CBS Screwed our Fantasy Baseball Keeper LEague

We have been at CBS for 3 years now for our fantasy baseball keeper league and have had very small problems with things in the past, but the one we have this week is beyond forgiveness. Besides having to wait for car insurance ads to load and what not when you go to the site, it is clearly the best keeper format on the net.

Anyways, during the AS Break they decided to do some sort of maintenance project on the program. No warning of course, which Yahoo! DID give everyone. Not a huge deal, but what they did to our league is unforgivable, and it has yet to be fixed several days later.

Apparently they deleted EVERY single transaction we have made through out the year. By this I mean, everyone that is on your team now is the team they consider you having in Week 1. In fact it was even worse than that. Only the people you actually had in your starting line up last Monday was considered to be on your team all year. For me, I had benched my entire pitching staff on Sunday because in the head to head match up it made no sense to lay anyone. So...every single week of the season, and every head to head match up I had, my pitching stas are zeros all the way down.

Our standing are completely screwed up now. Take me for instance. I had no pitching stats for the year, so as you can imagine I am in last place by a very large margin. We have 20 categories in this league so you can guess that it shows me about 100 games out of 1st.

The biggest problem is that we are getting very close to our trade deadline. People who were on the cusp of the playoffs, and those out of it don't really know where they stand. Do you throw in the towel and play for next year, or do you try to push for a playoff run? Impossible to know with out knowing where you stand overall. IT isn't like I paid attention to my record overall week to week. All I cared about was if I was in the playoffs, or not.

Suffice to say, this pisses me off to no end. This happened to us in a football keeper league on there too a couple years ago. That situation wasn't as bad because it was early in the season, and football rosters are much easier to do than baseball as they are only done weekly.

It has been a week and no change. A few days I think we could ahve lived with, but at this point it is going on a week. Probably stopped about 10 people from making any trades as well, and basically screwed everyone out of a week of dealing before the trade deadline.

Joe Dumars May Have Lied

After elimination from the playoffs in the Eastern Conference Finals by eventual champs the Boston Celtics, Joe D told us all that MAJOR changes were coming. Well...at this point we are sitting here scratching our heads as to what possible changes there are left to make that would constitute "major".

Rumors are floating aroudn that we may be interested in T-Mac from the Houston Rockets that would send either Billups and Tay, or Sheed and Tay to them in exchange for the perennial all-star and one man scoring machine.

The Clippers actually stole Marcus Camby this week by giving the Nuggets nothing. A 2nd round draft pick that may, or may not ever be given due to the arrangement.

Elton Brand has signed with the Sixers.

So what exactly do we have to look forward to? It may be time to get out your crib bedding and curl into the fetal position to cry if something doesn't happen soon.

What we could have had:

Marcus Camby and T-MAc for a 2nd rounder, Tayshoun Prince, and Rasheed Wallace.

What we have so far:

Re-signed Theo Ratliff.

Tigers Lose Must Win Due to Bad Fundamentals

The Detroit Tigers started a 4 game series with the Minnesota Twins to day in which they really needed to win. Trailing behind the Twins in the division a strong showing is needed in the series to try and gain some ground before the AS break.

After their private jet charter home from a 2 game sweep of the division rival Indians, the Tigers took a 6-4 lead into the 9th. Todd Jones came in to close the door, but a very costly 2 base error by Matt Joyce in right field opened the door for a 2 run 9th to tie the game.

The Tigers loaded the bases in the bottom of the 9th with 1 out an failed to score for the win. Joyce failed to lay down a bunt with men on 1st and 2nd with no outs. Larish failed to drive a run in with the bases loaded and 1 out. The Twins eventually won in extra innings on a go ahead HR by Morneau.

A brutal loss for the Tigers that was lost solely because they couldn't play small ball and fundamental errors in the field. The game ended on a Clete Thomas strike out looking. A perfect end to a poorly played game by the Tigers.

Verlander is Back

After what looked like a complete bust of a year for Verlander early on, the young Ace has been mowing opponents down of late. Questions about his velocity in the early weeks of the season had many thinking that he would burn out and be looking at Hilton Head rentals rather than trying to lead the Tigers into the playoffs.

