Another thing that makes watching professional golf so compelling for me is that I play the game. Those of you who have seen my game and are snickering now can stop. I never said I played it well but I do play. And that helps me appreciate the efforts of these pros. Plus, Redstone's Tournament course is public. You can play on the same surface as Sergio and Phil. You cannot take batting practice at Minute Maid park, shoot free throws at Toyota Center or catch passes at Reliant Stadium.

I've gotten a lot of feedback on my comment on Denver blowing it in the Cutler deal. Orton is no Cutler. He's not a franchise QB. So picks don't do much in the short term to make you prounounce Denver as a possible playoff team in '09. A talent infusion on defense with a happy, never-shopped Cutler would have at least given them a chance to win a relatively weak division.

Tennessee was in the hunt for Cutler? Say what? Think about the drama surrounding these QBs from the class of '06. If Cutler had ended up with the team that passed him up for Vince it would have been a horror story for #10. You should be happy that Cutler didn't end up in Nashville. They took a big hit on defense with the loss of Haynesworth but Cutler would have made them that much more dangerous offensively to compensate. As is they will be good but right now you can't say they look better than they did going into last year.

Everywhere I go there is doom and gloom about the Astros. They need too many things to break right to consider this a contending campaign. But no one should be surpirsed if they hang around long enough to make this exciting in September. Milwaukee has pitching issues. The Cards are filled with question marks. And the Cubs have a way of staying in striking distance despite having the most talent in the division. One of the starting pitchers will either have injury or performance issues and maybe we see some one like Jose Cappellan or, much later, Bud Norris help out. The bullpen is solid. You know they have firepower but aren't you at least a wee bit concerned about the low OBP potential of Michael and Kaz?

The Final Four is here but the biggest college story of the week was Cal to Kentucky. He stole the ink for a good 48 hours. I like UConn beating 'Nova in the final. I'm starting to get a distinct Larry King in USA Today vibe from this post so I'll check out until the weekend heats up.