Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 167 of 1503)

      Is Blaine Gabbert’s stock dropping?

      February 12, 2011 /
      Missouri Tigers quarterback Blaine Gabbert throws the football in the fourth quarter against the Oklahoma Sooners at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri on October 23, 2010. Missouri defeated Oklahoma 36-27. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

      Almost right on cue, the supposed No. 1 quarterback’s stock is starting to fall.

      Every year the media crowns someone the best quarterback prospect in the draft and every year that top signal caller’s stock starts to fall right around the combine. This year, the QB atop most pundits’ rankings is Missouri’s Blaine Gabbert, whose draft stock has begun “slipping” according to ESPN’s Mel Kiper.

      Rotoworld has the details:

      According to Kiper, Gabbert’s fall has occurred after NFL teams did “more film work” on the underclassman’s junior year. It’s true that Gabbert did not dominate his competition in 2010, throwing for 16 touchdowns compared to nine picks and averaging an unimpressive 6.71 yards per attempt. Gabbert was much better as a sophomore.

      I always find reports like these humorous because they’re so vague. How many teams are we talking about? Because there are five teams in the top-10 that could use a quarterback (Carolina, Buffalo, Arizona, San Francisco and Tennessee), seven if you believe the Bengals will trade Carson Palmer and the Redskins will dump Donovan McNabb.

      Have all those teams soured on Gabbert after watching more film? Have three? Have two? Have one?

      Or were these not the teams that Kiper was referring to? If they weren’t, then I wonder why Gabbert’s stock would fall just because teams that draft in the middle or bottom half of the first round didn’t like what they saw on film.

      I’m not trying to discredit Kiper’s report but without knowing what teams have soured on Gabbert, this news means very little. Plus, he’s a junior so he didn’t perform at the Senior Bowl, the combine is still over a week away and he hasn’t had his Pro Day yet. There’s still a lot of time before the draft, so I would take reports like these with a grain of salt.

      College Football, External Sports, NFL, NFL Draft

      Saturday Morning Headlines: LeBron, Tiger & a lot of penalty minutes

      February 12, 2011 /

      – Tiger Woods battled some rough conditions to shoot an even-par 72 in Dubai. (Golf.com)

      – The labor agreement delay may cancel any free agency movement in the NFL and force free agents to stay with their current teams. (SI.com)

      – Packers give general manager Ted Thompson a well-deserved contract extension. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

      – Is Matt Holliday willing to take a paycut to help the Cardinals re-sign Albert Pujols? (St. Louis Post Dispatch)

      – LeBron James gets into it with a fan after said fan mentioned LeBron’s momma. (ESPN)

      – Hey, the Cavs finally won a game! (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

      – The Penguins and Islanders racked up 351 penalty minutes in one game last night. Yikes. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

      External Sports, General Sports, Golf, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL

      Bonds’ indictment charges cut from 11 counts to five

      February 11, 2011 /

      According to ESPN.com, Barry Bonds will have to be arraigned and enter a plea next month for the third time since he was initially charged in 2007 with lying to a federal grand jury about his steroid use.

      U.S. District Judge Susan Illston on Friday ordered Bonds to enter his new plea after prosecutors revised the charges against him, cutting his indictment from 11 counts to five. Bonds is expected to plead not guilty for the third time at a hearing March 1. His trial is scheduled to begin March 21.

      Illston said she will rule later on Bonds’ demands to exclude from trial a recorded conversation between Bonds’ former business partner, Stevie Hoskins, and Bonds’ personal trainer, Greg Anderson. The hearing to exclude the evidence began Thursday morning in San Francisco federal court.

      The recording was made by Hoskins in March 2003. Anderson can be heard discussing an undetectable substance he appears to have given Bonds. Prosecutors allege Anderson is talking about a designer steroid they say showed up in a Bonds urine test.

      Bonds’ attorneys want to exclude the recording from the trial because of Anderson’s refusal to testify at the trial. They argue the tape can’t be authenticated without Anderson’s testimony.

