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24Jun

wiz don’t just stand there, bust a move

In basketball, blog by b murf / June 24, 2009 / 1 Comment

(courtesy photo)

If you learn nothing else about Washington Wizards general manager Ernie Grunfeld, know this – if he has the fifth pick in the draft, he’s going to trade it.

Five seasons ago the Wiz shipped the fifth pick in the draft, which ended up being point guard Devin Harris, to the Dallas Mavericks along with guard Jerry Stackhouse and forward Christian Laettner for forward Antawn Jamison. Since then, Jamison has been the captain of the Wizards and a great locker room guy for a young and sometimes immature squad. Paired with Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas, Jamison has guided a normally irrelevant Wizards team to the postseason four out of his five seasons in town. And on a personal note, he’s averaged at least 19 points a game and 7.6 rebounds per season since he came to D.C. All of this shows why Washington refused to move Jamison last year at the trading deadline.

Well, here’s hoping that Big Ern walks away from this one smiling too.

Reports last night indicated that Grunfeld did it again, trading the fifth pick to the Minnesota TimberWolves along with forward Oleksiy Pecherov, forward Darius Songaila and the expiring contract of center Etan Thomas for guard Randy Foye and forward Mike Miller.

Folks who cover the team for a living say the Wiz were contemplating seven players had they kept the fifth pick in what is universally considered the weakest draft in recent NBA history: Davidson point guard Stephen Curry, Southern California swingman DeMar DeRozan, Memphis point guard Tyreke Evans, Syracuse point guard Jonny Flynn, Arizona State shooting guard James Harden, Arizona forward Jordan Hill and Lottomatica Roma point guard Brandon Jennings.

Those same beat writers say that the team was convinced none of those players would be good enough to start immediately, which is why Grunfeld (who is in “win now” mode) was so willing to move this pick.

Let’s take a look at what the Wizards were able to move – you’ve gotten rid of Thomas (who was due to make $7.35 million this year), who was once a serviceable player, but has been largely inactive over the last two seasons due to health reasons. And nothing against Pecherov ($1.6 million) or Songaila ($4.5 million), but let’s be honest – neither has even been mistaken for an integral part of Washington’s championship aspirations. Most folks in town couldn’t even tell you what number they wore.

Coming to town we have an excellent outside shooter in Miller, who will earn $9.75 in the final year of his current contract and an young guard capable of scoring in bunches in Foye, who will take home $3.6 million. Quick math shows the difference in what the Wizards traded away in salary for this season versus what they got back is nominal (roughly $100,000), but the fifth pick in the draft is due to receive $2.7 million and that would have pushed the team into luxury tax territory for being over the salary cap.

Besides the monetary aspect of this deal, there’s the fact that the Wiz just acquired two talented players.

Miller can flat out shoot. On a team of streaky jump shooters, he is finally someone the Wiz can count on to consistently knock down big three pointers when the game is in the balance. He’s a 40 percent three-point shooter, has won rookie of the year (2000-01) and the sixth man of the year (2005-06) honors over the span of his nine-year career. And best of all, he’ll contribute more next season than the Thomas/Pecherov/Songaila combo would have … by himself.

And that’s before we even factor in Foye, the 25-year-old who was one of the only reasons to tune into T’Wolves games last season. For those not familiar, he’s a former Big East player of the year, NCAA all-American, and NBA all-rookie first teamer. He’s 6-4, and is strong and athletic. Oh, and he scored more than 16 points per game last year.

Without looking at the roster and just factoring in who is leaving town and who is coming in, this is a great deal. The bigger issue is the overabundance of guards on the roster and a complete lack of big men other than Brendan Haywood and JaVale McGee. You can try to argue that Andray Blatche should be on that list, but let’s be real – he’s bringing nothing but disappointment to the table.

Conversely, here’s the breakdown of players currently on the roster who can line up at guard: Arenas, Javaris Crittendon, Foye, Miller, DeShawn Stevenson, Nick Young and the expiring contract of Mike James. That’s seven names for two positions. Clearly Grunfeld has more work to be done, which would address our other chief question – why now?

Why would the Wiz pull the trigger on a deal two days before the draft when there’s a chance Minnesota or another team could sweeten the pot once we get closer to the draft? The best reason we can figure would be that this is step one and the sooner Ernie finalizes this deal, the sooner he can move forward.

While we would have loved to see Curry come to Washington, we can’t argue Grunfeld’s track record. Since he came to town he’s turned a doormat into a team that, when healthy, is competitive and entertaining.

