NY33

Would anybody not pick Joe Mauer?

Hitters or pitchers?

When you have all star lineup going up against the best pitching in the game every day, actually managed properly, do you think average scoring would be higher or lower than normal?

A man came into town on Friday. He stayed 3 days and left on Friday. How many times did people ask how this was possible before he and Friday left town?

I have a friend who writes a stat based blog about sports, with a focus on baseball; yesterday, he brought up what used to be the easiest question in sports, and is now surprisingly difficult.

WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP

How many homeruns has Barry Bonds hit in his career?

However controversial it is, he holds the biggest record in sports. Everybody knows that Babe Ruth hit 714, and that Hank Aaron had 755. Let's see how many of the baseball fans here know off the top of their heads what the record is now.

Even for those of you who do know it, I'd be surprised if any of you just KNOW it, and are 100% sure of your answer.

Disclaimer:

For the purpose of this question, please assume that every homerun Bonds hit was completely legitimate and that nobody questions anything about his record.

There are a lot of questions about whether X or Y is going to the Hall, but I don't remember ever seeing Edmonds coming up in those discussions, and I'm not sure why:

His offensive numbers are a little bit low on their own, but they're respectable - if he gets a team this year, he'll need: 18 homers for 400, 119 hits for 2000, and 24 RBIs for 1200, all very reachable with consistent playing time.

His best asset is his defense: he's won 8 gold gloves, and was widely considered the best defensive outfielder in the league for most of his career. Offensively, he'd be a good candidate for the Hall of Very Good for a While, but I think his defense gives him a big boost.

He has a ring, has never been under suspicion of steroids that I know of, and has been very popular wherever he's played.

I think if he gets a team this year and gets at least a couple of those milestones, he'll have a very good chance, but even without any more numbers he still has a shot. What do you guys think?

Background

I'm 23, male, 5'8", I've always had a fast metabolism, and for about 10 years I weighed 145 lbs, give or take 5, without any effort at all.

I do play sports, but for the sake of sports, not exercise... I'm on a softball team, play some tennis, etc.

I moved into an apartment 3 months ago, and changed over from a diet that included fast food for lunch and a quality meal from my culinary institute grad father, over to a fast food lunch and fast food/microwavable dinner.

I'm now at 160 lbs, and I'll probably keep going if I don't do anything.

So finally, the question: is it possible to have a reasonably well rounded, filling diet that still tastes good, doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and doesn't require me learning anything more than extremely simple cooking? Or am I just waking up from a long dream, and need to either stop being lazy and learn to cook or get fat?

Which team is your favorite, and what's their ideal playoff scenario?

For the Giants:

NFC Wild Card Round

Minnesota over Philadelphia - I do NOT want to host the Eagles second round

Arizona over Atlanta - you guys saw what Arizona can do in the cold against the Patriots, right?

NFC Divisional Round

Giants over Cardinals - duh

Vikings over Panthers - both quality rushing teams, but Carolina's passing game is a lot scarier to complement it

NFC Conference Championship

Giants over Vikings - duh

Super Bowl

Giants over Dolphins

Worst case here would be either the Steelers or the Ravens - both very good teams who the Giants beat earlier, so they'd have something to prove, and they've seen the Giants already. The Giants defense is fast enough to deal with the Wildcat, and I think they could shut down the Dolphins offense.

So what's the best case scenario for your team? Remember, these aren't your picks, these are your hopes.

I'm usually pretty decent with my fantasy teams, but I had a couple dumb moves this year...

1: I had 5 receivers to start the year: Braylon Edwards, Marques Colston, Santonio Holmes, Patrick Crayton, and Vincent Jackson. Willie Parker got injured and Joseph Addai was on a bye going into week 4, and my backup running back was Justin Fargas. I didn't like that, so I picked up Steve Slaton (good move). I had to drop somebody, so I decided that between Crayton and Jackson, Crayton had the better upside.

Jackson went on to have a far better season than any of my receivers, I got rid of Crayton a couple weeks later, and none of my receivers have been anything that resembles decent.

2) I still didn't like having Fargas, so I decided to replace him with DeAngelo Williams for that same week. Williams had a bad week, but I kept him around as a backup. Week 5 he got 32 points on my bench. I decided that his performance was going to be inconsistent all year because he was going to be splitting carries. I didn't want to risk playing him for the week that he got 6 carries while Stewart got 20, and I didn't want to see him on my bench for his occasional 30 point burst. I got Fargas back. Williams had 2 points the next week... good move, right?

I think you all know where that's gone since.

So now to the question... who has a worse (fantasy sports) story to help me out of my pool of self pity?

And get it wrong?

When I was young, I honestly thought that Atlanta was somewhere out West for a long time (my guess was California, because that was a big western state with a lot of teams)

We had the Braves in the NL West and the Falcons in the NFC West. I just figured that the Hawks being in the Central Division in the Eastern Conference was an anomaly, based on their former home in St. Louis (yes, I knew that the Hawks had come from St. Louis before I knew that Atlanta was in Georgia).

