Moving the Franchise with Trophy in Tow!

After a slow start to the season Team GT went on to regain his crown with a 317-294 victory. He eagerly awaits his surprise winnings.

In other news GT has shocked the fake sports world by deciding to move his dynasty of a franchise from the ATL to the quieter surroundings of Greenville, SC. It was a hard decision to give up hour long commutes to live at the foothills of the Blueridge Mountains, but one that just had to be made. With an amazing Single A ball club stadium in Greenville, team GT will get to work scouting for future HR contest champs.

Enjoy the off season!

P.S. How about that Brown's offense!

Ankiel the story of the Year!

While VR and GT got together over the holiday weekend to catch up on things, discuss the stretch run in baseball and the upcoming football season......Rick Ankiel was busy adding chapters to his storybook comeback.

If he can continue his pace and carry the Cards into the playoffs it will be one of the greatest sports stories of our generation.

In other important baseball news GT has decided to drop Manny and his 20 homers and pick up Carlos Pena minus his 34. GT was quoted as saying, "while VR is off driving around the country watching blowout college football games, I am busy bettering my team to the very end of the season."

It's a Tight Race!

No I am not talking about Brady Quinn shooting up the QB ranks to soon become the Browns starter.

Our HR contest has always been a blowout. Well no more. The spreadsheet has been updated and Team GT is beating VR 237 to 222.

I'm sure both managers will discuss the stretch run strategy when they get together over the coming holiday weekend.

Griffey now sixth all-time in home runs

Ken Griffey Jr. hit the 586th homer of his career in the fifth inning Friday night, tying Hall of Famer and former Reds star Frank Robinson for sixth place on the career list.

He left without speaking to media. Is this the influence Barry Bonds is having on the HR legacy?

Seriously though, how many would Griffey have if he would have been healthy for more of his time in Cincy?

Beltran, move over for the Kid...

VR makes his first roster move of the year, dropping the Mets' Carlos Beltran 11 HR to pickup his boyhood idle, Cincinnati's Ken Griffey, Jr. and his 22 dongs.

"As it was my painful turn to do the scores, I noticed that Teixiera was on the DL but was warm before the injury. Beltran just hit 2 on Friday night, that looks like a top to me," said VR.

The 12-time All Star Griffey makes what is believed to be his first appearence in the Home Run Contest.

"Injuries and lack of physical conditioning kept Griffey from being the best player ever, offensively and defensively," said VR.

GT bringing the pain, broadens lead

GT is doing it with depth, the lead as June closes stretches to 146-138.

Google Spreadsheet HR Scoreboard

Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder (right, snacking) has been on fire since the last tabulation for the GT's, and the switch to Barry bonds seems prescient.

A-Rod is carrying the VR's as the only 20+ HR guy, whereas GT has three (Dunn, Morneau, Fielder).

VR's Lead is Gone Faster Than Billy Donovan Can Change His Mind.

Undoubtedly VR's ego reached A-Rod levels in the opening weeks of the season.

However, a true champion like GT's veteran squad can't be kept down for long.

The spreadsheet has been updated and shows a change in leadership by the slimmest of margins.

I am up by one as June begins, 142-141.

JACKED: A-Rod enjoying the best Canada has to offer.

While VR is busy bashing my large headed player Bonds, his star "player" is off enjoying Canada's finest. Apparently he heard they go down faster than Chuck Liddell. Despite the poor year the Yankees are having A-Rod seems to be having a career season on the field and off.

That's all for now.

JACKED: Big hitters talk about the longball

The Sporting News pieced together a great article getting insight into the minds of great power hitters - Stan McNeal and Ryan Fagan asked the same questions to Harmon Killebrew (right), Ken Griffey Jr, and Frank Thomas and it is a magical piece.

Not magical like quotes from Ted Williams' head, but magical like the feeling of ball meeting wood perfectly... some favorite quote...

Are too many guys swinging for the fences at the expense of situational hitting?

Griffey: The public salivates over the long-ball. When I grew up, hitting the longball was fine, but the most important thing was to get the win. Everybody now is fascinated by the guy who can hit it 500 feet. But look back at the Big Red Machine. Let's go by the order: Pete Rose could bunt, Joe Morgan could bunt, my dad could bunt, Dave Concepcion could bunt, Cesar Geronimo. You had six out of the nine guys coming up to the plate who could manufacture runs. That's what it's about.

Chicks do not dig the sac bunt.

