The All Star ballots are beginning to tabulate and once again to no ones surprise the public is making a lot of miserable picks. Here's a rundown of my thoughts per position, and who my picks are per position for the AL.

1st Base

All of my grinding about Morneau last year not deserving the MVP and he goes out and has a terrific 1st half. Giambi deserves to be thrown off this list completely and one person who is not here but surprisingly deserves serious consideration is the Greek God of walks, Kevin Youkilis who is straight up raking daily. So after Morneau the Youk really deserves the bench spot, maybe even over Ortiz.

1. Ortiz, D. Red Sox 601,770
2. Giambi, J. Yankees 240,030
3. Morneau, J. Twins 221,520
4. Hafner, T. Indians 176,364
5. Casey, S. Tigers 161,436

2nd Base

Wow isn't this a joke, Cano gets all the credit from the casual fan despite only being legit in the majors for a year and a half. And he's leading the AL by a decent margin despite having a terrible start. Going by the numbers Bossman Junior is head and shoulders above everyone else. One person missing from the list that should be placed somewhere, especially above Pedroia, is Brian Roberts who is having a solid first half.

1. Cano, R. Yankees 322,994
2. Polanco, P. Tigers 282,251
3. Kinsler, I. Rangers 207,170
4. Upton, B.J. Devil Rays 141,720
5. Pedroia, D. Red Sox 141,636

3rd Base

As strong as Mike Lowell has played, and he's going to make the team, Arod is still leading the majors in almost all power categories off the month of April. And he still deserves to start. Hooray for Strayrod.

1. Rodriguez, A. Yankees 843,550
2. Lowell, M. Red Sox 238,566
3. Inge, B. Tigers 122,149
4. Chavez, E. Athletics 96,663
5. Crede, J. White Sox 82,598

Shortstop

Obviously Jeter is going to start, and I think he should make the team, he is putting up solid numbers and been one of the three steady Yanks this season. But for arguments sake Carlos Guillen has better power numbers, his speed numbers are only slightly lower, and the Tigers are a much better team right now.

1. Jeter, D. Yankees 657,383
2. Tejada, M. Orioles 228,230
3. Guillen, C. Tigers 197,755
4. Lugo, J. Red Sox 180,165
5. Young, M. Rangers 129,307

Outfield

The fans are not that far off with their voting in the outfield. Certainly not even close to as bad as they were in the NL, and they even have given the most votes to a guy who's definitely deserving. But Magglio Ordonez right now is the MVP of all baseball and he should be garnering the most votes. Torii Hunter is also having a career season thus far and will hopefully slide up into the top 3. Where the fans are completely oblivious is in the northeast where JD Drew, Manny, Abreu and Damon are all slotted in the top 8, despite all having bad to very bad opening months of the season. Abreu at 5 is an absolute joke, he really couldn't have possibly played worse in April and May. And Cereal Box at #12, that's laughable.

1. Guerrero, V. Angels 578,430
2. Ramirez, M. Red Sox 449,372
3. Suzuki, I. Mariners 362,245
4. Hunter, T. Twins 278,732
5. Abreu, B. Yankees 278,606
6. Damon, J. Yankees 267,605
7. Ordonez, M. Tigers 261,976
8. Drew, J.D. Red Sox 253,472
9. Sizemore, G. Indians 249,236
10. Matsui, H. Yankees 216,896
11. Sosa, S. Rangers 195,549
12. Crisp, C. Red Sox 178,152
13. Sheffield, G. Tigers 175,849
14. Crawford, C. Devil Rays 147,912
15. Wells, V. Blue Jays 144,923

Catcher

Let's be straight, there are two Yankees that have been consistent the entire season and one of them has been Jorge Posada who has hit the crap out of the ball. But you can't have 3 guys starting for a team that's been this bad and V-Mart's number are a little better in the power categories so he deserves it as well. It'll be lame when one of them gets loft off the team because fans stupidly vote for an ancient post steroids era I-Rod.

1. Rodriguez, I. Tigers 370,322
2. Mauer, J. Twins 328,974
3. Varitek, J. Red Sox 301,942
4. Posada, J. Yankees 297,928
5. Martinez, V. Indians 140,033

The All Star ballots are beginning to tabulate and once again to no ones surprise the public is making a lot of miserable picks. Here's a rundown of my thoughts per position, and who my picks are per position.

1st Base

Surprise, Pujols is winning despite putting up arguably his worst numbers of his career thus far. Meanwhile the Prince is mashing balls out of the park left and right and should be getting everyones vote to start the All Star game.

1. Pujols, A. Cardinals 399,706
2. Fielder, P. Brewers 291,911
3. Lee, D. Cubs 224,165
4. Garciaparra, N. Dodgers 222,107
5. Delgado, C. Mets 218,647

2nd Base

This is pretty much a no brainer, Utley has hands down the best stats, he is the best player and he's the peoples choice. Good for him. What is laughable are the names below him. Biggio and Kent, its not 1999. Valentin has missed almost a month.

1. Utley, C. Phillies 322,590
2. Biggio, C. Astros 251,664
3. Weeks, R. Brewers 233,593
4. Valentin, J. Mets 179,952
5. Kent, J. Dodgers 161,016

3rd Base

And here is where the New York fans begin to flaunt their muscle. Wright was miserable the entire month of April, and to his credit has turned it around pretty well in May, but Cabrera is a beast hitting .325 with better stats around the board except for steals. Also, Rolen is having a miserable year so far and should not be given a vote nevermind 204 thousand.

1. Wright, D. Mets 409,338
2. Jones, C. Braves 301,393
3. Cabrera, M. Marlins 297,372
4. Rolen, S. Cardinals 204,939
5. Ramirez, A. Cubs 192,490

Shortstop

With all respect to the monster year JJ Hardy is putting together thus far this season Jose Reyes is the right pick here. He's a sparkplug, and exciting player. He's putting up great numbers and everytime he gets on base he makes the big hitters in the Mets lineup job much easier. Where are the votes for Hanley Ramirez by the way?

1. Reyes, J. Mets 439,792
2. Hardy, J.J. Brewers 284,621
3. Rollins, J. Phillies 213,251
4. Eckstein, D. Cardinals 185,377
5. Renteria, E. Braves 182,362

Outfield

Note to America Matt Holliday is the best hitter you have never heard of and he deserves a vote on every single ballot submitted. He's hitting .347 which is 26 points higher than the next NL outfielder, can we get him atleast into the top 5 in voting. Alfonso Soriano should be nowhere near starting in the game, and neither should Andruw Jones. Apparently people haven't watched much sportscenter this year. Carlos Lee is putting up some decent numbers down in Houston for a terrible team, and I guess you can round out the outfield with Beltran, he is putting up some solid numbers in a relatively unimpressive NL outfield. Aaron Rowand also wouldn't be a terrible choice with the way he's played this season. How did Cory Hart end up on this list by the way? He doesn't even have double digit runs yet. Man the Brewers fans are coming out for this voting.

1. Beltran, C. Mets 586,815
2. Bonds, B. Giants 384,707
3. Soriano, A. Cubs 382,619
4. Griffey Jr., K. Reds 347,330
5. Jones, A. Braves 346,778
6. Lee, C. Astros 243,559
7. Alou, M. Mets 241,164
8. Hall, B. Brewers 211,722
9. Jenkins, G. Brewers 211,460
10. Francoeur, J. Braves 210,597
11. Edmonds, J. Cardinals 182,831
12. Green, S. Mets 182,358
13. Hart, C. Brewers 160,636
14. Rowand, A. Phillies 155,891
15. Holliday, M. Rockies 144,529

Catcher

Lo Duca is a legit choice but the man that really should be anchoring the plate at the all star game isn't even in the top 5. And that's the fat Molina, Bengie, who has the best numbers for any catcher in the NL by a decent margin.

1. Lo Duca, P. Mets 339,527
2. McCann, B. Braves 288,491
3. Estrada, J. Brewers 255,884
4. Martin, R. Dodgers 198,914
5. Molina, Y. Cardinals 196,424
6? Molina, B. Giants ?

Those are two phrases you should expect to hear at a much larger volume levels when you walk around Yankee Stadium in the not too distant future as the state of New York is expected to eliminate restrictions on ticket scalping. So now instead of walking near the stadium and having guys analyze you from a far and then ask you if you need any tickets, they can just holler and scream as loud as they want.

I do not know whether this is a good/bad/neutral thing. Does it really change much? I mean people have been and will continue to scalp their tickets regardless of the policy. And it's not as if I plant myself around Yankee Stadium and scalp my tickets so it doesn't really effect me unless I plan on going down and buying scalped tickets some day, which is doubtful. I think in the long run it just benefits people who live in the Bronx and Queens who can go to the stadium any day of the week and find tickets to buy regardless of the game, or can go out and sell their tickets that they may have camped out for when they went on sale. It makes sense to make it legal, what's the point of it being illegal, but in actuality it doesn't effect me in the slightest.

So if you had a to guess who was leading the American league in innings who would your guess be? CC Sabathia, he's a horse. Johan Santana, he is the best pitcher in baseball? Dan Haren, he is leading the AL in ERA? How about James Shields of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, when would his name cross your lips? Never? Have you ever even heard of James Shields before?

Well, Shields in fact sits as the league leader in innings pitched after last night, and sits one inning behind Tim Hudson for the major league lead in innings, and the amazing part about that is that Shields has one start less then just about everyone else in the top 10.

So where did this guy come from? I like the majority of the world had never heard of him before this season. Well he actually was at one point in time a highly touted prospect, as he was ranked #16 in the country his senior year in high school and was drafted by the D-Rays in the 2000 draft. His first cousin is Phillies Centerfielder Aaron Rowand. He toiled around in the minors since the draft with unremarkable numbers and a season where he missed entirely due to injury until last year when he started to pitch well and got the call when the immortal Casey Fossum went down with injury. His numbers last year were not terrific, but one thing he did do was eat innings and garner Ks. Something he's carried over into this season obviously.

After Kei Igawa started getting repetitively rocked, and because I was drunk when Igawa pitched his only good game against the Sox and thus did not really believe it, I dumped him and picked up Shields. And so far I have reaped the benefits. As since then Shields has thrown no less than 7 innings in a start. WIll he be for real the whole season? Only time will tell but for right now he's been an immaculate pick up for myself and anyone else who jumped on him, and he should be in line to be the D-Rays representative for the All Star game.

So, where else does Shields sit on the major league leader board?

2nd in IP
22nd in ERA
8th in Ks
Tied for 10th in Quality Starts
30th in K/BB rate
4th in WHIP

Pretty Impressive opening two months.

HAHAHAHAHA. Come on if you've played baseball and have never had to either deal with someone screaming I got it while running by you, or never done it yourself then you obviously don't play in fun leagues. And sadly enough the Yankees really needed that just so that they could put themselves up by enough runs so they couldn't choke away the lead.

Save Totals
Mariano Rivera = Hideki Okajima = 4

But I just watched the YouTube clip of the Iceman getting dropped by some black guy I've never heard of from the UFC fight on Saturday, and it was up there today for the biggest waste of 2 minutes of my life. They pretty much walk around the ring for 2 minutes, throw approximately a total of 7 punches. The black guy lands one on the chin and drops Lidell, and then pounces on him until the ref jumps in between and calls the fight. So where exactly is the excitement of MMA? Did I miss something there? Maybe the undercards were good? But certainly dropping 50 bones on a fight that lasted 2 minutes and consisted of roughly 10 punches was not worth it.

If you care to waste 2 minutes yourself...

I feel as if everyone that every runs on the field gets destroyed like this, but every time I still enjoy it.

Courtesy of Who Ate All the Pies

Bad Enough that, they turn Aaron Hill, career 10 stolen bases, into Jackie Robinson. Ugh.

Americans have always had their most difficult time winning matches and grand slams when they play on the clay of Roland Garros, but this bad come on. After the first monday of the French Open, 8 of the 9 American Men were bounced including both of the top ranked men, Andy Roddick and Fairfield native James Blake.

No one could honestly expect Andy Roddick or Blake or Fish or any of the men to seriously contend for the French Open Championship. None have the track record on clay, none really ever advance far on clay, but this bad, basically a clean sweep out of the tournament on the first day, wow. That's bad.

Now the American's hope lies on the shoulders of one Robbie Ginepri, the only American to not go down yesterday. And don't get your hopes up, Ginepri is only still alive because his match got suspended because it was too late, and he is currently on a 4 match losing skid, 3 of which have come on clay.

Perhaps American Tennis should start building some clay courts so maybe one of these guys can win a single match, and you wonder why the Davis Cup team gets bounced by some team from Eastern Europe every year, just cause they play on clay.

~The Yankees blow. That's pretty much all you can say right now. They go out and show some life by beating the Red Sox 2 of 3 and then tank come the weekend, to their bane the Angels. Every single day they find away to lose. The one time they score a decent amount of runs this weekend (6) they give up 10 then when they get good pitching outings they can't score any runs. The season is only so long and they're currently 13.5 out of the East and 7 1/2 out of the Wildcard but it's not just that. In order to win 95 games the Yanks need to go 74-39 the remainder of the season. That's at a clip just below winning every series 2 out of 3. Maybe that's a possibility but if they don't turn it around this week and start winning games their season is effectively over, and heads should start to begin rolling, starting with the man at the top, the Cashman.

~On that note, can the Red Sox, lose maybe a game or two?

~The Indians dominated the Tigers this weekend to show them that they are for real, in their 3 game weekend sweep. Then of course they got beat in Fenway last night.

~This whole thing with the Patriots player drowning in a lake is pretty messed up.

~I watched a little bit of the Lacrosse match yesterday and I just can't wrap my hands around why Lacrosse hasn't become a big time sport yet. There are plenty of goals each game, people get rocked all the time, and smashed with their sticks. It's a quality sport, and it doesn't involve ice like hockey. I guess the landscape of American sports is so jampacked right now that introducing anything new, or trying to get anything to high levels is just about impossible.

