Precious Roy

Adrian Gonzalez is a Rd. 3 keeper, try again

For the second year in a row I'm spending my first round pick on Chipper Jones. Welcome back Chipper! And with the first pick of rd. 2 I'll take a guy I almost drafted last year, Brandon Phillips. He's totally psyched to be joining the defending champs.

I've got no problem with that rule. Pretty stupid though since nobody should be taking that kind of gamble with their early picks.

And the Celtics on Friday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIF_ucHzbIk Haha, he didn't "punch" him and no way should he have been ejected from the game. But still that was a dirty play. Holding a guy down so he can't get up, then letting up so you can shove him back down is not how you block someone. He got flagged for it so I don't see the need for controversy.

How the fuck can a team play 32 minutes or whatever and not score a single point??!?! That's just...words fail me...I would think even five absolutely terrible basketball players could collectively manage to put the ball in the basket once, at least get to the foul line a couple times. I wish there was a video of this game, shit sounds epic. And if the reason they got crushed so bad is that the team was full of retards, well then really the game shouldn't have taken place. They haven't won a game in 4 fucking years? Maybe they should stick to gym class rather than actual athletic contests. Blame the school administrators who scheduled the game, don't blame the coach.

Do you really think Roberts would come close to that on the open market?

Is that a laptop on that kid's tray? Is that Marvinisalunatic?!?!!

If it's not too late to make changes to keepers I'd like to switch out Matt Garza (rd. 8) for Mariano Rivera (rd. 5)

My domination will continue for another season

I'm picking the Eagles. The way Arizona has been playing it wouldn't surprise me to see them win, but I really won't be 100% sold on them until I see them hoisting the Lombardi trophy. A win in this game would go a long way towards convincing me they're for real, but I still feel like I'm just suspending disbelief at this point. I mean, I watched this same team get absolutely destroyed by the Patriots in week 16, and by the Eagles on Thanksgiving, and I'm just waiting for them to come back to earth. Winning on the road in Carolina was a notch in their belt for sure, Delhomme shitting the bed not withstanding, and it's surely in their favor to play at home, but I still have a wait and see approach. Even if they beat Philly I don't think I'd pick them against either AFC team.

It pisses me off that Jim Rice is in and Don Mattingly probably has to wait for a veterans committee vote 30-40 years from now to even sniff the Hall. I think Raines, Trammell and Dawson should probably be in, but I grew up watching baseball in the 80's and early 90's so I'm probably biased. I wouldn't have a problem with Jack Morris getting in, I acknowledge the arguments for and against and don't really have a strong opinion either way. The more years that go by the more I feel like McGwire should be in. I kind of hope he makes it eventually. A legitimate (I guess) question is does Bonds make it in first ballot. I think that obviously he should, and if he does that will probably help the case for Big Mac.

How about a tag match with Austin & Undertaker against HBK and JBL? Working tag protects Austin, it's the 4 Texas guys in one match, and they could do the Michaels "face turn" at the end and do the beer celebration with Austin, Taker and HBK. It's got a predictable finish and they'd have to go harder with Michaels becoming a more willing ally to Bradshaw, but it could work, and would be a great setup for a HBK/JBL match at Backlash with some kind of freedom/money v. career stip.

Consistently winning the big games? Have they even played a truly "big game" yet this year? Let alone enough of them to say they consistently win them? Their first "big game" came against the Colts in week 8 when Indy was 3-3. The biggest game of the year hype/record wise for them was vs. the Jets and they were beat convincingly. I don't mean to discredit the Titans' success this year, they had a great regular season, but that's all it was, they really don't have the makings of a reliable top seed.

Marbury would go to Boston with a huge chip on his shoulder. He's playing for a contract and knows that GMs around the league would be looking to see how well he assimilates himself as a role player on an established team. He may want to start but he's smart enough to know that he can do a lot to rebuild his image with an opportunity like that. He played hard and unselfish in the preseason expecting to earn a spot in D'Antoni's rotation, and I'd expect him to do the same if he ends up in Boston.

Ravens Steelers Giants Panthers

Is the schedule really all that brutal anymore? It's kind of an outdated cliche. In a typical week there are 3 or 4 days off. There are never shows on Wednesday or Thursday, and with the new Smackdown taping schedule those guys now have every other Tuesday off, and of course the RAW guys always have Tuesday off. A full plate of weekend house shows for one brand is the exception now and not the norm. A brand might go Friday on, Saturday off, Sunday on, or Friday/Saturday on, Sunday off, you get the idea. Occasionally SD has a Monday house show, but when that happens it means they had one less over the weekend or I guess now it would be done in the off week of taping TV. And the loops they work generally make geographic sense. The days of guys crisscrossing the country by air and 12 hour car rides are long gone. The travel is not unreasonable. A quick look at WWE.com tells me RAW this month has 15 live dates, and that's including TV and the Rumble. Smackdown has 14. It's not like guys are constantly on the road and working every night, there is a lot of downtime built into the schedules. Really the easiest thing to do would be to give guys a week off between TV here and there rather than mandatory scheduled months off. A lot of guys wouldn't want that much time off. It would be a lot easier convincing someone to skip the weekend house shows than to sit at home for a month or two off of TV collecting their downside.

