Since they haven't been mentioned too much lately, I thought I'd take a quick look at Mizzou's three major leaguers:
* Max Scherzer: Threw two scoreless innings of relief against the Mets on Wednesday to lower his ERA from 3.10 to 2.90. In 31 innings, Mad Max has K'd 33 guys and only allowed a decent 39 hits/walks.
* Ian Kinsler: I'm still having trouble grasping the fact that, not only was it Kinsler who broke Mizzou's MLB-less streak, but he's also doing quite well in Arlington. He went 5-for-14 in three games against Kansas City this week, raising his average to a tidy .311, with 9 HRs and 39 RBIs. He doesn't walk a ton, but he's done it enough to post a .359 OBP and a .489 SLG (thanks mostly to 19 doubles), good for an un-secondbaseman-like .848 OPS. He's also currently second in All Star voting for AL 2B behind Dustin Pedroia. (Right now, the Sox and Yankees are accounting for the leaders in 6 of 8 position races and the DH.)
* Doug Mathis: Mr. Mathis has had, to say the least, an up and down season. Four starts have taken his ERA from 0.00 to 10.13 to 5.56 to 9.00 to 7.72. Two sparkling starts (a combined 11.1 IP and 3 ER) have been accompanied by two horrific ones (a combined 6 innings and 14 ER). But hey...he's 2-1! Mizzou Track coach Dr. Rick McGuire can add another two All-Americans to his tally: Nick Adcock and Lars Rise finished 4th and 7th in the decathlon at Nationals yesterday. Congrats, guys. The KC Star has more on the meet. I don't see this as a bad thing: Mizzou Basketball will head to Canada over Labor Day weekend for three exhibition games. The more reps, the better for what is going to be a super-young team. Steve Walentik has more. The last time Mizzou made a trip like this was to Australia in 1995, and hey...'95-'96 went great. Oh wait. No it didn't. Maybe this is a bad idea. Now...he never actually uses the words "blown away" as suggested in the title, but it sounds like Southlake Carroll DE Brayden Burnett very much enjoyed his recent trip to Columbia (to the point where I'm sure Freeman will say that Mizzou's got a 104% chance to get him in his next hot list...I kid, I kid...). Dude's got 25+ offers, so it will be a solid competition for him, but...yeah, to say we've got connections with SLC is a bit of an understatement. A couple interesting football links in Dave Matter's latest blog post. First, he talks about a few players who won't be in Kansas and Texas Tech uniforms this coming season. Kansas loses two defensive contributors--DT Todd Haselhorst and DB Anthony Webb. This aren't killer losses, but it does hurt their overall depth. Meanwhile, Tech will be without the services of RB Kobey Lewis (which really may be a loss) and DB Steven Harris (which...yeah, I've got nothing on him).
The second link says that Josh Freeman isn't going to go pro after this coming season. Um...yeah, I think that's probably smart. Finally, this is no "Big 12 as Punch Out characters", but it sure ain't bad--it's "Big 12 as Potato Chips" (though I do resent the suggestion that only retards like Krunchers...and the fact that Colorado is underrated. Wait one more year before pulling the Colorado trigger.). Here's probably the best one:
Texas Tech- Blazing Buffalo & Ranch Doritos
Acquired taste. Both have been known to hit the spot, but could easily cause projectile diarrhea. It's a touchy situation around them. Basically 50/50 that it could either quell your need or make you shit a brick five minutes later at a truck stop in Lubbock.
Or maybe this one...sorry TB...
Kansas State- Funyuns
I realize this may be hard for you to believe, but in a past life, we were known to partake in some 'munchie needing' activities every once in awhile. With that said, K-State and Funyuns were great a few years ago. Now they are played out and everyone is embarrassed to be associated with them. To put it bluntly; they are f---ing terrible.