Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has promised some changes to the current format – more specifically the sluggish pace – of the MLB postseason. The argument is pretty clear. The MLB regular season schedule is an every day affair; but the MLB playoffs schedule resembles more of an NBA or NHL schedule. The World Series champion New York Yankees played a 162-game schedule in 180 days then played 15 playoff games in 31 days. That’s a drastic change to what the players and their bodies were used to. The Yankees and the Angels also had four days off between the ALDS and ALCS after each team swept their respective opponents.

At this early point of the NBA fantasy season, it’s tough to know what to do. Whether to have a fire sale and completely rearrange a team, whether to make a few bold moves, or whether to sit tight. It all depends on the fantasy owner, but there are some rules of thumb to follow. Here are some suggested approaches to various rotisserie fantasy basketball situations. In some cases, the same might be applied to head-to-head.

Getting Crushed in One, Two, or Three Statistical Categories (“Stat Cats”)

At this point in the season, it’s important not to panic. Remember, it’s a long season and fantasy basketball is a marathon, not a sprint. However, if at this point, your team is getting crushed in one to three stat cats, without possibility of remedy (perhaps a player who might help in that category is due back from an injury soon), it might be prudent to try to balance out the team with a trade.  In head-to-head, balance isn’t as important as it is in rotisserie.

Assess the situation. If your team is dominating in one or two categories, identify players on the team who perform well in those categories and make trade offers to teams who struggle in that stat cat. Be persistent. Trades can be tough to pull off, so don’t give up after one or two tries. Also, ensure your team can afford to be without that player. For instance, if a manager tries to trade Chris Bosh because his rebounding isn’t needed, keep in mind that he also scores points and shoots well from the field. 

An unexpected travesty has occurred. Mike Scioscia has been chosen as the American League Manager of the Year for leading the Los Angeles Angels to another successful season. His accomplishment overshadows now five-time bridesmaid Ron Gardenhire, whose success in Minnesota goes unrewarded yet again. Gardenhire, who has helmed the Minnesota Twins for almost a decade, is a record five-time runner-up for the award. In that time span, he’s accomplished much more than most managers ever hope to. But it wasn’t always so easy for the 52-year old manager from West Germany. Gardenhire will remain the Twins’ skipper at least through the 2011 season.

Cliff Viner and Stu Siegel of Sunrise Sports & Entertainment were announced as co-owners of the Florida Panthers this past Monday. Prior to the announcement, the pair were simply minority owners who wanted to purchase the team from previous owner Alan Cohen, and have said they are committed to setting a vision and direction that will result in accountability, communication, and a winning culture throughout the organization. While they are not intending to make personal changes or interfering in the day-to-day actions of the current front office staff, they have said that they will step in if necessary in order to turn around the Panthers franchise.

After 21 seasons in the National Hockey League, Brendan Shanahan has finally announced his retirement. In a planned move on Tuesday, the 40-year-old winger called it quits on what can only be described as a gloriously successful career. With the 2009 NHL Hall of Fame induction ceremonies out of the headlines, Shanahan’s retirement announcement comes at a perfect time. All focus will be on the eight-time All-Star, and there will certainly be some ceremonies in his honor in Detroit in the coming days, the city where Shanahan brought back three Stanley Cups and where he undoubtedly enjoyed the majority of his success.

Chris Coghlan has achieved something rather unexceptional. He plays for the Florida Marlins and has been chosen as the National League’s 2009 Rookie of the Year. The 24-year-old outfielder is also the third Marlin to win the award in seven years, joining shortstop Hanley Ramirez and lefty starter Dontrelle Willis on the list of top rookies to rise to the top with the Fish, although none of them were originally drafted by Florida. Coghlan was picked by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 18thd round of the 2003 Draft, but did not sign, instead opting to raise his stock. He was ultimately drafted in the first round of the 2006 Draft and signed by Florida.

Andrew Bailey has just highlighted a personal accomplishment on a team marred by lowlights in 2009. He is the newly honored 2009 American League Rookie of the Year. Representing the Oakland Athletics, Bailey is the third Oakland player to win the award in the last six seasons. With 13 first place votes, six second place and five third place for a total of 88 points, Bailey was hardly challenged by any other American League rookie. The only others close to challenging Bailey for the award was shortstop Elvis Andrus from the Texas Rangers (65 points), and Detroit Tigers right-handed starter Rick Porcello (64 points).

