Headlinin?: ?Deep South?s Oldest Rivalry? could be the next casualty of SEC expansion

Making the morning rounds.

? They said it couldn't happen here. The Georgia-Auburn series has survived the turning of two centuries and two world wars. But it may not survive conference expansion, according to UGA athletic director Greg McGarity, who said Wednesday that the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M to the SEC lineup ? thereby reducing the number of cross-divisional games per year from three to two ? may end the "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry" as an annual institution. The tradition could be preserved if the SEC decided to follow the other major conferences' lead by adopting a nine-game conference schedule, but that's not going to happen anytime soon, and anyway, a nine-game SEC slate could threaten traditional non-conference rivalries like Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech and South Carolina-Clemson. Because you don't honestly expect them to drop those dates with The Citadel and UT-Chattanooga, do you?

"I think if you ask Alabama and Tennessee, like us and Auburn, we'd like to retain the games," McGarity told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "But does that work? What do the other 10 schools think? Those four schools like having those games but there's no other East-West match-up that has that piece of history to it. So I don't where that fits in. ? With 14 teams, not everybody will be happy." [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

? We can sleep tonight knowing you're on that wall, Nate. Speaking of traditional non-conference rivalries: A proposal in the South Carolina legislature that would have mandated the annual Clemson-South Carolina game by state law was unanimously shot down Wednesday by a House subcommittee, which voted 7-0 in opposition. The Tigers and Gamecocks have played every year since 1909, the second-oldest continuous streak in the FBS (behind only Minnesota and Wisconsin, which have played every year since 1890), and both universities insist there is no realistic threat to the series.

"I still think there's the possibility in the future that the game could be in jeopardy," said Rep. Nathan Ballentine, who introduced the measure. "If that happens, I stand ready to help if the situation changes." [The State]

? But who gets the dog? Multiple outlets Wednesday reported that the ongoing legal struggle over West Virginia's defection from the Big East to the Big 12 may be close to being resolved, most likely at great expense to the Mountaineers. According to CBS Sports, West Virginia is on the verge of settling with the Big East for $20 million, allowing WVU to join the Big 12 immediately with no strings attached; the local Charleston Gazette puts that number at $11 million on WVU's end, with the Big 12 likely pitching in to make up the difference.

At this point, the only remaining hurdle may be whether one of the five new members set to join the Big East next year can be convinced to make the move a year early to replace West Virginia on conference schedules. If not, the rest of the league may be forced to get creative. [CBS Sports, Charleston Gazette, Newark Star-Ledger]

? I'm still here. LSU's offensive line got a major boost Wednesday with word that starting guard Josh Dworaczyk has been granted a sixth year of eligibility after missing the entire 2011 campaign with a preseason knee injury. Prior to that, Dworaczyk started 26 consecutive games in 2009 and 2010, experience he put to use last year as a sort of volunteer assistant coach during games. [Baton Rouge Advocate]

? No word on how he simulated the "Jump Around." How did Russell Wilson pick up Wisconsin's offense so fast last summer? A lot of study and a little bit of trespassing: In an interview with his new agency, Wilson ? a late transfer from N.C. State with only one season of eligibility to make good at Wisconsin ? said he would occasionally sneak into Camp-Randall Stadium at night to get a feel of the venue and the offense before the start of preseason practice.

"I got there July 1 and my goal was to learn the playbook by July 21," Wilson said. "That way when I stepped into the huddle for the first time, they realized that I was a leader and ready to take over. It was hectic. I was in the film room by myself a lot. I also have a huge whiteboard at home where I can draw out all of the routes.�I'd sneak into Camp Randall all by myself with no lights on and just go through my progressions on the 50-yard line." [IMG Academies, via Wisconsin State Journal]

Quickly? Joe Paterno's memorial services cost Penn State $29,000. ? Ohio State proposes installing an "integrity czar" to oversee NCAA compliance, among other things. ? Miami suspends running back Darion Hall for (all together now) an unspecified violation of team rules. ? USC receivers lobby for ex-Trojan Keary Colbert as their new position coach. ? Someone stole Junior Hemingway's postseason swag. ? Danny O'Brien mulls his future at Maryland. ? Michigan's uniforms will begin shifting back to actual Maize. ? And who would have guessed two years ago that Ndamukong Suh would ever wind up on a list like this?

