Where to begin with these incredible things going on for Vanderbilt athletes. Very exciting times. Will start with baseball, then roundball, football and golf.
David Price just keeps on truckin. Dave led his Rays to a 5-1 victory over the Twins Saturday night at Target Field in Minneapolis by going 8.0 innings, giving up only four hits, no runs, with zero walks and nine K’s. It was another beauty by the best pitcher in the big leagues, though I know the Clayton Kershaw advocates would have a beef with that. He’s exceptional too. Will post Kershaw’s numbers after focusing on Dave.
David moved to 10-7 on the season, has won his last five, going 8.1 innings vs. the Bucs (a 5-1 victory), 7.0 @ the Yankees (a 2-1 victory), 8.2 @ Detroit (a 7-3 victory against some serious bats), 8.0 against Toronto (a 3-0 victory against some more bats) and the Minnesota game this past Saturday night. Dave’s numbers are out the roof. His ERA is 3.06 now and it was over 4.50 about a month and a half ago. His ERA the last five games is around 0.50. Astounding really. He has given up 19 homers in 155 innings, but none in his last two starts. DP has given up 141 hits in 155.2 innings, and the most amazing stat of all, he has walked only 21 and struck out 173. This is Sandy Koufax, Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson and Clayton Kershaw stuff. Kershaw is in that company as well. Unreal. He leads the big leagues in strikeouts. If the Rays will just keep him; that’s the $64,000 question everybody in baseball is asking.
The key suitors right now are the Cardinals, the Dodgers and the Mariners. If you put David on the Cardinals or the Dodgers, you have the instant World Series favorite, as the Cardinals have the awesome Adam Wainwright (12-4 with a major league leading 1.83 ERA, 27 walks, 115 K’s) and a good team around Wainwright with pitching, defense and pretty good hitting. If David were to go to the Dodgers, he would join Kershaw (11-2, 1.92 ERA, 14 walks, 134 K’s), and their high-priced, talented team ($235 million, tops in the majors; Yankees second @ $203 m). Both those teams would be favorites to win it all. The Cards are a half game back of the Brewers in the NL Central. Cards at 54-45. The Dodgers are tied with the Giants for the lead in the NL west @ 56-45. The Dodgers have three, 11 game winners on the mound in Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu, who beat the Bucs last night, 5-2 @ PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
The Mariners would be interesting, too, as Dave would join the great King Felix Hernandez, and a team that is 53-46 and 8.5 back of the AL west leading Oakland A’s, an incredible team assembled by the great Moneyball general manager Billy Beane. KIng Felix is third in the big leagues in ERA @ 2.02, he’s 11-2 and has walked only 29 and struck out 163. He’s something else too. The Rays actually face Wainwright and the Cards tonight in St. Louis with the young talented Jake Odorizzi going for the Rays.
But this is not a done deal by any means. Personally, I want David to remain a Ray as long as the Rays have a shot at the division or the wild card. They just swept the Twins and have now won five straight. They’re 47-53, eight back of AL East leader Baltimore, which won last night over the Angels, 4-2, on two Adam Jones long ones, and they are only 6,5 games back of Seattle for the second wild card spot. So Executive Vice President Andrew Friedman and principal owner Stu Sternberg are probably going to wait this out longer. Friedman and Sternberg want to win it all in Tampa and if they see they still have a shot in the next week, they hopefully will keep DP a Ray for the rest of the year. It’s really a day to day thing for Dave and the Rays right now as the non-waiver trade deadline approaches July 31. I would love to see Dave as a Cardinal if he’s not a Ray. I like their organization. Dave would fit in well with a solid group of guys and a solid organization. But if the Rays are still in it as next week unfolds, Friedman and Sternberg may want to keep him and make that run. I picked the Rays over the Cards in the World Series on my regular blog the day the season started , so I’m hopeful Dave will remain a Ray. Pull for Dave either way though. Dave faces another stellar guy Friday night @ home in the Trop as Jon Lester and the Red Sox come to town. The Red Sox have won seven of eight and are looking good again. Lester is 4-0 over his last seven starts with an 0.85 ERA with 47 K’s and eight walks in 52 2/3 innings. He’s 10-7 overall with a 2.50 ERA with 31 walks and 142 K’s. The pitching is something else this year. So that’ll be huge Friday night.
