CLOSED!! ? The Official 2006 Sports Thread ? CLOSED!!

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/colleges/16222547.htm

Boston College senior offensive lineman Josh Beekman was named to the Associated Press All-American first team today.

 

The Patriots today announced the release of WR Doug Gabriel. Gabriel, acquired during training camp from the Oakland Raiders for a fifth-round draft choice, had caught 25 passes for 344 yards and 3 TDs this season, but his role was significantly reduced after losing a fumble against the New York Jets on Nov. 12.

In Red Sox news, outfielder Gabe Kapler, a member of the 2004 championship team and fan favorite, announced his retirement as a player and has accepted a job with the Red Sox organization as manager of the South Atlantic League's (Single A) Greenville (SC) Drive. He replaces Luis Alicea, who recently joined the major league staff as first base and infield coach.

 

This week's power rankings:

ESPN: #8
CBS SportsLine: #6
Fox Sports: #7
Sports Illustrated: #8
Football Outsiders: #9

Dr. Z @ SI makes this observation: "Ben Watson's leg injury is a major concern...(cont.) The offense is in enough disarray after Miami undressed it. Losing Watson for any length of time would make things a lot worse."

 

Red Sox news...

Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and agent Scott Boras are en route to Boston at press time, meaning a deal is either done or very close to being done. SI.com's Jon Heyman reports that the deal is for six years and a total of $52M guaranteed, with escalator clauses similar to those in Curt Schilling's contract that could push the total to $60M.

Tony Massarotti, in the Herald's Red Sox blog, reports that backup catcher Doug Mirabelli will return in 2007, inking a one-year deal.

 

This week's injury report:

Texans

Out: FB Jameel Cook (knee)
Doubtful: FS C.C. Brown (foot)
Probable: C Drew Hodgdon (foot), WR Jerome Mathis (groin), DE Anthony Weaver (knee), DE Mario Williams (foot)

Cook, Brown, and Mathis were reported by the Texans to have missed portions of team practice.

Patriots

Out: LB Don Davis (knee), RB Patrick Pass (hamstring)
Doubtful: S Rodney Harrison (shoulder)
Questionable: LB Eric Alexander (shoulder), S Rashad Baker (thigh), TE Daniel Graham (ankle), CB Ellis Hobbs (wrist), WR Chad Jackson (groin), RB Laurence Maroney (back), OT Ryan O'Callaghan (neck), TE Benjamin Watson (knee), NT Vince Wilfork (ankle), DL Mike Wright (shoulder)
Probable: QB Tom Brady (right shoulder), LB Corey Mays (hamstring), DL Richard Seymour (elbow)

Brady, Mays, and Seymour were the only players not reported to have missed portions of team practice. In addition, Davis and Pass have been placed on IR, ending their seasons.

Pass, Watson, Wilfork, and Wright are the new names on the report from last week. Harrison, listed as out last week, has been upgraded to doubtful.

Other late Patriots news...

OL Gene Mruczkowski was re-signed to the active roster. Also, the Patriots have signed free agent TE O.J. Santiago, who last saw action in a regular season game with the 2003 Oakland Raiders.

WR Doug Gabriel, who was released by the Patriots yesterday, has been claimed off of waivers by his old team, the Oakland Raiders.

 

Red Sox 3B Mike Lowell was named "Defensive Player of the Year" in fan balloting for the 2006 "This Year in Baseball Awards" on MLB.com. Other Red Sox doing well were Jonathan Papelbon (2nd for "Rookie of the Year") and David Ortiz (4th for "Hitter of the Year"). The list of nominees and winners in each category (along with descriptions and video highlights) is available from http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/awards/y2006/tyib/index.jsp

 

Theo Epstein confirmed today that a deal has been reached with Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Japanese star has passed his physical, and the contract gained MLB approval. Matsuzaka is expected to be introduced @ a 5 PM press conference @ Fenway Park, and he will do a ceremonial drop of the puck @ the Bruins game tonight.