His biggest mistake during his time here as a general manager was matching the contract offer the Milwaukee Bucks threw at Thomas, but he’s now righted that wrong. We’re not comfortable giving $111 million to Arenas, who we often refer to as a one-legged, me-first point guard, but again, Grunfeld has earned the right to take that gamble.

It’ll be interesting to see where the team goes from here, and if nothing else, the Wizards continue to evolve into a highly-entertaining squad that can trade buckets with the best of them.

22Jun

nats feast on AL east

In baseball, blog by b murf / June 22, 2009 / 1 Comment

(photo by Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Don’t look now, but the Washington Nationals are officially hot.

After winning exactly two out of their first 21 series, the Nats have now won their last two – taking two of three games from the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays.

Coming off the heels of a four-game losing streak (three straight to Tampa Bay and the series opener versus the Yankees) the Nats somehow righted the ship against the AL East, the best division in baseball, and won four straight (before yesterday’s 9-4 loss). For a team still on pace to lose 114 games this season, that’s impressive.

Here’s a quick recap showing just how solid Washington’s starting rotation has been over the last week:

Last Tuesday in the series opener against the Yankees, pitcher Shairon Martis gave up just one earned run over six innings. Sure, the Nats eventually lost the game 5-3, but Martis lasted long enough to throw 106 pitches in an attempt to keep the always shaky bullpen out of the equation.

Starting pitcher John Lannan was great the following night, allowing two runs and four hits in 8 1/3 innings, as the Nats snapped their four-game losing streak and “stole” a victory from the mighty Yankees 3-2.

After a five-and-a-half-hour rain delay Thursday, starting pitcher Craig Stammen earned the first win of his young career, shutting out New York over 6 1/3 innings in a 3-0 win and giving the New York newspaper plenty to write about.

Friday’s game was another epic battle, with starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann giving up one earned run over 5 2/3 innings as the Nats took game one from Toronto 2-1 in 11 innings. Zimmermann might have gotten a no decision, but it wasn’t because of anything he did.

Saturday’s match-up featured more of the same, as the Nats and Blue Jays needed extra innings once again to decide a winner. Ross Detwiler, in just his seventh career start, gave up two runs over seven innings in a 5-3 win that finally ended with a Willie Harris walk-off home run in the 12th inning.

That’s six earned runs allowed by five starting pitchers over the span of 33 2/3 innings (good enough for a sparkling 1.60 earned run average). For a rotation full of youth and inexperience, those are numbers that bring tears of joy in an otherwise dismal season. Sure, things went south yesterday as Martis got roughed up in the first inning and the Nationals lost 9-4, but we’re here to accentuate the positives.

There’s little reason to believe the Nats can sustain this momentum against the defending champion Boston Red Sox, but hey – folks didn’t give Washington much of a chance against the Yankees this time last week and we saw how that turned out.

Chances are the Red Sox will continue to win games while the home team reverts back to mediocrity, but maybe the Nats catch another giant off guard. Crazier things have happened, right?

19Jun

vegas baby, vegas

In blog, hockey by b murf / June 19, 2009 / No Comments

(photo by Getty Images)

Alex Ovechkin is easily the NHL’s most exciting star, and at this rate, he’ll soon be the league’s most decorated as well.

At just 23, here’s all the hardware the Washington Capitals wing has earned since he came into the league back in 2005-06:

The Calder Trophy (rookie of the year), two Hart Memorial Trophies (league MVP), two Lester B. Pearson Awards (most outstanding, as voted by peers), two Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophies (goal scoring leader) and an Art Ross Trophy (points leader). Ovechkin was also voted as a First Team All-Star for the fourth consecutive season.

Last season Ovechkin became the first player ever to win the Hart, Pearson, Richard and Art Ross Trophies in the same season. And while he was more than happy to add another Hart, Pearson and Richard Trophy to his resume last night, Ovechkin made it clear he’s still hungry for more.

“I want to be in the same situation as Pittsburgh was,” he said. “Personal stats is good, personal awards is good. I just want to win one award – and that’s the Stanley Cup.”

19Jun

nats stun yanks

In baseball, blog by b murf / June 19, 2009 / No Comments

(photo by Frank Franklin II)

Back in the day, you’d hear someone say something outlandish like, “I don’t care if the Redskins lose every other game, just as long as they beat those damned Dallas Cowboys” and you’d wonder if that person actually meant it.

Would this individual really be okay with a 2-14 season as long as Washington’s two victories came at the expense of their biggest rival? Or were they simply saying that if that year’s ‘Skins only won twice, please let both wins be against Dallas?

