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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.

Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Box Score: Adam LaRoche

He loves the cleanup spot!

He’s driven in more runs than he’s had hits in the last seven games, two of which he didn’t start, during which he drove in nine runs.

During that time he left on 11.

He’s not going to keep up this pace, but when a bottom of the lineup guy moves into the four hole, even if it’s only against righties, fantasy teams get happy.

Egads!!!

Problems with their Staff? The O’s have a problem with Sammy’s Staph (infection). According to The Sun, Sosa will be out probably 2-4 weeks with a serious, drug resistant staph infection on his foot, maybe longer depending on how this infection responds to the new antibiotics.

Prospectus Triple Play

Baseball Prospectus has been a favorite for statistical gearheads for years. Some, including myself, have elected not to pony up for their premium service when this was instituted (not a knock on them, I just have limited time and shekels for such things), but there are still things to be had for free on their site. The complete works of the late Doug Pappas are there and for free (the pre-cursor to Maury Brown’s Business of Baseball site which Rotoman referenced earlier this week – SABR also has Doug’s work here.) and the occasional “Prospectus Triple Play” – which are usually entertaining, insightful and smart looks at 3 different teams/organizations. Normally baseball game centric, there are the occasional bon mots like this one:

“The Marlins’ latest bid for a taxpayer-funded stadium died an ugly death at the hands of the Florida State Senate last week. It’s not a huge surprise or even a huge shame, except to the extent that ownership visits to Las Vegas, Portland, San Juan, Mexico City, and Kuala Lumpur might distract from a terrific season by South Florida’s ballclub. “

They also have all the stats you can shake a VORP*-al stick at.

*(Value Over Replacement Player).

The Adderall Me – My romance with ADHD meds. By Joshua Foer

Ban Joshua Foer, Jack Kerouac and WH Auden, please.

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.

Major League Baseball : Fantasy : Ask Rotoman

The new column is up, with questions about Juan Pierre, divergent ERA and Ratio, the San Francisco bullpen and Jonny Gomes. Poor Jonny Gomes. Check it out.

The roto gods giveth and they taketh away…..

After I opined about Miles and Barmes…Miles went 4 for 5 with an RBI and 3 runs. Barmes was 1 for 5 with a run….and was the only hit on my entire team that evening (1 for 29 I think). But hey, Young (not on that roster) was wonderful for the Rangers!!!!

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/scoreboard

Tim Stauffer makes his debut for the Pads in the Great American Bandbox…but against the hapless Paul Wilson. Sounds like some bad baseball to be had there.

Normally Prior vs. Victor Zambrano would be a slam dunk…and may be. But the Mutts have been showing some life particularly from Cameron and Piazza recently. The scrubbies haven’t been exactly bad…but…

Zito in Fenway? Not as bad as it might seem since the Sox have been a mixed bag offensively and Clement has been better than I, at least, expected.

Oswalt vs. Willis seems like the Marquee matchup, Oswalt says his foot feels better, I guess we’ll see.

Aaron Boone was allowed to bat in the ninth against KRod in a one run game. In politics one would jokingly say he must have the pictures. He’s hitting 130-something and doing second inning bunts with 2 outs these days. It’s ugly.

Chan Ho Park had another good game so take out your water witch and ouija board for his next start.

Tino Martinez will be a hot pick up after his fourth HR in as many days. I picked him up. With this talk of Giambi going to the minors (and saving the Yanks 36k per DAY in revenue sharing/luxury tax by the way), he’s not a great play…but probably a good play for the 1B differently abled teams, particularly AL only.

Today’s Schedule and starters

Featured matchups.
Roger Clemens vs. A.J. Burnett in Florida. Houston is 1-14 on the road. It was good to see Pierre get five hits and three steals yesterday. Burnett was touched a couple of times in Atlanta last time out, but was still not bad. His career record against Houston is not good (but in only five starts). Clemens has been very inconsistent this season – sometimes he has been terrific and other times merely very good. Bagwell’s shoulder felt poorly yesterday so he’s not a great play (as are any of these guys against Burnett really). But no one’s a particularly good play against Clemens either. Should be a fun game to watch.

I’ll be curious to see how Tim Hudson does in Colorado. It was interesting that Barmes was moved up to leadoff yesterday and Miles down to two. Miles’ grand slam masks a couple of really bad at bats, so I am not at all convinced that it signals an end to his slump. However he now has both a home run and a walk this year (who had one month in the pool?) He’s going at a rate that will net him 60 or so runs and RBI’s for the season after having batted leadoff for a month. He has a .289 OBP and the grand slam lifted his slugging over .400. (twenty points a pop worse than Luis Gonzalez, who despite slumping and not playing much also has a home run and three!! walks). Anyway, I’ve been pimping Barmes since halfway through last season, so I’m looking pretty good there now.

Two of my favorite second tier starters go in Arizona. Livan and the surprisingly lively Nationals go in against Webb and the Snakes without Vidro, who goes from missing three to five days to wearing a boot and an update to come on Friday…Ouch..Boy, have injuries sidetracked this guy. I have to say though, perhaps it is his chronic knee problems, but he has always looked a bit out of shape in recent years. Since the Nationals didn’t use Ayala and Cordero yesterday when they needed them (probably costing Loaiza a win), presumably they are available today, but I still like Webb at home.

I kind of like Young at home for the Rangers against Detroit. He’s been quite good (and is a pretty good two-starter this week too I think) and I don’t particularly like Wakefield against Oakland in a cold Fenway, Oakland’s offense has been about as a bad as possible, but I wonder whether Wakefield will get a consistent grip or control over the knuckler on such a cold and wet night as is predicted.

Dodgers/Cincy

I could have posted several of these for Sunday’s games. Don’t you hate it when it’s getting towards the end of a meaningless portion of the game and one of several things happens?

1. Atlanta is up by 16 and Orlando Palmeiro gets a meaningless pinch single with 2 outs in the 9th to force up MY Willy Taveras to get one last 0 for 1?
2. Colorado is up 8-2 and they get a meaningless man on base with two outs in the 9th to bring up MY Barmes for an 0 for 1?
3. Cincy is down by six with 2 outs in the ninth and they walk Mike Edwards to bring up MY Choi for an 0 for 1 pinch hit?
4. In the bottom of that inning, The Dodgers bring in Brazoban, in a non-save situation where the best he can give me is a decent single inning, and the worst is he could blow up?

It’s a maddening pastime!!!!

Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Box Score

In this past week’s column at mlb.com I suggested that owners should reserve Kevin Brown if they could, because clearly something wasn’t right, but they probably shouldn’t drop him if they could avoid it.

As chance would have it, Brown pitched before I could special him, and did a fine job against Oakland. Will I special reserve him tomorrow?

I’m not ruling out the possibility. Oakland’s offense has been pathetic so far, and Brown avoiding trouble in a game against the A’s is hardly an endorsement.

So, if I find a reasonable alternative tomorrow (the only real choices are Pete Walker and Chien-Ming Wang) I’ll reserve Brown. But his next start will come in Oakland against these same hapless A’s, so I’m not going to get too aggressive. If I have to I’ll risk Brown another week.