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You might think the Monday Slate following a long weekend would be busy, but you're about to be sorely disappointed. But that provides the excuse to discuss something which became somewhat apparent while searching for scraps of news to provide you this fine summer day.
On a holiday weekend, a lot of sports news outlets will fall somewhat silent, and that was the case with many. Others, however, will desperately try and rope you in with rankings posts and other such opinion pieces -- most of which are actually more geared toward fomenting outrage than being legitimate attempts at expressing opinion.
The thing that stood out this morning, however, is that other sites will then take the opportunity to post articles about those sorts of posts, trying to get a reaction out of their readers. Well, let's be perfectly clear: we refuse to do that. ESPN is ranking its top 50 basketball coaches? Hey, we'll link it in the Slate when it's Bruce Weber's turn, but there are few things more banal and pointless than actually writing an article to discuss whether a bunch of guys in Connecticut have properly ranked our head coach when their ranking means somewhere south of absolutely nothing at all. It's not worth our time or effort to dignify that sort of content with a response, and it would be true whether ESPN didn't rank Weber at all or ranked him number one. Also, we're not that desperate for clicks.
And now that we've gotten that out of the way, on with our terribly bereft Slate.
BracketCat has been hard at work, as always this time of year. The countdown continues, with Thursday's profile of #58 Trent Tanking, Friday's look at this year's Mister Freedom and Liberty, #57 Colborn Couchman, #56 Alec Ruth on Saturday, and what I think is our first doubleheader on Sunday, starting with Cody Whitehair and concluding with the other #55, Isaiah Williams.
Derek also checked in with this week's preview-in-reverse, as he examined Oklahoma State. That's not all he's been up to, as he'll be dropping a post at 11am you won't want to miss; later in the afternoon Ahearn files another report on his doings down in the Southern Hemisphere.
Three former 'Cats are playing in NBA summer leagues. Shane Southwell is suiting up in Orlando for the Nets (along with Markel Brown, Donte Greene, Mason Plumlee, and Xavier Thames), Jordan Henriquez for the Knicks (alongside Tim Hardaway Jr, Cole Aldrich, and Cleanthony Early), and Rodney McGruder's getting a run under the Warriors banner with Nemanja Nedovic, Ognjen Kuzmic, Festus Ezili, Tyrus McGee, James Michael McAdoo, and that annoying white kid from Ohio State. Henriquez and McGruder will be playing in Las Vegas.
This doesn't mean anything, really, unless one of the guys gets a lot of playing time and really impresses the front office. But it's definitely a good experience, and an opportunity to play alongside some top-notch talent.
Neosho CC third baseman Connor Goedert was headed to K-State, where his father and brother had both played, but after being drafted in the 15th round by the Astros, he decided to grab the cash. Hey, we don't blame him. Bob Sutton has a profile of the new member of the Greenville Astros at milb.com. (Jared Goedert, meanwhile, is now playing for the Buffalo Bisons, Toronto's Triple-A farm team.)
In news that has absolutely nothing to do with Kansas State: remember last year when Salvador Perez, Alex Gordon, and Greg Holland all made the All-Star team, and it was really cool, and for an inning they actually made up one-third of the American League lineup? Well... Salvador Perez, Alex Gordon, and Greg Holland all made the All-Star team again this year, but the bad news is that there's pretty much no way they get to repeat last year's feat. The good news? They can't repeat it because starting catcher Matt Wieters is injured, so Perez has been named the starting catcher. This means that for the first time since 1991 the All-Star game will begin with a Kansas City Royal actually on the field (and the first time since 2000 a Royal is in the starting lineup).