SimonOnSports

This one is so easy even Isiah Thomas might be able to get it.

Instead of grading the NBA Draft for teams like everyone else on the planet I'm going to order the teams on how I thought they did for themselves in this draft. 30. Houston Rockets - I'm sorry but I despise the trade the made. They traded away Gay who arguably has the most talent of any player in the draft, just need to be more assertive, and Stromile Swift, he sucks but he's an athlete and their starting power forward, for Shane Battier? Shane Battier are you kidding me. Battier is never going to be anything better than a role player. He will be solid for the Rockets and they could use defense but they solved nothing in this draft. The Rockets needed a more reliable point guard than Rafer Alston and they needed a lights out shooter. They got Battier, not a shooter that scares anyone and are stuck with Alston at the point. Nice Job. See look at him, would you want him on your team, not unless you were attending a WNBA game or a Madonna concert with him and Ozzie Guillen. 2

The All Star voting was concluded today so here is my ballot: National League Catcher - Brian McCann, I know he got injured and missed over 2 weeks of baseball, but the kid is hitting .350 and name me another catcher thats doing that. If you said Joe Mauer I would say touche. First Base - This is the toughest call to make in the NL, between the RBI leader Berkman, the Home Run leader Ryan Howard, and of course Albert Pujols. You have to go with Pujols though because despite missing weeks with an oblique injury he basically has the same numbers as the other two. Second Base - Dan Uggla, Who? Yep Dan Uggla, the biggest overachiever of the rookies on the Marlins is hitting .312 with 13 homers and 43 rbis. Third Base - Quietly, very quietly Scott Rolen is batting .344 with 10 home runs in St. Louis, but David Wright has 18 HRs is batting .328 and has hit a ton of clutch hits. David is my man. Shortstop - The NL all star left side of the infield will be both Mets and should be both Met

Renaldo Balkman being drafted by the Knicks can only be described as comedy gold. 1) Jay Bilas, Greg Anthony and Stephen A going off on how the kid only has 2nd round talent and that no one was going to draft him in the 1st round. 2) The knicks fans including Spike Lee's painful reaction. 3) The fact that Balkman had 2 stellar games his whole season both coming at the Garden during the NIT, apparently Isiah is only allowed to scout in his own building. Storrs is apparently too far of a commute. 4) But the best part of the whole Renaldo Balkman draft day debacle happenned the next day on Stephen A's radio program. Stephen A had John Chaney on to talk about the Knicks other pick Mardy Collins, and at the end of the interview he asked him about Balkman, because Temple played South Carolina during the season. The interview went something like this: "Where did they draft him at?" Chaney "20" Stephen A "Oh well you know he's a really good shooter, he gets

This is not my mock draft this is not what I think will happen but this is what I think each team should do. If you look at the draft it is my personal opinion that you shouldn't necessarily draft the best available player or the player you deem has the most potential, instead you should draft the player that is going to help your team the most. Look at the Hawks, I think they gathered a SF swingman like player every year for the past 5 years, and they are not good. Pick #1 Toronto Raptors Glaring Needs: The Raptors just traded for Rasho Nesterovic, while he has been terrible, he is a big body to throw in everyday at Center. In addition they have a stud in Bosh and a solid small forward in Villanueva. Therefore my belief is that they should either grab a guard or a stud big man. 3 to Consider: 1) Brandon Roy, he may not be the typical number #1 pick in the draft, but he is definitely NBA ready and fills a whole that they need. 2) Lamarcus Aldridge, given a few years of weight lift

No talk this week. Houston vs. Detroit White Sox vs. Pirates Winner - Houston Winner - ***White Sox*** RBI Machine - Ensberg RBI Machine - Thome WP - Clemens WP - ***Buehrle*** Drays vs. Marlins Mets vs. Red Sox Winner - Drasy Winner - Red Sox RBI Machine - Kazmir RBI Machine - ***Manny*** WP - Crawfor WP - Lester Braves vs. Yankees Philly vs. Baltimore Winner - Yanks Winner - O's RBI Machine - Arod RBI Machine - Millar WP - Villone WP - Bedard Nats vs. Blue Jays Reds vs. Royals Winner - Jays Winner - Royals RBI Machine - Wells RBI Machine - Sanders WP - Burnett WP - Wood Cleveland vs. St. Louis Brewers vs. Cubs Winner - Cleveland Winner - Cubs RBI Machine -

