biggentleben

South Dakota's basketball tournament certainly has small school fun. I know because my alma mater is in the midst of the smallest-level championship this year, and I know how crazy the town has become. Multiple businesses have put out notices for tomorrow (the first day of the state tourney) that they will be closed.

I think it's a matter of whether you can separate yourself and your fandom from the actions on the field. Too many cannot, which leads to the jerks on Twitter that hound 16 year-old kids incessantly about attending their favorite college for sports or people sending tweets that'd make the Curt Schilling tweets blush to an athlete when he struggles. One of the last tweets (since taken down) that Oscar Tavares received was a fan telling him how his performance in the playoffs showed how he was a waste of Cardinals roster space and that his mother should have just not carried his pregnancy to term (to put it in much, much kinder terms). College tourney time is one of my favorite times of the year, though, as you get more of that pure passion like you see in high school athletics as well among athletes. Fans are what fans are, but even those who don't have a team in the tourney can enjoy the energy of the young men (and women) playing the games. I will agree that it's pretty rare that I watch a college basketball regular season game unless I'm in person.

If by higher level you mean Matz/Syndergaard, you may have a future in comedy. If by higher level, you mean the guys who start at AAA for the Mets (likely guys like Cory Mazzoni, Darin Gorski, or Matthew Bowman), you might have a chance to get them for Duensing and Perkins.

I will say that I did launch my fantasy rankings on Tomahawk Take this year in late January, so if you're interested, you can check out the following links (remember this is based on January information): Catchers First Basemen/DH Second Basemen Third Basemen Shortstops Outfield Starting Pitching Relief Pitching Prospects

I'm a bit overbooked to join one, though I've been talking with some friends of mine about starting a dynasty in a little different format than most for next season. I just need that much time to put together how to run it. I wish there were as many good options for hosting a game for free for baseball as there are for fantasy football. So many people wimp out when any money is discussed with fantasy sports, so it's hard to get a league going that requires a decent server to host it. The basics of the league idea are a salary-based dynasty league where you can sign players to contracts of length and dollar amount, started with a draft of salaries based on 2015 performance (or an auction, but that requires a much better server to put together), followed with a yearly draft of the previous season's rookies and IFA's that assigns a salary based on the round they're drafted. Waivers would work with FAAB bidding and that salary would be the salary assigned the player at the end of the season. The biggest issue is finding a website to host all of that. I played in a similar league for football, and there were numerous sites that had the ability to host a league like that.

The Mets have a ton of great arms, starting and relieving. Problem is, they're all right handed, pretty much. Former Twins and Braves pitcher Sean Gilmartin may actually make their bullpen based solely on the fact that he throws with his left hand, over much, much better overall pitchers like Rafael Montero. Interesting that Dario Alvarez isn't getting more play in New York. That guy has ridiculous pitching ability for a lefty reliever type.

1953 AL MVP Al Rosen passed away today at 91. He is the only man to win both an MVP as a player and the Executive of the Year award in the front office.

Mr. Yost would like a word...

I'd enjoy it more if his stupidity didn't hurt my favorite team so much.

I may just not be remembering, but has ANYONE in the last few years rehabbed a partially torn/sprained ligament successfully without surgery?

No kidding. I sent a list of the guys on his roster that I'd be willing to move and made a comment that I'd also be willing to move 2017 picks before 2016 ones right now. His first response was the deal that went down. I tried to get a pitcher added, but no such luck.

It was even offered to me. That's the crazy part.

Oh, I'm working on it

The biggest issue is his vesting option that teams would still be frightened by. You play him, and he actually does go back to previous form, then suddenly, he's due an $18M option when he's nearly 40.

Every time a church has been challenged for an unwillingness to allow their space to be used for a wedding against their beliefs (including many churches who will not marry previously divorced people, so not just gay weddings), it has failed. The only way to really legally attack a church is through services that a number of churches now consider part of their income, which include wedding catering, wedding music, wedding video/photography, and wedding planning services, which do not HAVE to be performed in the church. Denying someone those services has been successfully challenged, but it also only has about a 45% rate of ruling against the church in the cases I studied a couple years ago for a piece for seminary on the issue. I had a Google Alerts set up for any similar cases that I never shut off (because the topic interests me), and if anything, the rate that a church loses such litigation is actually getting lower as more states are more tolerant and there are more avenues for people to find for wedding services rather than intentionally going after the churches. Basically, the "oh my gosh, my church could get sued" issue has easily definable ways to protect the church (basically, if any church "service" like I mentioned earlier is written into the church constitution, and that constitution has language stating the church has every right to refuse based on belief - which most churches have done already - the church is legally covered), but people often use that excuse as a reason not to support homosexual marriage in my experience. It's rarely about what would happen to the church as much as it is a personal feeling against gay marriage that they don't want to come off as a bad person by stating that feeling, so they lean on something that really has been shown not to exist like their church facing a lawsuit. PR issues that would come from such a lawsuit are another issue altogether, but that doesn't change the reality of what has come of legal court cases that have happened already, providing a pretty well-defined legal precedent.

