SimonOnSports

MVP - Vlad Guerrero, I've seen a bunch of people picking A-Hole on ESPN, I just don't think a Yankee is going to win this award, especially after last year when Jeter clearly was more valuable than Morneau. Look at the Angels roster, it has limited power, if the Angels make the playoffs it will because Vlad the Impaler strapped them on his back. Cy Young - Johan Santana, similar to the pick of Pujols there is no point in going and trying to predict someone else just to look back and be wrong. Coach of the Year - Mike Scioscia, more on the theme that the Angels aren't very good but are going to make the playoffs. Scioscia will be rewarded for getting the weakest team in. Rookie of the Year - Daisuke Matsuzaka, I know that these assbag writers like to take it into their own hands and decide for themselves that these Japanese guys "aren't rookies" and perhaps that hurts Dice-K's chances a little bit. But he will be that much better than his nearest compet

MVP - Albert Pujols, come on how are you going to logically pick anyone other than Pujols. Even if I don't have the Cards in the playoffs when a guy pushes for the triple crown which Pujols will do this season, he's going to win the award. Why he or Berkman didn't win the award last year is ludicrous. Cy Young - Roy Oswalt, well I have the Astros winning the NL Central and that won't happen unless Oswalt picks up around 23 wins by himself which is pretty much what I am calling for from this fireballler. After Santana who is on such a pedastal he is the next best pitcher in baseball. Coach of the Year - Grady Little, partly because I think the Dodgers win the west comfortably, partly because I think it would be hilarious after being crucified in Boston for leaving in Pedro and having it called the worst decision ever. Rookie of the Year - Kevin Kouzmanoff, things that voters look at from rookies, big numbers. Things they don't look at: fielding statistics. The

And to the AL East, the division that truly matters. This year might be the deepest that the division has been in years. Obviously the Sox and Yanks haven't left, but the Blue Jays should be dangerous again this year, and even the Orioles and Devil Rays have potential. One could put together a good argument that this division is actually better than the AL Central and will be the best division in baseball at years end. 1. New York Yankees Everyone is making such a big deal about the Yankees back end of the rotation, but truth be that is being way overblown. When Wang gets back they'll have three top flight pitcher at the top of the rotation, the wonderful Carl Pavano, and Japanese Ted Lilly. That is more than enough to win a lot of games. Key Player: Mariano Rivera, Mo is always the most important player on the Yankees. You think Proctor or Farnsworth would be able to perform in the closers role for even a fraction of a second? Give me a break. Player to Eye: Melky Cabrera, th

1. Detroit Tigers So the Tigers come out of nowhere last year and they're going to repeat? Yes, why? Young arms and the addition of a little beef in the middle of the order. Sure Magglio was nice but a pissed off Chef in the middle order certainly makes the lineup more intimidating. The worry for the Tigers like most teams is the health of their pitching, the Gambler Kenny Rogers will start the season on the DL and Verlander might have been overworked last year. Key Player: Gary Sheffield, Name something missing from the Tigers last year. An absolutely intimidating hitter. Sheffield when healthy certainly fills that void. And helped by the fact he is a pissed off mo fo this season he is bound to have monsterous numbers. Player to Eye: Justin Verlander, the Tigers shut him down in September for a few weeks last year because they were concerned about his workload. That sometimes leads to a complete breakdwon the next season. Throw in the fact that he hasn't been very imp

1. LAA Angels The Angels currently have a few injuries in the rotation that need to be cleared up namely Colon and DreamWeaver, and will be relying on some young bats to prosper around the big bopper, but they have the most talent out west and if they can get their rotation healthy should take the division. Key Player: Vlad Guerrero, The Angels lineup is 100% centered around the wild hackin Dominican. And his back could still flair up and sideline him at anytime. The Angels really need him in the lineup all season long. Player to Eye: Bartolo Colon, He's fat he's fat he knows it, oooh. Anyway do you remember the fact he won the Cy Young two seasons ago? Ya neither does anybody else. If this fat ass can get healthy and stay healthy all year long he could be a force out west. Record Prediction: 90 - 72 2. Oakland A's Oakland is an intriguing club this season. They lost the Big Hurt who was their MVP a year ago, but have replaced him with another solid veteran bat. Hare

