SimonOnSports

I stumbled upon this image of Adam Dunn practicing bunting during spring training and immediately thought to myself, well thats a complete waste of time. In what situation would you actually want your power hitter or one of your best hitters to sacrifice bunt? How many times has Adam Dunn actually bunted in his career? Perhaps practicing making contact and boosting his average above .240 would be of better use? So I did a quick google search and found this . With two sacrifice bunts in his career and runners on 1st and second Dusty Baker asked Adam Dunn to bunt. He failed twice and was forced to swing away. He returned Dusty's confidence in him by.... blasting a 440+ foot walk off home run. I'm not anti-small ball by any manner, but why have a massive power hitter that you're never going to ask to bunt even practice it. It's just a waste of time.

Trades "Soldier" Kellen Winslow from the Cleveland Browns to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. [ ESPN ] I was contractually obligated to make that joke.

Between watching the Michigan Basketball game and highlights of the Cavs Rockets game last night, I've come to the conclusion that I despise the Charge. It's not that I think the rule is a bad one. I don't think an offensive player should be allowed to just plow over a defender to get to the basket. I just hate the fact that it's now a defensive tactic, instead of you know trying to play defense. Watching last nights game it was blatantly obvious on several possessions that Michigan defenders were simply trying to get in the way of Purdon't players in order to draw a charge. They weren't actually trying to steal the ball or contest a shot, nope they were just standing there hoping that they were graced the whistle in their favor. Then when Sportscenter aired they showed the greatest Charge Jackass of them all Shane Battier. Last night he drew two separate charges on Lebron James. Each time he was a bit overzealous with the maginitude of the fall. It's ...

It's PhotoHunt Time. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can figure where the 5 differences are. Click on the Image to get a larger view if needed. Then when you are done check out the answers linked below. ANSWERS

When I watched the Alamo Bowl (man I was bored), I immediately threw Jeremy Maclin on my Jets Wish List. Unfortunately, all the mock drafts out there and all the projections had him going well before the Jets 17th pick, so I kind of gave up hope a bit. But his stock has dropped some thanks to his combine numbers slipping lower than expected while others like Darius Heyward-Bey sped by . In fact I even can find mock drafts where Maclin slips to the Jets . And to that I say hooray. Why do I want Maclin? Because he's exactly what the Jets need. A wide receiver with speed and size that can stretch the field vertically. A player that has the potential to score on every play. Currently, the Jets biggest play maker currently is Leon Washington and he isn't even on the field the majority of the plays considering he's a 3rd down back. To top it off, the combination of Maclin and Leon Washington on punt returns and kick off returns would be devistating. Maclin was arguably the...

I find this humorous... In Baltimore, Bart Scott's first choice is the Ravens . In New York, he's leaning towards the Jets .... And I guess the National Football Post says the Jets signed him .

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you. This week it's throwing a curve ball and looking at All Time Great Yankees. Players that we know did not take steroids to see if this gives a defense to any of the players 'convicted' by Numbers on Steroids. Mr. October was a pure power hitter who never hit over .300. Kind of sounds like Mark McGwire, let's take a look. Averages Say: Very Inconsistent down the stretch of his career. At Bats Per Home Run Says: Hmm... what's with the spike at 39? Explaining It In 90s Steroid Terms If you took a look at Reggie's career and wanted to figure out where the oddity is, its in his improvements from age 37 to 39. At age 37 he was pretty much done and by done I mean really done. He hit below .200 and only had 14 home runs. The next two seasons he improved both his home run totals and his averages to the point at 39 when he hit .252 and 27 home runs. The issue with link...

You're tired of the boring everyday outfielders like Raul Ibanez and Pat the Bat, you want to spice it up in the later rounds with young potential. So who do you go with Justin Upton heading up his sophomore campaign or Cameron Maybin starting up his official rookie season? The Fantasy Rankings CBS has Upton at 223 and Maybin at 248. Yahoo Big Board mentions neither. ESPN has Upton at 117 and Maybin at 174. The rankings are all in Upton's favor which is to be expected. Both are terrific prospects and both have been hyped for a long time, but Upton has always been the cream of the crop. Projections Justin Upton : .263, 22 HRs, 6 SBs, 79 Rs, 68 RBIs Cameron Maybin : .276, 16 HRs, 32 SBs, 86 Rs, 58 RBIs The major difference between the two in the projections is Maybin's assendance to the leadoff role and his spead. These set of projections are the top of the top for Maybin this season, but if he were ever to put these numbers together he would be an absolute steal. As fo...

