SB Nation User Blog: jc25

Durant no longer a "Sonic"

jc25 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:42:02 -0000

Durant no longer a "Sonic"

Guess it really was all about the money, Seattle.

2009 Rivals 150 (BKB)

jc25 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:51:31 -0000

2009 Rivals 150 (BKB)

New Rivals 150 list out. No Texas commits yet, but plenty of Texas representation on the uncommitted top prospects lists.

Dre Jones: Guilty as Charged

jc25 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:51:25 -0000

News and Notes from the WWL

jc25 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:43:19 -0000

Just taking a quick glance at ESPN's homepage gives us a plethora of Texas sports news. I imagine I could make a few fanshots, but I figured this was easier.

- First off, everyone's favorite ex-NFL running back Cedric Benson was ordered to install an ignition lock breathalyzer in his car. In response, Cedric Benson said, "let's get some fucking french toast."

- Reports have surfaced that the Raptors are involved in talks to send TJ Ford to the Pacers. It seems like everyone and their mom favors Jose Calderon over TJ, but Ford ain't too bad either. I'd certainly take him over the Rafer Alston/Bobby Jackson bucket of crap we've got on the Rockets right now.

- That would also throw a twist in Chad Ford's latest mock (it seems like he puts a new one out every other day...this one is 7.0). This one has DJ going to the Pacers at 11.

The Pacers have been eyeing two point guards -- D.J. Augustin and Russell Westbrook -- for a while.

Westbrook looks like he'll be long gone. He canceled his workout with the Pacers last week and hasn't rescheduled. That leaves Augustin, who's an excellent fallback option for the Pacers. Augustin is a better floor leader than Westbrook and a better perimeter shooter, and he's more ready to step in and play right away. He should be an excellent fit for Indiana.

- Ford's mock also moves the Sonics off the Jerryd Bayless train (I think all 6 previous incarnations had Bayless at 4), and has them picking up Russell Westbrook at 4. Westbrook was seen as Augustin's primary competition after Rose, Mayo, and Bayless, so it's a little surprising that his stock has shot up this high. I personally wouldn't mind seeing the Sonics trade down to reunite Kevin Durant with DJ, but I highly doubt that happens.

- Finally, John Hollinger has his pre-draft ratings up for the guards, and DJ checks in solidly but not spectacularly. Taking a look at DJ and his comparators:

D.J. Augustin, Texas (14.88); Derrick Rose, Memphis (14.69); Mario Chalmers, Kansas (14.03); Jerryd Bayless, Arizona (14.03).

Surprisingly, nobody rates as a slam-dunk lottery pick, not even Derrick Rose. In fact, Rose came in only second here, partly because he had such a slow start to his freshman season before picking up steam at the end.

Is this enough reason to draft Augustin ahead of Rose? No, because the margin between them is miniscule, and even if their career PERs end up the same, Rose will have far more defensive value given his superior size.

[...]

Finally, it's notable that Chalmers, though widely presumed to be a fringe first-rounder, rates even with Bayless and pretty close to Rose and Augustin

[...]

O.J. Mayo, USC (13.00), Russell Westbrook, UCLA (11.91)

This is going to surprise some people, as Mayo has been projected as high as No. 3 in the draft. Truth be told, in this draft he probably deserves to be a lottery pick even going by these ratings -- he's rated 16th overall, and his one season of stats means his estimate is more prone to error than the projections of players who stayed in school longer. But he'll be 21 on November 5, and this system takes age into account when projecting potential.

[...]

Though Westbrook is seen by many as a point guard, he actually rated even worse when I tried him there. It's possible he was just playing out of position at UCLA, but the projections say it's not worth using a top-10 pick to find out.

I'm a bit surprised by everyone's low numbers, although it's worth pointing out that many of these players had other stars on the team (Rose, Westbrook, Augustin, et al), and thus their production was perhaps not as high as it could've been (a la Michael Beasley, who was head and shoulders the best player on his team).

Note: Both the Ford and Hollinger articles are Insider only.

