MVP - Vlad Guerrero, I've seen a bunch of people picking A-Hole on ESPN, I just don't think a Yankee is going to win this award, especially after last year when Jeter clearly was more valuable than Morneau. Look at the Angels roster, it has limited power, if the Angels make the playoffs it will because Vlad the Impaler strapped them on his back.

Cy Young - Johan Santana, similar to the pick of Pujols there is no point in going and trying to predict someone else just to look back and be wrong.

Coach of the Year - Mike Scioscia, more on the theme that the Angels aren't very good but are going to make the playoffs. Scioscia will be rewarded for getting the weakest team in.

Rookie of the Year - Daisuke Matsuzaka, I know that these assbag writers like to take it into their own hands and decide for themselves that these Japanese guys "aren't rookies" and perhaps that hurts Dice-K's chances a little bit. But he will be that much better than his nearest competetion that they won't be able to pull that move again ala the Angel Berrora year.

Comeback Player of the Year - Carl Pavano, just for shits and giggles basically. But really if he stays healthy and pitches semi decent the offense should drag him along to 15 victories which will probably be good enough to win it.

MVP - Albert Pujols, come on how are you going to logically pick anyone other than Pujols. Even if I don't have the Cards in the playoffs when a guy pushes for the triple crown which Pujols will do this season, he's going to win the award. Why he or Berkman didn't win the award last year is ludicrous.

Cy Young - Roy Oswalt, well I have the Astros winning the NL Central and that won't happen unless Oswalt picks up around 23 wins by himself which is pretty much what I am calling for from this fireballler. After Santana who is on such a pedastal he is the next best pitcher in baseball.

Coach of the Year - Grady Little, partly because I think the Dodgers win the west comfortably, partly because I think it would be hilarious after being crucified in Boston for leaving in Pedro and having it called the worst decision ever.

Rookie of the Year - Kevin Kouzmanoff, things that voters look at from rookies, big numbers. Things they don't look at: fielding statistics. The Kouz, as I will be referring to him all season, will hit over .300 this year and probably lead the NL in errors committed. But he will have a big season and take home the rook o'da yar.

Comeback Player of the Year - Ben Sheets, if Sheets stays healthy he will dominate. So this is going under the 50/50 chance that I think Sheets makes 25+ starts this year and dominates. Probably the biggest gamble pick of them all here.

And to the AL East, the division that truly matters. This year might be the deepest that the division has been in years. Obviously the Sox and Yanks haven't left, but the Blue Jays should be dangerous again this year, and even the Orioles and Devil Rays have potential. One could put together a good argument that this division is actually better than the AL Central and will be the best division in baseball at years end.

1. New York Yankees

Everyone is making such a big deal about the Yankees back end of the rotation, but truth be that is being way overblown. When Wang gets back they'll have three top flight pitcher at the top of the rotation, the wonderful Carl Pavano, and Japanese Ted Lilly. That is more than enough to win a lot of games.

Key Player: Mariano Rivera, Mo is always the most important player on the Yankees. You think Proctor or Farnsworth would be able to perform in the closers role for even a fraction of a second? Give me a break.

Player to Eye: Melky Cabrera, the Melkman was terrific in his callup last year after everyone went down, and was truly a savior to keep the Yankees on track. Now with Giambi being to fat to play first base and the outfield crowded with Damon, Matsui and Abreu, where will his at bats come from. Torre will need to get this kid some at bats, because he's the perfect fit for the end of the lineup.

Record Prediction: 95 - 71

2. Boston Red Sox

After a collapse to end the 2006 season the Red Sox will bounce back fully this season. They've got potentially three aces at the top of their rotation and of course Manny and Papi in the middle of the lineup. The question not being asked, that is all the noise in Yankees talks, is who the heck is going to be their 5th start now that Paps was put back in the pen. You really think Tavarez is an option?

Key Player: Manny Ramirez, Manny is the most important player on the Red Sox. He's the best right handed hitter in the American league and perhaps its most consistent. He goes down or loses interest like last year and the Red Sox will tank just like last year. My guess is once he's done selling grills for his buddy in spring training he will be the typical Manny, .320 35 130 100.

Player to Eye: Daisuke Matsuzaka, who's not going to watch Dice-K. What will his stats be? My estimates were 16-8, 3.43 era, 198 IP, 173 Ks, 1.18 WHIP but who knows that could be completely lowballing it. Hell in my keeper draft I am planning on using my first round pick on him if he falls to me, aka over guys like Schmidt, Harang and Smoltz.

Record Prediction:92-70

3. Toronto Blue Jays

Everyone talks about the Blue Jays threatening the Yanks and Sox this season. I just am not seeing them being that close late in the season, their top two pitchers are massive injury risks and so is their DH. Their closer is coming off the best season of his career and could fall back a bit and so is their best hitter Vernon Wells. The Red Sox and Yanks will remain the class of the AL East this season.

Key Player: Roy Halladay, you can make a case that Roy Halladay is the most important pitcher to his team in all of baseball. He's the ace of the staff for a team that will need to fight over the Yanks and the Sox, and he just might be the most fragile of all big time pitchers. He goes down, Blue Jays done, he stays healthy, they got a chance.

Player to Eye: Frank Thomas, will the oft injured Big Hurt stay healthy two seasons in a row. Is that possible for such an old and large man? If he can stay healthy will his numbers mirror last years? He will be DHing in a better hitters stadium. But will the running, limited running more like casual jogging, on the turf blow out a knee or a hammy or a groin.

Record Prediction:84-78

4. Baltimore Orioles

I think the Orioles actually have potential to be pretty decent this season. Their rotation is filled with a lot of potential and Trashbag. Their closer is young and could get better. Problem is they play in the AL East.

Key Player: Nick Markakis, they have him hitting 3rd to start the season meaning they are expecting big things out of the sophomore and they will absolutely need big things from him.

Player to Eye: Adam Loewen, a huge lefty under the tutilage of the rocker. I bit on Daniel Cabrera and Erik Bedard's potential last season to get burned by one and enjoy glory from the other. Loewen is my sleeper last pick this season, he's throwing the ball hard and well in spring and a 6-6 lefty is going to be tough on hitters. He's got close to a K per inning and a ton of potential.

Record Prediction: 75-87

5. Tampa Bay Devil Rays

The Devil Rays actually have potential this year to be a pretty decent team, well minus the fact that their pitching blows. In most years the Devil Rays are fodder to boost the Yanks or Sox record and occasionally will pester one of the teams during the season. This year especially late in the season when some of their prospects like Delmon Young get into the groove, they will be a mosquito that the top of the division won't enjoy playing.

Key Player: Scott Kazmir, he's really the only pitcher they've got. And thus he's default most important player on their roster. With a lineup full of young top prospects the Devil Rays have the potential to click midseason with the bats, but if Kazmir goes down they'll find themselves typically in the basement of the AL East.

Player to Eye: B.J. Upton, one of the most talked about prospects for years has no position to call home this season. How many at bats will he get? Where will those at bats come from? 3B, 2B, OF?

Record Prediction:67-95

*Note: These Record Predictions probably don't add up perfectly, and by probably I mean 99.99999% likely they don't.

1. Detroit Tigers

So the Tigers come out of nowhere last year and they're going to repeat? Yes, why? Young arms and the addition of a little beef in the middle of the order. Sure Magglio was nice but a pissed off Chef in the middle order certainly makes the lineup more intimidating. The worry for the Tigers like most teams is the health of their pitching, the Gambler Kenny Rogers will start the season on the DL and Verlander might have been overworked last year.

Key Player: Gary Sheffield, Name something missing from the Tigers last year. An absolutely intimidating hitter. Sheffield when healthy certainly fills that void. And helped by the fact he is a pissed off mo fo this season he is bound to have monsterous numbers.

Player to Eye: Justin Verlander, the Tigers shut him down in September for a few weeks last year because they were concerned about his workload. That sometimes leads to a complete breakdwon the next season. Throw in the fact that he hasn't been very impressive during spring training and the Tigers might have something to worry about.

Record Prediction: 90 - 72

2. Chicago White Sox


The White Sox are a bunch of mashers right now, where as with their World Series team they had the deepest starting rotation in the bigs. Now they have a bunch of question marks throughout the whole pitching staff. Will they be good sure, can they win the division, of course, will they? I don't think so.

Key Player: Mark Buehrle, This staff which was the absolute stong point during their World Series run took a large turn for the worse last season. And the biggest example of this was Mark Buehrle who went from top of the rotation type to mostly bad starts. The White Sox will desperately need him to get back to form.

Player to Eye: Scott Podsednik if Pods can stay healthy he could be a catalyst again at the top of the order. And hitting in front of Thome, Konerko and Dye is a friendly place to be. If Pods doesn't consistantly get on base for the Sox, then having those big boppers turns less important.

Record Prediction:88-74

3. Cleveland Indians

The Indians are a lot of peoples sheek pick to win the division or the Wild Card and even a few peoples crazy idea that they are going to win the World Series. But they just don't have the pitching past Sabathia to make a big time push to win the best division in baseball.

Key Player: CC Sabathia, Fatassia got hit by a line drive on his second pitch in his last outing of the spring, and while X-rays have come up negative it certainly isn't a good sign when your ace is questionable to start the season. Sabathia just might be the most underrated pitcher in the lague right now after posting a 3.22 era and 174 Ks last year despite missing almost the whole first month of the season.

Player to Eye: Jhonny Peralta, he flat out stunk last year but his manager refused to move him from the pressure packed 3 hole in the lineup until he was in a slump that was too harsh for him to get out of. Now he will most likely slide down in the lineup and with a better spring he could be more the Peralta of 05 than the one of 06.

Record Prediction:86-76

4. Minnesota Twins

The Twins pulled out the division last year after a hot second half combined with the Tigers melt down, so why the 4th place finish this season? They got career years from Torii Hunter, Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau (I'm not a believer) and of course they had the unhittable Liriano spark midseason. They won't get any of that this year, and thus 4th place.

Key Player: Johan Santana, obviously when you have the best pitcher in baseball he is the key player on your team. He was the MVP of the Twins last year, not Morneau, and will be the MVP of the Twins this year. Without him this rotation consists of Carlos Silva, Boof Bonser, Sidney Ponson??? Imagine how bad this team would be if he were ever to go down.

Player to Eye: Matt Garza, Garza posted a 1.50 era this spring, Carlos Silva posted an 11 era this spring so naturally the Twins sent their top prospect down to the minors, even though he threw 50 innings in the bigs last year, in favor of throwing Carlos Silva. It makes so much sense. When Garza gets called up, probably no later than the end of April, he will have a big impact.

Record Prediction:78-84

5. Kansas City Royals

If this was the NFL or the NBA the Royals would be right there in the race to get that first pick. Too bad there are no Greg Oden's or Kekin Durant's waiting as saviors at the end of the tunnel. The good news for the Royals is they have some young talent with Gordon, Teahan and Butler waiting in the wings. The problem, they still have no pitching and their in the best division in baseball.

Key Player: Alex Gordon, so why would I have a rookie as the key player of any team it's simple he's the future of the organization. They have no chance of competing this year they don't have the pitching or the overal talent. If Gordon comes out and puts up big numbers in his rookie campaign it gives Royal fans some hope for the future.

Player to Eye: Zack Greinke, This kid was good enough to be kept in my league in 04, on the roster I inherited no less, which explains why my pitching blew to no end last year. Anyway, Greinke has been named the Royals number three starter and minus injuries and mental breakdowns he could post a sub 4 ERA which would make him the best pitcher on the Royals roster.

Record Prediction:58-103

1. LAA Angels

The Angels currently have a few injuries in the rotation that need to be cleared up namely Colon and DreamWeaver, and will be relying on some young bats to prosper around the big bopper, but they have the most talent out west and if they can get their rotation healthy should take the division.

Key Player: Vlad Guerrero, The Angels lineup is 100% centered around the wild hackin Dominican. And his back could still flair up and sideline him at anytime. The Angels really need him in the lineup all season long.

Player to Eye: Bartolo Colon, He's fat he's fat he knows it, oooh. Anyway do you remember the fact he won the Cy Young two seasons ago? Ya neither does anybody else. If this fat ass can get healthy and stay healthy all year long he could be a force out west.

Record Prediction: 90 - 72

2. Oakland A's

Oakland is an intriguing club this season. They lost the Big Hurt who was their MVP a year ago, but have replaced him with another solid veteran bat. Haren is the opening day starter but another guy with electric stuff is slotted in a few days later. And Nick Swisher who had a bust out season last year is absolutely mashing the ball in Spring training.

Key Player: Rich Harden, he could win the Cy Young, or he could pitch in a total of ten games this season. Neither would be surprising to both the Athletics franchise or me. I would bet that if he throws in 25 games this year that the brass in Oakland will be ecstatic. Chances of that happening? 50/50 maybe?

Player to Eye: Mike Piazza, as the DH for the A's this year, Piazza needs to do his best impersonation of the Big Hurt from last year who legitimately strapped Oakland on his back and dragged them into the postseason. Will Piazza benefit emensely from being a full time DH and not have to deal with the pain of catching daily, during the Spring he's sure raking and the A's hope it continues.

Record Prediction: 87-77

3. Seattle Mariners

The Mariners enter the season as a big time under the radar team. Both Beltre and Sexson had monster second halfs and they've added a few extra pitchers to their staff.

Key Player: Richie Sexson, wazs en fuego the second half of the season. How en fuego, this power hitter hit .322 after the break. For someone that swings as hard as Sexson and hits the ball as far as him .322 is pretty damn impressive. But he's slumping in the spring again, so will he go through that miserable first half slump again?

Player to Eye: Adam "Not Pacman" Jones, the M's brought up this rookie last season to patrol centerfield and to put it nicely he wasn't any good. But the M's top prospect should be up and make an impact this season and has drawn comparisons to a former M's centerfielder, Mike Cameron.

Record Prediction: 82-82

4. Texas Rangers

The Rangers yet again have no pitching. And in their Texas version of Coors they will all get lit up and it won;t matter that they have Michael Young and Big Tex mashing in the middle of the lineup.

Key Player: Michael Young, The most consistant player in the majors right now. Chalk in 200 hits and solid overal numbers. I don't foresee any injury concerns ever considering there hasn't been a whiff of it ever, but if there is some freak incident the Rangers would be laughable this season.

Player to Eye: Ian Kinsler, he's been a big target of mine in all fantasy drafts. Why? Because he's a top prospect a big time 20/20 candidate at second base which means he could end up being top 10 easily at the end of the season possibly top 5.

Record Prediction: 79-85

So ya I never had time to do this so it's just a list with pictures. Woo. And RP is not very finished.

1. Johan Santana, Twins
2. Chris Carpenter, Cardinals
3. Roy Halladay, Blue Jays
4. Roy Oswalt, Astros
5. Carlos Zambrano, Cubs
6. Brandon Webb, Diamondbacks
7. Jake Peavy, Padres
8. Jeremy Bonderman, Tigers
9. John Lackey, Angels
10. Dontrelle Willis, Marlins
11. Scott Kazmir, Devil Rays
12. Aaron Harang, Reds
13. Daisuke Matsuzaka, Red Sox
14. C.C. Sabathia, Indians
15. John Smoltz, Braves
16. Brett Myers, Phillies
17. Felix Hernandez, Mariners
18. Jason Schmidt, Dodgers
19. Danny Haren, Athletics
20. Chris Young, Padres
21. Ben Sheets, Brewers
22. Cole Hamels, Phillies
23. Erik Bedard, Orioles
24. Matt Cain, Giants
25. Josh Beckett, Red Sox
26. Rich Harden, Athletics
27. Barry Zito, Giants
28. Curt Schilling, Red Sox
29. Justin Verlander, Tigers
30. Ervin Santana, Angels
31. A.J. Burnett, Blue Jays
32. Bronson Arroyo, Reds
33. Rich Hill, Cubs
34. Dave Bush, Brewers
35. Chris Capuano, Brewers
36. Derek Lowe, Dodgers
37. Andy Pettitte, Yankees
38. Mike Mussina, Yankees
39. Javier Vazquez, White Sox
40. Scott Olsen, Marlins
41. Kelvim Escobar, Angels
42. Brad Penny, Dodgers
43. Josh Johnson, Marlins
44. Jered Weaver, Angels
45. Chien-Ming Wang, Yankees
46. Ian Snell, Pirates
47. John Patterson, Nationals
48. Chad Billingsley, Dodgers
49. Freddy Garcia, Phillies
50. Anibal Sanchez, Marlins
51. Mark Prior, Cubs
52. Daniel Cabrera, Orioles
53. Ted Lilly, Cubs
54. Tim Hudson, Braves
55. Boof Bonser, Twins
56. Randy Johnson, Yankees
57. Tom Glavine, Mets
58. Jeremy Sowers, Indians
59. Chuck James, Braves
60. Kei Igawa, Yankees
61. Nate Robertson, Tigers
62. Jeff Francis, Rockies
63. Kevin Millwood, Rangers
64. Jeff Suppan, Brewers
65. Anthony Reyes, Cardinals
66. Jose Contreras, White Sox
67. Jake Westbrook, Indians
68. Jon Garland, White Sox
69. Mark Buehrle, White Sox
70. Kenny Rogers, Tigers
71. Jason Jennings, Astros
72. Roger Clemens, free agent
73. Matt Garza, Twins
74. John Maine, Mets
75. Joe Blanton, Athletics
76. Bartolo Colon, Angels
77. Greg Maddux, Padres
78. Doug Davis, Diamondbacks
79. Carl Pavano, Yankees
80. Zack Greinke, Royals
81. Zach Duke, Pirates
82. Brandon McCarthy, Rangers
83. Homer Bailey, Reds
84. Noah Lowry, Giants
85. Adam Loewen, Orioles
86. Oliver Perez, Mets
87. Vicente Padilla, Rangers
88. Tom Gorzelanny, Pirates
89. Cliff Lee, Indians
90. Time Wakefield, Red Sox

For my league the key for your relief pitcher is getting saves. If you don't get saves from a relief pitcher than he's a waste regardless of his K totals and ERA. Thus the rankings mirror who is the safest bet to pick up saves throughout the season with peripheral stats for the most part only being marginal tie breakers. Sure a 4.50 era from your closer stinks, but he only throws about 70 innings, which is almosr negligable in comparison to the 200 innings you will be getting from the majority of your starters. This also means that I would draft any closer at the bottom end / high risk of losing his job prior to any set up man I think may win the job in a few weeks.

Right now I believe the top 13 closers are definately going to keep their job this season, if you look past those 13 there are easily foreseeable scenarios where they could be yanked from the job, either from performance or injury.

1. Joe Nathan, Minnesota Twins - He's a stud and completely reliable. He hasn't had any injuries in recent history and with the diminished pitching staff this season the Twins will need his services more than ever. If he doesn't finish the season with 40+ saves I would be shocked.

2. Francisco Rodriguez, LAA Angels - K-Rod is nasty and the point could be made that he is the #1 closer in the bigs currently, especially with the Angels being forseeably better than the Twins this season. I give Nathan the edge because he's very reliable, and K-Rod's delivery is so wild that an injury isn't out of the question.

3. B.J. Ryan, Toronto Blue Jays - BJ arguably had the best season of any closer in the bigs last year and I doubt there will be any downturn.

