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, which covers in its entirety our sixth annual fantasy football mock draft from our most recent FDH Lounge program (the audio archive is embedded in the newsletter, but is also directly available here).
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
2 years of The Multimedia Magazine online!
By Rick Morris
On January 14, 2007, The FDH Lounge launched in the form of a "nothing is off-topic" Internet TV show on SportsTalkNetwork.com. 69 episodes later, we are continuing that original form of The Lounge in a multitude of unique ways.
But two years ago today, on August 14, 2007, the stage was set for The FDH Lounge to really become the all-around force that it continues to evolve into. Originally titled "The FDH Lounge Blog," the online publication now known as The FDH Lounge Multimedia Magazine took the concepts of the show to another dimension equally suited for them.
As the managing partner of the parent company, FDH Enterprises, LLC, I am so very proud of the work done by all of us: my partners, our contributors and yes, even moi! Our relatively new association with fellow content syndicators under the banner of The 21st Century Media Alliance is also working out well for all parties involved as we collectively chart new horizons together.
If you are relatively new to our work across several platforms, let me list the ones other than this fine Multimedia Magazine you are presently perusing:
^ The FDH Lounge home page, with descriptions of all Multimedia Magazine topics, links to the monthly Multimedia Magazine archives, all Lounge show rundowns and links to past Lounge show audio archives.
^ The FDH Lounge on Twitter: bite-sized nuggets of our tasty Lounge goodness.
^ The FDH Lounge Ultimate Links Page: presently up to 1,612 links in every area of life, laid out in 51 simple categories. If you were stranded on a desert island, this is the only web page you would ever need!
^ The FDH Lounge on Facebook, where we are able to interact with our good friends -- more of whom are always appreciated!
^ The FDH Lounge MySpace page, one of the oldest representations of our brand.
^ The FDH Lounge message board, where all feedback is always welcomed.
^ The site that started it all for FDH Enterprises, FantasyDrafthelp.com, which has the spirit of the anything-goes FDH Lounge within the world of fantasy sports.
On a personal note, because of the capabilities and energy of everyone involved, this has been the greatest creative project of my life. I always envisioned bits and pieces of what would eventually become The FDH Lounge, but I never knew exactly how they would fit together -- and frankly, even after we launched it, I can't say that I had a 100% idea of where this was headed. But the evolution has been thrilling to witness and coordinate. We are putting together something special and timeless and we appreciate how much it means to those of you who follow us in all of our different forms. As we get bigger and bigger, you'll truly be able to say "You knew us when!"
On January 14, 2007, The FDH Lounge launched in the form of a "nothing is off-topic" Internet TV show on SportsTalkNetwork.com. 69 episodes later, we are continuing that original form of The Lounge in a multitude of unique ways.
But two years ago today, on August 14, 2007, the stage was set for The FDH Lounge to really become the all-around force that it continues to evolve into. Originally titled "The FDH Lounge Blog," the online publication now known as The FDH Lounge Multimedia Magazine took the concepts of the show to another dimension equally suited for them.
As the managing partner of the parent company, FDH Enterprises, LLC, I am so very proud of the work done by all of us: my partners, our contributors and yes, even moi! Our relatively new association with fellow content syndicators under the banner of The 21st Century Media Alliance is also working out well for all parties involved as we collectively chart new horizons together.
If you are relatively new to our work across several platforms, let me list the ones other than this fine Multimedia Magazine you are presently perusing:
^ The FDH Lounge home page, with descriptions of all Multimedia Magazine topics, links to the monthly Multimedia Magazine archives, all Lounge show rundowns and links to past Lounge show audio archives.
^ The FDH Lounge on Twitter: bite-sized nuggets of our tasty Lounge goodness.
^ The FDH Lounge Ultimate Links Page: presently up to 1,612 links in every area of life, laid out in 51 simple categories. If you were stranded on a desert island, this is the only web page you would ever need!
^ The FDH Lounge on Facebook, where we are able to interact with our good friends -- more of whom are always appreciated!
^ The FDH Lounge MySpace page, one of the oldest representations of our brand.
^ The FDH Lounge message board, where all feedback is always welcomed.
^ The site that started it all for FDH Enterprises, FantasyDrafthelp.com, which has the spirit of the anything-goes FDH Lounge within the world of fantasy sports.
On a personal note, because of the capabilities and energy of everyone involved, this has been the greatest creative project of my life. I always envisioned bits and pieces of what would eventually become The FDH Lounge, but I never knew exactly how they would fit together -- and frankly, even after we launched it, I can't say that I had a 100% idea of where this was headed. But the evolution has been thrilling to witness and coordinate. We are putting together something special and timeless and we appreciate how much it means to those of you who follow us in all of our different forms. As we get bigger and bigger, you'll truly be able to say "You knew us when!"
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
FDH Lounge Show #69: August 12, 2009
By Rick Morris
This week’s edition of THE FDH LOUNGE on SportsTalkNetwork.com is completely given over to the sixth annual FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER Fantasy Football Mock Draft.
This event, which will feature participation from FDH, STN and Outside The Boxscore personalities, will provide you all the help you need to get ready for your own drafts this season. Well, all the help you need aside from the free download FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009, that is!
