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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Training Camp is in the Air - "Linkin' Logs" (7/24/08)

Of course it would happen that way. The Phillies and the Mets square off today, at high noon (okay, 10 after) to decide who gets to lead the division for another day and really, who has momentum going into the next 60 games. The teams will meet 5 more times, namely in late August and (again) in early September and that will probably be it, baring a meeting in the NLCS. Needless to say, it should be an entertaining 2 and 1/2 months.

But really, the stories of from here on out will mostly involve football, as most teams are beginning to or already have opened training camp, signaling the beginning of the pure entertainment otherwise known as Football.

We'll do our best to keep you aprized of any entertaining developments but for now...Links!

Update: Screw it, i might be willing to Jose Canseco this whole thing just to take a swing at Reyes. Am I going to be a sore loser? Sure, why the hell not. Jose Reyes isthe definition of a classless player; Pissed at the ump for not getting your way? Check Fist pumps at every home run? Check Stomp around the field after being called out on a stolen base? Check Think your wise-ass smile will give you popularity around the league? Check.

Maybe its just the typical fight for first (and losing) thing that makes my blood boil, but does anyone else think this Mets team is just slightly more pansy-assed than anyone else. Barry Sanders always put it best; "Act like you've been there before."

Bottom Line: I'd still slap the smile off his face. Who's with me?!

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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Johan Gets Fucked...Again!

The Philadelphia Phillies traveled to New York to open up a three-game series with the Mets, yesterday. Both teams, as many of you may know, shared the National League East lead (both teams went into the contest at 53-46). Mets' ace Johan Santana, who hadn't earned a win in several starts, was on the mound facing off with Philly's newly acquired Joe Blanton, who was making his first start with the squad.
As expected, Santana got off to a quick start, and ended up going 8 strong innings, with two earned runs, and 4 K's. An RBI double off David Wright's bat, accompanied by a two-run shot hit by Carlos Delgado--his 19th of the season--gave New York a 3-1 lead through three innings at Shea. Ramon Castro extended the Mets' lead to 5-1 with another two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring Marlon Anderson.

The Phillies' Shane Victorino added one more run in the seventh for Philadelphia, but going into the the ninth inning Philadelphia was down three runs, after New York failed to add a few insurance runs in the 8th inning.
Twenty-five year old second baseman, Argenis Reyes, pinch hit for Santana in the bottom of the eighth inning, since Santana had already thrown 105 pitches. So, Jerry Manuel, needing to make a quick call to the bullpen in the top of the ninth, called on Duaner Sanchez. Sanchez gave up three earned runs on just three hits , and failed to record a single out. Joe Smith, who was eventually given the loss, gave up the go-ahead run. Finally Pedro Feliciano, and Aaron Heilman came in and got the three outs, but Pedro gave up two more runs, and walked a guy while he was at it.

Phillie closer Brad Lidge closed out the bottom of the ninth inning to clinch the comeback-win in New York, of course. The save was awarded to Lidge, which was his 22nd of the season. As you can see, the Mets have really missed Billy Wagner, who will only miss a few games. And..Johan would've REALLY helped my slumping fantasy team had his bullpen been able to close out the game. Damn you New York!!
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Drop a Deuce...or a "Linkin' Log" (7/23/08)



I'm still pretty pumped up about the 6 run flurry the Phils suprised everyone with last night. That being said, its always a hollow victory if you can't back it up with more Ws to take a division lead.

All gloating aside, beating Santana in the 9th (aka taking advantage of the bullpen) certainly adds fuel to the fire of this "rivalry" (because its not really all that much of a rivalry). Insufferably Mets fans will have you think that this Philadelphia franchise has always been a fraud, but when a team finally (Finally!) tries to do right by its fanbase (or as close as you're ever gonna get), it's ashame that another team's fanbase (alright, schmuck 1 in 10 fans) needs to find some reason to prove their better, even if the standings aren't it. But for the rest of the sufferable ones (the other 9 of 1o) its really just hoping a few things roll the right way, because otherwise you have no control...

that and come September it won't matter, its Eagles season for me!

Links!
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Quick Pick "Linkin' Logs" (7/22/08)

Busy day for this BadNewsBlogger, but I'd be remiss to not provide at least a few links. But rather than mostly news-esque items (read: legitimate information) I'll just give you some good ole blog items.

I'll also quickly gloat about the Phils stunning 6 run 9th to take control of the NL East. Beating Santana is nice (Even if Blanton was...eh?), but its a 3 game set and the mood can change just as fast as 1 (long) inning.

Links!
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The Top 10 Fantasy Football Do Not's

Normally I would try and write a riveting introduction to this article -- but I think the title pretty much explains it as much as it needs to be. So, take notes, learn some things and as always -- at least try and enjoy.


This picture has nothing to do with this article, but I thought everyone would probably enjoy it.


