Wednesday, December 30, 2009

FDH Lounge Show #85: December 30, 2009

By Rick Morris

The 85th episode of THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EST on SportsTalkNetwork.com) is of course our final one of the year and the decade and it will be one to remember.

Last week, we devoted our entire program to the release of our eBook DISSECTING THE DECADES: THE FDH LOUNGE LOOKS BACK AND AHEAD AT THE FIRST 20 YEARS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM. You can read the book's explanatory statement and Table of Contents here. If you haven’t checked it out already, we urge you to partake of the free download here. Tonight’s program is a bit of a counterpoint, as we narrow our focus to a review of 2009.

After we look at This Week in The FDH Lounge and The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries, we move into a breakdown of the political scene in this first year of the Obama Administration with one guest we welcome back – Colin Delany of ePolitics.com, who has just made this eBook available – and one new guest, the first practicing CPA ever elected to Congress, Joseph DioGuardi. As one of the few people who really understands the scope of what we are up against with the huge debt this country has piled upand has chronicled these matters in a book – the perspective of the onetime congressman will be greatly welcomed along with Colin’s.

In Hour Two, we move into the year in movies with two great return guests, Ben Lyons of E! Entertainment Television and countless other outlets and a man who certainly covers a wide array of cinema, S.T. VanAirsdale of Movieline and The Reeler. At that point, due to a special guest at the top of the third hour, we move a bit earlier than usual into THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER with a look at NFL Week 17.

That guest in Hour Three? None other than investigative journalist Irv Muchnick, author of a number of books having to do with pro wrestling, including one on some overall horrors of the business and a new one specifically on the Benoit family tragedy. He’ll help us examine why the biggest story of the decade in this business was so easily contained, relatively speaking, by the WWE.

Our GOON SQUAD then concludes with a look at the present NHL standings as well as a review of the top stories in hockey in 2009.

As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Urban Meyer press conference liveblog

By Rick Morris

"Retirement" was short-lived. Now Urban Meyer is moving towards a leave of absence. We will cover the press conference live.

Video Clips: Yacht Rock

By Rick Morris

It's difficult to sum up these videos, so I won't try very hard. Suffice to say that they are faux-histories of developments in some of the cheesier 1970s and 1980s pop music. If you aren't laughing so hard that you're reaching for a pair of Depends, you probably don't have a very good sense of humor. Enjoy!

















Sportsology: Fenway history & The Winter Classic

Posted by Rick Morris

As was the case last year, we'll be getting updates about the NHL Winter Classic from our good pal Russ Cohen of Sportsology, who will be covering the event as he always does. To get you ready for that, here's a column from him about the historic ballpark hosting the event and the nature of the game itself.

Bowling Preceded Hockey at Fenway Park
By Russ Cohen

The Winter Classic is just around the corner and I can’t wait. I have covered every NHL outdoor game, not counting the Rangers-Kings in Vegas, and this one should be a classic. So as I searched the annals of Fenway Park, I looked to see what other major sporting events they’ve had over the years that didn’t include the Boston Red Sox and I was able to find out that they once had Professional Bowling there. This tale was told to me. I couldn’t find it in print. So I believe the source, since his recollection seemed legitimate.

Back in the days of Don Carter, bowling’s first million-dollar man, he ended up bringing other top bowler’s of his era, in the late 50’s and they had an exhibition in Fenway Park. The lanes were setup outside and the park wasn’t sold out, but there were quite a few attendees. In a weird six-degrees-of-separation connection, Carter was actually signed to a baseball deal, as an infielder, by the Philadelphia Athletics.

The stadium is the oldest baseball MLB stadium that’s currently in use in the states; it first opened in 1912. It cost $650,000 to build the entire baseball palace and now the one hockey game will certainly exceed that price tag since the truck and equipment that the league purchased in 2008 cost more than $1.5 million.

In these games, it doesn’t matter which team has the better record. It doesn’t matter if they are Stanley Cup-bound, what matters is that they have fun. I have never seen one hockey player that didn’t have a ball at this event. They loved every minute of it.

“Maybe we’ll have other chances to do this, maybe not,” Sidney Crosby said back in 2008, hoping that he would get a chance to do this again. “Maybe there will be other teams.”

“I had fun today,” said Wayne Gretzky, back in 2003 at the postgame press conference for the Mega Stars Game during the Heritage Classic. “I think it’s great and what happened this weekend I wouldn’t trade in for the world, it was pretty special. Again, how do you duplicate this weekend? The fans were wonderful and the players were excited.”

For Wayne, this was a real family event. His wife Janet was sitting with her young sons as they got to see their dad play hockey one more time. Wayne had a son with him in the locker room after a practice the day before.

Mark Messier was shoveling the snow off the ice when he got a chance to experience outdoor hockey once again, and he knew it was special.

“As a kid, losers had to do the ice for the next game coming on,” said the Famous Number 11. “I think it’s kind of the way the whole weekend was supposed to be…it’s supposed to be getting back to the grass roots of hockey. What it’s supposed to be, where it s come from and what it should be even at this level.”

Ty Conklin won’t be playing in this one, but he is most known for playing in the previous three. He talked about how cold each of them was and now we’ll see if Boston can have that distinction.

“It wasn’t nearly as cold as the Edmonton game. It got colder as the game went on. It was colder than in Buffalo last year,” he said, talking about Chitown.

This year, the Flyers and Bruins will create new memories. Their fans will spend an unforgettable New Year’s Day watching hockey the way it was for so many of us when we were kids.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

NFL picks Week Sixteen

By Rick Morris

In addition to posting my weekly picks, I will post those from other members of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries' Football Challenge Contest. Each week, we will single out our three strongest plays.


