In an interesting move, Siena coach Fran McCaffery moved on Sunday from Albany to Iowa, taking the Iowa Hawkeyes job (ESPN).

Matt made the war top as bleak as the news for Siena fans.

I think we all had to figure this was going to happen. As much as I’ve heard Fran on every single phoner say that he is very happy in the capital region and with Siena, there were just so many opportunities that (apparently) loved him.

I think, Matt agrees that this is more a testament to how badly the Seton Hall and St. John’s jobs aren’t wanted. The upside there is being 8th in the Big East, maybe. While the upside in the Big Ten, presumably, is competing for a league title.

However it happened, I’m happy for him and wish him the best at Iowa. Now onto Siena’s search for a new head coach, oh an Iona’s too since Kevin Willard left for the Seton Hall job.

The MLB.com Fantasy 411 will be on MLB Network! Check out the release here.

Not only the Draft Preview show on March 21 but also five days a week at 5pm on MLB Network!

MLB NETWORK & MLB.COM TO PARTNER ON FANTASY PROGRAMMING THROUGHOUT THE 2010 REGULAR SEASON

MLB.com Fantasy 411 Draft Preview to Air March 21 at 8:00 p.m. ET

MLB.com’s Fantasy 411 to Air Daily on MLB Network and MLB.com Starting April 6

March 15, 2010, New York & Secaucus – With 2010 fantasy baseball drafts underway, MLB Network today announced it will air the MLB.com Fantasy 411 Draft Preview on Sunday, March 21 at 8:00 p.m. ET. Hosted by MLB Network’s Greg Amsinger and Harold Reynolds along with MLB.com’s Cory Schwartz and Mike Siano, the two-hour show will provide detailed analysis and insight on the topics fantasy baseball enthusiasts will be focusing on as fantasy draft days continue before Opening Day, including:

· Position-by-position analysis and player rankings

· Discussion of strategy for draft day and in-season transactions

· “Breakout, bargain and bust” picks for the 2010 season

· Top picks for prospects expected to be called up during the 2010 season

Continuing with the fantasy programming, throughout the 2010 regular season MLB Network will simulcast MLB.com’s Fantasy 411, the site’s longest-running hosted program, on weekdays at 5:00 p.m. ET, beginning Tuesday, April 6. The program, hosted by MLB.com’s Jeremy Brisiel, will provide key insights from analysts Schwartz and Siano to help further fans’ enjoyment and knowledge in their respective fantasy leagues.

Schwartz, the Director of Stats for MLB.com and a regular contributor to MLB.com’s fantasy baseball section, has been competing in fantasy baseball since 1989, including expert competitions such as the National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) and Tout Wars. Siano, the Director of Multimedia Production for MLB.com, has been competing in fantasy baseball for more than 10 years, including the highly-competitive Tout Wars league. The MLB.com Fantasy 411 can be found on its blog at http://fantasy411.mlblogs.com and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/fantasy411.

http://seatgeek.com its a site that apparently aggregates all the ticket buying websites and tells you what’s a good value and what’s not.

Info from another website where I found it, recommended on lifehacker and apparently has been recommended everywhere, says its got some cool features to consider. It aggregates the data of prior games and will tell you if you should buy now or wait based on the team/venue.

So my example here? Mets-Yankees in the summer this year.

This looks like a really cool tool to use. Especially for people like me who like to buy tickets to games 1-4 days before the game starts.

I’m reading my own writing. I did an interview with Steve Amedio of Keepin’ Track of the MAAC and it’s really good stuff. My brother Matt has put forth a great long term plan for SienaSaintsBlog.com and we hope you check out everything we have to offer for the rest of the basketball season!

I also wrote an Expensive in 2010 column on Brian Fuentes for RotoSavants:

Fuentes led the league with 48 saves last year, but that is more a factor of the LA Angels of Anaheim getting into save situations. Fuentes pitched less than an inning in 9 of his 48 saves.

I’m trying out the new Google Chrome now. My brother Matt says he loves it and I am starting to like it too. I have used 4 browsers in the past: Mozilla’s Firefox, Camino and Apple’s Safari other than Google Chrome. I’m finding Chrome to be a very good experience and performing really well so far. It is still a Beta for Macs though but it has done everything I’ve asked of it so far in a few days.

I’m working on the draft kit project as well, mostly updating all the player movement that happened at those Winter Meetings in Indianapolis. A lot of players moved which makes for some fun time in Excel.

This one site is probably getting more than it asked for by writing that Baseball Prospectus Jumps The Shark. He brings up an interesting argument which made me think of a comparison. He must think that it is like Saturday Night Live in the old days, which had so much more talent, and move today where it pretty much is unwatchable.

I wrote Siena’s unhappy recap for a 4 point loss to Temple for SienaSaintsBlog.com. Good writing too, I am proud of the piece but not the game.

Wow. Well in one of the more interesting finishes, LSU ran out of time against Ole Miss in a 25-23 loss. Now watching the end of this game there were a few problems.

1:16 to go: Onside kick by LSU. McCluster at the front line, let’s the ball go by him because he would have to move within 10 yards to grab it. Now the front line of an onside kick generally protects the mid and back line of players to recover the ball on a pop up kick. This one rolled across and McCluster decided to leave it at 9 yards and hope his teammates grabbed it. I’m sorry but you have to jump on that ball even if it means putting yourself within the 10 yards.