Pick Your NL/AL All-Star Roster

jc25 — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:12:06 -0000

To alleviate the pain of watching the Braves season thus far, I propose a nifty little game: predict the NL roster for the 2008 All-Star Game. The rules are simple: fill out the roster as you think it will be filled out. That means that every team needs at least one representative, and all positions have to be backed up adequately. The first 8 looked pretty much locked in to be the starters, Miguel Tejada’s small lead over Hanley Ramirez being the exception. For now, we’ll keep Miggy in the starting line-up. The remainder of the roster is yours to fill out. Some things to remember: the deciding manager is Clint Hurdle (hello, Aaron Cook!). Stats like wins, RBIs, and saves count; stats like VORP and OBP, less so. Having a lot of relief pitchers is generally the norm. Obviously some stats will change in a month or so, but I generally tried to compensate performance thus far. If Pat Burrell bats .100 for the next 3 weeks, I doubt he’s making the team. But that’s part of the fun of predicting a month-out. Here goes:

Starters:

C Geovany Soto, CHC

1B Lance Berkman, HOU

2B Chase Utley, PHI

SS Miguel Tejada, HOU

3B Chipper Jones, ATL

OF Alfonso Soriano, CHC*

OF Kosuke Fukudome, CHC

OF Ken Griffey, Jr., CIN

Backups:

C Brian McCann, ATL

C Russell Martin, LAD

1B Adrian Gonzalez, SDG

1B Albert Pujols, STL

2B Dan Uggla, FLA

SS Hanley Ramirez, FLA

SS Jimmy Rollins, PHI

3B Aramis Ramirez, CHI

OF Ryan Braun, MIL

OF Pat Burrell, PHI

OF Matt Holliday, COL

OF Ryan Ludwick, STL

OF Nate McLouth, PIT

Pitchers:

SP Aaron Cook, COL

SP Tim Lincecum, SFG

SP Johan Santana, NYM

SP Ben Sheets, MIL

SP Edinson Volquez, CIN

SP Brandon Webb, ARI

SP Carlos Zambrano, CHC

RP Brad Lidge, PHI

RP Brandon Lyon, ARI

RP Jon Rauch, WAS

RP Billy Wagner, NYM

RP Kerry Wood, CHC

*It currently looks like Soriano will still be injured when the All-Star break arrives, but will still be voted in as a starter. Thus, I picked one extra player, making the roster 33 total.

I've got some key omissions (for example, I'm sure some Braves fans will campaign for Huddy), but I'll leave them for discussion in the comments. Thoughts? Lists?

I'll try to post an AL one tomorrow as well, if work permits.

[UPDATE: added my projections for AL Roster as well.]

Starters:

C Jason Varitek, BOS

1B Kevin Youkilis, BOS

2B Dustin Pedroia, BOS

SS Derek Jeter, NYY

3B Alex Rodriguez, NYY

OF Manny Ramirez, BOS

OF Josh Hamilton, TEX

OH Ichiro, SEA

DH David Ortiz, BOS

Backups:

C Joe Mauer, MIN

1B Jason Giambi, NYY

2B Ian Kinsler, TEX

3B Joe Crede, CHW

SS Edgar Renteria, DET

OF Milton Bradley, TEX

OF Hideki Matsui, NYY

OF Magglio Ordonez, DET

OF Carlos Quentin, CHW

OF Grady Sizemore, CLE

OF BJ Upton, TBD

Pitchers

SP Justin Duchscherer, OAK

SP Roy Halladay, TOR

SP Felix Hernandez, SEA

SP Scott Kazmir, TBD

SP Cliff Lee, CLE

SP Joe Saunders, LAA

RP Joe Nathan, MIN

RP Jonathan Papelbon, BOS

RP Mariano Rivera, NYY

RP Francisco Rodriguez, LAA

RP George Sherrill, BAL

RP Joakim Soria, KCR

Heyward, Hanson on BA's Prospect Hot Sheet

jc25 — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:20:18 -0000

Heyward, Hanson on BA's Prospect Hot Sheet

Baseball America recently compiled it's 2008 "So Far" Prospect Hot Sheet. Jason Heyward checks in at 5, Tommy Hanson at 18. Ex-Braves prospect Max Ramirez is at 8, and Charlie Morton is an honorable mention.

