Bleacher Report - Articles by Jayson Love

Sneaky Fantasy Football Play of the Week: Jamal Lewis

Jayson Love — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:07:05 -0500

Last week, I told you to use Ryan Moats as a smokescreen while pursuing other running backs on the waiver wire.

Until a touchdown reception off a play-action fake, it was obvious that Steve Slaton was the more effective runner throughout the day.

This week I am advocating for Jamal Lewis.

The Cleveland Browns stink, and the fact that every NFL fan is forced to watch them Monday night is not something to which I am looking forward.

However, the Browns' win-loss record and awful play has very little to do with Fantasy Football.

Lewis is finding himself on the waiver wire in nearly half the fantasy football leagues on the Internet by no fault of his own. At various times, Lewis has looked more than effective and continues to get the bulk of the carries for Cleveland.

The hot waiver wire pickup of the week was Ladell Betts, as he figures to get the nod over the injured Clinton Portis in Washington. If your team is playing well, you probably didn't have the necessary waiver position to get Betts. I do believe you should be able to grab Lewis.

Fantasy prognosticators like to say, "Baltimore Ravens, great defense, bad matchup for (fill in the blank here)." I am convinced that this has become the "no research" position for those giving fantasy previews each week.

A deeper look inside the numbers reveals that the Ravens aren't quite as scary as they used to be. How could they be? They lost playmakers Bart Scott and Jim Leonhard to the Jets. Ray Lewis is on the "back nine" of his NFL career, and they have lost other players like Brendon Ayanbadejo and Samari Rolle to injury. Haloti Ngata will play, but will be limited because of an ankle injury.

The Ravens hadn't allowed a 100-yard rusher in over a year until Cedric Benson turned the trick last month. Three weeks ago, Adrian Peterson repeated the performance and then some, rushing for 142 yards against the vaunted Ravens.

So if you are hurting at running back, Jamal Lewis can be the way to go. Lewis will get the bulk of the carries as the younger Jerome Harrison continues to struggle with pass protection schemes and still has the legs to put up some decent numbers and perhaps even sneak in a touchdown.

Fantasy Football: Don't Waste Your Time on Texans' Ryan Moats

Jayson Love — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:10:45 -0500

Let another owner make the mistake of claiming Ryan Moats off of waivers. Sure, he had a monstrous day racking up 126 rushing yards and three TDs, but this is not a sign of things to come for the journeyman running back.

First, let's be logical: Do you really believe Moats will repeat this performance? An owner making the claim on Moats is making the claim a week too late.

Not to say anyone should have seen this coming. Moats has shown flashes; a 59-yard run as a member of the Eagles in 2005 comes to mind. But Moats is what he is: a journeyman backup type.

Every year, a player will have a breakout-type game, he will be the hot waiver pickup, and he will never be heard from again. Moats is this year's version. Slaton is still the man there and was this week's victim of a coach sending a message. Moats performed well, but Coach Kubiak knows he needs Slaton if his team is to go anywhere.

The smart fantasy owner will use Moats as a smokescreen. Every other owner in your league will put a claim on him. Use that knowledge to your advantage.

While everyone in my two leagues focuses on Moats, I will be scouring the wire for other talent.

Remember, the claim will pass through all other owners first. As such, Moats will be run as Claim No. 1 by every other team, and you gain the advantage. This is a good time to pick up a top defensive matchup or a top kicker sitting on the wires.

For instance, one of my leagues is very shallow. It is a 12-team league, but you only have four bench spots and the waivers are where the action is at.

Stephen Gostkowski was dropped Sunday morning, as he had a bye week. I will be taking advantage of that mistake. I will be buying low on Willie Parker, Donald Brown, and Maurice Morris hoping one of them will pan out.

In my second league, which is much deeper, while other owners waste their time putting a claim on Moats, I will again be targetting Maurice Morris and buying low on high-end potential players like Kenny Britt and Dustin Keller.

Good luck!

Rutgers Football: A Fan Base and Program Divided Against Itself

Jayson Love — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:34:08 -0400

After sitting through yet another disappointing and head-scratching loss against a Big East rival, and listening to the fan reaction thereafter, you could feel the chasm between both sides of the Greg Schiano debate grow just a little bit wider.

In the New York/New Jersey sports market, people want results. And they want these results yesterday. For years, Rutgers was the laughingstock of college football and Greg Schiano was the one man willing and able to take on the job of fixing the mess.

He took the job as coach of R.U. to two words from then-athletic director Bob Mulcahy: "Fix it."

Schiano did just that.

Despite doubters and haters and several years when Schiano's firing seemed imminent, the coach turned the program from a perennial doormat that any and all teams penned in as a win in their schedule to a bowl team in 2005. The program rose to national prominence in 2006 and many people believed that Schiano's team deserved at an at-large BCS bowl bid. They haven't missed a postseason since.

However, things have darkened on the banks of the Old Raritan for this coach. A disappointing start to 2008 and a six-game rally to make the postseason left high hopes for this year. A highly touted quarterback and a road win at Maryland left fans thinking a run was possible.

Enter Pitt.

R.U. lost yet another Big East game and poor coaching and player development was to blame. But herein lies the crux of the matter from a fan's perspective.

There are two camps of Rutgers fans.

Fan No. 1 has sat through the lean years, watched his team lose hundreds of games, and remembers the times when Rutgers could not even compete with its opponents on any level.

Fan No. 2 joined the bandwagon when the program started winning in 2005. The aforementioned has a great resentment for the latter.

If you criticize Schiano, you are a " bandwagon jumper" and are reminded of the old days. You are told that you couldn't be a "real fan" and are told that "it used to be much worse" and we should appreciate what we have.

Schiano has entrenched himself as the "savior" of Rutgers football. How long is that accomplishment a crutch on which to lean?

The fact is, Schiano has made his share of mistakes and missed his golden opportunities. This is a team that, in year nine, should not have to rely on true freshmen at so many positions.

Yes, it is a team that lost its top two wide receivers and starting quarterback to the NFL. But the team it played last night lost its share of talent, as well.