4. Billy Wagner, New York Mets - Safe pickup. Always healthy on a great team. Very good K rate. Not many negatives with Billy the kid.

5. Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees - The Yanks have built up there bullpen more this season than ever before. This will give Mariano breaks in action to keep him healthy and fresh. Perhaps, the save totals will be a little lower than years past but the peripheral numbers will stay steadt.

6. Huston Street, Oakland Athletics -

7. Trevor Hoffman, San Diego Padres - Hoffman in my opinion should have won the NL Cy Young last year. Healthy again this season Hoffman can certainly put up gaudy save numbers, it's the K rate that makes him less appealing than those higher.

8. Bobby Jenks, Chicago White Sox -

9. Chad Cordero, Washington Nationals -

10. J.J. Putz, Seattle Mariners -

11. Chris Ray, Baltimore Orioles -

12. Francisco Cordero, Milwaukee Brewers -

13. Brian Fuentes, Colorado Rockies -

14. Takashi Saito, Los Angeles Dodgers - This is the point where I begin to think people can get replaced. Everyone above is relatively safe to keep their position but from Saito down, there are legitamate questionmarks. For Saito he had one very good season, but Broxton has more ability in the setup role. Struggles and a switch could easily be made.

15. Brad Lidge, Houston Astros - What is going on in this guys head? The Astros gave him way too many opportunities last season and I just can't see that happening again. Sure he could be phenominal but what happens if he sucks again and someone beats you to the punch to pick up Wheeler. Than you're scrambling.

16. Bob Wickman, Atlanta Braves - The Braves just picked up one of the most reliable closers of the past two seasons. Yet he's still the man currently. Wicky always seems to do a good job in the job so unless that changes, which I don't necessarily see, he should keep the job. The biggest worry for me is if he gets banged up, Gonzo could easily step in and then hold the job.

17. Todd Jones, Detroit Tigers -

18. Tom Gordon, Philadelphia Phillies - The Phillies should be good this season, and Tom Gordon was very good last season. But he's an old man and there's a significant chance his body begins its breakdown process in the near future.

19. Jason Isringhausen, St. Louis Cardinals - Was ineffective for the most part last season and injured at the end of the year. But the Cardinals will win their share of games and Wainwright appears to be destined to for the starting rotation so there are not many people up his heals right now.

20. Eric Gagne, Texas Rangers - Thus concludes the back-to-back-to-back old guys with big time injury risks. Gagne hasn't been the same for a very long time. Sure he could return to his dominant form. But more likely he blows out his elbow and doesn't pitch more than a month of the season. Big time risk/reward. If you have him and someone else has Otsuka, you could be in trouble.

21. Jose Valverde, Arizona Diamondbacks -

22. Joe Borowski, Cleveland Indians -

23. Ryan Dempster, Chicago Cubs -

24. Salomon Torres, Pittsburgh Pirates -

25. Armando Benitez, San Francisco Giants -

26. Seth McClung, Tampa Bay Devil Rays -

27. Taylor Tankersley, Florida Marlins - The Marlins closer always seems to pick up a lot of saves and Tankersley appears to be the lead candidate for the job. If he can lock it down and look good the first month he could easily pick up 35 saves. But until he does that he's a risk pick.

28. Octavio Dotel, Kansas City Royals - Until I see something in spring training I'll keep my distance. But I have always been a big fan of Dotel and if he returns to the form he had prior to the Tommy John than he will easily control the Royals closer job. If he has success though, he could be shopped at the break for a setup role.

29. Joel Pineiro, Boston Red Sox - Closer of the Red Sox is a very valuable fantasy job to own. But anyone comfortable in saying Pineiro is the guy right now? His value could be sky high or zero. Just look atleast year, there were hints Papelbon would take over the closer job eventually. But come the opening day he was it, and his value for the remainder of the season was through the roof.

30. David Weathers, Cincinnati Reds - Currently slotted in as the closer. I have zero faith he will keep it and would be a last ditch effort for me to draft him.

31. Akinori Otsuka, Texas Rangers - Anybody a bigger injury risk than Eric Gagne? Otsuka had a superb season last year and I was pretty surprised when the Rangers felt the need to to sign Gagne. If Otsuka was guaranteed the closers job this season he would easily be top 15, but now without the security he drops to my top spot without a job.

32. Mike Gonzalez, Atlanta Braves - He's been lights out as a closer for the Pirates for the past two seasons so any slip up from Wicky and he could quickly be slotted into that role. However, he's not in it yet, and may never be in it. Similarly to Otsuka he would have been up there in reliability had he stayed in Pittsburgh.

33. Dan Wheeler, Houston Astros - Wheeler picked up some saves last season when Lidge faltered. The Astros this season won't have the same patience with Lidge this season and after a few terrible outings in April, Wheeler could get the quick call.

34. Joel Zumaya, Detroit Tigers - Eventually Zumaya is going to win the closers job, will this year be it. Probably not unless Jones gets injured or really struggles.

35. Jonathan Broxton, Dodgers - Saito had one solid season but Broxton has better stuff.

36. Kerry Wood, Cubs - Dempster is inconsistant and if Wood could adjust well to his relief role he has the stuff to assume the closer job and run with it.

1. New York Mets

So the Mets have by far the best lineup in the National League but more than ever their pitching staff has massive question marks. Oliver Perez and John Maine will they be stable throughout the year, how will Pelfrey do in his rookie year and will Glavine and Duque stay healthy. In the end I just think their lineup is that strong.

Key Player: Billy Wagner, The entire Mets staff is really centered around their bullpen so while most people would point to Glavine as the most important Met I think it's Wagner. If Wagner was ever to go down due to injury there would be an enormously negative trickle down effect. Especially with Duaner Sanchez out for an extended period.

Player to Eye: Lastings Milledge, Shawn Green sucked this spring, no surprise there and Lastings Milledge came up and hit .370. Can anyone think of someone who sucked in their first go round in the majors and then made a fantastic impact after his callup the next season. Hmm, how about looking across borough lines and finding Melky Cabrera who embarrassed himself in his callup in 05 but was fantastic last season in left field.

Record Prediction: 91 - 71

2. Philadelphia Phillies

Here's the problem with the Phillies, they always underachieve. There's no real reason why they shouldn't win the wildcard or the division. They have the best right side of the infield in baseball with Howard and Utley, they have a run producing SS and they have two stud arms in the rotation with Hamels and Myers. But they perennially underachieve.

Key Player: Ryan Howard, Howard was obviously a masher last season winning the MVP, which he didn't deserve, but he will need to do the same for the Phillies to be a big time player. When you look at their roster not much has changed they've added a few pitchers but will need to mash their way into the playoffs.

Player to Eye: Shane Victorino, the flyin Hawaiin, got his pt last year after the trade of Abreu and did a solid job. Now he's got the job in right field full time, what will he turn into, what will his peak numbers be?

Record Prediction:89 - 73, WildCard

3. Atlanta Braves

2006 was the marking of the end of the Braves domination of the NL East, can 2007 be the new beginning? The Braves will rely on youth McCann, Frenchy, as well as the veterans from the past Andruw Jones and Smoltz. The competition for the NL East crown should be much more exciting this season and the Bravos should be right in the mix.

Key Player: Chipper Jones, a forgotten man around the league. Just look at his numbers last season. Extrapolate those out to 160 and you have top 5 in the league MVP voting. But there is always the injury bug with Chipper, 2007 needs to be the year he stays healthy for the Braves to beat out the Phillies and/or Mets.

Player to Eye: Chuck James, talk about flying under the radar did you know Chuck James went 11-4 last year with a 3.78 era for the Braves, who were stinking up the joint at the end of the season. Will he be someone that the Braves can count on this year and in the future? Is he the next Tom Glavine? If you look at his minor league numbers and how he pitched last year, chances are he's gonna be good for awhile.

Record Prediction: 87 -75

4. Florida Marlins

So why do I have a team that came out of nowhere to contend with all youth with such a miserable record? Well their young pitching staff is already starting to have problems. Josh Johnson is out for an extended period. Hermida is out again. And do you believe in Dan Uggla?

Key Player: Dontrelle Willis, with Johnson out and the Marlins relying on Anibal and Olsen again behind Willis it's more important than ever that Willis goes back to his 2005 form when he was a complete horse.

Player to Eye: Dan Uggla, the most surprising rookie season in recent memory. Uggla came out of nowhere to put up phenomenal numbers which is exactly why people are disbelieving he will do it again. Fair or not, he was not spoken of as a top prospect so was he a fluke?

Record Prediction: 71-91

5. Washington Nationals

Quite possibly the worst team in baseball. They have weak lineup and a weak pitching staff. Their best player, Ryan Zimmerman, has a single year of experience and will be thrust into a spot where all the weight is on his shoulders. In addition they have no real big boppers and in the cavernous RFK expect the Nationals to finish in just about deadlast for team home runs.

Key Player: John Patterson, he's really the only guy that will strike any kind of fear in the opposing eyes. After bust out 2005 Patterson broke down early last year. If the Nats want to be even remotely competitive Patterson needs to be on the hill a lot.

Player to Eye: Nick Johnson, needs to come back for the Nats to have any kind of offense. Right now they have Felipe Lopez and Ryan Zimmerman and are throwin the Meathook at 1B. How long will it be until the meathook gets into legal trouble and he's gone.

Record Prediction: 51 - 111

~Pacman Jones is the definition of a Sparkling Wiggle. You can toss in Tank Johnson and Chris Henry into that equation as the NFL is going to start their new anti-sparkling wiggle campaign in the next week or so.

~So who's pumped with the Yankees opening day rotation. With Wang down for a month and Pettite's back aching along with Karstens complaining of arm soreness here's looking at Pavano or Igawa on opening day. Supplemented by Rasner at the back end of the rotation. Ugh.

~Van Gundy is a friggin moron. He said he thinks that the NBA Lottery should be open to every team. Ya cause that would be fair and intelligent for the NBA. Could you imagine if Lebron and Oden were teamed up for the foreseeable future. Or if the Mavs picked up Oden or the Suns picked up Durant. Why don't you just flush the Celtics, Grizz and other terrible franchises down the toilet. Even more laughable is he wants everyone to have the same chance of winning the lottery.

~My take on Jaws entering the booth instead of Theisman is that it is an improvement as Theisman can be very annoying but that I won't care that much. Honestly I don't watch much Monday Night Football because A) I watch non stop football saturday and sunday typically and B) They don't have very good games usually. Hell one of their opening night games this year is the Cards vs. the 49ers. That game's intriguing, false.

~Uconn got dominated last night by the LSU minus their player dating former coach.

~Scroll down and watch Rasheed's pimp shot if you haven't seen it yet.

~Takeo Spikes I would think is a solid pickup for the Eagles.

~The Knicks got boned on a non-goaltending call and proceeded to lose, quite humurous.

~Bruce Pearl has been given permission to talk to Iowa, note to Bruce that's not an upgrade, don't bother. Kentucky would be an upgrade, but good luck not being seen as a complete villain and getting killed in your travels to Knoxville.

~Speaking of flushing down the toilet, the Sonics have officially entered tank mode by sidelining Ray Allen for the season due to "bone spurs" give me a friggin break.

~If you haven't seen the end of the DII Championship game from this weekend its a much watch.

Quite Possibly the worst division in baseball and simply put the division that is most up for grabs. No one has a dominant pitching staff but each of the top 3 teams have a legitimate ace. This division could be decided based on injuries that drag down anyone of the top 4 teams.

1. Houston Astros

The Astros, why the Astros. Well cause everyone sucks but only one team will be picking up Roger Clemens come June to spark their roster to better production. I also think the Astros have the most reliable closer in the division with Lidge, even though he's wildly inconsistant, as well as a deep lineup after the adition of Carlos Lee.

Key Player: Lance Berkman, I'm convinced he should have won the MVP last season, he was the only bat in their entire lineup. This season I think Berkman will get much more support with the addition of Carlos Lee and...

Player to Eye: Morgan Ensberg, the healthy version. Last year he was injured for most of the season and stunk. This year Morgan is off to a hot spring training and should mash atleast 25 homers with a much better average than last year.

Record Prediction: 86 - 78

2. Chicago Cubs

Oh the Chicago Cubs poor souls they spend all this money on free agents and they get what. A lead off guy with power but a bad on base percentage, an inconsistant closer, and a rotation which again completely centers on their sole ace.

Key Player: Carlos Zambrano, He's the Cy Young winner already right? Well maybe not yet but he should be one of the main 3 competing for the prize with Oswalt and Carpenter. If Zambrano ever went down the Cubbies can crawl in a whole and go nighty night.

Player to Eye: Mark Prior, The biggest question mark of them all, will Mark Prior ever be the same pitcher. If the Cubs can get him to throw even 25 games they should win the division. The chances of that happening, 30% maybe, and that might be a stretch.

Record Prediction: 86-78

3. St. Louis Cardinals

I've got the defending World Series Champs at third. Possibly the dumbest decision ever. It's just their pitching staff sucks and it just might be time for Rolen and Edmonds to break down completely.

Key Player: Chris Carpenter, I understand that Albert Pujols is the best player on the team and if he goes down they are screwed. But right now they have one surefire pitcher and that is Carpenter, if he goes down this squad might as well call it quits.

Player to Eye: Yadier Molina, His brothers, especially Bengie, can Mash and yet Yadier barely managed to hit over the mendoza line last season yet came up with the biggest hit of the season with his home run against the Mets. There is still opportunity for Yadier to grow as a hitter to tack onto his already dominant defense.

Record Prediction: 83-79

4. Milwaukee Brewers

The Brewers are a hot sleeper pick to take this miserable division but I'm going to pass on selecting them because I think they have too many question marks. A lot of players have injury problems, they will be relying on a lot of youth in their lineup, and their pitching while it put up good numbers last year couldn't pick up Ws.

Key Player: Ben Sheets, The always injured Ben Sheets is the key to the Brewers success. If he starts 30+ games this team could be the sleeper to take this horrible division. But what are the chances

Player to Eye: Prince Fielder, I think the Prince could be a beast at the plate this season. Think .285 30 110 85. Hell the fat guy even had 7 steals last season. A run away freight train basically. If Prince doesn't have a big year the Brewers are in trouble.

Record Prediction: 81-81

5. Cincinatti Reds

The Reds sucked last year and they got career type season from their two top starters Harang and Arroyo. You think Arroyo is going to have a mid 3 ERA with 240 innings pitched in a second consecutive season? I sure don't. In addition they have no idea who their closer is, and the trade last year giving away Kearns and Lopez for bullpen help was miserable.

Key Player: Bronson Arroyo, why Arroyo as the key player, well he was a stud last year. Between him and Harang he is obviously the choice for someone who's numbers will decline this season. If they do decline a lot then the Reds are totally screwed.

Player to Eye: Brandon Philips, the rumor mill is spitting out that Brandon Philips is set to be slotted into the 3 hole for the Reds. If this is the case than the manager must be epecting massive things from Philips which I guess I just don't see / understand. When you have Dunn and Griffey why would you hit Philips in the 3 hole?

Record Prediction: 72-90

6. Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates should be improved this season with a little more experience for some of their young players like Freddy Sanchez and Zach Duke, however they still just do not have enough players on the roster to seriously contend for anything more than a few spots above the MLB basement.

Key Player: Jason Bay, Jason Bay should have a massive year with the added protection Laroche hitting behind him. And the Pirates will need his numbers as the rest of their lineup does not supply much pop.

Player to Eye: Salomon Torres The Pirates shipped closer Mike Gonzalez to the Braves for 1B Adam Laroche partly because they were comfortable with putting Torres, who had a solid year last year, into that role. If you haven't heard of Torres before don't think he's an up and comer, he's 35 and this will be his 10th season in the bigs.

Record Prediction: 70-92

1. Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers had a solid season last year and should be able to improve upon that this season after the addition of front line starter Jason Schmidt. Their youthful position players could potentially be better this season, although the addition of Luis Gonzalez made no sense. I think the Dodgers are the logical choice for NL West champions.

Key Player: Rafael Furcal, The Dodgers need to do a better job this season at putting runs on the board and Furcal is the table setter. With him and Pierre in the lineup they need to get on base, steal some bases and get some cheap runs so their solid pitching staff doesn't need to be flawless.

Player to Eye: Jonathon Broxton, Broxton throws flames and if given the opportunity to close could be lights out. The Dodgers should start with Saito as the closer but shouldn't be afraid to have a quick trigger.

Record Prediction: 90 - 72

2. San Diego Padres

The Padres definitely could contend for a Wildcard or the NL West crown with a very good rotation consisting of Peavy, Young, Maddux, Boomer, and Clay Hensley. But the combination of Boomer, Maddux, and Hoffman are closer to the Early Bird Special portion of their lives than their minor league days and could breakdown. In addition their hitting is flat inconsistant.

Key Player: Brian Giles, He's still going to hit in the middle of their order and frankly he needs to do a much better job this season then last when his power numbers were putrid and he hit around .260. You can't have a guy hitting in the 3 or 4 hole playing that poorly. Bud Black should not be afraid to pull the trigger and throw Adrian Gonzalez into a more prominent role in the lineup if Giles struggles.

Player to Eye: Kevin Kouzmanoff, Traded for Josh Barfield in the offseason this kid is tearing the cover off the ball in spring and his minor league numbers are terrific. He could easily contend for NL Rookie of the year.

Record Prediction: 86-76

3. Arizona Diamondbacks

The Diamondbacks have finally parted ways with some of their older veterans and will go youth movement this year. Jackson, Young, Quentin, Drew should all be key contributors to their lineup. The question marks lie with how will these touted prospects produce in full seasons in the bigs and how will Valverde perform as the closer.

Key Player: Randy Johnson, He sucked last year and I think he is dirtbag scum and I am very happy he's off the Yankees. However he's back in the NL closer to his home and though he's old and has a shitty back he could throw up a 4.20 ERA with a good amount of wins. If he falls apart the D-Backs have no shot.

Player to Eye: Conor Jackson, A stud prospect for years, the 24 year old Jackson should receive all the pt at first base for the Diamondbacks. His numbers last year were modest, .291 15 79 75, but throw on a year of experience those numbers could easily increase to .300 25 100 100, so the Diamondbacks hope.

Record Prediction: 84-78

4. San Francisco Giants

The Giants went out and broke the bank to pick up Zito but the problem with their roster from last year remains the same this season, they are practically a convalescent home considering how old their roster is.

Key Player: Barry Bonds, He's still the most important person in this lineup despite oozing HGH and other juices. If he goes down due to any injury their lineup immediately is diminished to one of the worst in the bigs.

Player to Eye: Noah Lowry, 2 Years ago he came and had a terrific season for the Giants, last year his ERA went up a full run. So which Noah Lowry will the Giants get. He's been struggling in the spring but that doesn't necessarily mean he will struggle. The Giants will need him to back Matt Cain and Zito if they want to win this division.

Record Prediction: 80-84

5. Colorado Rockies

The Rockies have some stud young bats with Atkins and Holliday and could potentially lead the West in runs scored. The issue who are they going to pitch. Is Jeff Francis really an ace? They have a reliable closer in Fuentes but there just isn't enough depth in their starting rotation to legitimately expect contending.

