Articles in

May 2013

It’s the postseason for our team; what’s on tap tonight; guys in the pros

May 31, 2013

I want to start by saying we have a fantastic team. LSU made a couple of plays in the outfield, we got robbed on strike three that Miller threw in the 11th and I’m not so sure Spence Navin wasn’t safe at home on that throw from right field. It’s hard to get over that one, but we’ve moved on and now it’s serious business tonight at 7 PM ET/6 CT on ESPNU against East Tennessee State. ETSU has this starting pitcher, Kerry Doane, who is pretty doggone good. He leads the country in complete games with 12, he’s like 13-1 something like that, and his ERA is under 2. He’s dangerous. We’ve got to bring it tonight. That’s a must. Illinois defeated Ga. Tech about 20 minutes ago, 6-4, in somewhat of a surprise. It was a really good game. Illinois has two position players who are twins brothers with their last names Pharr. One of them hit two long ones today. The Georgia Tech coach started his second starter today instead of his Friday Night guy and it cost him. So, we’ve got to take care of business tonight. Need a good outing from Zo. I love the way Vince Conde and Xavier Turner are hitting the ball right now. Need good production from our older guys, Kemp, Yaz, Gregor (who had an excellent SEC tourney at the plate), and Harrell. Not sure if Jack Lupo will be in left field, he’s been hurt, but I like any of our other options, John Norwood, Kyle Smith or Rhett Wiseman. Will have a report tomorrow on the game.

Mike Minor with a beautiful pitching performance last night. Went 7, threw 103 pitches, 73 for strikes (the guy just throws strikes), allowed three runs, but they were unearned as his shortstop, Andrelton Simmons, made an error on what would have been the third out. Mike didn’t walk a batter and struck out five. Mike has it going. He’s 7-2 now with a 2.49 ERA. Just a phenomenal pitcher right now. Braves playing tremendous baseball right now in first by a good five games over the Washington Nats. Really like what I’m seeing out of Mike. The Braves like what they’re seeing too. Braves host Nationals this weekend.

Dave Price interviewed with Todd Kalas (TK), the field reporter for the Rays’ broadcast, on Monday and said his arm feels good. Not sure when DP will be back, but should be in the next couple of weeks.Threw some on Monday and he felt good he said afterwards, so hopefully it’s in a week and a half. That seems about right. Rays have won five in a row after beating the Yanks Sunday, 7-0, and taking four straight from the lowly Marlins. Go to Cleveland tonight. Three back of the BoSox in the American League Big East.

Pedro didn’t play last night because he got two wisdom teeth pulled yesterday. Petey, come on man, can’t you do that another time and not during the Tigers’ series? The Bucs still won, 1-0. They are playing terrific baseball right now having taken three of four from Detroit, and the only loss they absorbed was Monday at Detroit when Justin Verlander pitched, but they got to him eventually and only lost 6-5. They played two in Detroit and two in the Steel City. El Toro (Pedro) had a beautiful two-run double on Wednesday Night that was critical to winning the game. We need him back tonight as the Reds come to town. Bucs around one and a half back of the Cards, who are playing incredible baseball right now. Bucs at 34-20. Started this Tony LaRussa book, One Last Strike. Tony, as many of you know, managed the Cards from 1996-2011 and won two world series titles with the Cards (2006, ’11). Read John Grisham’s foreword of the book last night. John and Tony are good friends, and John said when they get together, Tony, who according to John is a voracious reader, wants to talk about books and writers, and John wants to talk about hitting, pitching and defense on the Cardinals. It’s pretty funny. I would contend that Tony is the best manager the game has ever seen. Three World Series titles (one with Oakland in ’90). I know Joe Torre had four, but it just seemed to me that LaRussa could get more out of his players than any manager I’ve ever seen. Plus the talent Torre had was out the roof. Jeter in his prime, all those great position players. He was loaded. LaRussa got more out of less talent than Torre did. I would say they are the two best ever. John is the ghost writer and Tony talks about the comeback from 10 games down in the standings in 2011 with not much time left, which led to the World Series title. I’m excited about reading this one.

One last thing: I admire LeBron James for his work ethic and his recent (in the last two years) maturity. He’s grown up a lot and seems to be a good family man now. But he was complaining in February of this season that he was not paid like baseball players are paid. LeBron made $17.9 million in salary in 2012 and $40 million in endorsements. LeBron, I think you’ll be able to feed your family and have a good life on that. I understand what he’s aaying. There’s no salary cap in baseball and A-Rod is making $29 million a year this year, which he’s been doing for the past 10 years it seems like at least.. LeBron is much more valuable to his team than A-Rod is at this point, especially if he wins it again–and I’m starting to seriously reconsider my opinion that the Spurs are going to win it as the Heat look very deep and loaded and hard to beat– but come on ‘Bron. Saying that you’re underpaid at $58 million in 2012– and there will be more this year– is just not going to sit well with America. LeBron was complaining that baseball has no salary cap like basketball and they can pay these tremendous salaries.

I like LeBron overall, but he really says stuff he should just keep to himself sometimes. He’s honest to a fault. Don’t get me wrong; integrity trumps pretty much everything. But when you’re talking to the press, you need to keep something like that to yourself and talk about it with D Wade and Bosh, and not the media. I’ve got to reassess my Spurs pick. It’s going to be versus the Heat. The Heat are going to beat the young Pacers. I’ll go ahead and change; Heat in seven. Will be a tremendous series, but the Heat is just too deep and talented for anybody else. Spurs can stick with them with their starting five or six, but the Heat just keep throwing player after player at you. t’s pretty relentless. Heat in 7.

Will have more tomorrow. Ryan Flaherty has been playing a good bit for the O’s and hitting it pretty well. Mike Baxter playing some for the Mets. Sonny pitches tonight for Sacramento (triple A) and Sam Selman (VU ’12) goes tonight for the Wilmington BlueRocks.Will have Sonny, Sam and of course, Pedro, and our game report tomorrow.

Ball Coach; Memorial predictions

May 30, 2013

South Carolina looks vary good on offense. I know Spurrier says he’ll use both Connor Shaw and Dylan Thompson at quarterback, but in my opinion, Thompson should be the starter. Shaw does give them the running option, but they’ve got two or three good running backs. They have good receivers with Bruce Ellington, the all-world athlete/wide receiver, leading the way. Damiere Byrd and Shaq Roland look like excellent options on the perimeter as well. Shamier Jeffery (6’1″, 204), Alshon’s little brother, looks like he could be an impact wide out. So they need to mix the run and the pass, and Thompson looks like a much better passer to me than Shaw. Mike Davis (5’9″,215) looks like he is more than capable of filling Marcus Lattimore’s big shoes. Lattimore, who Spurrier called the reason for South Carolina’s major success the last couple of years (two, 11 win seasons in a row, never happened at SC), is now with the San Francisco 49ers. Brandon Wilds (6’2″, 218) is also a good option at running back as well. Kendric Salley, 5’9″, 215, is another nice option at rb.

