The Indians have been more of a trainwreck than Jeff Conaway and Tom Sizemore doing a community theater production of The Taking of Pelham 123. Now Grady Sizemore hits the DL with elbow inflammation. For whatever reason, this season he’s shown himself to be a bit of a flight risk. In 13 attempted steals, he’s been caught stealing 6 times. (He’s been terrible at stealing bases, but has elbow pain? Is he running on his hands? What’s the deal, friend?) Half of me wants to be the doomsayer, um, saying doom that Sizemore’s going to struggle even when he returns because of what we’ve seen in the past from players with elbow pain. Then my better half wants to say it can’t be that bad, he hit his 9th home run on Saturday.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Zach Greinke
Matt Wieters was finally called up by the Orioles. We know what you’re all thinking – how could they give up on Gregg Zaun so quickly? Don’t the Orioles brass have the intestinal fortitude to withstand the hype surrounding this ‘phenom’ when they’ve got the ultimate journeyman? Evidently not. So how has Wieters been spending his near two months in AAA detention? He’s been awesome…ly average. .285 average. 5 HRs. 30 Ks in 137 ABs. There’s little doubt that Wieters will be an excellent hitter for years to come (see his .350+ average b/w A and AA last year) but those AAA numbers are more likely what you’ll get from him in 2009. Think .285 with 12 HRs. He could prove us wrong and you can do worse than bet on hitting upside at Catcher. Just don’t overpay for it. Anyway, here’s what else we saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Jason Bartlett – Another day, another injury to a Rays middle infielder. Yesterday, it was Iwamura. Now Bartlett goes on the DL with a sprained ankle that he hurt while practicing his dismount from the statistical stratosphere (.373 AVG!). Reid Brignac, who has been hyped for a while, will replace him.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Let’s just assume Joe Mauer hits 25 HRs, though no one south of the Arctic Circle has him projected for more than 18. And even some less optimistic Eskimos have him down for only 20. Let’s also assume after curing the swine (<–which is prosciutto, I believe), he hits .330. Let’s also chuck in 80 Runs and 80 RBIs, which seems Brobdingnagian (Word of the Day!) considering time already missed. I think these are all preposterous numbers considering his back problems, but let’s suspend disbelief. So Mauer still has 17 more homers, a great average and 60 some-odd Runs/RBIs in him. In the first half of last year, Doumit hit 11 homers with 42 Runs and 29 RBIs, while batting .329. Those numbers are in 207 ABs. He can easily replicate those numbers when he returns. So if you trade Mauer for, say, an outfielder who still has 30 HRs in his bat (Quentin) or a pitcher (Hamels) or a corner guy (Youkilis) and grab a random schmohawk catcher of waivers, you’re walking out of the trade in good shape.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Travis Hafner pronk’d you like only he can. Here’s you in the 17th round of your draft, “Well, Swisher’s staring at me like he wants my Jolly Ranchers, but his playing time is an issue. Oh, wait, I know! I’ll grab Hafner because he’s going to bounce back to in medias res HGH levels of production.” First off, it’s impressive you used in medias res in a sentence to yourself even if it was used wrong. That kind of Latin isn’t often seen during internal monologues by anyone born after 78 AD. Second, I told you to avoid Hafner! What are you doing? Thinking on your own?
Please, blog, may I have some more?Chien-Ming Wang – the two-time 19 game winner – is pitching historically bad. How bad? Some TV highlight show quoted some statistical service that the 15 earned runs he’s given up in the past 2 starts are the most ever for a Yankee pitcher’s first two starts of the year. For fantasy purposes, he’s more toxic than Chinese air, waterways, and land combined. As for Ted Lilly, you have to respect a guy who can overcome the ignominy of being traded for Hideki Irabu and Jeff Weaver. He’s been a very underrated late game starter for the past two years with the Cubs.
Please, blog, may I have some more?With apologies to the great baseball writers that are from KC and/or write about the Royals (Bill James, Rob Neyer, Joe Posanaski), we decided to honor the Royals’ acting like a real sports team for the past 15 years by converting their roster into the best combination of sports and acting there is: professional wrestling.
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?Someone who’s friends with Dr. James Andrews just sent him this email, “Yo, Grisly Andrews, quick question. Am I holding onto Hudson or should I pick up Campillo? Also, love to have you over again for dinner, but Mary says you can’t reconfigure a chicken from the bones and scraps.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Josh Hamilton left yesterday’s game with a sore knee. Well, you knew the injury was coming at some point. The good news is he didn’t leave immediately so it couldn’t have been too bad, right? Um, yeah, hopefully. The bad news, he’s a recovering drug addict and as we all learned from Dylan McKay’s battle with drugs on 90210, addicts can’t take pain killers.
Please, blog, may I have some more?What you say, you need fantasy baseball sleepers for 2008? You’re looking to get some value at your fantasy draft. Yeah, you and every other schmohawk who’s reading this. Luckily, there’s enough crap out there to distract enough people. So here’s a quick breakdown of 2008 fantasy baseball sleepers for every position.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