~Surprise, I didn't watch a single second of the Indy 500.

~On the NBA side I watched some of the game last night before I decided that in the mid 4th the Jazz had no chance of winning because the only one on their team doing anything at all was Deron Williams and he had the flu. The Spurs will win game 5 and that will be a wrap, but Williams is showing himself to be a top 5 point guard in the NBA right now. He's got the ball handling, the passing skills, he can knock down a J from anywhere and he can get to the rack. He can do it all, in fact I think I would rather have him than Chris Paul.

~The Cavs won, but really the Pistons have done this every series so far, they'll win it in 6 or 7, it's pretty muych just a formality now that the Spurs and Pistons have a rematch of their previous finals that the Spurs took in 7.

~The Stanley Cup finals started last night on Versus, a channel I still do not get.

~The French Open started, I'll be pumped up for a Federer Nadal final if that happens.

Ok first LBJ doesn't go to the rack and dishes for an open three game 1 and he gets killed. Now he drives to the lane and everyone is complaining that he doesn't get a foul call and then people are questioning the fact that Mike Brown decided to drop the clock down and "play" for the last shot.

First off, I can't complain they didn't get a foul call and neither should anybody on the Cavs, by not calling a foul there they ended up with a wide open 6 footer which no matter how you draw up a play you can not expect to end up with a better shot than that. Secondly as, for waiting for the last shot, what's the difference. They had 3 opportunities at the shot, it's not like they waited til the last second. They had James shot, a perfect look for Hughes, and a decent tip opportunity for Floppy-Head. Stop your complaining and make shots down the stretch.

It will be apropos when both of the conference finals end in sweeps, marking just how uninteresting the NBA playoffs have been thus far.

I know that at this point int time in my life I could not fathom what the loss of a son would feel like and I can not blame Josh Hancock's father for being hurt and depressed after the loss of his son. However, I can't condone him trying to take lawful action against the bar that his son received his drinks at and definately not against the tow truck and the owner of the stalled car.

His son chose to drink and drive, the bar should be responsible only for making sure that people do not get overly intoxicated. I'm sure a man of Hancock's stature both in build and as a professional athlete should be able to appear more sober than the typical person. In addition, how if you are a Cardinals bar are you going to refuse to serve one of the Cardinal's players. If he wants a drink and isn't fall down drunk, you're not going to serve the guy?

In addition the Tow truck company whom Hancock struck and the car's owner that was being towed were also named as defendents in the suit? What could they have possibly done wrong? Have a car breakdown late at night? And do their job to try to get the car off the road. This just seems unreasonable.

The lawsuit claimed Tolar was negligent in allowing his vehicle to reach the point where it stalled on the highway and for failing to move it out of the way of oncoming traffic. A police report said the car became stalled when it spun out after being cut off by another vehicle.

The report said he told officers he was there five to seven minutes before his truck was hit by Hancock's SUV. But Kantack said the tow truck may have been there up to 15 minutes, yet failed to get the stalled vehicle out of the way.

"Were the police contacted?" Kantack asked. "Why weren't flares put out? Why was the tow truck there for an exorbitant amount of time?"

So it's the car owners fault for stalling out, and that played apart in your sons death? Or saying that the tow truck took to long to get the car off the road? Both of those are a bit far fetched.

So Mr. Hancock, I'm sorry your son passed away too early, but try not to seek blame and hurt other people because of your sons mistake. He made the mistake, he drove drunk, he talked on the phone while drunk driving, and he hit a parked car. It sucks, but bringing other people down in the process won't help to bring your son back.

In my entire life only a handful of albums that I have ever bought have I sincerely enjoyed them on the first listen. Sometimes they eventually catch on and become favorites other times they are given a few more chances and then brushed aside. There is one album that stands out in memory though, as an album that I sincerely enjoyed first listen and every other time I have put it on, and that was Linkin Park's second album Meteora. It was just flat out really good, aggressive but not overly aggressive, solid beats, a good mixture of rap and lyrics, but mostly each song was catchy, each song grabbed you from the start.

So over the past 4 years I have waited for them to come out with a new album and waited and waited, while they went on tours and did mix cds with Jay-Z or branched off and created Fort Minor, simply waiting for their next album to drop. And come last wednesday I hear a song on the radio and go, huh Linkin Park came out with an album, granted I was only one day late but that should have been a warning sign. For albums that I am looking forward to that much, I know when they come out, and I'm the type of guy to run out to Best Buy and buy them on that day. I don't buy a lot of CDs but the ones I do, I know I want, this was one of those.

So I dilly dallied a bit, I asked my buddy if he had known that Linkin Park came out with a cd, and he said ya and that he downloaded it on BitTorrent a few weeks ago. So I naturally asked him how it was and he said in a less enthused tone, "it was ok, it was good, but it wasn't as good as the second album, that was really good". So I waited til the weekend when I had more time to pick it up, but still didn't have much time to dedicate to listening to it.

Then Tuesday going to work I stuck it in the car cd player, and began my first run through. The intro isn't bad a good start up, and then it jumps into the first real song which is more of a flashback to Hybrid Theory not bad ok still making my way through it. The third song I like, a little softer but still good. Eventually I worked my way to the single What I've Done which is song #6 and a very good song.

Then here's where the torture begins from songs 7-12, or the entire second half of the album there is little to no resemblance to anything Linkin Park has ever done with the exception of song #8 No More Sorrow. The cd concludes with 4 songs that are softer than anything that has ever made it on their previous two albums. One even goes into a gospel like Amen for a few seconds. What the heck happened to these guys in 4 years? Did they lose all their bite? Where is the aggression, where is the CD that was supposed to get me pumped up. What am I supposed to do with this CD, that has some aggressive tunes and some utterly docile songs.

So I did a quick comparison of the starts of songs on Meteora in comparison to Minutes to Midnight, and their is a dramatic difference. Out of the songs on Meteora, only 3 only the entire album don't explode before lyrics begin, and the 3 that don't you can bring up arguments that they do. But all the songs have some aggression in them, some juice some life. On Minutes to Midnight? Only 3 songs explode before the lyrics begin and some don't explode ever, in fact most of the songs in the second half of the album never explode. Their is no life, you're more likely to relax and chill than get pumped up by some of these songs. If you were to walk into a bar and a band was covering these songs and you had no idea whose originals you were, your guesses would range from LostProphets to even Guster, that's how little aggression the last song has. I would litteraly thing about Guster before I thought about Linkin Park, if I just heard a cover of it. And that's pathetic.

I should have read the CD's booklet first where they preface the concepts of the album:

As this is written, the album is not yet finished. No cover art has been chosen. We aren't through mixing and mastering songs. It is safe to say, however that this will prove to be a different kind of album for us... When we first met with our producer Rick Rubin, he asked us what we wanted this album to sound like. Going around the room, each of the six of us answered the question in a similar way: we wanted to create something that maintained the integrity of the band's personality, but pushed our boundaries...

No I do not appreciate you broadening your horizons, I bought a Linkin Park cd expecting Linkin Park. Perhaps, after a few more listens I will come to enjoy the album but it will never parallel Meteora, it will never be as good and I can't believe I waited 4 years for this.

Do you think your brain would hurt after this, regardless of having a helmet on? A point blank fastball from a shortstop to your forehead?

Well after much delay and seeing every single doctor on the face of the planet, yesterday it was made official that PavGirl, will be sent down to Bama to get himself some Tommy John surgery and effectively end his tenure as a New York Yankee. Effectively Pavano has locked in his career stats for the New York Yankees now and will at the conclusion of next year raked in $40 million dollars and have arguably the worst contract in the history of humanity.

And honestly, I might be slightly disappointed that it's all done and will not be mentioned at all anymore. Who am I going to continuously spit hate towards? Who am I going to define as a wuss in my dictionary? Who will be the Yankees fans uber whipping boy? For that Carl you will be missed. Or not.

In all honesty this is probably the best for the Yanks. He will never ever have to be in the clubhouse again, and they most likely will recover a large chunk of his salary from an insurance policy and be able to filter it back into the payroll elsewhere.

Just in case you couldn't tell, I do not have Photoshop on my computer...

~Larry Bird looked none to pleased at not having a draft pick.

~The guy opening the envelope looked pretty friggin stumped when he saw the Celtics logo.

~I think Tommy should have beat him to a pulp.

~Ugh...

If you tried to measure the just how bad the draft lottery went for both the Celtics as well as the NBA in general it would register the lowest amount on every scale imaginable. Let's Count the Ways that last night sucked:

Celtic Woahs

1) The Celtics Managed to yet again avoid garnering a franchise Center.
2) Doc Rivers was given a contract extension, and will remain the coach.
3) Ditto on Danny Ainge. And both are horrendous.
4) The chances of the Celtics getting the fifth pick would be slightly under 17% if they did not take the ping pongs balls out after each lottery selection.
5) The Celtics had 19.9% chance to get pick #1. After the Blazers landed #1 pick the Cs had a 21% Chance of getting the #2 pick. After the Sonics landed that they had a 23.1% chance of landing pick 3.
6) When you take into account the lottery balls being pulled out the Celtics had a 44.9% chance to move up a pick on the first selection, a 47.3% chance to move up on the second selection, and a 52.1% chance to move up on the 3rd selection. Or overall under a 14% chance at staying at the 5 hole. Thus that was the least likely spot of any 1-5 that they could land in.
6) Now the Celtics sit at pick 5 where Conley should already be gone, and they will either draft the Chinese guy or attempt to make one of Danny's patented horrible trades.
7) How pissed did Tommy Look? And where was the spirit of Red. Boo.

Other Team Pains

1) The Grizzlies would have been good if they landed a top 2 pick, now not so much. They had a 25% chance at 1, 26.3% at 2, and a 29% chance of pick 3. Or just under a 40% chance of not moving up into the lottery. Ouch.
2) The Suns missed out on garnering a top 5 pick because the Hawks landed in the lottery. That sucks for them. And with the Hawks having the 3rd and 11th pick, they should be able to improve the team enough to ensure that the 2008 pick they give the Suns isn't that high a pick.

League Wide Woahs

1) This furthers the west coast dominance, as both the Blazers and the Sonics will be marketedly better next year. The East coast is already so far behind the West Coast at the top, this just furthers the western conferences depth in the conference over the East.
2) Does this create a legit Blazer vs. Sonics rivalry? Would that not be the lamest rivalry in the history of Pro Sports?
3) The Sonics were just about ready to bail town, will they string along for a little while now?
4) Both players are headed to some of the smallest markets in the NBA.
5) Because they are west coast teams, they will play most of their games after 10, meaning East Coast fans won't see much of them.

So basically this spring has been just about as bad as the NBA could possibly be for me. I have almost completely non interested in the NBA playoffs, partially because of the poor matchups and partially because of Stern blowing up the best series, and now the Celtics got completely boned in the lottery, and the NBA is ensuring that the Eastern Conference will remain irrelevent for the foreseeable future. So who's ready to watch more baseball?

With the NBA's hype machine rolling these past few months about who would wind up with Oden and Durant and how teams were positioning themselves by tanking the end of the season and side bar stories like what if the Bulls land Oden through the Knicks pick; it's evident that the Lottery is great for the NBA. Would it have the same effect in the NFL and would it be worth it?

Tanking the Season

Because the NFL season is such a smaller sample size it's much more difficult at the middle of the season to justify throwing it in the tank job. The Celtics and Grizzlies for instance by mid year had long losing streaks and were without their star player and were effectively out of the race. Unless you are 2-6 or below at the midway point of the NFL season, you still have a fighting shot. Granted you will need to get incredibly hot down the stretch but you won't throw it in dump mode yet.

Impact of Top Picks

The impact of the top picks in NBA is typically much larger than that of the NFL. Certainly, in the NFL you would much rather be in the top 3 than #8 but the difference between slots is not nearly as different as it is in the NBA. If you land Oden or Durant this season, or LBJ or Carmelo in past years that completely sets up your franchise for the foreseeable future. As opposed to garnering the #9 or #10 pick which could turn out to be a superb player like Dirk, or Pierce, or could end up being a massive bust. The talent differences and level of uncertainty in the NBA is much larger.

Overall Draft Impact

The NFL draft overall is much more important than the NBA draft. The number of players who have made a tremendous contribution in the NFL that were drafted in the 2nd round or above is much larger than that of the NBA. In the NBA you need you're first round picks to succeed, to be a successful franchise. In the NFL you can counterbalance a few 1st round busts, if you make tremendous value picks in the latter rounds, ala Tom Brady.

Roster Size and Depth

The overall roster size in the NFL plays a big part in this equation. One player added to a team, never makes an entire franchise. If you have a Peyton Manning but no offensive line or Marvin Harrison, the Colts would not be any good. Meanwhile the Cavs made the Eastern Conference finals on the back of Lebron and Lebron alone. In the NFL it's much more important to have a balanced squad than in the NBA where 2 superstars and a team of role players can bring a title.

Injury Factor

In the Celtics case this season, when Paul Pierce went down they lost just about every game because he was the entire team. Meanwhile if a key player goes down for a football team, sure they will be significantly effected, especially if it's the QB, but not nearly as much, as this echoes the importance of depth. Just look at how well the Eagles performed with Jeff Garcia running the show last year. Good teams will bounce back much better from a star injury in football than basketball. Even the defending champion Heat stunk much of this season because they had two injuries, which just happened to be Shaq and D Wade.

Juice to the Probowl

The NBA uses the draft lottery, not only to try to arrange more fairness in the league and to not reward teams that tank the end of the season, but also as a hype machine. The Draft lottery will get almost as much coverage this year as the actual NBA draft. While the NFL does not necessarily need any extra hype, especially for its draft, the one thing that could use some life is the Pro bowl. It's always terrible, and if they threw a Draft lottery in at half time it could certainly bring in a larger audience.

