David Price

Well in a move many find not too surprising, because after all it's a business not a game for the fans, David Price was optioned to AAA Durham. If you ask the Rays they will say it's a baseball move, if you ask me I will say it's a money move. As we all know sending Price down will make him have to wait an extra year before he can file for arbitration. This moves makes less sense when you consider the fact that the AL East will most likely be a three team run for two playoff spots. If the Rays have a slow start and finish a couple of games out of second place this move will look more and more stupid on their part.

If there is anything the Rays can hang this hat on it's looking at how the Chicago Cubs over worked some young pitchers over the past eight years. I am not for throwing Price 'all in' just yet, but if he was good enough to pitch for you in the World Series last year.....well he just might be good enough to pitch for your team to start the regular season. The Rays should do the right thing here and give him a spot on the twenty-five man roster and let him open the season with the big league club. If he needs to miss a start here and there to limit innings so be. There's plenty of off days in April where you could keep him fresh but not over work him.

This is not a fantasy baseball issue for me as I didn't get lucky enough to grab him in my draft but I can hear people screaming foul ball already over this. At what point does the worse commissioner of all the major sports stand up and do his job for the players. Oh yeah he likes that term "in the best interest of baseball" as long as he doesn't piss an owner off. Oh yeah he was an owner....AN NOW HE IS BY FAR THE WORSE COMMISSIONER BASEBALL HAS EVER HAD.....RESIGN BUD SELIG RESIGN

World Baseball Classic

Well Japan did it again. They beat the Korean team 5-3 night in ten innings to take the second World Baseball Classic. I think I took the Japanese team from the start but hoped the USA could pull the mild upset this time around. So after two of these WORLD events the Japan team is two for two. Not good if you are an American baseball lover like the writers of this site are. I have to say congrats to the way this team played and to the way Japan takes their baseball. I would say this country is as serious about baseball as any country in the world, the US included. Can you say NFL, it makes me sick to see MLB take a back seat to the NFL. Well in my eyes it doesn't, but I do have BIG RED MACHINE blinders on at times.

The title was won on American soil, Dodger Stadium no less and there were plenty of Japanese people there rooting their team to victory. Hell the Empire State Building is going to light their world famous tower in honor of Japan winning this classic. The Crown of the building will be lit in red and white to honor the Japanese flag. Would the Babe drink to this........I think not.

My question to you as American Baseball fans is do we still have the right to call the World Series the World Series. Wasn't this the real World Series. Well to answer the question about what we should call 'our' World Series, is yes it should still be called the World Series as this is still the place where the best players in the world play the game. They don't have on a Japanese uniform or a Cuban uniform they have a Major League Baseball uniform on and they play for the Major Leagues and this is really where the best baseball is still played. You might divide the MLB players up for a world tournament but when all is said and done the real World Series is settled in the USA.

Did you pay much attention to the World Baseball Classic. How does it mix in with MLB in the future. Is it here to stay. Will it continue to grow.

Draft Day

Well the writers of this blog had our draft on Saturday afternoon and for the first time in my fifteen years of playing fantasy baseball we finally pulled the trigger on a keeper league. (I love draft day so much, getting together with the guys I fully expect to kick the asses of.) We actually set the ground rules last season at the draft and this was the first year we got to keep players drafted last year.

We only had a couple of rules. One you can't keep anyone drafted in the first two rounds. You could keep one pitcher and two hitters. So I decided to keep Carlos Beltran and Justin Morneau. For my pitcher I kept Felix Hernandez, is this the year he finally puts together the year the experts have talked about for what seems to be five years now. I was thinking a keeper league would make for a faster draft....wrong.....not sure what takes the longest our fantasy baseball draft or the Cubbies to win a World Series.

OK, all you experts tell me how I did....here is my starting lineup in a ten team league. We start nine position players and three pitchers of your choice....starters, relievers doesn't matter.

SP: Hernandez.....Johan Santana.....John Lester
OF: Beltran.....Carlos Lee.....Jay Bruce
1B: Morneau
MI: Robinson Cano.....Ryan Theriot
3B: Aramis Ramirez
DH: Prince Fielder
C: Ramon Hernandez.....with Matt Wieters waiting in the wings as my backup.


Yes the BIG RED MACHINE is again looking like a fine tuned machine ready to roll.
How does your league roll. Do you play in a keeper league. What kind of rules does your league have.
Opening day is just right around the corner......PLAY BALL

Draft A-Rod??

Well, A-Rod's wonderful spring continues. First, he's finally caught and has to admit the steroid use, now he's out 6-9 weeks after undergoing surgery on his hip. Now, you've got to decide if you will draft him and when. It'll be really interesting when somebody pulls the A-Rod trigger on draft day. I'm guessing 4th to 5th round.

Wieters Ready?

Is Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters ready for the bigs? It was widely speculated that the Os would start Wieters in AAA ball but he may be playing the O's into a corner. So far this spring, the #1 prospect is batting .417 and leads all of baseball with 10 total bases. The Os want to start Wieters in Triple A. If he stays in the minors until June, they will save 1 total year towards his arbitration year. It's looking more and more like the big lefty batter will have to be in your draft day plans.

MannyWood Can Now Light The Grill

Put him back on your draft board, oh he was never off or in my case never on. There are just some guys I won't draft and this ass is one of them.

On my way home from work tonight I was listening to one of my favorite sports shows, JT The Brick on Fox Sports and they are reporting that Manny will continue to be Manny in MannyWood again this season. After turning down the $45 million a few days ago, supposedly because Manny needs his money NOW instead of some of it being deferred for a few years. You know a man has to be able to feed his family in these tough times.

Not real sure about the details at this hour but they were saying it was still for $45 million. I guess maybe the Dodgers are going to give it to him on time so he can feed his family. Hopefully after signing for $45 million he won't have to be selling his grill on EBAY again this year. He has enough money to buy his family's food so he should keep the grill so he will have something to cook the family's food on.

Manny is not wearing Yankee pinstripes or Boston Red, look for him in LA Dodger blue. I wonder if any DodgerDogs were part of this deal.