Bored

The season is halfway over, here's the award leaders and all-stars at the "break." AWARDS VOTING MVP AWARD CY YOUNG AWARD M.Schmidt(ICE) 402 T.Henke(ROY) 119 H.Brooks(HEL) 400 N.Allen(ICE) 98 G.Brett(DAI) 191 M.Krukow(ROY) 47 D.Mattingly(BIB) 118 F.Youmans(OAK) 17 J.Carter(IND) 87 T.Arnold(ICE) 7 ALL-STAR SELECTIONS BY POSITION C B.Santiago(MAT) 243,457 R.Karkovice(ICE) 219,096 1B D.Mattingly(BIB) 432,292 G.Davis(MAT) 417,435 2B F.White(MAT) 373,604 S.Sax(DAI) 293,572 3B M.Schmidt(ICE) 742,760 G.Brett(DAI) 535,186 SS H.Brooks(HEL) 903,051 A.Griffin(CLI) 374,791 LF G.Bell(BOM) 532,352 J.Carter(IND) 448,748 CF K.Puckett(CLI) 444,577 R.Henderson(OAK) 419,311 RF D.Strawberry(ROY) 384,793 K.Bass(BIB) 334,971 Pi T.Henke(ROY) 866,929 N.Allen(ICE) 654,666 M.Krukow(ROY) 563,647 F.Youmans(OAK) 540,994 B.Blyleven(CLI) 442,137 L.Smith(IND) 407,498 T.Arnold(ICE) 379,554 B.Knepper(BIB) 375,089 F.Williams(BIB) 373,756 R.Clemens(APO) 355,389 B.Forsch(OAK) 351,952 R.Murphy(ICE) 350,240 GOLD GLOVE SELECTIONS BY POSITION WINNER RUNNER UP P B.Blyleven(CLI) J.Deleon(BOM) C L.Parrish(ROY) R.Karkovice(ICE) 1B D.Mattingly(BIB) K.Hernandez(DAI) 2B F.White(MAT) R.Sandberg(ICE) 3B M.Schmidt(ICE) G.Gaetti(OAK) SS T.Fernandez(ROY) O.Smith(BOM) OF R.Henderson(OAK) D.Winfield(IND) OF K.Puckett(CLI) A.Van Slyke(HEL) OF T.Gwynn(APO) T.Raines(MAT) SILVER SLUGGER SELECTIONS BY POSITION WINNER RUNNER UP C B.Santiago(MAT) L.Parrish(ROY) 1B D.Mattingly(BIB) G.Davis(MAT) 2B F.White(MAT) S.Sax(DAI) 3B M.Schmidt(ICE) G.Brett(DAI) SS H.Brooks(HEL) A.Trammell(APO) LF G.Bell(BOM) J.Carter(IND) CF K.Puckett(CLI) M.Webster(AME) RF D.Strawberry(ROY) K.Bass(BIB) ROLAIDS FIREMAN RELIEF AWARD T.Henke(ROY) 75 F.Williams(BIB) 58 B.Thigpen(HEL) 58 L.Smith(IND) 55 R.Murphy(ICE) 48

And you left out Al Reyes getting tasered by the cops at his own birthday party.