This week’s program will be the final one in the 7-10 PM EDT timeslot as we move to 6-9 PM EDT on Wednesday, August 18. The season premier of the show-within-a-show THE GOON SQUAD will be in its new location of the first half of Hour One and THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER will occupy the second half of that hour – leaving the 7-9 PM EDT timeslot available for the “classic Lounge free-for-all style” just as it was when these segments occupied the 9-10 PM EDT hour previously.
So be sure to tune in; it’s going to be a great program and we hope you can be a part of our audience. 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!
This week’s edition of THE FDH LOUNGE on SportsTalkNetwork.com is completely given over to the sixth annual FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER Fantasy Football Mock Draft.
This event, which will feature participation from FDH, STN and Outside The Boxscore personalities, will provide you all the help you need to get ready for your own drafts this season. Well, all the help you need aside from the free download FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009, that is!
This week’s program will be the final one in the 7-10 PM EDT timeslot as we move to 6-9 PM EDT on Wednesday, August 18. The season premier of the show-within-a-show THE GOON SQUAD will be in its new location of the first half of Hour One and THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER will occupy the second half of that hour – leaving the 7-9 PM EDT timeslot available for the “classic Lounge free-for-all style” just as it was when these segments occupied the 9-10 PM EDT hour previously.
So be sure to tune in; it’s going to be a great program and we hope you can be a part of our audience. 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!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Obama’s Ahmadinejad moment on health care
By Rick Morris
Perhaps we now see why President Obama reacted in such milquetoast fashion towards the Iranian crackdown on protesters back in June – because now we are seeing his own “Supreme Leader Power Grab” on the subject of health care in America.
The parallels are striking and are most troubling to those in this country who fear that the Democratic congressional supermajority and an administration raised on Saul Alinsky and Daley family politics are colluding for ultimate and permanent control over the American populace.
^ Former “journalist” Linda Douglass, who is now paid openly to propagate the same point of view she put forward on ABC News for all those years, is putting together an Orwellian, enemy-of-the-state database comprised by the results of citizens snitching on one another to Big Brother in the White House.
^ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to be setting the stage for a Kristallnacht-type event staged to discredit citizens fervently opposed to the federal takeover of all health care based on her scurrilous lies about congressional town hall protesters carrying swastikas.
^ Shock troop thugs under the banner of the SEIU union are rapidly becoming the domestic equivalent of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, attacking citizens exercising their right to free speech. Talking-points enforcers who host MSNBC prime-time programs are stepping up the propaganda, denouncing as un-American the peaceful protesters who are making the allegedly unreasonable demand that our congressmen actually read this bill before remaking our country and economic system so completely.
This power grab has been years in the making. The leftist movement in this country softened the ground somewhat by denouncing allegedly totalitarian moves by President Bush. Yes, the same President Bush who couldn’t coordinate a federal response to Hurricane Katrina, couldn’t safeguard our southern border, couldn’t stop Congress from spending like drunken sailors and couldn’t fashion a surge in Iraq until four years of a bloody stalemate was allegedly going to pull together a dictatorship-without-end. However, as laughable as the allegations were, they did lull the American people to sleep though the dangers of transforming America into a “collectivist paradise.” Witness the fact that Obama is the first president to be elected since LBJ as a fairly open leftist and the only one aside from LBJ in U.S. history.
While legitimate market-based reforms that would expand access to health care and deliver greater consumer protection are actually of great importance, the collectivist drivel in the proposed Democratic bill accomplishes just the opposite and will destroy our peerless medical innovation and quality of care. Those who do not understand the present stakes need to inform themselves about the provisions in this threat to our way of life before it is too late. Future generations will not forgive those who stood by and let this happen.
Perhaps we now see why President Obama reacted in such milquetoast fashion towards the Iranian crackdown on protesters back in June – because now we are seeing his own “Supreme Leader Power Grab” on the subject of health care in America.
The parallels are striking and are most troubling to those in this country who fear that the Democratic congressional supermajority and an administration raised on Saul Alinsky and Daley family politics are colluding for ultimate and permanent control over the American populace.
^ Former “journalist” Linda Douglass, who is now paid openly to propagate the same point of view she put forward on ABC News for all those years, is putting together an Orwellian, enemy-of-the-state database comprised by the results of citizens snitching on one another to Big Brother in the White House.
^ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to be setting the stage for a Kristallnacht-type event staged to discredit citizens fervently opposed to the federal takeover of all health care based on her scurrilous lies about congressional town hall protesters carrying swastikas.
^ Shock troop thugs under the banner of the SEIU union are rapidly becoming the domestic equivalent of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, attacking citizens exercising their right to free speech. Talking-points enforcers who host MSNBC prime-time programs are stepping up the propaganda, denouncing as un-American the peaceful protesters who are making the allegedly unreasonable demand that our congressmen actually read this bill before remaking our country and economic system so completely.
This power grab has been years in the making. The leftist movement in this country softened the ground somewhat by denouncing allegedly totalitarian moves by President Bush. Yes, the same President Bush who couldn’t coordinate a federal response to Hurricane Katrina, couldn’t safeguard our southern border, couldn’t stop Congress from spending like drunken sailors and couldn’t fashion a surge in Iraq until four years of a bloody stalemate was allegedly going to pull together a dictatorship-without-end. However, as laughable as the allegations were, they did lull the American people to sleep though the dangers of transforming America into a “collectivist paradise.” Witness the fact that Obama is the first president to be elected since LBJ as a fairly open leftist and the only one aside from LBJ in U.S. history.
