It’s not surprising that so many baseball players love Harley Davidson bikes.  After all, baseball players are used to the best and when it comes to motorcycles, HD is the best.  By far.

Baseball is such a long season.  A month worth of Spring Training and then the regular season and for the lucky ones, the post season.  With barely a day off each month.  It’s a grind.

So, what better way to end the season than with a long ride on a Harley.  If a baseball player is looking for harley accessories then there are only a few places to go to get authentic Harley Davidson motorcycle parts.  And, if you are MLB player, you don’t have any reason to hold back on the off season expenses, because you can afford the best motorcycle parts.

So, take a few weeks off and then get back in the gym by January to get ready for the 2012 season.  Your mind and your body needs some time off and riding your bike on a long trip will get you where you need to be to get psyched for the 2012 season.

Our first concerns with any draft day tool is how easy it is to setup based on your league settings/rules. Roto Champ has over 40 scoring categories to choose from and allows you to pick which MLB teams are represented for your player pool (AL, NL, Mix, and custom). You have an 8×8 NL-only league with 6 Ofs? Probably not, but the software could handle it. It allows you to pick the number of positions and reserve spots and includes specialty positions like MI, CI, Utility, etc. In addition, it handles any number of managers and gives you 3 different projection systems (RotoChamp, CAIRO, and the Fantasy411 composite). We were able to setup 3 different leagues with different sets of rules and Roto Champ handled it with ease. The flexibility of the software is very impressive. Whether you are in a roto or points league, auction or draft, Roto Champ will handle your configuration. And, it handles unlimited leagues so the power users can setup different configurations for each one.

After setting up the league we were taken to the player projection screen which is a grid showing all the player projections. The grid was easy to sort/filter and had many columns to choose from. Say you want to see the projections for all the outfielders in your league, just one click and there it is. If you click on a player it will show a profile of the player at the top of the screen, which displays his projections from the 3 different systems as well as 5-year stats and other useful information. This screen was so powerful and rich with information it was addicting. Finding a player was easy and fast, which is so important when you are in the middle of your draft or auction.

Roto Champ is very intuitive and moving around the software is easy and logical. The Position Rankings screen is nearly as powerful as the player projections. In this screen we see the overall rankings and tiers for each position, using their own metric, Strength Index. We did a couple of mock drafts using Strength Index as a guide and simply dominated. The screen also allows you to sort by any main category so that you can easily find the player that meets your needs, which can be viewed in the Manager QuickView screen. This screen shows how you are progressing to your draft day targets as you are drafting, so you always know what type of player to target.

While the player projections, position rankings, and quick view screens are great during your draft the software also has some other nice screens. There is a screen showing a grid of the rosters of each manager. Another screen shows the projected standings, which is updated while you draft. The team summary screen shows the projections of each player you drafted and your team totals and can be filtered by any manager. The lineup/depth chart screen shows the projected lineups/rotations of all MLB teams.

One of the great things about Roto Champ is that they update their projections daily during spring training so you are always up to date. Overall, Roto Champ is a very impressive piece of software and something we will be using in all of our drafts/auctions this year. It’s listed at $34.95, but they are currently running a special for $24.95, which is money well spent on the biggest day of the year.

On the same hand, we also know that there’s nothing better than a live, in-person fantasy baseball draft. You can instant message your smack talk – but it’s clearly not the same as looking the person in the eye and saying it yourself.

Our friends at Skype want to help three lucky FBD readers host the best possible virtual fantasy draft this season. To help determine who deserves it the most, FBD is happy to announce the first annual Super Smack Talk Awards. 

How To Enter The Super Smack Talk Awards

Truly great smack talk is so much more than just a witty punchline. There’s the delivery of the line, the situation in which it’s delivered, and the reason why it was even said in the first place. We want our readers to submit their stories of the best smack talk they’ve ever delivered via online chat, in an in-person draft, or via video call – doesn’t matter.

Submit your best line of smack talk with a little backstory to webmaster@fantasybaseballdugout.com by March 13. Try to submit lines with creativity that include a funny backstory. Try to keep the cussin’ in the line to a limit, too. Be sure to include Super Smack Talk in the subject line. Make sure your name, e-mail address, and Skype name, too (assuming you use Skype) are in the body of the article.

The editors of FBD will review all of the entries and personally select the three winners. The three lucky winners will receive a Skype Starter Kit, including:

• Everyman HD Webcam: This plug and play high definition webcam enables your readers to see their friends and family afar in great quality picture via Skype. Retail value: $69.99.
• Skype Group Video Calling Voucher: This allows baseball enthusiasts and friends to video chat with up to 9 other friends around the world face-to-face during their fantasy draft, or about last night’s home run, FREE for 3 months. Voucher value: $26.97

The three winners will be contacted by the editors of FBD to confirm and claim their prize, which will then be sent by the good people at Skype the week of March 13.

From there, Skype and FBD would love to have the winning users hold virtual fantasy baseball drafts with group video calling, a high quality premium service offering from Skype.

