TruffleShuffle

So you would rather keep a defensive SS who can't hit? Millar can't hit better enough than Blanco to make up for the fact that he's old, a garbage defender and can't play any position that we don't already have like 4 other guys on the roster (who are better than he is) to play. Millar isn't really the point. Theriot isn't getting pulled for a defensive replacement, so Blanco doesn't have that value on the bench. He's not a better option at 2B than Baker/Fontenot, so he's left with pinch hitting(which he's terrible at), and giving days off/injury replacement to Theriot. For off days Fontenot isn't much different than Blanco(and he has more uses beyond that), and Barney is equal to Blanco if Theriot gets hurt(and he has more options/roster flexibility). Blanco is redundant with the current roster, and considering he's not as flexible roster-wise as his fellow infielders, it makes sense to go with someone who could have any value as a bench bat. i actually don't take blanco's development last year with a grain of salt - i think he'll be better than terrible offensively and will provide excellent defense, as we saw. IMO there is no reason whatsoever that blanco should not have made the team as a backup shortstop/defensive replacement. stupid cobs.

awesome pretty brutal call led to this outburst. it's official - nobody with the surname koharski should be allowed to officiate a game at any level of hockey.

6 (OPS being the extra category) x 5 league, 5 keepers. i held onto victor martinez, pujols, sandoval, justin upton and dan haren. 10 team head-to-head league. i think about half of the people were on auto-draft today, which is awesome for me. C Victor Martinez (keeper) 1B Albert Pujols (keeper) 2B Dustin Pedroia (1st round after keepers) 3B Pablo Sandoval (keeper) SS Jose Reyes (5th Rd) OF Justin Upton (keeper) OF Ben Zobrist (4th Rd) OF Hunter Pence (6th Rd) UTIL Carlos Gonzalez (8th Rd) Bench Dexter Fowler (12th Rd) Bench Rafael Furcal (13th Rd) Bench Russell Martin (16th Rd) P Matt Garza (9th Rd) P Rafael Soriano (11th Rd) P Carlos Marmol (14th Rd) SP Dan Haren (keeper) SP Josh Johnson (2nd Rd) SP Tommy Hanson (3rd Rd!) RP Francisco Cordero (7th Rd) RP Bobby Jenks (10th Rd) Bench Wade Davis (15th Rd) Bench Brad Lidge (lol - 17th Rd)

your pitching should be well above average for a 12 team league; the offense probably a little below average. you could really use some good bounce-back years from soto and hardy.

oh he swiped and hit the ball all right

the kentucky part isn't all that wild but the wvu first half stats are some of the most bizarre i've ever seen.

so say that aramis continues to have some shoulder trouble this year, and doesn't opt out of his contract. do you move him to 1B for his last two years and try to find a 3B? (assuming vitters isn't ready yet). The upside to this is that aramis wouldn't have to do much throwing over there and would be much less of an injury risk, but his bat is really a big plus at 3B and only is a marginal plus at 1B. plus it's tougher to fill a hole at 1B than 3B.

yeah he's gotten pretty bad. you could tell he was getting older the last few years, but this is embarrassing.

"What a turn of events!" - Len Elmore after Clemente loses the ball in the last minute. BUTLER WAS FREAKING UP THE ENTIRE GAME! i liked how elmore's first comment to the butler coach was about how excited they had to be about going to indiana. the butler coach kindly told him that butler is IN indiana and they were going there after the game either way.

his babip is approaching .600 now. don't get me wrong, his performance over the second half of last season and in spring training is really nice to see, but that plate discipline is still very bad and i could easily see him being exploited by big-league pitchers.