Whatever the case, we couldn’t help but think of this demented rationalization after the Washington Nationals managed to win two out of three games against the mighty Yankees in New York this week. Last night’s 3-0 win at Yankee Stadium improved the Nats’ record to 18-46 and gave them back-to-back wins for the first time since early May.

To recap, we have one of the league’s elite franchises, those Damned Yankees, with their $200-million payroll lining up against a Washington team so bad that they’re nine and a half games behind Arizona … for 29th place.

Coming into the series the Nationals were just 6-23 on the road this season, and yet, were the better team for much of the three-game series.

In game one, the Yankees needed a late-inning rally to a steal victory from the Nats. Down 3-2 heading into the seventh inning, New York scored two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth to get CC Sabathia his sixth win of the season.

Wednesday night, the Nats were led by New York native John Lannan, who pitched into the ninth inning (preventing the Nationals’ shaky bullpen the opportunity to blow the game). Lannan gave up solo homers to Robinson Cano and Johnny Damon, but was otherwise stellar in his first outing back home in New York. How improbable was this win? Prior to this game, New York had been 23-0 when holding their opponent to three runs or less this season.

Last night was more of the same – Washington got off to an early start (well, after that whole five-hour rain delay) and thanks to a strong outing by a Nationals starting pitcher (this time it was rookie Craig Stammen, who picked up his first career win) the Yankees are now left to face the brutal New York media after their most embarrassing series of the season.

Since the Nationals entered the series with a .262 winning percentage, they are officially the worst team to beat the Yankees in a series in which the Yankees were at home. Ever.

The previous worst was back the St. Louis Browns, who were 38-99, way back in 1939.

Conversely, the Nationals won just their third series of the year and leave New York finally celebrating their first shutout of the 2009 season. Good times.

17Jun

catching up with ladell

In blog, football by b murf / June 17, 2009 / 2 Comments

(photo by Brian Murphy)

(While Homer McFanboy is stuck doing … gasp … actual work this week, others have stepped up to fill the void. Thanks to John Pappas of Skinscast for sharing this entry.)

Ladell Betts has been a very stout backup to Clinton Portis at the running back position. Drafted by the Redskins in 2002 in the 2nd round of the NFL draft, Betts has been a valuable addition to the running team. This was especially true in 2006 when Clinton Portis suffered injuries that kept him out half of the season. Betts stepped in and stepped up, finishing the season with 1,154 yards, 53 receptions, and 5 touchdowns.

With a healthy Portis returning in 2007 and 2008, Betts has seen fewer snaps but remains a very dependable compliment. In 2008 Betts suffered a knee injury that caused him to miss three games.

We caught up to him during OTAs last week to see how the knee is doing and how the offense looks for 2009.

How are you these OTAs?

You mean physically?

Physically, mentally, emotionally…

I feel pretty good. I feel like we are coming along fine and as a RB group I think the young guys are starting to learn the plays and myself and Clinton we’re just trying to help them along.

You’ve been in the league for a minute. At this stage of the career you don’t have a lot of miles on you, how are you feeling physically?

Actually I feel pretty good. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to play much of the second half of last year due to the knee injury so I feel pretty fresh right now. The knee injury is healed up so I feel pretty good.

Are you tentative at all with the knee?

No not at all. Honestly I don’t even think about it any more. We’ve been doing offseason training, drills, and our conditioning tests, we’re out here for OTAs, minicamps so that a far gone thought.

So what about when you get in your first game, you gonna think about it or no?

No, not at all. I mean, I don’t even feel anything. It’s like I never had it.

The defense made a lot of additions this offseason. You guys of course got [offensive lineman Derrick] Dockery back which should help the run game. Give me like a status of the offense so far through the OTAs. Last year you guys struggled in some areas like scoring. Give me your assessment of the offense.

I think right now we are much further along than we were at this point last year. Guys know where to line up, guys know what to do, now it’s just a matter of executing better and that’s what we’re tryin to do out here in OTAs. Execute better so that when it comes game-time we are more effective and put some points on the board. I think we’re headed in the right direction; we just need a couple of the young guys to step up. They’re going to play a big role for us this year. We’ll see what happens.

You talked about young guys, you had some new receivers last year who were rookies. Of course you are a running back but you have watched their work, do you think some are going to develop?

I think so. Two guys that jump out to me right off the bat are Devon [Thomas] and Malcolm [Kelly]. Malcolm wasn’t able to play much last year because of his knee and now Devon has got a year under his belt. Those guys are coming back this year and they are hungry and I’m sure they read all the press clippings, you know; people saying they need to step up and question marks. They’ve got a sense of pride and they want to step up for themselves and for this team. I think they will.