STEVE CIRVELLO (0-3 last week, 22-23 overall)
New Orleans -14 over Tampa Bay
NY Giants -7 1/2 over Carolina
Green Bay -14 over Seattle


DAVE ADAMS (0-3 last week, 22-23 overall)
Cleveland -3 over Oakland
New Orleans -14 over Tampa Bay
Indianapolis -4 over NY Jets



RYAN ISLEY (1-2 last week, 21-24 overall)
Baltimore +3 over Pittsburgh
Indianapolis -4 over NY Jets
Minnesota -7 over Chicago

RICK MORRIS (1-2 last week, 1-0 with my best pick, 20-25 overall, 7-8 on best picks)
Dallas -7 over Washington (my 1,000-Star, Gold-Plated Lock of the Millennium for this week)
NY Giants -7 1/2 over Carolina
Indianapolis -4 over NY Jets


SEAN TRENCH (1-1-1 last week, 17-26-2 overall)
Cincinnati -13 over Kansas City
Green Bay -14 over Seattle
New Orleans -14 over Tampa Bay


My remaining picks (7-7-2 last week, 113-112-3 including win on Thursday night game called on The FDH Lounge Twitter page):

Seattle +14 over Green Bay
Oakland +3 over Cleveland
Kansas City +13 over Cincinnati
Atlanta -8 1/2 over Buffalo
Miami -1 over Houston
Tampa Bay +14 over New Orleans
New England -10 over Jacksonville
Baltimore +3 over Pittsburgh
Philadelphia -7 over Denver
Detroit +14 over San Francisco
Arizona -14 1/2 over St. Louis
Minnesota -7 over Chicago

NFL Week Sixteen power rankings

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Previous ratings in parentheses.

FIRST TIER: BEST OF THE BEST
1 New Orleans (1)
2 Indianapolis (2)
3 San Diego (4)
SECOND TIER: SOLID PLAYOFF CONTENDERS
4 Minnesota (3)
5 Arizona (5)
6 Philadelphia (6)
THIRD TIER: POTENTIAL PLAYOFF CONTENDERS
7 Cincinnati (7)
8 New England (8)
9 Green Bay (10)
10 NY Giants (11)
11 Denver (9)
12 Dallas (16)
13 Baltimore (13)
THIRD TIER: BARELY ABOVE-AVERAGE TO AVERAGE
14 Tennessee (17)
15 Miami (12)
16 Pittsburgh (19)
17 Houston (18)
18 Jacksonville (15)
19 NY Jets (14)
FOURTH TIER: VERY BAD, BUT NOT THE WORST
20 Atlanta (20)
21 San Francisco (21)
22 Carolina (24)
23 Chicago (25)
24 Seattle (22)
25 Washington (23)
FIFTH TIER: TEAMS WITHOUT ANY REDEEMING VALUE WHATSOEVER
26 Buffalo (26)
27 Oakland (27)
28 Kansas City (28)
29 Tampa Bay (29)
30 Cleveland (31)
31 Detroit (30)
32 St. Louis (32)

BIGGEST RISERS: Dallas (4 spots), Pittsburgh (3 spots)
BIGGEST FALLERS: NY Jets (5 spots), Jacksonville, Miami and Tennessee (3 spots)

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue XLXI

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas

By Rick Morris

The FDH family wishes all the best to you and your family on this most important day on the calendar. To help you celebrate with a smile on your face, enjoy this mashup of a Run-DMC classic and Charlie Brown.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

FDH Lounge Show #84: December 23, 2009

By Rick Morris

From time to time, our "nothing is off-topic" program THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EST on SportsTalkNetwork.com) spends an entire night on one compelling theme and this episode is one such occasion. The end of a decade only comes up once every ten years, if our rudimentary grasp of math is correct, and we've got a heck of a way to celebrate that.

Our labor-of-love eBook DISSECTING THE DECADES: THE FDH LOUNGE LOOKS BACK AND AHEAD AT THE FIRST 20 YEARS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM has been completed and is now available to be consumed. You can read the book's explanatory statement and Table of Contents here.

This entire show will revolve around this theme, looking back at where we've just been and peering over the horizon to see where we're going. This should be an amazing and memorable night, because The Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge love to break down a wide variety of topics and we've got a great many to address on this show.

The show is more or less divided with the first half being non-sports and the second half being sports-related. Part I flows like this:

^ biggest news stories
^ pop culture/entertainment
^ "sports entertainment"
^ interview with Liz Claman of Fox Business News (her second appearance on the show) to discuss finance and the economy

And here's Part II
^ miscellaneous non-sports that falls outside the purview of the "Big 4"
^ hockey
^ baseball
^ hoops
^ football

It's going to be a great night; we will reference some of the features from the eBook in the course of the evening as reference points, but the discussions will also stand on their own. We believe we will break down the first 20 years of the 21st century like nobody else could -- or would even attempt to try.

As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes!

Our eBook is released: DISSECTING THE DECADES

By Rick Morris

Our massive project is now complete! DISSECTING THE DECADES: THE FDH LOUNGE LOOKS BACK AND AHEAD AT THE FIRST 20 YEARS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM has been completed and is now available to be consumed.

I will replicate here my introductory statement in the book and also our Table of Contents.

"We welcome you to DISSECTING THE DECADES: THE FDH LOUNGE LOOKS BACK AND AHEAD AT THE FIRST 20 YEARS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM, the first of our FDH eBooks to verge far beyond the realms of fantasy sports and sports in general. As is the case with our FDH Lounge Multimedia Magazine (at TheFDHLounge.com) and on our FDH LOUNGE weekly web TV show (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EST on SportsTalkNetwork.com), we verge into several additional areas, including music, movies, pop culture, politics, geopolitics and general news. We also worked with many of our fellow members of The 21st Century Media Alliance and we are grateful for their contributions.

We are very confident that you will find our coverage of the last decade and our look ahead to the next decade to be interesting, whether or not you agree with every assessment or prediction that is made. We pride ourselves on delivering a wide variety of smart content without ever taking ourselves too seriously. It is a formula that has worked very well for us, and we anticipate strongly that you will find this labor of love to be entertaining and thought-provoking."

2 FDH Top 50 NFL Players of the 2000s & Top 50 Projected Players of 2010s, eBook General Preview
3 FDH Top 50 MLB Players of the 2000s & Top 50 Projected Players of 2010s
4-6 FDH NBA All-Decade Roster for the 2000s & Projected Roster for 2010s
7 FDH NHL All-Decade Roster for the 2000s & Projected Roster for 2010s
8 Top 5 NFL Storylines of the 2000s & Projected for 2010s
9 Top 5 MLB Storylines of the 2000s & Projected for 2010s & Small-Market Superstar Lists, Past/Present
10 Top 5 NBA Storylines of the 2000s & Projected for 2010s
11 Top 5 NHL Storylines of the 2000s & Projected for 2010s
12 Top 5 NCAA Storylines of the 2000s & Projected for 2010s
13 Top 5 Motorsports Storylines of the 2000s & Projected for 2010s
14 Top 5 Individual Sports Storylines of the 2000s & Projected for 2010s
15 Top 5 International Sports Storylines of the 2000s & Projected for 2010s
16 Top 5 Combat Sports Storylines of the 2000s & Projected for 2010s
17 Top 5 Sports Entertainment Storylines of the 2000s & Projected for 2010s
18 Top 5 Sports Media Storylines of the 2000s & Projected for 2010s
19 Top Sports Entertainment Stars of the Recent Past
20-32 Roundtable on the NFL in the 2000s and Expected Developments in the 2010s, Jason Jones Top 50 for 2010 NFL Draft
33-34 Top 10 Newsmakers of the 2000s Decade
35-36 Projected Top 10 Newsmakers of the 2010s Decade
37-38 Top 10 News Stories of the 2000s Decade
39-40 Top 10 Projected News Stories of the 2010s Decade
41-45 Roundtable on Top Politics/Geopolitics/Economic Stories of the 2000s and 2010s
46-48 Interview with Technology Expert/Futurist Simon Applebaum About the 2010s
49-56 Roundtable on Top Pop Culture Stories of the 2000s and 2010s

