SimonOnSports

The AL Central is officially the most boring division in Major League Baseball. I seriously don't find any team exciting in the slightest. I hope to have zero AL Central players on my fantasy roster (well maybe Gordon Beckham). 1. Minnesota Twins Yay the Twins signed Joe Mauer for a boat load of cash for the next decade. Yay, they won't be able to afford any other player for the next decade. The Twins will win this division based on the fact that the division isn't good. They then will be crushed in the first round of the playoffs like always. Key Player: Joe Mauer, Well he's making about 1/3 of the Twins entire payroll so I think it's pretty safe to say that if anything happens to him then the Twins are shit out of luck. Player to Eye: Francisco Liriano, Last year we kind of thought Liriano was going to be back and emerge as a beast once again. Well, we were wrong. Very wrong. Now he's the Twins 5th starter, yet a strong Winter and spring training...

The AL West is a world for holy beings. It shall continue in 2009. t1. Los Angeles Angels Oh the Halos, masters of the AL West. People might be catching up to them but they are still head of the class. Key Player: Jered Weaver, With the departure of John Lackey the Angels need one of the youngsters to step up and emerge as the staff ace. I think that pitcher will be Jered Weaver. After a so so 08 Weaver improved drastically in 09 posting an ERA of 3.74 and picking up 16 wins. Personally I think there might be some improvement possible and we could see Weaver's ERA, K Rate and Win totals all improve in 2010. Player to Eye: Joel Piniero, I've never been a big Joel Piniero fan but he did post a 3.49 ERA last season and the Angels will be leaning on him to be a solid back end of the rotation guy. Will he continue his 2009 stat line or will he regress to his 08 ERA of 5.15? Record Prediction: 84-78

The St. John's coaching search is lingering in misery. They get bold and call Billy Donovan to get shot down immediately. They think they have a candidate in Paul Hewitt locked up and after a night of sleeping on it he decides its best to stay in Hotlanta. They call Seth Greenberg and all his tournament appearances at Virginia Tech and he turns them down. Etc. Etc. Etc. Essentially the Johnies are going nowhere fast and this is why I think it's time to make a very bold move and go after the coach that kicked them out of the NIT. Josh Pastner is just 32 years old, he's been a college coach for just one single year and he didn't guide his team to the NCAA tournament yet I think he's exactly what St. John's needs. St. John's needs a bold move. They need to take a chance. They don't need Al Skinner or Steve Lavin or some retread from another university, they need a guy they can consider their own, someone that just might be aggressive enough to recru...

It's the NL East, home to hyper thyroids, terrible medical staffs, the World Series Loser and owners of the 1st MLB Draft pick in 09 and 10. 1. Philadelphia Phillies The Phillies came up just short of a repeat in 2009 so they decided to go out and get the best pitcher in baseball. Key Player: Cole Hamels, Halladay is going to be untouchable, I think we all know this, but the key to the 2010 Phillies is Cole Hamels. Cole had a disappointing 2009 but if the Phillies can get him back to his 08 MVP form than they will again be a difficult out in October/November. Player to Eye: Roy Halladay, Halladay will be interesting to watch strictly due to the AL/NL switch and the result it will have on his already unbelievable stat lines. Record Prediction: 90-72

If my other brackets have anything to say about it than this bracket will be a miserable failure, but... Nohjay Nimpson is going to win. I'm sorry to God's Power Offor, my odds on favorite , but Nohjay Nimpson is the perfect name. And it's going to take down Starzanne Stripes whom somehow I missed when creating the odds yesterday. What a classic name.

This post is brought to you by SPORTSBETTING.com. Get best online sports betting bonuses at this sportsbook . It's March Madness which means every radio program, blog, mother, cousin, board 2nd grader, etc. is coming up with some bracket of 64 things with the objective of deciphering what is best. The best of all of these brackets on a consistent basis is Name of the Year or NOTY . Of course due to the the fact that this actually isn't a sporting activity and resides on a blogger website there aren't any Vegas lines for whom the favorites are. Well I'm saying there should be and well, I'm going to label the Top 10 Favorites for 2010 NOTY. 10. Pencilman Jeffries - Underrated quality name that just might take the Crotchtangle Region. 9. Spartacus Bernstein - This name screams POWER and JEW. Or WARRIOR and JEW. Or 300 and JEW. Something and JEW. It's got potential. 8. Gregor Schwinghammer Jr. - Gregor was birthed by Schwinghammer Sr., aka Austin ...