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Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/headlinin-deep-south-oldest-rivalry-could-first-casualty-131158160.html

Tyler Hostetter Carl Hudson Matt Hunwick Kent Huskins

New Mexico finally secures quality win, likely locks Mountain West in as three-bid league

On the surface,�entering Wednesday night's crucial clash with 13th-ranked San Diego State, New Mexico looked like a strong candidate for an at-large NCAA tournament bid.

By coming away with a much-needed 77-67 win on the road against No. 13 San Diego State, the Lobos locked the Mountain West in as a three-bid league (? and with Colorado State losing at Boise State two hours after Wyoming fell at home to Air Force on Wednesday, the MWC will likely be just that ? a three-bid league.)

More important for the time being, though, is that the Lobos, the preseason pick to win the league, is all alone atop the MWC standings until at least Saturday.

The Lobos currently stand at 21-4 overall and 7-2 in the Mountain West. Behind them by a game now are SDSU and 11th-ranked UNLV, each at 6-3.

The Rebels travel to Albuquerque for a Saturday morning showdown. If New Mexico successfully avenges an 80-63 loss in Las Vegas from back on Jan. 21, it will hold a commanding two-game edge on UNLV. A loss would likely mean the league's top three teams are again locked into a first-place tie.

But no matter where it finishes in the Mountain West race, New Mexico can take solace in the fact that it is finally playing like the team everyone it expected it to be.

Given their underwhelming non-conference schedule, the Lobos had little margin for error before league play. Instead, they dropped a home game to New Mexico State and a neutral site contest to Santa Clara. Combined with a home loss to San Diego State and the lopsided defeat in Vegas, New Mexico headed to Viejas Arena on Wednesday with a shiny 20-4 record without much substance behind it in terms of quality wins.

That is no longer an issue.

To go with an RPI of 32 and the inside track to a regular season league title is a signature win over the Aztecs.

Preseason MWC Player of the Year Drew Gordon posted 17 points and 17 rebounds, while preseason all-Mountain West selection Kendall Williams scored a game-high 21 points off of 5-of-6 3-point shooting.

Hitting five of six treys won't happen every night, but Williams has surged during the Lobos' current six-game winning streak, and keeping his confident, productive play going the rest of the way might determine just how far New Mexico's ride goes.

During the Lobos' current streak, he's shooting 64.6 percent from the floor, 52.9 percent from long range and has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.6.

For the better part of the season, Williams, who finished his freshman year on a tear, struggled to fill the shoes of departed senior point guard Dairese Gary, who for four years was an extension of coach Steve Alford on the floor and one of college basketball's elite leaders.

He's playing as confident as he has at any point in his brief college career, and by coming through with a monster performance on Wednesday, he likely secured himself to do so for the first time in the NCAA tournament next month.

Ryan Greene also covers UNLV and the Mountain West Conference for RunRebs.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ryanmgreene.

More from Yahoo! Sports: St. Joe's coach pulls prank

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger-college-basketball-blog/mexico-finally-secures-quality-win-likely-locks-mountain-082503013.html

Matt Irwin Barret Jackman Scott Jackson Dan Jancevski

Carlos Condit responds to Nick Diaz?s positive drug test

Nick Diaz's positive drug test sent both the UFC and Carlos Condit's plans flying. While they were planning a rematch of the two's razor-close UFC 143 decision, Diaz's positive test was announced and the fight was forgotten.

Condit told Sports Illustrated he was looking forward to the rematch both because he thinks he would win and because he wants to win fights. It doesn't bother him that Diaz had marijuana in his system as much as it does that he would put their bout in danger.

"I don't care," Condit said. "The thing about it is, it's something they test for. It's against the Nevada Athletic Commission [rules]. I don't really consider it to be a performance-enhancing drug, but the fact is, they're testing for it. And you know they're testing for it. Whatever you do in between camps, if you know they're testing for this stuff then you've got to figure something out. In the past, he's said, 'Oh, I can smoke and I can pass these tests no problem.' That attitude kind of came back and bit him in the ass."