Conclusion

The NFL doesn't need a draft lottery, it's overall draft is better and more important than the NBAs. Teams are less likely to tank to get the first pick, because it does not guarantee your team future success. The NFL does not need the hype, even for it's lame Pro Bowl, and a draft lottery would just seem like a cry for more attention.

"NBA teams should no longer be built around a big man, especially if that big man can't run. A wing scorer is a better way to build a team." That is a line you have heard and will hear much more as some people try to tell you that Durant should be taken in front of Oden in the upcoming draft. This might be the biggest crock recently uttered by so called expert scouts in the NBA. Let's do a quick analysis of who in fact has won championships recently.

1999 - Spurs, Duncan PF/C & Robinson C
2000 - Lakers, Shaq C
2001 - Lakers, Shaq C
2002 - Lakers, Shaq C
2003 - Duncan, PF/C
2004 - Pistons, Billups G
2005 - Spurs, Duncan C/PF
2006 - Heat, Shaq C
2007 - Spurs, might as well chalk Duncan up for title #4.

So assuming the Spurs win the title this year, they are the best team remaining, of the past 9 champions, 8 of them would have had a dominant big man, who can not run the floor. So where am I missing how a team should not be built around a dominant big man. Shouldn't the goal be winning a championship. Granted Yao hasn't worked out as well as desired but, Duncan and Shaq have 4 titles each in the past 9 years. Both have presided over dynasties.

I'm not saying that on certain teams Durant would not be a better fit given their talents, but don't spit out garbage like the NBA isn't built for the big man anymore. It is, and it always will be. A dominant big man is more valuable than any other position on the floor.

~So just when you thought the Yankees pitching staff couldn't get more injured, Darrell Rasner goes out and breaks his finger trying to field a comebacker and is placed on the 60-day DL. Hilarious, how many pitchers could the Yanks possibly have injured.

~At the other end of the spectrum I go out and make fun of the fact that the Yanks are pitching Tyler Clippard on sunday and he goes out and throws a 3 hit gem. And it was much needed as the Yanks hitting was miserable the first game of the series and nothing worked on saturday. A Sweep against the Mets would have been incredibly embarrassing, and the Clippard win both avoided that and gave the squad some momentum which carried into last night.

~Federer whiped out Nadal in the final two sets in Hamburg to make the upcoming French Open much much more intriguing, if they end up meeting in the finals in Paris, I will be watching every second of that match early on a sunday morning.

~33 years after the fact, George Foreman is making an excuse for why he lost to Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle. Ok George, maybe all those grill sales have gone to your head.

~This Michael Vick thing just gets more legs everyday. A few days ago Vick comes out and says stuff about how his fans will always support him. "Regardless of where I go people are gonna still love Mike Vick". Nice, Ron. Next Clinton Portis apparently doesn't think having a dog fighting ring is that bad. Cause he's from Mississippi it's just a normal thing to him. Clinton I think you just served yourself up to some annoying PETA hate mail.

~Justin Miller broke the Jets streak of lack of involvement in NFL thuggery when Justin Miller went to throw a punch at a bar, and when his target ducked he landed it on a female. Nice Justin.

~In more signs that hockey is merging closer to its death, on saturday prior to the Preakness NBC was airing a playoff hockey game, the Sabres vs. Senators. Well when this game went into overtime, NBC stopped covering the game and went to Preakness prerace coverage. The game was then thrown on Versus for the overtime session, if you are Gary Bettman how could you possibly put on a positive face about this whole Versus debacle anymore? One of your games just went into overtime in the conference finals, and many of the fans most likely were unable to watch the conclusion because it was switched to a station they might not have. Go NHL.

~Here's the sad fact, the NHL playoffs are flat out better than the NBA playoffs. They always have been. They're more exciting, the sudden death overtimes are edge of your seat entertaining, meanwhile the NBA has 79-76 gross fests in the Eastern Conference finals.

~Speaking of the Preakness I actually like horse racing. It's a quick thrill and I can turn it on for 25 minutes watch some quick pre analysis, make fun of the jockey uniforms and watch a 5 minute race and then be done with it. It's much better for my attention span than most sporting events.

~And in quick recap to the NBA playoffs, the Suns and Spurs should have played a game 7 but thanks to Stern they did not, instead the Spurs are going to roll the Jazz, and the Pistons will eventually bore everyone to a 6 game series victory over the Cavs, and yet again the NBA will showcase the boring Spurs vs. the boring Pistons in their finals. I bet David, isn't looking forward to looking at those ratings come series end.

~As for last night people yelling about Lebron not taking the ball to the rack and passing to open teammates. How about shut the hell up. If the teammates can the wide open shot, every says what a great pass by LBJ what vision, instead Donyell clanks it and people say that he needs to be more aggressive and take control. He might have had a lane and maybe if he takes it strong he makes it, but he was struggling with his shot and found a wide open man. Enough with the Monday Morning Quarterbacking.

~Chelsea won the FA Cup to give them sole dominance of the two English tournies this year. However, Man U took the bigger prize in the Premiership title, and Liverpool has a chance to take home the biggest prize of them all tomorrow when they square off against AC Milan in the Champions League final, so all in all, not a successful campaign for the Blues from London.

~I finished last week in 1st, 1st, 2nd in my three fantasy leagues. Woo.

What is something you always worry about now with basketball players in the NBA? Them being complete and utter thugs right, ala Stephen Jackson or Ron Artest. Well this nice article on Page 2, points out that Oden for the most part is much more tool than thug.

Oden grew up wanting to be a Dentist? He loves Will Smith Music? And he watches a lot of CBS? He's wearing a brown turtle neck sweater during this interview? His best friend was a white kid from Indiana who was on a golf team, and unfortunately passed away in a car accident.

It really doesn't appear like he has a single thug bone in his body, and as a franchise knowing that your #1 draft pick will come for the most part without a major entourage and his favorite rap artist never utters a curse word, doesn't that make you feel a little more safe? Doesn't that make you drool even more as a team GM over the lottery tonight?

So just in case for some reason you were wondering why there were no posts yesterday, well it was because I spent the day in the Big Apple which included a first trip to a Yankee Red Sox Game. I sat in the upper deck on the left field line, in essence where that photo is just a few more rows up and one things for certain being inside the stadium for a Red Sox game is much different than a Royals game...

High School Bad Asses

So I get into the stadium about 5 minutes before the first pitch and we're sitting around (my father, myself, my little sister and my girlfriend an evil Red Sox fan) and to for the first half inning there is really no body around us until mid inning when a whole high school came in and surrounded my seats. The kids were definitely upper high school, and thought they were epically cool. One kid snuck in a bottle of Smirnoff, and was in the bag immediately. He walked into the row, sat down for a half an inning, then decided to go to the bathroom, fell on his way out on some random dude's head in the row in front of him, and the kid never showed up for the remainder of the game. Whoops. Then for the next few innings the high schoolers were getting some guys in their high 20s to buy them beer and they all lit up their cigarettes.

On of the high schoolers was the exact replica of Turtle from Entourage in his high school years, including they attire that Turtle wears. He started getting a bit rowdy and was a proud displayer of his middle digits. Eventually in around the 6th him and one of his other buddies who was definitely a jackass both got thrown out, and the high schoolers were then instantaneously less annoying.

If it was legal I'm pretty sure my father would have stood up and punted one of their heads.

Welcome to the Chess Club

Directly sitting behind me was a kid wearing a winter yankee hat, it was 65 all night long, who might as well just sign up for the Chess Club now and virginity until his mid 30s. At the start of the game I hear the kid, probably upper middle school, ask his older brother who's hitting the Red Sox or the Yankees. This baffles my mind, as it's not as if the kid was 5 years old. Then an inning or so later I turn around and see that the kid is playing his Nintendo DS instead of actually watching the game, he proceeds to play his DS for the remainder of the time he's at the game. And to top it off at one point in time there was one of the many F the Red Sox chants going on, and he turns to his brother and says, is he saying Let's Go Red Sox, unreal. I think this annoyed me more than the smoke or the fact the high schoolers stood up way too much. This kid is someone that gets a ticket, to a game it's almost impossible to get tickets too? Are you serious? If I ever have a kid that is that much of a dork I might have to put myself out of my misery and this is coming from me, someone who is relatively a dork.

Annoying Sox Fans

Back in college there were the sane Red Sox fans (Tone) and their were the illogical Sox fans (Conidi). The ones that would celebrate like they just won the AL East after they hit a solo homer to cut the deficit to 4. Well nearby, there was a group of Sox fans jumping up and down waving their Dominican flags yelling like they were dominating the game, after every basehit. It was very annoying. To further explain how annoying these guys were, they were all wearing Ortiz t-shirts, but one of them had a light blue polo shirt underneath the t-shirt and was popping the color through it. Loser.

Too Many to Count

All in all there were way too many people during the game thrown out to count. From the 5th inning on you could just hear chants around the entire stadium and see the security running to spots where conflicts were starting. A brawl broke out by the right field foul pole which you could see a few haymakers being thrown. In my section alone the three high schoolers were booted, 2 fans that were throwing M&Ms at Red Sox fans were booted (they even hit a little girl who was a Sox fan), one guy got hit in the head by a 1/2 a beer and got soaked and started talking trash to the guy who hit him but did nothing because he would have gotten dropped with one punch, a few girls got kicked out, etc.

The Game

As for the Game, Wang managed to work out of a ton of jams and didn't appear to have the best control. Wakefield on the other hand, who had the Yanks number prior to the Boone homer, appears to just get owned by the Yanks now. The Arod homer in the first was a bomb, so was the Giambi homer and for the most part the Yankees his the ball hard off him. The Red Sox missed out on many opportunities to score runs and that was that.

In the End

The good guys won, but honestly it was almost difficult at times to pay attention to the game given all the side bars in the stands and the high schoolers standing up throughout the game. It certainly is a different experience than the typical Yankee game, and one things for certain if you plan on bringing your little kid to a game and don't want to them exposed to curse words, the upperdeck is not the place to be. As for myself it just might be time for me to start moving my butt towards the upper class ticket sections.

Oh and for the most part Yankee fans are complete assholes...

Sometimes when you read these chats at ESPN you find nothing of value, the same old stuff everyday, sometimes someone throws something out there that I hadn't necessarily thought of, like:


While Arod will almost certainly opt out of his contract, due to him having Boras as his agent and the fact that their will be a huge market out there for him, unless he tanks the remainder of 07. But still if you were Tom Hicks, doesn't these seem like must. That is approximately equivalent to Hicks dumping a 15 to 20 million towards Arod, to save the same amount of dollars.

I wonder how much tampering chargers could be brought up in this case. Like would the Yankees really have the option to sue Hicks for doing this, what if he gave him a 'contract' with one of his other businesses, would it still remain illegal? Like if he signed Arod to a $15 million dollar contract with Liverpool FC or his investment firm. Do the Yanks have the option to deny this if he remains under contract? Would Hicks have to do this in secret?

Anyone who's for the most part a self made billionaire is probably very intelligent and my guess is that Hicks, has thought of this previously, and knows if and or how he could get this done.

Well not really, that would be the weak second consolation prize when they Celtics don't get one of the top 2 picks, aka Oden or Durant. But when the Celtics nab the third pick in the draft I think they have to go with the kid from China Yi Jianlian. So what if his birth certificate is as accurate as Danny Almonte's, he's still probably only 22. He looks like he's above average athletically, and he's 7 feet tall with a jump shot. From the video's I've seen on YouTube and the ESPN insider article, it appears that he's got some quickness. He certainly will need to bulk up and get tougher much like how Yao still needs to do so, but his potential is better than anyone else in the draft past the immaculate 2.

Perhaps the kid is the next Darko, perhaps he's the next Dirk, if the Celtics land number 3 or number 4 I think they should make the gamble. He does wear my number so that definitely gets him some solid bonus points in my book. And if he continues to wear the number on the C's him and big Al could make the 7 Eleven pair, talk about marketing potential around the globe.



Also, Dude, chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.

The Yankees continue to lose and currently they sit 9 1/2 games behind the surging Red Sox, but apparently that hasn't stopped them from having plenty of free time to shoot out some interesting quotes to the media.

Who knows how this conversation sparked, but Jason Giambi is quoted as saying that Major League Baseball should apologize to the public for the steroid era. Really Jason, kind of like how you apologized?

Bud Selig "I'm sorry that people took stuff in the 1990's, we knew people were taking stuff, but the we didn't know the effect the stuff was having, and we enjoyed the success people were having when they were taking the stuff and the popularity the stuff was having on the game. But in retrospect perhaps the stuff left a bad legacy which I will now officially deam as "The Stuff Era", where people's records and stats were often caused by the stuff they were taking."

What are you doing these kind of interviews during the middle of the season for, do you not have enough losing to concentrate on now. Does a double digit deficit staring you in the face not require dedication of your time? You know what I think you should apologize for Jason? How fat you are. How slow you are and how because you are so fat and slow the Yankees can not afford to play you at first base daily and effectively are stuck with a useless bat in Dougie Minkowitz at the end of their lineup.

Honestly, how much cooler was Giambi when he was on the A's and looked like a bad ass...

Secondly, Kyle Farnsworth was quoted as being a little critical of the whole family package for Roger Clemens. First off, who is interviewing Kyle Farnsworth, and why? There's not a single other Yankee that would do a spot on a Chicago radio station that they could have gotten instead. I bet the typical Chicago listener was absolutely ecstatic when they tuned in and were blessed with listening to Farnsworth. Secondly, Kyle I don't necessarily have a problem with anything you said, you were being honest and you're quotes aren't bad at all. It's not as if he was yelling about how the Yankees don't need Clemens, he was just stating that he thinks Clemens should be around at all times. It's an understandable position. But Kyle, did you really need to be honest, is their a benefit of being honest in the scenario?

