Yes, it's REALLY early here in the 2008 baseball season, but as we come to a close in week 1, some good new to report in my fantasy leagues. I'm in five CBS Sportsline money leagues and to this point, THREE are in first, one is in 6th and one is in 8th place. Can we end the season now? :)
Long story short is that the season is a long one, but it is certainly nice to see my teams getting out of the gate well this year!!! The key though will to be to keep managing the teams for another 25 weeks!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
Lakers Rally Past Refs, Mavs!
For a quarter, the game between the Los Angeles Lakers at the Staples Center appeared like it was going to be a close, see-saw battle throughout. And with All-Stars Pau Gasol and Dirk Nowitski back for their respective teams, it also meant the teams would be close to full strength. Sure enough, the teams played to a 31-31 tie after one quarter.
The Lakers scored the first basket of the second quarter, and then the officials decided to put their blinders on. Was there a Donaghy sighting? I think so! Consecutive HORRIBLE calls - one on a Gasol travel where he was clearly pushed hard and fouled, and then a subsequent play where the Lakers Sasha Vujacic was purposely elbowed by a Maverick player and NO FOUL WAS CALLED totally changed the momentum of the game. The poor officiating deflated the Lakers and they quickly fell prey to a 16-0 Mavericks run over a 4:05 span. Down 47-33 at that point, the Lakers did manage to rally somewhat over the closing half of the period to trail 64-54 at halftime.
The Mavericks, in spite of some inspired play by Gasol maintained their double digit margin late into the third period. "The Machine," as Sasha Vujacic is known to by his teammates thanks to his deadly outside shot, buried a three-pointer with 1:33 to play to give the Lakers momentum headed to the fourth quarter.
In the closing period, Jordin Farmer and Vujacic hit on consecutive three-pointers. A Farmar free throw, layups by Luke Walton and Lamar Odom, along with a jump shot by "L.O." got the Lakers to within a point at 94-93 with 7:39 to play. From there it was a battle of wills. The Lakers finally took their first lead (103-102) since that early second quarter edge on an Odom lay-up with 2:20 to play. The Mavericks scored four points on free throws over the next minute to take a three point lead. The Lakers rallied once again though. Odom scored yet another layup to draw the Lakers back within a point. Dirk Nowitski missed a jumper, and Pau Gasol converted a three point play with a layup and free throw on the ensuing possession to put the Lakers ahead to stay with 40 seconds to go. A Nowtiski turnover, and two subsequent Kobe Bryant free throws effectively put the game away. Final score: Lakers 112, Mavericks 108.
With the win the Lakers clinched a playoff berth and moved into the #2 position in the Western Conference playoff race. The Lakers box score looked like most of us would like to see it, and that's with someone other than Kobe doing all of the scoring. Odom was extremely efficient, scoring 31 points on 12-for-14 shooting, and also grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out five assists. Gasol scored 25, and led the team with seven assists, while Kobe "only" scored 25 points, and grabbed 10 boards to go with his 6 assists. No other Laker scored in double digits, but Farmer and Vujacic each had nine points, including the aforementioned key 3-pointers. The Lakers travel to Sacramento to play the Kings at 9pt ET/6pm PT on Sunday.
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The Lakers scored the first basket of the second quarter, and then the officials decided to put their blinders on. Was there a Donaghy sighting? I think so! Consecutive HORRIBLE calls - one on a Gasol travel where he was clearly pushed hard and fouled, and then a subsequent play where the Lakers Sasha Vujacic was purposely elbowed by a Maverick player and NO FOUL WAS CALLED totally changed the momentum of the game. The poor officiating deflated the Lakers and they quickly fell prey to a 16-0 Mavericks run over a 4:05 span. Down 47-33 at that point, the Lakers did manage to rally somewhat over the closing half of the period to trail 64-54 at halftime.
The Mavericks, in spite of some inspired play by Gasol maintained their double digit margin late into the third period. "The Machine," as Sasha Vujacic is known to by his teammates thanks to his deadly outside shot, buried a three-pointer with 1:33 to play to give the Lakers momentum headed to the fourth quarter.
In the closing period, Jordin Farmer and Vujacic hit on consecutive three-pointers. A Farmar free throw, layups by Luke Walton and Lamar Odom, along with a jump shot by "L.O." got the Lakers to within a point at 94-93 with 7:39 to play. From there it was a battle of wills. The Lakers finally took their first lead (103-102) since that early second quarter edge on an Odom lay-up with 2:20 to play. The Mavericks scored four points on free throws over the next minute to take a three point lead. The Lakers rallied once again though. Odom scored yet another layup to draw the Lakers back within a point. Dirk Nowitski missed a jumper, and Pau Gasol converted a three point play with a layup and free throw on the ensuing possession to put the Lakers ahead to stay with 40 seconds to go. A Nowtiski turnover, and two subsequent Kobe Bryant free throws effectively put the game away. Final score: Lakers 112, Mavericks 108.
