Dave pitched 7.1 innings allowing one run, a homer by Brandon Snyder that hit the Pesky foul pole probably 303 feet out there, allowed just two hits with no walks and eight ring ups. Dave threw 90 pitches, with 67 strikes and 23 balls. Again, an amazing outing. Dave was cruising along going into the bottom of the eighth when all of the sudden it started pouring. The teams had to leave the field and there was a 39 minute rain delay. I knew it would be risky to bring Dave back after that delay, and Joe Maddon consulted with Jim Hickey, his pitching coach, and DP. DP, of course, wanted to go out there. Joe said after the game he was very uncomfortable putting him back out there. Dave had actually had probably a 50 minute break because he had been on the bench in the top of the eighth while his team hit. After listening to Dave plead his case and Hickey agreeing with Dave, Joe put him back out there. Joe said after the game that David was too important to the franchise to risk losing him in one game. Joe was talking about David’s long term career and not blowing out his arm and losing his opportunity to make a fantastic living and have a potentially Hall of Fame  career. But Joe relented and put him back out there. Dave went 3-0 on the first batter he faced, but then came back and struck Jonny Gomes out.

Joe said after the game that he didn’t like what he was seeing. Dave was not fluid and he looked to be laboring. So he took him out. Dave was livid. But then some real fireworks ensued. Our highly reliable Joel Peralta came in with the Rays leading 2-1, but immediately gave up a double to catcher Ryan Lavarnway. Red Sox manager John Farrell immediately inserted Daniel Nave to pinch run for Lavarnway. Shortstop Stephen Drew then hit a double over Wil Myers head that went to the right field wall. Amazingly, Nava held up going somewhat halfway and then returning close to the bag thinking Wil might catch it. Wil had no chance, but hustled after the ball and fired it to second baseman Ben Zobrist. Nava only reached third.

Then even more fireworks ensued. Brandon Snyder hit a fly ball to left central (as Joe calls it), Sam Fuld called off Des Jennings. Sam and Des are out two best outfielders–they’re both very good–but Sam probably has a little better arm than Des. Sam is a Type 1 diabetic and one of the best hustlers in baseball. He played his college ball at Stanford. He has made some epic catches for us the last three years.Love the guy. He hauled the ball in and fired to the plate. Nava took off. Jose Molina, our fine, hard-working, 38-year old catcher was in perfect position to catch the throw and tag Nava out. Sam one hopped it to Molina as Nave was sliding into home. Molina put the tag on Nava in a real bang-bang play. It was so close in fast motion. Home plate umpire Jerry Meals called Nava out. The replay showed that Nava got his toe in before the tag. The Red Sox went ballistic, but the call stood and the Rays held on to the 2-1 lead. In the bottom of the ninth, Fernando Rodney gave up a leadoff single to Jacoby Ellsbury. Ellsbury stole second after Shane Victorino popped out. Rodney then got a huge out getting Dustin Pedroia to ground out to short on a bang-bang play at first, but he was out. Big Papi came up and Maddon intentionally walked David Ortiz. Maddon said after the game that he’d seen Papi respond too many times in the big moments, so he was not going to take any chances. Jose Iglesias ran for Papi. Mike Napoli came up, Napoli is a power guy and a high RBI guy with 14 and 64. He’s hitting .261 but has struck out 136 times this year. Rodney threw a wild pitch and Ellsbury and Iglesias advanced to third and second with two outs. Napoli worked it to 3-2. Rodney had been throwing him mostly 98 MPH fastballs, but this time he threw him an 85 MPH change up. Napoli swung and missed and the Rays took over first place in one of the best late July games I’ve ever seen. The Rays could have been up 4 or 5-1 in the game. Luke Scott hit a ball to very deep right field in the top of the seventh that Victorino reached for and caught over the three and a half foot wall. The ball even kind of popped out of Victorino’s club but he held onto it. In the top of the fifth with runners on first and third James Loney crushed a line drive to right but Victorino got to it and pulled it in.