You know what I think you should do Farny, I think you should get ticked as hell one of these series throw at some dudes head and lay a beat down on an opposing player. I think it's about time that someone on the Yanks shows a little passion, a little fire and a little sign that they are pissed the hell off with how much they suck. What says pissed off more than a 99 mile per hour fastball thrown directly at the Head of Manny Ramirez, followed by a brawl pitting the 6-4 245 pound pure muscle Farnsworth against the 6-0 200 pound Manny. You know Joe Torre won't give the call for something like this, but perhaps Larry Bowa can slip some aggressive whispers into Farny's ear before he takes the mound sometime next week.

So basically the Yanks should probably stop making news with their quotes and start making some news in the Win Column of the standings. That would be nice.

A little over a month ago Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson went on their quest to ban Imus from the media. Sharpton and Jackson saw an opportunity to exploit a white versus black issue no matter how insignificant it may have been. In the past month there have been two things that I have stumbled upon that have seriously called for black leadership to respond and take action, but apparently because white people weren't the crime committees, Jackson and Sharpton didn't need to pop their ugly little heads into the mix. The first occurred early this month in which a black girl was murdered by two black men over a friggin Game of Monopoly. Doesn't that just scream out we need to do something as a community, when someone gets murdered over a border game. But that didn't bring forth any black leaders.

Then there's this crime which happened in January and is straight out of a Horror Film. Not only were there no black leaders there when this went done, but somehow someway it's been multiple months since its occurrence and I only found out about it today because of a link on The Big Lead. If the roles were reversed how many milliseconds would it take for those two to get down to Tennessee and preach white hatred, maybe 3. The first available flight?

This country will never be devoid of racism and racial tension when the media so blatantly skews it's media coverage towards white on black crimes, and to a certain extent disregards the reversal. Why would the average white man not see this as ludicrous? Three words got a man fired because two "leaders" of a minority went on a witch hunt and put every single resource they had into getting the man canned. Meanwhile a group of 4 make the sickest torture film you could possibly imagine on two white college students yet you do not here a single peep from the black powers or a peep from the media. There will never be equality without the attempt of both sides treating things equality, and since it is apparent that people like Sharpton and Jackson are unwilling to do so, well than they should further expect to push some white people in the wrong direction.

~Coming as no surprise to anybody the Suns lost last night because David Stern is a tool. D'Antoni made absolutely no attempt to rest his players and it cost them at the end. Nash Marion and Bell played practically ever minute of the entire game and the Suns blew and 8 point lead down the stretch mostly because they just stopped scoring. And he only really used 6 players the entire game, with James Jones the only one on the bench getting more than 5 minutes of PT. It's impossible to say what the game would have been like if they had Amare and Diaw the entire game, but me guess that they would have won. Now you can just pray that Amare leads them to a game 6 victory.

~David Stern kept on harping that the rule is the rule and that he must enforce it and then said stuff like the rule my not be fair. You are the commissioner David, your job is to do what's best for the sport of basketball. By suspending Amare and Diaw, you sacrificed the iintegrity of a game in the most important series you will have in the entire playoffs. You failed your league this week, by failing to work outside the box and bend a few rules.

~Read Simmons article this week mostly his points about why the NBA sucks now. It's pretty much all true. Flopping is BS, no one would ever flop in a pick up game, and if you did you would not be invited back for future pick up games. In addition that putting the foot underneath the jump shooters feet move that Bowen does, that is blatantly dirty, I know I do that all the time, mostly to Grutt. The NBA is trying to suck away everything that makes basketball basketball. I'm not a huge trash talker but if someone is getting on my nerves on the court and I drain a shot in his face, I'm gonna let him know about it.

~To further my annoyance with NBA basketball that game didn't tip off until 10:30. No other sport tips off that late. The NLCS and ALCS first pitch is around 8:30 9, regardless of the coast. The Superbowl is at 6. The Tennis and golf finals are in the afternoon. The NCAA tourny with the exception of the opening rounds is done by midniight. This game tipped off after 10:30 and most likely lingered until 1 am. I can't watch that and not be miserable the next day at work.

~The Nets beat the Cavs cause Lebron got injured and no one cares. The Nets have no fans and the Cavs despite having Lebron are a completely uninteresting squad.

~Monday, I dropped Kevin Kouzmanoff who had plagued my fantasy team all year by hitting under .120, and what does he do has back to back multi-hit games. What a friggin ass bag. Last night he even had the wonderfully lame walk off walk.

~JJ Hardy has surpassed his home run totals of any season in his major or minor league career, and it's May 17th. Find the logic in that one.

~I'm going to the Sox Yanks game on monday, so A) It better not rain and B) I better see better pitchers than Julian Tavarez and Matt Desalvo, cause that would suck big time.

~Oddly enough right now I'm pretty much just annoyed with sports. The NBA is a disgrace, the Yankees are difficult to watch and root for with how horrendous they have been playing lately, the NHL doesn't exist to me anymore because it's no longer on stations I actually get, and that pretty much sums up whats going on in the sports world right now.

Last year I complained vehemently about how much my cable provider sucked regarding it's lack of carrying of Sox and mets games. Well apparently that isn't even nearly close to as bad as it can get throughout the rest of the country. Some regions, mostly the ones that don't really have a highly associated major league team are blacked out from several teams. For instance one guy in Iowa said that he is considered to be in the region of 6 major league squads. Six friggin teams? The whole state of Iowa is a 6 team region, Bud your kidding right?

People in Oregon are for some reason considered to be in the Oakland A's region despite the fact that many of them live an 8 hour drive away from the Bay area. An 8 hour drive, are you serious? Vegas and lower Nevada are also in 6 team's regions.

What I really don't get is how Major League Baseball can justify blacking out customers from watching teams 'in their region' if they go out and get the MLB package. The MLB package should be a persons window to watch whatever game they want to no matter what. Someone in my situation should be able to order the MLB package and watch the Red Sox, but alas they would be the one team whose games I would really want and the one team whose games I couldn't get. That makes no sense.

Here's a map of the blackout regions, it's ludicrous.

The NBA announced yesterday that it was going to go by the letter of the law and suspend Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for game 5 of the Suns Series versus the Spurs, for getting off of the bench after Horry's flagrant foul. If you watch the video the Suns coaches stopped Amare and Diaw well before they ever came anywhere near the "altercation" as Stu Jackson calls it. How is that not taken into account? Should someone get suspended for starting to swing an elbow at someone and stopping well before they land it? This rule has been absurd since day one.

This rule is equivalent to your buddy getting into a fight at the bar started by someone else, and you stand up in your stool and are thrown out of the bar. It makes no sense.

So the NBA is willing to throw away a game in the only important series in the entire NBA playoffs. Does this make any logical business sense? Essentially Kurt Thomas is going to have to play millions of minutes despite him being elderly, and they will need to give Pat Burke minutes or force Marion to cover Duncan. If Duncan doesn't end up with 30+ 15+ in a Spurs W I will be shocked, and all for what. Absolutely nothing.

Hell I don't even agree with Horry getting a two game suspension for what was just a hard foul. But atleast he actually hit someone instead of just standing up. If I was losing game 6 of a playoff series, at the end of the game I would send in my scrubs and have them purposely try to incinuate a brawl (John Chaney style) to get the other teams players to leave the bench. There's no loss in this situation, what would the Suns care if Marcus Banks is suspended for game 7 if they could get Tim Duncan or Ginobli off the bench.

We all know that the top tier players are not what wins or loses your fantasy season but rather those low round bargains that you were able to snipe and have lead to your ascension up the rankings. Here are 5 pitchers and 5 hitters grabbed in the lower rounds or early weeks free agencies that have made tremendous impacts.

JJ Hardy - So, JJ Hardy leads the National League in homers? I think it's safe to say that Hardy's performance over the course of the first month and a half is by far the most surprising in the league. In one player per position leagues, he was probably not drafted period. In two shortstops leagues he was probably a lower end second SS pick. Right now he's hitting .325 with 12 homers and 37 RBIs and is currently the 3rd ranked player in fantasy behind only Arod and Jose Reyes. Buy or Sell: Sell JJ has never hit more than 12 homers in a season in his career, sell him while his price is maxed out.

BJ Upton - Many people including myself avoided drafting Upton in their drafts simply because it didn't look like he had a position to play everyday, then the Drays sent down Cantu and gave Upton the 2nd base job and he's has hit fantastically. And since it's fantasy baseball his ineptitude in the field doesn't matter at all. Buy or Sell: Sell Comin down to earth this month.

Ian Kinsler - Second baseman typically stink and while Kinsler should have been sold at his highest value a few weeks ago, if you have Kinsler and his 10 home runs and 5 steals right now it has certainly helped. His average has been atrocious as of late, and he probably won't keep up the power totals, but for the first month he was terrific. Buy or Sell: Sell The average has plummeted, show off the ten homers and hope you get something good.

Mike Lowell - Lowell has this same exact explosive start the season last year so maybe it should have been expected and maybe you should sell him high right now, but he is currently hitting for power and is 5th in the American League in RBIs. Buy or Sell: Sell Too bad of a second half last year to believe he's not just a hot starter. Sell him prior to the All-Star break.

Gary Matthews Jr. - There was much bashing about drafting Gary Matthews Jr. prior to the season due to the HGH rumors, and the fact he only had one good season his entire career but thus far this season Matthews has been terrific. Hitting over .300 and contributing to steals, runs, rbis and HRs. Buy or Sell: Hold He's hitting in front of Vlad right now.

John Maine - I started this yesterday when John Maine was close to leading the NL in ERA, well last night he got rocked. But still Maine has for the most part been terrific this season and there's no way he went anywhere near the middle rounds, unless you have a few die hard Met fans in your league. Buy or Sell: Sell Last night was a sign of things to come.

Brad Penny - For those that forgot, Brad Penny started the all star game last year, and perhaps if he didn't try to gas himself in the all star game he would have been equally good in the second half, instead he was done in September and sliud too late in everybody's draft. Buy or Sell: Buy If Penny stays away from trying to throw 100+ every pitch in the all star game he could have a solid 2nd half.

Jason Marquis - Here's someone I would have never drafted. Marquis finished the season last year so miserably the cards didn't even put him on the postseason roster, then the Cubs gave him some cash to be a back end of the rotation guy which lead to a few head shakes. And thus far, he's been terrific, who knew. Buy or Sell: Sell Not a believer

James Shields - Looking at Shields' numbers from last year it shouldn't come as that much of surprise at his improvements this season, however because he plays with the Devil Rays no one had probably ever heard about him until he started racking up shutout inning after shutout inning. Buy or Sell: Buy Look at his career numbers almost a K per inning and always throws a ton of innings, he's solid.

Al Reyes - The Drays were incredibly hush at the start of the season with who they were going to use as their closer so most likely Al Reyes was there either very close to your last round or in the free agency pool week 1. Reyes has been terrific thus far this season and looks as if he should hold the closer role all season no problem. Buy or Sell: Hold A Closer who has a job for good is someone to hold onto.

I completely despise the Spurs, I think they are atrociously boring to watch and I want them to lose very much, however the Suns recent whining about the physicality of the series and these over emphasis on foul calls, are beginning to annoy me.

When I first heard about this whole knee to the groin by Bowen on the radio yesterday, I thought well that certainly sounds like it deserves a suspension. And after finally seeing the video my thoughts are, "That's It?". That was the vicious knee to the groin, come on it was weaker than any typical jimmy tap. My guess is Nash did some acting there, because as bad as it hurts to get smacked in the nuts, he wasn't exactly coming at full velocity.



As for the foul last night by Robert Horry, come on that isn't deserving of a suspension either. A forearm shiver, come on Steve Kerr. How wimpy are you, he got knocked down. It was basically a football block that happens on every single play. It's not like he threw a punch at the guys face. If anything was a forearm shiver it was when Horry tried to throw a bow at Raja Bell's face. That one had intent. And why does Nash have to play it like he got completely knocked out. Get up you big friggin baby, are you a grown man? That could not have hurt that badly.



The moral of this story as that, the more the Suns bitch and moan about these fouls, and qact like a soccer player when they get fouled by rolling around like they've just been shot, the less I can root for them. And if I can't root for the Suns I really can't root for anybody in this miserable NBA postseason, and it will effectively be dead to me. One way or another I'm much more looking forward to next weeks Draft Lottery than any playoff series post Suns Spurs.

If you were the coach of a major universities female golf team, what motivational tactics do you think would work? Videos of Annika Sorenstam strolling a major or perhaps Nancy Lopez in the prime of her career. Maybe even Tiger Woods or a motivational movie like Remember the Titans or Hoosiers. Or perhaps a Paris Hilton Sex tape.... Rewind that for a second a Paris Hilton sex tape, to motivate a female golf team. Well that's certainly a strategy I wouldn't have thought of, and apparently not a strategy that the University of Georgia much appreciated as their coach, Todd McCorkle, resigned most certainly because he was on the chopping block with the axe coming down full steam ahead.

McCorkle was noted for not only showing his team one of the lamest sex tapes of all time, but also explicit sexual comments and a pat in the butt here and there, to arouse the team. Poor McCorkle where is going to go now to be surrounded by 20+ 20 year old Georgians wearing skirts at all times around him. Poor guy.

~Josh Beckett left the game yesterday because of a skin tear on his pitching hand. And to the normal person this sounds like a pretty weak reason to exit a game, but for Josh Beckett, a kid with a massive history of blister problems, it was a smart move to get him out of the game asap. I think he should dial up Moises or Jorge in the offseason and talk to them about their method of keeping their hands tough throughout the season... Urinate on them.

~The Red Sox did stage a massive comeback in the 9th inning yesterday to pull out a victory, which was capped when I saw my buddy last night who went, so I went to the Sox game today, and I left after the 8th. Whoops.

~The Yanks continue to suck, and couldn't score runs yesterday off friggin Horacio Ramirez. You're kidding me right? And let the Yankees brutality begin, here is their upcoming schedule... 3 at ChiSox, 3 at Mets, 3 vs. Boston, 3 vs. Angels, 3 at Toronto, 3 at Boston, 4 at ChiSox... So the Yanks need to get it in gear this month or they could find themselves 15 games out come mid June.