Key Player: Todd Helton, He's going to hit in between Atkins and Holliday and he needs to bring his power numbers back to the old days. If Helton can return to his .320 30 form the Rockies might not need any pitching to win 80+ games. Which is a good thing cause they don't have any.

Player to Eye: Brad Hawpe, Hawpe had a terrific first half last season and for awhile had his numbers running in parallel with Matt Holliday's, and then the second half of the season started and his average plummeted to .268 and his homers dropped from 15 prior to the break to 7 after the break. The Rockies want to see the guy from the first half.

Record Prediction: 77-89

This is a lot of outfielders if you want a detailed description for each your in the wrong place.

1. Alfonso Soriano, Chicago Cubs - 40/40 potential is diesel.
2. Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Devil Rays - Moderate Power could lead the league in steals.
3. Manny Ramirez, Boston Red Sox - Sox should be in it, meaning Manny won't take the last month off and should get his 35-40 135.
4. Vladimir Guerrero, Los Angeles Angels 5. Carlos Beltran, New York Mets - Would be nicer if Willy let him run more.
6. Lance Berkman, Houston Astros - Numbers through the roof last year, with Carlos Lee and a healthy Ensberg behind him, expect the same.
7. Matt Holliday, Colorado Rockies -
8. Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle Mariners -
9. Grady Sizemore, Cleveland Indians - I love Sizemore, I'm trying to trade for him now in my keeper league. 30/30 and 140 run potential.
10. Jason Bay, Pittsburgh Pirates
11. Vernon Wells, Toronto Blue Jays
12. Carlos Lee, Houston Astros
13. Jermaine Dye, Chicago White Sox
14. Andruw Jones, Atlanta Braves
15. Bobby Abreu, New York Yankees
16. Gary Sheffield, Detroit Tigers
17. Hideki Matsui, New York Yankees
18. Johnny Damon, New York Yankees
19. Chone Figgins, Los Angeles Angels
20. Adam Dunn, Cincinnati Reds - Ks don't factor in my league only average. And while Dunn punishes you in average he's going to drive in a bunch of runs and hit mid 40s in homers. He's a high +/- guy and really his value depends on the makeup of your team. If you are weak in average and strong in homeruns he won't help that much.
21. Juan Pierre, Los Angeles Dodgers
22. Nick Swisher, Oakland Athletics
23. Magglio Ordoñez, Detroit Tigers
24. Alex Rios, Toronto Blue Jays
25. Michael Cuddyer, Minnesota Twins
26. Brad Hawpe, Colorado Rockies
27. Torii Hunter, Minnesota Twins
28. Raul Ibañez, Seattle Mariners
29. Jeff Francoeur, Atlanta Braves
30. J.D. Drew, Boston Red Sox
31. Rocco Baldelli, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
32. Delmon Young, Tampa Bay Devil Rays - Keeper leagues he should be really high. Right now I'd expect around 20/20.
33. Eric Byrnes, Arizona Diamondbacks
34. Corey Patterson, Baltimore Orioles - Screws the average up but is the rare 20-20 guy. So he he's the perfect example of a plus/minus guy.
35. Mike Cameron, San Diego Padres - Similar to Corey Patterson with the 20-20 combo but will most likely end up with less steals than Co-Pat and perhaps more power.
36. Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants
37. Pat Burrell, Philadelphia Phillies
38. Austin Kearns, Washington Nationals
39. Nick Markakis, Baltimore Orioles
40. Ken Griffey, Jr., Cincinnati Reds
41. Curtis Granderson, Detroit Tigers
42. Coco Crisp, Boston Red Sox
43. Josh Willingham, Florida Marlins
44. Craig Monroe, Detroit Tigers
45. Jeremy Hermida, Florida Marlins
46. Ryan Freel, Cincinnati Reds - #1 Steal guy in mid rounds.
47. Wily Taveras, Colorado Rockies - #2
48. Dave Roberts, San Francisco Giants - #3
49. Scott Podsednik, Chicago White Sox - #4. When this group of four players begins to go you might want to jump on the bandwagon to grab a piece of the steal pie. Podsenik is the worst of the three as he has injury questions but still he'll fill up the SB category if you grab him.
50. Jonny Gomes, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
51. Brian Giles, San Diego Padres - Loves to shave his brothers nut sack. Yum.

Friday

~Went bowling on friday night so I can't say I really watched much of the games, kind of just floated in and out of the bar at the lanes to check the score and watch some of the game but here was my take.

~Jeff Green definately traveled on his game winner, but the over the back foul call that gave Vandy the lead to begin with was a terrible call so Karma won out in the long run.

~Butler needed to have the game of their life to beat Florida and they were doing close to that for the first 35 minutes and then midnight struck.

~I really wanted UNLV to win, but from the score checks it never looked like they were in the game at all.

~What the hell happened to USC? They were absolutely dominating the first half of the game and then they crashed and burned so quickly. Within the span of one string of bowling UNC went from down double digits to up double digits. USC winning would have helped my bracket but in the long run I am glad the Tarheels won.

Saturday

~Foul problems have really taken away from some of these games. On saturday Memphis was making a terrific game out of it and then in the span of a few minutes Dorsey, Allen and Douglas-Roberts all picked up their fourth foul and all came out of the game and then OSU put on the burners and cruised to a double digit lead and the victory. I think if those guys remain in the game, especially Douglas-Roberts who is a explosive wingman who was giving the Buckeyes fits, the Tigers take the game down to the full whistle and maybe we have a buzzer beater on one side or the other. Instead Memphis was toast.

~Did anyone other than me highly enjoy the guy on Memphis with the flames etched into his hair? Highly comical.

~How about Joey Dorsey coming out and saying he is underrated and Oden is overrated? Good move. Way to come out and do absolutely nothing. Goose egg, zero, you provided Memphis nothing. And when you were fed the ball for an open dunk, you couldn't power it over an out of position Oden. Shut your yap.

~I think Memphis had all the talent to win a National Title with Douglas-Roberts, Anderson, Hunt and Dozier they have athletic swingman that really can't be guarded by either power forwards or smaller guards. But you have to wonder how much playing in Conference USA hurt them this season. In past years they could play against Marquette, Depaul and Cincy and usually one of them was really good every year. But this season they played against nobody good for the last month of the year and that can't help you prepare for the big games come tournament time.

~I hate watching UCLA play I just do. They play terrific defense and the game is ugly as hell. In addition they have no problem running a spread offense and waiting til the final seconds of the shot clock to run their offense. It's painful.

~With that being said Kansas certainly didn't help the cause on Saturday. They A) Were sloppy with their passing. They attempted the extra pass way too many times instead of taking open jumpers most of these passes ended up being deflected and turned over. B) They attempted to force everything into the line and then either continue the ill-advised pass or just throw some kind of junk at the rim. C) They ran nothing but on the ball screens which stopped working the start of the second half. I dont think I saw a single off the ball screen the entire second half. No wonder Bill Self has never made a Final 4.

~How big was the missed wide open layup by the Jayhawks and the canned 3 by Josh Shipp at the buzzer to end the first half. A 5 point swing which just took UCLA into the half with the momentum.

~Lorenzo Mata is not an attractive dude.

~The 3s hit by Afflalo and Collison with a second on the shot clock were very annoying.

Sunday

~I never got the feeling throughout the whole Oregon Florida game that Oregon had a chance of winning. Granted I was doing my fantasy draft with my buddies from home (#2 of 3 leagues I'm in) and just glancing at the tv when it was on, but Florida maintained around a 5 point lead the whole game. I really have nothing else to say about this game other than I like the Oregon unis.

~When you think about it UNC wasn't really good on offense at any point in time during the game. They pretty much got off to a big start and scored a bunch of points with Hansbrough on the free throw line.

~They also didn't help themselves with their terrible shot selection. Why gun 3s, why not pound the ball with Tyler in the post, he was on fire on the line and he's certainly a better option than Green gunning 3s. And worst of all tied down the stretch why the hell are you taking a three, give the ball to Hansborough in the post. So stupid. Atleast attempt to get the ball to the rack.

~Wallace never gets any pub but that three he hit was one of the most clutch shots in G-Town history, obviosuly. And once this game went to overtime you knew the Hoyas were going to bury them.

~One thing I did like during this game was that the refs towards the end of the game let the big guys play. On a few of Hibbert's blocks they could have easily called him for what would have been his 4th foul. Instead they let him play and they didn't take the game into their own hand. I know Hoya fans were ticked in the first half but I think these refs did a terrific job in the second half.

~Jeff Green is terrific, and should be a top 10 pick in the draft if he comes out. I just hope he stays with the Hoyas, I really like this team.

~How about Doc Rivers in the stands, maybe he should play for Georgetown and his son can coach the Celtics, it may work out the best for both parties.

~Ty Lawson was terrible in the 2nd half and overtime.

~I think Georgetown is the best passing team in recent memory. Sure it could be attributed to their back cuts but when they make those passes their threading them over outspread arms. Just a fun team to watch. The opposite of UCLA.

~I got three final four teams right in my tourny picks and even better I got three of the final 4 teams right from my preseason picks, the only team I did not get right was I had Wisconsin in the Final 4, but since they were in the bracket of another pick Florida I couldn't get all 4 right, can't control that.

~Ohio St. is really attempting to give me a heart attack. That's twice I thought my bracket was completely busted and they somehow came back to win it. I don't know which one was more surprising 9 points with 3 minutes left or down 20 with .01 to go in the first half. Just shows how explosive this team can be, or how lax it can be. Some people go by the you need to squeek by a few games to get through the tourny and win it all, and a close game early helps you. Other people say they have been struggling and that will catch up with them. I'm pretty neutral. Do I think they will beat Memphis, yes, will I be surprised if they get blown out, no. UConn lost to George Mason last year with just as much talent.

~I think Tennessee brought themselves into a close game in the second half. They stopped for the most part their full court press which forced the lethargic Buckeyes into several mistakes and then on the offensive end they went to a 4 corners delay offense which completely took them out of their first half hot shooting. Great job in the first half by Bruce Pearl and equally as bad in the second half.

~Some of those fouls on Oden, especially the 4th, were completely lame. This could be the #1 pick in the NBA draft and the refs single handedly made him irrelevent for 30 minutes last night. The 4th foul the guy ran right into him and flop liked Vlade Divac and he gets called for a foul. Ridiculous.

~Speaking of Oden, anyone find it ridiculous how he got winded running up and down the court yesterday in limited minutes. I can't say I was impressed with that, you played maybe 15 minutes, you shouldn't be getting tired going up and down the court 3 or 4 times.

~Mike Connely though is way better than advertised. Why did this kid get limited pub coming into college? He is as valuable if not more valuable to Ohio St. as Oden.

~What the hell is up with teams on their last possession down by 1 shooting threes. Louisville did it against A&M last week and Memphis did it last night but was bailed out by the fact they pulled down every rebound. Does Gillespie have some kind of voodoo mind control over his opposing players and coaches? Down by one, drive to the paint.

~The Pitt UCLA game was ugly as hell and I am very glad that I had the option of watching the Ohio St. game instead. (OSU Tenn was on the NYC CBS, Pitt UCLA was on the Connecticut one) I absolutely despise watching UCLA play and I hate their team. I will be very annoyed if they beat Kansas.

~Aaron Gray is not very good and Pitt never ever has a go to scorer in big games and that is why they never make the Final 4. Just think of their best players since their resurgance Brandon Knight, Chris Taft, Aaron Gray, Carl Krauser... None of them were 20 point scorers. Eventually you need a stud to get things done in the tourny.

~Driving home from class yesterday was a nuisance, I turned on 1050 ESPN radio to listen to the games, I got in the car with Kansas up by 3 with 3 minutes to go, and what is on, the friggin Knicks. Are you kidding me? So I find a station its on drive two blocks and it's pure static, find another one drive down the Merit hit greenwich and its mostly static. So I'm driving on the highway for the rest of the Kansas game flip flopping between these two stations scrambling to here the end of the game. Eventually after the game was over I found another station that it was on and was not very staticy.

~Teams I'm pulling for tonight beacause of my bracket: UNLV, USC, Florida, G-Town

~Teams I really want to win: UNLV, UNC, Butler, G-Twon... I really want to see a UNC G-Town showdown.

~Wednesday we find out that Iowa bought up all the rights to the fire their coaches websites and then in the span of a few hours ESPN reports that Steve Alford is going to coach New Mexico. What New Mexico? Why? Guess the fact that Iowa now owned killstevealford.com was not very comforting.

~Pretty laughable that Tubby Smith moved from Kentucky, most historical college program ever, to Minnesota cold as hell and when have they ever been good. I have no idea why Michigan didn't inquire about Tubby Smith.

~Kobe has dropped 50+ in three straight games, ya he's pretty good.

~I couldn't parse Konerko or Sheffield in my keeper league. One guy in my league decided to keep Dave Roberts over trading for Sheffield. Pretty much the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

~Personally I think the Red Sox are better off right now with Papelbon as the closer but I think they lacked the foresight to avoid this situation. They should have signed a closer in the offseason so they wouldn't be forced into this decision, the name Joe Borowski pops into my head, he had 30+ saves lasdt season was there to be had and would have been a servicable closer. Certainly better than the Piniero Tavarez option they were forced to forego. Paps fantasy value in my opinion jumps up big time now. Kind of wish I drafted him.

~McRoberts decided he's going to go to the NBA, which means two things, Duke will be bad again next year, and McRoberts will flop in the NBA. It's a win win.

~Apparently being a cricket coach for Pakistan is not a good thing.

~Note to Tony, falling asleep at a traffic light while over the limit will not make the cops very lenient.

There is a reason the Houston Texans are terrible every season and its their front office. They give up two second round draft picks, including this years prime pick, as well as moving back two spots in the first round for Matt Schaub? Matt Schaub? A guy who's started 2 games his entire career, lost both, has thrown a total of 6 tds and 6 ints in his career and was initially a 3rd round draft pick. And you give up two second rounders and flip flop first round picks.

This is thievery by the Falcons. I love how people will say well now the Falcons have no backup plan. Who cares if you have a backup plan? Other than the freak occurence of Tom Brady when was the last time a backup QB won a Superbowl. Sure they might be nice in the regular season to pick up a win here and there if your starter misses a game, but if he's done for the season you're pretty much toast anyway. Now the Falcons will be able to get a prime athlete with the Texans second round pick this year and next year, while the Texans are banking on an unproven QB to captain their miserable franchise to the promise land. Good luck with that.

And now they will get absolutely nothing for David Carr, every team in the league will know that they want to trade him. Why would you offer them anything legit. The only way they get something good is if some kind of market across the league opens up for him and teams start to compete over getting Carr. My guess is they at best get a 3rd round pick, probably worse. This comes one season after they gave him an 8 million dollar off season roster bonus, and decided not to draft Vince Young. Wow, talk about stupid.

Doc got the executive order last night, lose this game right now. With the Celtics positioned with the 2nd worst record, arguably their biggest competetion was the Bobcats who were the closest team to them going into last nights game. So simply put losing to the Bobcats is a bigger benefit for the Celtics than losing to any other team in the league. Basically Paul Pierce got hit in the eye/mouth with the ball with the Celtics up by 16 with 4 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter and that was all the excuse Doc needed to sit him on the bench for the remainder of the game. The C's then proceeded to get outscored 41-15 the rest of the game. But that's not all he did, he pulled Delonte West and Big Al and played Sebastian Telfair for the first 6 minutes of the 4th quarter where they went from up 9 to down 1.

Here's a quote from Doc lying through his teeth. And he's not very good at it:

"I was not throwing the game, or anything like that, I've heard all those questions, honestly, I got to the point early in the fourth quarter and I turned to the coaches and said to them, 'We are either going to win or lose with this group."

"Those are the guys that always (complain) about playing. ... But when you get in you've got to have fight," Rivers said. "That was the whole message. There was no other message. Hold the lead, win the game, have pride. Or lose the lead and show us what you don't have." '

Ha, Doc you are such a funny man. You just happened to pull this stunt against the Bobcats, just purely random eh? Allan Ray and Leon Powe getting 17 minutes a piece, interesting. This game might be the smartest thing the Celtics have done as an organization since drafting Al Jefferson out of high school.

~Iowa bought the naming rights for seven websites so that their coaches done come under fire. Such as firekirkferentz.com. How hilarious is it that Iowa is already worried about these firing sites coming up. Not like someone can't just put up a site named eliminateferentz.com and write enough about how Kirk Ferentz should be fired that it would reach #1 on all the search engines for relevency. A futile and useless effort by the Hawkeyes.

~I'm doing better with my picks in Women's Basketball on ESPN than men's basketball that is both pathetic and shameful, as I know nothing about women's basketball nor do I care at all. But I was bored at work and I do it every year.

~Made a trade yesterday in my keeper league, traded Ryan Zimmerman to upgrade my last pick in the draft up 71 draft positions. It wasn't the best deal in the world for me, but I A) Had no leverage and apparently no market as no one was replying back to me and B) come friday I would have lost him for nothing.

~I think it's hilarious how NASCAR's leader in points is going to sit out this weeks race because he is old. Pretty funny.

~The Celtics are still 4 1/2 games ahead of the 3rd worst team, Charlotte, this is good.

~I think I would be more interested in the NBA if I didn't have to wait til mid June to watch what better be a Mavs Suns series. And if the Spurs knock either off I will be annoyed, the Spurs are boring.

~How much of a downer are monday, tuesday, wednesday between the first 4 rounds of the tourny? I know I was depressed when I came back and all I saw on tv was women's basketball.

So apparently Manny is in desperate need for cash and is selling his grill on eBay. And you also get a free signed ball. Apparently Manny is on the road a lot, who knew, and he is unable to truly use his grill which probably is located at one of his many homes. I'm going to admit it, as a Yankee fan I think Manny Ramirez is friggin sweet. I don't care that he's flaky as hell, I think he's hilarious. From the disappearing into the Green Monster, to the mp3 sunglasses, to selling his grill on eBay the guy is hilarious. And he always hits .325 with 35 Hrs 130 Rbis.

The best part of this whole thing is that he's going to make a big profit on it. He put it on only a few days ago and it's already over what he initially paid for it. Why wouldn't you just go out get a new grill and buy a Manny signed ball or bat at some Sports memorabilia shop.

Conclusion: Manny Ramirez is a funny guy.

Now why if you are British would you try to knock the head off one of the best players on your national team regardless of whether or not he plays for a rival London club. Pretty funny how bad he whiffed though.

Note: Tottenham lost to Chelsea yesterday, Tottenham is in Northern London Chelsea is in Fulham a lower portion of London.

Eh it's hockey punches to the face should be allowed.

Professional Wrestling an Steroids, who knew? Apparently there are 11 professional wrestlers now attached to the HGH scandal in Florida. I certainly am enjoying how all of these people are coming out and saying that they did not take it blah blah blah. Or John Rocker saying he had a prescription because he was coming back from a shoulder injury and needed to down some HGH to heal. Gary Matthews denied it because his owner told him to. Holyfield had hormonal defiiciency. It's all just so laughable to me.