I "reviewed" the draft from 20 years ago so might as well do the one from 10 years ago. Like the 1993 draft, this draft featured quarterbacks being selected #1 and #2 overall. Also like that draft the #1 pick (Drew Bledsoe) turned out to be much better than the #2 pick (Rick Mirer) but in 1998 it was by a much larger scale as we would have a future Hall of Famer at #1 and all-time bust at #2. 1. Indianapolis - Peyton Manning, QB, Tennessee My WEST COAST BIAS~ convinced myself that the next guy would be the better quarterback. 2. San Diego - Ryan Leaf, QB, Washington State 25 Career Games, 48.4% Comp Pct, 50.0 QB Rating, 14 TD, 36 Int, and a handful of public temper tantrums. 3. Arizona - Andre Wadsworth, DE, Florida State Knee injuries killed his career barely after it got started. 4. Oakland - Charles Woodson, CB, Michigan Outstanding early in his career but nagging injuries slowed him down quite a bit. 5. Chicago - Curtis Enis, RB, Penn State Held out, showed up out of shape, and then blew out his knee. Pretty much useless. 6. St. Louis - Grant Wistrom, DE, Nebraska Eight year starter but a tad overrated. 7. New Orleans - Kyle Turley, T, San Diego State My guess is he'll end up killing someone during the usual, post-NFL lineman depression stage of his life. 8. Dallas - Greg Ellis, DE, North Carolina Has had a career resurrection the last couple of years. 9. Jacksonville - Fred Tayor, RB, Florida Passed the 10,000 yard rushing mark this past season. 10. Baltimore - Duane Starks, CB, Miami Really good his first few years in the league, although probably helped by a great Ravens defense around him, and then flamed out pretty quickly once he left Baltimore. 11. Philadelphia - Tra Thomas, T, Florida State Ten year starter and selected to three Pro Bowls. 12. Atlanta - Keith Brooking, LB, Georgia Tech Overrated but still has had a pretty good career. 13. Cincinnati - Takeo Spikes, LB, Auburn Was one of the best linebackers in the league for a few years. 14. Carolina - Jason Peter, DE, Nebraska Check out his Real Sports segment to find out what happened to him. 15. Seattle - Anthony Simmons, LB, Clemson Decent for a few years. 16. Tennessee - Kevin Dyson, WR, Utah Place in NFL history is cemented due to the Music City Miracle and the final play of Super Bowl XXXV but really nothing special as a player. 17. Cincinnati - Brian Simmons, LB, North Carolina Eight year starter. 18. New England - Robert Edwards, RB, Georgia Infamously blew out his knee in an NFL flag football game on the beach during Pro Bowl week after his rookie year. 19. Green Bay - Vonnie Holliday, DE, North Carolina Another decent UNC defensive player. 20. Detroit - Terry Fair, CB, Tennessee Seven interceptions in four years. 21. Minnesota - Randy Moss, WR, Marshall His off the field problems dropped him this far. Still pissed he broke Jerry Rice's single season, receiving touchdown record this past year which I thought was near unbreakable. 22. New England - Tebucky Jones, S, Syracuse Nothing special. 23. Oakland - Mo Collins, G, Florida Five year starter but was pretty terrible. 24. N.Y. Giants - Shaun Williams, S, UCLA Just a warm body. 25. Jacksonville - Donovin Darius, S, Syracuse Throws a nice lariat. 26. Pittsburgh - Alan Faneca, G, LSU Seven time Pro Bowl selection. 27. Kansas City - Victor Riley, T, Auburn Was a decent run blocker, terrible pass blocker. 28. San Francisco - R.W. McQuarters, CB, Oklahoma State Great name, pretty good punt returner, awful cornerback. 29. Miami - John Avery, RB, Mississippi XFL's all-time leading rusher. 30. Denver - Marcus Nash, WR, Tennessee Four receptions in 11 career games. Other Notable Picks 33. Arizona - Corey Chavous, CB, Vanderbilt 35. Chicago - Tony Parrish, S, Washington 38. Dallas - Flozell Adams, T, Michigan State 39. Buffalo - Sam Cowart, LB, Florida State 44. Miami - Patrick Surtain, CB, Southern Miss 46. Tennessee - Samari Rolle, CB, Florida State 48. Washington - Stephen Alexander, TE, Oklahoma 58. San Francisco - Jeremy Newberry, C, California 64. Chicago - Olin Kreutz, C, Washington 65. St. Louis - Leonard Little, DE, Tennessee 72. Philadelphia - Jeremiah Trotter, LB, Stephen F Austin 76. Seattle - Ahman Green, RB, Nebraska 78. Cincinnati - Mike Goff, G, Iowa 91. Denver - Brian Griese, QB, Michigan 92. Pittsburgh - Hines Ward, WR, Georgia 93. Indianapolis - Steve McKinney, C, Texas A&M 111. N.Y. Jets - Jason Fabini, T, Cincinnati 119. San Francisco - Lance Schulters, S, Hofstra 139. Tennessee - Benji Olson, G, Washington 173. Minnesota - Matt Birk, C, Harvard 180. San Francisco - Fred Beasley, FB, Auburn 187. Green Bay - Matt Hasselbeck, QB, Boston College 199. Atlanta - Ephraim Salaam, T, San Diego State 226. Arizona - Pat Tillman, S, Arizona State