It was a September-October game played in July. Incredible. Pirates won game one over the Cards, 9-2 ad Pedro crushed one out to right, a three run shot, his 27th of the year and his 68th RBIs of the year. The Pirates scored five times in the bottom of the seventh and took a 9-2 lead and finished off to move a half game behind the Cardinals in the NL Central. Pirates play a doubleheader today against  the Cards and two more after that in an unusual five game set. If they can take four of five or sweep, they’ll be back in front in the Central.

Rays now a half game up on the Sox and play at home the rest of the week. Play Arizona tonight and tomorrow night and then San Francisco Friday through Sunday.

Dave is now 6-1 at Fenway with a 1.90 (roughly) ERA in the best hitters ballpark in the majors with maybe the best hitting team along with the Cards and the Rays in the majors. Incredible stuff. David now 6-5 on the season with a 3.57 ERA. Before the injury, Dave’s ERA was way over 4. He now has 15 walks and 84 strikeouts. Just amazing stuff. Dave said after the game that he was upset that Joe pulled him, but the key was winning. And that was the result. I think it was a good move by Joe. Joe didn’t want to put him back in after the delay, and I thought he shouldn’t, but David is a pretty convincing guy. Joe didn’t like it when he saw him pitch to the first batter and pulled him. It was the right move for David and his career, and it was the right move for his team. Joe is always thinking about his player’s well being for the long run. He really cares passionately about his players. He’s a really good guy.

Mike pitches tomorrow night vs the Rockies. First pitch is at 7:10 PM ET/6:10 CT. Sonny had a tough outing Sunday Night for the Sacramento River Cats, but he has been pitching well. He only pitched to two batters and walked them both. I checked to see if there was any injury, but there was none reported. Sam had a good outing Sunday giving up only one run in five innings but took the loss 1-0. He walked three and K’d seven and gave up four hits for the Wilmington Blue Rocks. Tony hitting it pretty well for the Tri-City Valley Cats, hitting about .270. Conrad Gregor also playing for Tri-City in New York state and hitting around .240. They are in the Houston Astros organization Curt Casali has moved up to double A ball in Montgomery, Al for the Buscuits. Curt hitting .360 so far and catching. The Montgomery team is the Rays double A team.

Will have more later.

Mike exceptional Friday Night

David Price faces the Red Sox tonight at 6:10 PM ET/5:10 CT in what will be a playoff-like atmosphere at Fenway. This game is a makeup for a rained out game last Thursday. The Rays have already taken two of three from Boston, and can get back into first with a victory tonight. Rays a 1/2 game back of Sox. Rays took two of three from the Yankees in the Bronx over the weekend, but lost a tough one yesterday in the bottom of the ninth, 6-5. Yanks scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to win it and threw cold water and a stellar performance from rookie Wil Myers who hit a three-run shot to put us ahead earlier in the game 5-4. Wil is a player! Joe Maddon is loyal to the point of stupidity some times. I love Joe’s personality and I think he does a great job for the most part with the club, but yesterday he stuck with the erratic Jake McGee in the ninth and it cost his team the game. The Rays have some guys in the bullpen who are not trustable. McGee is one of them. I’d say Fernando Rodney is another, but Maddon should have gone to him yesterday when McGee got in trouble. Rodney is not the dominant pitcher he was a year ago, not even close, but he still would have given us a better shot against Soriano than McGee did. Any way, can’t get the game back, so we’ve got to look at today’s game in what will be an October-like atmosphere at Fenway. And Dave will be right in the middle of it.

Dave (5-5, 3.75 ERA, 15 walks, 76 K’s) will once again face Felix Doubradt, whom he defeated last Wednesday, 5-1. Doubrant is good though, He allowed six hits and three runs to us last Wednesday with two walks and five K’s. He’s 7-4 on the year with a 3.78 ERA with 48 walks and 103 K’s. And Dave will be facing those tough Red Sox’ bats. They lost the first game Friday at Baltimore, but came back to win the next two over a tough Orioles team. Will be a major challenge, but I love the way Dave is pitching. In nine starts at Fenway, Dave is 5-1 with 1.96 ERA. Should be a classic. Will have wrap tomorrow.

