Armadillo Sports

NHL information every day on NHL page……college/pro basketball every day on Hoops page. Baseball information on MLB2 page

Monday’s six-pack
Neutral field college football games on Labor Day weekend:
— Alabama (-5.5) vs Florida State in Atlanta
— LSU (-22.5) vs BYU in Houston
— Michigan (-3) vs Florida in Dallas
— Tennessee (-3.5) vs Georgia Tech in Atlanta (Falcons’ new dome)
— NC State (-5) vs South Carolina in Charlotte
— Colorado (-8.5) vs Colorado State in Denver
— Louisville (-27) vs Purdue in Indianapolis
— Virginia Tech (-4) vs West Virginia in Landover, MD

Tweet of the Day
“Its ridiculous but when I start against the Mets I’m very aware that Jerry Seinfeld’s mood is in my hands.”
Dodger pitcher Brandon McCarthy

Monday’s quiz
Where is the College World Series played every June?

Sunday’s quiz
Other than Canada/US, Sweden (27) had the most players taken in this year’s NHL Draft.

Saturday’s quiz
Ed Orgeron replaced Les Miles as LSU’s football coach last year; Nick Saban was LSU’s coach before Miles.

13) When I was a kid 1,000 years ago, actually 1970, baseball gave the fans the All-Star vote back; it had been taken away after Cincinnati fans stuffed the ballot boxes in 1957.

It was so much fun to take the ballot and then figure out who the best players were at each position. You argued with your friends who was better than who, and that made it fun.

Nowadays, these goofy teams just openly promote fans to vote for guys on their team, even if their team sucks. No one ever mentions about voting for the best players. Every team has to be represented in the game anyway, why not just vote for the best guys?

12) New York Mets promoted Tim Tebow and his .222 batting average up a level in Class A, I’m guessing to make room at the entry level for the new players they just drafted.

I’m giving Mets’ hierarchy the benefit of the doubt here; they’re having a bad season, I’m just hoping, for their sake, they don’t plan on making Tebow a major leaguer later this season, to inflate attendance when the team is totally out of contention.

If you want to placate the fans, how about making Amed Rosario a major leaguer? He is hitting .320 at AAA and is a solid prospect at shortstop. Fans would love to see a big part of their future play in person. Just a thought.

11) I was going to give this Big3 basketball thing a shot Monday night, watch some half-court basketball with former NBA players, then I find out the games were played Sunday afternoon. Whats the bleeping point of showing games on tape delay?

By the time the games come on TV, everyone who cares about it is going to know who won.

10) Oklahoma is a 48-point favorite over Texas-El Paso in the football season opener Sept 2. Sooners have a rookie coach, they visit Ohio State the following week- they’ll have to be looking past the Miners, right? Plus they’ll keep some of their offensive weapons under wraps.

9) Northern Illinois opened up as a 2-point favorite over Boston College (a MAC team favored over an ACC squad?), but now the Eagles are a 2.5-point favorite.

8) Eight NBA teams have deals to have advertising patches on their uniforms next year.

7) June 25, 2010, Edwin Jackson threw a no-hitter, winning 1-0. He threw 149 pitches in the game. Jackson is 93-114, 4.65 in 275 major league starts- this was his 15th year in the majors.

6) One of the many reasons why baseball is cool is that the ballparks are so different. Sunday in Miami, Giancarlo Stanton hit a vicious line drive for a homer to left field. the ball barely cleared the fence, it was hit so low.

If he hits that same ball in Boston or Houston, it is likely a single, since the fences there are so much higher, and he hit it so hard, the LF would’ve retrieved the ball quickly and it would’ve been hard for Stanton to get a double.

5) Miami’s Dee Gordon has gone 310 AB since his last home run, the longest active drought in the major leagues.

4) Ichiro Suzuki became the oldest major leaguer ever to start a game in centerfield when he started for the Marlins Sunday.

3) Cubs’ SS Addison Russell left Sunday’s game with a bad shoulder, leaving Chicago with an outfield of John Jay, Kris Bryant (starting 3B), Willson Contreras (starting C). Cubs are 38-37 and just treading water; lucky for them, they’re in a bad division and still have a good shot at winning it.

2) If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t), they would look like this:
AL: New York-Minnesota-Houston. Wild Cards: Boston-Cleveland
NL: Washington-Milwaukee-Los Angeles. Wild Cards: Arizona-Colorado

1) A guy named Bo Dietl is running for mayor of New York; he is a former NYC police detective who made $1.8M in 2015 as a security consultant— he’s done some TV work on FOX News and was in the movies Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Dietl has worked for both Roger Ailes and Steve Bannon as a detective in either divorce or sexual harassment cases, so that tells you where his philosophies would generally reside.

Only reason I ever heard of the guy was because he did a TV ad for Arby’s a couple of years ago; looked him up at the time, was surprised to find out he was playing himself in the commercial.

13) A’s 10, White Sox 2— Oakland had three players hit their first MLB home run in this game, the first team to do that since 1914- the Kansas City Packers.

White Sox manager Rich Renteria got tossed for the second day in a row; he’s not thrilled with the Jim Wolf/GregGibson umpiring crew.

12) Franklin Barreto is a highly-touted shortstop prospect for the A’s; he played 2B in his big league debut— he didn’t get to Chicago until Saturday morning, but homered in his first MLB game, which started at 1:30 in the Windy City. Quite a day for the young man.

11) Its been a decade since the San Francisco Giants had only one player in the All-Star Game; looks like thats going to be the case this season.

10) Jordan Spieth leads the Hartford Open after three rounds; last seven times he held the 54-hole lead, he won the tournament six times— he T2 at the 2016 Masters.

9) Canyon Barry (Rick’s son) is playing with the Knicks’ team in the Orlando summer league, but New York doesn’t have a team in Las Vegas this summer— will the Knicks sign him or will he play for someone else in Las Vegas?

Canyon Barry studied nuclear engineering in college, so NBA offenses should be a snap.

8) If I’m keeping a scorebook at a ball game nowadays, I score where the ball went, and take notes on who actually fielded the ball. If a ball is hit to shortstop but is fielded by the 3B, that is misleading, so I would put 6-3 down (noting it was hit to where the SS normally is) then note it was the 3B who actually fielded the ball.

7) Baseball transactions:
— Arizona sent OF Jeremy Hazelbaker to AAA.
— Tampa Bay activated C Wilson Ramos, DFA’d Derek Norris
— Bronx DFA’d 1B Chris Carter, brought up 1B Tyler Austin.
— Texas put P Martin Perez (thumb) on the DL.
— Astros sent P Joe Musgrove down to AAA, activated Lance McCullers.
— Giants DFA’d 3B Aaron Hill, brought up rookie 3B Ryder Jones.

6) Dodger reliever Pedro Baez drew a 4-pitch walk with the bases loaded Thursday night, first pitcher to do that since the Cubs’ Courtney Duncan on May 5, 2001.

