It feels like yesterday the baseball regular season started.  You wrote “I heart baseball” in permanent marker on your arm, then you met a girl who wrote “I heart guys who heart baseball” on her arm, then, during sex in September, you screamed out “I love you, Chris Davis!” and now you don’t have baseball or a girlfriend, unless your girlfriend was Bill James.  C’mon, calendar, make like a soldier and turn to March.  The only cure for the post-baseball season blues — recapping the preseason top twenty lists and being hand-fed Doritos.  First up, Cool Ranch and our preseason Top 20 Catchers for 2012.  It’s important to look back before we look ahead to 2013.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

We went over Danny Hultzen in our last fantasy baseball podcast, but that was a bunch of jibber-jabbering, you want the facts!  Well, actually, there were some facts in there.  Rudy, for instance, stated he thought Hultzen would be up by June 26th.  Okay, that’s more of an opinion.  Okay, facts.  1) When Hultzen was drafted last year, he was one of the top pitchers in the country and seemed most “major league ready.” 2) “Major league ready” is scout-speak for safe.  3) Fat Jonah Hill fired all the scouts.  4) He throws over 100 MPH.  5) I bet you didn’t know Fat Jonah Hill threw that fast.  6) Hultzen, on the other hand, throws his fastball 91-95 MPH.  7) His ceiling is slightly lower than the top arms in the minors.  G) He walked a bunch of batters when he first arrived at a high level of competition, this might translate to the majors.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

I got the sense from comments and other non-scientific criteria that people were looking to get a feel for Trevor Bauer.  Or at least get their grubby little hands on him.  I did say to buy him back in April and again in May, but who can remember that far; I can barely remember how this sentence started.  With a preposition?  I don’t know, let’s forget the whole thing and have a pina colada!  What, you don’t like coladas?  How about dancing in the rain?  Not into YoGa?  Yeah, his ERA is shizz.  Let’s see what Scott, our prospect writer (his actual last name), said in the past about Bauer, “Bauer profiles as a top-of-the-rotation starter with an upper 90s fastball and a devastating curve.  But all I keep thinking about is what Grey would taste like slathered in teriyaki sauce.”  Huh?  Not sure how that slipped through my strict editorial process.  In the past, I said about Trevor, “Bauer & Skaggs opened for Big & Rich.”  Well, that wasn’t the best quote from me.  Shoot me!  Now, you just shot your computer screen.  You’re silly!  On our preseason top 25 fantasy baseball prospect post, the only pitchers above him were Moore and Darvish.  Okay, Moore’s had some struggles, but those two names give you an idea of how valuable Bauer could be.  He’s blown through the minors about as good as anyone.  Right now, he’s sporting a 11+ K-rate and a low-2 ERA between Double and Triple-A.  The only concern for him is his walk rate (over 4), but he has the Ks to make up for it.  He looks like the pitching version of the hitters the Diamondhacks are famous for.  High Ks, crazy upside, might call crap on a table a Pu-Pu platter.  In 2012, I’ll give him the line of 7-5/3.60/1.30/100 in 90 innings, but there’s obviously room for huge upside (and risk of some downside (though the Ks will be good (how many parentheses am I inside of here (Anyone?

Please, blog, may I have some more?