Bored

http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?...p;#entry1166431

Braves traded Wilson Betemit to the Dodgers for Danys Baez and Willy Aybar.

More conference media polls. Pac-10 1. USC (18) 2. California (7) 3. Oregon (3) 4. Arizona State (1) 5. UCLA 6. Arizona 7. Oregon State 8. Washington State 9. Stanford 10. Washington Big XII North 1. Nebraska (21) 2. Iowa State (5) 3. Colorado (2) 4. Kansas 5. Missouri 6. Kansas State South 1. Oklahoma (23) 2. Texas (5) 3. Texas Tech 4. Texas A&M 5. Oklahoma State 6. Baylor Mountain West 1. TCU (16) 2. BYU (5) 3. Utah (3) 4. Colorado State (1) 5. New Mexico 6. San Diego State 7. Air Force 8. UNLV 9. Wyoming WAC 1. Boise State (36) 2. Fresno State (9) 3. Nevada (4) 4. Hawaii (1) 5. Louisiana Tech 6. San Jose State 7. Utah State 8. Idaho 9. New Mexico State Sun Belt 1. UL Lafayette (3) 2. Arkansas State (2) 3. Troy (2) 4. North Texas 5. UL Monroe (1) 6. Middle Tennessee 7. Florida Atlantic 8. Florida International

Is Derek Jeter the best player of all-time and is Alex Rodriguez the worst player of all-time? And if you your answer is "no" to both then how do you feel about spending the afterlife in the the firery pits of hell?

CFN Preseason Top 10 10. Tennessee 9. Florida 8. California 7. LSU 6. Auburn 5. Miami 4. Oklahoma 3. Ohio State 2. Texas 1. USC

Not surprisingly the ACC is changing it's bowl selection process including officially making the Peach Bowl it's #2 game. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2528025 And here's the ACC Media Preseason Poll Atlantic Division 1. Florida State (49) 2. Clemson (13) 3. Boston College (3) 4. Maryland 5. N.C. State 6. Wake Forest Coastal Division 1. Miami (52) 2. Virginia Tech (10) 3. Georgia Tech (3) 4. Virginia 5. North Carolina 6. Duke

Couple of Bo Jackson comps of original game footage. #1 #2

That's what they are saying on Deadspin and they've posted some annonymous e-mails from supposedly "inside sources" at ESPN. http://www.deadspin.com/sports/top/was-thi...-axe-189733.php I do seem to remember a while back hearing some rumor about Harold having a weakness for the ladies, especially larger ones but I don't remember where I read that.

Not much of note in the N.L. this week accept the arrival of You Know Who for the first time this year. #10 Chase Utley, Phillies .317/.382/.531, 71 RC, .294 EQA, 40.5 VORP, 17 Win Shares #9 Barry Bonds, Giants .255/.477/.509, 63 RC, .333 EQA, 27.8 VORP, 17 Win Shares #8 Nick Johnson, Nationals .302/.429/.535, 73 RC, .321 EQA, 39.0 VORP, 17 Win Shares #7 Alfonso Soriano, Nationals .288/.361/.594, 83 RC, .305 EQA, 40.3 VORP, 20 Win Shares #6 Miguel Cabrera, Marlins .330/.429/.545, 78 RC, .321 EQA, 42.8 VORP, 18 Win Shares #5 David Wright, Mets .315/.387/.568, 83 RC, .308 EQA, 37.8 VORP, 20 Win Shares #4 Brandon Webb, Diamondbacks 192 ERA+, 4.68 K/BB, 1.11 WHIP, 59.6 VORP, 18 Win Shares #3 Carlos Beltran, Mets .274/.381/.598, 78 RC, .311 EQA, 40.2 VORP, 23 Win Shares #2 Lance Berkman, Astros .318/.403/.602, 87 RC, .319 EQA, 41.0 VORP, 22 Win Shares #1 Albert Pujols, Cardinals .328/.444/.713, 92 RC, .354 EQA, 56.0 VORP, 26 Win Shares And the wide open A.L. race has a new #1. #10 David Ortiz, Red Sox .281/.389/.607, 78 RC, .318 EQA, 42.8 VORP, 16 Win Shares #9 Jermaine Dye, White Sox .316/.395/.620, 71 RC, .322 EQA, 37.6 VORP, 16 Win Shares #8 Johan Santana, Twins 153 ERA+, 5.43 K/BB, 1.01 WHIP, 46.7 VORP, 16 Win Shares #7 Francisco Liriano, Twins 237 ERA+, 4.31 K/BB, 0.97 WHIP, 47.5 VORP, 16 Win Shares #6 Derek Jeter, Yankees .344/.423/.466, 76 RC, .314 EQA, 46.0 VORP, 18 Win Shares #5 Vernon Wells, Blue Jays .322/.385/.624, 75 RC, .320 EQA, 51.5 VORP, 17 Win Shares #4 Manny Ramirez, Red Sox .310/.429/.608, 78 RC, .334 EQA, 43.0 VORP, 19 Win Shares #3 Jim Thome, White Sox .293/.408/.632, 85 RC, .330 EQA, 46.7 VORP, 18 Win Shares #2 Travis Hafner, Indians .308/.438/.637, 92 RC, .351 EQA, 58.1 VORP, 17 Win Shares #1 Joe Mauer, Twins .381/.457/.534, 69 RC, .334 EQA, 51.4 VORP, 20 Win Shares

