Rotoman

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Yahoo! Sports – Oakland is terrible

They aren’t hitting at all, which puts Noah Lowry’s third quality start of the season even more suspect than the other two (Colorado and Arizona at SBC).

The A’s are so soft right now I’m keeping Doug Waechter active this week against them. There aren’t good waiver alternatives, but I can’t think of another team I wouldn’t ditch him against.

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Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Kevin Brown Wins

Two Ask Rotoman columns ago at mlb.com I suggested that Kevin Brown’s problems were looking dangerous, if not fatal, in the short run.

But before I could special him he pitched a good game against the hapless A’s, earned a win, and I noticed his next game was against the A’s, so I kept him up. He got another win. Then I noticed his next game was against the Mets at Shea, which seemed like a fair matchup. Now he’s won three straight.

The interesting thing about tonights game is he pitched more. He had been approaching each hitter like it was batting practice, throw it in the zone and hope they hit it at someone. With the Yankees sadly maladapted defense it had better be right at them, too. But tonight he walked guys and he struck them out. And while the Yankees’ dee let him down, the Mets was its equal.

It’s too soon to say Brown is okay. He’s won three games against teams that can be pitched to. But I’m going to keep him active, since he’s pitching against the very average Tigers in Yankee Stadium. I not, however, confident.

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Major League Baseball : Fantasy : Ask Rotoman

I try to choose questions for the column that have underlying concepts that will apply to other questions the reader may have. This week’s Beltran for Abreu query struck me as so odd, yet the heart of the matter could prove to be crucial for many fantasy teams.

I felt obliged to return to Edgar Renteria because, well, I’ve long thought his career would look more like a string of 2003s than 2001s.

Joe Crede, Oscar Robles, Dan Johnson are three corners in a square that makes a sign that says, Not worth a lot. But perhaps useful.

And then there are potential breakout rookie starting pitchers and speedsters. Long shots worth thinking about, to say the least.

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Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Yankees Crushing Oakland

The Yanks are up by 10 runs as I write this, and Kevin Brown is out of the game, so it looks like I was right. It wasn’t a bad idea to let him go this week against the weak Athletics.

Brown continues to throw strikes and continues to keep the ball in the yard. If he had half a defense behind him he’d win games against weak-hitting teams. Oh, that’s what he’s doing.

This coming week he gets the Mets at Shea. The Mets are a mid-level offensive team, but they have some rather powerful hitters in the lineup. I still wouldn’t give up on Brown for the season as a whole, but he’s a major risk this week.

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Major League Baseball : Fantasy : Ask Rotoman

In last week’s column I wrote about SF closer situation. The analysis was fair. It pointed out the problems Brower and Herges have keeping runners off base, and it suggests that Jason Christiansen is probably the Giants’ best bet even though he’s a lefty. I also mentioned that Tyler Walker had gotten a save.

What I didn’t mention is that I’d picked Tyler Walker up in the Tout Wars claims last Friday. I didn’t mention it because, well, I forgot. Walker was on my list simply because SOMEBODY had to get saves in SF.

In that same claims I also spent $21 of my $100 waiver dollars on Todd Jones, who figured to be the closer in Florida while Guillermo Mota was out. And for a team whose only closer was the cheap but DLed Joe Borowski, picking up extra saves made good sense.

I bring all this up not because I’m stuck on my team. Though I am. But because this story illustrates the bottom line in league-play fantasy baseball: You often don’t get to pick who you end up with. A lot of the time you end up with someone you wouldn’t have ended up with if you had your druthers.

And sometimes that person is Ted Lilly, and sometimes it’s Jon Garland. And before the season I wouldn’t have paid a dime more for one than the other. To my good fortune others paid more for Lilly and I ended up with Garland. Maybe you went for Jose Vidro and settled for Brian Roberts.

As we all start to get a feel for our teams (thank goodness Scott Rolen is only out for six weeks, probably) it’s a good idea to look for the places where everything is going our way. Odds are that gravy train is going to end sooner or later.

But not Brian Roberts.

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The Business of Baseball website

It is impossible to follow major league baseball without getting your head into the game’s business side. As a boy I remember hearing about the Babe saying he deserved more money than president Herbert Hoover because, “I had a better year than him.”

It was big news when players earned more than $100,000, and the Koufax/Drysdale holdout seemed to transfix a nation. What would they get away with?

Fantasy baseball itself incorporates the business of the game into the competition, and the question of whether cities or teams should pay for ballparks is of civic importance across the country.

The Business of Baseball website collects data, articles, interviews, documents and other important materials relating to the game and its business. It is just a start, there is certainly tons more stuff that could be collected there, but it’s a valuable resource right now and a model for the collection of baseball information on the web.