Getting a bit twitchy as the start of the season approaches. According to the received fantasy baseball wisdom I should have more pitching on my bench and, even though Yahoo haven’t got him designated as such, it seems that Scott Shields will start the season on the DL. So I have started to work the waiver wire a little and found that someone has cut Heath Bell, which I’m a bit surprised about, should get very serviceable WHIP and ERA which would stand comparison with Shields’ numbers and so I’ve put a claim in for him. Maybe less surprising a find on the waiver wire is Barry Zito, I was never a huge fan of his whilst he was at the A’s, and even less of a fan now he’s with the Giants, nevertheless he is a Cy Young winner from 2002 and should still be in his prime, but mainly he’s available. Going to juggle the outfield and drop Teahen, I know he’ll just be devastated, didn’t even get to start a game for me, but fantasy baseball is a ruthless game and I need the bench spot for a little pitch or ditch should I get Zito. I’ve got the 6th rank on the waiver wire at the moment so I guess there are 5 ahead of me that could pick up Bell and if he falls to me then I guess I’ll be back to 14th rank for Zito which will mean that everyone in the league will have to pass on him. I would like to get both but in the event I don’t get either then I should have moved up to 4th rank on the waiver wire, worst case would be not to get Bell, move up to 5th rank and then get Zito and be back at 14th afterwards. Will learn of the outcome at close of play tomorrow.

Received my first trade offer today and thought someone was right on the ball and going to be looking for an edge by offering a halfway decent outfielder, at a little above market rate, to cover the hole left by Granderson. But it turns out to be Jamie Shields and Carlos Peña for Russell Martin, which I think is a reasonable offer, Shields could have a very decent season on a much improved Rays team but he’s still going to see a lot of the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays and Peña had a career season last year but there is not a lot of confidence in fantasyland that he’s going to repeat. After the draft I was pretty happy with the team I had put together, only time will tell if it’s as good as I think, and I intend to go with them for the first month of the season at least, injury excepted. Now whilst I think that it’s a reasonable offer, fair value on either side, I do wonder if my trade partner on this one has looked at the rest of my roster, I have Swisher currently at 1st and if I’m looking for a little more power from this spot I have Giami on the bench, I’m not getting a catcher coming back so I would either have to trade again to cover this spot or pick up a free agent as I can’t go with Napoli as my everyday catcher. So I would be looking at picking up the likes of Paul Lo Duca, Kurt Suzuki or Ryan Doumit?!? The trade is also 2 for 1, so to get the value from the trade I would have to drop someone to clear a roster spot, again, something I’m not looking to do at this time in pre-season. Now I’m not criticising the guy, this is part of the fun of fantasy, something drops into your inbox out of the blue and demands consideration but he hasn’t done everything he could to get me to bite. Maybe something like, Mark Texeira and Josh Bard for Martin and Napoli would have piqued my interest far more but he’s probably giving up a little too much. I still wouldn’t have done it because I’m going to give my current strategy a decent chance to stand or fall and if, after 4-6 weeks of the regular season, it’s dying on it’s arse then I will look to go in a different direction.

Forget trivia like goats in Wrigley Field and the former problem the Red Sox had with the Bambino, when am I going to start getting calls from Major Leaguers begging not to be drafted on to my fantasy teams? Curtis Granderson, one of the keys, along with Chase Utley, of my ‘a little bit of everything’ strategy from many of my roster without paying for big power or speed guys, as well as being one of my favourite players after the pieces he did for Five last year and his post season analyst work, will miss at least the first week of the regular season with a broken finger after being put on 15 day DL retroactive 23rd March, moved Casey Blake from the bench to the outfield and picked up Mark Teahan to fill the bench spot. Scott Shields has been shut down for the time being, recently had shoulder soreness and now has forearm tightness but not on the DL for the moment. Gagne is still looking like the chucker who stank it up in Boston at the end of last year but there are no free agents left in my league who are going to have the opportunity to close so if I’m going to compete in saves then Gagne is going to have to come up with the bulk of them, might get a little contribution by way of vulture saves from Chamberlain and Broxton, have to assume Chamberlain will close when the Yankees give Rivera his inevitable rest but Saito is looking healthy in front of Broxton so far this spring.