Three years ago Daisuke Matsuzaka, the best Japanese Pitcher, helped lead their National Team to the World Baseball Classic and took home the MVP award. The following offseason he made a boat load of cash for both himself and Nippon. In 2009 Yu Darvish is now the best Japanese Pitcher, and with a similar performance as Daisuke in 2006, he just might make even more money. Why? Because he just might be better. Darvish, a 6-5 fireballing righty, has posted a sub 1.90 ERA in each of the past two seasons. Dice-K's career best in his eight years in the Japanese League was 2.13 . In addition he's younger now than Dice-K was in 2006. If you're craving watching someone you've never seen before than Darvish is your man. He just might be the best baseball player in the world not currently playing in Major League Baseball

I'm not quite sure I get the loose ball out of the shorts part of this float. [Via Deadspin ]

It's PhotoHunt Time. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can figure where the 5 differences are. Click on the Image to get a larger view if needed. Then when you are done check out the answers linked below. ANSWERS

The collection of Eric Mangini, Chad Pennington, Ben Graham and Laveranues Coles appeared on Sesame Street in December of 2006. After yesterday when the Jets released Coles , all of them are officially out of the Big Apple. So why the releasing of Coles? Simply put, he's not worth 6 million dollars. He's a solid #2 receiver. He's been a solid tough as nails receiver his entire career, he's just never been a gamebreaker. Right now he essentially does the same things as Jerricho Cotchery, except he's older and was getting paid more. In the right role for the right money I think he could be a very solid edition to an NFL team. The Jets just need a game breaking wideout and not a #2 getting paid #1 money. I wish him well, I enjoyed his toughness, but it's time to move on. It's time to draft Jeremy Maclin (I hope).

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you. This week it's throwing a curve ball and looking at All Time Great Yankees. Players that we know did not take steroids to see if this gives a defense to any of the players 'convicted' by Numbers on Steroids. It's time to take a look at the master of the English language, Yogi Berra. Averages Say: What No Spikes? At Bats Per Home Run Says: 1954 just a bad year for Yogi? Explaining It In 90s Steroid Era Terms Nothing easily screams at you when looking at Yogi's numbers. His averages throughout his career are remarkably consistent. If you took at those numbers you'd almost think he had the same exact season for his entire career. The AB/HR totals you could potentially point to the 1961 totals and throw a quick question at how it dropped so heavily but then if you look at his fielding stats you'll notice that 61 was the first year where he was mostly an ou...

The World Baseball Classic starts next week so I perused the rosters and stumbled across a few players who I frankly did not expect. Here's a run down of the top 5 players who caught me off guard as to whom they are playing for. 5. Russell Martin, Canada - I probably should have known he was Canadian, but he looks hispanic, doesn't he? I picture Canadians in the Jason Bay mold, ghastly white. 4. Nick Punto, Italy - I don't think I understand how people are allowed to play for Nations when they definitely have never lived there. Anyway, Punto was born in San Diego to a father who played in the minors. 3. Marco Scutaro, Venezuala - I don't know if I've ever heard Scutaro talk, I think I have after he hit a walk off against Mariano a few years back, but I always thought he was Italian or Italian American. Now he's playing for the Venezualan Team? Who knew? 2. The Hairston Brothers, Mexico - The Hairston brothers are 3rd generation Major Leaguers. Their fa...