How Calculated: Using mode, as defined in the previous entry, I am going with the consensus selections. If a player is slotted into a certain spot by 4 or more people than I locked him in that spot. In the second half of 1st round if a player was given 3 selections at a given spot they were placed there. Then rest of the players are filled out due to mean. * = 4 or more ~ = 3 % = Placed due to mean Draft Order by Mode Version B 1. Andrea Bargnani* ............. 16. Thabo Sefolosha* 2. Tyrus Thomas* ................ 17. Jordan Farmar* 3. Adam Morrison* ............... 18. Alexander Johnson~ 4. Brandon Roy* ................. 19. Sergio Rodriguez* 5. Shelden Williams* ............ 20. Quincy Douby~ 6. Rudy Gay* .................... 21. Saer Sene~ 7. Lamarcus Aldridge% ........... 22. Rajon Rondo% 8. Marcus Williams% ............. 23. Kyle Lowry* 9. Patrick O'Bryant* ............ 24. Mardy Collins% 10. Randy Foye% ................. 25. Shannon Brown~ 11. JJ Redick* .................. 2

The 3rd way that these picks can be statistically analyzed. How Calculated: This order is calculated using Mode. The Mode of each player is the number which comes up the most. For instance Bargnani has a range of where people think he is going to be selected, 1,7,1,5,1,7,5,5,1,1,2. As you can see he is most comonally associated with the first pick, this being his Mode. This order from the lowest Mode to the 30th mode. Ties are broken by which person has the most occurances of the number. Draft Order by Mode Version A 1. Andrea Bargnani ........... 16. Thabo Sefolosha 2. Lamarcus Aldridge ......... 17. Jordan Farmar 3. Tyrus Thomas .............. 18. Mardy Collins 4. Brandon Roy ............... 19. Alexander Johnson 5. Adam Morrison ............. 20. Shawne Williams 6. Shelden Williams .......... 21. Sergio Rodriguez 7. Marcus Williams ........... 22. Quincy Douby 8. Rudy Gay .................. 23. Marcu Vinicius 9. Patrick O'Bryant .......... 24. Saer Sene 10. JJ Redick ...........

I have four ways of analyzing the statistics I gathered, this I believe is going to be the least accurate. How Calculated: The median value of any statistic is the number which half the values gathered are greater than and 1/2 the values are less then. Each player was given a Median value and the Draft Order was specified from there. Draft Order by Median 1. Andrea Bargnani ............. 16. Sergio Rodriguez 2. Lamarcus Aldridge ........... 17. Quincy Douby 3. Tyrus Thomas ................ 18. Thabo Sefolosha 4. Adam Morrison ............... 19. Saer Sene 5. Brandon Roy ................. 20. Rajon Rondo 6. Rudy Gay .................... 21. Kyle Lowry 7. Marcus Williams ............. 22. Maurice Ager 8. Shelden Williams ............ 23. Alexander Johnson 9. Patrick O'bryant ............ 24. Jordan Farmar 10. Randy Foye ................. 25. Mardy Collins 11. JJ Redick .................. 26. Shannon Brown 12. Cedric Simmons ............. 27. Shawne Williams 13. Ronnie Brewer ........

Everyone knows that Mock Drafts are complete guess work, and to limit that guess work you need to do a ton of research and gather opinions from GMs and possibly watch some of the European basketballers play. Since I do not really have the time for this I decided I was going to use all the people that do this for a living. So I gathered data, I took 11 Mock Drafts throughout the Web and through them all in a Spreadsheet. Will the minds of 11 averaged work better than the mind of one? We will see. Here are the sites that I used: About.com , CBS.Sportsline , CollegeHoopsNet , DraftExpress , ESPN , FoxSports , HoopsHype , InsideHoops , NBADraft.Net , SI , and Yahoo . If you want the spreadsheet for some reason email me and I will email it to you. Draft Order by Mean (Average Slot) 1. Tyrus Thomas ................ 16. Sergio Rodriguez 2. Lamarcus Aldridge ........... 17. Rajon Rondo 3. Andrea Bargnani ............. 18. Saer Sene 4. Adam Morrison ............... 19. Jordan Farmar

This is the chronicle of my Saturday afternoon at Yankee stadium. Prior to Saturday December 05 - I had a great idea, how often do perfect presents pop into your head. Well here it was Yankee tickets went on sale on a Friday and all of a sudden I thought the perfect present for my father would be a ticket to Old Timer's day at the stadium he loves it. So Friday morning went by, and of course I forgot. Great job Simone, on saturday morning I woke up remembered went online and bought the ticket, rendering my seat much worse than it would have been if I had gotten the tickets immediately, this would actually become a benefit. Friday Afternoon at the Gym - I didn't check the weather forecast on for the weekend at work on friday, don't know why but I didn't. I saw a friend of mine at the gym and asked her what the weather was going to be like on Saturday and she said rain all day, ouch not liking that forecast. Saturday Pregame 6:00 AM - I roll over in bed, slightly awake

A great way to spend some time on your Fireday.

