Scoring runs, or not scoring runs

The twins scored 32 runs today! OMG, 32 runs. The Dbacks have used 11 games to get to that total. ENOUGH SAID!

Deja Vu, all over again

Unbelievable is all I can say, otherwise this blog might generate a triple XXX rating. I mean come on, again, 2 days in a row, F'n up the 8th and 9th innings. My blood pressure is now through the roof. If this keeps up we will very quickly be talking football; ahh football, blood pressure is lowering.

The good - Reynolds doubles to lead off the eight, Montero walks, Hairston strikes out, and Augie drives them home with a triple. Dbacks down by one now with Augie at 3rd and only one out. You know the drill, simple sacrifice fly and the game is tied, come on Chris Young. The BAD - First pitch bunt, what the *uck? Explain to me how bunting yourself to first is going to get Augie in from 3rd. It makes no sense unless it is a suicide squeeze, and it wasn't. And he didn't even get on! Then he proceeds to do Nada, nothing; a pop up, damn A*s*h*le. Now we need a hit by O'Dog, grounder to second. Insert 30 seconds of expletives from Smitty.

The ninth inning, Byrnes fouls out. A good AB by CoJack to gain a walk. Stephen Drew with the clutch double to tie the game, Sweeeeett. Oh Shit, over the wall and now it's a ground rule double and move Jackson back to 3rd base. The tying run at 3rd with only one out for the 4th time in the past two games in the eight or ninth inning. They are 0 for 3 so far, the odds are with them to finally get a sacrifice and send us to extra innings, correct, yes? Of course not, Montero hits into the 5th double play of the game to end it in another Dbacks loss.

This is ridiculous, two nights in a row with chances to tie the game with a simple Sacrifice and proceed to go 0 for 4 and lose both games. I am sure I am not the only one who is swearing at the TV! This is not how winning teams play! I am obviously upset and shocked that we can be this terrible on simple fundamentals. Bring on football!

Grant Hill

So it's official. Well, actually it can't be official until the 11th, when Free Agency begins. But Grant Hill's agent has said that Hill has agreed in principal to a two-year contract offer from the Phoenix Suns, worth a total of just under $4 million. The beautiful thing is, $500,000 of that is paid by a league fund for veterans and will not count against the Salary Cap. While Grant was offered more money by other teams (supposedly), the Suns fit the wish list he was looking for, which consists of a) A Championship contender, b) A chance to start, c) A style that fits him, and d) Lighter practices, due to his injury concerns.

And therein lies the only possible drawback to this deal: Hill's injury-plagued past. After signing a 6-year, $93 Million deal with Orlando in 2000, Hill has spent much of his time on the IR, having appeared in more than 30 games in just two seasons. In fact, in six seasons, Hill played in only 200 of 492 regular season games for the Magic.

His best year, however, was last year, where Hill played in 58 games and averaged 14.4 points, while shooting better than 50%. While not a three-point shooter, Hill attempted just 12 all last year, Hill has other great attributes he will bring to the Suns. One of those attributes, which GM Steve Kerr and Head Coach Mike D'Antoni in particular triumph, is Hill's ability to be a playmaker and distributor while Steve Nash is not on the floor. D'Antoni also said he likes Hill's late career push for a Championship, providing some veteran leadership for the young team.

Hill is expected to challenge Boris Diaw for the last starting position, alongside Nash, Raja Bell, Shawn Marion, and Amare' Stoudemire. Personally, i think they should hand him the starting job. I like Diaw coming off the bench better anyway, and Hill is a stud who will make the Suns go. Essentially he replaces Jr Jones, and while he doesn't have the 3 range Jones did, Hill rebounds well and can provide valuable leadership, as well as create his own shot when the Suns' offense goes through their lulls they are bound to have during games.

While Hill is no Kevin Garnett, he is still a great pick-up for the Suns. Every team needs that one veteran pushing everyone, and now the Suns have two with Nash and Hill. The time for the Suns is 2007-2008, and the run to the Championship begins in 4 months.

As for me, I'm off to Chicago for the weekend. You kids have fun now, and expect some more posts from Smitty about the Dbacks apparent effort to undermine the essential basics of baseball, pissing him off to no end. Until later bitches, i'm out...

Fundamentals, my pet peeve

So the F'n Dbacks can not figure out basic fundamentals which cost them the game today. I get so pissed off when they can not execute a simple bunt. In the 8th inning, Hudson and Byrnes on 1st and 2nd and Tracy hits into a double play and then Reynold's strikes out. So the very next inning, the 9th, Drew hits a ground rule double to lead off. An easy bunt him over and sac fly him in to tie the game. What happens? You know it, Augie Ojeda tries to bunt, let me repeat that, tries to bunt. Instead strikes out. Followed by stike outs by Montero and Clark. They could have and should have scored a run in both inning's without needing a hit. They have no one but themselves to blame for this loss. They have had lousy fundamentals the entire year and have lost several games as a direct result. They should have a several game lead in the division if they could figure out the basic fundamentals of the game. If the dbacks want to play in the postseason then they must start to hit with runners in scoring postition (.132 in the past 10). If they can learn to hit when it matters and do the little things to win games we will see some playoff baseball in Phoenix.

Grant Hill a Sun?

Ahh, very refreshing news if true.