In the merry go round of England cricket, up to our eyeballs in the sewage at lunch and foot hovering perilously close to the New Zealand throat by close of play. And we also learn of the retirement, from international cricket, of Marcus Trescothick. I certainly wish him the best of luck with his health and a long and successful continuation of his county career but sad to see the England career of a quality opener, and as fine a judge of the pace of an innings at the top of the order as we have had in recent times, come to a close.
So did the batsmen check their brains at the turnstiles as they went into the ground at Napier? They certainly seem to have taken to heart all the pre-match publicity about the strip being a batsman’s paradise and all they needed to do was turn up; it was inevitable that they would post a big score and it was then going to be down to the bowlers to, somehow, prise out the opposition. So having been shot out for a Sunday league, 40 over score and watched NZ take it to a fairly unflustered hundred and odd for one by lunch we appear to be heading up shit creek without benefit of paddle or even canoe. And then, having been given the example of how not to do it, Pietersen excepted and with a nod to Broad and Collingwood, the NZ batsmen perished in a blizzard of millionaire shots. If we are to rely on brainless batting from the opposition, one-off batting performances and just one consistent bowler we will struggle against NZ when they come over here and get royally stuffed by the Aussies next year. The building of form should have already started if we are to compete for the Ashes. I’m not saying either should go but Moores and Vaughan should be looking critically about how they are to build momentum through the English summer as, win, lose or draw the current series, we have precious little at this point.

However I can’t see this lasting too long as so much of the interest revolved around inability of ‘the best drivers in the world’(© NASCAR drivers, IRL drivers etc. etc.) to execute an overtaking manoeuvre without punting someone into the weeds or bending some metal. Now I’m sure this is as a result of long unfamiliarity with the procedure and unless the drivers get up to snuff with the process in the next couple of races then Max Mosley will have no option but to ban the whole process on the track and only allow it to take place during pit stops otherwise the whole circus starts to look like banger racing from Wisbech.

And of course the other highlight, unlikely to be repeated, was David Coulthard’s live on air outburst to ‘beat several colours of shit out of the little bastard’ when interviewed immediately after returning to the pits having being given the equivalent of a hip check into the kitty litter by Massa. Whilst this candid ejaculation by Dave ‘The Scottish Claymore’ Coulthard was far more interesting a quote than those offered by the good corporate soldiers of NASCAR straight after retiring from 46th place in the race, (‘The (insert car manufacturer name) 62 car was real good today and I like to thank (insert car owner name) for giving me such a great package. I felt that 2nd from last with three laps to go was just the sort of track position I was looking for with the (insert major sponsor name)(insert manufacturer name again), we’ll get ‘em next time.) it was somewhat embarrassing due to the fact that he was wrong to lay the blame on Massa. Massa was all but inches from being fully alongside by the apex and had it pulled up to make the corner and Coulthard simply turned in on him as if he didn’t know he was there, which was also very curtly denied during his outburst.

But all this frivolity aside, the removal of the driver aids did make for a more interesting spectacle and whilst I still don’t see many six car dices for the lead at the end of the races there should at least be something going on, somewhere in the field, some of the time.

I still don’t have my iPod back and here is a very good reason why I miss it. ‘Alastair Darling; he’s a fucking dreary old stick isn’t he?’, since the budget I seem to have heard little else and my response every time has been, ‘OK, if you say so, and this affects me how?’. Radio 4 banged on about Darling’s style on the Today program on Thursday morning, carefully not offering any direct editorial on something as insubstantial as ‘style’ but effectively doing so by regurgitating, ad nauseum, every bit of lazy journalism offered by the thoughtless hacks that appeared in print that morning. So just who do you want in No. 11 Downing Street, Benny Hill, The Krankies, who? These self same hacks are the ones who bemoan the cult of personality in politics and pontificate about ‘style over substance’ whenever Blair, Brown or Cameron et al spin something into the public domain which doesn’t suit their particular political bent. I do not give a flying fuck how he delivered the detail of how he’s going to screw a few more shekels out of my pocket, he could have been dressed as a Telly Tubbie® and sounding like Dame Hilda Brackett, I just want to know about the detail, I want analysis of the substance, I don’t want to hear about how awful it must have been for the poor hacks to have to endure such a dull delivery, for less than 60 minutes, once a year.

Am I being harsh in asking if Peter Moores has done foxtrot-alpha towards getting an England team to the point where they can take the field next year with more than a dog’s chance of wresting the Ashes from Australia? Clearly there are things outside his control, four bowling coaches in the last 2 years, Troy Cooley, Kevin Shine, Alan Donald and now Otis Gibson and a period of continuity here would not go amiss but it’s not news that a number of pundits have suggested that warm up games and preparation for recent tours has not been ideal, yet this seemed less of an issue, for the bowlers at least, whilst Troy Cooley was bowling coach. Whilst I unreservedly applaud Steve Harmisons’s honesty in a recent interview regarding his commitment to his family and acknowledgement that this offers a distraction whilst on tour, he clearly has to reconcile this commitment to the one that he has as a member of the touring England Test team, if he becomes the next Marcus Trescothick will Moores want him on a home tests only basis? Today Moores praised Tim Ambrose for his performance, and rightly so, and pointed to the work he has done with Andy Flower. OK, well done Andy Flower and whilst I assume that Flower did not work exclusively with Ambrose, how did Moores regard the work Flower did with the top five batsmen? The five that Moores left unchanged after the miserable performance in the last test and who once again failed, Strauss in particular, whose dismissal was woeful and continued a pattern which must be addressed and should have been before his return to the side.

