Bored

MLB: A's NFL: 49ers NBA: Warriors NHL: Sharks (although barely ever watch hockey anymore) NCAA: Stanford

I am Bored so I decided to rank the projected regular catchers in baseball for this year from 1 to 30. It's partly based on what they did last year and partly based on what trends say they will do this year. Of course with Joe Mauer, since he hasn't had a MLB at bat, his ranking is fairly arbitrary. I'll probably end up doing all positions and these probably shouldn't be read by anyone. Catchers 1. Jorge Posada, Yankees 2. Ivan Rodriguez, Tigers 3. Javy Lopez, Orioles 4. Mike Piazza, Mets 5. A.J. Pierzynski, Giants 6. Jason Varitek, Red Sox 7. Jason Kendall, Pirates 8. Mike Lieberthal, Phillies 9. Ramon Hernandez, Padres 10. Greg Myers, Blue Jays 11. Robby Hammock, Diamondbacks 12. Jason LaRue, Reds 13. Joe Mauer, Twins 14. Paul Lo Duca, Dodgers 15. Benito Santiago, Royals 16. Charles Johnson, Rockies 17. Bengie Molina, Angels 18. Victor Martinez, Indians 19. Chad Moeller, Brewers 20. Ben Davis, Mariners 21. Toby Hall, Devil Rays 22. Mike Matheny, Cardinals 23. Brian Schneider, Expos 24. Damian Miller, A's 25. Miguel Olivo, White Sox 26. Michael Barrett, Cubs 27. Ramon Castro, Marlins 28. Johnny Estrada, Braves 29. Einar Diaz, Rangers 30. Brad Ausmus, Astros

I read a blurb that Williams is going to have competition for the 5th spot. It might just be friendly competition as it seems rather pointless.

