Welcome to the semifinals of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest baller contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus the newest ex-Mariner) face off in a single-elimination tournament.
Two rounds of fierce competition have made the players glisten with effort and anxious to take it all home. In my imagination anyway. In real life, they almost certainly don’t know they’re even in the NLC’s Hottest Baller tournament, but that’s OK. My imagination is very good.
Jason LaRue, backing up the plate in St. Louis, may not be the top catcher these days, but he’s still the hottest backstop in town. He took down Rick Ankiel in the second round to advance to the semifinals.
Brandon Phillips, enjoying a long-term contract in the Queen City has the moves to go with the smile. He’s already hot this spring, and not just on the field.
The Crack Technical Staff took over 100 pictures today. Perhaps we’ll put up a gallery that will persist far longer than 72 hours. But not yet: right now I just want to get some sleep and get ready to do it all again tomorrow in St. Petersburg.
However, since we got a special request for some Andy Phillips photos, we’re staying up a little later to meet the needs of our reading public.
Welcome to round 2 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest baller contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus the newest Mariner) face off in a single-elimination tournament.
Our final match of the quarterfinal round is going to be a doozy. Matt Belisle, hottie starting rotation candidate for the Reds goes up against cult hero Bubba Crosby. Belisle has been a fan favorite at Red Hot Mama since he came up, but Crosby brought down 78% of the vote in the first round against Bronson Arroyo is the most heavily voted-in contest of the tournament so far.
Bubba Crosby
ht: 5-11 wt: 195 dob: 08/11/1976
Matt Belisle
ht: 6-3 wt: 230 dob: 06/06/1980
[poll=23]
This week on the podcast we talk fantasy baseball with Brad Stewart of MLB Front Office. I’m no fantasy expert, but the advice he gives sounds pretty sound, and the breadth of information available on the site sure couldn’t hurt your extensive baseball research time.
“I tell people I don’t eat meat, and they’re like, ‘Oh!'” Fielder said, raising his hands and making a sour face. “They forget there’s so much other food out there. Beans, rice, tofu. You’ve got a lot of good food, baby!”
Fielder made the decision to cut out meat after reading a bestselling book, Skinny Bitch.
Welcome to round 2 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest baller contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus the newest Mariner) face off in a single-elimination tournament.
Today’s match is a showdown of a couple of Reds, second-baseman Brandon Phillips and barely-more-than-prospect Joey Votto. An NLC’s Hottest Baller award and a breakout season would do wonders for keeping Votto out of a 5-player trade, but it would also go very nicely with Phillips’ shiny new 4-year, $27 million contract.