Achilles (Tennessee Mash – RCL 25) held on to the lead in the overall standings with 108 points, but things have tightened up. Big Magoo (Matthew Berry is a Tool) moved up a couple of spots to 2nd, just 1 point back. Trini (Psychic Friends Network – RCL 22) holds down 3rd with 105, while Playin’ The Field (Beef SAGNOF!) and Team Birdis (RCL 3) round out the top 5 with 104 points each. Got Heem (RCL 9) made the biggest move this week, gaining 17 points and jumping from 384th to 159th place in the standings. RCL 9 and the ECFBL have the top competitive index of 104.
There was mention this week in RCL 40 of Josh Hamilton or Adam Jones possibly being “steal of the draft.” Number 1 ranked Hamilton had an average draft position of 35.2 while Jones was at 71.8. Then there’s #2 Carlos Beltran (122.4) and #5 Edwin Encarnacion (207.4). How about Lance Lynn, who was drafted in just 6 leagues and is now ranked #7? According to the Razzball Player Rater, Hamilton has gained over $44 in value, and is now worth $24 more than anyone else. Lynn has gained over $33, followed by Beltran ($32.4) and undrafted Fernando Rodney ($30.3). Since Lynn and Rodney were valued at $1 in the preseason, that probably makes them the top pick and pickup, respectively, so far.
Expert League: Mastersball Carey (Ryan Carey) bounced back and retook first place from RotoWire Del Don. Meanwhile Rudy and Grey went in opposite directions. Even Grey’s pitching let him down this week, finishing with just 1 win and ratios of 4.25 and 1.30. On the other hand, Rudy’s team moved up to 3rd place with 84 points and just missed earning top pitching honors, collecting 7 wins and 8 saves, with an ERA of 1.86 and 0.97 WHIP.
Trades: After last week’s 19 trades, the wheeler-dealers rested. Just 6 exchanges involving 18 players this week, highlighted by Uncle Robbies Daffiness Boys dumping the slumping Howie Kendrick in the ECFBL for the excitement of Eric Hosmer! In Ones are GOOD, right?, the Amazing Ocelots traded Felix Hernandez and Mike Adams to NYC Matthole for Brandon Morrow and Jake Peavy. Krispie Young and Yu Darvish were also among the players changing teams. You can find all the trades in the fantasy baseball forums. Look for the RCL under “Everything Else.”
Weekly Leaders
Fastballs At Ridgemont High (Schmohawk in Training) was the top hitting team this week. They hit .298 with 18 home runs and 59 RBI, 55 runs, and 14 steals.JonathanLucroy (.375/8 RBI/2 SB), Ryan Braun (.444/7 RBI/3 SB), Mike Trout (.444/2 HR/4 SB), and Ian Desmond (.344/2 HR/6 RBI/2 SB) all provided speed and power.
Average: .329 (Afghani Buzkashi – Fausto or Roberto?) Runs: 61 (Thunder Muscle – Fantasy Master Lotharios) HR: 18 (Fastballs At Ridgemont High, Big Magoo, Votto-erotic Asphyxiation, We’ve got the runs, Barking Basset Hounds, Coach McGuirk, Juicin Aint EZ- The A-Rod Story) RBI: 59 (Sclerotic Whips – Yu Ain’t Goldschmidt, Fastballs At Ridgemont High) SB: 20 (Super Tecmo Magic Rabbits – Myrtle’s Acres)
Urine Sample (RCL 44) took pitching honors with an ERA of 3.39 and 1.17 WHIP with 80 Ks, 6 wins, and 13 saves. Jim Johnson (4 Saves/2.25/1.00), J.J. Putz (3 Saves/0.00/1.25), and Alfredo Aceves (2 Saves/0.00/1.07) led their relief corps, while Yovani Gallardo and Gio Gonzalez anchored the starting rotation.
