(Baseball)
...The Padres, who finally won games over the weekend, are back on the road tonite, opening another 6-game road trip, at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs. The Padres are (14-24) having lost 18-of-23 games. In a span of 24-hours, the Friars shook up their roster, adding 5-players, deleting 5-from the bottom of their roster and their bullpen.
...Randy Wolfe faces Carlos Zambrano tonite. The Cubs are led by Japanese free-agent Kazu ****odome, hitting .326-with 14-extra base hits, and lst baseman Derrick Lee, who has 10-homers already. Adrain Gonzales is on a tear; the Padres lst sacker is now batting .339 over the last 14-games.
...Despite the roster shakeup, rumors are swirling the Padres are not done, and may go after defensive specialist, Nathan Haynes, an ex-Angel and Tampa Bay Ray, just released. Newly arrived ex-Yankee Sean Henn brings an ERA over 7-to San Diego; Bryan Corey, acquired from the Red Sox, had a 10.50-ERA in Boston. The other acquisitions were utilityman Edgar Gonzales, and catcher Luke Carlin, plus the recall of Sean Estes. They are likely releasing Glendon Rusch after pink slipping Jim Edmonds; they sent Calix Crabbe, Joe Thatcher and Colt Morton to the minors.
...Petco Park continues to be 'Death Valley' for Padre****ter; a team batting average of .219-at home. Adrian Gonzales is a prime example; hitting .381 on the road, while .193 at home. And Petco, despite being shiny and new, may be chasing away free-agents. The Padres failed to lure ****odome of the Cubs, Andru Jones of the Braves, and Akin Iwamura of Tampa Bay. They did not put in a bid on Frank Thomas, who i****ting .311-now in Oakland; they could have put Thomas at lst, moved Adrian Gonzales to right, and shifted Brian Giles to left to solve their outfield woes.
...The Dodgers, who have lost 4-straight, open a 6-game trip in Milwaukee tomorrow. They wasted nearly 7-no hit innings from Hiroki Kuroda last nite, the bullpen gave up 6-runs, in a loss to the Astros.
...The Dodgers are still without .366-hitting shortstop Rafael Furcal, out with back problems. Good news on pitcher Jason Schmidt; he threw a perfect 1-2-3 inning and had no problems in a 27-pitch workout on a minor league rehab assignment.
...Andru Jones remains on the bench; he is averaging 1-strikeout every 3-at bats; is (1-27) with runners in scoring position; is batting .170.
...The Angels have dropped 4-in a row; they host the White Sox tonite, with rookie Nick Adenhart opposing Mark Beuhrle.
...A tough weekend on the injury front.
...Padres pitcher Mark Prior has had a second occurrence of tendonitis in his shoulder in a 3-week span.
...Angels infielder Chone Figgins is on the Dl with a hamstring injury.
...Texas put pitcher Kevin Millwood on the DL with a groin injury;.
...Toronto has lost outfielder Vernon Wells for 8-weeks with a broken wrist.
...The Rockies have sent pitcher Mark Redman to Colorado Springs.
...The Red Sox have designated long reliever Julian Tavares for reassignment.
...Milwaukee may call up pitcher Jeff Weaver; aside from Ben Sheets, the Brewers other starters are (2-10).
...The Cardinals have pulled Jason Isringhausen out of his closers role with 4-blown saves in 2-weeks, with a 7.47-ERA.
...Milwaukee demoted closer Eric Gagne, who has 9-saves and 6-blown saves.
...The Phillies say Ryan Howard will stay in the lineup; he i****ting .169 with 7-homers, but 52-strikeouts in a 136-at bats.
...Kerry Wood is hot; the Cubs starter turned closer has a 1.83-ERA, in 16-games.
...Texas outfielder Milton Bradley has pushed his batting average up to .313.
(Basketball)
...Kobe Bryant is under fire for hogging the basketball yesterday in the Lakers-devastating-loss to the Utah Jazz. Playing with a tweaked back, Bryant went (2-14) shooting the ball in the 2nd half and overtime, as Utah evened their series (2-2). Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom combined for 20-points in the 4th quarter, and never got the ball in overtime. Lakers forward Ronnie Turiaf is facing a suspension for a tomahawk chop flagrant foul that injured Ronnie Price of Utah. The Jazz got 47-from their big men, Memet Okhur-Carlos Boozer and Andre Kirilenko, and 29-from big guard Deron Williams. Utah is now (41-4) at home this year. Game 5-is Wednesday in LA.
...The Cleveland Cavaliers can tie their series tonite with a win over Boston. The Celtics, who were (31-10) on the road during the regular season, (0-4) away from home in the postseason. Lebron James continues to stagger on the court; he is (13-58) shooting.
...San Antonio and New Orleans are tied (2-2) heading to game 5-in New Orleans tomorrow.
