Wednesday, April 30, 2008

FDH Insider/Goon Squad April 30

The new FDH Wednesday night lineup will rock your evening just like it did last week in its debut in the timeslot.

On tonight’s special edition of THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER (7-9 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com), we examine the “Vin Baker” and “Brian Giles” candidates of 2008 in Major League Baseball. FDH baseball contributor Tim Foust coined these terms to describe the very rare exceptions to the rule that players will eventually regress or progress to the mean as the season continues. Up next in Hour One, we conduct our fourth annual Triple Crown draft as we turn our attention to Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. Our draft board is right here and the charts for the various horses are available at the Daily Racing Form website.

In the second hour, we review the 2008 NFL Draft, including FDH’s gavel-to-gavel coverage on the Network over the weekend. We have one unique metric that we will share with you: a numerical rating of how teams fared in the draft according to the list of FDH Top 200 Prospects regardless of position. You can find those rankings, along with all of our other one-of-a-kind coverage in our annual draft guide, available for free download right here. Additionally, our Senior Editor and Chief NFL Draft Correspondant Jason Jones will have his own winners and losers to discuss, as well as his breakdown on a wild weekend of trading and frequent disregard for value.

On THE GOON SQUAD (9-10 PM EDT), we review some NHL news and notes (Philly celebrates tradition a week after the league quashes it in Detroit, new GM in Vancouver, no Brian Burke migration to Toronto) before examining the less-than-competitive overall picture of the NHL conference semifinals. We now have a strong look at how the Western Finals will shake out and we’ll have your first preview, in addition to an analysis of what lies ahead out East.

Join us for all of the action Wednesday night on STN.

Fantasy Triple Crown draft

First, here's our suggested league guidelines: utilize a system with 4 owners, drafting 3 rounds in a standard serpentine fashion. In each race, points are allocated as follows: 15 points for win, 10 points for show and 5 points for place. Additionally, a horse gains an additional 5 points for winning a second Triple Crown race and an additional 10 points for winning the Triple Crown. If a tiebreaker is needed, it will go by tallying the best collective finishes by all horses in all races.

Courtesy of the Daily Racing Form, here are the charts for the horses.

Now, on with the draft board fun!

First Tier
1. Colonel John: smooth and tough
2. Big Brown: question on feet but not talent, not a ton of races under his belt

Second Tier
3. Gayego: has run well on synthetic & dirt, ran well in Arkansas Derby
4. Court Vision: has underachieved a bit
5. Pyro: little momentum, can also be jumpy

Third Tier
6. Recapturetheglory: pace-setter
7. Tale of Ekati: won the Wood Memorial
8. Z Fortune: ran well in Arkansas Derby
9. Monba: unimpressive speed, but has won at Churchill Downs
10. Big Truck: won Tampa Bay Derby, down lately
11. Visionaire: can make up distance late

Fourth Tier
12. Denis of Cork: classic longshot, question about whether he’s an underachiever or not that good
13. Cowboy Cal: unproven on dirt tracks
14. Adriano: has a rap for being jumpy
15. Court Vision: underachiever
16. Smooth Air: recovering from illness
17. Bob Black Jack: questions about his stamina for Churchill Downs

April 29 fantasy hoops installment

From now through the end of the 2007-08 basketball playoffs, FantasyDrafthelp.com Managing Partner Rick Morris will be providing a breakdown of the most recent happenings in the NBA Eastern Conference on RotoTimes.com. Here is the April 29 column.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

April 22 fantasy hoops installment

From now through the end of the 2007-08 basketball playoffs, FantasyDrafthelp.com Managing Partner Rick Morris will be providing a breakdown of the most recent happenings in the NBA Eastern Conference on RotoTimes.com. Here is the April 22 column, an analysis of playoff games to date.

FDH Insider/Goon Squad: April 23, 2008

This Wednesday night, the SportsTalkNetwork.com Thursday night lineup moves to its new home as FDH Enterprises starts rocking your midweek with its programming.

THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER (7-9 PM EDT) brings you coverage of baseball's injury wire in the first 45 minutes of the show, then an NFL mock draft that will demonstrate to you how we feel the first round will go on Saturday. Speaking of which, tune in for FDH's live draft coverage on STN from 3-9 PM EDT on Saturday and at 10 AM EDT on Sunday. Among our guests on Saturday: Troy Aikman! Nice going, STN booker Anthony Petrone! Also, if you haven't already, do yourself an immense favor and download our free 2008 Pro Football Draft Guide. You will see what we mean when we proclaim that our Senior Editor Jason Jones takes a backseat to nobody when it comes to incisive draft analysis.

THE GOON SQUAD (9-10 PM EDT) breaks down Round Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which get underway at the end of the week. Also, there has been one necessary rules change during these playoffs and one stupid and unnecessary one. We'll break them both down for you.

Friday, April 18, 2008

FDH Insider moving to Wednesdays

As the man who anchors the entire FDH Thursday night lineup, FDH Enterprises, LLC Managing Partner Rick Morris has picked up the moniker of "Mr. Thursday Night." Well, that nickname's going to need to be modified by one weeknight.

With SportsTalkCleveland.com once again assuming a national profile and morphing back into SportsTalkNetwork.com, the influx of new nationally-oriented shows is causing a series of ripples in the programming lineup. With Thursday night being needed for some new STN programs, FDH is moving the company's shows back one night.

From now on, THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER airs from 7-9 PM EDT on Wednesday nights. The hockey program THE GOON SQUAD follows from 9-10 PM EDT while the baseball show SEVENTH INNING SLOUCH will become an on-demand podcast with hosts Rick Morris and Mike Ptak recording their show for the listeners of STN.

We are thrilled with the following that we have achieved in the five years of FDH programming on STN and we eagerly anticipate our listeners following us over to our new night of shows.

April 16 fantasy hoops installment

From now through the end of the 2007-08 basketball playoffs, FantasyDrafthelp.com Managing Partner Rick Morris will be providing a breakdown of the most recent happenings in the NBA Eastern Conference on RotoTimes.com. Here is the April 16 column, a fantasy preview of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Additionally, Morris helped shape the RotoTimes Playoff Top 50, the only draft board you need for your postseason fantasy fun. Here it is.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

FDH Insider: April 17, 2008

THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER (9-11 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com) rolls on this Thursday night with another outstanding edition.

In Hour One, we offer our first "Buy Low, Sell High" lists of the fantasy baseball season and in Hour Two, we offer an NFL Draft preview in the form of examining our shiny new 2008 Pro Football Draft Guide. Make sure to catch all the action on the NEW AND IMPROVED Sports Talk Network!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

April 8 fantasy hoops installment

From now through the end of the 2007-08 basketball season, FantasyDrafthelp.com Managing Partner Rick Morris will be providing a breakdown of the most recent happenings in the NBA Eastern Conference on RotoTimes.com. Here is the April 8 column.

FDH Insider: April 10, 2008

This week's edition of THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER on SportsTalkCleveland.com* (9-11 PM EDT) brings you the best of the fantasy sports landscape as usual.

In Hour One, we examine some of the impatience issues that can hamper fantasy baseball owners at this very early point in the season. Then, for the last hour-a-quarter of the show, we preview our forthcoming FDH 2008 Pro Football Draft Guide and get ready for the draft by looking at Senior Editor Jason Jones' mock draft along with our checklist of major needs per team.

Make sure to join us Thursday night for all the fun on the FDH Insider!

* We are heeding a request to start utilizing the SportsTalkCleveland identity because it is the lead one the station for marketing purposes right now. At the same time, we wish to remind everyone of the reason that the SportsTalkNetwork identity has also been in play: the wide variety of programs on the station appealing to a national constituency, from nationally-based general sports programming to mixed martial arts to pro wrestling to the NHL, Major League Baseball, motorsports, extreme sports and fantasy sports. Whether you cheer for Cleveland sports teams or not, we appreciate having you in our audience and we serve you equally well.