5) Dodgers’ SS Corey Seager got a Grade 1 hamstring strain Friday, isn’t supposed to go on the DL— like the rest of us, he is day-to-day.

4) I’m skeptical of the pitch speeds radar guns give out in stadiums; those guns can be calibrated to be “hot” or “cold” and can give inaccurate readings.

For instance, when I got my speeding ticket, the gun was “hot” and therefore inaccurate. 🙂

3) Orioles 8, Rays 3— First time since June 2 that Baltimore held a team under five runs.

2) Mets 5, Giants 2— San Francisco is 27-50; last year, they lost their 50th game on August 12.

Jason deGrom is the first Mets’ pitcher since Johan Santana in 2010 to finish eight innings in three consecutive starts.

1) Mark Leiter Jr got his first big league win against the Diamondbacks Friday. Arizona is managed by Torey Lovullo.

Lovullo was once traded for Mark Leiter Sr on March 19, 1991, six days after Mark Jr was born.

13) Can you imagine being a high school/college pitcher, being really excited about the draft, and then being picked by the Colorado Rockies? Can’t be a good feeling- Coors Field is the worst pitchers’ park in the major leagues, thanks to the high altitude.

12) Must be fun recruiting for teams at Fresno State these days, with alums Derek Carr, Aaron Judge and Paul George in the news so much, all for very good reasons.

11) Miami Marlins batters swung at 71 of Max Scherzer’s pitches Wednesday; they missed 30 of them and got only two hits. Scherzer threw 118/121 pitches in his last two starts; you wonder if they’ll give him an extra day of rest, or make sure he is held under 100 pitches in his next start.

Don’t want your meal ticket getting burned out in June, especially when you have such a big lead in your division.

10) Mets’ TV guy Keith Hernandez was exasperated watching the Dodgers pummel the Mets this week; late Wednesday night, with LA way ahead of another game, Mets’ skipper Terry Collins was writing down some notes on a card.

“What could he possibly be writing on that piece of paper?” Hernandez said.

9) Dodgers are 21-4 when they hit 2+ homers in a game, 4-16 when they don’t hit any homers, 23-6 when they hit one.

8) San Antonio is moving up from AA to AAA baseball next year; they’re going to get a new ballpark at some point. Sounds like Colorado Springs is out as a AAA city- hard to have your young pitchers throwing in high altitude, without losing their confidence.

Amarillo is expected to take San Antonio’s place in the AA Texas League.

7) NBA’s  projected salary cap will come in at $99 million, $5M higher than last year, but about $2 million less than estimates in April. The crummy playoff season, with so many fewer games than there could’ve been, was blamed for the decrease.

The luxury tax was lowered from $121 million to a projection of $119 million.

6) When the Colorado Rockies had their expansion draft in 1992, two of the guys they picked are now major league managers— Joe Girardi and Brad Ausmus.

5) Minnesota Twins/Cleveland Indians will play two regular season games in Puerto Rico next season.

4) Kansas City Chiefs gave coach Andy Reid a contract extension, then surprisingly fired GM John Dorsey, who had been with the Chiefs for four years.

3) Remember a few years ago, when a guy named Frank McCourt owned the Dodgers and got into a nasty divorce dispute involving the ball club with his future ex-wife? Well, that ex-wife is now going to be the US ambassador to Belgium. Hope she can get the baseball package on TV over there.

2) IUPUI was invited to replace Valparaiso in the Horizon League. Valpo replaced Wichita State in the MVC, after the Shockers jumped to the AAC.

1) Woman named Nina Skye was recently fired from her teaching job at a religiously-affiliated preschool in Los Angeles; the reason?

Turns out Christian preschools aren’t fond of their teachers being porn stars.

Whoops.

With the NBA Draft going on, here are some basketball-related thoughts……..

— My friend Joe Gill pointed this out to me yesterday— how much the NBA has changed.

The 3-point shot came into the NBA in the 1979-80 season, Magic/Bird’s rookie season. Here are the Lakers’ TEAM TOTALS FOR THE SEASON on 3-point shooting in their first six years the 3-point shot was in the NBA:

1979-80: 20-100, 20%
1980-81: 17-94, 18.1%
1981-82: 13-94, 13.8%
1982-83: 10-96, 10.4%
1983-84: 58-226, 25.7%
1984-85: 90-295, 30.5%

This past season, 2016-17, Lakers were 730-2110 (34.0%) on 3-pointers for the season; Golden State was 982-2563 (38.3%).

The game has changed in 37 years. A lot.

— Magic Johnson’s first six years in the NBA, he was 29-164 (17.7%) behind the arc; in his last seven NBA seasons, he improved to 32.5% on 3-pointers.

— Wednesday, CBS SportsNet ran an hour special on the draft; their four experts all picked who they thought the best player in the draft was- they gave four different answers, which sums this draft up well. There is no one player who is head and shoulders above the rest.

— 76ers have sold out over 14,000 season tickets for next year, a franchise record; their corps of talented young players have to prove they have the durability to play an 82-game season.

—  Chicago Bulls traded Jimmy Butler to Minnesota for Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and the 7th pick, who wound up being Lauri Markkanen from Arizona.

— Little odd that the last two #1 picks in the draft (Fultz, Ben Simmons) had a combined record of 29-36 in their one season of college basketball and both coaches got fired within a year of coaching that player.

— Four quick non-basketball notes:
a) Weird Al Yankovic is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
b) Jose Abreu is the first major leaguer since 1966 whose first 13 home runs have all been on the road.
c) I graduated high school 40 years ago tonight.
d) I just realized a Saskatchewan-Montreal CFL game is on ESPNews.

— First seven picks in the draft were all college freshmen; Knicks broke the trend by taking Frank Ntilikina, an 18-year old point guard from Europe— he is 6-5.

— Jay Bilas’ comment on NC State’s Dennis Smith, #9 pick by the Mavericks: “He is not always a focused defender.” A nice way of saying, “He sucks on defense.”

— Sacramento traded the #10 pick to Portland for picks #15 and #20; Gonzaga’s Zach Collins was the #10 pick.

— December of 2013, just 3.5 years ago, I sat in the gym at Bishop Gorman HS in Las Vegas with my friend Mike and we watched some high school basketball. Bishop Gorman’s 3rd-string center was a 10th grader who played pretty well when he got into the game- that was Zach Collins.

Last night, Collins was the 10th pick in the NBA Draft, by Portland. Not bad for a kid who was a 3rd-string center on his high school team three years ago, behind Stephen Zimmerman and Chase Jeter. Zimmerman is in the D-League with Orlando, Jeter just transferred from Duke to Arizona. Collins has a shot to be the best of the three.

— NBA commissioner Adam Silver is a tall, bald man who wears glasses, which obviously makes him very handsome— ha!!! Oh, Charlotte just took Malik Monk, best shooter in the draft who apparently is also adept at hunting squirrels.

