Bored

And the 'Noles lose. The "retirement" word is going to start floating in a hurry for Bobby Bowden although I'm sure just like Paterno he'll stay until he drops dead.

Loaded Glove, SilverPhoenix, Gert T, and Kingofthe909 are late with their picks. I'm holding off on posting the PM'd picks because there were a couple of people who submitted picks who accidently left off a pick and I'm waiting on them to give me their picks for those games. In case anyone is wondering about their match-up in terms of tonight's game Hawk 34, JHawk, Vampiro69, and Angel Grace Blue were the only ones to pick Utah.

2004 Top 3 1. Ivan Rodriguez 2. Javy Lopez 3. Jorge Posada 2005 Top 3 1. Victor Martinez 2. Jason Varitek 3. Joe Mauer 2006 Catcher Rankings 1. Joe Mauer, Twins 2. Brian McCann, Braves 3. Jorge Posada, Yankees 4. Victor Martinez, Indians 5. Ramon Hernandez, Orioles 6. Ivan Rodriguez, Tigers 7. Kenji Johjima, Mariners 8. Michael Barrett, Cubs 9. Paul Lo Duca, Mets 10. Jason Kendall, A's 11. Russell Martin, Dodgers 12. Mike Piazza, Padres 13. David Ross, Reds 14. Ronny Paulino, Pirates 15. A.J. Pierzynski, White Sox 16. Johnny Estrada, Diamondbacks 17. Bengie Molina, Blue Jays 18. Mike Napoli, Angels 19. Miguel Olivo, Marlins 20. Eliezer Alfonzo, Giants 21. Damian Miller, Brewers 22. Jason Varitek, Red Sox 23. John Buck, Royals 24. Brian Schneider, Nationals 25. Rod Barajas, Rangers 26. Yadier Molina, Cardinals 27. Toby Hall, Devil Rays/Dodgers 28. Dioner Navarro, Dodgers/Devil Rays 29. Brad Aumus, Astros 30. Jose Molina, Angels

Kendall does benefit from playing more games than any other catcher but he definitely had a better year this season than last.

It's official, Ellis is done for the postseason and any chance of Crosby coming back has been ruled out. So it's D'Angelo Jimenez for the rest of the playoffs at 2nd and Hiram Boccachica, who's primarily an outfielder, as the back up middle infielder. A's have no other infielders on their 40 man roster.

Sam Keller has a voodoo doll. Bad news for Clemson as Chansi Stuckey broke his foot in practice the other day and is out for five weeks. Hey can someone please get Matthew McConaughey off my television screen during football games? He's on the sideline for Marshall tonight to promote the "We Are Marshall" movie and ESPN is showing him every other play.

My Picks TCU Texas A&M Air Force Rice Texas LSU Baylor Oklahoma State Washington State Texas Tech Toledo Tennessee Oregon Wyoming Tiebreaks: 54/223

And the broken finger is on his right hand so I'd have to wonder if his posteason is done. The A's have no infield depth at the moment so hopefully Mr. Glass is available for the ALCS, if they advance.

Damn I had to go back to work right before Kotsay's at bat but oh well, thanks Torii. I hope they wrap it up Friday because if they lose the "can't win a clinching game" talk will be all we'll hear about going into Saturday. Of course it might be all we'll hear about going into Friday. At least through the first two games the things that killed the A's in past playoffs such as lack of "clutch" hitting, baserunning errors, and defensive miscues are happening to the other team this time around.