On another front Ritalin is the prime drug for students around the country. Luckily for myself I just didn't care enough to attempt to pull all nighters in college. Once midnight struck my books went down regardless of how much was finished, and personally I think thats the way it should be. If you can't budget your time enough to finish stuff you shouldn't down red bulls and ritalin to do your work. And if you do, why do you care that much? You realize overachieving in college doesn't mean all that much when your 26 27, all they will care about is what you've done in the working world. Stop caring so much and start drinking.

~I just got an offer of Aramis Ramirez and Paul Konerko for Grady Sizemore rejected in my keeper league. Sizemore has worse HRs, average, RBIS than both of those guys and provides more runs and steals. Unfortunately I can't keep both Ramirez and Konerko so I tried to parse them off for Sizemore but was denied when he might have to keep the Big Hurt and Raul Ibanez or Julio Lugo as is final two spots. I think thats quite ridiculous. And I'm pretty annoyed at it.

~How funny is it that Danny Ainge got fined 30,000 for sitting next to the Durant's at the Big 12 championships.

~Speaking of the Celtics why in the world are they going out and beating the Spurs on the road, shouldn't that be an automatic loss, what the hell are they doing?

~Tommy Amaker got fired, finally, now the Wolverines should pick up a coach who actually gets teams to the the dance. I hope Tubby Smith gets fired and heads up to Ann Arbor. Sure he probably won't bring a national title, but he'll get them to the friggin tourny, and he'll win in the first round.

~David Wells is somehow going to 'beat" Diabetes, interesting I didn't know there was a cure. Anyway here's a quote "Blah, blah, blah... I've cut out alcohol." What, Boomer no, how are you going to throw not hungover, that does not seem like the correct gameplan. Might have to rethink this fight against Type 2.

~I hate friggin snow, it sucks.

Round 1 Borefest

Thursday was utterly boring minus the Duke loss and for the most part friday was the same. None of the early games were that competetive or that entertaining and only a few of the late games were. The overtime game between Nevada and Creighton was cool but for the most part that wasn't telecasted on my CBS. Same with the Va Tech Illinois game which didn't get switched to until much too late in the process and the Oregon Miami of Ohio game I don't know if I even saw a highlight of that game much less the final few seconds. Some of this can be attributed to me going to the gym and the conclusion of the ND whooping, and me losing an elite 8 team in the first round and being annoyed that I'm an idiot but still there was a lesson learned. I need Direct TV so I can watch whatever game I want to watch. Much better than banking on CBS to put on the good game.

Saturday

Now Saturday is what I'm talking about. As I'm watching the Buckeyes begin to suck in the mid second half I begin to think to myself how much of a failure I was making my picks this year. With 2:54 left and the Buckeyes down by 9 I described the end of the game as watching the funeral of my bracket, but much to my enjoyment the Buckeyes somehow hit a bunch of clutch threes, lucked the hell out by not getting an intentional foul call on Oden even though he cross checked Cage, then lucked out with Cage who went 8 for 8 from the field and 6 for 8 from the line splitting his free throws, lucked out again because Miller decided not to foul prior to the Buckeyes shooting a 3 and finally Lewis burying a deep three to tie the game. Then Connolly taking over in overtime. And the bracket is still alive.

The Butler game reads a 3 point win over the Terps but the end wasn't that exciting it was pretty much DJ Strawberry going in for uncontested layups to make it closer in the end than it really was.

The Louisville A&M game was a thriller but why in the world down one coming out of a timeout do you shoot a deep three without even attempting to penetrate. Terrible decision making by the Cardinal and they deserved to lose down the stretch. A Hall of Fame coach like Rick Pitino certainly should be able to draw something up. Also Acie Law III is pretty goofy looking.

The BC Georgetown game was on for the most part while I was eating dinner at a local Irish Pub. BC stayed in it for a long time, but Georgetwon led mostly by Hibbert close out the game in strong fashion and actually to CBS's credit they switched to Vandy Wazzu when that game went into the stretch run.

Vandy Wazzu was a solid game with a bunch of clutch three pointers to tie the game up and keep sending it into the next overtime. I actually got this game right so I was pretty pumped by that. All in all this was probably the second best game of the day behind Ohio St. and maybe the second best game of the week.

Then they switched to the Pitt VCU game which somehow wound up going to overtime despite Pitt having dominant leads as well as 2 free throws with two seconds left for Levance to choke away. The overtime wasn't really any good though.

Late night games I was in full St. Patty's mode by then so didn't watch. I do know that I looked up at the bars tv and saw that the score of the UCLA Indiana game was 27-16 with 16 minutes left in the second half and said wow I can't wait for how boring Pitt UCLA will be next week.

Sunday

Tennessee knocking off Virginia was probably entertaining but I was out running a bunch of errands and missed it.

Purdue stayed with Florida for a long time when I was at the gym and then folded down the stretch a nice job by Horford to push the game out of distance.

Wisconsin played like crap both games and deserved to lose to UNLV despite their nice second half comeback. How funny is the whole Kruger thing where he graduated from ASU and was 2nd in the nation in minutes per game last year, then goes to "grad" school at UNLV doesn't have to wait a year to play for his father and almost drops a triple double to get the Runnin Rebs into the Sweet 16. Way to take advantage of the system. And does he not bare atleast a slight resemblence to Freddy Kruger minus the scars and claws and whatnot. Come on you know he does.

Va Tech was pretty much down by double digits all game and was only broadcasted for a minute or two on my CBS. They just couldn't make shots.

I was hoping Winthrop would knock of Oregon, but they were pretty much done with around 15 minutes to go.

I don't know what to make of Memphis they really haven't beaten many teams this year but they handeled Nevada well. It will be interesting how they play against A&M which will be for the most part a road game.

Kansas had Kentucky in hand for almost the whole game and I was hoping CBS would change over so I could get a last look at Durant before his college career was over and he becomes a Celtic, but they didn't do it until the game was over.

Texas, Durant 30 rest of team 38, that is why they are going home.

My Bracket

Pretty much mediocre to poor. I lost 2 Elite 8 teams (ND and Texas) but atleast have my Final 4 in tact. We'll see how that goes. My best bracket is San Antonio where I only got Creighton wrong, my worst is St. Louis where I only have 1 of the 4 sweet 16 teams, ugh.

21 of 32 Second Round Teams
11 of Sweet 16 Teams

9-5 monday through friday this week, thus the ole blog ain't gonna get much action. Perhaps one tidbit during lunch each day. Weak. Very Weak. Plus its about 95 degrees in the room we have training in and overly cramped space wise. I'm probably going to be in a miserable mood come friday afternoon...

More Duke Hate

Let's count the blessings in this world. Duke is out of the tournament Day 1. Woo Hoo. Uconn didn't make the NIT woo hoo. Glory Glory. Duke was bad enough to lose to VCU whose coach looks like he should still be attending classes in college. The only thing that could have made this loss finer is if Paulus and/or McRoberts were seniors and cried like little babies ala JJ Reddick.

How about the fact that Duke was winning the whole entire game basically except for the final minutes or the fact that VCU handed them the tying basket only to stick the dagger in at the other end. Thank you VCU, I may have gotten you wrong on my bracket, but I think I'll survive.

#2 Game of the Day, the Only Other Good Game

BYU Xavier went down to the wire until Danny's boy Austin Ainge decided to handle the ball and throw the game away for BYU by missing the tying shot with 15 or so seconds left and then down by 4 dribbling around on the ground in the paint. Too bad this game wasn't on tv at all except for the final minutes. For the most part I was stuck with Indiana Gonzaga.

Never Bet on Bobby Knight

I always pick them to win in the first round and they never ever do. Well except for that one year when they made it to the Sweet 16. But I always fall for them anyway. Perhaps it was a pick against the overly inconsistant BC more than it was for Bob Knight. Anyway this game looked close until the final 6 minutes.

The rest of the games can be categorized as Lame, Lamer and Lamest. Hell the favorites covered in all 8 afternoon games.

Lame

Louisville vs. Stanford, I wanted Stanford to get crushed, they did so only lame.
Maryland vs. Davidson, Looked like an upset was brewing, but no.

Lamer

A&M vs. Penn, Penn made it a game for awhile then stopped scoring.
Butler vs. ODU, Even more pronounced here, ODU didn't score for 7 minutes.
Vanderbilt vs. GW, I have Vandy in the Sweet 16 the beatdown was a good sign.
Gonzaga vs. Indiana, a decent matchup for awhile better than most.
Michigan St. vs. Marquette, would have been a tight game if Marquette scored early
Wazzu vs. Oral Roberts, and everyones upset special goes down.

Lamest

UCLA vs. Weber St., perhaps I was wrong about them winning by around 15.
Georgetown vs. Belmont, a beatdown surprise.
North Carolina vs. Eastern Kentucky, #1 seed vs. 16 seed = boring.
Ohio St. vs. CCSU, Oden could have scored 80 if he wanted to.
Pitt vs. Wright St., friggin blowout central yesterday.

Kellerman's doing a Killer Animal Tournament on his radio show on 1050 and of course I had to fill out a bracket.

Big Upsets: Gator over Leopard, Pather over African Elephant, Mongoose over King Cobra, Moose over Hippo

Final 4: Tiger, Rhino, Grizzly Bear, Saltwater Croc

Championship: Grizzly Bear over Rhino

So I looked on the Celtics store website to see if they were already promoting a St. Patty's day jersey, which apparently they aren't yet. But I did get to see what amounts to something even more ridiculous than the Bulls Green Jerseys. That's right those are special Red Auerbach shoes.

"The shoe contains depictions of various Red Auerbach iconographies, including the Celtics logo, 938 wins, 16 championships, his retired #2 jersey and famous celebratory cigar. The sock liner has a parquet floor pattern to emulate the famous playing surface of the Boston Garden. "

It's bad enough that the Celtics have a dance team now which Red would never have a approved of. And now they are trying to market these ridiculous looking shoes under his name? You think he wouldn't be completely shaking his head and swearing at people in the front office with one look at those things. What a Disgrace.

And it all comes down to this, with chalk everywhere in my Final 4 who do I slot in as the champion, a hint may lie somewhere months previous from today.

Final 4

Ohio St. vs. Georgetown

What an ideal matchup for Oden to showcase his skills. Posting up fellow 7+ center and draft prospect Roy Hibbert. What gets me here is why Georgetown ever struggled to begin with this season. They have 7 foot 2 stud in the middle, Jeff Green is a legit lottery pick, a solid point guard in John Wallace, and great energy off the bench from Patrick Ewing Jr. They're only loss in the past month was to the Cuse and that was right after they knocked off Pitt to clinch the Big East crown, so it was obviously a mental gap. But as much as I like Gtown I like the Buckeyes more. They have three losses this season, to who? How about #1 UNC at the Dean Dome without Oden, #1 Florida in Gainesville with Oden just coming back, and #2 Wisconsin in Madison. They lost to 3 top 8 teams on the road, when those teams were playing well and twice without Oden at full strength, and yet people are doubting this team and a bunch of people have Texas A&M who struggled down the stretch and lost twice to Texas Tech in the final 4 over them? I do not understand that "sexy" pick. To me the Buckeyes smoke through that brackout and they do much the same to a very very good Georgetown team here in the second half. I see Hibbert getting into foul trouble struggling to deal with the stronger Oden while Conley Cook and and Lewis take full advantage of the double teams while Hibbert is out of the game. Winner: Ohio St.

Kansas vs. Florida

We've seen this matchup already, well some of us have, not me, it was played on a saturday night late night while I was probably are blitzed at a bar. But I did read the box score and Kansas won by 2 and more impressively the win came in overtime. But that's not the only reason I'm taking them, just a proof that they certainly can play and beat the Gators. Here's what I like about the Jayhawks over the Gators, they played in a better conference hands down, with teams like Texas A&M and Texas being legitimate Final 4 contenders, name another SEC team with that potential, Kentucky? Vandy? Arkansas? no dice there. As down as the Big East and Big 10 appear to be at first glance, they don't even compare to the ineptitude that was the SEC this season. So why then the 3 game losing streak in mid February for the Gators, was it lackluster effort? I just don't think they'll have the same hunger and passion they had last season when they hammered through the field. In addition the Jayhawk team has only gained experience down throughout this season and come into the tourny riding an 11 game winning streak which includes knocking off the Longhorns twice. Horford and Noah may be tough to handle downlow but I'm going with the 3 man sophomore tandem of Wright, Chalmers and Rush to advance to the finals. Winner: Kansas

Championship Game: Kansas vs. Ohio St.

And it comes down to the hired guns of Ohio St. versus the under the radar #1 seed. Neither team relies on a single scorer and both have several players which score in double digits and several players whom they could feel comfortable throwing the ball to in the clutch. In the end I see Oden working like an avalanche in this tournament getting better and better and more unstoppable with each game until the championship when he drops 26 and 18. He's got 4 inches and 5 pounds on Kansas most reliable big body Darrell Arthur. So ya I'm sticking with my preseason pick. A hired gun championship and off the the Celtics in the lottery, solid job Greg.

Champion: Ohio St.

*Note my preseason final 4 was Wisconsin, Florida, OSU & UNC. I abandoned UNC and picked the hot team Gtown and couldn't pick both Wisconsin and Florida because they are in the same bracket.

Hey when did the Celtics go out and trade for Tyrus Thomas? Oh nevermind that uniform says Bulls on it. Alright I understand the Red Sox wearing a green baseball hat or green unis during spring training, I understand the Celtics busting out special unis for St. Patty's as well but the Bulls and against the Celtics nonetheless come on. Are people legitimately going out and buying green Bull jerseys? But they're hideous, they even have the Red Bull logo on the corner of their shorts still. They even have the black trim, the worst looking of the Celtics uniforms. And it's not even St. Patrick's day yet, it was still 4 days away, why the rush?

Last year there was green everywhere from Hockey to Spring Training to the Knicks, I don't mind them in Spring Training, because who watches that anyway, but during regular games especially when you integrate it with your own colors, like the Knicks did with their orange last season, it's 100% cheesy.

Round 1

1 UNC vs. 16 E Kentucky: Enough with the 1 seed analysis pretty much a waste of time.Winner: UNC

8 Marquette vs. 9 Michigan St.: James is a quality point guard and Marquette is a very dangerous team. Michigan St. relies way too much on Drew Neitzel to be succesful in this tourny. And a rule of thumb if you've lost to Michigan this season you aren't any good. Winner: Marquette

5 USC vs. 12 Arkansas: I hate both of these teams. If this game is on my television I just my vomit. I'm picking USC by default even though I don't think they're any good. Winner: USC

4 Texas vs. 13 N Mexico St.: The Longhorns get a 4 seed mostly because they struggled during the early portion of the season. It doesn't fully take into consideration how well they are currently playing and how friggin awesome Kevin Durant is, they will dominate NMex St. Reggie Theus out.Winner: Texas

6 Vandy vs. 11 Geo Washington: Not really sure why Vandy was given a 6 seed so what they beat Florida, the Gators were playing like garbage. What annoys me most about Vandy is that they're the sole reason Arkansas is in the tournament over the Cuse. Anyway that was off topic. I have them winning round 1. Winner: Vandy

3 Wazzu vs. 14 Oral Roberts: This is everyones upset special and thus I am not taking it. Sure I hate the Pac 10, and yes Oral Roberts beat Kansas and I just picked Kansas to make the final 4 but I think this upset is getting overhyped by every single person in the media. Winner: Wazzu

7 BC vs. 10 Texas Tech: I don't like BC's team. Jared Dudley has a ton of talent but sometimes he just doesn't show up. I know Tech has weak talent but I don't trust this BC squad to step up in a big spot. Although Knight does lose every year in the first round so this is probably a bad pick. Winner: Texas Tech

2 Gtown vs. 15 Belmont: Hell ya I picked Belmont to win their conference tournament in the preseason. But ya Gtown will maul them.Winner: Gtown

Round 2

1 UNC vs. 8 Marquette: Personally I think this will be the biggest test for a 1 seed in the entire first weekend. Marquette is a very streaky team that when playing on their top level and with James hitting shots can beat anyone. This should be a thriller that goes down to the wire with UNC narrowly taking it home. Winner: UNC

5 USC vs. 4 Texas: Out with the Pac 10. Why did USC get a 5 seed again? Is OJ Mayo already suiting up for them? No. Ok I think I'll go with Durant then. Winner: Texas

6 Vandy vs. 3 Wazzu: Apparently I don't hate Vandy that much because I have them beating Wazzu. I don't believe in the Pac 10, and while I hate Vandy I think they're the type of team that can shoot lights out on the three and knock off better squads which they will do here.Winner: Vandy

2 Gtown vs. 10 Texas Tech: JT3 will crush Bob Knight, and it will be very funny. Bob Knight in his old age doesn't really seem to care about recruiting high profile athletes as his team is always undermanned. Sometimes I think he doesn't get enough credit, his team has limited talent and they beat A&M, a sexy final 4 pick, twice. Winner: Gtown

Sweet 16

1 UNC vs. 4 Texas: In Durant I trust. I think Durant is the type of kid that will drop 40 in the big spot not the type of kid that will crumble. I think his play slipt in the Big 12 final because of the back to back to back games. With a week off prior to facing UNC he's going to carry the Longhorns on his shoulders over the Tarheels. Hey look I actually am picking a non 1 seed to make the final 4, oh good job me. Not 100% Chalk, but damn close. Winner: Texas

2 Gtown vs. 6 Vandy: I don't like Vandy that much not even close. I think Gtown pounds Vandy in the ground and Gtown gets into the Elite 8 with Relative ease.Winner: Gtown

Elite 8

4 Texas vs. 2 Gtown: Green is a beast. He is just a little worse than Durant at every single aspect of the game except for threes which he doesn't do. He will match much of what Durant does. But the Hoyas have other significant advantages. They have a 7 foot 2 center to feed the ball to downlow who can clean up the offensive glass. They play much better defense than the Longhorns. And they do not commit dumb turnovers.

