Phils, Eagles, Sixers, Flyers... are you 4 for 4?
Stephen A Smith has always seemed like one of those love him or hate him type guys. Not many people are down the middle on the guy some call "screamin' A Smith." His personality is basically what makes him fun and grating at the same time, so it was great to see SNL nail him perfectly this weekend. Jay Pharoah had his whole act down. From the lower his voice and get serious thing, to his familiar yelling. Plus, he nailed Stephen A on his need to constantly tell you you what great friends he is with seemingly every great athlete he covers.
Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz is having the best year of his career and to this point, has the been the Phillies best offensive player. He's hitting .355 with 7 HRs, 29 RBI and an OPS of .999. He's getting on base over 40% of the time. He deserves to make the All Star game on the back of this start and hopefully he will.
But is this tear he's been on sustainable? According to Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan, the answer is no.
Career years almost never come in age-33 seasons – especially the age-33 seasons of catchers, none of whom in history have cracked a 1.000 OPS (Ruiz is at .999) and only six of whom have gone over .900.
Ruiz this year has swung at more pitches outside of the strike zone and made contact with a lower percentage, which doesn't bode well. No, he doesn't miss balls in the strike zone and rarely strikes out, but the hard contact he's making now is likelier a small-sample-size mirage than a fundamental overhaul in his offensive fortunes.
It's really hard to argue Passan's point. Ruiz is playing far above his career averages and generally ballplayers don't suddenly become superstars at age 33. Still, that doesn't diminish what Chooch has done so far and how valuable he's been this season. He's going to cool off at some point, but we can just hope Utley and or Howard is back by then to help pick up the slack.
SBNation.com NBA writer Tom Ziller took a look back at the 2007 NBA to assign some grades in hindsight. This was of course the draft where Greg Oden went #1 and Kevin Durant went #2… we all know how that turned out.
Overall it was a pretty shallow draft, but the Sixers ended up making out pretty well. At #12, they were able to grab one of the 5 best players in the entire draft, Thaddeus Young.
PHILADELPHIA 76ers
Thaddeus Young (12), Jason Smith (20), Derrick Byars (42), Herbert Hill (55)
Grade: A-Young is one of the top five players from this draft, so that’s a big win. But the Sixers needed a bit more out of their second first-round pick; there are a good number of better prospects who were available, and Smith did little for Philadelphia before being spun to New Orleans.
Trying to get the latest scoop on the rehabilitation of Philadelphia Phillies first basemen Ryan Howard, a Philadelphia Inquirer beat writer, Bob Brookover, was shooed away by security and front-office personal last Wednesday in Clearwater, FL.
Brookover, who says he was in Florida checking out single-A prospects and figured he'd see how Howard was progressing as he recovers from a torn Achilles tendon suffered last October, was asked to leave the extended Spring Training facility twice -- once on Wed. and Thurs.
So, instead of writing a piece on the first-base slugger, Brookover took to the keyboard and wrote about how the Phillies are not allowing anybody outside the organization to watch Howard workout.
More on this story after the jump...
While Danny Califf's on field performances weren't always something to cheer about, there was no doubting that he had a great relationship with the Union's fans. He says that the fact that he and his family were enjoying Philly so much that he did not want to be traded. This is in contrast to Peter Nowak's implication that Califf wanted to be traded somewhere in his hometown Southern California.
"It made me want to throw up," Califf told the Philadelphia Daily News. "Change is never easy and when you give your heart to something and much of yourself, and it all gets ripped out from under you, that part of yourself is essentially ripped away.
"It's like putting a Band-Aid on a scab and then ripping the Band-Aid off over and over and over again. I understand that these types of trades happen in professional sports all the time, I mean I am not stupid to this fact, but we were just in a really good place as a family (here in Philadelphia) and that's why it hurt so bad.
The feeling appears to be mutual. The Union fans over the Brotherly game are none too happy about the decision to deal away the club's captain.
Chase Utley is at Citizens Bank Park taking batting practice today. The Phillies are back over .500... Things are starting to look up.
Via @philaphillies
Don't take this to mean he's about to play or anything... but it's a good sight to see, especially given that he's also taking ground balls...
Former Eagles scout and now NFL.com writer Daniel Jeremiah did a piece this week on the top 10 NFL players under the age of 25. On his list was 23 year old LeSean McCoy.
McCoy's first two seasons in Philadelphia were very solid. He took his game to an entirely new level in his third year. He ran for 1,309 yards and led the league in both rushing TDs (17) and rushes over 20 yards (14). He also hauled in 48 balls for 315 yards and three TDs. He is the NFL's most elusive open-field runner. He has rare stop-and-start quickness and he doesn't get enough credit for his ability to power through tackles. He also has worked to become one of the better pass-protecting running backs in the league.
DeSean Jackson just missed the cut as he is exactly 25 years old. Other players on his list include NaVorro Bowman, AJ Green, Cam Newton, Matt Stafford, Jason Pierre-Paul, Rob Gronkowski, Von Miller, Aldon Smith & Maurkice Pouncey.
I'm not sure what us innocent viewers at home ever did to the folks at TNT, but after catching a glimpse of this incredibly fat guy waving his gut at the Celtics as they tried to take free throws... They couldn't turn their cameras away. They showed him, and his "front butt", time and time again...
It all culminated with a live interview on TNT after the game in which he called out Charles Barkley.
Jordan Raanan discusses who was most impressive during the Eagles' recent rookie mini-camp.
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Edited by Jason Brewer
Jason is the managing editor of both Bleeding Green Nation & SBNation Philly. A Philly sports fan from birth, Jason counts himself as a true "4 for 4 guy" See my profile
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