Well I guess I'll always have the memories of the Mavericks series. Hopefully the Warriors won't go 13 years between playoff appearances again.

That should be the new subtitle of this thread.

It's good to know Marco Scutaro is still clutch for the A's even when he's playing for the opposing team.

SATURDAY UCLA (35-3) vs. Memphis (37-1), 6:07/3:07 PM Kansas (35-3) vs. North Carolina (36-2), 8:47/5:47 PM

God dammit.

NFL Draft is only three weeks away and this year it might actually go by at a relatively brisk pace with the shortened draft times. Since it is that time of year it's time for me to pick out a past NFL Draft and run down the first round from that year with little to no insight. I picked 1988 because it was 20 years ago, simple enough? 1988 featured several great wide receivers but little depth overall after the first two rounds. It's also the draft where there wasn't a single quarterback taken in the first two rounds and the first one taken in the 3rd round was Tom Tupa who would later become a punter. 1. Atlanta - Aundray Bruce, LB, Auburn Lasted 11 years but only two of them were spent as a starter so that would definitely would equal to a bust for a #1 pick overall. 2. Kansas City - Neil Smith, DE, Nebraska Good pick. Six Pro Bowls and over 100 career sacks. 3. Detroit - Bennie Blades, S, Miami Halfway decent defensive back but not quite the career you'd hope for a pick this high. His brother Brian was taken in the 2nd round of this draft. 4. Tampa Bay - Paul Gruber, T, Wisconsin 12 year starter but kind of surprising he never went to a Pro Bowl as I seem to remember him being regarded as one of the better left tackles in the league during his prime. Maybe he just has a good rating Tecmo Super Bowl and that's why I thought he was good. 5. Cincinnati - Rickey Dixon, S, Oklahoma Lasted five years, doing nothing of note. 6. L.A. Raiders - Tim Brown, WR, Notre Dame Slam dunk future Hall of Famer. 7. Green Bay - Sterling Sharpe, WR, South Carolina Was on his way to a Hall of Fame career it seemed before a neck injury cut it short in 1994. 8. N.Y. Jets - Dave Cadigan, G, USC I honestly never heard of him but apparently he was a five year starter. 9. L.A. Raiders - Terry McDaniel, CB, Tennessee Five time Pro Bowl selection. 10. N.Y. Giants - Eric Moore, G, Indiana Another guard for a New York team that I have no memories of. 11. Dallas - Michael Irvin, WR, Miami I don't think there is a football player I despised more than him. 12. Phoenix - Ken Harvey, LB, California Selected to four Pro Bowls but he went to Cal and therefore he sucks. 13. Philadelphia - Keith Jackson, TE, Oklahoma Very good receiving tight end who went to five Pro Bowls. 14. L.A. Rams - Gaston Green, RB, UCLA Short career. Rushed for over 1000 yards in 1991. 15. San Diego - Anthony Miller, WR, Tennessee Obviously overshadowed by the three receivers taken ahead of him but had a very good career as well. 16. Miami - Eric Kumerow, DE, Ohio State Pretty impressive that we got 15 picks in before getting to a complete bust. 17. New England - John Stephens, RB, Northwest State Made the Pro Bowl as a rookie but did little else after that. 18. Pittsburgh - Aaron Jones, DE, Eastern Kentucky Played eight years but did anyone notice? 