Patriots/NFL Draft 2008
Despite having the 31st pick overall taken from them as punishment for the cameragate/spygate incident against the Jets, the Patriots made the smart move of trading up with their pick to get the 49ers pick this year. Luckily, the 'Niners tanked it this year and will be handing over the 7th pick overall to the Patriots. Experts seem to have trouble guessing what the Patriots will do with their pick as there are really no glaring holes on the Patriots. The most likely scenario is that the Patriots will trade down their pick to another team and fall back to it's usual plan of finding late pick gold. Otherwise, if Jake Long (OT Michigan), Chris Long (DE Virginia), Darren McFadden (RB Virginia) or Glenn Dorsey (DT LSU) don't get picked by the time #7 rolls around, any of these gentlemen would make a fine addition to the New England Patriots just on the basis of their sheer talent.
In a related story Boston College's Matt Ryan is being highly touted as the top QB prospect in the draft. As much as I like Matty Ice and what he's done for the Eagles, I think he's being a bit overrated and reaping the benefit of factors outside his control: A weak QB class this year and a number of teams looking for a centerpiece Quarterback to start rebuilding their franchises. In all likelihood Matty will be heading to Miami or Atlanta and have some rough seas ahead as it is unlikely he'll be able to turn those teams around.
Red SoxThe Red Sox have been used to being the only game in town this time of year, but that's not the case this year. The Red Sox are cruising at this point: They are on a 4 game winning streak, they have the best record in the AL at 13-7 and outside of a 15-9 loss to the Yankees that exposed the weakness of the Boston bullpen. Mike Timlin has been a huge liability since his return from the DL and it might be an indication that he doesn't have any gas left in the tank. Tomorrow the Curse of Eric Gagne may come back to haunt us again as former Red Sox pitching prospect Kason Gabbard (Traded to the Rangers in exchange for their closer Eric Gagne), will match up against current Red Sox pitching prospect Clay Buchholz. Gabbard has been solid across the boards in his 3 starts this season, giving up 7 hits and 2 walks in each of his outings, has a 2.41 ERA and 1-0 record.
CelticsI was concerned that after weeks of playing meaningless games the Celtics might lose their edge heading into the playoffs, but they had more than enough energy to put away the Atlanta Hawks in the first game of the first round of the NBA Playoffs. The game looked tight at certain points in the opening half; the Celtics would establish a big lead, the Hawks would storm back, but they stopped storming back in the second half and the lead just grew and grew until the time ran out 104-81 Celtics. The points were actually spread out very generously with Ray Allen posting a team high 18 with Pierce, KG, Rondo, Cassell and Powe all putting up 10 or more. If the Celtics continue to play the kind of basketball they've played all year, they should easily cruise into the second round.
Elsewhere in the NBA playoffs, the Pistons blew a large lead to the 76ers at home and lost 90-86. If the 76ers can keep the momentum there might be an upset in the making.
BruinsI don't really follow hockey much, but I must admit that the Bruins have captured some of my attention by threatening to knock off their arch-rivals, and number one seed, Montreal Canadiens. I figured this series was over when the Canadiens went up 3-1 in the series, but the Bruins have responded in dramatic fashion by beating the Canadiens 5-1 in Montreal and 5-4 in Boston to even up the series at 3-3 and forcing a deciding game 7 in Montreal. If the Bruins manage to pull the eight seed over a one seed upset the bandwagon jumping will begin.
Oh, and did I mention BC won the National Hockey Championship?
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