Styles

The MLB offseason is just winding down, and although we're still 3 months away from the start of the new season, I wanted to leave plenty of time for us to draft our new teams, which because we're playing with Keepers could take a while, as it would require everyone posting their draft picks when its their turn in the thread since various people are going to be skipping various rounds. Anyway, the first order of business is we have TWO spots open in this year's league. Wart has withdrawn and I never heard back from jWeeper. The two new managers will be allowed to conduct their own Keeper draft so to speak for 4 rounds before the rest of us do the "regular" draft. This will include all the players from Wart and jWeeper's teams. If you are interested in joining the league, I will make it as simple as possible. First 2 to respond expressing interest will get the spots. There are 20 teams. We play weekly stats, head to head. You get 4 keeper picks at the end of the season. Here's the rule we adopted: You can check out last year's thread here for reference: http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?...p;#entry2129481 Full lists of "taken" players designated as Keepers as well as the draft order for everyone will be posted in due time. For now, I just want to fill up the 2 remaining spots. Also, if you're returning to the league and would like to announce your presence, that would be swell. Since I haven't updated this since October if someone from the league has changed their mind and is dropping out please let me know as well.

You tell 'em Bruce. They're playing some classics, but its a new album, and its an epic album with no weak songs that they're playing in its entirety to promote. When I saw them last year at Ozzfest, all they played was old songs. Now theyre playing mostly new songs. As mentioned, next tour, they're playing only Powerslave era stuff. Each tour should be different. Maiden doesn't need to become a nostalgia act playing the same damn songs every tour like Priest or Sabbath, bless 'em both. Annoying that this happened in the US too, since the band (Bruce especially) already has sort of a contempt for touring the US since he feels there aren't as many fans here. First the Ozzfest egg throwing disaster and now this. They barely hit many cities here as it is.

If you checked the MLB Yankees board there were some despicable things written by supposed 'fans'. sigh nevermind, I thought it would be relevant to the story...don't know why I bother...

shutup. Go stalk some celebrities.

For A-Rod hating Yankee fans...be careful what you wish for... No Yankees allowed in planes for like at least a month, ok?

OK, heard back from Marvin and Bravesfan and their keepers have been added below. Wart has withdrawn from the league and I have not heard from jweeper (but I'll give him until the end of the week to respond). If he doesn't we'll have 2 open spots for next season. OFFICIAL KEEPERS 1. Cranky Old Men (Iggmcfly) Albert Pujols (Round 1) Alfonso Soriano (Round 2) Aaron Harang (Round 11) Bronson Arroyo (Round 16) 2. Infinite93Intensity (Cena's Writer) David Ortiz (Round 1) Lance Berkman (Round 3) Jonathan Papelbon (Round 10) Frank Thomas (Round 17) 3. John Galt Express (Stephan Joseph) Alex Rodriguez (Round 1) Carlos Beltran (Round 2) Matt Cain (Round 8) Francisco Liriano (Round 9) 4. Landfall Jacobites (Verne Gagne) Roy Oswalt (Round 1) Chase Utley (Round 2) Joe Mauer (Round 3) Garrett Atkins (Round 8) 5. Brockvegas Posse (treble) Rafael Furcal (Round 3) Huston Street (Round 4) Scott Kazmir (Round 8) Dan Uggla (Not Drafted) 6. Serenity (thepinjockey) David Wright (Round 1) Jim Thome (Round 7) Justin Verlander (Round 19) Joel Zumaya (Not Drafted) 7. Rockbirds (MJ Styles) Roy Halladay (Round 2) Delmon Young (Round 16) Nick Markakis (Not Drafted) Josh Johnson (Not Drafted) 8. Kings of Crunk (Kingofthe909) Vladimir Guerrero (Round 1) Miguel Cabrera (Round 1- pushed to Round 4) Ryan Howard (Round 2) Travis Hafner (Round 3) 9. Heavy Lumber (Bravesfan) Manny Ramirez (Round 1) Aramis Ramirez (Round 3) John Smoltz (Round 4) Chipper Jones (Round 5) 10. jwpeer - KnklBl4Life (jWpeer) 11. Team Canada (Canadian Chris) Grady Sizemore (Round 3) Vernon Wells (Round 4) Ervin Santana (Round 9) Chris Ray (Round 11) 12. Komijul (Will Scarlet) Justin Morneau (Round 8) BJ Upton (Round 18) Boof Bonser (Not Drafted) Anibal Sanchez (Not Drafted) 13. Random Hero (Krankor) Michael Young (Round 1) Chris Carpenter (Round 1-pushed to Round 4) Chone Figgins (Round 2) Juan Pierre (Round 3) 14. NuclearChinlocks (Marvinsalunatic) Miguel Tejada (Round 1) Pat Burrell (Round 5) Chris Capuano (Round 9) Brian McCann (Round 18) 15. Rebels of Oakland (Bored) Carl Crawford (Round 1) Rich Harden (Round 2) Brett Myers (Round 4) Nick Johnson (Round 10) 16. Stay The Course (Deep_Thought) Paul Konerko (Round 3) Mariano Rivera (Round 4) Rickie Weeks (Round 6) José Contreras (Round 7) 17. Midcard 4 Life (Razaztec) Bobby Abreu (Round 1) Mark Buehrle SP (Round 3) Brad Lidge (Round 4) Edwin Encarnacion (Round 17) 18. Scott Boras Allstars (Cuban Linx) SP Johan Santana (Round 1) SP Pedro Martinez (Round 1-pushed to Round 2) SP Jake Peavy (Round 1-pushed to Round 3) SS Hanley Ramirez (Not Drafted) 19. Wart’s Wackos (Wart) 20. Pawtucket Patriots (Cartman) Jose Reyes (Round 2) Johnny Damon (Round 4) BJ Ryan (Round 5) Cole Hamels (Not Drafted)

