Sports Agenda for Wednesday (4/24/13)
Top Stories:
It's 24 hours until draft day which means I'll be writing stories that will be denied within minutes today. Plus, the Heat are the cats and the Bucks are the mice. And the Marlins lost, wait, what?
Quote of the Day:
"If you even dream of beating me; you'd better wake up and apologize." – Muhammad Ali
NFL Draft/Miami Dolphins:
So I'm narrowing down the options for the Dolphins.
Here's the viable options I see for the Fins starting Thursday night:
1. Miami can trade a second-round pick to the Kansas City Chiefs for LT Branden Albert and then use the first round pick on a variety of players.
2. Miami can trade a first-round pick plus at least one second round pick and more to move up into the top 3 of the draft to select Eric Fisher or Luke Joeckel.
3. The Fins can stand pat and not trade and select the best player available at the 12th selection.
4. The Fins can try to trade down if some team wants to jump up and snag Geno Smith, QB, West Virginia
Those are the four choices.
Out of those I like 1 and 3 the best.
Here's why.
Is Albert better than Jake Long, when healthy no. But when was the last time Jake Long was healthy?
If you structure his contract right with injury protections, Albert is a more than serviceable left tackle for the Dolphins and a much better choice than Jonathan Martin or a rookie not named Luke Joeckel or Eric Fisher.
So, you fill a position of need with a quality starter and do it for the cost of a second-round pick. I'll take that.
So that presents you with many options at 12, but I'd focus on just a few positions: guard, tight end, defensive end, cornerback.
I like Jonathan Cooper and Chance Warmack as guards, but let's face it, Ireland can't pick a guard here no matter how good they are.
It's a little high for tight end Tyler Eifert out of Notre Dame, but I'd be happy with him at this spot.
I can't think of a defensive end who would fit here unless Barkevious Mingo slips.
Cornerback is still valued, but unless Dee Milliner is available here, I'd likely pass on Xavier Rhodes.
But you have plenty of options.
Same goes for the Fins if they just wait on the 12th selection, there are plenty of options.
I prefer choice number one if a good contract can be worked out, but that's just me.
If you can get a starter for a second-round pick, that's a good deal to me…especially at a position of need like left tackle.
Then you add a quality starter with the 12th pick, not a bad deal.
Think about this offense for a second….
LT – Branden Albert
LG – Richie Incognito
C – Mike Pouncey
RG – Louis or Jerry
RT – Jonathan Martin
QB – Ryan Tannehill
RB – Lamar Miller plus another running from the draft
WR – Mike Wallace
WR – Brian Hartline
WR – Brandon Gibson/Davone Bess
TE – Tyler Eifert
Now, would you be happy with that?
I would be, especially if you get a quality offensive lineman later in the draft.
I'm thinking that's an offense that can put up some points.
Miami Heat: (Off Wednesday)
Ah yes, the Miami Heat played about as poorly as you could play on Tuesday night and still won going away over the Bucks.
Here's how you can tell things are going well for the Heat:
Only one player scored 20 points and the team still won by double-digits.
Five Heat players scored in double-digits and another three had at least seven points in the game.
Oh, and the Heat's defense…yeah, Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings combined to score 15 points last night.
15 points!
Now, that said, I still don't like the turnovers in the game, which Milwaukee tends to do to Miami in bunches.
In addition, I want to know what happened to the Heat's 3-point shooting.
30 percent in the first game and 31.6 percent in the second-game. You can do that against the Bucks, but not against future teams.
Funny to see the Heat with another +10 rebounding performance over a team in the playoffs.
Also, one of the funnier things I read was Samuel Dalembert saying he might sign with Miami.
He's of course believing Miami would want him, which I don't think they would. I mean he can't get off the bench for the Bucks.
Give me Birdman for another season and let Dalembert go where he pleases.
Heck, give me Greg Oden….wait, did I just write that?
Man, I'm way to buried in NFL draft mode right now!
Marlins: (Off Wednesday)
I can't help myself, but yesterday when I was talking with a co-worker, we joked about hearing Harry Doyle from "Major League" commenting on the Marlins' woes and saying, "4 wins? That's all we got was four *expletive* wins?"
After I quit laughing, which took a bit, well, I laughed some more.
And that's pretty much what baseball is doing to the Marlins.
Although, they did notch a win last night which means they're at .500…on Tuesday's in 2013.
So if they played only on Tuesday's, well, they might be decent.
Here's the funny part, four of Miami's five wins this season have come on either Tuesday or Friday.
A victory over the Phillies on April 13 is the lone exception.
How's that for weird facts.
Just in case you were wondering…here's the Marlins' leading hitters right now….
Placido Polanco .288, Greg Dobbs .246, and Donovan Solano .239
Really knocking the cover off the ball huh?