While legitimate market-based reforms that would expand access to health care and deliver greater consumer protection are actually of great importance, the collectivist drivel in the proposed Democratic bill accomplishes just the opposite and will destroy our peerless medical innovation and quality of care. Those who do not understand the present stakes need to inform themselves about the provisions in this threat to our way of life before it is too late. Future generations will not forgive those who stood by and let this happen.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Lil Wayne & Rascal Flatts: Proof that Music is in the Toilet
By Tony Mazur
In my experiences, August typically brings out the worst in some people. Whether they worked or slept through the first two months of summer, August is the time where people try to cram everything from tearful goodbyes to Corona Light before school starts. Luckily for the feeble minded, they partied their rear ends off this past week in the nation's North Coast.
And why is that? Because Lil Wayne (or as I prefer to call him, 'Lil Weezy'!) and Rascal Flatts came to town!
Oddly enough, both acts performed at the same venue (Blossom Music Center), and, by taking a look at the photo albums on Facebook, pretty much the same people showed up to both shows.
Thursday was Lil Wayne. Now, I have never once listened to Lil Wayne and enjoyed myself. I'm usually confused as to why people find him entertaining. My girlfriend once told me "Lil Wayne's voice makes people want to have sex". No, his voice makes me want to apply a screwdriver to my eardrums. And what is the fascination with auto tune? He makes Max Headroom's voice sound realistic.
I took a gander at the crowd in some of those concert photos. For a hip hop act, I was surprised that there was that many white people in attendance. I don't understand the Lil Wayne hype, and I hope him and his auto tune are on their final minute of fame.
Friday night at Blossom was Rascal Flatts. For some unknown reason, country music and hip hop are huge in a town that bills itself "The Rock N Roll Capital of the World". Rascal Flatts is anything but country. I would categorize them closer to R&B than country, and they aren't the least big soulful. Their music is poppy and nauseating, and their songs typically sound alike with a faint utterance of twang. Their biggest songs are covers.
Darius Rucker, the former lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish, opened up for Rascal Flatts. Apparently people were sick of hearing "Time" and "Hold My Hand", so Rucker decided to hop on the country bandwagon, just like Jessica Simpson and Michelle Branch.
Again, the youth of Northeast Ohio came out in droves to see this faux country group. The girls arrived to the venue in plaid button-down shirts, jeans skirts, ponytails, and cowgirl boots, and the guys dressed up in similar plaid shirts with ratty jeans, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat. Why do people feel the need to dress up like hillbillies and farmers? It's completely phony. It's not Halloween.
I have been to hundreds of concerts in my short lifetime, and I can tell you that I was myself. I didn't dye my hair maroon and put in a lip ring for Green Day, I didn't smoke joints and wear ghetto hats with the sticker still on them for Cypress Hill, and I didn't sport tight jeans and poof my hair when I saw Poison.
I had this argument on my former radio show with a female co-host, and she said that dressing up for country concerts is the same as wearing your favorite team's apparel at a ballgame. The flaw in her logic is that I actually don my team's gear away from the ballpark. The people who wear redneck clothing to the country music show would not wear it anywhere else.
What I found interesting was that the same people who portray hillbillies at a concert are the ones who typically mock them in real life. They're the same people who called George W. Bush a redneck throughout his tenure, and will mimic a southern dialect just to poke fun at them.
Lil Wayne and Rascal Flatts prove what is truly wrong with the music industry. This is like a flashback to the 1980s where it was all about style rather than the quality of the music. We have returned to the days of Aha and Cinderella. I just hope that a Guns N Roses or Nirvana come from nowhere and smack us off our chairs.
In my experiences, August typically brings out the worst in some people. Whether they worked or slept through the first two months of summer, August is the time where people try to cram everything from tearful goodbyes to Corona Light before school starts. Luckily for the feeble minded, they partied their rear ends off this past week in the nation's North Coast.
And why is that? Because Lil Wayne (or as I prefer to call him, 'Lil Weezy'!) and Rascal Flatts came to town!
Oddly enough, both acts performed at the same venue (Blossom Music Center), and, by taking a look at the photo albums on Facebook, pretty much the same people showed up to both shows.
Thursday was Lil Wayne. Now, I have never once listened to Lil Wayne and enjoyed myself. I'm usually confused as to why people find him entertaining. My girlfriend once told me "Lil Wayne's voice makes people want to have sex". No, his voice makes me want to apply a screwdriver to my eardrums. And what is the fascination with auto tune? He makes Max Headroom's voice sound realistic.
I took a gander at the crowd in some of those concert photos. For a hip hop act, I was surprised that there was that many white people in attendance. I don't understand the Lil Wayne hype, and I hope him and his auto tune are on their final minute of fame.
Friday night at Blossom was Rascal Flatts. For some unknown reason, country music and hip hop are huge in a town that bills itself "The Rock N Roll Capital of the World". Rascal Flatts is anything but country. I would categorize them closer to R&B than country, and they aren't the least big soulful. Their music is poppy and nauseating, and their songs typically sound alike with a faint utterance of twang. Their biggest songs are covers.
Darius Rucker, the former lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish, opened up for Rascal Flatts. Apparently people were sick of hearing "Time" and "Hold My Hand", so Rucker decided to hop on the country bandwagon, just like Jessica Simpson and Michelle Branch.