Ks: 99 (Dueling Beaver Traps – RCL 44) Wins: 9 (Rank Railheads – RCL #40) Saves: 13 (Pliny the Elder – Myrtle’s Acres, NYC Matthole – Ones are GOOD right?, Urine Sample – RCL 44) ERA: 0.95 (Worldwide Suicide – Ones are GOOD right?) WHIP: 0.89 (Worldwide Suicide – Ones are GOOD right?)
TEAM OF THE WEEK – May 14 – 20
Rank Railheads (RCL #40)
101/333 (.303)
50 R/17 HR/52 RBI/9 SB
108.2 IP
84 K/9 W/2.98/1.25/4 S
Andrew McCutchen and Martin Prado paced the Railheads’ offense this week. McCutchen hit 4 home runs and drove in 7, scored 6, and stole a base. Prado added a homer while hitting .519. Buster Posey (.381/5 RBI) and Carlos Ruiz (.476/6 Runs/1 HR/7 RBI/2 SB) made carrying 2 catchers seem like a good idea. Josh Reddick had only 4 hits, but 3 were dingers. 9 different pitchers picked up wins, with Ervin Santana putting up the best numbers: 15 strikeouts/1.32 ERA/1.10 WHIP. David Price (Win/13 K), Jason Motte (1 Win/1 Save), and Joel Hanrahan (3 Saves) were also key contributors.
Can I get a “no” with eleven O’s? I personally don’t have the heart right now to type them all. Yesterday, Giancarlo Stanton, the pride and joy of my heart and the name scribbled all over my Trapper Keeper, said that his knee is bothering him and will continue to bother him. He said it’s “something that’s obviously not going to get much better playing every day.” Of course, like the fortune cookie game where you add “in bed” at the end, everything that Giancarlo says also has, “but I will do my best for my novio, Grey Albright.” You are mi novio too, Giancarlo. We are boy dot-dot-dot friends. There’s a dot-dot-dot in there, but sometimes it feels like there’s not. Court papers say that dot-dot-dot needs to be from 250 feet away. I’m pretty bummed out, because I do think he’ll play 135-ish games, but if he’s not at 100% with his knees, it could hurt his swing and the ten or so steals he can contribute. The best case scenario is once the weather heats up, some of the pain is alleviated and, luckily, he plays in a warm weather city. My sad emoticons are weeping. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Scott Baker – Out for the year with a bad elbow. It’s a painful surgery, but at least it’s roomy in the designated waiting room.
Ryan Braun – Should return on Thursday after he sat out yesterday with minor chest tightness. He must’ve caught the 24-hour shpilkis bug.
George Kottaras – 2-for-3 with his 2nd home run of the year. Him and Wilin should buy Ramon Hernandez and Lucroy some plane tickets to Venezuela. The preceding was not a paid advertisement by the Venezuela Chamber of Commerce.
Justin Verlander – 8 1/3 IP, 4 ER, 6 baserunners, 7 Ks. One of the more dazzling 4 earned run games I’ve seen in a while. No-hitter into the 5th and a one-hitter going through 8 innings only throwing 81 pitches. Desmond Jennings said, “If you get the ball in between the giant white lines, you’ve accomplished something.” He’s either talking about Verlander or hanging out with a hooker who has aspirations to be an air-traffic controller.
Victor Martinez – Tigers said there’s a chance he could return later this season. Read: In time for the playoffs. I’d continue to ignore for our purposes, or porpoises if dolphins are reading.
Justin Masterson – Ticker shock! The Indians gave up double digit runs, but Masterson’s only credited with 3 ER in 5 IP (albeit with 9 baserunners). Unlike his sister Mary Stuart, he can’t always be some kind of wonderful.
Shelley Duncan – 3-for-5 with a home run. No hand injuries reported yet from his high-fives.
Johnny Damon – Signed with the Indians to be a part-time utility man. While combing his hair, Damon said he was impressed with the Indians strict no-scalping policy.