You've convinced yourself that you want to be the first guy in your league to draft a pitcher. Your options are Johan Santana or Tim Lincecum. Who do you go with? The Fantasy Rankings CBS has Santana at 17 and Lincecum at 18. Yahoo Big Board has Johan at 18 and Tiny Tim at 19. ESPN has Johan at 9 and Tim at 12. There's little doubt that these are the best two available pitchers. Deciding on which one to go with is obviously a much more difficult choice. Projections Johan Santana : 3.01 ERA, 18-7, 230 IP, 234 Ks, 1.07 WHIP Tim Lincecum : 3.02 ERA, 17-9, 240 IP, 272 Ks, 1.19 WHIP The difference between the two is Johan's advantage in WHIP and Tim's advantage in Ks. Which one do you like better? Surrounding Lineup One thing you should never when drafting pitchers is make the decision solely on projected win totals. Johan pitched well enough to win 23 games last year, but he didn't. With that being said, you still have to take in consideration the surrounding l...

It's PhotoHunt Time. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can figure where the 5 differences are. Click on the Image to get a larger view if needed. Then when you are done check out the answers linked below. ANSWERS

In 2005 the New York Jets were burned by poor kicking. Doug Brien missed two potential game winning field goals against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs and they went from one game away from the Super Bowl, to a wednesday tee time at the local golf course. So the Jets did what anyone scorned would do, they dumped Brien and drafted a Mike Nugent, a 'Franchise' kicker, in the second round. Well that certainly blew up in their face. Mike Nugent has officially parted ways with the Jets , and his career with the team was average to below average. In 4 years he made 81.5% of his kicks and was never reliable from deep as he was 3-9 in his career from 50+ yards out. Additionally, his kickoffs lacked depth and he was never really a touchback threat. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Nugent as a Jets fan is Stephen Gostkowski. The Patriots drafted Gostkowski only a year later, but in 4th round, and since he's been superior in everyway. He is a constant threat for t...

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you. This week it's throwing a curve ball and looking at All Time Great Yankees. Players that we know did not take steroids to see if this gives a defense to any of the players 'convicted' by Numbers on Steroids. Time to look at my dad's favorite athlete of all time, Mickey Mantle. Averages Say: What's with the mysterious dip at 27 and then the uptick? At Bats Per Home Run Says: That's a mighty jump from 22 to 24 Explaining As If It Was the 90s If you take a look at the numbers there are two time frames which in the 1990s would be questioned. First would be the incredible leap he took from his first year in the big leagues to his first MVP season in 1956. His batting average jumped 50 points. His slugging percentage jumped 90 points and he hit 15 more homers than his previous high. This wouldn't merrit a conviction nowadays though because the young age he...

The Knicks finally gave Stephon the mercy kill last night; thus allowing him to fly up I-95 all the way to the TD Bank North Garden and throw on Celtic Green . I'm surprised by this decision mostly because how can a man who so passionately loves a number just abandon it. The Celtics have already retired #3 and #33 in Dennis Johnson and Larry Bird, so what will Starbury wear? Hmm... I wonder what he will go with? His Potential Value to the Celtics? Maybe His Yearly Salary? Perhaps The Black Bird? What About Triple Threes? What He Would Like to Do to Donny Walsh? Who Needs Numbers when You Have Your Own Symbol? And The Odds On Favorite... The Caricature

It's time again to tune up for March Madness by making picks for the Accenture Match Play Tournament. Much like March Madness you have to go with an underdog somewhere. My underdog is Luke Donald, and I have him taking out both Vajajay Singh and Mickeltits. On the opposite side of the bracket I'm going with Ryder Cup hero Anthony Kim. Paddy Harrington and Goofy Swing Furyk are also major competitors but I liked the fire in Kim last year and think he makes a move this week. How long does Tiger make it in his first tournament back? I'm probably an idiot for picking against him, but there has to be at least a little bit of rust right? A little bit? I've got him going down against Mike Weir. And I've got Camillo, who's pretty much fantastico, winning the region. In the fancy pants bracket with Sergio and Ian Poulter, the winner is going to take the fashion award and the region. Sergio shall be that man and he will breeze throught the rest of the competition ca...

