It’s almost that time of year, when owners, coaches, general managers, and the rest of the front office lock themselves in a room and heavily debate which players to draft to improve the team.  This room is called the “War Room” for a reason.  Everyone in this room is heavily opinionated and has become attached to a prospect that they don’t believe the team can do without.

In this segment, we will put ourselves in the war room and go over the picks we believe teams need to make when they’re on the clock.  We’ll cover all 32 teams, but today’s segment is dedicated to the: San Francisco 49ers.

It’s been reported that interest in this year’s NFL Draft has dipped as fans consider the prospect of a fall season without the NFL. In the latest edition of Monday Morning Quarterback on SI.com by Peter King, King recalls that last week while “co-hosting the Sirius NFL Radio ‘Opening Drive’ show with Bob Papa, we had only two callers on hold midway through the show, at 9 a.m.”

“That’s how it’s been like almost every morning,” Papa told King while off the air. “Last year before the draft, the lines were jammed every day. Now, not so much.” Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com, who also cited King’s latest column, noted in an article published Monday morning, “During the lockout, our traffic has been solid but unspectacular, a phenomenon we fully expected with free agency replaced by expensive lawyering. But we thought the visits and page views would spike during the draft.”

Apparently, that has not been the case. “Though traffic is still solid, that bump hasn’t been seen. And it meshes with the sense we’ve obtained from others in the business that people simply aren’t as interested in a draft that occurs under a cloud of uncertainty as to whether there will even be a season.”

TheXLog.com MLB Power Rankings are published each Monday throughout the MLB season with the 30 MLB teams ranked by Net Runs. At first glance this metric (Runs Scored – Runs Against = Net Runs) may appear somewhat primitive, however, when taken into account along with other relevant factors such as current day’s starting pitchers, injuries and availability of players, weather etc., TheXLog.com MLB Power Rankings are a helpful tool in gauging probability for those who wager on MLB games (not that any of us do that.)

The LAPD is currently investigating 3-time former MLB All-Star star Lenny Dykstra for lewd conduct after he allegedly exposed himself to a woman he was interviewing for a housekeeper position.

Enigmatic former MLB star Lenny Dykstra just can’t stay away from the legal drama – this time because of his alleged lewd conduct towards a 47 year old woman he was interviewing to be his housekeeper. The former Mets and Phillies centerfielder reportedly solicited a naked massage from the woman who had answered a Craigslist ad he had placed requesting someone to clean his home.

The woman who answered the ad met with Dykstra at his Los Angeles residence and quickly found out that he was looking for more than the floor to get waxed. Upon this revelation, the woman beat it – leaving the home immediately and filed a police report with a nearby police officer. The woman has since hired an attorney, Mauro Fiore Jr., to handle her case.

It’s almost that time of year, when owners, coaches, general managers, and the rest of the front office lock themselves in a room and heavily debate which players to draft to improve the team.  This room is called the “War Room” for a reason.  Everyone in this room is heavily opinionated and has become attached to a prospect that they don’t believe the team can do without.

In this segment, we will put ourselves in the war room and go over the picks we believe teams need to make when they’re on the clock.  We’ll cover all 32 teams, but today’s segment is dedicated to the: Philadelphia Eagles.

We are just three days away from the NFL Draft. This is a time where teams can either build the foundation for a dynasty for the next 10 years, or they’ll either set their teams back for the next 10 years.  The most common mistake that teams will make April 28th-30th, will be the decision to draft a player that will help immediately and fits a hole on the team. Instead, they should be looking at how a player will affect them for the next 5-10 years.

I made the point a few months back that if AJ Green somehow slid to the Houston Texans, they shouldn’t hesitate to draft him. This is the perfect example of thinking big picture. Everyone knows that the Texans are switching from the 4-3 to the 3-4 and they had one of the worst defenses in 2010. They’ll eventually get someone to play those positions, whether it’s the 2nd round or later, free agency, or trade. What happens if they draft Aldon Smith at #11 and he starts immediately? He may be decent, but the team will look to upgrade in 3-4 years for a Pro Bowl type player. At the same time, AJ Green will have already become a Pro Bowl player and to make matters worse, Andre Johnson, who could have groomed Green as his replacement, would now be few years older and deteriorating as a player. In this scenario, the Texans would still need to fix the outside linebacker position, replace Andre Johnson, and find a number 2 receiver as well. This conundrum they would be in would be a pretty likely scenario bases on the logical progression of events I’ve just laid out; all because on April 28th, 2011, they “needed” an outside linebacker.