— Detroit took Duke’s Luke Kennard with the #12 pick; he plays basketball lefty, but when he was a high school QB, he threw the ball righty. Go figure.

— Utah traded Trey Lyles and the #24 pick to Denver for the #13 pick- Jazz took Donovan Mitchell from Louisville.

— Halftime: Saskatchewan 10, Montreal 7. Season opener for both clubs. We’ll have write-ups on all the CFL games, starting next week.

— ESPN’s guy with the touchscreen who is a salary cap guru predicts the Bulls will buy out Dwyane Wade’s contract as they totally rebuild. Thats an expensive deal right there.

— John Calipari was in Colorado Springs Thursday morning coaching the U19 team, then was in Brooklyn for the draft; I’m assuming he is headed back to Colorado as soon as all of his guys get drafted. I’m assuming Calipari has a really nice house, but is he ever home?

Calipari is now holding  court on ESPN; in eight years at Kentucky, he’s coached 64 players. Half of those 64 players have been drafted by the NBA.

— I’ll say this: Oklahoma State guard Jawun Evans is really good. He’ll be a very good NBA player, but he hasn’t been taken yet.

— In his next contract, Paul George will either get $177M for five years or $132M for four years, depending on if he switches teams or not.

— Sacramento took Harry Giles, who has already torn the ACL in both knees and wasn’t good at Duke last year— there is very little chance this ends well. Giles scored 3.9 pts/game while playing in 20% of Duke’s possessions last year. Can he recover enough to withstand an 82-game schedule? Wish the young man well, but this figures to be another Sacramento disaster.

— My point here: Taking Giles over Jawun Evans is basketball malpractice.

— Oklahoma City took Terrance Ferguson with the #21 pick; he skipped college (Arizona) and shot 30% in an Australian pro league LY. They say he needs to get stronger- if he such a great shooter, why did he shoot 30% in an Australian league? He is a developmental project.

— Host Brooklyn Nets took Jarrett Allen, a big kid from Texas. He scored 13.4 pts/game with 8.4 reb/game LY. This young man built his own computer, which is very impressive.

Nets are 41-123 the last two years; three short years ago, they were 44-38 and in Eastern Conference semis. It is easier to get worse than it is to get better. They need a lot of players.

— Denver grabs Tyler Lydon from Syracuse, who is a good shooter but apparently has 13% body fat, which means he needs to get himself in better shape, especially since he’ll have to play man defense for the first time since high school or AAU ball- Syracuse plays all 2-3 zone.

— Caleb Swanigan was drafted by Portland; hard not to root for this guy. By the time he was 13 years old, he had gone to 13 different schools. He was adopted by a guardian angel who gave him structure in his life and then he lost 100 pounds in high school and became a really good player. We wish him well.

— Spurs took Derrick White with the 29th pick; kid played D-2 ball because that was the only offer he got coming out of high school. Then he transferred to Colorado and now he is a first round draft pick- Spurs’ track record of picking guys lower than 20th and having them be really good players is pretty amazing.

— 16 college freshmen were taken in the first round; Derrick White was the first senior taken, at #29.

— New Orleans just traded for Duke’s Frank Jackson after Charlotte picked him so now I’m annoyed; he is NOT BETTER than Juwan Evans. You wonder if coach Brad Underwood had stayed at Oklahoma State if Evans would’ve stayed, too, but Underwood had a spat with the AD and bolted to Illinoi$.

— Finally…..the 76ers take Juwan Evans with the 39th pick. Now I can go write my baseball article. Take your measurables and stick ‘em— this kid can play.

P.S. Evans is getting traded to the Clippers. Jerry West works for the Clippers now— that makes me feel good. 🙂

13) Miami 2, Washington 1— Nationals are way ahead in a weak NL East, but this was a tough  loss. Max Scherzer had a no-hitter in the 8th inning, but gave up an infield hit that bounced off his glove, then Trea Turner bounced a throw to 1B for an error that kept the inning alive, before a wild pitch tied the game 1-1.

Giancarlo Stanton hit Scherzer’s 119th pitch for a single to left that drove in the winning run.

Scherzer and Nolan Ryan are now only two pitchers in history to go 8 IP, not give up an earned run, give up two or less hits, strike out at least 11 and lose the game.

Game ended when Adam Lind was called out on strikes on a pitch that was a good six inches outside. Home plate ump Dana Demuth should be fined for that— I could care less who won the game, but to end the game on a pitch that bad was disgraceful.

12) Odd news note #1 of the day: Police in Winfield, WV say a man found asleep in a stranger’s home has been charged with burglary.

A homeowner called police dispatchers after finding a glass door broken in his house and a stranger asleep in his bed. The napping trespasser was charged with burglary and destruction of property.

11) Surprising stat: Angels are 11-10 since Mike Trout got hurt; Braves are 16-17 since Freddie Freeman got hurt. Would’ve thought both teams would’ve done much worse.

10) Matt Adams has been so productive for the Braves that when Freeman comes back from his wrist injury, he may give third base a try, to keep both bats in the lineup.

9) Justin Verlander apparently thinks Major League Baseball has changed the actual baseball that is used in games- he says since the 2015 All-Star break, baseballs used are harder and also the seams are different, which has resulted in batted balls traveling farther.

As soon as I typed this sentence, Ian Happ hit a home run at Wrigley. Maybe Verlander is right.

8) Odd news note #2 of the day: A couple has gotten back nearly $100,000 they mistakenly donated to Goodwill Industries in Ohio.

Two Goodwill employees in Zanesville, OH  initially thought it was play money or counterfeit cash after finding $97,000 in hundred dollar bills in a duffel bag inside a box of clothes last week. The duffel bag also contained legal documents and the last will and testament for the couple. Oy.

7) Best cumulative scores at the Hartford Open the last five years: Bubba Watson -52, Marc Leishman -43, Chris Stroud -41, Charley Hoffman -35. Ryan Moore -32

6) When Dwight Howard plays for the Charlotte Hornets this fall, they’ll be his 5th team in the last seven years.

5) Quote of the Day, part 2, from Browns’ QB Brock Osweiler:

“The best part is I’m getting coached hard on my fundamentals. And I believe firmly that when your fundamentals and your feet are right as a quarterback, you’re going to make great decisions and you’re going to throw accurate footballs.

I think that’s something that slid last season. I’m not going to go into great detail on that, but they did. My fundamentals slid, and because of that, you saw some poor decisions and some poor throws. If you go back to 2015, I feel like my fundamentals were pretty tight.”

Coaches in Houston, Osweiler’s last stop, should just love that quote.

4) San Diego Padres CF Franchy Cordero found out the hard way yesterday that there is a brick wall underneath all that ivy on the outfield fences at Wrigley Field. He caught the ball on the warning track, then got a face full of ivy and ran into that brick wall that has zero give to it. Terrific catch.

