In their latest ‘toon, the guys from Bang! Cartoon illustrate the mass confusion that ensued when Jay Cutler arrived on the Bears’ doorsteps and what was really behind Josh McDaniels and Pat Bowlen’s decision to trade the “snot-nosed” quarterback.
Month: April 2009 (Page 30 of 53)
Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa indicated Tuesday night that starting pitcher Chris Carpenter is likely to be out for a while after he strained his left rib cage during the fourth inning of St. Louis’s 9-6 loss to the Diamondbacks.
“Couldn’t throw,” Carpenter said. “I tried to throw the last one there and it hurt pretty good.”
Carpenter was removed from the game after throwing his warmup pitches for the fourth inning. The righthander was diagnosed at the scene with a strained rib-cage muscle. Carpenter later described it as an oblique injury, pointing to the left side of his torso as he explained that it was still sore after the game. He said he will return to St. Louis and meet with team doctors Thursday.
While the Cardinals wouldn’t confirm their plans to make move Wednesday morning, it is certain that Carpenter is headed to the 15-day disabled list and the Cardinals will be looking for a starter.“The most important thing is that Chris Carpenter got hurt,” manager Tony La Russa said after his team’s 7-6 loss in extra innings to Arizona. ” No matter what happens in the game, the most important thing is it looks like he’s going to be out for awhile. That kind of overwhelms everything else that happened in the game.”
So much for Carpenter turning in a full year. The risk of him getting hurt is always high and it happened again just three starts into his 2009 campaign. Hopefully for the Cardinals’ sake, that it’s nothing too serious and that he’ll only make one trip to the DL, but either way this has to be frustrating for a team that needs Carpenter to stay healthy in order to make a serious run this season.
UConn junior Hasheem Thabeet will forgo his senior season and declare for the NBA Draft.
“After spending time with my family and friends and speaking with Coach (Jim) Calhoun, I have decided to give up my final year at UConn and enter my name in the 2009 NBA Draft,” Thabeet said via a statement. “I have had a great experience at Connecticut and cannot thank my coaches and teammates enough. I look forward to the challenge of playing professionally and know that my time here at UConn has prepared me to be successful in the future.”
The 7’3″ center averaged a double-double (13.6 points, 10.8 rebounds) and an eye-popping 4.2 blocks per game on the season. I think he has the potential to be a very good defensive-minded center (think Dikembe Mutombo). He’s pretty fluid for his size and can get up and down the court with ease. His hands seem small (as he loses the ball often when he brings it down below his waist) and his post moves need a lot of work. Like anyone with his size and natural athleticism, he’ll be as good as he wants to be.
He is a likely top 5 pick, so this decision makes sense.
The NBA has handed down a one-game suspension for the elbow Ray Allen threw at Anderson Varejao’s family jewels.
Allen, who averages 18.2 points and 3.5 rebounds, will serve his suspension when the Celtics visit the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday. Allen will be docked more than $167,000 in salary. Kevin Garnett also will miss the game to rest his strained knee.
Varejao flung Boston’s guard to the floor, and Allen responded with a well placed elbow into the forward’s groin area. Both players jawed at each other before getting technical fouls.
“It was a dirty play,” Allen said. “He locked my arm and threw me to the ground. I wasn’t going to allow him to think he could do whatever he wanted. I’m always going to stand up for myself. It’s one thing for a team to be beating us, but they’re not going to walk all over us.”
The frizzy-haired Varejao had his own take.
“You don’t hit a man in his [groin],” he said. “He doesn’t like Brazilians or he doesn’t like my hair.”
Holy crap: Ray Allen makes $167,000 per game. Amazing.
It was a cheap shot, but given Varejao’s actions, I still think Allen’s elbow was justified. Though I don’t know that it was worth $167 K.
The end of the NBA season is almost upon us, so it’s time to hand out a few year-end awards.
Rookie of the Year
Early on, this was a battle between Derrick Rose and O.J. Mayo, but a few other players – namely, Russell Westbrook, Brook Lopez, Kevin Love and Marc Gasol – played their way into the conversation over the course of the season. Still, this award should go to Rose, who was immediately asked to run the Bulls and handled the job admirably. He averaged almost 17 points per game to go with six assists and shot almost 48% from the field. More importantly, he never hit the rookie wall, and his fine play in April (19.0 ppg, 6.8 apg, 55% shooting) helped Chicago sneak into the playoffs. The rest of these guys are heading home for the summer.
My choice: Rose
My prediction: Rose
Most Improved
This is always a tough one. Usually, it goes to a player that entered the league without a lot of pomp and circumstance (i.e. they were non-lottery picks) that makes the jump from role player or starter to star or superstar. The last eight winners are: Hedo Turkoglu (16th pick), Monta Ellis (40th), Boris Diaw (21st), Bobby Simmons (42nd), Zach Randolph (19th), Gilbert Arenas (31st), Jermaine O’Neal (17th) and Tracy McGrady (9th). A few of the names being bandied about are Devin Harris (5th), Danny Granger (17th), Kevin Durant (2nd), Nene (7th), Thaddeus Young (12th), Brandon Roy (6th) and Roger Mason (31st). Durant, Harris, Roy, Young and Nene all came into the league as lottery picks, a fact that works against them in this case. They’ve all made leaps this season, though I think everyone was expecting Durant, Harris, Roy and Young to make those jumps. Nene is more of a comeback player than an MIP. He’s been battling injuries his entire career, so the fact that he’s playing well while healthy is no surprise. The last few winners indicate that the MIP usually goes to a player who makes an unexpected leap, so I think it will go to Danny Granger, though his late season run in 2007-08 works against him. He averaged 22.4 points in March of ’08, and 24.8 ppg in April of ’08, so if you dig into the numbers a little, his play this season isn’t as big of a surprise. Still, I don’t think that he had the same expectations as Durant, Harris and Roy, so I think he’s our guy. Mason might be the darkhorse.
My choice: Granger
My prediction: Granger
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