On Monday evening, I joined the dudes at RotoExperts for some serious hoops chat. As always, it was a lively discussion, and as always, Hedo Turkoglu was front and centre in the discussions (Tom has an obvious man-crash on him).

Among the topics covered: who should you take with pick No. 4, Dwight Howard drafting strategy in H2H vs. roto leagues; the comebacks of Gilbert Arenas and Kevin Garnett; and the latest on Blake Griffin and his injuries plus crappy FT shooting.

Check out the podcast below; I come in around the seven-minute mark.

On Saturday afternoon, I was back for yet another appearance on the Alex Reimer Show on 1120 AM WBNW Boston, and this week the focus of the discussion centred on the playoff aspirations of the Boston Red Sox.

Can the back end of their rotation hold up for another month? Will the real Josh Beckett resurface? Can the Sox hold off a hard-charging Ranger squad?

Alex and I mulled these questions, while also examining what the White Sox have been thinking, if the Jim Thome to the Dodgers and Jason Giambi to Colorado moves will pay off, and the general lack of juicy Wild Card races this season.

My portion comes in around the 19:30 mark.

Press play below to check out RotoRob’s latest radio appearance now.

Jeff Erickson from RotoWire.com got things rolling for the first half of the show followed by yours truly heading into the second half of a two-hour show. We took the opportunity to review the latest edition of our weekly column The Wire Troll and discussed up and coming phenom Madison Bumgarner and the potential for Manny Parra to repeat his fine pitching performance from last week.

Lenny Melnick from FantasyPros911.com and Bob Sikon from FBTM.com joined in later on in the show and we got into a rather interesting discussion on auction leagues and the changing face of the game.

The full show can be heard here.

Bob Sikon from Fantasy Baseball Trade Market, guest hosting the Johnny Archive show over on Blogtalk Radio, extended an invitation to both myself and Kelly Pfleiger from FantasyGameday to spend some time chatting Wednesday. How could I refuse? Over the course of the hour, we had the opportunity to discuss numerous topics of interest to the Fantasy player.

Some of the topics covered included trade evaluation and strategies. One of my biggest pet peeves involves the trading partner that wants something for nothing and further to that doesn’t take the time to address the needs of their respective trading partner. My “battleship for battleship” approach to trading was a topic of conversation.

We also took the opportunity to review several players including Nick Markakis and Shin-Soo Choo, and got out the crystal ball to look at their potential as we head into the second half of the 2009 campaign.

A fun time was had by all and the answers to these and many more questions can be found by listening to the Johnny Archive show.

I appeared on the Alex Reimer Show on WBNW 1120 AM in Boston on Saturday afternoon, discussing many of the key first half stories.

Alex and I talked about how the economic downfall has affected baseball, parity in the game and how that may dim the trade market and how steroids continues to be a major issue in the game today.

Check out our latest baseball Podcast now.

Looking for something to do this afternoon on this 4th of July? Once you’ve consumed your 14th hot dog and 22nd beer and need to chill out for a few minutes, why not check out my latest radio appearance?

I’ll be talking about the big stories of the first half of the baseball season on the Alex Reimer Show on WBNW AM 1120 in Boston. The show runs from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST, and I’ll be spreading the word from around 4:40 p.m. on.

Come on, people, how many freaking hot dogs can you eat? Okay, don’t answer that. Listen to the show.

With my 17-month stint on the DL coming to an end, Kevin Orris from Fantasy Pros 911 extended an invite to talk some Fantasy baseball on his show Tuesday. It was great to spend an hour chatting ball with my return to work imminent. The good times are rapidly coming to an end, as the real world takes over.

Among the items we covered were a look at Randy Johnson’s run at the 300-win plateau and one of the hottest hitters in the game today, Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals.

We then proceeded to run through some of the rather remarkable starts by players such as Adam Jones, Aaron Hill, Joey Votto, Carl Crawford, and Wandy Rodriguez. Are these starts real and sustainable or just temporary illusions designed to torment the Fantasy player heading down the road?

For the answers to all these questions and more, you can check out the full show here.

I guess I didn’t piss off the RotoRadio people too much last time, as they asked back again Monday night for more basketball banter. (My portion of the interview comes on a few minutes in and lasts about 25 minutes.)