Cincinnati, who thrashed Rutgers on opening day, lost lost a whopping nine starters on defense and managed to win at South Florida Thursday night with its backup quarterback.

But the critics of the program again are reminded, "You aren't a real fan" or "Look where we were and look where we are now".

Me? I fall somewhere in the middle.

I look at the talent we have and understand that this is a team that ought to be better than it is. Schiano as the "savior" of R.U. football has made himself untouchable.

The program is obviously much better than it was, but how long will Schiano be rewarded for the same accomplishment?

The school must make a decision. We know Schiano was the one to rescue the program from the doldrums. However, do we know he is the one to push it to the next level? That is the question that bears asking. It doesn't make you a bad fan.

Until a decision is made, we will sit with the status-quo. We will be a perennial bowl team who wins its seven to eight games a year, loses games it should have won, and wins some games it should have lost.

Is that good enough?

For one half of the fan-base, it is. But for the other half, the criticism will continue until Schiano proves he is the one to push R.U. to the next level. If he is, the higher-ups headed by A.D. Tim Pernetti must figure out why it hasn't already happened or when and how to make it happen.

Darrelle Revis: Best Cover Corner In The NFL?

Jayson Love — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:18:40 -0400

Darrelle Revis may be No. 24 on the field, but he may just be No. 1 when it comes to cornerbacks in the NFL.

In just his third year in the NFL, Revis routinely and willingly accepts the challenge to cover the top receiver on the opposing team week after week. For two years, Revis has performed admirably, but his performance in the Jets' first two games of 2009 has been off the charts.

In week one, Revis drew Andre Johnson, the ultra-talented wide-out for the Houston Texans and covered him one-on-one most the game. Benefiting greatly from pressure up front, but running stride for stride and cut for cut with Johnson, Revis held Johnson to just four catches and a paltry 35 yards, an average of under 9 yards a reception.

Johnson and his teammates failed to score an offensive touchdown.

These are incredible numbers, considering Johnson has caught a total of 175 balls and averaged about 14 yards a catch the past two seasons.

For comparison's sake, Johnson and the Houston Texans played the Titans today in Tennessee. Johnson, feeling free of the Revis stranglehold, caught 10 passes for 149 yards and 2 touchdowns.

To back up his previous performance, Revis covered Randy Moss today. In a game that featured the hoopla and pregame smack talk of a playoff matchup, Revis certainly played his part.

Revis held Moss to four catches and just 24 receiving yards. Revis also soared over Moss to snatch a ball out of the air for a sensational interception! And for the second straight week, Revis kept his man out of the end zone.

The Jets' defense, in the first two games of the season, has surrendered only three field goals and it partially has its number one corner to thank for that impressive stat.

All-Star Game: Hope For Future Of African Americans In Baseball

Jayson Love — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:14:24 -0400

It's been 62 years since Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier in 1947. Stepping onto the Ebbets Field grass, going 0-4 in a 5-3 win over the Braves, Robinson had "changed the face of baseball". It's been 10 years since Bud Selig retired Robinson's number 42 throughout baseball.

However, in 2009, African Americans comprise about eight percent of Major Leaguers. Robinson, if he was alive today, would probably wonder, what happened?

In 1975, African Americans comprised 27 percent of major leaguers, and the future seemed bright for African American participation in Major League Baseball. So to answer Mr. Robinson's hypothetical question what did happen?

There is much conjecture particularly revolving around the choices African American athletes make at young ages. More of the African American athletes whose future is in sports seem to opt for football or basketball over baseball, possilbly because the sports have "more action."

Programs such as R.B.I.—a program that seeks to bring baseball to the inner cities have been pushed to new heights in an attempt to harness this market for baseball fans and players alike. You can't watch a Major League game without seeing a commercial for the Boys and Girls Club or R.B.I.

However, I believe the lack of African American baseball heroes such as Jackie Robinson is a large problem as well. Neither the Yankees nor the Red Sox have one, arguably the sport's premier teams start an African American player or pitcher on a regular basis besides Derek Jeter who is half-black, and he broke into the Majors 16 years ago!

For years, a young African American kid from the inner city may only have connection to basketball players and football players while growing up. An inner-city kid would buy "The Jordans," get the Michael jersey, and styles his hair like Allen Iverson.

But the news isn't all negative. It is apparent that the push for baseball in the inner- city may be paying off some dividends, as we watched the action unfold in tonight's All Star Game.

Of the 56 players that were selected as All Stars, ten are African American—Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Chone Figgins, Carl Crawford, Edwin Jackson, Prince Fielder, Orlando Hudson, Justin Upton, Adam Jones, and Ryan Howard. That's almost 18 percent of the combined roster.

Even better news is that seven of the 10 are in their 20s and representative of a new generation of baseball fans and players. Finally, the young black athlete has black baseball players whom he or she can admire in their pursuit of a career in baseball.

We have a long way to go to reach the heights of African American baseball in the 70s, but this All-Star game is a step in the right direction. Carl Crawford's game saving catch at the wall and subsequent MVP honors can only help baseball's quest to win back the black athlete.

Brett Favre Used The Jets

Jayson Love — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:09:20 -0400

While it's painful to admit as a Jets fan and ardent Brett Favre supporter and admirer, Favre used the Jets to get what he truly desired: the opportunity to fire back at the Green Bay Packers.

If any of you truly believe Favre isn't foaming at the mouth at the opportunity to play in the NFC North, in a nice dome stadium for a Minnesota Vikings team with arguably the best running back in the NFL, you are either a bitter Packers fan or someone who believes musicians and boxers when they claim retirement.

Favre walks around with a sheepish grin, acts like a "good ol' boy" from the south and seems to be a simple man who wears his Wranglers and plays football in the mud with the local kids on the sandlot.

However, under that seemingly simple exterior, the gun-slinging quarterback has a cunning and calculating side. There is no question he waited for the Jets to draft Mark Sanchez, the soon-to-be highly paid, future face of the Jets for the next decade, before asking for and obtaining his release.

