Fantasy Baseball 2010 Draft Results

Yep. I'm in a fantasy baseball league with a few friends from Loyola; we've been doing this for a while now, and I've been getting pretty good at it. I was late for the live draft time for a few minutes, so I didn't get the strongest pitching staff I would have liked...but here are my results.

Team Roster for Holy Cow!!
Catcher - Geovany Soto (CHC)
First Base - Miguel Cabrera (DET)
Second Base - Ian Stewart (COL)
Third Base - Kevin Youkilis
Shortstop - Jose Reyes
Outfield - Shane Victorino (PHI), Ryan Braun (MIL), Ryan Ludwick (STL)
Utility - Justin Morneau (MIN), Adrian Gonzalez (SD)
Bench - Jorge Posada (NYY), Juan Rivera (LAA), Adam Kennedy (WAS), Jeff Francouer (ATL)

Pitching Staff:
Starters - Josh Beckett (BOS), Jered Weaver (LAA), Randy Wells (CHC), J.A. Happ (PHI), Mark Buehrle (CWS)
Closers/Relievers - Brian Fuentes (LAA), Heath Bell (SD), Ryan Madson (PHI), Phil Hughes (NYY)

I'm definitely going to get another shortstop for one of my first basemen, seeing that Jose Reyes might not even play on opening day. I'm somewhat disappointed in my starting pitching staff; I usually look for big strikeout pitchers like Lincecum, but I suppose I don't exactly have the worst staff either. Beckett, Weaver, and Buehrle are all great. I'm even excited for Wells to have a big year with the Cubs. Speaking of which, I'm taking a chance on Geo Soto being my catcher this year, too. He had a horrible 2009, but from what I've seen from him this Spring, he looks to kick some butt. Plus, I have Posada to back him up so I'm not really lacking in the catcher department.

Youkilis, Victorino, Wells, Happ, and Bell were all part of my staff last year. I'm bummed I wasn't able to pick up Theriot or D-Lee. But, that's what I get for being late and having the robot pick for me. Anyways, I'm still really stoked for baseball, which opens up in less than 2 weeks!

As for how I've been with school and other things, here's a quick recap:
-The week back from Spring Break sucked. Hard. A midterm and a project due within 2 days of each other was what awaited me.
-The midterm was really hard. I'm just happy it's over with.
-I spent over 9 hours at school (from about 12:30-10:45) on a Friday night working on my project, which was due at midnight. I didn't eat in that entire span, I missed the Cubs/Sox game, and I missed out the b-e-autiful weather. I wasn't a happy camper that day at all.
-This week isn't that bad. Just one more week until I get to enjoy a 6-day weekend for Easter.
-I haven't been in the best of moods, unfortunately. Stupid crap about Nadia still lingers (the bad dreams I have don't help, at all) despite me making a conscious effort to try and make things not so awkward, my Dad is leaving for the Philippines, again, and the family's kinda in debt...but we're trying to dig ourselves out of it.

Yeah, I hope the next few days/weeks will be better for me. Otherwise, I don't think I could take much more of this crap. Until the future, humans.

Spring Break, Thus Far

First, a few blurbs about the Chicago sports scene.

1) Adam Burish is finally playing tonight for the Blackhawks. In his first few seconds of ice time, he recorded an assist, and got into a fight which warranted 5 penalty minutes. This dude is freaking crazy, and we all love him for it.

2) The Cubs dropped to .500 in Spring Training with a 5-1 loss to the Giants today. Z apparently got torched for 5 runs in the 3rd, the biggest hit coming from a grand slam from the Kung Fu Panda, Pablo Sandoval. This somewhat worries me, I really hope he's able to rebound. Xavier Nady made his debut today, he went 1-2. Huge day for both our shortstops, Theriot and Castro. They went 5-5!

3) I still don't care about the White Sox. Although, I find it really hard to not see what Ozzie Guillen tweets about from time to time. His tweets are pretty funny. The latest: "This is crazy I thought the gas cost a lot money to many car lord"
I can't wait until his first meltdown during a game...

Anyways.

