David Price has been absolutely spectacular for the Red Sox. Dansby Swanson and Ryan Flaherty have been superb for the Braves. Mike Minor is excelling for the Texas Rangers. Carson Fulmer pitched extremely well for the White Sox last Wednesday. Pedro Alvarez is doing huge things for the Orioles. And Sonny Gray is gearing up for a big season in the Bronx.

Here’s a look at each player.

David Price

DP is cookin for the Bosox though he hasn’t been involved in a decision yet. In his first game against the Rays, he went 7, gave up 4 hits, 0 runs, with no walks and 5 K’s. David threw 76 pitches with 55 of them for strikes against only 21 balls. He was super sharp. The BoSox won the game 1-0. Then, last Thursday against the Rays, David’s control wasn’t as sharp as the week before, but he pitched extremely well nonetheless, going 7 again, giving up 3 hits, 0 runs, with 3 walks and 5 K’s. David threw 91 pitches with 56 of them for strikes against 35 balls. He’s hitting 94 on his hard stuff, his cutter is excellent coming in at 88 to 90 with great movement, his change up is solid and his curve has become a weapon this season. Really like where David is. He doesn’t have a decision yet, but his ERA is 0.00 and his WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) is 0.71, which is superb. David and the Red Sox have a shot to go a long way this season if their key players can stay healthy, including David. The Red Sox are presently 8-1, and ahead of the Blue Jays by 2 1/2 games. The Jays are 6-4. The Yankees are 5-5. David is on the hill again Wednesday at Fenway versus the Yankees and the super good Masahiro Tanaka. Should be a phenomenal matchup.

Dansby Swanson and Ryan Flaherty

Both on fire. Dans is hitting .382 and hit his first homer yesterday to go along with 7 Ribeyes. Dansby has found his spot on the Braves, and this season could be a spectacular one for the awesome Swanson. Ryan has also found a home in Atlanta as he’s hitting a torrid .414. Despite a tough 10 inning, 3-2 loss to Colorado Saturday Night, Ryan drove in the game tying run in the top of the 9th with a sharp line drive single to center. Both are playing terrific defense, Dans at short and Ryan at third. The Braves are 6-3 and in second place in the NL East, a very good division. The Mets lead the division at 7-1. The Braves are at Washington today through Wednesday in a key early season series. Julio Teheran faces the terrific Max Scherzer tonight, the great young Mike Foltynewicz faces the awesome Stephen Strasburg tomorrow night and Brandon McCarthy of the Braves squares off with A. J. Cole of the Nats on Wednesday. Looking forward to seeing more Dans and Flash this week.

Mike Minor

Mikey was nothing short of brilliant Saturday Night in pitching the Texas Rangers to a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. Mike went 6, gave up just 2 hits, 1 earned, with 2 walks and 7 K’s. he threw 93 pitches with 54 for strikes against 39 balls. His fastball was hitting 93 and his changeup, cutter and curve were dynamic. Mike is on a pretty good team that is finding their way in the early season. Good to see Mike back on the mound competing. He’s battled some injuries but has always had awesome stuff. Mike’s 1-1 with a 2.53 ERA and an 0.84 WHIP. Mike pitches again Friday at the Astros, so a major test for the man.

Carson Fulmer

Carson got a victory in his first start this season, 4-3 over the Toronto Blue Jays at Toronto. Carson went 5, gave up 5 hits, 3 earned with 1 walk and 5 K’s. He threw 73 pitches with 48 for strikes. Carson doesn’t throw as straight line as David does. He throws a lot of curve balls and his fastball has so much movement and his balls mostly sink which makes it tough on any hitter. He’s very similar to Sonny in that he’s an awesome pitcher, but many of his pitches are so sharp turning and so sharp dropping that they are not in the strike zone. It’s just the way Carson rolls. He certainly gets the job done and is a bulldog of a competitor. The White Sox have a lot of young, promising talent and Carson will be a key piece for them this season and going forward. They are presently 3-5. Carson pitches again tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday) versus the Rays. 

Pedro Alvarez

Pedro has been terrific as DH for the Baltimore Orioles. Friday Night in the top of the 14th, Pedro crushed a grand slam to right to lead the Orioles to the 7-3 victory over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. And yesterday, Pedro scored the winning run in an 8-7, 12 inning Orioles victory over the Yankees. He’s been superb when called upon by manager Buck Showalter. Really proud for Pedro as his work ethic is spectacular and he’s always maintained a super positive attitude even when things looked tough. El Toro is crankin.