I just don’t like the tone from Moores and Vaughan, the quotes I hear seem more suited to what you would hear from a coach bringing on a development squad not one in charge of a squad which includes 200+ test wicket bowlers and a top order with, collectively, many hundreds of caps. The approach behind the scenes may be different to the public projection but he’s been in the job long enough and should be confident enough in his relationship with the players that he can call them out publicly and obtain a response without having to drop them. No one in the squad is of an age where their ability plummets like a stone down a well so this is a form issue, virtually across the board, and this has to come back, in large part, to the coaching staff, Moores, Flower and Gibson, to a lesser extent the selectors, Moores, Miller, Whitaker and Giles, and to a lesser extent still the ECB who agreed the itinerary.

So, after two and a half hours of drafting, when there seemed to be plenty of connection problems for some of the other team owners and others where they seemed to be asleep at the switch and, after 90 seconds of dead time, ended up with some bum picks (Curt Schilling, Chris Carpenter????) we have the lineup. If last year is anything to go by then about half a dozen of them will be on the DL before the season starts.
Very happy to have Russell Martin, Chase Utley, Curtis Granderson, Aaron Harrang, and Jonathan Broxton and, given the late rounds they were taken, pleased to have Casey Blake, Jeff Kent and Jason Giambi. Think I may have lost the plot a little in the middle rounds though as I have a few doubts about Jhonny Peralta and had Saito lined up to be paired with Broxton in a later round when he was taken about 5 picks earlier and I’m wondering if it was a bit of a panic move to look for the bulk of my saves to come from Gagne. A few uncertainties with the likes of Chamberlain, Kennedy and Lester and, only just realised, no pitcher on the bench but the potential upside is definitely there. The bench and position flexibility of Swisher and Blake offer good cover, Giambi for Swisher at 1st, Thomas for Griffey at Utility, Blake for Glaus at 3rd and any of the Outfield positions and Kent for Utley at 2nd. At the outset Napoli will cover the few days off that Martin takes but might have to sacrifice him to open up a bench spot for some pitching cover. Harrang is the only pitcher who might be considered an ‘ace’ and was a little under the radar on a mediocre Reds team which should push the Cubs and Brewers a lot harder this year in the NL Central. Outside of Utley and Griffey most of the power is on the bench with Thomas, Giambi and Kent so there will have to be a revolving door on the bench spots as I try to balance average and hits against power. No cover at short stop so I hope Peralta is looking after himself as the best option left on the table after the draft was Bobby Crosby of my sorry, no account (for the next couple of years) A’s.

C Russell Martin (LAD - C )
1B Nick Swisher (CWS - 1B,OF )
2B Chase Utley (Phi - 2B )
3B Troy Glaus (StL - 3B )
SS Jhonny Peralta (Cle - SS )
OF Curtis Granderson (Det - OF )
OF Corey Hart (Mil - OF )
OF Matt Kemp (LAD - OF )
Util Ken Griffey Jr. (Cin - OF )
BENCH Frank Thomas (Tor - Util )
BENCH Jeff Kent (LAD - 2B )
BENCH Casey Blake (Cle - 1B,3B,OF)
BENCH Jason Giambi (NYY - 1B )
BENCH Mike Napoli (LAA - C )
SP Aaron Harang (Cin - SP )
SP Jon Lester (Bos - SP )
RP Joba Chamberlain (NYY - RP )
RP Eric Gagne (Mil - RP )
P Jonathan Broxton (LAD - RP )
P Scot Shields (LAA - RP )
P Ian Kennedy (NYY - SP )

If needed then this weekend has highlighted why sport is such fun! England went out of their way to please the Scots and New Zealanders, though even the Scots might have wished for a more exciting spectacle in which to turn over the auld enemy at Murrayfield than the imagination vacuum we witnessed yesterday afternoon. The Welsh have the Triple Crown and the prospect of a Grand Slam after looking like they would struggle to win a game based on the first 45 minutes of their Six Nations Championship. The FA Cup (Sponsored by E-On, yawn) turned into, well, the FA Cup, just one Premiership club in the semi finals and not one of the ‘Big Four’. Bradley Smith started on pole for the 125cc race at the Qatar GP and whilst it turned out not to be Bradley’s day we still had two brits in the top six and we have James Toseland making some noise, 2nd on the grid, in the night time Moto GP race. I’m sure that spring valve Yamaha shouldn’t be up there and it seems that it may well not be come the end of the race due to having to make changes to manage the fuel consumption.

