MDS will be creating and hosting the first Indie Blog Invitational fantasy baseball league. We're talking about the love child of the Sun Dance Film Festival and Yahoo's Friends n Family league; a place where any willing and ready independant blogger can test his or her merit. Like Sundance, there may even be a few stars in the crowd if I can lure a few industry gurus into the league. Anyone who has their own blog page or writes for a fantasy website can join the fun and represent. Our lineup includes:

Paul Bourdett [Fanhouse] [Base-Heads]
Antonio D'Arcangelis [Roto Experts] [FFToday]
Charlie Saponara [FB365]
Scott Swanay [Fantasy Baseball Sherpa]
David Golebiewski [Fangraphs]
Grey Albright [Razzball]
Tim Heaney [KFFL]
Paul Greco [Fantasy Pros 911]
Eno Sarris [Fantasy Lounge Sports] [Roto Experts] [Fangraphs]
Chris Carbonell [Roto Experts] [Starbonell Station]
Aaron Murray [Roto Savants]
Bryan Freilich [Fantasy Baseball Cafe]
Josh Shepardson [the Hardball Times] [Fantasy Baseball Cafe]
A-mak15 [A-mak15]

15 team, Standard 5x5 Roto scoring
C(2), 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, MI, CI, OF(5), UT, P(9), BN(3)

Update: MDS sold out faster than Avril Lavigne, the league may be now known as Blog Wars in honor of Tout Wars

League Overview Page: standings, teams, draft results

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I will be monitoring the Average Draft Position for Starting Pitchers to get an idea of which players are being hyped up. In a month I'll review these numbers from mockdraftcentral.com... let's tenatively say Feb 7th, Mar 7th and then do a week to week check as we get closer to the season.

12.5 Tim Lincecum
27.7 Zack Greinke
28.1 CC Sabathia
29.2 Felix Hernandez
34.4 Roy Halladay
37.1 Dan Haren
40.0 Johan Santana
45.9 Justin Verlander
52.0 Cliff Lee
60.4 Javier Vazquez
64.0 Adam Wainwright
64.5 Jon Lester
73.4 Chris Carpenter
81.9 Josh Johnson
81.9 Jake Peavy
86.1 Tommy Hanson
89.5 Matt Cain
90.3 Josh Beckett
100.3 Yovani Gallardo
102.7 Cole Hamels
108.7 Ricky Nolasco
111.2 Clayton Kershaw
113.8 Ubaldo Jimenez
116.3 John Lackey
126.0 Chad Billingsley
126.4 Matt Garza
126.7 AJ Burnett
127.2 James Shields
134.0 Jair Jurrens
139.5 Jered Weaver
141.0 Brandon Webb
147.8 Max Scherzer
151.4 Roy Oswalt
152.4 Ted Lilly
154.3 Wandy Rodriguez
157.2 Scott Baker
162.2 John Danks
168.9 Edwin Jackson
169.5 Carlos Zambrano
172.4 Ryan Dempster
175.4 Neftali Feliz
176.1 Scott Kazmir
177.3 David Price
186.3 Randy Wolf
187.1 Gavin Floyd
196.2 Daisuke Matsuzaka
200.5 Clay Buchholz
202.8 Jorge de la Rosa
203.7 Joba Chamberlain
208.0 Tim Hudson
208.6 Rick Porcello
210.4 Andy Pettite
210.6 Rich Harden
223.1 Kevin Slowey
224.3 Erik Bedard
225.4 Jeff Niemann
229.6 Ervin Santana
229.7 Scott Feldman
231.1 Johnny Cueto
237.0 Mark Buerhle
241.0 Jonathan Sanchez
243.0 Brett Anderson
245.0 JA Happ
260.9 Joe Saunders
272.0 Hiroki Kuroda
275.3 Aaron Cook
278.9 Joel Pineiro
282.4 Gil Meche
283.2 Kevin Correia
287.0 Aroldis Chapman
290.2 Homer Bailey
296.1 Stephen Strasburg
297.5 Joe Blanton
310.5 Barry Zito
310.7 Ben Sheets
311.6 Pedro Martinez
311.9 Aaron Harang
314.6 Francisco Liriano
318.5 Derek Lowe
319.1 Jarrod Washburn
319.5 Bronson Arroyo
323.0 Philip Hughes
323.0 Matt Latos
323.2 Madison Bumgarner
324.1 Zack Duke
324.2 Brad Penny
326.1 Chris Young
326.2 Justin Duchscherer
327.1 Brian Matusz
327.1 Randy Wells
327.6 Jeremy Guthrie
328.1 Brett Myers
328.8 Nick Blackburn
328.8 Shaun Marcum
328.8 Doug Davis
329.6 Derek Holland
330.1 Edinson Volquez
330.3 Clayton Richard
330.4 Micah Owings
330.6 Franklin Morales
331.1 Randy Johnson
331.1 Kevin Milwood
331.1 Junichi Tazawa
331.6 Jason Marquis
331.8 Trevor Cahill
332.6 Vicente Padilla
332.6 John Smoltz
332.6 Brad Bergesen
332.8 Mike Pelfrey
332.9 Ryan Perry
333.0 John Maine
333.0 Tommy Hunter
333.2 Chris Tillman
333.5 Jason Hammel
333.6 Koji Uehara
333.6 Paul Ohlendorf
333.7 Paul Maholm
333.8 Kenshin Kawakami
334.1 Marc Rzepczynski
334.6 Dustin McGowan
334.8 Carl Pavano
350.8 Anibal Sanchez
355.7 Jon Garland
378.4 Kyle Lohse
382.6 Yusmeiro Petit
389.8 Oliver Perez
402.2 Armando Galarraga
418.8 Chien-Ming Wang
428.1 Andrew Miller
428.1 Ian Snell
429.1 Fausto Carmona
440.5 Brian Bannister
443.6 Gio Gonzalez no comments