Again, the youth of Northeast Ohio came out in droves to see this faux country group. The girls arrived to the venue in plaid button-down shirts, jeans skirts, ponytails, and cowgirl boots, and the guys dressed up in similar plaid shirts with ratty jeans, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat. Why do people feel the need to dress up like hillbillies and farmers? It's completely phony. It's not Halloween.
I have been to hundreds of concerts in my short lifetime, and I can tell you that I was myself. I didn't dye my hair maroon and put in a lip ring for Green Day, I didn't smoke joints and wear ghetto hats with the sticker still on them for Cypress Hill, and I didn't sport tight jeans and poof my hair when I saw Poison.
I had this argument on my former radio show with a female co-host, and she said that dressing up for country concerts is the same as wearing your favorite team's apparel at a ballgame. The flaw in her logic is that I actually don my team's gear away from the ballpark. The people who wear redneck clothing to the country music show would not wear it anywhere else.
What I found interesting was that the same people who portray hillbillies at a concert are the ones who typically mock them in real life. They're the same people who called George W. Bush a redneck throughout his tenure, and will mimic a southern dialect just to poke fun at them.
Lil Wayne and Rascal Flatts prove what is truly wrong with the music industry. This is like a flashback to the 1980s where it was all about style rather than the quality of the music. We have returned to the days of Aha and Cinderella. I just hope that a Guns N Roses or Nirvana come from nowhere and smack us off our chairs.
Shame on Tribe suck-ups who abetted failure
By Rick Morris
We have long believed at FDH that the phrase “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel” should be revised for sports purposes to “blind homerism is the last refuge of the phony, better-fan-than-thou jerk.” This applies in spades to the mismanagement which has been applied for most of the last decade to the Cleveland Indians.
Now, the Indians are my hometown team, the squad that I have rooted for my entire life. After waiting in vain for the first two decades of my life, the team finally progressed into contention in the 1990s under the tutelage of team architect John Hart. Clearly sensing disaster when the Dolans bought the team at the turn of the decade, Hart wisely jumped ship and matters deteriorated sharply, never to rebound.
The disingenuous honks in the front office, led by General Manager Mark Shapiro – whose insane self-worth derived from having attended an Ivy League school would put Andy Bernard to shame – have drunk their own Kool-Aid ever since, strutting around as though they invented baseball while propagating the wisdom of their “great plan” to all who would listen. Meanwhile, as this “brain trust” thumbed its nose at Hart’s last few draft classes, they themselves went on to produce more guano from first-round picks than the gardens of America can currently utilize.
Unbelievably, many important voices in the national media who should have known better were taken in by their Potemkin village. Peter Gammons has pretty much singlehandedly made it official ESPN policy that all who work there must bow before The Temple of Wise Shapiro. Ken Rosenthal picked the Tribe for the freaking World Series in 2008!
But while their failures in judgment about this regime should have been apparent at the time and are wounding to me in the sense that they lent unwarranted legitimacy to this crowd, I do not take them personally. No matter how great the professional resume, we all make mistakes and the fact that theirs helped prop up the bumblers who destroyed my favorite team is a cross I must bear without malice towards them.
However, I have plenty of wrath to spare for the Vichy turds in the Tribe blogosphere who spent the last few years resolutely refusing to speak truth to power, but choosing to enable their “benevolent overlords” as they dismantled this town’s baseball tradition brick-by-stinking-brick. I refer you back to these past classics from The FDH Lounge, penned when so many unseeing eyes could not see the 2007 playoff run for the fluke and Mother of All Anomalies that it truly was:
http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2007/10/alcs-post-mortem.html
http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2007/11/sorry-larry-dolan-facts-are-facts.html
http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-to-talk-like-blind-homer.html
I’m particularly fond of the last one, where the pomposity of the Amen Crowd was held up to justifiable ridicule repeatedly. I cited numerous examples time and time again of complete and utter garbage talking points from the front office recycled through willing puppets like Paul Cousineau and Tony Lastoria (one of the prime perpetrators of the grand lie that Jim Thome stabbed Tribe fans in the back – when in fact the truth is that the front office revoked the offer once he accepted it and demonstrated their cowardice and complete lack of character for all these years by letting him take the heat for a falsehood).
So again, for all of the head-scratchers in the “Gee, how could this happen crowd?” I would note that these columns were written in late 2007 and 2008 and contained material consistent with points I had been making on SportsTalkNetwork.com since 2003! Clearly, SOME of us saw this coming! By the way, fellow FDH Lounge Dignitary Tony Mazur also was not fooled by the Three-card Monte operators down at the corner of Ontario and Carnegie.
Sadly, though, as we all learned in school, history repeats itself. Cousineau and Lastoria are doing their Stalinist best to push the vision of the latest Five-Year Plan from Dear Leader Shapiro. This is to be expected; the thought that somehow the scales will fall from their eyes at this late date is fanciful indeed.
Unfortunately, however, even after everything that has transpired over the past eight seasons, all of the false grand promises and absolute gaga about “waves and waves of young talent being generated,” this regime is still sucking in those who should know better. I refer to the talented young scribe who penned this article, which I will generously refer to as most credulous indeed. It saddens and troubles me that even after scores of player development failures this decade that leave the certainty that Ross Atkins possesses pictures of a higher-up with a farm animal that this organization still retains the ability to buffalo those above the Cousineau-Lastoria trough. Because I respect his overall body of work, I retain much hope that this particular journalist will eventually rise above the propagation of rosy scenarios on the public.