"What team is he a fan of?" "The Cubbies" "Hooo boy..." GET OUT OF THAT TREE!

Stop feeling sorry for yourselves! Ok, so your string of nine straight losing seasons is one of the longest in the majors, hell even the Royals had a winning season more recently for god's sake! And so what if half your team is riddled in steroid controversies, your star player demands to be traded every offseason, your ace of the future turned into a fat, talentless drunk and Sammy Sosa suddenly lost 40 pounds and all his power when you traded for him? This is the postseason damnit! While you guys are out protesting that miserable asbestos lawyer of an owner, other team's fans are enjoying themselves this October. You know he's going to promise big changes and court the top free agents and just fall short of actually signing them, so relax. Save yourself the stress. Watch the playoffs, and see how completely impossible it will ever be to catch the Yankees in the division, ever.

Well, I'll PM he too just to be sure. He might still want to participate in the league. Anyone know the status of Bravesfan, jweeper or Wart? I'll send out a followup PM soon but since we'll probably need to leave a good dose of time to conduct this staggered draft I need to know the complete league.

AL MVP 1. Johan Santana 2. David Ortiz 3. Joe Mauer 4. Derek Jeter 5. Justin Morneau 6. Frank Thomas 7. Jermaine Dye 8. Travis Hafner 9. Vladmir Guerrero 10. Jim Thome NL MVP 1. Ryan Howard 2. Albert Pujols 3. Carlos Beltran 4. Lance Berkman 5. Alfonso Soriano 6. Andruw Jones 7. Miguel Cabrera 8. David Wright 9. Jose Reyes 10. Chase Utley AL Cy Young 1. Johan Santana 2. Roy Halladay 3. Mike Mussina NL Cy Young 1. Brandon Webb 2. Roy Oswalt 3. Chris Carpenter AL Manager of the Year 1. Jim Leyland 2. Ron Gardenhire 3. Ken Macha NL Manager of the Year 1. Joe Girardi 2. Bruce Bochy 3. Jerry Narron AL Rookie of the Year 1. Justin Verlander 2. Fransico Liriano 3. Jonathan Papelbon NL Rookie of the Year 1. Ryan Zimmerman 2. Hanley Ramirez 3. Prince Fielder

