Mizzou Links, 6-6-08

That's right, Aaron Crow's a Nat. Congrats, Aaron. The Nats have a decent farm system at the lower levels, so he could be moving up toward the majors with a pretty good core of players. You can find more on Crow and the draft at The Missourian, KC Star, Post-Dispatch, SimmonsField.com, the Nats' website, and Washington Post. From the WaPo:

The future team -- if all contract negotiations go well -- could have the services of University of Missouri ace Aaron Crow, drafted with the ninth overall selection and then described with the hyperbole of great hopes.

After Washington made its choice, a cadre of the team's front-office leadership -- including General Manager Jim Bowden -- walked into a lower-level press conference to talk about the pick. Bowden, along with Mike Rizzo, Dana Brown and Bob Boone, took turns speaking about Crow's fastball (92-97 mph), his command (excellent), his competitiveness (again, excellent) and his desirability (unanimous). This draft had been top-heavy with college hitters, any of whom could have filled an organization-wide need for power. But when the Chicago White Sox, picking eighth, selected University of Georgia shortstop Gordon Beckham, Washington capitalized on a secondary benefit of all those bats.

It took the draft's second-best pitcher, as ranked by Baseball America.

A pitcher who, in most years, wouldn't have been available for so long.

"It's so difficult to get a power arm of this nature so late in the draft," said Brown, the team's scouting director.

To summarize yesterday's impromptu draft thread, other Tiger news included a) Rick Zagone going to Baltimore in the six round (will be quite interesting to see if he signs or returns to MU) and b) Mizzou signee Jared Cosart falling past the third round...meaning he'll be playing for Mizzou next year. Hooray!

The Chamber's back! It's a 'good news, bad news' batch, but hey...it's always nice to have Chamber news in your life.

Dave Matter uses his connections to make the summer football dead period interesting, kickstarting a Q&A with recruiting guru Danny Heitert (I want to be known as a '_____ guru' someday). Some interesting bits about Mizzou guys in there, including this one:

• on Blue Springs South quarterback Blaine Dalton* …

"Good arm, not a great arm, but he plays quick and doesn’t hurry. He’s got a quick release, and because of that, he can hold the ball and extend the play longer than any high school quarterback should be able to. And he can buy time with his play-fakes.

"He’s a lot different than" incoming Missouri quarterback Blaine "Gabbert. Gabbert is a great get for Missouri, but he is not going to be as nifty inside the tackles as Dalton. He’s not going to be able to buy as much time in the same way. There’s no comparison in arm strength. And there’s no comparison in who’s better at the same stage. And that’s Gabbert. However, I want Dalton on my team because I could win Big 12 North games with him."

Finally, I won't bog down the front page with a bunch of YouTube clips of horse races (again), but after the jump, you'll see the three 1978 Triple Crown races...I always knew Affirmed-Alydar was known as a great rivalry (they raced against each other 10 times, with Affirmed winning 7 and Alydar winning 3...but one of them winning every time), but it's different when you actually see it.

Okay, as promised...

1978 Kentucky Derby
. (Watch Alydar's surge at the end...very impressive...jockey just sent him too late.)
1978 Preakness

1978 Belmont Stakes
. (They're neck and neck the whole damn time.)