And I still have my fantasy baseball draft to look forward to later tonight, not a matter of importance matching that of the events above but it amuses me!

Went to see Dara O’Briain last night at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge. What an excellent evening only slightly spoilt by the miserable acoustics in the Corn Exchange. If this is the only venue in Cambridge for this sort of event then so be it but with O’Briain’s machine gun delivery it meant that I missed about 10% of his material, but even so I would go to see him there again like a shot. He did about 2 hours of material with a 20 minute break, no padding, no coasting, just on it every minute. I guess that about 75-80% was scripted and the rest was having the craic with the audience and the way he worked with what he got from the audience was just as good as the scripted stuff. I got hacked off with improv ‘comedians’ long ago when the aim changed from being humorous to just being clever, making connections, juxtaposing and little else. O’Briain seems to understand that the first order of business is to be funny, if you can or need to be clever in order to achieve this, then he has the tools, but first, last and every time in between, you have to deliver the laughs and this is what he does.
I’ll certainly be trying to catch him again whenever he’s next on tour but I’ll also be checking his schedule to find somewhere other than the Corn Exchange to see him.

So the iron man Brett Farve has called it a career, though the boys on PTI did suggest that he might reconsider. Farve deserves mention with the best quarterbacks of the generation I’ve seen play, Elway, Marino, Manning, Brady and the best of them all, Joe Montana. Not sure that many outside Wisconsin would put Farve at the top of this illustrious pile but he is head and shoulders above them as an entertainer. There was no telling what would happen on any given play when the ball was in Farve’s hand, he might jump up grinning at some lineman who’d just planted him, he might cough up the ugliest of interceptions or might just make the most remarkable of plays, plays that couldn’t be made by any of the above mentioned, great as they were, 60 yards down the field in the air, off his back foot, shovel passes, a rifle pass 30 yards downfield but barely getting 8 feet off the ground all the way or something that just defies description. The next NFL season won’t quite be the same, particularly in Green Bay.

I was disappointed to hear on the Sky coverage of the Australia vs. India ODI that there was some possibility of the cricket authorities throwing the book at Andrew Symons after his take down of a streaker by putting his shoulder in to the guy’s chest. Let’s be clear, this fuckwit got exactly what he deserved and must have expected, though he may have expected the take down to come from someone in a police uniform but really if you get that close to someone who you would think is bound to have some Aussie Rules and rugby background in him then you may have your mind on the ‘tackle’ you’re giving an airing to but he may have another sort of tackle in mind. There is a clear demarcation here, spectators are one side of the rope and the players are the other, performing on the stage that their talent entitles them to. And the twain shall not meet. There are times when enthusiasm and excitement result in the fans and players meeting on the pitch but this was not one of these occasions, this idiot was not a fan, he wasn’t there to support a team, he was there to say ‘look at me!’, well we did, we watched you get your clock cleaned good and proper and hopefully your still nursing some sore ribs.

When I got an iPod a friend of mine gave it 13 months. There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that my iPod seems to have lunched itself for no apparent reason, the good news is that it’s only 11 months old. Used it at the gym yesterday without problem but when I got home and went to sync it there was a message saying I needed to connect it to the computer to ‘Restore’ it but it was not recognised by either iTunes or the PC. Toast. So back to Comet and now facing two weeks of Radios 4, 5 and 2. I might be OK if I can just avoid Nicky Campbell first thing in the morning. There might have been a small warning that there was a problem brewing with the iPod, I has to reset it a couple of times in the last month after disconnecting it from the PC but I put that down to a new version iTunes I’d installed.

And now to a very small sample consumer survey, the sample being me, unsurprisingly. BP Ultimate Diesel. Recently got a 54 plate Mondeo Diesel and ran three tanks of BP Ultimate Diesel through it, about 1800 miles, and it returned 55.4 miles to the gallon. I’m now on my third tank of BP bog standard diesel; within about the first quarter tank the MPG dropped to 54.6 and has stayed there after a further 1200 miles or so, which represents a difference of about 1.5% in MPG, the price differential at the pump between the two is about 5%. That does not suggest value for money to me. Maybe worth running the odd tank through from time to clean up the fuel system if the MPG starts to drop with standard diesel but otherwise that’s what I’ll be sticking with.