Friday, December 18, 2009

NFL picks Week Fifteen

By Rick Morris

In addition to posting my weekly picks, I will post those from other members of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries' Football Challenge Contest. Each week, we will single out our three strongest plays.

STEVE CIRVELLO (2-1 last week, 22-20 overall)
Minnesota -9 over Carolina
Arizona -12 ½ over Detroit
Houston -11 over St. Louis

DAVE ADAMS (3-0 last week, 22-20 overall)
New Orleans -7 ½ over Dallas
San Diego -7 over Cincinnati
Arizona -12 ½ over Detroit

RYAN ISLEY (3-0 last week, 20-22 overall)
Kansas City -2 over Cleveland
San Diego -7 over Cincinnati
Green Bay +2 over Pittsburgh

RICK MORRIS (2-1 last week, 0-1 with my best pick, 19-23 overall, 6-8 on best picks)
Cincinnati +7 over San Diego (my 1,000-Star, Gold-Plated Lock of the Millennium for this week)
Pittsburgh -2 over Green Bay
Kansas City -2 over Cleveland

SEAN TRENCH (1-2 last week, 16-25-1 overall)
Minnesota -9 over Carolina
New England -7 over Buffalo
Philadelphia -7 ½ over San Francisco

My remaining picks (10-6 last week, 105-105-1 including loss on Thursday night game):
Dallas +7 ½ over New Orleans
Pittsburgh -2 over Green Bay
Tennessee -3 over Miami
New England -7 over Buffalo
Detroit +12 ½ over Arizona
San Francisco +7 ½ over Philadelphia
Atlanta +4 ½ over NY Jets
Chicago +11 over Baltimore
St. Louis +11 over Houston
Oakland +14 over Denver
Seattle -6 ½ over Tampa Bay
Minnesota -9 over Carolina
NY Giants -3 over Washington

Thursday, December 17, 2009

2009-2010 Bowl season predictions

By Rick Morris

If you're in any bowl pools, whether they are against the spread or straight-up, we've got your guide right here to help guide you through it. With games where the underdog is the pick, we will note if the picks are straight-up or merely against the spread. We will also note the picks against the spread for the FDH New York Bureau Steve Cirvello.

December 19
New Mexico Bowl - Albuquerque, NM
Fresno State -11 1/2 over Wyoming
FDHNYB: Fresno State

December 19
St. Petersburg Bowl - St. Petersburg, FL
Central Florida +2 1/2 over Rutgers
Central Florida straight-up as well
FDHNYB: Rutgers

December 20
New Orleans Bowl - New Orleans, LA
Southern Mississippi -3 1/2 over Middle Tennessee State
FDHNYB: Middle Tennessee State

December 22
Maaco Las Vegas Bowl - Las Vegas, NV
BYU +2 1/2 over Oregon State
BYU straight-up as well
FDHNYB: Oregon State

December 23
Poinsettia Bowl - San Diego, CA
Utah +3 over California
Utah straight-up as well
FDHNYB: Utah

December 24
Hawaii Bowl - Honolulu, HI
Nevada -15 over SMU
FDHNYB: Nevada

December 26
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl - Detroit, MI
Ohio -2 1/2 over Marshall
FDHNYB: Ohio

December 26
Meineke Car Care Bowl - Charlotte, NC
North Carolina +2 1/2 over Pittsburgh
North Carolina straight-up as well
FDHNYB: Pittsburgh

December 26
Emerald Bowl - San Francisco, CA
USC -9 over Boston College
FDHNYB: Boston College

December 26
Music City Bowl - Nashville, TN
Clemson -7 over Kentucky
FDHNYB: Kentucky

December 28
Independence Bowl - Shreveport, LA
Georgia -7 over Texas A&M
FDHNYB: Georgia

December 29
EagleBank Bowl - Washington, DC
UCLA -4 over Temple
FDHNYB: UCLA

December 29
Champs Sports Bowl - Orlando, FL
Miami -3 over Wisconsin
FDHNYB: Wisconsin

December 30
Humanitarian Bowl - Boise, ID
Bowling Green -1 1/2 over Idaho
FDHNYB: Bowling Green

December 30
Holiday Bowl - San Diego, CA
Nebraska +1 1/2 over Arizona
Nebraska straight-up as well
FDHNYB: Nebraska

December 31
Texas Bowl - Houston, TX
Navy +6 1/2 over Missouri
Missouri to win straight-up
FDHNYB: Missouri

December 31
Armed Forces Bowl - Fort Worth, TX
Houston -4 1/2 over Air Force
FDHNYB: Houston

December 31
Sun Bowl - El Paso, TX
Stanford +8 over Oklahoma
Oklahoma to win straight-up
FDHNYB: Stanford

December 31
Insight Bowl - Tempe, AR
Iowa State +2 1/2 over Minnesota
Iowa State straight-up as well
FDHNYB: Minnesota

December 31
Chick Fil-A Bowl - Atlanta, GA
Virginia Tech -4 1/2 over Tennessee
FDHNYB: Tennessee

January 1
Outback Bowl - Tampa, FL
Auburn -7 1/2 over Northwestern
FDHNYB: Auburn

January 1
Gator Bowl - Jacksonville, FL
Florida State +3 over West Virginia
Florida State straight-up as well
FDHNYB: Florida State

January 1
Capital One Bowl - Orlando, FL
Penn State -2 1/2 over LSU
FDHNYB: Penn State

January 1
Rose Bowl - Pasadena, CA
Oregon -3 1/2 over Ohio State
FDHNYB: Oregon

January 1
Sugar Bowl - New Orleans, LA
Cincinnati +11 over Florida
Florida to win straight-up
FDHNYB: Florida

