Sunday, October 30, 2011

Lounge on YouTube: Football Hall of Fame sportswriter Ray Didinger

By Rick Morris

Now that we’ve broken the seal on The FDH Lounge YouTube channel, we’ll be uploading classic segments from the history of our program. When we do, we’ll embed them here.

Up next: a member of the Football Hall of Fame, great sportswriter and onetime NFL Films producer Ray Didinger.

Lounge on YouTube: Super Bowl 45 preview

By Rick Morris

Now that we’ve broken the seal on The FDH Lounge YouTube channel, we’ll be uploading classic segments from the history of our program. When we do, we’ll embed them here.

Up next: our pal, New York sportswriter, Lloyd Carroll, with a memorable preview of Super Bowl 45.

Pro Gridiron Surround Week 8

By Rick Morris

The FDH Lounge and The 21st Century Media Alliance have you covered with this week’s pro football action! Check this minute-by-minute ticker all day for scores, stats, analysis, pictures, links to videos and so much more. It’s the augmentation you need to help you get a complete handle on all of the day’s events. [NOTE: Even if the box shows “Standby” at any point, it is still updating.] Enjoy!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Lounge on YouTube: Mini-Episode #27 – Fantasy Football Week 8

By Rick Morris

Here is the 27th mini-episode of THE FDH LOUNGE: THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER. We bring you your lineup recommendations for Week 8 of fantasy football.

Friday, October 28, 2011

NFL Week 8 power rankings

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Week 7 rankings in parentheses.

TOP TIER

1 Green Bay (1)

SECOND TIER

2 New England (2)

3 New Orleans (4)

4 Baltimore (3)

5 San Francisco (6)

6 San Diego (5)

THIRD TIER

7 Detroit (7)

8 Atlanta (9)

9 Pittsburgh (10)

10 Tampa Bay (8)

11 Houston (13)

12 New York Jets (15)

13 Buffalo (11)

14 New York Giants (14)

15 Chicago (21)

16 Dallas (17)

17 Philadelphia (18)

18 Oakland (12)

19 Tennessee (16)

20 Cincinnati (19)

21 Carolina (22)

22 Cleveland (24)

23 Washington (20)

24 Kansas City (25)

FOURTH TIER

25 Jacksonville (27)

26 Denver (29)

27 Minnesota (26)

28 Arizona (23)

29 Seattle (28)

30 St. Louis (30)

31 Indianapolis (31)

32 Miami (32)

BIGGEST RISERS: Chicago (6 spots), Denver and New York Jets (3 spots)

BIGGEST FALLERS: Oakland (6 spots), Arizona (5 spots), Tennessee and Washington (3 spots)

RANKINGS BY DIVISION – 1 POINT PER RANKING SPOT FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL TEAM, LOWEST SCORE IS BEST

1 NFC South 42

2 NFC North 50

3 AFC North 55

4 AFC East 59

5 NFC East 70

6 AFC West 74

7 AFC South 86

8 NFC West 92

RANKINGS BY CONFERENCE

1 NFC 254

2 AFC 274

NFL Week 8 picks

By Rick Morris

Overall picks last week: 5-7-2 overall

Overall picks for the season: 45-52-6 overall

Three Big Picks of the Week last week: 1-1-1

Three Big Picks of the Week for the season: 10-9-1

1,000-Star Gold Plated Lock of the Millennium for last week: 1-0

1,000-Star Gold Plated Lock of the Millennium for the season: 3-4

1,000-Star Gold Plated Lock of the Millennium for this week: San Diego -4 over Kansas City

Other two picks for Three Big Picks of the Week: Detroit -3 over Denver and New England -3 over Pittsburgh

Other picks:

Indianapolis +9 over Tennessee

Houston -9 ½ over Jacksonville

Carolina -3 ½ over Minnesota

St. Louis +14 over New Orleans

Arizona +12 ½ over Baltimore

Miami +9 ½ over New York Giants

Buffalo -6 over Washington

Cleveland +9 over San Francisco

Cincinnati -3 over Seattle

Philadelphia -3 ½ over Dallas

NCAA football Week 9 picks

By Rick Morris

2-3 last week, 23-21-1 overall

Clemson -3 ½ over Georgia Tech

Nebraska -4 over Michigan State

Georgia -3 over Florida

Wisconsin -7 over Ohio State

USC +8 over Stanford

World Series Game 7 Surround

By Rick Morris

The FDH Lounge, DOU Productions and The 21st Century Media Alliance are bringing you live, as-it-happens, coverage of this climactic showdown.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

World Series Game 6 Surround

By Rick Morris

The FDH Lounge, DOU Productions and The 21st Century Media Alliance are bringing you live, as-it-happens, coverage of this climactic showdown.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Lounge on YouTube: Mini-Episode #26 – Ken Shamrock

By Rick Morris

As we referenced previously, our pals at Sportsology are hooking us up for live segments that we’re doing with guests these days. We’re happy to report that we’ve been able to stream many segments on our own, but we’re thrilled for the help on some of these with guests and the thanks all go to our great friend Russ Cohen.

