Holy Cow!

It isn't new but I just saw it for the first time - the Daily Page published an article June 13th regarding the blog attention that Madison's Cow Parade has received.

It comes through with A LOT of links, none more notable of course than:

"...Monnie Halberg documented the cows in downtown Sun Prairie, which are dominated by a Georgia O'Keefe theme, who once made the town her home."

Congrats Monnie on making the list!

Of course, since the article was posted 6/19 - the Daily Page/Isthmus hasn't had a chance to notice the incredible amount of coverage Monica has since given the non-Sun Prairie based cows. Keep following along!

WOW

720 IN GAME dunk

Deuces Wild II

Back in March, I had posted about an "electronic baseball league" (I can't think of a better 3 words to describe it) called Deuces Wild. If you want to recall the rules you can check out the other post but assuming you just want the synopsis: 15 guys get 2 teams each: add the total wins of your 2 teams and whoever has the most wins. Pretty simple really.

Anyway, in the original draft I had the Red Sox and the Tigers which I was quite happy with. As it turned out: I should have been. Both teams are in first in very tough divisions and I've got a pretty healthy lead in our competition.

So, the other day we had our mid-point draft. Last year we learned that in something like this you really need to re-draft at the halfway point. Otherwise, someone can get two terrible teams and have an entire season of no fun. This way everyone at least has a chance to get back into it.

First, let's go back to what I said after the first one:

The worst picks in my mind were the Mets (3), Cubs (13), and Giants (15). The Mets clearly taking the cake as the consensus "what the heck was that?" pick of the draft. Best picks, I have to like Bos (9) as the biggest steal. Twins (19) is also a pretty good one, I think.

It seems that I was mostly right... The Cubs and Giants were too high. Boston was the almost the biggest steal - luckily for me the Tigers (BY FAR) were the biggest steal of the draft... the Twins were a pretty good one as well. Where I really missed the boat was rating the Mets as the worst pick of the draft. They came into the midway point with the 4th best record in baseball - better than the #1 pick Yankees.

Now on to the midseason results:

My picks in green

Well, this time the draft went like this:
1 Chicago White Sox
2 New York Mets
3 Boston Red Sox
4 Detroit Tigers
5 Houston Astros
6 New York Yankees
7 Toronto Blue Jays
8 St. Louis Cardinals
9 Los Angeles Dodgers
10Minnesota Twins
11 Cincinnati Reds
12 Milwaukee Brewers
13 Oakland A's
14 Texas Rangers
15 San Diego Padres
16 Los Angeles Angels
17 Colorado Rockies
18 San Francisco Giants
19 Philadelphia Phillies
20 Seattle Mariners
21 Cleveland Indians
22 Arizona Diamondbacks
23 Atlanta Braves
24 Florida Marlins
25 Washington Nationals
26 Baltimore Orioles
27 Tampa Bay Devil Rays
28 Chicago Cubs
29 Pittsburgh Pirates
30 Kansas City Royals

Again, I am very happy with my picks. The Cardinals at #8 is better than I was hoping for. The Braves at #23 is a pick I really like too. To me they're a team with a lot of upside and a chance to really have a great second half. They won't be looking to trade any of their big names and are really only a couple of young relievers stepping it up away from making a nice run. Of course, they could really stink it up too, but when you're picking a team this low... you're not going to get a sure thing.

My best/worst picks this time?

I think this draft went pretty well along the lines that I am thinking on. There are a bunch that I'm not a huge fan of but aren't way off either: Mets (again) at #2, Tigers at #4, Reds at #11, and the Rockies (even at #17). After looking at the list a bit more though, I have to say the one I disagree most with though is (sorry Geer): the Astros at #5. Other than my man-crush on Lance Berkman, I really don't think they have what it takes to be #5.

The best picks? Of course mine are always the ones that are perfect, but other than myself I 'll go with the Twins at #10, Mariners #20, and the Orioles (Geer redeems himself) at #26. As for the steal of this draft... this really pains me to say... The Cubs at #28. I'm certainly not predicting great things for the Cubs but they _will_ be #20 or better in the second half.

Villaneuva for TJ Ford

For those who are NBA fans and read this (yes, both of you). Here are Bill Simmons thoughts on the recent trade that will bring Villaneuva to Milwaukee in exchange for Ford (from this post):

"Disregard Ford's scary spinal cord problems, that he can't shoot to save his life, that he's a free agent two years earlier than Villanueva, even that he lost crunch-time minutes to Charlie Bell last season. Again, I want you to disregard everything in that sentence. From a pure basketball standpoint, since when is a young point guard worth as much as a young power forward who can rebound and shoot 3s? When has that EVER been the case? How fast did the Bucks' front office say yes to this trade? 0.79 seconds? 1.2 seconds? Did they say, "Hold on, we'll discuss this and call you back in a few hours," then hang up and start pouring champagne on one another? If somebody made this deal in my fantasy league, I would have protested it." - Bill Simmons