Despite the fact that the 2010 NFL season is slated to be an uncapped year, the Jets can't afford to have $25 million+ scheduled to be paid to two quarterbacks. The Jets simply couldn't afford to allow a sudden itch by the flip-flopping Favre to handcuff the Jets in a similar position that the 2008 Packers had with Favre and Rodgers on their roster.

However, for the Jets, the situation would have been even worse! The Jets would have already had the large sum of money and time wrapped up in Sanchez, and would have the extra handicap of the "poison pill" in surrendering three first-round picks by the Jets if Favre were traded to the Vikings—making it nearly impossible for the Jets to trade Favre.

Furthermore, Favre's true desire is to play for the aforementioned Vikings. So when the Jets took Sanchez, and Favre vehemently re-affirmed his retirement to ESPN personality and fellow member of the Quarterback fraternity, Trent Dilfer, the Jets granted Favre's request to be released.

Now, barely a week later, Favre is set to be wined and dined by Brad Childress and the rest of the Vikings brass. It's simply an offer to good for Favre to refuse.

As a Jets fan, you can't be upset. He thrilled you for a year, gave you some hope, and is partially responsible for the new and aggressive direction the Jets are taking.

Good luck Mr. Favre, you got what you wanted all along, your chance to avenge the way you were treated by the Packers. Hope it's worth it!

Fantasy Baseball Daily Transaction League Strategy: Understanding Flexibility

Jayson Love — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:47:35 -0500

As you enter your fantasy baseball draft, you need to know what league you are dealing with. Recently, I accidentally entered a daily transaction league and had to alter my draft and lineup setting strategy. If daily leagues are your thing, you need to do the same.

Flexibility is the word that should be floating in your mind as you draft. You need to understand several concepts. The first of which is that you still want to get your big sluggers early. These guys will carry your team throughout the season. They will play almost every day, and you want to have the best possible players playing as often as possible.

As for pitching, wait until the middle to late rounds of the draft for starters, and treat your closers like every day players and get them in the early-middle rounds. The value of the drafting of closers is up to you. If you feel that the top closer available when you pick in round four or five, is better than any hitter on the table, go get your closer. Otherwise, continue the drafting of major offensive talent.

Personally, I value top closers at a lower level than good hitters because closers don't necessarily play every day and good offensive players are almost guaranteed to play every day. As for starting pitchers, you want to wait until the end because most of the time, they won't be pitching two games a week and will waste a spot on your bench.

Back to flexibility for a second. The concept comes into play for two parts of your drafting strategy. First, and I can thank a fellow-fantasy player for this draft strategy, you will always leave at-least one roster spot open for a flexing pitcher; someone in the Livan Hernandez, Tim Redding, or Wandy Rodriguez mold. This is a guy that you will be adding and dropping all of the time to get as many starts as your league allows per week.

Sure, a guy like this can burn you, but he could also pay off huge dividends. Second, guys who have eligibility at multiple positions have increased value in daily transaction leagues. There are four guys you want to target on draft day. I feel pretty good because in my draft, I nailed three of them.

I will list them in order of most valuable to least valuable and explain why:

1. Kevin Youkilis

This guy is a tremendous hitter who developed power last year. Not only is he a top tier hitting third baseman, but his numbers are not to shabby for a first baseman as well. On the days where your top first baseman is off, you can plug Youkilis in at first and move your backup third baseman into your lineup, and vise-versa.

2. Alexei Ramirez

This guy went in the third round of my draft; far earlier than I expected. He was the one guy I missed out on. He is good enough to be your every day 2B all year, but it seems that the ChiSox are plugging him in at SS this year. This means that for this fantasy year, he is eligible at 2B and SS; both very shallow positions. Ramirez has TREMENDOUS value and I hope you are able to land him.

3. Mark DeRosa

Some people will be worried that last year was a career year for DeRosa and that his numbers were the result of playing in hitter-friendly Wrigley Field. I am not one of those people. You cannot expect him to put up better numbers than his 21 home-runs, 87 RBI and 103 Runs-scored, but if those numbers dropped, they would still be pretty good.

It is fair to expect that his numbers would drop to the level of the two seasons prior to 2008 when he hit between 10-13 home-runs, about 70 RBIs, and about 65 runs-scored. Those numbers are pretty good for a guy who can play 2B, 3B, and OF for you. Draft Mark DeRosa!

4. Jorge Cantu

This is the riskiest of the four guys I mention here, but I have done three drafts, and Cantu was around in the last four rounds of all of them. So, what is really the risk? A 17th round pick not working out? I think you will live!

Anyway, he had a career year last year, and once again, the Marlins will count on him to hit in the middle of their order. But good news for you, Florida will count on him to produce at both 1B and 3B. In this league, Prince Fielder is my everyday 1B and Youkilis is my every day 3B, but I wouldn't be the least bit upset to plug Cantu into one of those spots during the days "Youk" or Prince do not have games.

I hope this helps!

The State of Rutgers Basketball: Fred Hill Must Be the One to Get It Done

Jayson Love — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:48:08 -0500

If you are a frequenter of the Rutgers Message Boards, the New Jersey sports blogs, and the New Jersey newspapers, you know that when it comes to Rutgers basketball, there are those that want RU Men's basketball coach Fred Hill Jr. fired, and those that feel he deserves more time to build his program.

As this season progresses, the faction that wants him fired are screaming a little bit louder and its number of members have grown. Some that may have been "on the fence" are now leaning toward the call for Hill's dismissal.

The latest wooden log added to this fire (so to speak) was RU's latest loss; the 14th of the season, the 10th in Big East play, and the second consecutive loss to arch rival; Seton Hall. While it's embarrassing enough to lose 10 of 11 league games, the program and its fans have great difficulty with going zero for the season against The Hall.

The positives about Hill are that he has brought the best talent to Rutgers in the past 15 years, and continues to have great success recruiting locally. Despite losing the overwhelming majority of his first two-and-a-half seasons of games, no major recruit has de-committed from RU nor has the program lost any major transfers, despite more than sufficient reason to do so.

