A Tickertape Parade for Vince!

Between the crazy stock market, college football season, a congressional "bailout" for financials and the upcoming elections, VR still managed to find time to fit in a tickertape parade to celebrate his teams 2008 HR Contest victory.

Amazingly what was one of the least followed seasons by the two GM's in history still resulted in a tight finish with VR managing a 170-160 victory.

Congrats to VR and lets all hope that the bear market is near an end!

The Brew Crew!

In honor of the big fella turning in dominating performances with his new team I am adding Ryan Braun (-29 HR's) to my team that already includes Brewer Prince Fielder. Konerko and his mighty 10 HR's are being dropped.

Konerko might go down as the worst draft selection in our league history. Nothing worse than a pick getting mocked at the time of selection and then flopping. Perhaps the only thing worse is me blindly sticking with him so long.

Nevertheless, the race is still tight with VR leading 115 to 110 as of Aug 3. Lets see how our guys handle the dog days of summer.

All-Star Break Standings

Vince maintains a narrow 93-88 lead over Greg despite an amazing run of dongs by Ryan Howard of the Phillies.

Vince is led by Adam Dunn, whom we have learned is not one of Toronto GM JP Riccardi's favorite players.

An interesting point about the halfway standings - while the top two HR hitters are on the rosters, no one else in the surprising Top 15 was drafted. Not well played this season.

Here are the leaders at the break:

Player TEAM HR

1. Ryan Howard PHI 28 (Greg)
2. Adam Dunn CIN 26 (Vince)
3. Chase Utley PHI 25
4. Ryan Braun MIL 23
5. Pat Burrell PHI 23
6. Hanley Ramirez FLA 23
7. Grady Sizemore CLE 23
8. Dan Uggla FLA 23
9. Lance Berkman HOU 22
10. Adrian Gonzalez SD 22
11. Carlos Quentin CWS 22
12. Jermaine Dye CWS 21
13. Josh Hamilton TEX 22 (Vince picked up on June 3 with 16 on the board)
14. Carlos Lee HOU 21
15. Ryan Ludwick STL 21
16. Rick Ankiel STL 20
17. Jason Bay PIT 19
18. Milton Bradley TEX 19
19. Jason Giambi NYY 19
20. Mark Jacobs FLA 19
21. Nate McLouth PIT 19
22. M. Reynolds ARI 19
23. Alex Rodriguez NYY 19 (Greg)

I am not ashamed to admit that I have never heard of five of them.

Big Papi out for a month-or more

Red Sox slugger David Ortiz maybe done for the year after suffering tendon sheath damage to his wrist - he will go on the DL immediately.

His extended absence plus the possessor of a body type that doesn't age well (Vince would know), Vince drops Ortiz and his 13 home runs immediately.

Vince will then take the comeback story of the decade, Texas Ranger outfielder Josh Hamilton, who has already put 16 in the seats.

Chase Utley cannot continue to be this hot, can he? I don't think so, hence Josh...

"On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again."

While both teams should be embarrassed for not having any of the top HR hitters in the league thus far, team GT is off to a particularly slow start.

GT remembered how the move of his franchise to SC mid-season last year got them out of their slump and propelled them to yet another championship. As a result he has decided to move the team and family to Raleigh, NC. Exact date is still unknown, but likely after the all-star break.

In the meantime GT needs to pay a little more attention to baseball, which is difficult with these NBA playoffs.

Utley and Uggla lead majors in homeruns

Our Mid May Update has surprises for us as the U-Two pace the league in dingers.

Phillies 2B Chase Utley (right, Getty Images) rips covers to the pace of 13 pokes in just 150 at-bats, while the surging Marlins two-bagger Dan Uggla is third in the game with 11 dongs.

Neither Vince nor Greg rips the covers off of anything but the latest Maxim magazine, but Vince has an early lead as Greg's early picks have yet to heat up.

Vince: Pujols 7, Ortiz 7, Dunn 6, Pena 8, Wright 7 = 35

Greg: Arod 4, Fielder 5, Howard 7, Holliday 6, Konerko 5 = 27

2008 Draft Day results

As two highly compensated and important financial consultants perspired to make a draft date that worked for all, the 2008 HR Contest Draft concluded today.

Who am I kidding? Greg emailed me and said how about 3pm and I said sure....

RULES:

We agreed that rosters would only be five deep and we would only allow five substitutions for the entire season.

Most Home Runs wins, and loser pays for lunch (MSRP:$30).

Again, fantasy baseball at its most simplistic.

Vince, as last years whipping boy, got first pick then Greg and Vince alternate picking two players.

The results:

VR - Albert Pujols, STL

GT - Alex Rodriguez, NYA
GT - Prince Fielder, MIL

VR - David Ortiz, BOS
VR - Adam Dunn, CIN

GT - Ryan Howard, WAS
GT - Matt Holiday, COL

VR - Carlos Pena, TBA
VR - David Wright, NYN

GT - Paul Konerko, CHA

Let the mashing begin!