Go forward to more recent blurbs.

7/31 - Today brings the trade deadline for MLB. There have already been quite a few deals announced, and although those still rumored as going down to the wire often end up not getting done, you always have to be on your toes, especially if a pending trade results in a role change for players on the teams involved.

There have been a lot of early withdrawals (eleven and counting…) in the field for this week’s Reno-Tahoe Open. If you set your GuruGolf lineup early, you’d better check it again. Some of the withdrawals were probably somewhat popular, and you might have more slots to fill than a provisional golfer can satisfy.

Tomorrow, the odometer rolls over to August, often referred to as the “dog days” in baseball. I guess Michael Vick’s situation makes that an apt subtitle for the NFL as well.

7/30 - After a week and a half of vacation, I’m back into blurb mode this morning. But don’t get too used to me – I’ll be away again next week.

When I looked at the MLB scoreboard this morning, the recap headline at ESPN.com says “Damon, Yankees cool off Orioles”. If you look at it quickly (as I did), it sure looks like “Damn Yankees …”

GuruGolf winners for the British Open were posted last week at the GuruGolf news page. For the Canadian Open, Out of Bounds (-54) took the best ball honors, while worst ball honors go to The Birdies (+48). I’m also behind in notifying recent contest prize winners but those emails will go out this week. If you think I forgot you, don’t despair.

7/17 - Kason Gabbard, eh? I always wonder whether he got his first name when the birth certificate typist had a minor keyboard mishap. After all, the J and K are right next to each other. (Similar to Dwyane Wade, who seems to have fallen victim to dyslexic snafu. Ditto Jhonny Peralta.)

For those looking ahead to football, qualifying leagues for the RotoGuru Invitational Football Challenge (RIFC) are now forming at the football message forum. For AAA leagues, there is a priority list of those who are pre-qualified based on results in an RIFC league last year. But AA leagues are open to anyone. Last year we had only one AA league, but we can have more if there is sufficient interest and ample commissioners are found.

The British Open tees off at 1:30am ET on Thursday morning. That’s 10:30pm Pacific time for you left coasters – so you can’t wait until late Wednesday to tweak your roster this week. Be prepared!

This will be my last blurb for the next week and a half. I’ll be on a family vacation to Long Beach Island on the New Jersey shore, and although most site functions will continue to be updated as usual, the blurbs are one feature that goes into stasis.

7/16 - If you drafted Albert Pujols with your top pick last spring, this weekend had to be encouraging. In three games in Philly, he went 6-14 with 4 home runs. Three games does not a season turnaround make, but it’s been such a disappointment so far that any glimmer of hope has to appear like a bright light.

In GuruGolf, Liters4 posted the top best ball score (-53) for the John Deere Classic, while a pair of teams tied for the top worst ball score (+36). This weekend also marked the close of the latest contest period.

"Open Faced Sandwich contest" winners:
Low Cost Providers (best ball)
Blinker’s Buckeyes (worst ball)

Since my team won the best ball competition, the runner-up will win the prize. This is the second time I’ve won a contest this season. Aren’t the rest of you trying?

7/13 - On the first day of post-ASB action, it was best to simply stay away from starting pitching. No starter posted a 3-digit TSNP. And several seemingly reasonable options were roughed up, including Halladay, James Shields, Chad Gaudin, and Jeremy Guthrie.

Today we return to a full slate of action, and the pitching choices are much more appealing. Whether they are also more productive remains to be seen.

TSN Ultimate Football has been launched, but rookies have not yet been priced. I will be loading players and prices into the sortable stats in plenty of time for the season, but not immediately. Hopefully by the first week of August.

Thanks to Gurupie GoatLocker for suggesting today’s quote.

7/12 - Back to business. Today is “break-in” day. No stats to prepare or evaluate this morning, but lineups must be set. Tomorrow, we’re back to full speed.

Some baseball sites are showing an Astros@Cubs game on today’s schedule. Ignore it. That was the originally scheduled make-up game for an earlier postponement, but the teams ended up playing it on June 11 instead. Evidently, some sites never got the memo.

The John Deere Classic is underway. The early leader is Neal Lancaster at -5 thru his first nine holes, but no GuruGolf manager took a flyer on him. The popular GuruGolf favorite is Zack Johnson, most likely buffeted by the fact that he’s one of the few players slated to play both this week and next. He’s on about 40% of all active rosters, but only stands at even par through seven holes.

7/11 - Not only did Ichiro hit an inside-the-park HR, but he crossed the plate standing up while slowing down.

