Fantasy Baseball Blog News of the Day - May 9th

Who doesn't enjoy a good fantasy baseball challenge? Arod on the DL, Tulowitzki out until mid-season, Gallardo out for the year, etc...But if fate didn't throw curveballs like these our way, what would be the point of actually playing out the fantasy season? We could just take our pre-season stat projections, apply them to all players drafted, and pick a winner without even playing a single game.

But players really play, and players really get hurt. Enjoy these challenges, don't get frustrated (as it really is still early), and use your creativity when trying to find a way to keep your teams afloat.

And without further delay, here is today's fantasy baseball blog news of the day:

-Greener on the Other Side takes a look at some of the early season BABIP winners & losers

-Roto Authority has updated their post on all closers in the league

-Fantasy Gameday takes a look at the top K/100 pitchers

-Crooked Pitch gives their week 5 fantasy MVPs

-According to Razzball, you know your fantasy baseball team sucks when...

I'll have some more juicy baseball thoughts for you this weekend, so stay tuned.

Yahoo's Sabermetrics Table - 2008 Season to Date

Yahoo has posted their 2008 season-to-date sabermetric stats, updating the 2007 season ending totals which you can view here. This includes many sabermetric stats for MLB hitters & pitchers thus far this season.

This tool includes stats such as contact %, HR rate, BB rate, K rate, and others for hitters (9 total cats) & BB/9, K/9, BABIP, FB %, GB%, and others for pitchers (17 total cats).

The direct links are below:

-Sabermetric Batters
-Sabermetric Pitchers
-Glossary

This is good stuff, and if you're a stat geek (like me), it will keep you busy for quite some time looking through the details to try to figure out if a player who has started the year hot or cold will keep it up at his current pace.

Enjoy!

Indians Borowski to DL - Who's next in line to close?

It's official - Joe Borowski was just placed on the 15 day DL with what the club is calling "a strained triceps" (grammatically, shouldn't that be a "strained tricep"? whatever). He's been mostly ineffective this year, so hopefully it was the injury that lead to this ineffectiveness (and not his general mediocrity).

But realistically, he's 36 & has been a so-so closer for a number of years now. Now might not be a bad time for the Indians to go to a new, full time closer. Below is ESPN's take:

"This will open the door for Rafael Betancourt's long-awaited ascension to ninth-inning duties. Betancourt is merely the leading candidate among a handful of potential bullpen aces, including Rafael Perez and Jensen Lewis. However, Betancourt certainly deserves the first opportunity. During a 2007 that was one of the best seasons ever for a setup man, his strikeout-to-walk ratio was almost nine, an inhuman figure that more than supported his 1.47 ERA and 0.76 WHIP."

Time will tell who gets the ball first, but our money is on Betancourt (who had the lowest ERA in the majors last year for any pitcher with 75 + IP). Ironically, in last night's game against the Red Sox, the ESPN announcers pointed out during the 7th inning (when Betancourt was getting out of a jam by striking out Big Papi & Manny) that Betancourt has the demeanor of a closer - specifically that he was very slow & decisive with his prep before his windup (which I guess can intimidate batters), and he has a quirky Mariano Rivera-type leg wiggle just before he comes set.

Fantasy Spin:
Betancourt should succeed while Borowski is out, and keep the job the remainder of the year (I'd say there is a 75% likelihood of this). This also increases the value of Rafael Perez & my dark horse candidate for saves, Masa Kobayashi, who saved something like a billion games while playing in Japan.

By the way, Greener on the Other side is betting on Kobayashi, but they do seem to have an unusual interest in the Japanese pitcher (check out their blog's URL:)). For the time being, trust me & go with Betancourt.

Go Tribe!

Fantasy Baseball Blog News of the Day - April 15th

Some useful news from the baseball blogosphere for April 15th (Tax Day - speaking of which, think of how nice it'd be if we didn't have to go through this process each year...just a thought):

-After another great game from Zack Greinke, and as Greener on the Other Side points, Greinke's Good; and while we're on the Greinke topic, Roto Authority has some great advice on keeping up with your lineups: Don't Be Dumb (pretty self explanatory, isn't it?)