With the NBA playoffs around the corner, much of the discussion focused on who will emerge victorious, but plenty of other topics were bandied about, including:

• Emerging fantasy basketball trends;
• Next year’s top five players and others who may force their way into the first round;
• Next season’s crop of injury comeback possibilities; and
• RotoExperts’ unhealthy obsession with all things Hedo Turkoglu.

As always, there were plenty of laughs, including caustic observations on the sobriety (or lack thereof) of possible new Wizard coach Flip Saunders and a glimpse into RotoRob’s parallel universe, in which he apparently is bumping uglies with Natalie Portman. Mmmm…Natalie Portman.

Check out the complete show here.

Congratulations are in order for Kevin Orris from FantasyPros911 on his new show, “The Big O’s Fantasy Baseball Review” at Blogtalk radio. Join him every Tuesday and Thursday at 4 p.m. EST. I had a great time and enjoyed being a guest on the inaugural show Tuesday.

Among the items we covered was a look at the rather dubious opening day starts by C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee. Is this the beginning of a trend or is it time to toss out a mulligan? We also took the time to review a couple of other pitchers that were relatively contentious choices in this year’s drafts in both Carlos Zambrano and Joe Saunders. Isn’t it about time Saunders received a bit more respect?

How could a discussion with Kevin not involve at least one Kansas City Royal? So we took a look at a personal favourite of ours, Mike Aviles. Emilio Bonifacio of the Marlins enjoyed a great start to the 2009 season and those fortunate to have him rostered on Day One certainly reaped some serious rewards. Is he the real deal, and what can we anticipate down the road for Bonifacio?

For those out there that haven’t heard my spiel on early season strategy and the ensuing ”Tis a Marathon, not a Sprint” speech, now would be that opportunity. We also discussed some of the early trends we can see from fantasy managers and the ability to persevere over the long haul, and a long haul it is.

You can check out the full show here.

There I was on a quiet Sunday, buried up to my neck in rankings, when suddenly my good friend Tony Cincotta from FantasyPros911.com asked me if I’d be interested in guesting on his show that evening. How could I turn that one down? Joining us was Bob Taylor from FantasyHurler.com for a fun-filled show as we attempted to wade through numerous topics of interest as fantasy draft deadlines quickly approach.

Among the items we covered was a review of the USA-Japan game (Evan Longoria still can’t hit that breaking stuff, or did I happen to mention that at some point in time?) and a recap of the WBC. We followed that up by reviewing some of the current walking wounded and how those maladies affect their draft status, and then launched into an extensive review of our current Top 10 Closers in Waiting article and First Base rankings.

In addition, we also took some time to discuss a few of the riskier young speculative picks in Matt Wieters, David Price, Elvis Andrus, and Nelson Cruz (well, Cruz isn’t that young, but still is somewhat speculative given his track record). There were some very interesting observations offered, among them my assertion that poor Andrus is going to have to find a way to steal first base to have the value that some anticipate.

You can check out the full show here.

It’s been a couple of years since media prodigy Alex Reimer has had me on his radio show, Without a Curse, but I must have done something right in the past because on Sunday he had me back on to blather on about baseball again.

Our focus was the National League Central, which kind of sucked for me because, as the sport’s largest division, that meant extra work! But hey, it’s not really work — it’s a labour of love. Besides, what the hell would I be doing on a Sunday afternoon if I wasn’t being interviewed? Probably sitting around eating cheese doodles and watching college hoops. Actually, that sounds pretty damn fun. But enough about that, here are some highlights of our discussion (I come in shortly after the four-minute mark if you want to go straight to the interview):

• Pirate fans should stock up on antacid now, but you’ve got to love some of the great bats in their minor league system.
• Cincy has built a nice core of young players and is poised to make a big jump forward this season.
• How the hell are the Astros going to find enough starting pitching? Oswalt, Wandy and pray for tsunami?
• Forget about Who’s on First in St. Louis. The real question is, Who’s on Second? And for that matter, Who’s on Third?
• Milwaukee fans better have enjoyed seeing their Brewers in playoffs last season, because I don’t think they’ll witness that again very soon, despite a potent offense.
• Can the Cubs finally kick the goat in the crotch?

Check out the show here.

TSM of Torontosportsmedia.com is back with another guest spot for us.

