Monday Trends and Indexes 2/16 (NCAAB, NHL, Misc.)

[Udog]

Monday's six-pack

We're going to go thru every big league team and give you six of the top minor league prospects-- we start with the Diamondbacks......

-- Jarrod Parker, P-- Went 12-5 in first professional season.

-- Gerardo Parra, OF-- .319 hitter in four minor league seasons.

-- Daniel Schlereth, P-- Son of ESPN NFL analyst Mark Schlereth.

-- Mark Hallberg, 2B-- Will move up to AA level this season.

-- Wade Miley, P-- 102 IP in college LY, 11 more at Class A level.

-- Kevin Eichhorn, P-- Son of former big league reliever Mark.

[Udog]

Monday's List 13: Random thoughts on President's Day...........

13) No NFL team is going to trade a draft pick for Michael Vick-- if the Falcons release him, someone will take a chance, but the public relations hit will be big. This will be an interesting situation to follow.

12) If the Suns fired Terry Porter, shouldn't they can Steve Kerr on the same day? Who has done more to screw up the Suns than Kerr? He took a fun team that won 58 games a year and turned them into an old team that right now would miss the playoffs-- well done.......

11) Brutal week for Northwestern hoops; they blew the Illinois game when they had ball up six with 1:19 left, then lost to Michigan in OT Sunday. Very difficult week for team that has never been in NCAAs.

10) Penguins were in Stanley Cup Finals last year; Sunday, they fired their coach. So much for loyalty. Of course, Chicago fired its coach in the second week of the season, so hockey might be little different......

9) Jets have to give Packers 3rd-round pick for Brett Favre; they can not trade Favre's rights to Minnesota, unless they give Packers three first round picks, which has zero chance of happening.

8) After watching Daytona 500 Sunday, I'm happy I don't drive to work on the same route as Dale Earnhardt-- he wiped out eight cars with one ill-timed move on Lap 124. What a way to make a living.

7) NFL Combine starts Wednesday, but Matthew Stafford will not throw, and Michael Crabtree won't run- they're preserving their draft position. I'm still skeptical on Crabtree as a sure thing.

6) The worst TV show on the air is Millionaire Matchmaker; if you are that rich and can't find a woman on your own, you're a complete disaster. Hooking up with some golddigger ain't going to help.

5) K-Rod says the Mets are team to beat in NL East, which is great, they might wind up winning the division, but this just in-- Phils won the World Series LY, and also won the division in 2007. They are the team to beat, and until someone does, they own the NL East.

4) According to ESPN's scouting guru Todd McShay, eight of last 11 college QBs who left school early for the NFL have been flops.

3) Tyrese Rice of Boston College went over 2,000 career points in Eagles' win over Duke Sunday night. Thats an awful lot of points.

2) I'm no fan of the NBA All-Star Game, or of the NBA in general, it is a league that promotes the individual at the expense of the teams. Just think they'd do better if they promoted their teams more.

1) One example of why I like college ball better--Stanford led by 22 at Cal Saturday, but the Cal students kept cheering, kept making noise, and Bears cut lead to 14 at half, then won game in last 5:00, thanks in large part to the enthusiasm of the crowd. An NBA crowd would be booing the home side off the court if they were down 22 in first half.

College basketball is more about the team than the individual, which is why I like it better. Obviously the NBA has better players, but an NBA team can't win without superstar players, its set up that way.