The offensive line, at least the starting five, looked excellent. They were opening wide holes for the running backs and giving the quarterbacks good time to throw. Cody Waldrop is the leader at center (6’2″, 312). Back to the running backs, SC also has four-star David Whilliams coming in. Williams is 6’1″, 192 and runs a 4.4. He will add some speed to the backfield and the chance to go the distance when gets his hands on the ball. Another impressive guy to me was Brendan Nosovitch, the redshirt freshman quarterback. He can really throw the ball well. Liked him a lot. Shaw was out this spring recovering from a foot injury and will be ready in June.

A real position of strength is tight end. Jerrell Adams (6’6″, 224), and Rory Anderson (6’5″, 218) are playmakers. Adams caught a couple of TDs in the spring game and Anderson made some nice grabs as well.

The Gamecocks look pretty loaded on offense.

On defense, they lost some talent, but there are some young, athletic players taking the place of guys like lbs Devonte Holloman, Shaq Wilson, cornerback D.J. Swearinger. and defensive end Devin Taylor; all NFL players. Chaz Elder, a redshirt freshman free safety, is a playmaker. There are some other good athletes in the secondary.

But the defense all centers around the awesome Jadeveon Clowney. The 6’6″, 272 pound defensive end has a chance at winning the Heisman Trophy. It’s hard on defense. The only defensive player to ever win it was Charles Woodson at Michigan in 1997. But Woodson also returned punts. But if any player can win it on defense, it’s Clowney. A.J. McCarron, T.J. Yeldon and Todd Gurley will be major players in the Heisman conversation this year , but I’d give Clowney a shot. He can make this SC defense special with his dominance. Clowney had 13 sacks last year and 23 tackles for loss. That’s astounding. Chaz Sutton will be another defensive end who can be a real player for the Gamecocks. They’ll need some young guys to step up on defense, and if they do, SC could find themselves in the SEC championship game in December.

Schedule looks more manageable than it has the last couple of years. SC opens with North Carolina in Columbia. Don’t know a lot about UNC, but will find out more after watching their spring game. That looks like a W. Then the Gamecocks go to Athens on Sept. 7 for one of the biggest games of the season, not only in the conference, but also nationally. If SC can get by Georgia, things will get really interesting in Columbia. They have Vandy at home the next week, then they’re at Central Florida, who is no slouch any more, then home against Kentucky, and a tough stretch– but doable barring any major injuries– @Arkansas, @ UT and @ Mizzou. The last four are at home against Ms.State, Florida, which could be huge with conference and national implications on the line, vs. Coastal Carolina and home against Clemson.

Ball Coach and his teams have beaten Clemson four years in a row, UT three years in a row and Georgia three years in a row. He doesn’t keep that to himself either. Ball Coach will let them know about it. He sticks himself out on a limb, but a lot of the time he backs it up.

I see this team, barring injuries to key players (Clowney, ect…), being in the SEC championship game if they can get by Georgia and Florida. Think they have a pretty good shot against Florida at home, but Georgia will be a toss up. Haven’t decided who will win the East yet, but like it between SC and Georgia. Head to head, injuries, and suspensions in Georgia;’s case, will decide who will prevail. Florida will be a factor. I picked SC and Bama in the SEC championship game three weeks ago and I’ll stick with that. Wow, what a season coming up with huge games early on.

The Memorial Tournamnet

My contenders for the Memorial Tournament this week are: Tiger Woods, Brandt Snedeker, Matt Kuchar and Rickie Fowler. I believe a name guy will emerge in this classic tourney at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, Jack Nickaus’s course. Tiger Woods looks like such a sure thing in this competition and I have to go with him, but golf is unpredictable. It happens in horse racing all the time; a sure thing doesn’t win many times. Look at Orb two weeks ago at the Preakness. The horse was the overwhelming odds-on favorite to win and it finished fourth. It can happen in golf, too, though I’ll go with Woods. He’s won here five times there, and he’s good on the courses he owns, like this one, He won it last year and has already won four times this year at Torrey, Bay Hill (Arnie’s) and the Players. Torrey Pines and Bay Hill he owns. Same with Murifield Village. I’ll go with Tiger Woods, but I’m not going to guarantee it. There are no guarantees in sports.

Next up:

The Gators

Our team, pro players with huge days

May 26, 2013

16 runs, 19 hits, those are the bats we’ve been accustomed to seeing this year. 16-8 over State. Would like to see T.J. pitching a little better at this point because we’ll need him in the regionals, but I know it’s in there. He’s got great stuff. His fastball velocity wasn’t great today, and his curve wasn’t biting that much, but he did some good things. Defense pretty solid. Vince had an error, but did a nice job with Tony of turning a couple of double plays. Conrad Gregor with three hits and three RBIs, Connor with three hits and two RBIs, Tony with two hits and three RBIs, freshman Zander Wiel with three hits and three RBIs and Big Z, freshman Xavier Turner, with three hits and three RBis. Excellent day at the plate. Jared Miller did a nice job in relief of T.J., going three innings and allowing only one run.

Got the Bayou Bengal Tigers in an herculean matchup tomorrow at 4:30 PM ET/ 3:30 CT on ESPN2. LHP Phillip Pfeifer will be on the hill for us. Pfeif has given us some good starts for the most part this season. He’s 3-0 with a 3.76 ERA in 55 innings pitched giving up 49 hits, walking 27 and striking out 42. Pfeif has been shaky at times, but we can win with him. LSU will go with Brent Bonvillain, a lefty, who is 2-0 with a 2.97 ERA in 36 1/3 innings. He ha given up 22 hits in the 36 and change innings, he’s walked 21 and struck out 30. In his last outing, he gave up two runs on one hit and walked a couple of batters in 2.1 innings of relief. LSU lost the game to Ole Miss 11-9. in the final regular season game of the season last Saturday. Bonvillain is a senior.

Should be a classic. Tony is now hitting .409. I’ve got a major thought on Tony that I will pass on tomorrow after the game. Don’t want to talk about this yet. He’s been sensational, we know that. Just need to keep up our solid hitting going and pitch and defend solidly to capture our second SEC tournament title (first one, 2007). Would catapult us into the NCAA tournament as the number one seed of the entire tournament. Important game for us.

Pedro Alvarez had a couple of blasts today. A two-run shot and a solo shot in leading the Pirates to a 5-2 victory over the Brewers. Pedro hit numbers 9 and 10 and has now driven in 25 runs with his 3 RBI day. His bat can dominate like it did in college at VU. He just needs to consistently do that. He has greatness in him. Pirates playing great ball at 30-19, a game and a half behind the Cards, who lost, and a game behind Cincy, who won tonight. Rays lost a heartbreaker to the Yanks. Leading 3-1 in the top of the ninth, 2012 All-world closer Fernando Rodney allowed two runs for the Yankees to tie it and send it into extras. Yankees won it 4-3 in 11. Rodney just not the same pitcher he was a year ago. He has to get better if the Rays want to contend. Rays now all square at 24-24. Yanks lead them by six. Yanks at 30-18, Bosox at 30-20, and Orioles are at 27-22. Rays need to get it together quickly or there going to be out of this thing by the end of June. Dave Price will miss at least one more start, maybe two. Should be back the first or second week of June. Rays really need to win tomorrow. Just not playing the way they were expected to be playing right now.