Cory Luebke – 5 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 8 baserunners, 5 Ks. Has had a bit of a bumpy start to his season (and a bumpy start to this game), but if you can find a restless owner, I’d definitely see if you can pry him away cheap.
Jon Lester – 8 IP, 3 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks and 116 pitches. Way to unnecessarily extend your ace in his 2nd start of the year. On the positive side, Valentine could help with the ice wrap on his arm since he’s an expert on wraps.
Brandon Belt – Sitting for two straight days seemingly because of his 1-for-10 start. I hope Gallagher mistakes Bochy’s head for a watermelon.
Buster Posey – Missed Wednesday’s start due to shingles, which you don’t get from raising the roof too much.
Tim Lincecum – 2 1/3 IP, 6 ER, 10 baserunners, 3 Ks. I know one has nothing to do with the other, but why do I suddenly want to bench Bumgarner today?
Nate Schierholtz – 2-for-4 with 2 homers. Don’t even get me started how this guy should’ve been playing every day for the last three years. You killed his spirit, Bochy!
Sergio Santos – Got the save yesterday, but will be away from the club from Thursday until Saturday for the birth of his child. I jumped the gun on the news for Wednesday. You can call me Preemie Grey.
Ricky Romero – 8 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 5 Ks. I was pretty conflicted with whether or not I wanted Romero this year because of his 7-ish K-rate — SPOILER ALERT — Romero’s K-rate is in the box at the end of Seven — and his FIP. I’m glad Rudy pressured me to draft him in one of our leagues.
Stephen Strasburg – 6 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 9 Ks. He got the W with the inverted W motion. He made it through 100 pitches for the first time in his career. God Bless, St. Rasburg.
Drew Storen – Underwent minor elbow surgery. That’s like saying having your tubes tied is minor. Yeah, I suppose it is, but you want someone monkeying by your wrench? The Nats said he should be back before the All-Star break. They previously said he couldn’t throw because of strep throat. Cust kayin’. In yesterday’s game, Henry Rodriguez was warming up for a save opportunity until the Nats tacked on a run to make the point moot. Lidge had also thrown the day before, so the alternating closerousel is still in effect.
Mike Napoli – Was out yesterday after being hit in the temple. Sounds like a religious hate crime.
Peter Bourjos – 1-for-3, 3 RBIs with a home run. I’ll be honest, I feel like people are preparing to lynch me for my ranking of Bourjos, so I’m glad to see him do something. Now, if he did a little more of something, I’d be even happier. If he did a lot of something, I’d be through the Gee Dee roof.
Josh Willingham – 1-for-4 with his third homer as he led the Twins to a 6 run outburst, which, I believe, is the most runs they’ve scored in the last two years.
Starlin Castro – Got his 5th SB and seems cemented in the 3rd spot of the Cubs lineup. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a top 3 SS this year (after Tulo and Hanley). If only he wasn’t constantly being awakened by those screaming lambs.
A.J. Pierzynski – 3-for-4, 4 RBIs with his 2nd homer of the year. On Firezynski. He reminded me of this classic post by Rudy.
Alejandro De Aza – Back-to-back games going 2-for-5 with a homer. Could we have our first hot schmotato of the year?
Aroldis Chapman – 2 IP, 1 baserunner, 5 Ks as he beat Rzepczynki, who couldn’t land any of his letters on a Triple Letter score. 5 Ks in two innings with only one baserunners… Guessing his agent is gonna put out a hit on Dusty any day now.
Joe Weiland – He’s being called up to replace Dustin Moseley. I believe Weiland is a fan of Orange Crush and every game Joe pitches there’s a threat of volcano eruption. He looks like your standard Hodgepadre, which means he’s rosterable in all leagues when he’s pitching at home and a wait-and-see in road games. (Of course, the same goes for Anthony Bass, but he’s less attractive then Weiland.)
Jesus Montero – 1-for-3, 1 RBI with his first start behind the plate. Hallelujah!
