Rotoman

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ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score

Richard Hidalgo is suffering through one of the most horrendously bad streaks I’ve ever seen.

He hit .149 in July, with a .447 OPS.

In August he’s hit .120, with a .361 OPS

He’s killing me. He’s showing no signs of life. He’s suffering with injuries that might hurt him for the rest of the season.

If your team is doing well you dont have Hidalgo. If you need help, Hidalgo probably isn’t the guy to get, though if he gets healthy he’s going to be way better than any replacement you are currently considering.

85315381

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Okay, finally, the August prices are here. Let me know if any of the lines are incomplete. I’ve been using Yahoo’s fantasy stats as the foundation for this (a wonderful free resource) and they rather randomly seem to add middle initials to some players names each month. If you find one that look wrong you should be able to fill in the blanks by looking elsewhere in the listing.

The July2002prices.txt are here.

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ESPN.com: MLB – Selig fines Bowden for ‘insensitive’ 9/11 remark

In my day I have seen a lot of things. I have been surprised by all manner of tawdryand insensitive actions. And I admit I have not prejudice favoring Major League Baseball.

But as stupid as Jim Bowden’s comments were, the idea that they should be fined is anethema to every value I hold to be true as an American. As stupid as Bowden’s comments were, the only possibly stupider thing would be for the Commissioner to fine someone for saying them.

Bud has already told baseball people who comment on the labor situation that they will be fined One Cool Million Dollars. I don’t have to be AJ Weberman to point out the egregiousnessness of the commissioner fining management who happens to say stupid things unrelated to the labor situation.

My love for baseball does not falter. Really. But this bullshit fills me with despair. I look forward to following the adventures of Jack Cust, just as I once followed the adventures of Ben Petrick. No, the weasly owners of MLB teams don’t owe me a game to watch (nor, as an mlb.com columnist, do they owe me a job beyond my current contract).

But the fact is that the game of baseball exists and will continue to exist, regardless of the interference of men named Selig, Steinbrenner, Wilpon, Loria, Henry, McGowen, and so on and so on and so on. The most endowed owners are free to negotiate with the most talented players, and one hopes they’ll come up with a league that we can trust features the best baseball players around.

But if the best players choose not to play because the owners won’t pay them, well, I will miss them. But I can wait. I’ll pay more to see Andruw Jones play center field, but I’ll gladly watch some local girl play center in the local Little League.

One of the beautiful things about this game is that it’s nearly as beautiful, warts and all, as it is played flawlessly.

P.

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The Official Site of Major League Baseball

In these days of java beans and active server pages and whatever other server supplied madness you are delivered (and I know that almost all of these godforesaken innovations actually benefit the reader), I don’t know if this link will tell you that Cliff Floyd is now a Boston Red Sox.

But apparently he is, though the news right now is only posted at mlb.com and not at ESPN.com or Sporsline.

I will only say that the excitement with which I viewed the Expos trying to win the pennant is now dashed by their abandonment of the cause. Not because they have any realistic chance of competing, but because there is no longer any reason for them to protect any player they have.

Colon is as good as gone, but why not Vlad, Vidro and Cabrera, too. Heck, even Brad Wilkerson has to be coveted these days, as do Javier Vazquez, Tomo Ohka, Scott Stewart and TJ Tucker.

Now that the cat’s out of the bag, and I don’t mean Galarraga, why should this sad little franchise maintain any notion of self respect. In fact, management (AKA MLB) should auction off all valuable players now, when they are most valuable, in the midst of a pennant race.

Cynics may note that a potential strike undermines the value of these “free” agents, but don’t let those naysayers question the enthusiasm of the owners, who seem to mean it when they say that a solution is within site.

Not.

As Montreal sells off it’s future the game of baseball, MLB style, dies.

Amen.

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Dear Rotoman–

I understand your dilema over a pay/free site and readers questions. Since you want to spend more time with your family (understandable), how about if your wife, daughter and you answer each question. Then it will be “quality family time” along with fantasy baseball. At the end of the season, we will see which one of you dispensed the best advice. We may all be surprised to see who is the real “fantasy” expert in your house. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the excellent suggestion. I know for a fact that my three-year-old daughter was not as high as I was on Todd Ritchie and Mark Little in the preseason, but my lovely wife was convinced Aramis Ramirez was ready to take another big step forward.

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ESPN.com: MLB – Summer of love: expect labor peace

I agree with Caple’s analysis of why there won’t be a strike. The owners aren’t trying to win the whole thing this time, which is why for the first time it’s possible to criticize the players’ position.

That doesn’t make the owners more right. This is still primarily an argument between owners, with the owners (richer and poorer) hoping that the players will subsidize them. They won’t.

Which is why Caple may well be wrong. There doesn’t need to be animosity now. There only needs to be enough of a conflict to provoke one or the other sides to not sign the (inevitable) deal. That’s what happened last time, after the strike and NLRB decision.

This time the NLRB may not favor the players. That doesn’t make them wrong. The fact is that because of the structure of this thing the players cam be stupid, greedy, selfish, unappealing and short sighted, and their argument will still be more appealing than that of the owners.

At least until the owners actually release actual books that show their actual financial state.

85252400

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hey,
before i ask u questions , just wanna know if this is free and is there a limit on how many questtions i can ask u
-thank you, jason

I’ve been meaning to address the issue of the increasingly irregular Rotoman. Here’s the thing:

In the past the site had a members section,. People paid $25 and got most of their questions answered. But the fact was that those membership fees didn’t add up to a month’s worth of compensation, much less for the full season. So, this year, to avoid disappointing people who paid, I got rid of the memberships. I thought I’d sell ads and ask for donations. I answer a lot of reader questions every week and if everyone who got a question answered chipped in a buck once in a while I could probably justify taking time away from my family to do this.

But, the advertising market went south and the tip jar concept didn’t work. The questions kept coming, but with a few rare and appreciated exceptions, the tips did not.

So, I’m stuck.Your questions help me fuel my mlb.com column. But when all is said and done I’d rather play with my daughter than answer fantasy questions. I’d rather eat dinner with my wife than answer fantasy questions. It turns out there are a lot of things I’d rather do than answer fantasy questions, for free at least.

So, postings here will grow increasingly irregular. Please feel free to ask questions. I do answer most of them. In the meantime this site will be evolving into something a little different for next year.

If there is a next year.

Cheers,
Peter