So I was supposed to write an article this morning, but couldn't log in. Oops.

Yesterday I was watching Baseball IQ on MLB network and the MLB.com fantasy expert couldn't name 1 guy out of the top 20 active stolen base leaders. Really? Your job is fantasy baseball expert for MLB, and after the guy who worked for the Hall of Fame said Juan Pierre you had nothing? Really? That's terrible.

Especially considering they exclusively talk about the 5x5 format, which grossly inflates the real life value of stolen bases. Carl Crawford? Ichiro Suzuki? I made a mental note to ignore everything that guy says ever from here on out.

I have a little bit of down time so I thought I'd run through a quick list of strategies and observations on this upcoming season of fantasy baseball.

Continue reading this post »

Link to baseball manager online- a fine way to get a baseball fix during the off-season.

The trade market is a fickle mistress in BMO. RPs have been picked clean from the cpu teams, so much so that if you ask for one, they usually want 'an established reliever' in return.

My stable of pitchers drafted out of high school continue to drive me nuts, as they all stay down in A ball and refuse to develop. I have 6 of them down there. Three are in their third season in A ball, one is in his fourth season in the league. Only one of them is a true rookie. Because of their stagnation the IX will probably lose money this season since we have about $6M in salary dedicated to middling relievers that I had hoped would be these young guys pitching for the minimum. Couple that with a few previous poor contract decisions and my guys are set for the next two seasons for better or for worse, with no margin for error or room for improvement. Another injury like my 3B going down for the year and the central belongs to rhubarb. His White Stockings have improved dramatically. Houston could contend as well, and I don't want to count out Pittsburgh either, I'm not sure why they aren't scoring any runs. Paper tigers I guess.

Continue reading this post »

and Pythagoras is screwing with my St. Louis IX. 13 losses by a total of 18 runs. In the 21 wins? +93.

NL East	Won	Lost	Pct.	GB	ERA	OB%	RS	RA
Atlanta	22	10	.688	--	3.24	.327	170	117
Washington	22	11	.667	0.5	3.49	.325	187	117
Florida	19	14	.576	3.5	3.99	.332	163	141
Philadelphia	9	25	.265	14.0	5.41	.296	117	190
New York	8	26	.235	15.0	5.15	.280	97	171
NL Central	Won	Lost	Pct.	GB	ERA	On Base	RS	RA
Chicago	20	12	.625	--	4.44	.345	169	156
ST. LOUIS	21	13	.618	--	3.38	.362	215	127
Pittsburgh	18	15	.545	2.5	4.32	.319	142	149
Cincinnati	15	17	.469	5.0	4.51	.318	146	153
Milwaukee	15	17	.469	5.0	4.19	.325	141	142
Houston	14	19	.424	6.5	4.58	.327	155	161
NL West	Won	Lost	Pct.	GB	ERA	On Base	RS	RA
Arizona	24	10	.706	--	3.43	.340	179	129
San Francisco	19	15	.559	5.0	5.62	.321	165	209
San Diego	15	17	.469	8.0	4.42	.316	173	160
Los Angeles	13	19	.406	10.0	4.37	.324	168	160
Colorado	9	23	.281	14.0	6.56	.310	130	235
League Average	16	16	.500	--	4.44	.324	157	157
			Bold = Clinched Playoffs			Italics = Eliminated

Linky Dinky

Continue reading this post »

knock knock

who's there?

patient cow

patient cow who?

....

Continue reading this post »

It looks like the Sox don't have this package set up with a link yet, but they handed out this little piece of literature along with similar pages for the pick 14, split ticket and other packages you could purchase for 2012. I haven't purchased one myself so I can only assume you can get this from the phone number listed there. Maybe it's not available yet, who knows, but it exists.

The Chicago Sports Depot opens to the public at 10am today. Season ticket holders and the White Sox volunteer corps had a chance to check it out Friday night. The wife and I went down there to do a little Christmas shopping and enjoy the free appetizers and open bar for a couple hours. Two days in a row at the Cell in November? Sure why not.

Go check it out yourself if only to get a glimpse of the '05 trophy and the murals on the wall. Plenty of Bears, Hawks, Bulls stuff was available and even one pathetic little Cubs kiosk. We got out of there with a new winter hat for the Mrs., some sox cookie cutters and a couple presents for the fam. I regret not getting the reebok Sox hockey jersey and the cast iron sox logos for branding your hamburgers and hot dogs.

Continue reading this post »

On December 5th at the owner's meetings, the Hall of Fame's Historical Overview Committee (made up of Hall of Famers, executives, historians and media members) will vote for 10 finalists from the "Golden Era" of baseball. If these candidates receive 75 percent of the vote, they will be enshrined in the Hall. The 16-person panel has 10 finalists to choose from: Buzzie Bavasi, Ken Boyer, Charlie Finley, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Tony Olivo, Allie Reynolds, Ron Santo, Luis Tiant and Minnie Minoso. This afternoon, Jerry Reinsdorf set up a free lunch and forum at U.S. Cellular Field to honor Orestes "Minnie" Minoso in hopes of increasing awareness about his great career and thereby increasing his chance at getting into the Hall. Somehow, I was allowed to attend this event.