Kevin Millwood – 6 IP, 1 ER, 7 baserunners, 7 Ks vs. his old club the Rangers. You know Bartolo Colon with his sneaky 4-ish ERA in a pitchers’ park? That’s Millwood. I call them AL-Only guys that you don’t want to own, but someone’s got to. I never said it was pithy.
Jon Jay – 1-for-3 with a homer from the two hole. If he stays in the two hole and hits, The Federalist could have some nice value.
Jonathan Broxton – Blew yesterday’s game in spectacularly awful fashion. With the bases loaded, he had two straight HBPs. Last time he had two straight of those was when the local Waffle House offered Ham and Bacon Pancakes. I’m sure no one who called me crackers for leading with Broxton in last week’s Sell is gonna say they think Broxton is flipping awesome now. But, Grey, can’t Broxton be good? Sure, Random Italicized Voice, but he’s also been hot garbage for the last two years.
Josh Johnson – 3 2/3 IP, 6 ER, 12 baserunners, 1 K. His brother, Gosh, just shook his head and recounted the Halloween video he did with a tube of K-Y and a gourd that ended equally bad.
Joe Nathan – 1 IP, 3 ER with his first blown save. I think he’s got about five more where that came from and a trip to the Disgraceful List in his future.
Troy Tulowitzki – 2-for-6, 2 RBIs. Nursing a hip flexor injury. Is it Tulo injury time already? We couldn’t even get to the All-Star break?
Jason Heyward – 3-for-4, 2 runs, 2 RBIs and a slam & legs. Looky, looky, the mirror fogged up that they held up to his nose.
Randall Delgado – 5 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks vs. the Astros. I know the Astros only have one slugger and he’s currently their closer, but this was a solid start from Delgado. He definitely has upside, just gotta watch for the roofie.
James Shields – 8 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 5 Ks vs. the 1927 Tigers as he turned their sizzle to lean, which is no easy task.
Stephen Vogt – 0-for-4 as he DH’d, which is whatever (outside of two catcher, AL-Only leagues), but it makes me think of how much playing time Brandon Belt would get on the Rays. This is why certain teams win, they play their next generation of players. They don’t let them sit of the effin’ bench for Aubrey effin’ Huff. Can someone start a website, Eff Aubrey Huff dot com? I’m so annoyed; I need to take my “medicine.”
Fernando Rodney – In yesterday’s podcast, I said four different relievers would see a save in the month of April for the Rays. Then Rodney went and got his 3rd save. Maybe it has something to do with the rule of threes, but yesterday’s save (getting called on to start the inning and pitching perfectly) has me thinking Rodney might get the majority of the saves until he totally Mr. Bungles things.
Jeremy Hellickson – Was hit in the head by a ball during batting practice. As frequent commenter, Wake Up, said, “So much for being lucky with balls in play.” Initial signs are that he’s okay for his next start, but they took him to the hospital just nicasio.
There’s a theorem that says if you gave a monkey a typewriter and an infinite amount of time, it could produce a Shakespearean sonnet. My question is, what if every monkey with a typewriter writes something more ingenious than anything Shakespeare ever came up with, but since we don’t have monkey brains (entirely), we don’t understand it? Deep Thoughts with Grey Albright. As for the theorem, how much monkeying around does it take in Boston to get one Bard? The Red Sox got the infinity part of the theorem right (Aceves’s ERA and WHIP), and they got what you usually get from a monkey and a typewriter… Crap thrown against a wall. Mark Melancon’s ERA is 36.00 and WHIP is 5.00, which looks downright beautiful compared to Alfredo Aceves’s ERA and WHIP which are just letters — INF, and if you owned Aceves for fantasy you know the INF stands for I am Now F***ed. To be, or not to be: the real question is who will close for the Red Sox? Bobby Valentine hinted they might go to Daniel Bard. Valentine doth protest too much, methinks! Of course, Bard should be the closer. You mean the one pitcher with the stuff to close that is now in the rotation that doesn’t have starter stuff? Over the last three years, Bard has the third most Holds, 213 Ks and 1.06 WHIP in 197 innings. But no Holds, Bard, now. Thine own self be true, and thine self is a closer. Give him saves. In the meanwhile, trattorias in Boston’s North End are adding Fedupfitzy Alfredo to their specials. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
Clay Buchholz – 4 IP, 7 ER, 10 baserunners, 2 Ks. This Tigers/Red Sox series lived up its billing, and that billing was, “Both teams have one ace, then agita.”