Ultimately, nothing will save this franchise except ownership who will understand the truism that “you have to spend money to make money” and commit to at least mid-level payroll year in and year out and a front office without this poisonous level of pomposity and an inability to admit their mistakes. The absolute best that this team can hope for as presently operated is a “win the lottery” type year where all the stars align as they did in 2007 – and the team still came up short in the World Series when the luck that they borrowed against for an entire season ran dry in the final three games of the ALCS. Again, that is the absolute best that can be generated and that is once a half-decade if the team is lucky. Don’t believe me? Ask Paul Dolan, who foolishly admitted publicly what I have been claiming for all of these years – words that branded me a hater by his yes-men!
If you’re an Indians fan – and to an extent, this analogy can be applied to fans of any extremely mismanaged franchises – and you don’t feel that you deserve any better than that kind of treatment, then, hey, enjoy your Stockholm Syndrome. We the outraged real fans will continue to press for the liberation of our franchise from those who hold it hostage and will try our best according to the dictates of our respective religions to forgive you for continuing to sell us down the river just so that you can feel morally superior in your own fandom.
We have long believed at FDH that the phrase “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel” should be revised for sports purposes to “blind homerism is the last refuge of the phony, better-fan-than-thou jerk.” This applies in spades to the mismanagement which has been applied for most of the last decade to the Cleveland Indians.
Now, the Indians are my hometown team, the squad that I have rooted for my entire life. After waiting in vain for the first two decades of my life, the team finally progressed into contention in the 1990s under the tutelage of team architect John Hart. Clearly sensing disaster when the Dolans bought the team at the turn of the decade, Hart wisely jumped ship and matters deteriorated sharply, never to rebound.
The disingenuous honks in the front office, led by General Manager Mark Shapiro – whose insane self-worth derived from having attended an Ivy League school would put Andy Bernard to shame – have drunk their own Kool-Aid ever since, strutting around as though they invented baseball while propagating the wisdom of their “great plan” to all who would listen. Meanwhile, as this “brain trust” thumbed its nose at Hart’s last few draft classes, they themselves went on to produce more guano from first-round picks than the gardens of America can currently utilize.
Unbelievably, many important voices in the national media who should have known better were taken in by their Potemkin village. Peter Gammons has pretty much singlehandedly made it official ESPN policy that all who work there must bow before The Temple of Wise Shapiro. Ken Rosenthal picked the Tribe for the freaking World Series in 2008!
But while their failures in judgment about this regime should have been apparent at the time and are wounding to me in the sense that they lent unwarranted legitimacy to this crowd, I do not take them personally. No matter how great the professional resume, we all make mistakes and the fact that theirs helped prop up the bumblers who destroyed my favorite team is a cross I must bear without malice towards them.
However, I have plenty of wrath to spare for the Vichy turds in the Tribe blogosphere who spent the last few years resolutely refusing to speak truth to power, but choosing to enable their “benevolent overlords” as they dismantled this town’s baseball tradition brick-by-stinking-brick. I refer you back to these past classics from The FDH Lounge, penned when so many unseeing eyes could not see the 2007 playoff run for the fluke and Mother of All Anomalies that it truly was:
http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2007/10/alcs-post-mortem.html
http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2007/11/sorry-larry-dolan-facts-are-facts.html
http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-to-talk-like-blind-homer.html
I’m particularly fond of the last one, where the pomposity of the Amen Crowd was held up to justifiable ridicule repeatedly. I cited numerous examples time and time again of complete and utter garbage talking points from the front office recycled through willing puppets like Paul Cousineau and Tony Lastoria (one of the prime perpetrators of the grand lie that Jim Thome stabbed Tribe fans in the back – when in fact the truth is that the front office revoked the offer once he accepted it and demonstrated their cowardice and complete lack of character for all these years by letting him take the heat for a falsehood).
So again, for all of the head-scratchers in the “Gee, how could this happen crowd?” I would note that these columns were written in late 2007 and 2008 and contained material consistent with points I had been making on SportsTalkNetwork.com since 2003! Clearly, SOME of us saw this coming! By the way, fellow FDH Lounge Dignitary Tony Mazur also was not fooled by the Three-card Monte operators down at the corner of Ontario and Carnegie.
Sadly, though, as we all learned in school, history repeats itself. Cousineau and Lastoria are doing their Stalinist best to push the vision of the latest Five-Year Plan from Dear Leader Shapiro. This is to be expected; the thought that somehow the scales will fall from their eyes at this late date is fanciful indeed.
Unfortunately, however, even after everything that has transpired over the past eight seasons, all of the false grand promises and absolute gaga about “waves and waves of young talent being generated,” this regime is still sucking in those who should know better. I refer to the talented young scribe who penned this article, which I will generously refer to as most credulous indeed. It saddens and troubles me that even after scores of player development failures this decade that leave the certainty that Ross Atkins possesses pictures of a higher-up with a farm animal that this organization still retains the ability to buffalo those above the Cousineau-Lastoria trough. Because I respect his overall body of work, I retain much hope that this particular journalist will eventually rise above the propagation of rosy scenarios on the public.
