Friday, October 28, 2005
Contest Results and More
Good morning! If you're solely here to see the Football Panel's picks, click here.
It has been yet another busy week at SethSpeaks.net with the Mark Sheldon Q&A, James Mathewson's Why Baseball article, and Roger's Minor League Hitting Rankings. If you missed any of those articles, be sure to check them out now!
Secondly, you may have noticed something a little different on the site. Look at the top left of the page. You will see that there is a new search engine up there from The Baseball Cube. I have been using this site for a few years now already when looking for minor league statistics. The Baseball Cube has stats for current major leaguers, all minor leaguers and Division I college players. It also has spring training and other statistics. I like using it for draft status and other things. So, go ahead and look up a few of your favorite players and see what they have. If you look up Chris Coste, you will see his information, and also notice that I have sponsored this page. I will be also sponsoring five more pages, and have yet to determine the five for certain, although I have some pretty good ideas. You'll have to check out some of the Twins and their prospects over the weekend to find out which players' pages I will be sponsoring.
I wanted to thank those of you who took the time to participate in our fantasy baseball playoffs contest. You all have seen how Mike Brasel has consistently been on top of our football picks. Well, he is now the winner of this contest as well. Here are the final results. I included my full name, and the rest of the names are just first name, with last initial. You know, to protect anonymity! If you would like your full name here, be sure to e-mail me and let me know. Thank you again for participating. It was a lot of fun to keep track of.
Player
Total Points
Mike B
323
Andy H
307
Seth Stohs
301
Andrew Har
294
Andrew Ho
288
Adam R
288
Jeff J
283
Brett B
276
Lee K
258
Neil H
258
Brad-LaCrosse
256
Brent H
253
Corey E
252
Wayne B
252
Nick H
249
Greg B
239
Mohl
238
Jack L
229
Marvin G
225
Kevin P
221
Tony H
219
Andrew Han
211
Tony L
208
Todd P
207
Garrett B
206
Matt J
204
Kirk B
202
Mike L
199
Terry S
199
Ryan M
198
Nate P
192
Chris B
191
Secondly, no one had the likes of Jermaine Dye, Scott Podsednik or even Reggie Sanders, all of whom had good playoff runs. The following is the points that each player that any one of the 32 participants had. Remember, points were as follows: 1 point for single, 2 points for double, 3 points for triple, 4 points for homer, 1 point for run, 1 point for RBI, 1 point for SB. For pitchers, 8 points for a Win, 10 points for a complete game Win, 12 points for a complete game shutout and 1 point for each K.
Player
Team
Position
Points
Paul Konerko
CHW
1B
51
Lance Berkman
HOU
OF
50
Roy Oswalt
HOU
SP
46
Joe Crede
CHW
3B
45
AJ Pierzynski
CHW
C
44
Craig Biggio
HOU
2B
40
Freddy Garcia
CHW
SP
39
Albert Pujols
STL
1B
35
Jose Contreras
CHW
SP
35
Mark Buehrle
CHW
SP
35
Morgan Ensberg
HOU
3B
33
Bengie Molina
ANA
C
30
C Carpenter
STL
SP
28
David Eckstein
STL
SS
27
Orlando Cabrera
ANA
SS
25
Tadahito Iguchi
CHW
2B
25
Jason Issy
STL
RP
24
Bobby Jenks
CHW
RP
24
Derek Jeter
NYY
SS
23
Jim Edmonds
STL
OF
22
Andruw Jones
ATL
OF
22
Jon Garland
CHW
SP
21
F. Rodriguez
ANA
RP
20
Roger Clemens
HOU
SP
19
Andy Pettitte
HOU
SP
19
Yadier Molina
STL
C
17
Robinson Cano
NYY
2B
16
Adam Kennedy
ANA
2B
16
Abraham Nunez
STL
3B
15
Manny Ramirez
BOS
OF
15
Vlad Guerrero
ANA
OF
14
Chone Figgins
ANA
2B
14
Hideki Matsui
NYY
OF
13
Chipper Jones
ATL
3B
13
John Smoltz
ATL
SP
13
M. Rivera
NYY
RP
12
Jorge Posada
NYY
C
12
David Ortiz
BOS
EX
12
Brad Lidge
HOU
RP
11
Mark Grudz…
STL
2B
11
Matt Morris
STL
SP
10
Marcus Giles
ATL
2B
10
Jeff Franceor
ATL
OF
10
Khalil Greene
SDP
SS
9
Gary Sheffield
NYY
OF
9
Mark Mulder
STL
SP
8
Rafael Furcal
ATL
SS
7
John Lackey
ANA
SP
7
Alex Rodriguez
NYY
3B
6
Edgar Renterria
BOS
SS
6
Johnny Damon
BOS
OF
6
Brian Giles
SDP
OF
5
Jason Varitek
BOS
C
5
Tony Graffanino
BOS
2B
5
Ramon Hernandez
SDP
C
4
Randy Johnson
NYY
SP
4
Tim Hudson
ATL
SP
3
Johnny Estrada
ATL
C
2
Bartolo Colon
ANA
SP
2
Curt Schilling
BOS
SP
0
Tim Wakefield
BOS
SP
-1
Jake Peavy
SDP
SP
-2
Matt Clement
BOS
SP
-5
Seth's Team:
C - Yadier Molina, Cardinals
1B - Albert Pujols, Cardinals
2B - Tony Graffanino, Red Sox
3B - Morgan Ensberg, Astros
SS - Orlando Cabrera, Angels
OF - Vlad Guerrero, Angels
OF - Johnny Damon, Red Sox
OF - Lance Berkman, Astros
EX - David Ortiz, Red Sox
SP - Chris Carpenter, Cardinals
SP - Mark Mulder, Cardinals
SP - Roy Oswalt, Astros
SP - Bartolo Colon, Angels
RP - Francisco Rodriguez, Angels
Summary - I was pretty happy with my team. Of course, the Colon injury did not help. Also, there was the no-more-than-four from any single team rule, so I picked four Angels, four Cardinals, three Red Sox and three Astros. Clearly, I picked only players from teams that I thought would get out of the first round. I was right on three of the four series, with only the White Sox win over the Red Sox getting me. But then when we had the Astros/White Sox World Series, my preseason Angels/Cardinals World Series was no longer a possibility and I had just three players remaining.
