EVIL~! alkeiper

Bullshit. Baseball is not in dire financial straits. It is highly profitable, and EASILY the second most popular sport in the nation. Not one franchise drew under a million fans last season. The best argument I heard is that visiting teams deserve a portion of the revenue.

Umm. Isn't the general idea of a fantasy league to have star players? Then you pick up role players when you need help in a particular category. Field Goal % is somewhat misleading because you have guys like AI who miss a lot of shots. Why? Because they're the guys who have to make shots at the end of the shot clock, rather than just letting it expire. Field Goal % is also heavily weighted towards centers, making Shaq and Duncan more valuable. Adding FT % only balances this, but does nothing to correct the imbalance you say causes this change in the first place.

I don't like turnovers and fouls. Fouls are entirely dependant upon the quality of a player, and based almost on pure chance, ESPECIALLY when used as a late game strategy tactic. Fantasy basketball should be a game of skill, not luck. Turnovers are rarely a reliable indicator of ball-handling skill, and are more indicative simply on who is given the ball more.

Sweet 1st round performance from Kyle Korver.

Here's a question. Are the Yankees profitable? I honestly believe they are, in which case there's no room for complaint about the Yankees. There's nothing wrong with what they do, except they are completely mortgaging their future.

Right. When has A-Rod gotten ANY kind of negative press? By all accounts he's one of baseball's good guys.

The Cap is not a bad idea. It'd stop all of this "Buy whoever, whenever, whereever" we want BS the Yankees got going. Anyways, I agree - this doesn't make the Yankees the favorite still in my book. Pitching owns offense, and Boston still has the edge in that, and PLUS - they still have a great offense themselfs. Boston is still my pick to take the East. The cap hasn't helped other sports at all. Parity in the NFL is due to the lack of guaranteed contracts. For the Yankees, their recklessness will cost them down the road.

You could do rough estimates, but you can't say before the season starts, especially since many teams are still waiting on arbitration results.

Keepers. Bad idea. If we had known about keepers earlier, some might have played differently (i.e. draft LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony). Up to now I've made roster decisions with this year only in mind. Its changing the rules mid-game. Stats. If anything, we should have less. Points, Rebounds, Assists, Steals, Blocks. Simple as that. Percentages lean towards centers, and I think we agree they aren't better shooters than guards. Turnovers are a loss in possession, and are counted by less points, assists, etc. anyway. One suggestion for next season. Waiver priority should depend on standings.

Courtesy of espn.com, for 2003...... 1. NY Yankees 156,948,495 2. Los Angeles 115,764,287 3. Boston 100,651,177 4. Atlanta 99,195,593 5. San Francisco 89,052,167 6. Seattle 87,184,500 7. NY Mets 86,341,429 8. Chicago Cubs 86,252,833 9. St. Louis 84,106,269 10. Arizona 75,914,933 11. Texas 72,941,367 12. Philadelphia 70,452,500 13. Chicago Sox 68,949,684 14. Anaheim 68,325,467 15. Minnesota 67,795,500 16. Baltimore 67,502,275 17. Houston 66,864,840 18. Colorado 59,711,017 19. Cincinnati 58,436,777 20. Florida 52,538,298 21. Oakland 49,277,634 22. Cleveland 47,610,134 23. Detroit 46,564,000 24. Montreal 45,834,500 25. San Diego 44,524,500 26. Kansas City 43,323,500 27. Pittsburgh 42,106,059 28. Milwaukee 27,887,000 29. Toronto 27,523,500 30. Tampa Bay 18,730,000

I really hate the Yankees. With that said, the salary cap is a bad idea. Besides, its not like the Yankees are runaway favorites.

Unfortunately no.

Taking a look at Win Shares, A-Rod had 32 last year, while Soriano had 27. That works out to a nearly two win improvement in the standings. Good, but hardly something that makes the Yankees instant favorites. They still have a big hole in the infield. Even moreso, as Miguel Cairo and Enrigue Wilson are barely even good players.

You'll always have that in all-star games. There's no time for the team to learn together, develop teamwork, coordination, etc.

Oy. I'm not liking this at all. Fantasy games should be relatively simple. This is getting out of hand.

Don't you mean FOUR?

You're underselling Vazquez there. His poor record is due to pitching for Montreal. With his peripherals, there's no reason he shouldn't compile a winning record. In fact, 20 wins is easily within reach. Here's the problem with the Yankees. If the entire team stayed healthy, they'd be historically great. But they already have one serious injury. Brown has an injury history, as does Jon Lieber. With the little depth the Yankees have, the team could COLLAPSE. In which case, 83 wins is not out of the realm of possibility. As for the trade, I'll believe it when I see it. BAD trade for the Rangers, as there is no appreciable pitching help on the market. No reason to trade A-Rod before the next offseason. They'll lose more games this season, and alienate their fans. The Yankees, meanwhile, would hold two players making $19 million and $25 million, counting on one of them to play third base. Between Rodriguez and Jeter, they've played one inning of third base in their careers, and that was A-Rod in the 2001 All Star Game. I wish the Rangers would give up this trading A-Rod crap. They're not going to improve their team that way.

Count me in on that one Tom.

I actually remember him from the boxing mags when I read them religiously in 96/97. Nothing spectacular about him, and I was frankly surprised he was still around.

The sad thing is I had heard of him long before the Wlad fight. I think. Its tricky because there is a Corey Sanders as well, also a heavyweight.

Vitali Klitschko and Corrie Sanders are negotiating for a fight, possibly April 24th. If this fight occurs, Ring Magazine will recognize the winner as the World Heavyweight Champion.

I really think you should switch to a rotisserie format. In basketball, its common for one player to have two games in a week while another player has four. This creates a drastic advantage/disadvantage in head-to-head competition. I don't think basketball works well for a week-by-week basis.

At least with Donovan, Adu, and Johnny Beazley there's hope for the future. The sport needs charasmatic, exciting stars. These guys could deliver.

You can add Cincinnati's Dan O'Brien to that list, though he says hes half and half. The Yankees' Brian Cashman is along sabermetric lines, but not completely.

Source A far cry from the whole stadium chanting Osama. Of course the fans will boo the US players, given that its their home country and that we invaded a sovereign nation without provocation, but I don't see a big deal out of it.