There Actually Is A Bruins Fan Out There

Hey Peeps and anyone else checking in. A special "Hey" goes out to Hazel Mae if she is checking in.

We had heard a rumour that there were still some hardcore Bruins fans left in New England - there are some up here, but they tend to be pretty quiet these days and would prefer to talk about the upcoming NFL season rather than talk about the Bs - and a few of them are lurking on our yahoo site.

Imagine our surprise to see the inbox flooded with complaints from Bruins fans saying that we were too harsh in our assessment of Peter Chiarelli's recent moves, and in particular, selecting Zach Hamill as their first round pick. Okay, by flooded we meant three emails...but given that there are about six Bruins fans left in Boston - that qualifies as being flooded.

"Gunner" went so far as to point us to a clip that was aired on NESN's Lights Out where Rob Simpson interviewed young Mr. Hamill. We guess Gunner is referring to the part where Simpson says that scouts say they see a bit of Chris Drury and Joe Sakic in the youngster. Okay dude, we hate to break it to you - but that little tidbit was likely fed (force fed) to Simpson by the Bruins PR Department - in all of the draft analysis we've seen (TSN, Sportsnet, and a number of Canadian papers) there were no comparisons to Chris Drury and Joe Sakic other that the three sharing a fondness for pizza or something stupid like that.

We get that the Bruins want to believe an "undersized" offensively gifted young player may share similar physical characteristics with two very good NHL Captains; but let's get real here, scouts are pointing to the kid's lack of foot speed as a concern - Drury can motor around the ice, and Sakic in his prime was a very good skater.

Time will tell, but it was heartening to see that someone in Boston was talking hockey.


MONDAY'S THREE STARS
Red Sox West P Brad Penny continues to dominate every opposing lineup he faces. Penny pitched eight solid innings in Arizona, giving up one run on four hits and two walks while striking out four in the Dodgers' 8-1 win over the DBacks.

Toronto Blue Jays RF Alex Rios was 3 for 4 with a home run, a stolen base and two runs batted in to lead Toronto to an 8-5 victory over Minnesota. We picked Rios over Wells and Stairs because he's on the roster of the Maeple Leafs in the Yahoo Pool.

Seattle Mariners C Kenji Johjima hit a home run and drove in three to lead the Mariners to a 9-4 win over the Sox last night.


TUESDAY THREE PLAY
What started out as a great night ended badly with both of our late night picks losing - especially shocking to see Lackey drop a game to the Royals. So we start out on a tough note - $225 to start the week. We'll get it back tonight - today's suggestions.

New York over Baltimore - the Yankees are coming off a tough weekend, expect them to rebound against an O's team that is without Miguel Tejada. Lay $100 on the Yanks - $150.

Los Angeles over Kansas City - we expect the Angels to come out swinging and make the Royals pay for embarassing them last night; Meche vs Santana wasn't the matchup we were hoping for, but we still think the Angels get it done tonight. Lay $100 on the Angels - $165.

Florida over Pittsburgh - we'll go with the D-Train over Maholm, no explanation needed. Lay $100 on the Marlins - $165.

That's it for this morning gang - thanks for taking the time to check in. Have a great one peeps.

Hazel, I hope things are groovy in your world.

I'm Out.