FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume III, Issue XXXIX

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.

NFL Week 5 power rankings

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Last week's ranking in parentheses.

TOP TIER

1 New York Jets (4)

2 Baltimore (6)

3 Pittsburgh (2)

4 New England (8)

5 New Orleans (5)

6 Atlanta (9)

7 Indianapolis (1)

8 Green Bay (3)

SECOND TIER

9 Chicago (7)

10 Houston (12)

11 Dallas (11)

12 San Diego (16)

13 Kansas City (18)

14 New York Giants (21)

15 Tennessee (15)

16 Minnesota (17)

17 Philadelphia (14)

18 Washington (22)

19 Cincinnati (10)

20 Denver (20)

21 Miami (13)

THIRD TIER

22 Jacksonville (25)

23 St. Louis (27)

24 Seattle (19)

25 Tampa Bay (23)

FOURTH TIER

26 Arizona (24)

27 San Francisco (26)

28 Cleveland (31)

29 Oakland (29)

30 Detroit (28)

31 Carolina (30)

32 Buffalo (32)

BIGGEST RISERS: New York Giants (7 spots), Baltimore, New England, San Diego, St. Louis and Washington (4 spots), Atlanta, Cleveland, Jacksonville and New York Jets (3 spots)

BIGGEST FALLERS: Cincinnati (9 spots), Miami (8 spots), Indianapolis (6 spots), Green Bay, Kansas City and Seattle (5 spots), Philadelphia (3 spots)

NCAA football picks Week Six

By Rick Morris

Last week: 5-5
Overall: 19-17-1 (so if you dropped 100 bones on each of these plays, you'd be holding in your hand the easiest 30 bucks you've ever made!)

Indiana +22 1/2 over Ohio State
Michigan State +4 1/2 over Michigan
Georgia -10 1/2 over Tennessee
Bowling Green +9 1/2 over Ohio
South Carolina +7 over Alabama
LSU +7 1/2 over Florida
Pittsburgh +6 over Notre Dame
Miami -6 over Florida State

FDH Lounge Show #118: October 6, 2010

By Rick Morris

While this program exemplifies the notion that “nothing is off-topic,” some episodes bring that concept to the forefront a bit more so in the course of a three-hour show. And Episode #118 of THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com certainly does that.

In our second show as part of the temporary STN facilities at The Promenade at Harpo’s, we get going immediately, foregoing for tonight The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries and our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge because we have a huge guest right off the bat: former Ohio State and NFL quarterback Art Schlichter. His outstanding new book Busted: The Rise and Fall of Art Schlichter documents his journey through college and pro football as he was also struggling with the most famous gambling addiction this side of Pete Rose. The stories he can tell and the lessons he has leveraged for the benefit of others will make this conversation extraordinarily riveting.

At the bottom of Hour One, we bring in one of the coolest and friendliest guys to ever don a Major League uniform, “The Mayor” Sean Casey. This three-time All-Star now breaks down the national pastime for the MLB Network and we look forward to his thoughts on the 2010 season and postseason. He’s also a huge pro wrestling fan, so no doubt he’ll have some thoughts on the WWE and some of the greats of days gone by (like his hero “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson)!

We start off Hour Two with WFAN talk show host and noted author Rick Wolff. He is an expert on youth sports and on baseball in particular and he will speak to us on the media focus on bullying and in particular cyber-bullying that has been rampant lately. From there, we start Part I of our FDH Lounge October Baseball Briefing, as we review the twists and turns of the regular season.

The bottom of Hour Two brings us two very good friends of the show who cover the television industry. Simon Applebaum from the hit webcast and blog Tomorrow Will Be Televised and Lloyd Carroll, sports writer for Queens Chronicle and Good Times Magazine, will review with us how the landscape has changed and also stayed constant since they were last on with us right after the network upfronts in late May.

Hour Three begins with our correspondent who covers the NFL’s most notorious franchise of the moment: Ira Lieberfarb, who has been following the developments through a “Hard Knocks” preseason and a tough Week 1 loss and the subsequent hot streak. Can this team live up to the hype? Ira will break it all down for us. Then, we go to Part II of our FDH Lounge October Baseball Briefing with analysis and predictions about this year’s playoff field.