No matter what your feelings are on marijuana, its legality or its place in society, Diaz was well aware that state commissions test for it. He was already busted for it once. Once you get a ticket for speeding down a street, do you speed down that street again?

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/carlos-condit-responds-nick-diaz-positive-drug-test-185330858.html

Luca Sbisa Marco Scandella

Video: Wrap up the AT&T National Pro-Am right here

By now, you know that Phil Mickelson beat not just Tiger Woods, but the rest of the field, the course at Pebble Beach, and probably a spectator or two en route to dominating at the AT&T National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. It was a masterful performance, certainly one of Phil's best. Catch the full details of one of the best final rounds of Mickelson's career in the video above. Enjoy, Phanatics.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/golf-devil-ball-golf/video-wrap-t-national-pro-am-131935768.html

Francis Bouillon Marc-Andre Bourdon Jay Bouwmeester Johnny Boychuk

Meet the New Boss: Grading the Climbers

A weeklong grade book for the offseason coaching hires. Previusly: Grading the Up-and-Comers. Today: Small-school head coaches moving into their first big-time jobs.

KEVIN SUMLIN ? Texas A&M
Age: 49 Alma Mater: Purdue.
Replacing: Mike Sherman, whose trajectory at A&M was the model for former NFL head coaches slumming it in their first college gig: Four years, zero conference championships, ending with a minor breakthrough (9-4 in 2010) immediately followed by a disappointing return to mediocrity. His final season began with the Aggies basking in a pending defection to the SEC and their highest expectations in a decade, and ended with Sherman being led to the guillotine on the heels of a 6-6 campaign defined by a string of blown opportunities, drawing the curtain on a near-perfect ode to mediocrity encompassing 25 wins and 25 losses over his entire tenure.

Previously On: If Sumlin knows anything, it's throwing the ball all over the field, all day long. He was wide receivers coach at his alma mater, Purdue, when Drew Brees ruled the skies there from 1998-2000. He was an offensive assistant at Oklahoma for Jason White's Heisman run in 2003, the Sooners' return to the BCS title game in 2004 and the beginning of Sam Bradford's emergence as a sharpshooting robot in 2007. For the last four years, he's overseen the a record-breaking barrage from the right arm of Case Keenum, who set Division I marks for total yards, passing yards, completions and touchdowns.

Best Resum� Line: Sumlin leaves Houston with the best winning percentage of any coach in school history (.672) and a single-season record for wins (12) under his belt. With Keenum at the controls, the Cougars led the nation in total and scoring offense last season for the second time in three years, after finishing second in total offense in Sumlin's first season, 2008. With Keenum sidelined for nearly all of 2010, the Cougars still averaged 38 points on 480 yards per game.
Biggest Drawback: Houston's version of the "Air Raid" struggled in its rare encounters with competent defenses, which brings us to the bigger questions about its transition to Texas A&M: a) How will Sumlin's offense fare without the most prolific quarterback in college football pulling the trigger? And b) How will it fare against the defenses in the Aggies' new conference, which has resisted the rise of up-tempo, spread passing attacks for more than a decade? No one has successfully imported a pass-first system in the SEC since Air Raid guru Hal Mumme was run out of Kentucky ten years ago.

Grade: B+. Texas A&M has already embraced the fast-break philosophy that overtook the Big 12 over the last decade, and Sumlin's arrival makes it official: When the Aggies touch down in the SEC this fall, they're coming out of the chute firing. There's just nothing to indicate how successful they're going to be.

LARRY FEDORA ? North Carolina
Age: 49 Alma Mater: Austin College.
Replacing: Everett Withers, who was cast aside after serving the 2011 season as an interim placeholder for the abruptly ousted Butch Davis. As a result, UNC has effectively sacrificed two seasons to an ongoing NCAA investigation ? 2010 was marked by a wave of suspensions that decimated the starting lineup ?�before formal sanctions have even been handed down.

Previously On: Fedora first made his name as an offensive coordinator at Florida under Ron Zook, and later at Oklahoma State under Mike Gundy, where he installed the balanced, high-octane spread offense that's made the Cowboys one of the most reliably prolific attacks in the country over the last five years. Four years in the top job at Southern Miss yielded four winning seasons, four bowl games and a Conference USA championship.

