Wonderful World of Gonos : CBSSports.com Blogs

Goodbye, SportsLine

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 9:48:43 EDT

Today is officially my last day as a SportsLiner (CBSSportser just doesn't have the same ring.)

On Thursday, the Fantasy guys did a roast of me at lunch. It was one of the coolest things I've seen. Here are a few of the "publishable" jokes that Ross and Dave Richard (along with some of my rebuttals) said to the group:

FROM ROSS:

You know what Serge’s problem is? He’s too nice. If he were any nicer, he’d be gay.

The Emack ZONE!

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:56:58 EDT

The following is a page that was on AOL Hometown dating back to the late 90s. Emack posted this, for what reason we have no idea, and years later, I think it was Jake Payton that discovered it. After having it up in my cubes for years, I thought it was time to share it with my readers since I'm leaving the company on Friday. While reading this, imagine a dorky picture of young Emack, hair parted down the middle and feathered, with the caption, "Me at the ripe young age of 22." Please join me in making fun of his gayness.

The Emack ZONE!

Emack himself:

Name: Eric Mack

5 Days: Early East-Siiiiiiide SPLN Days

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:48:52 EDT

After five and a half years, about 31,250 player updates, and probably a couple hundred columns, I'm officially leaving CBSSports.com after this Friday. I'm moving on with another opportunity ahead of me, but these last five days will give me ample time to reflect on my SportsLine days -- as well as the many people I've worked with.

I ran my own site in the early '00s and I made contacts with Scott Engel, Tristan Cockcroft and Michael Fabiano -- three of the original SPLN Fantasy content guys. Engel helped me get my foot in the door and eventually grab a seat to replace Marlon McRae, who had moved back to New York. Dan Dobish had taken a job with the group, about six months before me, to work nights and write the hockey content.

Week 10 Tout Wars FAAB Bids

Sat, 31 May 2008 16:03:19 EDT

Mixed Tout Wars FAAB for Week 10

Derek Lowe: Schechter $18 Salfino $15 Zola $13 Cushing $10 Roberts $9 Funston $6 - Schechter $16

Ben Francisco: Ma $25 Zola $17 Hoyos $6 Kastner $6 Regan $1 - Ma $18

Ryan Spilborghs: Zola $17 - Zola $1

Week 10 Start 'em and Sit 'em

Fri, 30 May 2008 10:30:30 EDT

Good team starts

Philadelphia -- 7 G, 4 at home vs. CIN

Texas -- 7 home games, CLE, TB

Oakland -- 6 home games, DET, LAA

Thursday's Must-See Bloggy

Thu, 29 May 2008 14:47:24 EDT

While sipping on your morning protein shake, here are the top 10 things you need to know about for Your Morning Constitutional:

Dice-K's next start in jeopardy: Daisuke Matsuzaka left for Boston Wednesday to get an MRI on his fatigued pitching shoulder. Manager Terry Francona has not ruled him out for Monday's start at Baltimore. There's a day off in there, so the Red Sox could juggle the rotation a bit, according to The Boston Globe. Tim Wakefield could start Monday, and Justin Masterson had his debut at Triple-A Pawtucket moved up from Saturday to Thursday, which would put him in line to start Tuesday against the Rays.

Pedro could return next week: Pedro Martinez threw six solid innings in a Class A rehab start for Port St. Lucie on Wednesday. The hamstring injury is behind him and he's just building up strength at this point. He gave up two runs on four hits (82 pitches), with six strikeouts and no walks.

Back to Work, Slackers!

Fri, 30 May 2008 17:15:13 EDT

While eating your 2-Sausage McGriddle sandwiches for $2 (I've been meaning to talk to you about your diet lately), here's what you need to know after a long Memorial Day Weekend:

Jay Bruce IS HERE! JAY BRUCE IS HERE!: Finally, after nearly two months of starting guys like Geoff Jenkins, Scott Hairston and Alfredo Amezaga in your Fantasy outfield, Jay Bruce can come off of your bench to start. The Reds are expected to call him up sometime Tuesday for his major league debut against the Pirates at Great American Ball Park. He hit .349 with nine doubles, five triples, 10 homers and 37 RBI in 49 games at Triple-A Louisville this season. His ownership is still just at 63 percent -- up from 55 percent a couple days ago.

