Saturday, October 30, 2010

Pro Gridiron Surround: Week 8

By Rick Morris

The 21st Century Media Alliance will be joining to provide live, as-it-happens coverage from the pro and college gridirons this fall, with on-the-ground coverage aggregated from a variety of outside media sources all over the country via Twitter. Today's presentation marks our eighth effort on the pro side.

PLEASE NOTE: While the Cover It Live software may classify the liveblog as being in "Standby," it is continuously updating from a variety of sources, averaging several entries per minute during the height of the day's action. You need only to click the play button to view the continuous updates and follow what has already been posted at any time. We hope you enjoy.


NFL picks Week 8

By Rick Morris

In addition to posting my weekly picks, I will post those from The FDH New York Bureau and FDH Lounge Dignitary Sean Trench for The FDH Lounge Dignitaries' Football Challenge Contest. Each week, we will single out our three strongest plays:

ME (0-3 last week, 10-9-2 overall)

Seattle +2 ½ over Oakland

Houston +5 ½ over Indianapolis

St. Louis -3 over Carolina -- my 1,000-Star Gold-Plated Lock of the Millennium for this week (Lock was 0-1 last week, 3-2-2 overall)

BUREAU (1-2 last week, 9-12 overall)

New England -5 over Minnesota

Kansas City -7 ½ over Buffalo

St. Louis -3 over Carolina

SEAN (2-1 last week, 6-15 overall)

New York Jets -6 over Green Bay

Kansas City -7 1/2 over Buffalo

Arizona -3 over Tampa Bay

MY OTHER PICKS (3-11 last week, including my Big Three, 44-55-7 overall)

Denver +2 over San Francisco

Dallas -6 ½ over Jacksonville

Washington +2 ½ over Detroit

Green Bay +6 over New York Jets

Cincinnati -1 ½ over Miami

Kansas City -7 ½ over Buffalo

San Diego -3 ½ over Tennessee

Tampa Bay +3 over Arizona

New England -5 over Minnesota

New Orleans -1 over Pittsburgh


Friday, October 29, 2010

NFL Week 8 power rankings

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Previous rankings in parentheses.

TOP TIER

1 New York Jets (1)

2 Baltimore (2)

3 Pittsburgh (3)

4 New England (4)

5 Atlanta (5)

SECOND TIER

6 Indianapolis (6)

7 Tennessee (7)

8 New York Giants (9)

9 Houston (11)

10 New Orleans (8)

11 Philadelphia (10)

12 Kansas City (16)

13 Green Bay (13)

14 Washington (17)

15 Miami (15)

16 Chicago (14)

17 Seattle (21)

18 Tampa Bay (26)

THIRD TIER

19 Minnesota (12)

20 Oakland (28)

21 San Diego (18)

22 St. Louis (22)

23 Jacksonville (23)

24 Arizona (25)

25 Cincinnati (24)

26 Denver (19)

27 Dallas (20)

FOURTH TIER

28 Cleveland (30)

29 Carolina (31)

30 San Francisco (28)

31 Detroit (29)

32 Buffalo (32)

BIGGEST RISERS: Oakland and Tampa Bay (8 spots), Dallas and Denver (7 spots), Kansas City and Seattle (4 spots)

BIGGEST FALLERS: Minnesota (7 spots), San Diego and Washington (3 spots)

NCAA football picks Week Nine

By Rick Morris

Last week: 3-4

Overall: 32-28-2

Michigan State +6 ½ over Iowa

Georgia -2 over Florida

Ohio State -25 ½ over Minnesota

USC +7 over Oregon

UL-Lafayette +14 ½ over Ohio

Ole Miss +7 over Auburn

Tulsa +9 over Notre Dame

Nebraska -7 ½ over Missouri

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume III, Issue XLII

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, October 27, 2010

FDH Lounge Show #121: October 27, 2010

By Rick Morris

The convergence of major sports during the fall season will be a primary focus on the 121st Episode of THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com).

After The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries and our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge, we waste no time in getting to our first guest: Cleveland Indians first baseman/outfielder Shelley Duncan. We’ll get his perspectives as a player in terms of what it takes to reach the big leagues, what it takes to stay there, what postseason baseball is like and some significant trends in the game. At the bottom of Hour One, we recap the ALCS with our friend Lisa Marie Latino of The Yankee Princess and Long Shot Productions. Plus, as a young female reporter in the New York market, who better to ask for insights on the Favre/Sterger controversy?