For those who don't remember here were my 2004 and 2005 player rankings I posted on the forums. 2004 2005 These rankings are purely based on what the player did this past season. Past performance and potential future value are not taken into account. For hitters I take into account five statiscal compotents: OPS, Value Over Replacment Player (VORP), Equivalent Average (EQA), Runs Created, and Win Shares. Now with the regular position lists I take the top 30 players at each position in games started which means not necessarily every team will have a player on the list. But I decided to get DH's out of the way because it's the shortest list and if you looked at my A.L. MVP ballot you already see the Top 3. In 2004 I did a normal DH list but last year with a complete lack of everyday DH's outside Oritz and Hafner I did combo list of DH's and players who played a lot but didn't fit into of the position lists. But this year we had at least a few more everyday DH's and there actually wasn't that many players this year who played a lot but didn't fit into the other lists. In fact the only player that had more than 500 plate appearances but wasn't in the Top 30 in games started at any position was Jay Payton who played 40+ games at every outfield position so I'm going to throw him in the leftfielders list. So now onto the DH list which again isn't very interesting and once you get past the Big 5 there is a big drop off with a lot part-time/injured players and a couple of guys who were released. I took only the Top 14 in games started at DH. Jason Giambi played a few more games at DH than first base so that's why he's on it. Also for each position I'll list who I had as the Top 3 in 2004 and 2005 before the 2006 rankings. 2004 Top 3 DH's 1. Travis Hafner 2. David Ortiz 3. Erubiel Durazo 2005 Top 3 DH's 1. David Ortiz 2. Travis Hafner 3. Mike Sweeney 2006 Designated Hitter Rankings 1. David Ortiz, Red Sox 2. Travis Hafner, Indians 3. Jim Thome, White Sox 4. Jason Giambi, Yankees 5. Frank Thomas, A's 6. Jay Gibbons, Orioles 7. Jonny Gomes, Devil Rays 8. Tim Salmon, Angels 9. Mike Sweeney, Royals 10. Matt Stairs, Royals/Rangers/Tigers 11. Phil Nevin, Rangers/Cubs/Twins 12. Javy Lopez, Orioles/Red Sox 13. Carl Everett, Mariners 14. Rondell White, Twins I think White produced more for the Twins today than he did for the entire season.

Well this was a pleasant surprise today. I was able to see Frank's second homerun at lunch but I'm glad I had to go back to work right before Bradley lost the ball as I probably would have broke something over that. So how was Joe today? How many "manufacture runs" lectures did he get in about the A's?

Hey just in time for the playoffs! http://www.newsday.com/sports/la-sp-clemen...ports-headlines

So from what I gathered from what Ken Macha said today: A) Rich Harden may or may not start Game 3 B) Rich Harden may or may not start Game 4 C) They're waiting to see if his elbow explodes tommorrow in a bullpen session. I got my ALCS tickets today, Game 1 against Detroit or Game 3 against New York. Again I'm not holding my breath.

We're two weeks away from the first BCS rankings and all but one of the computer rankings has made their's public so collegebcs.com has fairly accurate rankings right now. So here's the Unofficial BCS Top 25. 1) Ohio State 2) USC 3) Auburn 4) Michigan 5) Florida 6) Louisville 7) West Virginia 8) Oregon 9) Notre Dame 10) Georgia 11) Texas 12) LSU 13) Oklahoma 14) Tennessee 15) California 16) Clemson 17) Iowa 18) Boise State 19) Florida State 20) Rutgers 21) Virginia Tech 22) Georgia Tech 23) Washington 24) Nebraska 25) Missouri -Because both the Coaches and Harris polls had Va Tech inexplicably ahead of Georgia Tech that's why the are also ahead in the BCS. The computer's hate the Hokies though right as they are ranked 36th on average and only in the Top 20 in one of them. -Other teams the computer rankings hate (on average): Auburn (6th), West Virginia (15th), Texas (17th), LSU (20th), Clemson (22nd), Florida State (30th), Nebraska (31st) -Teams the computer rankings love (on average): Michigan (3rd), Oregon (5th), Notre Dame (7th), Oklahoma (9th), Boise State (11th), Rutgers (15th), Washington (14th), Wake Forest (18th) -Ohio State is #1 in four of the five reporting computer rankings, USC has the other top spot. -Auburn ranks no higher than 5th in any computer ranking, Michigan is no lower than 5th. -West Virginia is in the Top 10 in only one computer ranking and as low as 19th.