Hi, folks. I had a great session with Bob McKenzie Thursday as our first TSM Chat gues. Here is the audio for your listening pleasure. There is about 10 minutes of silence while I waited for Bob to join in. The audio on my end isn’t great as I had to use my cell. Keep your ears open for the next one — pencil in next Wednesday night at 9 p.m. for the TSM general chat.

Here is a brief review of what was discussed

• We talked about the big deal of the day.
• We talked about Bob’s background.
• We talked about the effect of the Internet on his life.
• We talked about rumours for the upcoming draft.

Listen here.

RotoRob was asked to guest on RotoExperts.com’s RotoRadio: Hoops Edition radio show Monday night, and Tom Lorenzo, Hector Castro and I engaged in some spirited fantasy basketball chat. All that was missing was a fireside and some brandy.

What type of gun should you use to off yourself now that Al Jefferson is done for the season? Are Ramon Sessions and D.J. Augustin for real? And will the Geico lizard finally get slam-dunked at the All-Star Game this weekend?

We covered all of these issues in the show and tackled the real burning questions that face the fantasy owner on the precipice of the second half of the NBA schedule. Ready for some lively hoops chatter? Check it out here.

Thursday night, I guested on the In the Zona podcast on azsportshub.com, and we had a lively and engaging discussion on all things Diamondbacks. In true southwest style, Matt and Troy grilled me on a variety of topics. All that was missing was a splash of Chipotle.

From my picks of the hottest second-half commodity to the biggest disappointment; from the most pleasant surprise to my buy low and sell high candidates — we leave no stone unturned in our search for Snakes and you may find some of my picks rather surprising.

My interview was part of a larger podcast that deals with several Arizona sports-related issues, including the Shawn Marion trade talk. By all means, I’d advise giving the entire podcast a listen, but if you’re seeking my portion, it starts about nine and a half minutes in. Later this week, I’ll post the link to just my portion once that is segmented out. Anyways, the AZsportshub guys were great hosts and we covered a ton of ground, so give it a listen!

On Sunday afternoon, I was again a guest on Alex Reimer’s Without a Curse radio show and the topic was one near and dear to my heart — the National League East. As a long-time fan of both the Phils and Braves, I definitely had plenty of opinions to offer on both of these squads plus the rest of the division. In fact, I barely made a dent in my huge stack of notes! You can hear the interview here.

Alex and I covered a range of topics, from projecting the division order to going through each team’s strengths and weaknesses and finally, after breaking out a Linux-powered server, to calculating the number of games the Nationals will lose this year.

You can hear my take on all things NL East in this week’s Without a Curse.

Yesterday afternoon I appeared on Alex Reimer’s Without a Curse show on Mysportsradio.com. Alex interviewed me about a variety of Red Sox-related issues including reports that Todd Helton may be headed to Beantown in a trade.

We also talked about how good a fit Wily Mo Pena is as the fourth outfielder, what Boston will do if Dustin Pedroia can’t cut the mustard at second base, and how the Bosox bullpen will shake out this season.

It was a lively discussion covering a lot of ground and hopefully we didn’t piss the kid off to the extent that we’re not asked back! You can check out the entire podcast here.

We then switch speeds to discuss the big news of the week — Anibal Sanchez’s no-hitter and how the Marlins are somehow able to constantly rebuild on the fly.

Finally, in this week’s Fantasy Report, I focus on another Marlin who tends to fly under radar, but is a fantasy gem.

Check out of all this and more on this week’s Podcast.

Is Ryan Howard a legitimate MVP candidate? The conversation veered into a discussion of the Phillies’ monster slugger.

Finally, in this week’s Fantasy Report, I took a look at September callups, focusing on three pitchers and three hitters you need to watch out for this month.

Listen to this week’s Podcast here.

Finally, RotoRob wraps things up with his weekly Fantasy Report, this week suggesting that an AL pitcher who’s ERA is over 6.00 is worth a gamble this week. Was Rob dropped on his head as a small child? Find out by listening to this week’s Fantasy Report.

In our weekly Fantasy Report, we suggest that while Howie Kendrick makes a great pickup, Ramon Hernandez is probably someone to steer clear of right now.

Check out all of this and more in this week’s Big League Baseball Report.