Thursday morning links...

Off to Maryland this weekend, here are some interesting stories as we had into the weekend...

Stephen Strasburg may not sign with Washington after all. What a disaster this would be for Nats fans. They finally have a stud prospect to be jacked about, and the front office has only offered a standard minor league contract of $1,000 per month? Wow. I know they are probably playing hard ball with Boras, knowing nothing will be done until August 15-17th, but for your fans sake at least look professional.

Good news for Braves fans, it looks like the Mets will be buyers at this years trade deadline. At 10 games back in the division and 6.5 in the Wild Card with 7 teams in front of them, the Mets should be looking towards next year. I guess that is New York for you.

Looks like Landon Donovan will get another shot at playing overseas. Maybe he needs a break from his boy Becks.

Mike Vick could meet with Roger Goodell soon and talk of his reinstatement. Does it matter? Is anyone going to sign Vick for this season? He is probably a backup/wildcat guy now and the would the negative publicity be worth it? I think he goes UFL one year and then gets a shot in 2010.

Even though lots of people are saying Roy Halladay will not be traded, I still think some team will give up the motherload to acquire Doc before July 31st. He is just too good to pass on when he is available if you think he can put your team over the top. There are several teams that could get Halladay and be World Series favorites (Phillies, Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees, LAA, and maybe St Louis. Other teams would become great bets to at least have a chance to make a run in the postseason (Milwaukee, Tampa, both Chicago teams, and Texas). Some GM will pull the trigger in the next week.

In case you missed it, fantasy guru Matthew Berry of espn.com picked Michael Turner with the 1st pick in the magazine fantasy draft. I love Turner, but his workload has to decrease this year. His 2008 season was the 20th highest in terms of number of carries in NFL history. We have learned from others (T. Davis, B. Foster, J. Lewis, J. Anderson, L. Johnson, etc) that heavy work loads usually lead to washed up running backs in just a few years.

Turns out Lebron James and his buddies drank booze and smoked week while in high school. Anyone surprised?


There have been a lot of college athlete DUI's this summer, as usual. However, there must be absolutely nothing to do in North Dakota. They recently had their fourth player get charged with DUI in 6 months.

Looks like the Bruce Pearl honeymoon is over in Knoxville. He just had another top recruit decommit. Maybe his antics have worn off a bit...

Finally, a thought. Lets take a moment and praise the off-season work of Braves GM Frank Wren. He didn't overpay for Peavy, traded for the right guys, and held on to Tommy Hanson. What if he traded Hanson, like SD wanted, and acquired the wrong free agents to fill out the rotation? Would this team be in contention if the rotation was as follows?

Jurrjens
Peavy
Smoltz
Wolf
Reyes

Kudos to Frankie Boy...