My Awards I'm skipping Manager of the Year because it's meaningless. AL MVP 1. Derek Jeter 2. Joe Mauer 3. David Ortiz 4. Johan Santana 5. Travis Hafner 6. Manny Ramirez 7. Jermaine Dye 8. Jim Thome 9. Justin Morneau 10. Carlos Guillen NL MVP 1. Albert Pujols 2. Carlos Beltran 3. Ryan Howard 4. Miguel Cabrera 5. Lance Berkman 6. David Wright 7. Jose Reyes 8. Chase Utley 9. Alfonso Soriano 10. Garrett Atkins AL Cy Young 1. Johan Santana 2. Roy Halladay 3. C.C. Sabathia NL Cy Young 1. Brandon Webb 2. Roy Oswalt 3. Chris Carpenter AL Rookie of the Year 1. Francisco Liriano 2. Jonathan Papelbon 3. Justin Verlander NL Rookie of the Year 1. Hanley Ramirez 2. Ryan Zimmerman 3. Dan Uggla

For my 100th entry I originally planned on doing a comprehensive list of the 100 Greatest Oakland A's players of all-time and wouldn't just be simply be a career list of Win Shares as that wouldn't really work. I never got Bored enough to start working on it though so maybe sometime in the offseason I'll get around to it. But I guess doing my awards for the 2006 season works as an 100th entry since I've been tracking the MVP award most of the year and I'm sure the three of you are on the edge of your seat as to what my final ballot looks like. Before I get to the awards this week I'll start working on the Bored's 2006 MLB Player Rankings this week that will be BLOG EXCLUSIVE~ this year. You know the last two years how I posted them on the board to tell. No? Oh well, I'm still doing them. Starting with the N.L. and no I won't be doing Manager of the Year which I've explained before why I don't care about the award. Instead of my normal, pointless talking before I post my "ballot" this time I'll post my picks for each award and then briefly explain my picks. N.L. Cy Young 3. Chris Carpenter, Cardinals 144 ERA+, 4.28 K/BB, 1.07 WHIP, 67.2 VORP, 19 Win Shares 2. Roy Oswalt, Astros 150 ERA+, 4.37 K/BB, 1.17 WHIP, 71.8 VORP, 21 Win Shares 1. 153 ERA+, 3.56 K/BB, 1.13 WHIP, 68.6 VORP, 22 Win Shares This was a really tight race but I felt Webb was just a cut above the rest over the course of the season. There isn't a bad choice here but it does appear Webb will end up winning the writer award. I gave Bronson Arroyo and Carlos Zambrano consideration for the 3rd spot as well. And no Trevor Hoffman should not win it as some lifetime achievement award just because no won in the N.L. won more than 16 games. N.L. Rookie of the Year 3. Dan Uggla, Marlins .282/.339/.480, 104 RC, .281 EQA, 40.0 VORP, 22 Win Shares 2. Ryan Zimmerman, Nationals .287/.351/.471, 107 RC, .283 EQA, 27.9 VORP, 25 Win Shares 1. .292/.353/.480, 108 RC, .290 EQA, 55.9 VORP, 25 Win Shares About a month ago this was probably Uggla's award to lose and well, he lost it. Uggla completely faded at the end of the season while Ramirez only seemed to get stronger. I really hope the media took notice as it seemed like the award was being conceded to Uggla. You can look at Ramirez's basic numbers and know that he clearly had the better year. N.L. Most Valuable Player 10. Garrett Atkins, Rockies .329/.409/.556, 119 RC, .310 EQA, 61.5 VORP, 26 Win Shares 9. Alfonso Soriano, Nationals .277/.351/.560, 121 RC, .300 EQA, 49.2 VORP, 30 Win Shares 8. Chase Utley, Phillies .309/.379/.527, 122 RC, .298 EQA, 65.0 VORP, 28 Win Shares 7. Jose Reyes, Mets .300/.354/.487, 124 RC, .289 EQA, 57.7 VORP, 29 Win Shares 6. David Wright, Mets .311/.381/.531, 123 RC, .307 EQA, 53.3 VORP, 32 Win Shares 5. Lance Berkman, Astros .315/.420/.621, 141 RC, .331 EQA, 71.2 VORP, 34 Win Shares 4. Miguel Cabrera, Marlins .339/.431/.568, 141 RC, .333 EQA, 79.1 VORP, 34 Win Shares 3. Ryan