Mike Minor with another stellar performance tonight for the Braves. MIke went 7.1 innings, and gave up only three hits, no earned runs, with two walks and 10 K’s. Mike now 6-2 with a 2.47 ERA. Braves won 6-0 over Mets and are playing exceptionally well. Move to 30-18 on the season and have a 5.5 game lead on second place Washington (25-24). Mike fantastic this year. Watched some it while watching a few shows with my wife (Modern Family taped along with a Sat Night Live). Have to do that sometimes because I’ve watched a ton of baseball and basketball, so I need to be fair with the Mrs. Will finish watching Mike tomorrow morning. I know he struck out the side to open the game and was dominant throughout. He threw 113 pitches, 71 for strikes. He threw 71strikes to 42 balls; decent ratio. He looked pretty awesome to me. Excited for Mike and the Braves

Lastly in minor league baseball , Sam Selman (VU ’12) got a victory tonight to move to 3-3 on the season, going five innings, giving up two hits with one run, with two base on balls and six K’s. Sam’s ERA is 4.91 for the Wilmington Blue Rocks. The Blue Rocks moved to 24-24 and the team they beat Myrtle Beach is now 29-18. So nice outing for Sam. It was a makeup for an earlier rained out game and went only seven innings. Wilmington is a Class A Advanced team for the Kansas City Royals. I see Sam going to the major leagues in the next couple of years. I also see Sony Gray (’11, Sacramento River Cats) pitching for the Oakland A’s this season. I like Curt Casali (’12, Charlotte, Fl, Rays organization). Aaron Westlake (’11, Tigers organization), Jason Esposito (’11, Orioles organization) Anthony Gomez (’12, Marlins minors) to make it as well in the next couple of years. Antoan Richardson is now with the triple A Rochester club of the Minnesota Twins organization. Antoan needs to get a shot in center field at some point for the Twins. He’s hitting .267, but has been in the 280’s this season, and he plays excellent defense and can steal a lot of bases. He is 29, so he needs to get his shot pretty soon. There are plenty of other guys from VU out there in pro baseball who could get a shot in the next year or two. Will start keeping you posted on our minors guys some more starting this week.

Luke List didn’t make the cut at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Fort Worth this weekend. Shot 70-75. Still plying away. Luke plays a lot. Just needs to keep doing what he’s doing and it’ll turn around for him. Brandt playing next week at the Memorial in Dublin Oho, Jack Nicklaus’s tourney. Will be awesome to see Brandt back out there.

Finally, watched an awesome Western conference final game in the NBA tonight. San Antonio defeated Memphis, 104-93, in overtime. Thirty seven year old Tim Duncan is playing better than ever; at another level than most players left in the playoffs, and there are a lot of great ones. Tony Parker has been superb. I guess Parker decided to turn it on after a nice Memphis restaurant turned him away last night saying in a statement later that most patrons book reservations two weeks in advance and there are no exceptions. Then they finished the statement by saying they are ardent fans of their Memphis Grizzlies basketball team and Go Grizzlies. Tony Parker doesn’t need much motivation to go out and play well, but this didn’t help the Memphis cause.

I like the Spurs over the Pacers in six in the NBA finals. I see the Spurs hoisting their fifth NBA title trophy and fourth championship in 11 years. Now that’s all time great. Don’t see the Heat beating the Pacers. Pacers are fantastic and have a better work ethic than the Heat. Like the Pacers in six over the Heat. Sorry LeBron. Don’t think your team can beat this terrific young group from Indiana. San Antonio up 3-o over Memphis.

Details on A&M game today

May 22, 2013

Game time is 5:30 PM ET/4:30 CT on CSS.

VU: Frosh RHP Walker Buehler ( 6’1″, 160, 4-1, 2.25 ERA, seven starts, 51 innings, 47 hits, 13 earned runs, 24 BB’s, 45 K’s) vs. A&M junior RHP Parker Ray (6’1″, 185, 0-1, 2.12 ERA, four starts, 51 innings, 43 hits, 12 earned runs, 15 BB’s, 33 Ks.)

Walker’s most impressive outing was against then No.12 ranked Louisville at Louisville in which he went 5.1 innings, gave up four hits, one run, with two walks and no K’s. We won the game 10-2.

Here’s more on today’s starter for A &M:

After 33 career appearances, all out of the bullpen, Parker Ray made his first career start four weekends ago … In his four starts, he is 0-1 with a 3.60 ERA fanning 17 over 25.0 innings … Despite getting saddled with the loss, he worked 7.2 innings in his first career start, allowing three runs on five hits and two walks while striking out four at Alabama … The last three weekends he was left with no decision, despite strong performances against Missouri, No. 3 LSU and Tennessee … He held LSU to just one run over 5.1 innings … Ray didn’t allow a run in his last six relief appearances, covering 14.1 innings, scattering nine hits and two walks while striking out eight … At Arkansas he scattered three hits while fanning two over 3.1 innings … Against Texas State, Ray pitched 3.2 shutout innings, scattering three hits and one walk while striking out four.

Their leading hitter and best player is shortstop Mikey Reynolds. He is hitting .354 and plays a really nice short, though he has committed 11 errors this year. He sure was pretty smooth last night in the field against Florida. He made some very nice, rangy plays. Third baseman Hunter Melton is hitting only .275, but he’s got some power and hit a three-run shot last night. He’s hit four out this year, including last night, and has 17 RBIs. Troy Stein is hitting .308 with four homers and 21 RBIs. A&M is hitting .275 as a team and have 23 homers on the season in 56 games. They are 31-25 overall and finished 13-16 in conference. They committed 71 errors as a team this season.

We finished the season 48-7 overall and 26-3 in the conference. We hit .319 as a team this season with 39 homers. We committed 50 errors in 55 games. Tony Kemp leads us in hitting at .408 and has stolen 27 bases in 39 attempts (77%). He’s had an awesome year. Yaz is hitting .333 and is maybe the heart and soul of the team, though Tony makes a pretty good case for himself also. But Yaz is a senior and he is the ultimate team guy/leader, so I go with Yaz. Connor Harrell is hitting .319 with 11 homers and 61 RBis.

It’s hard to hit it out of Regions ballpark in Hoover. It is every year. It’s a pretty deep field to center and in the power alleys. It’s 400 to center and .385 in the gaps. Little shorter on the right and left field lines though, so if you pull it you can get it out. It can be done. A little long ball with some timely hitting, a nice outing by Walker along with some solid relief if necessary, and stellar D will get the job done. We’ve got to execute. This Ray guy looks like a pretty good pitcher. Time to get to work.

