Soxman’s Fantasy Baseball Weekly Insider
 

Ok, the Cubs have swept the White Sox and my fantasy baseball team is now under .500 (35-37), for the first time in the 12-year history of me playing this game.  What more could go wrong?  How about Carlos Zambrano going on the DL?  Alas, we take a look at this week’s fantasy picture.
 
Sizzlers
 
Jermaine Dye
At least there is something HOT associated with the White Sox this week.  Jermaine Dye has 5 homers and 13 RBI over the past 7 days.  He’s performed well against the Cubs throughout his career and has a three-game series at home against them this weekend.
 
Prince Fielder
After a slow start “the Prince” of the Brewers is red hot, hitting .364 and belting 5 homers this past week.
 
Mark Teixeira
Would have made the fizzler list if not for his monster game yesterday, .750, 3 HR, 4 RBI, 3.750 OPS!  June is also his month to heat it up.
 
Justin Verlander
Verlander is 2-0 in his last three starts with a 1.48 ERA and one complete game. He is starting to once again look like the Cy Young pitcher that he was believed to be going into the season.
 
Andy Pettitte
2-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.92 WHIP is his past two starts.  He could give your team a “shot in the posterior.”
 
Justin Duchscherer
Insane numbers on the year.  In 4 starts, he has a 1.53 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP.
 
 
Fizzlers
 
Jason Varitek
Over the last 21 days Varitek is hitting .104, 1HR, 4 RBI, 340 OPS.
 
Adam Dunn
.111, 0HR, 0 RBI over the past 14 days.
 
Pat Burrell
.143, 0HR, 0 RBI over the past 7 days.

 
Carlos Marmol
11.25 ERA and a 1.52 WHIP in his last 6 appearances.
 
Javier Vazquez
6.94 ERA and a 1.76 WHIP over his last 4 starts.
 
Jose Contreras
A 10.13 ERA and a 2.19 WHIP in his last 3 starts.
 
Can anyone tell why the Sox are slumping?
 

 

Sleepers
 
These players are still not owned in many leagues, yet they are out-performing many superstars.  Consider riding their streak while you can.
 
Jeff Baker
Has been starting at 2B for the Rockies; also qualifies at 1B and OF in most leagues.  He has hit .435 with 4 HR in the past week.
 
Marcus Thames
Thames is a streaky slugger who can go on tears from time to time.  A .282, 9 HR, 13 RBI, 1.256 OPS over the last 14 days says that now is one of those times.
 
Seth McClung
Desperate for starting pitching, I’m riding McClung until Big Z comes back from the DL.  The once “closer-in-waiting” seems to have found a groove with the Brewers, posting 2.89 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP over his last three starts.  The Brewers offense is also starting to sizzle.
 
Jeremy Reed
The once “crown jewel” of the White Sox farm system failed in his first full-time audition with the Mariners, but has been on fire in his second chance, hitting .409, 1 HR, 1.072 OPS over the last 14 days.
 
DL Watch
 
Carlos Zambrano
Should only miss two starts.
 
Paul Konerko
Going to take BP this weekend.  Hopefully this DL stint heats him up.
 
Eric Gagne
Gagne is 1-2 with a 6.98 ERA in 20 games. Gagne has a chance to close again, but it might not happen right a way.

 
Curt Schilling
Should be dropped in all leagues.  His entire career may be over.
 

Double Dipping
 
In leagues that benefit from two-start pitchers, here are the best bets for the week:
 
Mark Buehrle
(Dodgers & Cubs) After posting a 4.97 ERA in May, Buehrle is 2-0 with a 2.10 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in June. Owners BEWARE: he holds a 5.10 career ERA against the Cubs.
 
Others:
 
Ben Sheets (Braves and Twins)
Johan Santana (Mariners and Yankees)
Josh Beckett (Diamondbacks and Astros)
Felix Hernandez (Mets and Padres)
Jake Peavy (Twins and Mariners)
John Lackey (Nationals and Dodgers)
Sean Marcum (Reds and Braves)

The TSB staff tells you what each of the four major sport drafts bring to the table

Three of the major sport drafts are held in June. It’s the season for amateurs going pro, just like February is the season for all-star games, it also has three of the four major sport events. This was probably my favorite TSB panel question ever…mostly because I didn’t have to do a ton of work in answering it. I just sent the question and writer assignments out and my talented and hard-working staff did the rest. Simply just calling the play and handing the ball off to my top four playmakers yielded the following insightful analysis…and the metaphor choice told you what my favorite one is!

David K.- NBA
As if there is even a question about which draft I think is the best… The NBA Draft trumps all others, hands down.  Here’s why:

1) It’s a one-day, three hour event.  It doesn’t take two days and 18 hours to complete like the NFL and MLB Drafts.