Free lunch and a Hall of Fame discussion in the middle of November at the Cell? Sign me up! As Jim pointed out in this post about Minoso, Minnie already has the South Side Sox Hall of Fame approval, but the Sox set out to impress some of the mainstream media today and they started it out with a nice buffet.

I was one of the first to arrive and made my way to the lounge behind the scout seats, trying my best to look like I knew what I was doing. Our friend from CSN's White Sox Talk, JJ, joined me just in time. Mr. Minnie Minoso himself came over and said hello, he shook our hands and made some idle chit-chat about the weather. Sweetest guy you could ever hope to meet. James from White Sox Observer and SBN Chicago contributor Ricky O'Donnell joined us at the kids' table. Salad, some chips, rolls, a really good beef sirloin roast and some sliced turkey chased down with a can of Pepsi. Thanks, Jerry! Other South Side Sox allies in attendance were the South Side Hit Girl and Brett Ballantini.

The forum itself was hosted by ESPN's Pedro Gomez and was broken down into six segments:

• His role as a trail blazer
• Historical context
• Statistical analysis
• On the field with a few of his teammates
• His impact on Cuban players
• A brief interview with the man himself

Continue reading this post »

 Floyd didn't look to have his best stuff in the first today, working the count full to the first two Rangers of the game before they both flied out deep into the outfield. Beckham then turned in a great play going into the hole and making a perfect spinning throw to end the inning robbing Michael Young of a hit.

 Napoli reached on a walk in the second; Floyd had him picked off but Brent Lillibridge mishandled the throw and instead of two out nobody on there was only one retired and a man standing on third. That's when Floyd broke out the big and hairys. He was masterful the rest of the day, allowing only three singles on top of the aforementioned walk while striking out 6 in 7+ innings of work. He kept the Rangers off balance and wasnt hit particularly hard all day.

 Lillibomb homered in the third, knocking in Juan Pierre who reached on an infield single and that was all the Sox would need on the night, but this is the 'quick strike' Rangers so just to be safe DeAza doubled in two more that inning and stole third base. Im really digging DeAza. Stone Pony said during the broadcast "he is playing like a guy who wants to be playing more often."

 Paul Konerko singled for his 1999th career hit and drove in another insurance run in the 4th off reliever Scott Feldman. The Sox chased the starter Derek Holland after 3 1/3 IP tagging him with 5 ER. Pierre piled on with 2 RBI in the 5th. The party kept going in the 8th when Rios homered home two more, and De Aza capped the 10 run affair knocking in Flowers.

 Brent Lillibridge was the comcast player of the game going 3-5 with the HR and 2 RBI. (and one error)

Continue reading this post »

 You know the drill, OT conversations go over here.

Anybody go to the taste this weekend? How was it? I heard the crowds weren't too bad.

So this is my latest project:

I think this sears three wheeler was originally my great grandfathers, but my brother put it out of commission in the early 90s giving his buddy a ride in the rear basket, took a turn too fast and bent the rear rims. The frame is a little tweaked as well. The basket has been replaced with a car seat, and I added the ape hangers because the bars were way too low when i raised the seat. My uncle made it a three speed as well, instead of a fixie.

Next up, I plan on getting some springer forks, then getting some fly rims and a better crank and pedals.

I recently rode a 500w electric bike that goes 22 mph without pedaling. It was sweet. If I were to get two of these and put one motor on each rear wheel for 1000W, do you think I could pull wheelies? How significantly would the top speed increase with two motors?

Also, whats up with galoshes?

The SSS meet up is two days away.

The official start time is 10:30am in LOT E. That is when hsa arrives with the tickets, and when TP and Grinder are setting up shop. email GIT(Adam) at woodbury46@yahoo.com and he will get back to you with his phone number for saturday.

We are horribly unorganized. Let this post hash out the details so we can square things away and make this the super happy fun time we all expect.

Bring your own beverage/booze. Last year, the supply outweighed the demand by a wide margin. I expect the same this year.

As far as food, t-dogg's friend will be grilling, but certainly not enough for everyone. We will need volunteers to bring some grub to grill, maybe some sides, plates, napkins, utensils, etc. I think we can collectively pick up the slack for our main man El Diablo, who supplied some awesome pork chops and other meats the last two times. I can bring some buns and brats/sausages, but I wont be there until 11:30. I think there are about 40 of us again this year.

Im looking forward to meeting the 1st timers and seeing the rest of you people again on saturday. I have several of your numbers already, but its probably a good idea to share some contact information with a few of the people attending so we can find each other when he have a true meeting point established.

the sox parking map is in the first post below, lot E people!

 SSS1 has the two teams that have met in the finals both of the previous years out in front with the fightin' illini, while KenWo, Rhubarb, and onlysoxfaninboston/basil bringing up the rear in their respective divisions.