The American League Cy Young Award winner was announced recently, and while an untraditional, yet unsurprising decision, Zack Greinke took home the hardware to cap off what has been an incredible season, taking home 25 out of 28 first-place votes. Greinke just completed his sixth big-league season – all with the Kansas City Royals – but made a name for himself in 2009. To go along with his Cy Young, he also made the AL All-Star Squad as more than just a pity-pick, led the league in ERA, and was also the players’ choice for Pitcher of the Year. Greinke topped the list, followed by the Seattle Mariners’ Felix Hernandez, Detroit Tigers’ Justin Verlander, and New York Yankees’ CC Sabathia.

Michael Strahan is many things - Super Bowl champion with the New York Giants, sack master extraordinaire, future NFL Hall of Famer, and smooth skin aficionado.  Yes, you read correctly.  One of the hardest working defensive linemen to ever play the game in the trenches, Strahan has found a softer side after his retirement from football and it has a lot to do with his skin.  Strahan took time out to talk to us about the current NFL season and his latest promotion with Vaseline. Add another title to Strahan - comedic actor - as he is one of the main characters in Brothers, which appears on FOX on Sunday nights at 7PM ET.  Watch the video and you’ll see that comedy comes naturally to Strahan. 

A big thank you to our friend Nick Koof from The Filler Show for helping us with the interview.

The American League Silver Slugger Award winners were announced recently, and six of the nine selections came out of the East, which further goes to show just how powerful – literally – this division is. The New York Yankees had repeat winners in Mark Teixeira at first-base and Derek Jeter at short. The Boston Red Sox’s Jason Bay was honored with his first, the Tampa Bay Rays’ Evan Longoria at third, and the Toronto Blue Jays each had first-timers with Aaron Hill at second and Adam Lind as the designated hitter. The rest of the league squeaked in Joe Mauer, catcher for the Minnesota Twins with his third, and Ichiro Suzuki from the Seattle Mariners and Torii Hunter from the Los Angeles Angels in outfield, with their third and first, respectively.

The general managers in the NHL are discussing head shots and honestly, it’s about time. Why there is even discussion about whether or not it’s necessary to implement changes to increase the safety of the players is absurd, but sadly, there are people who exist like Hockey Night in Canada analyst Mike Milbury, who is against changing the game. “Someone is going to die every day. If you don’t want to get hurt, then don’t play the game,” Milbury said.

The NHL.com network is a fantastic place to get a wealth of information including news, stats, standings, and much more. The network itself is a collection of web sites that includes more than just the main site linked to thirty team locations, each using their own different color scheme to match their team colors. It also is a collection of links to affiliated sites, such as minor league hockey clubs, sponsor web sites, online stores, and, interestingly enough, a handful of “player sites”. Not the least of which belongs to the newly acquired Philadelphia Flyers defenseman, Chris Pronger, simply located at ChrisPronger.com.

Each week I try to pick the weekend’s most competitive games. Each week I seem to go 3-2. Last week was no different. I am now 24-17 for the season. Philadelphia Eagles fans can tell me just how short Donovan McNabb came up last weekend against the Dallas Cowboys. I thought Norv Turner’s decision-making would cost the San Diego Chargers against the New York Giants. Little did I know it would be Tom Coughlin’s choices that would cost the home team.  The Pittsburgh Steelers came through on the road against the back-to-earth Denver Broncos.

The National League handed out their Gold Glove Awards, and as usual, there was a sense of comic relief because of some of the winners – specifically at third base. Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals took home his first Gold Glove, perhaps solely because the Nats needed anything with which to say 2009 was successful. He finished ahead of a much more deserving candidate from San Diego in Kevin Kouzmanoff. The suspicion is that Gold Glove winners – a defensive honor – are often chosen based on offensive statistics. A comparison between the two NL third basemen gives credit to that theory.

Ken Griffy Jr. and the Seattle Mariners reached another deal together on Wednesday, as the M’s signed Griffey to a one-year contract, likely similar to the $2 million base with $3 million incentive-laden deal he inked a year ago. Griffey is a legendary power hitter in Seattle, and spent the majority of his 2009 season in a DH role for the club. The beloved Pennsylvania-born slugger was invited to return by fans during the Mariners’ final homestand, with sentiments echoed by the club with a contract offer. While his playing time in 2010 remains to be determined, Griffey’s presence alone will be enough to ignite a rising Mariners franchise.