Ultimately, nothing will save this franchise except ownership who will understand the truism that “you have to spend money to make money” and commit to at least mid-level payroll year in and year out and a front office without this poisonous level of pomposity and an inability to admit their mistakes. The absolute best that this team can hope for as presently operated is a “win the lottery” type year where all the stars align as they did in 2007 – and the team still came up short in the World Series when the luck that they borrowed against for an entire season ran dry in the final three games of the ALCS. Again, that is the absolute best that can be generated and that is once a half-decade if the team is lucky. Don’t believe me? Ask Paul Dolan, who foolishly admitted publicly what I have been claiming for all of these years – words that branded me a hater by his yes-men!
If you’re an Indians fan – and to an extent, this analogy can be applied to fans of any extremely mismanaged franchises – and you don’t feel that you deserve any better than that kind of treatment, then, hey, enjoy your Stockholm Syndrome. We the outraged real fans will continue to press for the liberation of our franchise from those who hold it hostage and will try our best according to the dictates of our respective religions to forgive you for continuing to sell us down the river just so that you can feel morally superior in your own fandom.
FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue XXXI
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, which contains a complete rundown of our first annual FDH Fantasy Sports Summit.
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, which contains a complete rundown of our first annual FDH Fantasy Sports Summit.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
FDH Lounge Show #68: August 5, 2009
By Rick Morris
The 68th edition of THE FDH LOUNGE on SportsTalkNetwork.com (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT) brings you more of the variety that only we can deliver.
Even before The Opening Statements of The Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge and our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge, we welcome in the author of a provocative new novel. Kathryn Fraser penned the tome A Journey, A Reckoning and A Miracle, which imagines an alternate-reality post-presidency in which George W. Bush changes his mind about the correctness of the Iraq War and thus embarks on a new path. She moves very familiar figures about on the canvass in ways that we are not used to seeing them and intermingles some interesting characters that she creates.
After we speak with her, we begin an extended FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER, first focusing on our brand-new free download, FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009 and all of the contents within. Such as? Well, only our FDH Draft Board, Top 60 Overall, Senior Editor Jason Jones’ position-by-position player rankings and notes, 2009 FDH Mock Draft & Analysis, 2009 Fantasy Overview, Don’t Be That Guy, Injury Analysis, Projected Breakthroughs, Rookie Player Rankings, Overvalued & Undervalued Players, Suggested League Guidelines and bonus non-fantasy coverage. Is that enough for you? That’s obviously a rhetorical question!
From there, in the second hour, we convene the First Annual FDH Fantasy Sports Summit with some of the biggest names in the game joining us:
^ Cory J. Bonini, Managing Editor of KFFL.com
^ Dave Richard, Fantasy Football Writer at CBSSports.com
^ Mike Harmon, Fantasy Guru at FoxSports.com
^ Kelly Perdew, CEO of Rotohog
NOTE: More names may be joining us and we will work to keep this rundown updated prior to the show to reflect that. We’ll be talking state of the industry, the 2009 football season and anything else that is relevant. It will be a lot of fun and very informative to have this meeting of the minds.
In Hour Three, we bring back the very well-connected sports columnist Neil Best of Newsday. If there’s a sports or sports media story you care about, he is covering it, so we are guaranteed to have a great segment.
We close with a new guest on the program and somebody who we feel will fit in very well with us. Jonathan Mayo, the minor league columnist for MLB.com, will be coming on to help us take a look at the prospects involved in the baseball deadline deals.
It’s going to be a great program and we hope you can be a part of our audience. 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!
The 68th edition of THE FDH LOUNGE on SportsTalkNetwork.com (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT) brings you more of the variety that only we can deliver.
Even before The Opening Statements of The Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge and our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge, we welcome in the author of a provocative new novel. Kathryn Fraser penned the tome A Journey, A Reckoning and A Miracle, which imagines an alternate-reality post-presidency in which George W. Bush changes his mind about the correctness of the Iraq War and thus embarks on a new path. She moves very familiar figures about on the canvass in ways that we are not used to seeing them and intermingles some interesting characters that she creates.
After we speak with her, we begin an extended FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER, first focusing on our brand-new free download, FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009 and all of the contents within. Such as? Well, only our FDH Draft Board, Top 60 Overall, Senior Editor Jason Jones’ position-by-position player rankings and notes, 2009 FDH Mock Draft & Analysis, 2009 Fantasy Overview, Don’t Be That Guy, Injury Analysis, Projected Breakthroughs, Rookie Player Rankings, Overvalued & Undervalued Players, Suggested League Guidelines and bonus non-fantasy coverage. Is that enough for you? That’s obviously a rhetorical question!
From there, in the second hour, we convene the First Annual FDH Fantasy Sports Summit with some of the biggest names in the game joining us:
^ Cory J. Bonini, Managing Editor of KFFL.com
^ Dave Richard, Fantasy Football Writer at CBSSports.com
^ Mike Harmon, Fantasy Guru at FoxSports.com
^ Kelly Perdew, CEO of Rotohog
NOTE: More names may be joining us and we will work to keep this rundown updated prior to the show to reflect that. We’ll be talking state of the industry, the 2009 football season and anything else that is relevant. It will be a lot of fun and very informative to have this meeting of the minds.
In Hour Three, we bring back the very well-connected sports columnist Neil Best of Newsday. If there’s a sports or sports media story you care about, he is covering it, so we are guaranteed to have a great segment.
We close with a new guest on the program and somebody who we feel will fit in very well with us. Jonathan Mayo, the minor league columnist for MLB.com, will be coming on to help us take a look at the prospects involved in the baseball deadline deals.
It’s going to be a great program and we hope you can be a part of our audience. 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!