Austin Jackson – 4-for-6, 3 runs yesterday and 8-for-14 in the series. In related news, Vanity sang her big hit, Nasty Girl, at karaoke.
Max Scherzer – 2 2/3 IP, 7 ER, 10 baserunners, 3 Ks. If Max Scherzer sounds like a character that Michael Chabon created, then yesterday the Nazis won.
Doug Fister – Off to the DL with a costochondral strain. That’s what you get when you eat too many $1.50 hot dogs at Costco.
Miguel Cabrera – 3-for-5, 5 RBIs and a homer. On Saturday, 2 homers and 3 RBIs. Now hitting .455, which coincidentally is his BAC.
Matt Cain – 6 IP, 5 ER, 8 baserunners, 4 Ks. The Giants three-headed ace (Lincainbum?, Caincecumgarner?) didn’t fare so well in Arizona as the Giants’ petition to play their next series in Arizona in the Grand Canyon.
Brandon Belt – 1-for-10 this weekend with 5 Ks, as he was out-hit by his bench replacement Brett Pill (1-for-1 with a homer). I’m not making excuses, but I think for Passover Brandon Belt was replaced by his Jewish doppelganger.
Buster Posey – 2-for-4 with a homer and no broken ankles.
Aaron Hill – Homered twice on Saturday. Love to see him combine his crazy homer year of 2009 and crazy steal year of 2011. Imagine 36 homers and 21 steals from Aaron Hill. Will take a whole lotta tryin’ to just get up that Hill.
Bryan Shaw – Got the save yesterday since Putz recorded saves in the first two games of the season. Nothing to see here, the Diamondbacks just aren’t jerking around with their Putz.
Jay Bruce – Hit his 2nd and 3rd homers yesterday. I’m Eskimo-kissing Jay Bruce on all of my fantasy teams.
Zack Cozart – 1-for-3 yesterday and hit a homer on Saturday as he bats .545. You don’t want to know what I’m doing to Cozart on all my fantasy teams.
Heath Bell – 1/3 IP, 2 ER as he joined every reliever in major league baseball and blew the save. Why do I feel like 2012 is the year we all do Chinese fire drills on closers?
Chris Perez – Got the save yesterday after I got to the red light, ran around the car, grabbed Pestano and got back in the car. I’m sure we’ll hit another red light by Wednesday.
Carlos Santana – 2-for-4, 3 RBIs with 2 homers. I don’t own Carlos Santana anywhere, but as long as he’s not doing duets with Rob Thomas I’m happy.
Corey Hart – 3 HRs over the weekend. Shame on those of you who didn’t get the memo that he does really well overcoming spring training injuries in even years.
Ryan Braun – Homered on Sunday. The homer is under review because it was postmarked on Friday.
Fernando Rodney – 2 outs, 2 saves over the weekend. First Farnsworth, now Rodney. Joe Maddon is like the Crappy Reliever Whisperer.
B.J. Upton – Expected to return April 20th. Just think, if the Rays were married to this then they’d have to a wait a lot longer for a B.J.
Carlos Pena – Hit his second homer of the weekend yesterday. He’s the kind of player that hits 7 homers in 10 games, then 20 Ks in 5 games, so get in while the gettin’ in is good.
Jeremy Hellickson – 8 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks. Pitched a superb game for the “Grey Says He Hates These Guys, Let’s Make Grey Look Wrong” team.
