So long ATL, hello Winnipeg!

It's finally happened, Winnipeg tentatively has a team once again. The move is not official until the sale and relocation has been approved by the owners, but I'm pretty sure it's going to happen. They will most likely be renamed the Jets since the NHL owns the name and would probably give it to them if they asked. In this case, the Phoenix Coyotes and relocated Atlanta Thrashers would share the history, much like how the present day Baltimore Ravens pay tribute to the Colts who left the city as well as several other teams in other sports. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I'll probably come back tomorrow and post some. In any case, right now the division alignments are screwed. The NHL is not going to change the divisions for the upcoming season, and as a result, my Washington Capitals are going to Winnipeg (about 1500 miles) 3 times a year, while the Jets are going to be traveling into the Southeast division for a total of 12 games. Now, obviously, this doesn't make any sense. Why won't the NHL re-align? Well, the problem is that the Phoenix Coyotes are also at risk to be moved out of the south. As a result, re-aligning the divisions in back to back years would be a mess and make the NHL look bad. Although our fans might be upset, it actually looks kind of ridiculous if teams are swapping divisions every year. With Winnipeg taking the Coyotes, odds are Phoenix might end up moving to Ontario or Quebec or some random city that used to have a hockey team (Kansas City anyone?) Regardless, here's how it looks now and how it probably will look after the 2011-2012 season.

Liar Liar, Vest got Fired.

As a life long Michigan fan, today is day i have dreamed of for many years. There have been few men who tormented the Wolverines more than Jim "The Vest" Tressel and his departure from the head coaching job at Ohio State is a fantastic news for any Michigan fan. But after my initial reaction of jubilation of learning that Tressel resigned from OSU, i was left with a sense of disappointment. While Tressel's personal legacy is forever marred, he leaves OSU with a shockingly successful record. He went to 8 BCS bowl games in 10 years, won a National title, and had a 9-1 record against Michigan. This last point is by far the most painful fact and the reason that Tressel's off the field burnout is not enough.

When a team that forfeit wins due to sanctions, no one forgets the achievements of the team. The same is true here. No one will forget his record as a coach all time or his record against Michigan. So while todays news is a huge positive for Michigan, its not a fairy tale ending. The fairy tale ending is Tressel trying to hold on to the job for another 5 years amid the growing scandal leaving Ohio State with a permanent black eye and a weak and decrepit program, while Brady Hoke raises the Wolverines from the ashes of the Rich-Rod experiment that ended in catastrophe, beating with Buckeyes year in and year out until OSU had no choice to part ways with its beleaguered coach, much the way Lloyd Carr was forced to leave from Ann Arbor. While I have almost no confidence that would have happened, i would have enjoyed the chance. The funny part is, now that Tressel is gone, many of those plot points are now possible. Michigan is on the rise, with a new coach that understands how Michigan football i splayed, and what its played for, while OSU is left to pick up the pieces. Many will call me crazy, but dont be surprised if Michigan is in the hunt for the Big 10 title this year, or if Brady Hoke starts his own 7 game winning streak in The Game.

Where did my fantasy rankings go?

Well folks, they didn't disappear, I've just been incredibly busy the past few days. Plus, the new formula requires a lot of input for the first time going through. It'll be 1/3 of the work afterwards. Generally it would take me 2 minutes a player, but since I'm inputting 3x the data, it's 6 minutes, so 1 hour becomes 3 hours and when you're doing outfielders (90 generally, but it looks like I'm doing 105 outfielders and going from there to trim it down to 75) it takes a lot of time and effort. I thank all the readers for staying with the site and helping us grow, but all I ask is for your patience as I figure out a way to post all these rankings in the time I'm allotted.

Thanks,
-Suny

UEFA Champions League Final

 vs

FC Barcelona vs Manchester United

The first half was quite exciting between the two clubs. Pedro scored on a nice feed from Xavi as they ran through the Man U defense. Edwin Van Der Sar guessed wrong and as a result, the ball ended up in the back of the net. Wayne Rooney would counter within 7 minutes with a nice give-and-go with Ryan Giggs. His shot was in the perfect spot as it curved around the sliding defender and away from Victor Valdes into the back of the net. Barca also had several opportunities to score, but they've either missed wide, or the passes into the slot have been beyond their reach. Manchester United has been getting dominated in possession and needs to maintain more control of the ball against Barcelona which is notorious for dominating possession. Manchester United only has 2 shots on goal and need to attack more, but be patient at the same time and not give the ball away when they're within 30 yards of the net.