First, though, the Rays need to get it done in St. Louis as they play the Cards tonight and tomorrow night. The Rays will throw Alex Cobb, a young stud against Lance Lynn (11-6, 3.13 ERA) tomorrow night. Odorizzi is 5-8 with a 4.01 ERA, but is 24, and has shown flashes of brilliance this season. I believe in him. Cobb, who has been hurt some this year, is 5-6 with a 4.08 ERA, but he’s a very good young pitcher at 26 years old. Alex will bring it tomorrow night. So a big week for the Rays and Dave with the Cards tonight and tomorrow night, an off day Thursday, and the Sox in Tampa for the weekend. Curt Casali (2011 VU College World Series team) was called up by the Rays Friday from Triple A Durham and played Friday night and Sunday. Curt is going to get a shot with an injury to one of the Rays’ starting catchers. He was one-for-nine at the plate with some strikeouts, but hit a single to left in his first plate appearance, and hit some balls hard that just missed being doubles. Curt did an incredible job behind the plate, calling an excellent game, blocking ball after ball, and playing very solid defense. Curt has a good future in pro baseball. Would love for him to stick with the Rays. Jose Molina, one of the co-starters along with Ryan Hanigan– who is hurt–is 39, so he’s close to calling it a career. So Curt could be with the Rays to stay. If not this year, next.
Sonny is also on fire. He went 6 2/3 vs the O’s Sunday, giving up two hits, two runs, with only one earned, walked two and struck out 9. Sonny won the game, 10-1, and is now 11-2 with a 2.72 ERA. He has walked 45 and K’d 116. His fastball is coming in @ 94-95 with great movement and location, and his curveball is as good as there is in baseball. Maybe not quite as good as Kershaw’s yet, but very, very close. It’s dynamite. Dave was bringing it 96 at times on Saturday night for the Rays. He has four out pitches. Sonny has four as well; his high velocity fastball, his slider, his change-up and his electric curve. Dave uses his high velocity fastball located exceptionally well, his cut fastball, or cutter, which moves in on right handers and away from leftys, his curve, which is getting better and better every outing, and his change-up, which is becoming a pretty effective pitch for him. Sonny and Dave have electric stuff. Sonny pitches Saturday night @ Texas. He’ll be facing Rangers’ right hander Miles Mikolas (1-2, 7.48 ERA). The Rangers are really struggling at 40-59, but they have been besieged by injuries. Texas manager Ron Washington’s seat may be pretty hot right now. It might be kind of unfair, but unfortunately, that’s life in the big leagues. Winning is paramount for the owner, the general manager, and the fans. The A’s are excellent @ 61-37, but in the tightly contested AL West, they are only two ahead of the LA Angels which are 59-39 after last night’s loss to the O’s. The Mariners are good too @ 53-46, but they’re still 8.5 back of the amazing A’s. The A’s can do it all. If they can avoid any major injuries, this could be their year. I picked the Rays to beat them in the AL championship series.
Mike Minor is on the hill tonight for the Braves @ home vs the Marlins at the Ted. Mike is 3-5 with a 4.86 ERA with 24 walks and 79 K’s. He needs a good outing. He won his last start, 11-6, over the Cubs, giving up 11 hits, six earned runs with one walk and five K’s. No home runs though, and Mike actually went yard himself. It was a beautiful stroke that left the park. I still believe in Mike. He’ll get it together. The Braves have major problems with the Miami Marlins for some reason. They lost last night, 3-1, in 10. Mike will need to be a stopper tonight. He’ll face Jacob Turner, a righty, who is 2-6 with a 6.22 ERA, so Mike and the Braves have an opportunity to turn things around tonight. The Braves are 54-45 and one game back of the Nationals. They’re playing well. They play the Marlins tonight, tomorrow night and Thursday night, then host the San Diego Padres this weekend. The Braves really need to figure out how to beat the Marlins.
Pedro and the Bucs are doing pretty well. They did lose to the Dodgers last night, but swept the Rockies over the weekend. Pedro hitting OK average-wise at .237, not great, with 15 homers and 47 rib-eyes (as Joe Maddon calls them), but would love to see him get on a tear, as I’m sure manager Clint Hurdle and his Pirate teammates would. Pedro needs to get better on his throws to first also. It’s a little bit of a confidence issue for him right now. He’s got a cannon and is a good defensive player and great athlete, so he’ll get through it. Bucs @ 52-47, 2.5 back of the Brewers and two back of Cards. Brewers @ 55-45.
Ryan Flaherty got a start at second on Sunday for the O’s. Ryan went 0-for-4 against Sonny and the A’s and their bullpen, but hit it hard. He just needs more opportunities. I said I was going to go off on Buck Showalter a couple of weeks ago for not playing Ryan, but, like Andrew Friedman, I’m going to see how things develop. Ryan moved over to short late in the game and made a nice play to throw out a runner at first. The guy who is starting ahead of Ryan at second is Jonathan Schoop, who is hitting a sparkling .216. He was 0-for-3 last night with a K. How much more do you need Showalter to decide you need to give Ryan a real shot at second? Don’t get me started. Ryan needs a shot!
