NFL Draft Archive

Weekend house keeping

by Ricky O'Donnell on May 8 at 3:57PM

Mark Buehrle almost threw a perfect game (and Jayson Nix went yard)

- Jim goes first:

He's an anomaly because White Sox baseball can be incredibly frustrating to watch. There are guys like Jose Contreras and Gavin Floyd, who can get completely bogged down by baserunners. The bullpen can lose sight of the strike zone. The station-to-station nature of the offense often creates plenty of build-up without the payoff. Some nights, there's not even the build-up.

That's why it's such a breath of fresh air when Buehrle takes the mound. The starts may not always go as smoothly as it did on Thursday night, but he's always going to do his damndest to not waste anybody's time. It's hard to put a dollar amount on that in this context, although $56 million certainly seems fair.

- Cheat:

Over a 100 wins later. A no-hitter later. An hour-and-fifty minute game later. A World Series (in which he recorded a save, but a not a victory) later. He's added a true plus pitch, the cutter, and I'm still not entirely sure how Mark Buehrle gets it done.
But he gets it done. And sometimes, sometimes, he really pulls out something special.
Thursday was one of those nights.

I'm not really one to debate the merits of 'overrated/underrated' (that's Danny's job), but can we at least agree that Mark Buehrle has been a bit under appreciated during his White Sox tenure? I feel like he's truly going to be one of those guys that you don't know what you have until he's gone. Plus, you've got to love anyone who can make baseball - which, I'm sorry, can be unbearably slow at times - move faster.

*
'Hawks win, 'Hawks win

Remember my declaration that'd I'd be a better hockey fan this postseason? Eh, so much for that. By the time I got out of class last night, Martin Havlat (the best player on the team?) was putting the biscuit in the basket, only I couldn't watch it because I had to head straight to work and the ST doesn't have Versus. Alas.

But I'm glad playoff hockey looks like it's living up to the hype, and I truly am upset I haven't had the chance to watch more than a couple games. School's over next week, though, so maybe, if they're so fortunate, I can witness the Western Conference Finals. And if you don't think that a Blackhawks-Red Wings series for the right to go to the Stanley Cup would be the biggest thing to happen in Chicago sports since (at least) the Bears went to the Super Bowl, you've got another thing coming.

I still think it's going to be tough to get past the Canucks, though. Admittedly, I haven't watched too much of this series, but Vancovuer just strikes me as a 'professional' hockey team. They look like they know what they're doing out there. Having maybe the best goalie in the league doesn't hurt either.

Brett Favre (probably) isn't coming back

We shall see.

*
I realized we have "...along with the future stars of professional sports." in our banner, and I've been terrible at keeping that relevant. This is by far the least I had ever paid attention to the NFL Draft in my entire sports fan life, but thankfully Stompy came through his his annual (?) live blog. I'll post something on the Bears draft class soon (a podcast with my old man, perhaps?), but first lets look at a couple other young people related things.

- One of my favorite cats in the game, Tom Ziller, puts together an NBA mock at the Fanhouse.

I love, love, love Ricky Rubio, if for no other reason than because he could be a more effective White Chocolate, and White Chocolate was my guy when I was 12. But I wouldn't be surprised if he totally sucked. Can't shoot, turnover prone, more style than substance. I'm pullin' for him, but I highly doubt he'll be on the same level as D-Rose.

- Is Stephen Strasburg the best pitching prospect in the history of baseball? Perhaps. And as my buddy Eli pointed out, if he really is as good as advertised, the Nats have to put in the bigs this year, right? Has that ever even happened before?

- The National Football Post breaks down the top 20 prospects in the 2010 NFL Draft.

Consider me sold on Sam Bradford, Arrelious Benn, and Taylor Mays. I think Colt McCoy is going to be a damn good pro, too (Jeff Garcia, anyone?), though he doesn't rank in NFP's top 20.

Typing that I just realized, 'wait, why do I care? The Bears have a 26-year old Pro Bowl quarterback!' I'm telling ya, it won't fully set in until that first bomb to Hester, that Orton would have over-thrown/under-thrown by 10 yards.

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