Best Resum� Line: Fedora's final season in Hattiesburg ranks among the best in USM history, ending with a conference title, a top-20 finish in the final polls and a school record for wins (12). The Golden Eagles' upset over No. 7 Houston in the C-USA Championship Game gave them their highest-ranked victim since a Brett Favre-led win over No. 6 Florida State in 1989.
Biggest Drawback: Winning records aside, Fedora's first three campaigns at Southern Miss were somewhat less inspiring, especially for a program that has traditionally prided itself on defense: The Eagles allowed at least 24 points per game all three years, and lost eight games in that span in which they scored at least twenty-eight.

Grade: B. Whatever else there is to say about Fedora, the man knows a window when he sees it: Southern Miss fans ? no strangers to 7-5 records and bottom-rung bowl games ? were beginning to get impatient with Fedora before last year's breakthrough, and generally don't view it as a sustainable leap for the program as a whole. On the same note, his best friend in Chapel Hill is time: The Tar Heels will likely be down a handful of scholarships and maybe a bowl game or two in Fedora's first two seasons, a readymade answer if things get off to a rocky start.

HUGH FREEZE ? Ole Miss
Age: 42, though technically he can live forever inside his cryogenic suit. Alma Mater: Southern Miss.
Replacing: Houston Nutt, whose last season in Oxford played out as an extended funeral dirge. Ole Miss finished dead last in the conference in every major defensive category, next to last in every major offensive category, and managed a grand total of 13 points in its last three games after the axe fell on Nutt in early November. The Rebels were so pitiful at the end that LSU literally had to start kneeling out the clock with more than five minutes left to prevent running up the score even further in the most lopsided massacre in the 100-year history of the series.

Previously On: Freeze is still best known as Michael Oher's head coach at Memphis' Briarcrest Christian School from 2003-05, as depicted in the bestselling book/hit movie "The Blind Side," in which Freeze's character ("Coach Burt Cotton") is frequently upstaged in his duties by Sandra Bullock. In reality, Freeze won two state championships at Briarcrest and was Region 8-AA Coach of the Year five times. He joined Orgeron's staff at Ole Miss almost immediately after Oher signed with the Rebels in 2005 ? prompting an NCAA investigation in the process ? a leap that put him on the ladder: After the Orgeron regime was swept out in 2007, Freeze landed in Jackson, Tenn., as head coach at NAIA Lambuth, where he spent two successful seasons before moving on to Arkansas State as offensive coordinator in 2010. He was promoted to head coach a year later.

Best Resum� Line: Freeze's 10-2 debut at ASU may stand as the best season in school history: Following early losses at Illinois and Virginia Tech, the Red Wolves ripped off a nine-game winning streak, ran the table in Sun Belt play and became the first SBC team to crack 10 wins in a season since the league formed in 2001. This by the lowest-paid head coach in the country, at a program that had produced exactly one winning season (6-5 in 1995) since moving up to the I-A level 19 years ago.
Biggest Drawback: Freeze comes in hot on the heels of a Sun Belt championship in his only season as a Division I head coach. The other head coaches in the SEC West? Nick Saban, Les Miles, Bobby Petrino, Gene Chizik and Dan Mullen have combined for five national championships, a dozen BCS bowl games, three seasons as head coaches in the NFL�and ever-escalating salaries in the tens of millions. But hey, everybody's gotta start somewhere.

Grade: B?. Relative inexperience notwithstanding, Freeze is a Mississippi native who's spent his entire career within a few hours of Oxford. He knows the region, and he knows how to sell it. He'll certainly be considered more likable and trustworthy than his predecessor. Most importantly, he'll have the benefit of patience that comes with low expectations.

TIM BECKMAN ? Illinois
Age: 47 Alma Mater: University of Findlay (Ohio).
Replacing: The perennially embattled Ron Zook, who finally caught the axe after barely surviving calls for his head in 2008, 2009 and 2010. In seven years, Zook's teams were 18-38 in Big Ten games, finished either in last place or within a game of last place three times and produced one (1) winning record in conference play, in 2007, a short-lived "breakthrough" he was able to ride for four more years.