Also, Drew Verhagen (VU 2012) started for the Tigers last Saturday against Cleveland. Drew did well for his first start. The 25-year older went five, gave up five hits, three earned with three walks and four K’s. Drew got through the first four innings well before giving up three runs in the fifth, as the Tigers lost 6-2. Drew was a spot starter as one of their starters, Anibal Sanchez, has been hurt. Not sure when he’ll get another opportunity, as Sanchez is back, but he showed promise. He’s not in the rotation now according to the ESPN schedule.
As far as our present team goes, we lost all our left handed pitching commitments for 2014 to the pros, which hurts a little, but we’ve still got some solid leftys in Ben Bowden and John “Kilo” Kilichowski for next year. We still have a solid 2014 class coming in. We lost four guys to the majors out of the ’14 class. Baseball America will have their rankings for ’14 out in the fall. Perfect Game has us at number two in their rankings for ’14. The ’15 class is rated numero uno by Perfect Game. Best class in the country. With the success we’ve had and are having, we’re going to get the best players in the country coming to us, and we may inevitably lose some. But we’ve got some other leftys on the roster right now. And we’ve got Carson and Walker coming back next year for our weekend rotation. Will need to develop some other starters and our bullpen, but there are arms all over the place on this baseball team. Sorry we didn’t get any leftys in this class, but there are some others on the team who will develop. With Dansby moving over to short as Vinnie Conde signed with the Yankees, either Ro or Tyler Campbell will move to second. Would love to see Ro there and Tyler at third. Not sure what’s going on with Xavier Turner as far as his status goes, but will try to find something out. But I love an infield of Zander Wiel at first, Ro at second, Dans at short and Tyler at third. We’ll have an awesome outfield with Bryan Reynolds in left, Johnny Norwood in center and the awesome Rhett Wiseman in right. There is awesome starting talent and there is high quality depth. I look at guys like Zander, Rhett, Johnny and Reynolds to hit more homers next season. I expect that will happen. There will be a new ball in play in college baseball, the minor league ball will be used, and it is expected to have a lot more carry than the ball that has been used lately. Should help our guys who are already powerful enough to hit it out to begin with. Our pitching should keep the opposing batters in the park as well. We’ve got a shot to go the distance again, but as Corbs says, let’s just get better every day. It’s the process that counts. The results will come. Pretty fired up about this group. Tony Kemp is now in double A for the Astros. The Astros have a stud second baseman, All-Star Jose’ Altuve, but Tony is hitting .307 for the Corpus Christi Hooks and playing second base. Tony is so versatile, the Astros may want to put him in the outfield at the end of this year, and he could be a starter next year.
Basketball looks very exciting for next year and the future. Dai-Jon is on the roster. Hopefully, Dai-Jon kept his act together and he’ll be playing on our ’14-15 team. He was awesome at the end of last season and would hate to see him mess up a promising senior season. Not sure about Kedren. Kevin has made it sound like Kedren and Dai-Jon will both be back. I hope so. They would make this team instantly special. With Damian Jones (potential All-American, 6’10”, 240) and Luke Kornet (7″0″, 220) manning the middle along with hopefully a healthy Josh Henderson (6’11”, 245), the highly athletic James Siakam (6’7″, 220) and Shelby Moats (6’8″, 225) and the scrappy Nathan Watkins (6’5″, 215) , and a highly talented freshman class with two four-stars and three high three-stars coming in, this team could be terrific. And I can’t forget the awesome Carter Josephs. Carter is such an awesome team player. He came in last year when Kyle struggled some at point guard and did an excellent shot. Carter is a tremendous student, exceptionally smart, and a very good assist guy who never turns the ball over. If he can develop a shot, Carter can make an impact this season. If Kedren isn’t back, feel pretty good about Carter and the freshmen.
This season, if Kedren and Dai-Jon are back, and Josh is healthy, could be special. I told a friend of mine we could be a second weekend tournament team if things shake out right for these players who are trying to make it back. And you never know from there is you get in the Sweet 16. Heck, you never know once you get in the tournament. We’ll have a really good team. We might be pretty good without Kedren and Dai-Jo, but would love to have them back if they acted right.
And the future looks incredibly bright. I love our new assistants, Adam Cohen and Derrick Jones. Derrick is in his very early 30’s and Cohen his late 20’s. They’re young hungry, and ready to take this team to new heights with Kevin and the cagey veteran coach, Tom Richardson. Adam is from Harvard where he worked under the highly successful Tommy Amaker, and Derrick just finished work at La. Tech, where he was part of a program that won 27 games last year, though they didn’t make the tournament. But that’s very good at La. Tech. Derrick specializes in big men, so he’ll be good for Damian, Luke, Josh and our other guys. Both look to me to be stellar recruiters who will work tirelessly for Kevin to put this program at an elite level. Dan Cage is our director of basketball operations and Julian Terrell is our video coordinator. Excellent players for us, Julian in 2005 and Dan in 2007. Julian was a very good big man and Dan was a sharpshooter on our special 2007 team that was within a Georgetown walk of going to the Elite Eight. Great group Kevin has in place.
