arm and Quinn is the best fit for the new coaching staff's scheme. With the Browns sitting at No. 3, that could shake things up in any possible deal between the Buccaneers and Raiders. The only real chance for a trade for No. 1 is if the Bucs were to pull the Lions into the mix and have them move down to No. 4. That would allow the Raiders to secure the quarterback at No. 2 and Johnson to land in Tampa Bay. At the end of the day, my gut feeling here is that if the Raiders keep the pick, it will be Russell. But if a deal can be reached, they very well could end up with Quinn a few picks later.

I am getting more and more cautious about picking JaMarcus Russell almost daily. I know it's just sports writers getting into my head, many of them bashing the Raiders, but the Raiders have given them a lot to bash about lately. I just get nervous. Can an athletic freak of nature really turn things around? Will he find himself in an ideal condition, will he eventually flourish or will he never amount to much of anything? I hope he's good. Maybe I want a trade instead.

Stats through first 20 games

The Reds sit at 10-10, good for 2nd place in the division, three games behind the Milwaukee Brewers at 13-7. The record is the 7th-best in the National League and tied with Toronto & the Los Angeles Dodgers for 14th overall. Most of us expected a .500 season, give or take, and that's exactly what the Reds have given us thus far. The pace will leave them at 80-80.

The rest of the NL Central is as follows:

Houston: 9-10
Pittsburgh: 8-10
St. Louis: 8-11
Chicago Cubs: 7-13

You have to love it when the Cubs & Cardinals are in the bottom of the division.

TEAM STATS

HITTING

The Reds have 84 runs scored, tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for 9th in the NL and tied with Arizona & the Chicago White Sox for 17th overall. The Florida Marlins lead the NL with 113. The New York Yankees lead the majors with 120.
The Reds have 81 RBIs, once again tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for 9th in the NL and tied with Arizona & the Chicago White Sox for 17th overall. The Florida Marlins lead the NL with 107. The New York Yankees lead the majors with 116.
The Reds have a collective batting average of .240, tied with the Washington Nationals for 14th in the NL and 25th overall. The New York Mets lead the majors with .294.
The Reds have 157 hits, 12th in the NL and 22nd overall. The New York Mets lead the NL with 198.
The Reds have 20 home runs, tied with the New York Mets and San Diego Padres for 4th in the NL and tied with those teams, along with the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers for 9th overall. The Milwaukee Brewers & Atlanta Braves are tied for the NL lead with 26. The New York Yankees, thanks in large part to A-Rod, lead the majors with 27.
The Reds have drawn 74 walks, good for 9th in the NL and 11th overall. The Atlanta Braves & Philladelphia Phillies are tied for the most in the majors with 93.
The Reds have struck out 138 times, 9th-fewest in the NL and 20th-fewest (bad verbiage) overall. The Los Angeles Dodgers have struck out the least in the NL, K'ing 100 times. The Seattle Mariners have struck out the least in the majors, K'ing 82 times.
The Reds have stolen 17 bases, tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for 2nd in the NL and. The New York Mets lead the NL with 21.
The Reds success rate of stolen bases to caught stealing compared to overall attempts (17/20) is 2nd in the NL and 5th overall, with an 85% success rate. The San Diegro Padres lead the NL with an 87.5% success rate (7/8). The Baltimore Orioles lead the majors with a 100% success rate (10/10).
The Reds have an on-base percentage of .319, tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for 11th in the NL and 20th overall. The New York Mets lead the majors with .370.
The Reds have a slugging percentage of .379, good for 10th in the NL and tied with the Los Angeles Angels for 22nd overall. The New York Mets lead the majors with .470.

PITCHING

The Reds have a collective ERA of 3.74, good for 5th in the NL and 7th overall. The New York Mets lead the NL with 2.46.
The Reds have 5 saves, good for 7th in the NL and 17th overall. The Milwaukee Brewers lead the majors with 9.
The Reds have allowed 17 home runs, tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for 8th-fewest in the NL and tied with Milwaukee, the Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Angels for 12th-fewest overall. The San Diego Padres have allowed the fewest in the majors with 9.
The Reds have allowed 45 walks, good for 1st in the NL and 1st overall. BEST IN THE MAJORS
The Reds have struck out batters 148 times, 4th in the NL and tied with the Minnesota Twins for 5th overall. The Chicago Cubs lead the majors with 160 K's.
The Reds have a WHIP (walks + hits divided by innings pitched) of 1.22, tied with the New York Mets for 1st in the NL and 4th overall. The Oakland Athletics lead the majors with 1.16. BEST IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE
The Reds have allowed the opposite team's batting average to be at .306, good for 1st in the NL and 4th overall. The Oakland Athletics lead the majors with .291. BEST IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE

DEFENSIVE

The Reds have committed 18 errors, 2nd-worst in the NL and 2nd-worst overall. The Washington Nationals lead the majors with 23.
The Reds fielding percentage is .976, 2nd-worst in the NL and 3rd-worst overall. The Washington Nationals have the worst in the majors with .970.
The Reds have turned 14 double plays, 15th in the NL and 27th overall. The New York Mets lead the majors with 26.
The Reds have allowed 10 stolen bases, tied with the Chicago Cubs and Florida Marlins for 9th-fewest in the NL and. The Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, and San Francisco Giants have allowed 5, fewest in the NL. The Minnesota Twins have allowed 4, leading the majors.
The Reds success rate of catching runners to allowing a steal compared to overall attempts gives them a 28.57% success rate (4/14). The St. Louis Cardinals lead the NL with a 54.55% success rate (6/11). The Minnesota Twins lead the majors with a 63.64% success rate (7/11).

INDIVIDUAL STATS

HITTING

Adam Dunn leads the Reds with 12 runs scored, tied with many people for 44th overall.
Josh Hamilton leads the Reds with 11 RBI's, tied with many people for 67th overall.
Jeff Conine (of all people) leads the Reds with a .303 batting average, tied with Carlos Guillen and Scott Podsednik for 108th overall.
Adam Dunn leads the Reds with 20 hits, tied with many people for 69th overall.
Ken Griffey Jr. leads the Reds with 5 doubles, tied with many people for 51st overall.
Josh Hamilton leads the Reds with 5 home runs, tied with many people for 9th overall.
Adam Dunn & Ken Griffey Jr. lead the Reds with 11 drawn walks, tied with many others for 26th overall.
Adam Dunn once again has an early lead for Strikeout King, leading the Reds and the majors with 27. Four others are tied with 24.
Brandon Phillips leads the Reds in stolen bases with 5, tied with a few others for 10th overall.
Josh Hamilton leads the Reds with an on-base percentage of .404, tied with Geoff Jenkins and Placido Polanco for 67th overall.
Josh Hamilton leads the Reds with a slugging percentage of .682, good for 17th overall.

PITCHING

Aaron Harang leads the Reds in wins with 3, tied with many people for 3rd overall. Only Josh Beckett and Dontrelle Willis have won all 4 of their starts.
Kyle Lohse leads the Reds in ERA (!!!) at 1.91, good for 7th in the NL and 11th overall.
David Weathers leads the Reds in saves with 5, tied with Armando Benitez for 15th overall.
Kyle Loshe has given up the most home runs for the Reds (what, not Milton??!!??) with 3, tied with many people for 37th overall.
Bronson Arroyo leads the Reds in giving up walks with 8, tied with many people for 69th overall.
Aaron Harang leads the Reds in strikeouts with 27, tied with C.C. Sabathia for 10th overall.
Kyle Lohse leads the Reds in WHIP at a rate of 1.02, good for 15th overall.
Kyle Lohse leads the Reds in opposing team batting average with .236, good for 35th overall.

DEFENSIVE

Edwin Encarnacion leads the Reds with 3 errors, tied with many for 22nd overall.
Juan Castro at shortstop & Josh Hamilton lead the Reds in fielding percentage, both at 1.00. The three lowest figures are all for third basemen, with EdE being the worst in regular duty at .930, and Castro & Freel worst overall in spot duty, with both at .750.
Brandon Phillips has been involved in the most double plays for the Reds with 13, tied with many people 28th overall.

Mock Draft

Kirwan's finale leaves him where he started - with JaMarcus Russell:

The longer you watch him on tape, the more he is the right pick for the Raiders. He is a rare athlete with a great arm and all the throws. He can make the line calls, escape pressure, and end the run of passing on quarterbacks -- which includes Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Leinart and Jay Cutler. The plan sounds like getting a veteran like Josh McCown to start off the season and let Russell learn from the sideline for a year. The Raiders still have to fix their offensive line, and there's no reason to put Russell on the field until the supporting cast is in place.

Reds 10, Cardinals 3

Almost as good as the Reds winning and the Cubs losing is the Reds winning and the Cardinals losing. Did anybody see the same team that played at home? What are they, the ultimate road team?