Twins homers rejoice!!!! I'm giddy like a school girl....

from Fanball newsbreakers:

The St. Paul Pioneer Press is reporting that Francisco Liriano has been pitching very well in Dominican winter ball this offseason.

Our View: "I just got a report that he's throwing the living fire out of the ball down in the Dominican (Republic)," were the words of Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. "He threw eight innings the other day, and his fastball was 92-to-94 (MPH), and his slider was filthy. That's a really good thing, because he can be the bonus if we can get him on track." Liriano is coming off a monumentally disappointing 2009 season that saw him go 5-13 with a 5.80 ERA in 29 games (24 starts). If he could make a return to the brilliant form he flashed in 2006, it would be a tremendous boost for the small-market Twins. no comments

If you want to lose and lose badly, just take advice from anyone at razzball or follow this draft day game plan. During the selection process, I simply took the worst option from the top 10 o-ranked available players. Even if I decided to manage this team, it would lose. Now that's a bad team! "What?" you say... Yeah, I used a new ID to draft and abandon this team. Oh cmon, the way I see it, I did them a favor by absorbing most of the bad picks. Somebody has to lose. The team, Bus-a-Bus, is appropriately named after one of the most overrated rappers of all time. Even tho I made no reaches and trusted Yahoo!'s o-ranks, ppl still were dogging on my picks during the draft.

You must know, every player (except Carlos Boozer) has a time n place in the draft where they have nice value. These players, however, never reach that point. Therefore, they suck. Ill list a few reasons why I don't like these players. I think it was Virgil who said it best when rapping along with Master P, "If they don't make a million dollars, they don't make sense".