Mike Minor had an awesome outing last Friday Night in a 4-1 Braves’ victory over the Cards. Mike pitched seven, gave up four hits, one run, a homer by Yadier Molin, with no walks and five K’s. It was a big time performance. Mike now 9-5 on the year with a 2.98 ERA. He has walked 28 and struck out 123. Incredible numbers. Braves are 60-45, 8.5 up on the Nationals. Braves went on to sweep Cards in Atlanta. That’s a huge deal.

Pirates now 1.5 back of Cards after losing two of three to the Marlins. Just unbelievable. The Marlins are now 40-63. The Pirates’ problem is the strikeouts. The Pirates strike out the third most in the majors. They have 887 K’s The Braves are second at 897 and the Astros lead at 975. It’s amazing the Braves and Pirates are doing so well, but it’s starting to catch up with the Bucs. They struck out 11 times Friday in a loss, q20 times on Saturday in a win and 13 times yesterday in a loss. They struck out 15 times to the Nationals Thursday in a 9-7 loss. Starling Marte has struck out 107 times this year in 98 games and Pedro has K’d 122 times in 95 games. Marte seems like lately it’s two strikeouts per game. That’s gotta change. I know the strikeouts in the major leagues are much higher now, and I’m not sure why that is. I don’t think the pitching is that much better than it used to be. Some players never used steroids so you can’t blame it on that. It’s hard to figure out. Maybe it’s just a confidence thing with these guys. One thing I’ve noticed is a lot of guys, Marte and Pedro included, swing too hard when they’re at the plate and invariably miss the ball. They’ve just got to think contact. They just want to hit it out, when they need to just think about putting the ball in play. Pedro has gotten better at it; Marte has digressed. Luckily, the Bucs get their shot tonight  and this week as the Cards are visiting PNC Park for five. Golden opportunity for the Bucs.

Sonny now back with  the triple A Sacramento River Cats. Not sure why that happened. Looked for any explanation I could get and didn’t see any. he hadn’t allowed a run in two appearances, had walked one and struck out six. I guess they wanted him to get more starting appearances and maybe they’re getting him ready for September-October when he can either come out of the pen or start. Hopefully that is what they’re thinking.

No commitment news right now, football or basketball. Could have some football commits in the next couple of weeks. Fall practice starts Thursday as we start preparing for a monumental tilt with Ole Miss.

Need some good news in basketball. We’ll just have to be more versatile at the power forward-small forward position this year. Rod, Shelby, Dai-Jon and maybe freshman Luke Kornet will have to be small forwards, which is probably outside their respective comfort zones, but it’s just the way it is. Anyway, we have god players returning and we can have a good season.

Will have Dave and some of our guys in the minor leagues write ups tomorrow. By the way, I saw a fantastic movie Saturday Night with my wife, Trouble with the Curve. It’s with Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake. Wasn’t familiar with Amy until this movie but really liked her. As you can surmise by the title, it is a baseball movie but with such an exceptional human interest story. I highly recommend it.