 

This is not good...the just-signed O.J. Santiago is on the injury report for the Patriots today...questionable with a foot injury, and he missed portions of practice.

The Texans reported that the following players missed portions of practice today: FB Jameel Cook (out, knee), FS C.C. Brown (doubtful, foot), WR Jerome Mathis (probable, groin), DE Anthony Weaver (probable, knee), DE Mario Williams (probable, foot)

 

This tidbit from the Matsuzaka press conference: he will wear #18, Johnny Damon's old number!

 

The Red Sox made a couple of moves to bolster the bullpen today, shipping minor-league lefty starter Phil Seibel to the Angels for right-handed setup man Brendan Donnelly, a member of the Angels' championship team in 2002. Although Donnelly has been a setup man for most of his career with the Angels, he is a candidate to be converted to the closer's role for the Red Sox. They also signed another situational lefty, J.C. Romero, who was last with the Angels, to a one-year deal.

 

The Patriots today released TE O.J. Santiago, just two days after signing him. Santiago injured his foot on Thursday.

No other changes to the injury report were announced by either the Patriots or the Texans today.

 

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2006/12/sox_add_obrien.html

The Red Sox and Entercom announced that Jerry Trupiano, long-time partner of Joe Castiglione on Red Sox radio broadcasts, will not be returning next season. Trupiano will be replaced mainly by Dave O'Brien, a Quincy native who was on the Florida Marlins' original broadcast team, and has recently been doing play-by-play on ESPN major league telecasts, as well as being the lead voice on ESPN's World Cup soccer coverage. When O'Brien has ESPN commitments, Glenn Geffner, the Red Sox' VP of communications, will join Castiglione for the radio broadcast.

 

UMass ran into a tough Appalachian St. Mountaineer team last night in Chattanooga, and the Mountaineers handed the Minutemen a 28-17 loss in the Division 1-AA title game. Appalachian St. became the first team to repeat as 1-AA champion since Georgia Southern in 1999-2000.

 

Tony Massarotti reports in the Herald that the reason outfielder J.D. Drew's contract has not been officially announced yet may be because of a problem with Drew's physical. Massarotti said that the Red Sox are trying to work with agent Scott Boras to insert language into Drew's contract to give the Red Sox some recourse in the event the "red flag" becomes a major problem.

 

They would be stupid not to try and protect themselves with J.D. Drew. With the amount of $$$ that they are going to give him the last thing that they need is to be stuck with a player that can't play and still have to pay him for doing nothing.

As for the Pats, it's good to see them back on a positive track after their crushing win against the Texans yesterday. Sure... Houston isn't a very good team but the win helps to build a momentum in the locker room that the team will need going on the road to Jacksonville next week.

 

I was at the Patriots game yesterday, which was my first Pats game ever. I had seen live high school football games, and I had forgotten how much you miss watching games on TV. The Kevin Faulk screen pass TD was a great case in point...when he caught the pass and turned upfield, I could see just how much running room he had and all of the blockers ahead of him.

 

I've been fortunate to have had the chance to go to a few Pats games, the most memorable was a game against Philly where I sat in the 1st row just off of the goal line !!! It's not easy to get a ticket to a Pats or Sox game but if you can do it it's always worth it. Even if the team loses it's still worth the experience of being there.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2701480

Sources close to the Green Bay Packers and Boston College have told ESPN's Joe Schad that Packers offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski will be named the new head football coach at Boston College. According to the Associated Press, Jagodzinski will be officially introduced at a press conference on Wednesday. BC athletic director Gene DiFilippo could not be reached for comment.

 

Michael Felger's report card

The running backs and defensive line got a B and the receivers got a C, but other than those, everyone else got at least an A-. Felger said it was easily the first complete, "team" game the Patriots have played at home this season.

 

The National Football League unveiled the 2007 Pro Bowl rosters today (click here for the AFC roster), and Richard Seymour is the only Patriot representative. I believe strong cases could've been made for Ty Warren, Asante Samuel, and Larry Izzo (who led the fan balloting at the AFC special team position), but none of those players were selected. The San Diego Chargers led the AFC with 9 Pro Bowl selections.