-Seamless Baseball gives us their Stock Watch, looking at the current market value of some big name players, including Sabathia, Bedard, Kemp, and others

-Kelly at Fantasy Gameday has posted his weekly On the Wire for the week of April 13th

-Razzball talks about Buying David Ortiz (and others). One situation mentioned here that you should especially keep an eye on is the Indians closer situation - Borowski blew another one last night, and the Tribe has a handful of competent guys waiting in the wings, including Rafael Betancourt (UPDATE - Borowski is on the DL)

-Baseball Happenings has posted the results of their week MLB Blog Poll for Week 2 - This week we voted on the NL MVP, CY Young, and Rookie of the year. I'll discuss my selections for the week (along with my AL votes in week 1) in an upcoming post

-And last but not least, check out Project Prospect for great information on...you guessed it, minor league prospects. This has been a useful resource when preparing for my Fantasy Gameday Keeper minor league draft

Fantasy Baseball Blog News of the Day - March 29th

Here is some of the most useful fantasy baseball news today from the baseball blogosphere for your reading enjoyment:

-Roto Authority has updated their Fantasy Baseball Closers list; Tim includes not only who the closer is as of today, but also identifies the guys that are next in line

-Seamless Baseball identifies 5 players that can help in deep leagues (including one of my favorite sleepers for this season, Nick Johnson of the Nationals). Edwin from Seamless Baseball puts it this way when talking about Johnson:

"Most likely, our man Dmitri will no longer be the starting first baseman for the Washington Nationals. Instead, a phoenix rises from the ashes; Nick “The Stick” Johnson is reborn, in all of his gritty pudginess. Johnson started back-to-back games this week for the Nationals, and all signs point to him getting the nod at first base."

-Roto Professor gives his projected top 5 in this year's fantasy AL Cy Young race along with his projected top 5 in this year's fantasy AL MVP race

-Razzball gives their first suggested Drops, Adds and Holds of the season

-Greener on the Other Side highlights the top 25 players they want & don't want this season

-Faketeams.com gives another sleeper list, this one consisting of players who are exceeding their career slugging % by 200 or more points in spring training; this is a potential sign of a breakout season

-Brock for Broglio takes a look at the players who averaged the most & least pitches / plate appearance last season

That's all for now; look for my expert league analysis soon.

Fantasy Baseball Resources - Daily MLB Podcast

There are many ways to get your fantasy baseball fix, but one of my favorite is the MLB 411 daily podcast.

You can find it here:

MLB411 podcast XML feed - You can just enter this into your iTunes, Zune, or other MP3 podcast compatible software to subscribe to the show.

Mike Siano, Cory Schwartz, and Casey Stern at MLB radio bring fantasy baseball news to your computer or mp3 player daily during the season. The show includes discussions about players, questions from listeners, and guests, such as Will Carroll from Baseball Prospectus.

I highly recommend checking it out - it's informative, entertaining, and great for your daily commute (45 min - 1 hour daily); I really enjoy listening to it on my Zune.

If you're interested, you can also check out their MLB 411 fantasy blog.

Fantasy Baseball Blog News of the Day - March 22nd

Nuggets of baseball news from the blogosphere:

-Eric from Faketeams.com checks out six deep sleepers heading into the season

-Jordan over at Fantasy Gameday takes a look at some of the top OF sleepers (some of whom won't be sleepers for long)

-Ben at The Fantasy Sports Experience checks out NL East bullpens & closers and the top SS in these posts

-Jason over at Greener on the Other Side reviews his most recent expert league draft (P.S. - based on where he drafted Corey Hart, he must have a huge man crush on him...although Corey will kick a** this season)

-James from Seamless Baseball takes a look at some waiver wire strikeout pitchers that might be available in your league

-And last, but certainly not least, Tim at Roto Authority checks out each team's projected leadoff hitters & talks about what it takes to win steals in your league

That's all for today folks. Back to enjoying my long weekend & trying to get in a few games of March Madness - seriously, can you believe that two 12 seeds & two 13 seeds are moving on to the second round! WOW!!!

