Bored

My thoughts exactly. This offline draft idea seems way too tedious. Like I said there's no money at stake here, who cares if everyone can't show up? It's more important that everyone stays involved during the season than getting everyone to be there for the draft. Let's just do it this Monday or the following Monday during Raw and bang it out in one night. It will only take a couple of hours.

In all seriousness it's near impossible to get 100% particpation in a live draft so no matter what time it is not everyone is going to make it. It's a free league anyways, no one's money is on the line so if someone gets a bad draft because they can't make it (me included) then well that's the way it is.

A sad day for college football...Mike Williams is entering the NFL Draft. Flood gates are now open.

$8.6 million. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1739475

Mark Brunell and the Redskins have agreed on a deal, get ready for this: 7 years, $43.3 million.

These are totally off the top of my head and I'll probably change a bunch before the season starts. AL West 1. A's 2. Angels 3. Mariners 4. Rangers AL Central 1. Royals 2. Twins 3. White Sox 4. Indians 5. Tigers AL East 1. Yankees 2. Red Sox (WC) 3. Blue Jays 4. Orioles 5. Devil Rays NL West 1. Diamondbacks 2. Giants 3. Padres 4. Dodgers 5. Rockies NL Central 1. Astros 2. Cubs (WC) 3. Cardinals 4. Reds 5. Pirates 6. Brewers NL East 1. Phillies 2. Braves 3. Marlins 4. Expos 5. Mets Now the playoffs have been so unpredictable in recent years I figured I'll just flip a coin for each match-up. LDS (first team listed is heads, second team tails) A's vs. Red Sox Yankees vs. Royals Astros vs. Diamondbacks Phillies vs. Cubs Winners: A's, Royals, Diamondbacks, Cubs LCS A's vs. Royals Diamondbacks vs. Cubs Winners: A's, Cubs World Series A's vs. Cubs Winner: A's (OMG BIASED COIN!)

If Pujols really is as young as he says he is (some question about that) then he's worth every penny. If he's a couple of years older he's still worth it. Similar batters through Age 23 (from baseball-reference.com) 1. Joe DiMaggio (951) * 2. Jimmie Foxx (917) * 3. Hal Trosky (902) 4. Joe Medwick (893) * 5. Hank Aaron (893) * 6. Vladimir Guerrero (889) 7. Frank Robinson (882) * 8. Orlando Cepeda (878) * 9. Ted Williams (877) * 10. Stan Musial (873) * * - Signifies Hall of Famer

It's official, pending league approval, Rasheed Wallace is traded to the Pistons in a three-way deal also involving Boston. Pistons get: Rasheed Wallace Mike James Hawks get: Bob Sura Chris Mills Zeljko Rebraca Bucks No. 1 pick (edit: thru Detroit) Celtics get: Chucky Atkins Lindsey Hunter Pistons No. 1 pick Cash

Albert Pujols reportedly agrees to a 7-year, $100 million deal with the Cardinals. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-c...ov=ap&type=lgns

Rebels of Oakland (flik's league), The Gallegos (Tom's leage), Nippon Ham Fighters (al's NL league), and BillBavasiOverdrive (al's AL League) will be bringing home four titles!

Tom had mentioned it in the offseason thread last week. Could just delete your league and people could then join Tom's. Al has an AL-only and NL-only league so there are plenty of league's for people to join.

I joined your league Al as the Nippon Ham Fighters. Already dreading auto drafting Terrence Long.

I'm the Rebels of Oakland. Oh and I agree that the date has to be changed to the weekend if your going to have a live draft. I checked and there are weekend dates available so maybe just try again. At the very least hold the draft at night during the week.

From The Smoking Gun

Yes how dare Jackie Robinson take away Mariano Rivera's future special moment! Anyways the biggest name player wearing #42 when they retired it in 1997 was Mo Vaughn and obviously no one is retiring his number. Rivera might be the last player wearing #42 in baseball although that I'd have to actually research. I'm sure Rivera will feel just as special having his Yankee #42 retired. Edit: Rivera is the last player in baseball wearing #42.

I'd wager good money that Scott Boras was the one who leaked the "rumor" that the Yankees were interested. Probably was able to get that third year out of the Cubs because of that rumor.

Hey look its Bill Plaschke. Williams knees are shot right now and he can't play the outfield everyday anymore. I really felt they should have looked for trade opportunities with him this offseason. Sucks for them that Giambi can't last everyday at 1st either.

I love how he says the A's always overachieve. How do you overachieve for four straight years? You win 396 games in four seasons you have to be doing something right. I can't wait for Plaschke to jump all over DePodesta when the Dodgers hover around .500 this year even though DePodesta was hired right before Spring Training and had nothing to do with their lackluster offseason. You know its going to happen.