Winner: Gtown

Round 1

1 Kansas vs. 16 Niagara: Atleast Niagara gets credit for a tournament win. How lame is the play in game. Winner: Kansas

8 Kentucky vs. 9 Villanova: I think this is one of those 8 9 games where you might as well just flip a coin and decide that way instead of trying to figure out which squad is better. I'm sort of a Big East homer, and thus Nova. Winner: Nova

5 Va Tech vs. 12 Illinois: This just might be the worst 12 seed draw Tech could have gotten. Sure Illinois stinks, but they play that grind out Big 10 style and that is not Va Tech's strong suit. If I was Illinois I would simply foul Tech every time they got near the basket, but I don't think they will and Tech manages to escape a scare. Winner: Va Tech

4 Southern Illinois vs. 13 Holy Cross: I don't really get why Southern Illinois is a 4 seed This is probably a homer pick that bites me in the ass.Winner: Holy Cross

6 Duke vs. 11 VCU: Every seems to be throwing Duke completely under the bus against VCU and I hate Duke as much as anyone I know and I would love them to lose but I just don't see it as unfortunate as that sounds. I hope I'm wrong. Winner: Duke

3 Pitt vs. 14 Wright St.: Pitt sucks in the tourny every year and their team is overrated this season, and yet I can't bring myself to picking them to lose to Wright St. Winner: Pitt

7 Indiana vs. 10 Gonzaga: I think the Zags are back in the groove after the mid season weed controversy has subsided a bit. Plus Indiana always seems to choke in the tournament, and I'm not a big fan of Sampson. Winner: Gonzaga

2 UCLA vs. 15 Weber St.: UCLA is one of those top seeds that will comfortably win their games early by 10 to 15 points.Winner: UCLA

Round 2

1 Kansas vs. 9 Villanova: The Wildcats have the kid Reynolds, who has been playing out of his mind down the stretch, as well as Sumpter and Sheridan downlow. I think they'll stay with Kansas for awhile but the Jayhawks should take over down the stretch. Winner: Kansas

13 Holy Cross vs. 5 Va Tech: I actually feel stronger about this game than I do about Holy Cross knocking off Southern Illinois. Here are a few reasons, the Crusaders have excellent senior leadership with their top two guys being 4 year seniors, they have some big bodies in the middle and they hit every single free throw down the stretch. Tech on the other hand must be one if not the worst free throw shooting teams in the country. Also Tech struggled against teams that slowed it down, see three losses to NC State, I think Cross can do that. Winner: Holy Cross

6 Duke vs. 3 Pitt: I honestly am starting to lean towards Duke more every day but the hate is prevailing in the end. I am just not comfortable in taking Pitt to advance far they aren't very good. Winner: Pitt

2 UCLA vs. 10 Gonzaga: I thought they played earlier this season, um I was wrong. Another case of UCLA being boring and winning by a couple though I will pull for a Zags upset. Winner: UCLA

Sweet 16

1 Kansas vs. 13 Holy Cross: A few years back the Crusaders almost knocked off Kansas, but this is where most Cinderella journeys end and this is the end of the line for Holy Cross Winner: Kansas

2 UCLA vs. 3 Pitt: Howland vs. his best friend Dixon. Should be incredibly painful to watch. Think UCLA vs. Memphis last year where the only thing being thrown up were disgusting bricks, followed by miserable passes all with the broadcasters crediting superb defense.Winner: UCLA

Elite 8

1 Kansas vs. 2 UCLA: I don't know if I've seen many people pick Kansas over UCLA. But here are some nice #s to throw out, Kansas is 30-4 and has improved over the course of the season. UCLA stumbled down the stretch. Kansas plays in as good or better of a conference. Kansas knocked off Florida in Gainesville early in the season. Kansas for some reason, who knows why, is flying under the radar as a #1 seed. Well not here.

Winner: Kansas

Round 1

1 Ohio St. vs. 16 CCSU: The lone Connecticut soul has a favorable matchup, it shouldn't be a big issue for their 6' 2 center to dominate Oden in the paint. Winner: Ohio St.

8 BYU vs. 9 Xavier: So who's watched either of these teams play this season, not me not me. Xavier has their old coach staring them in the face, perhaps a little extra motivation. Winner: Xavier

5 Tennessee vs. 12 L Beach St.: Looking at L Beach's credentials I don't really understand why they got a 12 seed they didn't beat anyone this season. Nighty Night Snoop Dogg. Winner: Tenn

4 Virginia vs. 13 Albany: Another team I just don't see any quality wins on their resume is Albany. And I don't think any of the high ranking ACC squads are going to choke during the 1st round. Winner: UVA

6 Louisville vs. 11 Stanford: I was leaning towards the upset for awhile despite my hatred towards the Pac 10 then I looked at Louisville the past few weeks and with the exception of their loss in the Big East tourny the Cardinals have been streaking including road wins at Marquette and at Pitt. Thus more Pac 10 bashing. Winner: Louisville

3 Texas A&M vs. 14 Penn: The Quakers will try to make this game utterly boring, and they will probably succeed by getting blown out. Winner: A&M

7 Nevada vs. 10 Creighton: A lot of people will have Nevada knocking off Memphis in the 2nd round not me. Adios Fazekas. Winner: Creighton

2 Memphis vs. 15 N Texas: All that is known about Memphis right now is that they are fantastic at dispatching mediocre teams. 30-3 with no big wins. Winner: Memphis

Round 2

1 Ohio St. vs. 9 Xavier: Ooh Ohio rivals and to boot Thad Matta's old stomping grounds. I wonder if he will enjoy kicking the crap out of his old school and assistant coach. Winner: Ohio St.

5 Tennessee vs. 4 UVA: Chris Lofton vs. Sean Singletary that's pretty much what this game comes down to. Whoever is hot will most likely win. This game is pretty much a toss up but I'll lean towards the Vols because UVA was a much different team on the road then they were at home. Winner: Tennessee

6 Louisville vs. 3 Texas A&M: I think this will be a thrilling game as Louisville is playing their best ball of the year and A&M has Acie Law who can make any shot on the floor with time winding down, which he will need to do in this one. Winner: Texas A&M

2 Memphis vs. 10 Creighton: Memphis is always everyones whipping boy to get upset but I'm not going to fall for it. Like I said prior they beat mediocre middle of the pack teams. They will beat Creighton make the Sweet 16 then exit. Winner: Memphis

Sweet 16

1 Ohio St. vs. 5 Tennessee: This game went down to the wire a few months ago but this is a vastly different Ohio St. with a much more impressive and dominant Greg Oden. The Buckeyes beat the Vols again this time a little more comfortably. Winner: Ohio St

3 Texas A&M vs. 2 Memphis: I said they were going to get bounced in the sweet 16 and I uphold my promise. Memphis' losses were all to decent big conference schools with their only decent win coming against Kentucky. Winner: Tex A&M

Elite 8

1 Ohio St. vs. 3 Texas A&M: I'm riding the big guy in this one. I don't think that anyone in this bracket can stop him from grabbing a ton of rebounds and picking up 6 to 10 easy high percentage buckets. I like Acie Law just don't see him as being enough to kncok off Oden and the Buckeyes.

Winner: Ohio St.

Wonderful Rick's Comment. "I've got to tell you what. At this point in time, game's over Tennessee's played their heart out, give 'em credit for a great effort. But I'm starting to look for Ashley Judd, so I don't have to go home to the adult videos tonight."

Do you think Ashely Judd officially threw him on a stalker list? Or sent them an email that looked something like this:

"Dear ESPN,
I know you like when I show up at Kentucky Games so you can show me jumping up and down and so you have a pretty celebrity in the stands. I regret to inform you though that due to the recent info about the grotesquely large Rick Majerus wanting to masterbate to my image, I am going to have to forego traveling to any Kentucky game which he broadcasts.

With Love,
Ashley Judd"

Oh and here's another one apparently Majerus isn't a "Big Gay Guy" who knew...

Round 1

1 Florida vs. 16 Jackson St: No need to mention any of the 1 vs. 16 games, never has a team lost and this isn't the year. Winner: Florida

8 Arizona vs. 9 Purdue: Purdue a 9 seed? I don't think that makes much sense. And while I think the Pac 10 is vastly overrated atleast Zona has some talent. Purdue has been a terrible road all season and on neutral court in Nawlins they will be equally as bad. Winner: Zona

5 Butler vs. 12 ODU: A 5 seed always goes down every year, and why? Because there's always a 5 seed that's always vastly overrated. Sure Butler has some nice wins, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Indiana, but ODU beat Georgetown at Georgetown. The first 5 seed goes down. Winner: ODU

4 Maryland vs. 13 Davidson: Maryland's got a lot of athletes on their roster and has had some sound games and then they slept through their ACC tourny opener. They just have too much talent to lose this early. Winner: Maryland

6 Notre Dame vs. 11 Winthrop: Winthrop is all the rage around the broadcast world, thats fine but this Notre Dame team is playing incredibly well right now and just barely got beat by Gtown in the Big East. Winner: Notre Dame

3 Oregon vs. 14 Miami (OH): Oregon ran away with the Pac 10 tourny but what exactly does that mean. They didn't play UCLA or Wazzu in the tourny. I'm certainly not going to jump on their bandwagon. But they will shuffle themselves by the lucky Redhawks pretty easily. Winner: Oregon

7 UNLV vs. 10 Ga Tech: UNLV has played very well down the stretch and Ga Tech much like Maryland threw up on themselves in the ACC tourny, but they've played in the best conference in the country all year and played some very solid out of conference games which include a win versus Memphis. Winner: Ga Tech

2 Wisconsin vs. 15 TAMU-CC: I don't really see much of a reason to discuss the 2 seeds this year either. Winner: Wisconsin

Round 2

1 Florida vs. 8 Arizona: Whispers of this being a good game are a little far fetched in my opinion. The Wildcats are an 8 seed for a reason, they haven't shown up against the upper echelon teams. They got bounced twice versus both Wazzu and UCLA and lost to UNC terribly. Florida takes this one with relative ease. Winner: Florida

12 ODU vs. 4 Maryland: Bringing the upset brigade out. What can I say other than I love teams that beat Georgetown on the road. Prior to their conference tourny loss ODU had run off 12 straight wins so they are hot. You gotta throw in an upset or two in the early rounds. This is one of mine. Winner: ODU

6 Notre Dame vs. 3 Oregon: So this is the first sign that I don't like the Pac 10 and think they're overhyped completely. Oregon was on fire during the Pac 10 tourny but once again they played no one. Unlike in the Big East, ACC, Big 10, SEC, Big 12 the best team in the conference didn't make the finals. Yes every other conference the #1 seed made the finals except for the Pac 10. Notre Dame's loss to Gtwon by 2 is more impressive than beating USC. Winner: Notre Dame

2 Wisconsin vs. 10 Ga Tech: Wisconsin has been one of my favorites all year long but the loss of Butch has severely hurt their already anemic offense. Regardless the Badgers sneak by Tech into the sweet 16. Winner: Wisconsin

Sweet 16

1 Florida vs. 12 ODU: Florida looks up on Sunday night and sees the fact that they don't have to play Maryland and smiles. The Cinderella gets pounded in this one. Winner: Florida

2 Wisconsin vs. 6 Notre Dame: It would be nice if I knew for certain that Brian Butch wouldn't come back by tipoff of this game, but I am assuming he won't. Which means I think they won't be able to score enough points to beat Notre Dame which can beat you inside with their freshmen and outside with Colin Falls. Winner: Notre Dame

Elite 8

1 Florida vs. 6 Notre Dame: And Florida looks up again and sees that they've missed out on facing the tougher opponent. They shift into the 06 championship flow and crush the Fighting Irish into the ground.

Winner: Florida

~Danny Ainge attended the Big 12 tourny and sat next... But of course Kevin Durant's mother and grandmother. How hilarious is that. Hey Danny you know you the NBA works differently than college recruiting right? If you make friends with his mother it doesn't mean you're going to do any better in the lottery. Sad but true. I don't know if I would read anything into this as to who the Celtics would take with the #1 pick but it is quite humorous how Ainge would rather chit chat with Durant's mom than watch either the team he runs or his son who's a senior that played in the Mountain West Championship game in Vegas for BYU.

~Federer got knocked off this weekend. I was kind of hoping he would run off a few more to break the 45 match win streak record. Oh well, it looked like he mildly hurt his foot during the match. The only significance of this loss is the loss of the streak, I'm sure his head is full on preparing for the French Open.

~Ike Thomas got an extension with the Knicks this weekend. Quite humorous. I see the improvement on the Knicks and they do have a chance to make the playoffs but why now? Why not wait until the end of the season? I guess it doesn't matter, Dolan just wanted to see a win total in the mid 30s, which is where they will finish.

~Jimmy Boeheim has been on basically every ESPN radio show today yelping about how they didn't make the tourny. He has some valid points, like the simple statement that they should be in, but he attempts to defend the fact they don't leave the state of New York the first 4 months of the season. Which is stupid. Part blame goes on ESPN as I'm sure they've begged him for interviews on each show.

~Virginia Tech shot about 33% from the free throw line against NC State in their loss. In sharp contrast Holy Cross nailed every free throw down the stretch. Why does athleticism seem to sharply contrast ability to make free throws in college basketball. Pretty dumb.

~Stallworth was a good pickup for the Pats. Perhaps that means the Moss trade talks are done. They also signed Kelley Washington the former Bengal today.

~25 Game suspension for Simon is about right.

My NIT bracket that is, Michigan getting to another Final Four, virtual lock...



Final 4: Michigan, K St., Cuse, OK St.

Championship Game: OK St. over Cuse

"Big" Upsets: App State over Clemson

Most Hilarious of Notes: UConn didn't make the NIT tournament, hahahahahahahaha.

! Update
!
! My Champion lost in the first round, hopefully my NCAA bracket
! unfolds equally as well.

Always a solid buzzer beater in March hopefully this is the first of many. I'm trying to find the FAMU buzzer beater cause that one was better.

3 Ridiculous Bubble Teams In

1. Arkansas, 21-13 - The SEC sucks this year and Arkansas went 7-9 in their conference games. Who cares if the Razorbacks made it to their conference finals? Vandy is the only tourny team they beat, and they are a 3 point shooting streak team that isn't very good. What a dumb selection.

2. Stanford, 18-12 - Come on 18-12 in the overrated Pac 10? They have a couple of nice wins (UVA and Wazzu) but 18-12 just shouldn't be good enough. Hell Air Force got left despite going 23-8 and beating Stanford at Stanford by 34. They shouldn't be in.

3. Illinois, 23-11 - Haven't we fully established that the Big 10 is miserable this year? Was Illinois even better than Michigan this season? They split with the Wolverines and Indiana and didn't come close to beating Ohio St. or Wisconsin. They aren't a good team.

3 Snubbed Bubble Teams Out

1. Florida St., 20-12 - If you're going to put anyone in with 12 losses why Stanford over Florida St.? St. beat Florida non-conference, a #1 seed. They played in the best conference in America, and played road out of conference games versus Wisconsin and Pittsburgh, how can you fault them for losing those games. Their loss versus Clemson is the only loss of the 12 to a non-tourny team.

2. Syracuse, 22-10 - Won 6 of their last 8 and holds a terrific win in the past week over Georgetown who note to the committee hasn't lost to anyone but Syracuse in their last 16 games. G-Town is on fire and Syracuse was good enough to beat them. They also have wins against Marquette and Nova, but its the win last week versus the hottest team in the country which should have been rewarded.

3. Kansas St., 22-11 - Arkansas got dunked at home by Texas Tech and beat nobody. K St. just drubbed Tech in the Big 12 tourny. That equals of course the sensible Razorbacks in K St. out. K St. is the first team in the history of the tourny to finish 4th or better and 10-6 in a major conference and not make it. Add a win at Texas and the black and purple unis are much better than the Razorbacks.

Sorry to Drexel who I love, almost went their for undergrad, but you have way too many shitty losses. The win at Cuse and Nova is nice, although Nova isn't much of a road game 10 minutes down the road, but losses to Rider and William & Mary come on. You have some gripe, but you don't have a win over a team like Florida, G-Town or Texas.

Yesterday I had my first of 3 drafts this season. Thus it's time to breakdown the picks I made and how I think I did.

League is Head to Head Categories

League Rosters: 2 C, 2 1B, 2 2B, 2 SS, 2 3B, 3 OF, 4 Util, 3 SP, 2 RP, 3 P, 5 BN
League Categories: R, H, 1B, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI, SB, BB, AVG, IP, W, CG, SHO, SV, K, ERA, WHIP, K/9

One of my main strategies for this league was to pick up high average guys. If you look at the categories, with H, 1B, 2B, 3B, AVG all highly leaning towards guys that get on base a lot. My top 6 picks all consisted of guys who hit .300+. I only veared from this strategy a few times when I picked up guys like Mike Cameron who was on the board for well too long given his 20/20 potential and the fact Ks aren't a negative category.

1. (8) Chase Utley 2B - I had to choose in the first round between Utley and Ryan Howard, I went Utley because of position scarcity, average and the fact that the home run in this league is so watered down due to the amount of categories.

2. (13) Vladimir Guerrero OF - .330 a lot of homers a handful of steals. It's the second round there's a ton of talent. You could pick up anyone of a bunch of guys. Vlad stays healthy and the pick is well worth it.

3. (28) Matt Holliday OF - Basically the same numbers as Vlad 15 picks later. I'm a big fan of Holliday.

4. (33) Miguel Tejada SS - Miggy hit .330 last season. With average such a strong category in this league I snatched him up over Rollins and Hanley.

5. (48) Garrett Atkins 3B - Please look at Garrett Atkins #s. He's the most unheralded hitter in all of baseball. .330, 30, 115, 115, at the hot corner. Stud. This just might be my favorite pickup in the whole draft.

6. (53) Carlos Guillén SS - Hit .318+ each of the past 3 seasons. Only issue with Guillén is that he hasn't consistantly played 162 games. So hopefully that happens, either way I'll take the .300+ average and within the early rounds I've locked up 3/4 of my middle infield.

7. (68) Billy Wagner RP - My first pitcher taken was a dominant closer. Some people say don't take closers cause you don't know where saves are going to come from. Eh, I think it's important to get two consistant guys who should be there all year and then try to find extra guys on the waiver wire midseason.

8. (73) Jeremy Bonderman SP - 200+ Ks is coming again this season.

9. (88) C.C. Sabathia SP - Most underrated pitcher in the game. Low 3 ERA, low whip, solid Ks, no hype. A little weird though that I selected both the guys I keep in my keeper league.

10. (93) Huston Street RP - #2 Solid Closer.

11. (108) Mike Piazza C - Catchers started to come off the board very early in this draft. One team in particular went catcher crazy and drafted both Victor Martinez and McCann. I waited around for awhile and made my move to pick up Piazza who I personally have ranked #4 on the catcher depth chart given his status as an almost full time DH.

12. (113) Prince Fielder 1B - I don't look at rankings really when making my picks but I do look at them after the fact to give a semi assessment of how I did. Prince is 81 on Yahoo's Big Board, I got him 30 picks later.

13. (128) Rocco Baldelli OF - People shyed off big time from Rocco, and understandably because of the injury risk. But really there aren't many players who will hit mid 20 homers hit over .300 and have around 20 steals in the 13th round. Stay healthy for once.

14. (133) Erik Bedard SP - Ok so I snatched up my best three pitchers from last season. Bedard was lights out the last two months. Hopefully that means something with him and Mazzone clicked.

15. (148) Morgan Ensberg 3B - Injured all year in 06, hoping for the healthy numbers from 05. Might have been able to get Ensberg

16. (153) Adam LaRoche 1B - I'm not a big Laroche fan, but I needed another 1B before they all got picked and he was the best available as everyone else was shying away. At round 16 I don't think this was a bad selection.

17. (168) Ian Kinsler 2B - Jumped on Kinsler maybe a round or two before I could have gotten him but I didn't want to miss out. He's a prime prospect that with a full season could have a breakout year at 2B. And while I would rather have Barfield, he went 8 rounds earlier.

18. (173) A.J. Pierzynski C - No one wanted Captain Scumbag as he lingered on the board for awhile until I finally decided I wanted a second catcher and I snatched him up. .275 and 20 homers and a guy that plays everyday for the second catcher spot is pretty good.

19. (188) Mike Cameron OF - He was on the board for a very long time and I know his average is going to stink but he has a lot of pop and hits mostly extra base hits and will get me the occasional steal.

20. (193) Chad Tracy 3B - .280+ as a Util and backup hot corner guy. First of back to back Dbacks.

21. (208) Conor Jackson 1B - With consistant playing time this season Jackson could easily become a .300 hitter. I did think he had OF eligibility as well so I failed on that.

