Rotoman

Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Mild Cards

I’ve been reading some game summaries of Tuesday night’s game, and while there has been plenty of derision tossed Jeff Suppan’s way for his oh-so hurtful boner at third base, I haven’t seen anyone link it to the DH rule.

Suppan has pitched in the NL the last two years, but before that he played primarily in the AL. In his career he’s been on base 31 times in the regular season, apart from whatever fielders choices he may have grounded into. It’s likely he’s never been on third base before with nobody out.

This explanation doesn’t excuse Suppan’s blunder, but it is evidence of the deleterious effect the split-DH rule has on the game.

Bush Has A Higher IQ Than Kerry, Probably

This guy has done a rather amazing job of analyzing the relative intelligence of the two primary presidential candidates. This has nothing to do with baseball, and at the same time utilizes many of the same methods of derivation you might find in a piece by Clay Davenport.

Recommended as good fun. Really.

Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Tavarez breaks hand after leaving Game 4 of NLCS, status uncertain

And who can forget Tavarez after Cleveland lost the World Series in 1995, during which he pitched four scoreless innings, sitting on the bench bawling like baby. Clearly his emotions are close to the surface.

Major League Baseball : Final Hitter Prices

They’re up, along with preseason bid prices and midseason prices (how the money was distributed at the All Star break). Interesting to see that Ichiro raised his earnings from $36 to $55, finally knocking down the idea that he fades in the second half.

You can find the pitchers here. Final Pitcher Prices

Fantasy Sports – Allstar Stats – America’s Oldest and Best Rotisserie and Fantasy Sports Stat Service!

A roto glitch! It appears that Saturday’s suspended Minnesota Cleveland game fell into a void. It isn’t included in All Star Stats’ final reports, and the box score can’t be found at mlb.com (though Gamecast has it), espn.com or yahoo.com.

I know All Star Stats doesn’t have it, but you should check to see if your league got credit for a Lohse win, Sizemore and Phelps home runs, a Bartless steal, etc.

In the American Dream League the missing Lohse win, once accounted for, forced a tie for third place. But the Sizemore homer undid the tie.

WSOCTV.com – MLB – Diamondbacks Ink Fassero

No fantasy value.

SOME CALZONE FOR DEREK

I haven’t spent enough time on the explosion of baseball blogs the past few years. Part of the problem is that bloggers who post all the time, if they have something interesting to say, are exhausting. And it’s hard to get in the habit of checking in on those that don’t post all the time. Managing blog subscriptions hasn’t clicked for me yet. All of which is to say that I’m not in the blog-reading habit, but I do wade in from time to time.

This site is topped by a gratuitously unappealing photo (tell me the flowered plate was accidental), cheeky attitude and generally smart posts. Like yesterday’s thumbnail of the NL West and Wild Card race (though I think it should be pointed out that Houston’s lead right now comes because they’ve played an extra game, and the situation could be called “a virtual tie,” as well). Because of the schedule they certainly do seem to be in the driver’s seat.

Check it out.

Major League Baseball : Ask Rotoman

Freezing up and coming starters or veteran closers in waiting for $5 is dealt with. An open door policy for all fantasy games is embraced. And we look back at the mlb.com Draft and Hold league, because it offers an unfiltered view of preseason expectations (or could).

Yahoo! Sports – MLB – D.C. official says baseball returning to Washington; announcement Wednesday

If it becomes clear Wednesday that the Expos will finally be leaving Montreal after this season, will more fans or fewer fans show up for the last game that night?

If baseball announces that the Expos are moving, will they have to pay off the extremely limited partners Jeffrey Loria left behind in Montreal, who are presently suing because they believe he ran the franchise he was sheparding into the ground? And if they don’t (or if they have not yet), might not the announcement eventually become yet another embarrasment for the lords of baseball?

We shall see.

There’s a lot of finagling going on behind the scenes, we can be sure. If there wasn’t, this deal would have been done long ago.

ESPN.com – MLB – Bonds randomly tested for steroids Friday

An ESPN SportsNation poll, with 34,000 respondents, and 57 percent say that even if Bonds tests negative they won’t be convinced he’s clean.

There is an issue here. Under the current rules, it won’t be announced if he tests positive. Which I suppose means that when he gets the results he’ll announce the negative results himself. Baseball has done itself no favors by leaving this issue unaddressed for so long, but even after a few years, when the current program has a track record, the public will still know that the tests can be gamed. And they won’t trust the results when they think they know better by what they see with their unaided eyes.

I think that’s too bad, and yet I can’t say I blame the public. But if that’s the way you think I don’t see why you would remain a sports fan.