fodeep.com

This ranking isn’t much of a surprise considering last years results. The learning curve is going to be pretty high for our new starting quarter back. Other national polls seem to indicate we are in for a long season. The Sporting News

has us ranked 48th. The main point to be taken from this is that we are ranked ahead of the Mildcats and it’s going to be a dog-fight all season for those middle ranked teams (ASU, UCLA, Oregon State). USC has the No.1 pick. Read more about the rankings at azcentral.com

Webb hasn’t pitched since opening day. He has been experiencing stiffness in his shoulder and chose not seek surgery for it in early June. “He’s missed virtually the whole year and we’re trying to figure out the best course for getting back to pitching,” Diamondbacks General Manager Josh Byrnes said on a conference call with reporters on Thursday. It’s been a tough year for the organization but especially tough for Brandon Webb. It appears the surgery option is still on the table. Surgery sucks, it would be my last option too, due to my fear of surgical gowns. Webb obviously realizes after this surgery the odds of him becoming a dominate pitcher again are almost zero. I read an article about it on slate.com . “The leading minds in baseball medicine are flummoxed by the labrum. Doctors can’t agree on how to detect a tear, don’t know the best way to fix one, and aren’t sure why, almost without fail, a torn labrum will destroy a pitcher’s career.” Tough Year for the Dbacks, I wish Webb the best of luck. Read more about the story here

The terms of Steve Nash’s contract extension was made official yesterday, two-year, $22 million, and a commitment to a team that does not appear to be pursuing a title. I have heard a few different reasons on why Nash would want to resign with the Suns when he could have gone to a team that would contend for a title. Listening to Nash Explain it, I think it comes down to the quality of life he has playing for Phoenix. He is in a situation where he is the team leader, franchise player, and seems to have a heavy influence in player – personal decisions. He had influence on the Shaq trade to Cleveland, and was partly responsible for talking Grant Hill into returning to the Suns. Nash is the top – dog here in Phoenix plain and simple. He is leader of a talented team with decreased expectations, which means even a decent win total and playoff appearance would make for a successful season in most fans eyes. Nash; “I really love living in Phoenix and being a part of the community. The fans have been fantastic to me. I really believe in everyone here. I like my teammates a lot. I’m really excited to play for Alvin Gentry. All those things greatly outweigh an opportunity to search for a title somewhere else. There’s never any guarantees for that anyway.” I am glad he has chosen to stay with the Suns. Looking forward to this upcoming season.

click to read the story

Jason Richardson was hitting balls for charity. J Rich was hosting the sixth annual Jason Richardson Golf Classic for the Saginaw County United Way. The “Golf Classic raised $23,000. Jared Dudley is also giving back to his community. According to nesn.com, Dudley is running a youth basketball camp in Boston. Jared’s alma mater is Boston College and he still follows the team avidly, watching BC beat Duke in 2009. “I bum-rushed the floor with [the fans] and had a little fun.” Read more about Jared Dudley’s basketball camp here. Its Nice to see the Suns players giving back to their communities.  I have a favorite charity, its me. I donate to it every weekend, in the form of booze and table dances.

Are you ready for some Cardinals football?? I am. Arizona Republic beat writer Kent Somers interviewed coach Whisenhunt before training camp. The head coach is fired up and ready to go! He talks about what has been motivating him this off-season. Motivation has come from seeing some high school goal posts while driving to remembering the feeling of winning the NFC title. He finally got to sit down and watch the replay of the NFC championship game. “Yea, I watched it. The thing I caught myself saying, and my wife Alice, saying was: ‘Listen to the crowd. Listen to the crowd. That’s incredible.” Whisenhunt brings up a good point. The Cards were a 9-7 team. “The worst playoff team in the history of the playoffs’ certainly still rings in my ears a little bit. I think that will help reel us in a little bit.” It is important to remember the struggles the team had during last season and how they overcame them. I think Whisenhunt will have Cards ready to defend their NFC title and make another run to the Super Bowl. Read the complete interview here

