We at Razzball realize that exporting our views across the country has damaging consequences on the blogosphere. To help make amends, we are reaching out to leading team blogs and featuring their locally blogged answers to pressing 2010 fantasy baseball questions regarding their team.
Please, blog, may I have some more?andy sonnanstine
The G-Sizzle Fizzle loses more carbonation as we head into September. Grady Sizemore will undergo surgery prior to the end of the season. This means you will lose him at some point this month. The longer the Indians push him the more of a chance that he may not be ready for spring training. The Indians are playing for $23 worth of trinkets right now so this is a no-brainer for them. And a no-brainer is the Indians’ management specialty. They called up Michael Brantley to eventually fill-in full-time for Sizemore. Last night, Brantley played left field (went 2-for-4, batted 9th). In 115 games in Triple-A, Brantley had 43 steals. He’ll probably be a liability on average, but for those steal-starved teams out there — SAGNOF! Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Hanley Ramirez – Left with a tight hamstring. Had one of those last Thanksgiving on the Hormel. Had to chew around it.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Chad Qualls is probably done for the season. The closer shituation isn’t going to be pretty in Arizona, unfortunately. We’re looking at a closerousel. I’d list the candidates in this order: Juan Gutierrez, Clay Zavada, Esmerling Vasquez, Daniel Schlereth and Blaine Boyer. Reading those names again, I vomited into a trash bin and the ghost of Hoyt Wilhelm materialized and said in a British accent, “Be careful, Grey. Gutierrez is iffy at best and Zavada can’t see past his mustache when he pitches from the stretch.” Because times are lean for saves in a few of my leagues, I’ll cop to grabbing the first two guys. Careful about going with any of them if you don’t need saves. But really, who doesn’t need saves? Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Krispie Young – In America, everyone gets a 2nd chance — John Travolta, Michael Vick and the police officer from The Village People. Maybe people get 2nd chances in Kathmandu. I don’t know. I’ve never heard anyone say, “Everyone gets a 2nd chance in Kathmandu.” Krispie returns to the majors and should be play nearly every day. What can we expect? Nothing. How’s that optimism? But what can he do? Well, he’s been hot in his recent Triple-A stint and he had a decent 2nd half last year. Absolute ceiling of expectations would be 4 homers and 4 steals in September. It’s not going to save your team, but it could help.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Jake Peavy limped away into the sunset with a walking cast and a .98 difference between his ERA and his FIP, which means his ERA could’ve been below a 3 when he went down. Pardon me as I cry into a bowl of beer-battered onion rings. Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and a frozen Ted Williams are standing on a cloud somewhere mocking us. Baseball gods, why didn’t you take Joe Blanton? Anyway, here’s a list of pitchers with the biggest difference between their actual ERAs and their FIPs. If your guy is on the list, there’s hope. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing. Some would even say you could go out and trade for some of these guys, you educated fantasy baseball owner you!
Please, blog, may I have some more?With 2 HRs yesterday, Adam Lind now has 36/11/43/.313 on the year. I know, Cody Ross has looked good for stretches. Even Aaron Rowand has had a week or two here and there. But why are people asking me if Adam Lind should be sold off or worse dropped? You don’t want 85/27/100/.285? I know he was as boring as dog balls for the month of May. Well, he’s batting near-.500 in June. He’s shoved into the middle of the Blue Jays lineup like a Jenga piece no one will touch. Heart.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Last week in a barrage of me making sense, I looked at fantasy starters whose ERAs will get worst. Well, do onto others or turnabout is fair play or some other cliché leads me to this post — the inverse of last week’s or fantasy baseball starters who will get better. If you weren’t around last week, I mentioned what FIP is; don’t really feel like going into it again and regular readers will tire anyway, so go back and read last week’s. Anyway, here’s a list of pitchers with the biggest difference between their actual ERAs and their FIPs.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Well, that didn’t take long. Rickie Weeks has swine flu in the wrist. Anything negative health-wise wouldn’t surprise me with Rickie Weeks. “Coach, Weeks got the black plague.” “Wasn’t that only spread by rats 600 years ago?” “Don’t know, Coach. After Friday’s game, he was with some old broad who had snaggle teeth. Might’ve been that.” I wouldn’t be surprised to see this force Weeks to the DL then miss two months of the season because that’s what Weeks do. It would be too convenient for Bill Hall to go to 2nd and Gamel to fill-in at third. But offensively it would make more sense than the blahtoon of Counsell and Iribarren. Anyway, here’s what I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Chris Carpenter – Returning on Wednesday. I don’t think he gets to the All-Star Break healthy. If you have Carpenter, you might think about hammering out a deal. (<–Pun!)
Koji Uehara – 5 IP, 4 ER. I still believe he’ll be better going forward than most doodes that are on waivers.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
As Stephen Drew tried to take that step forward in 2009 that fantasy baseball owners craved, he hurt his hamstring. Wonder what a Drew family vacation is like… “J.D., you wanna go see the world’s largest bottle cap? It’s supposedly 17 inches in circumference!” “Sure, I’ll go tell Mom and Pop.” On the way to the Sequoia, two hamstring pulls, a fractured hip and the Mom needs Tommy John surgery. Pretty sure no one’s giving them joint family coverage. The MDs in AZ say Drew’s injury shouldn’t knock him out longer than the 15 days. When you consider he hadn’t even started to hit yet, looks like Drew’ll begin his season mid-May. All in all, this is a decent buy low guy right now. If you can trade some spare parts for him (closer-du-jour, extra OF, etc.), he should prove worth stashing. He’s still talented and he can have a solid three-quarters of a season. Hopefully, he spent the first quarter on someone else’s team. Anyway, here’s what else we saw yesterday for fantasy baseball:
Brandon Webb – Earliest return date is late-May. Still a long season so you can’t really sell him short, but with the trouble coming in his right shoulder, I’d be worried this doesn’t become a worst situation before it gets better.
Please, blog, may I have some more?After I posted the top 40 starters for 2009 fantasy baseball, there was a public outcry in the comments. Where is so and so?! It was as if I butchered their bunny rabbit like the Roger and Me lady. No one’s butchering your bunny rabbit, friend. Your bunny rabbit’s fine. Unfortunately, I don’t think your bunny rabbit’s a top 40 starter. Your bunny rabbit, friend, is a top 60 starter. How’s dem carrots? BTW, while the 2009 fantasy baseball rankings are the gospel, they aren’t set in stone. I update them occasionally. Anyway, here’s the top 60 starters for 2009 fantasy baseball:
41.
Please, blog, may I have some more?This post picks out 20 starting pitchers who look like risky propositions in 2009. It leverages findings from our analysis of previous year pitch counts and how this information can help predict a pitcher’s chance of breaking down (defined as less than 2000 pitches which is ~ 120 IP) or performance drops (0.50+ increase in FIP) in the following season.
Please, blog, may I have some more?