And you thought Andy Reid’s kids were messed up? Wait til you read this. Over the weekend their was a shooting inside the dorms at UNC-Greensboro. While two men were already arrested, a third man, 21 year-old Sidney Lowe Jr., has now been arrested as well. He also happens to be the son of N.C. State’s basketball coach, Sidney Lowe. My point here is not to diminish the elder Lowe. Rather, it’s to point out how ridiculous the charges against Lowe Jr. are. As far as crimes go, this has to take the cake:

University of North Carolina at Greensboro police said the 21-year-old Sidney R. Lowe Jr. was charged with nine counts, including a felony of aiding and abetting attempted armed robbery in connection the shooting of a man in a campus dorm Saturday.

[Lowe's attorney Locke] Clifford said Lowe is charged with six counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, six counts of second-degree kidnapping and one count of assault inflicting serious bodily injury. He said Lowe and another man are accused of going to a house with six people in it and striking one of them on the head with a bottle.

The other charges filed by UNCG police include: two counts of possession of a weapon on educational property; possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana; maintaining a dwelling for the keeping and selling of a controlled substance; possession of between a half an ounce and 1.5 ounces of marijuana; and three counts of stolen goods or property.

Dude, Sidney, what didn’t you do that night? That is incredible. While my condolences go out to anybody who was adversely affected by Lowe’s actions that night, I’m still in utter shock at the laundry grocery list of charges.

Last year’s record and finish are in parenthesis with projected improvement/decline indicated by plus or minus.

LA Angels of Anaheim (89-73, 2nd in the AL West) -4 games

*Disclaimer: This is my favorite team, therefore I will be exceedingly critical

Get Crunked: On paper, it’s one of the best rotations in all of baseball, but you know what you can do with that piece of paper. Vladimir Guerrero still pounds the crap out of the ball and is an MVP candidate year-after-year. Howie Kendrick is a newcomer at 2B with a ton of promise (a career .361 minor league average). Franky Rodriguez is one of the top closers in the game, and along with Scot Shields, and free agent Justin Speier, forms one of the best bullpens in baseball. John Lackey has grown into the ace the Angels thought they had after ‘02, his rookie season.

Party Foul: It’s not even April and this team is crushed by the injury bug. Bartolo Colon enters his fourth season with the club, still hampered by a partially torn rotator cuff he decided to let heal on its own in favor of surgery. Kelvim Escobar recently tweaked his back and is always good for a trip to the DL. Jered Weaver who dominated AL hitters last year is already hurt with a biceps injury that could sideline him for a month or so. Speedy Chone Figgins broke his finger and will miss at least a month. Juan Rivera broke his leg in Winter ball and will miss part of the year. The team defense was awful last year, and still is brutal with Garrett Anderson and Vlad holding down the corner outfield spots. Not to mention, there’s that Gary Matthews Jr. guy who created an entire steroids/HGH controversy during spring training.

What’d my GM do: He sat back like usual and kept his acquisitions few and far between. His big “splash” was alleged HGHer Gary Matthews Jr., click here to find out what I thought of the move. Justin Speier replaces Brendan Donnelly in the pen for a hefty $18 million over four years. Shea “This is a sinking ship” Hillenbrand was brought over for $6.5 million on a one year deal, a pretty good bargain if he doesn’t wreck the chemistry. Meanwhile, Darin Erstad, Adam Kennedy, and JC Romero were all let go, but I don’t think anyone noticed.

Lay it on me Straight: This team is decimated with injuries right now — rendering the team only partially recognizable. The injuries are so bad that I think they’ve created enough of an uphill battle that will prevent the Angels from making the playoffs. A few questions must be asked: can the youngsters like Casey Kotchman, Kendry Morales, Robb Quinlan, Mike Napoli, Dustin Moseley, and Joe Saunders finally contribute? Will Garrett Anderson find his old stroke? Can Matthews Jr. play enough defense to make up for Vlad and GA? How long will the pitchers be hurt? This team already has the appearance of a mid-August beat-up club.

So where my boys gonna finish right now: A few games above .500 because they have Vlad, Franky, Shields, Lackey, and Ervin Santana who won’t allow them to do worse. Luckily the entire division except Seattle is worse, so they’ll still have a fighting shot.

Can we be better than that: If all breaks right — meaning people become healthy and shake off their rust quickly (usually it takes a while to get back to form after returning from an injury), or the fill-ins absolutely dominate, then yes. Otherwise, you can already write off ‘07 as a lost cause unfortunately.

I happened to come across a press release…needless to say it’s screaming for attention. Without further ado:

A new television reality series starring Jose Canseco entitle, A DAY WITH JOSE, will begin production in Los Angeles at the end of April. Contestants will “pitch” their fantasy day ideas to a panel of judges, and 6 finalists will surprise Jose with their planned activities — and compete for the ultimate prize — Jose’s 40/40 DIAMOND RING! ….

a pool of contestants, initially chosen from their on-line applications submitted to JoseCanseco.com, will appear before a panel of judges, and compete to become one of six finalists who will spend their fantasy day with Jose. They’ll surprise Jose at his Los Angeles home, explain their planned day of activities as approved by the judges, and have Jose to themselves for the entire day. ….

At a later date, the six finalists will be re-assembled during one of Jose’s now famous Hollywood pool parties, and a winner will be selected.