January 2
International Bowl - Toronto
Northern Illinois +6 1/2 over South Florida
Northern Illinois straight-up as well
FDHNYB: South Florida

January 2
Papa Johns Bowl - Birmingham, AL
UConn +4 1/2 over South Carolina
South Carolina to win straight-up
FDHNYB: UConn

January 2
Cotton Bowl - Arlington, TX
Mississippi -3 over Oklahoma State
FDHNYB: Mississippi

January 2
Liberty Bowl - Memphis, TN
East Carolina +7 1/2 over Arkansas
Arkansas to win straight-up
FDHNYB: Arkansas

January 2
Alamo Bowl - San Antonio, TX
Texas Tech -8 over Michigan State
FDHNYB: Texas Tech

January 4
Fiesta Bowl - Glendale, AR
Boise State +7 over TCU
TCU to win straight-up
FDHNYB: Boise State

January 5
Orange Bowl - Miami, FL
Georgia Tech -4 over Iowa
FDHNYB: Iowa

January 6
GMAC Bowl - Mobile, AL
Central Michigan -3 1/2 over Troy
FDHNYB: Troy

January 7
BCS National Championship Game - Pasadena, CA
Alabama -5 over Texas
FDHNYB: Alabama

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue XLX

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

FDH Lounge Show #84: next Wednesday, December 23

By Rick Morris

No new episode of THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EST on SportsTalkNetwork.com) tonight as we are on pre-Christmas vacation; instead, Super-Producer and Valued Lounge Dignitary Ryan Isley put together a wonderful "Best Of" episode comprised of recent segments:

Segment 1 (30 Mins):Our discussion of the ACC as a football conference followed by the interview with Casey Moore
Segment 2 (30 Mins):NCAA Bowl Draft
Segment 3 (hour):MLB Hot Stove
Segment 4 (30 Mins):Interview with Pat O'Connor
Segment 5 (30 Mins):Interview with Tom Wilson

As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

NFL Week Fifteen power rankings

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Previous ratings in parentheses.

FIRST TIER: BEST OF THE BEST
1 New Orleans (1)
2 Indianapolis (2)
3 Minnesota (3)
SECOND TIER: SOLID PLAYOFF CONTENDERS
4 San Diego (4)
5 Arizona (5)
6 Philadelphia (7)
THIRD TIER: POTENTIAL PLAYOFF CONTENDERS
7 Cincinnati (6)
8 New England (9)
9 Denver (8)
10 Green Bay (11)
11 NY Giants (10)
12 Miami (16)
13 Baltimore (14)
14 NY Jets (17)
15 Jacksonville (15)
16 Dallas (12)
THIRD TIER: VERY DISTANT PLAYOFF POSSIBILITIES
17 Tennessee (18)
18 Houston (20)
19 Pittsburgh (13)
20 Atlanta (19)
21 San Francisco (21)
FOURTH TIER: VERY BAD, BUT NOT THE WORST
22 Seattle (22)
23 Washington (23)
24 Carolina (24)
25 Chicago (25)
FIFTH TIER: TEAMS WITHOUT ANY REDEEMING VALUE WHATSOEVER
26 Buffalo (26)
27 Oakland (27)
28 Kansas City (28)
29 Tampa Bay (29)
30 Detroit (30)
31 Cleveland (32)
32 St. Louis (31)

BIGGEST RISERS: Miami (4 spots), NY Jets (3 spots)
BIGGEST FALLERS: Pittsburgh (6 spots), Dallas (4 spots)

NBA power rankings for mid-December

By Rick Morris

TOP TIER
1 LA Lakers
2 Boston
3 Orlando
4 Atlanta
5 Cleveland
6 Dallas
7 Denver
8 Phoenix
9 Utah
10 Portland
11 San Antonio
12 Houston
13 Oklahoma City
14 Miami
15 Minnesota
16 Detroit
17 Toronto
18 New Orleans
19 Memphis
20 Sacramento
21 LA Clippers
22 Charlotte
23 Chicago
24 Indiana
25 Washington
26 New York
27 Golden State
28 Philadelphia

SECOND TIER
29 Minnesota
30 New Jersey

NHL power rankings for mid-December

By Rick Morris

TOP TIER
1 Washington
2 New Jersey
3 Pittsburgh
4 San Jose
5 Chicago
6 Los Angeles
7 Buffalo
8 Colorado
9 Calgary
10 Phoenix
11 Nashville
12 Detroit
13 Boston
14 Atlanta
15 Montreal
16 Ottawa
17 Vancouver
18 Dallas
19 Columbus
20 Philadelphia
21 Edmonton
22 NY Rangers
23 Florida
24 NY Islanders
25 Tampa Bay
26 Minnesota
27 Anaheim
28 Toronto
29 St. Louis

SECOND TIER
30 Carolina

Sportsology: Baseball's 2-Cy trade

By Rick Morris

Our good pal Russ Cohen at Sportsology has done it again with an excellent column about the biggest blockbuster pitching deal in several years. Courtesy of our content-sharing relationship with The 21st Century Media Alliance, here is the analysis.

Russ's Rants - Halladay and Lackey Fuel The League's Arms Race?

By Russ Cohen

The Phillies are locking down starter Roy Halladay as we speak, and most of the free world believes that Cliff Lee will be headed to Seattle. I give Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. tremendous credit for making moves he believes will help his club, but the team is still running a huge risk here.

Is Halladay better than Lee? I say yes, but I think the bigger question is this: is Cole Hamels the same? Even though we won’t know the answer until next season, I believe that his better days are behind him. Age doesn’t matter here and his stats dropped off dramatically last season. I don’t think you can say he was tired because C.C. Sabathia (265 total innings) pitched as much as Hamels (262 total innings) last season and he had plenty in the tank in the World Series. Could Hamels change his fortunes by learning another pitch? Maybe, and I think he’ll need to do that in order to make this trade a success. Otherwise, fans will ask why didn’t the Phillies keep both pitchers? The answer is simple: the Phillies have a budget of around $140 million, no matter how much revenue they bring in. Will that plan backfire on them?

Lee wasn’t making a lot of money and he could have walked after the season, but in the end, his salary – coupled with Halladay’s – was more than Phillies ownership was willing to swallow. The other important part of this deal will reside with the prospects. My feeling is that the Phillies prospects are better than the Mariners kids, but we’ll see how that shakes out over time.