~The A's traded for super minor leaguer Jack Cust a little over a week ago, and the guy has 6 homers in 26 at bats including a walk off home run yesterday against Injuns.

~Larry Jones came out and complained about how his Braves team is forced to face the Red Sox every year in interleague play while the Marlins get to saddle up against the D-Rays. He's in favor of interleague play, but thinks the schedule should be changed to an even format. Guess what Larry, it's never going to happen, so get over it. There's no way the Commish is going to sign off to an interleague system that doesn't have the Yanks vs. Mets, Cubs Chi Sox, A's Gigantes etc. That's the point of interleague play to get those matchups. So while it may not be 'fair' it's 6 total games in a 162 game season, its not a big deal.

~So after Henry Owens went on the DL there were rumors Jorge Julio was going to get the closers job back, then he gives up a granny on saturday, and well I guess not. He was traded to Colorado yesterday in exchange for BK Kim. What the heck are the Marlins gonna do with BK?

~Talk about friggin weird the Pakistani cricket coach that was supposedly strangled to death in his hotel room following a loss to Ireland is now being reported to have died via Natural causes. Scotland Yard officials examined the remains and concluded that heart failure and not strangulation was the cause of death. And the plot thickens, I can't imagine that this will take much more than a year to be a made for TV movie in the UK/Australia.

~Lefty won another tournament woo. Amount of time I spent watching the TPC this weekend? Zero Seconds, so I offer zero analysis other than seeing the highlights of O'hare dumping it in the drink twice on 17. And my response is he had to go for the pin there, you have to try to win the tournament at the end of the day, no one ever will remember the fact you finished second at the TPC.

~Brett Favre whining is very humurous, Brett even if you got Randy Moss the Packers wouldn't be very good this season, you are coming back to a team that at best will go 9-7, you have zero chance of winning the superbowl with them, so relax and enjoy breaking some more of Marino's record this year, and probably next year. But stop acting like you are going to get another ring. You aren't.

~Oh and he demanded a trade for a few minutes. Brett how were you not a free agent? Did you have to sign with the Packers?

~In NBA news, Bowen apparently kneed Nash in the groin, I havent seen the video yet. Two series are at 3-1 and effectively over with the Jazz and Pistons most likely shutting the door at home in their next games. And the Nets and Suns have must wins down 2-1 in their next games. If these teams lose then they are also effectively done.

~Doc Rivers was extended and this comes at no surprise to me. Doc did a fantastic job of pulling the plug on the Celtics season in the quest for Oden/Durant. He made up the Al Jefferson knee injury in the last few weeks to help them lose to the Bucks twice, he played Bassy a bunch down the stretch of close games, and was instrumental in benching good players at the start of the 4th quarter of games to lose big leads and the games. The Danny Doc duo is az package deal, the Celtics owner will need to cut the head off (danny) and the body will fall. Until that happens both are here to stay for awhile, unfortunately.

Ricky William's come back trail was quickly sidelined as he once again tested positive for a substance today. Surprise Ricky still enjoys smoking a doobie every once in awhile. So after all this time and all these failed drug tests and all the lost money it would appear that Ricky should be done for good in the NFL. What a waste of talent all because he likes to get high a little bit.

I for one have to give it up for Ricky. I don't know if I like anything enough to not give it up for millions upon millions of dollars. I think Ricky has shown more dedication to his beloved magical plant than many people have dedicated to anything in their lives.

So goodnight young Ricky, and enjoy the remainder of your life with your true love and your passion for hollistic medicine. Who needs to be out of debt anyway?

~How hilarious is this whole Pacman Jones thing? He has his meeting with the commish about how he's going to turn it around and avoid going to strip clubs and clubs in general and do community service etc. But the night before he has this meeting he hits up a strip club in NYC and this news somehow finds its way into Goodell's hands. What an idiot. Atleast he told Goodell the truth, I'd imagine lying dead to the face of the commissioner would not help your case for a season suspension which he ended up getting anyway.

~Furthermore in Pacman news, his lawyers case for why Pacman Jones should not get suspended is simply, look at all the other scumbags that are in the NFL, and they don't get suspended.

~Note to Tank Johnson, do not go to a strip club or carry any unregistered firearms next week when you are set to meet the commish.

~How bad have the NBA playoffs been this year? This second round thus far has been miserable. The Bulls Pistons series looked like it had some potential, but the Bulls decided they didn't want to show up at all. The Jazz look like they should be able to take care of the Warriors, and who likes watching the Jazz. And the Cavs Nets series is not exciting at all. Lebron maybe the greatest talent in the history of the NBA, but he's team is so blah. I don't like watching the Cavs at all. And to further the annoying NBA playoff scheduling the Suns and Spurs have 3 days off in between games. Long travel between Phoenix and San Antonio...

~Donald Trump appeared on Stephen A Smith's radio show yesterday and his bashing of Mark Cuban was quite humurous and completely repetitive. Basically, from what I could gather is that Trump doesn't like Cuban, cause Cuban tried to copy his show Apprentice with his own show the Benefactor which was a complete bust. Anyway Trump rambled about how he thought the Mavs choked simply because Cuban puts too much pressure on them to win and that the Mavs would never win because of that. Sure Donald, why don't you do some more WWE. I'm pretty sure the Yanks won a few titles under Steinbrenner, and I don't think Cuban puts nearly the pressure down as George does.

~So much for the Blue Jays competing in the AL East, you might as well stick a fork in them. They are already 10.5 back, and in the middle of a 9 game losing streak. They're ace Roy Halladay was rocked last night against the Sox and their stud close B.J. is out for the season. I bet the owner is please he gave J.P. the go ahead to add big time free agents two years ago. Thus far, Ryan will have played 1 out of 2 seasons, and Burnett will have missed much of 2006 and was nothing special while he was in there.

~Bobby Abreu is annoying me very much. This guy is petrified of the outfield wall. Yesterday, he had a very catchable ball hit over his right shoulder, but since he slowed up to a snails pace to not crash into the wall, he did not make the catch, and Laird ended up with a triple and scoring after the botched run down. It's really unreal how a big man like that, could be that scared of a highly padded wall. What a wimp.

~The rumor is that Clemens will make his debut at Fenway, personally I highly doubt this is going to happen. It would certainly make for a good storyline, but I just don't see Clemens being thrust into the flames his first start back in pinstripes.

~ESPN polled their 'expert' college basketball announcers and surprise the most underachieving team in the past ten years was Michigan. 4 of the 5 experts had Michigan as the most underachieving team, and then there's Jay Bilas who did not even have them in the top 10. That boggles my mind, I know he was a teammate of Amaker, and a fellow assistant coach with him at Duke, but he of all people should know how miserable Michigan has been these past few years. Not making an NCAA tournament this decade, is not acceptable for a team with a national title and two finals appearances in the last 20 years.

~ESPN also put in a poll for the top teams of the past 10 years. Maybe its just me, but personally I wouldn't put this years Florida team at number 1. As much as I am a Duke hater the 2001 Duke team was the best of this decade. Jay Williams was a stud in college before his motorcycle accident, Boozer is going to be a perennial all star in the NBA, Battier was one of the grittiest college players in history and Dunleavy was a super swingman. That team was better than this years Florida team.

~The TPC is this week? Wow that flew under the radar, I had no idea that was happening this week, shows me how much I think of Golf's 'Fifth' major.

~Can we all just come to the reasonable conclusion that Mike Vick had a significant hand in the dog fighting ring. Friends are apparently saying that he did know about the dog fighting. How could you own a piece of property that's been breading 70 pit bulls without having the slightest idea of what is going on. You're not that dumb Ron Mexico.
~Do not live in Tennessee, I repeat do not live in Tennessee. It's a dixie state so I crossed it off the list long ago, but I'm sure Air McNair is very not pleased with receiving a DUI by being in the passenger seat and letting his brother-in-law drive him home from the bar. That blows.

~So I hate NASCAR, I think it's the most boring television you could ever watch, but occasionally I find NASCAR humorous, like today for instance when Dale Earnhardt Jr. is leaving Dale Earnhardt Incorporated leaving DEI with zero Dale Earnhardt's in the fold. Perhaps its just me but I think the mother needs to get a life, her son is the only one that can carry on his father's legacy, he deserves the majority ownership of the company, not you not anybody else, you just made a mockery of yourself and your late husband. It's pathetic, but it is very funny and amusing.

~The whole Derek Fisher deal last night where he came back from his daughter's surgery and just went in the game right away in the 3rd quarter without warming up at all was cool.

~Federer is scuffling approaching the French, he was just bounced by a no name in straight sets on clay. Might as well chalk another one down for Nadal in Paris.

~Why would a baseball team ever offer giving away a rectal exam for two tickets like the Brewers are doing (or did) I just don't get that.

Thanks mostly to the fact they have been playing the Rangers and the Mariners only for the past week+ the Yanks have again reached the .500 hundred mark. Ain't that grand? Well 32 games down at a clip of 16-16 lets do a little recap and rankings of the Yankees players throughout the season.

Hitters

1. Alex Rodriguez - Arod has cooled down somewhat since his historic start, but he is still hitting at a .350 clip for the whole of the season thus far and is leading the league in HRs and RBIs. The odd part is that since Arod has cooled down the Yankees pitching has heated up, go figure.

2. Derek Jeter - Typically Jeter over the first month+ of the season, a lot of hits, a high average and decent run and rbi production. He's consistent.

3. Jorge Posada - How do you spell contract year? Well that's simple how about a .354 average for a hitter who's as slow as a sloth.

4. Jason Giambi - He's hit pretty well this season, batting almost .300 but god damn does he clog up the basepaths when he gets on. He just might be the slowest player in the big leagues. He doesn't even run, he waddles.

5. Johnny Damon - A Hobbled Johnny hasn't been terrific this season but he's atleast been serviceable. And he atleast has an excuse.

6. Hideki Matsui - Nothing spectacular from Hideki, he's been decent since coming back from injury.

7. Bobby Abreu - Bobby has struggled mightily this season. His average is down and his plate discipline has been suffering lately. When Bobby is swinging at bad pitches you know something is wrong.

8. Robinson Cano - I have been incredibly disappointed with Robby Cano's plate discipline this season. He has swung at far too many pitches that were not even close to being strikes. And the book was out on him the first month of the season, whenever you got ahead in the count on him throw a fastball eye high and he was swinging, but not hitting. He desperately needs to start getting ahead in the count and not chasing bad pitches.

9. Josh Phelps - Phelps hasn't been half bad being used in the lesser playing time of the platoon roll with Minkowitz. He has hit decently well, had a big home run in a 9th inning comeback, and barreled over Kenji Johjima for absolutely no reason at all last week. Seriously no reason, the ball wasn't even close to the plate, hell he didn't even need to slide, it provided me with some humor.

10. Dougie Minkowitz - To Dougie's credit he's been hitting very well lately, but he started off the season so miserably that his average still does not top .250 despite his recent hot streak.

11. Melky Cabrera - Here's where I have complaints with Torre this season, Melky is not hitting, in fact he's been pretty much horrendous the whole season, yet when he gives Damon a day off he feels the need to bat Melky leadoff. It makes zero logically sense that you would want a hole at the top of your lineup.

12. Kevin Thompson - He was just a call up when Matsui went on the DL, can't really diss him much for not hitting, he's not a major league player.

13. Miguel Cairo - Cairo had a very good year two years ago playing second base everyday for the Yanks but thus far this year in a bench role he's been pretty terrible.

14. Wil Nieves - I don't think it's at all possible to be as bad as Nieves has been at the plate thus far this season. Yesterday, Nieves got his first hit of the season, however he attempted to stretch it to a double and was thrown out at second, thus he didn't reach base. Moron.

Starters

1. Andy Pettite - The only stable starter for the Yanks from the opening bell. Andy has been terrific thus far this season and has been such a team player that he was willing to come out of the pen multiple times in the first month.

2. Chien Ming Wang - Wang is the leader of the hammy patrol, but since he's been back he's gotten better with each start. His sinker is working and he is returning to his 2006 form.

3. Darrell Rasner - Surprise Darrell Rasner has been pretty darn good during his starts thus far this season, even though he really has no stuff at all. I'm convinced people will start hitting him in the upcoming months but I hope to hell I'm wrong.

4. Mike Mussina - The second member of the hammy patrol, Muss has pitched well his last few starts after getting bombed in his opener and landing on the DL for a short period. He also like Wang appears to be rounding into form.

5. Phil Hughes - If only Philip didn't pull his hammy like every other Yankee pitcher, maybe then we could have seen what he was showing in the Ranger game over a long stretch. Instead we must wait.

6. Matt De Salvo - One start = very good, which is simply better than the lower guys who got rocked a lot, or just plain suck.

7. Kei Igawa - 3 good starts and 3 atrocious starts and a move to single A. Igawa does however own the Yankees only win over the Red Sox this season, so he deserves some credit. My sister thinks he looks like a beaver and has become accustomed to calling him as such, she might be onto something. Maybe a woodchuck instead? Let the debate begin.

8. Chase Wright - Back to Back to Back to Back will forever be linked with the name Chase Wright. Atleast he accomplished something for himself this season.

9. Jeff Karstens - A fractured leg and one bad start makes Jeff Karstens not a valuable pitcher thus far.

10. Carl Pavano - You know I was gonna put Karstens in last place cause he wasn't good in his one start, but he got hit with a line drive that fractured his leg and he wanted to continue pitching. Pavano on the other hand is annoyed that the Yanks are seeking more opinions so he doesn't get Tommy John. You suck.

Bullpen

1. Brian Bruney - So who the hell would have thought that Brian Bruney would have the best numbers of any reliever in the Yankees pen one month+ into the season. My guess is Bruney's hand is down.