19. Minnesota - Randall McDaniel, G, Arizona State 12 Pro Bowl selections and should be a future Hall of Famer. 20. L.A. Rams - Aaron Cox, WR, Arizona State Well the great run of wide receivers in this draft had to end eventually. 21. Cleveland - Clifford Charlton, LB, Florida Bust. 22. Houston - Lorenzo White, RB, Michigan State Had one great year in 1992 but didn't see a whole lot of carries in his career playing in the run and shoot. 23. Chicago - Brad Muster, RB, Stanford Decent fullback who, like most running backs, had a short career. 24. New Orleans - Craig Heyward, RB, Pittsburgh Very popular, fat fullback who died at age 39 due to brain cancer. 25. L.A. Raiders - Scott Davis, DT, Illinois Not quite as good as the Raiders first two picks. 26. Denver - Ted Gregory, DT, Syracuse Was cut during training camp. Seriously how does a team fuck up so bad on it's first pick that the guy can't even make it out of camp? 27. Chicago - Wendell Davis, WR, LSU Pretty good receiver who's best known for having his career ended when he tore both ACLs while running a pass route on the god awful Veterans Stadium turf in 1993. Other Notable Picks 29. Detroit - Chris Speilman, LB, Ohio State 30. Philadelphia - Eric Allen, CB, Arizona State 31. Cincinnati - Ickey Woods, RB, UNLV 36. N.Y. Giants - Jumbo Elliott, T, Michigan 39. San Francisco - Pierce Holt, DE, Angelo State 40. Buffalo - Thurman Thomas, RB, Oklahoma State 41. Dallas - Ken Norton, LB, UCLA 43. New England - Vincent Brown, LB, Mississippi Valley State 44. Pittsburgh - Dermontti Dawson, C, Kentucky 46. L.A. Rams - Flipper Anderson, WR, UCLA 49. Seattle - Brian Blades, WR, Miami 50. Cleveland - Michael Dean Perry, DT, Clemson 63. N.Y. Jets - Erik McMillan, S, Missouri 68. Phoenix - Tom Tupa, QB, Ohio State 74. N.Y. Jets - James Hasty, CB, Washington State 76. Indianapolis - Chris Chandler, QB, Washington 80. San Francisco - Bill Romanowski, LB, Boston College 125. Houston - Chris Dishman, CB, Purdue 159. Washington - Stan Humphries, QB, Louisiana-Monroe 239. Miami - Jeff Cross, DE, Missouri 252. Pittsburgh - John Jackson, T, Eastern Kentucky

Woo hoo, eight game winning streak and now tied for 1st. I'm hoping my team is doing it's best impression of the Oakland teams of earlier this decade of always getting off to terrible starts and then playing red hot the rest of the year. Now watch me get swept by the Bombers.

I'd be upset if I hadn't already completely given up on him last year.

I really have no idea but there was a fairly recent example in 1999 when the Vikings cut their first round pick Dimitrius Underwood before the regular season started as he had serious mental issues and left training camp after just one day. For that Ted Gregory guy the Broncos cut in '88, all I could find is apparently they didn't even scout the guy and Dan Reeves drafted him based on the recommendation of a friend. With the money that is thrown at first round picks that's something that simply couldn't happen today.