PGA topics, Crowne Plaza Invitational, European Tour, Champions predictions

May 22, 2013

Sergio Garcia now needs to keep his mouth shut and try to do something he hasn’t done so well lately: win a golf tournament. At the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club in Surrey, England, Garcia made a comment yesterday about serving Tiger “fried chicken” when he jokingly said he’ll have him over for at night during the U.S. Open. It was clearly made in jest, but you just can’t say that. I’m not a big fan of Tiger; to me he’s pretty arrogant and he bends the rules as closely as you can without cheating, and even that’s debatable. But that comment is unacceptablt anywhere. It’s the same thing Fuzzy Zoeller said before the Masters dinner a while back. Sergio needs to stop talking. Tiger just keeps pulverizing him on the golf course and Sergio looks really stupid. He needs to apologize again if asked about it, and just focus on golf. He has a lot of work to do if he wants to ever contend for a major or even win a PGA tour stop. I was kind of on Sergio’s side a little bit during the earlier controversy. Tiger’s drop during the Players when his ball went into the water on 14 off his tee shot was very questionable. There has been talk that the drop was not legal. Still, Sergio is out of line and needs to shut up. It’s got to be embarrassing to mouth off like he does and then look at his results head to head with Tiger. Tiger just destroys the guy on the golf course. It’s no contest. Time for Garcia to be quiet and play golf, though this controversy might not go away for a little while.

Rule 14-1B implemented by the USGA and the R&A yesterday will make it illegal to anchor a putter beginning January 1, 2016. It’s in place now and the PGA and the players just need to comply with it. I don’t totally agree with the decision, but we don’t need a split by the PGA from the USGA or lawsuits by players. That would be overboard. It’s done. Time to accept it and adjust if you anchor. There are other methods for using the long putter or the belly which are legal. You can still use them if you don’t attach the putter to your body or the long one to your chin. You can put your right hand on your left arm if you’re a right handed putter. That’s a pretty good compromise. It’s not hard to not anchor a long putter. I use a belly and I don’t anchor it. I like my putter and it works fine. The adjustment can be made. It’s time to just suck it up and abide by the ruling.

This week:

The Crowne Plaza Invitational

Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Texas

Defending Champion: Zach Johnson

Purse: $6,400,000; Winner’s share: $1,152,000

TV:

Thursday: Golf Channel: 3-6 PM ET/ 2-5 CT; Friday: Golf Channel: 3-6 PM ET/ 2-5 CT: Saturday: Golf: 1-2:30 PM ET/12-1:3o CT; CBS: 3-6 PM ET/2-5 CT; Sunday: Golf: 1-2:30 PM ET/12-1:30 CT; CBS 3-6 PM ET/2-5 CT.

Weather:

Sunny, mid-to high 80’s Thursday and all weekend. Friday has 18 MPH winds so that could be interesting.

Key holes on Colonial:

7,204 yards, Par 70

No.3

A 483-yard, par four, this is the beginning of the three-hole stretch called the “Horrible Horseshoe,” the three most difficult holes on the course. The long dogleg left requires a perfectly placed tee shot around a large tree and bunkers. A long approach shot makes birdies rare. This ranks as the second most difficult hole on the course. Par is a good score here; birdie is a bonus.

No.4

A 241-yard, par three has an elevated green that is difficult to hold. This hole is the only par three that has not yielded a hole in one in the 62 year history of the tournament. Birdies are rare as well.

No.5

A 481- yard, par-4, this is the hardest and most famous hole at Colonial and the last hole of the “Horrible Horseshoe.” The tee shot must be precise as there is a ditch to the left and a river to the right. Even a good tee shot leaves a long, narrow approach. Par is very acceptable here.

N0.9

A 407 yard, par four. An attractive, difficult hole that can lead to some big numbers. You must hit it straight off the tee and avoid a pond that is guarding the front of the green.

No.12

A 440 yard, par 4, this is the hardest hole on the back nine. The fairway is a dogleg left and requires accuracy and length. The approach must negotiate a tightly bunkered green and usually a head wind.

N0.16

A, 192 yard, par 3,. The par threes on the last three holes of the tournament are usually key scoring or survival holes,. A good tee shot is required to stay below the hole. Could lead to some dramatics here.

No.18

A 441 yard, par 4. You need a draw off the tee here on this dogleg left with trees capturing wayward shots. A lake protects the left side of the green. Great drama here on Sundays usually.

Contenders:

Boo Weekley:

Boo’s been playing well all season and has been very close to breaking through. He’s 17th on the tour in driving accuracy and 10th in greens in regulation. He hits it a long way. If his putter is clicking, he’ll be right there on Sunday.

Ben Kohles:

Young guy who is a fantastic player. He dominated the Web.com Tour last year winning twice and moving up to the regular tour. He’s done pretty well this year and is 21st in driving accuracy on the tour. This course really requires accuracy to win the tournament. A player who can draw the ball well has a good shot. Like this young player.

Justin Leonard:

A native Texan, Justin has won three times in Texas on the PGA tour, all three times at San Antonio. As a matter of fact, he’s a native of Dallas and knows the course very well. Like his chances to capture the title.

Kevin Streelman:

This guys tour stats are off the charts; 22nd in driving accuracy, 23rd in greens in regulation, 28th in scrambling and 19th in strokes gained putting. Won at Tampa. I’ve been struggling with Kevin and this other guy on who’ll win this week. Really had to flip a coin, I like both of them a lot at Colonial, but I’m going with a Georgia Bulldog.

The Winner:

Harris English:

Finished tied for fifth last year and shot a 67 on Sunday. He’s been playing well all year. Like the fact that he did so well last year in his rookie season. The statistics point to Streelman, but I’m going with the guy who has a good resume’ on this course.

Like Rocco Mediate to win the 74th Senior PGA Championship this week at the 6,959, par-71 Bellerive Country Club course in St. Louis. Golf Channel carries it 12-3 PM ET/ 11 AM-2 PM CT Thursday and Friday and NBC has coverage on Saturday and Sunday from 3-6 PM ET/2-5 CT. Fred Couples, John Cook and Tom Lehman are not playing this week due to other conflicts, but Schwab Cup leader Bernhard Langer is in the field and he’ll be a factor. He’s so consistent.

Like Nicolas Colsaerts to win the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club in Surrey, England. Colsearts is a bomber–he leads thr PGA Tour in driving distance averaging 304.7 off the tee– and has all the talent to win big in Europe and maybe the U.S.. Star-studded field with Rory, Greame McDowell, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Ernie competing.

The Crimson Tide plays LSU @ 2 PM ET/1 CT on CSS. Should be a good baseball game. Alabama playing very well right now and defeated Auburn yesterday, 6-3. LSU is an excellent team. ‘Bama gave No.1 Vandy all they wanted up in Nashville last weekend. Vandy took two of three, but the games were wars.

