The Man in Blak

Yeah, there's been a precipitous decline through ALL of ESPN's baseball programming - Kruk's brought an infectious idiocy to the proceedings on Baseball Tonight (who'da thunk it?), Joe Morgan is becoming less objective and more "angry old man"-ish, and Peter Gammons is about three years overdue for TV retirement.

Yeah, just compare and contrast Tony and Wilbon from PTI when they first started to how they are now - Kornheiser has fully assumed the "loud old man" role and just about played it out.

I'm a little surprised that Arizona would be in dead last, considering that they nearly stole the game from St. Louis. I'd put the Patriots on top and the 49ers in the basement.

Speaking of phenom, how's that Brad Halsey kid holding up?

Who else is available on your waiver wire?

Unless your league counts receptions, Clayton's probably not going to light the world on fire. The thing with Driver is that he still has some inexplicable name value, even though he's long removed from his Pro Bowl year - you've got to trade him to some schmuck with cheese on his head for somebody like David Terrell.

yeah, spin dat shit *wik wikka* *wik wik* *also wik* ...*ahem* Sorry.

Depends on how much you're willing to gamble. At this very moment, Graham could potentially turn out to be a Top 5 TE - he's starting to emerge as one of Brady's favorite endzone targets and (in most cases) drops don't count in fantasy football. However, Ben Watson is nipping on his heels and, even though the New England spread offense will probably put them both onto the field, that will mean a decrease in looks for Graham once Watson settles into the offense. Remember, Watson held out this preseason and, thus, is a step behind on the system. If you were really enterprising, you could pick up Graham, hold onto him for the next couple of weeks as he builds his fantasy value, then trade him at his peak before Watson catches up to the offense. Even though Graham is a great tight end, he's still a tight end and there's a ton of serviceable TE talent in the league this year. So, if you're a gambler (or you want to play the hot hand), pick up Graham and spin him for a WR3 in a couple of weeks. If you want to play more conservatively, pick up Eric Johnson or Dallas Clark and slot them into your lineup for the rest of the year.

Even then, is there really anything that a fan could say that would warrant physical assault? Francisco could have taken the high road and asked that the fan in question be ejected. I agreed with everything you said except for this. Is that what it ultimately comes down to? A player has to ask that someone be ejected for heckling? They were just talking about this on the Dan Patrick show, and Kruk actually made a really good point. If a player goes to his manager, his teammates or to the umpire himself, are his teammates still going to respect him? Unlikely, since he's supposed to be focused at all times on the field and not even hear the fans. So what's a manager going to say? "Deal with it. " I'm not insisting that players be able to pick and choose between what fans they want at the stadium as if they were going through jury selection. All I'm saying is that if the heckling really did get to such a ridiculous level that Francisco felt he had no choice but to do something about it (which is fairly laughable in itself), then instead of blowing his top and throwing furniture, he should have simply asked security to do their job and kick the fan's ass to the curb.

Fair enough - if they're going to detract from everybody else's experience, then it's the stadium's (and MLB's) responsibility to remedy the situation. Hence, the lawsuits towards the stadium and Major League Baseball. Fans should never have to even have the thought of potential violence enter their mind, from other fans or from players on the field. Even then, is there really anything that a fan could say that would warrant physical assault? Francisco could have taken the high road and asked that the fan in question be ejected. Wrong. With Alomar, the offense was merely a show of disrespect. With Tom Gamboa, which you so sarcastically brought up later on, the offense involved a fan going far over the line. There should never be any physical altercations between the fans or the players, period. If you want to sign autographs, fine. If you want to talk smack back, fine. It's heinous when a fan flips out and somehow rationalizes that attacking a coach on the field is acceptable. But it is NO less heinous when a player, whose salary comes as a result of the fan's money, flashes back to fucking grade school to take out his frustrations.

Okay, then switch it to the city of Oakland. Either way, it's going to get messy.