3rd down for LSU: They make a screen pass but let the clock run down by 20 seconds until 9 seconds to go. Honestly, I think this was done on purpose by Les Miles. Miles probably knew that the difference between 20 seconds and 10 seconds to go isn’t much when you have to rush on the field and spike the ball. What turned out happening of course…

4th down: pass completed to the red zone with 0:01 seconds to go on the clock when the referee’s stopped the clock to move the chains. So realistically they would have to run a play to win the game but instead the QB spiked the ball which brought the clock to 0:00.

I think their plan was never to have the kicker head onto the field, I think they were trying to win with a touchdown and it just didn’t work out.

Zack Hample wrote back to a lady who disparages “ballhawks” on her MLBlog:

Hi there.

My name is Zack Hample. I invented the “glove trick” as well as the method of switching into the visiting team’s gear. I don’t have a favorite team. I’m just a baseball fan. I root for individual players, but not for any one team on a regular basis.

[I skip a few paragraphs]

I have a job: I’m a baseball writer. I just signed a contract with Random House to write what’ll be my third book. It’s due out in March 2011, so I’m working full-time on it this year. I also have a girlfriend (who’s a total hottie, thank you very much). When I started collecting baseballs at the age of 12, it was 1990. There was no internet (not in MY house, anyway). No blog. No book. No bragging rights. No glory. It was just my way of connecting to my favorite sport.

You know what it is nice to enjoy a game like this. I’d say that I’ve went with my friends and they’ve caught a baseball or two of their own and that’s what makes it fun for me. A ballpark can be an adventure and that’s what makes it fun. I mean when I have a son or daughter I plan on bringing them to a baseball game or two and since they’ll have a cute factor going for them, they’ll get a ton more baseballs than I will.

Soon there will be an interview with me at Owlified, the Temple sports blog to preview the Siena-Temple game on Saturday. Here’s part of it:

TON: Although this season is very early, it’s never too early to share your thoughts on the way the season will turn out. How do you see Siena’s 2009 season playing out?

SSB: … As for the Saints this year? I think they are the top team in the MAAC but Rider is not far behind. Rider, already with a win over Mississippi State, has a chance for two more big non-conference wins at Virginia and at Kentucky this week. Every MAAC team is a fan of Rider’s to win to boost the conference. I think from there you have Niagara who will have a respectable year and then everyone else. The day of MAAC Basketball Championship semi-finals, I fully expect two of these three teams to face each other.

I also have a midweek Around the MAAC post. I purposefully take Marist to the wood chipper:

It took Marist about 25 minutes to score 38 points against Rutgers on Saturday in their seven point loss to the Scarlet Knights, but it took them a lot longer to get to that number in West Hartford on Wednesday in an embarrassing 75-38 loss. This appears to be the least amount of points scored in a loss Marist Men’s Basketball Division I history. (*In quickly scanning the Marist Media Guide, the least amount of points in a loss in Marist history appears to be 41 in a 43-41 loss in February of 1984) Marist 2nd year Head Coach Chuck Martin did not sugarcoat this one either:

“Arguably the worst game I’ve ever been affiliated with in my 12 years” [Martin] told the [Marist] broadcast team after the game. “The score is really hard to swallow,” said Martin, adding the Red Foxes’ “selfish play” was “something as a staff, we’re not going to tolerate.”

Marist shot a 30.5% effective FG% and went 7 of 27 from three point range. Marist had one double digit scorer in Candon Rusin and freshman have led the Red Foxes in scoring in both of their games. Friend of mine (and so, the site) Greg Hrinya posted his quick take on his site. The good news? They get a long time to practice before their next game at New Hampshire.

I’m reading an interview with Michael Lewis in New York Magazine about his books being made into films which I find to be interesting. He said he thought this book, The Blind Side, would be made into a movie even when it went through apparent development hell. Then the people at “Vulture” for New York Magazine asked about if his other books were sold and I’ll pluck part of the answers I find interesting:

Do your books just get optioned and never made into movies?
Yes! Bought, actually. If you option it, it’s a small sum of money and it expires. If you buy it, it’s a larger sum of money and they own it forever. So if they don’t make it, it’s gone. So, I mean, Warner Bros. owns Liars’ Poker and I think they’ve put something like $2 million into it already and it’s just vanished. … Fox bought it and decided not to make it.

Why’d they decide not to make it?
I’m being honest when I tell you I have no idea. The best writer in Hollywood is a dead writer. … I have no place in the process! … The last thing you want is some writer hovering over his material, moaning and groaning about what they do with it. And the last thing I want to be is that. So that’s kind of it.

My favorite? Thank God people hate Twlight: New Moon. Credit Roger Ebert for his review:

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” takes the tepid achievement of “Twilight” (2008), guts it, and leaves it for undead. You know you’re in trouble with a sequel when the word of mouth advises you to see the first movie twice instead.

… sitting through this experience is like driving a pickup in low gear though a sullen sea of Brylcreem.

In our day, we had pogs. Please make this vampire fad go away! At least make it go away before these vampire sequels aren’t done so people can see how stupid they are.

And in real news, Rudy Giuliani is not running for Governor in New York State, thus eliminating him from the political scene until the follow-up question is asked about running for U.S. Senate:

While many political analysts believe Mr. Giuliani would have comfortably beaten Gov. David A. Paterson, he would likely have faced an uphill battle against Mr. [Andrew] Cuomo, one of the most popular politicians in the state.

… Some have urged him to take on the newly installed Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, who has never run statewide and is still introducing herself to voters in parts of the state.