I was worried that Petey might struggle a little bit after participating in the home run contest at the All-Star game. It was awesome to watch him do that and hit six out, which was very respectable. He also got in the game late. I was proud of him. He did struggle some at the plate over the weekend at Cincy, but did he ever get it together last night against the Washington Nationals. Pedro went two-for-four with a single and a long one, his 25th of the year, a solo shot, and posted his 63rd RBI. Bucs beat the Nationals 5-1 for their second victory in a row over the Nats. Neil Walker, our talented second baseman, got off the DL and back in the lineup last night, which is awesome news for us. We have almost a .600 winning percentage with Neil in the lineup and we’re under .500 when he’s not. El Toro batting cleanup now, and I believe he’s going to get on one of his tears, which hopefully will last the rest of the season. That would be a real boost to the Bucs’ offense. Some tough news happened Monday Night.  Jason Grilli, our star closer who had converted 30 of 31 save opportunities, came out of the game Monday Night; and it looked pretty bad. He had to take himself out and Grilli is a tough one now. The injury looked like the one T.j. Pecoraro suffered a couple of years ago for VU in the SEC tournament. T.J. hurt his arm and had Tommy John surgery. It looked like the same thing. Fortunately for now, it’s just a forearm strain. Jason is on the 15-day DL and might be out for a while. Dave Price did the same thing in May and was out about two months, so that puts Grilli back in mid to late September. Just want him back healthy. He’s one of the guys who is the heart and soul of out team along with center fielder Andrew McCutchen, catcher Russell Martin, Pedro and Neil. Hopefully, Jason can get back to full health and be ready for a mid-September push. Fortunately, the Pirates have one of the best bullpens in the majors and Mark Melancon, who was also an All-Star like Jason, will take over the closer duties in Jason’s absence. Mark can get it done. He’s been an excellent middle reliever and came in last night and got the Nats up and down in order to close out the game. He’s a stud too. Bucs now 59-39, 1 1/2 back of the Cards, who are 60-37 in the NL Central. Bucs are three up on the Reds for the top spot in the Wild Card Standings. That’s important because the wild card playoff is a one game, single elimination, and the leader in the standings at the end of the regular season hosts the second place team for the right to advance in the playoffs. The winner of that game would not have any home field advantage after that, but it would be a best of seven series and definitely attainable.

DP on the hill tonight for the Rays. Dave now 4-5 with a 4.03 ERA. He’s 1-1 with a 3.63 ERA in his last three starts, but the reason his ERA is higher in those three is because he gave up four early runs @Toronto last Friday Night. But he battled back and got the W in  that game, giving up seven hits, four earned, with one walk and five K’s. Dave threw 98 pitches with 68 for strikes and 30 balls. The guy just throws strikes. He’s a strike throwing machine. Dave faces Felix Doubront of the Red Sox tonight. Rays beat the Sox Monday Night behind a two-hit beauty by 24-year old Matt Moore. Matt, in his second year as a starter,  is awesome. He moved  to 14-3 on the season. Matt was an all-star also. Dave was the first guy out of the dugout to give Matt a congratulatory hand shake and shoulder bump. The starting pitchers, after one of the starting pitchers goes a complete game, all get together near the mound and give it a jump and shoulder bump when one of them gets the complete game win. It’s pretty funny. Dave now has 15 walks on the season and 72 K’s. He was injured for two months, so that’s why his strikeouts are not out the roof. Rays now 59-42, 1.5 back of Sox, who are 61-43. Rays are two games ahead of  the Orioles in first place in the wild card. Rays have Sox tonight and tomorrow night at Fenway to finish off a four game set. If they can get both they’ll be a 1/2 game in front of the Sox in the AL East. We lost last night, 6-2, and I thought Joe Maddon kind of mailed it in. He put in his B pitchers from the bullpen with us trailing 3-2. I know Joe’s theory is to save his key arms out of the pen for the rest of the season, so he wanted to see if the backup guys could get them out in the eighth and try to win it in the ninth. That is probably good strategy, so I’m good with it. If we can win these next two, we’ll be in first.

A pretty funny thing  happened last night at Fenway (Boston). Stuart Sternberg, the Rays’ principal owner, was at the ballpark in the stands and Todd Kalas (TK), our excellent Rays on-field reporter and postgame guy interviewed Stu. Stu is a cool guy no doubt, definitely a dude at about 54, and does he ever love his Rays. Stu has made a ton of money on Wall Street, but he’s just one of the guys to everybody in the Rays organization. It’s pretty cool. At the end of the interview, TK was asking Stu a question and Stu brought up his flip phone to make a point. TK said at end of the intereview, “Love Stu’s flip phone. That’s just how he rolls.” The Rays are the most fun organization maybe in sports and it starts at the top with Stu and Andrew Friedman, who is the executive vice president and general manager. They’re both incredible baseball minds, but just regular dudes to the guys in the organization. They’re a lot of  fun.