Four of our five freshmen, Wade Baldwin (6’3″, 185, four- star), Matthew Fisher-Davis (6’5″, 175, high three-star), Riley LeChance ( 6’2″, 170, high three-star) and Shelton Mitchell (6’3″, 185 four-star) can all light it up from outside. Excellent shooters. They’re great kids apparently too, who want to be great. They’re very athletic, physical players too who will do the lunch pale work of defense and rebounding along with their offensive prowess. We can really get some rebounding out of Fisher-Davis, Baldwin and Mitchell, which will help Damian, Luke, Josh and the other guys inside. Our fifth freshman, Jeff Roberson, is a solid three-star who is 6’6″, 210 and is a physical/athletic guy who can score. We already have two commits for 2o15 in sharpshooter Camron Justice (6’2″, 175 high three-star) and four-star small forward Joseph Toye (6’7″, 200). We also have transfer Nolan Cressler from Cornell on the team. Nolan will sit out this year and have two years of eligibility left. Cressler is a shooting guard who lit it up for Cornell last year. He will be a key member of our 2015-16 season. He was a 40 percent three point shooter for Cornell last year and he played a lot of minutes and took a lot of threes. That’s exciting for 2015-16. Our future is unlimited with these guys coming in. This year’s team, with Dai-jon and Kede back, could be really special. We’re in it for some other guys in ’15 as well, some bigger players.
Football moving along well. Wide receiver and qb will be the positions of keen interest this summer. Defense, to me, should be as good as anybody in the SEC East, if the players can get down Derek and Coach David Kotulski’s system. I think they will and we’ll be a physical, playmaking unit on D. We could be top four in the SEC along with Alabama, Florida and Auburn. It’ll be a day-by-day process on our starting quarterback when practice commences Aug.1. Very exciting possibilities there. I like our running backs, tight ends and love our offensive line. We’ll be strong up front on both sides of the ball. Recruiting going very well. There are some guys who are closer to pulling the trigger for us. Some very good players. Derek is getting good players who are high character kids. Can’t wait for the season opener against Temple on Aug. 28th @ 9:15 PM ET/8:15 CT on the SEC Network. Temple is pretty good. I watched some of their spring game and they have some talent and they’re physical. This will be a major test for us. We need to be ready or this team could knock us off. They’re pretty solid.
Brandt had an OK British Open, finishing three over, T-58. He will be defending his title at the RBC Canadian Open this week, He is 86th on the Fed Ex Cup rankings and 28th on the Ryder Cup list. He needs to turn it up beginning this weekend. He’ll have this week, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational next week, then the PGA to get back to where we’re used to seeing Brandt. Brandt changed coaches going to Butch Harmon from Todd Anderson. That had to be an adjustment last week. Butch Harmon, to me, is the best coach in golf, so Brandt made a very savvy move. Harmon’s tutored a lot of great ones. He has Phil now and Rickie Fowler among others, and he’s done a stellar job with Rickie as Rickie finished top 10 at the Masters, second at the U.S. Open, and second at the Open last weekend. So the future looks bright for a tremendous player in Brandt who is still trying to put it together this season. Brandt is 68th in driving accuracy, which has been one of his strong suits over the past couple of years along with his putting. And he is 152 in greens in regulation. His strokes gained putting is 23rd, so that’s still pretty good, but he just needs to solidify his game. That could very well happen this weekend.
Jon Curran is fifth on the 25 money list on the Web.com tour, and if he makes some more cuts, he will be on the PGA tour. He may already be solidly in the 25 and assured of a PGA card. Luke List is 117 on the money list, but he’s moved up from 139 after finishing tied for 20th at the Albertson’s Boise Open last weekend. Luke shot -14.The winner, Steve Wheatcroft, shot -24 and won in a playoff. These guys just go off. If Luke can get a win this season, and there a good number of tournaments left, he’s right there in the 25 that qualifies automatically for the PGA. But if he can’t make the 25, he needs to get in the top 75 of the money list, so he can make the Web.com playoffs, which is a series of four tournaments in September consisting of the top 75 Web.com players and numbers 126-200 on the Fed Ex list of the PGA tour. The 25 top money winners on the Web.com tour automatically qualify for the PGA tour, so the four tournaments are for placement for them next year on the PGA tour events. So there will be 25 spots available for PGA membership among the rest of the players. Like what Luke is doing now, so he’s got a good shot. Luke and Jon both in the Midwest Classic this weekend at the Nicklaus Golf Club in Overland Park, Kansas. Luke leading the tour in driving distance at 317. This is pretty amazing. Luke’s longest drive is 362 yards, which is only tied for 75th as the longest drive on the Web.com tour. Brad Schneider hit the longest one at 396.That’s incredible.
Will check in later in the week. Thanks.