Summer Series Quick Thoughts: Sporting vs. Manchester City

Next up at Barclay's New York Football Challenge is Manchester City vs. Sporting Lisbon.

Here are so quick thoughts:
• The thing with City is very simple, they now have a huge squad. Its going to take a couple of weeks for them to all get on the same page. Which could set them back.
• If Spurs are interested in Sporting Yannick Djalo the price went up a couple of million pounds with his first half performance.
• Jo's purple shoes are a thing of beauty.
• I don't get it, Stephen Ireland needs to play week in and week out for City. He is wasting away on the Citizens bench.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Summer Series Quick Thoughts: Spurs vs. Red Bulls

Spurs took on the New York Red Bulls in the first game of the Barclays New York Challenge.

Here are my quick thoughts:
• Henry looks like he still has it and will be great in MLS. Nice way to start for him scoring against an old North London rival.
• With Croatia not making the World Cup that should give the Spurs Croatian group a nice rest and allow them to be fresh for the season.
• Nice to see Modric and Henry exchange shirts after the first half.
• The Red Bulls defense is not the best.
• Seen Spurs twice already during the preseason and something is lack. I know its preseason but this might be a concern.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Professional Tailgating: Glory Glory United

So OTWT Tailgating Crew headed to Philly to see their favorite club team. Manchester United took on the Philadelphia Union. The game was one of the better friendlies I have seen in the last couple of years.

The Linc looked great

United newest signing Obama, it only cost them a couple of billion in stimulus funds.
United start their warm ups

Fred the Red has some fun before the match starts.


5 vs. 5 warm ups for United

The Chips are in Lakewood

The Phillies are struggling and some moves might need to be made. While the Phils might have dealt some of their best prospects away in the Halladay deal, there are still some really good prospects sitting in Lakewood. During the course of the last month, the OTWT scouting crew has had a chance to see them here is a little report on them.


Jonathan Singleton, 1b: Might be the most valuable prospect in the system with Howard being tied to first base for the next bunch of years, Singleton might be part of any deal for a pitcher. The only issue that I saw with him was the fact that he was not the greatest athlete and a move to the outfield might not be in the cards. According to Baseball America prospects book, Singleton was the 20th ranked prospect at the start of the season.




Jiwan James: The outfielder showed great speed and defense in the time that we saw him. Reminds me a little of Eric Davis in his body type, long and lean. A project at this point in time but could be a major part of any deal if a team falls in love with him. Baseball America had him ranked as the 11th best prospect in the system.


Sebastian Valle: currently playing catcher at Lakewood, so that adds some extra value to him. Thought he did a good job handling the pitchers the time I saw him. Baseball America had him ranked as 7th best prospects in the system.


Jonathan Pettibone: This is a guy that I really like during the start that I saw he threw his fastball around 93 mph with good movement. While not ranked by Baseball America, he could be a steal for a team looking for another good arm in a deal.


The BlueClaws also feature pitchers Brody Colvin and Jarred Cosart, who are both ranked in the top 15 in the system, that could be part of any deal. The day we saw the BlueClaws the scouts were out looking hard at all members of the team.