So ya I never had time to do this so it's just a list with pictures. Woo. And RP is not very finished. 1. Johan Santana, Twins 2. Chris Carpenter, Cardinals 3. Roy Halladay, Blue Jays 4. Roy Oswalt, Astros 5. Carlos Zambrano, Cubs 6. Brandon Webb, Diamondbacks 7. Jake Peavy, Padres 8. Jeremy Bonderman, Tigers 9. John Lackey, Angels 10. Dontrelle Willis, Marlins 11. Scott Kazmir, Devil Rays 12. Aaron Harang, Reds 13. Daisuke Matsuzaka, Red Sox 14. C.C. Sabathia, Indians 15. John Smoltz, Braves 16. Brett Myers, Phillies 17. Felix Hernandez, Mariners 18. Jason Schmidt, Dodgers 19. Danny Haren, Athletics 20. Chris Young, Padres 21. Ben Sheets, Brewers 22. Cole Hamels, Phillies 23. Erik Bedard, Orioles 24. Matt Cain, Giants 25. Josh Beckett, Red Sox 26. Rich Harden, Athletics 27. Barry Zito, Giants 28. Curt Schilling, Red Sox 29. Justin Verlander, Tigers 30. Ervin Santana, Angels 31. A.J. Burnett, Blue Jays 32. Bronson Arroyo, Reds 33. Rich Hill, Cubs 34. Dave Bush, Brewers 35. Chris

For my league the key for your relief pitcher is getting saves. If you don't get saves from a relief pitcher than he's a waste regardless of his K totals and ERA. Thus the rankings mirror who is the safest bet to pick up saves throughout the season with peripheral stats for the most part only being marginal tie breakers. Sure a 4.50 era from your closer stinks, but he only throws about 70 innings, which is almosr negligable in comparison to the 200 innings you will be getting from the majority of your starters. This also means that I would draft any closer at the bottom end / high risk of losing his job prior to any set up man I think may win the job in a few weeks. Right now I believe the top 13 closers are definately going to keep their job this season, if you look past those 13 there are easily foreseeable scenarios where they could be yanked from the job, either from performance or injury. 1. Joe Nathan, Minnesota Twins - He's a stud and completely reliable. He h

1. New York Mets So the Mets have by far the best lineup in the National League but more than ever their pitching staff has massive question marks. Oliver Perez and John Maine will they be stable throughout the year, how will Pelfrey do in his rookie year and will Glavine and Duque stay healthy. In the end I just think their lineup is that strong. Key Player: Billy Wagner, The entire Mets staff is really centered around their bullpen so while most people would point to Glavine as the most important Met I think it's Wagner. If Wagner was ever to go down due to injury there would be an enormously negative trickle down effect. Especially with Duaner Sanchez out for an extended period. Player to Eye: Lastings Milledge, Shawn Green sucked this spring, no surprise there and Lastings Milledge came up and hit .370. Can anyone think of someone who sucked in their first go round in the majors and then made a fantastic impact after his callup the next season. Hmm, how about looking across bor

~Pacman Jones is the definition of a Sparkling Wiggle. You can toss in Tank Johnson and Chris Henry into that equation as the NFL is going to start their new anti-sparkling wiggle campaign in the next week or so. ~So who's pumped with the Yankees opening day rotation. With Wang down for a month and Pettite's back aching along with Karstens complaining of arm soreness here's looking at Pavano or Igawa on opening day. Supplemented by Rasner at the back end of the rotation. Ugh. ~Van Gundy is a friggin moron. He said he thinks that the NBA Lottery should be open to every team . Ya cause that would be fair and intelligent for the NBA. Could you imagine if Lebron and Oden were teamed up for the foreseeable future. Or if the Mavs picked up Oden or the Suns picked up Durant. Why don't you just flush the Celtics, Grizz and other terrible franchises down the toilet. Even more laughable is he wants everyone to have the same chance of winning the lottery. ~My take on Ja