2) Except for the ten or so foreign players drafted, there is a good chance that the average football fan has heard of almost every player selected.  That certainly can’t be said of the NHL or MLB Drafts where the average fan has maybe heard of ONE player who gets picked…Maybe?  As for the NFL Draft, except for the major talents and most of the skill positions, you haven’t even heard of these guys.  Let’s be honest, has anyone ever seen Joe Flacco play? Had anyone ever heard of him until Mel Kiper Jr. started talking about him after the season was over?

3) Speaking of Kiper Jr., he is not part of the NBA Draft which automatically adds points to my argument for roundball.

4) Yes, we have to suffer through Stephen A. Smith and Dick Vitale during the NBA Draft, but their arguments put any Kiper Jr./Todd McShay disagreement to shame.  Didn’t we all think Vitale and Smith were going to fight in the parking lot after last year’s draft?

5) The ridiculous outfits the players in the green room wear.  Remember Joakim Noah’s draft day attire last year?  You just don’t get that with the other drafts.

6) There is, thankfully, no NBA Live show every day on ESPN for the two months leading up to the draft where we have to deal with reckless banter about every single team’s every single possibility with every single pick.  Seriously, by Mid-March, I want to vomit at the sight of Trey Wingo on the NFL Live set.

 Case closed.  I will now celebrate with my Championship belt!

 

 

NFL- Sarah Spain
Since we all know the NFL draft is the best around, I’ll make my argument quick and painless. 

1) Big, chunky dudes stuffing their huge necks into collared shirts and their huge asses into mustard-colored, quadruple-breasted suits.  “Fat man in a little coat,” indeed.

2) Fans, particularly New York Jets fans. They may be annoying and loud (not to mention way too fond of gold chains, wife beaters and shaved chests) but Jets fans add a raw, game-like feel to an event that is essentially an old dude announcing names at a podium.

3) Mel Kiper Jr’s hair- Much more impressive than any of the draftee highlight reels he introduces.

4) Crowd-wide heckling of Chris Berman.

5) Shocking draft droppers like Brady Quinn. Rarely do players in other sports drop as dramatically as NFL hopefuls. Watching Quinn squirm in his chair was alternately hilarious and tragic.  The only other selection ceremony with this kind of drama involves a rose and a Bachelor.

6) Watching the satellite feed of a player who wasn’t invited to New York get the call at home, surrounded by friends, family and the college sweetheart he’ll be cheating on in…3….2….1. Heartwarming.

7) It’s looooong. People who don’t like football may not be interested in the later rounds (or any rounds at all) but diehard football fans wanna see every guy right down to Mr. Irrelevant. When someone like Marques Colston barely avoids the dubious final draft spot then blows up in his first season, draft fans can say they called it right from the moment he was picked.  You never know when the next Tom Brady will get his name called…

 

Soxman- MLB
 While Major League Baseball has made a huge push over the past few years to generate more excitement over its amateur draft, it remains the least exciting of all professional sports drafts for several reasons:

 Seedlings Don’t Bare Fruit Immediately
Unlike all other professional drafts in which top picks are expected to make an immediate impact with their team, it can be years before a MLB top draft pick ever plays in a major league game.  Since the draft began in 1965, less than one percent of the top 50 draft picks ever start immediately in the major leagues. Future Hall of Famer and White Sox Legend Frank Thomas was selected in the June 1989 Draft, and did not make his MLB debut until August 1990.  While Thomas was considered to be fast tracked for the majors, he played in the minors for well over a year before getting his first MLB at bat.

 Most Never Make It to The Show.
 The vast majority of players selected in the draft will NEVER play in a single MLB game. Even worse- just over 50% of all first round draft picks have more than 5 games of major league service.

 America’s Pastime Only Applies to the Pros
 While NCAA baseball has grown in popularity in recent years thanks to ESPN, it only has a fraction of the popularity of college football and basketball.  Simply put, have you ever seen a “May Madness” bracket for the college baseball play-offs?  Or gone to a college World Series party?  
 

Draft Picks Are Not Guaranteed 
 Players drafted in June MUST be signed by August 15th or the team loses rights to that player, essentially making him again eligible to be drafted by another team the following season. The most famous player and most notorious agent to spurn a team under this rule in recent memory were J.D. Drew and Scott Boras.

Drew was the second overall pick in the 1997 Major League Baseball Draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. Boras warned all teams not to select his player unless they were willing to pay his client $10 million. The Phillies ignored Boras and drafted him anyway with no intention to pay the Boras asking price.  Drew refused to sign and played for the St. Paul Saints of the independent Northern League that season. Drew was then drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in June 1998, and made his debut later that year in September.  He was forever hated by Phillies fans for spurning the team. Interestingly enough, the MLB draft is the only draft among all professional sports that actually takes place during the course of the season.  Despite all the reasons that it is currently the least popular draft, it will forever remain my favorite draft, because it is an essential building block of the game that gave Soxman life.
 