Clayton Kershaw IS HERE! CLAYTON KERSHAW IS HERE!: The Dodgers' young lefty struck out seven batters in six innings against the Cardinals on Sunday. He was the sixth pick of the '06 draft behind Andrew Miller and Brandon Morrow. Actually, seven of the top 10 picks in that draft are currently in the majors already. Only Pirates (4th) P Brad Lincoln (Tommy John surgery), Reds (8th) OF Drew Stubbs and Orioles (9th) 3B Billy Rowell have yet to make their debuts. (Max Scherzer (11th) and Ian Kennedy (21st) have also arrived.)

Memorial Day Baseball Lineup

Thu, 29 May 2008 21:47:24 EDT

A reader (ChicagoRokstar) asked me to run a list of the best baseball players to ever serve in the military. Things I noticed while looking this up -- lots of pilots and Cardinals. Makes sense! Here's a quick list of what I came up with:

C Yogi Berra, Yankees (Navy)

1B Hank Greenberg, Tigers (Air Force)

2B Jackie Robinson, Dodgers (Army)

Top 20 War Movies

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:02:17 EDT

After you stuff down an apple fritter and coffee while getting ready to barbecue up a storm on Memorial Day, here's my top 20 war movies to consider during Memorial Day (my rules are that they have to be about a modern day war, World War I to the present):

The Great Escape -- Without question, greatest war movie ever made (and a true story). Great cast, excellent story.

Saving Private Ryan -- Best battle scene ever in first 20 minutes.

The Dirty Dozen -- We need more ensemble cast-epic movies like this one.

Week 9 Start 'em and Sit 'em

Fri, 23 May 2008 10:17:36 EDT

Good start teams

Tampa Bay: Seven home games (TEX3, CHW4)

Texas: Facing two top 10 staffs (@TB3, OAK3)

St. Louis: Six home games (HOU3, PIT3)

There Are No Songs About Thursdays

Thu, 22 May 2008 13:51:29 EDT

I'm guessing you were lazy and just drive through Burger King this morning, picking up a sausage/egg/cheese croissanwich, with hash rounds, coffee -- and an order of the Cinni-minis because you couldn't resist. Here's Your Morning Constitutional:

A-Rod homers twice, gets credit for just one: Despite hitting two balls out of the park, Alex Rodriguez was rewarded with just one homer and a double (the ball bounced off some outfield steps before returning the field and unjustly credited as a double by the umps). My Tout Wars team was quite upset over the ruling. But he has four hits, two homers, four RBI and three runs scored in his two games since returning from his quad injury.

Joba Chamberlain begins to get stretched out for the rotation: The big Nebraskan threw two innings Wednesday and the Yankees will try to give him more innings in each outing, but you have to expect he'll take a trip to the minors for a couple of starts. His ownership has gone up from 79 to 84 percent in CBSSports.com leagues.

Purple Haze All in My Brain

Wed, 21 May 2008 16:24:06 EDT

While you're feasting on smoked salmon, cream cheese and bagels for breakfast, we're still under a smoke advisory from over 80 active fires in the state of Florida. Dear Florid-Dummies, Quit throwing out your lit cigarettes -- it hasn't rained since 1975. Here's what you need to know about Monday's events:

Jon Lester survives cancer and wins World Series clincher last year, no-hits the Royals Monday, plans to invent diet donuts that taste good next year: Clay Buchholz did it last season and Lester follows suit. Nearly as impressive, Jason Varitek has been behind the plate for a record four no-hitters. And these aren't even yesteryear's Royals -- they rank in the middle in team batting average this year. Who are the last two teammates to throw no-hitters in back-to-back seasons? (I'll have to research it to answer, maybe someone out there already knows.) Lester's no-hitter was worth 39 points in the BIGS league H2H scoring, and 41 pts in the FLEX league.