Clayton Kershaw and David Price are two young studs expected to make an incredible impact on their respective teams roster. But which one would you rather have on your fantasy team? The Fantasy Rankings CBS has Price at 133 and Kershaw at 188. Yahoo Big Board mentions neither. ESPN has Kershaw at 198 and Price at 207. Both pitchers are ranked similarly, a mid to late round high risk / high reward play. Projections David Price : 4.90 ERA, 4-5, 79 IP, 59 Ks, 1.49 WHIP Clayton Kershaw : 4.23 ERA, 6-6, 115 IP, 102 Ks, 1.45 WHIP The projections are pretty blah for both Kershaw and Price, but especially bleak for Price. I can't say from the stuff that I saw these two pitcher possess last year that either projection is remotely accurate. Surrounding Lineup David Price is on the defending AL Champs, but that might be a bit misleading. The Rays bullpen was infused with his presence last year which helped bridge the gap to the end of the game. Without him, the bullpen will be a bit mo...

The Champions League round of 16 starts today so let's take a look around and predict the winners. Internazionale v Manchester United Two teams that are absolutely dominating their domestic leagues, makes this arguably the biggest matchup of the Round of 16. Inter is 9 points clear of second Juventus while ManU is 7 points clear of second Liverpool both are poised to take their respective crowns. This matchup also pits Jose Mourinho back against Sir Alex in a rematch of the Special 1's Chelsea days when he dominated the Scotsman. I don't expect Inter to go into Old Trafford and come out with a victory so everything rides on their matchup at the San Siro today. Prediction: Inter with the upset 2-1 on aggregate. 1-0 at San Siro, 1-1 at Old Trafford Lyon v Barcelona Barca takes on Lyon in another matchup of squads at the top of the table. The difference is that the French Ligue is weaker than the Spanish and Barca plays at another level which Lyon won't be able to h...

It's PhotoHunt Time. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can figure where the 5 differences are. Click on the Image to get a larger view if needed. Then when you are done check out the answers linked below. ANSWERS

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you. This week it's throwing a curve ball and looking at All Time Great Yankees. Players that we know did not take steroids to see if this gives a defense to any of the players 'convicted' by Numbers on Steroids. It's time to link at the Great Bambino. What would people say about his numbers if they were occurring in todays era? Averages Say: The 1920 and 1921 seasons really seem to stick out. At Bats Per Home Run Says: All of a Sudden He Becomes a Masher? Explaining It In 90s Steroid Terms Ruth certainly didn't get off to a bang at the start of his career, probably because he was pitching. If Ruth was put in today's terms and someone was trying to pinpoint when he did steroids the answer would be 1920 and 1921. After those years he was pretty consistent until he turned 36 and started the I'm fat, not and good shape, and getting really old stages of his ...

If you're a Met fan and you like projections than prepare yourself for a whole lot of Tim Redding. ESPN projects Tim Redding to win 35 games while striking out 427 batters making him the greatest fantasy pitcher of all time. Unfortunately those numbers come with a price, namely 42 losses, a WHIP of 1.91 and an ERA of 6.30. If you Redding continues his K rate of 2008 (around 2/3 per inning) than the projections say he's going to throw somewhere around 630 innings. That's a lot of Tim Redding.

Today we are officially 6 weeks away from the start of the baseball season. I'm obviously geared up to start purchasing some tickets and to figure out when I will be making my first trips to the new NYC ball parks. I continually check both the Mets' and Yankees' Websites to see when I can get my thumbs worked out (aka trying to fight through ticketmaster for single game tickets), and there is no answer. Nope the Yankees and Mets are both still trying to get people to buy ticket packages, each package is a minimum of 11 games and given the fact I live 75 minutes away, I'm certainly not signing up for that. At this point in time last season I had purchased all the games I was going to throughout the year, 5 Yankees games and 1 trip to the Shea shithole. This year, neither website has even mentioned when single game tickets go on sale and so I wait. I wait eagerly, impatiently and annoyed.