Jose is apparently scheduled to make a live announcement on Thursday, March 29th at 9:00am CT, and check this out — you can watch it live on www.bigdickhunter.net. No joke. Canseco invited this Richard Hunter character, who’s the host of a Dallas talk show called “Big Dick’s Wild Ass Circus,” to travel around and broadcast the show live. The pair have

a long association, going back to 2003 when [Canseco] was under house arrest in Miami.

As far as I can tell, the show hasn’t been picked up by any network, so don’t ask where you can go to watch it. Just know that Canseco’s trying to pick up his acting career where he left off in ‘05 after appearing in six episodes of The Surreal Life. Crazy.

This is getting sickening but must be addressed. As passed along by commenter JS, Bengals WR Chris Henry is having legal problems, again (although this time they are on a considerably minor scale compared to some of his past issues). Chris Henry could be spending time in a Kentucky jail for three traffic violations.

Henry was ticketed March 21 in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine for driving on a suspended license, not wearing a seat belt and not using a turn signal.

Chief prosecutor Ken Easterling of the Kenton County Attorney’s Office said Tuesday a conviction on those charges would be enough to revoke Henry’s Kenton County probation and send him back to jail to serve the rest of his 90-day sentence.

These chargers are nothing compared to what else is on Henry’s rapsheet, but once you establish a pattern of behavior, the ninth strike is sometimes enough to do you in for good.

Or so says commish Roger Goodell

Goodell said some disciplinary hearings already are scheduled for next week in New York. Henry and his former West Virginia college teammate, Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones, are believed to be among the players who will appear.

What is it with these West Virginia cooks?

I’m not even going to bother listing the Bengals problems over the past year, I’ll let you read about em here if you choose.

I also don’t have the energy to explain why this sort of behavior has made me embarrassed and ashamed to be a Bengals fan. You can read my explanation at my old blog on foxsports.com here. In case you were wondering, I’ve stayed true to my word. I couldn’t tell you the last time I wore any of the Bengals shirts or jerseys that I own — and that my friends, is truly disappointing.

Recently at MLB Fanhouse:

• Brett Tomko Defaults Into Dodgers Final Rotation Spot
• Brian Giles Really Likes Being Naked
• Bonds and Zito Share Lockers
• Giants Interested in A-Rod?
• Padres GM Kevin Towers Needs a Dentist
• Bonds, more chances to break the record
• LaRussa Busted by Undercover Cops
• Byung-Hyun Kim Whining on his way to the Pen
• Armando Benitez to the Giants: Don’t Trade Me
• David Wells Dominates Triple A Hitters
• Rafael Furcal Likely to Miss Opening Day
• Randy Johnson, Mid-to-Late April Return?
• Barry Zito Has a Weird Diet
• Kaz Matsui Wears Toe Socks
• Doug Brocail Gets His Nails Done

Last year’s record and finish are in parenthesis with projected improvement/decline indicated by plus or minus.

Atlanta Braves (79-83, 3rd in the NL East) +4 games

Get Crunked: The Braves are like a good mix tape; a healthy blend of rising stars intertwined with oldies but goodies. The oldies but still goodies include John Smoltz, Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, and Bob Wickman. Smoltz is still one of the best starters in the league, and probably my choice to start a World Series game for an NL team. Chipper, despite injuries, has seen some of his highest OPS totals in the past two seasons. Andruw Jones has likewise seen his power go up each of the past two seasons. Wickman was lights out after being traded to Atlanta last year. Brian McCann was arguably as productive behind the dish as Joe Mauer last year, but hardly anyone knows it. Jeff Francoeur has the pop, he just needs to cut down on his K’s.

Party Foul: Scott Thorman, Kelly Johnson, and Ryan Langerhans are all projected to be regulars for the team. Need I say more? OK, well in that case, Mike Hampton is already hurt, and the options to fill-in his spot are nothing short of pathetic, be it Kyle Davies or Lance Cormier.

What’d my GM do: He let Marcus Giles and Danys Baez go, and he traded 1B Adam LaRoche to Pittsburgh, as well as Horacio Ramirez to Seattle (three of the four moves help the bullpen). While Mike Gonzalez is a fine reliever, I’m not sure that Thorman can replace LaRoche’s bat — which was just emerging last year. Then again, with Wickman a dozen donuts away from ending his career, it’s nice to have a closer waiting. Make that two closers waiting, since Rafael Soriano was acquired in the trade with Seattle — a very fine move. Danys Baez was too expensive too keep, not that he’s any good. But for what Marcus Giles signed for, I can’t understand why he wasn’t retained.

Lay it on me Straight: Ever since the Braves began cutting payroll, the margin for error became very thin. Therefore, this team will be completely reliant on staying injury-free, which they haven’t been able to do the past few seasons. They cannot afford to have Hudson, Hampton, and Chipper all go down if they hope to win.

So where my boys gonna finish right now: Probably around the .500 mark, and definitely out of the division race for the second year in a row. They simply cannot hang with the Mets who have put together a stellar lineup, and the Phillies who drastically improved their rotation.

Can we be better than that: Yes, a lot better. If Chuck James pitches as well as last year, Tim Hudson returns to form, the key players stay healthy, and two of these four (Johnson, Thorman, Francoeur, Langerhans) have good years, they will be knocking on the division leader’s door.