What the hell...I'll throw my opinion in on the Astros/Cubs debate. Catcher (2003 OPS+) Michael Barrett 63 Brad Ausmus 54 This is the best they can do? Barrett has shown some ability in the past to be a slightly below league average hitter and other times he's just god awful like last year. He is only 27 though so I supppose he has "upside" if you will. Of course he's still a better hitter than Ausmus. He maybe a good defensive catcher but who cares if you hit that poorly? He really should be strictly a back-up. Verdict: Advantage Cubs First Base Derrek Lee 135 Jeff Bagwell 127 Pretty simple here. You have one player who is 28 on the rise and the other who is 36 on the decline. Bagwell is still a good hitter and very durable but his numbers have slipped each of the last four years. Verdict: Advantage Cubs Second Base Mark Grudzielanek 105/Todd Walker 95 Jeff Kent 118 The Grudzielanek/Walker platoon should produce average to slightly below average results. Grudzielanek is coming off the second best year of his career so expect his numbers to drop. Kent is obviously better than both although last year could be a sign he's starting to hit the wall. It was his worst season since 1998 and he'll be 36 this year. Verdict: Advantage Astros Third Base Aramis Ramirez 104 Morgan Ensberg 130 Not much of a contest here although Ensberg hasn't played too much yet. Anyone wanna figure how Ramirez was so good in 2001? He is only 26 though so guess he still has time to prove that season wasn't a fluke. He led all third basemen last year with 33 errors. Verdict: Advantage Astros Shortstop Alex Gonzalez 82 Adam Everett 79 Oof. Um flip a coin? Nothing really to add although Everett did lead all shortstops in range factor last season. Verdict: Even. Left Field Moises Alou 113 Lance Berkman 137 Bit of a rebound year last season for Alou after having the worst season of his career in 2002. But at 37 now he isn't the same player he once was and is a liability defensively. Last year was a down year for Berkman but he still had great numbers. Verdict: Advantage Astros Center Field Corey Patterson 116 Craig Biggio 95 Patterson was having a nice little year before it was ended due to injury. Have to see if his first half last year was a fluke or not. Biggio is going to be 38 and has to be close to retirement. Actually wasn't terrible as a center fielder but not very good either. Verdict: Advantage Cubs Right Field Sammy Sosa 135 Richard Hidalgo 142 Sosa is coming off his worst season since 1997 but he didn't exactly suck either last season. Still probably has a 50 homerun season left in him. Hidalgo is impossible to figure out at this point. He had an amazing 2000 season then just disappers into obscurity the next two and then has an amazing year last season. He has a great arm that produced a major league best 22 assists last year. His inconsistency vs. Sosa's track record though makes this too close to call though even though Hidalgo was definently better than Sosa last year. Verdict: Even Starting Pitchers (2003 ERA+) Roy Oswalt 149 Roger Clemens 112 Andy Pettite 109 Wade Miller 107 Tim Redding 120 Mark Prior 175 Kerry Wood 133 Greg Maddux 105 Matt Clement 103 Carlos Zambrano 136 I think both of these rotations might be slightly overrated. Both are very good of course but there is so much focus on Clemens, Pettite, and Maddux that there isn't enough focus on the ages of Clemens and Maddux and that Pettite has been overrated most of his career by pitching in New York. Clemens strike out to walk ratio still isn't slipping so don't expect any huge drop off even at 41 but he isn't the dominator he once was. Maddux's season last year has to be a concern and it remains to be seen how much he has left. Pettite is a good pitcher but he has had only one truly outstanding season (1997) that warrants the amount of hype he gets. As for the rest Oswalt is a rising star and Miller and Redding should both continue to improve. Jimy Williams apparantly still is going to have competition between Redding and Jeriome Robertson for the #5 spot in Spring and I have no idea why as Redding is the obvious choice. Prior as everyone knows is a stud and might be the guy to replace Pedro Martinez as the best pitcher in baseball. Wood is of course very good and should only get better. Clement is nothing special. Zambrano came out of no where last season to have a great year. This a really tough call as the greatness of Mark Prior has me tipping it in favor of the Cubs but then I think there are more questions about the Cubs rotation than the Astros (How much does Maddux have left? Was Zambrano a fluke last year?) that I'm gonna cop out on this one. Verdict: Even. Bullpens (2003 Component ERA) Joe Borowski 2.26 LaTroy Hawkins 2.48 Mike Remlinger 3.88 Kyle Farnsworth 2.58 Kent Mercker 3.72 Juan Cruz 5.23 Octavio Dotel 2.02 Brad Lidge 2.82 Ricky Stone 4.00 Jeriome Robertson 5.19 (as a starter) Mike Gallo 3.66 Dave Veres 3.98 Both teams are secure at closer and primary set-up man. Hawkins could potentially end up being the closer at some point but Borowski did well enough last year that I think he'll hold on to the job. The concern with the Cubs is Mike Remlinger's shoulder as he might not be ready for the start of the season. Kent Mercker would then become their left-hand option and he had a rebirth of his career as a middle reliever last season although wasn't nearly as good as his sub-2 ERA indicated. With the exception of Veres the Astros bullpen is very young although very talented as well. Robertson did not pitch well his one full year as a reliever in the minors back in 2001. If Remlinger's shoulder holds up I like the Cubs bullpen a little more than the Astros. Verdict: Advantage Cubs It's a close call and I actually picked the Astros in the MLB predictions topic although that was just off the top of my head. There are a plenty of reasons to think one will be better than the other and I thik it's a good bet both will make the playoffs. I'd say there are more "what if?" scenerios with the Cubs as with the Astros I think what you see is what your going to get. But in the end I'm going to say the Cubs will be slightly better than the Astros.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atl...04/26lewis.html

How many kids (as in elementry school age) listen to the radio beyond when they are in a car with their parents? How many kids actually want to listen to the radio over watching television when they are at home? I seriously doubt too many kids ever listen to Howard Stern.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1745069

If the 49ers end up cutting Jeff Garcia then Owens may want to stay after all. Either way it's win-win for the 49ers. Either they keep one of the best player's in the game or they trade him for a player or draft picks when before they were going to get nothing for him.

I believe that was Eddie Izzard Really? Well, I know George Carlin said something along those lines This isn't what you were thinking of but the Carlin line (even though the reference is a bit dated) to use for this would be:

Wow Louisville lost again!? They are getting awfully close to putting themselves on the bubble which is shocking considering they were a legit Top 5 team just a month ago.

News is slow, so I now present Pedro Martinez and his Jheri Curl. That ain't nuthin' but Ultra Perm.