      The thing that has always got me about Bonds is that he didn’t need roids to be great because he was already great. You talk about a naturally gifted baseball player, that was Barry Lamar Bonds. As the legend goes, the guy once sat in the dugout during spring training and correctly predicted, in order and out loud to his teammates, what pitch the pitcher would throw for nearly three batters. That’s how in-tune to the game Bonds was.

      But his own ego got him in the end. He wanted to be remembered as the greatest player to have ever lived, so he used steroids to extend his career so that he could become the home run king*. He didn’t need steroids to be great – he needed them to extend his career.

      And steroids are what he’ll be remembered for, which is kind of ironic if you ask me.

      External Sports, MLB

      Mike Mayock top-5 prospects at each position

      February 11, 2011 /
      Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett (15) is chased from the pocket by Ohio State defensive lineman Cameron Hayward (97) during first half action of the 77th Annual Allstate Sugar Bowl at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana January 4, 2011. UPI/A.J. Sisco

      Mike Mayock is one of the more respected NFL draft analysts in the business. Rotoworld does a great job following his rankings and they recently compiled his top-5 prospects at every position.

      Quarterbacks
      1. Blaine Gabbert, Missouri
      2. Jake Locker, Washington
      3. Cam Newton, Auburn
      4. Ryan Mallett, Arkansas
      5. Andy Dalton, TCU

      Comments: Mayock says he’s not done with his quarterback evaluation, but he’s made some changes since January. He’s now got Dalton alone in the five spot after the Horned Frogs’ four-year starter previously shared the position with Ricky Stanzi, Colin Kaepernick, and Pat Devlin. Devlin’s stock appears to have plummeted since a poor showing at the East-West Shrine Game. Senior Bowl MVP Christian Ponder remains absent from the list.

      Check out the rest of his positional rankings.

      It’ll be interesting to see if Newton eventually moves past Locker (or even Gabbert, for that matter) the closer we get to the draft. Locker was unimpressive during Senior Bowl week and Newton’s personal media workout on Thursday was reportedly “phenomenal.”

      Of course, the quarterback in this year’s class that intrigues me the most is Mallett. At 6’6” and 238 pounds, he certainly has the size to be a NFL quarterback. He also has great arm strength and he’s coming off a year in which he threw for 3,869 yards and 32 touchdowns.

      Continue reading »

      College Football, External Sports, NFL, NFL Draft

      Strasburg starts light throwing, may return in September

      February 11, 2011 /
      Washington Nationals’ pitcher Stephen Strasburg pitches against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the first inning at Nationals Park on August 15, 2010. UPI/Kevin Dietsch

      According to Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post, Stephen Strasburg has begun some light throwing, which is the first positive sign in his recovery from Tommy John surgery.

      Strasburg made the short tosses in Southern California, where he is rehabbing from ligament-replacement surgery, which he underwent Sept. 3. Making his first light throws now, a week before spring training, means Strasburg remains on schedule on his 12- to 18-month road back to the majors.

      While recovery time varies from pitcher to pitcher, Zimmermann’s experience sheds some light on when Strasburg may make his next major league appearance. The Nationals treated Zimmermann with extreme caution, and he made his first post-surgery appearance in the majors Aug. 26 last year, about 121/2 months following his August 2009 surgery. Since Strasburg underwent his surgery Sept. 3, he could feasibly return in the middle of September, at the very end of this season.

      I’ve read the comments sections of various media outlets and some fans are predicting that Strasburg is the next Kerry Wood or Mark Prior. They say he’s over-hyped and won’t ever fully recover from the surgery.

      To those people I would say this: If you’re a true baseball fan, then knock it off. You have the right to your opinion but let’s hope that this kid makes a full recovery because he’s great for the game. Sports need young stars like Strasburg to shine and it’s unfortunate that he’s suffered a bad fate early on. Hey, maybe he is the next Kerry Wood but let’s not wish it.

      Thanks to the steroid era, baseball was ruined for almost a decade. Now that it has climbed out of the wreckage, the sport needs its young pitching stars to stay healthy. Baseball got a new lease on life and let’s hope that last season wasn’t just an anomaly.

      Here’s hoping Strasburg makes a full and speedy recovery.

      External Sports, MLB

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