Reduce, recycle, reuse: ARod

Note: This was written by Newspaperman before the Alex Rodriguez aka Purple Lips interview by PeterGammons at ESPN at CardboardIcons. – The Jon

Am I wrong for not being passionate about the steroids issue?
This is the question I am asking myself after hearing the news that Alex Rodriguez tested positive in 2003 for using two steroids. Some fans are furious; others see this as a no-brainer issue. For me, I’m intrigued, but not so much that I am ready to write some 5,000-word diatribe expressing my disgust for A-Rod and the game of baseball.

I guess the way I see it now is the same as I have seen it for the last five years — it happened, it is a part of the game’s history and we cannot dismiss the era completely.

Baseball purists are the ones who are the most angry about this because they think this is a black eye for baseball. But did it ruin the game? No.

The Jon knows these things to be true: Week 10

This doesn’t come easy. Newspaperman tried this week to emulate The Greatness known as The Jon, and his result was less than astronomical. He was writing something about Chase Utley, took some obscure lyric that didn’t even match and posted a Geto Boys video. Newspaperman. Son. Stick to David Wright and Grady Sizemore. Leave the videos to The Jon.

So why the Summertime video? Have you seen the baseball scores this week? Offense is running wild, dun. Temperature’s rising. It’s summer.

Summer brings crazy offensive numbers. Plus Will Smith is having a new movie coming out called Hancock …

You see that Newspaperman?

Will Smith, Hancock, Movie, Scarface, Al Pacino, white women dancing.

Those are tags son.

That drives up traffic to our site. When was the last time the Geto Boys have been in the news?

Let’s talk baseball, shall we?

Fantasy Elation: Derrek Lee

I went into this year’s fantasy draft with one thing on my mind: offense.

With four starting pitchers as keepers, I knew my team would depend on the offensive players I was able to acquire early.

My first three off the board were Nick Markakis, Carlos Guillen and Brian Roberts — all of which I was happy with. But it was the fourth player that I was unsure about at the time. Today, though, I’m elated with him.

He’s a name fantasy owners might be familiar with: Derrek Lee.

The Oz vs. The Jon — it’s going to be a long week

I looked at a pitching matchup between two starters as what would set the tone of my matchup this weekend with The Jon. It was his top starter Johan Santana vs. Ian Snell, one of my lower guys (3-4-5 are all about the same for me at this point). I figured if Snell and the Pirates could pull out a win against Johan, that would set a nice pace for me.

As the more astute among you know, that showdown was scheduled for Monday — but got postponed because all of New York stops when A-Rod hurts his leg. Or something like that. I’m not really sure. So a day late, we got Johan vs. Ian, and the subtext of The Oz vs. The Jon.

More on that in a second, but first, a musical break with another Santana:

The Jon knows these things to be true: Week 3




Another week, another win. The Jon is not used to this. The first couple of weeks of any fantasy baseball season has always been mired by frustration, bad pitching, lack of power and draft picks gone bad. Not the case this year. Three first round picks in the first round have a way turning history around. Not to sound all Newspapermanish, but things look good so far.

But it is only three weeks into a fantasy season, you can always plan and should to improve your team. Are you in the middle of the pack or at the bottom? You should know what your needs are.

If you are at the top, now is the time to play in into the other manager’s fears and take ’em for all they are worth. With that being said, let’s look at the week it was.

Draft Advice: The top 5 value picks

Fantasy baseball drafts are all about hype. As fantasy baseballers we feed off of it. When Jose Reyes, David Wright, Hanley Ramirez and Ryan Braun all have big seasons forever changing the fantasy landscape, we want to be the ones that said we saw it coming and that we told you so. That’s why Parrish was at this top of this post before the video becam no longer available seeing how his solo career was so successful. We all remember when Parrish Smith broke off from EPMD and the Green-Eyed Bandit. Yeah, that was successful. But guess what sweethearts, like a lot of solo careers, you can’t win by the rule of “I saw it comin” without solid producers — the value guys that keep on churning 180-plus hits, 30 or more homers, 100 RBI or 100 runs season after season. Your own Green-Eyed Bandit so to speak. What a weak piece of writing that last paragraph was. Videos no longer available sucks.

But still, we have humps out there saying Wright will drop 40 bombs along with Ryan Braun because they are under 26. Screw that. Let the other guys grab the sexy picks of Jose Reyes, David Wright, Hanley Ramirez and Ryan Braun, while you grab the sure things that are four-to five category studs. Get results, not predictions. Get value not teenage fandom. Here are the top 5 value picks in the draft:

Purple Lips: Yeah, no brainer right? Well, you would be surprised how many people

Just win, Ozzie

I grew up in the area where “Just win, baby!” is the mantra. But don’t confuse me for a Raider fan – I grew up watching McGwire and Canseco bash forearms and good ol’ Eck notching saves. I grew up watching Montana and Young throwing TDs to Rice and putting on Super Bowl rings.

What I’m getting at here is that, when it came to sports, winning was something I came to expect.

Yet, if you look at my recent history in fantasy sports – specifically fantasy baseball – my exploits look a lot like the 2008 versions of the great teams I watched as a young’n. Rebuilding has been the order of the day for my franchise, too. For a few years now actually.