From there, THE FANTASY DRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER closes out the show with our big NFL Week 5 preview. As always, 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.

2010 ALDS and NLDS previews

By Rick Morris

New York Yankees vs. Minnesota

Power: New York Yankees, slight edge

Speed: New York Yankees, slight edge

Starting Pitching: New York Yankees, slight edge

Bullpen: Minnesota, edge

Key player for New York: Derek Jeter – Cliché alert, but if Jeter can turn back the clock a bit and summon some of his patented October magic, the Yankees can overcome some of their shortcomings.

Key player for Minnesota: Delmon Young – Just when everyone was giving up on him, this ultra-talented youngster figured it out and became the team’s best all-around hitter next to Justin Morneau and he will have to sustain his level of play to center the attack in the playoffs.

While the Yankees are disappointed to have lost the AL East title, they are surely glad to avoid the Rangers in the first round, given their lack of success last year in the postseason against Cliff Lee and their problems with lefties in general. Their recent up-and-down foibles aren’t necessarily that important, given that they emerged from a much worse funk exactly 10 years ago en route to flipping the switch to win the last World Series title for that version of the franchise. The Yanks caught a break with this matchup (which they won in 2003, 2004 and 2009), since the Twins have morphed a bit from their playoff teams of recent years. Minnesota is built more around power than starting pitching these days, but the loss of Justin Morneau hurts tremendously and is not salved sufficiently by the resurgence of Jim Thome. The Twins will have a strong home-field advantage at Target and they will need it greatly. While the Yankees have questionable starting pitching depth these days, they still outdo the Twins, whose main hope will come down to forcing enough tight games to the bullpens in order to exploit their one true advantage. It says here that won’t happen often enough to save them. Yankees in 4.

Texas vs. Tampa Bay

Power: Texas, slight edge

Speed: Tampa Bay, slight edge

Starting Pitching: Texas, slight edge

Bullpen: Texas, slight edge

Key player for Texas: Josh Hamilton – If he truly is back and 100%, the team benefits immensely from the presence of one of the game’s top sluggers.

Key player for Tampa Bay: James Shields – The team can’t afford to be overly dependant on their top two starters and while Shields has fallen off from what he used to be, he has to overachieve at this point if his team is to go all the way.

The Rangers enter the postseason as arguably the best-balanced team in the field, a far cry from their power-dominated teams of years ago. And they do have one very strange “advantage”: Ron Washington enters the playoffs as the only manager of the eight without any October experience. [The last three times only one manager of the eight had no playoff background, he led his team past the first round. Ironically, Tampa’s Joe Maddon was in this spot two years ago and led his team to the AL pennant. In 2006, Willie Randolph got the Mets to the NL Championship Series and in 2005, Ozzie Guillen won the World Series with the White Sox.]. But Texas isn’t super-dominant in any one area relative to the Rays, so their apparent edges aren’t as overpowering as they might appear in a vacuum. Much like how Minnesota is vulnerable due to the loss of their franchise slugger Morneau, the Rangers will have to sweat out playing the Division Series with Josh Hamilton either rusty or not at full capacity. Notwithstanding their complete lack of fan support in the regular season, Tampa should be able to pack in enough fair-weathers to enjoy a decent home-field advantage. That, combined with their postseason experience from two years ago and the battle-tested element that comes from winning baseball’s toughest division, should be enough to extend the Carl Crawford farewell campaign further into the playoffs. Rays in 5.

Atlanta vs. San Francisco

Power: San Francisco, slight edge

Speed: Even

Starting Pitching: San Francisco, edge

Bullpen: Even

Key player for Atlanta: Tommy Hanson – Hanson, like Jason Heyward, will have to deliver on his huge potential this fall in order for the team to move forward.

Key player for San Francisco: Pablo Sandoval – It’s unlikely at this stage, but if he can recover from his disappointing “sophomore jinx” campaign in the postseason, the team will have a huge lift given his talent.