Fantasy Baseball News of the Day - March 21st

Some news tidbits of the day for March 21st:

-George Sherrill has been named the Oriole's Closer. Some people viewed him as a throw in as part of the Bedard trade, but the O's are looking for him to play a key role in 2008. While on the topic of closers, check out these great links:

-Nine Bo Jackson's view of this season's closers
-Roto Authority's take on each team's closers (last updated on 3/17)
-Seamless Baseball top closers

-Barry Zito's fastball is now in the 83 mph range, and rumors are he has a tired arm

-Colby Rasmus was sent to the minors to start the year. This means Rick Ankiel is solidly the every day center fielder, and likely the cleanup hitter. Ankiel makes an excellent late round selection in your drafts, especially if your team is lacking HR.

-Albert Pujols now has 5 spring training HR; maybe he's really going to play the entire season & but up massive numbers, but I'm still nervous, especially if he's your first round pick. High risk, high reward, but in keeper leagues, please keep in mind that he'll need the surgery at some point down the line.

That's all for now. I'm on the road for Easter weekend, but I have one more post I'll try putting up sometime between Sat - Mon (at the latest). Next week, I'll be updating the site on my regular schedule (4-7 times / week).

Yahoo's Sabermetrics Table - 2007

The Yahoo fantasy sports team has posted a very cool stats page which includes many sabermetric stats for MLB hitters & pitchers from 2007.

This tool includes stats such as contact %, HR rate, BB rate, K rate, and others for hitters (9 total cats) & BB/9, K/9, BABIP, FB %, GB%, and others for pitchers (17 total cats).

The direct links are below:

-Sabermetric Batters
-Sabermetric Pitchers
-Glossary

This data is available other places on the web, but this consolidated view might be helpful to reference when you're completing your draft preparation or actually taking part in a draft. The only downside is it's not sortable by category, but this is still a very useful tool for stats geeks like me.

Using these saber stats as a guide, Matt Buser over at Yahoo takes a thorough look at about 30 players & gives his 2 cents on how they'll all do this season in his article Splittsville: Metrics System; I suggest checking it out...

Enjoy!

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Spring Training News: March 17th - Who's Hot & Who's Not

It's a new week, and spring training is more than halfway over. Even though I don't put too much value in spring training stats, they're still fun to look at, especially after a few weeks of games.

Hitters of Note:
-Grady Sizemore has hit 5 HR in only 23 at bats, and is having a sizzling spring; this is quite an improvement from his .115 avg & 2 HR last spring.

-While I'm on the Indians, two young OF - Franklin Gutierrez & Ben Francisco are having very solid springs. Gutierrez is hitting .409 with 2 HR & 8 RBI in only 22 AB, while Francisco, who is fighting to make the roster & be part of the rotation in the OF, is not harming his changes by hitting .382 with 2 HR, 8 RBI, and 1 SB (although he's been caught 3 times) in 34 AB. Gutierrez should be the every day RF for the Tribe this season (and be a very underrated fantasy performer, especially given his power / steals potential in this potent Indians lineup), with Fransisco making the roster & eventually taking over in left.

Being an Indians fan & a MLB Extra Innings subscriber, I watched quite a few games last season & honestly think Francisco will be an excellent major league player. He's got a good eye at the plate, and just appears to have a good feel for the game - keep an eye on him as the season progresses. He probably won't have much fantasy value this season, but you should keep him on your radars for 2009.

-Adam Jones, the future at CF for the Orioles, is hitting .379

-Yunel Escobar of the Braves has proven that he's more than capable of replacing Edgar Renteria at SS; he already has 12 RBI this spring. What's so great about Escobar from a fantasy perspective is that (at least in Yahoo leagues) he qualifies at 2B, SS, & 3B.

-Matt Kemp & Andre Ethier are playing like all stars. Kemp is hitting .310 with 2 HR, 12 RBI, and 3 SB in 42 AB. Ethier is .402 with 4 HR, 10 RBI, and 1 SB in 43 AB. It is starting to sound more & more like Ethier might be the starting LF this year, with the $44 million dollar man, Juan Pierre, being the odd man out.

-Howie Kendrick is hitting .317 & already has 4 steals in 15 games; watch for him to run more this year. More amazingly, he already has a walk! Look for him to put up 10-15 HR & 20+ steals.

