Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 1281 of 1503)

MLBPA to look into why Bonds is still unemployed

The MLBPA is apparently a little confused as to why the league’s active home run king is still umemployed.

The lack of offers to Barry Bonds will be examined by the baseball players’ association as part of its annual review of the free-agent market.

After speaking with the Los Angeles Angels during his annual tour of spring-training camps, union head Donald Fehr said his staff will examine possible collusion against Bonds and others.

“We always look at the free-agent markets every year and make judgments about them, and if we come to the conclusion with respect to any player that there’s a matter worth pursuing, we’ll pursue it,” he said. “But I’m not going to make any suggestions or accusations unless and until we come to that conclusion.”

One possible reason Bonds is still unemployed is maybe because his knees are shot and he can’t move. Here’s another idea: he’s an a*shole. It is strange that an AL team hasn’t picked up the phone and tabbed Bonds as their DH because obviously the man can still hit, but teams aren’t stupid – they know what kind of circus he brings to the clubhouse.

I’m still someone who believes Bonds doesn’t get enough credit for helping out fellow players. Giants’ infielder Kevin Frandsen has said in the past that when he was struggling at the plate last year, Bonds took the time to coach him in the cage. However, I don’t know if the MLBPA needs to look very deep as to why teams might not be interested injecting Bonds into their clubhouse.

Top HS recruit Pryor heading to OSU

Terrell Pryor has finally decided where he’s going to play college football next year and it won’t be at the Big House in Ann Arbor.

After a Feb. 6 news conference when Pryor announced that he had no announcement, the nation’s No. 1 high school quarterback said in a noon press conference today that he will attend Ohio State. He chose Ohio State over Michigan, Penn State and Oregon.

Pryor might be able to give that boost now as a freshman, then blow up in Jim Tressel’s offense in 2009. Michigan, another finalist for Pryor, could have handed him all the snaps immediately. But with the practice snaps that backup quarterback Antonio Henton took last year, Tressel clearly warmed to the idea of using a No. 2 quarterback to change the game.

“He’s a dynamic playmaker at quarterback,” said Jeremy Crabtree, a national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. “And we’ve seen in college football today if you have that dynamic guy at quarterback — a guy who can change what should be a sack on third and 8 into a touchdown run or who can make a big throw in the clutch — you can go a long way with some other pieces of the puzzle missing.”
The presence of Pryor, who becomes the most naturally gifted OSU freshman quarterback at least since Art Schlichter 30 years ago, amplifies those possibilities. In 1978, the Buckeyes had a senior quarterback, too, and Woody Hayes moved Rod Gerald to receiver to clear space for Schlichter.

With Pryor on his way to Columbus and Ryan Mallet transferring to Arkansas, Rich Rodriguez is going to wish he stayed in West Virginia by early August. He doesn’t have a spread option quarterback to run his offense and his biggest rival just landed the top recruit in the nation.

A (sort of) scientific way to fill out your March Madness bracket

Looking for a little guidance while filling out your bracket? John Paulsen offers up a series of trend stats, including Sagarin ratings and points-per-shot, that should help you with all of the tough decisions. Now all you need to do is come up with your excuse for missing work Thursday and Friday.

Also, congradulations to John and his wife on the birth of their first child, son Max!

Remember when? SI.com to offer archived material

On Thursday, SI.com will introduce the “Vault” to readers, which is a free online archive containing all of their old covers, photos and stories. The “Vault” will also contain video material as well.

SI.com already draws more than six million unique visitors each month, according to Nielsen Online (publications insist that the true numbers are much higher than Nielsen’s ratings), and executives of the magazine predict the Vault could add five million monthly readers.

“The real hidden value of this is what it does for search,” said John Squires, executive vice president of Time Inc., the Time Warner subsidiary that publishes Sports Illustrated. The move quadruples the site’s volume, he said. “We’ll have to work our way up the search algorithms over time, but eventually, someone searches Johnny Unitas, and SI.com is going to pop up.”

Many publications, including most major magazines, still offer little or no archive access online. And of those that do allow readers to look deep into their histories, many charge for it, like The Washington Post or The Atlantic Monthly, whose online archives both go back to the 19th century.

I think this is a fantastic idea and kudos to SI for not charging people to view the material. I’m sure we’ve all wanted to go back in time and re-read an interesting article done on one of our favorite athletes or teams. Now readers have the opportunity to enjoy a little blast from the past and this will be a great resource for bloggers, too.

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