Couple things.  First, we are in need of one more owner for the league drafting tomorrow at Noon ET, 11 a.m. Central.  Please email me at chrisgreising(at)gmail(dot)com if you want in.  Again, its only one spot so first person to email me gets it

Second just wanted to remind everyone that this weekend is the big BCB Fantasy Draft weekend.  Here's the leagues and times:

BCB Fantasy Baseball II - Sunday, March 29, Noon ET

BCB Fantasy Baseball III - Sunday, March 29, 10 p.m. ET

BCB Fantasy Baseball IV - Monday, March 30, 10 p.m. ET

If you signed up, please, show up.  Thanks!  Again, one more owner is needed!

There's this article by Jim Callis of Baseball America that I read today (thanks to MLBtraderumors) about the success rate of first round picks, or more accurately, drafting players which go on to significant careers.  In his estimation, 42 percent of all first round draft picks since 1965 have gone on to "significant" careers.  Callis categorizes significant careers as this:

In terms of significant careers (1,000 at-bats, 300 innings or 100 pitching appearances), 42.1 percent of the first-rounders from 1965-2004 have achieved that distinction. Another 15-30 players from those drafts, such as Josh Hamilton, should reach those milestones, which will move the percentage closer to 44 percent.

Which got me thinking about 1st round draft picks by the Cubs and their success rate.  What I found is that the Cubs completely fail when drafting in the first round.  Of the 44 first round picks the Cubs have had since 1965, only 10 players (22 percent) have gone on to "significant" careers.  Here's the list:

Roger Metzger (1969)

Scott Thompson (1974)

Joe Carter (1981)

Shawon Dunston (1982)

Rafael Palmeiro (1985)

Doug Glanville (1991)

Kerry Wood (1995)

Jon Garland (1997)

Corey Patterson (1998)

Mark Prior (2001)

As you can see, this isn't the most distiguished list of players to ever take the field.  And I would say half those players, Joe Carter, Shawon Dunston, Rafael Palmeiro, Doug Glanville, and Kerry Wood, went on to what would be considered "good" careers.  I am not sure in Callis' estimation what percentage of players go on to good careers.

Another thing I found funny in this article, in a sad sort of way, was this:

The best draft for producing first-round big leaguers was 1990, which went 22-for-26... The 1993 first round did the best job of producing significant big leaguers, going 17-for-28.

In 1990, the Cubs drafted Lance Dickson.  In 1993, the Cubs had two first round draft picks, they drafted Brooks Kieschnick and Jon Ratliff. 

Anyway, just wanted to share this tale of woe with my fellow BCB'ers.

EDIT:  I didn't include Derrick May on the list, which I should have, so it is closer to 27 or 28 percent probably.

Hello All,

Earlier this year I arraigned three fantasy baseball teams for BCB and thought now that the [Cubs] season is officially over with we can give congrats and props to those who won the BCB fantasy leagues and those who placed in the top three.

Neifi Perez Fan Club league:                                                                                                                                                             1st Place: Debaser nee FwP (aka Fairies with Plague)                                                                                                               2nd place: Chicago Beer Nutz                                                                                                                                                           3rd place: Madville Ducks

Jose Macias Fan Club league:                                                                                                                                                           1st Place: Leon Durham Bulls                                                                                                                                                           2nd Place: BruceKimm4HOF                                                                                                                                                             3rd Place:   Sactown Maddies Men (aka Josh77)

Ryno's Happy Place league (aka Super Competitive Keeper League)                                                                                     1st Place: Sacramento Swamp Hawks (aka Josh 77)                                                                                                                         2nd Place: The Fuku Toos                                                                                                                                                                       3rd Place: Leon Durham Bulls

I apologize to all for not having each person's BCB screen name posted.  I have a list but it is back home (about 5,000 miles away).  I do know that Al, our fearless leader, did place last in in the Neifi Perez Fan Club, so feel free to give him a hard time for his performance in fantasy baseball ; )  So if anyone wishes to make their team and accomplishments known but are not recognized in parentheses, please do so.

Again, thanks to all the participants, everyone seemed to participate throughout the year and made the leagues very enjoyable.  I will try to make the BCB fantasy leagues smaller next year and just have more next year, so sorry to all who felt it was too many teams, and it probably was to be honest, for a casual league.

Also, if people could recommend this post, I would appreciate it as I feel those who placed in the top three in their respective leagues should be recognized.  I do not want their accomplishments to get lost in the endless, "give up on the Cubs," and "this is why they suck," fanposts over the last couple days.

Hello Fantasy Sports Fanatics:

I was searching this site and have not been able to locate any Fantasy Hockey Rankings.  This is my first year doing Fantasy Hockey (not a big fan, but just love fantasy sports so I said, "why not") and really have no idea about draft strategies or rankings of players.

I was wondering if anyone had any reliable Fantasy Hockey sites or if there is a rankings/discussion here and I perhaps just missed it.  Since this is my first year doing it, I want to be the Sabres player and not the Bruin in this picture:

via www.guzer.com

Any help you can give would be great and I appreciate any feedback.

