DivineBovine

Agree about Deng. I like the guy, but nobody wants him or his contract. To think that Deng was supposedly a sticking point in a possible Kobe deal a few years back. Hilarious. I'm sure Denver would be very happy to score Noah. But I'm not so keen on the deal unless we can keep Noah, Rose and Boozer. Plus, I'm not as high on Melo as everyone else seems to be. You'd have to pay him like Kobe and LeBron, and he's certainly not as good. Maybe the Bulls don't have the goods to score Melo, but at the same time, Denver risks losing him for nothing. Maybe the Bulls don't have to give up so much.

Melo pushing for a trade to the Bulls or Knicks: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=mc-anthonywish090810 Do you do Deng, Gibson, Johnson and picks for Melo and sign Melo to a max extension? Does Denver even do a deal without Noah? Can Melo, Rose, Noah and Boozer win a championship?

I hear you about Buckhalter. But in a 12 team league with a RB/WR flex position, RBs are very scarce. My RB position could definitely use improvement, but at least I have 3 others ahead of Buckhalter and I only need to play 2. Bradshaw is essentially the #1 RB on the Giants now. I wasn't so high on McCoy, but Westbrook is gone and he will be getting the ball.

I'd do it in a heartbeat. Finley might be a number 1 TE this year if healthy. White is a top 5 receiver. You turn both positions into big strengths. Between Thomas, Best, Charles, Foster, you can easily cover for the loss of MJD. People keep saying MJD is going to wear down at some point anyways. And some people are touting Jahvid Best as Chris Johnson Jr. I can't believe you ended up with that team. Who did you draft against? Geez.

I can't speak for others, but they loved my team because they largely ranked it themselves. Yahoo doesn't like my team nearly as much as them based on their point projections.

I like the team. Big fan of Austin. Provided MJD stays durable, he'll put up points. Like Pierre Thomas as well, although I'd like him more if they gave him the ball more at the goal line. #2 RB with good upside. Solid TE. Knox won't make or break this team. If the Cowboys with Romo and Austin have a big year, you'll be sitting pretty.

Sorry man, not a huge fan of your team either. :( At WR, Johnson is a stud, but your other 2 are a little weak. The RB position could be decent, but I'm not sold on Mendenhall. I certainly could live with Rivers at QB, but he's not necessarily going to carry you. I also couldn't resist grabbing Olsen at TE also, but he's my #2 behind Jermichael Finley. I'm a big believer in having a stud at RB and QB, not at WR. Last year, I won my league because of WR, but I had Moss, Welker and Wayne. And even then, it was tough because WR's tend not to be consistent pointmakers. If Mendenhall and Rivers have big years, you could do OK.

I used their site to come up with my draft list. It works especially well if no one else in your league is using them. Also, they have a cool feature where you put down all your league's scoring idiosyncrasies and they rank all the players according to your scoring system. For instance, my league has 0.5 PPR, different TD pass and interception values and IDP's. It adjusted the ranks accordingly. They ranked Aaron Rodgers as the #3 overall player based on our pts system, even though his rank according to most systems is much lower. Beware- you have to use your own instincts though, because these guys are definitely not infallible. Also, depending on which one of them is giving advice, it can be drastically different. It's funny that they say the same thing about my team. They help draft my team, and they like it. Go figure. From them: But it pissed me off that they are railing on my kicker, whom I picked because of them!

12 team league. Some weird rules. 0.5 PPR. IDP. Return yards count (25 yards/pt). Among other weird rules. I know, my brain hurt from thinking about them. QB: Aaron Rodgers WR: Marques Colston WR: Hakeem Nicks RB: Steven Jackson RB: LeSean McCoy TE: Jermichael Finley W/R: Ahmad Bradshaw K: Rod Bironas D: Barrett Ruud (LB) DB: Yeremiah Bell DL: Jared Allen BN: Joshua Cribbs BN: Matt Ryan BN: Jabar Gaffney BN: Correll Buckhalter BN: Greg Olsen BN: Will Smith

This team would be killer in my league which is 0.5 PPR and also counts return yards. I still really like the team. A lot of people think Rice might be the #1 RB this year, and I'm a firm believer in getting the elite QB. 10 teams? Wow, it seems like you made out well in the draft.

The comparison is simply not fair. It's been less than 1 season, and the Trib handed over a bad team. The difference is that the Ricketts care about winning (at least we can assume so as of now) and the Tribune solely cared about money. They only started spending money in the past few years, and that was when they knew they were selling. And when they started spending money, the spent it on players like Soriano. Give it some time. We're all frustrated that this team sucks now, but I'll take my chances over the coming years that any owner will be better than the Tribune company.

Never mind. Figured it out. My crazy league only has individual defensive players and no team defense.