Verlander has allowed 2 runs or less in 6 of his last 7, and 5 have been Quality starts. He has won his last three decisions and hasn't given up more than two runs in any start since giving up three to Cleveland back on June 6.

Shame on any of you that were talking about the death of Verlander in April...*whistles innocently*

See ya, C.C. Sabathia...Good Riddance

Nothing better than when a team from your division trades away a CY Young winner to a completely different league. Although the Detroit Tigers seem to be one of the few teams that enjoyed some success against Sabathia, it still is great news that he has been traded out of the division, and away from a perennial Central Division contender, Cleveland Indians.

His shipping boxes will be addressed to Milwaukee, where he is joining the upstart Brewers in hopes that he will be the final piece to their playoff run. After Ben Sheets gets hurt again, JJ HArdy gets off his yearly one month streak, and the rest of the yahoos that strike out ever 2 ABs settle in I doubt we see much fromt he club. Then at the end of the year Sabathia is gone because they won't even pay guys like Fielder $1 Million after hitting 150 HRs the year before.

Huge Series: Detroit Tigers vs. Minnesota Twins

Two of the hottest teams in baseball will face off today to start a 3 game series and maybe the crown of Hottest Team. Over the last 10 games the Minnesota Twins are 9-1, while the Detroit Tigers are 8-2. The twins have won 11 of their last 12, and the Tigers have won 17 of their last 21. The Tigers finally broke through yesterday to get over .500 after a long struggle early on. Certainly gift baskets would be nice, but things aren't going to get any easier this week.

The Twins are currently 1.5 games back of the White Sox for the AL Central division lead, while the Tigers linger at 5 games back. This series certainly has positive implications for Chicago, but the Twins and Tigers are certainly much hotter right now. Someone is going to lose this series. Tigers have won 6 straight series, while Minnesota has won their last 5.

the central division race is heating up, and the 2 hottest of those teams will find out just who is really the hottest this week. They also go head to head next weekend so things could really start to show themselves over the next couple weeks.

Tigers Finally Over .500!

After a disastrous start to the season, which had as much hype as any we have ever seen in Detroit, the Tigers have finally broken through and gotten above .500 on the year. Winning 17 of the last 21 games the Tigers are absolutely ON FIRE.

Finishing off a 3 game sweep of the Colorado Rockies the Tigers are looking like the team we all hoped we would see before the season when we crowned them the MLB Paper Champs. Release the theater rope and get ready for a finish that would make Hollywood proud.

Todd Jones Fan Club

Since the majority of bandwagon Tigers fans tend to want Todd Jones to get a passport and move out of the country, I figured I'd see if I could find out if there was actually a Todd Jones Fan Club out there of any significance. Various searches have turned up just garbage sites that are nothing more than junk.

So...even though I tend to hear on a daily basis idiot talk show hosts say that Todd Jones is one of the Tigers' biggest problems even though he is 14 out of 14 in save opportunities on the year I am going to give him his props. I find it hard to believe these guys can call themselves fans.

3 Things you should know about Todd Jones if you are a fair-weather Tigers fan:

1. He is not Papelbon. He will rarely come in and strike out the side, or anyone for that matter most of the time. He throws strikes and gets ground balls, or forces a bad fly ball swing. HE gets the job done.

2. He always throws strikes. Even if you were to get the worst possible case for guys hitting against you, as long as you are throwing strikes you aren't likely to get lit up more than 1/3 of the time. With a 2-3 run lead do you really care if a guy gets a hit on you? Todd Jones doesn't and that brings us to point 3.

3. Todd Jones does not panic. Unlike many of the young fireball closers out there, who believe that they aren't supposed to ever see someone come into contact with their 100 MPH heater, Todd Jones does not panic when someone hits his low 90s fastball into the gap. It's just one base runner. He still throws strikes and gets the outs to finish the game. Balls of steel.

Todd Jones is known as the Roller Coaster. I'm sure most of you are all familiar with this. Of course when he does get a couple guys on you tend to panic. Todd Jones is right in his element with guys on base. He does not. He makes them put it into play and get themselves out. He isn't going to walk the winning run in.