The NFC West is weak. Ok the NFC West Sucks and it should not take that much to stay on top. Although somethings changed in the off season, a lot stayed the same. We lost our offensive coordinator, Todd Haley, now head coach of the Chiefs and we fired our defensive coordinator, Clancy Pendergast. We still have Warner and Fitzgerald, and Boldin is still with the team for now. The offense should be as potent as ever. I hope to see some improvements on defense this year. The Cards where 28th in points allowed and 28th in red zone defense. The Cards secondary looks rock-solid with Byant McFadden and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. When our offense is clicking the defense does not need to be dominating. I am really excited to see Beanie Wells play and how he can solidify our running game. A lot is going to be expected of this rookie. Being the NFC champs is a new experience, but I believe it is going to make this year more exciting than last. Read more about the Cards chances at sportingnews.com

Really not that much to it. Eat healthy and organic foods, six times a day. Its kind of refreshing to see a celebrity with a diet plan that is not put together by a personal dietitian. I like that he plans for what food he turns to when he gets hungry between meals. Nash usually does not partake in the food prepared for the team before and after games. Grant Hill is another player that takes nutrition into account when it comes to his health. Nash and Hill frequently exchange ideas on proper nutrition. Apparently this healthy eating is contagious, Jared Dudley has been following Nash’s advice and lost 10 pounds. All this is a far cry from the Charles Barkley days. I remember hearing stories about how the team plane would be littered with beer cans after a flight home from a game. I think Barkley had an 18 pack by his locker at all times. The good old days. Read more about Nash’s diet here

Kurt Warner was featured on “Homecoming with Rick Reilly”  last night. The show takes star atheletes back to the town where they grew up. It’s a little bit sappy, it’s like an hour long Oprah for sports. But they could not have picked a better subject than Kurt Warner. This touchdown throwing, bible thumping, NFC champ quarterback is a poster boy for small town, middle American Values. Earlier this month Kurt and his Wife Brenda published their book “First Things First”, a book about Christian/family values. Is Warner going to be running for elected office after his NFl career? I just want to see him run the Cards offense this season. NFC champ camp starts next week!! Read more about the ESPN show here

With training camp starting next week the Cardinals have yet to sign first round picks Beanie Wells and Cody Brown. Third-round selection Rashad Johnson, a free safety, signed a three-year contract early in the month. Johnson is expected to have an immediate impact on special teams. I don’t what all this foot-dragging is about but I hope they can sign their top two draft picks in time for training camp. I expecting Beanie Wells to get the starting nod at some point in the season. Being on time for training camp could make that happen faster. From azcardinals.com; “General manager Rod Graves has expressed optimism the Cards will be able to get both Brown and Wells under contract prior to the start of camp”. Read more about it here

Ha Ha, I was over at azcentral and found an article about the expected crowds at Cardinals Training Camp. There was an interview with a long time Cardinals fan named Jimmy Ramirez. Jimmy was a little sad that so many “new” Cardinals fans where getting ready to overrun training camp, possibly ruining what had been a quite, personal pilgrimage to see his favorite team. “Every summer, I’ve had the best spot in the world to watch my favorite team come up here and get ready for another season. Now it’s going to be packed with people who’ve never been here before. It’s probably going to be a zoo. I always hoped the Cardinals would go to the Super Bowl, but now that they have, I’m almost wishing that they didn’t.” I guess it’s like following a band that plays at local bars, little if no cover charge, cheap drinks, no lines. Then that band gets a hit song, becomes popular and the next thing you know your paying $60 a ticket to stand in an arena 100 yards from the stage, $8 beers and crazy lines. With big success comes big bandwagons. There will be plenty of new fans to deal with and that is a good thing. It means the team you are so passionate about is becoming successful at what they choose to do for a living. Besides who doesn’t want to go up north for a day or two. The weather in the valley is disgusting this time of the year. Read more here.

Steve Nash will be playing for the SUNS next year!! Paul Coro is reporting that Nash will get a two year contract extension with the Suns. Details not available yet, it’s not official. Nash and the Suns have been in talks the past few days. Steve Kerr has said Nash has been happy with the off-season decisions the Suns have made. I think we all have. Kerr had this to say; “It has to actually happen before we can celebrate,” Kerr said. “We’ll see what happens, but I know that Steve is very happy with the moves we’ve made, basketball-wise.” Kerr added; ”He’s excited about Channing, he’s excited about Grant [Hill] coming back. He likes our depth, he likes our young players, and he likes the plan in regards to he and Grant being the leaders of an otherwise young team.” Read more about the negotiations here

