I just wanted to highlight a few blogs that were added to our network of blogs:

Red and Gold:  A San Francisco 49ers Blog

Beltway Sports:  A Baltimore Sports Blog

Waks Warriors:  A Seattle Mariners Blog

The Husker Blog:  A Nebraska Cornhuskers Blog

Fantasy Pros: A Fantasy Sports Blog

Gametime:  A General Sports blog

In depth Scouting Inc:  An NFL Draft Blog

Baseball Past and Present:  A Baseball Blog

Don’t have a blog.  Sign up and start your own sports blog today!

Written by Ryan Lester, LestersLegends.com

I wrap up my NFL Rookie skill position breakdown with the top Tight Ends.

Brandon Pettigrew, Detroit Lions - I’m not sure how much he’ll contribute as a Rookie Tight End, but he is definitely the one to target in dynasty leagues.  Not only is he an exceptional blocker, he has good hands.  Every young QB needs a safety valve and when Matthew Stafford gets his feet wet, the bit 6′5″ TE out of Oklahoma State will be just that.  Pettigrew caught 42 passes for 472 yards last year despite missing four games.

Richard Quinn, Denver Broncos - Quinn will mainly be utilized for his blocking ability.  It’s puzzling why he went so early, and to a team with Tony Scheffler, Daniel Graham and Jeb Putzier.  New England values Tight Ends and H-Backs so perhaps Josh McDaniels is trying to borrow that philosophy.  There is some speculation that Scheffler will be dealt. 

Jared Cook, Tennessee Titans - Here’s another team with a glut of Tight Ends.  Bo Scaife recently signed his one-year franchise tender and they have veteran Alge Crumpler.  Cook was a big play TE at South Carolina catching 73 passes in his three years for 1107 yards (15.2 ypc) and 7 TDs.  He’s a big target (6′5″, 240) that should develop into a solid TE in a couple years.

Chase Coffman, Cincinnati Bengals - Chase capped off an extremely productive collegiate career with 90 receptions for 987 yards and 10 TDs.  He finished with 247 receptions for 2659 yards and 30 TDs.  He could easily slide into the starter role for the Bengals and is my pick for most productive Rookie TE.

Travis Beckum, New York Giants - Beckum was limited to six games last year, but he averaged 68 receptions for 942.5 yards and 5.5 TDs his previous two years.  He’ll be used in two Tight End sets with Kevin Boss, but doesn’t offer much fantasy value initially.  Quality pick by the G-Men though.

Shawn Nelson, Buffalo Bills - Buffalo had a need for a pass-catching TE and Nelson should fit the bill.  He caught 53 passes last year for 557 yards and 3 TDs.  He averaged 514 yards per season in his stellar four years at Southern Miss. 

Cornelius Ingram, Philadelphia Eagles - It may take a year or two for Ingram to make an impact, but the potential is there.  He had 34 receptions for 508 yards and 7 TDs in 2007.  Great athlete, but is recovering from an ACL injury that cost him all of last year for the Gators.

Written by Ryan Lesters, LestersLegends.com

Some reasonably available players to assist you in the Strikeouts category.  Realize that some of these will come with high ERAs & WHIPs because if a Pitcher has low numbers in those categories and a good K total, they’re already spoken for.

Scott Richmond, Toronto Blue Jays - Scott had a great week for the Jays going 2-0 with 13 Ks, a 2.08 ERA, and 1.23 WHIP.  His K/9 ratio was 9.0 and his K/BB ratio was 2.6.  Scott is 3-0 on the year with 20 Ks,  a 2.70 ERA and 1.29 WHIP.  He’s one of baseball’s best kept secrets as he’s owned in just 4.8% of ESPN, 34% of Yahoo, and 44% of CBS Sportsline leagues.

Doug Davis, Arizona Diamondbacks - Doug Davis also had a strong week going 1-1 with 12Ks, a 3.45 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP.  His K/9 ratio was 8.3 and his K/BB ratio was 3.0.  On the season he’s been a little snake-bitten (pun intended) with a 2-3 record, 27 Ks, a 2.91 ERA, and a 1.18 WHIP.   He’s owned in 5.4% of ESPN, 24% of Yahoo, and 31% of CBS Sportsline leagues.

Adam Eaton, Baltimore Orioles - Eaton falls into the category of helping in Ks and not much else.  Last week he went 1-1 with 11 Ks, a 4.72 ERA and 1.20 WHIP.  His K/9 ratio was 7.4 and his K/BB ratio was 2.75.  On the season he’s 1-3 with 21 Ks, a 7.17 ERA, and 1.73 WHIP.  He is owned in 0.5% of ESPN, 1% of Yahoo, and 1% of CBS Sportsline leagues.  I recommend you leave it that way

Koji Uehara, Baltimore Orioles - Eaton’s teammate Uehara is a little more attractive.  He went 0-1 with 11 Ks, a 3.46 ERA, and a 0.85 WHIP.  His K/9 ratio was 7.6 and he did not issue a Walk.  On the year he’s 2-2 with 19 Ks, a 4.50 ERA, and 1.13 WHIP.  He’s owned in 5.9% of ESPN, 20% of Yahoo, and 49% of CBS Sporsline leagues.  He got hit with a liner in last night’s start so I caution you that he could miss a start or two.