I have heard quotes from Todd Jones that are classic. This is not word for word, but this tells you exactly how it is:

"When I come in to finish a game, just go into the kitchen and make yourself a sandwich. When you get back the game will be over one way or the other."

Again, it isn't pretty, but he gets the job done.

At this point I would rather have him than everyone's savior Joel Zumaya out there to close games. A guy who couldn't throw an off speed pitch for a strike to save his life. 100 MPH, or not, big league hitters can hit those a hell of a long way if they know that is the only pitch that is going to cross the plate.

So...Join the Todd Jones Fan Club. It doesn't have a website, or anything, but it does have this one post :).

Well...Zoom and Rodney Are Back

Being used in games at least. They aren't back by any means. Neither of them has had a whole lot of success since they have gotten back from their respective injuries. Rodney has been much worse of the two, but Zoom hasn't exactly been scaring anyone either.

Leyland to his word...er...nevermind. He said he wouldn't throw them right into the fire for their first appearances, yet both were thrown to the wolves in their initial appearances and failed miserably.

Rodney is walking guys like he never saw a strike zone before. Zoom does seem to have kept a lot of his velocity though. The couple times I have seen him out there he has hit the upper 90s, which is pretty encouraging considering that he hurt is pitching shoulder and there were doubts he could ever come close to triple digits again.

At least we are done with the west coast and the California wines for a bit. Hopefully these guys get some form back because if they are anything like they were in 2006, this team just got a whole lot better.

Crazy NBA Trade Rumors

After the Detroit Pistons washed out of the ECF and failed to make it to the Finals again for the 4th straight year, Joe Dumars has stated that everyone is on the block, except for Rodney Stuckey. A kid that probably still needs acne treatments is the only safe bet to stay with the team for next year and become a fixture.

So...what kind of crazy rumors are going around. I only wrote this post because I heard one that was ridunculous.

The Suns and a number of other teams are talking to the Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trail Blazers and Nets about trading up in (or out of) the draft... The Wolves seem especially ready to make a deal if Michael Beasley isn't on the board at No. 3. This is all preceded by rumors that Chad Ford has heard saying that the Suns want to find a starting small forward and bring Grant Hill off the bench, and then lists several players that are available, Tayshaun Prince being one of those players.

But with the Suns dangling Barbosa, Diaw and the 15th overall pick, there would not be much interest from Dumars. Other players listed are Josh Howard, Richard Jefferson and Gerald Wallace. Mr. Ford goes through the reasons why there are problems with the Suns ability to acquire any of those players. But let's take the column as a whole and see if there is something that can be worked out to the benefit of everyone.

With the Wolves looking to trade down from the third overall pick, the Knicks wanting to trade Zach Randolph for cap relief, the Suns putting Diaw, Barbosa, and the 15th overall pick as trade bait, Joe Dumars saying his whole roster is in play(sans Rodney Stuckey), the Bobcats holding the 9th overall pick and Gerald Wallace as tradable assets and the Mavericks putting Josh Howard on the block, there seems to be the making of a massive trade that could work out for all of those teams.

In a scenario that works, the Timber Wolves could end up with the 6th overall pick from New York, a future first from the Mavericks and their second round pick from the Pistons returned(Ronald Dupree trade), the Knicks get Jason Maxiell, Rasheed Wallace and the 29th overall pick from the Pistons, the Suns get Tayshaun Prince, the Bobcats get Josh Howard and the 15th overall pick, the Mavericks get Diaw, Barbosa and the 3rd overall pick and the Pistons get Gerald Wallace, Zach Randolph and the 9th overall pick.

There would have to be additional players involved as cap fillers, but it's a deal that works for everyone involved. Based on the information that Chad Ford gives in his Insider piece, there could be some big trades during the draft, and finalized in July. This is just one of the many possible scenarios that could occur.

Ummm...so what it boils down to is the Pistons trade Sheed, Max, and Tay for Gerald Wallace, Zach Randolph, and the #9 overall pick in a trade that features every team in the NBA. Riiiiiiight.