If this is the end for Bobby Cox, then he’ll go out against the same manager (Bruce Bochy) who kept him out of the 1998 World Series. Cox’s second stint in Atlanta will go down as one of the most prolonged periods of success in baseball history and ironically, his team now appears to be at the front end of a long run of playoff appearances just like the first of those vaunted squads back in 1991. Now, as then, the team is bursting at the seams with young minor-league talent. Unfortunately, the one player tearing up the minors in the early 1990s who is still around, Chipper Jones, will miss these playoffs due to injury and as with the Morneau absence in Minnesota (ironically, the team that bested the Braves in their first World Series appearance of this run back in ’91), it will be costly. Interestingly, Jones is only one part of a veteran “supplemental unit” with playoff experience that augments the team’s young core, with October vets like Derek Lee, Troy Glaus, Tim Hudson, Derek Lowe and Billy Wagner playing key roles. As for the Giants, they can go one through four with electric starting pitching like no other team in this year’s field. Bochy and General Manager Brian Sabean should be locks for Manager and Executive of the Year, respectively, based on how they have constructed the rotation, bullpen and especially a relatively potent starting lineup with reclamation projects in key places (Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell and Jose Guillen, to say nothing of acquiring Cody Ross). To place in proper perspective the accomplishments of this team, think about this: how much success would you have forecast for this team with Tim Lincecum and (especially) Pablo Sandoval having fallen off as much as they have this year? The Braves have the look of a team whose best days are still just a bit ahead of them, especially with the minor-league talent on the way. The Giants look like a team of the moment. Giants in 4.

Cincinnati vs. Philadelphia

Power: Cincinnati, slight edge

Speed: Even

Starting Pitching: Philadelphia, edge

Bullpen: Even

Key player for Cincinnati: Edinson Volquez – The Reds don’t have starting pitching quite on a par with the rest of the playoff field and while Johnny Cueto and Bronson Arroyo will have their issues matching up with the big boys, Volquez is a wild card based equally on his talent and his spotty record of tapping into it.

Key player for Philadelphia: Jimmy Rollins – Philly made a major run down the stretch despite the lack of their lineup sparkplug and if he comes close to tapping his All-Star skills, the team to beat in the National League just got that much more imposing.

Like the Braves, the Reds are bulging at the seams with young talent, but have the look of a team on the big stage just a bit before they are completely ready. The lineup, anchored by prime MVP candidate Joey Votto, is pretty sweet, but the starting pitching and the bullpen are lacking in depth relative to the other contenders. More than any other team, the concept of “timely hitting” will be at a premium – and some of that will come from the man returning to the scene of his glory days, Scott Rolen. Meanwhile, the Phils, expected by many to cruise through the NL East, spent much of the year chasing Atlanta. A key turning point came when the team redeemed its regrettable offseason trade of Cliff Lee by acquiring Roy Oswalt. The “2 Roys,” paired with a resurgent Cole Hamels, give the team a 1-2-3 punch not matched by any team in the postseason with the possible exception of San Francisco. The lineup, while not as supersonic this year as in seasons past, has still been quite strong. In short, the Phillies have not quite looked like the Phillies for much of this season and yet still they stood atop the league’s regular-season standings. The Reds’ journey over the next few seasons to the level of perennial contenders starts in earnest with a lesson in winning at the hands of the league’s top franchise of the moment. Phillies in 4.

SUBSEQUENT ROUND PREDICTIONS

ALCS: Rays over Yankees in 6.

NLCS: Phillies over Giants in 6.

World Series: Phillies over Rays in 5.

2010 ALDS and NLDS notes and oddities

By Rick Morris

^ It’s always exciting to take a look at the emerging stars getting ready to make their October debuts each fall. The headliners are strong MVP candidates in each league (Josh Hamilton and Joey Votto), a leading Cy Young candidate this season (Matt Cain) and a two-time defending Cy Young winner (Tim Lincecum). They head up a strong cast of hitters (Jay Bruce, Nelson Cruz, Jason Heyward, Aubrey Huff, Ian Kinsler, Brandon Phillips, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval and Michael Young) and hurlers (Madison Bumgarner, Aroldis Chapman, Johnny Cueto, Neftali Feliz, Tommy Hanson, Jonathan Sanchez, Brian Wilson and CJ Wilson).

^ According to Wikipedia, there has never been a World Series that did not include at least one “old-line franchise” (a team that existed before the first modern expansion of 1961) and this year will be no different since only first-round opponents Tampa Bay and Texas do not fit the criteria.