Hour Two brings us New York Mets broadcaster Wayne Hagin, who will give us his thoughts on the ongoing managerial/front office shakeup in Queens as well as his perspectives on two teams whose games he called this year: the Giants and Phillies – who squared off in an epic NLCS. Our next two segments will be a lot of fun also: a comprehensive World Series preview and a look ahead to the NBA season that will follow the historic Summer of ’10.

Then, THE FANTASY DRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER closes out the show with our big NFL Week 8 preview. We remind you also to consult our new fantasy – and non-fantasy – hoops guide, FANTASY HOOPS DRAFTOLOGY 2010. Click and enjoy! Also, remember that for your football needs, you should be using our FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2010 as your guide through the season, along with our weekly fantasy newsletter at The FantasyDrafthelp.com Blog – which, during the football season, has your list of which players to start each week.

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 on iTunes. Also, you can sample THE FDH LOUNGE VAULT, a compilation of our best interviews and roundtables, now every weeknight from 6-7 PM, also on SportsTalkNetwork.com.


Monday, October 25, 2010

2010 World Series preview

By Rick Morris

POWER: Texas, slight edge

SPEED: Texas, edge

STARTING PITCHING: San Francisco, slight edge

RELIEF PITCHING: Even

Here is the MLB sub-site for the World Series.

^ Imagine this: in the same year that the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl, either the San Francisco Giants or Texas Rangers will rule the baseball world. Maybe those “world-is-ending 2012 types” are on to something …

^ The rarest angle of the series concerns Bengie Molina vs. the San Fran pitchers. The Giants possess arguably the best starting pitching in baseball and with the exception of fifth pitcher Barry Zito, it is all very young. Molina helped mold these arms into what they are today before inevitably giving ground to super-rook Buster Posey and being traded to Texas. Arguably, not since we saw Jon Gruden going up against the Raiders in the Super Bowl the year after he left them have we seen a major sports championship so potentially influenced by this kind of inside perspective.

^ As unlikely as that development is, consider this: the Giants won the NL pennant without Tim Lincecum pitching for most of the year at the level that won him the 2008 and 2009 Cy Young Awards – and with 2009’s super-rook Pablo Sandoval having a nightmarish sophomore jinx season. If anyone would have told you that a roster as thin as the San Francisco one in the spring of 2010 would yield a World Series run, you would have assumed absolute career years from this twosome. Texas has a similar story in second baseman Ian Kinsler, whose ascension to the top tier of players at his position was interrupted with a disappointing campaign – although he has really had his moments in October.

^ Both teams play with a very scrappy style, but there is a tendency to confuse the scrapheap qualities of the two squads. Granted, each has some reclamation projects (Texas: Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Vladimir Guerrero, Colby Lewis and San Francisco: Aubrey Huff, Cody Ross, Pat Burrell), but the difference is that Hamilton and Cruz were established prior to 2010 with Texas and Guerrero had a first-ballot Hall of Fame career under his belt before getting back to that status. The San Francisco crew is populated by and large with players who had either achieved their potential only occasionally (Huff) or those who had been written off altogether at this point (Burrell). The scrappy play of the Giants does not particularly extend to defense or speed, however, an occasional side effect of assembling a “wish and a hope” crew of bats to provide enough run support to a great pitching staff. Texas, as was noted in our LCS preview, is a team with speed to burn and they overwhelmed the Yankees in a hungry style similar to Florida in the 2003 World Series.

^ Don’t let the media beat the “humble upstarts” meme into your head when these teams are being discussed. Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum are certainly among the five best starting pitchers in the game and each could lay a claim to #1. Matt Cain and C.J. Wilson may be just a level or so below that tier. Josh Hamilton may well be the most explosive slugger in baseball right now and he is part of an elite heart-of-the-order with Nelson Cruz and Vladimir Guerrero (who has revived a legendary career this year). Elvis Andrus defends at shortstop on a level with Ozzie Smith, Omar Vizquel and the greats of recent decades. Buster Posey, if he stays healthy, could go down as one of the greatest catchers in baseball history. Madison Bumgarner lived up to his high billing in his rookie year. More than most years, it’s really incorrect to confuse the fame level of the players involved with their skill level.

