Anchor Drop, June 30, 2018: 63 Days

Good morning.

The Anchor Drop is back. I’m not gonna lie: I’ve been blowing this off because there just hasn’t been a whole lot going on since baseball season ended, aside from a few football commitments. By the way, there were a couple more of those on Thursday: Madison (AL) James Clemens DL Daevion Davis (the high school teammate of QB commit Jamil Muhammad) and Whitehaven ATH Devin Boddie. That increases the number to nine, and Vanderbilt’s recruiting class is now ranked 56th in the country in the 247 Sports composite (and is currently staring down at Arkansas and Missouri in the SEC.)

Let’s talk about that for a moment: that’s acceptable, assuming that the class ends up somewhere in the 40-50 range once it’s filled out. No, that’s not Alabama, but the difference between the number 50 recruiting class and the number 25 recruiting class isn’t actually that great. It’s the kind of recruiting you can get by with if you’re good at evaluation and development. (Yes, you have your own thoughts about that. Leave them in the comments.)

In other news: Simi Shittu’s rehab sounds like it’s going well, though nobody’s putting a timetable on it, Bryce Drew hopes he’ll be ready by November. That sounds reasonable: the ACL tear happened in January.

Kyle Shurmur’s been down in Louisiana at the Manning Passing Academy.

Off the West End

LeBron James opts for free agency. SB Nation’s Mike Prada points out that aside from the Cavaliers (who have Bird rights), the only two teams that can realistically sign LeBron are the Lakers and the 76ers. The former would have to be an attempt to create a super team out of thin air, with somebody like Paul George or Kawhi Leonard joining the Lakers as well (somehow.) The latter would be fun: LeBron would join a strong young core that includes Joel Embiid and BEN SIMMONS (!)

The World Cup is into the knockout stage. Today, France plays Argentina at 9 AM, God’s time, and Uruguay faces Portugal at 1 PM. SB Nation considers the latter to be the least watchable match of the Round of 16.

The Dodgers optioned Walker Buehler to the minors after a rough outing on Thursday.

Sonny Gray faces Chris Sale and the Red Sox at 6:15 PM tonight.