The Drubbing

Ricky Rubio wasn’t ready for the NBA, but we knew that. According to an ESPN.com article, the Minnesota Timberwolves seem to have thought they had a deal in place with Rubio and his current team, DKV Joventut, to bring Ricky Rubio to the NBA this season, that’s the surprising part. The not-so-shocking part is that Minnesota Timberwolves president David Kahn says that Rubio and his family backed out of the deal, making way for Rubio to be traded to FC Barcelona, as was previously announced. It also appears that Rubio has admitted that he was not ready to play in the NBA.
Continue reading “Ricky wasn’t ready” →

Every year around this time, thousands of frantic football fans prepare for their NFL Fantasy Football draft.  This is where teams are made, bragging rights born, and trash talking starts.  The draft can make or break your team.  Not only do you need to come away with 3 solid players in the first three rounds, but you also need to be prepared to add depth in the later rounds so you can prepare for the unexpected.  Every fantasy football team is one Bernard Pollard hit away from scrambling for the waiver wire.

After having 2 drafts completed, and only 1 keeper team remaining, i feel that i can give away a few hints, trade secrets and general strategy.  My Vegas Cheetahs franchise is fully stacked after having smartly drafted DeAngelo Williams (3rd), Chris Johnson (4th), & Steve Slaton (10th) with some timely mid-to-late round picks last year, so i feel it’s safe for me to give some advice this year.
Continue reading “2009 Fantasy Football Thoughts & Strategy” →

Weekly poll recap:

Is Tiger Woods juicing?

83% of you think he is not.

Now on to the links:

With the start of College Football coming up, it gives me an excuse to play these links (one, two) from Cowherd about UVA Football and their fans.

Michael Beasley…i got nothing more to say.

Denis Clemente needs his own McDonald’s commercial with Bird and Jordan.

I consider Beer Pong a sport, some may disagree.  Either way, this is a sweet book.

Your Weekly Chuck Norris Fact:

Chuck Norris ends every relationship with “its not me, its you”.

* Please note that Chuck Norris is in no way affiliated with The Drubbing or its writers. If he did find out we were using his name in a gimmick he would roundhouse kick all of us to death.

For a sport whose U.S. detractors find it exaggerated, overly dramatic and slow, football (read: soccer) truly knows how to make these attributes work in their favor.  Even if they’re just drawing names out of a hat.

What makes this situation unique is that rather than a playoff situation in American sports where you can see your likely opponent coming for as much as a month out from the post-season, here you’re actually finding out along with the rest of the world as it unfolds in front of you. It’s akin to the NCAA Basketball Selection specials that precede The Tourney.  Here, the big wigs (Chelsea, Barcelona, Manchester United, Milan, etc.) sit with their contingent relatively unmoved by who shows up on their plate.  Whereas the flip side to this cool approach finds the clubs like Rubin Kazan visibly sweating and bug-eyed when their name gets called. “F@#$, we have Barca and Inter?!?!”
Continue reading “UEFA Champions League Draw” →

The Red Sox acquisition of Billy Wagner is brilliant. They acquired a fireball throwing left-hander for two yet to be named low minor leaguers. Their only exposure is the remaining money on his contract for this year. But to quote James Earl Jones from Field of Dreams: “For it is money that they have, and peace that they seek”.

The Red Sox are in no danger of losing money. They have a lucrative television contract, a stadium that they have sucked every revenue opportunity out of, and a nationwide legion of fans purchasing their merchandise. However, they did realize that there is one precious commodity in baseball that no amount of money can currently buy: draft picks.

If Billy Wagner is offered arbitration after the season and doesn’t take it, the Red Sox get draft picks. Not only are they draft picks, but they are high draft picks. When you add in Billy Wagner’s desire to close, it is almost a lock that he will be leaving.  The easiest way to see how much of a steal this was is to look at the three possible outcomes:

1) Wagner pitches terrific-For the cost of two low minor leaguers who barely qualify as prospects, the Sox get a veteran lefty that throws in the 90′s and has experience. Maybe he helps them win a game or two down the stretch and pitches some high leverage innings in the playoffs. When the season is over, Wagner wishes to return to closing as he has stated and rejects the arbitration offer from the Sox to seek a closing job. The Red Sox then receive sandwich round draft picks (which means they get some picks after the first round is over and before the second round starts)

2) Wagner pitches poorly- The Red Sox wasted a few relief innings on another Eric Gagne and they are probably no worse for it. If it’s just poorly, maybe they still offer him arbitration and he rejects it believing he can still close. The Sox still get the draft picks. If it is incredibly poorly, maybe the sox simply pay him his $1 million dollar buyout and let him go.