Spring Break has been in swing for me, I'm off school for the whole week. Started off on Friday, when I went to Evanston to celebrate my buddy Pat's 21st birthday. Much beer and Irish carbombs were had. I spilled my first one all over my friend Sergio's backpack...I hate committing party fouls. But he didn't seem to mind. I was also hit on by some dude in the bathroom; he said I looked cute in my sweater vest, then he started speaking to me in Spanish. I wanted to be flattered, but this has happened one too many times before. All in all, t'was a fun and happy time.

The past 2 days have been pretty eventful. Walter came in to visit from Wisconsin for his spring break, so we chilled. Monday involved meeting at the HIP for some lunch. Horchata and tamales were good ideas. Afterwards, we headed to Binny's to discuss beers and our stories involving Belgian ales. Then on the way to McMano's house, Purple Rain came on, and I immediately went nuts; I melted in my seat. I don't know what it is about that song, but I need to listen to it in its entirety before moving on. Rock on, Prince. Needless to say, Wally and I air-guitarred and sang it all, while Jeff looked at us from his living room window, shaking his head. After driving around for some time, we wound up at Golf Mill, where we went to the arcade and played the original X-Men game, the one where you can have 6 players at a time. I was Nightcrawler; I believe Jeff was Colossus and Walt was both Wolverine and Cyclops. We almost beat the game, but fittingly, we ran out of singles. After driving around even more, we found ourselves in Skokie, where we went to Dick's Sporting Goods and Half Price Books. Buffalo Wild Wings was our next stop, where we met up with Ed. I forgot how awesome their wings were! Sports trivia was also played, and I will never forget the name, Young Tom Morris. Apparently he shot the first hole in one in golf tournament history. After dinner, we all decided on a short jam session at my house. But first, we had to drive through some of the worst fog we've ever seen in a long time. I couldn't see anything further than 10 feet in front of me, it was crazy. When we all finally got to my place, we settled in and played some Motion City Soundtrack, Rise Against, and Oasis. I swear, it felt like I was in high school all over again.

Yesterday was a pretty eventful one as well. Walt and I caught a free jazz show at the Chicago Cultural Center: the Jeff Chan saxophone trio. Those dudes had some pretty slick tones. An old lady with some sick ass dreads was two-stepping the entire time, getting down with her bad self. Despite not having any percussion or drummer, they still kept time real well thanks to their bassist. I felt real dignified. lol. Ironically enough I was wearing my John Coltrane t-shirt. I did not plan this. After a lunch at Pisano's (I had the Jack Brickhouse deep dish pizza special, with a Green River to wash it down), we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. The admission is free on Tuesdays and we had never gone before so we figure, why not? As expected we saw many an art hipster digging on the exhibits, some of which were extremely awesome and some, just plain weird. I have a bunch of photos, mayhaps I'll post them soon. Afterwards, we originally planned on going to Kuma's Corner for dinner, but instead we decided to try and surprise Justine at school....but apparently she got out of class early. But in a weird twist of fate, she wound up heading back to Columbia, picked us up, and took us to eat some dinner in her neighborhood. She finally gave me my signed and personalized MCS lyric book that she got for me in January, so that was just the cherry on top of the sundae. She took us to Ricobene's, and had us a nice time. They make a mean Italian Beef combo; I might have to drive down there one of these days and have another. After dropping us off at the Thompson Center, we had a rendezvous with Jeff and Ed (again), and went back to my house, to record some of the magic we were playing the night before. T'was an amazing time.

Today was very relaxing, right after stressing a bit about school. I started off the day by working on a project for one of my computer science classes. After about 2 or 3 hours, I noticed that it was about 60 degrees outside. So I stopped and took a long drive all over the city. I went to Wrigleyville first, then downtown, then to Skokie, and back.

I'm hoping for much more of the same from this break. I'm probably going to be working on this project over the weekend, if I can't bring myself to do it in the next few days.

Blogging still feels funny, but I'll get used to it. Until the future.

Here We Go Again...

Wow, it's been such a long time since I've been on here. Well, lots of things have changed since then. For starters, I am now a college senior, planning on staying an extra year towards working on my degree in computer science, I've learned to use (and really appreciate) the next new social networking beast that is the Twitter machine, and I'm single, again. Nadia pretty much found someone else she'd rather date than me, during the time when we were still together. I'd rather not delve into that right now.

Moving on...