KG: aging, brittle, declining minutes, benched during our h2h playoffs
Butler: misses games, arenas is back
Murphy: career year, inflated 3pt %, lack of blks
Davis: injuries, wont match PT or production from Warrior days
Jackson: injuries, horrible fg%, turnovers galore, headcase
Bibby: 2nd half stat drop, better available options, crawford addition
Howard: injuries, ankle surgery, head case
Kaman: health, mentality, motivational, playing time issues
Crawford: less stat friendly system and minutes in atlanta
Deng and the Gang: Deng n Stojokavich have injury issues. Hughes doesn't fit in well with New York. Jianlian really isn't that bad a pick this late with his preseason success; plus you can name your team Eazy Yi. I don't know if anyone is still in love with Darko. Blatche is inconsistent and Haywood is back. Some ppl love Nick Young's scoring ability, but the dude avg'd 1 reb and 1 ast last season.

More Bust Candidates / Overrated Players:
Carmelo Anthony, Elton Brand, Carlos Boozer, Marcus Camby, Derrick Rose, Michael Redd, O.J. Mayo, Hedo Turkoglu, Nene Hilario, Andrew Bynum, Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin, Rasheed Wallace, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bogut, Andrei Kirilenko, Richard Hamilton, Allen Iverson, Stephen Curry, Jermaine O'Neal no comments

It's Tuesday, which means it's time to scope the free agent market before Wednesday's waivers clear. Waiver Wire Finds, or simply WWF, is your collection of wavier wire articles collapsed into one easy to use reference point. As the week progresses, some articles may be linked at the bottom, but Wednesday is the big day for most leagues. Every player mentioned in these articles will be listed, let's rumble.

If you're going to read any of these articles, the top 3 are your best choices. The rest are short and full of Captain Obvious picks. I don't see how Garrard, Mendenhall, Choice, McCoy, Beanie, Chester, Ricky, Sims-Walker or Celek are available in any leagues. Im actually surprised to not see Eddie Royal on any of these lists. Eddie may be the most hated player in fantasy football. The newest and most popular free agent finds are Mohamed Massaquoi, Cleveland's rookie WR, and Jerome Harrison. Massaquoi had a big week with Derek Anderson at QB and Harrison had a busy week filling in for the injured Jamal Lewis. Also, Bush/Fargas are getting some love because of McFadden's injury, but who wants to roster a Raider?

[PICKUPS OF THE WEEK] Brad Evans
[Through the Wire] Antonio D'Arcangelis (includes IDP)
[Waiver Wired] Roto World (3 pages)
[Pick-up Artist] Paul Bourdett
[Waiver Wire Wonders] Fanball
[Week 5 Pickups] Fantasy Pros 911
[Pickups of the Week] FFToolbox
[Waiver Worthy] Roto Professor
[Week 5 Waiver Wire] Bruno Boys (weak)
[Fantasy Ticker] Pro Football Weekly (horrible)

Quarter Backs
David Garrard
Kyle Orton
Shaun Hill
Matt Hasselbeck
Matt Cassel
Jason Campbell
Derek Anderson
Jake Delhomme
Matthew Stafford
Seneca Wallace
Vince Young

Running Backs
Rashard Mendenhall
Tashard Choice
LeSean McCoy
Jerome Harrison
Beanie Wells
Ricky Williams
Chester Taylor
Mewelde Moore
Michael Bush
Shonn Greene
Jamal Charles
Ladell Betts
Justin Fargas
Sammy Morris
Rashad Jennings
Jerious Norwood
Justin Forsett
Bernard Scott

Wide Receivers
Mike Sims-Walker
Antonio Bryant
Donnie Avery
Mohamed Massaquoi
Kenny Britt
Austin Collie
Nate Washington
Chris Henry
Sidney Rice
Hakeem Nicks
Jacoby Jones
Mike Wallace
Sam Hurd

Tight Ends
Brent Celek
Jermichael Finley
Heath Miller
Marcedes Lewis
Vinsanthe Shiancoe
Bo Scaife
Brandon Pettigrew
Dante Rosario
Sean Ryan

Defenses
Philadelphia Eagles
San Francisco 49ers
Indianapolis Colts
Green Bay Packers
Dallas Cowboys
Arizona Cardinals
Carolina Panthers
New Orleans Saints
Whoever plays VS the Raiders n Rams no comments