Mike Minor pitches Friday for the Bravos against the Cards in a key series. Mike is 9-5 with a 2.98 ERA. Mike has 28 walks on the season and 123 K’s. Pretty astounding numbers. Something about Dave and Mike; they just throw strikes. That’s got to be the cardinal rule for pitchers. If you are a major league pitcher and can throw strikes and locate them you should excel. Dave and Mike have that down. Mike lost his last outing to the ChiSox, 3-1, but pitched a nice game, going eight, a complete game on the road when you’re behind, allowing three runs, two earned, with two walks and eight strikeouts. Braves lost two of three from the White Sox over the weekend and are 1-1 in their series with the Mets this week. Gotta get the bats going again. Braves still in good shape in the NL East at 56-44; seven up on the Phillies.

Sonny Gray has now pitched four innings for the A’s and has given up two hits, no runs, with 1 walk and six strikeouts. Sonny pitching very well. In his last outing versus the Angels last Friday Night, he went two, gave up one hit, no runs, with one walk and three K’s. Sonny can really mow’em down with that active fastball, and his stellar changeup and curve. I wish they’d give him a shot in the starting rotation. He’s ready. A’s lost to Astros last night, 5-4, but the Rangers also lost to the Yanks 5-4. Yanks are hanging tough without A-Rod, Jeter, Tex and Curtis Granderson. A’s three up on the Rangers in AL West. Should be a stellar finish in the West. I picked the Rays to win it all this season. Hopefully that’ll work out.

OK, so some more awesome news coming out of West End. Grant Haley, a cornerback/running back/kick-punt returner out of the Lovett School in Atlanta, has committed. Grant is the.17th commit and the third from Georgia, joining running back Dallas Rivers and defensive back Bryce Lewis.

Watched film on Grant. Love this guy. I don’t know where we should put him. He is an awesome running back capable of taking it to the house any time, and he can flat out play some defense. Grant is 5’10”, 180 and runs a 4.5, but looking at his film, he looks like a 4.45 on the field. You’re not going to catch him if he gets in the open field. As junior at the Lovett School, a very fine private school in Atlanta, Grant posted seven interceptions and 40 tackles on defense, and 1,431 all-purpose yards on offense including 18 receptions for 495 and three scores, and 536 yards and six touchdowns on the ground. He is a fantastic punt and kick returner too. Saw him break two kickoffs and a punt on film. He had three touchdowns on kickoff returns–one had to be for 100–and one score on a punt return. Grant is rated a 5.6 three-star by Rivals and an 88 three-star by 247 sports. We’ve got a really good football player here. Grant looks like he could be bumped to a four-star before it’s over. Chose us over Florida. South Carolina and Arkansas also offered him.

Will give you the rundown on DP and Pedro tomorrow.

Dave had a rocky start giving up four solo shots, but fought hard and got better as the game wore. He even admitted after the game he made a couple of bad pitches on the long balls, but the Blue Jays have good power. Of course, Jose Bautista hit one. He kills us and gets David a pretty good bit, but Dave kept getting better and went seven, gave up four runs, threw 98 pitches 68 for strikes with 30 balls, which is another excellent ratio. He gave up seven hits, walked one and K’d five. Rays down 4-1 after three, but scored two in sixth, two in eighth and two in ninth. Longo, Zorilla, Kelly Johnson and awesome new right fielder Wil (way his first name is spelled). Myers went deep, Wil was three-for-five with a homer, a double and a single. He came up from the minors in late June, and has been a highly touted prospect we got  from the KC Royals in the offseason, and he’s going to be a stud in right field. He already is playing pretty very well. Longo (Evan Longoria) hit a monster bomb; looked like 450 feet in the upper deck of the Skydome or whatever they call it up there.. Evan worked on his game during the All-Star break. He’s had plantar fasciitis, which is like having a rock lodged in your foot all the time and is very painful, but Evan seems to be a lot better and that’s a good sign. His hard work during the break in Tampa will probably pay off because he’s one of the premier players in the majors, if he can stay healthy. We had a couple of players out tonight. Shortstop Yuni Escobar was out with a thigh strain and first baseman James Loney was at home in Tampa with his wife and new born baby. Love this win. Came back and showed resilience and Dave showed a lot of resilience. Play Blue Jays tomorrow in Toronto at 1:07 PM ET/12:07 CT. Rays at 56-41 two and a half back of BoSox which are 58-38.

