As you may know, former Charger QB Ryan Leaf retired at the ripe old age of 25. This begs two questions:

1. What took him so long? The Spanos family gave him a boatload of money and he then married a cheerleader whose father is a prominent local financial hotshot. Leaf was taking a real risk in trying to compete with all those big, mean football players. Which might explain the complete lack effort on his part. You think?
2. On a more philosophical level, is it even possible for someone like Leaf to retire? The word "retire" generally implies that work has been done. And in Leaf’s case, it’s not so much that he stopped working as that he stopped trying to uphold the illusion of working. It must be a tremendous relief to him that he no longer has to pretend that he’s earning his money. And that’s good, because I’d hate to see him be stressed out and unable to enjoy his retirement.

And if it sounds like I’m bitter, well, that’s because I am. Leaf broke the hearts of a lot of Charger fans and, even worse, he gave false hope to those of us who aspire to attain great wealth at an early age so that we can then sit on our asses and do nothing for the rest of our lives. Thanks for nothing.

Okay, that’s out of the system. Back to the only sport that matters. Caught the Storm/JetHawks game last night. Mark Phillips struggled with his command. He walked only three batters in five innings (actually, all of them came in the three-run third) but he worked behind in the count all night and had trouble throwing his breaking ball for strikes. His velocity also appeared to be down a bit, into the 90-92 range.

Rehabbing Kevin Walker worked a perfect sixth, striking out one of the three batters he faced. His fastball was sitting in the low-90s and he threw some nice breaking pitches as well.

Marcus Nettles lined a couple of singles just over the third baseman’s head. Lancaster had him positioned in such a way that both balls reached the left fielder on just a couple of hops. I was hoping Nettles would yank one over first base, because with his wheels, he might have been able to go for an inside-the-park homer. But, I suppose there’s a reason they played him that way.

Jake Gautreau is back in the lineup. He singled and walked in four trips to the plate. Didn’t do anything to distinguish himself one way or another in the field.

Rough night for Khalil Greene. He walked once and fanned three times in four tries. He also was charged with an error in the fourth, which led to an unearned run. The ball came off the bat funny and appeared to change direction at the last moment, eluding Greene’s glove. It looked bad because the ball was headed right toward him, but the play was far from routine. A tough error to give, in my opinion.

We left after the eighth inning (it was evident that the Storm weren’t going to do anything and I was still recovering from the previous night’s gig), so we missed Rusty Tucker’s scoreless ninth. But we did hear about it on the drive home, and Storm broadcaster Sean McCall had him clocked at 97 MPH. Yummy.

Lancaster features some interesting players. Jesus Cota, playing left field, impressed again at the plate. He singled twice and walked in four plate appearances. His one out came on a fly ball to the wall in dead center against fellow lefty Walker. The kid has a good, short stroke and is now hitting .282/.330/.439. He also looked okay in left, making one nice running catch and showing a decent throwing arm.

Craig Ansman, a catcher by trade, got the start at DH to make room for 2002 2nd-round draft pick Chris Snyder, who went hitless in four at-bats but who made a strong throw to nail Nettles trying to steal second early in the game. Snyder had a good defensive reputation coming out of the University of Houston and is hitting the ball well so far in the pros (.283/.352/.500 in 106 AB).

Fellow 2002 draftee Brian Barden, a third baseman out of Oregon State, was taken in the 6th round. Drawing comparisons to Ron Cey and David Bell, Barden collected two hits in five trips to the plate and is hitting .326/.365/.550 in his pro debut.

The two other intriguing players are shortstop Joandry Berroa and center fielder Dwight Edge. I’m not sure why Berroa is playing in the Cal League. He’s listed as being 17 years old and he’s hitting just .222/.271/.262. Looks completely overmatched at the plate. The reason I call him intriguing is not so much for anything he’s done but because he raises the question of what are the Diamondbacks thinking in putting this kid in High-A ball? He has no business being there.

The other kid, Edge, fascinates me because he’s listed at 6’6″, 235 lbs. Basically he’s the biggest guy on the club. But he plays center, and he has absolutely zero power. He’s hitting .263/.333/.301, with just 10 extra base hits in 316 at-bats. How does a guy that big end up with an ISO of .038?

Anyway, I don’t think Berroa or Edge is considered much of a prospect, but I found them interesting. Maybe you will, too. That’s all for now…