Start 'em and Sit 'em: Week 8

Fri, 16 May 2008 10:21:03 EDT

Good Start Teams

San Diego - 7 home games, 3 vs. STL (23rd road ERA, 4 vs. CIN (29th road ERA)

N.Y. Yankees - 6 home games

Houston - 7 home games, 3 vs. CHC, 4 vs. PHI

Your Morning Constitutional

Wed, 14 May 2008 17:18:37 EDT

I believe your order was two scrambled eggs (not dry), with four slabs of crisp bacon, some thick-cut home fries, two slices of buttered rye toast, a cup of diner coffee, and large glass of orange juice (from concentrate unfortunately).

I knew "The Daily Dose" had a good ring to it: Saw yesterday that another site uses that for its morning column. I prolly stole it. So I figure, you're likely reading this after your first trip to the can anyway (bacon and coffee does it to me too). I'm changing it to "The Morning Constitutional."

Mariano Rivera's perfect season is officially ruined: The Yankees' future HOF closer allows his first earned run of the season to the Rays in extra innings Tuesday. In a season where closers are shakier than the office chair I'm close to breaking, it's been great to see Mo pitch this good in the first six weeks. (Oh yeah, and Troy Percival blew the save ... whatever.)

Gonos is Burning

Wed, 14 May 2008 10:45:30 EDT

Here's our most recent podcast from this afternoon. We get a little goofier than usual. Emack's turkey pops out of the oven, Jamey takes five-minute no-talking breaks and I expound on the greatness that is Rays Baseball.

Looking at what happened over the past 24 hours, here's what you need to know while you scarf down three blueberry pancakes with plenty of syrup, four thick sausage links, a glass of cold milk and a cup o' joe:

"Happy Mother's Day Mom! ... Now SIT YOUR ASS DOWN!": LeBron James' mother got in on the action in the crowd as a ruckus among LeBron and a couple Celtics moved off the court Monday night. King James turned around and yelled at the Queen Mum to take her seat ... Reports indicate that Paul Pierce will no longer be allowed to come over to LeBron's house after school.

Brian Shouse is in the House!

Wed, 14 May 2008 10:46:11 EDT

While you indulge in your Big Texas Cinnamon Roll (winner of Pastry of the Year in 2003, 2004 and 2006) along with your second cup of mediocre office coffee, here's what you need to know happened this weekend while you were taking your son and daughter to Little League and ballet practice (not necessarily in that order):

Managers are playing, "Which shell has the closer under it?" screwing up Fantasy teams in Mike Shanahan-like fashion everywhere: This time it's Jason Isringhausen and Eric Gagne getting the hooks for their respective clubs. So Brian Shouse gets a one-out save, helped by Salomon Torres, and Ryan Franklin trades in holds for saves and 6x6 owners are beside themselves. Once again, the closer position ruins many a-team if their draft picks weren't spent wisely. Even Jon Papelbon has a couple blown saves in the past week or so.

Daily Dose 5/9/08, Start 'em and Sit 'em: Week 7

Wed, 14 May 2008 10:46:40 EDT

Now that you're done with your blueberry bagel and big cup of coffee that was hot when you got it, but now it's kinda pee-temperature, here's what you need to know this morn:

Fantasy hitter of the day? Dioner Navarro, C, TB: The 24-year-old Venezuelan backstop went 3-for-6 with a double and a game-winning grand slam against Toronto Thursday. Since returning on April 22 from a hand injury, only Geovany Soto (19) has more hits than Navarro (18) among catchers.

Brandon Webb goes to 8-0 with a complete game win against the Phillies: This is the first NL pitcher to get to 8-0 since Pedro Martinez in 1997. The sinkerballer is on pace for 37 wins this season -- start him in NL-only leagues.

