SDS Mailbag: Difficult sports ‘would you rather’ questions, documentary talk and the 2020 MLB Draft

If not for the COVID-19 pandemic, the College World Series would begin in Omaha tomorrow (Saturday, June 13). Instead, we continue to make our way through a mostly sportsless world.

It’s safe to say there’d probably be at least 2 SEC teams in the field. Vanderbilt was looking absolutely loaded this year with Austin Martin, Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter, to name only a few. There’s a chance that team could have repeated as champions.

Then there were teams like Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Auburn, Ole Miss, Tennessee and LSU that were in the Top 25 and looking like potential title challengers, too.

It’s a shame that we didn’t get to see how this year played out, but it’s also a good bet that the SEC will be just as stacked next spring.

For now, let’s get to your questions for this week’s Mailbag:

Robert:

Would you sacrifice every other sport (NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, NFL, PGA, NASCAR, WTA, etc.) for college football to be played on time and in full this season?

Wow, getting started with an all-time tough question this week! It would be really tough for me to sacrifice baseball and the NFL, but it does seem as if baseball might sacrifice itself regardless of what I think.

Since I work in the college football business and we here at Saturday Down South would really appreciate having a college football season, I’d probably have to go ahead and make that deal. When you think about it, it’s not too crazy of a trade.

The NBA and NHL seasons have already lost a lot of steam. As mentioned before, the MLB situation is a mess. As popular as golf and NASCAR are, I’d bet a large portion of each fan base loves college football even more.

The tough one would be the NFL, but I’d make a college football-for-NFL trade in a heartbeat, so yeah, let’s sacrifice all these other sports so we can get college football back in our lives this fall!

@SChinni12:

Which season resumption (NBA, NHL or MLS) are you most excited for and why?

Wait, didn’t I just sacrifice all those other sports so we’d have college football? Oh, that was only hypothetical?

In that case, I’m going with the NBA. It is definitely going to be weird watching them play in smaller gyms without fans, but there are so many storylines worth keeping an eye on there. Can LeBron win another title? Can Kawhi steal that title for the Clippers? Is this the year Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks win it all?

In the NHL, I am excited to watch the Blues again, and I think it’ll be a more normal viewing experience. Yes, I’ll miss the fans there, but the rink will likely still look the same on TV, unlike the smaller gyms for the NBA.

I’m not interested in the MLS at all. I do like soccer, and am very excited for the English Premier League to come back, but the MLS just doesn’t do anything for me.

To be honest, though, just give me more live sports on TV and I’ll be happy.

@MichaelJtr8:

With all these new ESPN documentaries coming out about Michael Jordan, the home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, etc., is there another favorite moment from your childhood you’d like to see made into a documentary? (Mine would be the Monday Night Football game Brett Favre played after his dad passed away.)

Oh, that was a really good game! I still remember watching that one, when Favre absolutely destroyed the Oakland Raiders, throwing for 399 yards and 4 touchdowns while wearing his emotions on his sleeve.

Here’s a breakdown of that game if you don’t remember it:

If I had to pick another moment, though, I’d probably go with something also involving Favre. I’d want to do an in-depth look at the Aaron Rodgers-Brett Favre situation after Rodgers was drafted in 2005.

Rodgers sat behind Favre until 2008, when the Packers made him the starter and shipped Favre off to the New York Jets. Those 2 had a strained relationship for years. Now, Rodgers might be on the opposite side of the same situation after the Packers drafted Jordan Love in Round 1 of April’s draft.

That could make for some fascinating television.

@Dobbe8:

Which SEC player picked in Round 1 of the MLB Draft will be the first to make his pro debut?

The SEC had 6 players taken in the first round of the draft Wednesday night:

• Arkansas OF Heston Kjerstad (No. 2 overall)
• Texas A&M LHP Asa Lacy (No. 4 overall)
• Vanderbilt SS/3B Austin Martin (No. 5 overall)
• Georgia RHP Emerson Hancock (No. 6 overall)
• Tennessee LHP Garrett Crochet (No. 11 overall)
• Mississippi State 2B Justin Foscue (No. 14 overall)

Of those guys, I think it will be easiest for one of the pitchers to make his way through the farm system and reach the big leagues, so that leaves us with Lacy in the Kansas City Royals’ system, Hancock with the Mariners and Crochet with the White Sox.

I’m going to pick Lacy. He’s a big, sturdy lefty and can make batters miss. He had 130 strikeouts in 88.1 innings of work in 2019. He has 4 big-league ready pitches. Even if he doesn’t start right away, he’s a guy who could come get some experience out of the bullpen late in the season starting as soon as 2021, in my opinion.

Have a question for next week’s Mailbag? Tweet at us using #SDSMailbag or email me at ASpencer@SaturdayDownSouth.com.

Adam Spencer

Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.