I can guarantee you that there didn’t need to be a three-way trade and the Blue Jays would have taken some great prospects like outfielder Michael Taylor and pitcher Kyle Drabek. Last season, we were told that the reason the Halladay trade fell through was the Phillies’ refusal to part with the second-generation pitcher. If he gets dealt now, then that means one year later, and one unfulfilled World Series later, the Phillies now find themselves in a desperate arms race against the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.

Now are the Red Sox crazy for signing John Lackey to a deal that will pay him $16-17 million a season for five years? Lackey hasn’t thrown his usual 33 games since 2007. The league got a hit an inning against him, but he doesn’t walk too many players and he doesn’t give up the long ball. Well, that was in Anaheim, this could change in Fenway. I would say the Red Sox took the biggest risk so far, they landed their big fish, but we’ll see if that gets them back to the Fall Classic.

The Phillies, Yankees and Red Sox are certainly the favorites to win it all this year. Let’s see how this will shake out.

Look for my first baseball book, Strike Three, which will be released in the coming days.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

NFL picks Week Fourteen

By Rick Morris

In addition to posting my weekly picks, I will post those from other members of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries' Football Challenge Contest. Each week, we will single out our three strongest plays.

STEVE CIRVELLO (0-3 last week, 20-19 overall)
New England -13 over Carolina
Tennessee -13 over St. Louis
Baltimore -14 over Detroit

DAVE ADAMS (1-2 last week, 20-20 overall, including his submitted pick of the Browns over the Steelers on Thursday night)
Houston -7 over Seattle
Tennessee -13 over St. Louis

RICK MORRIS (0-3 last week, 0-1 with my best pick, 17-22 overall, 6-7 on best picks)
Arizona -3 1/2 over San Francisco (my 1,000-Star, Gold-Plated Lock of the Millennium for this week)
NY Jets -4 over Tampa Bay
Green Bay -4 over Chicago

RYAN ISLEY (0-3 last week, 17-22 overall)
Indianapolis -6 1/2 over Denver
Green Bay -4 over Chicago
Philadelphia -1 over NY Giants

SEAN TRENCH (1-2 last week, 15-23-1 overall)
New Orleans -10 over Atlanta
Minnesota -6 1/2 over Cincinnati
San Diego -3 1/2 over Dallas

My remaining picks (5-11 last week, 95-98-1 including loss on Thursday night game):
Indianapolis -6 1/2 over Denver
Minnesota -6 1/2 over Cincinnati
Kansas City +2 over Buffalo
New Orleans -10 over Atlanta
Detroit +14 over Baltimore
Miami +2 1/2 over Jacksonville
Carolina +13 over New England
Houston -7 over Seattle
Tennessee -13 over St. Louis
Washington -1 over Oakland
San Diego -3 1/2 over Dallas
Philadelphia -1 over NY Giants

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue XLIX

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Heisman Trophy preview

By Rick Morris

We previewed the Heisman Trophy award show on our FDH LOUNGE program this week (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com) and opinions varied. As for mine, I would give the award to Nebraska DT Ndamukong Suh (even if I can't pronounce his name, as I definitively proved on the program!) with Stanford RB Toby Gerhart as my top pick among the "realistic candidates." While Suh had a truly dominant year, realistically, defensive players are lucky to even get invited because of the insane bias towards offensive skill position players. 'Bama RB Mark Ingram is my third pick.

However, these do not align with my predictions, which are as follows:

1 Ingram (bolstered by a TON of late votes who were no doubt impressed by the SEC Title Game)
2 Texas QB Colt McCoy (a close second)
3 Gerhart
4 Florida QB Tim Tebow (nominated as the Heisman equivalent of the Lifetime Achievement Award)
5 Suh

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

FDH Lounge Show #83: December 9, 2009

By Rick Morris

As we round down both the calendar year and decade and mark the end of THE FDH LOUNGE’s first year on Wednesday nights (7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com), we bring you our mind-boggling dose of variety once more.

We lead off with This Week in The FDH Lounge and our Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries, then we make our Heisman predictions and examine the (all-too-large) celebrity death picture of 2009.

From there, good friend Simon Applebaum from the hit webcast and blog Tomorrow Will Be Televised will be on to discuss major developments from the year in TV and those to come in the next year and decade.

In Hour Two, we break down the game of the man who everyone is talking about in the NCAA hoop game, the incomparable John Wall. Then, we bring back another of our varied takes on the fantasy spots genre, our annual college football bowl pool: a ten-round standard serpentine draft of teams playing in the bowl games. It’s 5 points to correctly pick the winner of the BCS Title Game, 4 points to correctly pick the winners in the BCS Bowl games and 3 points for the winners of the other bowls. Here’s your lines for those games.

In Hour Three, THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER breaks down NFL Week 14 and we then bring on KFFL Senior Editor Cory J. Bonini for his thoughts on the fantasy football landscape. Our GOON SQUAD then concludes with a look at the present NHL standings as well as Puck Daddy’s take on optimism in Toronto and Martin Brodeur’s latest flirtation with a big record – tying Terry Sawchuk for most career shutouts with 103.

As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

NFL Week Fourteen power rankings

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Previous ratings in parentheses.

FIRST TIER: BEST OF THE BEST
1 New Orleans (1)
2 Indianapolis (2)
3 Minnesota (3)
SECOND TIER: SOLID PLAYOFF CONTENDERS
4 San Diego (8)
5 Arizona (7)
6 Cincinnati (6)
7 Philadelphia (8)
THIRD TIER: POTENTIAL PLAYOFF CONTENDERS
8 Denver (13)
9 New England (5)
10 NY Giants (15)
11 Green Bay (11)
12 Dallas (10)
13 Pittsburgh (9)
14 Baltimore (12)
15 Jacksonville (17)
16 Miami (19)
17 NY Jets (21)
THIRD TIER: VERY DISTANT PLAYOFF POSSIBILITIES
18 Tennessee (14)
19 Atlanta (16)
20 Houston (18)
FOURTH TIER: VERY BAD, BUT NOT THE WORST
21 San Francisco (20)
22 Seattle (25)
23 Washington (22)
24 Carolina (24)
25 Chicago (23)
FIFTH TIER: TEAMS WITHOUT ANY REDEEMING VALUE WHATSOEVER
26 Buffalo (26)
27 Oakland (28)
28 Kansas City (27)
29 Tampa Bay (29)
30 Detroit (30)
31 St. Louis (31)
32 Cleveland (32)

BIGGEST RISERS: Denver and NY Giants (5 spots), NY Jets and San Diego (4 spots), Miami and Seattle (3 spots)
BIGGEST FALLERS: New England, Pittsburgh and Tennessee (4 spots), Atlanta (3 spots)

Monday, December 7, 2009

Bowl slotting aftermath thoughts

By Rick Morris

Everything was put in place for college football's postseason last night (well, almost everything, more on that in a moment). Here's how it all shook out:

Note: All times are EDT.

