By G. Emrich

- I’d like to thank Michael Lombardi for joining the noticeably small group of Andy Reid critics in the national media.  He calls Reid “the all-time worst game manager” in his most recent column- Lombardi.  We at The Daily Bark would like to commend Michael Lombardi for not having his head so far up Andy Reid’s posterior that he can’t point out the obvious.  He also takes on Brad Childress in the article for his timeout usage in Thursday’s opener against the Saints, but missed a great opportunity to further tie it into Reid by forgetting that Reid did the exact same thing against Oakland last year under even more dubious circumstances (it’s a miracle my TV survived that blunder).  Anyway, Lombardi is promising us an entire article devoted to Reid’s horrendous history as a game manager.  We’re going to hold you to it, Lombardi, 20,000 word minimum.

-  Speaking of the national media, time to take a shot at Peter King.  King, like many writers with a sterling reputation, is in fact an excellent writer.  But as is usually the case with writers like King, you should pretty much ignore anything he writes that involves him evaluating games, players, coaching etc.  His most recent blunder, predicting successful years for both Matt Moore and Alex Smith in his NFL preview column.  How he watched either of those quarterbacks during the preseason and came away thinking anything other than “uh oh” is beyond me.

-  I have always prided myself in being able to judge speed, predict 40 times within a tenth of a second or so, that kind of thing.  I, along with apparently 100% of the NFL scouts currently working, was thus absolutely shocked when Dexter McCluster ran an extremely pedestrian 4.58 at the NFL combine before the draft.  It seems everyone was expecting a high 4.3 or low 4.4 from the Ole Miss do everything, I’m a smaller version of Percy Harvin, playmaker.  I haven’t been that surprised by a 40 time ever, ever, ever.  The odd thing was that it looked like he was running faster, and I went so far as to entertain the possibility that a NFL team who was lusting after McCluster had rigged the official clock.  I am now more seriously entertaining that preposterous theory after McCluster returned a punt 94 yards for a touchdown this past weekend.  You can check it out here-  Video.  You tell me, does that look like a 4.58 40 guy to you?

-  Poor Bob Sanders.  He makes Fred Taylor look like an iron man. 

-  Lastly, Kyle Drabek, who was the centerpiece of the Halladay trade with Toronto, made his major league debut last night.  Here’s a quick scouting report for those who are interested in these kinds of things.  Mid 90’s fastball with occasional wicked late sinker action, probably throws a two-seamer and a four-seamer.  Hard, tight slider, 88-91 mph.  Hard, nasty curveball, low to mid 80’s.  And what they’re calling a changeup, mid 80’s with nasty late downward movement.  I would almost describe it as a power changeup, despite how odd that sounds.  Bottom line, four plus pitches, plenty of movement, compact, controlled delivery, going to be good.  My only worry would be how his elbow is going to hold up.  The spin rate on his slider and curveball is crazy.  That’s a lot of torque, maybe too much.  We’ll see.