NHL Draft Superiority? Not Quite, but it’s closer than you think.
 By Peter Christian
 
We are all clear that the NFL has done the best job of exploiting its draft (without looking it up I would guess that the NFL nets at least 8 digits from the draft weekend). The NBA Draft is one of the most fun to speculate about (because of the extremely high bust vs. breakout ratio) and the MLB Draft can never be fan friendly (due to the immense draft pool and subsequent waiting period for most players). The major sporting draft that often gets left out of the “Entertaining for Fans” Category is the NHL Draft. That fact alone is very disappointing since the NHL Draft is often the most eventful draft of the four sports. If you didn’t already know, for fans eventful = entertaining and exciting.

 
 
At face value the NHL Draft has all of the same things to offer as the NFL and NBA drafts (known prospects and lots of talent) and tends to offer more draft day trades and player movement but doesn’t get even a quarter of the attention from casual fans the two major sports drafts do. However, for those who do stay interested they get the pleasure of being part of the best draft process in North American Professional Sports (or NAPS as the kids call it on the streets, not to be confused with the National Association of Postal Supervisors that my dad is a member of). The NHL draft set-up is undoubtedly the most conducive to excitement, both for the league and the fans. Unlike the NFL, MLB or NBA, the NHL draft brings all of the team General Managers together in the same place. With all of the decision makers together trades and back room deals are bound to happen. And they do. While the NBA usually has a couple of draft day deals that have teams sending a player and a pick packing in the effort to move up in the draft to get their guy, the NHL usually has a bunch. Every team has their eye on a certain player and has a plan to get that guy if it looks like he might come off the board before their slot. What’s more, the NHL rivalries transcend to the draft as well. If the Maple Leafs know that the Canadiens have their eye on Player X and the player they had their eyes on is gone, they are more likely to take Player X just to screw their rivals rather than trade down and accumulate a few more picks. That just doesn’t happen in the NFL or NBA. 

So with so much going on at the NHL Draft why isn’t it a bigger fan event?

The simple answer is marketing. Shocking, I know. The fact that the NHL cannot even swing a major network deal for its regular season games (one game a week on NBC from January through April is a joke) means that they have got bigger fish to fry than working on selling the NHL draft to the casual hockey fan. That being said, the NHL draft is still a great product and should be recognized as the format that is best among the best. At least it is still considered more entertaining than the MLB draft. Hey, it’s a start.

By Seymour Pennants

If you missed out on what happened with Tiger Woods this past weekend, watch this video of Tiger’s video to get caught up.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=207187&cl=8350648&ch=351685&src=sports

I was interviewed by Rich Lerner of Yahoo Sports about my tournament play this weekend, after winning the Father’s Day Par King mini putt-putt senior tournament in Niles, Illinois, after a sudden death playoff.
 
My bursitis was acting up this weekend.  My big toe and back hurt like two Sons-of-bitches. 
 
And I gutted up and I played.   All 18 holes baby!…and into sudden death.  No walker.  In the blazing 77 degree sun.  Kicked all those younger grandfathers’ and even fathers’ asses.  I showed ‘em how a GREAT Grandpa can play. And I tore up Par King on Sunday.
 

Lerner:  Seymour, congratulations.  Just a phenomenal performance.  You had said this would be the most gratifying win, or would be up right there with your first big win.  What made it … so incredibly gratifying?  I think we know some of the answers, but I want to hear it in your words:
Seymour:  Well, a lot of the different things I had to deal with this week, I was a little sore.  My damn bursitis was acting up, and Oy! my back hurt.

 

Lerner:  Just a little sore?
Seymour: Just a little…
 

Lerner:  I think you’re playing us there, I think it was more than a little sore.
Seymour:   Well I had 4 doubles, you know it kinda had some bad shots, some great shots.  Made some bombs, a few Eagles, I mean, you name it.  Everything was just up and down.  I got off to a terrible start.  Today I was one over for three, I could just never get off to a positive start.  That big toe felt like an open, gaping, oozing wound.   I just kept battling.
 
Lerner:  How bad was the bursitis and your big toe?  Was it worse than we had been led to believe?  When you came here, we were told you had finally cleaned it.  Was the decay worse than we had been lead to believe?
Seymour:  Probably…
 
Lerner:  You’re not going to go any deeper than that, are you?
Seymour:  Nope

 
Lerner:  ‘Cause you’re an athlete, you fight through those things…
Seymour:  You just keep playing, you know.  It’s like one of my buddies, before he kicked the bucket we always used to joke about, “How many reps you got?”, and we used to say, “Four…it’s FOURever”.  Just keep playing.  Sniff, well it’s not forever for ‘ol Joe anymore…..pardon me.   PTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Sniff!!!!
 