^ While the Giants have far more gaudy numbers from their starting pitchers, the Rangers are relatively close on their heels. As ESPN’s Rob Neyer has pointed out, Jonathan Sanchez’s numbers are inflated this year by a superhuman BABIP (a stat that accurately measures the luck factor, for those of you not as much into stats). Their true advantage begins in earnest with the battle of #4s, as super-rook Bumgarner (who was two months old during the Giants’ 1989 World Series run, coincidentally) has a big edge over the Rangers’ Tommy Hunter.

^ Both bullpens are stocked with arms that have really delivered over the course of the season. And while both closers have pitched at a high level, they came into this season from different trajectories. The Rangers’ Neftali Feliz was an insanely-touted prospect who the team decided to try at closer instead of the starting rotation. Brian Wilson of the Giants, meanwhile, had racked up the saves in recent years, but had not put together a truly outstanding campaign until this one.

^ Successful baseball managers tend to come from one of two molds: a tactician in the mold of Tony LaRussa or a motivator like Charlie Manuel. Bruce Bochy is commonly regarded as similar to the LaRussa side, while Washington bears strong resemblance to Manuel as a leader who can get his team to run through a brick wall for him. The drug revelations about Washington in spring training seemed to bring his team even closer to him and the need for him to stay on the straight and narrow bonded him even closer with his franchise player, Josh Hamilton, whose demons are notorious.

^ BOTTOM LINE: The American League is better and deeper, as it has generally been over the last decade-plus, so Texas had the generally tougher path to get to this point. San Fran, however, got past the only starting pitching staff in the game that might be tougher than their own en route to the World Series. Ultimately, though, their offensive production is more sporadic than that of the Rangers and their defense and capacity for scratching out runs is inferior. In a sense, though, they are more battle-tested, willing themselves through numerous close games this postseason while Texas has mostly cruised in their victories. However, the Rangers have bounced back from numerous setbacks – blowing their 2-0 lead in the LDS, coming back from the reprehensible Game 1 choke in the LCS and surviving The Son of Jeffrey Maier in Game 4 – only to emerge very strongly. The only reason that we haven’t seen Texas manage to eke out wins is that they have managed to blow through their opponents before the late innings. Two teams are seeking the hand of Lady Destiny and in the end, she will be speaking with a Texas twang. Rangers in 6.

2010 World Series notes and oddities

By Rick Morris

^ The early media buzz is about how this championship matchup will tank outside of baseball hardcores and in the TV ratings with two upstart teams playing for all the marbles. But Fox could pop a decent overall number purely off of market size, because the Metroplex and Bay Area are both among the top six in the country.

^ With the Giants and Rangers in the World Series, it will stir memories of what seemed at the time an entirely random matchup: June 12, 1997 marked the first regular-season interleague game ever with San Francisco at Texas

^ Also, with the Giants back to the World Series, it is exactly eight years in between appearances. When was the last time that happened? 1979, when BOTH Pittsburgh and Baltimore made it back after an eight-year absence.

^ For as much as Jerry Jones hates to be upstaged, he really must be ticked. Mere months before the Super Bowl makes its debut in the Dallas market, the World Series has beaten it to the punch – the first time that the two championships have come to the same market for the first time within such a close block of time.

^ These two teams are considered non-traditional powers, and Texas certainly fits the bill with their lack of so much as a pennant since coming into the American League as the Washington Senators in 1961 (where they stayed until 1972). But the Giants actually tied the Dodgers for most NL pennants with this most recent one at 18 apiece. However, they still come across as a hard-luck franchise because only four of those pennant have come since their relocation to Frisco in 1958 (1962, 1989, 2002, 2010) and their last World Series win was in New York in 1954.

^ Speaking of the western migration that the Dodgers and Giants spawned toward the end of the 1950s, the Giants just broke an eight-year drought in terms of West Coast representation – going back to 2002, when, coincidentally, they clashed with the Angels in an all-West Coast battle. The only other drought to last as long? 1990-98, with the As and Padres on either end of that one.

^ The geographic areas where this Series will be contested only have one point of historical precedent in terms of big-time clashes: the huge Dallas/San Francisco football rivalry of the early 1990s (with “The Catch” NFC Championship Game of winter ’82 as the precursor).

^ Old-line franchises (teams in both leagues around before 1961) have won six straight World Series and the Giants will be trying for seven. The only longer stretch in baseball history lasted for 15 years, from 1970-84 (including the two won by the Baltimore Orioles, who descended from the old St. Louis Browns).

^ Here is an absolutely mind-boggling stat: with both teams being from the Western Division of their respective leagues, this marks the 10th time in the 16 seasons since the start of the League Divisional Series in 1995 that teams from the same geographic division from each league have met (2010, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999, 1996).

^ Bruce Bochy has managed in the World Series before – in a losing effort with San Diego in 1998 – but came up short. Ron Washington is making his debut in the final round. The last six times that a manager who had only lost in the World Series faced an inexperienced World Series manager, the outcome rotated. The inexperienced Jim Leyland won in 1997, the inexperienced Mike Hargrove lost in 1995, the inexperienced Cito Gaston won in 1992, the inexperienced (Giants manager) Roger Craig lost in 1989, the inexperienced Bob Lemon won in 1978 and the inexperienced Tommy Lasorda lost in 1977. Prior to that, going back to the start of the League Championship Series in 1969, the inexperienced Darrell Johnson lost in 1975 and the inexperienced Sparky Anderson lost in 1970. Based on the current rotation, advantage Bochy. Also, unlike Bochy, all of the managers returning for their crack at the World Series did so with the same team.

^ Another Bochy note: with the Giants in the World Series, he is going back after a 12-year hiatus. He’s in very good company as far as managers with a similar break between appearances: Bucky Harris (23 years), Connie Mack (15 years), Tony LaRussa (14 years), Joe Cronin (13 years), Alvin Dark (12 years, with the first one coming with the Giants in 1962), Bill McKechnie, Danny Murtaugh and Dick Williams (11 years) and Leo Durocher and Charlie Grimm (10 years). All but Cronin and Grimm have a world championship to their credit.

^ Washington is the 3rd black manager in World Series after Cito Gaston (won in 1992-93 with Toronto) and Dusty Baker (lost in 2002 with San Francisco).

^ San Francisco has their third manager in their last three World Series appearances (1989-Roger Craig, 2002-Baker). The last team to do that? Detroit (1968-Mayo Smith, 1984-Sparky Anderson, 2006-Jim Leyland).

^ This is only the second Series to be played fully west of the Mississippi in the last two decades, with the aforementioned Angels-Giants tilt of ’02 being the other. Prior to that, the only other ones were in 1989, 1988, 1985 and 1974. There is some debate as to whether 1987 would qualify, since St. Louis is just west of the Mississippi and the river flows through Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

^ The AL and NL have rotated last the five World Series wins – the last time for a streak like this was 2000-04. The longest streaks of alternation ever were nine (1939-47), eight (1965-72), seven (1985-91) and another one at five (1993-98).

^ If the Giants win, they would mark two National League World Series wins in three years. The last time that happened was from 2001-03 (ironically, with the Giants as the one team on the short end of the stick). Before that, it was 1995-97, with the Indians victimized both times. Before that, it was 1988-90, with the Giants once again the only NL team during that stretch not to win.

^ At first blush, it may seem unusual for Vladimir Guerrero not to taste the final round until this stage of his career (age 35). But upon further reflection, some of the other greatest players of his generation didn’t make it this far until at least age 34: Alex Rodriguez was 34 in 2009, Todd Helton was 34 in 2007, Jeff Bagwell was 37 and Craig Biggio was 39 in 2005 and Barry Bonds was 38 in 2002.

^ Buster Posey is arguably the Giants’ best hitter as a highly-touted and successful-thus-far rookie. This is reminiscent of Miguel Cabrera in 2003, when he helped lead Florida to the upset over the Yankees. Also, not since Piazza in 2000 has a catcher arguably been a team’s best hitter and before that, you’d have to go back to the Big Red Machine with Johnny Bench in 1975-76 (and rank him over his Hall of Fame peers). This demonstrates the extreme rarity of slugging catchers leading their teams to the World Series, to say nothing of his rookie status. Also, per Ken Detwiler on THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT, SportsTalkNetwork.com), Posey is also the first rookie to be the lead catcher in a World Series since Andy Etchebarren in 1966.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Pro Gridiron Surround: Week 7

By Rick Morris

The 21st Century Media
Alliance will be joining to provide live, as-it-happens coverage from the pro and college gridirons this fall, with on-the-ground coverage aggregated from a variety of outside media sources all over the country via Twitter. Today's presentation marks our seventh effort on the pro side.