Defense is often underrated on score sheets, as well as on television screens, but ask anybody who plays hockey and they’ll tell you that in order to be successful, you build a team from your end of the rink out to the other. That’s what the Columbus Blue Jackets have been doing for years, and it’s something they scored big with when they signed Czech defenseman Jan Hejda. His play is in no small part contributing to Columbus’ success so far this season. The 31-year-old Hejda came to North America in 2006 and his impact on the NHL has been one of the most underrated impacts that can be measured.

On September 23, 1992, history was made in the National Hockey League. It was not the kind of history that one typically cares to remember, but it makes a great question in Trivial Pursuit. The Tampa Bay Lightning – then an expansion team trying to make a name for itself – dressed and played the first female player in the NHL. Manon Rheaume played one period as goaltender of the Lightning against the St. Louis Blues. She faced nine shots, letting two of them past her. While it was only an exhibition game, the publicity around the event expectedly rocked the sports world – which is exactly what the Lightning hoped for.

The National Hockey League’s general managers have been discussing their game lately, making decisions on what changes are working, what needs improving, and what just plain needs to go. Not much is expected to change though, despite growing feelings to eliminate some of the more useless changes to the game, as the majority believe that the entire package of changes have equally contributed to the increased offense that the NHL has been striving to achieve for the last few years. Many of the newly introduced rules have involved eliminating play stoppages unless those were accompanied by a penalty of some kind.

The NBA schedule saw a full slate of games last night, and I am up early to make sure the garbage gets to the curb on time. Let us blast through the box scores, focusing on one or two players from each team and their fantasy basketball relevance.

Indiana 108, Golden State 94. Even with all the dysfunction in Golden State, the team usually puts up 100 points a night, but the Pacers outpaced andoutgunned them this game. Anthony Randolph has made a fantasy comeback, and had 17 pts, 13 rebs, 3 stl and 2 blk on his line last night. Owners need to see what happens to him when Andris Biedrins comes back because coach Don Nelson has not shown him much love at all with his playing time. On the Pacers, Tyler Hansbrough managed to put up 12 shots and get to the line eight times in just over 16 minutes of play. He finished with 11 points and 8 boards with a block, so might be worth a gander in deep leagues as a final bench spot guy.

Anze Kopitar is killing it for the Los Angeles Kings. Almost a quarter of the way into the 2009-10 NHL season, Kopitar leads the league in goals (14) and points (28), and is fifth in assists (14). He is seventh in power play goals (4) and is fourteenth in plus-minus (plus eight). Being the first Slovene player in the NHL, it’s no surprise that this guy is as good as he is. He scored two goals in his first NHL game, and added three assists the following night. The reason why anybody was even looking in Slovenia was because they were trying to find him.

Since the MLB Players’ Strike of 1994 and the realignment of divisions to include the new wild card format, there have been thirty teams to compete in the World Series. Thirty teams in baseball; thirty teams in the World Series. A perfect world would have welcomed each team to the Fall Classic once, but we all know that’s not the case. Baseball is not that fair. To say that there has been uneven representation of the divisions throughout the years would be a huge understatement, as the level of parity in baseball is about as high as CC Sabathia’s batting average.

The Oakland Athletics seem to be in a state of slow freefall. In 2006, they finished first in the AL West with a 93-69 record. Since then, they’ve finished third (76-86), third (75-86) and fourth (75-87). A’s general manager Billy Beane has found himself contending with low payrolls and a dwindling talent pool. To deal with it, he has had to find unique and creative ways to evaluate young talent, coming up with a system that is well documented in Michael Lewis’ 2003 book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, where Beane is the primary character. For years his formula worked, but now it might be time to go back to the drawing board.

I appreciate musical mash-ups. Fantasy Alphabet will be my mash-up combining articles that look at hot waiver wire pick-ups, players of the week, and notable injuries. The format will consist of quick hits focusing on one player per team, and arranged in alphabetical order to help make quick scanning easier.

Dallas Mavericks: Erick Dampier. It looks like one crazy season ahead if Dampier can generate significant fantasy buzz. Since arriving in Dallas, he has never averaged double digits in points or rebounding, but so far he is doing just that. He has also pumped up his shot-blocking. Consider him as a sneaky play for the short-term as he could net you wins in the big ball categories (he has also been shooting 66%!), but the long-term outlook remains capped on the low side.