Thats pretty much all you can say to describe the US squad from this 2006 World Cup. They only heart, desire and passion they showed during this tournament was fighting for their lives against Italy. While I only got to see the 2nd half of todays game while having lunch, and missed the first half, what I saw in the 2nd half was disappointing to say the least. So who's to blame. 5. Landon Donovan Can we please slow down the Donovan hype machine? Everybody Donovan is a good player but an elite player in the world, forget about it. He is not big and strong therefore he is not an elite tackler, in addition the speed that he flaunts during MLS play is nullified by other international superstars. If Landon Donovan was as good as America burdens him with, then he would be playing for a European Powerhouse. He doesn't nor does any other US player. 4. Claudio Reyna I really didn't see anything from Reyna that made me think he was a leader or a world class player. In the late minutes

Stan Man it must suck to be Stan Van Gundy. I found it hilarious last week when the Braves where playing the Marlins in Miami on TBS and who was there during one of the NBA finals game, non other than Stan Van Gundy. I guess he really just didn't want to watch the finals, he really wanted to spend time with his family. Or maybe the Heat didn't even give him tickets to the game. Sorry to be blunt Stan but you would not have won a championship with this team, not with all of these egos. It might have been a shady move, but Riley did the right thing for the organization. Refs I'm certainly not saying conspiracy cause I thought there were questionable calls all around, but I do not like the NBA's officiating. Way too many ticky tack hand check fouls which slow down the game, maybe it leads to more scoring but the time stoppage is a killer. In addition I hate how officials never call traveling unless its down the stretch. I agreed with the travel on Haslem after the rebound

This Weeks Picks Win - Loss - 6 - 9 RBI Machine - 3 for 15 Winning Pitcher - 3 for 15 Lock Selections 4-2 ..... Ya so much for the faith in Oswalt 0 for 6 . Ya Ryan Howard had 7 rbis in that game so, no dice 2 for 6 . Penny got beat up Seasons Total Win - Loss - 57 - 33 RBI Machine - 16 for 90 Winning Pitcher - 37 for 90 Weeks Recap Well that was friggin miserable, I did get a first though picking the RBI Machine (Berkman) from a losing team. Remind me to never talk myself up again it always ends up getting slammed back in my face. Seasons Best Win - Loss - 12-3 on 6/14 RBI Machine - 4 for 15 on 6/14 Winning Pitcher - 9 for 15 on 5/30 & 6/6

If I stay as hot as I was last week then folks should start gamblin on my picks. Just ignore the Golf picks apparently. Yanks vs. Philadelphia Cubs vs. Indians Winner - Yanks Winner - Indians RBI Machine - ***Giambi*** RBI Machine - Hafner WP - Mussina WP - Lee Red Sox vs. Nationals Marlins vs. Orioles Winner - Nats Winner - Orioles RBI Machine - Zimmerman RBI Machine - Tejada WP - Hernandez WP - Cabrera Mets vs. Reds Dbacks vs. Drays Winner - Reds Winner - Drays RBI Machine - Griffey RBI Machine - Rocco WP - Weathers WP - Hendrickson Jays vs. Braves Cards vs. White Sox Winner - Jays Winner - Cards RBI Machine - Wells RBI Machine - Rolen WP - Towers WP - Mulder Padres vs. Rangers Br

Well it certainly is on life support, the tubes are in and it may be in a coma but it is in fact still breathing. Reasons Why it Might Die The Lockout - The lockout had negative effects on the NHL. First off lockouts or strikes are never beneficial for the leagues audience. The NHL has always been a niche sport and the hardcore fans usually come back after an elongated break, however there are always people that are bitter over their loss of game time so there were certainly people that gave up on hockey. Casual Fan - This is something that the NHL has lacked in the past but it most certainly is at the worst in NHL history. The Casual fan is going to need build up to be interested in the NHL again. Expansion - Expansion has tainted the NHL. Tell anyone who does not know hockey very well that there are teams located in Atlanta, Tampa and Nashville and they'll give you a crazy eye. And then tell them there is a team in Columbus and they'll probably ask you where Columbus is. S