Somehow, the kids are buying into what this man is saying and promising.

However, the negatives are: mind-boggling in-game decisions that have RU fans questioning Hill's knowledge of the game, and most obviously, the consistency of losing that the basketball team has done under Hill's watch.

It's frustrating for the Rutgers fan to hear about growth and development, as programs that were recently in the same position as Rutgers, have risen to the middle and top of the Big East. It was a few short years ago that Rutgers beat SHU in the opening round of the Big East tournament.

It was a few short years ago that Rutgers routinely beat Villanova and West Virginia. And finally, it was a few years ago that St John's hit rock bottom with major scandals and embarrassing NCAA sanctions.

However, St John's sits today with three league wins (two more than RU), an above .500 overall season's record, and a legitamate shot at post-season play. RU meanwhile, sits in second to last place. Even lowly South Florida is ahead of them! It's certainly tough to take.

Looking at the overall situation, Rutgers has to hope and pray Hill gets it done. He has to be the man to do it. Rutgers simply will not pay a big name coach to take over this team. In fact, I'm not even sure a big name coach would want to coach at RU.

Rutgers has many obstacles in its path towards Big East Basketball competence. Obviously, it competes in a monstrous 16 team league. Louisville, UConn, Pitt, Villanova and Syracuse have top flight coaches that will always have their teams at the top of the league. That means RU will have all it can handle just to get to the middle of the pack in this league.

Rutgers plays its home games at the RAC; once a vaunted home court, but now, an out-dated, high school gym in which one cannot really imagine "big-time hoops" taking place. The university recruits NJ and New York; home to top basketball players, also the recruiting ground of the very teams it hopes to replace at the top of the league.

So what is the school to do? If Rutgers is serious about Big East basketball, and will not consider dropping down to a league like the A10 or the Patriot League, it needs to either step up and pay a big time coach to bring the program to the top, or put all its faith in Hill.

Whether the school and the state have the money to pay an experienced and successful coach or the state is as poor as it claims to be, it seems to be that RU won't pony up what it takes to pay a top-level coach.

Therefore, it seems that RU will always be hoping that the hot assistant will pan out. The school went that route in 2001 when it hired Gary Waters; the former head coach of Kent State, who took his Golden Flashes to the NCAAs, and led his team to an improbable win over Indiana in an opening round game.

At that time, Waters was as hot as any head coaching candidate in the country. However, his lack of NY/NJ recruiting relationships and determination with regards to recruiting of high school players, badly rounded out recruiting classes, and mismatched players that never seemed to fit his "system", led to his demise.

Enter Fred Hill Jr., son of RU's successful and legendary head baseball coach, it seemed RU made a superb hire. Here was a man with the one thing Waters lacked; NJ roots and local connections. His connections and relationships allowed him to land kids such as Corey Chandler, a Rivals.com four-star rated recruit, and RU's first McDonald's All-American; Michael Rosario.

As Rutgers fans learn more and more about Hill, his lack of head coaching experience is what is holding him back now. One can only hope for the sake of Hill and Rutgers University that Hill learns on the job in a similar fashion to RU's football coach Greg Schiano.

Firing Hill doesn't really make sense now. What would you do? Hire a temporary fix like Kansas State did with Bob Huggins? Get the one and done recruit, hope to find your way into national prominence and then fade to oblivion when the Bob-Huggins-type leaves for greener pastures?

Or, do you look for an assistant that seems to be leading a mid-major in the right direction? Do you start over, yet again?

At the very least, this is Hill's dream job and he actually wants to be here. Those are two things we cannot be sure any other coach feels about the State University of New Jersey. We must be the two things we don't want to be: patient, and hopeful.

Michael Phelps a Joke Of a Role Model

Jayson Love — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:35:47 -0500

I am a teacher at a public school in Westchester, NY. As such, I am incredibly sensitive to the issues that affect kids in today's society.

Contrary to what some people believe, kids are incredibly observant and aware of contemporary issues.

Michael Phelps, depicted here as the "clean-cut, All-American boy", made a "bad judgment" and promised that it would "never happen again".

Unfortunately for Phelps, "never again" doesn't fix what has already been done.

My colleague at my school told me about her young son—a fourth grader—who innocently asked his mother about smoking weed. His question was because he had heard that Phelps, whose Olympic gold medals inspired a nation, had been smoking weed.

What is she now supposed to say to her son?

Whether you like it or not, you are a role model Michael Phelps; just like Charles Barkley, he was and still is. The choices you make don't affect me. I am older and educated. However, they affect the kids who look up to you.

Thanks for making drugs part of the average fourth grader's vocabulary.

A Sports Bucket List: Top 10 Sports Things to Do Before You Die

Jayson Love — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:05:21 -0500

Here is a list of 10 things I think any sports fan would want to do before his or her death. It's a bucket list of sorts, and an expensive one at that! They will be numbered 10 down to one, with 10 being what I perceive to be the easiest, and one the most difficult/most costly. I hope it makes you think, opens a door for you, or inspires you.

10. Take in a ball game at Wrigley Field

Every game is sold out, but with Stub Hub etc., tickets can be had. You should preferably take in a weekday day game for the park's full effect and end it with a trip into Cubbie Bear, the great bar across the street, after what will hopefully be a Cubs win for the sake of the best possible atmosphere.

9. Take in a ball game at Fenway; preferably the Monster Seats

Very expensive, but I'd like to do this. I was there for the All-Star game in '99 and a playoff game shortly thereafter, and really enjoyed every second.

8. University of Michigan football game - Ann Arbor, MI

I've never done this, and I'd love to check out a game, preferably from the student section at the Big House.

7. Notre Dame football game - South Bend, IN

Like it or not (and I like it), this is becoming easier to do. I'd love to check out the tradition of a game here. I hate the program and its fanbase, but I still respect Notre Dame's storied history.

6. Daytona 500

I am by no means a race fan, but I would love to check this scene out. I've heard it's ridiculously fun!