When the Roto Arcade boys posted the thread for their readers to sign up for the 2009 baseball blog leagues (not this league), I asked for Scott Pianowski. I was the first and maybe only person to ask for him. I thought Pianow was their best baseball expert and he snubbed me. I got an invite to Behrens league, but that wasn't what I asked for. I was first dammit!!! So I hounded him. I called him out for a good week or two until he relented and created the Puppet Show. The agreement was that I'd call off the dogs and for the most part I did.

the other people invited had to meet Pianow's strict qualifications:

1. Your presence here, the *quality* of your posts, your ability to get along with everyone (that last point is huge).
2. Your skill as a roto owner (so much as I can gauge it)
3. How much I like you (sorry, life's too short to get into leagues with people I don't like)
4. Random chance (we generally get more inquiries than we can fill, and I hope everyone understands that)

Weird right? lol. Needless to say, MDS met all these qualifications, but that didn't matter cuz I was already in there before this blog post went up. The league was created for the two of us to dance. The other managers did not meet these requirements. Most of em failed to get along with me (shame on them) and were talking trash and complaining when they got some back. Eventually the message board was shut down, team name changes were prohibited and I wasn't able to email teams from the league. Some people emailed me and when I responded in a manner they didn't like, they complained. Boo hoo.

The league used normal Roto scoring, had a thirteenth team and used a few extra roster positions (MI, CI, OF, UT). I came out of the draft looking pretty, but Sizemore hurt me bad. I also had Aram, but amazingly, I was able to find a taker for him when he was hurt. My team's biggest problem were the closers. I had Qualls, Downs n Gregg. All three of em lost their job and this league was brutal for picking up closers. The league was the quickest to scoop up saves. It was pretty amazing how fast people reacted and I hail from tough private leagues that use Holds as a stat.

The league had some decent competition. One of my private leaguers (Tweedly) was able to get in and a popular Roto Arcadian, Amak who would later join a few of my private leagues, was in there. The three of us finished first (Tweedly), second (Amak) and third. Pianow finished 7th. Pianow knows his baseball; but if he has a weakness, it's the pitchers. They're a tough position to judge so everyone has differing opinions, but I know my pitchers better than he does. Its just a fact. Can I claim a victory over him if I finish 3rd? Please? The best part of the league (other than beating Pianow and only losing to one of my private leaguers and Amak) was the ESPN loser who claimed he could punt Saves and still finish first. What a dumbass. He ended up quitting like the chump everyone thought he was. ESPN sucks!!!

Nevermind the Nyger Morgan and Kevin Slowey injuries. Forget the ass whooping Joba put on my WHIP. I would have won if Sizemore didn't suck a fatty and my closers didn't lose their jobs. I didn't mind finishing 3rd to ppl I play against in my private leagues, cuz in the end, Pianow felt the power. Period. no comments

When 312 managers had the cojones to take shots at and call out MDS in the Roto Arcade comment sections, I created the Million Dollar Challenge. This league gave the army of haters a chance to shut up MDS and an opportunity to learn from the master. Today was the last day of fantasy baseball and it is official: MDS won. As long as there are people calling out MDS and challenging him to a fantasy duel to the death, there will be the Million Dollar Challenge. The Commissioner's Note says it all:

"Welcome to the Million Dollar Challenge: where you, the little manager who could, gets a shot to best Ted Dibiase the Million Dollar Man. Please, read the settings so there is no confusion and no excuses when you lose. Spanks".

League Scoring and Settings:
Max Teams: 14-16
Draft Type: LIVE Draft (randomly ordered)
Scoring Type: Rotisserie
Max Moves/Trades: no maximum
Max Innings Pitched: 1400
Positions: C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, OF(3), UT, P(9), BN(5), DL(2)
Stats: Runs, RBI, SB, OBP, SLG vs Wins, QS, Hld, Sv, Ks, ERA, WHIP

If you want a piece of MDS during the 2011 fantasy baseball season, use the "Contact" link with Million Dollar Challenge or MDC in the subject line. Everyone will be sent an invite when baseball registration opens. The winner of the MDC will receive a Million Dollar Belt autographed by yours truly.