Sonny Gray

Sonny got the victory over the Orioles on Saturday as the Yankees salvaged a game in the 3 game home set, winning 8-3 over the O’s. Sonny fought hard going 5.1 innings, giving up 4 hits, 3 earned, with 2 walks and 4 K’s. Sonny is 1-0 with a 3.60 ERA and a 1.60 WHIP, which is a lot higher than he wants, but Sonny will compete, there is no doubt about that. I really see a lot of similarities between Sonny and Carson. They just keep battling, both are bulldogs and both bring it 93-95 with hard biting curves that can be impossible to hit. I like where Sonny is, as always. Sonny will give the Yankees everything he’s got. Sonny pitches next at Detroit on Friday. 

Our baseball team

We took 2 of 3 from Georgia over the weekend which is very good as Georgia is ranked 17th in the country and are a really solid team. We’re now No.15 in the country and are 19-13 and 7-5 in the SEC. Drake Fellows, in a loss, Patrick Raby, in a victory, along with a super relief performance from Chandler Day, who struck out 9, and Mason Hickman, in a victory, all pitched well. The bats picked it up on Saturday and Sunday and that was great to see. We had some fielding issues at times, but Connor Kaiser is such an awesome shortstop. Everybody needs to start stepping up their game as it is now time to do that if we want to be an elite team come May. We play Western Kentucky tomorrow at home and No.5 Ole Miss comes to the Hawk for a weekend set. Tomorrow night’s game is at 6:30 CT on SEC Network+. Friday’s game versus the Rebels is at 6:30 PM CT on SEC Network+, Saturday’s game is at 2 PM CT on SEC Network+ and Sunday’s game is at 4 PM CT on the U. ESPNU. We just need everything to start clicking, on the mound, in the field and at the plate. This team certainly has that ability. With the No.1 recruiting class in the country as juniors and the No.1 recruiting class as freshman, we certainly have the makeup to excel. Our sophomore class is pretty strong also. We’re missing our stud right fielder J.J, Bleday, who is out with an oblique injury, that hopefully he can come back from pretty soon. But a lot of guys stepped up this past weekend and played well, particularly on Saturday and Sunday in our victories.

Men’s Golf

Our men’s golf team is presently ranked No.3 in the country and playing stellar golf. Oklahoma State is No.1 and A&M is No.2. We won the Schenkel Invitational in Statesboro, Georgia 3 weeks ago. We will host the Mason Rudolph Championship this weekend. No.8 Alabama and No. 12 Florida will also be competing along with 11 other teams in a 14 team field. Theo Humphrey, Will Gordon, Patrick Martin and John Augenstein are stellar for us. After this weekend, we’ll get ready for the SEC Championship April 25th-29th at Sea Island. Some great stuff going on with Scott Limbaugh’s golf team.

Women’s Tennis

Geoff McDonald has another spectacular team led by our No.2 player, Fernanda Contreras, who is ranked No.3 in the country. We are presently 17-3 overall and 10-1 in the SEC. We finished up our home slate over this past weekend and completed and 11-0 home mark with consecutive 4-0 victories over A&M and LSU respectively. Wow. Next up are road matches against No.5 South Carolina and No. 12 Florida this weekend, so some pretty stiff tests, but I have the utmost confidence in our women. They are spectacular. The SEC Championship commences April 18th and continues on through April 22nd at Knoxville. This team’s got a shot to be really special. 

 NFL and VU football notes

Jordan Matthews was signed by the New England Patriots last week. JMatt will join forces with Adam Butler on an always loaded Patriots squad which is led by the superb Tom Brady. Never thought I’d be a Patriots fan, but I am now along with being a Texans fan (Zach and Andre) and Chargers (Casey) and wherever Jay ends up. Hoping Jay will get picked up by somebody. He’s still got a lot of talent left to give to a team, and can help them win a lot of games in the right situation. His line last year at the Dolphins was less than stellar, but Adam Gase likes him and they’ve improved their line play, so maybe Gase will have Jay back at the Phins. I know Ryan Tannehill is coming back from injury, so Jay will have to beat him out or find another place to play. Injuries happen, so Jay’s got a shot somewhere. He’s a quality quarterback and has been helping our stellar upcoming senior quarterback Kyle Shurmur.

