Thursday, April 17, 2008

Mock Draft 4.0

1. Miami Dolphins- Jake Long OT Michigan


2. St Louis Rams- Glen Dorsey DT LSU


3. Atlanta Falcons- Matt Ryan QB Boston College


4. Oakland Raiders- Chris Long DE Virginia


5. Kansas City- Brandon Albert OT Virginia


6. New York Jets- Darren Mcfadden RB Arkansas



7. New England Patriots- Vernon Gholston LB Ohio State



8. Baltimore Ravens- Aqib Talib CB Kansas



9.Cincinnatti- Sedrick Ellis DT USC



10. New Orleans- Keith Rivers LB USC



11. Buffalo- Devin Thomas WR Michigan St

12. Denver- Jeff Otah OT Pittsburgh

13. Carolina- Chris Williams OT Vanderbilt

14. Chicago- Ryan Clady OT Boise St

15. Detroit- Rashard Mendenhall RB Illinois

16. Arizona- Mike Jenkins CB South Florida

17. Minnesota- Derrick Harvey DE Florida

18. Houston- Leodis Mcelvin CB Troy

19. Philadelphia- Malcolm Kelly WR Oklahoma

20. Tampa Bay- Limas Sweed WR Texas

21. Washington- Kenny Phillips S Miami

22. Dallas- Dominique Rogers-Cromartie CB Tennessee ST

23. Pittsburgh- James Hardy WR Indiana

24. Tennessee Titans- Desean Jackson WR California

25. Seattle- Kentwan Balmer DT North Carolina

26. Jacksonville- Phillip Merling DE Clemson

27. San Diego- Gosder Cherlious OT Boston College

28. Dallas- Felix Jones RB Arkansas

29. San Francisco- Jerod Mayo LB Tennessee

30. Green Bay- Brandon Flowers CB Virginia Tech

31. New England- Forfeited

32. New York Giants- Dan Conner LB Penn St

Bluffton Braves

Kyle Dykhoff of the Braves was nice enough to answer my questions about the Braves and their upcoming season.

TT: Briefly can you tell me about 2007 season with your record and how you did in the playoffs and any special acheivements worth noting.

KD:I Believe our record was about 17-13 and we got 3rd place in regions with both losses coming to Carlos. The 2007 season was one of our better seasons in awhile. A lot of our losses came in heart-breakers. Our season highlights consisted of coming back from 5 runs down to defeat Perham in a league playoff elimination game.

TT:Is there any key additions to the team?

KD:Our team will be adding two promising highschool kids . Nick Goeden is a infielder with great speed and Josh Sweere is a big kid who should be able to have good power like his older brother Marc (1b)

TT: Is there any key losses from the team?

KD: Our one key loss could be our veteran catcher Wayne Dykhoff who is contemplating retirement. Wayne is a great hitter and is probably the best game caller in the league behind the plate.

TT: What do you view as the teams strengths this season?

KD: Our biggest strength is our pitching. We have three above average starting pitchers(Cody Geiser,Dustin Geiser, Kyle Dykhoff)

TT:What are some things the team needs to work on to be the best it can be come playoff time?

KD: Our team needs to be able to have more quality at-bats where we put the ball in play hard.(less strikeouts and pop-ups)

TT: What are the expections you have for your team going into the season?

KD: We want to go to state this year! We have got third place in regions two consecutive years. We could have everyone back this year and we expect to get over the hump.

TT: If you could say what player is the key to your success or failure and why?

KD: Our team revolves our left-handed sticks, (Brent Weller, David Klinnert, and Marc Sweere) with Marc Sweere being our best hitter.

TT:Break down your league for me and where do you see your team fitting into your league.

KD: Detroit Lakes-Team to beat ,Great line-up, weak pitching Bertha-Young but talented WDC-Great potential and pitching, can't seem to pull things together NYM- Weakest team in division Perham-Very young, good potential, Veterans key to success. Bluffton- Should challenge DL for division

TT:Where do you see amateur baseball going in the next 5 years?

KD:Amateur Baseball is big in our area, should stay strong

TT:If you could change something about amateur baseball what would it be.

KD: Nothing

Bluffton has a good young team and baseball fans their I know from experience like to come check them out. Any baseball fan should go check them out and you will be impressed they play the game the right way and you will have a good time. A thank you to Kyle Dykhoff for being so nice and answering my questions good luck this year.

Thursday, April 17th

Rochester Wrap
Richmond 5 Rochester 4
  • POG: Jason Pridie- Seems like Jason is coming out of an early season slump going 2-4 with 3 rbi's for the Red Wings. The 2-4 brought his avearge up to .255 hopefully he can keep it going.
  • Glen Perkins continues to struggle starting maybe they should put him back in the bullpen. He went 4.1 innings and gave up 8 hits and 4 runs thats just not going to cut it.
  • Julio Depaula threw 3.2 shutout innings
  • Bobby Korecky then came on and gave up the go ahead run not a huge deal he doesnt do that very often so i wouldnt be too concerned.
  • Today the Red Wings plays game 4 of their 5 game series with Richmond with first pitch at 12:35 in Rochester. Kevin Mulvey gets the start for the Red Wings.

New Britain Business

New Britain 4 New Hampshire 1

  • POG: Anthony Swarzak- Anthony continued his strong start for the Rock Cats going 6 innings giving up only 3 hits and 0 runs with 0 walks and 10 strikeouts. He has been so impressive this year with a miniscule 0.56 in 3 starts for the Rock Cats. Makes you wonder if maybe he is ready for a promotion to Rochester and he is showing that he is back on track to being one of the top prospects for the Twins.
  • Brock Peterson went 2-4 with 4 rbi's to lead the hitting attack for the Rock Cats
  • Luke Hughes went 2-3 with 2 walks to help out the hitting for the Rock Cats
  • Today the Rock Cats begin a series with the Trenton Thunder with the first pitch at 11:05am in New Britain. Jay Rainville gets the start for the Rock Cats.

Fort Myers Musings

Fort Myers 4 Clearwater 1

  • POG: Deolis Guerra- Deolis continued his unbelievable start for the Miracle this season getting his first win by going 5 innings and only giving up 4 hits with 1 walk and 4 strikeouts to lower his ERA to an impressive 0.60 for the season. Just listening to the game on the radio the announcer went on and on how impressive his changeup is for a 18 year old. I have to wonder as great as Johan Santana is how can you let a guy this talented get away. The way i look at it is their loss is our gain and the Twins will be patient with him but he will be in a Twins uniform in a couple years.
  • Danny Graves made his 2nd appearance for the Miracle and after giving up a leadoff triple pitched much better the rest of his outing.
  • Danny Santiesteban was the hitting hero for the Miracle with a 3 run Hr in the 2nd inning for Miracle giving them all the runs they needed.
  • Today the Miracle continue their series with Clearwater with the first pitch at 6:05 in Fort Myers. Tyler Robertson gets the start for the Miracle should be interesting to watch.

Beloit Beat

Dayton 9 Beloit 2

  • POG: Jair Fernandez the throw in player the Twins acquired when we let the Mariners keep R.A. Dickey went 3-4 for the Snappers for one of the only bright spots for Snappers.
  • Why would they not play Chris Parmalee when he had 7 rbi's the day before. Nothing like the coaching staff stop the momentum.
  • Michael Tarsi was well thought of going into the season, but he has been terrible this year so far. He is 0-3 with a 16.68ERA its early but its something to keep an eye on.
  • The Snappers have today off before beginning a 3 game series this weekend with Wisconsin in Beloit.