BCS Games
Jan. 7 BCS Title Pasadena, Calif. ABC 8 p.m. Alabama (13-0) vs. Texas (13-0)
Jan. 5 Orange Miami FOX 8 p.m. Georgia Tech (11-2) vs. Iowa (10-2)
Jan. 4 Fiesta Glendale, Ariz. FOX 8 p.m. TCU (12-0) vs. Boise State (13-0)
Jan. 1 Sugar New Orleans, La. FOX 8:30 p.m. Cincinnati (12-0) vs. Florida (12-1)
Jan. 1 Rose Pasadena, Calif. ABC 5 p.m. Oregon (10-2) vs. Ohio State (10-2)

Non-BCS Games
Jan. 6 GMAC Mobile, Ala. ESPN 7 p.m. Central Michigan (11-2) vs. Troy (9-3)
Jan. 2 Alamo San Antonio ESPN 9 p.m. Texas Tech (8-4) vs. Michigan State (6-6)
Jan. 2 Liberty Memphis, Tenn. ESPN 5:30 p.m. East Carolina (9-4) vs. Arkansas (7-5)
Jan. 2 Cotton Dallas FOX 2 p.m. Oklahoma State (9-3) vs. Mississippi (8-4)
Jan. 2 Papajohns.com Birmingham, Ala. ESPN 2 p.m. Connecticut (7-5) vs. South Carolina (7-5)
Jan. 2 International Toronto ESPN2 Noon South Florida (7-5) vs. Northern Illinois (7-5)
Jan. 1 Gator Jacksonville, Fla. CBS 1 p.m. West Virginia (9-3) vs. Florida State (6-6)
Jan. 1 Capital One Orlando, Fla. ABC 1 p.m. Penn State (10-2) vs. LSU (9-3)
Jan. 1 Outback Tampa, Fla. ESPN 11 a.m. Northwestern (8-4) vs. Auburn (7-5)
Dec. 31 Chick-fil-A Atlanta ESPN 7:30 p.m. Virginia Tech (9-3) vs. Tennessee (7-5)
Dec. 31 Insight Tempe, Ariz. NFL Net. 6 p.m. Minnesota (6-6) vs. Iowa State (6-6)
Dec. 31 Texas Houston ESPN 3:30 p.m. Missouri (8-4) vs. Navy (8-4)
Dec. 31 Sun El Paso, Tex. CBS 2 p.m. Stanford (8-4) vs. Oklahoma (7-5)
Dec. 31 Armed Forces Fort Worth, Tex. ESPN Noon Air Force (7-5) vs. Houston (10-3)
Dec. 30 Holiday San Diego, Calif. ESPN 8 p.m. Nebraska (9-4) vs. Arizona (8-4)
Dec. 30 Humanitarian Boise, Idaho ESPN 4:30 p.m. Idaho (7-5) vs. Bowling Green (7-5)
Dec. 29 Champs Sports Orlando, Fla. ESPN 8 p.m. Miami (Fla.) (9-3) vs. Wisconsin (9-3)
Dec. 29 EagleBank Washington D.C. ESPN 4:30 p.m. Army or UCLA vs. Temple (9-3) [If Army beats Navy on Dec. 12, it will play in the EagleBank Bowl. If Navy wins, UCLA will accept the bid.]
Dec. 28 Independence Shreveport, La. ESPN2 5 p.m. Texas A&M (6-6) vs. Georgia (7-5)
Dec. 27 Music City Nashville, Tenn. ESPN 8:30 p.m. Kentucky (7-5) vs. Clemson (8-5)
Dec. 26 Emerald San Francisco ESPN 8 p.m. Boston College (8-4) vs. Southern California (8-4)
Dec. 26 Meineke Car Care Charlotte, N.C. ESPN 4:30 p.m. North Carolina (8-4) vs. Pittsburgh (9-3)
Dec. 26 Little Caesars Detroit, Mich. ESPN 1 p.m. Ohio (9-4) vs. Marshall (6-6)
Dec. 24 Hawaii Honolulu ESPN 8 p.m. Nevada (8-4) vs. SMU (7-5)
Dec. 23 Poinsettia San Diego, Calif. ESPN 8 p.m. Utah (9-3) vs. California (8-4)
Dec. 22 Maaco Las Vegas, Nev. ESPN 8 p.m. Oregon State (8-4) vs. BYU (10-2)
Dec. 20 New Orleans New Orleans ESPN 8:30 p.m. Middle Tennessee State (9-3) vs. Southern Miss (7-5)
Dec. 19 St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Fla. ESPN 8 p.m. Rutgers (8-4) vs. UCF (8-4)
Dec. 19 New Mexico Albuquerque, N.M. ESPN 4:30 p.m. Wyoming (6-6) vs. Fresno State (8-4)

THOUGHTS:

^ No New Mexico in the New Mexico Bowl this year? No Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl? We saw a little creativity for once.

^ Selfishly, I wish that my alma mater of Ohio might have received a more glamorous matchup than former conference foe Marshall, but at least it is a very winnable game for the Bobcats. The team should at least be mostly healthy, which they were not against a very lucky Central Michigan squad.

^ USC ends up playing in Frisco the day after Christmas? How the mighty have fallen!

^ With this weird deal of Army and Navy not playing until December 12 (!), we don't actually know if Army will qualify for their bowl game or if UCLA will take their place. Now there is a "vast" gap of five days between the last regular-season game and the first bowl game and the bowls now resemble the 65-team NCAA hoops bracket with a play-in game. Madness.

^ I always love the Humanitarian Bowl; nothing like watching two teams freeze their arses off on the frozen smurf turf of Boise. This year, Idaho invades the house of their archrival to face Bowling Green. In terms of traveling strong to bowl games, I guess we're going to find out just how much Falcon fans want to see their team play, huh?

^ The Holliday Bowl is always compelling and this year will be strong as well with two ascendant programs in Nebraska and Arizona. Also, the A-T-L always gets a great matchup on New Year's Eve and the Virginia Tech/Tennessee tilt will be very interesting.