Dave Richard has been funny 9 days in a row through Thursday: About a month ago, I posted a sign in my cube counting off how many days in a row the normally unfunny Dave Richard has been funny. (He's normally the guy that adds a joke to the conversation only to have the rest of the group then quietly change the subject.) If he's funny today, that will be 10 days straight, which means the sign comes down. It's a monumental day in the department -- we're all rooting for him. For the record, he got to the ninth consecutive funny day yesterday when Emack asked, "What should I go eat for lunch?" And Richard replied, "Rat poison."

Daily Dose of Fantasy/Reality

Wed, 14 May 2008 10:47:04 EDT

Things you need to know this morning, while you eat a melon medley of cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon, with a few red grapes, and a refreshing cup of fresh squeezed Florida orange juice ... followed by a CinnaBon --

Harden ready to go for "one-start-in-a-row" streak: Rich Harden will start on Sunday at the Rangers. Scotty Blanco and I both whiffed on who would join the bullpen -- it's going to be Chad Gaudin (pronounced CHAD). Expect two great starts from Harden before he breaks your Fantasy heart again and goes on the DL for a sprained uterus.

Carlos Gomez hits for cycle, something Johan Santana NEVER did: Gomez actually has two homers in his past eight games with six RBI and four stolen bases. Is he really available in 32 percent of CBSSports.com leagues?

Things I Think About on the Can ...

Wed, 07 May 2008 15:01:37 EDT

Surreal moment of the week

A few minutes ago, I heard Dave Richard and Emack talking to a few people at the end of our row. And it sounded like they were being introduced. Well, over the past two weeks, we've had at least six people come through the area (new employees, potential employees, new columnists) and get introduced to us. So I'm knee-deep looking at stats, getting ready to write my column and shaking hands and yutzing around for five minutes tends to break my concentration, so I was kinda hoping they'd just move along. (I'm a jerk like that.) Then I heard Richard introduce Sergio, who sits across from me, and I realized I'm going to have to turn around or I'll look like the jerk I am.

I get up and look -- and it's Lawrence Taylor. THE Lawrence Taylor. So he's looking at Emack's desk and checking out his own Topps football card from the early 80s, and we're all just kinda staring at him like kids. It's weird. I've seen many -- MANY -- athletes in person through the years, whether it's from spring training or even just out to dinner in Tampa/Orlando or South Florida. Heck, I even ran into L.T. in 1995 in New York and said Hi. I don't really get starstruck often. But when you see him in your work environment -- it's very weird. (Sergio and Emack are die-hard Giants fans.) Sergio was just standing there in shock -- Emack I think asked him to sign his boob. It was strange. Finally, his handler moved him on down the hallway before I asked him on a date.

Random thoughts on a random day

Mon, 05 May 2008 19:15:15 EDT

Well, I just wrote a bunch of blog items and accidentally hit a link to another page. Coming back to this one, I found that everything I wrote was gone. CTRL-A and CTRL-C ... I need to start making that a regular habit while I write a decent size blog.

Here are the quick notes to what I had written (cop-out, I know, I'm blaming Emack):

Justin Upton gets ejected for arguing the third strike of the final out of Sunday's game. WHAT? How? George Brett just got ejected from a game in 1982. What's the statute of limitations on that?

Trivia time: What two Angels pitchers are the only ones to start a season with a better combined record than Ervin Santana (5-0) and Joe Saunders (6-0)?

Looking back before we look forward

Sat, 03 May 2008 17:11:40 EDT

Just got done with some maple syrup flavored frozen waffles that someone else bought ... then I put maple syrup on them. It's like eating chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup or sprinkling Fritos over my Fritos ... Great. Now I'm hungry again.

So I thought we'd take a quick look back at the ADP of the top 12 picks in Fantasy drafts this season, and figure where they stack one month in. Nothing we can do about it now, but learn. Right? Yeah, probably not even that.