as further evidence of the ineptitude, here's a breakdown of several situations on the nhl.com website: http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26557 2. THE GOALKEEPER IS OUT OF THE GOAL CREASE. A. An attacking player makes incidental contact with the goalkeeper, however, no goal is scored on the play. - Play continues, no whistle. B. An attacking player makes incidental contact with the goalkeeper at the time a goal is scored. -Goal is allowed. C. An attacking player makes other than incidental contact with the goalkeeper, however, no goal is scored on the play. -A Minor and/or Major penalty, plus assessment of whatever other penalties may be appropriate up to and including Supplementary Discipline. D. An attacking player makes other than incidental contact with the goalkeeper at the time a goal is scored. -A Minor and/or Major penalty, plus assessment of whatever other penalties may be appropriate up to and including Supplementary Discipline and the goal is disallowed. note that there is no situation in which a goalie who is outside his goal crease can be hit by an opposing player, with a goal being scored during the play, and result in a disallowed goal with no penalty being assessed. dan marouelli, who's always been bad, made the call. he should be suspended for not knowing the rules and for using the jumbotron to make a ruling, but since the NHL has allowed awful refs like marouelli, mccreary, don koharski and mick mcgeough to stay in the league for decades. basically there were three goals - the disallowed flyer goal, two missed calls on the third goal and a PP goal after one of the most mind-boggling calls i've ever seen - that were a result of referees simply not doing their job correctly. plus an obvious stick through by fleury that at the very least has to be a minor penalty. it's reached the point where i have a hard time enjoying a lot of games because the officiating is so horrendous and decides way too many outcomes.

billy packer just kicked his dog.

It that case, it's referee's discretion whether the player made "a reasonable effort to avoid the contact." he definitely didn't, although i'd argue that when there's a loose puck that's two feel outside the paint, the attacking player has just as much right to play the puck as the goaltender does to try to trap it. they should also just get rid of the crease since goalies come 5 feet out of the net to cut down angles and then always get interference calls when attacking players run into them. i would have been okay with the goalie interference call or a goal, but the call they made doesn't exist in the rule book, and that they watched the replay on the jumbotron is an even more egregious violation. thankfully the flyers blow so i can just take the rest of the year off from hockey.

Incorrect. According to NHL rule 69.1, incidental contact within the crease will result in a disallowed goal but not a penalty. Edit to add: 69.1 says that incidental contact within the crease *that impairs the goaltenders' ability to move within his crease* results in a goal being disallowed 69.2 outlines when to call a penalty, and that's when the player *initiates* contact with the goaltender. well then the call is still wrong because fleury was 2 feet outside his crease. is there also a rule allowing the referees to watch the play on the jumbotron and then decide what to call? because that's what they did. you should also check out the scott hartnell penalty on crosby... crosby initiated a (clean) check against hartnell, they both fell down, and hartnell got a roughing penalty. even the penguin announcers were amazed by it.

we now have three injured goalies (backlund, emery, leighton) and had a goal disallowed against the penguins today because of "incidental contact with the goalie" - no penalty for goalie interference was assessed, but the goal was taken away. if this seems confusing and perhaps the referee just made up a rule on the fly, that's because he did - there's no [expletive] rule for a goal to be disallowed without a penalty being called. just now in the third period, claude giroux had a semi-breakaway and mark-andre fleury threw his stick and giroux, which is supposed to be a penalty shot or at least a minor penalty, but apparently the referee was too busy beating off on the corner to notice it. two minutes later, matt cooke grabs the stick out of ryan parent's hands, ruslan fedotenko cross checks blair betts right in front of the net to steal a puck, goal penguins, no call. this league is a joke. we're not going anywhere and i'm tired of watching bush-league officiating, so i'm going to take the rest of the year off.

russell seems kind of pointless. i have serious doubts that berg will be a non-bad major league pitcher; he walks too many guys for someone with such hittable stuff. hopefully this is the end of samardzija's starting career; his secondary stuff isn't very good and at this point it's just best to get what you can out of him as a power reliever.

we don't really have a need at WR, so this is just a value pick - damian williams, WR, southern cal.

keepers have to be set by tonight. i'm holding onto pujols, upton, sandoval and victor martinez, and am leaning toward keeping haren over hanson. i think haren would get drafted pretty much immediately, and i think Rob is right - hanson's really good year was under the radar and i can probably grab him again in the first or second round. there are a couple of sharp people in this league but the rest are fairly casual baseball fans, or are really only into one team (phillies mostly)

i think that's actually a good team for a 14 team league.

blanco could arguably be better than our starting shortstop, so i don't really see a reason why he wouldn't be on the team.

dartmouth fans are pretty absent generally, but that could be a result of their athletic programs always being terrible.

bounce back from what? his play in tennessee last season was the best he's been since he was drafted.

i'm kinda surprised michigan st has only gotten two votes. their academics are close to the bottom of the conferences and their football program doesn't have a whole lot of success or prestige. the basketball team is obviously good, but their other athletic programs (besides hockey) tend to be pretty lousy too.

why let him loose now? he's obviously talented and is under the club's control at a relatively cheap price.

:lol: