Friday, June 10, 2011

Bats: After Jeter Reaches 3,000 Hits, Who's Likely Next?

In 1981 Bill James developed a way to measure a player's chances of reaching 3,000 hits, and it is still useful today.


Source: http://feeds1.nytimes.com/~r/nyt/rss/Sports/~3/JeVA5Y-7HQs/

Royce Gracie Royler Gracie Ryan Gracie Peter Graham Forrest Griffin

Philadelphia Council proposes saving DROP program

City Council on Wednesday announced its intention to save the incendiary DROP pension perk with a plan to reduce, but not eliminate, the program's cost.

Source: http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=166721&44=123528569&32=3796&7=195342&40=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Finquirer%2Ffront_page%2F20110609_Philadelphia_Council_proposes_saving_DROP_program.html

Luciano Azevedo  Ba Te er  Ryan Bader  Siyar Bahadurzada Bao Ligao 

Guida, Ferguson and more: Exclusive pics from TUF 13 finale

Take a look at "The Ultimate Fighter" 13 Finale through the photography of Tracy Lee. You'll see Kyle Kingsbury's busted eye, Tony Ferguson's celebration and more.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Guida-Ferguson-and-more-Exclusive-pics-from-TU?urn=mma-wp3158

Ricardo Arona  Noboru Asahi Marcus Aurelio  Mikhail Avetisyan Luiz Azeredo 

Munoz interview: This wrestler isn’t afraid to hit the mat with Maia

Mark Munoz and Chael Sonnen were high level wrestler on the collegiate scene. Munoz was a little more accomplished, but they've both used the same base to put together solid runs in the UFC. So when Munoz looks at how Sonnen did when he faced Demian Maia at UFC 95, it's almost hard to imagine the former Oklahoma State star would risk going to the ground with the jiu-jitsu ace. It took less than three and a half minutes for Maia to submit Sonnen. Munoz disagrees.

"I'm not afraid of the ground game," Munoz said (5:30 mark). "I'm confident when it goes to the mat. I'm definitely going to take the fight where I want and we're going to fight on my terms."

Maia's win over Sonnen was startling. Once he got a hold of Sonnen, he tossed him over his head and fell into the mount where he transition to a triangle. Munoz said there was more to the story. Sonnen explained that he had been hit just a few seconds before and was stunned, which allowed Maia to ragdoll him so easily.

Using advice Sonnen gave him, Munoz just wants to be careful in the clinch and especially if he has top control.

"You just gotta have to be able to posture and not keep your head down so low to be able to get hit," Munoz said. "For me, I drop bombs. That's what I do. Demian knows that."

Munoz (10-2, 7-2 UFC) has been drilling his jiu-jitsu for the last few years with a bevy of Brazilians at Blackhouse MMA in the Los Angeles area. For this camp, Junior dos Santos and the Nogueiras were down in Brazilian, so Munoz had to change things up.

At his own gym, Reign Training Center in Lake Forest, Ca., he worked with Jason "Mayhem" Miller. He also has a partnership with King's MMA in Huntington Beach, Ca., and got to work with Mauricio Rua, Wanderlei Silva, Renato "Babalu" Sobral and Fabricio Werdum.

Meanwhile, Maia worked with Blackhouse's new gym in San Diego. At times, that kind of crossover can irk fighters, but Munoz was far from insulted.

"It's a tangled web we weave, training with certain guys. If you're training with the right guys, you're going to end up fight people or people you know of or the friends of your training partners," Munoz said (8:04 mark). "At the same time, it's one thing to tell somebody that they have something, but it's a whole different thing to actually do it and execute it inside the Octagon."

Surprisingly, Munoz is a minus-130 favorite over Maia. The Filipino has won two straight and 5-of-6 while Maia (14-2, 8-2 UFC), has looked less than stellar recently as he's looked to showcase his striking more in decision wins over Kendall Grove and Mario Miranda.

Check out Larry Pepe from ProMMA.com and Damon Martin from MMAWeekly,com as we break down the Munoz-Maia fight from the betting perspective.