Sure there is. People make more money in NYC than in other places. Go talk to KC and see how much the locals make there. Then the owners have to adjust ticket prices to suit the people who live around their team. You really don't know much of sports economics if you think every team can openly throw $200mill out to players and not go bankrupt. Not everyone but Carl Poland, BILLIONAIRE owner of the Twins could if he wanted but he chooses not to. Not defending Steinbrenner as the Yankees pull a profit every year even with their payroll. If he had to handle a small market team and dip into his own money I don't know if he'd be so generous. There are plenty of owners out there who have the money to spend but just simply don't want to. It's a shame because the Poland's, David Glass', and Steve Schott's of the world could help prevent the Yankees (and Red Sox for that matter, how soon you Boston fans forget) from signing and trading for so many high priced players. The Yankees don't only sign these players because they have the money, they also sign them because other teams are unwilling to pay the going rate for many of them.

Again Greg Maddux is not the four-time Cy Young winner, first ballot hall of famer anymore. He's now a 38-year old league average pitcher. This isn't that big of a deal.

It's reported he is about to sign although it's far from official. At any rate I'm here to talk people off the ledge. Greg Maddux was only a slightly above average pitcher last year. He had his worst season in 16 years since his rookie year. He's going to be 38 years old. Greg Maddux is not Greg Maddux anymore. That being said he does make a better 5th starter than Jon Lieber.

Nevermind that OBP is far more important than batting average, Reese has never hit higher than .285. The Red Sox aren't a running team so Reese isn't going to have many opportunites to steal. God damn third in line! Fine let me add something. Here is Reese's yearly OPS+ numbers. Of course an OPS+ of 100 means you were an average hitter for that year. 1997: 50 1998: 70 1999: 89 2000: 73 2001: 62 2002: 76 2003: 41 Yikes.

Here were are only a month from WrestleMania XX and to my knowledge their appears to be no McMahon involvement planned in terms of a match or storyline. Not that I'm dying to have a McMahon involved in anything to do with the show but this is a show they've been hyping for a year and considering the last five WrestleMania's has had a McMahon in a match or involved in a major storyline for WrestleMania. I'm shocked Vince and company haven't tried to make themselves a focal point for this show. Is it really possible we'll get a McMahon free WrestleMania?

Here is Joe Lunardi's latest Bracketology. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology Since we're just about a month away from the tournament and because I'm Bored here is the seeding breadkown according to Lunardi's projections: #1 seeds: Saint Joseph's, Duke, Stanford, Mississippi State #2 seeds: Kentucky, Oklahoma State, Gonzaga, Pittsburgh #3 seeds: Connecticut, Providence, Louisville, N.C. State #4 seeds: LSU, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Texas #5 seeds: North Carolina, Memphis, Wake Forest, Cincinnati #6 seeds: Kansas, Maryland, Georgia Tech, Arizona #7 seeds: Charlotte, Florida, Southern Illinois, Illinois #8 seeds: Seton Hall, Syracuse, Texas Tech, Dayton #9 seeds: Oklahoma, Kent State, Air Force, Utah #10 seeds: Michigan State, Utah State, Hawaii, DePaul #11 seeds: Florida State, UAB, Boston College, Vanderbilt #12 seeds: Nevada, Purdue, Alabama, Western Michigan #13 seeds: Virginia Commonwelth, Manhattan, Troy State, Wisconson-Milwaukee #14 seeds: Boston University, East Tennessee State, Lafayette, Louisiana-Lafayette #15 seeds: Princeton, East Washington, Monmouth, Austin Peay #16 seeds: Valpariso, Mississippi Valley State, SE Louisana, Liberty/Coppin State Here is the latest Top 25 teams in the RPI ratings from collegerpi.com 1. Saint Joseph's 22-0 2. Duke 21-2 3. Kentucky 17-4 4. Mississippi State 21-1 5. Stanford 21-0 6. N.C. State 16-5 7. Connecticut 19-5 8. Louisville 17-4 9. Gonzaga 21-2 10. Providence 17-5 11. Oklahoma State 18-2 12. Florida 14-7 13. Pittsburgh 22-2 14. LSU 17-4 15. Texas 17-4 16. North Carolina 15-7 17. Wisconsin 17-4 18. Seton Hall 15-6 19. Kansas 14-6 20. Texas Tech 18-6 21. Georgia Tech 18-6 22. Wake Forest 15-6 23. Southern Illinois 20-2 24. Alabama 12-9 25. Syracuse 16-5

But there's no reason Maddux would want to pitch in that ballpark with that team. It'd take him a lot longer to get to 300 with the Rangers. Also signing him won't get them out of last place this year and he obviously wouldn't be a long term solution to their pitching problems.