ESPN, FOX, and now TBS Games to Poison Our Youth SUNDAY Braves (Tim Hudson) at Nationals (Odalis Perez), 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN MONDAY Blue Jays (Roy Halladay) at Yankees (Chien-Ming Wang), 1:00 PM/10:00 AM, ESPN Brewers (Ben Sheets) at Cubs (Carols Zambrano), 2:20 PM/11:20 AM, ESPN2 Giants (Barry Zito) at Dodgers (Brad Penny), 4:00/1:00 PM, ESPN Angels (Jered Weaver) at Twins (Livan Hernandez), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 Astros (Roy Oswalt) at Paders (Jake Peavy), 10:00/7:00 PM, ESPN2 WEDNESDAY Blue Jays (A.J. Burnett) at Yankees (Mike Mussina), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 SATURDAY Mets at Braves, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX White Sox at Tigers, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX Dodgers at Padres, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX SUNDAY Red Sox at Blue Jays, 1:00 PM/10:00 AM, TBS White Sox at Tigers, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN2

They had Ray Durham and Jose Castillo batting 4th and 5th respectively. He better have shut them out.

Billy Packer is worse than Hit...oh nevermind.

Wow. I heard a very weak rumor about this last week and laughed it off. What a fucking traitor.

And I notice in that game a 20-year old Mike Hampton gets his only career save.

Over in the game thread on BTF, someone referenced this game between the Mets and Reds in 1986. Davey Johnson flipped between Jesse Orosco and Roger McDowell, putting Orosco in right field when McDowell pitched, and McDowell in left while Orosco pitched with Mookie Wilson switching to the other corner.

Wow and it was all in one inning too. *** TOP OF INNING 2 *** 0 D.Evans 1 2 Base Error - 2B b-2 gb(2B)x 0 2 T.Wallach 4 1 Base Error - LF 2-3 b-1 fly(LF)x 0 1 3 D.Thon 4 Force Play (C) 3-H 1-o b-1 catch-x 1 1 K.Moreland 1 Wild Pitch 1-2 1 2 K.Moreland 4 Walk b-1 1 12 P.Bradley 7 Home Run (CF) 2-H 1-H b-H 1 R.Roenicke 4 Walk b-1 1 1 K.Bass 5 Walk 1-2 b-1 1 12 D.Mattingly 4 Walk 2-3 1-2 b-1 1 123 D.Concepcion 5 Single (RF) 3-H 2-H 1-3 b-1 SUBSTITUTE P - Don Carman 1 1 3 D.Evans 4 Strike Out b-0 2 1 3 T.Wallach 6 1 Base Error - SS 3-H 1-2 b-1 gb(SS)x 2 12 D.Thon 5 Foul Out (SS) b-0 bpSI 1-5

There's no way to rest a player for just a game and "resting" a player doesn't really have any effect on that player. In the regular version of Strat-O-Matic there is a setting to prevent a player from being overused but the Sporting News version has no usage controls. It would have been nice though to have a daily line-ups option like how you can pre-assign your starting pitcher for each game in advance.

THURSDAY West Virginia vs. Xavier, 7:10/4:10 PM Washington State vs. North Carolina, 7:27/4:27 PM Western Kentucky vs. UCLA, 9:40/6:40 PM Louisville vs. Tennessee, 9:57/6:57 PM FRIDAY Davidson vs. Wisconsin, 7:10/4:10 PM Stanford vs. Texas, 7:27/4:27 PM Villanova vs. Kansas, 9:40/6:40 PM Michigan State vs. Memphis, 9:57/6:57 PM

Actually Robin is banging Michelle Wie. Guess she didn't know Brooke is the one who'll be a lottery pick but as mentioned she has plenty of her own money. Hopefully they'll have kids so we get a seven foot latin/asian golfer.

The Lopez Twins declared for the NBA Draft. I am sad.

Blackout rules apply to MLB Extra Innings as well and MLB has some ridiculous blackout rules. I can still remember years ago during a free preview week of EI the A's were in Seattle and the game wasn't televised locally yet they still backed it out. Apparently if I were a real fan I should have flown Seattle and bought a ticket to see it person.

Not sure if it has been mentioned or not but a reminder that MLB Extra Innings is free for the opening week as usual. Only two games on right now though, Pirates/Braves and Rangers/Mariners. Braves are now on something called Peachtree TV.