The NL West still home of two of the worst offenses in baseball in 2010 and quite possibly ever. 1. Los Angeles Dodgers The Dodgers are the big time favorites in the NL West thanks to their advantage in offense over their competition. But with the positives there are possible negatives. The Dodgers do have some question marks in regards with their rotation both at the top (Kershaw & Billingsley) and with its depth. Key Player: Chad Billingsley, Billingsley was supposed to step up in 2009 and be the Dodgers staff ace, unfortunately for the Dodger Blue he did not. His ERA and Ks dipped dramatically and the Dodgers didn't even start him in the playoffs. In 2010 they will need Billingsley to go back to the guy that had a 3.14 ERA in 08 if they want to get past the Phillies in the postseason. Player to Eye: Matt Kemp, Why is Matt Kemp an intriguing player to watch? Well take a look at his splits from last year . Kemp was much more effective when batting near the bottom o...

It's the NL Central, Home of the dominant Pirates of Pittsburgh. 1. St. Louis Cardinals The Cardinals went out and spent some big cash this offseason to keep Matt Holliday around but will that mean success in the postseason? One could argue that their team isn't much improved from 2010 when they were quickly dispatched from the playoffs. Key Player: Albert Pujols, This doesn't change any year for the St. Louis Cardinals. If Albert Pujols were to suffer an injury the Cardinals will not make the playoffs. Even with Ludwick and Holliday and Lopez the Cardinals won't provide enough offense if Pujols is out. Player to Eye: Chris Carpenter, Last year I said Carpenter might be the steal of all fantasy drafts and well, he was. Carpenter should have won the Cy Young award (apparently not losing a game in 4 months is an overrated stat aka Saber-matricians gone too far) but was nonetheless a top NL starter. Will his body hold up for a second consecutive season? The C...

I'll get into the details for each team in my divisional previews over the next two weeks but here are the 2010 Standings predictions. Ridicule as much as you like.

League Settings: 12 Team Head to Head, Traditional 5*5 Holy Power Batman I didn't really go in planning to grab two 450 pound men that play 1B and hit a crap ton of home runs but that kind of just happened. I actually was planning on taking Ian Kinsler with my second pick to sure up a middle infield spot but changed my mind at the idea of having 90+ HRs and 250 RBIs locked up. I Heart Yovani I just do. If I don't get him in my drafts I get a sad feeling inside. Grabbing the Limped People shy away from injured people for little to no reason. Just a reminder to H2H folk, injured players are typically back in time for the playoffs. With that being said I'd rather have the potential of Carlos Beltran and Brandon Webb in September with the negatives of getting waiver wire production in the meaningless months of April and May. Sometimes You Just Need to Admit Defeat and Wait At some point I realized that all the 3B and SS were pretty much gone and that there was no...

Here is your 2010 Atlantic Coast Conference Schedule in helmet form. I prefer the retro helmet so you get them again this year. For a Glossary of all the Helmet Schedules click on the link. Please click on the image to get the full sized version.

Here is your 2010 Southeastern Conference Schedule in helmet form. I prefer the retro helmet so you get them again this year. For a Glossary of all the Helmet Schedules click on the link. Please click on the image to get the full sized version.

CIT Bracket In order to get off on a really bad footing let's start off with my CIT bracket which was atrocious starting at the opening tip. My final for the tournament consisted of George Mason and Loyola Marymount. Well... both teams lost in the first round so that bracket is officially in major shambles. CBI Bracket And then just to double up in the opening round I chose Oregon State to win the CBI. They won a postseason tournament last year so why not two in a row? Well they got crushed by Boston University in the opening round so that's why. NIT Bracket I picked UConn to beat Illinois which is surprisingly still a possibility. This likely ends tonight given that UConn barely beat Northeastern and plays at Virginia Tech, a team that hasn't played well below expectations all year. NCAA Bracket This years tournament is certainly one where an East Coast bias won't help you at all. In addition making your bracket Chalk-lity makes for disaster as well....

