The Sunday Times: Week in Review

Well time for the biggest spin session on the week that was and the week that will be this side of the Potomac. I'm trying to think of a more jam packed week of sports during the year and I'm coming up blanks. NBA and NHL playoffs, MLB regular season, NFL draft and spring football for colleges (and for those that discount intra-team scrimmages I advise you to come to Columbus where nearly 70,000 showed up for the spring scrimmage). Heck even the Canadian Midget Bowling Classic throws out the first dwarf of the year this weekend. Seriously, is there a deeper batch of sports related thoughts at any other time in the year?

NBA Playoffs

The high point of the week was Lebron's triple-double. Somebody check to make sure Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan didn't put on disguises to play for the Cavs. First playoff game, 21 years of age....no problem for the Boy Wonder. Dropping points, rebounds, assists and funny one-liners Lebron dominated the Wizards and lead to the Cavs to their first playoff victory since 1998 (incidentally Johnny Carson did the same thing for the Seattle Supersonics that year). For his next act Lebron will aim for a quadriple-double while holding a Ford Pinto in one arm.

MLB Baseball
Well in many this season seems to be a redux of last season. Yankees are struggling in the early going, ChiSox beginning red hot (yes they've won 7 in a row now), Reds slugging the ball but getting slugged just as bad and the Pirates being described as slightly less fun to watch than the Best of Colonoscopies 3. There are a few trends that are different. The Mets are certainly red hot and while I expect their record to come down to earth a little bit its important to think about the effects of having large leads in the standing in the early months. Often times trades are made depending on how far out a team is from the leader and regardless of what the pythag predictions are, a team like Atlanta or Philly might choose rebuilding rather than contesting if they get too far behind. The other trend is the lack of hitting coming out of Saint Louis. The Cards have been at the top of the heap known as the NL in large part because of their hitting. Right now the Cards are batting a pedestrian .250 and ranked 10th in the NL in runs scored. Given that Pujols is batting at a phenomenal rate at the moment, the rest of the team better start hitting soon or the Cards lock hold on the Central may fade.

NFL Draft
A few random things I'm looking at for the draft. Which school gets more first round picks, USC or OSU? USC has a lock of three first rounders and potentially six by the end of round two. OSU has two locks in the first round with potentially six by the end of round one (let alone two). Given both of the team's performances in their respective bowl games its no surprise. However draft picks do effect future recruiting so stay tuned. I think Leinart will turn out to be the worst of the pro quarterbacks picked (versus Young and Cutler with the caveat of which team selects them). If you're going to tune in for a moment outside of who your team selects I recommend tuning in for New Orleans and Tennesse's selections. If New Orlean trades the whole first round could change and depending on which QB Tennessee picks, that too could determine a lot of positioning the rest of the way.