Monday’s 6-pack
MLB leaders in strikeouts:
187— Zack Wheeler, Phil
176— Gerrit Cole, NYY
172— Corbin Burnes, Milw
170— Max Scherzer, LA
167— Robbie Ray, Tor
165— Dylan Cease, CWS
Quote of the Day.
“We were going to give these other guys some opportunities to see if they could make the club. Some of them proved us right. Some of them proved us wrong.”
Vikings’ coach Mike Zimmer, who was not happy with his team’s 33-6 loss to Denver
Monday’s quiz
Where did Ravens’ QB Lamar Jackson play his college football?
Sunday’s quiz
Before Saturday, Edwin Jackson was the last Arizona Diamondback to throw a no-hitter, in 2010.
Saturday’s quiz
Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner played for the Iowa Barnstormers in the Arena League.
******************************
Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports weekend…….
13) Live TV is often fun; it can become unscripted, especially late at night. This week, Tuesday and Wednesday, ESPN is running its annual Fantasy Football marathon, where they try to get you to sign up for one of their fantasy football leagues for 26 hours, many of them late at nite.
Lot of what ESPN does these days doesn’t appeal much to me, but that’s another story for another day; I remember laughing pretty hard at some of the stuff they had on the fantasy marathon last time I watched it.
I’ll tune in again late Tuesday night, see if they can make me think some, and make me laugh again. Laughing is most always a good thing.
12) NFL teams that sat out the most players this past weekend:
Rams 38, Vikings 33, Seahawks/Giants 31
NFL teams that sat out the least players this past weekend:
Washington 6, Jaguars 7, Buccaneers 8
11) New Orleans Saints haven’t said whether Jameis Winston or Taysom Hill will replace Drew Brees as their new starting QB; my guess is both will play a decent amount, but only person who knows right now is Sean Payton.
Saints turned the ball over six times in their 17-14 loss at Baltimore; if Winston doesn’t protect the ball better than he did in Tampa Bay, there isn’t a coach alive who would keep playing him.
Ball security is numero uno on the list of things a QB must be good at.
10) Fernando Tatis returned from the IL Sunday and played RF for first time in his career; he hit two homers, scored 3 runs, knocked in 4, and San Diego snapped its 4-game losing skid.
Tatis has homered in his first game off the IL three times this year, but the problem is that he is 22 and has been on the IL three times. He needs surgery on his shoulder but if the Padres make the playoffs, that surgery will delayed enough that he’ll probably miss the start of next season.
9) There have been eight losing streaks of 11+ games this season, the most in any season since 1899, that is 1899, not 1999.
Cubs, Orioles, Arizona have all had two skids off 11+ games.
Texas and Kansas City both had one.
8) if the Mets don’t make the playoffs, will be very interesting to see if their new owner fires the manager, or shows some patience.
Steve Cohen is a really rich guy, a hedge fund trader— I’ve talked about the Showtime series Billions, a great series— well the character Bobby Axelrod on Billions was supposedly modeled after Cohen, and Bobby Axelrod is NOT a patient guy.
7) As an A’s fan, I’m concerned that in his last three starts, Sean Manaea has given up 13 runs in 11 IP. Not good.
Last 44 games are going be a sprint to the wire; couple of good squads aren’t going to make it into the playoffs. A’s need Manaea to finish strong for them to be a playoff team.
6) Still can’t get over the Cubs completely going in the tank; they’ll be very interesting to follow this winter. How do they expect to become good again?
5) Kentucky Wildcats named Penn State transfer Will Levis their starting QB; he transferred to Kentucky this offseason after playing three years at Penn State, where he was used as both a QB and running back.
Kentucky’s new offensive coordinator is Liam Coen, who spent the last three years with the Los Angeles Rams, two years as the assistant WR’s coach, one year as assistant quarterbacks coach.
Coen also used to be an assistant coach at Brown, UMass, Maine and Rhode Island.
4) One of the kids Levis beat out for the QB job has already entered the transfer portal; he previously transferred from Auburn to Kentucky, but to paraphrase the old shortstop Garry Templeton, “If I ain’t starting, then I’ll be departing.”
May have to look up this season how many starting QBs in the country played somewhere else, before settling at their current school.
3) Was watching the T’wolves-76ers summer league game last night; the scores of these games don’t matter, but the players were busting their butts to play good ball, whether to make an NBA roster, just to get invited to training camp, or to get a contract from a pro team overseas. Fun to watch.
A few years ago I was at the summer league and starting talking with a guy who is an agent who signs players to play for teams overseas. The next day I was listening to people around me talk in Cox Pavilion, the smaller gym they use and many of the people weren’t speaking English. They were guys who ran the teams overseas scouting for players to sign.
2) Random college basketball note: This fall will be the first time in 14 years that Kentucky has its leading scorer back from the previous season. Kentucky went 9-16 last year, which helps to explain why their leading scorer isn’t in the NBA Summer League, like most years.
1) If the baseball playoffs started today (they do not):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Giants. Wild Card: San Diego @ Los Angeles
AL: Rays, White Sox, Astros. Wild Card: Boston @ Oakland