What I don't understand is why a couple would want to force a church to marry them, whether homo- or heterosexual. I've married 3 couples, and two would have had issues finding a church to perform the ceremony, but rather than forcing the issue, they found someone they trusted with the ceremony to preside. Why push the issue on someone so adamantly against it? I'm a huge advocate, and while I've not been asked to preside over a same sex union (mostly because they're still not legal here), I would be honored to be asked. That said, I'd never push the limits to ask to have a church I knew to be against gay marriage to be the space to host the wedding.

I know I took over a very stars and scrubs team, and while I moved some of those stars.to do it, I am very happy with my depth now in my roster. I don't think I'm at the point of competing this year, but it's not hard to remake a team to at least competitive. The next step takes a few of your gambles and early picks turning out, though.

There have been some lawsuits, but usually they use that the church advertises things like wedding planning or music wedding services to sue for, not whether or not a church won't do the ceremony itself.

I got a lot of those offers last year, but in all seriousness, some of those new guys will likely not get a deal with me that's even due to the trade proposals they've sent me. I had one offer from one of the new owners that was basically his last four MLB people on his roster for Kinsler, Sabathia, Richards, and Santana. Then the reasoning behind it was that Sabathia and Richards were hurt, so they weren't worth his guys who may not make their own team's roster. Ridiculous stuff. I do think some folks jumped off at a lot of assets before understanding the league. I'll admit that I did that some in early trades, but I picked it up quickly.

Stan Lee is apparently teaming up with the Smithsonian to present an edX course on the rise of the superhero and comic book history. I am not even a comic book fanboy, and this one caught my attention: Link Also, for those who missed the SABR101x class on sabremetrics last year, they will be offering the course again in early July.

If Mickey, Willie, and Hank are in...

I don't care if he makes $10K, $10M, or $10B in a year, an addict is an addict. He will always be an addict. He NEEDS treatment for his addiction, not a suspension. I understand that because of his job, he will get more chances than a guy working at Wal-mart that has a relapse. The point, as someone else put it so well this week, is to ensure a relapse doesn't become a collapse. One of the great things in the community here is the relationship our local businesses have with the counseling service in town to get folks with addiction issues often completely paid-for services. That said, there are plenty of people who show up routinely for AA, NA, GA, OA, and other anonymous meetings because treatment is not a one-time thing. It's a lifetime commitment, and Hamilton had a relapse. Anyone who's actually been part of recovery will tell you that relapse is one of the most important reasons to be part of an anonymous meeting group. No one but an addict will ever understand truly what a relapse experience is like. I have been very heartened by the messages I've heard on various avenues this week about Hamilton's addiction and recovery, but comments like yours are much, much too prevalent in the day to day world. I don't care if you cry for a millionaire or not, but there is more than just "want" that is part of this disease. Hamilton could have all the "want" to be clean and sober, but his illness makes that want no more possible than someone with HIV not wanting to develop AIDS.** I hope some of the conversation this week around the truth of recovery will open the minds of those who see this only as a Hamilton issue and then bad mouth their neighbor down the street who relapses on his alcoholism. **This comment is meant in no way to equalize addiction and HIV/AIDS. Any perception thereof is not the intent of the author and should not be construed as such. Thanks for reading the small type.

Former Knick Anthony Mason dead at 48.

I've thought this before, and this is a great team for it to happen. Would Johan hold up better as a closer?

I had Hoffman/Holmes in my queue, so I was happy with whichever one you didn't grab. And to be clear, I wasn't upset in the least. I was joking about having my pick revealed, but it was an issue to people for some reason. I'm in another draft that started on the 16th and is through two rounds with 16 teams, so this draft is going well in comparison.