Monday, April 07, 2008

2008 FDH Stanley Cup Playoffs Draft Board

TOP 25 OVERALL
1. Henrik Zetterberg
2. Sidney Crosby
3. Evgeni Malkin
4. Dominik Hasek
5. Nicklas Lidstrom
6. Alexander Ovechkin
7. Jean-Sebastien Giguere
8. Marian Hossa
9. Teemu Selanne
10. Ryan Getzlaf
11. Pavel Datsyuk
12. Joe Thornton
13. Martin Brodeur
14. Evgeni Nabokov
15. Chris Pronger
16. Brian Rafalski
17. Scott Niedermayer
18. Dany Heatley
19. Pascal Dupuis
20. Corey Perry
21. Jarome Iginla
22. Marian Gaborik
23. Dion Phaneuf
24. Sergei Gonchar
25. Brian Campbell

LEFT WINGS
1. Henrik Zetterberg
2. Alexander Ovechkin
3. Dany Heatley
4. Pascal Dupuis
5. Todd Bertuzzi
6. Chris Kunitz
7. Kristian Huselius
8. Ryan Malone
9. Alex Tanguay
10. Pavol Demitra
11. Patrick Elias
12. Zach Parise
13. Vaclav Prospal
14. Brian Rolston
15. Jan Hlavac
16. Andrei Kostitsyn
17. Christopher Higgins
18. Brendan Morrow
19. Marco Sturm
20. Andrew Brunette
21. Ryan Smyth
22. Brendan Shanahan
23. Alexander Semin

CENTERS
1. Sidney Crosby
2. Evgeni Malkin
3. Ryan Getzlaf
4. Pavel Datsyuk
5. Joe Thornton
6. Scott Gomez
7. Jason Spezza
8. Nicklas Backstrom
9. Joe Sakic
10. Mikko Koivu
11. Daniel Briere
12. Mike Richards
13. Jason Arnott
14. Tomas Plekanec
15. Johan Franzen
16. Brad Richards
17. Mike Ribeiro
18. Paul Statsny
19. Daymond Langkow
20. Victor Kozlov
21. Marc Savard
22. Jeff Carter
23. Sergei Fedorov
24. Chris Drury
25. Mike Modano
26. Saku Koivu

RIGHT WINGS
1. Marian Hossa
2. Teemu Selanne
3. Corey Perry
4. Jarome Iginla
5. Marian Gaborik
6. Jaromir Jagr
7. Alexei Kovalev
8. Daniel Cleary
9. Tomas Holmstrom
10. Pierre-Marc Bouchard
11. J.P. Dumont
12. Milan Michalek
13. Petr Sykora
14. Mike Knuble
15. Brian Gionta
16. Jonathan Cheechoo
17. Martin Erat
18. Alexander Radulof
19. Daniel Alfredsson

DEFENSEMEN
1. Nicklas Lidstrom
2. Chris Pronger
3. Brian Rafalski
4. Scott Niedermayer
5. Dion Phaneuf
6. Sergei Gonchar
7. Brian Campbell
8. Mathieu Schneider
9. Andrei Markov
10. Zdeno Chara
11. Mark Streit
12. Mike Green
13. Brent Burns
14. Wade Redden
15. Michal Rozsival
16. Ryan Whitney
17. Dennis Wideman
18. Paul Martin
19. Mared Zidlicky
20. Brad Stuart

GOALIES
1. Dominik Hasek
2. Jean-Sebastien Giguere
3. Martin Brodeur
4. Evgeni Nabokov
5. Henrik Lundquist
6. Miikka Kiprusoff
7. Niklas Backstrom
8. Marc-Andre Fleury
9. Carey Price
10. Jose Theodore
11. Martin Biron
12. Marty Turco
13. Tim Thomas
14. Chris Osgood
15. Olaf Kolzig
16. Martin Gerber
17. Chris Mason

Thursday, April 03, 2008

FDH Insider: April 3, 2008

Tonight's edition of THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER (9-11 PM EDT) features our usual eclectic blend of content from the entire fantasy sports universe.

In Hour One, we revisit from baseball Draft Day and Auction Day machinations to draw lessons for the future, then we segue into a look at the NCAA hoops tournament as it relates to an NCAA fantasy league.

Hour Two is given over to discussions with our NFL Draft guru, FDH Senior Editor Jason Jones. Read all of his coverage on our FDH Lounge blog, especially his conventional wisdom-challenging view on the best RB in the draft.

April 1 fantasy hoops installment

From now through the end of the 2007-08 basketball season, FantasyDrafthelp.com Managing Partner Rick Morris will be providing a breakdown of the most recent happenings in the NBA Eastern Conference on RotoTimes.com. Here is the April 1 column.