On the heels of our unbelievable segment with Bob Barker last week on the day after the Zanesville animal tragedy, we continue our celebration of 500 hours of FDH Lounge programming with a man who was a world champion in the wildly disparate worlds of MMA and pro wrestling, Ken Shamrock.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Pro Football/World Series Surround

By Rick Morris

Pro football is back and The FDH Lounge, in combination with our pals in The 21st Century Media Alliance, is bringing you action from each and every corner of the landscape! Plus, as a bonus, this week we’re throwing in coverage of the World Series! Check this minute-by-minute ticker all day for scores, stats, analysis, pictures, links to videos and so much more. It’s the augmentation you need to help you get a complete handle on all of the day’s events. [NOTE: Even if the box shows “Standby” at any point, it is still updating.] Enjoy!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Lounge on YouTube: Matthew Modine

By Rick Morris

Now that we’ve broken the seal on The FDH Lounge YouTube channel, we’ll be uploading classic segments from the history of our program. When we do, we’ll embed them here.

Up next: one of the great actors of the past few decades, Matthew Modine.

Lounge on YouTube: Teddy Atlas

By Rick Morris

Now that we’ve broken the seal on The FDH Lounge YouTube channel, we’ll be uploading classic segments from the history of our program. When we do, we’ll embed them here.

Up next: one of the world’s foremost experts on boxing, broadcaster/trainer Teddy Atlas.

Lounge on YouTube: Gaylord Perry

By Rick Morris

Now that we’ve broken the seal on The FDH Lounge YouTube channel, we’ll be uploading classic segments from the history of our program. When we do, we’ll embed them here.

Up next: baseball legend Gaylord Perry.

Lounge on YouTube: Pro wrestling manager Jim Cornette

By Rick Morris

Now that we’ve broken the seal on The FDH Lounge YouTube channel, we’ll be uploading classic segments from the history of our program. When we do, we’ll embed them here.

Up next: a legend of pro wrestling, manager/broadcaster/executive Jim Cornette.

Lounge on YouTube: Mini-Episode #25 – Fantasy Football Week 7

By Rick Morris

Here is the 25th mini-episode of THE FDH LOUNGE: THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER. We bring you your lineup recommendations for Week 7 of fantasy football.

Friday, October 21, 2011

NFL Week 7 power rankings

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Week 6 rankings in parentheses.

TOP TIER

1 Green Bay (1)

SECOND TIER

2 New England (3)

3 Baltimore (4)

4 New Orleans (2)

5 San Diego (6)

6 San Francisco (7)

7 Detroit (5)

THIRD TIER

8 Tampa Bay (13)

9 Atlanta (11)

10 Pittsburgh (9)

11 Buffalo (8)

12 Oakland (12)

13 Houston (10)

14 New York Giants (18)

15 New York Jets (16)

16 Tennessee (15)

17 Dallas (17)

18 Philadelphia (20)

19 Cincinnati (19)

20 Washington (14)

21 Chicago (21)

22 Carolina (22)

23 Arizona (23)

24 Cleveland (24)

FOURTH TIER

25 Kansas City (25)

26 Minnesota (26)

27 Jacksonville (28)

28 Seattle (27)

29 Denver (29)

30 St. Louis (30)

31 Indianapolis (31)

32 Miami (32)

BIGGEST RISERS: Tampa Bay (5 spots), New York Giants (4 spots)

BIGGEST FALLERS: Washington (6 spots), Buffalo and Houston (3 spots)

RANKINGS BY DIVISION – 1 POINT PER RANKING SPOT FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL TEAM, LOWEST SCORE IS BEST

1 NFC South 43

2 NFC North 55

3 AFC North 56

4 AFC East 60

5 NFC East 69

6 AFC West 71

7T AFC South 87

7T NFC West 87

RANKINGS BY CONFERENCE

1 NFC 256

2 AFC 272

NFL Week 7 picks

By Rick Morris

Overall picks last week: 6-5-2

Overall picks for the season: 40-45-6 overall

Three Big Picks of the Week last week: 2-1

Three Big Picks of the Week for the season: 9-8-1

1,000-Star Gold Plated Lock of the Millennium for last week: 1-0

1,000-Star Gold Plated Lock of the Millennium for the season: 2-4

1,000-Star Gold Plated Lock of the Millennium for this week: Pittsburgh -4 over Arizona