Defense pushed Mauer over the top for me. He's a Gold Glove caliber catcher while Hafner of course doesn't play defense. Mauer also gets bonus points for putting up those type of numbers as a catcher. For a catcher to be leading the league in AVG and OBP is incredible.

Yes...and since all holdovers are now signed up I can do preseason rankings. These are based on last year's results after the bowls. For those who are new these mean nothing and just there for the sake of having rankings for Week 1. Only three of the preseason Top 10 from last year finished in the Top 10 (teke, Chris, iggy). Bored Championship Series Preseason Top 10 1. Alabama (AlwaysPissedOff) 2. LSU (teke184) 3. Syracuse (CanadianChris) 4. Texas A&M (Secret Agent) 5. Miami (Spaceman Spiff) 6. Georgia Tech (iggymcfly) 7. Ohio State (Gert T) 8. South Carolina (Cuban Linx) 9. Penn State (therealworldschampion) 10. Florida State (Kingofthe909)

There's 7 people signed up as SEC schools and 5 as ACC so that won't be happening.

Agent Bond showed up so your gone...um hippie. Actually if another person shows up and brings it to 42 your still in. At this point I don't care how many I end up getting in the contest as long as it's an even number. Since I've reached my goal sooner than expected I might cut off sign ups next weekend since I'm an impatient fuck and I want to start working on the schedule. Right now I'm setting up a rough idea of what the conferences will look like as they are going to look much different than they have the last couple of years with now being five conferneces. Geographically some of them won't make much sense but I'm having to fit teams where I can. For example Notre Dame is probably going to get grouped with the Pac-10 teams because they play UCLA, Stanford, and USC in real life.

On Saturday for the first time in 28 years a full slate of MLB games went without one save being record and the sun still rose in the morning. Now can we get rid of this meaningless statistic? Series starting Monday Rockies/Pirates A's/Orioles Nationals/Marlins Mariners/Yankees Braves/Cardinals Royals/Red Sox Dodgers/Diamondbacks Rangers/Blue Jays Phillies/Padres Devil Rays/Twins Brewers/Giants Indians/Angels Series starting Tuesday Mets/Reds Astros/Cubs White Sox/Tigers Series starting Thursday Pirates/Marlins Rangers/Red Sox (one game) Yankees/Blue Jays Padres/Giants Angels/Royals Series starting Friday Braves/Phillies Twins/Indians Cubs/Nationals A's/Tigers Brewers/Reds Astros/Mets Orioles/Devil Rays Rockies/Diamondbacks Rangers/White Sox Red Sox/Mariners Cardinals/Dodgers

CFN Preseason 20 thru 11. 20. Arizona State 19. Georgia 18. Notre Dame 17. Nebraska 16. Virginia Tech 15. West Virginia 14. Louisville 13. Michigan 12. Clemson 11. Florida State I agree that Notre Dame is overrated in those preseason publications that have them #1, mostly just to sell the magazine, but wow #18? Of course CFN could be doing this just to get a ton of hits from angry Irish fans.

Dodgers just made a BLOCKBUSTA DEAL!!! Traded Sandy Alomar Jr. (isn't he a Sr. by now?) to the White Sox for some 25-year old Double-A pitcher. Because it wouldn't be a real trade deadline if Kenny Williams didn't reacquire a former White Sox player. I'm assuming he'll trade for Carl Everett soon.

Ain't your choice, APO can pick whatever sponsor they want.