10. Taking your team name too seriously

The Beantown Brawlers? Seriously? First off, you’ve never been a brawl. And second off, you don’t even live in Boston. You live in Abington. So either pick a better name, or try and name your team something that doesn’t blatantly reveal that you think your tough and/or take yourself entirely too seriously. On the extreme end of this, don’t name your team something stupid -- like The Windy City Farters. There is lots of opportunity to act like your twelve years old in fantasy football, but naming your team isn’t one of them.

9. Letting your girlfriend/wife in on the action

While I’m all for girlfriend/wife participation to some extent in fantasy sports, you better not be letting it happen if your league is for money. If it is, than you sir, are a dumb ass. If utilized wisely, this “mistake” can actually turn your usual bickering Sundays into easy-riding football marathons. “But honey, we need to watch the Sunday Night Football game because we have Kevin Kolb on our bench and we need to see how he reacts being on an actual bench during a primetime game. It’s one of the keys to our season!”

8. Thinking your “sleepers” will actually turn out to be sleepers

I don’t care how much you know about football, the whole sleeper business is a crock of shit. Most of the sleepers people pick aren’t even sleepers at all, unless you define a sleeper as someone who everyone knew about and wasn‘t all surprised when they began to have a good season. I’m sorry, but Frank Gore is not a sleeper. Idiot.

7. Not having a draft plan

If you just go into a draft with nothing but your “knowledge” to guide you, than I don’t know what to tell you. You need to know your leagues scoring, you need to know how many of each position you need to start and you need to know the inner-workings of those who are drafting with you. This is why I’m a staunch supporter of friend leagues where you can smack-talk face to face, as opposed to the free Yahoo! Leagues in which no one knows each other, but everyone seems to know each others mother. The more you know about your opponents, the better you can add to your draft plan -- and if you don’t have a draft plan at all, then why the hell are you playing fantasy football?

6. Buying too many fantasy football magazines

I can actually attest to committing this mistake. However, one day it hit me. Most of the magazines that are available for fantasy football, or fantasy anything for that matter, have pretty much the same information -- just in a different layout and with slightly different words. It’s sort of like in high school when you tried to turn that one sentence fact into a four paragraph essay. At least, that’s what I did in high school.

5. Buying into hype

Most of the time, hype doesn’t really produce actual results. It just produces enough hype for you to buy into it and eventually lose games, money and points. And as we all know, those three go hand in hand. See: Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart. Hey, they both went to USC. Weird.

4. Buying into upside

Upside is all well and great, but if can often get you into trouble. Most of us aren’t narcissists so we always try and look at the upside of a player but sometimes too much so. Like that time when I called everyone to write down that I was predicting Mewelde Moore as the next great running back. That didn’t turn out so well, as I’m sure you know. It still haunts me to this day.

3. Taking the smack talk just a tad too far

Yes, if your among friends you can push the limits and call a remembrance of the time your friend hooked up with that fat girl that looked like a guy. However, calling a remembrance of the time your recently defeated opponent cried because his cat died -- okay, that’s still okay. Pretty much everything is fair game in regards to smack talk. Just don’t joke about any terminally fatal diseases or anything you asshole.

2. Showing up drunk to the draft

Want to draft three kickers, make four trades and profess your love for your friends brother sister? Then drink up, champ. Nothing kicks off a fantasy football season than showing that your only weakness is a thing called booze -- then having everyone subsequently try and get you drunk and make lopsided trades. It’s fun while your getting free drinks and all, but when you wake up the next morning and discover that you’ve traded Larry Fitzgerald for Mark Clayton and Devery Henderson -- well, that’s not as much fun.

1. As a matter of fact, doing anything drunk in regards to fantasy football

Trades, drafting, smack-talk -- if I had to write a fantasy football guide in regards to ‘Do Not Do These Things’ than alcohol would be prominently involved in each one. Take every reason on this list, add some alcohol and you’ve got yourself a potent mixture that will almost always end badly. If your in a money league, than just don’t get drunk. Just don’t do it. Your either going to drunk dial your ex or trade Stephen Jackson for a bag of jelly beans. Neither will end well.

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Monday, July 21, 2008

Taylor, Shockey Sent Packing

Two big-time NFL football stars are now on the move. In the past two days both Jason Taylor of the Miami Dolphins, and Jeremy Shockey of the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants have been traded, and will be in a new uniform this fall.

Defensive end Jason Taylor will be shipped off to Washington D.C. for two draft picks—one in the 2009 draft, the other in the 2010 draft. The Dolphins’ motive to trade Taylor was his partial differences with the Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Bill Parcells. The move was complete just two days after rumors about a possible trade were started. The season-ending injury to current defensive end, Phillip Daniels, on the very first day of practice, was just the icing on the cake. The trade, which will allow Miami to allow more youth to the already young team, was finalized Monday when Taylor passed his physical, and was formally introduced as the newest Redskin team member.

New York Giant tight end, Jeremy Shockey, was also traded for two draft picks, both in the 2009 draft. Shockey will be headed to New Orleans to play for Sean Payton’s Saints. It’s quite obvious Shockey is no longer wanted in New York, especially after the Giants won the Super Bowl with him on the bench. Yes, Shockey was a first-round draft pick in 2002, and has four Pro Bowls to his name, but Shockey has had disagreements with the organization for several years now, and it was time for a change. Jeremy will be the go-to guy in New Orleans, and I’m sure Drew Brees will be glad to have a player of his caliber on the team.