5. The Kentucky Derby

I have heard it's a lot of fun, and I like gambling. Sounds like my kind of day! My girlfriend also wants to wear one of those big hats!

4. World Series of Poker Main Event

It's starting to get to the expensive part of the list; does someone want to loan me 10k?

3. Golf at Augusta National

As a golfer, I'd love to play the place where "The Masters" play.

2. Golf at St. Andrews

Golf in Scotland where it all started? What could be better? I can't imagine walking over that bridge on The Old Course!

1. The Super Bowl

I need to go to one of these before they box me up! Maybe when the Jets are in the game!

Draft Strategy: CBS Sports Premium League H2H

Jayson Love — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:26:01 -0500

This draft strategy planning guide is only applicable to CBS Fantasy Baseball Premium Public Head-to-Head Leagues.

Any draft strategy that purports to be useful for any fantasy format really can't be useful. There are many leagues that use similar rules, but each league has its own nuances that make the smart "fantasy baller" change his or her strategy.

For instance, if a random fantasy baseball league uses hits as an offensive scoring category, but does not designate scoring differences between hits and extra-base hits like doubles, triples or home runs, all of a sudden, Ichiro Suzuki becomes a more valuable player than a guy like Adam Dunn or even Alex Rodriguez.

However, if a second league rewards extra base hits, you want no part of Ichiro and want to look for those sluggers that can put your team over the top.

If you look at the rules of the CBS Sports public leagues, it is worth noting that offensively, extra base hits are rewarded and home runs are worth four points, the highest amount you can score for an offensive play.

However, if you delve deeper, you will also notice that a home run also will produce at least one RBI and one run (one point each). This means that even a solo home run is worth six points! Load up on sluggers, and get them often. The one-half point deduction for strikeouts is not a large enough deterrent to avoid drafting a guy who swings for the fences.

Even a guy like Adam Dunn, who fans upwards of 160 times a season, also walks over 100 times a year. You are awarded one point for each walk, so don't be scared away by the big strikeout numbers, you are winning with a guy like Dunn in the long run. Draft sluggers in the early rounds early and often.

Looking at pitching, there are two things to consider: First, for CBS Sports head-to-head leagues, your transactions run weekly; not daily. Therefore, you must be on the lookout for two-start pitchers with good matchups. Luckily, CBS Sports publishes this list weekly, and you can usually find some solid two-start guys. But this is draft strategy, so what does this mean for your draft?

This means, for starting pitchers, you use the late-middle to late rounds of your draft to take a lot of middle of the rotation solid pitchers—guys like Matt Garza, Mike Pelfrey, Ted Lilly, etc.

Look at all teams' rotations as your draft approaches. Figure out the guys that will be over-valued. Guys like Johan Santana or C.C. Sabathia are great, but if they are only starting once in a given week, you would be behind the eight-ball. Presumably, you had to use a first- or second-round pick on Johan or C.C. and missed out on a slugger like Prince Fielder and will be struggling to make up points all week in that matchup.

Looking at scoring, you will note that some of the scoring categories have changed. CBS Sports has not made any restrictions on innings pitched per year or game restrictions. That is good news for you. What is even further good news for you is that you are allowed to have five bench players a week as you start 16 players (21 total on your roster). This means, draft strategy! You need to know the guys you want to stow away on your bench; starting pitching and more starting pitching! Don't waste more than one roster spot on a backup outfielder or backup infielder. You are going to want to stash pitchers away; especially young guys with upside.

The guy who spent a late-round pick on Mike Pelfrey or Edinson Volquez was earning huge points every two weeks starting those guys! Odds are, your starting offensive players will stay healthy, if not, in a 10-team league (as the public leagues are) the waiver wires will have plenty of great options all year in case disaster strikes. I was able to add Xavier Nady and Alexei Ramirez in the middle of last year when I thought my season might have been done due to injuries.

Finally, CBS sports makes you start two closers. This is better than last year as you were unrestricted as to which pitchers you started. Closers became far overvalued (wins and saves were also valued at 10 points each last year) and were swooped up in rounds 1-4. Now that each team starts only two, that means only 20 closers are started each week. There are 30 major league teams, each with a closer. I'm not saying don't draft a good one, but in the middle of the draft, a solid guy will be out there.

Remember three things: Draft sluggers early and often, starting pitchers middle and late, and closers in the middle. Then, watch that waiver wire! Good luck!

Money and Musings: The Case for Manny and the Mets

Jayson Love — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:35:11 -0500

Far be it for me to tell Fred Wilpon how to spend his money. It has been reported that the Mets are seeking to keep their payroll around the $143,000,000 mark of the 2008 season. It has also been well documented that Wilpon may have lost millions in the Bernie Madoff scandal as well. The economy is in shambles.

Who knows how much these factors affect his ability to spend money on his baseball team? All that being said, it is a little tough to take for the Met fan to watch that team in the Bronx spend money as if it's an economic boom, and at a rate that far exceeds the rate that anyone has spent money in the history of any sport.

The Met fan has also had to watch the Mets collapse in back-to-back years. The Met fan has had to watch the hated Phillies dance at Citizen's Bank Ballpark as the World Series was brought to Philadelphia.

The time is now to serve the fans Mr. Wilpon. It's time to get creative! It is basic business. The opportunity is here for a buyer to get one of the best hitters to ever step to the plate on your team. All it costs is money.

Manny Ramirez is short of suitors. He currently only holds one offer from the L.A. Dodgers; a two-year deal that is reportedly worth about $25 million a season; a raise of $5 million per season from the contract he opted out of this offseason.

We know he is short of offers due to perceived short-comings in character. Those short-comings do not need rehashing.

However, it is for these short-comings that enable a player like Ramirez to be had for a relative bargain. All it will take is a third year. Is it a risk for this organization? Sure it is.

However, unless you are willing to take a risk, you run the risk of a stagnant life. The stagnant life for the Mets fan is predictable September collapses. It is impossible for the Mets fan to take.

Please Mr. Wilpon, open up the purse strings for Manny!