"Tests of syringes and other steroid paraphernalia that trainer Brian McNamee submitted to federal agents will test positive for Roger Clemens' DNA, according to a brief filed in court by McNamee's lawyers."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3472451

So, it sounds like Clemens is a big fat liar, surprise, surprise!  I never really liked this guy and I am not afraid to admit that I am watching with glee as this guys career and legacy come crumbling apart.  I read somewhere that he's had to sell his Bentley to help pay for lawyer fees.

He has been willing to throw his wife, teammates, friends, basically anyone, under the bus in an attempt to save face but you can't argue with the results (though I'm sure his lawyers will firgure something out).  

Even until last December, Clemens was a lock for being a first ballot Hall of Famer, now he may not even get in.  Besides maybe Palmero, no player has fallen farther, faster, in my opinion. 

The question, is Roger Clemens no longer a Hall of Famer? 

This was just reported that the Cubs finally landed Brian Roberts for Murton, Ceda, Marshall and Veal.  I don't know about all you but I am SO thankful that we can finally put this to rest!  

Perhaps Hendry didn't like what he saw today and decided he needed to land a game-changing player to put a spark in a pretty anemic offense.  Obviously after today's game, it was clear that there was no hope for this line-up as it was constructed and a move needed to be made A.S.A.P. to salvage the season.  

Here's the links:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=cubs/0919&sportCat=mlb

and

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-osfeature0331,0,7586228.story

Continue reading this post »

Hey Everyone.  I just wanted to let you know that I have sent out invites to all the people who responded to me in regards to Fantasy Baseball.  

I set up two leagues, each with 17 players, worked out that I had 32 requests in all (34 all together including myself in each league).  This way both leagues have an even number of teams and no one gets left out who sent me a request.  

Here's the two leagues and dates/times:

Neifi Perez Fan Club, Thursday. March 13th, 7:30 p.m.

Jose Macias Fan Club, Tuesday. March 11th, 7:30 p.m.

If you haven't received an invite and you sent me an email, let me know.  If you have any other questions, you can email me as well

Thanks and have a good fantasy baseball season (losing to myself)

Fantasy Baseball!!!!

Well, almost, but many sites already have their drafts up ad running.

As we did last year here at BCB, we had different leagues for different levels of passion for fantasy baseball.  I, myself, ran the super-competitive league, or the "My productivity level bottoms out during this time or year" league.  

So, anyway, I was hoping to create another BCB'er only competitive fantasy league.  The format can be discussed with participants later; 5x5?, NL or AL only?, roto?, which ever.  

If you have any questions, please leave a comment or you can email me at ChrisGreising(at)gmail.com if you wish to participate.

Update [2008-2-6 13:41:51 by DTJchris]: Ha ha, oops, I spelled my email wrong, I corrected it though, my bad!

Update [2008-2-6 19:38:33 by DTJchris]: We have enough interest to create a second league and so if anyone is still interested, make you presence known by email.

Update [2008-2-7 12:23:28 by DTJchris]: At this time, based on all the responses, I have filled up enough space for two teams. All of you who sent me an email will be getting a response shortly after I figure everything out. But as of this time, the leagues are looking to be full and would ask that no one send anymore requests at this time.

With absolutely nothing going on in the world of baseball, ESPN is reporting that the Bulls have fired Coach Scott Skiles.  No replacement has been named.  

The Bull have been, perhaps, the biggest disappointment in all of basketball.  They were supposed to be pretty good, but alas, the Bulls are a pretty bad team.

So, some discussion:

Is this a good move by the Bulls?

Who should be his replacement?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3167808

So, some guys got traded today or something?

Anyway, Rookie of the Year awards were handed out and Ryan Braun received it for NL and Dustin Pedroia for AL.

For Pedroia, it wasn't even close, the voting was 132 - 56 over Delmon Young.

For Braun it was actually very close, 128 - 126 over Troy Tulowitzki.  

Here's the espn link: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3106745

Over this past week, espn.com has had a contest of sorts between different people (players, coaches, GM's, Walls, broadcasters, and announcers) from every organization to determine who, or what, is the face of the franchise.  Fans could vote on this issue and they had different personalities chip in on who they felt was the face of the franchise.

Well, today they announced the winners and the face of the Cubs franchise, according to the fan poll, is Zambrano.  The other candidates for the Cubs were Piniella, DLee, ARam, and the Fonz.  

I agree with this and voted for Zambrano myself earlier in the week.  I don't always agree with fan votes but think they had it right this time.  

I was curious what everyone else thought about this and if the fans were correct in choosing Big Z for the face?

Here's the link:http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/face/mlb/index

Here's a good story on Adam Greenberg.  It discusses his dreams of still playing in the majors.   It was really to bad what happened to him and I still really am pulling for the guy.  

Interesting angle is that the talk to de los Santos, the pitcher who hit Greenberg, and how the pitch affected him as well.

Here's the link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2799439

Hey BCB'ers, this is DTJchris, commissioner for the Head-2-Head Super Competetive League for Fantasy Baseball.  The Super Competetive League has split in two, ROTO and H2H. We are looking for atleast 2 more people who want to try their hand at our league, H2H.  