When you break it all down, there really is no “winner” or “loser” in these two trades. Washington was looking for a superstar to replace the 35-year old Daniels at the defensive end position, Miami and New York were just trying to do what’s best for their organization, and New Orleans needed a playmaker to accompany Brees, and Reggie Bush on the offensive side of the ball.

Look for Shockey, and Taylor to make an immediate impact on their new teams, whether it be attracting more fans, or making big plays on the field. Both these guys will be Pro Bowlers come time in February.
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Walker-Sports AFC East Preview


As we all eagerly wait on the upcoming football season, let’s continue our look around the NFL, today we will switch conferences and take a look at the AFC East. There’s a lot going on in this division, but it’s pretty straight forward to guess what the outcome of this conference will be.

New England Patriots: 17-1 pretty damn good unless that one lost came in the biggest game of the year. Everyone knows the story of the Patriots, and you can believe they will use the disappointment at the end of the story as fuel to climb back to the top of the mountain in 08. The Patriots will go to battle with the usual cast of characters. Their offense will have the same quick pace and explosive scoring ability as it did last season. I doubt they will break scoring records like last season, but they will not struggle to get into the endzone. Look for the Pats to change it up the attack plan just a bit this season. They will move Moss around and get him into the slot and let Welker play the outside. While this will cut into Welker’s numbers it will open up more opportunities for Moss. It will be hard for a defense to get a corner and a safety on him when he comes out of the slot where a nickel back or a linebacker would typically be the first line of defense.

On the defensive side the Pats lost some talent in the secondary with the departure of Ashanti Samuel. However, they were very active in free agency and have found very good replacements and in typical Patriots fashion it will cost the franchise a lot less cash. The biggest pickup in the off season has to be drafting Jerod Mayo at linebacker. Mayo will make an instant impact which the Patriots need since their ageing linebacking core was actually the wink link on their defense last season.

The Patriots will be ale to tear through this weak division and once again take home the title. Division Title that is.

New York Jets: The Jets barely fall into this second spot, and it does not mean they will have a successful all around season. The Jets have questions at QB and they have a bunch of new faces on the offensive line. They are some very talented faces and a solid mix of veterans and young guys. The upside is if the line can gel together, the Jets can potentially make a stable offense, and that could be enough.

Two seasons ago the Jets began to put together a solid defense and while they backtracked a little last season, they will look to rebound in 08. Their defense is good enough to keep them in a lot of games this season, especially when you look around the rest of the division.

Buffalo Bills: The Bills could easily be a huge surprise in 2008, especially if Trent Edwards can completely grasp the system and the league. Last year Edwards burst onto the scene and he showed lot of promise and there is no doubt he will build and grow this season. If he can progress, the Bills have the weapons on offense to make some noise. Marshawn Lynch was a stud in the back field and he will only improve now that he has a better understanding of the blocking schemes and the tempo of the game. Lee Evans is a deep threat receiver who had a down year last season due to erratic play at the QB position. If Edwards can settle down and deliver the ball then Evans could feast from the improved play and have a breakout year.

Miami Dolphins: They went out and drafted the cheapest number one draft pick available. But Jake Long should be able to anchor the line for a long time to come. Too bad no one has a clue who will be under center. What the Dolphins do have going for them is Ronnie Brown. He is a tough runner who can get solid yardage on every carry. If Miami can keep him healthy during the season he will help to jump start what was a terrible (say it like Charles Barkley) offense last season.

The one thing Miami has going for them entering next season is the Big Tuna. That’s right Bill Parcells has taken over and he is already making his presence felt. Parcells put Jason Taylor on notice and he has the Dolphins on notice from front office to towel boy. If nothing else, Parcells running the show will insure that everyone puts their best foot forward. He will make the Dolphins raise their level of play unfortunately that level just wont be good enough.
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Freshly Hungover "Linkin' Logs"

You might have missed me over the weekend (probably not). What I did manage to do was A) See Batman and B) Drink too much. The former was spectacular (I really can't say enough about how well down the film was or Heath Ledger's amazing performance) and the latter resulted in most of my day being spent in bed (oh how amazing a serious hangover is).

While attempting to sleep off this one I did happen to watch Padraig Harrington's pretty stunning performance in "The Open Championship." Needless to say, Greg Norman was the underdog yet hopeful leader and Harrington was the whimsical Irishman who did not relent on the back nine nailing two shots to really seal the deal. I'm not an avid golf watcher, but this event was very entertaining.

I also caught the beginning of the the F1 race on Sunday. Unfortunately the fireworks were on Saturday, when Danica Patrick, unable to pass Milka Duno during a practice round, confronted the fellow female racer. Normally, this would only be slightly entertaining than Nascar (i.e. not at all) but...well, I'll let the video speak for itself (Personally, I like the part where Duno throws a towel...twice!)

Well, enough banter, on to the links:

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