Rotoman

WayMoreSports.com/Wells suddenly outside looking in

I’m down on Wells. The flood of strikeouts and desert of walks in Triple-A is not a good sign. He’s neither fast enough nor powerful enough to warrant a lot of excitement at this point for 2002. Prospects are better down the road, but he’s going to have to do much better to live up to the hype.

He’s the last guy who should compain about not playing the field. Use the extra time for extra BP, Vernon.

ESPN.com: MLB – Griffey Sr. says he stays with Reds because of Junior

Well, I suppose this means that the Griffeys’ ties to the Reds are tenuous, but not so that you should worry about it just yet. But this doesn’t look like a story that’s going to go away, either.

ESPN.com: MLB – D-Backs’ Williams fractures left leg in practice

The headlines say he’s out for six weeks, but he isn’t going to be able to practice for real for three months.

That means he could be back about June 1, and only lose a third of the season, but his injury-marred recent history suggests that maybe half a season is his best hope.

Replacements? Brenly made a laundry list, but odds are it is Jay Bell.

hi peter. can you please give me your opinion on these guys for this year and perhaps for the future?

these guys in all likelihood will be available this year. thank you for your time.

Here goes:

Duckworth has looked pretty solid so far. He’s not overpowering but he doesn’t rely on finesse either. I’d be wary of him this year, he has yet to go through the league a second time, but if he isn’t found out he should become one of those solid mid-rotation guys who have one or two very good years.

Halladay finished strong last year and is generally considered to be one of this year’s best breakouts. His problems in the past were the result of his nibbling and being fearful of challenging hitters. The signs are there in his K/BB ratio that he’s gone beyond those problems, but I think it’s going to cost a whole lot more to get him than he’s proven he’s worth. If I’m wrong to be concerned his future, both near and long term, is very bright.

Ortiz took a solid step forward last year. He’s a step or two ahead of Halladay, which is why I’m pretty confident he isn’t going to backslide. In other words, Halladay is a risk. Ortiz may not become a star but he’s a solid bet in a pitcher’s park.

Wolf has pitched a lot of innings in the major leagues at a young age. If his arm really holds up his potential is great, but he has some work to do to prove he’s going to make it. I’d rate him ahead of Halladay at this point, but a good step behind Ortiz.

The bottom line is that all these guys didn’t do much in the first half last year and came on in the second half. That’s not a reliable indicator of future success, though it surely doesn’t mean that they’re going to fail. My best advice is take the best guys who go cheapest. Paying more for them only means they’re going to have to do even better to be worth it.

Any advice on running a 17-20 owner draft with owners spread out all over
the United States? We currently draft around 20-25 players and with this
many owners, it is taking FOREVER to do our drafts. We normally try to do a
round a night, but are always running into someone who isn’t around, or has
a slower email service, etc, etc….Just wondering if there are any proven
methods that you have heard of for running such a large and spread out
draft.

Chat – RaiderSoft Java Chat Solutions

I would check out using a chat room and do more than one round per night, thereby avoiding some conflicts.

For the Tout Wars Trade Deadline FAAB extravaganza last year we used a discussion board from Boardhost. Owners started a thread with a player’s name and price as the subject and anyone who wanted to raise the stakes could by posting an increased bid. There was a frenzy at the deadline and some people were shut out because of it, but I don’t think anyone had a bad time.

Since you won’t be bidding you’ll avoid that problem. Another advantage is that while most chat rooms rely on java, there are a lot of straight html discussion boards, which means they’re accessible by all browsers.

Boardhost don’t seem to be offering discussion boards right now, but boards2go.com is and their boards seem to work well. And, of course, they’re free.

If anyone else has any suggestions, post ’em in the comments area just below.

A friend sent me this. I hadn’t heard it before.

Subject: A New England Story
>
> > A New Englander dies and is sent to hell. He had been
> > a horrible man throughout life and even the devil
> > wanted to punish him, so he puts him to work breaking
> > up rocks with a sledgehammer. To make it worse he
> > cranks up the temperature and the humidity.
> > “Love my kingdom!” laughs the devil.
> >
> > After a couple of days the devil checks in on his
> > victim to see if he is suffering adequately. The devil
> > is aghast as he looks at the New Englander happily
> > swinging his hammer and whistling a happy tune. The
> > devil walks up to him and says, “I don’t
> > understand this. I’ve turned the heat way up, it’s
> > humid, you’re crushing rocks; why are you so happy?”
> >
> > The New Englander, smiling big, looks at the devil and
> > replies, “This is great! It reminds me of August in
> > New England! ! . Hot, humid, a good place to work. It
> > reminds me of home. This is fantastic!”
> >
> > The devil, extremely perplexed, walks away to ponder
> > the New Englander’s remarks. Then he decides to drop
> > the temperature, send down driving rain and torrential
> > wind. Soon, hell is a wet, muddy mess. Walking in mud
> > up to his knees with dust blowing into his eyes, the
> > New Englander is happily slogging through the mud
> > pushing a wheelbarrow full of crushed rocks.
> > Again, the devil asks how he can be happy in such
> > conditions. The New Englander replies, “This is great!
> > Just like April in New England. It reminds me of
> > working out in the fields with spring planting!” The
> > devil is now completely baffled.
> >
> > Angry, and desperate to make hell really hell, he
> > tries one ! ! last ditch effort. He makes the
> > temperature plummet. Suddenly hell is blanketed in
> > snow and ice. Confident that this will
> > surely make the New Englander unhappy.
> > The devil checks in on the New Englander. He is aghast
> > at what he sees. The New Englander is dancing,
> > singing, and twirling his sledgehammer as he cavorts
> > in glee.
> >
> > “How can you be so happy? Don’t you know it’s 40 below
> > zero!?” screams the devil.
> >
> > Jumping up and down the New Englander throws a
> > snowball at the devil and yells, “Hell’s frozen over!!
> > This means the Sox won the World Series!!!