Previously On: Beckman's resum� is a case study in climbing the ladder: Six years as an assistant at Western Carolina ? Two years as a coordinator at Elon ? Seven years as a coordinator at Bowling Green (two of them under first-time head coach Urban Meyer) ? Two years as a position coach on Jim Tressel's staff at Ohio State ? Two years as a coordinator at Oklahoma State ? Three years as a head coach in the MAC ? Head coaching gig in the Big Ten. That's about as by-the-book as it gets, man.

Best Resum� Line: Beckman has previous Big Ten experience, and his first head coaching gig yielded a winning record over three seasons, including a 15-6 mark in MAC games (14-2 in 2010-11). Last year, Toledo led the league in scoring and total offense, finishing among the top 10 nationally at 42 points on 481 yards per game.
Biggest Drawback: For a defensive coach, Beckman's teams haven't been very defensive: None of his defenses at Toledo or Oklahoma State finished in the top 50 nationally in yards or points allowed, or in the top half of their own conference.

Grade: C+. There's nothing bad to say about Beckman, necessarily, and no reason to think he's going to go anywhere if he succeeds. But there's certainly nothing on his resum� to inspire Illini fans that their traditionally middling program is going to break the historical mold, either. By all accounts, first-year athletic director Mike Thomas only turned to Beckman after being turned down by at least two of his top targets, Kevin Sumlin and Cincinnati's Butch Jones, and possibly Larry Fedora, as well. By contrast, Beckman is tapioca pudding.

TODD GRAHAM ? Arizona State
Age: 47 Alma Mater: East Central (Okla.) University.
Replacing: Dennis Erickson, whose distinguished career ended with a five-game slide into oblivion. Coming into 2011, the Devils returned virtually the entire starting lineup from 2010 and were tabbed as the chic pick to win the Pac-12 South ?�a path they seemed to be on during a 6-2 start, before embarking on their annual descent in November. With their latest collapse, the Devils have endured at least one four-game skid in three of the last four seasons, and failed to produce a winning record in any of them.

Previously On: Graham spent the first decade-plus of his career bouncing around high schools in Oklahoma and Texas, and the last decade taking his act from one "dream" job to the next. In six years as a D-I head coach at Rice, Tulsa and Pittsburgh, he's 49-29 with just one losing season.

Best Resum� Line: At Tulsa, Graham's teams won 10 games, took at least a share of the Conference USA West title and went to a bowl game in three of his four years as head coach, easily the best four-year run at Tulsa in 60 years, if not ever. In his last season there, 2010, the Hurricane bounced back from a losing campaign in 2009 with a return to the top 10 nationally in both total and scoring offense, an upset win at Notre Dame and a seven-game winning streak to close the year, capped by a 62-35 rout over heavily favored Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl.
Biggest Drawback: Graham has never won big ? zero conference championships on the college level as a head coach or an assistant ? but if he somehow does at ASU, don't expect him to hang around long enough to build on the success. The controversial move from Pittsburgh to Arizona State was Graham's fourth in six years since accepting the top job at Rice in 2006, and left the Panthers scrambling for their fourth head coach in a little over one year since they ditched Dave Wannstedt in December 2010. The abrupt defection cost his new employer $1 million and made Graham look like a sleazeball, but neither of those facts stopped him.

Grade: C?. In a little more than two weeks in December, Arizona State a) Blew its shot at its first choice to replace Dennis Erickson, b) Awkwardly pulled the plug on another candidate at the last second and c) Settled for an opportunistic journeyman who just turned a mediocre 7-5 team into a mediocre 6-6 team in his most lucrative, high-profile position to date. I hope all you human resources managers were taking notes.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/meet-boss-grading-climbers-171109976.html

Dainius Zubrus Jonas Ahnelov Andrew Alberts Yury Alexandrov

Rory McIlroy once pretended to be a photographer to stalk Tiger Woods

There was a day not so long ago when Tiger Woods was the absolute pinnacle of the golf world. (It's true, we looked it up.) Galleries would throng to watch his every move. Men would want to play like him, women would want to ... well, let's not pursue that line any further.

Anyway, this obsession with Tiger wasn't just confined to civilians outside the ropes. No, even his competitors wanted to see the man up close ... and some went on to challenge Woods on every level.