^ Here’s the strangest baseball stat of the year: since the divisional round of playoffs was instituted in 1995, this will mark only the third time that has not featured either Charlie Manuel OR Bobby Cox managing a team but not both of them. Cox skippered the Braves to the divisional round from 1995-2005, while Manuel managed the feat for Philly from 2007-10. In addition to 2006 being a year absent either of them and 2010 featuring both of them, the only other year to break this pattern was 2001, when Manuel joined Cox in the postseason as the manager in Cleveland at the end of their run.

^ This year, the National League is replicating the American League’s previously-unmatched feat of 1997. In that year, all four AL skippers (Mike Hargrove, Davey Johnson, Lou Piniella and Joe Torre) brought World Series managing experience to the postseason. This year, all four NL managers (Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, Cox and Manuel) have been on the biggest stage.

^ Depending on the LCS matchups in each league, here’s some of the juicy storylines that could lie ahead: Baker vs. the team that allowed him to leave after he won the 2002 pennant with them (San Francisco), a faceoff of two of the game’s ascending stars who were once traded for one another (Tampa’s Matt Garza and Minnesota’s Delmon Young) and Texas against the team that has gone 8-1 against it in previous playoff games (the Yankees).

^ While the Reds-Phillies series has a strong “1970s flava,” strangely enough, they only met once that decade when both were riding high. That series came in 1976, when the Big Red Machine blew through Philadelphia at the height of their powers. The Reds also made the playoffs in 1970, 1972-73, 1975 and 1979, while Philly got there in 1977-78, 1980 and 1983.

^ Minnesota is trying to undo a record of recent futility against the Yankees in this round (with losses in 2003, 2004 and 2009). They may take some solace from the fact that other teams in a similar position overcame their demons last year. The Yankees, who had been owned by the Angels this decade in October, won the ALCS from them, while LA only made it there in the first place by finally breaking through against Boston.

^ Speaking of Boston, many casual fans may find this postseason strange because it does not feature both the Red Sox and Yankees – but the reality is that they have both been represented only eight of the 16 times since the ALDS came into being in 1995. Of those eight appearances, four of them came in the five years between 2003-2007, with Boston’s miss in 2006 standing as the outlier in those years.

^ Analysts are taking note of Philadelphia’s attempt to become the first NL team since St. Louis in 1942-44 to win three straight pennants. Who holds the NL record for consecutive pennants? The (then-New York) Giants from 1921-24. So an NLCS between the Giants and Phillies could see San Francisco giving an early defense of that record.

^ Joe Girardi is attempting to win a second consecutive World Series. This is a fairly rare feat for a manager. Since the start of the League Championship Series in 1969, it has only been done by four managers: Joe Torre (1998-2000), Cito Gaston (1992-93), Sparky Anderson (1975-76) and Dick Williams (1972-73). Just to show you what a weird, weird decade the 1970s were, think about this: the As actually had a threepeat from 1972-74, but with a different manager the third time around (Alvin Dark) – and the Yankees had a repeat in 1977-78, but with Billy Martin and Bob Lemon as the managers, respectively, in those years.

^ Most analysts put the Yankees, Rays and Phillies towards the top of World Series contenders entering the postseason. If the Yankees and Phillies hook up in a rematch of last year, they’ll be matching up as nine pairs of teams have done (Cubs/Tigers in 1907-08, Giants/Yankees in 1921-23, As/Cardinals in 1930-31, Giants/Yankees in 1936-37, Cardinals/Yankees in 1942-43, Dodgers/Yankees in 1952-53, Dodgers/Yankees in 1955-56, Braves/Yankees in 1957-58 and Dodgers/Yankees in 1977-78). If the Rays and Phillies make it there as they did two years ago, they’ll be creating a matchup much more rare: only three times before have franchises returned to play each other in the World Series with a year in between their last meeting (As/Giants in 1913/15, Cardinals/Yankees in 1926/28 and Dodgers/Yankees in 1953/55).