Tomorrow, basketball, Brandt, Luke

May 21, 2013

Tomorrow @5:30 PM ET/ 4:30 CT on CSS. A&M upset Florida just a minute ago, 6-3, and they look pretty good. Their starter tonight was a good pitcher. Don’t know a lot about them but will have more tomorrow. They’ve got a good defensive shortstop and a power hitter who hit a three-run shot against the Gators. Will fill you in more tomorrow morning. I’m assuming Corbs is going to go with Walker Buehler on the mound because Zo and Tyler just pitched over the weekend and both probably need another day off. But I trust Walker completely. He can get the job done. Alabama plays LSU at 2 PM ET/ 1 CT on CSS in what should be a very good game. Alabama playing very well right now and LSU is a very good team as we know.

If you didn’t know, basketball player Sheldon Jeter is transferring, but he wants to transfer to Pitt, and Stallings is blocking the transfer. Knowing Kevin, there is a very good reason for this. I’ve heard that Pitt tampered with Jeter while he was playing for us this year. They didn’t offer him out of high school–he is from Beaver Falls, Pa.–but after seeing him perform some this season, they obviously wanted him. I say good riddance to this kid. We had just won a game in February and he had played a good game, and he, Kede and Dai-Jon were in the postgame interview room talking to the writers. He was in the middle, Kede was on the left and Dai-Jon was on the right. It was a five minute interview and strangely, he was laughing the whole time during the interview session. It was really weird. I didn’t think a lot of it when it happened, but now that I think about it, something was wrong there. Maybe he was just extremely immature. He was acting very strange. It wasn’t a funny situation. It was just your typical post game interview and Kede and Dai-Jon were both focused and serious, but Jeter was acting like an idioit. Kevin is on the 11-coach basketball rules committee for the NCAA and takes these violations very seriously. Jeter could have been struggling with school too, so that could be a factor in his decision. I’m with Kevin totally on this one.

Also, I read today in the golf section of CNN/SI that Brandt has a low bone turnover condition that causes him to break bones very easily. He has had four cracked ribs in the last six years, most recently during the 2012 RBC Heritage tournament in Hilton Head, he’s had two hip surgeries, and twice strained muscles in his rib cage. The most recent was in the AT&T at Pebble Beach this year, the tournament in which he won and shot a 65 on the final day, when he was in a lot of pain. Brandt has been injecting a drug that makes his bones less brittle. Tough on B. Hate it for him. Hopefully, B can overcome this. Really pulling for him. Great guy. Thoughts and prayers with B. Won’t be playing this weekend at Crowne Plaza Invitational in Fort Worth, but he is scheduled to play next week at the Memorial, Jack Nicklaus’s tournament, in Dublin, Ohio. Brandt will then play in Memphis the following week and then comes the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club outside of Philly. On his website, it doesn’t have the U.S. Open on his schedule, but he’s certainly exempt. We’ll see what Brandt wants to do. Support him whatever direction he chooses. Just want him to get his health back.

Luke playing at the Crowne Plaza. Luke still working very hard. Just needs to keep fighting and get in the top 125, so he’ll be back on the tour next year. If he doesn’t make it, he’ll have to go through the new format for qualifying for the tour in 2014, which will be an interesting format. Luke is presently 153 on the Fed Ex list and 152 on the money list, so he has some work to do. I’m sure Luke will go all in to get exempt for next year.

Finally, I want to send out my personal thoughts and prayers to the people in Moore, Oklahoma. Such a tragic thing that happened there yesterday. The American spirit is strong though. This will take some resilience. Tough, tough thing.

Will have more tomorrow on the game.

A&M

May 21, 2013

Wow, Johnny Heisman looked better than ever in the spring game. Coming off a season in which he led his team to an 11-2 overall mark and 6-2 in the SEC, Manziel was 24-of-30 for 3o3 yards and three TDs in the spring game. Of course, the Aggies had some injuries on defense, so it was mostly against the second team defense and Manziel could have taken 20 minute siestas in the pocket. But he looked fantastic and will be highly formidable for opponents this year. How do you improve on a year in which you accounted for 47 touchdowns on the ground and through the air, completing 295-of-434 passes (68%) for 3,706 yards, 26 touchdowns and nine ints, while running for 1,410 yards and 21 TDs? Well, Manziel has worked with famed quarterback instructor George Whitfield to increase his accuracy. He’s stepping into his throws better and his arm strength looks better. He can really run, that we know. But his passing game looks better than ever.

A&M opens with Rice and Sam Houston State at home and then the Tide comes in for a showdown on Sept. 14 at Kyle Field. Wow, that will be awesome. S and the Tide are still pretty sore about last year’s 29-24 loss and will be out for major payback. Should be terrific. A&M then hosts SMU, a dynamic offensive group and A&M looks a little thin on defense, then the Aggies go to Arkansas and Ole Miss, play Auburn, Vandy, UTEP and State at home, go to Baton Rouge and then to Missouri. It’s tough, like all of the SEC schedules are. ‘Bama, LSU and Ole Miss look to be A&M most challenging foes, but there are some other games; AU, Vandy and State which will be tests.

What is also impressive about this team is the running back stable they have. They have two transfers, Tre Carson (Oregon) and Brandon Williams (Oklahoma), who look dynamic. Carson is 6’0″, 227, and more of a bruiser, in between the tackles runner, while Williams is 6’0″, 192 and a speedster. They join the talented Ben Malena (5’8″, 185) and Trey Williams (5’8″, 185) in what could be one of the top backfields not only in the conference, but also in the country.

The line lost a couple of guys including the second pick in the draft, Luke Joeckel, who was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars, but they look like they have some pretty good replacements. Left tackle Jake Matthews (6’5″, 305) has 33 career starts, left guard Jarvis Harrison (6’4″, 320) has 18 career starts, center Mike Matthews, Jake’s brother, is 6’3″,280, and hasn’t had a start but looks pretty powerful. Right guard Germain Ifedi (6″5″, 320) has zero starts, but his size is fantastic. Right tackle Cedric Ogbuehi (6’5″, 300) has 19 career starts. They should be an effective unit.

Wide receiver will be led by MIke Evans, who caught 82 passes for 1,105 yards and five TDs last year. LeKendrick Williams had a good spring and caught five passes for 116 yards and two TDs last year. Derel Walker is another who can be a big impact player on the perimeter. Didn’t see much of their tight ends.

Defense has a lot of good athletes, but not sure if there is a lot of depth. A&M had an excellent recruiting class in 2013, so that should help immediately in the fall, particularly on defense, where they recruited very well. Kirk Herbstreit called Floyd Raven Sr., the Aggies’ free safety, their leader on defense. Linebacker Donnie Baggs (6’1″, 230) will play a major role as well. They’re not huge on the defensive line, actually small, averaging 270 across the front. But they have couple of d tackles coming in, Isaiah Golden (6’2″, 295), a four-star, and Hardreck Walker (6’2″, 280), another four star, who need to bring immediate help. They lost Demontre Moore to the New York Giants, but they have some athletes on the d ends. A&M also has five linebackers, three defensive backs and some athletes coming in this year as well. They recruited heavily on defense in 2013. Defensive back De’Vante Harris and linebacker Nate Askew will also play key roles on the defense. They will need immediate help from these freshmen coming in and that’s always difficult in the SEC. A&M already has 10 commits for 2014 and six of them are four-stars and seven of the 10 are on defense. At this point they have the third ranked class in the country according to Rivals.

