Tracer Bullet

during the day next weekend (24 or 25) would be best for me.

I dont know about that. They might need to throw in Anibal Sanchez or Hanley Ramirez. Btw, that trade with Boston looks so very good right now. They can have Uggla. I'll take Pagan for Hanely straight up. I'd even throw in JJ.

By "late afternoon" I guess I was thinking 3 or 4 CST. I can't do a live one that starts that late. I'll have to do autopick. BTW - only 4 teams have signed up, but I thought we had 10 posters indicate they wanted to play...

Yup. sure

9 pm draft? I might be asleep... Where the heck do you live and you're in bed by 9? Sorry, I totally misread that as 6 pm pacific. I have no idea why. And no, I'm not usually in bed by 9. But then there are days after my 2-year-old has a really bad night of sleep...

My problem with that is it will make it very difficult to get his name off the card when he's finally replaced with a decent player. Unless it's one of those erasable pens I used in junior high that ended up getting all over my hand as I wrote (lefty). Replacing him with a decent player might be a signifcant enough event to get a whole new card. I'd be willing to buy an entire season's worth of lineup cards for the Cubs if they'll replace Izturis with a decent SS.

Jay is full of great ideas. He could probably net us a crappy middle reliever (which we don't need) or some low non-prospect. Then Prior either never comes close to 2003 again (he's no big loss) or he finds himself again and becomes a HOF pitcher for another team for the next 10+ years (huge loss). And I hate when people say he needs a change of scenery and he'll never become great here. A - how in the world can you possibly know that. And B - I'd say Dusty to Lou is a pretty big change in scenery anyway. Idiot.

9 pm draft? I might be asleep...

If there is a righty on the mound, Jones should be hitting 5th. Murton should be hitting 2nd and playing LF against all pitchers, imo. If he's just getting a day off and Floyd is in the lineup, put Theriot at 2nd and the 2-hole and have Jones and Floyd in the 5/6 spots (I don't care which is which, really). That all assumes JJ v2007 = JJ v2006, which I'm not exactly comfortable making yet.

Cuse winning it all a few years ago (as what a 6?). Took a lot of crap from people in that pool for that pick. Won that pool. Also picked UNC to win it 2 years ago. Took less crap - finished 2nd or 3rd that year.

I don't understand how people don't see what the problem is. I certainly see that it's a problem, but I don't think betting on baseball is worse than many other things that go on in the game today (PEDs). Maybe it's just me, but Rose betting on his team to win just doesn't bother me that much.

I sent CT a pm yesterday.

I'm supposed to believe that AJ covers his mouth/nose when he sneezes? Ha.

Sounds like at least 7. Should we set this up?

If it's H2H w/o daily changes allowed, I have no interest.

I'm not sure he's much of a hitter anymore either. But he had 4 doubles in spring training! [/sarcasm]

yeah - ok.

If you're referring to the reading that displays in the OF, I wouldn't put too much faith in the reading. A friend of mine and I watched Kerry Wood top out at 86 according to that one night, and we also saw Nate Teut hit 98 on some off speed stuff in 2003. Seconded. I attended several games in DSM when I was in college and the gun always seemed off.

The league is up to 5. I think we have some active managers - it should be a fun league, but if we don't get at least 8 (ideally we'd have 10-12), I'll probably shut it down. Draft is currently scheduled for 2 weeks from now, but not set in stone.

Fixed. But I don't necessarily agree that it applies here. Too early to jump ship, I say.

I wouldn't be surprised if the last comment was aimed at Jones, Floyd, and Murton too.

Well, with a couple trades, I turned my lineup into this: McCann - C Teixeira - 1B Lugo - 2B HRam - SS Wright - 3B Drew - OF Swisher - OF Hawpe - OF Kendrick - UTIL Alex Gordon - BENCH Burke - BENCH Webb - SP Haren - SP Ryan - RP Wagner - RP Sheets - SP Olsen - SP Pettitte - SP Gonzalez - RP Torres - RP Adding Webb gave me an ace and Wagner and Ryan should be a solid pair of closers. I'll probably only keep 1 of Gonzalez or Torres, depending on if Gonzalez wins the closer job in Atlanta and if either is effective. I'm still shopping Wright and Pettitte for a better pitcher and slightly worse 3B. I hated to give up Rios, but I think Drew could be primed for a big year in Boston. If I can get 1 more quality SP, I'd be thrilled with my team.

Wasn't Wood called Kid K about 10 years ago?

I don't think so. I've never seen or heard of a site like that. But, as fun as it is to rate your team after a draft, I wouldn't put much stock into that rating. Things always look much different in September than they did in March.

Now I get your question. In fantasy, you don't set a "line-up" like a manager would. You just pick the players that are going to start. It doesn't matter what order they're in. You just get the stats that your starters put up in their games. So if Pierre goes 2/4, scores a run, steals a base, has 0 RBI and 0 HR on 1 day, you'll see a R, a SB, and a .500 AVG for that day. Over the course of the week, it'll total up R and compare them to the "team" you're playing (KMac in the first week). Whichever "team" has the most Rs will essentially get 1 W (on the main page, you'll see W-L-T, meaning wins, losses, ties). Same for RBI, HR, and SB. AVG will be the average of all your starters. Do the same for pitching stats. At the end of the week, all of them will be compared and it'll basically be considered 10 "games" in a way. So if you have more R, RBI, and W, and a higher AVG and ERA than KMac in the first week, but that team has more HR, SB, S, Ks (from pitchers) and a higher WHIP, your teams will each be 5-5 after the first week. If you click on your "Match-up" link from your home page during the week, it will show you how you are doing against the team you're playing. So if you are trying to decide whether to start Murton or Alou and you see that you are behind by 1 or 2 SBs, you'd probably choose Murton b/c he's more likely to get steals than Alou. Match-ups run Sunday to Saturday.