Other two picks for Three Big Picks of the Week: Cleveland -3 over Seattle and Green Bay -9 over Minnesota

Other picks:

Chicago -1 over Tampa Bay

Carolina -2 ½ over Washington

San Diego -2 over New York Jets

Houston +3 over Tennessee

Miami -1 over Denver

Atlanta +3 ½ over Detroit

Oakland -6 over Kansas City

St. Louis +13 over Dallas

Indianapolis +14 over New Orleans

Jacksonville +8 over Baltimore

NCAA football Week 8 picks

By Rick Morris

2-3 last week, 21-18-1 overall

Ohio -14 over Akron

Notre Dame -9 ½ over USC

Oklahoma State -7 ½ over Missouri

Wisconsin -7 ½ over Michigan State

Utah +2 over California

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Lounge on YouTube: Mini-Episode #24 – Bob Barker

By Rick Morris

As we referenced previously, our pals at Sportsology are hooking us up for live segments that we’re doing with guests these days. We’re happy to report that we’ve been able to stream many segments on our own, but we’re thrilled for the help on some of these with guests and the thanks all go to our great friend Russ Cohen.

Mini-Episode #24 is truly amazing: the legendary Bob Barker comes back for his FOURTH appearance in The FDH Lounge, discussing his beloved St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series and his animal advocacy as it relates to this week’s tragic events in Zanesville. Behold:

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

World Series preview

By Rick Morris

OVERVIEW

The historic run of the St. Louis Cardinals continues, with the franchise not merely running down Atlanta for the wild card spot in historic fashion, but having beaten Philadelphia in the NLDS – an upset of unbelievable proportions. As we noted in our series preview, the Phils were the most prohibitive favorites baseball had seen in October since at least the 1998 Yankees and maybe even Tony LaRussa’s old As teams from 1988-90. This postseason, LaRussa has gained a bit more historic salve for his record, which was tarnished by only reeling in one of those titles in Oakland. Of course, in fairness to LaRussa, that tarnish is only relative to where he fits on a list of the game’s greatest all-time skippers. His crew clashes with the defending American League Champion Texas Rangers, who ground out a steady-but-strong season with a smaller degree of limelight than some of the game’s signature franchises of the moment.

St. Louis was extraordinarily unlikely to make it this far for the reasons covered above, but the dark cloud over their heads as they turned into September had been brewing all season. Ace Adam Wainwright – can you imagine this team with him healthy right now? – blew out his arm and the Albert Pujols impending free agency turned into the kind of soap opera that doesn’t generally touch this franchise. Meanwhile, in the AL, the Rangers also lost an ace before Opening Day when Cliff Lee moved to Philly and, while their team seemed pretty solid top-to-bottom, it was hard to fathom them being as good or better than they were in 2010 minus one of the game’s top stoppers. And they tasted a bit of soap opera themselves when Michael Young voiced displeasure about apparently getting cast aside by the team after he had willingly made position changes for them repeatedly.

In our LDS preview, we instituted a brand-new feature this year comparing the playoff teams in many different phases of roster composition: a rating of each team in five key categories with a numerical rating that correlates as follows:

MATCHUPS

Great – 5 points

Very Good – 4 points

Decent – 3 points

Poor – 2 points

Horrible – 1 point

TEXAS (21)

Lineup Explosiveness: Great

Lineup Depth: Great

Starting Pitching, Top-End: Decent

Starting Pitching Depth: Decent

Bullpen: Great

ST. LOUIS (19)

Lineup Explosiveness: Great

Lineup Depth: Decent

Starting Pitching, Top-End: Decent (upgraded from the initial poor ranking at the start of the playoffs purely because of Chris Carpenter)

Starting Pitching Depth: Decent

Bullpen: Great

OVERALL ANALYSIS

A year after San Francisco won the World Series with starting pitching that stood with some of the great staffs of recent decades – and seemed emblematic of the young “Era of the Pitcher” – two good-but-not-great staffs are represented in the Fall Classic. So much for last year foretelling the immediate future!

Partly due to managerial style, partly due to exceptional bullpen depth, partly due to necessity with starting pitching not holding up, both League Championship Series saw an extreme emphasis on the relievers. As a matter of fact, the Cardinals joined the 1979 Pirates (who accomplished their feat in the World Series against Baltimore) as the only teams to win a postseason series when their bullpen tallied more total innings than the starting rotations!

Before we hit the differences – and there are certainly a few – let’s cover the remaining areas of commonality. Both teams led their leagues in batting average (Texas at .283 and St. Louis at .273), although the Cards’ superior selectivity at the plate led to an OBP that was one point higher than Texas’ .340 tally. Even that selectivity, though, is very close on a net basis: St. Louis had 67 more walks, but also 48 more strikeouts.

