One-Eyed Refereeing (Futon Report)

Problems in Cinci (Kissing Suzy Kolber)

Fantasy Football, Sad but true (Kissing Suzy Kolber)

Good review of EA Sports NCAA 2007 (Everyday Should Be Saturday)

A most unfortunate name (Deadspin)

Nike and Adidas start bidding war for a ten year old hoopster (Deadspin)

I don’t know about anyone else, but I got screwed by the short week in fantasy baseball. Granted my pitchers (Mark Buerhle, Chris Capuano, Kenny Rogers, and Chris Young) all laid eggs last week, but I was still only able to muster 50.33 points. And I took the lose. Not like a man, mind you, rather like a spoiled little kid. I was pissed. Thankfully, I am still in first place, the second place team lost as well, so I maintained my 1 game lead.

Did this happen to anyone else out there?

Looking forward to the second half of the baseball season, who are players who have may have had a slow start, or are coming back from an injury, or just going to keep on plugging in the second half?

Will Dan Uggla continue performing for his fantasy owners? Gosh I hope so Will all of the rookie pitchers continue their successful seasons, or will they fall off? Will all of the big boppers (Ortiz, Thome, Hafner, etc) keep hitting bombs out?

Who is hot right now, but you think will cool off as the season wears on? Who should we sell high with? And who are some good buy low options?

I want to know… mainly because I don’t want to lose my tenuous grip of first place in my league.

I just dropped Mark Mulder and picked up Chan Ho Park. I may be having a little buyer’s remorse right now. I’ve held onto Mulder since he got hurt, heck even before that when he was BRUTAL, and he’s just been dead weight. So I decided to cut him loose. And for Chan Ho Park? I know… that’s where the buyer’s remorse comes in. He’s streaky. Although he’s now pitching in the NL where he’s had some of his greatest success and in Petco Park which is a dream for pitchers.

I’m fairly deep at starting pitcher so this wasn’t a huge transaction for my team, but I’m just not sure about Park? Would love to hear some of your thoughts.

Could it be that Zidane’s head butt of Marco Materazzi in the 110th minute of the FIFA World Cup Final was not the act of a short-tempered super star, but rather of a French Nationalist who wanted to take one for the team? Zidane and Materazzi were definitely jawing with each other just prior to the head butt, but it didn’t seem to be spirited enough to merit Zidane trying to put his head through Materazzi’s chest. Could it be that Zidane knew that if the game went to penalty kicks that Les Bleus would not come out on top?

Let’s look at the facts.

• Zidane’s legacy will not be irreparably damaged by this. He was and still is one of the greatest players ever.
• No one expected France to get the World Cup Finals, so it was already a win for their national team
• Gianluigi Buffon (who I think should have gotten the Golden Ball) was standing on his head (can soccer goalies stand on their heads?). He only allowed 2 goals through the entire tournament; one was an own goal, and the other was Zidane’s penalty kick in the 7th minute. He was clearly the best goal keeper in the tournament.
• Zidane is notorious for not talking to the press, so of course when the team returns to France, no reporter is going to expect to interview him to get his side of it. Of course there will be investigations, and statements issued, but probably not by Zidane. He will silently take the heat for his teams failure.

By being sent off, Zidane gave his team an out, an excuse for failing on the largest sporting stage in the world. Of course, I hope that this isn’t true. But I feel like I have to at least bring it up. Is it at least possible?

UPDATE: More and more information about what sparked Zidane to head butt Marco Materazzi. From all reports it was pretty ugly between those two. I still feel that Zidane’s actions are inappropriate, but after hearing what Materazzi allegedly said I certainly don’t blame him. Of course there will be trash talking on the field of play, but when that turns to racist insults and inappropriate comments about one’s family, that must be stopped.

So it looks like my conspiracy theory is all wrong. Unfortunately the truth behind the story is much more grim than the conspiracy theory.

Thanks to Jason at kottke.org

Ok. I understand that Derrek Lee’s absence from the lineup for 6 weeks plays a huge role in why the Cubs offense has been so atrocious. But no more excuses can be made, with or without Derrek Lee. Below I will diagram the Cubs’ lineup (in general) and why I believe that there should no problem scoring runs.

1. Juan Pierre CF - Widely thought of as one of the top lead-off men in baseball. He’s had a terrible year so far. His numbers have picked up in the recent weeks (.414 avg over the last week), but his 25 stolen bases do not make up for an OBP of .307. He’s got to continue his hitting and I could stand to see him take some more pitches.
2. Todd Walker 2B - Has the second highest OBP on the team (second to Derrek Lee), third in RBI (33), and fourth in batting average (.291). Why he doesn’t play every day is a mystery to me.
3. Derrek Lee 1B - Best hitter on the team for pwer and average. DLee is a hitting machine. The loss of him changed the Cubs lineup. Now that he’s back from the DL he should get his average up to around .320 and hit about 12 HR a month. That’s just what he’s supposed to do.
4. Aramis Ramirez 3B - He proved when DLee went down that he can’t carry a lineup. That’s ok. He’s not the man, so now he can concentrate on his role. Aramis seems to be hitting his stride now that the pressure is off. He’s a solid hitter who can hit for power, but can also be a solid contact hitter who is able to drive in a ton of runs.
5. Jacque Jones RF - Currently the Cubs hottest hitter (hitting .429 over the last 7 days). He’s second on the team in doubles, home runs, and RBI (all behind Ramirez). However, only Phil Nevin has struck out more than Jones this year. I think the Cubs knew what they were getting when they brought Jones in. He can hit, but he also strikes out a lot. If he could cut down his strike outs he could possibly move into the number 2 slot in the lineup (but I’m not holding my breath).
6. Michael Barrett C - A solid hitter who is having his best years. Barrett has always been a solid hitter. I think that Barrett will continue hitting like he has been. He’s improved his stats every year of his career, there’s no reason to think he’ll stop this year.
7. Phil Nevin LF - I know he’s not really a leftfielder, but, offensively speaking, he brings more to the table than Matt Murton (at least at this point). Nevin will probably be gone by the end of this month, but he can swing a pretty good stick. He’s another one who strikes out too much, but he can give the Cubs some solid power at the bottom of the lineup.
8. Ronny Cedeno SS - A number 8 hitter who has 10 doubles, 5 triples and is hitting .270 is a luxury that few teams have. For now this is where Cedeno should be in the lineup. I can definitely see him in the 2 hole in the near future, but he should probably get some more experience before he’s depended upon for that. I’d take his current production in the 8 spot even if he were in the 2 spot of the lineup. I really like the way this kid plays.

Ok, there’s the Cubs lineup. There’s not really a hole in it. Or an easy out. Yet, the Cubs have only scored 331 runs all year, by far the lowest in all of the Major League Baseball (the next lowest is the Kansas City Royals with 351). They have scored the least runs but fall about the middle of the pack when it comes to batting average (16th with a team average of .264). Something doesn’t add up. Are they just not clutch hitters? Bad timing? Just bad luck? I don’t know, but something has to change. For as horrible as I think that Dusty Baker is, he’s not totally to blame. These guys are professional baseball players. I don’t doubt that they are trying, and giving it their all. But they must get better. They must drive in those runs, and put more runs on the board. The Cubs’ pitching staff would look a lot better if the team would score some more runs.