3) Wagner gets hurt-The worst case scenario, but here, the Sox would pay the buyout and send Wagner on his way.

Anyway you look at it the only thing the Sox have to lose here is money and (possibly) a game or two. Since they have a lot of money, the Sox basically just found a way to take a flier on a pitcher with upside and get two free draft picks at the same time. All of this begs one question: Why the hell wouldn’t the Mets just keep him?

The competition has been heating up for quite a while now. NBA teams have been clearing cap room in the anticipation of his emergence on the free-agent market (as well as the other stars that will be available that summer). Many fans, including myself, would like to see LeBron James stay with his home-town team and win a few championships for Cleveland. But the team’s management hasn’t made a great case.

LeBron had to give an ultimatum to management before they went out, spent the cash and surrounded James with some players that could help him win. And while he may have LeBron in his corner, if Mike Brown has proved one thing, it’s that he’s not capable of leading the Cavs to big wins. Nothing says you’re a coach with confidence like throwing in the towel and asking LeBron to go one-on-one for an entire quarter.

While there are many teams that will vie for James’ services there is one clear leader and it’s not for the players, coaching staff or front office. LeBron will go to the New York Knicks if for no other reason than all of the off-the-court opportunities. James’ aspirations go way beyond basketball and as was pointed out on EPSN a while back, there is no better place for him to set himself up for life after basketball than New York. It doesn’t hurt that the Knicks have a coach that is a proven winner, a GM with an excellent track record, and a core group of young players that put up points and play hard. And it doesn’t hurt that the ownership has always been willing to spend the money.

The 23 jersey was freed up after the Knicks moved Q-Rich. But for now it’s been claimed by rookie Toney Douglas. So for their next personnel move, the Knicks either need to cut or trade Toney Douglas. Because soon enough the 23 will be worn by the new King of New York.

Update: ESPN has penned an article predicting where LeBron James will be playing his 2010-2011 home games. They polled 52 of their writers to see what they thought. As expected, Cleveland was the top vote-getter. Also as expected, New York was #2. Interestingly enough, although the Los Angeles Clippers were mentioned by the author of the article, they received a grand total of zero votes. Very interesting.

Apparently I’m a couple of weeks late  to this, but it is way too bizarre to not share. Stephon Marbury has his new 24/7 live online tv show. In late July Starbury started a streaming broadcast of his daily life on Justin.tv for the world to see. It includes everything from him sleeping, to him helping his son get ready in the morning. Apparently he broadcasts from his home in Los Angeles so the six Knicks fans that still like him will have to put up with the three-hour time change. With no further ado, here is the madness.

There is no shortage of sports reference sites, but that hasn’t stopped new ones from popping up. Several new websites recently that are attempting to change the way fans interact with sports and acceess sporting information, mostly centering around athletes use of social media. First there was The Jockosphere which collects “the best” of all of the blog posts, Tweets, MySpace and Facebook comments from athlete’s sites and writes about it.

Next came Jockipedia, which is run by the same team that manages the The Jockosphere, and sets out to catalog the communication tools in use by athletes and teams such as their blog, Twitter feed, MySpace page, etc. Basically all of the sources used by The Jockosphere.

The newest one is Fanbase, which launched today, is more of a reference utility. Essentially, they’re trying to become the Wikipedia of athletics or as they call it, The web’s largest almanac of pro and college athletes, built by fans.
Continue reading “Changing the face of sports online” →

Weekly poll recap:

Is Albert Pujols juicing?

33% of you said no, while the rest had a variety of answers that he did.

Now on to the links:

Well, well chuckleheads.  100% of you think TO will throw his team under the bus before Favre comes out of retirement, huh? I told you that you all under estimate his annoyance.

I mentioned in last week’s links section that a cubs fan got away with dumping beer on Shane Victorino.  Well, said fan has turned himself in.

As much as we want to turn Josh Hamilton’s situation into a fairy tale ending from promise to drug abuse to a standing ovation at Yankee Stadium’s home run derby, he is still only human.  Josh lapsed and took some body shots with some co-eds in Arizona this past January.

If a college team’s achievements are stripped from them a few years later, does anyone really care?

Your Weekly Chuck Norris Fact:

Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.

* Please note that Chuck Norris is in no way affiliated with The Drubbing or its writers. If he did find out we were using his name in a gimmick he would roundhouse kick all of us to death.

In an absolutely genius trans-Atlantic marketing move, Adidas has capitalized on a mutual connection between NBA superstar Kevin Garnett and Chelsea Football Club.

Our friends over at EPLTalk.com brought this news to our attention and revealed that Adidas, Garnett and Chelsea FC will be teaming up for some limited-edition kicks.
Continue reading “Adidas Teams Up KG and CFC for Limited Edition Footwear” →