MVP! MVP! Pennington is just having fun out there.

Miami is in serious trouble here

Right now I'd bet on them putting Jericho and Rey together. It's an easy marquee feud/match to put together and it's never been done in WWE. I imagine Punk will be in the Money In the Bank match again to add some gimmick and star power to it. I really like the idea of Edge & Christian vs. the Hardys. They'd have to work out what would happen with the Smackdown title, but that would be far better than a Jeff v. Christian singles match. Make it a TLC and bring back Lita for one night to do a face turn on Vickie and it would be just about perfect. I really don't want to see HHH v. Edge for the title, not that it wouldn't be a good match but HHH is so played out in that role. He's about due to go heel again anyway, I'd like to see him in MITB, have him win and then he can turn while holding the briefcase down the line.

For real. Milton Bradley is a talent, but for that kind of money why don't they go after Dunn or Abreu? I guess you could argue that a healthy A-game Bradley could be more productive and have a bigger impact on that club, at his best he's probably the most dangerous hitter of the three, but you have no idea if you're going to get that from him. Bradley in the pressure and spotlight of Chicago playing for Pinella is a highly combustible equation.

Here's Steve with his thoughts on the trade At least he doesn't have to play in Canada

St Louis On Manny, I personally think the Yankees need to do whatever it takes to sign him. A lot of people have the attitude that the Yankee offense is still stacked or at least in good enough shape that they don't need him, and it really isn't. They performed well below expectations last year and have lost two of their best hitters in Giambi and Abreu. Giambi had an OPS+ of 128, Abreu 120. It's unreasonable to expect Swisher and Nady to replace that production. Really the only sure things in the Yankee lineup are Damon, Rodriguez and probably Jeter to have a bounce back year at the plate. Posada and Matsui have serious injury concerns and who knows which Robbie Cano will show up. Pitching should obviously be much improved this year, and while I'm all for the idea of putting a good defensive club on the diamond, the reality is that they could add a gold glove defensive wiz to the outfield rather than a power bat and it wouldn't make that much of a difference when the team is at best average at the other 8 positions and has to live with the shortcomings of Jeter, Damon, Posada etc. I could live with an outfield of Manny/Damon/Nady for one year. I believe both Damon and Matsui are in walk years. In the offseason you can spend some of that money to replace them with better defensive players in center and left, and move Manny to DH for the remainder of his contract. You'd probably have to let Manny play the field a couple games a week to keep him happy, but so be it. Or if Posada can no longer catch and has to be DH'd at least they can put someone with range in center field.

Furcal is a good player but that signing looks like as much a PR move as it is a baseball decision. Kelly Johnson's bat is far more valuable at second, so unless there's a trade in the works for a Peavy or Greinke I think they would have been better off putting that $10 mil towards an outfielder like Dunn, Burrell or Abreu.

Late on Sabathia, but there's not much to say that hasn't already been said. Yes, they overpaid. Yes, he would have preferred to play in California. Yes, all the uncertainty in the economy hurt the market for him. Yes, the Yankees still wildly overpaid! Yes, the New York media is fixated on comparing him to Johan Santana and seems intent on downgrading Sabathia now that he's in the fold. I'm just glad my team got the best pitcher on the market, a guy who seems to be a genuinely likable personality who'll be fun to root for, who's improved in measurable ways over the course of his career, and when he's on his A game is as good as anyone out there. I hope for everyone's sake he can live up to the price tag. I don't know what to think about the Yankees apparently closing in on Burnett. Even at his best I think it's highly debatable if he's one of the 20-25 best starters in the game, and with his injury history and inconsistency I'd be very hesitant to give him a 5 year deal at that kind of money. I'd rather have Ben Sheets on what would likely be a shorter, cheaper more incentive based contract. He's really no more of an injury risk and at his best is pretty clearly the better pitcher. Lowe I do like but I wouldn't want him on anything longer than a two year deal and I don't know how good of a fit he'd really be for the Yankees. I'd roll the dice on him for a year or two, but no thanks on a 4 year deal. I'd be happy with Cameron for one year. The shine came off Melky this past season. It was his year to sink or swim with CF all to himself and he regressed and ended up demoted to the minors. Sooner than later Austin Jackson is going to get his chance and Melky is clearly no longer in the long term plans, so it makes sense to get a year of a proven commodity like Cameron while Jackson waits in the wings than to risk another season of the total blackhole of suck that was Melky at the plate in 2008. I'm not crazy about Cameron or anything, he'll be 36 when this season starts, his OBP has never been anything special, I'd be happy with his career number of .340 but would go in expecting less, and he strikes out a lot. But as far as realistic center field options go he's one of the best for this team. He's still good in the field and has some pop in his bat and hasn't really shown any signs of slowing down yet. I think you could reasonably expect another career average-ish year out of him, which all in all is above average and a pretty good deal when you're only counting on him for one year. Plus, it adds a needed righty bat to the lineup and if it's true that he's tight with Sabathia that could be a good thing as well.