What is everyone's dream starting lineup now that we have Crawford and Gonzalez?  Here's how I would play it:

1) Crawford

2) Pedroia

3) Gonzalez

4) Youkilis

5) Ortiz

6) Drew

7) Scoot

8) Salty/Tek

9) Ellsbury

I like the speed combination of Ellsbury/Crawford at the 9 and 1 spots.  I know this is not a probable lineup but you have a good combination of going from L/R hitters making it tough for opposing managers and their relievers.  I still don't understand why everyone says Crawford is a #2 hitter instead of leadoff.  The man has won the stolen base title 4 yrs.

First off, I was disappointed to hear that Stanley Robinson had been let go before the game.  I just see that guy turning into a baby Gerald Wallace talent in 3-4 years.  I'm not a fan of Malik Allen even deserving a roster spot, he's entirely too undersized to be the team's 3rd center.

Getting to my club seats, I say to my buddy that I didn't know Dallas had a new head coach.  Couldn't believe the buzz cut job that Rick Carlisle got.  Half bald up top now, half hair on the sides.  

The first quarter started off with sluggish shooting from Jameer who was really trying to implement himself more into the offense but missing badly on his shot going (0-4 in 1st Q, 1-8 in game).  His shot selection wasn't bad, but the 15 footer he couldn't knock down tonight. 

You can tell that the defense that Dwight is seeing in the preseason will be incredibly different once the regular season and the playoffs start.  On one play, Dirk literally tried to play pattycake with Dwight's shoulder for an easy and 1.  Be it as it may, Dwight's 20 and 12 line was the most ho-hum 20-10 performance I have seen from him.  I barely noticed D12 during the game and then when I looked up at the box score, I couldn't believe his efficiency (7-7 FG, 6-10 FT) and rebounding.

The third and fourth quarters is where the Magic's bench vs. Dallas bench really helped them pull a way.  I think the real reason you are seeing so many Magic blowouts over the last 3 years of preseason is other teams don't value depth as much as the Magic front office do (i.e. shelling out starter money to Redick and Gortat). 

Vince Carter kept up his hot shooting hitting 8-10 FG including being perfect from all 4 of his shots from downtown.  What I especially liked was Vince backing down Ultimate White Men Can't Jump substitute Brian Cardinal and laying it up on him.  Vince looks very comfortable from long range so far and I'm hoping that this won't be another case of him being Mr. October.

I was surprised at the amount of height that Dallas has on their bench inside, they've got 2 7' 2" centers that gave Ryan Anderson fits in the 4th quarter on any attempts he had of shooting in the paint.

Truly, I think this was one of Brandon Bass' poorer games.  On one play in the 2nd quarter Bass had no idea where he was suppose to be in the halfcourt set. He catches a pass right next to Redick on the 3 point line and looks confused while destroying our spacing.  SVG shook his head and just pointed where he should be.  I'm still skeptical of how much Bass has really learned or is capable of learning in our offense and think Van Gundy may be more inclined to pull Anderson off the bench at the start of the season.

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Ed. note: Thanks to OPP community member UCF Knight and Red Sox for posting this write-up of yesterday's Orlando Magic open practice. - BQR

It was interesting watching the Open Practice today to say the least.  Van Gundy brought the fellas on the court at about 1:07 PM and they were all visibly tired.  Apparently, they had been doing an hour of conditioning work before the practice.  Notably Jason Williams had a huge icepack on his knee and was not practicing as he continues to recover.  Additionally, Mikael Pietrus did not practice as well, but did not have any visible indications of an injury.

Van Gundy started the practice with a 5 vs. 4 set to work on ball movement with his offenses while the 4 guys play a box zone to rattle the offense.  It looked like we settled for a lot of 3's during this drill other than Dwight finishing many times in the lane.  The entire practice had the legitimate starters and Brandon Bass vs. the 2nd team of bench warmers.

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Anyone know why Brandon Bass and Mikael Pietrus were not playing last night.  Are there injuries I'm not aware of?  It seemed like last night would be a great opportunity to get everyone some work.  Say what you will, but Malik Allen does not even deserve a spot on the practice squad.  I'm still scratching my head with why he got a significant amount of PT last night.

Good to see Ryan Anderson and JJ looking great.  We may have lucked out in that NJ deal after all.

If we start the miracle it will have to start tonight.  I'm heading up to the Trop and praying for a 3 game sweep.  Every year I go to one of these weekend three game sets, the Rays kick our ass.  If we want hope for the 2010 season anything less than a sweep is worthless. 

I look at us as a big underdog in this series, and I think beating Price tonight will be our toughest challenge.  Hitters have to go up looking 1st pitch fastball (95mph +).  Price just gets better the later he gets into counts.

I think the best outfield we can have for the remainder of this year, was the one playing last night (Kalish, Drew, McDonald).  Kalish has come on and has been a hitting force.  His speed and effort on the basepaths have really set him apart from Nava, McDonald, Reddick, etc.  I really like what I've seen from him lately and hope hes a starter next year.

Do you agree? and who should we go after next year to improve our OF?