June 2008

Justin Upton has a ton of upside. He was the first pick in the star-studded 2005 draft and, prior to the season, you would have been hard pressed finding someone who would argue that he wasn’t its brightest prospect. We’re talking about some exclusive company here. This is a class that has already produced some of the game’s brightest young talent, including: Alex Gordon, Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Braun, Troy Tulowitzki, Cameron Maybin, Jay Bruce, and Jacoby Ellsbury, among others.

When Upton tore through April with a .327/.372/.554 line along with five homers and 15 RBI, no one raised an eyebrow. It was a spectacular start to what is promised to be a brilliant career. No one expected him to come crashing down, it wasn’t as if he was on some other worldly Jay Bruce-esque terror, this was exactly what Upton was going do for the next ten years. This was the same guy that came within a single of hitting for the cycle in his fifth major league game last season, so no one thought maintaining a .300 average was really asking for much. [click to continue...]

For the first time in NBA draft history, college freshmen were selected with the first three picks of the draft, and four more would be selected before the 15^th pick, setting another record for the lottery. Only two really mattered, though: Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley. Yet, oddly enough, only one of them was wanted. Both Miami and Chicago were completely enamored with Derrick Rose, in fact, it was so bad, that Pat Riley spent the week leading up to the draft trying to find a way to get out of selecting Michael Beasley. The Bulls ended up taking Rose, but should they have?

Let’s take a trip down memory lane. It’s February, the season is coming to an end, and everyone is gearing up for the tournament. Beasley is completely assaulting the Big 12, dwarfing the numbers put up by fellow freshman phenom Kevin Durant, who destroyed basically every freshman record known to man the previous year. [click to continue...]