One more day to goof off before baseball resumes for the rest of the season – and even tomorrow’s baseball action is limited. So you might as well spend today assembling the ultimate GuruGolf roster. Pricewise, that shouldn’t be a problem this week, with most of the more expensive golfers taking the week off to prepare for next week’s British Open. On the other hand, if you like to go with household name golfers, you’ll have a bigger challenge this week. And if you are trade-constrained and want golfers who expect to play this week and next, good luck. There are a few. But very few.

7/10 - I was struck the other night by the distinction between the names in the starting lineups for the A.L. vs. N.L All Star squads. The A.L. team features six players with Latin-American surnames – Ortiz, Rodriguez (2), Guerrero. Ordonez, and Polanco – and also a Japanese name, Suzuki. Only Jeter fails to fit the international mold. (Maybe Carlos Guillen should have been named instead.) But on the other side, the N.L. includes names like Bonds, Griffey, Wright, Fielder, Martin, and Utley. Only Reyes and Beltran are of Hispanic descent. I don’t know that it has any significance, but when the names were flashed on the TV screen, the A.L. lineup sure has a lot more “z’s”.

7/9 - And so we reach the All Star break.

I uploaded the player prices for the TSN Basic Season 2 game. You can now select that game version in the sortable stats. The Assimilator should also be using those prices this morning.

Congrats to GRAMPS who posted the best GuruGolf score for the AT7T National (-46). Two teams shared the worst ball honors with a +57.

I’m going to use the 3-day All Star hiatus to do some site maintenance, some preliminary football planning, and some tile regrouting in our master bathroom. I’ve also got some other odds and ends to attend to that I always tend to defer until the ASB, and then seldom accomplish at that time. We’ll see.

Enjoy the break!

7/6 - Yesterday was one of those days with a host of attractive pitching options. But when the day was over, many the top outings came from those who probably weren’t on many lists – like Kelvim Escobar and Byung-Hyun Kim. Meanwhile, guys like Sabathia, Penny, and Hudson all struggled, getting lit up for a collective total of 19 runs in 11 IP. Figures.

Today’s action features 16 games, including a day-night doubleheader between the Twins and White Sox. In some fantasy formats, there are ways to exploit doubleheaders. In some, there are not. React accordingly!

GuruGolf favorite Jim Furyk got off to a fast start yesterday, but this morning he’s given it all back, going +4 over his first 9 holes. He’s still not in danger of missing the cut, although if he plays another nine holes like that, he’ll be teetering on the brink.

7/5 - If the Rockies could play New York teams all year, they might be formidable. They swept both the Mets and Yankees in Coors Field this year, marking the first time in more than 50 years that a team has swept two New York teams in the same season. Unfortunately for them, they are seven games under .500 against the rest of major league baseball.

The AT&T National golf tournament is off and running, and Jim Furyk is once again the popular favorite in GuruGolf, although he has been dropped from nine squads since last week. Eleven teams decided to try out Tiger in his first event as a father. Mickelson managed to attract only four buys – and after his front nine, he has 8 pars and a bogey. That keeps him in contention, but isn’t doing much to support the team scoring for those four teams.

7/4 - National holiday today. I slept in this morning, then spent some time fussing with my son’s laptop. So I’m a little behind the 8-ball this morning, and will soon be heading out for a picnic.

So let’s make this a “Blurb Light” date. But don’t forget to set your GuruGolf roster before tomorrow morning’s 7:10 tee time. As of this moment, it looks like about 70 actives teams have inactive players.

7/3 - As if the Yankees didn’t have enough troubles, they now face the prospect of playing without ARod. The outlook for his hamstring injury is still unclear, but the rest of the Yankee bats certainly haven’t shown any sustained ability to pick up the slack, last night’s win notwithstanding. Then again, even ARod has been struggling a bit for the past week.

Last night was a good one for old pitchers. Roger Clemens worked a very efficient 8 innings in notching his 350th win. On the other coast, David Wells shut out the Marlins for 6-2/3 innings. Those two guys have about 89 years of life experience, and 45 years of major league pitching experience.

7/2 - At the outset, Sunday’s Yankees-Athletics matchup featuring Pettitte and Haren looked like a good opportunity for a pitchers duel. And as the day unfolded, there were plenty of strong pitching outings, but not from that game, as those two pitchers combined to surrender 12 earned runs in 7 IP. Elsewhere, four teams were shut out, and four others managed to score only once. Hitters still had their chances as well, as four teams reached double digit scoring. Plenty of opportunities for fantasy excellence if you picked your spots favorably.

Today marks the midpoint of the baseball season. Assuming no washouts, at the end of the day, 50.1% of the season’s games will be in the books.

As expected, low scoring was the theme of the Buick Open. Two GuruGolf teams carded -53s, and four others were just one stroke back. On the worst ball side, StLCards1 closed strong with final round of +14 to finish with a +37, three strokes better than the closest contender.

2007: June . . . May . . . April . . . March . . . February . . . January