With the win the Lakers clinched a playoff berth and moved into the #2 position in the Western Conference playoff race. The Lakers box score looked like most of us would like to see it, and that's with someone other than Kobe doing all of the scoring. Odom was extremely efficient, scoring 31 points on 12-for-14 shooting, and also grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out five assists. Gasol scored 25, and led the team with seven assists, while Kobe "only" scored 25 points, and grabbed 10 boards to go with his 6 assists. No other Laker scored in double digits, but Farmer and Vujacic each had nine points, including the aforementioned key 3-pointers. The Lakers travel to Sacramento to play the Kings at 9pt ET/6pm PT on Sunday.
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Thursday, April 3, 2008
Happy Birthday, Leona Lewis!
Just a quick note here to wish Leona Lewis a VERY happy 23rd birthday! What's there to celebrate? Well a great singer with a great song and an album coming out in America just five days from now!
The radio story for Leona's hit "Bleeding Love" continues to get better and better as it's gained a crazy 759 spins at top 40 radio stations nationwide the past three days, including 260 the past day! The callout scores are in from RateTheMusic.com and in her third week, Leona scored a 4.10, ranking #1 for the second time in three weeks surveyed!
Mainstream Top 40
12+ : By Rank
Report Date: Apr 3, 2008 @ 6:44 AM
Rank Artist Title Pop (Fam) Fam% Burn% (Fam)
1 Leona Lewis Bleeding Love 4.10 91 14
2 Madonna & Justin Timberlake 4 Minutes 4.06 71 9
3 Jordin Sparks w/ Chris Brown No Air 3.98 94 26
4 Rihanna Don't Stop The Music 3.92 98 37
5 Sara Bareilles Love Song 3.89 98 38
6 Timbaland f/ OneRepublic Apologize 3.86 99 53
7 OneRepublic Stop & Stare 3.85 94 25
8 Miley Cyrus See You Again 3.84 95 34
9 Daughtry Feels Like Tonight 3.83 96 24
10 Chris Brown With You 3.77 95 36
Look for her to get to #7 in spins and #5 in estimated audience when the final charts are published by Mediabase on Sunday night. Additionally, "Bleeding Love" just cracked the top 25 at Rhythmic and is finally starting to garner airplay at the Adult Contemporary formats, cracking the top 50 at both Hot AC (#43) and AC (#42) This week... look for a swift rise up the charts on these formats now that they're catching on.
Tomorrow morning, Leona will appear on ABC's Good Morning America. Be sure to be tuned in between 7am and 9am ET/PT to see her perform "Bleeding Love" on the show.
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The radio story for Leona's hit "Bleeding Love" continues to get better and better as it's gained a crazy 759 spins at top 40 radio stations nationwide the past three days, including 260 the past day! The callout scores are in from RateTheMusic.com and in her third week, Leona scored a 4.10, ranking #1 for the second time in three weeks surveyed!
Mainstream Top 40
12+ : By Rank
Report Date: Apr 3, 2008 @ 6:44 AM
Rank Artist Title Pop (Fam) Fam% Burn% (Fam)
1 Leona Lewis Bleeding Love 4.10 91 14
2 Madonna & Justin Timberlake 4 Minutes 4.06 71 9
3 Jordin Sparks w/ Chris Brown No Air 3.98 94 26
4 Rihanna Don't Stop The Music 3.92 98 37
5 Sara Bareilles Love Song 3.89 98 38
6 Timbaland f/ OneRepublic Apologize 3.86 99 53
7 OneRepublic Stop & Stare 3.85 94 25
8 Miley Cyrus See You Again 3.84 95 34
9 Daughtry Feels Like Tonight 3.83 96 24
10 Chris Brown With You 3.77 95 36
Look for her to get to #7 in spins and #5 in estimated audience when the final charts are published by Mediabase on Sunday night. Additionally, "Bleeding Love" just cracked the top 25 at Rhythmic and is finally starting to garner airplay at the Adult Contemporary formats, cracking the top 50 at both Hot AC (#43) and AC (#42) This week... look for a swift rise up the charts on these formats now that they're catching on.
Tomorrow morning, Leona will appear on ABC's Good Morning America. Be sure to be tuned in between 7am and 9am ET/PT to see her perform "Bleeding Love" on the show.
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Lake Show gets Gasoled Up!
For the better part of three weeks, the Los Angeles Lakers have been sputtering both offensively and on defense. Without all-star forward Pau Gasol, the "Lake Show" was only 5-4, and had failed to limit any opponent to under 100 points. Last night, Gasol returned to raucous cheers at Staples Center as the Lakers battled the Portland Trailblazers.