You can watch UFC 131 right here on Yahoo! Sports

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Munoz-interview-This-wrestler-isn-t-afraid-to-h?urn=mma-wp3291

Roger Gracie Rolles Gracie Royce Gracie Royler Gracie Ryan Gracie

Koscheck dislikes new shirt, Bonnar wants to pummel him

It's a great marketing idea that apparently irks some other UFC fighters. Stephan Bonnar's new "Trash Talking Kids" t-shirt line is based on real-life fighters like Josh Koscheck, Forrest Griffin and Cain Velasquez.

Koscheck's "Josh Koshbygosh" shirt is pretty cool, right? Not according to Bonnar, who claims Koscheck had his lawyers call about the t-shirt.

"He got wind of it and he didn't like it and I tried to explain it to him firsthand. 'Like, look we're doing them for all the fighters. It's kinda a joke, just cartoon versions of the fighters.' His version is called Josh Koshbygosh and he kinda looks like a Cabbage Patch doll, because he really does. Anyway, so he didn't like it," Bonnar told Five Knuckles. "Turns out we won't be able to sell his but we will be able to sell the other ones. I didn't think his was gonna sell too much anyway. We're getting hit up his lawyers at the moment, it's been a pain in the ass."

Bonnar also made some interesting comments about Koscheck and the now infamous sucker punch from Paul Daley.

"He actually inspired the idea, he talks so much [expletive] in the Daley fight and after the fight. The whole time I see Koscheck talking [expletive] to him on the ground, I thought it was hilarious and I was carrying on about it. Then sure I knew he was gonna get to Daley. Turns out afterward that he was saying terrible things about Daley's mom and all that. Well it's kinda understandable that Daley tried to punch him afterwards and sure enough he got to Daley. Daley lost his cool and punched him afterwards," Bonnar said. "I thought it was the funniest thing, like he is just a trash talking kid at heart."

Tip via MMAMania

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Koscheck-dislikes-new-shirt-Bonnar-wants-to-pum?urn=mma-wp3257

Joe Hybrid Duarte Aldrin de Jesus  Todd Duffee  Marvin Eastman  Stav Crazy Bear Economou 

Local Spotlight: SlowMoney.org

SlowMoney is a new economic vision. An emerging network of investors, donors, and farmers committed to building local food economies… Thousands of Americans have begun affirming a new direction for the food system and the economy. It?s called Slow Money. … Continue reading

Source: http://www.prana.com/blog/2011/06/10/local-spotlight-slowmoney-org/

Rashad Evans Urijah Faber Wagnney Fabiano Kevin Kimbo Slice Ferguson Paulo Filho

New Seagal action figure flying off the shelves

Leave it the Internet to come up with another brilliant MMA action figure. With Steven Seagal being in the news so much lately, someone came up with the Seagal action figure.

You have to love the haberdashery items. The Seagal doll comes with all the "hats" in his life - the beanie, the emergency hair triangles, and in his constant effort to keep that buff body, a chef's hat.

Of all the accessories, we particularly love the "Judo" Gene Lebell restraining order. We always love reminding people of the rumored showdown between Seagal, in his action-movie prime, and a then 59-year-old Judo Gene.

Lebell, a legend of hardcore fighting in the old days, was on the set of "Out for Justice" serving as a stuntman when Seagal, 39, decided to talk a little trash. He claimed Lebell couldn't choke him out. He was wrong.

Lebell did it twice and, on the second occasion, Seagal allegedly had an accident in his drawers. SI.com's Jon Wertheim told the story to Deadspin (1:58 mark - NSFW).

Check out the entire line of "Masato Toys" action figure photoshops. We're big fans of the Cecil Peoples' doll.

Tip via MMAMania

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/New-Seagal-action-figure-flying-off-the-shelves?urn=mma-wp2873

Dai Shuanghai  Mac Danzig  Karen Darabedyan Viacheslav Datsik Marcus Davis