I'm doing a live draft on Yahoo, but I'm trying to fill in my pre-draft rankings. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to rank team defense in my pre-draft rankings. I can rank individual players, but not team defense. What's going on? Anyone know?

All depends on how they do this postseason. Girardi took heat after 2008 and it will happen again if they finish behind Tampa and/or get knocked out of the playoffs early. I can't understand why a manager can get so much hype for winning with $200 million dollar team with by far the most talent in the league. I think the thing is that Torre went 8 years without a title with the highest payroll. So its not necessarily a slam dunk. Secondly, i think Girardi's more impressive feat was what he did with the marlins team he managed that collectively made less than A-rod. Granted having a young Hanley, Miguel Cabrera, and pre- injury pitchers Anibal Sanchez and Scott Olsen really helped but he seemed to take an active role in the development of the young players. Plus he's proven he can handle the prima-donnas. If he's interested I have to believe he's the number one choice as long as money isn't an issue. I don't believe that managers make a big difference in the playoffs. You play 162 games, and then you have to win 3 series in a row to win the WS. Good teams win 60% of their games, bad teams win 40%. Winning in the playoffs is mostly luck. Yeah, there's an issue with getting respect from the players, handling primadonnas, making the right substitution. But being a baseball manager is way way overblown. It's really not rocket science. That's why we can all second guess every little lineup change or decision Lou Piniella makes. How many games has Lou Piniella blown for us that Joe Girardi would have won? I know one thing, the 2010 Cubs would've still sucked.

All depends on how they do this postseason. Girardi took heat after 2008 and it will happen again if they finish behind Tampa and/or get knocked out of the playoffs early. I can't understand why a manager can get so much hype for winning with $200 million dollar team with by far the most talent in the league. Personally, this manager talk bores me. This thread isn't even a page long, so people must agree with me. Yeah, you can have a bad manager, but in the end, managers probably matter less in baseball than any other sport. Hey, if the casual baseball fan can understand the thought process behind managing a baseball game and criticize it, it must not be that complicated.

I'm still not sure how you drop that kind of dough in 1 night in Vegas without: A) gambling B) paying for female companionship C) having a LOT of freeloaders around Whatever. If the only rules they broke were the 20 year old had a few drinks, I couldn't care less. If my daddy were that rich, I'd have a good time too. It's not like Paris Hilton wasn't dropping that kind of cash all the time at that age. Why the big deal with MJ's kids?

That's pretty much how Hendry rolls. Let's try and trade a player who's having his worst year after being relegated to the bullpen and now coming off a suspension. Oh, this time they forgot to publicly badmouth him first.

You should ban yourself for scaring me like that.

Yeah, big pass on T Mac. He actually is implying that he will be a starter and a big part of the team. And what kind of salary is he going to expect. Might as well sign Allen Iverson.

I sure hope not. That would be horrible. He's shot like 38% the past few seasons. He's probably not even going to be healthy. He seems to really want to play for the Bulls now. He had his chance in 2000. Screw him.

You're an enabler. They are for TOBACCO. Completely legal in all 50 states.

Just say no to TMac. He hasn't shot above 43% since 2002-2003 and he's been below 40% the last 3 years even with taking less shots. He's the definition of washed up.

Pulling a Delonte. Nice. Negative. Nobody's mom was involved. He's pulling a Palmerio. That'll get you traded every time, even if you're the best 1st baseman on the team. Supposedly rumor is untrue as Werth and Utley were recently spotted at the casino together. As an aside, Utley's wife is smoking hot. http://sportscrack.blogspot.com/2009/11/just-another-reason-to-root-for.html

What a bore. Take the good with the bad. Sometimes, you get an amazingly interesting tournament. Other times, you get a total yawner with a total no-name winning. Good chance that Oosthuizen goes on to have a career as successful as Todd Hamilton or Paul Lawrie.

I'm still unconvinced that Rose is an alpha male leader. Deng is really not a three point shooter. He has never put up more than 2 a game on average in his career. But it wouldn't hurt to be in the gym working on that with Rose this summer. Good for DRose. You also get the impression that the Bulls management must not have been all that keen on LeBron. Because if they were, wouldn't they have asked DRose to start recruiting? It would seem like the obvious thing to do. re: Deng. Before last season, Deng said he was working to add the 3 to his repertoire and shot a lot more in 2009-2010 than he had in 2 seasons prior. He actually shot 38% which is not shabby at all. To me, I think its bad that he continually passed up open 3s last year, even while he was shooting at 38%. Even if he thinks he can get a better shot by stepping up and putting up a 2 pointer, it at least keeps the defense honest. Shooting 38% from 3 is like shooting 57% for 2 pointers. IMO, he should just take more 3 pointers.