Armadillo Sports
Sunday’s 6-pack
Six top prospects for the Washington Nationals:
6) Cristhian Vaquero, OF
5) Brady House, SS
4) Cade Cavalli, P
3) Elijah Green, OF
2) Robert Hassell, OF
1) James Wood, OF
Quote of the Day
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Lao Tzu
Sunday’s quiz
Pat Riley coached the Lakers for eight years, winning three NBA titles. Who took his place coaching the Lakers?
Saturday’s quiz
Jimmy Butler played his college basketball at Marquette.
Friday’s quiz
Paul Goldschmidt broke into the big leagues with Arizona in 2011.
******************************************************************
Sunday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports Saturday
— Guardians-Mets got rained out Saturday, are playing a doubleheader today.
Mets’ starting pitchers: Scherzer/Verlander, earning a combined $86,666,667 this year.
Cleveland’s entire payroll this year: $92,774,029. For the whole team.
— AJ Pierzynski was the analyst on the Mariners-Braves game Saturday. He was talking about how Marcell Ozuna recently hit the 10-year plateau as a major league player, and what a big deal it is for players to get to that point.
Never realized the 10-year plateau was this big a deal to players; once you get 10 years of service time, you get the maximum pension whether you’re a superstar, a utility infielder or a bullpen coach. Fewer than 10% of players in baseball history have played for a decade or more.
— Nuggets 119, Lakers 108
Denver outscored LA 35-26 in 4th quarter.
Jamal Murray scored 37 points, was +18 in 42:00.
Nuggets lead series 3-0; they’ve never been to the NBA Finals.
— Jayson Tatum scored 64 points in the first two games of the Boston-Miami series, but he didn’t scored a basket in the 4th quarter of either one- Miami won both games.
— Texas 11, Colorado 5— Bud Black/Bruce Bochy have managed 212 games against each other; they split those games, 106 wins each.
Bochy has won three World Series, is a sure-fire Hall of Famer; Black has made the playoffs twice in 16 years as a manager.
Go figure.
— Orioles 6, Blue Jays 5 (10)— Toronto manager John Schneider screwed up on mound visits, was forced to take out Blue Jays’ starter Alek Manoah in the sixth inning, an embarrassing mistake for a team that has lost five of its last six games.
— Cardinals 6, Dodgers 5— Nolan Gorman hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 8th.
— Minnesota Twins are 3-10 in last thirteen games when the winning run scored from the 7th inning on. Despite that, Twins are 25-21, lead AL Central by 3.5 games.
— Boston 4, San Diego 3— Padres are 20-26, losing four in row, 11 of last 13 games. They’re only a game out of last place in the NL West, despite having a payroll of $249,820,745.
$250M for a cruddy 20-26 record; how does GM AJ Preller keep his job?
Preller has been San Diego’s GM since August, 2014; he has a contract that runs thru 2026, but there is very little evidence that he is good at his job.
He traded Trea Turner for Wil Myers
He was suspended 30 days by MLB for not disclosing medical info before a trade.
He gave Eric Hosmer an eight-year, $144M contract in 2018.
They made a movie about Billy Beane because the A’s made the playoffs with a small payroll; the better movie would be about a GM who has an almost unlimited budget and still can’t win.
— Cubs DFA’d Hosmer this weekend; Bronx DFA’d OF Aaron Hicks.
— ESPN’s mobile app doesn’t list USFL scores, which seems petty; you can get chess results and snooker scores on there, but the USFL competes with the XFL, so no scores.
— Florida 2, Carolina 1 (OT)
Matthew Tkachuk scored in overtime for the 2nd straight game.
Panthers lead series 2-0.
— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Dodgers, Pitt/Mil Wild Cards: Arizona, Pitt/Mil. Miami
AL: Rays, Twins, Rangers. Wild Cards: Orioles, New York, Astros
Sunday’s 6-pack
Six top prospects for the Washington Nationals:
6) Cristhian Vaquero, OF
5) Brady House, SS
4) Cade Cavalli, P
3) Elijah Green, OF
2) Robert Hassell, OF
1) James Wood, OF
Quote of the Day
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Lao Tzu
Sunday’s quiz
Pat Riley coached the Lakers for eight years, winning three NBA titles. Who took his place coaching the Lakers?
Saturday’s quiz
Jimmy Butler played his college basketball at Marquette.
Friday’s quiz
Paul Goldschmidt broke into the big leagues with Arizona in 2011.
******************************************************************
Sunday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports Saturday
— Guardians-Mets got rained out Saturday, are playing a doubleheader today.
Mets’ starting pitchers: Scherzer/Verlander, earning a combined $86,666,667 this year.
Cleveland’s entire payroll this year: $92,774,029. For the whole team.
— AJ Pierzynski was the analyst on the Mariners-Braves game Saturday. He was talking about how Marcell Ozuna recently hit the 10-year plateau as a major league player, and what a big deal it is for players to get to that point.
Never realized the 10-year plateau was this big a deal to players; once you get 10 years of service time, you get the maximum pension whether you’re a superstar, a utility infielder or a bullpen coach. Fewer than 10% of players in baseball history have played for a decade or more.
— Nuggets 119, Lakers 108
Denver outscored LA 35-26 in 4th quarter.
Jamal Murray scored 37 points, was +18 in 42:00.
Nuggets lead series 3-0; they’ve never been to the NBA Finals.
— Jayson Tatum scored 64 points in the first two games of the Boston-Miami series, but he didn’t scored a basket in the 4th quarter of either one- Miami won both games.
— Texas 11, Colorado 5— Bud Black/Bruce Bochy have managed 212 games against each other; they split those games, 106 wins each.
Bochy has won three World Series, is a sure-fire Hall of Famer; Black has made the playoffs twice in 16 years as a manager.
Go figure.
— Orioles 6, Blue Jays 5 (10)— Toronto manager John Schneider screwed up on mound visits, was forced to take out Blue Jays’ starter Alek Manoah in the sixth inning, an embarrassing mistake for a team that has lost five of its last six games.
— Cardinals 6, Dodgers 5— Nolan Gorman hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 8th.
— Minnesota Twins are 3-10 in last thirteen games when the winning run scored from the 7th inning on. Despite that, Twins are 25-21, lead AL Central by 3.5 games.
— Boston 4, San Diego 3— Padres are 20-26, losing four in row, 11 of last 13 games. They’re only a game out of last place in the NL West, despite having a payroll of $249,820,745.
$250M for a cruddy 20-26 record; how does GM AJ Preller keep his job?
Preller has been San Diego’s GM since August, 2014; he has a contract that runs thru 2026, but there is very little evidence that he is good at his job.
He traded Trea Turner for Wil Myers
He was suspended 30 days by MLB for not disclosing medical info before a trade.
He gave Eric Hosmer an eight-year, $144M contract in 2018.
They made a movie about Billy Beane because the A’s made the playoffs with a small payroll; the better movie would be about a GM who has an almost unlimited budget and still can’t win.
— Cubs DFA’d Hosmer this weekend; Bronx DFA’d OF Aaron Hicks.
— ESPN’s mobile app doesn’t list USFL scores, which seems petty; you can get chess results and snooker scores on there, but the USFL competes with the XFL, so no scores.
— Florida 2, Carolina 1 (OT)
Matthew Tkachuk scored in overtime for the 2nd straight game.
Panthers lead series 2-0.
— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Dodgers, Pitt/Mil Wild Cards: Arizona, Pitt/Mil. Miami
AL: Rays, Twins, Rangers. Wild Cards: Orioles, New York, Astros