Kyle is poised for a big year. Hoping we can win several games and go to a very good bowl this season and build for a very bright future. We have good talent on offense. Defense has a lot of good players, just need to develop them in the weight room and in fall practice. Like the talent level that DMase has brought in though. We’ve got some really good freshman coming in. Deuce Wallace is an excellent backup quarterback for us and the Deuce’s future is quite bright. Offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig is very high on him. We have rising freshman Allan Walters coming in this summer. Allan’s got a ton of talent. We’ll need to add one or 2 quarterbacks in recruiting for 2019 as Kyle will be graduating and hopefully getting a shot in the NFL in 2019. The offensive line looks good, we’ve got a young but talented receiving corps, the running back situation is outstanding and tight end will be solid. On defense, I look for Joejuan Williams to have a huge year at corner if the opponent ever throws his way. Our d line is developing and we’re a little thin at inside linebacker, but Jordan Griffin, Caleb Peart, and Josh Smith will be excellent players for us at linebacker. Kicking game needs to develop. We’ve got a shot to be good. I’ll develop more in upcoming pieces. 

Patrick Reed shot a final round 71 to backup rounds of rounds of 69, 66, and 67 and finished -15 to outlast Rickie Fowler by a shot and Jordan Spieth by 2 shots. Spieth shot a final round 64 and looked to have a serious chance until a bogey on 18 and stellar play by Reed on the final 5 holes kept him from capturing his 2nd green jacket and 4th major championship. Fowler birdied 18 from 6 feet to put added pressure on Reed, but the 27 year old from San Antonio,  by way of the University of Georgia and previously Augusta State, now Augusta, captured the coveted Masters.

Reed is not the most popular choice to capture the Green Jacket. He was kicked off the Georgia team for insubordination and suspended from the Augusta State team though he was let back on and helped lead them to the Division One national championship  2 straight years in 2010 and 2011. He struggled with his putting during his high school career. According to ESPN, his former coach at Georgia, Chris Haack, recalled that one of his assistants who was scouting Reed, said, “This guy hits it close all day long, but never makes anything. If he ever figures out the putter, he’s going to be dangerous.”

He certainly figured his putting out. He was masterful with his putter. Reed is not America’s champion. Most of the Masters patrons were pulling for the great Spieth, a highly popular figure on tour. Fowler, considered one of the nicest guys on tour along with Spieth, was the other player fans were pulling for. Fowler, a crowd favorite and hilarious commercial figure like his Quicken Loans, “Dude that got weird,” performance, played some stellar golf.  But Reed was not going to be denied. 

He has issues with his parents, whom his wife Justine has told everyone on Instagram, that they verbally and physically abused him. His parents have denied those accusations. Reed is estranged from both his parents and his younger sister and other family members. He’s not your classic Masters champion. When Bubba won it twice (2012 and ’14), when Jordan won it (2015), when Adam Scott was victorious (2013)  and when Sergio donned the Green Jacket last year, there was a sense of magic in Butler’s Cabin. Those players revered the championship and were honored and humbled to put on the Green Jacket. To Reed, it was just about winning another golf tournament in his own words. That’s not how you assess winning the Masters, the most coveted major championship in golf. Bubba, Jordan, Adam and Sergio were honored, humbled and felt privileged to win the Masters. It didn’t have the same feeling with Reed.

Reed earned the moniker “Captain America” for his amazingly clutch playing at the Ryder’s Cup in 2016 at Hazeltine, with his memorable 1 up victory over Rory in the singles competition which set the tone for the American victory. He’s got uncanny mental toughness and an amazing will to win. After Rory McIlory shot 65 in Saturday to put him just 2 back of Reed and in the final pairing on Sunday, McIlory said all the pressure was on Reed and challenged him on national television. Mcilroy ended up shooting 74 on Sunday, finishing -9, tied for 5th, and 6 shots behind Reed. Reed once again prevailed over McIlroy.

 Reed is not a popular guy on tour, and his Masters acceptance interview with CBS’s Jim Nantz, Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley, and Sergio, was less than impressive. His play speaks for itself. It’s stellar. But he’s not your classic Masters champion. He’s got the game to do terrific things in golf, and if he keeps maturing people will warm up to him, and maybe he can reconcile with his parents and his younger sister. That would be a major step in the right direction for this super talented young guy whom the sky is the limit for in professional golf if he can keep growing up.