Continue reading this post »

Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson made a song together. Happy 4/20.

   A few years ago I looked at the bookcase in my living room full of my wife's Vampire paperbacks and decided we needed a shelf dedicated to baseball books. About once a month I was adding another tome to the collection, and two full shelves(plus another bookcase) later Steve Stone's 'Said in Stone' joins the rotation.

  There are some great stories in this book. The first hand accounts of dealing with Bill Veeck, Chuck Tanner, and even Ron Santo are the best parts. Take this little excerpt about Doug Rader for example:

 In this one game in Houston, there was a popup over the third-base dugout. We had the third base dugout, and everybody on the bench stoop up to see if this popup would stay in play or not, and we were up on the rail to see if the ball would come into the dugout...

 Well, a ball was hit over the dugout, and six or seven of the players got up and watched the ball going into the seats. Rader came over to field it, and he knew the ball was going to be in the seats. It was just like an old three stooges segment: Rader just went right down the line through six or seven guys and slapped them right on the side of the face, then ran back laughing to his third base position.

Continue reading this post »

Cleveland

 Break up the Indians! The first place Tribe are winners of 8 out of their last 10 games. They just got Grady Sizemore back for the first time since May of last year, and he went 2 for 4 with a HR in his season debut. With Grady out, they received solid production from Michael Brantley who was leading off and manning center field. Finding him at bats should be a priority with the marquee name back in the line up. Travis Hafner is hitting .354 with 4 HR and a 1.053 OPS.

 A team ERA of 3.16 lead by inning eater Fausto Carmona is at the core of their success. Justin Masterson has been playing fantastic, sporting a 1.33 ERA and picking up 3 wins for the effort. Chris Perez has done a fine job closing the door. Carlos Carrasco goes for them tonight against the second place Royals.

 Is this sustainable? Probably not. Hafner hasn't been this dangerous in 5 years. Its been 3 years since Sizemore showed significant production. I expect that team ERA to climb by a solid run or so. They lost the opening series to the White Sox, one more to the Angels, and have sweeps of the lowly Mariners, the not great Orioles, and the Red Sox, catching them when they were flat. They have several players I like- Justin Masterson might be for real, Carlos Santana is going to haunt us for a while, and Shin-Soo Choo is one of the most under rated players in the game, but I need them to do this for another month before I start to worry about them as a serious threat to win the division.

Continue reading this post »

 So one of my fantasy head to head leagues has an 8 start maximum per week.

The two starters on the fringe for me this go around are Wade Davis and Daniel Hudson. 

Which one would you go with and why?

Wade Davis at home vs the Twins and Carl Pavano?

or

Daniel Hudson at home vs the Giants and Matt Cain?

the points give me 5 for a QS, 5 for a W, and -5 for a L.

Looks like a toss up to me so I thought Id see what others think about it.

 The SSS yahoo fantasy baseball league is back for its third season! The premiere league has discarded the bottom feeders and replaces them with contenders from the now defunct cbs sss league as well as the teams promoted from last seasons sss yahoo league part 2.

Meanwhile in sss2...

The league has expanded to 14 teams this year. The four play-off teams from sss2 are guaranteed a promotion into sss premiere in 2012. Dr. Emilio Lizardo has taken the reins as commissioner after his teams epic collapse late that kept him in the B league. I like the division names, Doc.

 "The way we played so far in this game, its right where it should be." - Hawk Harrelson, in the bottom of the 4th inning, trailing 5-0.

  Jeff Francis out-pitched Mark Buehrle this afternoon. He got ahead in the count and attacked the Sox hitters. He made a couple mistakes but wasn't really punished for them. Mark Buehrle was right there with him through the first three innings, making short work of the opposition, but he trailed 2-0. Buehrle didn't have great command, he was behind in the count quite a bit and left a few balls out over the heart of the plate.

Defensively the Sox were bad.

 Lastings Milledge had an awful read on a fly ball that should have been caught in the first. He came in on it and it fell for a double over his head.  Milledge double clutched getting a throw back in to the infield, allowing another run to score that they may have been able to contest with a play at the plate. Then the rest of the team tried to make him feel better by looking just as bad. A throw home on an RBI single was fired back to second base to get the advancing runner but Alexei went with a swipe tag instead of keeping his glove down. The runner was safe and would later score.

 Konerko got into the act in the 7th inning, fielding a chopper down the line of his fingertips, he back-pedaled out of bounds and fired a throw to Humber's knee caps. The runner was safe and the Sox had their second official error of the game.

 Mark Teahen came into the game to play left field for some reason. He dropped a routine fly ball in the bottom of the 8th. The Sox third official error.

 Morel misplayed a ball in the 11th, bringing the grand total to five defensive gaffes this afternoon.

                     "Four of the six runs we have given to them." - Hawk, at the end of the 8th inning.

Continue reading this post »

Sox lineup:

Pierre - LF

Beckham - 2B

Dunn - DH

Konerko - 1B

Rios - CF

Quentin - RF

Pierzynski - C

Ramirez - SS

Morel - 3B