For a half, the Blazers kept things interesting, hitting a barrage of 3-points to manage a 50-50 tie. Gasol looked a little rusty offensively, but his defensive presence really became evident in the second half, as the Lakers limited Portland to only 13 points in the third quarter. The Lakers went into the fourth quarter with a 10 point lead and extended it to 86-68 with 7:37 to play on a Kobe Bryant three pointer. The Blazers rallied over the next 2:45, going on a 13-2 run to trim the Laker margin to seven. Kobe single-handedly doubled that margin and put the game away over the next 50 seconds, connecting on consecutive three point shots, converting the the latter into a four point play after being fouled. From there, the Lakers cruised to a 104-91 victory.
Kobe finished the game with a double-double, scoring 36 points and grabbing 13 rebounds to go with seven assists. Coach Phil Jackson wanted to limit Gasol to 25 minutes, but he played 32 instead... Pau's 10 point, seven assist, six rebound effort was a good one considering he hadn't played in so long. The other three starters along with Jordan Farmar also tallied double-digit points. With the win, the Lakers extended their lead to a game over Phoenix in the Western division and remain the 3-seed in the conference, 1 1/2 games behind the New Orleans Hornets. On Friday night they take on the Dallas Mavericks at Staples and hope to build on their two game winning streak. All I know is it's nice to have Gasol back, as for the first time in quite a while the Lakers team looked confident in everything they were doing on the floor. When they get Andruw Bynum back, there's no telling just how good they are going to be!
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For a half, the Blazers kept things interesting, hitting a barrage of 3-points to manage a 50-50 tie. Gasol looked a little rusty offensively, but his defensive presence really became evident in the second half, as the Lakers limited Portland to only 13 points in the third quarter. The Lakers went into the fourth quarter with a 10 point lead and extended it to 86-68 with 7:37 to play on a Kobe Bryant three pointer. The Blazers rallied over the next 2:45, going on a 13-2 run to trim the Laker margin to seven. Kobe single-handedly doubled that margin and put the game away over the next 50 seconds, connecting on consecutive three point shots, converting the the latter into a four point play after being fouled. From there, the Lakers cruised to a 104-91 victory.
Kobe finished the game with a double-double, scoring 36 points and grabbing 13 rebounds to go with seven assists. Coach Phil Jackson wanted to limit Gasol to 25 minutes, but he played 32 instead... Pau's 10 point, seven assist, six rebound effort was a good one considering he hadn't played in so long. The other three starters along with Jordan Farmar also tallied double-digit points. With the win, the Lakers extended their lead to a game over Phoenix in the Western division and remain the 3-seed in the conference, 1 1/2 games behind the New Orleans Hornets. On Friday night they take on the Dallas Mavericks at Staples and hope to build on their two game winning streak. All I know is it's nice to have Gasol back, as for the first time in quite a while the Lakers team looked confident in everything they were doing on the floor. When they get Andruw Bynum back, there's no telling just how good they are going to be!
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Wednesday, April 2, 2008
A Fantasy Explosion!
Always nice when one of your fantasy baseball teams goes off for an offensive outburst... when it happens in the first week of the season though, it REALLY stands out!!
G. Soto C CHC 2 v MIL 8 (F) 1-4, 0.250 BA, HR, RBI, R
K. Suzuki C OAK 0 v BOS 5 (F) 1-3, 0.333 BA
M. Teixeira 1B ATL 10 v PIT 2 (F) 1-4, 0.250 BA, HR, 2 RBI, R
B. Roberts 2B BAL 9 v TB 6 (F) 1-3, 0.333 BA, HR, RBI, R, BB
A. Rodriguez 3B NYY 2 v TOR 5 (F) 1-4, 0.250 BA, HR, 2 RBI, R
T. Tulowitzki SS COL 3 @ STL 8 (F) 0-4, BB, CS
R. Ankiel OF STL 8 v COL 3 (F) 3-5, 0.600 BA, HR, RBI, 2 R
J. Dye OF CHW 2 @ CLE 7 (F) 1-4, 0.250 BA
T. Hunter OF ANA 1 @ MIN 0 (F) 2-4, 0.500 BA
C. Lee OF HOU 9 @ SD 6 (F) 1-5, 0.200 BA, HR, RBI, R
V. Wells OF TOR 5 @ NYY 2 (F) 3-4, 0.750 BA, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
C. Delgado U NYM 13 @ FLA 0 (F) 2-5, 0.400 BA, RBI, 2 R
J. Loney U LA 1 v SF 2 (F) 2-3, 0.667 BA, 2B, RBI, BB
Totals:19-52, 0.365 BA, 7 HR, 12 RBI, 11 R, 3 BB, CS
G. Soto C CHC 2 v MIL 8 (F) 1-4, 0.250 BA, HR, RBI, R
K. Suzuki C OAK 0 v BOS 5 (F) 1-3, 0.333 BA
M. Teixeira 1B ATL 10 v PIT 2 (F) 1-4, 0.250 BA, HR, 2 RBI, R
B. Roberts 2B BAL 9 v TB 6 (F) 1-3, 0.333 BA, HR, RBI, R, BB
A. Rodriguez 3B NYY 2 v TOR 5 (F) 1-4, 0.250 BA, HR, 2 RBI, R
T. Tulowitzki SS COL 3 @ STL 8 (F) 0-4, BB, CS
R. Ankiel OF STL 8 v COL 3 (F) 3-5, 0.600 BA, HR, RBI, 2 R
J. Dye OF CHW 2 @ CLE 7 (F) 1-4, 0.250 BA
T. Hunter OF ANA 1 @ MIN 0 (F) 2-4, 0.500 BA
C. Lee OF HOU 9 @ SD 6 (F) 1-5, 0.200 BA, HR, RBI, R
V. Wells OF TOR 5 @ NYY 2 (F) 3-4, 0.750 BA, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
C. Delgado U NYM 13 @ FLA 0 (F) 2-5, 0.400 BA, RBI, 2 R
J. Loney U LA 1 v SF 2 (F) 2-3, 0.667 BA, 2B, RBI, BB
Totals:19-52, 0.365 BA, 7 HR, 12 RBI, 11 R, 3 BB, CS
Too Many Things on TV!