Bryce Harper

One of the great talents to come into baseball in quite a few years, along with the major young talent that has flooded this great game and making it spectacular right now, is playing superb baseball right now, but made 3 mistakes last night that could cost his team a chance of winning it all if this keeps up. In the first inning, the 25 year old Harper crushed a 2 run shot into the right field seats to give the Washington Nationals a 2-0 lead over the Mets. He also posted 2 singles. But on a fly ball that was in foul territory in right field, Harper ran to it and stopped thinking he was going to run into the stands. He was about 5 feet away and let the ball drop. I can see why he didn’t want to hit the railing, but he had room to spare and he was playing at home, so he should have known he had room. I’ll give him a pass for that. It was 35 degrees and a hard night to play baseball. In a later inning with Harper on 2nd and a runner on first and no outs, the Nationals hit a grounder to third. Harper was running to third and the Mets’ third baseman missed the tag on him as Harper got around him, so Harper advanced towards third. The Mets 3rd baseman chased him and tagged him out. If Harper had just slid into third he would have been safe, but he stayed on his feet and was tagged out. Really a major mental error. It was close to the bag and the slide could have jammed his ankle, but he could have gone in head first. A play he could have made. But the most egregious mistake occurred in the bottom of the 9th inning, when, with the score tied 5-5 and after a Harper walk with nobody out, the Mets pitcher made a snap throw to first to try and pickoff Harper. The ball got by first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and went into the corner of the first base, right field side of the field. Harper took off for second and could have easily gotten to third with his 3rd base coach waving him on, but he stopped at second. It was kind of unbelievable. The Nats hitter, Matt Adams, hit a deep fly ball to center that was caught near the warning track which would have easily scored Harper from 3rd and won the game for the Nats which sorely needed it after losing 4 in a row, but Harper could only advance to 3rd, and the Mets reliever got out of the inning without giving up a run. The Mets won 6-5 in 12 innings.

Harper is an awesome player and I really like him a lot. He has 6 homers and 12 RBIs already this season. He is a spectacular talent and a hard nosed tough competitor. I think he’s a good guy too. But there is the massive contract looming after this season, some say possibly a $400 million contract, so he’s got to have that in his mind and is hesitant to get injured. He’s such a hard-working, hard-nosed competitor that I hope he gives the Nationals everything he’s got this year because they have a team that can win it all. Second baseman Daniel Murphy has been out so far this season from a knee surgery last fall, and is expected to return later this month or by the first of May and he’s a real leader and will help Bryce stay focused.

But the Mets are really strong this year and moved to 7-1 after sweeping the Nationals over the weekend at Nationals Park. The Braves look for real at 6-3 and play at Washington today through Wednesday with Julio Teheran facing Max Scherzer tonight and the great young Mike Foltynewicz facing Stephen Strasburg tomorrow night, so the Nationals really have their work cut out for them in the NL East. I see Bryce getting it together. He’s been spectacular for the most part this season, and he’s a superb baseball player. The Nationals have a chance to be a super team, but they need to get Murphy back and Harper needs his presence on the field to get him playing all out and leading this team to great things.

Stanley Cup Playoffs

Can the Pittsburgh Penguins capture their third consecutive Stanley Cup Trophy, or can another team derail the 2 time defending champions. There’s a lot to like about this Stanley Cup which starts Wednesday Night and will be televised throughout the next month and a half on USA, CNBC, NBC Sports Network and NBC with the Stanley Cup Finals on NBC Sports Network and NBC. Here are my predictions for what will be a thrilling Stanley Cup playoff.

Eastern Conference Semifinals

Tampa Bay over Toronto in 7

Washington over Pittsburgh in 7

going with the upset here. Pretty bullish on the Caps. They’ve beaten the Penguins in the regular season and are playing very good hockey.

Western Conference Semis

Nashville over Winnipeg in 5

Vegas over San Jose in 6

Eastern Conference Final 

Washington over Tampa Bay in 7

Western Conference Final

Nashville over Vegas in 6

Stanley Cup Final

I’m taking the Nashville Predators to bring home the Stanley Cup to a long suffering franchise that has found a resurgence the last 3 years. I like the Preds over the Washington Capitals in 6 games. The Radiators had an album a while back called The Law of the Fish. It was an awesome album, and the Nashville fans will be touting the Law of the Catfish throwing their catfish on the ice after a Preds championship. Smashville, after years of suffering through losing hockey seasons, capture their first Stanley Cup title. I like the awesome 23 year old  left wing Filip Forsberg to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs. 

Here’s a hype video for the playoffs.