Rutgers Women's Basketball Coach C. Vivian Stringer Wins Her 800th Career Game

Jayson Love — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:40:59 -0500

Rutgers women’s basketball head coach, C. Vivian Stringer won her 800^th career game Wednesday night at the friendly confines of The RAC.

Her #4 nationally ranked Scarlet Knights outlasted the DePaul Blue Demons by the score of 60-46. Fans held and waved signs that read, "Congratulations Coach Stringer 800!"

The signs were frantically handed out by Event Staff as Senior forward Essence Carson dribbled out the clock, and handed the game ball to Stringer.

The win makes Coach Stringer only the third NCAA women’s basketball coach to win 800 or more games.

Stringer joins Jody Condradt, former head coach of the University of Texas and Tennessee’s current head coach, Pat Summit in the 800 win club.

It is also worth noting that Stringer is the first black woman to join this elite class of coaches. Appropriately, the win came in the Scarlet Knights’ final game in February, nationally regarded as Black History Month.

When asked what it meant to be the first black woman to win 800 games as a women’s basketball head coach, her reply was that she hadn’t even realized it.

Stringer began her coaching career 37 years ago at Cheyney State College, a historically black college outside of Philadelphia. It was there that she garnered a relationship with John Chaney, the legendary head coach of Temple.

Long before the women’s game gained any national recognition, Stringer turned Cheyney into one of the game’s early national powers compiling a record of 251 wins and 51 losses between 1971 and 1983.

She left the school for the University of Iowa after leading Cheyney to a 27-3 record in 1982-83 season. She led Cheyney to the final four two seasons before that, the first year that the tournament for women’s basketball was switched to the NCAA from the AIAW.

Stringer has coached Rutgers since 1995, and has led the Knights to two final four appearances, including last year’s memorable run to the championship game a season ago.

The only thing missing from the C. Vivian Stringer legacy is a National Championship. One she hopes to bring to the banks of the old Raritan this season.

The Scarlet Knights’ number 4 national ranking has RU in prime position for a number 1 seed in the NCAAs this March.

The Knights have two more regular season games left, and currently share the Big East lead with the University of Connecticut.

Should RU beat Syracuse on Saturday afternoon and the Huskies win at DePaul later that evening, Monday night will be the showdown for the regular season Big East title.

Rice, Greene, Leave Rutgers for NFL

Jayson Love — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:32:44 -0500

Ray Rice's middle name might as well be "School Record". He broke the single season Rutgers rushing mark in 2006 with 1,794 rushing yards (also a Big East conference single-season record), in 2007 he broke it again finishing up with 2,012 yards. He broke Terrell Willis' school record for rushing yards in a game with 243 yards in the 41-6 win against Army, and then broke that mark with a 280 yard performance in the International Bowl against Ball State University. He also holds the all-time rushing mark for the Scarlet Knights with 4,926 career rushing yards.

Rice has the school record for points by a non-kicker with 300 (50 career touchdowns), and tied a record for longest play from scrimmage in RU history, with a 90 yard sprint, stiff-arm, and stumble into the end-zone against Ball State this past Saturday. He did this all in just 3 seasons with the Scarlet Knights.

Originally, Ray Rice was headed to Syracuse with his best friend, and New Rochelle High School teammate, Courtney Greene.

When Paul Pasqueloni was unceremoniously fired by SU, it was a true turning point for Rutgers Football. Greene and Rice's recruitment was re-opened and Greg Schiano jumped at the chance to recruit the two stars. They both chose Rutgers. While Greene's career was not as visibly and statistically productive as the career of Ray Rice, Greene solidified a secondary that consistently yielded big plays before his arrival.

His big hits and pass-breakups were vital to so many wins for the Scarlet Knights. When a big play did occur, you could usually find Greene on the sideline and not at fault. The two friends will try their luck at the NFL level next year as the two of them made their announcement to leave the team to pursue the NFL draft this April.

While this news saddened many of the Rutgers faithful, it is yet another in long line of things to occur to this program that seemed impossible at the beginning of Schiano’s tenure. Players leaving early from college football programs seemed reserved for the USC's and Michigan's of the college football world. Now it is happening at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights will miss Rice and Greene, but the fans, their school, and this writer wish them the best of luck in the NFL. Go Ray Ray and Courtney, and Go RU!

Rutgers FB: Why I'm Excited About the International Bowl

Jayson Love — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:48:23 -0500

As I sit down to write this article, I can't wait to get myself to sleep so I can wake up for my AM flight to Toronto.

Did I know I'd be going to Toronto in January before the season started?

Of course not.

As a loyal Scarlet Knight fan and season-ticket holder since my graduation from Rutgers in 2004, I bought into the hype and believed I'd be spending this week in Florida at the Orange Bowl, or maybe even in New Orleans for the BCS title game.

Well, maybe I knew in my heart of hearts that we weren't good enough to win it all—but I did dream.

In any case, off I go to Toronto.

For the third straight year (and only the fourth time in our "illustrious" history), Rutgers is going bowling. Still, many of my fellow fans are complaining; they've even gone so far as to call the season "awful."

How far we have come.

I remember sitting in the stands with a few thousand people wondering if the Knights would even get on the scoreboard, wondering if I'd get to hear the "The Bells Must Ring" for any kind of score—a field goal, a safety, maybe even (dare I dream?) a touchdown.

Some games, we didn't even cross midfield. And some people have forgotten from whence we came.

As my girlfriend can attest, I've told the "2002 Temple game in the rain" story one too many times. We were literally able to follow a Temple 99-yard drive down the field, stopping in every section to yell at then-Temple quarterback Mike McGann and running back Tanardo Sharps as they broke our hearts.

There were so few fans in the stands that the public address announcer was able to say, "Young man, please close your umbrella," as a driving rain fell on the players and fans.

I took a bus to Temple in 2003 to watch Rutgers win its first Big East game in 26 tries. And all Rutgers fans know what I'm talking about when I say 80-7—the thrashing we took at WVU in 2000.