Howard, Phillies .313/.425/.659, 137 RC, .337 EQA, 81.3 VORP, 31 Win Shares 2. Carlos Beltran, Mets .275/.388/.594, 125 RC, .320 EQA, 67.6 VORP, 38 Win Shares 1. .331/.431/.671, 150 RC, .346 EQA, 86.6 VORP, 39 Win Shares About a month ago I had Pujols and Beltran neck and neck but Pujols pulls away in September. After knocking the hype surrounding his chase for the "non-steroid" homerun record I give Howard the #3 slot and he wouldn't be as bad a pick as the potential A.L. winner could end up being. But it does seem the last week Pujols had regained favor in the media as the choice. A.L. Cy Young 3. C.C. Sabathia, Indians 138 ERA+, 3.91 K/BB, 1.17 WHIP, 46.0 VORP, 14 Win Shares 2. Roy Halladay, Blue Jays 147 ERA+, 3.88 K/BB, 1.10 WHIP, 68.2 VORP, 21 Win Shares 1. 164 ERA+, 5.21 K/BB, 1.00 WHIP, 79.7 VORP, 25 Win Shares The toughest ballot decision out there is by far 3rd place in the A.L. Cy Young race. Santana will win the award unanimously and Halladay should be the unanimous #2. I went with Sabathia due to his strong peripherals although VORP and Win Shares didn't particularly like him this year. By the time I get around to starting pitchers on my player rankings C.C. might not be ranked #3 among A.L. starters but I wanted to get this done tonight so I gave him the nod over Chien-ming Wang and John Lackey. You could even make strong arguments for injured rookies Liriano and Papelbon. Speaking of which... A.L. Rookie of the Year 3. Justin Verlander, Tigers 122 ERA+, 2.07 K/BB, 1.33 WHIP, 47.0 VORP, 15 Win Shares 2. Jonathan Papelbon, Red Sox 505 ERA+, 5.77 K/BB, 0.78 WHIP, 38.6 VORP, 18 Win Shares 1. 211 ERA+, 4.50 K/BB, 1.00 WHIP, 51.1 VORP, 16 Win Shares Yes they both got hurt by the dominance of these two is too much to overlook and you could make arguments for both. I went with Verlander for 3rd giving him credit for being solid over the full season instead of another dominant pitcher with a small sample in Jered Weaver. A.L. Most Valuable Player 10. Carlos Guillen, Tigers .320/.400/.519, 106 RC, .310 EQA, 67.0 VORP, 26 Win Shares 9. Justin Morenau, Twins .321/.375/.559, 120 RC, .308 EQA, 51.8 VORP, 27 Win Shares 8. Jim Thome, White Sox .288/.416/.598, 123 RC, .328 EQA, 63.2 VORP, 26 Win Shares 7. Jermaine Dye, White Sox .315/.385/.622, 119 RC, .320 EQA, 65.4 VORP, 26 Win Shares 6. Manny Ramirez, Red Sox .321/.439/.619, 111 RC, .342 EQA, 65.3 VORP, 29 Win Shares 5. Travis Hafner, Indians .308/.439/.659, 124 RC, .355 EQA, 80.4 VORP, 25 Win Shares 4. Johan Santana, Twins 3. David Oritz, Red Sox .287/.413/.636, 126 RC, .334 EQA, 75.8 VORP, 29 Win Shares 2. Joe Mauer, Twins .347/.429/.507, 104 RC, .321 EQA, 66.6 VORP, 31 Win Shares 1. .344/.417/.483, 138 RC, .316 EQA, 79.2 VORP, 33 Win Shares If you told me in my first MVP Watch that I'd be picking Jeter at the end of the year as my choice for MVP, and not even have a second thought about it, I would have laughed. I hate the media's infatuation with Jeter as much as anyone but the guy was king sized this year. Of course the media has now become infatuated with Justin Morneau for some ungodly reason. I don't see how anyone can look at the Twins and come away thinking Morneau is the MVP of that team. Anyone arguing Morneau for MVP of the league is out of their mind. Unrelated I should note that I slammed the David Oritz support when the media was ready to give him the award in early August but now with the Red Sox fade and his playing for himself comments he killed his chances. Now though I kinda like the guy and his tear down the stretch, meaningless or not, gives him the 3rd spot. He'd be a hell of a lot better choice than Morneau.