Mike Minor – 5 IP, 6 ER, 10 baserunners, 6 Ks. Here’s me yesterday, “Hey, Minor’s through 3 innings with 5 Ks and only one run. Finally, one of my pitchers is performing. It’s about time. I won’t look back at this game, so I don’t jinx it.” That No-Look/No-Jinx worked out perfectly! I will now stick my head in the oven.
Lucas Duda – Hit 2 homers on Saturday. Oh, what a Duda day.
Jason Hammel – 8 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 5 Ks as he switched bodies with Gio Gonzalez, Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain and Yovani Gallardo. Not cool, Jason Hammel, not cool at all.
Vance Worley – 6 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 5 Ks making his mom, Jo Anne, so proud and me, since he was, like, the only pitcher that I liked that did well this first weekend. On a serious note, don’t throw out the baby with the fantasy team. There’s only three games played for most teams. You want your pitchers to come out and pitch well, but Bumgarner, for instance, had an ERA over 6 last April. Gallardo’s ERA was also over 6 last April. You can’t win your league in April, but you can lose it by overreacting. Chillax is the portmanteau of the day.
Juan Nicasio – 7 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 4 Ks. Pitched a terrific game until Rex Brothers blew it for him. Last time, I buy furniture from him.
Wilin Rosario – Homered in his first start of the year. Can we get someone to Gillooly Ramon Hernandez?
Bud Norris – 7 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 8 Ks. Triceps issue behind him, and now unto bigger and better injuries like shoulders and obliques!
Eric Hosmer – Homered in back-to-back games this weekend and had the always-delicious slam & legs on Easter Sunday. Guessing Moustakas is waiting until next Sunday to do the same.
Pedro Alvarez – 1-for-3 with a homer. Way to show up to the party 12 months late.
Lance Lynn – 6 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 3 baserunners, 8 Ks. Looking for someone that can come out of nowhere and be valuable? Here ya go.
Jeff Samardzija – 8 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 8 Ks. Someone already grabbed Lance Lynn, but you’d prefer a guy with a last name you can’t pronounce? You’re in luck!
Matt Kemp – ESPN reported, Kemp homered on Sunday to extend his hitting streak to 16 games. Huh? Did the Dodgers and Padres play back-to-back-to-back quintupletheaders?
Dustin Moseley – To the DL with a strained right shoulder. What an odd thing to find in your colander.
Chase Headley – 1-for-2, 4 RBIs and his 1st homer in Petco and equaling his Petco homer output from last year. Chase “Doing Just Enough To Stay Rostered on Your Fantasy Teams” Headley.
Hector Santiago – With heat from the fantasy baseball community and Nolan Ryan, Robin Ventura finally relented and decided on Hector Santiago to close, saying Thornton will maintain his 8th inning role. Not sure why it took so long for Ventura to say that. It’s like the White Sox manager hat is The Mask.
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 2012 fantasy baseball questions regarding their team. We feel this approach will be fresher, more sustainable, and require less energy consumption (for us anyway). The 2012 San Francisco Giants Fantasy Baseball Preview comes courtesy of Trevor Cole from Giants Baseball Blog and their GiantsCast.
1) I’m slightly crazy with my Madison Bumgarner fantasy this year. I know it’s a lot to ask a Giants fan to temper my enthusiasm, so I won’t! What’s your prediction for Bumgarner this year?
Your excitement is completely justified. He’s legit and I really expect him to come into his own this season. It’ll be his second full year in the bigs and judging by the way he ended 2011, he’s in for a real breakout this year. He really only had one abysmal start in 2011, vs. the Twins in June during interleague play, in which he was knocked out in the first inning. All he did was come back his next outing and strike out 11 in a dominant win over Cleveland. In 2011, he wound up at 13-13 with a 3.21 era, a 1.21 WHIP and roughly a strikeout per inning while cracking the 200 innings barrier. And as solid as those numbers were, I expect further improvement in 2012, especially if the Giants offense improves. I think 15 wins, a sub-3.00 era and 200+K’s are certainly attainable for the 22 year-old and that’s about what I expect from him. He get’s overlooked a bit because he’s in a rotation with Cain and Lincecum, but I think 2012 has some big things in store for “MadBum.”