This is my personal biggest toss up of the Fantasy Offseason. I have to keep three starters between Sabathia, Haren and Lackey with CC being a lock. Thus, I have a month to figure out whether I like Haren or Lackey better. You can vote on the sidebar if you want. The Fantasy Rankings CBS ranks Dan Haren at 46 and John Lackey at 66. Yahoo Big Board has Haren On the Bubble and Lackey out of the tournament ESPN has Haren at 40 and Lackey at 46. Haren wins in every ranking but only by a little margin. Projections Dan Haren : 3.59 ERA, 14-10, 210 IP, 174 Ks, 1.20 WHIP John Lackey : 3.81 ERA, 11-9, 175 IP, 141 Ks, 1.29 WHIP The Projections are incredibly in the favor of Haren, but still a little bit blah for both. Lackey's numbers are brought down by the projection that he will only 26 starts in comparison to 32 for Haren. Surrounding Lineup The Diamondbacks roster is all about youth and potential. Stephen Drew, Justin Upton, Chris Young, and Conor Jackson will all be relied upon ...

I went with Vintage helmets because it added a little twist. Click on the Image for a Full Size Version. If you want the Excel File for whatever reason or have a correction to the schedule, email me at SimonOnSports at gmail dot com. Check Out the Other Helmet Schedules . *Update, Download the Entire Helmet Schedule Here

It's been two full years since Brian Cashman did the unthinkable and kicked Bernie Williams to the curb in favor of Dougie Minkowitz. It was a dumb move both in loyalty terms and actually baseball terms. Minkowitz was terrible and useless and that was prior to getting KTFO. Meanwhile Bernie spent his time staying away from the stadium while never officially retiring and toying with his music. Finally Bernie returned last year for the stadium send off and received the loudest of cheers. This spring the Yankees finally did something right. Bernie Williams is suiting up for team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic but didn't really have a place to train until the Puerto Rican team opens up camp. Instead of letting Bernie train somewhere on his own, Joe Girardi called him up and told him that Yankee camp was open for his usage and that he should come down and take advantage of the facilities. It's understood that the Yankees aren't going to sign him, but it was 1...

It's PhotoHunt Time. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can figure where the 5 differences are. Click on the Image to get a larger view if needed. Then when you are done check out the answers linked below. ANSWERS

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you. This week it's throwing a curve ball and looking at All Time Great Yankees. Players that we know did not take steroids to see if this gives a defense to any of the players 'convicted' by Numbers on Steroids. What better Yankee to breach first than Roger Maris, the man that had a 3 year peak and came out of nowhere to knock off Ruth's record. Averages Say: What's with the Mountain Top? At Bats Per Home Run Says: To infinity and beyond. Explaining It In 90s Steroid Terms If Roger Maris played in the 1990s people would be screaming from the mountain tops accusing him of cheating. The two years of 1960 and 1961 are light years ahead of his other numbers. During his peak in 1961 his slugging percentage was .620 and his At Bats per Home Run dipped below 10. To throw more fire on the damnation, his final five years starting in 1964, when he was just 30, started a conti...

It fits him well.

I went with Vintage helmets because it added a little twist. Click on the Image for a Full Size Version. If you want the Excel File for whatever reason or have a correction to the schedule, email me at SimonOnSports at gmail dot com. Check Out the Other Helmet Schedules . *Update, Download the Entire Helmet Schedule Here

The Nuts of Barry Bonds might be subject to view in his trial . This is how I imagine they present the case afterwards.

It's PhotoHunt Time. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can figure where the 5 differences are. Click on the Image to get a larger view if needed. Then when you are done check out the answers linked below. ANSWERS

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you. It's Jason Giambi time. He admitted steroid use, so let's try to figure out the effect it may have had on him. Averages Say: Look at the Balco Climb and the 'Parasite' Dip At Bats Per Home Run Says: The steady downward slope screams juice. Explaining It Away If you want to explain Giambi's number away you'd have to first hit on the idea that he was entering his prime and that he was steadily improving for 4 straight seasons until he blasted off in 2000. The next three seasons he stayed consistent and just had a miserable 2004 season before he bounced back to a certain extent in 05 and 06. The past two seasons have been in decline because well he's getting old now and his body looks like it's falling apart. The Verdict Even if we didn't know Giambi took steroids the numbers are a bit suspicious. 6 years of continued improvement isn't really c...