...Detroit, up (3-1), can end their series with Orlando tomorrow. Magic center Dwight Howard looks timid playing against Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyee, who have banged and bullied him.
...The NBA is surprised with the New York Knicks hiring of Mike D'Antoni. He never gave the Chicago Bulls a chance to make an offer, and instead accepted a 6-million a year offer to take over the Knicks roster that is big, slow, selfish and ill-fitting. The New York Post called the team D'Antonio inherits as 'low energy, low IQ-misfits.
...Bernie Bickerstaff has been fired as Executive Vice President of the Charlotte Bobcats, as Michael Jordan continued a house-cleaning.
...USC-and the Pac 10-Conference says they investigated OJ Mayo's background and cleared him of any wrong doing prior to his enrollment. ESPN reported that NBA Agent Bill Duffy funneled some 200-thousand dollars in gifs to a man who was acting as Mayo's advisor for 4-years..
(Football)
...NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell meets at 7-30am tomorrow with ex-Patriots video coordinator Matt Walsh, to discuss the 8-tapes he turned over of opponents sideline calls that were made by Bill Belichick dating back to 2000. The NFL is expected to ask Walsh about other video employees who may also have tapes. There may an outcry for stiffer discipline for Belichick since it appears he was taping sideline signals from 2000-into-2007.
...The New York Times is reporting the NFL investigated 36-complaints over the last 4-years against the Patriots actions on game day; filming coaches of other teams; sideline-headset problems, allegations of use of microphones to pick up signals. The paper said the NFL Rule Manual has been re-written 6-times because of issues, many of them related to complaints about the Patriots.
...A big weekend at the Raiders minicamp. 1st round pick Darren McFadden scored 3-touchdowns on explosive outside sweeps; Michael Bush excelled as a kick return man. Raiders running back coach Tom Rathman spliced together a video of McFadden's 15-fumbles last year with the Razorbacks, and changed his ball carrying technique.
...The Baltimore Ravens installed a shotgun and 3-wide receiver set in workouts with rookie QB-Joe Flacco.
...New Orleans lst round pick Cedric Ellis of USC was unblockable in the Saints lst minicamp this past weekend.
...The Houston Texans are staying with Virginia Tech rookie left tackle Duane Brown at that spot, despite giving up 8-sacks last year at Virginia Tech; they demoted veteran starter Ephraim Salaam.
...Chris Redman took the bulk of the snaps with the lst unit with the Atlanta Falcons; top pick Matt Ryan took only 10-snaps with the number 1-offense.
...Tennessee's new offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger says Vince Young needs a complete overhaul of his footwork.
...Dallas Cowboys safety Roy Williams,.upset he is taking on more of a linebackers role in Wade Phillips 3-4 defense, met with coach for 90-minutes over the weekend to discuss his role with the team.
...No discipline for 81-Baltimore Ravens players, who were in a 20-minute push and shove brawl at their minicamp over the weekend.
...The Giants lost receiver Marion Manningham with a hip injury and QB-Andre Woodson with a quad injury over the weekend.
...Atlanta receiver Brian Finneran, who missed all of last year with torn knee ligaments, was cleared to return to workouts.
...The Arizona Cardinals fired 3-veteran scouts, Lonnie Young, Bill DeKraker and Rashaan Curry.
(Hockey)
...The Detroit Red Wings try to make it 3-wins in a row tonite, playing in Dallas tonite.
...Detroit will not have winger Johan Franzen tonite with a concussion; Stars winger Jere Lehtinen has a calf injury.
...The NHL has fined Mike Ribero 1-thousand dollars for spearing Wings goalie Chris Osgood after the game over the weekend.
...It is an off nite for the Penguins-Flyers series. Pittsburgh leads 2-0. The Flyers are hurting on defense; Braydon Coburn is out with 40-stitches around the eye; Kimmo Timminen is out with a blood clot.
...The Atlanta Thrashers have reportedly asked GM-Don Waddell to move upstairs to a President's job.
...The Toronto Maple Leafs have asked for permission to talk to ex-Vancouver GM-David Nonis.
...Jacques Lemaire will return as coach of the Minnesota Wild; his lst place team was knocked out of the lst round of the playoffs.
(General)
...Rain-rain-more rain. This could be a bad week at Indianapolis as teams scramble to get speed and setups for next weekend's
Final qualifying for the Indy 500. Heavy rain is scheduled for Wednesday and showers on Thursday. 22-slots still need to be filled.
...Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon gambled on Saturday, voiding their 225-mile and hour qualifying times, to go back on the track and run 226-times to grab the top 2-spots in qualifying.
...Kyle Busch hit the wall 5-times but outran Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt-Junior to win at Darlington; he was booed in the winners circle.
...Ferrari and Felipe Massa are running away with the Formula 1-points title, after his win in the Turkish Grand Prix.
...It appears 13-horses will be named at mid-week for next weekends challenge of Big Brown at the Preakness at Pimlico.