This hit from the Blackhawks Ducks game was vicious enough to land James Wisniewski an 8 game suspension but the announcer isn't as fooled as everyone else. He knows that Brent Seabrook was just selling like he was unconcsious. Enjoy at the 1 minute mark.

Yesterday was one of the most entertaining opening days of the NCAA Tournament of all time. It provided grand upsets. It provided overtime thrillers. It mixed in some buzzer beaters and closing second winners. It was essentially everything you could ask for from 16 games and perhaps more. So why would CBS be disappointed in yesterday's outcome? Well take a look at the slate of games on Saturday and tell me which game if it was on in mid-January you would have to watch? Of the 8 games on Saturday's CBS slate only one consists of two teams from a power conferences and even that game is much less appealing to CBS than a Texas vs. Kentucky showdown would have been. The rest of the games will probably be entertaining but they certainly won't be drawing any large market non-diehard NCAA Tournament fans to the TV. I'm pretty certain CBS wishes the games were provided the same drama but the big teams that got upset, like Georgetown, were moving on to the next round.

This post is brought to you by SPORTSBETTING.com. Get best online sports betting bonuses at this sportsbook . Coming into this week many proclaimed that the Big East was the best conference in the entire country and that there would be many a Big East celebration in March. Well after a few days of NIT games and one day of the NCAA tournament perhaps the Big East was getting a bit too much love. Of the 8 Big East teams to play a postseason game this far, only one beat the spread, and they still lost. 4 NIT Games ~UConn defeats Northeastern at home by just 2. ~St. John's (the team that beat the spread) lost by two on the road at Memphis. ~Seton Hall got crushed at home by Texas Tech and their coach was subsequently canned. ~USF lost at home by 1 to NC State. 4 NCAA 1st Round Games ~Villanova was lucky to pull out an overtime victory. ~Notre Dame couldn't hit a jump shot and lost a 6-11 matchup. ~Georgetown was thoroughly embarrassed by a mediocre Ohio team. ~Marq...

How am I doing my rankings? First I take the CHONE projections for each player, next I calculate what percentage of my needed stats they will garner me in my keeper league (3rd place for each category). Finally I see just how much added bonus they give me in comparison to the average player at the position. A Lot of Depth But Zero Gods The Outfield position is most certainly the deepest position in fantasy baseball and this is why you are always forced to have more on hand than every other position. In the outfield you are more likely to find a 20/20 sleeper than anywhere else. In the outfield you are certainly more likely to get ample speed. In the outfield you will get a lot, but you probably won't get a fantasy god. Last year Matt Kemp wasn't even kept in my keeper league (a total of 60 hitters were the guy that had him's team was stacked) this year he's often going in the top 5. I love Matt Kemp as much as the next guy, but please look at his splits for a...

Over the past few weeks it seems like a lot of people are thinking about ways for baseball to improve their divisional alignment aka The "Poor Blue Jays, Rays and Orioles never have any chance. Boo Hoo Hoo." Movement. It all seemingly started with Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports , then Tom Verducci got involved , and of course there were bloggers to rip both . Well since I'm planning man with a mild case of insanity here's my idea for realignment, aka the most ridiculous way imaginable, a divisional draft. Here's how it would work. Each year we take the 6 Divisional Winners and we have a draft. A draft? Yes a draft. The divisional winners would select the teams they want in their own division via a typical 1 through 6 draft. Each team could decide whom they want in their division based on any principle they deem worthy. They could pick the Red Sox with the first pick because the Sox will sell out their stadium 18 times. They could pick the Pirates with the f...