Top 12 picks on CBSSports.com's Head-to-Head Average Draft Rankings

Alex Rodriguez, 3B, NYY: He's going to miss most of May with a Grade 2 quad strain, but even before that, he was not putting up No. 1 overall draft pick numbers. Eleven RBI? Come on. The Yankees are coming off the rails. Their pitching is coming apart, their hitting They were 12th in total runs scored this past April (125), compared to fourth last season (131). But they played six more games this April than they did last April. On average, Runs Per Game, the Yankees ranked second last April with 5.7 RPG, powered on A-Rod's batting line of .355-14-34-27-2. But this season, the Yankees rank 23rd in the majors with 4.3 RPG -- and the only two Yankees hitters that are pulling their weights right now are Bobby Abreu and Hideki Matsui.

Start 'em and Sit 'em: Week 6

Thu, 01 May 2008 23:38:32 EDT

Good start teams

Seattle -- 7 home games, 3 vs. TEX w/ 2nd-worst road ERA in majors

Arizona -- 4 home, three at Wrigley

L.A. Angels -- six road games, but most runs on road

Mondays are always a little off

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:44:41 EDT

Woke up late this morning, scrambled around to clean my house in preparation of a visit from my mother. This should be an interesting week. I'm off on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, spending time with her as we head to a Chess Convention. Yeah, you read that part right. My step-father was an avid chess set collector before he died last Fall and we're going to West Palm Beach this week to auction off some of his sets at this international convention.

Chess is almost like sports. Different positions. Strategy. Two teams of players. Turf war. Here's something I learned -- the markings on each piece explain their movements. A bishop has the diagonal cut into it's top, meaning it goes diagonal. A knight has the L-shaped head. The queen has a multi-pointed crown, showing that it can go anywhere ... You still awake?

Tout Wars Transactions

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:39:06 EDT

Mixed FAAB

Brian Fuentes – Kastner $50 Petera $36 Zola $33 Roberts $32 Schechter $32 Regan $27 Hoyos $9

Clint Barmes – Hoyos $16

Felipe Lopez – Schechter $13 Cushing $9 Zola $8

Start 'em and Sit 'em: Week 5

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:31:46 EDT

Good start teams

DET - @NYY3, @MIN3

FLA - 6 home games, top10 RPG @home

ARI - 6 home games, 2nd RPG in majors

Gonos' Mock Draft Blog

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:55:52 EDT

Welcome to my NFL Mock Draft Contest! Notice, I said "my" -- this is not run by CBSSports.com.

No idea what the prize will be. It will have to be something I personally give, not the company. So expect something like, a pair of unmatched socks or half a loaf of bread, or a used DVD of "Erin Brockovich." This is for a friendly competition, but I'll make sure to send the winner something.

Here's how this is going to work:

Fill out who you think will be drafted in the entire first round (31 players, sorry Pats).

Tout Bids entering Week 4

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:02:16 EDT

Tout Bids were in at 5pm, Friday, and lineups were set for Saturday's games.

MIXED TOUT FAAB Results

John Bowker – Zola $21 - Zola $1

Gerald Laird – Zola $17 - Zola $1

Rays lock up Longoria until 2014

Tue, 06 May 2008 12:52:30 EDT

So here's the deal.

The Rays have announced a announcement by executive vice president Andrew Friedman for Friday at 1 p.m. at Tropicana Field.

After much chatter amongst the group, here are the possibilities we've determined:

The new stadium got the green light.

Start 'em and Sit 'em: Week 4

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:53:03 EDT

This is my prep work for Friday's video shoot.

GOOD STARTS

American League

C - Kenji Johjima, SEA: After shaking his slump, he is batting .450 in past seven days.

Stat One by Craig Messmer

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:18:16 EST

Over the past month or so, I've been emailing back and forth with Craig Messmer, who is the author of the book, Stat One.

You can get it here: www.StatOneBaseball.com -- and you can purchase through the links there to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Now, let me explain it to you. Messmer basically creates a stat called P/E Average that breaks down hitters through history. He is able to use this number to help list the all-time greatest players at every position. (Pitchers -- you have no place here!)

For stat lovers like me, and for baseball history lovers like me, it's a really fun book to read. Seriously, it's fun! I like to try and guess the rankings as I move from position to position. I'm a dork like that.