22. (213) Dave Bush SP - Make that 4 for 4 on my top pitchers from 06. Being tabbed as a mighty sleeper. I just like the numbers around the board and hopefully the shitty Brewers put up some runs for him and Turnblown doesn't ruin all of his games.

23. (228) Derek Lowe SP - Apparently Red Sox fans dislike Derek Lowe, because I have no idea why he was on the board so long. He pitches in the best pitchers park in baseball has an era in the mid 3s. Sure the K rate could improve, but at pick 228 he's a consistant pitcher who balanced out the back end of my staff, especially when the last 5 picks were all high risk high reward guys.

24. (233) Ted Lilly SP - Low 4 era solid Ks and WHIP and now in the NL instead of the AL east. I think he's a bit underrated and I picked him up after Kei Igawa, who is the Japanese version of Lilly.

25. (248) Aubrey Huff 3B,OF - A little position flex here with the OF and 3B eligibilty. Hopefully he returns to his 03 04 self.

26. (253) Daniel Cabrera SP - Late in the draft it was time to go with potential. Maybe something clicks with Cabrera this season who when he throws strikes is unhittable. If not, he'll be dumped and it won't be a big deal.

27. (268) Kelvim Escobar SP - I would have taken him earlier but somehow I missed him. Injury risk, but mid 3 era and solid whip and K rate in the 27th round and sign me up.

28. (273) Seth McClung SP,RP - End of the draft, I snagged McClung with the hope he would nail down the Drays closer job, if not I'll dump him and try to pick up another guy.

29. (288) Brandon McCarthy RP - Don't know what I'm getting with him here, but again the last 5 picks were all relatively risk picks with potential to be very good or quickly dumped.

30. (293) Carl Pavano SP - Last pick, figured if Pavano could stay healthy in Spring Training perhaps he could be a 15 game winner. Or I might dump him prior to opening day. Not a big deal.

Roster End Analysis

I think I did very well in this draft. There are some risks though. I do not have any backup position players. So injuries will have me scrambling on the waiver wire. I did snatch up some position flexibility at the end of the draft with Huff but thats not much. Mid infield is my biggest risk as I have some studs there with no viable backups on my roster or the waiver wire.

5 Picks Elsewhere I really Liked

18. (177) Jhonny Peralta - Sure he sucked last year, but he has breakout potential and he lingered forever in the draft going after guys like Bobby Crosby, solid risk/reward pick up. I had my SS locked up and was almost regretting it as I saw Peralta plummeting round after round.

29. (287) Matt Garza - You had to dig deep to find him on the Yahoo draft board. And I didn't but someone did and I think he was a great pickup.

13. (122) Matt Cain - Everyone shyed away from Cain for some reason, I was finally going to jump on him until someone picked him up a few spots before me.

14. (136) Adrián González - I love Gonzo this year, and Yahoo had him ranked way too low so I was hoping to snatch him up in round 16 but someone jumped on him earlier than the rankings suggested. .300+ average in round 14 should be great in this league.

16. (160) Brian Fuentes - I see him as a lock to keep his job throughout the season, which in round 16 you don't really get from closers. Once again he was snatched up a pick or two before I was going to jump on him.

Quick Picks of the champions for the weekend.

ACC - Should be UNC but they seem to choke in this tourny every year. I'll go with UVgay, I mean UVA, why because they have the Best Point Guard.

America East - Vermont is going to dominate in their home arena.

Big East - Pitt over Georgetown. Usually the Big East champion gets knocked off early in the NCAAs, since I think G-town will go far, and Pitt is always the perfect choke artist...

Big 10 - Wisconsin should face OSU in the title game, I'll take Wisconsin to win the Conference Championship, but someone else might be my preseason pick for the title / future pick for the title.

Big 12 - Durant's biggest college accomplishment comes this weekend when he leads the Texas Longhorns to victories over the Jayhawks and another over A&M.

Big West - Going with the home of Snoop D O Double G, Long Beach State.

Conference USA - Is there any conference easier to pick than USA? Um Memphis, with a house down payment on the line.

Mid American - Should we go with Wally World's alma mata, how about no. Akron Zips baby.

Mountain West - The Runnin Rebs are pro polygamy and that is why they dominate mountain territory. UNLV.

Pac 10 - Woah where did UCLA go already? And Arizona as well? I'm going with the Mighty Ducks of Oregon.

Patriot - I'm a Holy Cross Crusader homer. Let's go Worcester boys.

SEC - I don't think Florida chokes this one away despite their poor play the past few weeks.

WAC - Um almost as easy as Conference USA, Nevada. Fazekas is a funny name...

Here's 5 Rules I will live by when drafting pitchers this season.

1) Don't Overvalue Wins from 2006: Wins are a by-product of the team that a pitcher is on and luck. For instance Freddy Garcia won 17 games last season with a 4.53 while Jason Schmidt and Chris Young won 11 with eras a full run lower.

2) Ks are Consistant: Pitchers who get Ks in one season don't typically significantly decline in subsequent seasons. Sure there are injuries which knock people down and some aberations, but finesse pitchers are finesse power guys that get Ks will continue to get them.

3) Down the Stretch: I like to look at how pitchers finished to season to garner an idea of how they will be in 2007. However, I am not blowing this out of proportion as I did last year. Josh Towers, in 2005 finished the last two months of the season with a 2.50 era, he started the 2006 season with an era over 10, and subsequently killed my roto era value. Take note of hot finishes but do not let that make you jump a guy dramatically up your board.

4) Closer Run: In my league we have 3 closers, if you get 3 stable closers for the whole season you will do very well in that category. If not, well, have fun on the waiver wire. I will certainly attempt to fire away in the middle rounds at closers like Chad Cordero, JJ Putz and Chris Ray, seeing them as stable, but not too early.

5) Identify Sleepers: Last year I picked Dave Bush with the last pick of the draft aka round 25 of a 12 team league. My father identified Justin Verlander in the last round. Both helped us tremendously in the pitching and all it cost was taking a mild risk with our last pick. There will always be a pitcher fall towards the end of the draft who performs. Find them before the draft or be quick to pull the trigger on the waiver wire during the opening weeks.

Note: I am already better pitching then I was last year. Last year I inherited a keeper team and where my best two options for keepers were Kerry Wood and Zach Duke, ugh kick in the junk. Well Arroyo was on the roster as well, but if you thought Arroyo was going to put up those numbers you were toking up. Anyway this year I have Sabathia and Bonderman, two steady and solid fantasy starters. Not superstars but a much bigger upgrade than last season.

That looks like a wrestling move. The Islanders were tied at the time of the hit, the Rangers scored the winning goal on the power play and my guess is he's gone for the rest of the season. It's not as bad as the McSorley slash from behind or Bertuzzi's punch and drive to the ice, but still adios Chris enjoy a long vacation without pay.

So I have this software package uploaded to my blog, Statcounter if you're interested, and its pretty cool it shows me the IP address, the location, how often, the time spent on the site and a bunch of other information. Well one thing that is cool is that I can see what people searched and clicked on to get here. For instance a lot of people search for to get to my site. For instance a lot of time people search for Kyle Farnsworth Fight video, cause I wrote about that being my favorite baseball fight, however no video of it can be found on the web and people click onto my site and are utterly disappointed. Another thing that made me happy is for awhile if you typed in I Hate Duke on google I would pop up on the front page. That one gave me some shivers.

Well today is an odd linkage. Apparently I am the 12th most relevent website on the planet when searching for Jose Maria Olazabal and homosexual. What a proud moment. I am absolutely honored to be linked with gay spanish golfing.

By far the biggest unmentioned part of success in fantasy baseball is complete knowledge of your league rules. Every league is different and every draft plan should be tailored around these differences. Here are some different strategies that can be caused by league changes.

Know Your Categories: Strikeouts for batters a big negative downgrade Adam Dunn or Mike Cameron, Double Plays a problem don't pick up Piazza, Holds a category grab some middle relievers. Every league has different categories know them and help them shape your personal draft rankings.

Money per Move: In my main league we pay an initial fee of 135 dollars, which is a decent amount to start but these totals go up significantly because we attach a dollar amount per move. 5 bucks to DL or activate a player, 10 bucks to add a player. Thus on draft day injury risk players need to be downgraded a bit. For instance last year I had Kerry Wood, not only did he not contribute at all due to his injury but he cost me a total of 30 bucks throughout the season. If never had him on my roster I would have ended up winning money, instead I lost a couple of bucks.

Steals Strategy - In Roto leagues steals are vital. If you finish last in a category your chances of securing that championship are almost zero. Thus throughout the draft you will have to increase the values of the weaker guys like Dave Roberts, Willy Taveras etc. if you are desperate for steals. However, in H2H category leagues you could sacrifice that category without much issue and focus on increasing your production at other stats. Furthermore in H2H point leagues you can ignore this all together.

Total Position Players - If you are forced to play 2 catchers or 2 2B than the values of players like Mauer or Utley are vastly increased. With one player per position perhaps the 12th available catcher or 2nd baseman won't be completely terrible. But if you're searching for the 20th catcher, know you're getting squat.

Keeper or Non Keeper - In a keeper league did you just keep a few aging stars that perhaps you won't want to keep in 2008, then try to find that rookie prospect this year that could blossom. Think the McCann or Zimmerman of 06. Non Keeper league? Than forget about the future prospect and focus in on guys with potential for this season and this season alone.

Bench Players - Some leagues have weekly rosters with no bench players others have day to day roster changes with a large bench. With bench players it might be advisable to load up on starting pitching so you can rotate guys in every day in hopes of picking up Ks or Ws.

Innings Pitched Max - However, in leagues with an Innings Pitch Maximum you might not want to load up on marginal starting pitchers and you should rather focus on maximizing the potential of your innings by focusing on Closers and upper-tier starters.

Moral of the Story

Know your Rules prior to setting up your draft strategy it will give you a big time advantage over those who overlooked them.

According to a Brazilian website Mr. Tom Brady is 2 for 2, that is 2 for 2 in knocking his recent girlfriends up. After knocking and running on Moynahan, Dreamboat has apparently pentrated and planted his seed on Brazilian Victoria Secrete model Gisele. So in a four month span Dreamboat has knocked up Moynahan, dumped her, traveled the world with Bundchen, and met her parents in Brazil, and knocked her up. Someone's certainly not concentrating on the Patriots.

Now the real question is if their both sons, who is going to quarterback for Michigan in 2026? My guess would be Moynahan, she seems like an all-american girl who will thrust her single parented child into football at a young age. Althought Bundchen dominated the battle between the two.

Third base is a surprisingly deep position and while there are some studs at the top, especially in NYC, there are plenty of good options in the low teens.

1. Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees - He's still #1 in all of our hearts. [Vomit]

2. David Wright, New York Mets - Two stats when looking at David Wright's overall numbers surprise me. 1) He only hit 26 homers. 2) He had 20 steals. 20 steals is pretty good from the 3B slot, and from someone that puts up Wrights overall numbers. And as for 26 homers, he should improve that to 30+ this season.

3. Miguel Cabrera, Florida Marlins - Miguel is a stud, he is Manny Ramirez the younger version. He had a slight downtick in homeruns last year but an upturn in average. I'd expect the average to fall back somewhere in the high .320s but the homers to move back to the mid 30s.

4. Aramis Ramirez, Chicago Cubs - Aramis had 119 rbis last season for a roster which did not include Derek Lee and Alfonso Soriano in it. Only concern with Ramirez would be the fact that last year was a contract year.

5. Garrett Atkins, Colorado Rockies - Talk about a guy who flies under the radar. Atkins hit almost .330 with 29 homers and about 120 runs and rbis and yet no one ever mentions his name? Amazing.

6. Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals - I am a big fan of Zimmerman, he put up very good numbers during his rookie season and showed a knack for getting the big time clutch hit. Really the only negative with Zimmerman is his environment, aka the fact he plays for the Nationals in that cavernous ballpark.

7. Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves - If Chipper could just stay healthy his numbers would be absolutely terrific. Last year he played in 110 games hit .324 had 26 homers, 86 runs and 87 rbis. Thats phenomenal for 110 games. Extrapolate that out to 150 games and thats 35 dingers 118 rbis and 117 runs. That puts him close to Arod. But the injury bug is there.

8. Chone Figgins, LAA Angels - Not a fan of the drop in average to .257 last season. But Figgins once again provides you a big time steals guy who will get you 50+ in that category and help you focus on the rest of the stats in the remainder of your draft.

9. Troy Glaus, Toronto Blue Jays - Big time power numbers if he continues to stay healthy. He's a consistant .250 hitter though.

10. Joe Crede, Chicago White Sox - Had a terrific year in a terrific lineup but I think he may go ahead of when I would think about taking him.

11. Chad Tracy, Arizona Diamondbacks - I think Chad Tracy goes off this year and improves a lot from his .281 and 20 HRs numbers.

12. Scott Rolen, St. Louis Cardinals - Before I make up my mind on Rolen I want to know how he performs during spring training with his shoulder problems. Rolen had good but not great numbers in his 142 games last season, so the question is whether or not he will be healthy enough to replicate them.

13. Morgan Ensberg, Houston Astros - I have Ensberg higher than just about everyone on the planet in the 3rd base rankings. Why, he seems to perform best on odd calendar years. He battled through injuries last year and was an average killer but the previous 3 seasons he was a low .280s hitter. I expect a bounce back season from Morgie.

14. Eric Chavez, Oakland Athletics - For some reason I have a feeling he returns to 30 homers this season, but I still don't see the average being good.

15. Freddy Sanchez, Pittsburgh Pirates - The average is beautiful but the home runs, runs, rbis, and steals aren't. The best part about Sanchez is he's 2nd base eligible. Therefore, you most likely won't be drafting him for 3b.

16. Adrian Beltre, Seattle Mariners - For all the bashing of Beltre he's not that bad. Sure his average stinks, .268, but he did have 25 HRs and double digit steals.

17. Melvin Mora, Baltimore Orioles - Mora's numbers aren't quite the same as they used to be but atleast he put up double digit steals and homers.

18. Aubrey Huff, Baltimore Orioles - Had some fantastic numbers for the DRays in 03 and 04 but has slid back in both 05 and 06, so which Huff are you getting, I'd say closer to 05, a .280 hitter mid 20 homers.

19. Edwin Encarnacion, Cincinnatti Reds - .276 and 15 dingers in his rookie season. Hits in a good lineup in one of the best parks in baseball, there's a good possibility of improvement.

20. Mark Teahen, Kansas City Royals - Had very good numbers (.290 18 Hrs 11 Steals) last year for the meager Royals so why is he rated so low, look at #21. If he has an every day role move him up the board.

21. Alex Gordon, Kansas City Royals - The number 1 prospect in baseball, what are the Royals going to do with him and Teahan who was very productive last season. Right now it's too early to thrust Gordon up the rankings. If he solidifies his spot on the roster move him up. Especially in a keeper league.

22. Mike Lowell, Boston Red Sox - Pre All Star break .307 post-break .257. Which do you believe? I lean towards the second half.

23. Hank Blalock, Texas Rangers - How the mighty have fallen. Hank keeps on getting worse every season, steroids perhaps? 16 homers last season? Piss Poor.

24. Akinori Iwamura, Tampa Bay Devil Rays - Tough to rate a guy or talk about him if you have never seen him play and have no idea whether or not he's going to be the starting 3B on opening day.

25. B.J. Upton, Tampa Bay Devil Rays - With Upton you are getting steals but a big time unknown with total playing time. Where is Upton going to get starts? Starts directly coincide with steals, runs and rbis. In addition last season Upton had his worst batting average in the minors. He's a spring training watch.

26. Brandon Inge, Detroit Tigers - Power was Inge's good stat in 2006, think that lasts? I don't.

Alessandro Mancini, never heard of him, is apparently a pimp. How confused do you think the defender was during this move? Much like Baseball Tonight Web Gems are a terrific part of my life, I could easily sit down on saturday and sunday night and watch the best goals from around the world.

Carlos Zambrano has proven to be an interesting offseason quote machine. First he enjoyed referring to himself in the 3rd person with regards to his contracts desire and now he's tossing out the guarantees. Perhaps one that has to do with a 99 year streak?

"I believe this year I will win the Cy Young, and I will enjoy that," Zambrano said "Beside that, we will win the World Series, I guarantee you that." All Headline News

Note to Carlos, the Cubs haven't won the World Series in 99 years and finished the 2006 season with the worst record in the entire National League last season. I understand that they went out and signed Soriano, Lee is healthy, and they added Lilly and Ponderosa, etc. but they doesn't mean they are going to win the World Series, and how meaningless is a guarantee at the beginning of the season. I just enjoy how Zambrano phrases everything. 'I will enjoy that', 'Beside that', quite humorous if you ask me. While he was throwing out absurd guarantees why didn't he say that neither Kerry Wood or Mark Prior would spend anytime on the DL this season. Now that's bold. I'd expect that one to come out in the 3rd person, kind of like this.

"Carlos guarantees Mark Prior is going to make 33 starts this year, Kerry will be dominant in the Pen and neither will spend anytime on the DL. Big-Z will enjoy that."

Although it might be valid, look at the picture, its apparent Carlos is in constant communication with God.

SS used to be a P.O.S. fantasy position now you've got 8 guys who provide terrific production and another tier of 6 players who will provide solid production. It's much deeper than either 2B or Catcher.

1. Jose Reyes, New York Mets - Jose Reyes developed into the #1 fantasy shortstop in baseball last season and arguably top 5 overal. He's a threat to lead the league in both runs scored and stolen bases and showed surprising power numbers by hitting 19 homers last season.

2. Derek Jeter, New York Yankees - Coming off arguably the best season of his careerDerek shows no signs of slowing down and will maintain his perfect #2 hole slot in the lineup which on the Yankees equals massive production.

3. Miguel Tejada, Baltimore Orioles - The debate between Tejada and Jeter for the 2nd SS is a difficult one but I gave Jeter the edge because of his increasing steal totals. Tejeada will get you more homers and rbis than Jeter, the average is comprabable, runs might be a little behind. Anyway you have either and you're in good shape at SS.

4. Jimmy Rollins, Philadelphia Phillies - Jimmy Rollins was so bad in the first half of the season that I was able to snipe him for Jose Lopez just prior to the all star break. Than the second half of the season he was fantastic. Which if you look at his splits, happens every year. So if you don't get him on draft day come mid june attempt to trade for him.

5. Carlos Guillen, Detroit Tigers - Guillen is an incredibly consistant hitter. He's hit .318 or above in each season with the Tigers and last season had by far his best year where he even through in 20 steals. He gets overlooked way too much at this position.

6. Michael Young, Texas Rangers - Very consistant. .300+ hitter around 100 runs and rbis. The power numbers and speed numbers could certainly be improved.

7. Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins - Evryone is tagging Ramirez as either a top flight #4 SS or bound for a sophomore slump. I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't know if he keeps the power numbers but the one thing that shouldn't slump is speed. And 51 steals in 06 could easily be replicated in 07, which is a big time # in roto leagues.

8. Rafael Furcal, LA Dodgers - Picking between Ramirez or Furcal is just a matter of taste. Ramirez has a bigger upside while Furcal will consistantly get you low double digits homer, 40 steals and around a .300 average.