-Corey Hart is hitting .250 with 2 HR, 10 RBI & 2 SB, although he has 0 walks & 15 K's thus far; hopefully that trend doesn't carry over into the season.

-Colby Rasmus, the CF of the future for the Cardinals, is hitting .300 with 2 HR, 4 RBI, 3 SB, and most impressively, 12 walks and only 7 strikeouts. That's a great eye for a young player, especially during spring training, when many people just swing away at everything (like Rickie Weeks, who is hitting .125 with 1 HR, 2 RBI, 6 SB, and 3 walks to 20 strikeouts or Brandon Wood, who is hitting .114 with no walks & 15 strikeouts!).

And last buy not least...

-Pudge has 6 HR in 13 games!

Pitchers of Note:
-Barry Zito, the $126 million dollar man, has a 14.92 ERA in 4 spring starts, and has allowed 21 hits in 12 1/3 IP, walking 10 & striking out ZERO. Ouch...

-Manny Parra of the Brewers is doing everything in his power to win the 5th starter's job, with a 0.64 ERA, along with 15 K's in only 14 spring innings. Kelly at Fantasy Gameday first made me aware of this star-in-the-making, but he's still flying under many people's radar during drafts. I expect his value to increase rapidly if he wins a job in the rotation, so keep an eye on this competition.

Kelly put it this way:

"Manny Parra is really, really good. Baseball Prospectus has him rated as a five star prospect, and is doing everything in his power to earn a spot in the Brewers rotation. How about these for numbers: 0.64 ERA with 15 strikeouts over 14 innings. i have him in two leagues and used a 26th round and a 27th round pick on him. Parra is rated as well as Gallardo was last year at this time."

That's all for now. Check back soon for more draft analysis & updates from spring training.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

News of the day - March 14th

Am I ever glad it's Friday...and here are a few bits of news to keep you held over till our next post:

-Tristan Cockcroft over at ESPN takes a look at the Tampa Bay Rays staff & gives his suggestions on who to draft & who to avoid.

Summary - Kazmir is an ace if he's healthy; Shields (James, don't call him Jamie) is good & in control; Garza has the potential to be a front line starter in the league & might break out this year, but he's still young so temper your expectations; Sonnanstine is a young control freak (when it comes to pitching, not necessarily in his personal life) who kicked butt in the minors & has great sleeper potential; and last but not least, David Price - the former #1 pick who recently got sent to minor league camp but is going to be a stud.

Even though I gave away all of the good stuff, you should still check out the article.

-Freddy Sanchez, who is coming back from offseason shoulder surgery, will try to take the field next week

Summary - If healthy, I think Sanchez is consistently undervalued going into this season based on his ADP (average draft position). Based on Kelly's recently updated ADP, he's going at pick 275, which is up from 304 last month. Sanchez is a guy who qualifies at second, who hit .344 / .304 in his past two seasons, driving in 85 & 81 runs in the process. Not bad for a late round 2B or MI; just keep track of the news out of Pirates camp to ensure he's healthy enough to contribute to your team.

And somebody tell him that he can get more velocity & accurarcy on his throws to 1st if he stands upright. No wonder he injured his shoulder...

-Cameron Maybin might end up being a pretty good major league player.

Summary - Cameron was slowed by a hamstring injury early in camp, but he's been in-sane since he's come back; he's blasted three home runs & has a steal for good measure in his past three games. Based on reports, the Marlins had seriously considered sending the 20 year old future star to the minors, but he's seriously pushing for the every day center field job down in Marlin-land.

Maybin is certainly worth a late round pick in your draft. His current ADP is around 295, but that's likey to go up if he keeps playing like this & ends up winning the CF job. The excellent site Nine Bo Jacksons (could that be a more interesting name than Brock for Broglio?) takes a look at the top current OF & the top OF prospects, including the following take on Maybin:

"The offensive centerpiece of the Cabrera/Willis trade, Maybin should spend the entire year in AAA to develop. He's flat out not MLB ready, but that didn't stop the Tigers and probably won't stop the Marlins, eager for another face of the franchise. He could be a 15/25 player right now, but if he gets time in AAA to develop his hitting skills, watch out for this guy in '09."