It’s not unusual for a rookie receiver to take a while to develop is it?

No, not at all because the coverages and defensive schemes are much different on this level than they are in college. It’s not just athletic ability it’s smarts and knowing what to do in the right situations at this level. Hopefully they can get that down and be able to contribute for us.

We had a lot of rumors about quarterbacks this offseason, first [Jay] Cutler and then [Mark]Sanchez. What’s the attitude on offense? Do you guys even think about that stuff? Is it just a reality of the game?

It’s just the reality of the game. In this business there is always going to be rumors and whispers. Everybody wants the new toy that’s coming in town. Everybody wants somebody to replace you. That’s just the nature of the business. I haven’t heard any of that talk since the talk died out. Since then Jason’s stepped up and became the leader and we’re just moving forward.

13Jun

bears win! bears win!

In blog, hockey by b murf / June 13, 2009 / 5 Comments

(courtesy photo)

Congrats are in order for the Hershey Bears who on Friday night defeated the Manitoba Moose 4-1 to win the only hockey finals people actually cared about.

A three-goal first period for Hershey led the way as the Bears captured their record 10th Calder Cup trophy, and their second championship in the last four years. Kyle Wilson, Chris Bourque, Alexander Giroux and Keith Aucoin scored for the Bears and Calder Cup MVP Michal Neuvirth stopped 24 of 25 shots in the game six win. The 21-year-old Neuvirth went 16-6 with four shutouts during the AHL postseason.

12Jun

second chance at a first impression

In blog, football by b murf / June 12, 2009 / 3 Comments

(photo by Brian Murphy)

We understand that very few Washington Redskins fans have had the chance to get to know him or see him in action, but let us be clear — it’s impossible not to pull for Malcolm Kelly.

During his inaugural NFL training camp, the Oklahoma receiver caught anything and everything thrown his way. If he dropped a ball, it happened on a day we weren’t around. Unfortunately for Kelly, he simply couldn’t stay healthy last year and finished the season with just three catches for 18 yards in the five games he played in.

A year later, Kelly seemed to be set for the same fate as he was left on the sidelines during minicamp because of knee issues once again. The good new is, Kelly has seemingly fully recovered from microfracture surgery this past February and has been a regular contributor during the team’s organized team activities. We caught up with Kelly on the final day of OTAs to see how he’s feeling these days.

“I feel great, but then again, I felt great this time last year too,” he said.

We also were curious to see how he feels to see so many people rush to judgment and label him (along with fellow second rounders wide out Devin Thomas and tight end Fred Davis) as a bust after just one year.

“I was talking with Santana and he told me the same thing happened to him his rookie year,” said the 22-year-old Kelly. “He got hurt, barely played at all his first year in New York and everyone said he was a bust after one season.”

Kelly was right, Moss played in just five games and had just two catches for 40 yards his rookie season back in 2001. As we all know, Moss went on to do quite well for himself, earning a trip to the Pro Bowl as he set the Redskins single season receiving record back in 2005.

Even though Kelly and Moss are obviously receivers from completely different molds (at 6-4 and 227 lbs. Kelly has the big body the ‘Skins sorely lack at wide out, while the speedy Moss, who is generously listed at 5-10 and 200 lbs., is more of a home-run threat) it’s wise for Kelly to learn as much as he can from an established veteran such as Moss.

When we specifically mentioned that the Redskins have lacked a receiver capable of consistently running a fade route Kelly smiled and said, “That’s what they brought me here to do.”

He went on to say that he feels very comfortable working with quarterback Jason Campbell and that he’s excited to see what the duo is capable of producing this season. He plans to take a week to go back home and visit family, but otherwise will spend the next month continuing to work on his conditioning so that once training camp rolls around he can hit the ground running.

With the ‘Skins in dire need of a number-two receiver to complement Moss, you really have no choice but to hope either Kelly or Thomas can step up and grow into the role. Thomas is viewed as more of a raw talent, while Kelly definitely looks the part of a legitimate NFL wide out. Unfortunately his body has done him no favors thus far and he’s spent as much time on the sidelines as we have.

The good new is, should Kelly be able to stay healthy, there’s little reason to doubt he can become the receiver the front office thought he was when they used a second rounder on him a year ago. We fully expect that once Kelly makes his way onto the field, he’ll be there for the foreseeable future. And if that happens, there will be even more reason for Kelly to free style.