MLB trading deadline winners and losers
By Rick Morris
TRADING DEADLINE WINNERS
1 St. Louis: Matt Holliday is proving what we said, that he got a bad rap by those who forecast much poorer production from him once he left Coors. If the pitching is for real, and there's no reason to believe it isn't, the lineup can now hold up its end of the bargain.
2 Philadelphia: Getting Cliff Lee -- the legitimate second half of a 1-2 punch that you generally now need to win playoff series but the team did not have anyway in its world championship campaign last year -- while still holding onto the team's most prized prospects? Thievery.
3 Chicago White Sox: The Sox are long-term winners with Jake Peavy regardless of his availability this year. They have a pitcher who makes a case for being the best in the game when healthy for a few more critical years. Sure, they gave up top prospects and he's a tad iffy to be ready anytime soon, but you take a franchise player when you can get one.
4 Boston: They didn't shore up their starting pitching, but nobody has a deeper lineup now that Victor Martinez & Company are on board. If the team can avoid the juvenile temptation to keep running Old Man Winter out behind the plate day after day and actually use Martinez back there more than once in a blue moon, they'll be set from top to bottom with the lineup. They should have looked at another starting pitcher, though.
5 Detroit: Jarrod Washburn helps their rotation, but he wasn't an impact addition on a team that frankly still doesn't look able to stand up to the best of the West and East in the playoffs.
6 New York Yankees: They say they didn't need much and that's why they didn't do much. Jerry Hairston helps their versatility, but could this aging team have added one more piece? That's the question they'll be asking themselves this winter if they don't win it all.
TRADING DEADLINE LOSERS
1 Los Angeles Dodgers: It's a heck of a calculated risk to pass on another top arm for a team without the aforementioned 1-2 playoff punch that the Phils now boast. George Sherrill in the bullpen can now help to make games a seven-inning affair and if he succeeds, the risk will pay off in the end. But you have to have leads to defend and we will now see if the Dodgers present themselves as another great regular season team that can't finish in October.
2 Chicago Cubs: Granted, they were victims of circumstance with the payroll already tied up in this lineup, but a team as disappointing in terms of punch as they have been really needed an infusion somewhere -- especially with Matt Holliday moving down near the arch.
3 San Francisco: How a team has made it this far with seven holes in their lineup is amazing -- and a testament to the greatness of the front end of the rotation. However, the fact that Ryan Garko and Freddy Sanchez are now considered upgrades in the lineup is a testament to how pathetic the hitting still remains.
4 Tampa Bay: Honestly, there wasn't room for the cheap ownership to make one more move? We called it a year ago at the trading deadline when we said that the team failed to acquire the one additional stick that would put them over the top. This time around, another DH bat or a relief arm would have helped, but the price to be paid may be sitting at home as the third-best team in the AL -- and also, unfortunately, their own division.
5 Minnesota: Orlando Cabrera? That's it? Sorry about that.
6 Cleveland: As a rule, sellers can only make this list if they behave in an exceptionally stupid manner. The arrogant and clueless Mark Shapiro, who thinks he invented baseball -- why, just ask him -- managed to leave the top prospects of the Red Sox and Phillies in their respective organizations when he gave away Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez. What a putz.
TRADING DEADLINE WINNERS
1 St. Louis: Matt Holliday is proving what we said, that he got a bad rap by those who forecast much poorer production from him once he left Coors. If the pitching is for real, and there's no reason to believe it isn't, the lineup can now hold up its end of the bargain.
2 Philadelphia: Getting Cliff Lee -- the legitimate second half of a 1-2 punch that you generally now need to win playoff series but the team did not have anyway in its world championship campaign last year -- while still holding onto the team's most prized prospects? Thievery.
3 Chicago White Sox: The Sox are long-term winners with Jake Peavy regardless of his availability this year. They have a pitcher who makes a case for being the best in the game when healthy for a few more critical years. Sure, they gave up top prospects and he's a tad iffy to be ready anytime soon, but you take a franchise player when you can get one.
4 Boston: They didn't shore up their starting pitching, but nobody has a deeper lineup now that Victor Martinez & Company are on board. If the team can avoid the juvenile temptation to keep running Old Man Winter out behind the plate day after day and actually use Martinez back there more than once in a blue moon, they'll be set from top to bottom with the lineup. They should have looked at another starting pitcher, though.
5 Detroit: Jarrod Washburn helps their rotation, but he wasn't an impact addition on a team that frankly still doesn't look able to stand up to the best of the West and East in the playoffs.
6 New York Yankees: They say they didn't need much and that's why they didn't do much. Jerry Hairston helps their versatility, but could this aging team have added one more piece? That's the question they'll be asking themselves this winter if they don't win it all.
TRADING DEADLINE LOSERS
1 Los Angeles Dodgers: It's a heck of a calculated risk to pass on another top arm for a team without the aforementioned 1-2 playoff punch that the Phils now boast. George Sherrill in the bullpen can now help to make games a seven-inning affair and if he succeeds, the risk will pay off in the end. But you have to have leads to defend and we will now see if the Dodgers present themselves as another great regular season team that can't finish in October.
2 Chicago Cubs: Granted, they were victims of circumstance with the payroll already tied up in this lineup, but a team as disappointing in terms of punch as they have been really needed an infusion somewhere -- especially with Matt Holliday moving down near the arch.