Both guys were banged up in the last game, but the difference (in terms of Eric Johnson's production) between them would be negligible, in my opinion. In fact, you could contend that Dorsey might be more apt to lean on his TEs due to his lack of NFL experience.

Oh ho ho. Don't sell yourself short. She's got many potential lawsuits ahead of her: Francisco, the Texas Rangers, the security at the stadium, the Oakland A's (for owning the stadium), Major League Baseball...

I haven't seen the incident but, honestly, you don't really have to - if he reached over and attacked a fan, he's gone from the game. Not for this season, not for next season. He's BANNED, if Selig is in touch with reality at all. People pay to sit in those seats and take in the baseball experience. What they choose to do with that experience is up to them - whether it be to get drunk and sing showtunes the whole damn game, sit quietly and soak in the ambience, or - heaven forbid - heckle the players. Players shouldn't interact with the fans, save for autographs or maybe some smack talk. This crosses the line completely and, if not dealt with correctly, will put a smear on the game.

Jones for Keyshawn is an awful deal, but for the exact reverse of what the other guy said. Even though a few pundits may view Jones' grasp on the starting job in Chicago as tenuous, he'll put up decent numbers while he's there and good numbers from a running back are ALWAYS worth more than okay-to-good numbers from a super-overrated wideout. Moss is untradable, so you're on the right track for that deal. Griffin for Hines Ward would be a nice deal, though, depending on your depth at WR and your scoring system. I'd keep an eye on Jordan throughout the season, but don't burn a roster spot on him, especially while Curtis Martin looks to be primed for a renaissance. Dump Pollard for Eric Johnson. The 49ers line is AWFUL and Rattay/Dorsey are going to be checking down to Johnson more than enough times. Clark isn't a bad idea either, since he's supplanted Pollard as the TE "threat" in Indy.

If Culpepper somehow drops five TDs on the Eagles, you might as well cancel the rest of the season and just give the title to Minnesota. Somehow I don't think Culpepper is going to end the season with 80 TD passes. Er...yeah. The hyperbole was kind of the whole point of what I said.

If Culpepper somehow drops five TDs on the Eagles, you might as well cancel the rest of the season and just give the title to Minnesota.

Yeah, for all those people who scoffed when I said to bench Fred Taylor for Quentin Griffin in one of the fantasy threads way back, feel free to drive through and pick up your plate of crow. I've got more than enough for everybody.

SHEEEEEEYIT. Overall, I'm in quite a conundrum - in one league, I'm behind by 30 points, with Brett Favre and Robert Ferguson left to play. In another league, however, I'm ahead by 30 points and my opponent has Favre. So, let's say 250 yards and 2 TDs (one to Ferguson).

I would have voted for PTI in a heartbeat a year ago, but the show has just about jumped the shark, with CONSTANT fill-ins (how many vacations can these guys have?) and mediocre argumentation when one of the guys is even there. All three of them tend to suck - I guess PTI sucks the least, just based on track record. Frighteningly enough, I'd give I, Max the second place nod over Around the Horn, which was pretty bad even when Kellerman was still hosting.

I'll definitely be rooting for him, since I inadvertently left seven innings of shutout ball from Ben Sheets on my bench in the SNKT fantasy baseball league (never, EVER, trust Yahoo's probables).

Given the "talent" that the Mets' front office provided him to work with, I think the expectations were more than a little unfair for Howe. Too bad none of the brass will fall on the sword, considering that they were the ones with bright ideas like signing Mo Vaughn to a long-term contract, or trading away their farm system for Nuke Laloosh and Anna Benson.

I don't think it would be exaggeration to say that Galloway and Brown are barely half of the players that they were, say, four years ago.

Hilarious - I just heard a report that Baker held Alou and Ramirez out of the first game with Pavano because they were like 1 for 9 lifetime against the guy. Not exactly a big enough sample size to warrant playing Ramon Martinez, who's probably 1 for 9 lifetime against every active pitcher in baseball.

Is this more in Fripp territory or Eno territory?