Every year I take a look across the major 4 American Professional leagues to see just what kind of superb merchandise they are trying to pawn off on you on St. Patrick's day. Buy this shirt which you can wear in relevance for exactly one day during the year. Every other day you will look like an idiot for wearing green apparel for a team who's actual colors are Black and Gold. NHL The NHL Provides you with some of the worst of the St. Patty's day merchandise. First you have the boy shorts for the lady of your life with a bunch of clovers and then a random Blackhawks logo (These are available for NFL Teams as well). Next you have the puck which for whatever reason I actually like, probably because its not something you wear. Finally and worst of all, you have the new GRAPHIC-T which is god awful. Nothing says St. Patrick's Day like the San Jose Sharks.

I created an ESPN Bracket that you can join here: Evan Turners' a Douche Go forth and defeat me.

Much like 2009, I'm bringing Chalk-lit to the table. Of the #1 seeds I think Kansas and Kentucky have the toughest climbs but that they are too talented to come up short. Duke probably has the easiest bracket but they are Duke so I can't pick them without hating myself so I choose Nova to get back on track. The Cuse's bracket despite being in the west looks relatively smooth as well so they get through. Finally we're going #1 vs. #2 or Straight Chalk-lit and then I'm taking Wall, Cousins and the freshman crew over Kansas. Do I have confidence in any of my picks? Not at all.

How am I doing my rankings? First I take the CHONE projections for each player, next I calculate what percentage of my needed stats they will garner me in my keeper league (3rd place for each category). Finally I see just how much added bonus they give me in comparison to the average player at the position. Welcome to Third Base where everyone of relevance hails from Norfolk / Virginia Beach... Does the Power Outage Extend to 2010? David Wright last year could have been selected as the first overall pick in fantasy drafts and it wouldn't have been incredibly laughable. This season you might be able to get him in the second round which if the power comes back at all could be a steal. Think about this for a second, the hot corner isn't nearly as deep as people think and Wright is just two years removed from 30/30. Then again if Beltran and Reyes are out for lengthy periods of time the pressure will once again fall on Wright's shoulders and that weight didn't ex...

If you are willing to fill out a Women's National Invitational Tournament Bracket then you are pretty much willing to fill out any bracket. Here's my Women's NIT Picks which I likely will not follow at all unless Maryland wins it all and then I can gloat about my intelligence.

Is there anything simpler than picking the Ladies Tournament Bracket? First move UConn to the Championship slot. They haven't won played a game that was decided by less than 10 points in their favor in almost two years, it's pretty safe to go with them. Next move Stanford or Nebraska or Notre Dame to the finals to lose to Connecticut. These are really your only options. Next pick basically no upsets anywhere on your bracket. Alright, you now have a near perfect Women's NCAA Tournament Bracket.

Fill Out Your Own CIT Bracket In the quest to fill out as many brackets as possible this week I've stumbled across the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT), now the 4th avalaible postseason tourney. This is the tourney for the powerhouses like Evansville and Drake. Of course I wanted to fill out a bracket but I just couldn't find one. I was little confused until finally I found this disclaimer In much the same fashion as the old NIT, future opponent will be determined at the conclusion of each round throughout the tournament. So what you're telling me is not only do I have to pick the winner of the 1st round games, I also have to attempt to read the minds of the CIT committee and try to figure out who is going to play who and where they are going to play each other? Now this is a difficult bracket to fill out. The first step was to figure out the locations of all the schools, because they obviously want to cut down on travel costs. After that was done I kind of natur...

And now practice round #2 the Gazelle Group's College Basketball Invitational Tournament which features approximately zero teams you are that intrigued to watch or know anything about. I'm going with Oregon State for one simple reason, they have already won this tournament before in just its two year history so with that kind of success in the past who's going to hold them down? IUPUI? I don't think so.

It's time to do the practice brackets to get ready for the real thing. The first bracket up is the NIT with all your teams that are upset at their bubble bursting or having a mediocre and disappointing season. So who shall be the squad to win the honorary 66th best team in the country? I'm going UConn. Why? They likely have the most talent in the entire 32 team field and I think after a week of Jim Calhoun sodomizing them in practice both verbally and via sprints that the Huskies just might actually play like the team that should be a 5 seed in the NCAA tournament. Here's where you can find a prettier bracket if you want it.