2. Scott Proctor - For the most part Proctor has been solid this year, with the exception of a few innings here and there which typically come after multiple days of work, because apparently Torre doesn't know he has other pitchers in the bullpen.

3. Sean Henn - This kid has actually been pretty good this year, however they don't typically bring him in in close games.

4. Mike Myers - Mike Myers would probably come close to topping this list if he could ever get out the lefties he is brought in the game to get out, namely David Ortiz.

5. Kyle Farnsworth - Farny does not have Torre's confidence and thus is just erratically brought in in different scenarios. Also, Farny can't throw consecutive days without blowing up which is pretty weak. And Farny has been wearing these goofy glasses all the time, I don't get it.

6. Mariano Rivera - Mo has been an incredible disappointment thus far this season. 3 blown games. I feel as if the biggest problem with Mo has been the opposite of the rest of the bullpen, a lack of work. Hopefully with increased workload the next few weeks, he will return to the old sandman.

7. Luis Vizcaino - Too many appearances for Vizcaino plus a lack of control of his breaking ball has equally not very good news for the Yanks.

8. Chris Britton - 2 Appearances at no runs, does not make a terrific reliever. They threw him in too blow out victories against the Indians, he really doesn't count.

9. Colter Bean - No one sucks quite like Colter Bean. The guy has no idea where his pitches are going when he lets go of them, but the hitters seem to have a keen eye on them.

~Wow Curt Schilling is annoying. Does he have to comment on everything known to mankind? Does he seriously have an opinion on anything, even his manager is going on radio shows telling him to shut up. Yes, everyone thinks he tooks steroids, but he certainly never came out and admitted it. Just another case of Curt shooting his mouth off. I don't think I could deal with him in a Yankee uniform. I would much prefer a guy who never talks.

~Felipe Lopez is off his major schnide of not hitting HRs, thankfully, he took my boy Bush's pitch over the fence last night and hit another one today. Too bad the Nats didn't win either game and the Brew crew remain the hottest team in baseball.

~Josh Beckett gets buckets worth of run support every single game. Boo to that.

~Someone in on of my leagues just dropped Paul Konerko, I know he had a terrible first month but seriously? You're going to drop him?

~Barry Bonds is 10 away, can someone please just drill him somewhere, or can he please pull a hammy.

~Carl Pavano is seeing as many doctors as possible to convince the Yanks he needs Tommy John surgery, ha. Cashman is doing the opposite. Tha Yanks should just force him to try to rehab for the whole season before deciding he needs tommy john, atleast sabotage some of his years when he won't be on the yanks.

~Ugh I'm tired...

I don't think anyone quite notices that the war is going on and that US Soldiers are being lost on a day to day basis. I know I don't, its all just a blur, people die everywhere around the world and when you can't put a face to the name a US Soldier just sounds like a slightly more tragic death.

Well yesterday I received my first face to the names of the many lost and it sucks. Ryan Patrick Jones, known as RPJ to me and all of my fellow Orientation Leaders, was lost to a road side bomb during his tour in Iraq. It's just shocking to me right now and I really can't seem to believe it.

I met Ryan at the same time I met a lot of new friends at WPI, when I became an Orientation Leader the summer prior to my junior year. Throughout my one year stint as an OL and the remainder of my time at WPI I do not believe I saw him angry once or ever not energized and full of life. He always had that ridiculous ear to ear grin on his face, even when we used to make fun of him for being the worst pitch player of all time. He always was proud of who he was and of his time spent with ROTC.

You will be severely missed RPJ, the world lost one hell of a man. My thoughts and prayers go out to his parents and his beautiful girlfriend of many years Katie.

SI just did a little rundown of the 15 most intimidating pitchers of all time. So I thought, hell why don't I put together a quick list of some pitchers right now who I would least want to stand in the batters box against for fear of my health.

Julian Tavarez - Sure he's not the greatest pitcher in the world, but he is a complete nut case, and I don't think I would ever be comfortable facing this guy knowing that at any second he might snap and decide that he wants to drill me in the cheek.

Joel Zumaya - While he's not playing guitar hero or dislocating his finger throwing in the bullpen he's throwing 100 mph. I don't think I could ever come close to touching that.

Brett Myers - Kid throws gas and and was brought in for assault and battery on his wife which means he's got a pretty large temper.

Roger Clemens - The old man still makes the list. Why, because he actually does have control and is a big enough dick to hit you directly on the helmet sticker, just ask Mike Piazza.

Daniel Cabrera - He throws really hard and typically has absolutely no control. Sure there would be a decent chance I could pull a walk, but there's also a decent chance he throws behind my back. And a better chance I strike out.

Francisco Rodriguez - I don't think I would come within ten feet of a K Rod pitch.

Brad Lidge - Nothing says intimidating more than a former closer who throws hit who was relegated to mid relief because of complete control problems.

Derrick Turnbow - Except for maybe a closer who was relegated to the setup guy because of control problems and is one of the goofiest looking dudes on the planet.

Jonathan Broxton - This kids also a big boy and throws gas. I'm pretty sure I could never catch up to a 95+ mile an hour fastball and would end up swinging at everyone regardless of its location.

Jonathan Papelbon - He just looks like a mean mother f'er on the hill, with his brim down low a little scowl on and throwin heat.

After a weekend when boxing held the sporting worlds attention only days later it lost one of its best competetitors. Diego Corrales, a former champ was pronounced dead this morning after running his motorcycle into the back of a vehicle and being hit by the vehicle behind him. I'm never really overly sentimental about this kind of stuff, but it's just a waste when a 29 year old is killed because of the inherent risks of riding a motorcycle.

2 Years ago Corrales was the winner of what might have been the best fight I have ever watched. And the 10th round will go down as one of the greatest ever.

So the fantasy season is one plus down and I just want to run down my fantasy league performances thus far. Currently I am in first in 2 leagues and 4th in my keeper league.

1st Place, Buddies from School

Hitting Hero: Vlad Guerrero, My second round pick has been lights out this season.

Pitching Hero: CC Fatassia, 5 Ws a low 3s era and plenty of innings and Ks.

Best Hitting Draft Pick: Ian Kinsler, who started off the season red hot, has cooled down a lot but still his first month production was through the roof.

Best Pitching Draft Pick: Ted Lilly, I got made fun of for drafting Lilly by the kid who drafted Kei Igawa in the same round.

Worst Hitting Draft Pick: Conor Jackson, he missed a ton of time and did absolutely nothing for me and was dumped at the start of last week for the Flyin Hawaiian.

Worst Pitching Draft Pick: Erik Bedard, he should turn it around but that 5.63 era is gruesome.

1st Place, Buddies from Home

Hitting Hero: Jose Reyes, had a difficult decision to make at the #2 pick but with Reyes I think I made the right choice, almost 20 steals already really helps.

Pitching Hero: Josh Beckett, decided to go with him over Matt Cain, and it has worked out as Beckett has been the best pitcher in all of the AL if not all of baseball so far this season.

Best Hitting Draft Pick: BJ Upton, well I didn't draft him, but I picked him up in the opening weeks and he's been studly.

Best Pitching Draft Pick: Josh Beckett, it's a shallow league so I didn't end up with any deep sleeper picks that have worked out, Beckett for the round I got him in and the output was definately the best pick thus far.

Worst Hitting Draft Pick: JD Drew, I shook my head when I made that pick, don't know what I was thinking, but he's off my roster now.

Worst Pitching Draft Pick: Adam Wainwright, he hasn't transition into the starting rotation quite as well as I would have hoped.

4th Place, Big Money Keeper League

Hitting Hero: Jimmy Rollins, One of my keepers has arguably been the MVP in the NL with solid power numbers and SBs progressively coming as well.

Pitching Hero: CC Fatassia, Again the fat ass has been excellent for me. Especially in this league with innings being a category, he's a horse power by a lot of fat cells.

Best Hitting Draft Pick: Adrian Gonzalez, Gonzo is emerging as a top fantasy 1B and I am glad that I dropped a mid round pick on him.

Best Pitching Draft Pick: Rich Hill, Richard was selected in part because Capuano went a few picks before me, I can tell you that I am very glad to have Richard on my roster.

Worst Hitting Draft Pick: Kevin Kouzmanoff, he barely has more hits this season than me. Worse yet, because I traded Zimmerman in the offseason for the pick I used to draft the Kouz, I pulled away from picking up Upton, whoops. Currently he's still on the roster but my boy Andy Laroche just got called up and could soon take his roster spot away.

Worst Pitching Draft Pick: Jorge Julio, wow Jorge Julio sucked, he was off my roster within two weeks, but I am currently floating there with Frasor as my closer and he hasn't been terrific either.

~The Rocket is back in NYC, and nobody is surprised except for apparently Susan Waldman who flipped out on the radio broadcast. Get a chill pill there Susan. Back to the Rocket signing a bloated prorated 28 million dollar contract. It was obvious that the Yankees needed to do this. With Hughes, Pavano and Karstens down for extended periods of time as well as Igawa getting rocked in every start they had a severe need for back of the rotation starters. The only option out there was Clemens, they had the cash to throw out there that they saved when they traded Randy Johnson, and because Johnson was no longer on the team they did not have the issue with Clemens only showing up on pitching days. It was a very mercenary move, but it makes sense.

~More Clemens, I don't understand why people get ticked off that he does this. Guy's gonna be 45 in August, why should he be forced to go to spring training and throw the first 2 months of the season, it's not like he's a 23 year old kid anymore, his arm will break down given 33 starts. It wouldn't make sense for him or any other team. And if clubs like the Astros, Yanks or Sox are going to throw boatloads of cash in his direction to do so then good for him. Supply & Demand, in the future I bet other hall of fame pitchers due this, and I won't blame them either.

~The second biggest pitching news of the weekend is probably Joel Zumaya dislocating his finger throwing pitches in the bullpen. How the hell did you do that? Your finger pops out of the joint throwing a baseball? That probably sucked. So in your two year career Joel you have been injured playing a Guitar Hero video game and dislocated your finger throwing a baseball. At this pace you're going to have a career arm injury after being hit by feces flung by a monkey.

~Chris Carpenter is now going to be out for several months and the defending World Series champ might as well pack it in already after a single month of the season.

~My boy the Flyin Hawaiian, Shane Victorino, had 2 steals in each of the first three games of the Giant Series and capped it off with a dinger off rookie Tim Lincecum yesterday, talk about Roto hero.

~CC Fatassia is 5-0, he's a sleeper Cy Young pick.

~Barry Bonds won't stop hitting home runs. Boo to that. And his numbers right now are phenomenal:
AB HR AVG RBI R SB
72 10 .347 22 22 1

~Haven't heard raving reviews about the De La Hoya Mayweather fight. Pretty much all I've heard was good fight but not an epic. So I'm not disappointed that I decided to celebrate Cinco De Mayo instead. I'm sure the fight will be replayed on HBO and HBO 2 every day starting next week, so I'll catch a replay, but I don't think it 'saved' boxing. And certainly I don't think Mayweather is one of the greatest fighters of all time like he self proclaims himself. He doesn't have the punching power anymore to knock people out and just wins via decisions. That's not greatest of all time material.

~Missed the Kentucky Derby as well, was too busy eating a Chimichanga. I can't say I'm at all upset about missing the horse race. Unless you have a massive party to go to and then watch the race or if your a big time gambler it just isn't that cool. I mean the race lasts for under 3 minutes. The one benefit that Horse Racing has over NASCAR is that exact fact though, 3 minutes instead of hours.

~The Rangers were a few seconds away from a 3-2 series lead, instead they give up a goal lose in OT and get bounced in game 6 and down goes the metropolitan area. Buffalo vs. Ottawa will sure bring in that casual hockey fan. Ha.

~T-Mac was basically a little girl after their loss in game 7. If Yao and T-Mac are both two top 20 NBA players they need to be able to get out of the first round. Hey T-Mac this is a series you should have won, so maybe I should reneg my MVP vote for you. I think they should just declare no one the winner of the MVP for 2007 as Dirk certainly didn't deserve it either.

~If/When the Spurs win their series versus the Suns I think I'll declare myself done with the NBA for 07. I would probably want to shoot myself if there was another Spurs Pistons series. That would be incredibly lame. I certainly would be rooting for C-Webb in that scenario, but he's a shell of his former self, so it's not nearly as cool if he gets a championship now as it would have been when he was a dominant force for those Kings teams that choked series away to the Lakers.

With reports spilling out the Carl Pavano is seeing Dr. James Andrews and the are rumors circling around that he will the dreaded Tommy John surgery. So much for landing on the DL with a Mild Elbow Strain. Raise your hand if your surprised. This surgery would effectively put an end to his 2007 season, as well as the 08 season, and his entire 4 year contract with the New York Yankees.

Worst Contract in the History of Sports

3 Years ago Brian Cashman opened up the piggy bank and signed Carl Pavano, coming off his only good season in the majors, to a 4 year 39.95 million dollar contract with an option for a 5th year at 15 million or a 2 million dollar buyout. I think they'll opt for the latter. In the history of professional sports you will be very hard pressed to find a worse contract, there are the Vin Bakers and Allan Houston's of the world, big time money guys who had their injury/binge drinking problems. But both were very good players before their contract signing and atleast had some production in the league post. There are bad football deals every year, Neal O'Donnell rings a bell. But those guys all played games and contributed, bad or else wise. In baseball Red Sox fans might throw out Matt Clement, but hell he made an All Star team and threw 32 games his first season. The only comparable that comes to mind in baseball is Darren Dreifort who was given a 5 year 55 million dollar contract by the Dodgers in 2000 after his best season. Let's give a quick comparison:

Dreifort
2001 LA 4 7 5.13 16 16 0 0 0 0 94.2 89 62 54 11 6 47 91
2003 LA 4 4 4.03 10 10 0 0 0 0 60.1 58 29 27 6 0 25 67
2004 LA 1 4 4.44 60 0 0 0 1 4 50.2 43 25 25 5 0 36 63

Pavano
2005 NYY 4 6 4.77 17 17 1 1 0 0 100.0 129 66 53 17 8 18 56
2007 NYY 1 0 4.76 2 2 0 0 0 0 11.1 12 7 6 1 0 2 4

Big advantage goes to Dreifort for being a better signing. 26 starts and 60 relief appearances over a 5 year stretch with 9 wins. Pavano had 19 starts and 5 wins over a 4 year period. I highly doubt one can find an athlete who was given that kind of money, with such limited track record who performed and played as little as Pavano. It's the worst signing in the history of the New York Yankees, baseball, sports and quite possibly the history of the human race. He should never step foot in the city of New York again. And Brian Cashman should give some of his paycheck back to Steinbrenner for making such a stupid signing.

