Friday, July 1, 2011

Sports Chowdah Update- Cole Burner; Anybody Else Feel A Draft?


Christopher Pasatieri/Getty Images
MLB: After stumbling in the first two games, the Red Sox were able to salvage Game 3 against the Phillies and even managed to literally knock Philly starter Cole Hamels out of the game. After a scoreless duel with Jon Lester, Philly manager Charlie Manuel made the decision to pull Hamels after the starter took an Adrian Gonzalez line-drive off of his glove hand in the top of the 4th. Hamels reportedly had a large bruise to show for it, but Manuel wasn't going to take any chances with the starter.

The Red Sox managed to break the scoreless deadlock with a pair of RBI singles- one off the bat of Drew Sutton and the other from Jacoby Ellsbury- off of David Herndon in the top of the 5th. This was followed up by two solo homers from Jason Varitek and one from Dustin Pedroia.

Jon Lester came up pretty big against a potent Philly offense, allowing two hits and two walks and striking out five in 7 shutout innings of work. After Bobby Jenks scuffled in his second game back since returning from the DL, giving up a 2-run homer off the bat of Phillies 1B Ryan Howard, Papelbon came in for a 2-out save in the bottom of the 9th to secure the 5-2 win for Boston.

From there, the BoSox will travel to the Lone Star state for their second-ever sojourn to Houston. Tim Wakefield (4-3; 4.54 ERA) gets the start against Astros righty Bud Norris (4-6; 3.36 ERA) on Friday night.

NBA: The Celtics season has been over for awhile, and with a lockout underway the 2011-2012 season is in doubt as well. That's not to say the C's haven't been wheeling and dealing, however. In a draft day trade with the New Jersey Nets, the Celtics traded for Purdue's JaJuan Johnson in exchange for Providence's Marshon Brooks and a 2nd round pick in the 2014 draft.


NHL: The 2011 NHL draft last week officially closed the book on the 2009 Phil Kessel trade with the selection of OHL defenseman Dougie Hamilton. Hamilton was the 9th overall selection in the NHL draft- like last year's draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs had agreed to trade their 1st round draft pick to Boston in exchange for Kessel.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: Paul Kariya, the Anaheim Ducks first-ever draft pick who started out in 1993, announced his retirement this week.

*It was made official at the draft when the former Atlanta Thrashers drafted OHL Center Mark Scheifele in the first round- the new NHL franchise in Winnipeg will resurrect the Jets name.

Just a bit of idle speculation on my part, but with Carolina, Florida, Washington and Tampa Bay having to travel to Manitoba several times a year to play a 'divisional opponent', realignment seems inevitable. What would probably make the most sense geographically is to have Nashville take the Thrasher's place and have them take Nashville's place in the Central but its possible for the league to move a team from the Northwestern division into Nashville's place in order to arrange the Jets playing the Oilers, Flames and Canucks on a more regular basis.

UPDATE: With not even the first full day of free agency in the NHL gone, the Philadelphia Flyers have announced a 1 year deal with Jaromir Jagr and a five year deal with former Penguins forward Maxime Talbot.

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