The Detroit Tigers have been one of the more proud franchises in baseball history. That was until Mike Ilitch bought the team after the 1992 season. Before their ownership the Tigers had never endured more than four consecutive losing seasons. This year’s Tigers are just 17 wins away from ending 12 years of futility and are very likely to reach the postseason for the first time since 1987. But Ilitch's first year as owner was the Tigers last succesful one. In the Tigers last winning season of ’93 they lead the Majors in runs scored with 899. They were of course helped by the hitter friendly Tiger Stadium but the offense was genuinely good. The pitching on the other hand allowed a Major League high 188 homeruns which although helped/hurt by Tiger Stadium the pitchers were genuinely bad. The Tigers started the season red hot as after a 12-1 spanking of the defending champs Toronto on June 12th they were 38-22 with a four game lead on the Jays. But just 10 days later a 12-9 loss to Baltimore would start a 10 game losing streak that they could never fully recover from. C: Chad Kreuter (.286/.371/.484, 30.2 VORP, 16 Win Shares) – This was only one of two seasons that Kreuter played over 100 games in and was by far his best year. This would be the second of seven teams he would play for in his career. Went to Seattle in ’95 and then spent the following year with the White Sox. They traded him with Tony Phillips to the Angels in 1997. The Angels sent him back to Chicago late in 1998. Spent the following year in Kansas City and finally found a stable job with the Dodgers for three years. Began 2003 back where he started in Texas but was released a month into the season. 1B: Cecil Fielder (.267/.368/.464, 27.8 VORP, 17 Win Shares) – Fielder hit 30 homeruns with 117 rbi but those were quiet, big numbers as he was only 5th among Tigers regulars in slugging. He remained a very steady performer but never came close to his huge 1990 season. Tigers traded him to the Yankees for Ruben Sierra in 1996 where Cecil would have a good World Series going 9 for 23. His power numbers would slip dramatically after this and was washed by ’98 being released by both the Angels and Indians. Tried to make a return to Toronto in 1999 but failed to make the team. Has spent his post career gambling away the millions he earned and is now estranged from his son Price Fielder. 2B: Lou Whitaker (.290/.412/.449, 36.4 VORP, 19 Win Shares) – Sweet Lou’s career was winding down at this point but when he was in the line up he was still very productive. Would retire after 1995 when he played in just 84 games but put up a strong .293/.372/.518 line. One of the great tragedies in Hall of Fame voting as he received only 15 votes in his first year of eligibility, failing to stay on the ballot despite being very comparable to his HOF contemporary Ryne Sandberg. Whether Whitaker deserves to be in the HOF or not is open for debate, I believe he does, but it is a joke that he couldn’t even receive enough support stay on the ballot for more than a single season. 3B: Travis Fryman (.300/.379/.486, 56.7 VORP, 28 Win Shares) – This was Fryman’s breakout season at 24 but it would end up being his best season. He actually started more games at shortstop (81 to 68) but I had a choice of talking about Alan Trammell or Scott Livingstone so I of course put Fryman at 3rd. At the start of the year Fryman was at short and Trammell was at 3rd but the Tigers would realize that Fryman was much better defensively at 3rd and flipped them back. Traded to the expansion Diamondbacks after the 1997 season but would never suit up for them as he would be flipped to Cleveland two weeks later for Matt Williams. Would play the rest of his career with the Indians, highlighted by a great 2000 season, and retired after 2002. SS: Alan Trammell (.329/.388/.496, 40.6 VORP, 17 Win Shares) – Coming off a year where he only played 29 games due to a broken ankle, the other side of the Tigers long time middle infield duo was also still productive when he was in the line up. Trammell of course spent his entire career in Detoit, retiring after 1996. Has faired better in HOF voting than Whitaker but is no where close to being elected, appearing on just 17.7% of the ballots in the most recent election. LF: Tony Phillips (.313/.443/.398, 46.3 VORP, 25 Win Shares) – The previously light hitting, utility man Phillips had emerged as one of the top lead off hitters in the game due to his great ability to draw walks (132 in ’93) and this was his best year. Would spend one more season in Detroit before signing as a free agent with the Angels. Signed with the White Sox in ’96 who then traded him the previously mentioned deal with Chad Kreuter back to the Angels. In August of that year he would be caught smoking crack in an Anaheim hotel and really who hasn’t? He was released by the Angels before the 1998 season, then picked up by the Blue Jays two months later who would trade him after a month in a deadline deal to the Mets. Returned to Oakland in 1999 for his final season in the Majors. CF: Milt Cuyler (.213/.276/.313, -7.4 VORP, 2 Win Shares) – A passable rookie year in 1991 some how convinced the Tigers to keep trotting Cuyler out to center for a couple of more years although in just in part time duty, he still played too much. Mysteriously still found part time Major League work for a few more years including a trip to Boston in 1996. But in 1998 he had a historic year with the Rangers putting up a jaw dropping .500/.571/1.333 line. Even with a batting average heavy OBP those number are insane. Oh wait it was only in 7 at bats…never mind. RF: Rob Deer (.217/.302/.381, -3.1 VORP, 5 Win Shares) – Everybody’s favorite no batting average power hitter, Deer was a poor man’s Dave Kingman. Okay Deer actually could draw walks but holy shit he could not make any contact at all. He was about as true a “three outcome hitter” as you could get and the primary outcome was a strikeout. Did not finish the season in Detroit as he was traded to Boston in August. This appeared to be his last year in the Majors but in 1996 made a comeback with the Padres. In true Deer fashion he went 9 for 50 (seven of the hits for extra bases) and struck out 30 times. DH: Kirk Gibson (.261/.337/.432, 15.4 VORP, 9 Win Shares) – Fuck him. Utility: Mickey Tettleton (.245/.372/.492, 31.7 VORP, 24 Win Shares) – Tettleton started 51 games at catcher, 38 in RF, 35 at 1B, 16 in LF, and surprisingly only 3 at DH considering he couldn’t play any position well but hit for enough power that you needed him the line up everyday. Signed as a free agent with Texas after 1994 and spent his final three years there. Rotation Mike Moore (82 ERA+, 3.0 VORP, 7 Win Shares) – A big free agent signing for the Tigers before the season leaving the friendly confines of the Oakland Coliseum for Tiger Stadium proved very hazardous to Moore’s ERA. The Tigers offense carried him to a 13-9 record. Never effective in Detroit, retired after 1995. John Doherty (97 ERA+, 15.3 VORP, 9 Win Shares) – I remember little to nothing of Doherty and found little to nothing about him. His baseball-reference sponsor says he hurt his arm so I’ll believe it. Tigers waived him before the ’96 season and was picked up by the Red Sox, pitching in only three games. David Wells (103 ERA+, 28.3 VORP, 10 Win Shares) – Was released right before the season by the Blue Jays, Wells would end up saving his career in Detroit. Tigers would trade him to the Reds in 1995 in a deadline deal. Spent the next year in Baltimore before signing with the Yankees where he became the GREATEST PITCHER OF ALL-TIME or something. Traded for Roger Clemens before 1999 to Toronto and then traded to the White Sox before 2001 in the “oh we didn’t know Mike Sirotka’s arm was dead” deal. After an injury filled year there he would return to the Yankees for two years. Played with the Padres in 2004 and then joined the Red Sox where is now just fat and injured. Bill Gullickson (80 ERA+, -2.1 VORP, 5 Win Shares) – The long time mediocre Gullickson was just about at the end of his career here and would retire after the following year. Closer: Mike Henneman (163 ERA+, 18.3 VORP, 11 Win Shares) – One of Henneman’s better seasons. Struggled badly the following year but rebound in 1995 where he’d be dealt in a waiver deal to Houston for Phil Nevin. Spent his final year in ’96 with Texas.