It was right around when the Braves moved to the NL East and started playing the Mets that I learned geography and state capitals, and all the pieces came together.

Did anybody else have this or similar experiences with learning geography through sports, and being very wrong sometimes?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=txmetsheilma...

So who can think of the most creative, amusing, CLEAN way to explain to Heilman why he's going to be off the Mets long before he starts (or relieves) for them again?

You're a Rays fan, you have been ever since you finally got a local team to root for. Or a Red Sox fan in 2004, having started rooting for them in 1950. Whatever team, you've been a fan for a while, and suddenly they're good. You're about to watch the game with somebody and you have a choice of:

Option A) Bandwagon fan. In the early '90's, this was the guy that was the Cowboys and Blue Jays fan in upstate New York (I had that guy on my middle school bus and he'll always be my example). For the rest of the decade, he had all possible Yankees Paraphernalia, but he's been the biggest Red Sox fan around for the last few years until approximately 2 days ago, when he appeared with Rays hat (which will be replaced by a Phillies hat if the series goes that way)

He knows the game, but you know he's going to drop your team as soon as something goes wrong.

Option B) Fairweather fan. Often confused with the bandwagon fan, but really very different. They're the Red Sox fans in New England that have been out in droves for the past few years. They were never cheering for other teams, they just didn't care when the Red Sox weren't winning. They don't really know anything about the game, but they'll always be the first to brag about how great XXXX player that is one of the few names they know is. They're the ones that missed the comeback in game 5 because they'd left long before to beat the traffic.

So who do you want to watch the game with?

Going into the LCS, there were a couple options out there:

National league:

Phillies - strong local fan base, not too much national support, good team, not a huge draw

Dodgers - it's LA, it's Manny, etc. etc.

American League:

Tampa - nice underdog story, almost no fan support except for the bandwagon and those who cheer the underdog

Boston - it's, well... Boston...

Perfect scenario: LA vs Boston. Manny back in Fenway for the World Series. Torre facing the Red Sox again. Boston trying to repeat and create a dynasty. East Coast vs West Coast. Start counting the $$.

What they're probably going to get: Philadelphia vs Tampa Bay - no really intriguing stories, no rivalries, smaller fan bases, less geographical diversity

If you're on the Fox marketing team, how are you going to sell this series?

A player/team that you really shouldn't like because they're your rival, or whatever reason, but it's just hard to find negatives

Who would it be? Consider things that would factor their overall quality of life...

Factors to consider:

Talent vs hard work

Pitching every 5 days vs on call to pitch every day vs playing every day vs bench player

Paparazzi following

City

Fan pressure

For example, when considering a player, you'd have to decide whether it's worth being in the center of the New York fan base and media, but on a winning team that spends a lot, or if you'd rather live a relatively quiet life in Kansas City with lesser prospects.

Just a name won't be winning best answer

Rank from 1-3

A) .526 career win percentage

3.19 ERA

1.25 WHIP

9.55 K/9 innings

4.67 BB/9 innings

B) .618 winning percentage

2.63 ERA

1.13 WHIP

3.43 K/9 innings

1.49 BB/9 innings

C) .665 win percentage

2.13 ERA

1.06 WHIP

4.71 K/9

1.59 BB/9

I'm a Giants fan, but I really don't think they should've won for best upset... Appalachian State's win over Michigan is more comparable to if a CFL team had beaten the Patriots, instead of an above average NFL team.

Anyone agree/want to convince me otherwise?

There's no way he's making the all star team, but for some reason, you just love to watch him.

Mine's Endy Chavez: he's one of the best defensive outfielders in the league, he always gives full effort, and it seems like every time he's in (especially when he's not playing regularly), he sparks the team. Every time I've been to Shea and he's played, he's done something special: run out an infield/bunt hit, thrown out a runner trying to stretch a double, made "the catch" in game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, etc.

So who's your favorite player that I'd have to go look up to see what team he's even on?

You know who I mean. Every team has that player who can do no wrong; maybe he had a great rookie season and has been disappointing since but the fans don't see it, or maybe he just has whatever "it" is, so that no matter how much he sucks, he still brings "it" to the team. Who's the guy on each team that can go 0/30 and still get the standing ovation?

Baltimore Orioles

Boston Red Sox

Chicago White Sox

Cleveland Indians

Detroit Tigers

Kansas City Royals

Los Angeles Angels

Minnesota Twins

New York Yankees

Oakland Athletics

Seattle Mariners

Tampa Bay Rays

Texas Rangers

Toronto Blue Jays

Arizona Diamondbacks

Atlanta Braves

Chicago Cubs

Cincinnati Reds

Colorado Rockies

Florida Marlins

Houston Astros

Los Angeles Dodgers

Milwaukee Brewers

New York Mets

Philadelphia Phillies

Pittsburgh Pirates

San Diego Padres

San Francisco Giants

St. Louis Cardinals

Washington Nationals

Cy Young or Nolan Ryan?