June 9th had several highlights, but the top belongs to young Steven Strasburg who was selected first overall by the Washington Nationals in this years MLB player draft. Anyone who follows baseball even a bit is familiar with the name Strasburg at this point. He has been on multiple magizine covers and been a feature story on ESPN more than once. His now legendary 103 mph heater is headed for the Nations capital, or so Nats fans hope. Linked up with agent Scott Boras, this saga is one likely to be filled with a touch of drama before the young righty is officially a professional. It's safe to assume there will be times when a deal seems looming and other where there looks to be no hope; in the end I expect the jewel of the 2009 draft to sign just prior to the deadline in mid August.
On the hardwood tonight King Kobe left his scowl at home and, seemingly, left his cape in the locker room at halftime. Following a first quarter that had fans ready to see a performance for the ages, Kobe Bryant failed to complete the show. In reality, Kobe has now hurt his team down the stretch in two games in a row; the pressure of LA, a championship, Shaq, and the Orlando defense has gotten the best of the future hall of famer. With plenty of talent around him, Kobe seems to feel that he needs to take the team on his shoulders to close games out, and that is exactly what The Magic have prepared for. The Eastern Conference representatives are extremely athletic and just too good to beat one on five. As a fan of the game you have to admire his willingness to put it all on himself, but if he doesn't start trusting the other guys on his team, he will find himself still one title behind Shaq when this season comes to its conclusion.
Our night of sports entertainment was supposed to be a three headed monster, but the Yankees put Johnathan Papelbon, and most who tuned in donning their Yankees gear, to sleep. AJ Burnett is either really feeling the pressure of New York or, just not all that good at baseball. Certainly the big righty is talented, but maybe not 80 million dollars talented. I've got an idea for the Yanks, try scouting a bit instead of treating the rest of the league as your farm system. Find yourself a Joe Saunders, draft yourself a Josh Johnson. Perhaps, and this is just a suggestion, figure out before the season starts whether or not Joba or Hughes or any of your other pitchers are actually starters or relievers. Then, and this is just a suggestion, address the other areas instead of having your pitchers left to wonder if they are going to be closing or starting every day as they come to the park.
The Pitching matchup of the day was decent, but it didn't really live up to its potential. Granted it may have been easier to pitch if there was a little atmosphere to the stadium down in Florida, but even without the adrenaline boost of a decent crowd, I expected each Josh Johnson and Chris Carpenter to put on more of a show than they were able to.
From there a couple former cy young winners got knocked around with Lee giving up over 10 hits to the slugging Royals and Johan managing a win while despite throwing a few pitches that ended up as souvenirs.
Todays top surprise performances came to us from a couple American League starters. Brian Tallet used his extremely underwhelming arsenal to blank the Rangers for seven innings and a few hours later, future MLB journeyman, Scott Baker managed to shut down the hot Oakland athletics as a bit of an underdog. The mighty As tried to make it interesting with a five run 9th which did cut the lead in half, but still failed to make the game interesting. Perhaps a few of those runs helped a fantasy team or two. Then again, if you have an Oakland Athletic bat starting on your fantasy team, you're most likely getting started with your draft prep for 2010.
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