I thought James was fantastic in his presentation yesterday at SEC Media Days. It was typical James. Serious, but personable. Excited about his football team and believing in his group. We’ve got the best group we’ve had maybe ever. I see us with five first team All-SEC players on this team by the end of the year in left tackle Wesley Johnson, wide receivers Jordan Matthews (JMatt), and Chris Boyd, cornerback Andre Hal and safety Kenny Ladler. Really think these guys are special players.

I see nine wins for us this year, possibly 10. Of course, James, the coaches and the players are in to win them all. I believe in’em. The first order of business in worrying about our football team for the first two weeks of training camp, according to James, and then digging in for Ole Miss, though I know we’ve been gearing up for the Ole Miss Black Bears (whatever happened to that nickname?) for a while. It’s going to be an epic. Thursday Night, August 29th, 9:15 PM ET/8:15 CT on ESPN. It’s a real showcase for Vanderbilt football. It’s perfect. People are home from work and ready for football to get started. South Carolina-North Carolina is the first game at 6PM ET/5 CT on ESPN and then we’re up. Can’t wait.

JMatt spoke about senior and first year quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels, who will in all likelihood be our starter this year. JMatt and Austyn will be rooming together this fall in JMatt’s last semester as a student-athlete. He’s getting his degree and with another stellar season this year, could be a top first or second round draft pick come next April in the NFL draft. I expect it from Jordan. Jordan and Austyn are rooming together this fall have been working together all summer and are very good friends. Like their chemistry. Jordan pointed to the fact that Austyn had a lot of success as a freshman quarterback at Wyoming four years ago. Austyn has leadership skills that are out of sight. He’s confident, poised and according to JMatt has a rocket for an arm. Austyn can make a lot happen with his legs too. Austyn reminds me a lot of Connor Shaw of South Carolina, but he’s a better passer. Expect big things from ACS. With Chris Boyd on the other side and five talented freshmen coming in along with some backup upperclassmen, wide receiver should be a good position for us. Really like four-star freshmen Carlos Burse (6’2″, 202), four-star Jordan Cunningham (6’1″, 175) and high three-star DeAndre Woods (6’3″, 212). Think they can be exceptional players for us in the future and could be pretty good for us this year.

Wes Johnson will anchor the line at left tackle. Total leader in Wes. Tough, smart, great guy. He’ll bury people. We’ve got around 15 guys on  the oline now, so we’re deep there. And according to James, for the first year ever, we have 300 pounders up front. That’s good. Wes Tate, BK (Brian Kimbrow) and Jerron Seymour will man the running back positions. I like the three of them. Freshman Ralph Webb is another back who can add depth and ability. Fitz Lassing will give us good work at fullback/hback.

Tight end is a little bit of a concern. Still trying to find the playmaker/dominant blocker there, but there is potential with Chris Kentera back for a second season, Dillon van der Wal (6’6″,260), Steven Scheu (6’5″, 255) and freshmen Mitch Parsons and Nathan Marcus. So tight end should be fine maybe a pretty effective position for us. Expect a couple of those guys to have good years.

