Michigan Football and Hockey Each Lose a Player

It was announced today that Sophomore Forward, Max Pacioretty has signed a three-year deal with the Montreal Canadians. Patch won CCHA Freshman of the year last year with 15 goals and 24 assists. He was fifth among freshman nationally with 39 points. Pacioretty was expected to step up and help fill the scoring void left from departing Hobey Baker winner, Kevin Porter.

The football team will be without the services of Marques Slocum who will not return in the fall due to academic reasons. Slocum went to JUCO for a year and then spent a year here at U of M to make himself NCAA eligible but apparently that didn't last. This is not a huge surprise to me, considering Slocum has forgotten his U of M ID card at least two or three times in the West Quad Cafeteria over the last year. Slocum is also playing pick up basketball just about every day in the CCRB which now makes a lot more sense.

Michigan Man Leads US Open

After the first round of play, Justin Hicks was tied for the lead in the US Open at Torrey Pines. Seven birdies led Hicks to a -3 day and a share of the lead with Kevin Streelman. A slew of others sit a stroke back at -2.

Hicks is from Riverview, Michigan and played collegiate golf at the University of Michigan.

Some other notable scores:

RK	PLAYER
T7	Ernie Els	-1
T7	Lee Westwood	-1
T12	Luke Donald	E
T12	Phil Mickelson	E
T12	Vijay Singh	E
T19	Tiger Woods	+1
T31	Adam Scott	+2
T64	Trevor Immelman	+4

UPDATE: Some guy named Tiger has officially taken over.

Cleveland Indians Love the Maize and Blue

Cleveland's obsession with Michigan players continued today as they added Adam Abraham (13th round, 411 overall) and Nate Recknagel (19th round, 591 overall). This makes three Wolverines for the Indians as they also drafted Zach Putnam yesterday in the fifth round. Somehow the Indians did not draft Jason Christian as he went to the Oakland A's 17 slots higher than Putnam.

The Indians now have the Big 10 pitcher of the year in Putnam as well as the Big 10 player of the year in Recknagel.

Christian and Putnam are both good as gone with these quotes from Putnam in today's Ann Arbor News, "I am very confident that the Indians and I will be able to work something out, because I'm looking forward to playing for them. The Indians are in a very small group of organizations I've been told are the best in the business, and so obviously it was a thrill for my family and me when they picked me."

I would guess that Abraham leaves as well, as last year Pickens gave up his final year of collegiate eligibility and signed with the Indians even though he was drafted in the 50th round. Abraham says he will consider Cleveland's offer but if it isn't appealing, he will go play in the Cape Cod League this summer and return to Michigan for his senior year.

Putnam Selected by Indians, Christian by the Athletics in 5th round

Apparently the Cleveland Indians like Michigan grads, as they selected Zach Putnam with the 171st pick in this year's Major League Baseball entry draft, only one year after they selected Doug Pickens from the University of Michigan. Putnam dropped further than many had predicted, and speculation will most likely exist around the University about whether he will now come back for his senior season.

On a sour note, MLB.com has no idea who Zach Putnam is. First of all, they have him listed "Steven Putnam." Second of all, they wrote the following about him:

Comments: Some see him as a pitcher, others as a hitter. He's got raw power in either spot. On the mound, he's got the potential to throw three to four quality pitches, though he'll have to correct some flaws in his delivery first. Those issues have caused some command issues, though scouts remained intrigued about the potential.

Zach Putnam is a middle round prospect as a hitter, to be completely frank. From the plate, he had a good year, not a great year, in a bad baseball conference. As a pitcher, he had a great year and has a world-class performance (one-hitter against Oregon St. in last year's Super Regional) under his belt. He was picked by the Indians to be groomed as a pitcher, and nobody thinks that he's being drafted to hit the baseball.

Interesting that fellow Junior, Jason Christian was drafted higher than Putnam. Christian went at pick # 154 to Oakland. I think that this means Christian is gone for sure, Putnam...we'll have to wait and see. He was drafted out of high school and turned that down. I think he goes pro because how much better can he get? He was 9-0, Big 10 Pitcher of the year...I think his performance is peaked and he knows he can't improve much statistically so he goes and joins the Indians organization.

Next to go from Michigan:
Adam Abraham (3b/p?)
Nate Recknagel (1b)

Abraham had a tremendous season, hitting around .350. He did not pitch much this season, but was named the closer before the year started and threw 35 innings with a 3.52 ERA last year.

Recknagel was one of the most prolific hitters in the country hitting around .400 for much of the year before a late slump dropped him to .370. Nate set the Michigan single season record for homer runs with 23. The Big 10 player of the year suffered a wrist injury in last week's regional against Kentucky which could drop him a bit in the draft.

Also, I noticed that MLB.com also messed up Kentucky's Sawyer (not Swain) Carroll. They need to get their act together and get the names right!

UPDATE: Apparently MLB was right, Putnam's real name is Steven Zachary McGuire Putnam.
UPDATE #2: And I guess the MLB is the MLB for a reason. Swain Sawyer Carroll it is.

Chris Graham Signs with the Saints

Yesterday, the New Orleans Saints agreed to a contract with former U of M linebacker, Chris Graham. Graham was a four-year letterman and two year starter for the Wolverines. Graham finished his career at Michigan with 92 tackles, 1 sack, and 11 TFL