Answers to fantasy baseball questions (and much more) since 1996
Rotoman Griffey won’t play in St. Louis
Well, the devil is in the details. The cautious Reds seemed to be holding Ken Griffey Jr. back from returning until this weekend’s series with the all-important Cardinals. But instead they’re holding him back through at least that series (he’s supposedly going to be activated May 22nd).
He hasn’t hit as much as some of us hoped (those of us who paid absurd amounts for him in Expert Leagues), but he’s hit more than some of us who evaluated talent thought he might. Actually, his offensive numbers are right on line with those of last year, and while everyone was hoping that a breakout might come this year, it still could. There is a lot of this year left to play.
Unfortunately, on the defensive side, Giles’ manager is not happy, and so Rafael Furcal moves to second base and Mark DeRosa takes over at short.
But things may not seem to be exactly as they appear. There have been concerns about Giles’ makeup, about the seriousness with which he treats the game. As you know, Bobby Cox values the baseball verities and isn’t unwilling to slap a youngster down to demonstrate how much.
If Giles demonstrates the proper contrition, my bet is Giles sits for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks, and then gets his job back. I’m not sure he’s going to be all that much better a second baseman than he’s been, but when he starts to hit a little more (and he will–consider me converted) it won’t much matter.
If Giles doesn’t grow up fast, look for him to be dealt the way Jeremy Giambi was a few years ago. Yes, I’m predicting to Pittsburgh. Wouldn’t that be fun?
May 9, 2002 – How Sure Is A “Sure Thing”?
It seems that every few days I’m touting a Baseball Prospectus story. Well, it’s true.
For those counting on Mark Prior to bail out their seasons, this handy little study is worth reading.
The Cubs are totally desperate. Fred McGriff stole a base tonight.
Actually, McGriff has been successful on 24 of his last 29 attempts, dating back to Atlanta in 1996.
And the Cubs are still desperate. The Mark Prior watch has the purported phenom slated to be called up on May 22nd, if you’re interested.
VOTE FOR AN ALL EXPOS AND TWINS ALLSTAR GAME 2002
I’m just getting out the word about this enterprising site, which proposes a rather in your face solution to contraction.
I voted twice along party lines at mlb.com’s ballot site, then ran out of gas. It’s easy, but tedious. But I think if we measure the number of votes Fernando Tatis receives we’ll have a good idea of this site’s effectiveness.
And anything that confounds the Commish is okay with me.
I would have sworn that Jose Rijo was older than Paul Westerberg and Bob Mould.
The big news of the day is Manny Ramirez’s broken finger. It seems Mike Cubbage blames himself, because there wasn’t really a good reason to send Ramirez with nobody out, and he blames Ramirez, who has been told time and again not to slide hands first.
The Red Sox have been red hot of late, but this is exactly the sort of injury that can let the wind out of a team’s sales. After all, Shea Hillenbrand and Rey Sanchez and even Jose Offerman simply can’t keep up the big production, but the team relies on Ramirez to do it.
In his absence, Rickey Henderson and Trot Nixon will see some extra at bats and Nomar and perhaps Brian Daubach will see time in the cleanup hole.
The Official Site of Major League Baseball
Because it appears to be a Flash application I don’t seem to be able to link to it directly, but the Gameday live action scoring of games at mlb.com is really great. Okay, maybe most of the features are similar, except at mlb.com they have a batters box that shows pitch location for each batter.
I can’t say I’ve made as much use of it as one might, but it definitely elevates the notion of following the game on your computer to see where each pitch was, and in what sequence.
There are no guarantees the Pirates will win this game, but it has to count as a pretty good week for Josh Fogg. In effect he pitched Randy Johnson and Roy Oswalt to draws, and is in line to come away 2-0, thanks to some good fortune.
He is pitching at a LIMA level right now (6 K per 9, 1 HR per 9, 3 K per BB) and doesn’t show signs of faltering. He may be the sort of finesse pitcher who gets over consistently, but it’s too early to say that confidently. In fact, the general consensus among scouts and analysts is that he will be caught up with.
It was a nice week for him, nonetheless. I hope he enjoyed it.
ESPN.com: MLB – Jays vs. Rays: the AL least
Okay, maybe this is picky. Maybe especially so because the ESPN.com transaction page has been down all week. But Rob Neyer’s column, a putative position by position comparison of the Blue Jays and Devil Rays, lists Homer Bush as the BJ second baseman and Bobby Smith as the DR third baseman.
Both were released by their respective teams this week and is it wrong to think that a daily column should reflect this? Well, to be less persnikity, I have to admit that if he’d known it the column would have reflected it. Nuff said.
In any case, what is shocking and appropriate about the comparison is the fact that the Toronto pitching staff has been absolutely awful. Preseason touts were crazy for Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay and Luke Prokopec, but only Halladay has shown any grit.
And while fantasy owners who bet on Brandon Lyon or Brian Cooper have been soundly thrashed, the bigger question is: What should I do about it?
The answer is bail, if you can. There is no way to recover from guys putting up a 6.11 ERA the way Brandon Lyon has. But don’t look too closely at that 1.30 WHIP. Only Halladay’s is better on the Blue Jays among starters. And it’s that temptation that will either fuel a Lyon turnaround or drive you batty all the way into the basement.