3 San Francisco: How a team has made it this far with seven holes in their lineup is amazing -- and a testament to the greatness of the front end of the rotation. However, the fact that Ryan Garko and Freddy Sanchez are now considered upgrades in the lineup is a testament to how pathetic the hitting still remains.
4 Tampa Bay: Honestly, there wasn't room for the cheap ownership to make one more move? We called it a year ago at the trading deadline when we said that the team failed to acquire the one additional stick that would put them over the top. This time around, another DH bat or a relief arm would have helped, but the price to be paid may be sitting at home as the third-best team in the AL -- and also, unfortunately, their own division.
5 Minnesota: Orlando Cabrera? That's it? Sorry about that.
6 Cleveland: As a rule, sellers can only make this list if they behave in an exceptionally stupid manner. The arrogant and clueless Mark Shapiro, who thinks he invented baseball -- why, just ask him -- managed to leave the top prospects of the Red Sox and Phillies in their respective organizations when he gave away Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez. What a putz.
Monday, August 3, 2009
MLB power rankings for start of August
By Rick Morris
NOTE: Previous rankings are listed in parentheses.
TOP TIER
1 Los Angeles Dodgers (1)
2 New York Yankees (3)
3 Boston (2)
4 Los Angeles Angels
(5)SECOND TIER
5 Philadelphia (4)
6 Tampa Bay (6)
7 St Louis (7)
8 San Francisco (8)
9 Texas (10)
10 Colorado (11)
11 Florida (12)
12 Chicago Cubs (17)
13 Detroit (9)
14 Chicago White Sox (14)
15 Minnesota (13)
16 Seattle (16)
17 Atlanta (21)
18 Milwaukee (15)
19 New York Mets (18)
20 Houston (19)
21 Toronto (20)
THIRD TIER
22 Cincinnati (22)
23 Baltimore (23)
24 Arizona (24)
25 Pittsburgh (27)
26 Oakland (26)
27 Cleveland (29)
28 San Diego (28)
29 Kansas City (25)
FOURTH TIER
30 Washington (30)
BIGGEST RISERS: Chicago Cubs (5 spots), Atlanta (4 spots)
BIGGEST FALLERS: Detroit and Kansas City (4 spots), Milwaukee (3 spots)
NOTE: Previous rankings are listed in parentheses.
TOP TIER
1 Los Angeles Dodgers (1)
2 New York Yankees (3)
3 Boston (2)
4 Los Angeles Angels
(5)SECOND TIER
5 Philadelphia (4)
6 Tampa Bay (6)
7 St Louis (7)
8 San Francisco (8)
9 Texas (10)
10 Colorado (11)
11 Florida (12)
12 Chicago Cubs (17)
13 Detroit (9)
14 Chicago White Sox (14)
15 Minnesota (13)
16 Seattle (16)
17 Atlanta (21)
18 Milwaukee (15)
19 New York Mets (18)
20 Houston (19)
21 Toronto (20)
THIRD TIER
22 Cincinnati (22)
23 Baltimore (23)
24 Arizona (24)
25 Pittsburgh (27)
26 Oakland (26)
27 Cleveland (29)
28 San Diego (28)
29 Kansas City (25)
FOURTH TIER
30 Washington (30)
BIGGEST RISERS: Chicago Cubs (5 spots), Atlanta (4 spots)
BIGGEST FALLERS: Detroit and Kansas City (4 spots), Milwaukee (3 spots)
Sunday, August 2, 2009
FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009 online!
By Rick Morris
We've got the only fantasy football guide you need for this year, squeezed into 18 very vital pages. FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009 is now online, with the following features:
^ FDH draft board with: industry compilation rankings, our UQB "Ultimate Stat," dollar figures for auction leagues, bye weeks and four key statistical categories per position along with rankings in each category
^ FDH Top 60 Overall
^ FDH Senior Editor Jason Jones' rankings by position, along with notes for each player
^ Draft Philosophy Overview
^ 2009 Fantasy Overview
^ 2009 FDH Mock Draft & Analysis
^ Don't Be That Guy
^ Injury Analysis
^ Projected Breakthroughs
^ Rookie Player Rankings
^ Overvalued Players
^ Undervalued Players
^ Suggested League Guidelines
As a bonus, we've also got some non-fantasy aspects for you as well:
^ 2009 FDH Standings/Playoff Predictions
^ 2009 NFL Draft Notebook
^ 2009 Donruss Football Classics Review
We've got the only fantasy football guide you need for this year, squeezed into 18 very vital pages. FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009 is now online, with the following features:
^ FDH draft board with: industry compilation rankings, our UQB "Ultimate Stat," dollar figures for auction leagues, bye weeks and four key statistical categories per position along with rankings in each category
^ FDH Top 60 Overall
^ FDH Senior Editor Jason Jones' rankings by position, along with notes for each player
^ Draft Philosophy Overview
^ 2009 Fantasy Overview
^ 2009 FDH Mock Draft & Analysis
^ Don't Be That Guy
^ Injury Analysis
^ Projected Breakthroughs
^ Rookie Player Rankings
^ Overvalued Players
^ Undervalued Players
^ Suggested League Guidelines
As a bonus, we've also got some non-fantasy aspects for you as well:
^ 2009 FDH Standings/Playoff Predictions
^ 2009 NFL Draft Notebook
^ 2009 Donruss Football Classics Review
FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume II, Issue XXX
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.
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.
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