The second half started with a bang with Messi scoring at the 54th minute. Although, the Man U defense looked lax and Messi never should've gotten that shot off with three defenders around him. Vidic just stood there, barely moved and allowed Messi that shot. Had he stepped up or even had the decency to play defense, Messi's shot should've deflect off him, away from the net. Kids, that's what happens when you don't move your feet, you get beat. Both Dani Alves and Michael Carrick received cards for late tackles. Carrick pretty much took out Iniesta, no dive there. Dani Alves had a dirty tackle on Patrice Evra from behind and as a result he got booked, albeit with much protest. Nani got inserted for an injured Fabio and Barca was ever so kind in taking their time with Manchester United reduced down to 10 men. David Villa scored on a beautiful lofted shot that was just over the reach of Edwin Van Der Sar into the corner of the net. Rooney had a great run in the 72nd minute, but was taken down without a foul call from the official who's been quite impartial in today's match. As the match progressed, United was getting more and more reckless in their attack and not everyone was coming back which is how Villa was given a great opportunity to score the third goal for Barcelona. In an attempt to compensate for Michael Carrick's lack of physical play today, even though he has only one yellow card. Paul Scholes was inserted into the match in his place, hopefully to give this team a boost and get them attacking in the final 14 minutes of the match. David Villa got away with a hand ball in the box which should've given United a penalty kick, but even with the goal line officials, they fail to spot it and Villa plays as though nothing happened. United's frustration was building as witnessed by Valencia's tackle on Messi where he simply ran over him, poor play on his part and he gave Barca more time to run off the clock. Man U had many great chances at the end of the match, but could not come through. Congrats to Barca for their championship!

Edwin Van Der Sar, a player whom I have greatly admired and who deserves to win his third Champions League title will walk away from the game with two titles among that many acolytes that he has earned throughout his career. I have always been a great supporter of dutch football and Edwin Van Der Sar played many international matches for the Netherlands, even coming back in 2010 to help them qualify, but did not partake in the World Cup of 2010. He's played in 130 international appearances for them, even though they failed to win a World Cup. He's won four league titles in the Premier League and two Champions Leagues titles. An unfortunate way to end a great career for Edwin Van Der Sar, but he was, and always will be, one of the greatest keepers to play the game.

Bruins Lightning Game 7

The Boston Bruins defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 1-0 tonight to earn a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals, where they will face off against the Western Conference champion Vancouver Canucks. Game 7 definitely did not match the pace of the series, with only 1 goal scored and 0 penalties called on either team all night.

Both teams had their fare of chances in this one, with the Bruins outshooting the Bolts 38-24. Steven Stamkos had a scare in the second period when a Johnny Boychuck shot from the point was deflected and hit Stamkos directly in the mask. He would skate directly off the ice, only to return a few minutes later sporting a full cage and quite a nasty cut on his nose. My hat goes off to him for his toughness and ability to play the rest of the game.

Nathan Horton scored the only goal at 12:27 of the third period, sending the Bruins to their first Stanley Cup Finals since 1990, and giving them a chance to win the Cup for the first time since 1972.

After scoring a hat trick in a game 6 loss, David Krejci stepped up again for the B's, going 14-3 on the draw and assisting in Horton's game-winning goal. Claude Julien used home-ice advantage masterfully, putting Chara out on the ice nearly every time Lecavalier left the bench.

Friday's Firemen

So, it seems you don't use the same formulas for pitchers as you would for hitters. So I had to spend some time modifying and editing to get what I wanted. Here's the projected rankings for the end of the season. A bit late tonight because I'm watching Game 7 at the same time... tomorrow's outfielders are going to be fun..