Rory McIlroy, reigning U.S. Open champion and unquestionably one of the finest talents now playing, is preparing for the Dubai Desert Classic this week. And he noted that the first time he was at the event, way back in the misty pasts of 2006, he took a rather unconventional approach to checking out the then-world No. 1:

"I remember I played on Thursday morning, and then on Thursday afternoon Tiger was playing. I came out in the afternoon and took one of the photographer's cameras off of him and was able to follow inside the ropes, which was pretty cool."

[Related: Caroline Wozniacki follows boyfriend Rory McIlroy during practice round]

Unfortunately, apparently no photographs exist that captured a wide-eyed young McIlroy in the background watching Woods bomb his way around the course. (Spoiler: Woods beat Ernie Els in a playoff. McIlroy missed the cut by a stroke.) Still, there's no better way to get close to Woods than taking his picture ... though you do have to be careful.

McIlroy, of course, has gotten much, much better, and isn't quite so intimidated and awed by Woods any longer. And when he tees off this week, he might just have a future major winner or two eyeing him from inside the ropes, too.

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-Golf season is upon us! Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee and on Facebook here.-

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/golf-devil-ball-golf/rory-mcilroy-once-pretended-photographer-stalk-tiger-woods-162739662.html

Corey Potter Chris Pronger Nate Prosser Dalton Prout

Pressing Questions: The Milwaukee Brewers

Is the beer mug half full or half empty as we appraise the 2012 Milwaukee Brewers? There's a case to be made on both sides. Belly up to the bar and let's try to sort it out.

On one hand, the Brew Crew is coming off its first divisional title and playoff series victory since the Molitor and Yount days of 1982, and there's a superb starting pitching staff ready to go. But the offense has question marks all over the place, with Prince Fielder leaving town and Ryan Braun stuck in PED suspension limbo.

For my draft dime, I'm still expecting Milwaukee to contend. The World Champion Cardinals also lost their share of talent in the winter (Albert Pujols and Tony La Russa are gone, among others) and no one else in the NL Central had a winning record in 2011. The Cubs are rebuilding, the Pirates had the worst record in the second half of the year, and the Astros remain a punching bag: this is still the weakest division, on paper, in the majors (by process of elimination, maybe it's a good time to buy stock in the Reds). Assuming Milwaukee's Big Three of Yovani Gallardo, Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum can stay healthy, the Brewers should be playing meaningful baseball in September.

So smiles, everyone, smiles. No one likes an unhappy tailgater. All is not lost in Suds City.

What the heck do we do with Braun at the draft table?

While there isn't a specific date set for MLB to rule Braun's suspension appeal, the Brewers expect to know Braun's status before the start of training camp. That's a sigh of relief to fantasy owners, who need to know the score before making critical decisions in the war room.

For the time being, I think we need to operate on the assumption that Braun won't get his suspension overturned; we haven't seen anyone get a 50-game ban flipped since the league adopted its PED rules. The Brewers don't play their 51st game until the final day of May at Los Angeles. A nine-game homestand awaits after that, starting with the Pirates on June 1.

Your stance on Braun depends significantly on your format. If you're in a head-to-head league with a sizable bench, there's a strong case to pursue him aggressively. In roto-scoring formats with short bench space, he's obviously less appealing. Locking up a roster spot is something I always try to avoid in short-resource leagues; you want to be proactive on the waiver wire, especially early. Roster flexibility is a currency, too.

Rotowire's Chris Liss selected Braun in the fourth round of the recently-completed FSTA Expert Draft, moving on Braun with the 47th overall pick (4.08). It's a patented Liss move; he's known for his aggressive, no-fear strategy at the table, and it's served him well through the years (just ask him). I'd probably wait a round or two before going in that direction, being a little more risk-averse with my big chips. There's no right or wrong answer here; there's more than one way to build your championship.

Here are some of the outfielders that fell after Braun in that particular draft: Nelson Cruz, Hunter Pence, BJ Upton, Shane Victorino, Alex Gordon. At the end of the day it's a matter of style and context: how soon do you want to focus on upside over floor with your early picks? I've been a monumental Braun supporter for his entire career (he was my No. 1 outfielder last year, not a consensus ranking), but this is one season I'm prepared to let him go unless the price is downright silly.