Grant Hill would be a legitimate player in the Suns system, as a starter. The starting five would be Nash, Bell, Hill, Marion, and Stat. He would be an huge upgrade over James Jones in the starting lineup. It also allows LB, Diaw, K.Thomas, and anyone who happens to step up to come off the bench, which would be at least 8 strong. Hill is also a decent ball handler to help facilitate our fast break. It sounds like he will come cheap, the vets minimum around 1.3 million, partially paid by the NBA, and less than 800k counts against the salary cap. He will instantly average 12 point, 4 boards, and 3 assists CONSISTENTLY. The Suns were searching for that 5th starter the entire year, Hill is that guy! The only negative about Grant Hill is he is a Dukie, yuck. But if he becomes a Sun and stays healthy I am willing to overlook that.

Dbacks

Where has this month gone? I can't believe it is the last day of June, this month flew by. It was a pretty good month though, in a lot of ways, but i'm focusing on the Dbacks for now. Three months into the season, with three left to go, and the Dbacks are in 2nd in the division, only .5 games back. For the month they were 14-12, with tonight's game yet to go. Not a great month, but not a bad month either considering who we played. The Red Sox might be the best team in baseball; the Yankees, though struggling, are always tough in Yankee Stadium. The Mets are rolling, and then we've played some tough games within our own division.

As for last nights game, that was awesome. We are once again camping so i couldn't watch the game, but listened to it on the radio. I liked the way we jumped to an early lead, then once we lost the lead we fought back to tie it. Livo pitched great last night, going 7+ innings for us, which the bullpen needed. And thanks to a little luck (How do you drop a fly ball Dave Roberts?), followed by another Barry Bonds home run, the Dbacks found themselves in the 10th inning, needing a lift. Enter Miguel Montero, stage right.

With a .226 Batting Average, 20 RBI's, and 5 home runs this year, Montero is not your typical clutch hitter. Bring him to the plate in the 7th inning or later though, and watch out. His BA jumps to .341, he has 11 of his RBI's, and four of his five home runs (three as a pinch-hitter!)when the game is on the line. That, my friends, is clutch.

And so Montero lifted a pitch into the seats, sending the Dbacks onto their 46th win of the year, most in the NL, in dramatic fashion. All that was left was for Jose Valverde to retire the side in the bottom of the 10th, which he did in order, including a ground-out by Barry Bonds to end the game. Game, Set, Match.

The Dback's are back at it again tonight, and have about ten days until a much-deserved break for the All-Star game (which better have some AZ players in it, if not it's ridiculous. We'll find out today). Then the Dbacks will gear up for the homestretch, in the hopes of bringing back the NL West crown to the desert.

Half-way through the season, and .5 game back, not a bad place to be...

Day Off

Como esta, bitches.

I must apologize for my lack of posting yesterday, the first day i haven't posted since i started this site. I was working during the day, and what was supposed to be a leisurely trek up a mountain to go camping turned into a four hour ordeal involving the changing of an RV tire and many, many swear words. In the end, it also resulted in us being stuck in a campground with no wi-fi access, hence the lack of posts. But today, i am back and better than ever. Or just back...

Ahh, the NBA Draft. So many possibilities, so many disappointments. Where was the KG trade? Where was the Amare' trade (thank god they didn't do that), where was the Kurt Thomas for cap space trade? Where was moving up into the top ten? In the end the Suns ended up with Rudy Fernandez with the 24 pick, whom they promptly traded along with James Jones to the Blazers for $3 million and cap relief. They also picked up Alando Tucker with the 29 pick, which i think might be good. I've been watching Tucker absolutely torch my Iowa Hawkeyes the last few years while he was at Wisconsin. What i like about Tucker the most, and what the Suns needed, was the fact that he can get to the rim and he can create his own shot. He could become a valuable contributor off the bench this year.

I do like that the Suns didn't give up Kurt Thomas. But i think the only reason they didn't give him up is because they couldn't pull off a trade to get KG. If KG gets here, Thomas is gone. No offense KT, i still like you. But in the end we kept him, and for all intents and purposes the rest of the team, minus Junior Jones. Who i will also miss, but i don't think it will affect the Suns in any meaningful way.

In other news, the Dbacks laid an egg against the Dodgers in the 4th game of their series, once again falling behind LA and San Diego for 1st in the NL West by a half game. They dropped three of four to LA, which qualifies as a slump. Good thing they have the lifeless Giants coming to town for their next series. While the Dodgers and Padres (hopefully) beat each other up over the weekend, Arizona should be able to sweep the Giants and reclaim their rightful spot atop the standings.

Moving on to the hockey.... ha ha ha, yeah right.

My illustrious brother wrote a fairly lengthy post a couple of days ago, and it was even pretty good for once. Though i wish he would run ideas past me, or even just mention them to me, before he goes posting them on here (Posts on every NFL team? What army of whipping boys do we have doing the research on that?). Also there will soon be another poster on this site, a certified girl. I know, seems a little strange having a girl post about sports, but trust me, she's pretty knowledgeable. Plus, she knows things about other sports and teams neither my brother nor myself give two craps about (See: Nascar, Pitt Panther athletics, Notre Dame).

I'm off to camp some more, but i'll check in later. In the meantime, do us all a favor and post some comments, click on our links, check out our advertising, and generally just spend some time looking around. We'd appreciate it...