Fantasy Baseball Advice

Martin Prado is about to become Kelly Johnson’s platoon-mate. I saw it happen to Johnson last year with Yunel grabbing at-bats and I watched Matt Diaz never get a shot against righties. This is how Bobby Cox do. Bitch and moan all you want that Johnson just has a knee injury. He’s going to sit against the majority of lefties. I can feel it coming. Even though I ranked Johnson high and liked him coming into this season, I’m glad I didn’t reach into the sixth round for him, like I saw some ‘perts do. Anyway, this is what I saw last night.

Jair Jurrjens cruised through five. Ran into some trouble and faced one too many batters. He’s looking like a decent deep league pickup. But let’s not give each other a reach around just yet, he was facing the Pirates.

Speaking of pitchers who dominated weak offenses, Oliver Perez looked like a number one. Perez looked splendiferous. (BTW, no one says or writes splendiferous — gay or straight/male or female. Is there a more useless word in the English language?)

Kendrick scored on wild pitch. How about that Twins and Angels offense? Carlos Gomez tried to bunt five times. All five went foul. Yeah, he could steal fifty. But he needs to get on base.

Was nice to see Matt Diaz hit a home run, but I’d like to see him do it against a righty. Caveat: Cox.

Corey Patterson is not going anywhere. He’s going to be a 15/35/.260 at the end of the year with 500+ at-bats.

Sticking with the Corey theme, Corey Hart stole two bases. I hope he goes for forty.

Jayson Nix hasn’t been done much to impress me thus far. He’s batting eighth and looks lost when he’s at-bat.

Andrew Miller will be good one day. Though I don’t think it’s going to be this year.

Can you guess the pitcher? 6 INN, 6 HA, 3 BBI, 3 K, 3 ER, 4.500 ERA, 1.500 WHIP — I know, you’re thinking Ian Snell pitched two days ago. It’s Gorz, and, I swear, him and Snell have the same line every start.

Hamels looked great, but…. Wait for it… Here it comes… Redding outpitched him.

Krispie Young walked three times. That’s a good sign. But the pitches weren’t close.

Mark Reynolds struckout two more times. He’s at 5 for the year. He’ll get to 200.

Brandon Lyon will be replaced sooner rather than later. Make sure you have Tony Pena.

Grey’s picks are in red.  Rudy’s are in blue.

AL Pennant Winner – The Indians, balanced offense, Pronk staying healthy and a Sabathia/Carmona 1-2 punch gets them to the Series.

AL Pennant Winner -  The Yankees.  Feel like Girardi, the young pitchers, and being an underdog for the first time in more than a decade will revive this team.

NL Pennant Winner – San Diego Padres, strong pitching and just enough offense get them through October.
NL Pennant Winner -  Milwaukee Brewers.  Feel like the Mets, Phillies, and Cubs will find a way to lose.  The Brewers have the hitting and pitching pieces (well, except a closer) – this is the year they put it together.

2008 World Series Champion – Padres’s pitching/Petco holds the Indians’s offense in check.

2008 World Series Champion -  Yankees.  It won’t be pretty but they’ll find a way.

AL MVP – Grady Sizemore, he goes 35/30, but it’s only a no-brainer when he ignites the division winner.

AL MVP -  Alex Rodriguez.  I know.  Boring.

NL MVP – Chase Utley, giving the Phillies the MVP trifecta.

NL MVP -  Prince Fielder.  He’ll hit his weight.

AL Cy Young – Erik Bedard, barely edging out Sabathia.
AL Cy Young -  Justin Verlander.  Offense gives him 21 Wins.

NL Cy Young – Cole Hamels, edges out Santana and Peavy because of the wins.

NL Cy Young -  Johan Santana.  I’ve got too much invested in him not to think this.

AL Rookie of the Year – Daric Barton, only because the Rays are a bunch of cheap bastards.

AL Rookie of the Year -  Adam Jones.   He’ll get 400+ ABs which can’t be guaranteed for other rookies.

NL Rookie of the Year – Manny Parra, he doesn’t look good this spring, but the Brewers are committed to him. The Rays should take some notes from the Brewers on how to manage rookies.
NL Rookie of the Year – Joey Votto.  Dusty will mold him.

AL Comeback Player of the Year – Zach Greinke, a 25 year old comeback player and he fizzles out again in 2009. Catch the excitement!

AL Comeback Player of the Year – Johnny Damon.  He’s got one very good year left in him.  I’m seeing .295/110/20/75/30

NL Comeback Player of the Year – Pedro Martinez, showing stretches of vintageness (is that a word?).

NL Comeback Player of the Year – Rafael Furcal, two good ankles and a contract year.

One winner will receive:- $50 Amazon Gift Certificate.

To enter, type your picks for each of the 11 categories in the comment section below by 11:59 PST Wednesday, April 3o, 2008. The winner will be the one that beats the experts’ choices. So if you get 8 out of 11, and Grey gets 4 and Rudy gets 7, you win. Ain’t that swell? (In case of a tie, one winner will be chosen at random from all winning entries.) If you want to make an educated guess, try this link. Or this link. After that, I can’t help you, cause that would be cheating.

You must be 18+

One comment per person. Duplicate or additional comments will be ignored (per usual). If you have never posted a comment before, your comment must be approved. Winners will be notified by e-mail, so a correct email address is probably the way to go.

Good luck! And go (whatever team you like)!