The one good thing about all the rain during the French Open is that the programming department is showing earlier matches that I missed. I caught the secound round match between Venus Williams and the REALLY cute Ashley Harkleroad.
The first set wasn’t so close, but Ashley turned it around, but Venus eventually won 6-1, 7-6 (10-8). Ashley played really well, making Venus shoot lots o unforced errors. Did I mention that Ashley is REALLY cute?
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Good article on ESPN about the raging rebate between baseball teams drafting high school players versus college players.
Execs with pro-high school organizations often tout the benefit of getting a prospect into a professional player development organization at age 18 rather than 21. Players who do go to college don’t necessarily receive good instruction, and they’re used in a way that’s designed for the college coach to win more games, not in a way that maximizes the player’s professional development. This is perfectly valid for clubs with good player development organizations, of course, but not every club has that — consider the problems that Seattle, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh have had in recent years keeping minor-league arms healthy.
I’m reminded of an interview I read of Leo Mazzone when he was the pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves and Braves GM John Schuerholz. They said why they liked drafting high school players was because they wanted to mold the players the way the Braves wanted them to. That shows you how focused the Braves organization was to how the team wanted their players to play.
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Yah. The San Francisco Giants just traded Armando Benitez to the Florida Marlins for relief pitcher Randy Messenger. Hmmm. Didn’t get much for him, but considering how much the Giants fan base didn’t like him, at least we got something. But the Giants are pretty much paying the Marlins to take Benitez.
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Cool quote from the recent The Sporting News article on Tom Glavine and his quest for 300 wins. It’s on his former teammates Greg Maddux and John Smoltz.
It was the perfect scenario having two guys like that who not only were your teammates but your good friends off the field. We could vent. They would encourage you. Everyone talks about how much golf we played. Eighty percent of the conversations we had on the course were about getting hitters out.
UPDATE: Edited.