Draft Pick Value Charts

More often than not, NFL teams seem beholden to the Draft Pick Value Charts when contemplating trades.

Here are 2 links to the charts:

http://www.nfldraftcountdown.com/features/valuechart.html

http://www.theredzone.org/2006/draft/draftvaluechart.asp

Jets and Giants Draft Previews

We were lucky enough to be joined by Erik Boland and Mike Garafolo the other night.

For 44+ commercial-free minutes of Jets talk with Newsday's Erik Boland and 27+ commercial-free minutes of Giants talk with Mike Garafolo of the Newark Star-Ledger, please go to:

http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

The interviews are in MP3 format

OUR ANNUAL NFL DRAFT PREVIEW SHOW TONIGHT

At 9:10PM, Jets beat reporter Erik Boland from Newsday joins us.

At 10:00PM, Giants beat reporter Mike Garafolo from the Newark Star-Ledger joins us.

Tune in!

Ralph Vacchiano from the NFL Combine

Daily News Giants beat reporter Ralph Vacchiano joined us live from the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis to discuss the Super Bowl Champion New York Football Giants.

Take a listen at http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg or just click here.

Ralph always makes himself available to our little show, and we appreciate all that he does for us.

Andy a "Petty" Thief?

According to Bill Madden's article in today's Daily News, Hank Steinbrenner is expressing a fair amount of displeasure with the $16 Million contract given to Andy Pettitte, due in no small part to Andy's reluctance to fully disclose the extent of his involvement in the Mitchell Report.

But if feeling betrayed by one of the cornerstones of the Yankee dynasty of the 90's isn't bad enough, the biggest blow to Hank and Yankee fans has to be the new revelation that the Pettitte contract put the Yankees out of the bidding for Johan Santana. In fact Madden describes a clear decision that was made among Yankee brass between Pettitte and Santana, a decision that no doubt would have had a different outcome had Andy been completely honest.

Many people around baseball have expected Pettitte to retire in the wake of the Clemens controversy, but from where I am standing it looks like Andy has a controversy of his very own, and it could be the Yankees being the first to act on it.

Then again, according Mark Feinsand's article from just one day before, the Yankees would seem to be "doubling down" on their Pettitte gamble by sticking with him and hoping that his performance on the mound can make up for the damage that has been done. Personally I think it's a moot point either way, because unless Andy wins the AL Cy Young on the way to becoming the ALCS AND World Series MVP's, I don't see how you could ever measure ONE year of Pettitte against SEVEN years of Santana. And that's not even taking into account all the HGH, and lying about HGH and hearings on HGH and then coming clean about HGH and getting HGH from your dad and...well you get the point.

Houston, New York, Washington, Baseball, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!!

ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY
ROGER IS GUILTY


That is all.


Well, except this....

Adam Rubin from Port St. Lucie

While he usually comes down to talk Mets with us in person, New York Daily News Mets beat writer Adam Rubin joins us from Port St. Lucie to discuss the Santana trade, evaluate the off season, give a preview of what to expect from camp and brag about the beautiful Florida weather. Listen to the full hour long interview right here. If you'd like to download an MP3 of this interview CLICK HERE.




In addition to covering the Mets, Adam is also the author of Pedro, Carlos (and Carlos) and Omar: The Rebirth of the New York Mets which is available wherever books are sold, including the provided link. I am currently busy working on the sequel, entitled Pedro, Carlos, Carlos, David, Jose, Johan, Oliver, John and Omar: A Guide to Fitting as Many Names as Possible into the Title of a Book.

We Love Johnny Cakes, Too

Giants SuperFan Joe Gannascoli, aka Joey G, aka Vito from The Sopranos, joins us live tonight from 9PM to 11PM on Long Island's 90.3FM.

To call in and speak with him (and us), please dial 516-572-7440 during the show.

Check out Joe's website at joesoup.com. And, be sure to pick up his book A Meal To Die For.

New York Celebrates Giants' "Perfect Imperfection"

GIANTS WIN!!!
GIANTS WIN!!!
GIANTS WIN!!!
GIANTS WIN!!!
GIANTS WIN!!!
GIANTS WIN!!!

On the walk from my sister's apartment back to Penn Station I became a makeshift field correspondent as I got caught up in the single largest communal outpouring of joy and elation I will probably ever be a part of.


