ON MY MONDAY MIND:
DRAFT DIMES:
-The earlier than expected selections of Joey Bosa (#3) and Ezekiel Elliott (#4) didn’t really upset the applecart but probably led to cartwheels in the Jacksonville Jaguar War Room as they used the #5 selection to take arguably the best player in the entire draft; Jalen Ramsey
-I saw something I never dreamed could happen. A university football program take a negative PR hit for having two players selected in the first round. Ole Miss somehow pulled that off when Laremy Tunsil fell from a projected Top-5 pick to #13 after video surfaced of him smoking dope with an apparatus making him look like a cross between Lloyd Bridges and Cheech Marin. His Instagram account was also hacked and messages between he and members of the Rebel staff were made public suggesting he was given money. He later verified it during the strangest post-draft interview in history. Couple that with the fact that Robert Nkemdiche -another top-5 talent- was selected at 29 after his strange behavior months ago and Hugh Freeze has a lot of explaining to do about exactly what is going on in his program.
-The SEC had 8 players selected in the first round and led all conferences with 50 overall.
-Ohio State had five players selected in the first round -which was only one shy of the all-time record of six set by the Miami Hurricanes in the 2004 draft- and 12 overall.
-Guess that makes the 2015 Buckeyes underachievers in line with the 1999 Vols
-Still can’t believe that BOTH the Rams and Eagles traded so many picks to position themselves to select a Jared Goff and Carson Wentz. This is not 1983 and those guys ain’t John Elway, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly.
-For the first time since the draft’s inception in 1939 the Vols had no one drafted in back-to-back seasons. That’s an indictment of the Dooley era but good for guys like Marquez North and Curt Maggitt. Much better to be a free agent then selected with a late pick.
-The Colts did exactly what they should have; drafted 4 offensive linemen (Ryan Kelly C Bama; Le’Raven Clark OT Texas Tech; Joe Haeg OT N Dakota St; Austin Blythe C Iowa) and 3 defensive players (T.J Green FS Clemson; Hassan Ridgeway DT Texas; Antonio Morrison LB Florida). Maybe Maggitt can help with the one unaddressed area of concern; a pass rusher.
VOL BASEBALL:
-Andy Cox’s closer mastery lasted two games. In the weekend’s first two games he pitched 2.2 innings, surrendered 6 hits and 4 earned runs while taking the loss in both contests.
-Will Neely also scuffled in his second SEC start (5 innings, 6 hits 6 ER)
-The Vols bullpen surrendered leads in the 8th of Game 1 and 7th and 8th of Game 2. When you have no one in the pen to turn to it doesn’t make you a bad manager. It does however make you a bad recruiter.
-Missouri made eight errors in the series and still swept. Maybe the Vols 28 strikeouts had something to do with that.
-Missouri was 3-0 this weekend versus the Vols which is one less win than they mustered over their first six SEC series.
MLB:
-The Cubs winning 17 games in the month of April seemed almost a foregone conclusion. Raise your hand if you had the White Sox doing the same.
-Either no one can play in the NL West or everyone can and they’re beating up on each other. As of Sunday the Giants were the only team at .500 and the last place Padres were only three games back.
-Tony’s Phillies are off to a surprisingly good 14-10 start including a three game sweep of NL East leader Washington who lost only seven games in April.
-Some odd names appearing among the early season stat leaders include:
Detroit’s Nick Castellanos (.363) and St Louis’ Aledmys Diaz (.423) leading the AL and NL respectively in Hitting
Mark Trumbo among the AL leaders in both average (.337) and RBIs (19)
Colorado rookie Trevor Story tied for the NL lead in HRs with 10
Detroit’s Jordan Zimmerman and Boston’s Rick Porcello tied for the AL lead in wins with 5.
MONDAY MUSING: One of the prettiest months of the year is upon us. Hope the sports scene has some attractions as well.