9. Julio Lugo, Boston Red Sox - There are always positives and negatives of getting dealt. First Lugo sucked in LA, he was thrown around the field and was obviously uncomfortable so the move to SS in Boston will help. Additionally hitting in front of Papi and Manny means a lot of runs scored. But will his SBs suffer? The Red Sox rarely run and without steals Lugo is devalued in spite of what should be a significant up turn in runs scored.

10. Felipe Lopez, Washington Nationals - The power numbers plummeted in 2006 but the speed numbers jumped significantly. Leading off for the Nats should provide plenty of times where he is off and running. I think Felipe will end up with almost the same numbers he put up in 2006, which makes him great help for steals.

11. Bill Hall, Milwaukee Brewers - 35 Homers is that really going to happen again? I can't say I expect that in the slightest. He has the benefit of playing in Milwaukee, overly homer friendly, as well as position flexibility but he won't provide the steals you may need from you SS.

12. Jhonny Peralta, Cleveland Indians - Bring back the 2005 stats? Perhaps. Atleast Peralta should be slotted by Wedge in a spot in the order where he's comfortable. Last season Wedge's biggest mistake was leaving Peralta in the 3 whole for so long even though Peralta was struggling mightily.

13. Edgar Renteria, Atlanta Braves - Renteria had a nice bounce back season with the Braves, apparently he likes the NL much more. We'll just figure that the one season in Boston was an aberration and that he'll continue to hit close to .300 with mid teen steals and homers and decent rbis and runs.

14. Stephen Drew, Arizona Diamondbacks - Had a very productive introduction into the majors last season, when he hit .316 with 5 HRs in 203 at bats. Extrapolate that out to 500+ at bats and you have some solid stats. One has worry that he might have the same motivation/drive as his brother though.

15. Bobby Crosby, Oakland Athletics - Is this guy ever going to live up to his potential as a .285, 25 HR, 90 Rbi guy or will he get injured yet again. Last year he was terrible and hit .230. Call me a sucker but I'm probably going to take the bait this season.

16. Orlando Cabrera, LAA Angels - Cabrera put up some good stats around the board but where are the power numbers, just 9 homeruns? The .280 batting average, 25 steals and some decent run and rbi totals make him a solid #2 SS however.

17. Jason Bartlett, Minnesota Twins - Hit .309 last season in 333 at bats once he was given the starting job. He also had 10 SBs. If you draft him you're hoping on him getting 500 at bats and possibly running more while maintaining the average.

18. Juan Uribe, Chicago White Sox - Putrid average but he did hit 21 homers last season, probably because he swings for the fences and plays at the #1 home run friendly park of 06.

19. Yuniesky Betancourt, Seattle Mariners - One could hope this guy develops a little bit. But most likely Betancourt won't get you much other than not sinking your batting average like Uribe will.

20. Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado Rockies - Had very good numbers in AA last season but didn't perform too well in the majors. Draft him and you're getting a talked about prospect who could boom or bust and there's not much pointing in either direction right now. Watch him during the spring.

21. Khalil Greene, San Diego Padres - Spicoli hits 15 home runs every season but provides no steals and hit a putrid .245 last season. Ugh.

22. Omar Vizquel, San Francisco Giants - Omar had a very good season last year, up until his poor September, but forgive me if I think that a 40 year old SS is bound to start dipping in production.

23. David Eckstein, St. Louis Cardinals - Midget. One would have thought he atleast steals bases. Nope. His average was decent .292, but the remainder of his stats are putrid. 2 HRs, 23 rbis, 7 SBs. He doesn't contribute anything.

24. J.J. Hardy, Milwaukee Brewers - JJ really hasn't done anything of note in his first two seasons, he's not really the 2nd SS of dreams.

25. Alex Gonzalez, Cincinatti Reds - He's a bum if you have him on your roster, ugh. Good Luck with that. Atleast he'll play in homer friendly Cincy.

The Celtics during January and most of February had perfected the art of sucking they set franchise records for losing and without Paul Pierce were completely lost and looked like they were destined for one of the two worst records in the NBA. And then Paul came back and everything is starting to go completely wrong. A 4 Game winning streak at any other time in your fandom is nice, not now.

With Paul Pierce the Celtics are a .500 team (5-5 since Pierce came back), especially with the development of Al Jefferson (15 & 11 this season) who is becoming the perfect compliment to Pierce on the outside. So with 23 games remaining say the Celtics go 12-11 that would put them at 29 wins for the season. Lets take a look at where that could put them.

Rearview Mirror

Memphis Grizzlies, 15-46 - Personally I think the Grizzlies have all but locked down the most lottery balls in the draft, which sucks a lot. Oden or Durant in a Memphis Grizzlies uniform to me would be an epic waste. Can we please get atleast one of the guys on a big market team? I would rather they end up on the horrible Hawks than in Memphis.

Within Passing Distance

The Cs have a 5 game head start on all these teams but a little continuance of the current hot streak as well as a few bad weeks from any of these 4 squads could give the Cs a passing lane.

Atlanta, 22-39 - I think the Hawks with a healthy Joe Johnson should be able to win enough games to maintain a lead on the Celtics. Honestly, if you told me that the Celtics couldn't get one of the top 2 picks I think the Hawks would be my second choice. I think a combo of Oden, Joe Johnson and Josh Smith would be pretty money. Hopefully they don't tank the season.

Milwaukee Bucks, 22-39 - The Bucks with Michael Redd aren't completely miserable so he is the key to the Bucks remaining better than the Celtics.

Charlotte, 22-39 -The Bobcats are a team of worry, they have no star, just young developing draft picks and they aren't that good. In fact I'm pretty shocked they have 22 wins right now. Hopefully they can continue to overachieve.

Philadelphia, 22-38 - Out of these 4 squads the 76ers might be the biggest risk, especially since they'll play and most likely lose to the Celtics. Iguodala has played well and Andre Miller has helped but this team is no good.

Possibly Out of Reach

Seattle, 24-35 - Seattle's a decent enough team to win 8 or 9 of their remaining and should remain out of the Celtics reach.

Portland, 25-35 - Ditto with Portland especially since their young team is progressively doing better this season.

Miles Ahead

Golden St., 27-35 - The Warriors have a 9.5 game advantage over the Celtics so they would either have to be hideous or the Celtics would need to turn into an elite team down the stretch to slip below the Cs.

Minnesota, 26-33 - Ditto with the T-Wolves. 7 games down the stretch will be enough to put them too far ahead.

So right now it looks like the Celtics will fall anywhere between #2 odds and #6 odds, which are vastly different. If I were to guess the Celtics will pass atleast one of those teams with 22 wins probably 2, aka they're morons. Or they could let Paul take a vacation and lock up with the #2 lottery odds. Danny, any ideas?

I heard a rumor a few weeks ago that the Jets were interested in Thomas Jones but didn't think much of it. I mean there was a rumor that the Jets were going to trade Vilma, how seriously can you take rumors. So I shook it off and for the most part forgot about it. Than yesterday on my ride home from the gym I turned on WFAN and heard all the callers discussing how the Jets just picked up Jones. Oh really, well that's pretty sweet. However, the radio never mentioned what the Jets had to give up so I was pleased with the fact they got a solid running back which they desperately needed but wanted to see exactly what they gave up.

So I got home looked at ESPN.com, nothing, looked at Jets.com nothing, alright how about Google news. Ok sweet MSNBC has it up. So the first portion of the article reads the Jets acquire Thomas Jones for a second round pick #37. And I'm thinking to myself, that might be a little steep but hey he did put back to back really good seasons together. Than I read on and in the 3rd paragraph, "in addition the Jets receive the Bears 2nd round pick #63." Why the hell don't they mention that in the beginning I think that's a big piece of the puzzle don't you? Anyway moving back in the draft 26 spots in order to get someone who's rushed for 4+ yards a carry the past 4 seasons seems pretty outstanding to me especially when you had no significant top option on your roster. Now Leon Washington can assume the 3rd down back role which he will be perfect for. I am pumped.

2003 Tampa Bay 16 137 627 39.2 4.6 3 24 180 11.3 7.5 29 7.8 9 0 4 2
2004 Chicago 14 240 948 67.7 4.0 7 56 427 30.5 7.6 45 7.4 16 0 2 1
2005 Chicago 15 314 1335 89.0 4.3 9 26 143 9.5 5.5 41 7.2 6 0 2 2
2006 Chicago 16 296 1210 75.6 4.1 6 36 154 9.6 4.3 21 7.3 5 0 1 1

~How about that lucky minor league baseball player who found out that his property had an estimated 2 billion dollars work of rock which can be used for sidewalks, patios, etc. Matt White, a 29 year old lefty, who has a career 16.72 era in the big leagues is now set for life, despite bouncing around the minors for the past 9 years. And this is all because his aunt needed money for her nursing home and he was kind in off to take 50 acres of what could have been perceived as useless Western Massachusetts land. Far from useless obviously. While he can't just sell off the land for 2 billion straight he certainly will several millions. Lucky Bastard.

~Forbes came out with a moronic assessment of who the best GM in all of pro sports is and somehow they came up with Kevin McHale. Are you serious? He's the best GM in all the land because he drafted Kevin Garnett his team is constantly middle of the pack, and the GM prior sucked endlessly. Ya that makes sense. And Billy King #3 super. Shouldn't titles be the key component on who good of a GM you are? I understand integrating the payroll factor, but championships are what matters and the fact that Kevin McHale has wasted Kevin Garnett's talent and was unable to get him a front line scorer completely disqualifies this evaluation.

~Although I did enjoy the fact that Danny Ainge came in at #92 of a possible 98. But Scott Pioli at 20, come on.

~Steve Nash after the game against the Lakers told Michelle Tafoya that the reason he was struggling with his shot in the first half was because he had a bad case of diarrhea and was a bit skittish. Than he followed that up with saying, I probably shouldn't have said that, it's most likely brunch time in Hawaii. Steve Nash is sweet.

~Dwyane Wade decided to wait until after the season to have surgery. Sure that means that means his season isn't completely over. But it doesn't tell us if / when he will come back. So this isn't really news.

~Arod continues to explode into verbal diarrhea. Why must you open your mouth? And you wonder why people in NYC get annoyed with you when you suck in the clutch, and you practically praise Sweet Lou as manager god. Stop answering questions, I'd rather you be more like Manny.

~Sammy Sosa hit a homer. Hmm.... HGH? What were his shoes sizes from 1992 to 2002?

~The franchise tag has to be the most annoying thing in all of pro sports. Sure you get paid a massive number for a single season, but what if you get hurt you get nothing. Asanta Samuel, Lance Briggs and others would have receive massive longterm deals had they not been franchised. Just shows how weak the NFLPA is.

~I like the signing of Ahman Green for the Texans a lot. He had a pretty good season last year and their team has never had a solid running back. It isn't the Ahman Green of 03 but it's certainly a massive upgrade over Ron Dayne.

~Adalius Thomas to the Patriots is not fair and not cool. Boo to the Patriots hiring one of the best free agents.

~I saw a rumor on SI that the Jets were going to trade Vilma to the Redskins, if that ever happened I would flip out. He's the best player on the team. And the Redskins have nothing of value on their roster. And him being bad in the 3-4 is completely overblown. Sure he wasn't dominant last season, but he progressed. The rumor did come from the Washington Post and not anywhere in NYC so my guess is it is meaningless, but still annoying.

~Jake Plummer is such a clown. No way he really wants to retire, although I don't get why the Bucs traded for him in the first place if they were just going to sign Garcia a few days later.

~Beckham got hurt and is out 6 weeks, MLS stock goes down.

~As I have said numerous occasions I don't care about racing, but I did find yesterday's results of the Busch Series in Mexico when one teammate spun the other out on the last lap to be humurous.

~And the Madness begins, March is so much better than February.

~The Yanks or 5-0 in the preseason. Pimps. They just hit a walk off homer off Felix "The Cat" Heredia.

I posted pictures of Brent Petway from the front and from the back to show off his the new hairdo, the Wolverine Helmet shaved into his head. That is arguably not even the best haircut of the weekend as Ron Artest decided to turn the back of his head into a work of art. How long do you think it takes for a barber to shave a spray painted style King into the back of someones head, 2 hours? What about the star, think that was extra?

Vote: Better haircut the Wolverine Helmet or the Artest King coiffure?

By far the weakest position in fantasy. There's one true stud in Utley, two very solid players in Cano and Roberts, a few young players with potential in Kendrick, Weeks and Uggla, than a surprisingly solid options in the middle with Barfield, Kinsler and Cantu, and then it plummets.

1. Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies - Utley is far and away the best 2nd baseman in baseball. He puts up solid average, great power numbers and even sprinkles in some steals. It's not even debatable that he's the #1 guy.

2. Robinson Cano, New York Yankees - People seem to be forecasting a down year in production from Cano and I just don't see it. He's the best pure hitter on the Yankees, including ARod and Jeter. He puts the ball in play, he hits the ball hard and he hits a ton of line drives. Perhaps he doesn't vastly increase his power numbers. But if he plays 162 games this season his R, RBI and SB totals will go up.

3. Brian Roberts, Baltimore Orioles - Were the power numbers in 2005 an aberration or can he get them back? Roberts will provide you a bunch of steals atleast and a decenet average and runs scored. He's a solid early mid round pick.

4. Tadahito Iguchi, Chicago White Sox - Put up very good power numbers for a second baseman last season. Hits in a fantastic lineup in a terrific position in the lineup and even put up double digit steals.

5. Julio Lugo, Boston Red Sox - Eyes and Ears must know all the different position eligibilty. Lugo is set for a bounce back season now thrust into the wonderful fantasy world that is the Red Sox lineup. Dual 2B/SS eligibility vastly increases Lugo's value.

6. Rickie Weeks, Milwaukee Brewers - Rickie Weeks is a young multi-talented player who is the perfect examplec of a risk reward guy. He could come out hit around .280 and give you 20/20, or he could go out and like the past two seasons get injured and provide you nothing and neither would be surprising.

7. Howie Kendrick, LAA Angels - Not sure what Kendrick will do in his first full season in the bigs. He has all the pedigree to hit in the .300s but where will the power numbers or steals wind up.

8. Dan Uggla, Florida Marlins - Everyone and their mother has Uggla marked down for a sophomore slump. But really who knows. He had fantastic numbers in 06, was relatively consistant so why not big numbers in 07.

9. Freddy Sanchez, Pittsburgh Pirates - Sure he's not going to play any 2B this year, but he's got the 20+ games there last season to gain position eligibility.

10. Josh Barfield, Cleveland Indians - I am very high on Josh Barfield this season. He moves from a difficult ballpark for power to the Jake, and into a terrific lineup. He also put up double digit homers last year and had 20+ steals. I think he's got an opportunity to be a top 5 2B at the end of the season.

11. Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers - Missed 40 games last season but still put up double digits in both steals and homers. In my league I will be protecting Cano and will need another 2nd baseman, when I see Kinsler, Cantu or Barfield come off the board I will be jumping on the remaining guy.

12. Jorge Cantu, Tampa Bay Devil Rays - The batting average plummeted last season, but he did hit 14 homers in 107 games coming back from an injury. Someone that was regarded as a top flight 2B in 06 has plummeted on the rankings this year for really no reason.

13. Brandon Philips, Cincinatti Reds - Were the 17 HRs and 25 steals last season a fluke?

14. Jeff Kent, LA Dodgers - Getting older, missed a bunch of games last season. Sure he could bounce back, but my guess is he will be drafted well before I would want to pull the trigger on him.

15. Ray Durham, San Francisco Giants - Excuse me for not believing in the fact that Ray Durham hit 26 homeruns last year. I'd rather not overvalue his 2006 stats when I foresee a significant decline.

16. Luis Castillo, Minnesota Twins - Almost hit .300 and swiped 20+ bases and should be able to do both again this season. Certainly don't expect any power though.

17. Mark DeRosa, Chicago Cubs - Ponderosa gets a starting gig in Chitown after hitting .296 with 13 dingers in the utility role for the Rangers. His transition to a full time job is one that could be very fruitful for fantasy players.

18. Marcus Giles, San Diego Padres - Will the move to the hometown with his brother revitalize his career?

19. Jose Lopez, Seattle Mariners - Had a terrific first half in 06 then the power numbers completely stopped in the 2nd half. Not the worst option for the 2nd 2B but certainly not the best.

20. Orlando Hudson, Arizona Diamondbacks - The O-Dawg hit 15 homers last year? Who knew? But someone that quick in the field should be able to swipe more than 9 bags right?

21. Chris Burke, Houston Astros - Eligibile at 2nd base despite what should be a starting job in CF. Burke's numbers last season in a part time role were solid, so if he can do it for a whole season he's a good option for your 2nd 2nd baseman.

22. Placido Polanco, Detroit Tigers - Almost hit .300 last season, but he gives you nothing with regards to power or speed.

23. Craig Biggio, Houston Astros - Old man river. His numbers are on the decline. He hit .246 last season and has Mark Loretta backing him up. I would try to avoid Mr. Biggio.

24. Jose Castillo, Pittsburgh Pirates - Double Digit homers last year, thats about it.

Note #1: Ronnie Belliard & Felipe Lopez - Right now Lopez is slotted at 2nd base and Christian Guzman at SS. If Lopez gains second base eligibilty he jumps up to Lugo's spot in the order. However, if he plays SS that would give Belliard a decent shot at being a viable second 2B. Watch how this develops prior to your draft.

Note #2: Chone Figgins didn't play 20+ games at 2B last year and thus is not elligible in my league.

Michigan 61 Ohio St. 65

That's the final line for the game but it doesn't nearly tell the story of Michigan once again fumbling away their chances of making it into the tourny. Throughout the game Michigan was streaky, dropping 8 to 10 point runs then not scoring for a few minutes, than dropping another run. ESPN.com's box score shows it the best, look at the points graph they have and notice how the Wolverines flatlined at 61 and did not score a point in the final 3:54 seconds. In fact the only point they scored after the last tv-timeout was an AND-1 free throw by Courtney Sims immediately following the commercial break. Solid job Michigan.

Unfortunately that doesn't even tell the whole story. Down the stretch the Wolverines had plenty of opportunities to score. They missed an open three with the score tied at 61. Courtney Sims missed an open dunk down by 2 with a minute and half to go. Then Dion Harris missed the front end of a 1 and 1 down by two with 48 seconds to go. Than they held up on defense forced an unintelligent three pointer, but every player on their roster flocked to box out Greg Oden allowing Ivan Harris to easily gobble up the clinching offensive rebound with 17 seconds left. So instead of capatalizing on a 6 point lead with 3 and change to go and knock off the #1 team in the country, a huge rival, the Wolverines gagged and now need to pull off some miracle in the Big 10 tournament in order to get in.

I might have been a bit harsh in calling for Amaker's head. But the fact remains, in his 6th season the Wolverines are knocking on the door for yet another NIT trip. This roster is full of seniors and experience. Their top 4 scorers are seniors, two of them are 5th year seniors. If you can't get this roster into the tournament, then when in the future should I expect the Wolverines to dance. This season is exactly how the past 6 have gone. The Wolverines never pull off the dramatic upset, they always stink on the road but are good at home, they always lose in the ACC Big 10 challenge, they beat a ton of bum teams to start the year, and the limp to a .500 record in the Big 10 despite having enough talent to succeed. And this year unlike past seasons the Wolverines have been almost completely healthy and can't use that as an excuse. This week they'll knock off Minnesota on thursday and promptly get drubbed by Wisconsin in round 2 and then off to the NIT they will go. You had your golden opportunity this weekend Tommy and you choked it away.