^ The first sporting event of the new decade pits Northwestern against Auburn in a must-win game for the Tigers. The mega-success of 'Bama puts the coaching regime at Auburn on a short leash; a team incapable of beating the Wildcats will face a brutal offseason of scrutiny back home. The SEC's "other Tigers," LSU, will also face a game they dare not lose against Penn State in Orlando. Les Miles' act is wearing thin in Cajun Country and dropping one to JoePa won't cool off the hot seat.

^ The "Bowden Bowl" ends one of the game's greatest coaching careers in Jacksonville on New Year's Day as Bobby's past and present teams collide.

^ Can Ohio State finally contend with the speed of a team like Oregon? We're about to find out.

^ Tim Tebow ends his college career against a Cincy team that will win if Florida comes in with the "SEC Championship Game hangover" that Alabama had a year ago.

^ The first Cotton Bowl in "Jerry's Palace" will be a worthy affair with two disappointing but still very potent teams in Oklahoma State and Old Miss.

^ I am in the minority in terms of the "Mid-Major Super Bowl" in Glendale; I love it! Sure, TCU and Boise State could make huge statements if they were able to bump off major conference teams, but seeing them play each other will make for a great game and I'm happy that the winner will be able to campaign afterwards for a split national title (won't happen, but the controversy is nice and maybe it makes the case for my beloved "Plus One" a bit more).

^ Bo Pelini has every right to cry conspiracy about the circumstances that put Texas in the national championship game. The call may have been right, but follow the money, as the old saying goes. The BCS would have been screwed, blued and tatooed had the Longhorns choked in the Big Twelve Championship (TCU would have gotten the nod, with Boise State, 'Nati and half the country screaming their heads off). On paper, Texas took care of business during the season and did what they had to do to advance to Pasadena -- and they overcame even bigger odds to win the national championship in their last trip to the Land of Roses -- but they looked so much less impressive than Alabama, who steamrolled #1 Florida. Given Mack Brown's record (uneven at best, formerly a complete disaster) in big games, Nick Saban has to be counted as the favorite to have his smug grill accepting his first undisputed national championship when the dust clears.

MLB free agency forecasts

By Rick Morris

The FDH New York Bureau Steve Cirvello came up with a great idea for last week's 82nd edition of THE FDH LOUNGE program (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com): previewing MLB Hot Stove action in the context of a game where the Dignitaries of the Lounge attempt to rack up the most successful predictions about where players will land. We chose arguably the 15 most consequential free agents of this offseason; we will award one point per successful prediction with the tiebreaker being whoever gets the highest-salaried contract correct.

Predictions were made by me, Ryan Isley, Mike LaGuardia and FDH Baseball Analyst Tim Foust.

MATT HOLLIDAY
Rick: Cardinals/re-sign
Ryan: Mets
Mike: Cardinals/re-sign
Tim: Cardinals/re-sign

JASON BAY
Rick: Red Sox/re-sign
Ryan: Red Sox/re-sign
Mike: Red Sox/re-sign
Tim: Rockies (!)

JOHN LACKEY
Rick: Mets
Ryan: Yankees (!)
Mike: Mets
Tim: Cubs

RICH HARDEN
Rick: Rangers
Ryan: Red Sox
Mike: Nationals
Tim: Mets

JOHNNY DAMON
Rick: Yankees/re-sign
Ryan: Rangers
Mike: Yankees/re-sign
Tim: Yankees/re-sign

ADRIAN BELTRE
Rick: Astros
Ryan: Orioles
Mike: Twins
Tim: Phillies

JOEL PINEIRO
Rick: Twins
Ryan: Cardinals/re-sign
Mike: Cardinals/re-sign
Tim: Red Sox

ADAM LAROCHE
Rick: As
Ryan: Braves/re-sign
Mike: Braves/re-sign
Tim: As

HIDEKI MATSUI
Rick: Yankees
Ryan: White Sox
Mike: White Sox
Tim: back to Japan (!)

VLADIMIR GUERRERO
Rick: Blue Jays (!)
Ryan: Angels/re-sign
Mike: Tigers
Tim: Red Sox

JERMAINE DYE
Rick: Giants
Ryan: Braves
Mike: Royals
Tim: Giants

RANDY WOLF
Rick: Nationals
Ryan: Cubs
Mike: Mets
Tim: Royals

JOSE VALVERDE
Rick: Phillies
Ryan: Orioles
Mike: Phillies
Tim: Rays

FERNANDO RODNEY
Rick: Tigers/re-sign
Ryan: Rays
Mike: Tigers/re-sign
Tim: Tigers/re-sign

JASON MARQUIS
Rick: Rockies/re-sign
Ryan: Rockies/re-sign
Mike: Mets
Tim: Angels

We also threw out two more options on the spur of the moment during the show. These will not count in our competition, since Tim was not on live with us (he had submitted a list ahead of time), but we just wanted to see if we would get these right. By the way, it should be obvious that our forecasts about Mark DeRosa came before the Phils signed Placido Polanco. Better that they had listened to us!

MARK DEROSA
Rick: Phillies
Ryan: Phillies
Mike: Phillies

JIM THOME
Rick: White Sox
Ryan: Rays
Mike: Indians (!)

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Time Magazine Person of the Year fantasy draft

By Rick Morris

Our beloved FDH New York Bureau came up with a tremendous twist on fantasy sports games -- which we at FDH are of course not shy about applying to areas outside of sports. On last week's 82nd edition of THE FDH LOUNGE on SportsTalkNetwork.com (Wednesdays 7-10 PM EDT), we held a Time Magazine Person of the Year fantasy draft: three-round standard serpentine draft with four owners, with the winner of course being the person who guesses the awardee. Here's how it went:

ROUND ONE
1 Mike LaGuardia: Michael Jackson
2 The FDH New York Bureau Steve Cirvello: Cap'n Sully
3 Ryan Isley: Oprah Winfrey
4 Rick Morris: President Obama

ROUND TWO
1 Rick Morris: The Field (all undrafted possibilities)
2 Ryan Isley: Taylor Swift
3 The FDH New York Bureau Steve Cirvello: The top Twitter executives (collectively)
4 Mike LaGuardia: Bernie Madoff

ROUND THREE
1 Mike LaGuardia: Lil' Wayne
2 The FDH New York Bureau Steve Cirvello: Sarah Palin
3 Ryan Isley: Usain Bolt
4 Rick Morris: Ben Bernanke

NFL picks Week Thirteen

By Rick Morris

In addition to posting my weekly picks, I will post those from other members of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries' Football Challenge Contest. Each week, we will single out our three strongest plays.