Oddly, neither team is very disadvantaged by the games that will be played by the other league’s rules. Young, who had maybe the greatest “superutility” season in baseball history with a .338 batting average and 111 RBI, can be shifted all around the diamond as NL rules and pitching changes sometimes dictate (he will actually start the games in St. Louis at first base as Mitch Moreland, the “Paul Sorrento circa 1995 of the Texas lineup,” comes off the bench). And Allen Craig, with the power (11 home runs) and contact (.315 batting average) he flashed in a mere 200 at-bats for St. Louis, is the ideal extra hitter to add to the lineup for the games in Texas. Truly, it’s very rare for neither team in a World Series to avoid running into a competitive disadvantage in terms of the orientation of their team when the games shift to the opposing league’s park.

And while Texas, unsurprisingly with their diversity and depth of weapons, finished a strong third in the AL with 855 runs, the Cardinals – with inferior total power and speed to the Rangers – distinguished themselves by finding a way to lead the NL with 762 runs. Clearly, St. Louis didn’t just start discovering means of scratching out victory in their red-hot autumn.

All year long, the Cardinals have made the most out of their incredible core of a lineup: the hottest free-agent-to-be to hit October in quite some time in Pujols, steady power raker Matt Holliday and refurbished slugger Lance Berkman. With the Rangers bringing in a rotation that is more tilted to left-handed starters than most, you might think that these three righties (Berkman is a switch-hitter, but it’s hard to imagine him swinging left against CJ Wilson, Derek Holland and Matt Harrison) would be licking their chops. Well, not quite. Strangely, Pujols hit almost the same against both types of pitchers (actually, five points lower against lefties), while Holliday hit 50 points worse against lefties and Berkman was 30 points worse. These numbers are statistically improbable for top hitters, but they may come into play here.

Given that the left-right factor doesn’t tilt against Texas, it’s extremely hard to disagree with the conventional wisdom that they are favorites, perhaps significant ones. While the experience factor that the defending American League champs bring into the World Series is negligible (given that the Cards made it this far five years ago and key players like Berkman and Holliday who weren’t around then have been here with other teams), they have a significant edge in power given that they are deeper with Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Adrian Beltre, Ian Kinsler and Mike Napoli all at 25 or more home runs (and everyone except the injury-shortened Hamilton, their greatest hitter, at 29 or more home runs!). And at 143-57, Texas outpaces St. Louis in stolen bases to a degree that is nothing short of shocking (and the Cardinals were only thrown out six fewer times, which is truly pathetic).

The Cardinals bring a few factors that they hope can be equalizers against the powerful and supremely balanced Rangers:

^ Their ace, Chris Carpenter, has shown that he is still more of a shutdown ace on a given night than CJ Wilson.

^ Catcher Yadier Molina works very well with their pitchers to hold baserunners and thus hold down steals.

^ As should be expected in a league when pitchers are subject to getting pulled for pinch-hitters, the Cardinal starting pitching is marginally fresher (and, as we covered above, did not get stretched during the NLCS!). Matt Harrison is the only Texas starter not to average 100 pitches per start (just narrowly missing at 99.7), while Kyle Lohse tallied 93.5 and Jaime Garcia came in at 93.3.

^ Slappy David Freese, the NLCS MVP, is the “Mark Lemke Unlikely Underdog Story” of this postseason.

^ Whether or not the Cards re-sign Pujols, the core of this team is aging and the mere fact that their greatest player since Bob Gibson is about to hit the market indicates that they’re not able to spend big money easily. So they’ve got some urgency in this run, which history will probably slot late in the LaRussa era of success. The Rangers, while appreciating just how hard it is to get back to the final round once you’ve lost, are more likely to be in the front part of their run, given the ages of their key players, their minor-league talent and the payroll flexibility that they will gain with a new TV deal that prices them properly in the good-sized Metroplex (along with the probability that their winning ways will probably bring in enough fan income to help them compete as a “bigger market,” as has happened with the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies over the last 15 years). St. Louis will surely be playing with more desperation.

^ And of course, as we covered at the top of the preview, they’re on a run that ranks with the greatest in baseball history.

CONCLUSION

Will those factors be enough? It says here that they will not. The Rangers are the best-balanced team in baseball and an explosive one in a postseason that, for once, favors the shootout over the grindout. The maxim is that good pitching will beat good hitting, especially in the postseason, so running into the buzzsaw of the San Francisco staff a year ago was very bad for this offense. This year, a much-improved offense will relish slugging it out with a St. Louis team that will be bringing the proverbial knife to a gunfight. Rangers in five.