kkk you'll be surprised to learn hippie Zito is a Republican.

If by the slim chance the A's haven't clinched by Wednesday night I'm cutting myself off from anything baseball related until October 3rd. The t.v. schedule is incomplete as it will depend on what games matter come this weekend. ESPN usually has games on Wednesday so I'm not sure if they're just not showing any games that day or if they will pick up one with playoff implications, same thing with Friday. There is no Sunday Night game. I think even Yankees fans would agree their game against the Orioles on Thursday doesn't really need national television. ESPN/Fox Games to Poison Our Youth THURSDAY Blue Jays (A.J. Burnett) at Tigers (Kenny Rogers), 1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST, ESPN2 Orioles (Daniel Cabrera) at Yankees (Randy Johnson), 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST, ESPN2 SATURDAY Dodgers at Giants, 1:00 PM PST, FOX

And you thought last week sucked. Network/Basic Cable Schedule TUESDAY Southern Miss at Central Florida, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN2 THURSDAY BYU at #17 TCU, 6:00/3:00 PM, Versus (formerly OLN) #2 Auburn at South Carolina, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN FRIDAY #23 Rutgers at South Florida, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN2 SATURDAY #15 Tennessee at Memphis, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN Wisconsin at Indiana, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN2 Colorado at #25 Missouri, 12:30 PM/9:30 AM, FSN Purdue at #12 Notre Dame, 2:30 PM/11:30 AM, NBC #22 Boise State at Utah, 3:00 PM/Noon, Versus Alabama at #5 Florida, 3:30/12:30 PM, CBS #24 Georgia Tech at #11 Virginia Tech, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* #14 Oregon at Arizona State, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* Northwestern at Penn State, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* Texas Tech at Texas A&M, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* Houston at Miami, 6:00/3:00 PM, ESPN2 #3 USC at Washington State, 7:00/4:00 PM, TBS Kansas at #21 Nebraska, 7:00/4:00 PM, FSN #1 Ohio State at #13 Iowa, 8:00/5:00 PM, ABC #6 Michigan at Minnesota, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN #10 Georgia at Mississippi, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN2 Stanford at UCLA, 10:15/7:15 PM, FSN Other Cable/Gameplan Schedule SATURDAY Toledo at Pittsburgh, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPNU Navy at Connecticut, Noon/9:00 AM, GP Illionis at Michigan State, Noon/9:00 AM, GP Virginia at Duke, Noon/9:00 AM, LF/GP Mississippi State at #9 LSU, 12:30 PM/9:30 AM, LF/GP Arkon at Kent State 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, GP Idaho at Utah State, 3:00 PM/Noon, GP Rice at Army, 3:30/12:30 PM, ESPNU Louisiana Tech at #18 Clemson, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPNU Middle Tennessee at North Texas, 7:00/4:00 PM, GP SMU at Tulane, 7:30/4:30 PM, CSTV Colorado State at Fresno State, 10:00/7:00 PM, GP All Other D-IA Games SATURDAY Maine at Boston College, ESPN360 Wyoming at Syracuse, ESPN360 Bowling Green at Ohio New Mexico at Air Force Miami of Ohio at Cincinnati #20 California at Oregon State Eastern Michigan at UL Lafayette San Diego State at San Jose State Central Michigan at Kentucky Arkansas State at Florida International Northern Illinois at Ball State Troy at UAB Northern Iowa at Iowa State Temple at Vanderbilt Kansas State at Baylor Sam Houston State at #7 Texas Florida Atlantic at UL Monroe Liberty at Wake Forest, ESPN360 New Mexico State at UTEP Washington at Arizona Nevada at UNLV Eastern Illinois at Hawaii