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This post is apart of the MDS vs the Experts section. I am attempting to pick off industry experts in my quest to become the greatest fantasy manager of all time; and here, I failed. It's a sad story of injuries, hardships and Mark Reynolds.

Between the spam and hate mail I get, it's stuff like this that makes checking my inbox worthwhile. Although, I have been getting excellent money opportunities in Africa and the UK Lottery. Andy Behrens Blog League... what can I say? "Heartbreak" pretty much sums up everything. Formerly known as HBK, Harmon BrewKilla the Heart Break Kid, I received a taste of my own medicine.

This league was Deep. 12 teams, NL-only with CI and MI roster spots added. If you had an injury, you were looking at complete losers for help. Chris Dickerson was about as good as it got. I was starting Will Venable before his hot streak, it was ugly. If that doesn't paint a grim picture for ya, check out this autodrafted team. Looks like he had 7 players who didn't have a MLB job. Ouch! He missed the draft and PAID for it. So now that you understand the dire consequences of the free agent market, try to picture losing Beltran, Aram, Votto, Drew, the Big Unit and LaRoche. Adam was traded to Boston, so I dropped him and immediately he was dealt back to the NL and someone used their waiver on him. I paid the price for being active. Burriss, Giles and Spillborghs also lost playing time to injuries/suckage, but those weren't big surprises.

This league was a very painful experience, especially having to watch Behrens run away with the league all season. He had no injuries and had that POS Mark Reynolds. I hate that guy now. His season will challenge his teammate's (Byrnes 2007) as the biggest fluke of all time. The league was sort of boring due to the lack of roster moves, but Broken Nose's determination to not finish last and i should stop trying's self defeating trash talk messages provided some interest. There isn't much else to say about the league other than Behrens kicked our asses, I made a few trades that helped the cause, I successfully predicted the arrival of Ryan Franklin over Motte and I finished in 3rd place even tho I lost all my top players to extended DL time. Y! Dibiase definitely wants/deserves a rematch cuz I should have won.

Congrats Behrens, you had a great draft and the fantasy Gods were with you no comments

Its looking like my wishes may come true. The Twinkies are up 11-4 in the 8th and the Tigers won, which means there will be a one game playoff for the AL Central title on Tuesday at the Metrodome. Well, make that 13-4 with a Cuddyer homer. This means two things: one more day of Miggy at 3B and one more day of stats. I'm assuming (don't know for sure) Tuesdays stats will count and I've begun loading up on Twins/Tigers players. Check the free agents for Magglio, Raburn, Polanco, Delmon, Punto and maybe even Matt Tolbert if you wanna go crazy. Again, I dont know if the stats will count towards your h2h championship or your roto leagues, but there is no reason to not take the chance while everyone is watching NFL highlights.

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There are rumors swirling around (again) about Virgil and I'm here to officially say they are not true. These people's words are so digusting n shocking that not even I, MDS, can post them. They must be heard to be believed.


If Evans doesn't think Virgil is real, then how'd he...
- call in and wait 37 min to get on
- told the call screener a fake question
- become the first Freak Show caller to say "long time listener, first time caller"
- then walk up to his face n dis him Beastie Boys style


[Fantasy555.com] podcast with Keith Petrower. We start at [00:47:54] and talk blog leagues, Vikings, Virgil n more
[Fantasy Freakshow] [Roto Arcade] prank phone call. Virgil gets even for the Barbara remarks at the very end of Part 2

Virgil scores two low blows with one question
[Roto Arcade] the Jermichael fail blog, Finley didn't catch a ball
[F&F League] the infamous Brent Celek drop no comments