And don't forget to check out some of the great sites that are linked to the right; I'm constantly updating & making additions, so check back often!

Spring Training news

Ahhh...Spring training...teams & players use this time very differently. Veterans might use this time to work on a new pitch; rookies or up-and-coming minor leaguers try to use this time to impress the big boys & team management working towards that big league job (such as Ryan Braun last spring); you have guys coming back from injury trying to get to 100% & prove they're ready for the season...the list goes on. Most importantly, this brings the start of a new baseball season, which is bound to be full of excitement & surprises, entertaining all of us fans well into fall.

Spring training news:

-David Price (the #1 pick last season, not the US Congressman from the 4th district in North Carolina) impressed in the Rays big league camp, although as expected, he was sent to the minors to start the year.

Fantasy spin - If your league holds a minor league draft or allows you to keep a group of prospects, you might want to target him in your drafts. He might even make an appearance in the Rays rotation before the end of this season, which would make a mighty impressive top 3 of Kazmir, Shields, and Price.

-Rocco Baldelli is going to start the season in the starting lineup! OK, just kidding about that...he's going to start this season where he has started each of the prior few seasons - on the DL. On the bright side, it's not his nagging hamstring that's causing him the DL stint this time around; it's actually a fatigue problem (not that it's any better). Hopefully it's not a career ending issue, but it sounds like he's been to numerous doctors & they haven't been able to cure / fix the issue.

Fantasy spin - Sadly, you'll want to avoid Baldelli again this year. Many (including Rocco) hoped that the injury bug was behind him, but 10 years from now, many people will probably be saying "what could have been" when talking about Baldelli's major league career.

-Dusty Baker really loves the veterans

Fantasy spin - Don't expect Jay Bruce, the top prospect in baseball, to start the season as the everyday CF for the Reds. If you can draft him & stash in on your bench for awhile, or if you have a minor league roster, grab him. Otherwise, I'd avoid all 4 OF who are fighting for a spot in the Reds lineup this spring - Norris Hopper, Ryan Freel, Corey Patterson, and the mentioned Bruce. I see Bruce as THE man in CF as early as mid-season, although it might take some slumps / injuries for it to occur. Patterson might be a sleeper for some steals if he wins the CF job in the spring (or if Baker just gives it to him); Freel will still steal 30 or so bases if he stays healthy - they'll find a way to get him 400-500 ab; I can honestly say that I have no idea who the heck this Hopper guy is, but apparently he got 300 AB last season & hit over .300 with 14 steals - so I guess you can think of him as Ryan Freel with less steals and less power but a better average; meaning I wouldn't be selecting him in any draft, unless you just think he has a cool name.

-Francisco Liriano might not be ready to contribute early on this season. His fastball has been in the 88 mph range this spring, and his control was off in his most recent start against the Red Sox.

Fantasy spin - Normally, I wouldn't read too much into spring training stats, but if you have the guts to draft Liriano, be careful when you select him. From looking at the most recently updated Average Draft Position from Kelly at Fantasy Gameday, Liriano is being taken at pick 130, down about 3 spots since last month. He's currently the 29th starting pitcher taken, which seams like a reasonable position given his prior success balanced with his risk this season. Unless we see some dominating performances in his next few starts, be careful that you don't reach for Francisco. If he's available in the 130 - 150 range, he's probably worth the risk, especially if it's a keeper league; I'm confident that he'll be dominant again, although it might not be this season.

-David over at Brock For Broglio (coolest name of a baseball blog - ever) has a nice resource page linking to many fantasy baseball previews / draft prep materials. He's been updating it as readers have supplied add'l items, which is very helpful.

Fantasy spin - It's a great blog & this is a great resource, so check it out...or else

-Brad Evans at Yahoo checks out the top base stealers in his Speed-O-Meter piece. He takes a look at 65 potential speedsters & their average draft positions.

Fantasy spin - If you know how to read, you should check it out...it's good stuff. If you can't read, sorry to have insulted you (although the fact that you're reading this right now tells me that you really can read, so shut the heck up & read his article).

Check back soon, as I'll be reviewing my draft from the Fantasy Gameday keeper league.