Ya I went off of a mlb.com so I wasn't sure how accurate they were. But from reading the AP story of the Dodgers game today Maddux is definently starting Game 2.

FOX pretty much mandates that the Yankees are in the primetime slot. I'm trying to remember the last time the Yankees played a postseason day game.

As I expected the start times will prevent me from watching the first three games so hopefully it's not a sweep, unless it's the A's of course. Oh and the Tigers can suck my dick. Sadly I think it will be Twins in five and I just hope it doesn't involve the A's losing it some gut wrenching fashion. I just think they will need to get incredibly lucky to beat Johan Santana in the Metrodome which makes Games 2 thru 4 must wins.

What if a day of college football passed without anything interesting happening? Would it make a sound? Game of the Day: Illinois 23, Michigan State 20. Woof. Texas Tech/Texas A&M was probably better I'm guessing but I only saw the end of that game when ABC put us on the west coast finally out of our misery by pulling Oregon's live rape of ASU's defense. My local Comcast Sportsnet picks up the 4th tier Big Ten game that gets thrown on ESPN+ and these games usually end up being more entertaining that the games ESPN puts on in their early timeslots on the main channels. This game made me sad because it means there's one more BCS team that you can't argue that they might be on the level of Stanford. Hey way to defend the middle of the field after the game Spartans, you think that would have worked during the game? We're all gonna miss John L Smith's rantings after he's gone. It might be tommorrow. WTF Score of the Day: See above. Other Games that I Make Lame Jokes and Little Analysis About Arkansas State 31, Florida International 6. So if Arkansas State loses by 46 to SMU and the FIU loses by 25 to Arkansas State the next week, does that mean FIU gets relegateted to high school? Virginia 37, Duke 0. Thank you Blue Devils. You're my last hope to eclipse the futility of Stanford. SMU 33, Tulane 28. This was Tulane's first home game since Hurricane Katrina and obviously only the Saints . Hey SMU now has a winning record. Are they paying their players again? Georgia 14, Mississippi 9. You know I can appreciate good defensive football and realize that is what the SEC is about but this was like watching flies fuck. Colorado State 35, Fresno State 23. Something to keep on eye with Oregon's move up the polls is their close call against Fresno is suddenly looking pretty bad right now. Wisconsin 52, Indiana 17. Let's see Northwestern's coach dies and the Wildcats get crushed by a I-AA team and Indiana's coach returns from brain cancer and they play like this. I feel bad Kansas' fans after Mark Mangino finally has a heart attack. Whack Pac Wrap Up Oregon 48, Arizona State 13. Damn that Rudy Carpenter voodoo doll that Sam Keller has is working pretty well. California 41, Oregon State 13. People are so excited about Cal in the Bay Area that this game wasn't even televised locally. One of the few times the complete indifference to college sports here benefits me. USC 28, Washington State 22. OMG USC SHOULD BE SPELLED SUC. One thing about the Trojans though is they do need to start featuring Emmanuel Moody more. He's clearly better than Chauncey Washington. Washington 21, Arizona 10. Watching Ty Willingham begin to resurrect the Huskies program isn't making me feel better. UCLA 31, Stanford 0. For the first time this year the Cardinal defense forced a team to punt. More progress! Please kill me.

As it turns out, no. One of the dumbass FSN announcer said this during the game. But they've been bad enough where it's potentially believable.