I appreciate musical mash-ups. Fantasy Alphabet will be my mash-up combining articles that look at hot waiver wire pick-ups, players of the week, and notable injuries. The format will consist of quick hits focusing on one player per team, and arranged in alphabetical order to help make quick scanning easier. This week, I arrange the teams in reverse alphabetical order because I want to shine the spotlight on the artist, I mean player formally known as Agent Zero.

Washington Wizards: Gilbert Arenas. I experienced immediate non-buyer’s remorse on Arenas. Over his first four games, he averaged 36 minutes of playing time while putting up 26.5 ppg on 47.3% shooting and 6.3 apg. On the down side, he has coughed the ball up four times a game, and has shot less than 80% from the charity stripe. Yet his threats to curb his three-point shooting have not come to pass, as he has drained two moneyballs a game. I took Andre Iguodala over him in one league after much deliberation, and opted for Vince Carter in another, and feel okay about those selections, but will still shake my head in frustration any night Gilbert goes for 30-plus. He came back to earth a bit on Friday against the Pacers as the Wizards were down pretty much from the start, but he shot 50% for the game so there are still good signs from a down game.

With wins against Carolina and Detroit this past weekend, the Toronto Maple Leafs have catapulted themselves ahead of the now-last-place Hurricanes and have a four-point lead over them. The Leafs have points in seven straight games, after failing to get a point in seven straight before that. They have 10 points in their last seven, and 11 points overall this year. The Leafs have definitely been one of the most inconsistently consistent teams in hockey this season. With their next game against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday, who are the last-place team in the Western Conference, the Leafs are in a prime position to earn more points and rise one step closer to a playoff spot.

Congratulations to Eric Hinske, who won his second World Series ring. Well, to say he “won” it might be a stretch. More appropriately, he was a part of a second World Series-winning team. This was also Hinske’s third appearance in the Fall Classic in the last three years, all with different American League East teams. The good fortune of teams with Hinske on their roster seems to know no bounds. He won the 2002 American League Rookie of the Year Award with the Toronto Blue Jays before suffering a broken bone in his hand. After several years of spot-filling, Hinske was traded to the Boston Red Sox late in 2006, where “Good Luck” Hinske became a new phenomenon.

Through an eighth of the season, the Buffalo Sabres find themselves in an unfamiliar position – first place. Now while it’s only first in the Northeast Division and third in the conference, the Sabres haven’t enjoyed even limited success like this in a long time. The thing that is setting the Sabres apart is that they are playing like a team. They have six players with seven or more points. Each everyday player has at least three, and among those, only four have a plus-minus in the negatives. Interestingly, their top point-getter, Tim Connolly, is one of them at minus one.

Jason Bay has a history of success. Being a 22nd round draft pick by the Montreal Expos, not many expected much of him. He was traded from the Expos to the San Diego Padres to the Pittsburgh Pirates between 2002-2003, making his MLB debut along the way. However, 2004 was the year he made the greatest impact. He hit .282 in 120 games, and lead all rookies 26 home runs, 82 RBI, .550 slugging, 54 extra base hits and 226 total bases. His accomplishments earned him the 2004 NL Rookie of the Year Award; the first time for any Canadian. In 2008, he was traded to the Red Sox to replace Manny Ramirez, and he has fit in perfectly.

Alex Ovechkin will miss a pair of games against the Florida Panthers this weekend with an upper-body strain. The injury, which caused him to miss Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils, has not yet healed enough for him to comfortably move around the ice, let alone throw his body around and weave in and out of defenders on his way to doing what he does best. So far, Ovechkin has 14 goals and nine assists in 14 games so far for the Capitals, and missing him for any length of time will only hurt the strong Washington offense.

In the midst of yet another New York Yankees World Series victory, it’s near impossible to find any headlines that deal with something not covered in pinstripes. But with the 2009 MLB officially behind them, it’s time for 29 teams to say goodbye to their new free agents and start shopping around for the replacements they think they need to improve and contend in 2010. It’s business as usual for the general managers, with the Yankees taking the weekend off to celebrate, beginning with the traditional parade down the Canyon of Heroes in downtown Manhattan planned for Friday. So who exactly is available to be sought and bought before Spring Training ’10?