 

In late Patriots news today, punter Ken Walter was placed on the injured reserve list with a foot injury. Walter joins Josh Miller as Patriots punters on IR. A replacement for Walter could be named as early as tomorrow unless the Patriots decide to try out more than one punter during practice this week.

 

Posting the power rankings earlier than usual b/c I noticed that they were all up this morning (and some, like ESPN's, are done on Tuesday)...

ESPN: #5
CBS SportsLine: #5
Fox Sports: #5
Sports Illustrated: #5
Football Outsiders: #5

Everyone seems to be in agreement that the Patriots are a top 5 team, with even Football Outsider's DVOA statistical formula coming into agreement with the "experts" after the Pats' romp vs. Houston. ESPN offers an encouraging comment this week: "Sounds like Rodney Harrison is getting closer to coming back. He'll give the defense (and the whole team) a big boost."

 

This week's injury report:

Patriots

Out: P Ken Walter (knee-IR)
Questionable: LB Eric Alexander (shoulder), S Rashad Baker (thigh), RB Kevin Faulk (knee), S Rodney Harrison (shoulder), RB Laurence Maroney (back), OT Ryan O'Callaghan (neck), TE Benjamin Watson (knee), NT Vince Wilfork (ankle), DL Mike Wright (shoulder)
Probable: QB Tom Brady (right shoulder), CB Ellis Hobbs (wrist), DL Richard Seymour (elbow)

The players listed as out and questionable were reported to have missed portions of "team" practice.

Jaguars

Questionable: DT Tony McDaniel (hip), RB Fred Taylor (hamstring)
Probable: CB Ahmad Carroll (groin), LB Jorge Cordova (hamstring), P Chris Hanson (left hamstring), RB Maurice Jones-Drew (knee), G Vince Manuwai (calf), RB Montel Owens (head), DT Marcus Stroud (ankle), RB Derrick Wimbush (ankle)

McDaniel, Taylor, and Stroud were reported to have missed portions of "team" practice.

Walter and Faulk are the additions to the injury report for the Patriots from last week. LB Corey Mays (probable with a hamstring injury last week) was removed from the report. There are two upgrades: Harrison from doubtful to questionable, and Hobbs from questionable to probable.

In other Patriots news, DB James Patrick and P Tom Malone were signed to the practice squad. The biggest of the signings is Malone, as he joins Danny Baugher to compete for the punter's job in practice this week. Malone won 2 national titles in his time at USC, and was a two-time semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award, given annually to the nation's best college punter.

 

No changes to the injury report for the Patriots today.

The Jaguars reported that RB Fred Taylor (questionable, hamstring) again missed portions of practice today. D-linemen Tony McDaniel (questionable, hip) and Marcus Stroud (probable, ankle) were not reported to have missed any practice time today after missing portions yesterday.

In Celtics news, captain Paul Pierce will miss the next 2-3 weeks with what's termed as a stress reaction in his left foot. He apparently suffered the injury last Friday in the win against the Denver Nuggets, but has been playing through the pain through last night's loss against the Golden State Warriors. He was seen at practice today wearing a protective boot and did not work out with the team.

 

Only one change to either injury report today: the Jaguars have downgraded RB Fred Taylor, who was listed as questionable with a hamstring injury on Wednesday and Thursday, to out. Rookie Maurice Jones-Drew is expected to start on Sunday in Taylor's place.

The Patriots have signed punter Todd Sauerbrun after working him out this morning. The veteran has been to three Pro Bowls in his 12 year career (2001-2003), and has the highest net punting average in the league (37.3 yds.) from 2000-2005. However, he does have something of a checkered past. He was at the center of the Carolina Panthers' steroid controversy in 2003, with records showing that he had a prescription with a reputed steroid distributor. He was also cut by the Denver Broncos earlier this season after serving a four-game suspension for testing positive for the banned supplement ephedra in minicamp. When asked about the latter matter, head coach Bill Belichick would only say, "It was a league issue."