Wind must’ve been blowing in, since Contreras did a bat flip when hit the ball, thinking it would wind up in the bleachers.

3) Golf Channel and NBC Sports will show every shot of the British Open, which means you have to get up pretty darn early if you want to watch it all.

Couple years ago, I was in Las Vegas during the British Open; they had the start of the golf on at one of the bars, while at the same time, the Diamondbacks’ game was in the 13th inning, so I was watching Wednesday night baseball and Thursday morning golf at the same time. Muy bueno.

2) Quote of the Day, part 3, from Kansas’ Josh Jackson, who declined to work out for the Celtics after they traded down into the #3 slot:

“They did a little bit of moving around with their pick. I felt like they made it pretty clear who they were going to draft with the No. 1 pick, so I didn’t really feel like it was worth either of our times for me to work out with them. But then when they, you know, did the flip and went to No. 3, by then it was too late.”

1) Mike Krzyzewski came out again in favor of high school players being eligible for the NBA Draft; the baseball rule makes sense— here is who is eligible for the baseball draft:

•- High school players, if they have graduated from high school and have not yet attended college or junior college.

•- College players, from four-year colleges who have either completed their junior or senior years or are at least 21 years old. (So college players play three years before they can be drafted)

•- Junior college players, regardless of how many years of school they have completed

13) Cavaliers really didn’t consult Lebron James before they fired GM David Griffin? Does this mean they’ve given up hope of Lebron being in Cleveland after next season?

Related item: the NBA Draft is Thursday, as in tomorrow. In the history of the world, how many teams fire their GM three days before the bleeping draft?

12) How long will Griffin be out of work? Cleveland was in the Finals the last three years (I know, they’ve got Lebron which is all that really matters) so some NBA team will be happy to sign the guy up, right?

Will the fact that he went to Arizona State instead of an Ivy League school hinder him in finding another job? Listen to the guy talk; he is very sharp, yet Cleveland just fired him, apparently against the wishes of Lebron James, an iconic player.

Why? Life makes no sense sometimes.

11) Lakers are trading Timofey Mozgov, D’Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets for Brook Lopez and 27th pick in tomorrow night’s draft. Lakers dumped Mosgov’s salary ($48M over next three years) as they clear cap space to eventually wind up with Paul George.

Elsewhere, Charlotte is sending Miles Plumlee, Marco Belenelli and the 41st pick to Atlanta for Dwight Howard and the 31st pick. Howard plays on a lot of different teams.

10) Why teams lose: On June 19, 2016, the Mariners traded Chris Taylor to the Dodgers for Zach Lee. Taylor is hitting ,302 with 32 RBI for the Dodgers- he bats in the middle of the order.

Lee was selected off waivers by the Padres last December and just got DFA’d, meaning he is either headed back to AAA, or to free agency. He has an 8.53 ERA in 12.2 IP in the majors.

9) Clayton Kershaw has given up 17 homers in 103.1 IP this season; he allowed 8 taters in 149 IP all of last year.

8) Phil Mickelson and his caddy for the last 25 years, Bones Mackay, have parted ways.

7) Oakland A’s got two hits in their first-ever game in Oakland, in 1968; a pinch-hit by future Hall of Fame manager Tony LaRussa and a home run by future Dodgers’ radio guy Rick Monday.

Monday was a very good player; he had a 19-year career with A’s-Cubs-Dodgers, had a .361 career on-base %, made two All-Star games, but what he might be most famous for was when two morons ran on the field during a day game at Dodger Stadium and tried to burn an American flag in left-center field.

Monday sprinted over and snatched the flag away from the father/son combo and kept the flag safe.

6) One of Jon Gruden’s sons won a gold medal at the IPF World Powerlifting Championships in Belarus; the young man has very, very big arms (obviously).

5) I laugh when I see that Michelle Pfeiffer is a year older than I am; she looks 20 years younger. My favorite two movies of hers: Fabulous Baker Boys and Tequila Sunrise.

4) It hit 117 degrees in Las Vegas Tuesday, just the 4th time since 1942 its gotten that hot in Las Vegas.

3) A bookmaker in Europe posted 1.5 games as the over/under for the number of games rookie QB Mitch Trubisky starts for the Chicago Bears this season. Yes, you can wager on this stuff.

2) Joe West umpired his 5,000th major league game last night in Denver, the 3rd-most games anyone has ever umpired, so good for him.

1) Anthony Rizzo homered leading off the 1st inning last night; he is now 6-6 with a walk as the leadoff hitter in the 1st inning, with three home runs.

13) Colorado Rockies are 46-26, the Cinderella team of baseball; their pitching rotation has four rookie starters. Here is their experience and IP last year:

Tyler Chatwood: Most experienced of the five- he threw 158 IP LY, missed all of 2015, most of 2014 with an injury. Has started 20+ games three times in six MLB seasons. He’s tossed 90.1 innings this year.

German Marquez: 187.1 IP LY, only 20.2 of them in majors. He’s thrown 63.2 innings this year, technically still his rookie season.

Jeff Hoffman: 150 IP LY, 31.1 of them in majors; 76 IP this year, 32 of them in the majors.

Antonio Senzatela: Threw only 34.1 innings LY, has thrown 83.1 this year, his rookie season. He threw 144 innings in 2014, 154 in 2015.

Kyle Freeland: Threw 162 innings LY, has thrown 81.2 this year, his rookie season.

Pitching home games in Coors Field figures to be more stressful than most big league ballparks; can these rookie pitchers stand up for 3.5 more months? I’m not saying they can’t, but it is a fair question to ask.

12) Golfers Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger were teammates at Florida State in 2012; now they’ve won on the PGA Tour in consecutive weeks.

Koepka finished 11th in the ACC tournament in 2012. Wonder what those other 10 guys are thinking today?

I looked at the 10 names who finished ahead of Koepka; only ones I recognized were Berger and Ollie Schneiderjans, who were in a 4-way tie for 7th.

Last seven golf majors have all been won by first-time major winners.

11) Former Minnesota Timberwolves’ GM David Kahn told this story on CBSSports.com:

“In 2009, just days after my May 22 hiring as President of Basketball Operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves, the agent for Steph Curry told me that Steph’s father, Dell, did not want his son to be drafted by Minnesota — “No offense,” as I recall Jeff Austin, his agent saying to me at the Chicago draft combine.”

Archie Manning did the same thing with the Chargers and his son Eli, forcing a trade, so Lavar Ball is not the first dad to meddle in his son’s dealings, he is just the loudest one.

10) Kahn didn’t do too well with Minnesota; he went on NBAtv once during a summer league game in Las Vegas, and Chris Webber, the analyst on the game, ripped him to shreds over some of his moves. When Kahn compared one of the Wolves to Webber as a player, Webber lit into him and the interview quickly degenerated from there.