Quite Possibly the worst division in baseball and simply put the division that is most up for grabs. No one has a dominant pitching staff but each of the top 3 teams have a legitimate ace. This division could be decided based on injuries that drag down anyone of the top 4 teams. 1. Houston Astros The Astros, why the Astros. Well cause everyone sucks but only one team will be picking up Roger Clemens come June to spark their roster to better production. I also think the Astros have the most reliable closer in the division with Lidge, even though he's wildly inconsistant, as well as a deep lineup after the adition of Carlos Lee. Key Player: Lance Berkman, I'm convinced he should have won the MVP last season, he was the only bat in their entire lineup. This season I think Berkman will get much more support with the addition of Carlos Lee and... Player to Eye: Morgan Ensberg, the healthy version. Last year he was injured for most of the season and stunk. This year Morgan is off to

1. Los Angeles Dodgers The Dodgers had a solid season last year and should be able to improve upon that this season after the addition of front line starter Jason Schmidt. Their youthful position players could potentially be better this season, although the addition of Luis Gonzalez made no sense. I think the Dodgers are the logical choice for NL West champions. Key Player: Rafael Furcal, The Dodgers need to do a better job this season at putting runs on the board and Furcal is the table setter. With him and Pierre in the lineup they need to get on base, steal some bases and get some cheap runs so their solid pitching staff doesn't need to be flawless. Player to Eye: Jonathon Broxton, Broxton throws flames and if given the opportunity to close could be lights out. The Dodgers should start with Saito as the closer but shouldn't be afraid to have a quick trigger. Record Prediction: 90 - 72 2. San Diego Padres The Padres definitely could contend for a Wildcard or the NL West cro

This is a lot of outfielders if you want a detailed description for each your in the wrong place. 1. Alfonso Soriano, Chicago Cubs - 40/40 potential is diesel. 2. Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Devil Rays - Moderate Power could lead the league in steals. 3. Manny Ramirez, Boston Red Sox - Sox should be in it, meaning Manny won't take the last month off and should get his 35-40 135. 4. Vladimir Guerrero, Los Angeles Angels 5. Carlos Beltran, New York Mets - Would be nicer if Willy let him run more. 6. Lance Berkman, Houston Astros - Numbers through the roof last year, with Carlos Lee and a healthy Ensberg behind him, expect the same. 7. Matt Holliday, Colorado Rockies - 8. Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle Mariners - 9. Grady Sizemore, Cleveland Indians - I love Sizemore, I'm trying to trade for him now in my keeper league. 30/30 and 140 run potential. 10. Jason Bay, Pittsburgh Pirates 11. Vernon Wells, Toronto Blue Jays 12. Carlos Lee, Houston Astros 13. Jermaine Dye, Chicago White Sox 14.

Friday ~Went bowling on friday night so I can't say I really watched much of the games, kind of just floated in and out of the bar at the lanes to check the score and watch some of the game but here was my take. ~Jeff Green definately traveled on his game winner, but the over the back foul call that gave Vandy the lead to begin with was a terrible call so Karma won out in the long run. ~Butler needed to have the game of their life to beat Florida and they were doing close to that for the first 35 minutes and then midnight struck. ~I really wanted UNLV to win, but from the score checks it never looked like they were in the game at all. ~What the hell happened to USC? They were absolutely dominating the first half of the game and then they crashed and burned so quickly. Within the span of one string of bowling UNC went from down double digits to up double digits. USC winning would have helped my bracket but in the long run I am glad the Tarheels won. Saturday ~Foul problems ha