Didn’t see much of their kicking game, but it’s fine. It didn’t stick out as a major asset or a liability, so it looks fine.

Should be a very interesting season in College Station. Johnny Football looks better than ever, and there is some explosiveness on offense with those backs and some good receivers and a pretty powerful starting O line. Tight end looks like Cameron Clear, who played at Hoover, may be a guy to look for. He’s 6’6″, 270. He’s had some off field issues, so we’ll see what develops there.

There are some new coaches. Clarence McKinney and Jake Spavital will take over the offense with McKinney calling plays. It’ll be interesting to see how Manziel adjusts to a new play-caller after Kliff Kingsbury did a masterful job last year. Kingsbury took over as head coach at Texas Tech, his alma mater, and will be in his first year at the helm there. Head coach Kevin Sumlin will also have an impact on offense and Mark Snyder will once again run the defense. Marcel Yates will co-coordinate the defense with Snyder. Snyder looks like a pretty good coach to me. He will have to develop his starters and depth.

Manziel and his teammates will have to get by the Tide if they want to be in the hunt to win it all. That’s a tall order. They could still get there with one loss, but would need some help. But they should be a good football team, and Sept 14 will be a spectacle when the Tide comes into Kyle Field.

Thursday: South Carolina

Them Dawgs

May 20, 2013

Georgia has 10 of 11 starters returning from last year’s offense. Aaron Murray, of course, returns for his senior season at quarterback. Murray completed 249–of-386 passes last year (64.5%) for 3,893 yards and 36 TDs against 10 interceptions. He’s got a chance to have a special year. He’ll be tested early as Georgia goes to Clemson to open the season (Aug. 31, 8 PM ET/7 CT on ABC), plays South Carolina at home the next week, then gets a break against North Texas at home, before LSU comes to Athens on Sept. 28. Murray looked like he might have the Alabama game won in the SEC championship game when he led a late drive with the Dawgs needing a touchdown to win it. The Dawgs were on the ‘Bama eight yard line with no timeouts and the Tide leading 32-28. Murray motioned to the sideline to spike the ball after a completed pass to the eight, but amazingly Mark Richt and oc Mike Bobo told him to run a play. Murray attempted a pass that was tipped at the line of scrimmage. A Georgia player caught it was tackled and the game was over. The Dawgs took care of business in the Capital One bowl with a 45-31 victory over Nebraska. The ‘Dawgs finished the season 12-2 overall and 7-1 in the conference regular season with their only regular season conference loss coming to South Carolina, a stunning 35-7 defeat.

Georgia also plays @ UT, @ Vandy (not a cakewalk anymore), vs. Florida in Jacksonville, @ Auburn, vs. Kentucky and @ Tech. There’s another non-conferece game against App State, which I don’t know, may be an interesting game. Don’t know a lot about App State, but they’ve taken down a giant before when they beat Michigan at the Big House three or four years ago.

I see the ‘Dawgs in the thick of the SEC title hunt and consequentially in the national title hunt. They’ll have to survive those first three of four games gauntlet, but if they do and come out 4-0, they could be right in the title hunt both in the conference and nationally. Clemson will have quarterback Tajh Boyd and all world wide out Sammie Watkins back, and Dabo has recruited well, so that could be a pretty good tussle for the Dawgs. South Carolina should be very good and LSU will be loaded with the only problem being Les Miles making decisions on the sidelines. But they’ll be covered with talent and could overcome Miles’ questionable decision-makingc during games. But a 4-0 mark is a possibility with SC and LSU at home, and the Dawgs should be better than Clemson. Will know more about SC and Clemson when I watch their spring games. LSU doesn’t televise their spring game, but will get stats from it. Like SC and Georgia to battle it out for the east crown, with Florida in the hunt ,but behind Ga and SC. Will have my predictions this summer during media days.

Todd Gurley will return for his sophomore campaign at running back and he should have a phenomenal season. Gurley ran for 1,385 yards last year, averaging 6.2 yards per carry and scored 17 touchdowns. He’ll be a force in the conference. Keith Marshall ran for 759 yardsand eight touchdowns last year. He was as highly regarded as Gurley coming out of high school, and even more so, so he’ll be a major factor in the offense. Malcolm Mithcell returns at wide receiver as does Michael Bennett, who is returning from a season ending knee injury last year. Mitchell is a game changer who can go the distance any time he catches the ball. He made the play of the season for the Dawgs when he caught a short out pass from Murray late in the Florida game and took it to the house 51 yards for the game clinching TD. He’s fantastic. Bennett is an excellent possession receiver. There are others and tight ends Arthur Lynch and Jay Rome should give Murray some big time targets in the passing game as well. The offensive line returns in tact. The offense is in very good shape.

Defense lost some very key players to t he NFL in linebacker Alex Ogletree (St. Louis Rams), linebacker Jarvis Jones (Pittsburgh Steelers), nose tackle John Jenkins (Saints), safety Bacarri Rambo (Washington Redskins) and safety Shawn Williams (Cincinnati Bengals). Those are some key losses, but there is a ton of young talent. Cornerback Damian Swann should be the leader. Swann, a junior, led the ‘Dawgs with four ints last year. He also had two fumble recoveries. He’s a player. There were 11 early enrollees at spring practice, so that was good for the offense and defense. True freshman safety Tray Mattews is a headhunter. True freshman linebacker Reggie Carter and true frosh cornerback Reggie Wilkerson are other guys to watch. Redshirt freshman nose tackle John Taylor is 6″4″, 335. Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham will have to get the group playing hard and cohesively this summer in preparation for Clemson.

It’s going to be an awesome race in the SEC East and Georgia is once again going to be a major player. If Richt loses a couple of the first four games, he will once again be on the hot seat. Coaches just have to survive in the SEC, and while Richt has done a good job, fans have short fuses on their patience meters, so he’ll need to at leastwin three of the four (North Texas for sure, and he really needs to beat South Carolina after last year’s debacle) to be in good shape vocationally.

But Georgia should be a factor in this conference title race, which, if you win the conference title, almost automatically puts you in the national championship game. They will be loaded on offense and defense should be pretty stout with a lot of young, stellar players.

Tomorrow: A&M

VU baseball just keeps getting better and better; Pedro, Mike, Dave

May 13, 2013

Won 10-5 yesterday, but a little concerned about two things: T.J. as our third starter, and the status of Brian Miller. In 4.1 innings, Pecoraro allowed eight hits, five earned runs, giving up two homers, walking none and K’ing two. He’s throwing strikes, but he’s having trouble getting guys out. Steven Rice did a nice job out of the ‘pen though, going 4.2 and allowing no runs on two hits with one walk and five K’s.