9) Obscure movie trivia: At the end of The Bodyguard, when Kevin Costner’s character is guarding some police chief at a Rotary Club banquet, the actor who introduces the chaplain to give the invocation is Bert Remsen, who played the basketball coach Gabe Kaplan’s team had to beat at the end of the great basketball movie Fast Break, one of my favorite movies.

8) I’m not sure which one confuses me more, Michael Strahan as host of the $10,000 Pyramid or Drew Carey hosting The Price is Right. I watched both of these shows a lot during my misguided youth, when Dick Clark/Bob Barker were the hosts.

If they bring back Gambit and Wink Martindale isn’t the host, I ain’t gonna be happy.

7) Washington Redskins benefit from a Supreme Court ruling in a dispute over trademark issues- it likely increases the chances of the Redskins being allowed to keep the trademark for their controversial nickname.

6) Earlier this spring, I read a cool article on ESPN.com about Houston Rockets’ coach Mike D’Antoni and his wife, who have been together for a long time.

This from the article: “Many of D’Antoni’s best qualities as a coach— patience, humor, a refusal to scream and yell for the sake of screaming and yelling— are infused with her advice.”

it was just cool to read that a guy can be a really good coach, a good guy, and be happily married.

5) Cleveland Cavaliers fired their GM David Griffin Monday night; after all, they’re 161-85 the last three years, with three straight trips to the Finals and one NBA title- Griffin is obviously a slacker.

Cut the pretense; name Lebron James as GM on personnel side, hire a paper pusher to do the office work, and be done with it.

4) Injury updates:

— Reds’ SS Zack Cosart is hitting .320 but is on the DL now with a quad injury.
— Bronx Bomber SS prospect Gleyber Torres  needs Tommy John surgery on his non-throwing elbow after he was hurt in a collision at home plate— he is out for the year…
— Michael Brantley (Indians) goes on the DL with a sprained ankle.
— JJ Hardy is out 4-6 weeks with a broken wrist; Ruben Tejada will get his AB’s- they’re not going to move Manny Machado back to short.

3) Major leaguers whose at-bats end up the most in either a walk-strikeout-HR: Joey Gallo 55.9%, Chris Davis 55.6%.

2) ESPN the Magazine is usually a waste of time, but their most recent issue, with Manny Machado on the cover, has some interesting stuff in it about Hispanic players playing pro baseball and some of the stuff they go thru when they’re here, living in a foreign country.

If you own a major league team, how can you not insist that your coaches/trainers be bilingual?

We have a NY-Penn League team about 10 miles from where I live, Class A team of the Astros; I met someone last summer who is a tutor for the players on that team, helping them learn English as they start their pro baseball careers. Has to be tough living somewhere where you don’t know the language.

1) April 5, 2015, the Padres traded Cameron Maybin, Carlos Quentin, Matt Wisler and a draft pick to Atlanta for closer Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton. San Diego went 74-88, 18 games out of first place in the NL West. Manager Bud Black was fired during the season, his 8th with the Friars.

222 days later, on November 13, 2015, the Padres traded Kimbrel to Boston, for four prospects, two of whom have yet to make the majors, as well as 2B Carlos Asuaje and OF Manuel Margot. Asuaje is back in AAA, Margot has shown promise but is hurt right now.

San Diego is 96-136 since that trade; their GM, AL Preller, has been suspended twice by MLB for a month each for misdeeds, once when he worked with Texas, once with the Padres.

But hey, Preller went to Cornell so he must be smarter than the rest of us. Forget that Bud Black is now managing the Colorado Rockies, who are 46-26 and are the surprise team in baseball. San Diego is 28-42 this season, 17 games behind the Rockies.

If I owned the Padres, I’d be wondering what the hell is going on.

13) After the Markelle Fultz trade goes thru, the Celtics will have eight first round picks in the next three drafts— seriously, I’m not sure what they’ll do with all of them.

12) Fultz played 35:00+ in 11 of 13 Pac-12 games for Washington last winter, but sat out six of the Huskies’ last eight games with “a sore knee”; wonder how that knee is now. He played 30-31 minutes in the two games he played less than 35:00 in.

11) Paul George told the Pacers he won’t re-sign with them next summer; sounds like he is headed back to LA to play for the Lakers. Helps Lonzo Ball’s chances of being drafted by the Lakers, since it decreases chance that LA will draft Josh Jackson this week.

10) On December 19, 2014, this baseball trade was made:

Padres sent Joe Ross and Trea Turner to Washington.
Padres sent Jake Bauers, Rene Rivera and Burch Smith to Tampa Bay.

Rays sent Ryan Hanigan, Wil Myers and two minor leaguers to San Diego.

Washington sent Steven Souza Jr and a minor leaguer to Tampa Bay.

Unusual trade: all three teams got a very good player in the deal; Tampa Bay probably got the worst of it, unless Bauers develops into a good big leaguer.

9) Steven Souza Jr and Colorado’s Pat Valiaka homered on both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day this season.

8) Movie trivia: The quarterbacks from Varsity Blues and Friday Night Lights both wound up in Fast & Furious movies- there have been at least eight of those movies made. Just discovered ‘em, so I’m withholding comment until I’ve seen them all.

7) June 26, Ice Cube’s 3-on-3 basketball league debuts on TV; I’ll watch it once out of curiosity, but it is up to them if I watch it more than once.

6) Submitted for your perusal, as Rod Serling used to say at the start of the Twilight Zone: The day Johnny Miller shot 63 at the US Open at Oakmont. three players broke 70. On Saturday, with Justin Thomas also shooting 63, 18 players broke 70.

5) Western Kentucky football coach Mike Sanford Jr has his dad on his staff as special teams coordinator and running backs coach – the elder Sanford was head coach at UNLV from 2005-9.

4) Pitcher Brock Stewart warmed up for the Dodgers late in the game Sunday; his agent picked him up at the Cincinnati airport in the fifth inning, after his call-up from AAA Oklahoma City. Not a lot of time for stretching there. The agent’s name is Joe Speed, by the way, which is a tremendous name.

3) In five games batting leadoff for the Cubs, Anthony Rizzo is 9-22 with three homers, five runs scored, eight RBI. We’re going to see more of this, elite hitters moving to the top of the order.

2) They were talking on TV the other day about some major league infielders practice with flat gloves, which forces them to use two hands to field grounders.

I actually tried this coaching Little League in 1998, with the kids using their winter gloves, but we only did it one day, I can’t remember why. It went pretty well and it is a good idea. Got the idea from an umpire who recommended it to m

1. Rockies 7, Giants 5— Not only did Nolan Arenado hit a walk-off homer for first-place Colorado, he hit for the cycle. Rockies are having a storybook season with a lot of young starting pitchers. Will they hold up?

13) Rumors are rampant that the Celtics/76ers will make a trade that will wind up with Philly having the #1 pick in Thursday’s draft, so they can select Washington PG Markelle Fultz.