How am I doing my rankings? First I take the CHONE projections for each player, next I calculate what percentage of my needed stats they will garner me in my keeper league (3rd place for each category). Finally I see just how much added bonus they give me in comparison to the average player at the position. What About Joe Mauer's Power? Joe Mauer for years was a slightly overrated fantasy asset. Sure he was going to give you a ridiculous average especially for a catcher but his power was equivalent to Dioner Navarro's aka non-existant. And then 2009 came and all of a sudden Mauer was smacking home runs left and right with no harm done to his .365 average. If Joe Mauer hits 30+ home runs this season he's worth a 1st round pick because Catcher is so shallow, if he hits 12-15 home runs than you're team might be in trouble. If Only He Played Everyday The biggest problem with catchers is that most of them get ample days off weekly. For instance Mike Napoli has h...

Not that this concerns anyone really but I changed the Comments off of Anonymous for the moment because someone in Russia is posting Dick Enhancement links in the comments of about 400 posts.

This post is brought to you by SPORTSBETTING.com. Get best online sports betting bonuses at this sportsbook . Last week we looked at the potential Home Run Kings so today why not look at the potential Stolen Base Kings. There are 4 odds on favorites to lead the league in Stolen Bases this year: 1. Jacoby Ellsbury: Led the league in steals last year with 70. Don't really have any reason this will decline. 2. Michael Bourn: Steals essentially every time he gets on base. Problem is he's probably going to get on base less this year because his BABIP was through the roof last year and will likely decline. 3. Carl Crawford: Looked like he was on pace for 100 steals and then he stopped at the end of the year. Made it seem like it was an offseason goal to not slowdown midseason this year. 4. Jose Reyes: If he can get his thyroid in order the man did steal 78 bases in 2007. After these four you're digging for some youngsters to jump into the game. Maybe an Elv...

How am I doing my rankings? First I take the CHONE projections for each player, next I calculate what percentage of my needed stats they will garner me in my keeper league (3rd place for each category). Finally I see just how much added bonus they give me in comparison to the average player at the position. I Love The Kinsler Kinsler has everything you want in a draft pick. He has power, speed, potential to hit above .300 (see 2008), is in his prime and hits in a great lineup. He went 30/30 last year and his draft stock has gone down thanks to a dip in average. Kinsler will rise up the ranks again this season. Surprising Depth Second base used to be a position that was absolutely positively dreadful. In 2010 the position supplies surprising depth and some potential for more. If the breakout seasons from Cano, Zobrist and Aaron Hill continue this position is at least 10 strong. Then it could be even stronger if you think that Rickie Weeks or Howie Kendrick can finally emer...

How am I doing my rankings? First I take the CHONE projections for each player, next I calculate what percentage of my needed stats they will garner me in my keeper league (3rd place for each category). Finally I see just how much added bonus they give me in comparison to the average player at the position. 1B Is DEEEEEEEEEEEEP Sure you wouldn't mind having Albert Pujols and his .350 average and 45 home runs, but you could get the 10th 1B off the board and end up with Joey Votto, Lance Berkman or Justin Morneau all of whom are likely to approach 30 HRs 100+ RBI and have a respectable average. There is no other position that even comes close to the depth of first base. If you don't get 20+ home runs from your first baseman than chances are you're either terrible at fantasy baseball or the rest of your lineup is incredibly stacked. And If Your Lucky Enough to Include DHs It Gets Deeper In my main league we don't have any utility slots which means that DHs get lu...