Our defense will be anchored by Andre Hal at corner, Kenny Ladler at safety, Chase Garnham at middle linebacker (6’3″, 236) and Walker May at defensive end (6’5″, 250). I like our defensive line a lot. We don’t have a ton of depth, but defensive end Caleb Azubike (6’4″, 265) is going to be a beast. I love Vince Taylor (6’2″, 308) and Jared Morse (6’2″, 302) at tackle. Vince is awesome. Great kid, fun, and a tough, hard-nosed player. You’re gong to love the interviews with Vince if you catch them. He’s hilarious. And he’s quite a defensive tackle. Jared is tough and physical too. Adam Butler (6’4″, 305) has moved over from offense to defensive tackle, so he’ll give us a lot of help. Good, tough football player. Barron Dixon (6’4″, 305) and freshman Jay Woods (6″3″, 292) will also be key players. Barron is another beast and I’ve heard great things about Jay. Don’t think we can redshirt Jay. Need him immediately to help us. Barron could be a dominant player. Need to keep recruiting at defensive tackle. That position is at a premium in the SEC, and we’ve got a good group; just need to stay healthy. At defensive end Stephen Weatherly (6’5″, 252) had an incredible spring and looks like a dominant player. Some other guys are going to have to help us there like Jimmy Stewart, who looked good in the spring, and freshman Landon Stokes. Linebacker, besides Garnham, is not overly experienced, but tough and talented. Darreon Herring (6’2″, 228) got a lot of playing time last year and should be a very good player for us. Steady and reliable Karl Butler could be a starter on the outside. Larry Franklin (6’1″, 214) is a very good linebacker. And Harding Harper (6’2″, 240) and Ja’kari Thomas (6’1″, 225) are going to be excellent linebackers for us. Look for four-star freshman Nigel Bowden (6’1″,235) and high three-star Oren Burks (6’3″, 21o) to get some playing time. Those two are going to be excellent players for us and could give us immediate help at lb.

In the secondary Kenny and Dre are the staples and the leaders. Steven Clarke has a chance to man the other corner and Javon Marshall gives us another solid safety with Kenny. Need Torren McGaster, Paris Head and Taurean Ferguson to give us some depth in the secondary. Look for Andre to have Casey Hayward-like numbers this year. I’m looking at six or seven ints for Andre. Kenny will give us that playmaking/gamechanging ability also.

So we’ve got a lot of good football players. Need some more depth at certain positions. If the talented freshmen can give us some help at wide receiver to go along with JMatt and Chris, and that’ll he a huge lift.  The running backs should have good years, and Austyn should play well. Really like our guys up front with Wes leading the way and guys like center Spencer Pulley (6’4″,300), Joe Townsend (6’4″, 305), Kevo McCoy (6’5″, 295), Barrett Gouger (6’4″, 285) and Blake Fromang (6’7″,295) being key guys. Look for freshman Delando Crooks (6’5″, 290) to maybe make and impact early. This should be a potent offense because we have an excellent offensive line and very good skilled guys. I forgot to mention Jonathan Krause as our slot receiver. Jonathan can help us both in the passing game and in the punt return game. He took a couple to the house last year. BK will probably return kicks. Carey Spear will be an excellent kicker for us. Punter is to be determined. Need to figure that out this summer. I’m sure we will. Defense should be excellent. Need to stay healthy up front on defense. It’ll be good to stay healthy everywhere.

After Ole Miss, we play Austin Peay at home, then go to South Carolina, go to UMass, have UAB @ home, Mizzo @ home, Dawgs @home, @ A&M, @ Florida, Kentucky @home, @ UT and home against Wake Forest. Ole Miss is critical. @South Carolina, @Florida, home against Georgia and @ A&M are all tough. But if we can get two or three of those five games, nine or 10 wins is realistic. I think this team has it in’em. They of course, want to win every one, like we all do.

Will have more as August comes about.

Dave Price on the hill tonight @ Toronto. Dave and the Rays need to get started fast out of the gates in the second half. Two and a half back of Sox in AL East and leading the wild card race. Have three key series coming up @Toronto, @Boston and @Yanks. So critical stretch coming up. Like where Dave is right now. Big start tonight.

Pedro and Bucs @Cincy Reds tonight. Bucs a a game and a half behind Cards and lead wild card race. Key series for Bucs as Reds right behind them in NL Central. Pedro hit six homers in the home run derby contest Monday Night. Thought he availed himself very well. Got in in All-Star game and was the last batter in the game for the NL. Popped out but had some good cuts. Thought it was a great experience for him. Very proud of him. Now let’s go Rays and Bucs in this second half. Will keep you posted on Mike Minor as well. Mike trying to put together another strong half of pitching for Braves, who are in the World Series hunt like the Rays and Bucs are.

Recruiting going very well. Will have an update if anybody pops in the next couple of days.

Brandt tied for third at 142nd Open Championship at -3. Zach Johnson leads at -5. Brandt looks like he’s got his game back. Tees off at 9:12 AM ET/8;12 CT today. Pumped for B.