Danny Ainge is stockpiling a ton of draft picks over the next few years; at some point, he has to cash them in, but truth is, if the Celtics don’t love one of this year’s prospects more than the others, it makes sense to trade the pick and acquire more assets for down the road.

12) Las Vegas Summer League runs July 7-17 from UNLV. Fun event to attend. ESPN and NBAtv are showing all the games for those of us who won’t be in the desert then. 24 NBA teams will be represented, but the Knicks aren’t sending a team this year, which is unusual.

It is odd, but I’m looking forward to watching these games, moreso than the non-competitive games we saw in the playoffs. Guys playing for their careers are more fun to watch.

11) Joe Maddon got tossed Friday night in Pittsburgh during the first batter of the game, after umpires called a long drive that Anthony Rizzo hit a foul ball. Would’ve been third game in a row where Rizzo homered leading off a game, in only his third game as a leadoff batter.

Cubs also had a runner forced at third from the outfield during that inning, but still scored three runs. Pirate TV announcers were calling it one of the strangest innings they’d ever seen.

10) 12,000 people showed up at City Hall in Los Angeles Thursday night when the city projected the Batman logo onto City Hall to honor the late Adam West.

9) Thursday night, Chad Pinder became only the 3rd player ever to play SS/RF in the same game for the Oakland A’s, joining Tony Phillips and Bill Almon, who did it six times.

Oakland won that game 8-7 in 10 innings, despite allowing a run in the last five innings- they blew four saves in the game.  No bueno.

Eric Orns posted this on Twitter; only one MLB game EVER has gone extra innings, with both teams scoring in every half-inning from innings 6-9. Red Sox-Indians July 31, 1948. This game Thursday missed by one half-inning of becoming the second one.

8) Quote of the Day, part 2: ”I’m just not a fan of it. I don’t like it. I’m not a Home Run Derby guy. I’m not going to do it.” George Springer of the Astros

7) Brendan McKay was the #4 pick in the baseball draft, by Tampa Bay. He is going to try and be both a pitcher and a DH as he climbs the ladder in pro ball. Will be a fun experiment to follow— apparently Tampa Bay is going to let him try and do both.

6) Last year in the NFL, there were eight FG’s missed that were shorter than 30 yards; Seattle’s Steven Hauschka was the only kicker with two of them.

5) Pete Rose got a statue outside Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati this weekend; the statue depicts one of Rose’s trademark head-first slides. Too bad the powers-to-be don’t put Rose up for election for the Hall of Fame. Would be a HUGE weekend in Cooperstown.

4) Best wishes to Tigers’ DH Victor Martinez, who is on the DL after he had a rapid heartbeat, dizziness and cold sweats Thursday night— he was in the hospital for a while but is out now. He is not expected to travel with the team on its trip out west next week.

3) Bill Cosby’s trial resulted in a hung jury, so a mistrial was declared; prosecutors said they will re-try the case, so the whole thing will come down to selecting a more favorable jury, or maybe the prosecution calling other witnesses who’ve accused the 79-year old Cosby of bad deeds. This jury was made up of four white women, six white men, one black woman and one black man.

2) Underrated great defensive player: Orlando Arcia, shortstop for the Brewers. I watch lot of Milwaukee games; Arcia is one of those guys who make tough plays look simple.

William Shatner does a commercial for a law firm in Milwaukee that airs on Brewer games; I have no idea why/how they got a star like him to do a commercial on local TV. Good get.

1) Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there; please make sure you call you dad or give him a hug, thank him and tell him how much you love him.

Taking a look at some trends involving Pac-12 football teams…….

USC scored 45+ points in three of its last four bowls, last three of which were decided by a total of 8 points. Underdogs covered 4 of their last 5 bowls. Since 2011, Trojans are 23-12 as home favorites.

UCLA is 2-8-1 vs spread in its last 11 non-conference games; they’re 0-4 vs spread in last four games as a home underdog.

Utah won its last four bowls; Kyle Whittingham is 10-1 in bowls. Utes are 28-11 the last three years, with a +24 turnover ratio- they covered eight of last ten as a road underdog. That said, Utah has only nine starters back this year and could regress some.

Last year, Colorado played in its first bowl since 2007; their last bowl win was in ’04. Under coach MacIntyre, Buffaloes are 10-2 as a home favorite.

Arizona State is 11-14 the last two years; they didn’t go to a bowl LY. ASU is 2-3 in its last five bowls, with average total of 76.4 in those games. Sun Devils are 17-9 as home favorites, 5-10 as road underdogs under Todd Graham.

Arizona has 14 starters back this year its offensive line has 89 returning starts. Wildcats are 3-1 in bowls under RichRod, scoring 41.5 pts/game, but were favored in all four games (1-3 vs spread). Arizona is 5-13 vs spread as a road dog under RichRod.

Washington is 27-14 under Petersen, with a +36 turnover ratio- they were +18 LY. Huskies are 6-3 in last nine games as a road favorite- their OL has 97 returning starts this season.

Since 2010, Stanford is 76-18; they won their last three bowls. Cardinal is 7-2-1 vs spread as an underdog in the Shaw era. All that, and they’re -2 in turnovers the last four years. Unusual for a team to win that much without a really good turnover ratio.

Oregon has 17 starters back and a new coach; from 2012-14, they were +55 in turnovers, but were +5/-3 last two years. Ducks are 3-10 vs spread in last 13 home games, 3-8-1 in last dozen non-league games. Oregon is 12-7-1 vs spread in last 20 road games.

Washington State has improved dramatically under Mike Leach, but they started last two years by losing to a I-AA team. Since 2013, Coogs are 14-4 as road underdogs, 10-6 as home favorites. Senior QB Falk has 28 starts under his belt.

Oregon State is 0-11 on road (5-6 vs spread) under Anderson; they have 15 starters back, should be much-improved. Since 2013, Beavers are 4-9 vs spread in non-league games.

Cal Bears have #110 experience team this year, with a new coach; they’re 7-2-1 vs spread in last 10 non-league games, but since ’07, they’re 5-15 as a road favorite. Cal’s coordinators were both head coaches LY, one at I-AA Eastern Washington, the other at Fresno State.

13) Jerry West left his role as a consultant with the NBA champ Warriors to take a job as a consultant with the Clippers— this job apparently has more clout than his job in Oakland.

Mr West is 79 years old, one of the greatest hoop players ever, also one of the league’s best executives- he is the NBA’s logo. Big get for the Clippers.

12) Also sounds like the Clippers are going to build a new arena near the Rams’ new football stadium, where the old Hollywood Park racetrack was located.

11) Colorado Rockies’ manager Bud Black was 121-116 as a big league pitcher- he started 296 games. He once threw 151 pitches in a complete game win at Detroit.

If a pitcher today threw 151 pitches in a game, the manager would get fired that night.