Thursday's Corners

So I've come up with a new and improved formula that should predict the end result of all fantasy players by the end of the season. I've thrown in various factors, injury time, past seasons, what was projected for this season and stirred the pot. So let's see how this turns out... remember, this is a new formula that is ranking the players on where they will finish AT THE END OF THE SEASON! Hit Read More to see the rankings

Wednesday's Aces

Still busy, but here's the rankings.... will add picture and ups and downs later.
Edit: Too busy to add that stuff in with a new formula in place for next week, just take the rankings as they are...

Tuesday's Backstops

It's been a long and difficult week for me, I'm just gonna keep this short and sweet. Top 25

Bruins-Lightning Game 5

Well that was exciting. The Bruins beat the Lightning 3-1 on Monday night to take a 3-2 lead in the series, which heads back to Tampa Bay Wednesday night on Versus.

Tampa Bay got off to an early lead when Simon Gagne capitalized on a David Krejci turnover to make it 1-0 just 70 seconds into the game. Outschot 14-4 in the first period, the Bruins were able to pull ahead to a 2-1 lead in the second off goals from Nathan Horton and Brad Marchand.

Tim Thomas made 33 shots and the Bruins added an empty-netter by Rich Peverley to take home a 3-1 win over Tampa Bay.

Just hours before the game, Tampa Bay announced that it would go with its back-up goaltender, Mike Smith, over starter Dwayne Roloson posted a 4.44 GAA against the Bruins.

Stay tuned for updates following game 6 Wednesday night.

Sunday's Up the Middle

So... I've heard some comments from people regarding my rankings and the way I like to trend, some good, some bad. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a man of formulas, and no formula is perfect, but I will get it to be better. Ranks are below. Chase Utley will be coming off the DL soon, so look forward to seeing him sometime soon.

Saturday's Lazy Flys

 So this is the second week of Saturday's Lazy Flys. As you can see, there's been some shuffling around and huge movers up (Andrew McCutchen, Matt Joyce, Jay Bruce, Adam Jones, Seth Smith, Carlos Gonzalez, Coco Crisp, Jayson Werth, Mike Stanton, Ryan Ludwick, Nick Markakis, Logan Morrison, and Corey Patterson) and down as well (Colby Rasmus, Chris Coghlan, Sam Fuld, Andre Ethier, Alfonso Soriano, Grady Sizemore, Aubrey Huff, and Josh Willingham). So sit back, hit read more and witness some true fantasy baseball insight. Again, the tiers represent players that will perform at about the same level for the entire season.

Friday's Firemen

Sorry folks, I was a bit busy yesterday to post this up, but here we go, your fantasy firemen for your pitching staffs. I'll put them in tiers once again to give you an idea of where people rank. Mariano Rivera dropped even though he only blew one save (the only save opportunity he had). The problem is that he really didn't do much and you have K-Rod going nuts with four saves to boost himself up. The formula's not perfect and needs some tweaking, but it gives me a pretty good idea when it comes to trending how players are going to turn out in the end. The thing is that players can just fall out of tiers without any productive work if their team doesn't give them opportunities to close. And with that, here's the rankings...

Bruins-Lightning Game 3

Hey folks, this is my first blog entry for GTFOS and I'll make it brief.

Last night the Boston Bruins defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0 in Tampa to take a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals. Game four will be played in Tampa Bay tomorrow, Saturday May 21 at 1:30 p.m.

VS

Check out Chris and Suny's analysis of the Beltway Series between the Orioles and Nationals! Only one team will win this series!


Nationals vs Orioles! Read More »

Thursday's Corners

So here's the second week of rankings for those of you keeping count at home. I also have a formula that is keeping track of trends, a lot of the first basemen are trending down.The formula involves data from this season and projecting the rest of the season. Just to give you an idea, Berkman's projection is at 633 points after being at 665 points last week, while Jose Bautista jumped from an insane 722 points to 822 points after his ridiculous week [10-for-21, 6 runs, 1 2B, 5 HRs, 7 RBI, and 4 BBs] but those aren't the only figures involved. I decided to put guys in tiers so that you, the reader, have a good idea where guys are grouped, I wanna say that each time you see the breaks, it represents at least 15 points of separation between the two players, and therefore, the  players are unlikely to swap places with anyone outside their tier. Those within a tier are pretty close to each other and this should also be considered when making trades. Anyways, here's the rankings...