2) How’s Buster Posey’s rehab going? Better yet, will he play more than 50 games this year?
Yeah, I think he’s a pretty safe bet to play in over 50 games this year. I’d look for him to get a lot more time over at first base, just to ensure he doesn’t have too heavy a catching load, too early on. Buster will be fine and will be out there behind the plate on opening day, barring a drastic set-back. The real question is, what kind of form he’ll be in.
3) If you look at Aubrey Huff’s year-in and year-out numbers he tends to alternate good and bad years. This held true in 2010 and 2011 too. Besides this anecdotal flimflammery is there any reason to think Huff is good in 2012?
Well, the Giants are surely banking on him returning to form, and it’ll be awful tough for him to be worse than he was in 2011. The thing that really rubbed Giants fans and his teammates the wrong way last year was that it didn’t seem to bother Aubrey that he was struggling so badly. In fact, he was quoted in September saying “some years you’re good, some years you aren’t”, which in other words says ” oh well, I’m not having a great year this year, but we won the Series last year so it’s OK”. That has kind of fueled Huff this winter, and he’s supposedly worked harder this offseason than any other in his career. One of the major complaints about Huff was that he showed up completely out of shape in 2011, and now he’s trying to get back to that 2010 form. He even has sent the Giants management and training staff weekly updates and pictures of the progress he’s making, and he appears to be in much better shape this time around. I expect Huff (in a walk year) to be around .275 with 20 homers and 80 RBI’s by seasons end, not great numbers but a marked improvement over last season.
4) How many at-bats does Nate Schierholtz see and what kind of numbers does he put up?
I think this is a question yet to be determined. The Giants have kind of been hush-hush on what their outfield plans are, but general consensus is that Nate will enter the year as the starting right fielder. However, if Brandon Belt and Aubrey Huff are each hitting, come the end of spring, the Giants could end up moving one of them to left field and re-shuffling the outfield accordingly. I really like Nate, but he’s a very streaky player, and I’m not sure he’s cut out to be an everyday, 500+ at-bat player. I think he’s the ideal 4th outfielder because of his defensive flexibility, that cannon of an arm and his streaky good bat. At times in 2011, he looked as if he’d be go on to hit .300 by the end of the year, then he’d hit a slump and drop back down, then get hurt. No matter what, Nate will get his at-bats though, and if he does take advantage of getting the starting job early on, he could certainly entrench himself into that right field gig full-time. In a lot of ways, he reminds me of former Giant Randy Winn, and Winn didn’t really come into his own and become an all-star player with Seattle until his late 20′s. The same could hold true for Nate Schierholtz.
5) What semi-plausible scenario would upset you more as a Giants fan? A) Brian Wilson reveals a crystal meth addiction. B) The Giants name Barry Bonds as hitting coach. C) Pablo Sandoval trips over Bruce Bochy’s enormous head and falls on Tim Lincecum.
The only one of these things I’d actually like to see happen is Barry return as the hitting coach for this team, and I think any Giants fan would be on board with that as well. This offense has been a rough one to watch the last few years, even when they won the series, they didn’t have a top-notch lineup. I mean, Bonds was one of the best all-around hitters of his era before steroids became a factor, and there’s no doubt he’d be an asset at teaching the approach he took at the plate to the young Giants hitters. Now, unlike Mark McGwire, Bonds would probably never consider taking a lowly hitting coach job, but it was actually bantered about quite a bit on sports talk radio and Bay Area sports tabloids last summer when the team’s offense was sputtering. Barry Bonds is still a huge part of the Giants family, so who knows, maybe he does re-join the organization in some capacity…. I guess, pertaining to this question, B or D would be the worst scenario for the Giants.