10) On June 15, 1974, Nolan Ryan threw 235 pitches, struck out 19, during an 13-inning game against the Red Sox. Ryan may not have been mortal, though; he went 12-6 when he was 44 years old. It is grossly unfair to compare anyone else to him.

9) Astros’ rookie Derek Fisher is the first player with two hits in an inning in his first major league game since Adam LaRoche on April 7, 2004.

8) Chicago White Sox drafted pitcher Riley Crean in the 35th round Wednesday; he is the son of former Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean.

White Sox also drafted a kid named Sam Abbott who will now decide between pro baseball and going to Long Beach State……..on a water polo scholarship.

7) Surprising tidbit: This week’s US Open is first time since 1992 (Pebble Beach) the Open is being played on a par-72 golf course.

6) Green Bay Packers’ safety HaHa Clinton-Dix is working as an unpaid summer intern for a judge in Wisconsin, as part of his studies to get his degree at Alabama.

5) Talk about being thorough; Celtics’ coach Brad Stevens called the assistant director of academic support at Markelle Fultz’ high school, to learn more about the Celtics’ potential #1 pick in the draft. Of course, Fultz was still in high school just last year, so it makes sense.

4) Golden State Warriors project to spend close to $240 million in 2017-18: $151.7 million in salary and $88.7 million in luxury tax for being over the salary cap.

It still boggles my mind that Stephen Curry will be making $41M a year.

3) Nationals 8, Mets 3— Daniel Murphy went 3-for-5; he is now 41-104 (.394) against his former team, with 28 RBI in 26 games.

2) This season is now another train wreck for my A’s; they fired pitching coach Curt Young- he pitched for Oakland for 10 years, and has been pitching coach for 13 years. there is no way on God’s green earth that the team’s struggles are his fault. He is a very good coach.

Someone in the front office, maybe more than one somebody, needs to be fired. Players win games; the people who acquire Oakland’s talent have done a terrible job recently.

One more thing that aggravates me about this, maybe more than anything: they know its a BS thing to do, so they fired Young the day the Warriors had their championship parade, so its gets buried in Friday’s local news. A gutless maneuver.

1) Mountain West/Missouri Valley will have a 10-game basketball series in pre-conference play; here are the pairings:

Nov 28: Loyola @ Boise State, Utah St @ Valparaiso, Colorado State @ Missouri State
Nov 29: UNLV @ Northern Iowa, Air Force @ Indiana State, Illinois State @ Nevada, Evansville @ New Mexico
Dec 2: San Jose St @ Southern Illinois, Drake @ Wyoming,
Dec 3: Bradley @ San Diego State

13) Happy Armadillo Day everyone!!! 16 years ago today, I started this site and hoped that someone, anyone would read it and not hate it. Actually, even if they hated it I hoped they would still read it.

9/11 happened three months later and I hardly wrote for a week- there wasn’t anything to say.

Now it is 2017 and here we are. I have opinions, you have opinions; it is extremely important that while we disagree, maybe even vehemently disagree, we have to respect each other’s opinions and go on with our lives. It is what living in a free country is all about.

12) Golden State winning the NBA title means Bills’ RB LeSean McCoy cashed his $200,000 bet on the Warriors, recording a profit of $62,500. He made the bet at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, right next to where they sell the biggest pizza slices on earth (really, really good pizza).

11) Speaking of the Warriors, Stephen Curry is an unrestricted free agent- how would you like to be HIS agent right now? He is in line for a 5-year, $205M deal— $41M a year!!!!

So if that happens, and his agent gets 3% of the deal, that is $1.23M a year for the agent, just for representing Curry. He should hire his parents as his agent.

10) Red Sox are in Philly for a couple of days, which has to be strange for Boston 1B coach Ruben Amaro Jr; he was the Phillies’ GM for seven years before they fired him and he went back on the field as a Red Sox coach.

9) Anthony Rizzo has batted leadoff the last two nights; he hit first-inning homers in both games. I like batting my best hitters high in the order. Miami has done well since they moved Giancarlo Stanton to the #2 spot.

8) Latin-born players make up 26.4% of major league rosters.

7) Michigan Wolverines had spring football practice in Italy; I’m not sure why, but they did and the trip cost around $800,000— the tab was picked up by an anonymous donor, so the school didn’t pay a nickel for it.

6) San Diego Padres’ pitcher Clayton Richard, a former backup QB at Michigan, threw 127 pitches Tuesday night, but came up an out short of the complete game in San Diego’s 6-2 win over the Reds. 127 pitches are the most anyone has thrown in the majors this season.

5) The Stanley Cup was at the Pirates’ game Tuesday and not just in the press box; the Cup made its way all around the stadium, with groups of fans getting their pictures taken with it.

I have a picture of myself with the Stanley Cup in my living room, from when the Devils won the Cup (they had a farm team in Albany at the time, so the Cup came here for a night). Very cool.

4) UConn-Villanova are starting a home/home basketball series in January, renewing their rivalry from the Big East days. Since it is on a Saturday, must mean it is a made-for-TV deal.

3) Oregon’s coaches are getting lot of kudos on social media from basketball people praising how well Oregon players are doing during NBA workouts.

Stuff like this is great for the Ducks’ recruiting; Dana Altman is a great coach and he will get his guys ready for pro basketball. Hearing that from NBA types has to impress high school kids.

2) Back when I was a kid, in the 70’s, the non-waiver trading deadline was June 15 (it is July 31 now). June 15, 1976 was not one of my favorite days……..

I became an A’s fan when I was five years old— 1965- they were awful, but they got better and became one of the best teams ever, winning world titles in 1972, 73, 74.

They won the AL West in ’75 but lost in the playoffs; free agency was becoming a thing, and the A’s didn’t draw anyone at all at home, way worse than now, so they couldn’t afford to keep their stars. Owner Charles O Finley decided to sell some guys off.

On June 15, 1976, the A’s traded Joe Rudi, Rollie Fingers and Vida Blue, dismantling the team. The trades were later disallowed by the commissioner- the players stayed in limbo for a week, but those A’s teams were never the same again.

1) Anyway, I was 16 at the time and I loved playing basketball; my parents bought me this great pair of Puma low-cut sneakers— the Walt Frazier model. I would play in those sneakers, then change out of them and walk home in different sneakers, thats how much I liked them.

So I’m walking down the street and my dad is sitting in a chair under the tree on the front lawn- he is smiling as he looks at me- something is up.

He tells me the trades have been made, that my team was being dismantled. I’m hot, tired and now not happy; I take my prized sneakers and throw them over the house, one at a time— very lucky they didn’t land on the roof.

Not my finest moment…….lol

Anyway, today should be better than that day was.

Happy Armadillo Day!!!!

13) Will the Warriors visit the White House? Delicate issue in today’s world.