^ Among the eight teams in the 2010 postseason, there are six potential World Series rematches of past battles. The teams that have met the most times are the Giants and Yankees, who squared off in 1921-23, 1936-37, 1951 and 1962. The only championships for the Giants came in the first two World Series in 1921-22, while the only one contested between these games after the Giants moved to Frisco was in ’62. The next most common World Series matchup between this year’s playoff teams is between the Braves and Yankees. They met in 1957-58 while the Braves were still in Milwaukee and again in 1996 and 1999. The other pairings that have occurred more than once are Reds-Yankees (1939, 1961 and 1976) and Phillies-Yankees (1950 and 2009). The ones that have occurred once are Braves-Twins (1991) and Phillies-Rays (2008).

Pro Gridiron Surround: Week 4

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 fourth effort on the pro side.

PLEASE NOTE: While the Cover It Live software will 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 4

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, 4-3-2 overall)
New York Jets -5 1/2 over Buffalo
New York Giants -3 1/2 over Chicago (another "Why Ask Why?" pick with an inexplicably horrible line when you have to go the other way -- similar to my Denver-over-Seattle winner Week 2)
Houston -3 over Oakland -- my 1,000-Star Gold-Plated Lock of the Millennium for this week (Lock was 1-0 last week, 1-0-2 overall)

BUREAU (1-2 last week, 4-5 overall)
New Orleans -13 1/2 over Carolina
Seattle -1 1/2 over St. Louis
Houston -3 over Oakland

SEAN (0-3 last week, 1-8 overall) -- NOTE: In all seriousness, the next few weeks would be a fine time to jump on Sean's plays, as his slow start is the fluke of all flukes and a MAJOR correction is coming.
New York Jets -5 1/2 over Buffalo
Philadelphia -5 1/2 over Washington
Indianapolis -7 over Jacksonville

MY OTHER PICKS (11-5 last week, including my Big Three, 24-21-3 overall)
Tennessee -6 1/2 over Denver
Baltimore +2 1/2 over Pittsburgh
Cincinnati -3 over Cleveland
Detroit +14 over Green Bay
Carolina +13 1/2 over New Orleans
San Francisco +7 over Atlanta
Seattle -1 1/2 over St. Louis
Indianapolis -7 over Jacksonville
Arizona +8 over San Diego
Philadelphia -5 1/2 over Washington
New England -1 over Miami

College Gridiron Surround: October 2, 2010

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 second college effort.

PLEASE NOTE: While the Cover It Live software will 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.

NCAA football picks Week Five

By Rick Morris

Last week: 4-3
Overall: 14-12-1

Oklahoma -3 over Texas
Ohio -10 over Eastern Michigan
Notre Dame -2 1/2 over Boston College
Tennessee +16 1/2 over LSU
Illinois +17 over Ohio State
Florida +8 over Alabama
Penn State +7 over Iowa
Clemson +3 over Miami
USC -10 over Washington
Wisconsin -2 over Michigan State

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume III, Issue XXXVIII

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.

NFL Week 4 power rankings

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Last week’s rankings in parentheses.

TOP TIER

1 Indianapolis (4)

2 Pittsburgh (7)

3 Green Bay (3)

4 New York Jets (6)

5 New Orleans (1)

6 Baltimore (5)

7 Chicago (12)

8 New England (9)

9 Atlanta (10)

10 Cincinnati (13)

11 Dallas (15)

12 Houston (2)

13 Miami (11)

14 Philadelphia (18)

15 Tennessee (17)

16 San Diego (8)

SECOND TIER

17 Minnesota (19)

18 Kansas City (21)

19 Seattle (24)

20 Denver (20)

21 New York Giants (14)

22 Washington (16)

THIRD TIER

23 Tampa Bay (23)

24 Arizona (26)

25 Jacksonville (25)

26 San Francisco (22)

FOURTH TIER

27 St. Louis (30)

28 Detroit (27)

29 Oakland (29)

30 Carolina (28)

31 Cleveland (31)

32 Buffalo (32)

BIGGEST RISERS: Chicago, Pittsburgh and Seattle (5 spots), Dallas, Philadelphia and San Francisco (4 spots), Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Kansas City and St. Louis (3 spots)

BIGGEST FALLERS: Houston (10 spots), San Diego (8 spots), New York Giants (7 spots), Washington (6 spots), New Orleans (4 spots)