To be Pros Jeff Samardzija- Interestingly Jeff decided to sign a contract with the Cubbies this weekend, while he will maintain with the Irish football squad this fall it will be curious to see what he decides to pursue in the future after his college football career is concluded. Santonio Holmes - I pretty much despise Ohio State, so seeing a a recent Ohio State player get arrested for the 2nd time prior to playing his first down in the NFL is more than just mildly amusing. Think the Steelers are second guessing themselves for trading up in the draft for a man thats approaching Chris Henry in arrests. Baseball Yanks - As a Yankee fan this weekend was as a killer. Absolute crushing defeats on both Saturday and Sunday. It really is amazing how much emphasis is now being placed on keeping starters healthy and limiting their innings and yet the vast majority of bullpens throughout major league baseball are atrocious. Going up 9-2 and not scoring another run and losing 11-9 is a gut wrench

In a weekend of many sporting events the terrible decision making and poor play vastly overshadowed the moments of brilliance. 5. Jim Furyk - He may have gone unnoticed by most sports fans this weekend but not by myself and my father. On 18 sitting at +5, the eventual winning score, Furyk stood over his 5 foot point for an excrutiatingly long time. He actually stood over his put and backed off several times prompting my father to get annoyed and say I hope he misses it now, good he missed it. In an event that will be known more for its blunders than for the actual winner Furyk was the first of many to overthink himself out of contention. 4. Josh Howard & Avery Johnson - Neither can get the sole blame for this blunder and it did not necessarily cost them the game, however using their last timeout to unintentionally "ice" Dwyane Wade instead of positioning themselves with a chance to win the game with a last second shot was a killer. I personally lay the majority of the bl

The World Loves the Rebus

If you want to look around at Statistics around the league and see which is held in such high regard which is based the least on personal performance, the obvious answer is the Win. Why do I bring this up now, you may ask, well last night when I was checking the results of my fantasy squad I noticed the end results of the two starters I had go last night. One starter, Jeremy Bonderman, went 8 strong innings, struck out 12 and gave up one single run, while the other, Zach Duke went a limited 5 innings giving up 5 runs and striking out only 2 but with the help of his teams offensive, including himself having 3 rbis, he left the game with a 6-5 lead. Guess, which guy picked up a victory while the other was in line for a loss but settled for a no decision, that's right Duke got the Victory. If you look at his short career gamelog Zach has only had one single outing in which his ERA was worse, one. And yet he picks up the W in what could be described as the second worst he's ever pi

4 People to Watch to Contend Obvious - Tigger Woo - Alright I know this isn't a hard choice and someone who couldn't identify a golf club would choose Tiger Woods but you don't think he has more motivation then normal. Maybe its too much pressure but to go out there and win on father's day would be the most memorable performance of his entire amazing career. He's taken a lot of time off but you have to believe he is ready to go, and you can't pick against him. Secondary - Adam Scott - Scott burst into the scenes with his Players Championship win a few years back but now he is old enough and mature enough to take home his first Major Championship. Scott is also one of the hottest golfers in the world. Unknown - David Howell - This Brit has played phenomenally this year on tour well enough to jump up to #10 in the world rankings. Maybe he will have his breakthrough in the British Open which will be played in his native England but expect him to be on the leader

This Weeks Picks Win - Loss - 12-3 RBI Machine - 4 for 15 Winning Pitcher - 8 for 15 Lock Selections 4-1 ...... Faith in the DreamWeaver and in KC Losing 0 for 5 .. Ya the lock selections in the RBI Machines aren't off the ground yet 2 for 5 .. Chris pitched lights out but Izzy almost blew it on me Seasons Total Win - Loss - 51 - 24 RBI Machine - 13 for 75 Winning Pitcher - 34 for 75 Weeks Recap Another solid week 12-3 is pretty damn good in pick em. Not only that but I moved up my RBI Machine totals and I even had Mike Cameron who almost hit for the cycle as one of my RBI Machine guys. Seasons Best Win - Loss - 12-3 on 6/14 RBI Machine - 4 for 15 on 6/14 Winning Pitcher - 9 for 15 on 5/30 & 6/6

Yanks vs. Indians St. Louis vs. Pittsburgh Winner - Yanks Winner - Cards RBI Machine - Giambi RBI Machine - Edmonds WP - Wang ***WP - Carpenter*** Drays vs. Tigers Mets vs. Phils Winner - Tigers Winner - Mets RBI Machine - Magglio RBI Machine - Beltran WP - Zumaya WP - Glavine Blue Jays vs. Orioles Braves vs. Marlins Winner - Jay Winner - Marlins RBI Machine - Wells RBI Machine - Cabrera WP - Halladay WP - Johnson Rangers vs. White Sox Rockies vs. Washington Winner - Rangers Winner - Nats RBI Machine - Teixera ***RBI Machine - Soriano*** WP - Loe WP - O'Connor Red Sox vs. Twins Brewers vs. Reds Winner - Twins Winner - Brewers RBI Machine - Mauer