Lerner:  People want to know about the future.  I heard the press conference.  Is there a chance that the season could be lost?
Seymour:  Well I don’t know.    To be honest with you, I really don’t know.  I’m going to reevaluate it after this week, I’m going to enjoy what I’ve done, we’re going to get nekkid and drink some bubbly out of this thing, party like mini putt-putt rock stars, and take it from there.  Maybe pour some of that bubbly all over Dutchie, that hot piece of ass.
 
Lerner:  Did you go against Doctor’s orders?  Did the Doctor tell you that it might not be a good idea to play here?
Seymour: Oh yeah.   Screw the Doctors.
 
Lerner:  And you played because?
Seymour:  Because I play.
 
Lerner:  The National Championship means that much?
Seymour:  Smiles and nods.
 
Seymour:  Hey can you get that hot Sarah Spain to interview me next time?  I’d like to look at something other than you after my next mini putt-putt win.
 
Seymour Pennants
President

http://Since1908Clothing.com

Poor week takes Soxman from first to worst (almost)
 
Most of the time the phrase “what a difference a week can make,” implies something positive.  However, my fantasy team tanked on a massive scale this past week…going 0-6 for the first time all season. 

Not only did I lose my hold on first place, I dropped to sixth in an eight-team division.

Sadly, playing in a highly competitive dynasty league of 16-team, 30-man rosters, there is NOTHING on the waiver wire or in the free agent pool that can help me. 
 

Living with three White Sox sluggers in your line-up does that to a person I guess.  So since I’m in a negative place, let’s start this week’s wrap-up with those who are tanking.
 
Fizzlers
 
Carlos Quentin
 
Quentin is mired in an 8-for-47 slump in June that has dropped his batting average from .295 to .269.  The MVP candidate is nursing a sore thumb, but it is not believed to be serious.
 
Paul Konerko
 
After FINALLY making the sizzler list, Konerko returned to his 2008 hitless ways last week.  He was scratched from Sunday’s game with a strained rib-cage muscle and could land on the DL.
 
Joe Crede
 
See a theme here as to why the Sox are also struggling again?  Crede’s numbers over the last 7 days: .143, 0 HR, 0 RBI
 
Chipper Jones
 
Not that you would ever bench him with the season he’s having, but over the last 7 days he’s hit .133, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .449 OPS.  He’s still hitting .402 on the season.
 
Bill Hall
 
Hall is completely lost this season and has been horrible over the last month, likely losing his starting job to Russ Branyan. Over the past 21 days, Hall is hitting .200, 0 HR, 3 RBI.
 
Dontrelle Willis
 
A total bust for the Tigers thus far.  Willis had a 54.01 ERA and 6.00 WHIP last week and was demoted to Single-A ball!  His ERA on the season: 13.01.

 
 
Sizzlers
 
Grady Sizemore
 
The Indians slugger has been on fire over the last 7 days hitting .308, 5 HR, 8 RBI, 1.302 OPS.
 
Ryan Doumit
 
Here’s a Pirate to get excited over.  Doumit has had an incredible seven days in his own right hitting .400, 4 HR, 7 RBI, 1.443 OPS.
 
C.C. Sabathia
 
In the past seven days the big lefty has posted 2 wins, a 1.59 ERA and a 0.71 WHIP.  Here comes the Tribe, Sox fans.
 
Ted Lilly
 
2-0, 2.13 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP over the past seven days is an indicator that Lilly is in bloom once again.

 
 
J.D. Drew
 
Drew is hitting a solid .447 in June and has raised his average to .321.  He also has 11 homers.  What are you waiting for?  Grab him!
 
Rookie Watch
 
Andy LaRoche
 
The Dodgers finally re-called Andy LaRoche from AAA Las Vegas this past week.  While he’s struggling now, he did homer in his first game back.  He is a top prospect and was believed to be a leading NL Rookie of the Year contender before injuring his thumb late in spring training.
 
Old Timer Watch
 
Jamie Moyer
 
Need starting pitching?  Consider taking a flyer on Phillies starter Jamie Moyer.  The 46-year old starter has been amazing over his last 2 starts posting a 1-0 record with a 1.35 ERA and a 0.83 WHIP.

By Paul M. Banks

“Here come the Hawks,” is by far the best of all the kitschy, retro Chicago pro team fight songs.

You’re likely hearing “Go, Cubs, Go” plenty enough this season

Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers is a great name for band making music that would be entitled “Go Go White Sox”

An older classic, “Bear Down” with this version sung by a man with a very powerful voice…and even more powerful facial hair

So bad that’s its great, “San Diego Super Chargers,” a good friend was somehow able to get this played at his wedding a couple years ago.

The text in this clip will tell about the “Hockey Night in Canada” theme song and why it’s “endangered.” You can listen to it too.

The best overall however, may be this retro ditty honoring the Hartford Whalers, a franchise that exists under a new name in another city.