~Ohio St. is really attempting to give me a heart attack. That's twice I thought my bracket was completely busted and they somehow came back to win it. I don't know which one was more surprising 9 points with 3 minutes left or down 20 with .01 to go in the first half. Just shows how explosive this team can be, or how lax it can be. Some people go by the you need to squeek by a few games to get through the tourny and win it all, and a close game early helps you. Other people say they have been struggling and that will catch up with them. I'm pretty neutral. Do I think they will beat Memphis, yes, will I be surprised if they get blown out, no. UConn lost to George Mason last year with just as much talent. ~I think Tennessee brought themselves into a close game in the second half. They stopped for the most part their full court press which forced the lethargic Buckeyes into several mistakes and then on the offensive end they went to a 4 corners delay offense which comp

~Wednesday we find out that Iowa bought up all the rights to the fire their coaches websites and then in the span of a few hours ESPN reports that Steve Alford is going to coach New Mexico. What New Mexico? Why? Guess the fact that Iowa now owned killstevealford.com was not very comforting. ~Pretty laughable that Tubby Smith moved from Kentucky, most historical college program ever, to Minnesota cold as hell and when have they ever been good. I have no idea why Michigan didn't inquire about Tubby Smith. ~Kobe has dropped 50+ in three straight games, ya he's pretty good. ~I couldn't parse Konerko or Sheffield in my keeper league. One guy in my league decided to keep Dave Roberts over trading for Sheffield. Pretty much the stupidest thing I've ever heard. ~Personally I think the Red Sox are better off right now with Papelbon as the closer but I think they lacked the foresight to avoid this situation. They should have signed a closer in the offseason so they wouldn

There is a reason the Houston Texans are terrible every season and its their front office. They give up two second round draft picks, including this years prime pick, as well as moving back two spots in the first round for Matt Schaub? Matt Schaub? A guy who's started 2 games his entire career, lost both, has thrown a total of 6 tds and 6 ints in his career and was initially a 3rd round draft pick. And you give up two second rounders and flip flop first round picks. This is thievery by the Falcons. I love how people will say well now the Falcons have no backup plan. Who cares if you have a backup plan? Other than the freak occurence of Tom Brady when was the last time a backup QB won a Superbowl. Sure they might be nice in the regular season to pick up a win here and there if your starter misses a game, but if he's done for the season you're pretty much toast anyway. Now the Falcons will be able to get a prime athlete with the Texans second round pick this year and

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

~Iowa bought the naming rights for seven websites so that their coaches done come under fire. Such as firekirkferentz.com. How hilarious is it that Iowa is already worried about these firing sites coming up. Not like someone can't just put up a site named eliminateferentz.com and write enough about how Kirk Ferentz should be fired that it would reach #1 on all the search engines for relevency. A futile and useless effort by the Hawkeyes. ~I'm doing better with my picks in Women's Basketball on ESPN than men's basketball that is both pathetic and shameful, as I know nothing about women's basketball nor do I care at all. But I was bored at work and I do it every year. ~Made a trade yesterday in my keeper league, traded Ryan Zimmerman to upgrade my last pick in the draft up 71 draft positions. It wasn't the best deal in the world for me, but I A) Had no leverage and apparently no market as no one was replying back to me and B) come friday I would have lost

So apparently Manny is in desperate need for cash and is selling his grill on eBay . And you also get a free signed ball. Apparently Manny is on the road a lot, who knew, and he is unable to truly use his grill which probably is located at one of his many homes. I'm going to admit it, as a Yankee fan I think Manny Ramirez is friggin sweet. I don't care that he's flaky as hell, I think he's hilarious. From the disappearing into the Green Monster, to the mp3 sunglasses, to selling his grill on eBay the guy is hilarious. And he always hits .325 with 35 Hrs 130 Rbis. The best part of this whole thing is that he's going to make a big profit on it. He put it on only a few days ago and it's already over what he initially paid for it. Why wouldn't you just go out get a new grill and buy a Manny signed ball or bat at some Sports memorabilia shop. Conclusion: Manny Ramirez is a funny guy.

Now why if you are British would you try to knock the head off one of the best players on your national team regardless of whether or not he plays for a rival London club. Pretty funny how bad he whiffed though. Note: Tottenham lost to Chelsea yesterday, Tottenham is in Northern London Chelsea is in Fulham a lower portion of London.