Answers to fantasy baseball questions (and much more) since 1996
Rotoman ESPN.com: MLB – Wrist twist: Glaus’ condition worries Angels
This is a huge story, not only if Glaus’s wrist is fractured, but even if it’s merely sprained. Hitters with wrist/hand/elbow/shoulder problems are often able to play, but are often unable to swing with their usual power.
Follow this story closely. I had Glaus down as someone to pursue aggressively this season, but I no longer think that’s the case. Caution is advised, at least until we know a lot more.
ChicagoSports.com – Alfonseca out 6 weeks
Two points here: Rod Beck probably makes the team because of this. The saves will be split between Remlinger, Veres and Guthrie. I’m putting my money on Veres.
The funny thing is this should hurt the Cubs, who have tried to stack their bullpen, a lot less than it does some fantasy teams. Still, no matter how well any of the subs do, it looks like Alfonseca will get the job back when he’s able to do it. Sometime in May.
ESPN.com: MLB – Relegated to Tigers bench, Easley asks club for trade
Damion Easley is a class act, and he has a contract that will certainly be impossible to trade. On top of that, Omar Infante isn’t ready to hit in the big leagues, though his enthusiasm and the Tigers’ need to generate runs, may well lead to some valuable stolen bases before he’s sent down to Toledo.
Easley is a fly ball hitter in a park that is suddenly a little smaller, stuck on a team that might like to get young in a hurry, but will probably experience some growing pains. If I can pick him off for a buck or two late in the day, I’m going to make Easley a sleeper.
Sleeper alert. Lopez was the best candidate to close KC games, because MacDougal and Bukvich do not throw enough strikes. Now that he’s out of the rotation maybe Tony Pena will come to the same conclusion.
So far it seems we’re going down a different path, a better path, than the one threatened. Instead of bombing the crap out of Baghdad, to shock and awe, we seem to be attempting to pressure the outlying Iraqi armies to surrender, and to cut off the fish’s rotting head. So far so good.
But the reasons for opposing the war, I don’t think, have had much to do with whether or not we might win it expeditiously (and that, of course, is far from assured.) At issue is whether or not the world will be a better place for our invasion, and whether our liberties will be increased or decreased.
Kinsley doesn’t get at the broad range of implications of the Bush policy, the way Thomas Friedman (who supports the idea of our active participation in regime change) does, but he perfectly describes the utter breakdown of democractic ideas and ideal that suffuse this administration and the peril that we should all know comes from top down thinking, because our Constitution warns us about it repeatedly.
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Goodby to Some Old Baseball Ideas
I know, I know, you’re preparing for your draft and you have no time to dawdle for nostalgia.
Well, my buddy Mark Starr, who has a story in this week’s Newsweek about Theo Epstein and the “stats revolution” in baseball, sent me the link to this 1954 Branch Rickey story. A reader of his named Cyril Morong sent it to him.
Everything Rickey thinks was proved true didn’t turn out to be true, but his vision of the game and our ability (immeasurably enhanced by cheap computing power) to model it statistically, is breathtaking.
I wish Rickey was around to help us sort out the various issues surrounding Defense Independent Pitching Stats.
ESPN.com: MLB – Yankees acquire Trammell from Padres for White
I heard about the possibility of this this morning and thought it so absurd I didn’t give it a second thought. Then they went ahead and did it.
The Padres unload a little financial obligation and get a better defensive player. The Yankees get a healthier platoon DH sort and a young pitcher.
But since the Yanks had too many outfielders, and the Padres had too few, shouldn’t this have a been a two-for-one sort of deal?
Fantasy implications: Xavier Nady loses the bump up in playing time he earned because there seemed to be no where else to turn. Bubba Trammell probably loses some playing time, too.
The weekly column is posted. A look at low average hitters like Jose Cruz and Gary Matthews, a spine-tingling comparison of Igor and Junior, and a meditation on early season trading.
Get yours now.
Fantasy Baseball: 030318 — Gamer: Cruz cashes in on Bonds
Brandon Funston writes: Last season, Cruz split the majority of his at bats between No. 3 and No. 5 in the order. And it was clear that hitting in front of Delgado as opposed to behind him definitely helped his numbers.
He then shows that Cruz hit .285 with .867 OPS in 179 AB batting third, and .211 with a .667 OPS batting fifth.
Alas, MLB.com’s excellent double-situational stats don’t cover place in the batting order. And while I’ve found batting order positional stats at bigleaguer.com, there is no way to break them down vs. lefties and righties.
So, I throw this open to Toronto watchers last year. Did Cruz bat in front and behind Delgado randomly throughout the year? Or was he put in the five hole for a time because he was struggling, or against certain types of pitchers, whatever?
I think Cruz is going to see increased production this year because batting near Bonds changes the whole game. But I’m just a little dubious about the clarity and appropriateness of the statistic evidence proffered here.