If he doesn't show up by next Sunday, they're yours.

Whoops, looks like I forgot to count Danville Wrestling...yup it's 40. Yay. That makes it official, we'll be switching to five conferences this year. Since I'm at goal now I might as well remind the winners of last year's bowls that if you want to change your bowl name send me a PM within in the next couple of weeks. teke and iggy have given me there's and Marvin won't be changing his bowl. Also now with 40 teams it will be necessary to add a 9th bowl game. I have a couple of ideas of my own for a bowl name but if anyone has a suggestion PM me.

Now up to 39 people signed up, one short of goal. Even if we reach 40 I still plan on keeping the sign up thread open for a couple of more weeks. The only holdover who hasn't signed up is Agent Bond34 and it appears he's MIA from the board as he hasn't logged in since April.

Funny thing about "The Hawk" is he never played for the White Sox and he grew up in South Carolina so he really had no allegiance with the White Sox before they hired him, originally as the team's general manager. He did though play for the Red Sox and was a local radio announcer for them at one time. I've been watching the 1975 World Series DVD set and the network announcers even quote Harrelson a couple of times during the series with his gushing comments about the Red Sox. Basically he's nothing more than a hired gun with a schtick. If he had become a an announcer for the Twins, Rangers, Paders, or whomever he'd have the same old tired schtick. He knows who signs his paycheck and he's never going to say a bad thing about them and that's why the ownership keeps him around.

In the "Where Are They Now?" file if you have Comcast SportsNet tune on the Toronto/Saskatchewan game right now as Eric Crouch has been forced into the game at quarterback for the Argos due to injuries. Ricky Williams was knocked out early tonight with an arm injury and he's been pretty stinky in the CFL so far.

If you have a PSP, don't buy this game.

Texans again.