No one, outside of the team itself, has a closer feel for what NFL teams are going to do on draft day than the local media that covers the team day in and day out. With that in mind, we are working together with prominent media personalities in all 32 NFL cities, having them make selections for their home team in our 2011 Media Mock Draft.

What makes this process closer to the real life NFL Draft than most NFL Mock Drafts is that the individuals making these selections are not worried if somebody is rising or sliding on draft boards. These respected media personalities are going to choose the player that best fits their team, similar to what happens in the NFL on draft day.

It seems that every year now when New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera blows a save, fans and media alike wonder aloud if this is it. “Is the historic run over?” You can expect sports talk radio lines to be lit up like a Christmas tree in New York today, not with the talk of the Knicks being swept (that Melo trade worked out well didn’t it?) but the fact that the 41-year old Rivera has now blown back-to-back save opportunities. The Yankees did come back to beat the Baltimore Orioles Sunday, but that’s not really relevant here. The fact that Rivera took the mound two times in a row and gave up the lead is. This is the first time Rivera has blown consecutive save chances since April 15 and 20 of 2007.

Rivera got the Yankees out of the eighth inning, but could not stop the Orioles from tying the score in the ninth. He gave up a run on two hits and a walk and struck out two while tossing 33 pitches and obviously laboring toward the end of his outing. Rivera now has an ERA of 2.53 on the year which is pretty good for most mortals on the mound, but a concern for him. In his last two appearances over 2 1/3 innings, Rivera has allowed three earned runs on six hits and two walks with two strikeouts with two blown saves.

It’s almost that time of year, when owners, coaches, general managers, and the rest of the front office lock themselves in a room and heavily debate which players to draft to improve the team.  This room is called the “War Room” for a reason.  Everyone in this room is heavily opinionated and has become attached to a prospect that they don’t believe the team can do without.

In this segment, we will put ourselves in the war room and go over the picks we believe teams need to make when they’re on the clock.  We’ll cover all 32 teams, but today’s segment is dedicated to the: Minnesota Vikings.

With all of the Brett Favre rumors, retirements and un-retirements, the Vikings have been surrounded by drama the last few years. Now they have a new head coach, no quarterback, and a ton of holes on this defense. The Vikings could go in any direction with their 9 draft picks as the team has been left in scraps. They do return some key pieces though. They have one of the best running backs in the NFL, in Adrian Peterson, solid defensive line play from Jared Allen and Kevin Williams, and their receivers would be solid if Percy Harvin could stay healthy from migraines and they would resign Sidney Rice.

No, I don't know what he's looking at either...

With Fantasy Baseball owners monitoring the situation as closely as the Milwaukee Brewers, starting pitcher, Zack Greinke, threw 54 pitches over 2 2/3 innings in a rehab start for Triple-A Nashville on Sunday — his second of three scheduled rehab starts. If he does have any trouble with his next rehab start, he is expected to make his first start after for the Brew Crew on May 4 against the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field.

Halladay Bounces Back

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher, Roy Halladay, (3-1) tied his career high with 14 strikeouts in 8 2/3 innings during the Phillies’ 3-1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday. He surrendered just five hits — all singles — and one run to effectively rebound from a poor outing in his last start (six runs in 6 2/3 innings) and lower his ERA to 2.41.

This just in, Roy Halladay is still good.

Pujols Pulled with Hamstring Problem

St. Louis Cardinals first baseman, Albert Pujols, was pulled from Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds after he had trouble legging out a ground out in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Cards said Pujols was pulled as a precaution because of tightness in his left hamstring. Pujols, who went 1 for 4 before leaving the game, said afterward he was a little sore and won’t know more until he gets treatment on Monday — an off-day for the Cardinals.