STEVE CIRVELLO (0-3 last week, 20-16 overall)
San Diego -13 1/2 over Cleveland
New Orleans -9 1/2 over Washington
Pittsburgh -14 over Oakland

DAVE ADAMS (1-2 last week, 18-18 overall)
Indianapolis -6 1/2 over Tennessee
San Diego -13 1/2 over Cleveland
Minnesota -3 1/2 over Arizona

RICK MORRIS (1-2 last week, 0-1 with my best pick, 17-19 overall, 6-6 on best picks)
Minnesota -3 1/2 over Arizona (my 1,000-Star, Gold-Plated Lock of the Millennium for this week)
New Orleans -9 1/2 over Washington
San Diego -13 1/2 over Cleveland

RYAN ISLEY (2-1 last week, 17-19 overall)
San Diego -13 1/2 over Cleveland
Minnesota -3 1/2 over Arizona
Houston +1 over Jacksonville

SEAN TRENCH (1-2 last week, 14-21-1 overall)
Cincinnati -13 over Detroit
Tampa Bay +5 over Carolina
Indianapolis -6 1/2 over Tennessee

My remaining picks (7-9 last week, 90-87-1 including loss on Thursday night game):
New England -4 1/2 over Miami
Denver -5 1/2 over Kansas City
Pittsburgh -14 over Oakland
Houston +1 over Jacksonville
Tennessee +6 1/2 over Indianapolis
Philadelphia -5 1/2 over Atlanta
Detroit +13 over Atlanta
Tampa Bay +5 over Carolina
St. Louis +9 1/2 over Chicago
Seattle +1 over San Francisco
Dallas -2 1/2 over NY Giants
Baltimore +3 over Green Bay

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue XLVIII

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

FDH Lounge Dignitary with exclusive LT interview

By Rick Morris

Recently, we have been glad to have onetime terrestrial radio co-host and producer Ryan Isley with us on Wednesday nights to round out our FDH LOUNGE crew. In addition to performing these roles with SportsTalkNetwork.com, he also contributes columns to their blog and this week he had an unbelievable exclusive: an interview with LaDainian Tomlinson as a part of his Chargers-Browns preview.

It's a fascinating look at "what might have been," as Botch Davis chose to select "Hennessey'n'Blunts, Hennessey'n'Blunts, Yo!" Gerard Warren over LT - which tells you everything you need to know about him and "Shoebox" Pete Garcia right there. Ryan explores where the Browns were, where they might have gone and sprinkles in LT's thoughts on how everything materialized. Read it here.

NCAA football picks Week Fourteen

By Rick Morris

Last week 5-0 (!), 37-37-1 overall (so you're only down the juice!).

Cincinnati -1 1/2 over Pittsburgh
Florida -5 over Alabama
Texas -14 over Nebraska
Georgia Tech -1 over Clemson
Arizona +7 over USC

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

FDH Lounge Show #82: December 2, 2009

By Rick Morris

Tonight's 82nd episode of THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com) has the usual high amount of variety but starts with one of the most topical first hours in the history of the show.

We lead off with This Week in The FDH Lounge and our Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries, then we bring in a fellow member of The 21st Century Media Alliance: Steve Kallas, our go-to guy for matters at the intersections of sports, law and ethics. He'll give us his thoughts on the Tiger Woods situation from all angles. From there, Tallahassee Democrat sports copy editor Casey Moore comes on to discuss the Bobby Bowden situation that his newspaper was first to report, the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and our FDH Lounge Forum Question that we just tackled last week about why ACC football has been a letdown over the past several seasons.

In Hour Two, our examination of Hot Stove Baseball comes with a typical FDH competitive twist as our Dignitaries try to forecast where the most interesting 15 free agents will land -- we will each score one point for every one we call correctly, with the biggest free agent contract scored right being the tiebreaker:

Matt Holliday OF
Jason Bay OF
John Lackey SP
Rich Harden SP
Johnny Damon OF
Adrian Beltre 3B
Joel Piniero SP
Adam LaRoche 1B
Hideki Matsui DH
Vladimir Guerrero OF
Jermaine Dye OF
Randy Wolf SP
Jose Valverde RP
Fernando Rodney RP
Jason Marquis SP

After that, we move into a brief fantasy-style draft trying to correctly forecast the Time Magazine Person of the Year, which will be unveiled in two weeks.

In Hour Three, THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER breaks down NFL Week 13 and we then bring on KFFL Senior Editor Cory J. Bonini for his thoughts on the fantasy football landscape. We wrap with our other show-within-a-show, THE GOON SQUAD, and a look at the present NHL standings as well as the injury that Keith Ballard inflicted on his own goalie (video included at this link if you have a strong stomach). We are very glad that Tomas Vokoun is apparently OK. Also, one of the league's core young megastars, Alex Ovechkin, is at the center of controversy after another knee-on-knee hit and we'll break that down as well.

As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

NFL Week Thirteen power rankings

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Previous ratings in parentheses.
FIRST TIER: BEST OF THE BEST
1 New Orleans (1)
2 Indianapolis (2)
3 Minnesota (3)
SECOND TIER: SOLID PLAYOFF CONTENDERS
4 San Diego (8)
5 New England (4)
6 Cincinnati (6)
7 Arizona (5)
8 Philadelphia (10)
9 Pittsburgh (7)
10 Dallas (11)
THIRD TIER: MORE MARGINAL PLAYOFF CONTENDERS
11 Green Bay (12)
12 Baltimore (14)
13 Denver (16)
14 Tennessee (19)
15 NY Giants (9)
16 Atlanta (15)
17 Jacksonville (13)
THIRD TIER: VERY DISTANT PLAYOFF POSSIBILITIES
18 Houston (17)
19 Miami (18)
20 San Francisco (22)
21 NY Jets (23)
FOURTH TIER: VERY BAD, BUT NOT THE WORST
22 Washington (24)
23 Chicago (20)
24 Carolina (21)
25 Seattle (27)
FIFTH TIER: TEAMS WITHOUT ANY REDEEMING VALUE WHATSOEVER
26 Buffalo (28)
27 Kansas City (25)
28 Oakland (26)
29 Tampa Bay (31)
30 Detroit (29)
31 St. Louis (30)
32 Cleveland (32)

BIGGEST RISERS: Tennessee (5 spots), San Diego (4 spots) and Denver (3 spots)
BIGGEST FALLERS: NY Giants (6 spots), Jacksonville (4 spots), Carolina and Chicago (3 spots)