These pictures were taken in the heart of Times Square, but believe it or not the craziest celebration I encountered was on 2nd Avenue in the 80's, where all vehicular traffic was stopped by the mob. Taxis that tried to pass through were doused in "Kool-Aid" as the passengers laughed, and the cab drivers moaned. Men hopped on passing cars like the grizzly bears did to John Candy's truck in "The Great Outdoors."

When I actually was walking and not participating, everyone I passed wanted to shout, cheer or high five--and as you can guess I was more than happy to reciprocate.

I felt it was the perfect moment to exit Times Square when I saw some of New York's finest extending their batons, and so I finally made my way towards Penn for the ride home.


18-1

All That Needs to be Said

Credit goes to Chris for thinking to find this gem online:

Say it Ain't So, Joe

"Super" Joe McEwing has retired.

It's hard to believe that he only played 9 seasons in the big leagues, 5 of them with the Mets.

If you ask me, now would be a good time to offer him a coaching job. We know David Wright would be happy, and maybe he's just the guy to keep Jose on the straight and narrow too.

If not, so long Joe.

Mr. Met Has a Gambling Problem

Hold all the Johan Santana talk!

Fred Wilpon may not have any money left to pay the world's greatest pitcher if someone doesn't cut off "Double-Zero's" credit real soon.

I just happened to be at the Trop last night and luckily there was enough money in my pocket to sit the kind of limits the big guy was playing. Mr. Met played fast and drank even faster, but the women he had with him were by far the fastest.






Actually these are pictures from my Dad's surprise 60th birthday party, at which Mr. Met was a huge hit.

We have been and always will be commercial free, but as a friend let me recommend looking into booking him for your next event. I know Chris would agree with me.

We'll get some photos from both of our parties up real soon.

Giants Playoff Talk with Mike Garafolo

Last night, we had Giants beat reporter Mike Garafolo from the Newark Star-Ledger as our live guest.

The very first time Mike joined us was from the side of the road in the Bronx 2 years ago, so he's always been most accommodating, to say the least.

We had a good time on the call and even used some James Lipton questions at the end.

I've put the interview up at
http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

or you can just click here

(I hope to have it up on Switchpod, as well)

It's 33+ commercial-free minutes of nothing but Giants talk, and is in MP3 format.

As always, thanks!

Missed It By That Much

It's been a good week for me on the Newsday Blogs. First, I made the Sunday edition with my "Methinks that B12 is the new poppy seed bagel" You see, for the last 20 or so years, everybody I know has been warned that poppy seed bagels could make you fail a drug test. So, reflexively, people have been filling out "poppy seed bagels" on the drug test forms to cover all bases.

Then, Neil Best almost gave me Comment of the Week. After Neil wrote that he took an elevator with Gisele Bundchen the night of the Giants/Pats game, I opined that "As a reporter, you should have asked her if she was coming back from Gate D." Unfortunately, in siding with political correctness, Mr. Best could not give me the honor, as it would "give the impression I find the abuse women have taken from drunk Jets fans at that location to be funny, which I definitely do not." Instead, it went to Bob Glauber.

Here was my response:

Sportscaster Cliche Coming in 3,2,
Talk about snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory!
I did give you the Out with the "As a reporter" preface. You could have been asking her for her thoughts on the subject, as a New Yorker and as a woman. Heck, she used to date DiCaprio--you could have even asked her about Global Warming!
I'd also like to point her that one of her nicknames is "The Body" and she's been well paid to do in pictures what the Gate D'ers do for free/when most inappropriately coerced. So, with apologies to George Bernard Shaw, we're really just haggling over the price.
But, it's nice to see the Watch Dog take the High Road. Well-deserved Congratulations to Mr. Glauber. Perhaps, someday, we can get a live phoner out of him.

That last line about the phone interview is true. Unless it's a paid interview, Bob will not cut into family time to do a media interview, so it would have to be pre-taped. Because we're not paid, my wife won't let me down to the station for any pre-taping. So, we'll probably never get around to having him on.

Knicks Talk with Alan Hahn

When we first started having media people as guests three years ago, the very first writer to join us was Newsday's Alan Hahn. That was back when he was the beat reporter covering the Islanders. For the past two seasons, he's been on the Knicks beat. No matter what team he's covering (even 4 or 5 different ones during the NHL Lockout), he always makes for lively--and honest, verrrry honest--discussion. Just check out his Knicks Fix blog for samples of his no-pulled-punches style.