Who: Eventual Hall of Fame Pitcher.

Where/When: Every 5th day this season for the San Diego Padres.

Why: I've never been a big fan of Greg Maddux until friday, when it revealed on PTI that he is the master of the Golden Shower. Yes that's right Greg Maddux, a 40 year old man, enjoys urinating on the legs of unsuspecting rookies in the shower. How classy is that?

Best Event: One could say that Greg Maddux's many playoff trips were great or the Cy Youngs or Gold Gloves, but hey lets be honest he's a Grade A Sports Guy solely because of the Chicks Dig the Longball Commercial and the many Golden Showers.

Sum Up: During several drunk moments in college I hit up some interesting places, ATO's party room, Smith's floor, Tony's GRE book, a sink next to Ruggles brushing his teeth, a car windshield, Barrett's door knob twice, but never ever a human beings leg. Congrats to you Mr. Maddux for your accomplishments.

Anyone that says that there was no intent there is a moron aka Jim Nantz and Billy Packer. Why don't you guys suck a little more Coach K cock. Billy Packer is always annoying but usually not blatantly stupid, this is moronic. He goes up realizes he can't make the block and drops his elbow straight into Hansborough's nose. Somehow despite all of that blood he did not break his nose. My question is why the hell is your best player in the game with 14 seconds left up by 12.

How about Duke finishing 8-8 in the ACC this season, how piss poor is that? Hopefully they can get bounced in the first rounds of both the ACC and NCAA tournies.

*Nevermind, he did break his nose, stupid reports this morning. And he might have broken a tooth yesterday. The suspension is staying at 1 game. Personally I think he should be suspended for the whole ACC tourny, which hopefully will be the case if they lose their ACC opener.

My old roommate Swallowman sent me a link to a Boston radio's site where they are embarking on an NCAA March Madness of Ugly. Anyway seemed fun enough so I'll break down my choices for the Sweet 16 they are currently at.

Sweet 16 Worthy

Popeye Jones: Popeye is one ugly man. Is that picture that far off, I think not. And what's up with the different eye level heights.

Ronaldinho: Deadspin recently posted an article where people in some South American country erected a statue of Ronaldinho as a horse and the depection was almost spot on in the face.

Charlie Villanueva: What a first round exit in favor of Patrick Ewing, that's just not right. Chucky is arguably the ugliest man in the NBA right now. Dudes got eyebrows made of bone and not hair. He should have dominated that bracket.

Sweet 16

Sam Cassell vs. Dan Shaghnessy: Really no competetion here. Sure Shaugnessy looks like a scrawny no steroid version of Carrot Top but he's only lasted this far because of weak competetion, and it's Boston. Although Dennis Johnson in the first rounds a little rough, hopefully that was completed prior to his massive heart attack. Anyway Sam Cassell is world class ugly. Uglier: Cassell

Chyna vs. Randy Johnson: Holy sh*t is this one tough. And Chyna knocked off Popeye Jones in the last round too, thats an accomplishment. As ugly as Randy Johnson is, his mullet is gone and Chyna is just so not attractive. Randy Johnson should be a final 4 participant unfortunately he was in the wrong bracket. Uglier: Chyna

Willy McGee vs. Greg Popovich: Willy will be the first #1 seed to go down. Willy is a goofy looking dude, but Popovich looks like he would scare children away with his face. Imagine waking up and see Popovich in your closet as an 8 year old, wouldn't you be scarred for life. Uglier: Popovich

Reggie Miller vs. Bill Walton: Personally this is the weakest portion of the bracket, as neither of these guys are that ugly. Well Reggie in his prime was a little anorexic. Considering for a period of time I built out the beard, red uncurly fro, and wore headbands, Walton style, Reggie gets the nod. Uglier: Reggie

Otis Nixon vs. Kurt Warner's Wife: I'm not that cruel, Warner's wife did have a lot of cancer and I'll give that as an excuse for why she had the grey crew cut. Uglier: Otis

Julian Tavarez vs. John Cheney: Red Sox pitcher, hmm. Ya chalk him. John Cheney is very old, sure he's a little odd looking but I think the oldness compounds it. Tavarez is just flat out ugly. Uglier: Tavarez

Jorge Cantu vs. Billy Jean King: Billy Jean King looks like a butch man right now. Cantu is just mexican so we'll give him a break. Uglier: BJK

Gheorge Muresan vs. Rebecca Lobo: Talk about two people you wouldn't want to see together in the post. If they mated would they create a mutant 8 foot 3 inch monster of ugly. Muresan doesn't look mentally there but he is, therefore he loses. Uglier: Gheorge

Elite 8

Sam Cassell vs. Chyna: Once again the toughest competetion comes from this bracket as Cassell and Chyna both have all time talent. In the end it's Sam, he's just a dominant force of ugly. Uglier: Cassell

Gregg Popovich vs. Reggie Miller: Pop had no competetion in this bracket after Chucky V's early and surprising exit. Pop walks over Reggie to the finals. Uglier: Popovich

Otis Nixon vs. Julian Tavarez: Not an exciting matchup. Tavarez is a scrub and Otis Nixon is an afterthought of a baseball player right now. Tavarez wins this because he's active and ugly. Uglier: Tavarez

Billy Jean King vs. Gheorge Muresan: Come on, I know she's a man, but not really an ugly man, just a man. Muresan now he's a championship contender. Uglier: Muresan

Final 4

Sam Cassell vs. Gregg Popovich: Popovich is a tough matchup for Cassell but lets be honest Cassell is thanking his lucky stars that he's not facing Chucky V right now. This one goes to the wire but Cassell takes it home. Uglier: Cassell

Julian Tavarez vs. Gheorge Muresan: Nobody likes seeing a blowout in the Final 4 but this is exactly what it is. Muresan faced steeper competetion in Lobo in the Sweet 16. Uglier: Muresan

Championship: Sam Cassell vs. Gheorge Muresan

And it all comes down to this a matchup between two icons of ugly, one a 7 foot 6 giant who looks menatally, well you know, the other a child of a fish and an alien. In the end Gheorge gets the pass based on the fact he is foreign and 7 foot 6 how could he not be ugly.

Congrats to Sam Cassell Champion of Ugly

In my main leage 1B and DH's are lumped together, and thus I give them together. 1B is a really deep talent pool. If you need to and don't get a top guy the guys from 15-30 are all going to put up similar stats.

1. Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals - He's the best player in baseball, no questions asked. He locks in 40, .330, 130, 120, and a handful of steals. You've got the #1 pick and that's a big advantage. Or if you have him in a keeper league that's even better.

2. Ryan Howard, Philadelphia Phillies -He's a offensive lineman playing baseball. He hits bombs to all fields. He has his whole career from the minors on up. Maybe 58 homers is a stretch, but I'd be surprised if he didn't hit 50.

3. David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox - Big Papi is chalked in around 50 homers, 100+ runs, 120+ rbis, .280+ average. Not very difficult to draft him.

4. Travis Hafner, Cleveland Indians -The only thing you want more from Pronk is at bats. He has never played in more than 140 games in a given season. If he managed to do this his stats could go through the roof. For instance, Ryan Howard had 104 more at bats last season. Thats a big difference.

5. Lance Berkman, Houston Astros - Lance Berkman had by far his best season last year when he was practically the Astros entire offense. Hopefully this season the signing of Carlos Lee will give him some protection in the lineup so perhaps he could score some runs when he gets on base. The dual OF/1B eligibility is a nice little bonus.

6. Mark Teixeira, Texas Rangers - I feel as if Big Tex busts out this year and has better stats than in 05 when he had 43 homeruns and hit .301. Tex's 06 season got off to a terrible start, and if he can avoid this he will be among the top fantasy players at the end of 07.

7. Derrek Lee, Chicago Cubs - Who knows if Lee will ever put up the same gaudy numbers he did in 05, but this season he's going to hit in the middle of a much better lineup, and unlike almost all 1B he'll get you 10 to 20 steals.

8. Paul Konerko, Chicago White Sox - Konerko had his best season of his career last year hitting a career best .313 with 35 homers. The extra lineup protection from Thome and Jermaine Dye certainly helped last year and will continue to help this season.

9. Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins - I'm not a believer of Morneau replicating his 2006 stats. It was such a vast improvement from his previous seasons that I think there has to be a little dropoff in his numbers this season. He's still going to put up good numbers, I mean I still have him in front of Thome and Delgado, but most likely he will go prior to when I will be willing to pick him.

10. Jim Thome, Chicago White Sox - Back healthy and back mashing last year. No real negative with Thome other than the fact he's 36 and has been injured in the past.

11. Richie Sexson, Seattle Mariners - En Fuego the second half of the season last year. Just look at his split stats, post all star break in 70 games, Sexson hit .322 with 18 homers and 48 rbis. Pretty friggin good.

12. Carlos Delgado, New York Mets - Big power numbers from Delgado hitting in a fantastic lineup, but whats with the .265 average Carlos. And you were absoultely atrocious against left handed pitchers with a .226 average.

13. Jason Giambi, New York Yankees - Last year he started off incredibly hot than tanked the last month or so of the season. It will be interesting to see how becoming for the most part a full time DH will affect him. In the past he has hit better while playing in the field. But because he is so fat and slow in the field the Yanks signed Dougie Minkowitz.

14. Adrian Gonzalez, San Diego Padres - Gonzalez came out of nowhere last year to begin fulfilling his potential. Perhaps he just needed the playing time. Personally he will be a player I target in the middle rounds to fulfill my second 1B slot as he could provide solid numbers across the board including a + .300 average.

15. Prince Fielder, Milwaukee Brewers - Had a strong rookie year and I expect him to bump up the average this season to around .285 and perhaps low to mid 30s in homers. Hell the big fella even had 7 steals last year.

16. Nick Swisher, Oakland A's - I saw a report that said that Nick Swisher added 20 lbs of muscle in the offseason. I don't know if this is necessarily a good thing, Swisher was already a big guy, perhaps some flexibility lost? Either way Swisher is a 40 homerun candidate, just a question of whether he can improve upon the average.

17. Todd Helton, Colorado Rockies - Can the power numbers come back? Because if they did he would zoom back up the list. He does still play at Coors field.

18. Adam LaRoche, Pittsburgh Pirates - If you look at his stats from last year you might be completely surprised to see he hit .285 and had 32 homers. The move to Pittsburgh shouldn't have much effect on his numbers, in fact he may end up getting more at bats with the Pirates.

19. Frank Thomas, Toronto Blue Jays - Is this guy going to stay healthy that's pretty much the issue. With health comes numbers, but the injury risk is so high with this guy that you could get anywhere from his fantastic numbers in 06 to a pulled hammy in spring training and 5 homers. High Risk/Reward guy.

20. Nomar Garciaparra, LA Dodgers - Another injury risk. Mr. Hamm should hit around .300 though and give you some good stats overall. One thing to be noted with Nomar is whether or not he will be floating around the field and perhaps play some 3B or outfield and give you some position flexibility. If that happens his value certainly increases. At 1B he's just middle of the pack.

21. Lyle Overbay, Blue Jays - A very good hitter with moderate power numbers is a fine option for your 2nd first baseman. He'll help your average, give you mid to low 20 homers and around 90 in both runs and rbis. Solid but non spectacular numbers around the board.

22. Conor Jackson, Diamondbacks - One of the prized Diamondback farm hand should be an everyday starter this season and develop into having numbers comprable to Lyle Overbay. A Solid Average and mild power numbers.

23. Mike Jacobs, Marlins - In his first full season in the bigs Jacobs hit 20 HRs at the huge Pro Player Stadium. I wouldn't expect much of a downturn from Jacobs, but am unsure if I would expect any upturn either.

24. Shea Hillenbrand, LAA Angels - Had pretty good numbers in last seasons split pre and post the fight with Jays Manager Gibbons. The power numbers could certainly use a boost, but being thrust into the Angels lineup, possibly behind Vlad, should give Shea some solid value.

25. Kevin Youkilis, Boston Red Sox - If only Youk could put up significant power numbers he'd be a great pickup. Another problem that lies with me is the fact that my league does not have on base percentage or walks as a category therefore Youk's big strength, his patience, is a non-factor.

Note #1: Nick Johnson - I would like to see Nicky J comeback at the beginning of the season and resume his numbers from last season, than he would jump up the list, but that leg injury was disgusting and he could miss a significant amount of time which could in turn knock him completely off the list.

Note #2: Gary Sheffield and Mike Piazza - will quickly gain eligibility at DH/1B. While 1B or OF importance is more debatable, if you have Mike Piazza and you are using him in your DH spot and not Catcher spot, than please lay off the bong hits.

Or the Pacman Jones rule would be a complete step in the right direction for the NFL or for any major sports league. Really if you get arrested 3 times you're pretty much either A) A Scumbag or B) A Moron. And honestly if you are getting paid millions upon millions of dollars I feel as if once you get 2 strikes you should be able to hold the fort for the remainder of your professional career. I mean I've done some stupid things in the past and have yet to get arrested. I'm sure plenty of other people have been absolute morons and not been arrested.

One thing I think is getting blown out of proportion is how many people this will effect / how many people will get kicked out as a result of this policy. Personally I'd be surprised if we ever saw more than 1 person a year in any given league, and if we ever saw a high profile player get booted. Sure there's your Chris Henry's or Pacman Jones' of the world that are sure to get the boot but there are way more individuals with zero arrests on their resume than multiple.

I think the talk of implementing the rule is pretty much the NFLPA trying to put themselves in a positive light for the first time in months. In other words this policy if ratified won't really do much.

Catcher is by far the worst position in fantasy baseball, especially if you are forced to go 2 deep at the position. First there are limited guys who put up solid numbers. Secondly, the bottom tier guys typically platoon and at most play 2/3 of the games during the season. For this reason one might think of bumping up Mauer or Martinez in rounds where their stats aren't on the same level as those getting drafted. Unless you get 2 guys in the top 12 your second catcher is going to be pretty useless.

1. Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins - The only question mark with Mauer is when/if the power numbers are going to emerge during the season. If Mauer could improve his 2007 stats to incorporate 20+ home runs than he would move into a viable 2nd round draft pick in 2008. Until then he's simply the #1 catcher in all of fantasy.

2. Victor Martinez, Cleveland Indians - Martinez moves in marginally behind Mauer as he has proven over the past 3 seasons to have more power than Mauer (Two 20 Homerun seasons) with an emerging batting average. Which over the past three seasons has moved from .283, .305, to .316 last season. Both Martinez and Mauer are a few rounds above the remainder of the catchers in the league. Why? Both play in a lot of games. The Indians work in "days" off from catching for Martinez by throwing him at DH or 1B. This should continue, and Martinez should effectively end up with many more at bats than the typical Catcher.

3. Brian McCann, Atlanta Braves - Will there be a major Sophomore slump? Will McCann maintain his #5 spot in the lineup behind Andrew Jones? There have been reports saying that the 23 year old is a leader in the clubhouse.

4. Mike Piazza, Oakland A's - DH is the key word here. He doesn't have to catch and therefore should receive ample playing team and have bigger numbers than in past seasons. Perhaps the Big Hurt's numbers from 06' are too lofty and expectation but to think he can't hit .280 25 HRs with 90+ rbis is not far fetched at all.

5. Ramon Hernandez, Orioles - Knock the Orioles chances to win the division all you want, they still have a pretty good lineup and Ramon Martinez is one of the best fantasy catchers around and should finish the season with close to 20 HRs and around 90 rbis.

6. Kenji Johjima, Mariners - Great rookie season in 2006 really no reason to expect a significant decline.

7. Jorge Posada, Yankees - After many years of decline Posada had a terrific 2006 campaign. One thing that is for certain, hitting in the Yankees lineup means plenty of runs scored and RBI chances.

8. Michael Barrett, Cubs - Barrett is a very good option at the #1 catcher position especially with the increased productivity which should come in the Cubs new lineup. Now if only we can assure he doesn't punch AJ Scumbag in the face and get suspended for a significant amount of time.

9. Russell Martin, LA Dodgers - Double Digit Steals and Homers, not gonna get that out of many catchers. Perhaps he develops further in his 2nd year in the bigs.

10. Ivan Rodriguez, Detroit Tigers - Was better on the juice but did hit over .300 last season and remains in a good lineup at the heart of the order.

11. Paul Lo Duca, New York Mets - Hit .318 despite some nagging injuries and a nagging divorce. Hitting behind Reyes and in front of Delgado, Wright and Beltran certainly helps the numbers.

12. A.J. Pierzynski, Chicago White Sox - AJ Scumbag had a good season last year, will continue to hit in the homer friendly New Comisky and should replicate the 06 numbers.

13. Bengie Molina, San Francisco Giants - Molina puts up very good numbers when he plays. Problem is he takes way too many days off, which is highly annoying.

14. Jason Varitek, Boston Red Sox - V-tek took a big downswing last season, was it because of a meriad of injuries or is he just getting up there in age. Personally I don't expect big time numbers for V-tek ever again.

15. Jason Kendall, Oakland Athletics - He'll get you a decent average, runs and more steals than any other catcher. But absolutely no power production.

16. Johnny Estrada, Diamondbacks - Hit .300+ in 3 of the last 4 seasons. Atleast he has a good chance of helping you in one category.

17. Ronny Paulino, Pittsburgh Pirates - Had a very good rookie season for the Pirates. Well atleast in average where he hit .310. Problem is he had no steals, not surprising for a catcher, and only had 6 homeruns. So if you want a 2nd catcher to stabilize your average he could be it, but don't expect bumps in anything else.

18. Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals - Yes I understand how terrible he was last season. But he's going to get consistant PT in a decent lineup. An upturn in

19. Mike Napoli, Angels - He hit .230 last year which is very ugly. But he did hit 16 home runs in 268 at bats which is a very good ratio. So this is a big time risk guy.

20. Josh Bard, Padres - Very good numbers in part time duty last season but who knows what he will do when he fills out another 200 at bats. One things for certain the absence of Piazza gives Bard the opportunity to shine.

21. Miguel Olivo, Marlins - Will hover around his numbers last season, .260 mid teens in homers, nothing special.

22. Chris Iannetta, Rockies - Perhaps will get a starting job in Colorado or could end up splitting time with the recently signed Javi Lopez. But a catcher in Coors has upside, right?

23. Greg Zaun, Toronto Blue Jays - A full time role for Zaun again in Toronto, does that mean that his numbers for last year will extrapolate out equally for 130 games instead of 90 or does that mean he will put up the .250 average he had in 2005?

24. John Buck, Royals - Ya if you have the last catcher in your league, well that pretty much sucks doesnt it. Maybe 15 homers and a .250 batting average.

Over the course of the next week and a 1/2 I will be posting at minimum one fantasy baseball post per day from position rankings, strategy, sleepers etc.

I was going to wait until next week to start, but I really have nothing to write about today, nor the time and I already finished a position ranking so...