NOTABLE THINGS

Pitching: The ace back on the mound. Harang pitched very well and got way too much run support, therefore he leads the club with 3 wins. He almost got out of the 8th inning, but had 119 pitches and a man on second base. Stanton allowed that run to score, so Harang was charged with 2 earned runs when it could have been just the solitary 1. As it stood, with those 2 ER's, Harang allowed 5 hits, 1 walk, and 5 K's. Well done. Stanton allowed that run and got a groundout on Edmonds' ball. Todd Coffey came in to do the 9th and was pretty sloppy, allowing 3 singles to lead things off. Bases loaded, nobody out. Only ends up with 1 run out of the deal due to a double play ball and another grounder, so thankfully that was all the damage.

Hitting: Nice to see some bats woken up out there. Interesting how the bats come alive when the pitching is pretty dominant as well. I wish they could figure out when to save the runs for the times they actually need them. Anyway. Did anybody catch Gonzo last night? The man was on fire, starting the scoring off in the 2nd inning with a 2-run homer. Then he did the same in the 5th inning, this time a 3-run blast. He also had a double and a single, going 4/5 with 4 runs scored and 5 RBI's. An awesome display out there. Hamilton & Phillips both got 6 at-bats at the top of the order, and both had 2 singles. None of those scored a run, nor did they score themselves. Adam Dunn seems to have fallen on hard times as of late, going 0/3, but did take 2 more walks. Welcome Back Ken Griffey Jr. He had a 2-run home run for his first of the year, passing Reggie Jackson and taking sole possession of #10 in the all-time homer list. Pretty impressive stuff. EdE was 1/4, but got hit with a ball and scored both times he was on base. Hatteberg was 3/5. Even David Ross got in on the action, going 2/5 with a late RBI. More from this guy would be good. Jeff Conine had a pinch-hit RBI, the guy is a beast, I must admit. Even Harang got in on the action, hacking a flyout just far enough that it counted as a sacrifice fly.

Fielding & such: Phillips got picked off first base, which is worse than getting caught stealing in my opinion, but was also a part of a double play with Gonzo. Rolen got caught stealing on Harang & Ross.

Avery Johnson 3rd in Coach of the Year voting

Third:

Johnson, who won the award last season then guided the Mavericks to a 67-15 regular-season record in 2006-07, finished third in the voting. Toronto's Sam Mitchell won the award, and Utah's Jerry Sloan finished second in the voting.

This is quite ridiculous. If a coach deserved to win back-to-back awards, it would be Avery Johnson. He took a team that blew a colossal lead in the Finals and turned them into a better team. Sure, they were expected to be good and many expected them to be #1 in the West, if not the NBA. They did those things, but does that mean that we should shrug off his efforts? No. The Mavs could have gone 1 of 2 ways - the NFL way, in which the losing championship team sucks for many years, or the way he did take them, crafting the team in a way that improves their strengths and masks their weaknesses as much as possible. Not only that but they recorded the best record in the league, the best record in franchise history, started 0-4 and still ended up with the 4th-best record in NBA history with many many record-breaking stats, including four 10-game+ winning streaks. Dallas has turned itself into a beast and much of that is because of all the work Avery Johnson puts in.

Hard to understand this one, although everyone goes for the surprises. It's always a vote for the "surprise" which is dumb. Sure, nobody expected Toronto to be as good as they were, but they ended up getting the #3 seed in the East, which means nothing these days. Just because they had the biggest turnaround of any team in the league, does that mean the coach should get the award? Of course not. Turnarounds are nice, but it goes beyond coaching although that plays a great role. If Toronto actually did anything worthwhile, maybe I would reconsider. But they haven't. Sloan was expected to be in the running and there he was, also ahead of Avery Johnson with the Utah Jazz. Another surprise-type move, though not as much. The Jazz were much better than people gave them credit for and I would have given Sloan the award at the halfway point of the year, but not the entire team. The Jazz were the hottest team in the league at the start. They were simply amazing for a while. Now they are #4 in the West, but basically being treated as the #5 since they don't have home-court advantage. They dropped the first 2 games to the Rockets. Sloan has always been a good coach, and he should have been given consideration. But the Jazz didn't pan out the entire year, so it doesn't make sense that he should get more votes than Johnson, as he should have gotten more votes than Mitchell.

1) Johnson
2) Sloan
3) Mitchell

That's how it should have been, folks.

Dirk Nowitzki "Obviously" Watch

Double dosage.

"Obviously, the pressure's all on us," Nowitzki said. "No one expects them to win. Obviously, shooting 35 percent [as a team] on our home court won't get it done."