The Pavano Rule

Something good has to come out of a situation this bad. And the Commissioners office needs to take notice and Major League Baseball should enforce what I would like to call the Pavano rule. Each franchise should be able to cut one player every season without repercussions. If that is too much than increase the time frame to two calendar years. Each franchise may only cut one player within two calendar years from the date of the prior cut. No player the likes of Pavano should be allowed to rob both the fans and the franchise of hard earned cash for such useless services.

Baseball will never be as strong as the NFL when it comes to releasing players at will, but something needs to be done to kill off decisions like this and improve the league and this would be a gigantic step in the right direction.

On this day one year a go the greatest invention in the modern world started. Well not really, far from it. But a year ago today I bitched about the NFL Draft for the first time, and I pretty muched haven't stopped posting since. Except for those one week binges in Mexico y Ecuador.

So on the anniversary I just wanted to throw out some of my favorites.

~My only liveblog, here and here.

~Some of the better Youtube clips: Adult JACKED UP, Kid Jacked Up, Talented Jets Scouting, superb Celebratory Dance, a Superhuman White Kid, and of course a Bicycle Kick.

~Mourneau won the MVP which was complete BS.

~Ryan Succop won the Florida Gator's the National Title. Just in case you forgot Succop is the kicker for the Gamecocks.

~Reche Goes Bugeyed.

~Uconn and Duke Sucked this year, glory.

~Jarrett Wright loves S&M with baseballs.

~Of course the vastly important Urinal Etiquette.

~Yankee fans can live in the past with this boy.

~11 Reasons why I Hate Nascar.

~I don't like Michael Kay as evidenced here, here, here, and here

~Speaking of dislike, Carl Pavano, here and here and here.

~Weird Breadings Here and Here.

~The reasons why Randy Johnson sucked last year.

~And my favorite post of all time, My Name is Lance Berkman and Where is My MVP Love?

~And Finally That Ain't your Cake Philip It's Simone's Cake.

~So Mark, how bout getting into Major League baseball, perhaps you could win as many championships with the Cubbies as you have with the Mavs. A whopping zero, nada, nilch, nunca, cero. How pissed off must you be right now? Last year you grab a 2-0 lead against the Heat and 90% of the analysts say stick a fork in the Heat their done. And then your team goes out and gets snuffed 4 in a row. And this year you put together one of the greatest regular seasons in NBA history only to lose in the first round to a team that needed to win their final game of the regular season just to make it. OUCH.

~Speaking of Ouch, Dirk what happened buddy. 1 for 10 in the first half, and a total of 2 FGs and 8 total points for the entire game? And you're going to win the MVP. What a joke. How many games in a row did Jordan score 10+ points? Every game of his Bulls career? How can you not show up at all in a game where your team is on the brink of being eliminated in the most embarrassing upset in NBA History? I'll give you the fact that you dragged your teams corpse up on Tuesday and won that game, but last night a no show. Seriously? Can we reneg the MVP now. Can we at minimum put an asterisk next it and say, MVP of 07 simply because he has good stats and his team won 67 games, then neither he or his team showed up in the playoffs, and we realize that we should have voted for Nash again.

~Stephen Jackson was a deadeye last night. In the 3rd quarter he buried 4 threes and that helped pushed the Warriors well in front of the Mavs.

~Speaking of Stephen Jackson, wow I was completely wrong with my assessment of that trade midseason. I thought it diminished the Pacers from a talent perspective and it did, but I just didn't see it doing much for the Warriors and quote "viable playoff team. Um How about no." So ya, dead wrong on my end.

~Hey Golden St. I know you just pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Basketball history but how about not treating it like you just won the NBA finals. I mean body surfing the crowd, and these closet Warrior fans, Kate Hudson, Owen Wilson and Snoop Dogg? Where the hell are these guys coming from? Um Long Beach is nowhere near Oakland Snoop, how could you possibly be parading around in a Warriors jersey as if your not a Laker fan. Forshame Snoop, you're not having a good month.

~So all around I think the NBA lost with this Warriors win. Sure it was a great series and gives the thought that anything can happen in a playoff series, but who's looking forward to a possible Warriors Jazz series? No one will be pumped for that series. So everyone will divert their attention to the Phoenix and San Antonio, that's great, but isn't that effectively the NBA finals now that the Mavericks are out? So because of your piss poor playoff system, the most important series in the entire NBA playoffs occurs next week, and is followed by two series which more than likely are just the finishing touches for the winner of game 7 in Phoenix between the Spurs and Suns. This could easily be fixed if they just did the NHL reseeding policy. It's not that hard, get it done David. The NBA finals should not happen in round 2.

~When you think about it here are the potentially good series left in the NBA playoffs, Suns Spurs, Bulls Pistons, Rockets Spurs, Warriors Suns. Those are the only four combos I'm really interested in. I certainly won't care for any series involving the Cavs, Nets or Jazz. David cannot be very thrilled with this result.

~Yesterday New England's very own hero and heart throb sent 99% of his fans into mild heart failure by strolling around the streets of New York with a Yankees hat on. Ha even he after being a hero in boston for this whole decade, knows that New York is better. So Congrats Tom for atleast one single day I do not want you to get runover by a bus. But come training camp, ya I'll be hoping for an ankle snap.

~In other Red Sox news, Jon Lester had to be pulled from his rehab start in the 3rd yesterday due to some stiffness, so that certainly isn't very good for the Sox. Be interesting to see if it amounts to anything over the next few days.

~Forget to mention this earlier in the week but Julian Tavarez is a nutjob. “I don’t think we need him. We don’t need him,” insisted Tavarez. “We’ve got some young guys down there who can do it, too. We’ve got Kason Gabbard [stats], Jon Lester, a guy who is 22 years old who can bring it. This guy is going to be a Sandy Koufax some day.”

~Beckett is 6-0. The Hanley trade was not the best of moves, but Beckett is still only 26 and could be your staff ace for a decade to come. Stop being annoyed Sox fans.

~Nothing says kick in the groin to a fantasy baseball player other than your catcher going down for multiple weeks in the season. And considering I'm in three money leagues and I own Piazza (Out 4-6) in each of them and will be forced to pick up Carlos Ruiz or Brian Schneider instead, ya not pleased with that. Crunch.

~So much for the Chelsea Man U Champions league final as both lost in the Semi's yesterday. But there is one benefit it brings forth a rematch of the 05 finals between AC Milan and Liverpool which was the absolute greatest sporting event I have ever watched. Better than any basketball, football, tennis, golf, baseball game I have ever watched.

~So did you know Ryan Langerhans got traded to the A's this weekend and suited up in a game versus the Red Sox, um I didn't. Well apparently the A's didn't like what they saw because within 72 hours of picking him up they shipped him off to the Nats for Chris Snelling. Langerhans is batting a robust .043 with 3 hits in 48 bats.

~I'm not much of a boxing fan and don't really follow it much but you have to laugh at some of the storylines in this De La Hoya Mayweather fights. De La Hoya fought and beat Mayweather's uncle in the 4th round via a TKO in 1993 in one of his first boughts. Floyd's father trained both him and De La Hoya but during different time frames. Floyd Sr. trained his son in the late 90s until his son canned him in favor of a different uncle. Sr. trained De La Hoya from 2000-2006 and wanted to train De La Hoya to kick the crap out of his son for this fight, but wanted 2 mill to do son which Oscar declined. However, Oscar invited Floyd Sr. to the fight while his own son did not. All of this interlocking of family and fighting is quite humurous to me. I don't know who I really want to win, Mayweather certainly would seem to be the big favorite given the fact that Oscar lost to Sugar Shane Mosely twice, who's not that good, and Mayweather has never lost. It's touched on pretty well here and here too.

~Adios Kobe, I think you made the mistake of trusting your GM to support you with a good team post Jerry West. Bad move. I love how people are killing him for pushing Shaq out and saying that it was a miserable trade. Sure Shaq was a below average trade. But that's not nearly as bad as the Caron Butler for Kwame Brown deal. Butler was an all star this year, a fantastic all around player, and will be an all star in years to come, they got a stiff for him. So don't blame it all on Kobe that his GM isn't very good.

~AI & Iverson = No Defense = 1-4

~I was right on with the Nadal beating Federer pick. Even though I said I had no idea how it would have been played. Nadal has such an advantage of getting to balls on clay that any time you hit the to him on that surface he's almost unbeatable. Granted it was only an exhibition but Nadal has Federer's number and the French Open for the Fed Cup is looking like a challenge that isn't going to go his way.

That's right asians do not mess with Big Papi and Brian Urlacher when it comes to smacking the cock around.

Gonna do a monthly power rankings of MLB, weekly is just too much. So here goes the 1st one, how does everyone stand after the month of April.

1. Boston 16-9, Lost 1: The Sox have the best rotation top three in baseball right now and will have the best rotation in baseball once Lester joins the rotation from AAA after nut cancer. And count me as someone who thinks Manny winds up with the typical .300 30 120+.

2. Atlanta 16-10, Lost 1: Um so who watched sportscenter this morning saw Chipper hit a homerun and them say he's leading the NL with 10 HRs. Huh? The Braves right now have a few injuries to deal with, but Hudson is pitching lights out to go with Smoltz, they have a solid pen when Wicky gets back. And they have veterans in the Jones boys and youngsters with McCann and Frenchy. They're gonna make a big time run at the division this year.

3. Cleveland 15-8, Won 2: Cleveland is mashing much more like 05 than 06 so far this year. In addition they have had Sabathia healthy over the first month and he currently sits at 4-0. But it's even bigger than that, currently the Indians are 6-0 in games that Sabathia has started, meaning if there's someone who should be garnering more discussion for Cy Young contention this year, it's Fatassia.

4. NY Mets 15-10, Lost 2: The Mets have a few worries to battle through in their pitching staff but their lineup is still rock solid. Reyes and Beltran have performed to MVP standards and you can't expect Wright and Delgado to stay down for too long. They still have to deal with Pelfrey at the back of the rotation and the current injury status of El Duque, but they do have John Maine pitching lights out.

5. Milwaukee 17-9, Won 3: So who had the Brewers lined up for best record in the league at the one month mark of the season? Certainly not me. I'm not shocked that they are leading their division but the best record in the league is certainly a stretch. Here's where the Brewers have an advantage over a lot of NL teams, starting pitching depth. Capuano, Bush, Suppan and Sheets are all better than average pitchers. They just need to keep Sheets healthy.

6. LA Angels 16-11, Won 4: The Angels have the NL West lead in spite of not having 2 of their top three pitchers for most of the first month and a lineup catalyst in Chone Figgins either. Well Figgins, Colon and Dreamweaver are all back now, so the Angels might move up this month.

7. Detroit 15-11, Won 3: The Tiggers have a solid top of the rotation, and soon enough Sheffield is going to get very very hot.

8. LA Dodgers 16-11, Won 1: The Dodgers are a solid overall team and should be able to hold off the rest of the west with their speed at the top of the lineup and solid staff and bullpen. Nothing spectacular but they should be able to get it done.

9. Minnesota 15-11, Won 1: I'm kind of surprised to look up and see the Twins 4 games over .500 given that their pitching staff is as close to a one man rotation as you possibly could be. I mean how long can Ramon Ortiz and Carlos Silva be good? One would have to think they're about a start or two away from beginning a streak of getting rocked every outing.

10. Arizona 16-12, Lost 1: Will the Big Unit pitch closer to the Yankees chump or his last season as a Diamondback. He right now is pretty much the key to their entire season. Oh and Conor Jackson is pissing me off.

11. San Diego 14-13, Won 1: The Padres are 14-13 and have two guys in their daily lineup hitting below the mendoza lineup. Perhaps the Kouz and Mike Cameron will contribute to both my fantasy team and the Padres sometime soon.

12. Philadelphia 12-14, Won 1: The Phillies started the season miserably but now find themselves only 2 games below .500. They're coming.

13. Oakland 13-13, Won 1: Amazing how many teams are at or below .500 right now. I think Oakland has the moxy and pitching to move above the .500 mark. But to do so they need a healthy Harden, and that is probably too much to ask for.

14. Chicago Sox 12-12, Lost 3: Mark Buehlre throwing a No-no came out of nowhere. The White Sox will finish this season above .500 but how far above?

15. Toronto 13-13, Lost 1: The BlueJays are .500 despite a rash of injuries that is only surpassed by the Yanks. Jason Frasor, BJ Ryan's replacement, has been racked his last two outings as well, so they could certainly use BJ back.

16. NY Yankees 10-14, Won 1: Let's list the reasons why the Yankees are 10-14. Wang, Mussina, Pavano, Karstens, Hughes, Humberto Sanchez. That's 6 pitchers that have been injured so far this season. In comparison to the Red Sox who have had zero.

17. San Francisco 13-12, Lost 1: Matt Cain is a beast and Barry Zito will win his 15 games this season, but their lineup is too old eventually someone of importance in the lineup will break down, and hopefully that person has the initials BB.

18. Florida 13-13, Won 2: The D-Train has stunk so far this season but the youngsters for the most part are still doing well. Especially Hanley Ramirez who is an absolute stud.