My head is spinning tonight as there are just WAY too many good things to watch on TV... the Lakers are on, American Idol is on, I have my pick of about five different baseball games thanks to the free week trial of MLB Extra Innings that my local cable provider is offering this week. Go Lakers, Go Dodgers, Go Angels!!!
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Tuesday, April 1, 2008
U.S. Airwaves Bleeding For Leona!
The amazing run of Leona Lewis' hit single "Bleeding Love" continues here in America. After hitting #1 on FOUR different Billboard charts last week, "Bleeding Love" has now launched a full-fledged assault on the #1 spot on the U.S. pop radio airwaves! There's lots of fierce competition on the pop radio airplay charts, but as you'll see, Leona and her smash hit (currently #10 on the Mediabase Top 40 pop chart) seem to definitely be up to the challenge!!!
Top 40
Mediabase - Published Panel
Past 7 Days - by Spins
Updated: Tue Apr 1 12:47 PM PST
LW TW ARTIST Title TW LW Move Aud
1 1 CHRIS BROWN With You 10592 10760 -168 65.545
2 2 SARA BAREILLES Love Song 10588 10500 88 59.037
6 3 JORDIN SPARKS No Air (f/Chris Brow... 8622 7735 887 51.776
3 4 FLO RIDA Low (f/T-Pain) 8573 9349 -776 52.595
5 5 MILEY CYRUS See You Again 8230 7737 493 47.426
4 6 RIHANNA Don't Stop The Music 7974 8973 -999 51.778
7 7 BUCKCHERRY Sorry 7409 7434 -25 33.375
9 8 USHER Love In This Club f/... 6927 6044 883 40.172
8 9 MARIAH CAREY Touch My Body 6856 6178 678 36.681
12 10 LEONA LEWIS Bleeding Love 5959 4542 1417 42.393
For those of you that aren't familiar with the charts, the main number you need to pay attention to is the 1417 in the next to last column. That's the number of spins "Bleeding Love" has picked up on the U.S. pop radio airwaves over the past week. Yes, Leona's picking up on average over 200 spins a day! Today alone, it picked up an incredible 237 spins!
To make a long story short, "Bleeding Love" is the hottest song on the pop chart at the moment as the Mediabase "Jump" chart clearly shows:
Top 40
Mediabase - Published Panel
Past 7 Days - by Move
Updated: Tue Apr 1 12:47 PM PST
Rk ARTIST Title Move
1.LEONA LEWIS Bleeding Love +1417
2.MADONNA 4 Minutes +1290
3.JORDIN SPARKS No Air (f/Chris Brown) +887
4.USHER Love In This Club f/Y. Jeezy +883
5.RAY J/YUNG BERG Sexy Can I +877
Yes, "Bleeding Love" is growing at an even faster rate than the much-anticipated new Madonna release, "4 Minutes" and every other song out at the moment!!! At it's current rate of growth, it could very well reach #7 on the big chart by this weekend! "Bleeding Love" is all but assured of a top 5 peak, but it's looking more and more like there's just about nothing left to stop this classic song from hitting #1 on the U.S. Pop radio airplay charts! Perhaps as soon as the end of this month, Leona Lewis will have a #1 U.S. Pop airplay crown to add to her ever-growing mantle!
And a week from today, Leona's debut album Spirit will be released for all of America to enjoy. I get the feeling that "Bleeding Love" is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak in terms of Leona's potential here in the U.S. and globally.
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