PLEASE NOTE: While the Cover It Live software may classify the liveblog as being in "Standby," it is continuously updating from a variety of sources, averaging several entries per minute during the height of the day's action. You need only to click the play button to view the continuous updates and follow what has already been posted at any time. We hope you enjoy.

NFL picks Week 7

By Rick Morris

In addition to posting my weekly picks, I will post those from The FDH New York Bureau and FDH Lounge Dignitary Sean Trench for The FDH Lounge Dignitaries' Football Challenge Contest. Each week, we will single out our three strongest plays:

ME (1-2 last week, 10-6-2 overall)

San Diego -2 ½ over New England

Denver -7 ½ over Oakland

San Francisco -3 over Carolina -- my 1,000-Star Gold-Plated Lock of the Millennium for this week (Lock was 1-0 last week, 3-1-2 overall)

BUREAU (2-1 last week, 8-10 overall)

New England +2 ½ over San Diego

Denver -7 ½ over Oakland

Baltimore -14 over Buffalo

SEAN (1-2 last week, 4-14 overall)

Dallas -3 over New York Giants

Green Bay +2 1/2 over Minnesota

Kansas City -9 over Jacksonville

MY OTHER PICKS (5-7-2 last week, including my Big Three, 41-44-7 overall)

Pittsburgh -3 over Miami

Cincinnati +3 ½ over Atlanta

Jacksonville +9 over Kansas City

Philadelphia +3 over Tennessee

Chicago -3 over Washington

Cleveland +13 over New Orleans

Baltimore -14 over Buffalo

St. Louis +3 over Tampa Bay

Seattle -7 over Arizona

Minnesota +2 ½ over Green Bay

Dallas -3 over New York Giants

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Your fantasy - and non-fantasy - hoops guide for 2010

By Rick Morris


We at FDH are very proud to announce the release of FANTASY HOOPS DRAFTOLOGY 2010, the only guide to hoops that you need for this season. Here's what's inside:

Page 1: Top 50 Regardless of Position

Page 2: Ultimate Stat, Draft Board decoder

Page 3: Guard rankings

Page 4: Center rankings

Page 5: Forward rankings

Page 6: Suggested league guidelines, 2010 fantasy hoops overview

Page 7: Don’t Be That Guy, 2010 Undervalued and Overvalued Players, Players most disproportionately valuable in points-only leagues

Page 8: 2010 FDH Mock Draft and analysis

Page 9: FDH 2010-2011 NBA overall projections

Page 10: FDH NBA power rankings. Lebron analysis

Page 11: FDH All-NBA Team for the 2000s decade and projected team for the 2010s

Page 12: Correlation of top players to NBA titles

Page 13: Top 30 non-fantasy players in NBA

Page 14: NBA Rookie Trading Card Photo Shoot notes


NFL Week 7 power rankings

By Rick Morris


NOTE: Previous rankings in parentheses.


TOP TIER

1 New York Jets (1)

2 Baltimore (2)

3 Pittsburgh (3)

4 New England (5)

5 Atlanta (4)

SECOND TIER

6 Indianapolis (9)

7 Tennessee (8)

8 New Orleans (7)

9 New York Giants (11)

10 Philadelphia (12)

11 Houston (13)

12 Minnesota (14)

13 Green Bay (10)

14 Chicago (6)
15
Miami (21)

16 Kansas City (16)

17 Washington (17)

18 San Diego (15)

19 Denver (20)

20 Dallas (19)

21 Seattle (25)

22 St. Louis (26)

23 Jacksonville (18)

24 Cincinnati (23)

25 Arizona (24)

26 Tampa Bay (22)

THIRD TIER

27 San Francisco (30)

28 Oakland (27)

29 Detroit (28)

30 Cleveland (29)

31 Carolina (31)

32 Buffalo (32)


BIGGEST RISERS: Miami (6 spots), St. Louis and Seattle (4 spots), Indianapolis and San Francisco (3 spots)


BIGGEST FALLERS: Chicago (8 spots), Jacksonville (5 spots), Tampa Bay (4 spots), Green Bay and San Diego (3 spots)


FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume III, Issue XLI

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.