Someone in the media tweeted Monday night that the team had voted “unanimously” to skip a White House visit, but it is unclear whether that is true or not. Clemson’s football team was in Washington DC Monday for their visit after they won the national championship LY.

CEO of the Pittsburgh Penguins said his team will accept, if invited to the White House, but in the NBA, this is a more volatile subject.

12) Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz was saying on TV the other night that when Joe West umpires games behind the plate, occasionally he will call a perfect pitch a ball early in the game, just to see how the pitcher would react, as if to say to the pitcher, “I’m in charge here.”

Smoltz didn’t seem terribly amused telling the story.

11) Speaking of Smoltz, he is a great example of how scouting is an inexact science. He was the 574th player taken in the 1985 draft (22nd round), then he was traded from Detroit to Atlanta on August 12, 1987, in exchange for Doyle Alexander. Detroit needed a pitcher for the stretch drive; they made the playoffs, but lost a Hall of Fame pitcher in the process.

10) In spring of 2016, Wisc-Milwaukee fired basketball coach Rob Jeter, despite fact that he had won 19+ games five of the last seven years- there was internal dissension- the longtime radio announcer later quit and ripped the new athletic director very publicly.

This past season, Milwaukee went 11-24 with its new coach, who somehow just got hired by Butler of the Big East (he is a former Butler assistant), so now Milwaukee will be looking for its third head coach in three years— it is not great to be looking for a new coach just before the July recruiting period.

9) Nick Pratto was the Kansas City Royals’ 1st round draft pick Monday; six short years ago, he hit a walk-off single to win the Little League World Series in Williamsport.

8) Do umpires own houses? No way they’re home much from March 1-October 1, thats seven months right there. Baseball teams are home half of the season, but not umpires- if they’re not married, seems pointless to own a house that you’re rarely in. Condos seem more likely.

7) An 11-year-old quarterback was offered a scholarship by University of Hawaii last weekend. The kid’s older brother played LB for the Rainbow Warriors- his father coached Marcus Mariota at St Louis HS. I mean, the kid doesn’t graduate high school for seven more years.

6) Quote of the Day, part 2, from Rory McIlroy:

“Really? We have 60 yards from left line to right line. You’ve got 156 of the best players in the world here, if we can’t hit it within that avenue, you might as well pack your bags and go home.

These are the widest fairways we’ve ever played in a U.S. Open. Even the first and second cut is another 10 yards on top of that. So if you’ve got 50 or 60 yards to hit into and you’re complaining about the fescue that’s wider than that, I don’t think that’s an issue.”

This was after some players complained about the complained about the length of the rough— it was cut down a little bit on Tuesday.

5) Marlins drafted NC State infielder Joe Dunand Jr in the 2nd round; he is Alex Rodriguez’ nephew. Dunand played SS at NC State, but the Marlins announced him as a 3B.

4) Kid who is a kicker at Central Florida has made 41 videos about what it is like to be a college athlete, and he put them on YouTube. Because the videos got over 10,000 visits, he could sell ads for the videos, but making money off them could jeopardize his amateur status, which seems both childish and hypocritical but that is today’s world.

The NCAA hasn’t gotten involved yet; let’s hope they let the kid do his thing.

3) Brewers called up pitching prospect Brandon Woodruff to start the first game of their twin bill Tuesday in St Louis, but his hamstring tightened up when he was warming up and he was scratched from the start, and went on the DL. Baseball players get hurt a lot.

Not often a guy goes on the major league DL before he ever appears in a game.

2) Cubs 14, Mets 3— Rough night for Mets’ pitcher Zach Wheeler; he faced 14 batters- 8 of them scored.

Cubs batted Anthony Rizzo leadoff; he scored twice and knocked in three runs. Ian Happ had a grand slam and four strikeouts, first big leaguer in two years (Derek Norris) to do that.

1) 28 of 60 players drafted in last year’s NBA Draft were born outside this country; supposed to lot less this year.

13) Obscure Fact of the Day: On January 3, 2013, Nick Swisher signed with the Indians as a free agent, leaving New York (AL). As a result of that, New York got a compensatory draft pick.

With that compensatory pick, New York drafted Aaron Judge.

12) Michael Jordan played on the 1984 Olympic team; a pair of sneakers he wore then sold recently for $190,373 at an auction.

They were Converse All-Stars, not Nikes.

11) Golden State 129, Cleveland 120— Basketball season is over until next month, when the NBA has its summer league in Las Vegas- there is a smaller tournament in Orlando, too.

In the NBA Finals, Cleveland Cavaliers were -6 in 212:00 with Lebron James in the game, -22 in 28:00 with Lebron on the bench.

10) Josh Rawitch comes up with our Stat of the Day: Arizona catcher Chris Herrmann has homered in 17 big league games and his team won 17 all of them.

9) Red Sox relief pitchers have their high school pictures on wall of the Fenway bullpen dugout and they have to sit in front of where their picture is, like a seating chart.

8) Pittsburgh Penguins are first team since ’98 Detroit Red Wings to repeat as Stanley Cup champs; congrats to them.

7) Astros put Lance McCullers on the DL, meaning their two best starters are on the shelf; luckily for them, they have a huge lead in the AL West. Could be lot of “over” games involving the Astros coming up.

6) Butler hired Milwaukee coach LaVall Jordan as its new hoop coach; this job is a little different, since their AD is Barry Collier, who was himself the Bulldogs’ basketball coach from 1989-2000.

This is like the football job at Wisconsin, where former head coach Barry Alvarez is now the AD. Makes it a more appealing job, I think.

5) Former NBA/Knicks’ point guard Greg Anthony has a son who is a top 10 point guard in the Class of 2019. Young man plays at Archbishop Molloy in Queens.

4) ESPN’s Jay Bilas runs a couple of 3-day camps for high school basketball players, one in Oklahoma City, one in Charlotte.

The camps focus on developing fundamental skills instead of just playing games, but the cost ($599) is pretty steep— it includes two nights lodging.

There are also clinics for high school coaches ($199) and young coaches ($300).

Would be curious how much he rakes in from this venture.

3) Mets’ TV guy Keith Hernandez is back from knee replacement surgery; when he is engaged in the game, he can be very good, but he often gets bored and his mind wanders.

Anyway last night he was good; he was asking why Yoenis Cespedes would want to be squatting 500 pounds; how does that help him be a better baseball player? Does it contribute to his many injuries? Interesting questions. Then Cespedes got hurt again. Oy.

2) Good news/bad news department:

Good news: Fire fighters in Maine rescued a 37-year old woman from a rock in the Saco River after her inflatable raft was punctured by a rock.

Bad news: A sheriff’s deputy did a background check on the woman, which is routine; turns out she was wanted on an outstanding warrant for not paying a $720 fine related to DUI conviction, so she was immediately arrested. No bueno.

1) Headline in the Arizona Republic newspaper recently:

“Arizona physic hit by car says he never saw it coming”

That can’t help his psychic credentials any.