Congrats to Landfall Jacobites for becoming the 2006 TSM Fantasy Baseball Champions! Congrats to everyone who made the playoffs, and to the rest of us, here's to next year. Which sort of starts now. I have still not heard from Bravesfan, Jkeeper or Wart for Keepers (and the latter 2 apparently haven't posted in a while, so if I don't hear from those guys in due time, a couple new spots will open in the league). Anyway, here are the Keepers, and Rounds they effect for the rest of the teams. Its listed in order of Standings, keep in mind, draft order will be done in reverse (so 20th place goes first, 19th second, etc.). We can decide whether we want to do straight or serpentine order as we get closer to draft day. Obviously because of the way we're doing keepers we'll need to do it over a period of time using a thread here on the board. Once all 20 teams have keeper information in, I'll post a the order for every round (which will take into account team's skipped). OFFICIAL KEEPERS 1. Cranky Old Men (Iggmcfly) Albert Pujols (Round 1) Alfonso Soriano (Round 2) Aaron Harang (Round 11) Bronson Arroyo (Round 16) 2. Infinite93Intensity (Cena's Writer) David Ortiz (Round 1) Lance Berkman (Round 3) Jonathan Papelbon (Round 10) Frank Thomas (Round 17) 3. John Galt Express (Stephan Joseph) Alex Rodriguez (Round 1) Carlos Beltran (Round 2) Matt Cain (Round 8) Francisco Liriano (Round 9) 4. Landfall Jacobites (Verne Gagne) Roy Oswalt (Round 1) Chase Utley (Round 2) Joe Mauer (Round 3) Garrett Atkins (Round 8) 5. Brockvegas Posse (treble) Rafael Furcal (Round 3) Huston Street (Round 4) Scott Kazmir (Round 8) Dan Uggla (Not Drafted) 6. Serenity (thepinjockey) David Wright (Round 1) Jim Thome (Round 7) Justin Verlander (Round 19) Joel Zumaya (Not Drafted) 7. Rockbirds (MJ Styles) Roy Halladay (Round 2) Delmon Young (Round 16) Nick Markakis (Not Drafted) Josh Johnson (Not Drafted) 8. Kings of Crunk (Kingofthe909) Vladimir Guerrero (Round 1) Miguel Cabrera (Round 1- pushed to Round 4) Ryan Howard (Round 2) Travis Hafner (Round 3) 9. Heavy Lumber (Bravesfan) 10. jwpeer - KnklBl4Life (jWpeer) 11. Team Canada (Canadian Chris) Grady Sizemore (Round 3) Vernon Wells (Round 4) Ervin Santana (Round 9) Chris Ray (Round 11) 12. Komijul (Will Scarlet) Justin Morneau (Round 8) BJ Upton (Round 18) Boof Bonser (Not Drafted) Anibal Sanchez (Not Drafted) 13. Random Hero (Krankor) Michael Young (Round 1) Chris Carpenter (Round 1-pushed to Round 4) Chone Figgins (Round 2) Juan Pierre (Round 3) 14. NuclearChinlocks (Marvinsalunatic) Miguel Tejada (Round 1) Pat Burrell (Round 5) Chris Capuano (Round 9) Brian McCann (Round 18) 15. Rebels of Oakland (Bored) Carl Crawford (Round 1) Rich Harden (Round 2) Brett Myers (Round 4) Nick Johnson (Round 10) 16. Stay The Course (Deep_Thought) Paul Konerko (Round 3) Mariano Rivera (Round 4) Rickie Weeks (Round 6) José Contreras (Round 7) 17. Midcard 4 Life (Razaztec) Bobby Abreu (Round 1) Mark Buehrle SP (Round 3) Brad Lidge (Round 4) Edwin Encarnacion (Round 17) 18. Scott Boras Allstars (Cuban Linx) SP Johan Santana (Round 1) SP Pedro Martinez (Round 1-pushed to Round 2) SP Jake Peavy (Round 1-pushed to Round 3) SS Hanley Ramirez (Not Drafted) 19. Wart’s Wackos (Wart) 20. Pawtucket Patriots (Cartman) Jose Reyes (Round 2) Johnny Damon (Round 4) BJ Ryan (Round 5) Cole Hamels (Not Drafted)