19. Cincinnati 13-13, Won 3: Cornroyyo won his first game last night in spite of the fact that he has pitched very well so far this season. Haraang and Cornroyyo are two very good top of the rotation guys, but I highly doubt they have enough back end support. Homer Bailey anyone?

20. Seattle 11-10, Won 2: They want to finish over .500 they need King Felix healthy its as simple as that.

21. Baltimore 12-15, Lost 3: They've basically been the streakiest team in Baseball so far, with a losing streak followed by a winning streak followed by another losing streak. They have some decent arms with Loewen, Cabrera and Bedard, but the arms haven't been consistent enough.

22. Tampa Bay 11-15, Lost 1: I actually think Tampa is pretty good this year. They have an abundance of young hitters and talent. They have Kazmir, and the kid James Shields is pitching really really well. Eventually they need to dump some of their hitting for pitching if they ever want to contend, but their on the right path.

23. Pittsburgh 12-12, Won 1: One month in and the Pirates are .500 and tied for 2nd place in the NL Central. Neither of those things will be lasting much longer. And why are they in 2nd place in the division well because they start the 4 team NL Central swing at the bottom of the power rankings.

24. Chicago Cubs 10-14, Lost 1: Something that I think has floated under the National Radar, Soriano has been atrocious so far this season for the Cubbies. Sure he was injured for a bit the first month, but he finished all of April without a single homerun and only 1 rbi. One rbi for an entire month? Are you serious? How many millions of dollars was he just given?

25. Houston 10-15, Lost 2: Oh where or where has Lance Berkman been, oh where oh where can he be? My ill-advised pick of the AStros to win the division was partially based on them getting Clemens, well he isn't going there unless they are .500+ at the end of this month.

26. St. Louis 10-15, Lost 4: The Cardinals were banking on Reyes to be good this year, hasn't happened. And with Carpenter down their rotation flat stinks.

27. Colorado 11-16, Won 1: The Rangers of the NL Mountains, once again have terrific bats and absolutely positively no hitting.

28. Texas 10-16, Lost 3: And the Rangers are going through yet another season with no pitching. And to make it worse their big bats, Young and Tex are very very cold right now.

29. Washington 9-18, Lost 1: Hey atleast for one month of the season they can not be deemed the worst team in major league baseball...

30. Kansas City 8-19, Lost 3: This battle is going to go down to the wire. Right now the Royals are just edging out the Nats as the most atrocious team in Major League Baseball.

~Could anything suck more than being forced to get pulled out of a game you are throwing a No-Hitter? Especially in your second start when you're trying to establish yourself in the big leagues, you are pitching lights out and showing everyone your skills and then pop there goes the Hamstring. This is the third pitcher with a Hamstring injury, I'm no athletic trainer but I can't think that is too much of a coincidence. They should fire whoever came up with their offseason work out plan because 3 hammy pulls in the first month of the season screams to me that they did not prepare for the season correctly.

~The Papelboner took a mild hit around Red Sox nation last night with his first blown save of the season, coughing up a 2 run dong to Travis Buck.

~As for the whole Hancock car accident and whether or not he was drunk and that caused his car accident, I just feel as if that's beating on a dead grave. What's the great benefit of finding out that his BAC was a few ticks over the legal limit. K he shouldnt drink anymore.

~Same goes for the conclusion of why Cory Lidle's plane crashed, pilot error. That was pretty evident from the get-go.

~Golden St. went lame last night in the 4 quarter up by 9 with 3+ to go, which I can't say I'm pleased about. One thing they can take from the game is that they were getting crushed in the first half and then should have one minus the choking and Dirk actually looking like an MVP to close the game out. I've got no idea what to expect in game 6.

~Keyshawn getting cut three days after telling Jarrett he was going to mentor him is quite funny. John Clayton came out and said that Johnson would have a difficult time finding a job, I have a hard time believing that and actually think that Johnson cares more about his career stats than cash at this point. This is a guy who said he was better than Michael Irvin, and he's explicitly stated he wants 1000 receptions, which he's gonna need 2 1/2 seasons to get. Therefore he needs on a roster asap. Someone will sign him well before the season starts at a discount.

~I know I care more about Tennis than perhaps 99% of the population but you have to admit that this whole match they set up between Federer and Nadal in which they built a court that is half grass and half clay is pretty friggin cool. Federer has dominated Wimbledon for the past 4 years and Nadal hasn't lost on clay basically his whole career. I have no idea what to expect or how this would effect a play. If I were to guess, it would be that whoever is on grass has a distinct disadvantage due to the way the ball sits up on clay, and that the person on clay wins 80% or better of the games. But we'll see, I think I'd go with Nadal surprisingly... Is this thing going to be televised?

~More radio guys getting canned for off color comments. In San Antonio a radio producer through out a skit where a fake Allen Iverson was seeking sex from Mexican Women and shooting homeless people. My guess is the skit was probably completely classless and funny.

~Chelsea got bounced yesterday on PKs in the Champions League and have grabbed back to back draws in the Premiership to fall behind Man U by 5 points in the league. So... Basically they didn't hold up their end of the bargain on this whole champions clash in may I was calling for.

~Rich Eisan needs a new email address.

~I had this huge problem with the NBA playoffs start times last year, and considering the Mavs and Warriors game tips off at 10:30 tomorrow, ya I won't be watching the conclusion.

~The Rangers got worse tv marks then the golf tournament and NASCAR this weekend, is there any doubt that basically no one cares about hockey. Soon enough the NHL will be completely banished to Versus, a channel no normal person gets or knows they have.

~Refs in the nba apparently call more fouls on black guys than white guys, um ya? A) There are more black people in the NBA. B) These black players typically get more playing time than the Scalabrine's and Jeff Fosters of the world. C) There are more Stephen Jackson's and Ron Artest's of the world than Bill Lambeer's of the league. So whats the story? I highly doubt that that more than 5% of the reason blacks are called for more fouls in the NBA are because of discrimination or racism. My guess is past confrontations is the biggest reason behind a lot of the discrepencies.

AFC WEST

Denver Broncos - The Broncos used all 4 of their picks on lineman. 3 of them being defensive lineman. I like the Jarvis Moss pick, but is their team that good at the skill positions and LB that good that they didn't need to adress those positions at all?

San Diego Super Chargers - Naanee Naanee Naanee Nanee Hey Hey Hey Goodbye to Marty. That means superbowl right, probably not.

Oakland Raiders - I don't blame them for taking Russell it makes sense but a 4th round pick for Randy Moss. I think they should have gotten an almond joy for Randy Moss.

KC Chiefs - OK of all teams in need of a QB it was the Chiefs, with their apparent desire to give away Trent Green for nothing and to start Damon Huard they might as well just sign LJ up for an injury right now. Draft a QB Herm you dumb bastard. Atleast they got a Tank.

NFC WEST

Arizona Cardinals - Cardinals draft theme, get really really really fat guys. Branch is a monster and Levi Brown is as well. Don't know why they stayed at 5 to draft Levi Brown, dont think that was particularly a good move.

Seattle Seahawks - They gave up their first round pick for Branch and the Patriots got Randy Moss for a 4th round pick, am I missing something here. The Seahawks just might have peaked two years ago.

San Francisco - San Fran has actually quickly turned the franchise around, I'm not so high on any of their receivers b ut Patrick Willis is going to be a beast in this league.

St. Louis - Where's Mike Martz when you need him? Drafting a DE in the first round boo to that. Greatest show on turf bring it back.

AFC SOUTH

Indy Colts - Why must the Colts make a good selection? Anthony Gonzalez is better than Ted Ginn, and will be a terrific upgrade over Stokley and now the Colts Offense will be even better next year. I certainly wouldn't want to play them on turf any time this season.

Houston Texans - The Texans drafted a 19 year old instead of attempting to trade down and snatch and offensive lineman, that makes a lot of sense considering you just traded for Matt Schaub, but apparently you don't mind if he gets pummeled like David Carr.

Tennessee Titans - Vince Young will be manning the entire Titans offense on his shoulders again this year as they don't care about giving him skill position players, I guess they know its a throw away season with him on the cover of Madden.

Jacksonville Jaguars - How pumped do you think the folks in Jacksonville are that kevin Durant somehow slipped past the Celtics and everyone else into their laps with pick 48. Oh that's Justin Durant, a LB from Hampton, uh maybe not.

NFC SOUTH

New Orleans Saints - Did they need Robert Meachem? Am I missing something, didn't Drew Brees throw for about a million yards last year? There wasn't something else they could address.

Carolina Panthers - Dwayne Jarrett is a going to be really good, and now they can get rid of Keyshawn who didn't fit so well last year and they can be good. Oh wait Delhomme has been miserable the past two seasons. Nevermind.

Atlanta Falcons - They didn't draft a single VaTech defensive back? I dont get it. Not even a single Hokie at all. And to lay it down worse they took someone from UVA. Vick just might unleash his dogs on the poor guy.

Tamp Bay Bucs -I bet there draft would have been way cooler if they ended up with Calvin Johnson. Can't say I know any of their picks very well.

Hopefully that team is getting relegated...

From: WithLeather

I ain't Mel Kiper. Here's some quick takes on the draft.

AFC EAST

NY Jets -Not as fun as the MANGOOOOLLLDDD explosion last year but the Jets did address some pressing needs at Inside Linebacker next to Vilma and the most needed position of Cornerback, too bad I've never watched Darrelle Revis play and would only be able to pick him out of a crowd at a Country Concert.

New England - It's so much fun to cheer for a team that plays in the same division as the Patriots. Oh wait no. I don't get why anyone is saying this Randy Moss trade could possibly be bad. They gave up nothing for someone who potentially be a stud. The only concerns I have are with Billy B. is he thug life now? Pickin up Moss and two Hurricanes woah? Is he gonna start appearing in rap videos? They did select CCSU and New Britain legend Justise Hairston though.

Miami Dolphins - Hooray for the rest of the division. Miami is very bad at drafting in the first round. Ted Ginn, one of my two bust to bes gets drafted Pick 9 by the Dolphins. Yes Let's waste a 1st round pick on Dante Hall. Woo, very smart Cam Cameron.

Buffalo Bills -Speaking of bust picks, my other bust choice was Marshawn Lynch, apparently the Bills nor Dolphins listened to me. Here's the best part about Lynch, he's not Willis McGahee who stomped the Jets every game including the lame game I went to. Congrats Buffalo. Although Paul Posluszny is a cool fit for the Bills.

NFC EAST

NY Giants -Giants probably could have used some OL depth so Eli doesn't land on his backside every play once one of their lineman gets injured, but they went with Ross in the 1st round, and you can't really complain much about that considering their secondary, especially Demps and the Band-Aid man sucked last year. Also Steve Smith could be a good value pick there, but they didn't use Sinorice Moss at all last year, and they have too many guys to throw the ball to. Not sure where he fits.

Dallas Cowboys - I haven't heard of a single player the Cowboys drafted. That tells me I A) Didn't care that much about the draft and B)Have no idea how the Cowboys did and C)Am guessing not so good.

Philadelphia Eagles - Don't the Eagles already have about 4 backup QBs? Why the hell do they need another one? Why do teams not realize that drafting a QB on a contender is quite possibly the dumbest thing you can do. The Jets most likely got two guys to start on their defense. The Eagles drafted a guy they hope doesn't play a down this season. Woo.

Washington Redskins - One pick = not a good draft. I do like Landry but don't they already have Sean Taylor? Aren't they a little too similar to work together manning the secondary? Who plays free who plays strong? Or do they move Taylor to Linebacker? They should have traded this pick down to get more value out of their draft then just one guy. Although HB Blades could be a steal in the later rounds, and who knows if Carson Palmer's brother will amount to anything or if he got drafted on name value alone.

AFC NORTH

Cincinnati Bengals -I typically love Michigan guys more then limbs on my body, but there's something about Leon Hall that always screamed overrated to me. Perhaps it was the complete lack of interceptions, or the dominating performance of the Buckeyes and Trojan offenses over the vaunted wolverine defense. In addition I don't get the drafting of Kenny Irons with their second pick, Rudy Johnson is a solid back, and Chris Perry, a former 1st rounder, when healthy is more than a serviceable backup. I think the Bungals just didn't want thugs.

Baltimore Ravens - Pretty humorous when the only two people you know from a teams draft is their last two rounders, one being Troy Smith the other being a Wolverine, Prescott Burgess. Thus I got no idea how they did either.

Pittsburgh Steelers -The Steelers transitioning to a 4-3 doesn't quite make sense to me but I did nail who they were going to select in Timmons even though I know almost nothing about him. They also picked Woodley, who I personally would have thought was a perfect fit as an OLB in a 3-4 defense do to being a little undersized, but he could turn out to be an effective pass rusher for the Steelers.

Cleveland Browns - While I think Brady Quinn was good value at 22, does this mean that they have completely given up on Charlie Frye? Didn't they use a high pick on him two years ago? And they jump ship already after an injury riddled season... um ok. Drafting Thomas was probably a smart decision, I just personally though Adrian Peterson was too good to pass up there, if they could have had a combo of Peterson, Edwards and the Soldier set up for the future.

NFC NORTH

Green Bay -Can't say I know much about the many many picks the Packers had other than the Nebraska running back Brandon Jackson who could help fill the void of the departed, Nerbaska running back Ahman Green.

Minnesota -Adrian Peterson is the steal of the draft. He stays healthy his career and he's in the Hall of Fame. I just don't foresee that Taverus, a poor man's Mike Vick, turning out to be anything very good in the future and probably think that they more than the Browns should have attempted to jump up in the draft to get Quinn.

Detroit Lions -Yes another year of Jon Kitna running the ship in Detroit, now that's a genius move by Matt Millen. Calvin Johnson is a pimp, but Kitna? Ugh. They do have Shelton legend Orlovsky waiting in the wings or Drew Stanton who stupidly grew up a Lions fan and is happy to be in Detroit. Idiot.

Chicago Bears - I'm not a big fan of the kid Olsen, but atleast this year unlike last year they drafted some offense.