Let me preface this post with some no holds barred truth: I hate catchers. I don’t just hate them, I deep down inside loathe them so realize how painful this post is going to be. I’m going to offer you a strategy that is palatable but realize I’ll likely not follow it. The first catcher I’ll be drafting will go in a round after 18 in my league. I just don’t put much faith in drafting high on a position that you’re not going to get 150 games out of. Last I checked, Buster Posey and Joe Mauer were going to light the world on fire last year. They combined to play 127 games total for 2011. In my league – which is also a keeper – the one team that made the playoffs with his keeper Mauer traded him for spare parts by the All-Star Break and the Posey keeper finished 8th. Relying on Catcher numbers is something I refuse to do. Compromise you say? Alright, I could talk myself into taking Yadier Molina as my first catcher off the board in the 15th round and round that out with a Russell Martin chaser in the 21st. Molina should balance out Martin’s BA drain and Russell provides the pop. Plus you’ll get a sneaky 10 to 15 SB from your Catcher position. See what happens when you compromise? No one is happy!
I’ll Avoid:
Any Catcher taken in the first 10 Rounds – You think I’m going to change my principles after how I started this post? Tigga Please! If somehow any of those guys fell outside of the first 10 rounds, I’d jump all over them but until then, I’m busy, don’t bother me.
Devin Mesoraco – But, but, he’s going after the 20th round! Consider this the Dusty Baker Rule. Devin needs to be one of two things to start for Dusty: A wily veteran or a pitcher. I don’t care what pitcher, Dusty will find a way to have you throw 300 innings. There’s already talk that Hanigan is the man in Cincy and my bet is the best case scenario for Devin is that no one wins and he and Ryan Hanigan split the season ABs. I don’t mind platoons with upside but Baker pretty much Debbie Downer’s this one for me.
I’ll go for:
Salvador Perez – Rumor has it that Salvador used to sit with a spoon in his hand hovering over a metal pan and would fall asleep. When the spoon hit the pan, he’d wake up from the sound and be inspired to make acid flashback-like paintings. What does a story about Dali have to do with Perez, you ask? Absolutely nothing, I just don’t like Catchers and felt like talking about something else. Like seemingly every Royals prospect, he has a low walk rate but a low strikeout rate as well. He should help you in average with 10 HR power. I shall call him mini Molina. No, not the slow Molina. The Molina I talked about earlier, Yadier.
Ryan Doumit – I am just as stunned as you are to be writing a post about this guy. But go look at Mauer’s 2011 line and Doumit’s. Go on, look! Ok, I’ll ruin the surprise. They both played around 80 games and hit for a decent average. I don’t think Doumit will hit .300 this year but .275 with 15 HRs is not unreasonable. Couple that with him going into the season as the de facto team DH and Doumit might actually stay healthy enough to deliver on that promise. And if he doesn’t, well I curse at him using his last name in vain and move on. Its a better feeling than yelling ‘Mauer!’ after your 8th round pick goes down. One sounds like a curse word while the other leaves you sounding like you have Tourettes.
C Situation to Monitor: Chi-Sox
A.J. Pierzynski is a decent Catcher. He doesn’t blow you away at any spot in his line, but doesn’t really hurt you either. He’s also 35 years old which in catcher’s years is closer to fossilized. Meanwhile, Tyler Flowers came up in 2011 for a brief stint and set the world on fire (looks back at stats). Woah, Tyler did terrible! Draft A.J.! The thing is the Sox are in rebuild mode and if a contending team loses their starting catcher for the year or need help at the position, I can’t see how the Sox don’t make A.J. available. If that happens, get ready to watch Flowers bloom…I can’t believe I just typed that. Anyways, his K rate is atrocious and will lead to a poor BA, but he walks at a healthy clip and his ISO shows he’s good for 17 to 20 HRs given a decent amount of at-bats. If you’re willing to draft J.P. Arencibia, you shouldn’t have any problem putting Tyler on your radar.