There's another catch with Braun, of course: the hitters around him. Fielder provided lineup support and protection and that sort of presence is not easy to replace. A spike in Braun's walk rate (and intentional walk rate) is very likely when he returns.

How is Miller Park playing these days?

The long ball is alive and well in Milwaukee; taters have received a 12-percent float over the last three seasons, with a push from both sides of the plate. But otherwise, this hasn't played as an extreme park - there's no reason to fear your streamers in this spot. Batting average and runs scored are a shade below average over the last three years, and obviously the Milwaukee lineup seems less formidable as the season approaches.

Gallardo has enjoyed the home cooking during his career, picking up 30 of his 53 wins at home and posting better ratios there (3.22 ERA and 1.19 WHIP against 4.06 and 1.39). Greinke also had a significant home bias in 2011 (3.13/1.13 versus 4.70/1.29), but it played the other way for Marcum (4.81/1.33 flipped against 2.21/0.97). At the end of the day, I'm not going to take too much from any of those pitcher splits; the strongest batch of data comes in the collective stats from the park, which suggests that it's pretty close to neutral when it comes to run scoring.

Why is Francisco Rodriguez still here? Does he cut into John Axford's closer cred?

The Brewers misplayed their hand with K-Rod and as a result he's still in Milwaukee. The club was hoping Rodriguez would decline arbitration and head to the free agent market, looking for a new team to close for, but Rodriguez instead took the arbitration option and stayed with the club. The two sides agreed on a one-year, $8 million contract before the hearing came up, big money for a non-stopper. Alas, Rodriguez isn't going to be the big dog in this bullpen.

K-Rod was a dominant set-up guy for Ron Roenicke down the stretch, scoring four wins in 31 appearances along with a tidy 1.86 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. He struck out 33 men in 29 innings and allowed just one homer. But Rodriguez didn't record a single handshake after the trade; the Brew Crew stuck with Axford as the ninth-inning man all year. The Canadian Closer had two notable struggles to bookend his season (a blown save on opening day in Cincinnati and a Game 5 meltdown in the NLDS against Arizona) but he was 46-for-47 in all other save assignments. He's a Tier 1 stopper, and a lot will have to go wrong before he loses this gig. Likable guy, bat-missing stuff, killer facial hair. Invest with confidence.

Is Mat Gamel final ready to make a contribution?

Get out the post-hype sleeper page, it's time to make another entry. Gamel has been a significant disappointment for three years now, but he's still just 26 and he's finally entering a season with a job to call his own - he's getting the first crack at replacing Fielder at first base.

First and foremost, let's establish that Gamel was a hot property not that long ago. He was Baseball America's No. 34 prospect entering 2009. And he's shown plenty of offensive potential in Triple-A over the last two seasons, especially during last year's 128-game trial: .310/.372/.540 slash line, 28 homers, improving contact rate. He still needs to brush up his work against southpaws, but that's not a major concern; we still live in a right-handed world, after all.

Gamel's defense has been under fire for most of his pro career, but now he's getting a shot at first base, a fairly routine assignment. He's only logged 171 at-bats in the majors, but it's time for the Brewers to see what they have here. There's no significant challenger to the position, not unless you count journeyman Travis Ishikawa (brought in on a minor-league deal) and farmhand Taylor Green. Gamel will have to make a mess of things before he loses this opportunity.

Anyone playing in an NL-only pool needs to take a long look at Gamel, because your corner pool has been depleted significantly. Obviously Pujols and Fielder are gone to the hitter's league, and Adrian Gonzalez made the move last year. Ryan Howard could be out for most of 2012. Joey Votto should probably make his All-Star reservations right now. Perhaps Gamel is ready to post a Freddie Freeman 2011 type of line, something in the .280-75-22-80 range. No one is suggesting you want to bid Gamel to the death, but don't scoff at that potential production, especially considering the post-juice era that we're playing in these days.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/fantasy-roto-arcade/pressing-questions-milwaukee-brewers-222808295.html

Sam Carrier Brett Carson Michael Caruso Zdeno Chara