Phil Steele's Big XII All-Conference Teams

jc25 — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:20:23 -0000

Let's get the bad news out of the way first: there are ZERO (count 'em, ZERO) Longhorns on Phil's first team. Yikes. There are, however, 9 Sooners. Fantastic.

Here's the rundown of Longhorns:

Second Team

WR Jordan Shipley

WR Quan Cosby

OG Cedric Dockery

DT Roy Miller

DE Brian Orakpo

LB Jared Norton

CB Ryan Palmer

K Ryan Bailey

Third Team

C Chris Hall

OT Adam Ulatoski

DT Lamarr Houston

LB Sergio Kindle

LB Rashad Bobino

CB Deon Beasley

Fourth Team

QB Colt McCoy

RB Fozzy Whittaker

LB Rod Muckelroy

CB Chykie Brown

KR Quan Cosby

Thoughts

I think I echo the sentiment of BON fans when I say: Bobino over Muck? Palmer over Beasley? I know Phil Steele is widely thought of as the preeminent CFB mind, but those two just look like mistakes. Muck, Beasley and Houston all look too low to me.
High praise for Fozzy and Chykie, who have yet to step foot on the ballfield. Let's hope they live up to these expectations.
Darrell Scott also comes in as a 2nd team RB. That would've looked nice in Burnt Orange.
Also wishful thinking: Jamaal Charles most likely would've been 1st team with DeMarco Murray. Jermichael probably would've slotted in 3rd or 4th, behind Gresham and Chase Coffman (and possibly Brandon Pettigrew).
Our young kids better improve, as our entire second team representatives are seniors, save for Jared Norton. Compare that to OU, where FIVE of their 9 1st teamers could possibly return (Murray, Gresham, Granger, English, Reynolds).
A&M's got 5 TOTAL players on this list. And one of them's their punter, Justin Brantly. He did make first team, though.

Phil's also got Texas 15 in his pre-season ranks.

http://www.philsteele.com/FBS%20Info/08%20All%20Conf/big12.html

Chad Ford's Latest Mock has DJ going 6th to Knicks

jc25 — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:40:47 -0000

Chad Ford's Latest Mock has DJ going 6th to Knicks

VY apologizes to kids for photo

jc25 — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:54:03 -0000

VY apologizes to kids for photo

In other news, Vince...still awesome.

Also via Deadspin.

Mt. Rushmore: Austin Drinks

jc25 — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:23:54 -0000

In order to get us properly stoked for the long Memorial Day weekend, I present the latest Mt. Rushmore incarnation: the 4 best drink locales in Austin.

Previous iterations include Austin eats (also, Barking Carnival's got a great BBQ discussion going on here) and UT football stars (PB's got a nice expansion of this topic as well here).

As always, please keep in mind there are no wrong answers, only personal opinions.

Mexican Martinis at Trudy's: Heard some complaints in the last post, but I'm still of the opinion that these can't be beat. I recommend upgrading to at least the Cazedores anytime, but go on Top Shelf Tuesdays for a free upgrade to any premium tequila. Also, ever since I started working, I've wanted to give the Patron one a whirl. Shiner drafts are also only $2.75 (I believe they used to be $2 just a year ago).

Pitchers at Hole in the Wall: My dive bar of choice, it's got a wide selection of beers, good (if interesting) live music, and free shuffleboard in the back. Plus, it's just a walk from West Campus.

Irish Car Bombs at The Library: It ain't The Library at ASU, but this one isn't bad either. Their irish car bombs have expedited many a night for me on 6th, so this one zooms to the top of my list.

Cocktails at Cuba Libre: My Warehouse District venue of choice. I'm not a rum drinker, so I'm probably missing out on all the best stuff here, but the atmosphere and waitstaff are great. The drinks are on the pricey side, but they feel so good once they hit your lips.

That's 4; I'm definitely missing a lot more, but I'm sure y'all can fill in the blanks.

Bonus points...Preferred food of choice: On 6th: Best Wurst. Off 6th: Denny's on I-35 right across campus (also really good for weekday studying).

Thoughts? Opinions? Lists?

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!