You've probably already seen this somewhere on the interwebs but since I have a tag called Pissin I think this needs to be here... Edmontonians (I assume that's what you call them) did a fantastic job of holding it in throughout the crunch time of the Olympic Hockey Gold Medal match. They waited for the end of periods to run to the bathroom and what with about 27 Molsons drank per person per period I think that's a mighty feat. [ Pat's Papers ]

How am I doing my rankings? First I take the CHONE projections for each player, next I calculate what percentage of my needed stats they will garner me in my keeper league (3rd place for each category). Finally I see just how much added bonus they give me in comparison to the average player at the position. Point #1, Draft Hanley Ramirez With Your First Pick The debate is probably on in the fantasy world surrounding whom to pick first between Hanley Ramirez and Albert Pujols, well count me a considerably in Hanley's corner. First off Hanley's all around numbers are likely to be not much worse than Albert's. He's going to give you 20 more steals. He's probably going to have a similar Average/Hits. He might score more runs. Sure he's going to lose out on HRs and RBIs but thats not that big of a deal considering... No matter how you look at it SS is not as deep as 1B. What Hanley does for you far exceeds even the next best shortstops, guys that will be go...

Here is your 2010 Big Ten Schedule in helmet form. I prefer the retro helmet so you get them again this year. For a Glossary of all the Helmet Schedules click on the link. Please click on the image to get the full sized version.

This post is brought to you by SPORTSBETTING.com. Get best online sports betting bonuses at this sportsbook . Every year there are ample Home Run challenges you can enter yourself into. Some of them require you to pick multiple players in tiers, some of them require you to grab one guy and let it rip. With the season just a month away there are the heavy weights that you would expect to be in the running (Fielder, Howard, Pujols, Arod, etc.) and then there are the sleepers that you can actually make money on. So let's take a look at a handful of sleepers that I think might be worth the risk. 5. Garrett Jones - If you're looking for the super off the radar long shot you might want to look at Garrett Jones. Last year as an old rookie Jones came up smoking hot and hit 21 home runs in just 314 at bats. This year he's likely to get near 600 abs and well 21 *2 = 42. Do I think he's going to do that? No. But his odds are going to be so long it might be worth it. ...

Watching the Gold Medal game over the weekend I realized something, for whatever reason I don't like Sidney Crosby much. I can't really pinpoint why, but I feel as if he's a bit of a punk on the ice. I feel like he's mostly afraid to go toe to toe with someone and hit with them. Something I feel that Alexander Ovechkin is completely unafraid of, as witnessed by him killing Jaromir Jagr. I feel like he is more likely to throw in some cheap shots throughout the game. For whatever reason I get the impression that Crosby has an aura that says during the game "I am Smug, I'm better than you I should have everything handed to me". Because of this feeling, I enjoyed Jack Johnson giving Sidney Crosby a blatant cheap shot after the period was over and it was blatant. Because of this feeling I was even more annoyed with the US loss than if someone else put the puck in the net. Because of this feeling I will push for the Capitals and anyone else to knock the Peng...

How do we as English speakers devise the spelling and description of foreign countries? I know this is completely off topic and random but frankly I don't get it. I guess I can understand changing Sverige to Sweden because well who the hell would be able to pronounce Sverige? I can understand morphing the Russian words into something more English friendly because they have letters that we don't even use. But why the hell do we say Denmark when they spell their jerseys Danmark or Brazil when they spell it Brasil? Is one letter really that difficult? Next you move on to some countries that are mildly different but really not that hard to pronounce. We go from Slovensko to Slovakia. From Polska to Poland. From the Nederlands to the Netherlands. From Norge to Norway. From Nippon to Japan. Why the effort to change the actual country name to some mangled English slang? And then you get to the countries that we seemingly just make up whatever we want. Did you notice Fi...

Blogging the Offseason worked so well for the MLB that I'm bringing it back for the NFL. You can find all the posts under the label Offseason or just go here . Today's blogger is Matty from the Miami Dolphins blog, The Phinsider . 1. What did you see from Chad Henne in his first season as a serious starter that you liked and that you thought he needed improvement on? I liked a lot of what I saw. I thought his arm was as strong as advertised and he was far more accurate than many seemed to think he would be. I also liked how he didn't let the mistakes bother him and he really seemed to become a leader on this team as the year went on. With that said, the two things he has to improve on are his accuracy on touch passes and his tendency to force throws that result in turnovers. But both of those things are easily correctable, in my opinion. So I think he has a bright future ahead. 2. What do you expect the Dolphins to go after with their 12th pick? Which player do yo...