Shaq Alright, so I didn't get to see the game because they did not have ABC in Mazatlan, they did have a lot of sun, but I didn't need to see anything more than the line shaq put up from game two to know that it was a feeble performance. 5 points on 2 of 5 from the field and 1 of 7 from the free throw line. In addition he pulled down a measly 6 rebounds. In comparison the man he called soft two seasons ago, Erick Dampier a non integral part of the Mavericks roster pulled down 13 rebounds and had 6 points. Looks like I might have been wrong with the whole Shaq is going to dominate thing. Roger Federer Granted you made it to the finals of the Grand Slam on your weakest surface. Granted you lose to the rest of the players on the AP tour about as many times a year as I am annoyed when the clocks get changed. But Roger can you stop losing to Capri pants please. If someone is going to beat him its going to be you and I'm sick of white see-through pants on my screen, its terrible.

This Week W-L 10-5 RBI Machine 3 for 15 Winnning Pitcher 9 for 15 Lock Selections 3-1...... The Rockies got it done 0 for 4.. The Cards got shutout so Rolen did not produce 1 for 4.. I jinxed Liriano and he picked up his first L Season Totals Win - Loss - 39 - 21 RBI Machine - 6 for 45 Winning Pitcher - 26 for 60 Weeks Recap Not a shabby week if I say so myself, tied two of the seasons best, I really would like to get a 5 for 15 night on the RBI Machine though. Seasons Best Win - Loss 11-4 on 5/30 RBI Machine - 3 for 15 on 5/16 & 6/6 Winning Pitcher - 9 for 15 on 5/30 & 6/6

Ya I overload these past two days on stuff because tomorrow morning I'm headed to Mexico so I had a bunch of stuff saved up for today. So enjoy the weeks work of posts and I will enjoy the fun, sun, y muchos coronas.

Yanks vs. Red Sox Washington vs. Atlanta Winner - Yanks Winner - Braves RBI Machine - Jeter RBI Machine - Andruw Jones WP - Wang WP - Ramirez Oakland vs. Cleveland Cubs vs. Astros Winner - As Winner - Cubs RBI Machine - Crosby RBI Machine - Aramis WP - Zito WP - Wood Blue Jays vs. Orioles Padres vs. Brewers Winner - Orioles Winner - Brewers RBI Machine - Mora RBI Machine - Prince WP - Bedard WP - Bush Angels vs. D-Rays Reds vs. Cards Winner - Drays Winner - Cards RBI Machine - Huff ***RBI Machine - Rolen*** WP - Kazmir WP - Carpenter Tigers vs. White Sox Pirates vs. Rockies Winner - White Sox ***Winner - Rockies*** RBI Machine - Konerko

A little themed Rebus for you.

Every one is saying that this is the best American squad we have ever sent to the World Cup, while this may be true we as a Country could certainly lineup a better team for Germany if we wanted to. Here is my Ideal United States World Cup team for 2006. Coach Mr. T - Mr. T is renowned in the world for his powers of motivation, no manager in the world can verse rap lyrics which inspire a team to go out and dominate. Mr. T wears all his past championship trophies on his neck exuded confidence which boils over to the team. In addition he could kick the ass of any of the possible opposing managers at will. Goalkeeper Spiderman - Scowering the United States it becomes blatantly obvious that the US needs a goalkeeper of incredible agility and great senses. Who fits that mold better than our friendly neighboorhood Spiderman. With the agility superior to any one on the planet and his SpiderSense ability to feel out incoming attackers Spiderman could be expected to lead shutout effort aft

Group A Germany Ecuador Poland Costa Rica Easily with Group D one of the two weakest groups in this world cup. Germany has a smooth ride into the second round with a group that does not include another power from anywhere in the world. Instead Germany has been placed with a low level European squad in Poland, and middle of the pack South American squad in Ecuador, and a low level North American squad in Costa Rica. Expect Ecuador to get by in this group as they showed flashes in their qualifying especially with a win over Brazil. Group B England Sweden Paraguay Trinidad & Tobago Even, without superstar Wayne Rooney the English have the firepower to advance far in this World Cup. With the recent success of many Premiership teams within the Champions League the English have shown that their brand of football is world class. Unfortunately for England they haven't beaten Sweden since well before I was born, expect them to draw with the Swedes pick up 7 points and move on.