Jacked: He is Barry, but he is (Greg's) Barry.

You recall that Greg sold his soul recently by picking up Barry Bonds and was quickly rewarded with a horrible slump (Buy high, sell low?).

A recent SI article probed into the attitude of the Bay Area towards their antihero - Chris Ballard's "He's Barry, but he is our Barry" piece interviewed politicians to tailgaters to local media honks, even an attempt to interview the Big Head himself. Even Little Leaguers had an opinion:

For some, that choice is simple, as is the case with the 11- and 12-year-old Little Leaguers in Albany, a 15-minute drive from San Francisco. It's a Saturday afternoon, and the preteen Giants are warming up for a game, a dozen boys in replica Giants hats and jerseys fielding grounders (sometimes) and firing them back to their coach. They are not of one mind about Bonds. Some, like 11-year-old Joe Franco, believe Bonds cheated by using steroids and shouldn't break Hank Aaron's record because, you see, Hank didn't cheat. Twelve-year-old Clayton Langbein, on the other hand, believes Bonds didn't take steroids on purpose, that maybe his agent put them in his drink. "It would make sense because his agent gets 10 percent," explains Langbein.

A particularly dark wrap up to the article tells me all I need to know about how Bonds has treated teammates and staff alike...

Such moments may be rare. A half hour earlier, as he prepared for batting practice, Bonds sat in the dugout, alone. Looking closely, you noticed something: Around Bonds and on the field, every one of his teammates was involved with another human being, whether it was fielding balls, taking swings, joking around or chatting with a reporter. Above Bonds, in the stands, fans stood together and talked, holding beers. But there in the dugout was Barry, a human island. He'd already shooed away the visiting New York media (he would not be talking today), so he fiddled with his bats, then sat on the dugout railing, staring at the field.

Jacked: The language of baseball

Starting a new series to highlight interesting articles about baseball from around the country. We will call it "Jacked" since it means to steal and also sounds like a home run sunonym.

Get it? Good.

Richard Lucas at the Mississippi Press does a quick essay on The Language of Baseball today - an excerpt:

For the most part, I enjoy the expressions that are prevalent throughout sports. Today, it occurred to me that much of the sports words comes from baseball.

Take the home run itself.

It's also known as a homer, long ball, tater, dinger, roundtripper and big fly, among other things. Hey, go deep (there's another one) with the bases loaded, and you've got yourself a grand slam, or a grand salami.

Getting the band back together with Barry Bonds on lead guitar

In what some would view as an early season desperation move and others would see as an attempted block of VR picking up Bonds, I view as getting back to my teams championship ways. After all I believe my first 3 seasons were won by Barry carrying my team on his acne filled back.

I am offically dropping Berkman and his 2 homers and picking up Bonds minus his 8. Now if only Durham will start hitting behind him so he doesn't break his own walks record.

On another note.........thank you Browns for bringing major excitement to all your fans. I don't care what picks they gave up. Browns fans have lived thru horrible drafts and seasons and had no "face of the franchise." I think this draft will be the start of something new and they are only 2 seasons away from the playoffs. Also, has there ever been a greater character difference between a teams 1st round picks and their 2nd round? Joe Thomas and Quinn seem like choir boys and Eric Wright proved it's possible to get kicked out of USC.

P.S. If Quinn stinks it up this year and the Cowboys pick Darren McFadden with the Browns pick next year this post will be deleted.

Standings: A is for April and A-Rod, VR leads 52-40

Behind the quickest of starts from bargain basement Alex Rodriguez, Vince takes the first month lead 52-40.

Full Standings on Google Spreadsheets here.

Ugly cut and paste below.... Greg's team is steady, but Vince has the top 5 dingers in the league for the first month.

Notable free agents? Barry Bonds, Vlad Guerrero, Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, and Sammy Sosa. Rumors suggest Vince is looking to pick up Bonds, but just cannot bring himself to cut anyone.

