40 Acres Sports

The Statesman is reporting that [tag]Bradley Suttle[/tag] signed with the Yankees over the weekend. I went looking for specifics but couldn’t find anything official. This alt.sports.baseball.ny-yankees post says that Kevin Goldstein is reporting a $1M deal. I’ll post more if I see it.

The Statesman post also says that Kyle Russell and Preston Clark have both indicated that they’ll be back. They still have two days to sign, though. The deadline is August 15th.

UPDATE. As of 2pm (Eastern) on Aug. 15th, the Yankees are saying that they have not signed Bradley to a deal. FYI. (Link.)

UPDATE #2. According to the Baseball America Draft Blog, Bradley and the Yankees have come to terms. Bonus: $1.3M (a record for a 4th round draft pick). Good for him. And, good luck to him. I’ll miss watching him play at Disch-Falk.

[Cross-posted to my baseball page.]

Vince Young benched for preseason opener for violating curfew. Spent the night at home instead of team hotel for some reason.

In case you want to know what is going on in the Big 12 this year, all you need to do is watch the following video. Kige Ramsey brings you a whopping 30 seconds of hilarity. I guess this guy is about 20 years old, but sounds like he is 40. If you listen to Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket in Dallas, then you may have already heard this today. Enjoy.

Interestingly enough, he is also a Tennessee Titans and Vince Young fan. He has plenty more hilarious segments, including some of my favorites after the jump.

(more …)

I’m not one to hang out on Aggie message boards but fortunately there are Texas fans that do and then point out the great ones. Chargee over at Orangebloods found this piece of comic gold on TexAgs’ football board…

WineberryovrGold:

Had an interesting conversation with my friend… He brought up the Ags by asking me how well I thought they would do this season. I told him I was very excited and beleived our team would finish with 10+ wins and a possible Big 12 championship. After hearing this he started to vehemently agree with my points, and even went so far as to say we had a decent chance of going undefeated. This really got me pumped up because he usually never gives A&M much respect, and he is usually right to not make any lofty predictions.

I can’t imagine a Texas fan on Hornfans or Orangebloods coming on and saying “hey my random friend thinks we’ll be good this year!!” Aggies have such a strange and sad longing for external validation, but I guess being little brother for most of the last 100 years will do that to you. And how exactly does one “vehemently agree” with a person? How in the world would that work?

Of course, like any thread on an A&M message board the responses to the original post are just as good:

BaronVonAggie:

We’re like a hot chick who doesnt realize how hot she is.

First off, no you aren’t. Aggies are more like the fat chick who every year claims she’s going to lose 100 pounds and get hot but when swimsuit season rolls around there she is still at a deuce and a half. And even if they were “the hot chick,” how exactly can you personally claim that you’re the hot chick who doesn’t know you’re hot? That’s like saying, “Not only am I the best looking person in the room, but I’m modest too.” It doesn’t work that way.

Aggie_Fanatic:

there is not a team on our schedule that we are not better than. Not only that but we will win convincingly against every team we play.

That’s a lot of confidence in a team that’s beaten one good team the last four years (unfortunately it was Texas) and struggled to get past teams like Army, Kansas and Baylor last season. The Kool-Aid in College Station must be even stronger this year, how else would someone come to the conclusion that they “honestly think we have a 33% chance to win the BCS Championship.” When is the last time the Aggies even finished the year in the top 25?

A&M will admittedly be better this year (though there’s still a lot of questions about their defense), but only an Aggie would make the leap from one 12-7 win over a team with an injured QB and a 35 point loss to an average Pac-10 team to undefeated and untested national champs. I love August.

Andre Jones released from jail, claims mistaken identity. He says he has an alibi, for his sake I hope he’s telling the truth.

25 college quarterbacks with something to prove in 2007. Colt McCoy makes an appearance at number 11.

[tag]James Russell[/tag] signed with the Cubs (Statesman link) for a $350K bonus. And, the Cubs will pay for 5 semesters of college. My guess is that the $350K is at least $250K more than the slot bonus guidelines set forth by Major League Baseball.

I have not heard any definitive news on Kyle Russell or Bradley Suttle. But, Bradley was drafted by the Yankees and it’s very likely they will offer him a bonus close to what he was hoping for before the draft (that is: 1st round money). The situation is not as clear regarding Kyle Russell. The fact that the Cubs went so far over the guidelines makes me rather nervous about Kyle’s chances of sticking around, though. To this point, the highest reported signing bonus for a 4th rounder is $225K. That’s $125 below James Russell’s bonus (and he was drafted in the 14th) so…

Who knows? I guess it all depends on how much the Cardinals really want him, eh?

UPDATE. I just did a little bit more research on slot signing bonus guidelines and found out that the MLB does not want anyone in post 5th-round positions to get more than an estimated $123K. All of the lower rounds (6th through 50th) fall in the same group. I thought it kept going down as you got further along but it doesn’t. So, James Russell’s bonus was about $227K over slot.

Just a few weeks after declaring [tag]John Chiles[/tag]’ career at quarterback over for the Longhorns based on a misinterpreted Mack Brown quote, the guys over at the AAS’ blog Bevo Beat have seen the light:

Mack has never accused Bevo Beat of being slow or contemplative or even a very good judge of football talent.

So, naturally, none of that will stop us from making the following declaration: John Chiles is a quarterback.

Yes, the very first practice of August has just wrapped up out at Denius Fields, and we watched Chiles throw all of a couple dozen passes. But that was enough to see that Chiles has a natural, fluid motion that results in a terrific ball flight with zip and accuracy. We already knew he was a great athlete with exceptional speed.

Chiles’ status as a potential backup quarterback is one of the more intriguing storylines of the fall. He’s a true freshman who, they say, is eager to get on the field this season. He might decide that his best shot in 2007 lies at receiver or kick returner, but he showed plenty of quarterback skills tonight.

It’s very early but it’s great news to hear Chiles is impressing at QB. There’s no doubt he’s athletic but he was only a full time quarterback for one season in high school so there was some question if he’d be able to play the position at this level. If he’s a QB all the way hopefully he’ll be able to redshirt this season and put a little more separation between himself and Colt McCoy and Sherrod Harris.

Photos from first day of fall practice. It’s been a very long summer, great to see the guys back at work.

I am pretty sure no one will ever be able to do what Vince did for Texas, but [tag]John Chiles[/tag] sure looks promising. Chiles speed is impressive and he can juke like a running back. Needless to say he needs to get some playing time in the near future.