Now?

We sell out game after game, and there's a freaking waiting list for RU season tickets. In back-to-back seasons, we've upset the No. 3 and No. 2 teams in the country. Sure, USF was a paper tiger—but who cares? It still counts!

We not only win Big East games, we now win several Big East games. We went from hoping to win some games to winning 18 games in two years—and will hopefully add our 19th on Saturday.

People say there are too many bowl games, that Division I-A needs a playoff system. Well I submit to you that, at least for some fans, bowl games are still special.

Go Knights!

Is Baseball Really Confronting Steroid Use?

Jayson Love — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:52:06 -0500

What makes steroids in sports so bad? Why is the issue of steroids in baseball the object of debate in Congress while seemingly more pressing issues are ignored? Why are Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens in the news every single day?

If you watch an hour of television, particularly a sporting event, you will undoubtedly see a commercial or two talking about how steroids destroy a young athlete’s body. Though it is easy to cite the negative effects of steroid use, such as its implication in various health problems and aggressive behaviors in its users, it is also possible to speak of its positive effects.

This clouds the issue of steroid use.

So why is it so important to “clean up” baseball of this “problem”?

Fans of baseball argue that it needs to maintain the “integrity of the game.” Steroid use in baseball is such a pressing issue because it is one part of the much larger problem of drug use in America. In a sense, we are lucky because professional baseball players are very public and have a major influence in society, particularly over adolescents and even more so over adolescents who play sports. If this issue is dealt with properly, it can be a springboard to deal with the issue of general drug use with American youth in a similar way to the anti-smoking ads that are ran during sporting events.

It is easy to pass steroid use as just another form of therapy to assist with medical conditions. Steven Shapin, is his article entitled, “Cleanup Hitters” writes:

So there has always been the thinnest of lines between medical augmentation and medical restoration. Is the task of the physician to maintain and restore normal function? If so, what is to count as normal? Or is it to enhance and release the full range of human potential?

The issue of what is normal and abnormal is certainly debatable as Shapin suggests. Though it is indeed a physician’s job to restore normal functioning in his patient and/or establish medication or surgery that allows for the best possible life for his or her patient, is it really applicable to the issue of steroid use?

Jose Canseco did indeed utilize steroids to assist in the recovery process, Shapin says:

"So, it's worth noting that anabolic steroids not only helped Canseco turn into a home-run-hitting monster but also, he says, allowed him to recuperate from a series of back surgeries which could otherwise have ended his career."

Here we see a positive outcome of steroids. Shapin describes how Canseco was able to utilize steroids in his recuperation from multiple surgeries much as a doctor would prescribe medication to curb an obese person’s appetite, assist someone’s sex life, or subdue the tendencies of a hyperactive child. However, he also suggests the steroids turned Canseco into a muscle-bound home run slugger.

So is this the issue? Is it the fact that steroid use makes for superhuman athletes, like Canseco, who make the playing field unequal and damage the “integrity” of the game? I don’t believe that is the issue either. If equity is the issue at bar, then any substance that provides a gainful advantage for an athlete will be brought into play. Shapin describes, “In one way or another we have always been juiced. When coffee and tea were new in the western world, they were seen as powerful (and often dangerous) mind-and body-altering substances”. While this seems silly at first glance, if our argument against steroids is that it makes for unfair advantages, one can argue that the pitcher would be less awake if he wasn’t allowed his morning coffee or tea or the catcher would not be able to play today’s game if he wasn’t allowed to take his cortisone shot or his pill-form painkillers to alleviate the pain in his knees. It will be a never ending series of: “if you ban steroids, then you must ban x” arguments.

So why is this issue so pressing? Why is congress “wasting their time” trying to figure out how to “clean up” baseball? Shouldn’t they be worrying about the middle- east or maybe even the national debt? While those are issues that should be a concern to the federal government, the issue of steroids is a very important issue with which the congress should deal because of the profound impact Major League Baseball has on the United States. In 1998, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were chasing home run history, baseballs were flying out of stadiums at an alarming rate. Nobody questioned it. Millions of fans flocked to parks and McGwire and Sosa became role models for the masses. Millions of young ballplayers emulated McGwire’s elbowing his teammates and Sosa’s two fingered kiss to the heavens when they hit their home runs.

As it comes out that these men allegedly utilized steroids to accomplish their feats, millions of young players are faced with a choice: the clean path or the dirty one. With the pressures of college scholarships, professional contracts, to be won with elevated stats and impressive physiques the allure of steroids is at an all-time high. During the 2006 season, despite the attempt to cleanse baseball of its steroid use, there have been at least 6 suspensions of low level minor league players and average major leaguers for steroid use. These are people who are attempting to find something that will enable them to “make it” in their sport. There is also a belief that although steroid use has been hindered in baseball, it is still rampant, particularly with other forms of body enhancement such as human growth hormone. This method of body enhancement is still undetectable by the manners of testing available to major league baseball. Furthermore, there is very little testing done in high schools. The idea that steroids produce star ballplayers cause many young athletes to begin experimenting with these substances in high school, a time where steroids can do their most damage. A Bradenton Herald article entitled, “Steroids sabotage high school sports” by Daniel Landesberg describes steroid use in various forms at the high school level. He mentions that at-least “6 percent [of high school] students have tried” steroid in an attempt to “bulk up”. This is the crux of the problem

In order to cut off the use of steroids and other dangerous substances at a young age, steroid use must be stopped at the top. If young athletes see that their role models are clean and playing the game unaltered by steroids, perhaps the pressures will be for them to follow in the footsteps of their heroes for positive reasons and not negative ones. When a young athlete is faced with an opportunity to utilize steroids so that he can “improve” his body, perhaps he can think to himself, “The Major Leaguers don’t use it, I shouldn’t either”. To save this athlete’s life, makes all of the deliberation of congress and implementation of testing valuable and time-worthy. Provided baseball is able to rid itself of steroids, it is its argument that the process is necessary for the “integrity of the game” has limitations. Besides the fact that steroid use has been linked to faster recuperation of its athletes, the sport falls short with its policies, or more accurately lack of policies, for the use of other illegal substances. Shouldn’t we be concerned our nation’s youth will also emulate its role-model athletes in their use of other illegal substances?