GM Steve Kerr wants to test drive Amare before he offers a contract extension. Kerr wants to see how eye surgery and not playing for 5 months has effected Stoudemire’s game. I think that’s a good idea, obviously you wouldn’t want to “buy” damaged goods. From azcentral; “We need to see him play,” Kerr said. “Charlie knows that. Amaré knows that. Obviously, the eye situation was more serious than what we first thought. The recovery time has taken longer. We got a terrific prognosis from Dr. (Pravin) Dugel following his procedure the other day to drain the remainder of the fluid, so I think everything looks great. But before you make that kind of financial commitment, or any commitment in this league, you have to know your player is fine and ready to go”. So basically if he looks good we keep him and make one final run, if he looks bad we try to trade him or wish him the best of luck in 2010. I am rooting for him to overcome this, he has overcome a lot in his life. It would be awesome to see him make a second career comeback. Read more here

I was reading over at revengeofthebirds.com that the Arizona Cardinals and Karlos Dansby are pretty far apart in there negotiations, and will not meet the July 15th deadline. After the deadline Dansby will be a free agent and it is unlikely the Cards will shell out the money to sign him. Dansby had 119 tackles, 2 forced fumbles, and 2 interceptions last year. He would be missed on defense. Oh, and now you die-hard Cards fans can have your own Arizona Cardinals license plate. The State will be issuing Cardinals license plates to go along with more than 37 other special license plate designs. From azcentral; “But die-hard Cardinals fans shouldn’t start unscrewing their current plates yet, if approved by the governor, it will be at least 90 days before the laws allowing the new plates go into effect.” There will be a $25 annual fee involved. If you want the plate personalized it will cost an additional $25. So if you want something like, 2DIE4, or 2QT4U, (those are my old plates) it will cost a little more. Read more about the new plates here

Uhh, I guess “Eega Beeva.” Not familiar with that one. I guess Eega Beeva was an old Mickey Mouse sidekick or something. My favorite Disney Character is “Jasmine.” But that is for another time and another blog. Eega Beeva is also Lopez’s twitter name, and that seems just about right because this second-year center is eager not to have a sophomore slump. I like Lopez. He showed a lot of promise at the beginning of last season, seemed to disappear at the end. Lopez has never stopped working on his game. There is no doubt he can play defense (shot blocking), but now he must prove he can survive a full season of run and gun offense. Obviously he is not going to be an integral part of the offense, but Lopez has shown his athleticism by running the floor and filling the lane from time to time. From azcentral; “I want him to really get out and run, use his speed and height for a lot of rim runs, where he’s going to go down there and try to get early post-ups,” said Suns assistant Dan Majerle, who will coach the summer team. “Get him in the block. Let him work on his post moves and develop that. Step out and maybe go a little isolation one-on-one from about 10 feet, where he can use his quickness. That’ll do a lot for Robin, along with him and Goran (Dragic) in pick-and-rolls.” Now that Shaq is gone Robin Lopez will be taking on more responsblity at the center position and he is looking forward to the challenge. Read more about Lopez at azcentral.com

Great news Suns fans, Grant Hill has resigned with the Suns. I had heard Hill was speaking with several teams, (Boston, New York), ultimately he chose the Suns After we improved our offer. Hill will get $3 million this season and a player option of $3.24 million for 2010-11. From azcentral; Hill’s agent, Lon Babby, said today that Hill drew interest from seven teams and narrowed his choices to Phoenix , Boston and New York. New York offered him a one-year contract at the full mid-level exception of $5.85 million or a three-year, $10 million deal while Boston was limited to a biennial exception of $4.07 million over two years because it had used the mid-level exception on Rasheed Wallace. Ultimately, it a choice between Phoenix’s offer and New York’s one-year offer with two teams that would have him start and be a leader in open offensive systems.” A last minute phone call from Steve Nash may have sealed the deal. Does this mean Nash is staying as well?  According to his agent Rob Palinka, Channing Frye is all but signed. His contract might be a deal worth $4.07 million over two years with a second-year player option. Only the Grant Hill signing is official. Wow. This is turning out to be a busy off season for the Suns. I am beginning to think Nash wants to stay and will not be delt. Amare is another question , we’ll see how it goes.