PROSPECT RANKINGS
Minor League News comes up with their annual Fab50 list. A few Twins showed up on their list. Francisco Liriano ranks 29th. Glen Perkins ranked 44th. Eduardo Morlan ranked 46th. Boof Bonser ranked 49th. This is an interesting, fun list, no doubt. But, are there really 28 prospects ahead of Liriano? Brandon Wood and Howie Kendrick rank 31st and 32nd respectively. I am a fan of Perkins, Morlan and Bonser, but in my Twins prospect list, they are all found after Liriano, Scott Baker, Anthony Swarzak, Jay Rainville, Kevin Slowey, Adam Harben, Travis Bowyer and Nick Blackburn. Justin Jones and Kyle Waldrop were ahead of Bonser, and Matt Garza was ahead of Morlan.
TWINS PICK NEW HITTING COACH
Scott Ullger was officially moved to the Twins 3B coach. And yesterday, they announced that their new hitting coach would be Joe Vavra. Vavra was drafted out of Wisconsin-Stout by the Dodgers. He played in that organization for six years before managing for nine seasons. He has spent the past four seasons as the Twins minor league field coordinator. From one sense, I do like that the team will promote from within. Second, although his title the past four years does not sound all that impressive, he clearly has some qualifications for this job. However, with how bad the Twins offense has been in the past four or five years, something completely new might have been in order. A new set of eyes. Someone who could come to training camp having not seen any of the Twins players previously. I guess we'll see. It will be interesting to get to know about Vavra and hear some of his philosophies on hitting.
MORE 2006 THOUGHTS
Over at John Sickels' minor league site, he allows for people to write articles or posts and other people can comment. 'hotshotchamp' takes a look at what the Twins should do in 2006. In part, he looks at prospects at each position that could be used as trade bait. There are some good comments as well. It is fun to read these types of things, and you can feel free to post your own comments too.
Is there another star to be suspended for performance-enhancing drugs?
It will be interesting to see if anything comes out of this. Reports in Sports Weekly and confirmed in other places are saying that an outfielder for an AL Playoff team, someone that we would 'actually care about', tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug and has gone through an appeal. So, let's look at the outfielders of each playoff team:
Boston Red Sox - Johnny Damon's name has been brought up on this topic a lot. Manny Ramirez is a big man, but he always has been. Trot Nixon, probably not, but is it possible because of injuries? Probably not.
Chicago White Sox - Scott Podsednik hit a couple of playoff homers after none in the regular season. If it was already appealed, the test was likely done during the regular season. Aaron Rowand, would we care? Jermaine Dye was the WS MVP, and Bud Selig didn't seem too upset in giving him the award.
Anaheim Angels - The easy choice is Steve Finley who was horrible until about five or six years ago, and then was horrible again this year. Vlad Guerrero is a big man, but he always has been. And from the way he moves, I don't think that he is taking anything. Of course, the appeal could have been a reason for his performance. Juan Rivera and Jeff DaVanon are good, but we wouldn't care.
New York Yankees - Hideki Matsui is good, and I just don't buy these rumors. Bernie Williams? Did he try to get an edge? I doubt it. Gary Sheffield is another easy target, but again, I just don't think that he would be the one.
I'm not even going to venture a guess any further than the above comments. Just an interesting topic.
And finally, enjoy your weekend! If you have any thoughts, comments, or ideas for future postings, please let me know. E-mail me.
VIKINGS THOUGHTS AND PREDICTIONS
Coming off their last second win at home against the Packers last Sunday, the Vikings will travel to Charlotte this weekend and Sunday they will take on the Carolina Panthers.