Young is in ‘heaven’ with Tigers – 2/25/02

A reader sent this link, to a story I’d heard about but hadn’t read, about Dmitri Young’s disdain for Junior Griffey.

The funny thing is that back before Junior was hurt the greatest comparisons between the greatest players in the game were between Junior (adorable, team-oriented, fun-loving) and Barry (gruff, self-centered, angry). My oh my, how things change.

There are a couple of important issues:

Griffey took much less money to sign with the Reds than he would have gotten anywhere else, and when the criticisms came from Young and Pokey Reese, Griffey said that he had to be a team player because of all the money he deferred to help the Reds put together a winning team. Is that true?

Griffey is right that he can lead by example, if he carries the team sometimes. The last two years he hasn’t been able too, and surely that can’t have helped him fit in.

I gather that Young counts himself in the group that doesn’t think about materialistic stuff, though it’s a little hard to see how someone signing a four-year umpteen million dollar contract can see himself as Johnny Appleseed. I love the way Dmitri plays and, from what I know about him, I like the way he lives. Comerica hurts hitters and while Dmitri’s numbers aren’t likely to get much better than they’ve been, I think there’s a career year lurking in him, where either the batting average soars or he hits a ton more homers without hurting his average.

I also predict that when Griffey sees him he isn’t going to offer to hug him.

If Griffey is healthy and plays well, a lot of the divisiveness will disappear. I assume that whatever issues there were that caused Griff. Sr. to leave the Reds this week, giving up his first base coaching job, but then almost immediately returning as an instructor, were not contentious. Senior’s health has not been good and this appears to be a way to lighten his load. If not, then there could be more trouble lurking.

There’s a lot of spring training to go, but if Griffey is healthy and other problems don’t emerge, this is the year to get him on the cheap. Or rather, I should say, if your league plays cautiously and let’s him go at a little discount, this is the year to grab him.

I am in a 5×5 NL-only keeper league. I don’t have much money left so I have to make wise use of my last protection. I can’t decide between Delino DeShields ($1), Juan Cruz ($1) and Doug Glanville ($2). Rotoman, please help me.

I’ll do the best I can.

I love Delino and expect he’s going to have a good year, though the deficiencies in his glove and the crowdedness of the Cubs outfield concern me. I have him projected to earn $12, though if he manages to win a full-time job he could easily approach $20.

Juan Cruz is one of the most eagerly anticipated young hurlers this spring, based on eight good games last fall after jumping from Double-A. I would suggest that his minor league numbers last year suggest that his big league success was a bit of a fluke, and there are professional hitters who will soon catch up with him. Also, he was revealed this winter to be two years older than he claimed, and he reported to camp underweight, causing Don Baylor no small amount of angst. No, we don’t have a three strikes policy heare, but that’s enough to remind us that young pitchers are often unreliable. I have him down to earn $5, that’s a mid-point between $25 and -$15.

Doug Glanville’s roto earnings the last five years: $17, $19, $35, $22, $22. He’s a much better roto player than baseball player, which is why you have to be concerned that he might lose his job at any time. This spring the Phillies have a young hotshot named Marlon Byrd vying for a chance to derail the last train to Glanville. Because I’m weak I have Glanville predicted to earn $22, but he could easily drop to $12 without much effort if his playing time drops.

As you might guess, I think Cruz is too risky, since you have other choices. But the other choices are kind of the opposite sides of the same coin. Both are older, both have some demerits to deal with, and both are roughly the same price. I think I’d keep DeShields because I really do love his game and because there isn’t anything to love about Glanville’s. On top of that, DeShields may end up qualifying in the middle infield, which could be a little extra plus (he played 16 games at 2B last year).

But I also think that if they both have average seasons at this point, Glanville is the more likely to earn more. My advice is take DeShields, unless you think that’s crazy advice. In which case you should take Glanville.

Rotoman:

I see a log jam coming in the Atlanta Infield. Rafael Furcal, Wilson Betemit and Marcus Giles are all talented young infielders but only two can play. How do you see things settling?

The thing about talented young players is that they often aren’t quite as ready as they seem. But then that’s what I said about Rafael Furcal two years ago, and he was clearly quite ready then. Injuries did him in last year, but he’ll be ready again, though he’s two years older now than he was last week.

Marcus Giles has a little pop for a pipsqueak, presumably because packed into his short frame is a lot of muscle. Giles also seems to know his way around the strike zone. After last season he has nothing left to prove in Triple-A and while his ability to hit for average in the majors isn’t yet assured, he appears to be right on track. I suppose if he gets off to a horrible start his job may prove to be less secure than it looks right now, but given the Braves long history of weak-hitting second basemen, as long as Giles fields his position decently he should be the team’s second baseman all year long.

Which brings us to Betemit, who is just 20 years old this year (he turns 21 in November). He’s a beanpole, way taller than Giles and 25 pounds lighter. Apart from a few late season AB in Atlanta in September he has just 183 AB above Single-A. He has yet to show enough plate discipline to warrant advancement to the bigs, but he doesn’t appear to be a hopeless case in that regard. Assuming he adds power as he adds weight, he’s going to be a power-hitting third baseman some day, maybe next year, skirting the log jam issue. For now he’s the Atlantas’ insurance policy in case something happens to either Furcal or Giles. It wouldn’t be a shock to see him pick up 200 AB with the big team this year, but he’s really a solid step behind the other two guys.

Act accordingly.

The GreensKeeper Movie

The cast will rock you.