So, anybody out there willing to compete against the best and the brightest in all things Fantasy, email me at ChrisGreising@gmail.com

The "Super Competitive League" of BCB Fantasy Baseball is splitting into two different leagues, one ROTO and another H2H.  

I, DTJchris, have volunteered to be commissioner for SCL but since it is becoming two leagues, will be commissioner for the H2H league.  

So, a couple people through email have expressed interest in being commissioner for a second SCL.  Please state in this Diary who you are and how to contact you.  

Also, if you are interested in H2H or ROTO, plase do so in this diary or email me for H2H at:

ChrisGreising(at)gmail(dot)com

There's a new article up at Thesmokinggun.com that talks about a man being charged with extorting money from a St. Louis athlete, who they never name.  Apparantly this athlete met the man's daughter at a night club and knocked her up.  

In the article, the athlete is refered to as, 'P.A.', and that got me thinking, "hmmm...P.A., Pujols, Albert"  So yeah, just thought I would throw that one out there if anybody else can come up with what 'P.A.' could mean.

Here's the link to the story:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0124072extort1.html

Anyway, it's just that I hate the freaking cardinals and wouldn't mind finding out that their poster boy is not so squeeky clean after all.

Don't know who out there in BCB land have seen this but it's on both MLB.com and Cubs.com about the progress of Prior, Miller, and Wood but the link is below

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070117&content_id=1780798&vkey news_chc&fext.jsp&c_id=chc

(sorry, don't know how to format links)

But it pretty much says that Prior is throwing off the mound and has Hendry saying, 'the reports are encouraging' and that Prior is 'doing well'

So, BCBers, do you think this is more Hendry Newspeak or that it is possible that Prior is going to be a factor in the upcoming season?  Cause god knows I am, and I'm sure the rest of you are too, tired of hearing  positive reports on Prior and then being disappointed yet again.

Hey all BCB'ers, I live in Minneapolis to attend college and have tickets for the entire series this weekend, so I was just wondering if anybody else out there in cubbieland will be attending any of the games?

Just to warn all of you that are going in advance, the Dome really sucks for watching baseball.  

As of right now, at this moment, which player(s) on the Cubs deserve to be on the all-star team this year?  

I would say the only player would be Maddux.  At one point both Barrett and Walker could be considered but they haven't performed very well the last few weeks or so.  Zambrano has been strong his last couple outings but started off pretty sad.  

So what does everyone think?

I have an informative speech coming up in my Public Speeking class.  The topic I have choosen is "The Anguish Cubs Fans Endure."  So, I am curious about different stories people have concerning this topic.  Obviously I will include the 100 years without a W.S. Title, the Billy Goat, and Steve Bartman.  So it will be half history/half sob story (for lack of a better phrase).  Please discuss.  

If there is any material out there people think I should read or websites as well, please post those also.  

As the title implies, yes, it is still early but in my opinion, it's really never to early to discuss Fantasy Baseball.  It's more of an addiction then a hobby (sorta like the Cubs).  I work at a book store and the first fantasy baseball magazine has already hit the stands.  Last year I was lucky enough to draft D-Lee in like the 4th round and you all know how well he did!  Probably single-handedly got me to the World Series of Fantasy Baseball, which I eventually lost by default.  

Anyway, I am curious about who does fantasy baseball on this site.  And if anybody does (which I'm sure some of us Cubbie lovers do) what are some strategies for drafting?  As any of you know that do participate in F.B. draft day is by far the most exciting day of F.B. there is.  

Also, what are some of the different sites that people do?  I always go with ESPN.com's fantasy baseball.  It's a little pricey and I hate giving them money but it's a great format.  Usually I buy 3 teams from this site and have 3 different strategies for each team.  One team is pitching focused, the other is hitting focused, and the last is a mix of both.  

So yeah, please discuss amongst yourselves; Sleepers, Busts, Strategies, Sites and other topics all related to Fantasy Baseball

As reported on ESPNews, Nomar just signed a 1-year deal with the L.A. Dodgers.  I suddenly really hate the Dodgers.  Why are they carrying 3 shortstops?  Izturis, Furcal, Garciaparra.  

I know that Nomar will probably not be at Short but still.  Are they going to play him at 3rd?  In the outfield?  I am curious.  

I say the Dodgers are now the Evil Empire of the West.  Except that they don't care about pitching, just signing infielders.  Hope they fail miserably.  Not Nomar, do wish him luck with the future, it's not his fault Hendry cut all ties with him.  

On Cubs.com right now, there are two articles on the WBC.  I am not sure how I feel about this championship yet.  It sorta seems like players participating in the event will (possibly) tire out closer to sooner during the regular season.  It takes place over a few weeks in March, right before Spring Training.  If anything, I feel that it will effect pitchers more then position players and Zambrano is already said he will pitch for Venezuela.

Kinda curious what everyone thinks about this World Baseball Championship?  And do you think it will it effect players performance?