Questions or comments about the Super Smack Talk Awards? Please email webmaster@fantasybaseballdugout.com or hit one of us up on Skype – jonathan.bentz or ballparkbob.

Good luck… and happy smack talking!

Editor’s Note: In September, your friend BeeZee at Fantasy Baseball Dugout was contacted about this great book by Alex Belth of Bronx Banter. I received an early copy, checked it out… and didn’t ever sit down and properly review it like a good blogger should. Shame on me. Anyway, since we clearly owe them a favor for not putting something together the first time, here’s some info on this solid book filled with anecdotes and testimonies about the house that Ruth built – “Old” Yankee Stadium. If you have a Yankee diehard on your Christmas list who misses the old stadium, this book could really be a great last minute gift.

Buy Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories at Amazon.com

From the press release:
At Yankee games, the fans applaud in unison as their heroes circle the bases. The cheers may sound the same, but the memories, feelings, and connections that each person in that big ballpark in the Bronx develops are entirely different. Just in time for the 2010 baseball postseason, it’s time to join some of the most well-known voices in sports and entertainment today to reminisce about the personal memories that make our favorite stadium special to us.

In Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories, Bronx Banter editor Alex Belth has compiled over forty touching, and sometimes hilarious, essays by renowned writers and commentators about the experiences that have made America’s most famous stadium special to them. Contributors include:

• Rob Neyer, baseball columnist for ESPN.com (and fan of our 50 Best Baseball Movies list)
• Ed Alstrom, organist at Yankee Stadium
• Jane Leavy, bestselling sports biographer
• Richard Ben Cramer, Pulitzer Prize winning writer for the Baltimore Sun
• Tom Boswell, sportswriter for the Washington Post
• Bob Costas of the MLB Network
• Tyler Kepner, sportswriter for the New York Times
• Scott Raab, writer at large at Esquire
• Tony Kornheiser of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption
• Ed Randall of WFAN radio

And many, many, many more!

Whether it’s the first time you spilled mustard on your shirt in excitement over a Reggie Jackson home run, or the time you booed Carl Yastrzemski and the Red Sox so loudly that you couldn’t speak for weeks, the three incarnations of Yankee Stadium are filled – not only with bleachers and vendors – but with memories of the people who practically lived there during baseball season. Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories takes the lead in prompting baseball fans everywhere to share those memories to bond over their shared experiences.

Including a special section dedicated to the new Yankee Stadium as the foundation of new memories that will be built there, and an amusing foreword by Yankee legend Yogi Berra, this is a book that no Yankee fan, and no true baseball fan, should ever be without!

Buy Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories at Amazon.com

BACKSTOP: V-Mart turns his back on Cleveland.

Sports betting fans should take into consideration that Martinez, in his first full season with the Boston Red Sox, hit .302 with 20 homers and led all catchers in RBI with 79, despite that his injuries allowed him to play only in 127 games of 162.

In fantasy, Martinez is one of the most productive catchers and is among the quality catchers to consider heading into the 2011 season. V-Mart is ranked at the second place in the 2011 Fantasy Baseball Catcher Rankings, one position higher than Brian McCann.

In addition, Martinez is a four-time All-Star and his arrival to the Detroit Tigers should not change his good situation. Probably the Tigers will make use of V-Mart as their primary catcher, considering that Alex Avila, a second-year player, is the only catcher on their current roster.

Martinez also can be used at designated hitter and at first base whenever Miguel Cabrera needs a break.

In his nine-year career with the Cleveland Indians and the Red Sox, Martinez hit .300 with 131 homers and 638 RBIs. Undoubtedly, the offensive catcher will provide better value to the Tigers team than previous years.

On the other hand, during the summer Martinez declined Boston’s offer of a three-year, $36 million deal, but what is clear is that the free agent was looking for a better deal.

After finishing the season, besides the Red Sox, the Detroit Tigers, the Baltimore Orioles and the Colorado Rockies were also interested in the catcher. But V-Mart will return to the AL Central, where he played for the Cleveland Indians from 2002 to 2009, when he was traded to the Red Sox.

Finally, the other three big free-agent hitters remain on the market: Carl Crawford and Adam Dunn, who are left-handed hitters, and Jayson Werth, who hits right-handed.

The violating player is Mike Batiste, formerly of Arizona State and then he had a cup of coffee with the Memphis Grizzlies before being cut by the Los Angeles Clippers. Looks to me like he is an angry man; angry about not being able to make it in the NBA.

Watch this video and tell me something. Why wasn’t this dude tossed?

Editor’s Note: Happy Friday! This article is a guest post by Dan Harrison, a veteran of sports betting who teaches people how to make no risk profits using a technique called matched betting. Matched betting is a form of no risk betting where you bet for and against a team in a football match, guaranteeing a profit if that team wins or loses. Dan’s matched betting advice is completely free, and it stands up to mathematical scrutiny too. You can also follow Dan on Twitter here. Any questions? Please ask in the comments area below. Dan will do what he can to answer them!

What is sports betting?