Scott Olsen, Washington Nationals - Scott pitched much better this past week going 1-1 with 10 Ks, a 2.31 ERA, and 1.63 WHIP.  His K/9 ratio is 7.7 and his K/BB ratio is 2.5.  On the year he’s 1-3 with 20 Ks, a 6.08 ERA, and 1.73 WHIP.  Even when he pitches well, that WHIP is killer, which probably justifies leaving him in the free agent pool.  Speaking of which, he is owned in 0.8% of ESPN, 3% of Yahoo, and 17% of CBS Sportsline leagues.

Dave Bush, Milwaukee Brewers - Bush was solid last week going 1-0 with 9 Ks, a 3.55 ERA, and 0.95 WHIP.  His K/9 ratio was 6.4 and his K/BB ratio was 2.25.  On the year he’s 1-0 with 18 Ks, a 4.50 ERA, and a 1.27 WHIP.  He is owned in 3.8% of ESPN, 22% of Yahoo, and 49% of CBS Sportsline leagues.

I believe a while back Mark Cuban said it was impossible to own an NFL team and not make money.  Well, it looks like in a down economy the NFL is still going to get paid 1 billion a year from DirecTv for four years according to this Wall St Journal article.  Keep in mind this money is only for the NFL Sunday Ticket on Directv and doesn’t even include the sunday cable games, Sunday Night Football in America, and Monday Night Football which bring in over another 2 billion.  That is just 3 billion a year in TV revenues alone.   If you didn’t know this before, the NFL is definitely the strongest sport in the country if not in the world.  Soccer is solid but there is a ton of competition all over the place.

Now on to why I like them again.  If you remember one of my posts a while back about the NFL Sunday Ticket deal being a monopoly, then you will know the reason I said it was a monopoly is because people like me live in an apartment that don’t have a line of sight for a satellite dish.  The good news is that the NFL will be offering games online for people like me.  Here is the quote from the Wall street Journal article:

The agreement with the El Segundo, Calif., company allows the NFL for the first time to pursue deals with cable operators and Internet providers to offer subscribers the Red Zone Channel, which provides cut-ins to the crucial moments of NFL games. In addition, cable subscribers living in areas where satellite service isn’t available will be able to buy the full Sunday Ticket package over the Internet.

This sounds great.  Until this is actually offered though I will not terminate my petition which actually has a solid 41 signatures. Haha!

Some thoughts that come to mind.  Will DirecTV subscribers get access to these games online for when they are traveling?  Will the NFL limit people to one session per login?  MLBTV does not limit this so I know there are a lot of people out there splitting the cost.  This should be huge for NFL.com.  They are going to see a huge spike in the number of page views on their site.

The one issue I have with the NFL is the layoffs they just had.  How can an organization so successful use the economy as an excuse to lay people off?

The MVP race for 2009 will be a landslide victory for LeBron James. There is no doubt in my mind that he is the clear cut MVP favorite and will run away with the trophy despite tough competition from superstars Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul.

LeBron is the ultimate definition of the term MVP. MOST VALUABLE PLAYER. He means the most to his team than any other player does to his respective team. Without LeBron, the Cavs are just another non playoff team picking in the lottery draft.  With him they are the top seed in the Eastern Conference and a my bet to go to the finals.

His stats are damn near unbelievable prove that he may average a triple double very soon. Right now he is averaging 28.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.3 blocks per game. He is the leader on his team in all five of those categories. Take a look at that stat line once again all you fantasy nerds and basketball junkies.  Let those numbers sink in and you will realize that he is doing everything he can to make the Cavs win, and is basically a one man team. LeBron is even averaging 7.3 assists per game on a team that features the likes of Delonte West and Big Z.
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Hat tip to TGI Sports

Barack Obama will be releasing his 2009 NCAA March Madness Presidential Picks sometime early this week.  We found out about this via the Huffington Post who read it on Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times’ twitter account.

I am sure he will have Illinois pulling off a couple of wins.  Check back here later in the week and we will post his picks.

Update: 7/19:  Here is President Obama’s picks on ESPN:

Today we added Sports Deli Blog and Broncos Banter  to the list of SportsBlogNet Owned blogs.  Sports Deli Blog which will be written by Thomas Moreland will be a blog that focuses on a smorgusbord of sports  with a much larger focus on Professional and College Football.  Broncos Banter will of course be a team blog about the Denver Broncos written by Sayre Bedinger.

We also have added an independent Sports Blog to the list which is the The D3 experience.  Its a unique blog about the written by Chris Jarmon about his unique experiences as a Division 3 College Football Player.

Make sure to check them all out when you have a chance.

I just wrote a post over at SportsTechnow about this guy that met Shaq because he was following him on Twitter.  Check it out.