I am interested in a few things going into this game. First, last week, Donald Driver had a huge first half. At the half, Ted Cottrell told Fred Smoot to cover Driver all over the field, man-to-man, with no help. Smoot stepped up to the challenge and proved himself to be the great cover corner that we knew he was. I am hoping that this week, Smoot is told to cover WR Steve Smith all over. Likewise, they need to be able to keep Stephen Davis from having a big day. Next, the Vikings have not been good on the road, specifically on grass. How will the grass affect the Vikings running game, well, along with the quality Panthers defense.
I'm sure there are other storylines, but I am going to keep this short. I do think that the Vikings will stay in this game throughout. However, Jake Delhomme and the Panthers just seem to find ways to win in the end, and they have done that a couple of times already this year. I see a similar ending this week.
Seth's Prediction - Vikings 24, Panthers 27
Any thoughts on the Vikings, the Panthers, this game or anything NFL, just e-mail me.
Trevor Born will try to maintain, or even add to, his two game lead in our league. Check out the Twins Junkie site. He's always talking some smack there about how well he is doing in our league!! We'll see how things are at the end of the year!
Here are our Week 8 picks. (You can see the up-to-date standings by checking out the NFL "Expert" Picks page here.)
Seth Stohs Stick & Ball Guy Ben Jacobs Aaron Gleeman Grant Balfour Kevin Slowey SethSpeaks.net Stick & Ball Guy Hardball Times Aaron's BB Blog Minnesota Twins Pitcher Twins Pitching Prospect Arizona @ Dallas Cowboys Cowboys Cowboys Cowboys Cowboys Cowboys Cleveland @ Houston Browns Browns Texans Texans Browns Texans Jacksonville @ St. Louis Jaguars Rams Jaguars Jaguars Jaguars Rams Minnesota @ Carolina Panthers Panthers Panthers Panthers Vikings Vikings Washington @ NY Giants Giants Giants Giants Giants Giants Giants Philadelphia @ Denver Broncos Broncos Broncos Eagles Broncos Eagles Buffalo @ New England Patriots Patriots Patriots Patriots Patriots Patriots Chicago @ Detroit Lions Lions Lions Lions Bears Bears Green Bay @ Cincinnati Bengals Bengals Bengals Bengals Bengals Bengals Miami @ New Orleans Saints Dolphins Saints Saints Dolphins Dolphins Oakland @ Tennessee Titans Titans Raiders Raiders Titans Titans Kansas City @ San Diego Chargers Chargers Chargers Chargers Chiefs Chiefs Tampa Bay @ San Francisco Buccs Buccs Buccs Buccs 49ers Buccs Baltimore @ Pittsburgh Steelers Steelers Steelers Steelers Steelers Steelers by 11
Will Young Trevor Born Brent Hanson Cory Hepola Mike Brasel Melissa Lien Will's Twins Weblog Twins Junkie BrentNet KTVH-TV Fantasy FB Guru SethSpeaks.net Arizona @ Dallas Cowboys Cowboys Cowboys Cowboys Cowboys Cowboys Cleveland @ Houston Texans Texans Browns Texans Texans Texans Jacksonville @ St. Louis Jaguars Rams Jaguars Jaguars Jaguars Rams Minnesota @ Carolina Panthers Vikings Panthers Panthers Panthers Panthers Washington @ NY Giants Giants Giants Redskins Giants Redskins Giants Philadelphia @ Denver Broncos Broncos Broncos Broncos Broncos Broncos Buffalo @ New England Patriots Patriots Patriots Patriots Patriots Patriots Chicago @ Detroit Lions Lions Bears Lions Lions Lions Green Bay @ Cincinnati Bengals Bengals Bengals Bengals Bengals Bengals Miami @ New Orleans Dolphins Saints Dolphins Saints Saints Dolphins Oakland @ Tennessee Raiders Titans Raiders Raiders Raiders Titans Kansas City @ San Diego Chargers Chargers Chargers Chargers Chargers Chargers Tampa Bay @ San Francisco Buccs Buccs Buccs Buccs Buccs Buccs Baltimore @ Pittsburgh Steelers Steelers Steelers Steelers Steelers Steelers
Summary
Looking at the selections of the 12 panelists, here is who the collective "We" think will win each game:
Arizona @ Dallas – Cowboys 12-0
Cleveland @ Houston – Texans 8-4
Jacksonville @ St. Louis – Jaguars 8-4
Minnesota @ Carolina – Panthers 9-3
Washington @ NY Giants – Giants 10-2
Philadelphia @ Denver – Broncos 10-2
Buffalo @ New England – Patriots 12-0
Chicago @ Detroit – Lions 9-3
Green Bay @ Cincinnati – Bengals 12-0
Miami @ New Orleans – Tie 6-6
Oakland @ Tennessee – Tie 6-6
Kansas City @ San Diego – Chargers 10-2
Tampa Bay @ San Francisco – Buccs 11-1
Baltimore @ Pittsburgh – Steelers 12-0That is it for me for today and for this week. I hope that everyone has themselves a great weekend! If you have any questions or comments, or ideas for future postings, please e-mail me.