Conrad Gregor with a huge two-run shot to break a 5-5 tie in the top of the sixth. Didn’t get to watch the whole game, but will watch tonight. I have emailed Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean to see if he has any information on closer Brian Miller. Brian was shaking his arm out in the Presbyterian game last week, so I’m a little worried he’s been overworked and has a sore arm. Hope it’s not a problem. As I wrote last week, he threw 70 pitches against Florida earlier this season and that concerned me very much at the time. Hope it’s no big deal. But a closer throwing 70 pitches is almost unheard of. I know he doesn’t throw that hard and he’s a workhorse, but it is concerning. I’ll let you know when I find out something. Corbin may say something about it tonight on his radio show. Tony was two-for-four yesterday and is now hitting .404. Made some incredible defensive plays Saturday Night.

So we won the SEC regular season and will play our first game in the SEC tournament at Regions Park in Hoover, Al. on Wed., May 22, versus the winner of the 8-9 game. Right now that would be the Florida-Texas A&M winner, which would be a tough game. Florida gave us trouble at our place earlier this season, though we took two out of three. Sunday’s game was up in the air after we lost Friday and won Saturday, and was called after seven innings because of the travel rule on Sundays. Spence Navin has just worked a walk to give us a 5-4 lead when they called the game. But that game was definitely in the balance and could have gone the other way if it wasn’t called. We always have wars with the Gators. A&M is a pretty good team too.

We’re now 45-6 overall and 24-2 in the SEC. UNC lost two of three to Georgia Tech over the weekend, so we should be No.1 in all polls. A lot of work left to do though. Alabama comes to town Thursday-Saturday, then the SEC tournament next week. Alabama games not televised, but will be on the website: www.vucommodores.com

Pedro went two-for-four yesterday with an RBI against the Mets. He doubled and hit the game winning RBI single for the Bucs. Really like how Pedro’s bat is heating up. Bucs now 21-16 on the season, 2.5 back of the Cards and 1/2 game back of Reds. Play Milwaukee at home for four beginning tonight. Mike Minor goes tonight for the Braves @ the Dbacks. Braves lost three in a row to the Giants after taking the first game Thursday Night. Need to get it back together. The Giants are a very good team and are in the World Series mix as are the Braves, but have to start playing better. Braves at 21-16 and lead the Nationals (20-17) by a game. Mike has been super all year. Will have a report on Mike tomorrow.

Dave goes Wednesday Night in Tampa against the Red Sox and John Lester, who is 5-0 with a 2.73 ERA, so Dave and the Rays will be in another war. I really liked the way DP pitched on Thursday against R.A. Dickey of the Blue Jays. Really pitched well, and as usual, was a warrior on the mound. Rays have now won five in a row and are at 19-18, four and a half back of Yankees (23-13), who are doing a tremendous job this season without the services of Jeter, A-Rod, Tex and Curtis Granderson. Tex and Granderson should be back in the next couple of weeks and A-Rod and Jeter expected back after the All-Star break. Joe Girardi is one of the best managers in baseball. Orioles at 23-15 are second, and Sox are 22-16 in third. Rays host Sox for three beginning tomorrow night, then go to Baltimore over the weekend. Doesn’t get any easier,. but that’s the way it is and you have to play the teams on your schedule. Should be an awesome week and hopefully productive.

Mike Baxter got a hit yesterday for the Mets in three plate appearances. Mike playing well when he gets his opportunities. Ryan Flaherty didn’t play yesterday, but does a nice job for O’s. Sonny pitched extremely well Saturday Night for the Sacramento Rivercats against Nashville in a 5-2 victory. Sonny should be in the majors this season at some point; August, maybe sooner.

Brandt played well yesterday shooting a final round 70. He was going along pretty well, but bogeyed 16 and 18. Tiger with the win after Sergio’s meltdown. Brandt not playing the next two weeks. Will play in the Memorial, May 30-June 2; three weeks. I wish he’d play more. Brandt said in SI golf before the Masters that he wants to win majors. Well, if he wants to do that he needs to play. The reason he won the FED Ex Cup last year was because he was playing a lot. The U.S. Open is June 13-16 and he’s playing the week before in Memphis, so that’s good. Maybe he’ll find a consistent game and be ready for the Open at Merion Golf Club, one of America’s most famous courses, June 13-16. Luke playing this week at HP Byron Nelson.

We play Belmont tomorrow night at 6:30 CT at home. Will be televised on the website.

Dave, Mike, Pedro, Mike Baxter, with stellar efforts this week; baseball this weekend

May 10, 2013

Wow, where to begin. Mike Minor pitched @ Cincy on Wednesday in a matinee and was stellar. Mike moved to 4-2 (2.96 ERA) with a seven inning performance, in which he threw 117 pitches, 74 for strikes (43 balls, that’s fine), and allowed one earned run on four hits with three walks and seven K’s. Pretty amazing thing happened in the bottom of the second to Mike and the Braves. The Reds loaded the bases with no outs. Donald Lutz hit a fly ball to left fielder Evan Gattis, who was subbing for Justin Upton, who had the day off. Gattis caught it and threw a strike to catcher Gerald Laird (who was subbing for McCann who had the day off) to double up Brandon Phillips, a very fast runner, at the plate. Gattis has been outstanding for the Braves in replacing Brian McCann while he was on the disabled list, and is a total winner. Pretty interesting story, too. He was selling pizzas a couple of years ago and struggled with alcohol and drugs not too long ago. But he’s got it together now. He’s been awesome. Mike got the third out on a ground out. Dan Uggla hit a pair of homers as the Braves took two of three from the Reds with a 7-2 victory. Braves beat the Giants last night @ San Francisco, 6-3, to move to 21-13 on the season; two ahead of the Nationals. I forgot to mention the other teams who are in the World Series conversation the other day, and the Braves are certainly one of them. Like the Rangers and Tigers in the AL also, but I’m sticking with Orioles over Nationals in the Series. Hell, that may change as the season progresses. This is a heckuva season in major league baseball. There are so many good teams.

A very interesting stat on Mike: left-handed hitters are hitting .100 against him, 4-for-40. That’s astounding. Mike is having an excellent year, and he’s only going to get better and better with continued experience. He’s a warrior.

