June 27 - Its Drafty in Here

So here are my thoughts on tonight’s NBA draft: I’ll take the NBA draft over the NFL draft any day of the week even though I don’t give two shits about the NBA. The NBA does it right by limiting teams to only five minutes between picks. In doing so, the entire first round takes 2.5 hours to complete while the first round of the NFL draft usually doesn’t end in time for me to catch Saturday’ Night Live’s opening monologue. Marvin Williams has plenty of athletic upside but at this time, he has absolutely no game whatsoever. Teams expecting help next year should be forewarned – Williams post up game is spottier then a fire truck Dalmatian. Ray Felton will be a better pro then collegian. I was not a fan of Felton’s at UNC but his shot has improved and perhaps if someone can get him under control, he can excel at the next level. There will be growing pains with Felton but there may be some upside. Andrew Bogut will be no better then Vlade. That isn’t bad but is it worth the number one pick? Five years from now, there will be at least six players from this draft considered better then Bogut. Chris Paul can motor, but I would rather have Deron Williams. Paul has all that speed, much like Baron Davis, but he doesn’t have Baron’s strength. Some have compared Sean May to Tractor Traylor but I see Marcus Pfizer as a better comp. I loved this guy in college but I don’t see how he will be as effective in the pros. That seems to be the consensus on May so I will play the contrarian and predict he will be a 16-8 guy. Channing Frye is getting a little too much bump from that game against Illinois. He dominated that game but he was a seven rebound guy at Zona. Careful with that guy – he has skills but he couldn’t dominate UCLA so how is he going to do against the Clips and Lakes. I wouldn’t mind the Celts grabbing Joey Graham or Jarrett Jack. Jack played Paul and Felton straight up over the past two years and Graham has a big-time body. You put him on a front line with Al Jefferson and you got size, strength and speed. If you want an eight and five guy – Charlie Villanueva is your man. Not only is Charlie a punk, but he is the scariest looking kid in the draft. I’d go wig if I were CV. anyone taking this kid Ed Bynum in the top 20 is an idiot. The kid would have sat at UCONN so how is he going to play in the NBA? Bynum is this year's Kedrick Perkins.

WFAN’s Mike Francesa struck twice yesterday with a couple of missives that require ridicule and condemnation. The first occurred early in his afternoon telecast when he blatantly plagiarized material that was published earlier in the day. Here is the setup. On Monday morning, ESPN’s Peter “Gasbag” Gammons published a piece reporting Oakland GM Billy Beane “has told everyone who calls that he will not trade Barry Zito during the season.” Further, Gammons writes that Beane will trade Mark Kotsay to the Cubs or the Yankees in the right deal if a contract extension doesn't get done with Kotsay. Lets forget for a second that Gammons hasn’t sourced any of these tidbits - the general implication is he has spoken with either Beane or someone who has had a conversation with Beane. The problem is that without direct attribution, or even indirect for that matter, Gasbag’s comments lie somewhere in between opinion and fact. Unless he has Beane or others on the record, which he does in one instance later in his piece, Gammon’s piece is a bit shaky, at least in this former reporter’s mind. So lets get back to Fat Ass. Later in the day, during the first hour of his show, Francesa was discussing various trade possibilities for the Yankess. The talk turned to the A’s, at which point Francesa DECLARED that Barry Zito isn’t available and Kotsay may not be as available as some assume. That’s odd – didn’t’ I read that somewhere? The problem here is Mike implied that he had original sources for these statements. Let me be very clear on this point: Francesa left little doubt that he was bringing original source material to this discussion. It’s as if he wants his listeners to believe he gets in at 10:00 in the morning and starts working the phones. Nothing could be further from the truth. In all likelihood, fat ass got in and read Gammon’s piece and then pawned off that questionable drivel as his own. No credit was given to Gammons whatsoever. Thee was no mention of the fact that Fat Ass merely read Gammon’s piece and then regurgitated it as if it were his own. I guess such admissions might lead some to believe that Mike may not be is plugged in as he wants them to believe.

Point number two cropped up a few hours later when the discussion turned to the pool of center fielders who are due to be free agents and could be of interest to the Yankess. At this point, Francesa broached two names – Andruw Jones and Vernon Wells – as guys he has heard the Yankees are looking at quite seriously. That revelation is pretty interesting since Jones is signed through 2007 (13.5M in 07) and Wells is signed through 2007 as well. So according to Francesa, the Yanks are looking at two guys who won’t be unrestricted for another 400 games. Hmmmm. His partner called him on Jones and went to break by asking the production crew to look into it. When the guys returned, there was no mention of Francesa’s gaffe. Again, in this case, the big guy was attempting to convince his listeners that he had original source material on this issue. It was as if guys within the Yankee organization had told him of the club’s interest. That sure seems odd given the contract status of both Jones and Wells. Francesa also talked about the Yanks interest in Juan Pierre – something that is once again curious since Pierre only has five years of MLB service and is therefore not eligible for free agency until after 2006. Now the Yanks may have an interest in all three of these guys, as Francesa says, but contrary to what Mike thinks, they won’t be getting any of them as free agents for a little while. The Fat Man strikes again!