This is pretty much a post just to get things started again. I was looking through my old Xanga page and remembered how much I posted; I want to get to that level again, but hopefully I'll be able to talk about things with more substance...or not. We shall see. Sorry, blog. I'll try and be better with ya. I've got lots of things to say and many things have happened, so I have more than enough stuff to put on here.

And just in case if you were wondering, I'm stoked about baseball to start up again. The Cubs are 3-1 in Cactus League play right now.

Holy Shit!

Yeah, it's been over a month since I last scrawled in here. My apologies. I miss writing in this, and hopefully I'll keep up the habit of writing in it every so often. Blame Twitter and Facebook.

I'll be fraink;

Things that have happened:
-Went to my 3rd ever White Sox game @ The Cell. They lost. Though I wore a black shirt, I remained in my seat and silently cheered in my head when they did lose.
-I turned 21! I also won $350 dollars when Dad took Ate Jen and I to the riverboat casino in Elgin that night. The moolah was won in slots and blackjack, though I lost about $100 in roulette.
-Been relaxing and drinking with friends whenever I can; in particular, just had a BBQ/jam session at Dave's on Friday. I grilled ridiculously good burgers, all the while dancing to Michael Jackson (RIP homie) and Earth, Wind, and Fire. Rock Band/Guitar Hero World Tour was played into the wee hours of the morning. I also broke Dave's couch. :(
-Jess' graduation. She's going to Loyola with me next fall, and I am beyond stoked!
-Ate Jen graduated and passed her nursing boards with Jason! Jason landed a job @ St. Mary's in the ER, while Ate Jen continues to look for a job. In the meantime, being a waitress @ Little Quiapo and nightly challenges vs. me on Bejeweled Blitz via Facebook are what she's been up to.
-Manager @ work is making my life hell, fucking with my hours and all. I recently got a few back, but she still pisses me off.
-The Cubs have not been playing like anyone expected them to, but this weekend looked promising.
-So many celebs have been peacing out, left and right. Gahhhh!
-Dates/movie nights/mushy stuff with Nadia :)

Things that are going to happen:
-Cathy, my cousin from Austria, is coming to Chicago for her internship @ Mom's hospital. She'll be living with us for about a month and a half, starting in mid-August, and I can't wait!
-Garcia Family Reunion in Montreal, Canada. August 2009. I bought a Montreal Expos (RIP) hat just for the occasion.
-Big ass jam session @ Dave's, date TBA
-Walter, Jeff, and Shane raid Binny's Beverage Depot, date TBA

So yeah, that's about it for now. I'm gonna try my best to keep this updated. Signing off!

My Friday Evening

Needless to say, I'm pretty content.

Shamon!

Despite my sore condition of my entire body, I can officially Moonwalk.

That is all for now.

So......Sore.......

Gah, it hurts whenever I try to move. I guess it's from all the shock my muscles have been undergoing in the past 2 days due to all of this sudden exercise. 2 more workouts for the week, and a hell of a lot more to go for the entire summer.

This morning was quite comical. I wake up to the sound of my phone's alarm as usual. I try to extend my hand to the nightstand, only to rear it back in a shot of pain and general soreness. Then I tried sitting up, only to be pushed back down because my abs hate me. My sister even came in and made no effort to try and help me get up. I tried going back to sleep, but the pain wouldn't let me. Gradually, I gained enough energy to turn on my belly. I stopped for 5 minutes or so before rolling out of bed onto the floor.

My workout buddy Sergio and I worked out our legs today, seeing that we were both still really sore in our upper bodies (to be worked on tomorrow). I've learned that I have stronger legs than I thought; I maxed out at a little over 200lbs on the leg press, and my calves weren't tingling at all after working those out. My quads were hurting a lot more than I expected during leg extensions, but the pain is good. Burned some calories on an elliptical, and did some more leg workouts. We finished our day by eating some salad that I enjoyed greatly, and finished it in about 10 minutes. For the rest of the day, sitting down and walking up and down stairs have been increasingly difficult: a sure sign that the workout has done its job.

Man, this is weird. Me talking about exercise and eating healthy, I mean. Ah well, change is good. I'm going to be keeping this up all summer long. Watch out world, I'm getting healthier!

Time for some Sally's!