A Heavy Burden

As I sit by my computer tonight, I look at the problems that plague the New York Yankees in May, 2011. Check it out right here.

Wednesday's Aces

So, it's almost been an entire week of rankings and we're getting to the last part of it. This is for the pitchers. After all, aces are the best pitchers you got. Every team's got one. Good teams have 2. Great teams have 3. Ridiculously stacked teams have 4. You can see how many your team has in our top 75 aces. Again, players on the DL and who haven't pitched much are not on the list because there is not enough data on them.

Tuesday's Backstops

Here's the catchers... going 25 deep once again, but the DL and disgruntled players won't stop me from doing my job. Here's the rankings, and once again, they will actually show trends once I have something to compare it against. Anyways, here we go...

First New York writer!

Meet the first of what should be several new writers for the New York website!
Click here to meet Scott!

Monday Morning Pick-Me-Ups

So this is the day where I don't do rankings, but instead, I do PICK-UPS! You probably need a pick-me-up on Mondays anyways, either since your team got blown out, or barely beat, or maybe even you just want to improve your team. They are available in over 50% of leagues on ESPN, maybe Yahoo as well, or other leagues, not sure, but they're players that you should look out for!

Sunday's Up the Middle

Today's up the middle indicating our double-play starters, the 2nd basemen and shortstops. Again, these are preliminary rankings and will look better next week once I get trends put in. Also, players on the DL will naturally be ranked lower than those that are healthy. If you have any thoughts, feel free to list them below!

Saturday's Lazy Flys

In continuing with what I had the past two days, we're gonna have Saturday's Lazy Flys. Pretty much, Lazy Flys go out in the outfield, so outfielders are what I'm covering. Like I said before, this is the first set of rankings for fantasy purposes, so it wont' be until next week when I have something to compare to, that it will actually be useful to track. Nonetheless, here's the outfielders! Since there's 3 outfielders per lineup, and I've been doing the top 25 per position, this is going to be 75 strong!

Sharks Survive - Advance to Western Conference Finals

Phew. What a series. After taking a commanding 3-0 series lead, the Sharks let the Red Wings climb back in and tie the series 3-3, with the decisive game 7 in San Jose. The series ended up being the closest NHL playoff series of all time, with 6 of the 7 games being decided by 1 goal.
Read More »

Friday's Firemen

So in continuing with my theme of new things, we're calling this section Friday's firemen. Anyone wanna guess what position I'm implying here? It's the closers folks! Check it out. This is currently my projection for the rest of the season, although, since this is preliminary list, I gotta keep it going so that this is comparison data, so... without further ado...

Thursday's Corners

So I've decided to experiment with some stuff, run some formulas and project fantasy rankings from here on out. I have to say however, that the first set of rankings doesn't have a comparison set, so this is the preliminary one, and then once I get a second set to trend with, the rankings will look a lot better. Also, there's been a ton of players on the DL, (Ike Davis just got placed on the DL when I got done with the 1B rankings.... sigh) so I'm trying my best to tweak it until I get it right. Evan Longoria isn't up because there's not a large enough sample of his hitting this season.

When Does Buying Low and Selling High Go Too Far?

If you are reading this, chances are you have heard one of us “experts” advising on “buying low” and “selling high”. There is a reason for that - it works in your favor, and if you can pull it off, helps your team win CHAMPIONSHIPS, instead of winning NOW. That is the key difference.

Sharks Take Commanding 3-0 Series Lead

The San Jose Sharks are looking good after the first three games of their series with the Red Wings.

Read More »

Sorry folks!

To all our loyal readers,

A lot of us are college students and currently in the middle of finals. So from our last posts until May 10th, you may see at most, 1 post. Not sure who's actually done... I know I'm done that day, so something will come up that evening. In other news, the Caps have thoroughly embarrassed themselves and maybe they'll figure out something for next season. O's won tonight over the Royals and the Nats lost. More stuff to come in a few days! INCLUDING GETTING MY NEW YORK WRITERS TO START WRITING!