The Ballad of Brady Quinn

Most of you probably don't want to feel sorry for Brady Quinn.

After all, he's your typical 'pretty boy' who's making money for, at this point, doing more or less nothing. He's dating a hot former soccer player from Miami (OH). He's a member of his hometown team and probably the most universally liked backup QB of any NFL team's.

But that's the problem - he's a backup QB.

After drafting Brady with a first-round pick they acquired from Dallas in the 2007 draft, Cleveland was stunned to see Derek Anderson explode onto the scene as a viable QB in 2007. Anderson completed 56 percent of his passes for nearly 3,800 yards and 29 TDs to go with 19 interceptions and nearly led the Browns to their first playoff berth in nearly a decade. Quinn played one series in the final game of the season when Anderson was momentarily injured and threw a TD pass that was dropped by Kellen Winslow.

Anderson subsequently signed a 3-year contract extension with Cleveland and Romeo Crennel, the coach whose job Anderson probably saved last year, has been adamant that there is no QB competition this season, although don't tell that to Quinn. Anderson's lack of success at the college or NFL level prior to last season would seem to be evidence (along with his somewhat unsettling amount of interceptions in 2007) that he's a flash in the pan. Maybe something clicked for him, or maybe he was in the right place at the right time. We find out this fall.

Quinn should be used to being in the wrong place at the wrong time by now. After verbally committing to Notre Dame as soon as they showed interest (which they didn't do until fellow Notre Dame commit Chinedum Ndukwe's father convinced then-coach Tyrone Willingham that Quinn might be ok - sharp guy, that Tyrone), Quinn was forced into the starting job early in his career due to a total collapse by previous Irish QB Carlyle Holiday. Quinn's debut is notable in that he threw a Notre Dame-record 63 passes against Purdue, in a game the Irish lost, and that he was smoked over and over again by Purdue defenders treating the ND o-line like a sieve.

It is also notable that Quinn never mentioned this fact when asked questions afterwards.

In fact, in four years Quinn never complained about poor protection, even when his still-horrid-after-all-these-years offensive line probably cost him a Heisman Trophy - and his team a shot at the national title - in a horrifyingly awful display against Michigan his senior year in 2006.

He never complained about being given the absurd label of 'can't win the big game' despite performing very well against USC in 2005, and despite the fact that his defense allowed 47, 44 and 44 points in the 'only the almighty media can decide what is a big game' big games that ND played against Michigan, USC and LSU in 2006.

He never complained that Ohio State QB Troy Smith got a Heisman ahead of him basically because his team was good enough to not lose a game with him at QB (nor about finishing 3rd behind Darren McFadden, voted ahead of him mostly because SEC writers always assume that the best player in the SEC is the best player in football), and he never snarkily mentioned that the only game the entire season that Smith faced significant pressure - the national title game against Florida - Smith played one of the most god-awful games in the history of the QB position.

He's never complained about being taken behind JaMarcus Russell in 2007, whose most prodigious talent, so far as I have seen, is throwing long passes to wide open receivers who have slow DBs beaten by at least three steps. Nor has he wondered why Matt Ryan, who wasn't one-fifth the college QB Quinn was, got taken in the top five mainly because he threw a ridiculously ill-advised pass against Virginia Tech that was miraculously caught by one of his receivers.

None of this is brought up when talking about Quinn, who is by turns known as A.J. Hawk's brother-in-law, the most overrated college football player of all time, or gay, if you believe some bloggers.

Perhaps I'm trying too hard to make you feel sorry for Quinn.

But considering the mainstream opinion of him, maybe you should.

7/12/08: Got a Hard-on for Harden

Rich Harden made his Cubs debut today. And it was beautiful. 5 1/3 innings pitched, 5 hits, 3 walks, 10 strikeouts, and the beautiful goose-egg next to runs. The Cubs led 7-0 when he left the game, after a strikeout with men on 1st and 2nd. At no point, it seemed, were any Cubs fans worried that Harden might not succeed. He overmatched hitters with an array of fastballs and changeups that bordered on the ridiculous. He even dialed it up to 98 mph to get one K. He was everything that he was advertised to be.

However, the game, as is usually the case at Wrigley, was not over.

The Cubs gave up 2 evidently meaningless runs in the 8th, then Lou Piniella - who evidently thinks every game needs a dose of Marmolade - served up Carlos Marmol once again in the 9th. Marmol leads the world in innings by a reliever, mostly thanks to Piniella's fear of using anyone else. And I do mean anyone.

This would be fine if Marmol were currently as good as he was in April and May. He isn't. He gave up 5 runs, all in increasingly ugly fashion. At one point, Marmol fell down while attempting to make a pick at first base on an attempted double play. That didn't work. He booted a routine grounder into foul territory on another play. On still another, shortstop Ryan Theriot tried to get on ESPN by throwing to second base from his back after fielding a hot shot. He threw it ten feet over second baseman Mike Fontenot's head for the tying runs.

Somehow, Marmol managed to get out of the inning before the go-ahead runs scored. I missed how because of my heart attack.

After being escorted back to the apartment for the free frames, I saw Sean Marshall, who at one point was ready to go in the 9th and should have been put in, pitch the 10th and the 11th flawlessly. I saw Marshall lead off the 11th with a single, I saw Mark DeRosa coax a walk to get him to scoring position, and then I saw Piniella attempt to lose the game once again by sacrifice bunting with Fontenot, who only has been on base roughly 82 straight times at the plate. With a pitcher at second, he was naturally thrown out at third, basically wasting an out.

When Reed Johnson, who sports an OPS below .700 for the year against righthanders, stepped to the plate, I immediately attempted a reverse jinx by announcing that there was no chance at all that Johnson came through. Lo and behold...

So now the Cubs are 57-37 - best record in baseball. They have unequivocally the best rotation in the NL (Zambrano, Harden, Dempster, Lilly and Marquis, with Rich Hill seemingly on his way back from his mental breakdown early on), though with Brandon Webb and Dan Haren in the same league, the title of 1/2 punch - which means everything in a short series - is up for grabs.

But I'd go into battle with that group of 25 any day.

Yeah. That Just Happened.

The Cubs acquired Rich Harden today, along with "6th starter" Chad Gaudin.

The Cubs gave up Matt Murton, Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, and minor league catcher Josh Donaldson.

The move came just a couple of hours before CC Sabathia made his debut for the Brewers, having been acquired a couple of days before. Harden will make his Cubs debut either Friday or Saturday, and is the owner of a 2.34 ERA this season in 9 starts.

Game on, NL Central