1 - GT - Ryan Howard, 1B , PHI 3
4 - GT - Adam Dunn, 1B, CIN 6
5 - GT - Travis Hafner, DH, CLE 5
8 - GT - Matt Halladay, OF, COL 4
9 - GT - Lance Berkman, 1B, HOU 2
12 - GT - Justin Morneau, MIN 6
13 - GT - Jim Thome, CHW 5
16 - GT - Prince Fielder, 1B, MIL 6
17 - GT - Manny Ramirez, OF, BOS 3
Totals 40

2 - VR - David Ortiz, 1B, BOS 7
3 - VR - Albert Pujols, 1B, STL 6
6 - VR - Alfonso Soriano, OF, CHC 1
7 - VR - Mark Teixeira, TEX 2
10 - VR - Alex Rodriguez( right), 3B, NYY 14
11 - VR - Carlos Beltran, OF, NYM 6
14 - VR - Troy Glaus, TOR 4
15 - VR - Miguel Cabrera, 3B, FLA 7
18 - VR - Aramis Ramirez, CHC 5
Totals 52

VR has lost his mind!

As if me getting beat by the hated Yankee, A-rod wasn't bad enough. Now you forget he is actually on your team and give me a brief hope that I drafted him. Check your 10th pick. Oh and when I took a Philly slugger #1 I didn't realize I should have taken Jimmy Rollins.

My team looks as stable as Al Davis right now. He looks like Bernie from Weekend at Bernie's. Was he even alive up in that suite last season? He has always loved big armed QB's and stud WR's. Now he has to decide between the two and likely knows this will be his last chance before he officially dies.

So I'm on record, here is what I want from the Browns on Saturday. Trade for Daunte and then draft Calvin Johnson, or if gone take Adrian Peterson and then Troy Smith in 4th round and give him a shot in a few years. If no trade is made for Daunte take either Brady Quinn, or Calvin Johnson. Whichever one a Bucs fan like you would miss more!

ARod is first to ten dingers

Alex Rodriguez continues his magical season for the VR team - he is first in MLB to hit ten homers last night as a walk-off to beat the Indians. This of course puts him on pace for 116 HR for the season...

Recall also that he was on pace for dropping 162 foul balls early in this campaign as well.

Here are the current top five, including "sell short" candidate Ian Kinsler of Texas and feel good story of 2007 Josh Hamilton...

10 HR - Alex Rodriguez
7 - Ian Kinsler
6 - Jimmy Rollins
5 - Josh Hamilton (CIN), Carlos Lee (HOU), Big Papi (BOS), Jim Thome
(CHW)

updated standings on May 1 - I am prepared for it to be UGLY!

Dunn, Renteria on pace for 324 HR each...

From the "Statistics don't Lie" Department, both mashers Adam Dunn of the Cincinatti Reds and Edgar Renteria of the Atlanta Braves hit two dingers in their first game of the season, putting them on a torrid pace to acheive almost half of the MLB career record in just one season.

"I am known to get on a streak now and then, but hitting a 300 batting average is hard enough, let alone 300 home runs this season," said Dunn.

Per the Cincinnatti Post, Dunn's third-inning homer was the 200th of his career. He entered the season fifth on baseball's all-time list of career home runs after six seasons, trailing Ralph Kiner (257), Albert Pujols (250), Eddie Mathews (222) and former Red Frank Robinson (198).

The Draft

1 - GT - Ryan Howard, 1B , PHI

2 - VR - David Ortiz, 1B, BOS

3 - VR - Albert Pujols, 1B, STL

4 - GT - Adam Dunn, 1B, CIN

5 - GT - Trvis Hafner, DH, CLE

6 - VR - Alfonso Soriano, OF, CHC

7 - VR - Mark Teixiera, TEX

8 - GT - Matt Halladay, OF, COL

9 - GT - Lance Berkman, 1B, HOU

10 - VR - Alex Rodriguez, 3B, NYY

11 - VR - Carlos Beltran, OF, NYM

12 - GT - Justin Morneau, MIN

13 - GT - Jim Thome, CHW

14 - VR - Troy Glaus, TOR

15 - VR - Miguel Cabrera, 3B, FLA

16 - GT - Prince Fielder, 1B, MIL

17 - GT - Manny Ramirez, OF, BOS (neither of us can explain why he lasted so long in hindsight)

18 - VR - Aramis Ramirez, CHC

The Rules

We have expanded to nine players in 2007, up from the previous five man rosters of years past. There are no position requirements and the entire MLB is available to draft.

Most home runs for the regular season wins. There are no tiebreakers. There are no other statistical categories. We only dig the longball.

Rosters are limited to two changes per year for any reason. Both GMs agree that this is a flexible number based on extenuating circumstances (injury, minor league demotion, performance enhancing drug use, etc.)

The goods at stake - a $20 gift card to the restaurant of the LOSER's choice.

Draft scheduled for March 28.