Friday, October 22, 2010

NCAA football picks Week Eight

By Rick Morris

Last week: 6-4
Overall: 29-24-2

Wisconsin +6 1/2 over Iowa
Ohio State -23 1/2 over Purdue
Ohio -3 over Miami of Ohio
Oklahoma -3 over Missouri
Oklahoma State -6 over Nebraska
Tennessee +16 1/2 over Alabama
LSU +5 1/2 over Auburn

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

FDH Lounge Show #120: October 20, 2010

By Rick Morris


About two weeks before baseball crowns its newest World Series winner, we celebrate World Champions Night in THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com).


Just before The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries and our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge, we bring in good friend Steve Kallas of The 21st Century Media Alliance to break down the Brett Favre legal situation as only he can. Then, at the bottom of the hour, we bring on the first of our two champions: Charley Casserly, Super Bowl-winning GM of the Washington Redskins and also former General Manager of the Houston Texans. He is now the inside information reporter for The NFL Today on CBS Sports, does additional analysis for the NFL Network and continues to nurture his roots in the education field. After him: “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey, a former NWA World Tag Team Champion as part of the Original Midnight Express. This is a special treat: after his early days on the regional circuit, he was rarely interviewed on camera because of being managed by famed mouthpieces Jim Cornette and Paul E. Dangerously and he ended the full-time part of his career fairly abruptly 20 years ago, so his thoughts have rarely been publicly chronicled – until our show, of course. His former tag partner “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton may be a last-minute addition as well, depending on circumstances.


At the bottom of Hour Two, Ed Coleman of WFAN in New York comes on to break down the American League Championship Series and the shocking collapse of the Yankees.


Hour Three starts with The FDH Lounge Pigskin Report as we dissect the first BCS rankings of the season and what they portend about the road ahead. Then, THE FANTASY DRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER closes out the show with our big NFL Week 7 preview and a brief recap of our 2010-11 FDH Fantasy Hoops Mock Draft. That draft, by the way, along with all of the fantasy – and non-fantasy – content you need for this season, is available in the just-released FANTASY HOOPS DRAFTOLOGY 2010. Click and enjoy! Also, remember that for your football needs, you should be using our FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2010 as your guide through the season, along with our weekly fantasy newsletter at The FantasyDrafthelp.com Blog – which, during the football season, has your list of which players to start each week.


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 on iTunes. Also, you can sample THE FDH LOUNGE VAULT, a compilation of our best interviews and roundtables, now every weeknight from 6-7 PM, also on SportsTalkNetwork.com.


Saturday, October 16, 2010

Pro Gridiron Surround: Week 6

By Rick Morris

The 21st Century Media Alliance will be joining to provide live, as-it-happens coverage from the pro and college gridirons this fall, with on-the-ground coverage aggregated from a variety of outside media sources all over the country via Twitter. Today's presentation marks our sixth effort on the pro side.

PLEASE NOTE: While the Cover It Live software may classify the liveblog as being in "Standby," it is continuously updating from a variety of sources, averaging several entries per minute during the height of the day's action. You need only to click the play button to view the continuous updates and follow what has already been posted at any time. We hope you enjoy.

NFL picks Week 6

By Rick Morris


In addition to posting my weekly picks, I will post those from The FDH New York Bureau and FDH Lounge Dignitary Sean Trench for The FDH Lounge Dignitaries' Football Challenge Contest. Each week, we will single out our three strongest plays:


ME (2-1 last week, 9-4-2 overall)

Houston -4 ½ over Kansas City

San Diego -8 over St. Louis

New York Jets -3 over Denver-- my 1,000-Star Gold-Plated Lock of the Millennium for this week (Lock was 0-1 last week, 2-1-2 overall)


BUREAU (1-2 last week, 6-9 overall)

New York Giants -10 over Detroit

San Francisco -6 ½ over Oakland

Pittsburgh -14 over Cleveland


SEAN (1-2 last week, 3-12 overall)

Tampa Bay +4 ½ over New Orleans

San Francisco -6 ½ over Oakland

Chicago -6 ½ over Seattle


MY OTHER PICKS (4-10 last week [!!!], including my Big Three, 36-37-3 overall)

New England -2 ½ over Baltimore

New Orleans -4 ½ over Tampa Bay

Atlanta +2 ½ over Philadelphia

New York Giants -10 over Detroit

Chicago -6 ½ over Seattle

Miami +3 over Green Bay

Cleveland +14 over Pittsburgh

San Francisco -6 ½ over Oakland

Minnesota -1 ½ over Dallas

Indianapolis -3 over Washington

Jacksonville +3 over Tennessee