Just a reminder that the deadline is Sept. 30th, for all managers who have not posted their keepers yet, as well as those who have and might be thinking about changing them. By the way my OFFICIAL KEEPERS (and boy was this hard for various reasons): Roy Halladay (2) Delmon Young (16) Nick Markakis (ND) Josh Johnson (ND)

Brave New World is way better then DoD in my opinion. I think A Matter... beats them both though. I really like BNW, but I just wasn't impressed with DoD overall. Montesgur was the only really great track IMO. Rainmaker and Wildest Dreams are good short punchy tracks but I think Different World on Matter of L&D is better. The epics like Dance of Death and Paschendale sounded way too produced and not organic with all the orchestra parts and other computer generated enchasers. Face in the Sand and Journeyman are good tracks if a bit plodding and lifeless at times, they just don't "rock" much if you get what I'm saying, and No More Lies is held back by being too long and repetitive. And really the rest of the tracks just sound like uninspired filler (Gates of Tommorow? Age of Innocence? New Frontier?) This new album just has so much more punch and energy and liveliness to it, from Bruce's voice souding way more powerful to the guitars being very heavy and driving rather then just sort of playing along in the background.

I can't get "These Colors Don't Run" out of my head.

I've got it and am listening to it right now. Its amazing. Bruce's voice sounds literally as good as it ever has. This is also their heaviest souding album they've ever done, way more crunching riffs then galloping riffs like their usual. I hear a lot of Bruce's recent solo album influence in this which is a very good thing. Im not sure why a lot of places are rating it a bit lower then Dance of Death (Then again most ranked Brave New World below DoD too which I disagreed with too, so whatever), I think this one is way superior and that DoD was kind of lackluster and boring in some ways, too produced sounding. This one sounds very "live" and full of energy. Get it, and look for the version with the bonus DVD with making of documentary and music videos. Oh, and here's the whole album to listen before you buy in streaming form! Enjoy! http://music.aol.com/songs/new_releases_fu...S00050000000011

YOUVE ALREADY DISOBEYED ME!!!! Add, "OFFICIAL KEEPERS" to the start of your post so I know. They won't become official until after Sept 30 (so you can still edit) but have that there so I know and am not confused by speculative posts. thanks.

Stop making me make decisions! Let's say by the end of the month, September 30th. I've disregarded everyone's previous list of keepers as unofficial. So if you have decided who your keepers are for sure, please post OFFICIAL KEEPERS in this thread, and then list them. You can make edits if you want up to Sept. 30th. Hopefully this won't be complicated.

Delmon Young is UP~! Finally, now at least I can feel like I didn't wast keeping him on the roster all year long. If he does well, he'll be a keeper. Jeez, now I feel like I need to up the number of Keepers (dont freak out, I won't). Roy Halladay Josh Johnson Felix Hernandez Bobby Jenks Carlos Delgado Ryan Zimmerman Nick Markakis Delmon Young DONT MAKE ME CHOOSE! ITS LIKE CHOOSING CHILDREN! Why is my team not in the playoffs?

Well, with my fall from 7th to 8th place, my chances of the playoffs are effectively over. Here's to a good draft position I guess.

And Mussina going on the DL. Booo. My team is sunk.

My hope of the playoffs is desperately in jeapordy, but at least Nick Markakis has forced himself into a crowed keeper field.

bump, because its off the front page and I couldn't find it. Im still on the outside looking in for the playoffs.

I made all these blockbuster trades and Ive FALLEN in the standings. Ill blame it on having DLed Nomar as a blackhole in my offensive stats and pretty much all my pitchers having a bad week.

Orioles fans wait with baited breath Oh yeah? Do you have worms in your mouth, or are you going with minnows? Well, we are birds, afterall.

Orioles fans wait with baited breath to find out if we got back the Underachiving Giant Korean or the Struggling Half-Blind Pitcher. ANTICIPATION. Good riddance and good luck to Javy. He never made the adjustment to 1st like he was supposed to in ST and was unhappy being the second catcher on the team. He actually came out and expressed his disappointment he wasn't traded after the deadline (believe me, its not like the team didn't try) and wanted out. That said, he should do well in the comfy confines of Fenway and be happy getting to start every day again. When Varitek comes back though and he's made the 2nd option, well, that will be Boston's problem.