Dave Price didn’t get the win last night, but the Rays did win over the Blue Jays in 10 innings, 5-4, in a war. I’m telling you, the Blue Jays may be struggling record-wise (13-23), but they have some bats and some pretty good arms. They’ve lost some key players to injuries, but that Jose Bautista is a fantastic player. He gives Dave fits. He’s hitting .355 against DP, but it seems like .500. He has, it seems like, four or five homers against him–I looked it up but couldn’t find anything besides his average against Dave. He doubled and drove in a run against DP last night; but overall, Dave had his best outing of the season. He went eight, gave up seven hits, four runs (only two earned) with one walk, one hit batter and eight K’s. He threw 117 pitches and 81 of them were strikes. That’s an 81-36 ratio. 2:1 is considered very good. That’s exceptional. Dave had thrown 102 pitches going into the top of the eighth and I thought Joe M was going to pull him as he usually does when Dave throws around 100. But Joe stuck with him recently in another game with Dave throwing close to 115 pitches in that game, and that trend continued last night.. Dave got them out three up three down in the eighth. Two of the runs he gave up were unearned as Even Longoria, who has been awesome this year with the bat and is usually awesome with the glove committed an error that eventually led to a couple of runs scoring. If Longo hadn’t committed that error, Dave would have gotten out of the inning without any runs scoring. Longo committed an error in Dave’s previous outing at Colorado last Saturday night that was costly. That’s OK. Evan has been sensational this year and is usually outstanding with the glove. He went three-for-five last night and is hitting .331 on the season.. The Jays must have gotten at least three bloop singles also. Dave was bringing it in the 93-95 range with his heater. He looks like he’s back to me. His change up worked well and so did his curve ball and cut fastball. He almost got the win in the eighth when, with the score tied 4-4, Luke Scott singled to right field with Longo on second and two outs. Longo raced to the plate, but Bautista executed a perfect, and I mean perfect, throw from the outfield to his catcher Blanco and Longo got tagged out. I’m telling you, that was a war. Was worn out myself watching the game. R.A. Dickey, last year’s NL Cy Young winner with the Mets and a good friend of Dave’s as both live in Nashville in the offseason, pitched well for the Jays. He’s struggled a little this year, but he is tough and a grinder. Luke Scott said hitting Dickey’s knuckleball is like “eating soup with a fork.” He was quoting Yogi Berra. Yogi was a quote machine.

Anyway, terrific win for the Rays. Host San Diego this weekend. Important series. Need to get back in this AL East race and they just need to get on a consistent winning streak. They’re 4.5 games behind the Yanks. Sox and O’s right there behind Yankees too. Wow, that AL East is spectacular. Best division in baseball without a doubt. The worst team record-wise, the Blue Jays, are a good baseball team in my opinion. So it’s a war in the East. Dave pitches next against John Lester of the Red Sox @ Tampa on Wednesday Night. Lester is 4-0 with a 3.30 ERA, who are having a very good season so far. Lester has 15 walks to 40 K’s. So it looks like another war for Dave. Should be a classic. Mike pitches Monday at Arizona.

Pedro with an excellent night at the Mets last night. Had a single, a sacrifice fly and a game-tying homer in the top of the eighth, his sixth homer of the season and his 15th RBIs. A fellow ‘Dore did him one better in the bottom of the ninth. Mike Baxter, who graduated from our program in ’06, hit the game-winning RBI single in the ninth. Mike has had two walk off game-winning singles this week. He did it Tuesday Night also. Great stuff. Hopefully Pedro will have a big weekend. Both Mike and Pete were born and raised in New York City and former Vanderbilt Commodores. Pretty cool stuff there.

Ryan Flaherty went one-for-three for the Orioles last night. They lost to the Royals, 6-2. Ryan a very good utility player for Birds.

Sony Gray is pitching for the Triple A Sacramento Rivercats in the Oakland A’s organization. Sonny is 3-1 with a 2.61 ERA and is on a fast track to the majors. Expect to see Sonny in an A’s uniform later this season. Proud of him. Curt Casali is now in the Rays organization after getting traded by the Tigers to the Rays. Curt is playing for Port Charlotte, the advanced single A team of the Rays. He’s hitting .306 with one homer and four RBIs. Curt doing very well in the minors. Aaron Westlake is with the Lakeland Flying Tigers of the Detroit organization. The Lakeland team is advanced single A as well. Westy is hitting .299 with two homers and 23 RBI’s. Expect all three of those guys to be in the bigs. Will have more on our minor leaguers next week. Sonny pitches at Nashville tomorrow night.

Baseball at UK this weekend. Zo (9-2, 2.03) vs. LHP A.J. Reed 2-6, 2.84) tonight at 6:30 PM ET/5:30 CT on the website. Tyler Beede (12-0, 1.73) goes against RHP Kyle Cody (3-2, 4.86) tomorrow @ 7 PM ET/6CT on CSS, and T.J. Pecoraro (3-1, 3.38) goes against LHP Corey Littrell (5-4, 3.46) Sunday at 1 PM ET/noon CT on Fox Sportsouth.

Read a great story on MLB.com on one of our incoming players next year, Roynal Coleman. Roynal sounds like the next Tony Kemp. Tony will be a senior next year and he’s an awesome guy, so he may want to finish his education and go for (hopefully) another championship next year. But Tony is a phenomenal player and should get drafted. Want him back, but to me, Tony looks like a major leaguer in the future and he may want to get started. It depends maybe on how this season shakes out. But Roynal, who is 5″5″, 145, which doesn’t matter if you’re stellar–Tony (5’8″) has proven that–hit .400 as a freshman, .490 as a sophomore, and .400 as a junior. Looks terrific. An interesting part of the piece was a part when one of his coaches picked him up for a big game (Roynal is from Chicago), and Roynal got in the car and started reading a book. The coach was amazed at his discipline. Right before a big game on the way to the park, Roynal is reading a book. That’s awesome. Roynal sounds like an extremely high character kid. Looking forward to seeing him in the black and gold next season. Don’t want Tony to leave though, unless it’s in his best interest. First things first. Want Tony and his teammates to keep winning and be playing in late June.

Brandt shot -3 today and is -4 for the tournament at the Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Sergio Garcia leading at -11 after shooting a 65 today. Tiger one behind at -10 after carding a 67 today. A lot of players in the hunt. Should be stellar this weekend. There are pretty good chances of rain tomorrow afternoon and Sunday; but knowing Florida, the systems should move in and move out pretty quickly. Hopefully, B can get hot this weekend.

Fresh Tweets:

Vanderbilt women’s tennis player Astra Sharma 1 on 1. https://t.co/D0WS0rVnqG @VandyMeg @mmhamlett @Vandywtennis @ManOfVandy @SkipPrince
May 18, 2017, 2:34 PM

Vanderbilt women’s tennis Astra Sharma 1 on 1. https://t.co/D0WS0rVnqG @astrasharma @markNwhitebluff @vandy_62 @warehouse1987 @dbc5361
May 18, 2017, 2:33 PM

Previewing 2017 Clemson Tigers football team. https://t.co/1JH1cPGQkp @markNwhitebluff @vandy_62 @clayphillips27 @warehouse1987 @dbc5361
May 15, 2017, 2:13 PM

Topics:

Baseball (54)
Basketball (368)
Blog (39)
Football (712)
General (97)
Golf (203)
Horse Racing (3)
News+Reviews (20)
NHL (1)
Tennis (18)
Uncategorized (962)
Vanderbilt Sports (243)