Presently, the use of steroids for recreation and/or bodybuilding is illegal in the United States at a federal level. However, amphetamines, Cocaine, and Marijuana are also illegal. We cannot trust Major League Baseball, an entity that has in the past demonstrated apathy to steroid use and its lack of concern for these illicit drugs, to police itself with regards to steroid use. In an article entitled, “Sadly, Steroids Saved Baseball”, Ben Walker describes the 1998 season of McGwire and Sosa home runs. He writes, “But when it came to making baseball popular again and turning it into a booming business, nothing did the job like home runs. Particularly 500-foot home runs”. These very long home runs drew millions of fans to the ballparks, made baseball popular again, and of course brought in millions of dollars. How did baseball react to these home runs? They didn’t. Walker describes:

"In those days, few delved deeply into why balls were flying over the fences. Rather, there were stock answers: smaller parks, watered-down pitching, juiced balls and bigger players. Looking back, certainly there should have been a closer examination from all sides. But there was such a boom, hardly anyone wanted to question it."

As the ‘balls were flying’, and attendance spiking, baseball turned a blind and unquestioning eye. People did not investigate the use of steroids; there was “no issue” in the eyes of the sport. However, after the speculation with regards to Barry Bonds’ alleged steroid-use due to his involvement with a laboratory called BALCO that he allegedly admitted to a grand jury in December of 2004, baseball now has some explaining to do. The court of public opinion cast doubt on any player belting home runs and thought back on that season of 1998. Now, it is “baseball’s goal” to clean up the sport.

In an Associated Press article dated 11/15/05, baseball’s commissioner Bud Selig, reacted to an agreement the owner’s reached with the players that would lead to a 50 game suspension for first offense, an 100 game suspension for a second offense, and a third offense resulting in a lifetime ban for steroid use. He said, "This is an important step to reaching our goal of ridding our sport of performance-enhancing substances and should restore the integrity of and public confidence in our great game. I appreciate the effort put forward by the players' association and our players in reaching this new agreement." Selig is trying to display a desire to clean his sport up of the steroids of which he was most likely aware in 1998. If he was aware of the steroid use in 1998, he ignored it. If he was not aware of it, then he is incompetent. Either way, how could we trust Selig to clean this mess? His latest strategy was the deployment of Senator George Mitchell to create a report of illicit steroid-use in baseball. However, Selig’s inability to force his players to talk to the senator; which also points to a lack of control over his sport, led to the creation of a 409 page document consisting mostly of hearsay and finger pointing. The players can simply deny allegations, and chalk up any finger-pointing to circumstantial evidence and/or lying.

Until the investigation into Barry Bonds, and the fan/congressional reaction to steroid use, cleaning up baseball was the furthest thing from Selig’s mind. Furthermore, cocaine use, marijuana use, and other recreational drug use, have been reported on all levels of sports. We read about drugs recovered from athletes’ cars all of the time in the newspaper, but no one is calling for lifetime bans for this kind of activity. No one is waxing poetic talking about the “integrity of the game”, or harkening back to the old days when “no one used steroids”. Very often there are minor suspensions, and the athlete is given dozens of chances depending on his talent for his sport. Major league relief pitcher Steve Howe pitched for 17 seasons. Though he had a career winning record, it was his seven drug related suspensions that was his most impressive statistic. He was given eight chances to “recover” because he could still get major league batters out.

In fact, this kind of drug use has been a major problem in baseball for decades. In an interview in the fall of 2005, Atlanta Braves’ All-Star Third-baseman Larry “Chipper” Jones was asked about the prevalence of performance-enhancing drug use in baseball. He stated that while he “never saw anyone use steroids”, he often saw “greenies” or amphetamines – another illegal substance, being utilized by teammates on a regular basis. He called that a “bigger problem than steroids”. Steve Phillips, the former General Manager of the New York Mets and current ESPN analyst spoke about former players describing clubhouses with two different pots of coffee: “one leaded and one unleaded”, referring to the spiking of this coffee with amphetamines. Former Major Leaguer Jim Bouton, in his famed book Ball Four, writes extensively about rampant amphetamine problems as far back as 1970. In that book he referred to Amphetamines as the “greenies” to which Jones and Phillips referred in their interviews. So, we can see that Major League Baseball has been inundated with problems with drugs for a very long time now. Amphetamines were not banned until 2006, 40 years too late. Even with all of these banned substances, baseball admits it cannot test for anything other than steroid-use and Human Growth Hormone has becomes the drug of choice due to this fact.

So how can we trust baseball to police itself given his track record? The baseball hierarchy is sending a message right now that steroid use is wrong when it is discovered that a major star was a user, but not when it leads to home run races that pack ballparks when baseball’s popularity is lagging! It hasn’t said a word about a campaign to limit drug use in Major League Baseball. We need to ban athletes for steroid use because it compromises statistics, but give them second chances if it is marijuana or cocaine (provided they can hit or throw a ball of course). These are dangerous messages to send to fans, especially its young and adolescent fans. This is where baseball’s hiding behind the “integrity of the game argument” is lacking. While baseball and other sports need to concentrate more fully on its policies on all drugs, congress should step in to assist baseball in policing an issue that has been the subject of such waffling within the last eight years. Perhaps, congress which has the nation to think about in its deliberations would be able to enact a policy that would be effective against all drug use in baseball as well as the other major sports. Baseball has a conflict of interest when dealing with steroids and can only deal with it as a reaction to big stars getting caught. It has to clean itself up with regards to steroid use, but also must appease its players so that money can be made. Congress can come at this issue from an outsider’s prospective and deal with issue as part of a much larger problem. So indeed while there are certainly more pressing issues for congress, the issue of steroid use is not simply a “baseball issue”. It is one part of the national issue of any and all drug use in America and specifically its youth.