Rotoman

Rocky Mountain News: Brent Butler

If you’re curious about what’s happening on the left side of the Colorado infield, Tracy Ringolsby dissects the situation and it all looks good for Brent Butler.

Rotoman’s 4×4 Bid Values

These were done for mlb.com two weeks ago, but I finally just found the link. They’re basically still good, with some adjustments necessary for injury and the like.

Updated bids and projections will be available later this week to subscribers of the PattonandCo.com service, and to former Ask Rotoman subscribers and donators. If you fall into the latter category, write to me for details.

www.toutwars.com

The Tout Wars 5×5 Expert Drafts are happening this weekend. This is the second time I haven’t participated. Last time was because my daughter was newly born. This time they decided to hold the auction in Chicago, which is a great city and which helps an awful lot of fantasy baseball experts who live in the midwest, but holds little appeal for me.

I think this should be easy: Let’s schedule these drafts in Florida or Arizona during Spring Training, so we can see some live baseball.

You’ll find links here to the draft prices. In the AL there was a lot of money left in the middle rounds, and rather middlin’ guys like Ibanez, Matsui, Crede, K Garcia and others drew a lot more attention than they might in your league.

Plan accordingly.

Major League Baseball : Video : MLB.TV

I checked the streaming video of the Cubs-White Sox tilt yesterday and it was kind of cool. The picture is actually large enough to see what’s going on. The frame rate isn’t quite there. The action is a little choppy, which makes it hard to pick up the ball sometimes. But you can pick up pitch location and tell where the ball is hit and what sort of play the defense made.

Maybe the best way to think of it is as radio with pictures, which is a bit of a problem because TV announcers don’t really work very hard at talking about the game. I am looking forward to Dog Day, which I understand is one of the big promotions at Comiskey each sujmmer.

I was working while listening to the game and when something happened I could look over and see Damian Miller poking the ball into left field, or Bobby Hill drilling a ball into the gap. I have a few computers in my office and a DSL connection, which made that practical. I can also report that I could speak on my IP telephone and watch the game at the same time without any damage to the phone or picture quality.

There will be multiple games available each day, all season long, for a fee. That fee, $75 for the season, seems a little high. If I had a dish I’d definitely go for the Extra Innings package because the picture is so much better. But this just might do, and keep me out of the bars when I need an out of town game.

Is that a good thing?

ESPN.com: Willie Bloomquist

You like sleepers? I made Bloomquist one of my Picks in this year’s Guide. As Bob Melvin says in this story, He’s not afraid to get dirty.

He’s also learned to play shortstop, which means he’s primed to assume Desi Relaford’s role from last year, backing up Carlos Guillen and whoever else needs help. Desi got 329 AB last year, and with only an ageing Mark McLemore standing between him and the super-sub job, a dollar starts to sound cheap.

ESPN.com: MLB – Finally a deal: Lofton, Pirates reach one-year agreement

This has been expected for so long that I’m not sure that the deal actually being signed makes much difference. Lofton’s numbers have been pretty consistent the last few years, and this move would seem to mostly effect the number of at bats for Craig Wilson.

CREATiVESPORTS – Fantasy Baseball Review – Hedgecock

I think we all know how silly we are scrambling around after baseball players and their statistics.. So I don’t recommend this story because it will remind you about the insignificance of fantasy ball in the larger picture, or because Cathy, who I know only from very businesslike emails and her always clear writing, is close to me.

But she writes very well about her particular story, and that made me think about her and me and you and us, and about the way good stories often make me think about so much more than I usually think about. So I thought I’d share.

Kenny Rogers

I think this means that Joe Mays is very tenuous this year. His shoulder and elbow are both fragile, to say the least, and only one of them needs to get worse to shut him down.

Rogers, for his part, is very old and hasn’t shown a lot of gumption for pitching under pressure. Late or cheap is the way to go.

ESPN.com: MLB – Orioles trade Richard to Rockies for prospect Cust

The consensus seems to be that the Orioles made a great trade, for once. And since they gave up someone who was an awful lot like a lot of other guys on their team, you could say they got a potential big time power-hitter for nothing.

Lawr Michaels insists Cust profiles like Thome, but when Thome was 24 years old he already had 30 major league home runs. Cust has to hit 29 this year to catch up.

Cust also hit just .265 in Colorado Springs, with 121 strikeouts. CS plays a lot like Coors, so there has to be some concern.

There are plenty of scouts and plenty of sabremetricians saying Cust is going to be a star, so maybe I’m wrong. But while I applaud the Orioles for taking a shot, but this guy doesn’t look to me like the solution to any of their problems.

ESPN.com: MLB – Vladimir, Marlins pitcher trade missed punches in brawl

The key quote is Robinson’s: “I think pitchers take their liberties. The pitcher thinks, “I’ll go inside and if I hit him, I hit him. If he’s hurt, he’s out of the lineup, and we have a better chance of winning.”

Guerrero is a great hitter, the most potent in the game today, but he is a marked man. Whether he draws 60 intentional walks this year, or gets knocked out after being hit by a pitch, he’s so far ahead of everyone else that he’s going to have a hard time getting pitches to hit.

He doesn’t mind that. He seem to hit most everything, except what’s in his face. I suggest using his high projected fantasy price as an excuse to let someone else take on a lot of risk (not that I did that in the XFL, but that’s another story).