I’m assuming you’ve heard of sports betting to some extent? When you place a bet, you’re committing some money to an outcome of an event. If that event wins, you get your money back, plus a little more based on the odds of that event. You can bet on a whole range of events, but most commonly, you can bet on a sports event. You bet on a specific outcome, e.g. Team A to win in a match against Team A v.s. Team B.

You place your bet with a bookmaker, who essentially promises to pay you if the outcome you bet on actually happens (e.g. Team A wins using the example above). Bookmakers will set the odds at a value that roughly represents the probability of that event occurring. However, the volume of money that’s been bet on an outcome can also influence the odds that a bookmaker sets for an event. Essentially, whatever the outcome of an event, the bookmaker wants to be able to make a profit on that event.

When you win a bet, the bookmaker loses, as they have to pay you. Therefore to make a profit, bookmakers will need to ensure they lose as little as possible. It’s important to understand that bookmakers intentionally set odds so that they make a profit, which means you’re usually at a disadvantage when you want to make any money from a bet.

Why gamble?

Given that the odds are not stacked in your favor, why would you want to gamble? Well, from my experience, there are 3 types of people who do betting of any kind.

1. People who place bets for fun ? for the buzz of a possible win. These people are only occasional gamblers. Since they are betting for fun, you can understand that the thrill of a win is a compelling reason to place a bet.
2. People who have an addiction to gambling (usually addicted to the buzz of winning). Often those who have started out as people placing bets for fun.
3. People who use various ‘systems’ and ‘techniques’ to consistently make money from betting.

I’ve probably been in each of those groups at some point in my adult life, although thankfully group 2 was a very brief period in time!

Gambling Systems? A Myth?

Gambling systems are basically a process you follow in order to make a profit from a bookmaker. Most systems are complete rubbish, and are simply designed to part you from your money (as most gambling systems you need to pay for). Here are some reasons why systems don’t work:

• The system is incorrect
• The system is based on assumptions that are incorrect or only correct some of the time
• The system is based on poor maths
• The system doesn’t account for a large number of people using the system
• The system uses dodgy techniques that bookmakers prohibit

The old saying applies to gambling systems, ?if it sounds to be true, it usually is?. That’s not to say that all systems don’t work, but 99% of systems are complete rubbish!

A Gambler’s Dream

A gambler is motivated by winning money. A win can create an adrenaline rush, as well as extreme excitement. Being addicted to such strong emotions is completely understandable, but gambling addiction can cause so many problems, including mental troubles and huge debts. Thankfully we have plenty of charities and organizations to help gamblers defeat their addiction.

However, if you do a spot of gambling, be sure you know your limits. Set a budget of what you can afford to lose, and never go beyond that amount. That’s a sure way to have fun without risk. If you think you have a problem, please do get help before it gets out of control!

It’s not too early to start researching for your fantasy baseball draft, but it’s probably too early to start doing the all-night research yet.  So, how should you spend your evenings and weekends?

Have you ever thought about playing at online casinos?  Now, I’m not suggesting that you invest your hard earned cash that you pay your mortgage with, but many casinos let you play for free if you want to.  Later, if you want to deposit go ahead and give it a try.  It’s fun, just like fantasy baseball is.

But, how do you know what is a safe casino online to play with?  That’s where web sites that review such sites come in handy.  They will give you unbiased reviews of casinos and tell you if the casino has had negative reports against it.

Gambling online is not for everybody, but it can be a lot of fun and it can be exhillerating.  If you play fantasy baseball, you are probably already playing a game of skill that has an element of gambling to it.  So, how is that much different than playing online poker?  Poker is definitely a game of skill regardless of what the USA government thinks.  If it weren’t a game of skill, then why do the same poker stars show up on in the finals of the World Series of Poker every year?

There’s still a couple of weeks before you need to bear down on fantasy baseball 2010.  So, enjoy the fun of playing at a reputable site like those recommended.

1953 Topps Mickey Mantle

If you are a fantasy baseball fan, chances are that you have a baseball card collection of some kind.  It may not be the same baseball card collection that you once had, because when you went to college, your mom might  have tossed them out to make room for her ceramics or something.  That’s why you hear so many people look at a 1952 Mantle card and say: “I used to have this card.”

How much is your card collection worth?  That’s hard to say.  A lot of the actual value for your baseball card collection depends on the psa grading of the cards.  A psa grading of a baseball card is essentially an analysis of its condition.  the value of a baseball card is much like the value of real estate.  When it comes to baseball card values, it’s all about condition, condition, condition.

It’s all about condition when you are considering the value of a 1953 Mantle baseball card, for example.  That card could be worth thousands if its in mint condition or not much more than a nice dinner if it is battered and torn.

Why do Mickey Mantle cards carry such value?  There certainly were other players of his era like Mays, Aaron, Kaline, Killebrew, and Robinson that were  just as good as Mickey, but let’s face it: Mantle played in New York City!  And, like it or not, playing in New York will always enhance your value.

Just ask A-Rod.

Oh… and if you’re looking for a Mickey Mantle autographed baseball, have we found a great site for you!