Easily the song I have hated the most of all-time, that at the time I nearly gave a speech in my speech class about the decline the of western cilivizaton and put the blame on this song. "Summer Girls" by L.F.O. If you don't remember them they were yet another boy band when the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync we're poisoning our youth with their music. Now the name is bad enough as it stands for Light Funky Ones. The name alone makes me want to gouge out their eyes with a melon baller. This song produces such mind numbing lines as: Need I say more? If some kid ever went on a killing spree because of this song I wouldn't have blamed them.

Bob Holly: "They love me in Kansas City!"

HOLY SHIT! Damn she was hot too. This make me a racist for jerking off to her?

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/m...0-martzke_x.htm

I know we ruled out Thursday and the weekend but did we talk about doing it Wednesday by any chance? Otherwise yes we might as well keep the offline picks going between now and Monday.

I had to reboot. Pick #1 of the 11th Round, Rebels of Oakland select....Paul Lo Duca.

An invite would be nice. I've never even used AIM before, had to download it for this.

I'd avoid taking Cap Anson since he's been dead for 82 years. Anyways I got a huge SWERVE~ for the #1 pick overall. Okay not really.

Here is Joe Lunardi's latest Bracketology and seed breakdown. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology #1 seeds: Saint Joseph's, Duke, Stanford, Pittsburgh #2 seeds: Kentucky, Oklahoma State, Gonzaga, Connecticut #3 seeds: Providence, N.C. State, Mississippi State, Texas #4 seeds: Memphis, Illinois, Wake Forest, North Carolina #5 seeds: Georgia Tech, Kansas, South Carolina, Charlotte #6 seeds: Louisville, Cincinnati, Southern Illinois, Wisconsin #7 seeds: Florida, Arizona, Texas Tech, LSU #8 seeds: Syracuse, Kent State, Boston College, Utah State #9 seeds: Georgia, UAB, Dayton, Vanderbilt #10 seeds: Michigan State, Florida State, Purdue, Seton Hall #11 seeds: Oklahoma, Western Michigan, Air Force, Utah #12 seeds: Alabama, Michigan, Manhattan, Xavier #13 seeds: Virginia Commonwelth, Troy State, UTEP, East Tennessee State #14 seeds: Boston University, Louisiana-Lafayette, Austin Peay, Wisconsin-Milwaukee #15 seeds: Princeton, East Washington, Monmouth, Mississippi Valley State #16 seeds: Valpariso, SE Louisana, Liberty, Lehigh/Coppin State And as usual here is the Top 25 teams in the RPI rankings from collegerpi.com thru Sunday's games. In case you were wondering Duke was ahead of St. Joe's by one ten thousandth of a point. 1. Duke 22-3 2. St. Joseph's 24-0 3. Kentucky 19-4 4. Stanford 23-0 5. Mississippi State 21-2 6. Oklahoma State 20-2 7. Gonzaga 23-2 8. Pittsburgh 23-2 9. Connecticut 21-5 10. Wake Forest 17-6 11. Providence 18-5 12. Texas 19-4 13. North Carolina 16-7 14. N.C. State 17-6 15. Georgia Tech 19-7 16. Kansas 16-6 17. Florida 15-8 18. Southern Illinois 22-2 19. Louisville 17-6 20. Seton Hall 16-7 21. Memphis 19-4 22. Boston College 18-8 23. Alabama 13-10 24. Vanderbilt 17-6 25. LSU 17-6

Newsday talks about a trade rumor that would already send Alfonso Soriano back to New York! Make that the New York Mets. http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/met...-sports-big-pix

Royce Clayton is all mine now!

Ishii has a terrible strikeout to walk ratio and his ERA+ and component ERA numbers are nothing to get excited about. Roberts would be an odd first pick up for DePodesta since he doesn't walk or hit for power. But I guess for both teams they are both better than what they currently have at pitcher and 2nd base respectively.

It appears this year's league leader in arm injuries is going to be the White Sox if new manger Ozzie Gullien gets his way: http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb...s_cws&fext=.jsp

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yan...-span-headlines Yes already brought up in the offseason thread but this needs its own topic.