Last night, Alan was kind enough to join us again. Please go to http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg or simply click here for the audio of the 39+ commercial-free minute interview.

Welcome Yankee Fansites

I've posted links to the interview on the following Yankee websites of which I'm a member:



Pinstripes Plus/Scout.com


ProSportsDaily


The Yankees Board


The Yankee Zone


On The Bench


Baseball-Fever.com


Behind the Bombers


If you know of any others, please feel free to post the link to the article and we will list them here. (We're completely commercial-free, so we've got nothing to sell)



Thanks!

Kat O'Brien Interview Now Up on the Web

First off, we want to thank Ms. Kat O'Brien for joining us on Sports Talk tonight. It was her first appearance with us, and she was an absolute natural. She even gave us verbatim quotes from an interview that she had conducted with Hank Steinbrenner just before coming on with us.

The interview is now up at http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

You may also listen to it by clicking here.

The interview is 28+ commercial-free minutes of nothing but Yankees talk and is in MP3 format.

Newsday's Kat O'Brien Joins Us Live Tonight

We will be joined by Newsday's Yankees beat reporter Kat O'Brien tonight at 10:15PM on Long Island's 90.3FM. And, get this, she'll be coming to us live from Nashville (site of the GM Meetings, for those keeping track at home)!

For those in the listening area, we do hope that you'll give us a listen. This will be Kat's first appearance on our show, and we hope it's one of many to come.

The interview will be available at http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg or by clicking here very soon after the show has concluded.

We thank Ms. O'Brien for the generosity of her time.

P.S. Kat and I share an alma mater--except I'm old.

2 Worthwhile Charity Events This Weekend

Two of our listeners have asked us to mention some charity functions with which they are involved this weekend. And, as you know, we at Sports Talk are all about giving back to the community. Heck, we don't get paid one red cent to put on our show, so you know that volunteering is in our lifeblood. And, most importantly, 'tis the season.

These events are both on Saturday December 8th:

Over at Fuzzy's in Bellerose (right on the Queens/Nassau Border at 239-21 Braddock Avenue), you can catch the band (I've heard them play and they're awesome) "Cobra Snake Necktie" and support Fuzzy's Annual Toy Drive for the Queens Children Center.

And, in Westhampton (5 Tree Lane, to be exact), East End Interiors is hosting the "Hamptons Holiday Showcase" to benefit the charity "We Care for Kids" which helps underprivileged children on Long Island.

Deal of the Century?

The Tigers just positioned themselves to head back to the World Series for the second time in three years, and the Marlins have once again bagged themselves a goodie bag full of prospects that should make them a competitor within three years.

While neither club has confirmed or denied anything as of yet, MLB.com and the rest of the baseball world are reporting that the Florida Marlins have traded Miguel Cabrera AND Dontrelle Willis to the Tigers for SP Andrew Miller, CF Cameron Maybin, C Mike Rabelo, and THREE OTHER pitching prospects.

What will trouble most people right off the bat is that none of the players the Tigers are giving up will seem familiar to anyone, and I myself must admit that of the three named players I only know Miller specifically, Maybin vaguely and I have no idea who Rabelo is.

But's let's focus on what I do know. Andrew Miller is widely regarded as one of the best young pitching prospects in baseball. As far as I'm concerned he is the "Hanley Ramirez" of this deal, and could pay similar dividends for the Marlins. Maybin is an OF prospect with a cathedral high ceiling, but never got much chance to play in Detroit with Granderson setting season records and Magglio making a run at the MVP. And like I said, I have never heard of Rabelo before in my life. And then there's the matter of the THREE OTHER pitchers yet to be named. I'm sure the Fish did their homework on those guys, as they are the masters at acquiring minor league talent.

In Miggy and Dtrain, the Tigers have given themselves one of the most lethal offenses in all of baseball AND potentially one of the most well rounded rotations as well, depending on how quickly Willis can adapt to the American League and bounce back from a down year in general.

By combining Willis with Cabrera, the Marlins were able to turn what would have been a monster return for Miggy into a Global Thermonuclear package of 6 prospects. Not a bad idea, considering Willis' trade value is the lowest it's ever been.

And of course, scratch off one more starting pitching option for the Mets, who seem to be more desperate than ever.