Fanatsy Drafts in full-swing and MY DRAFT

Fantasy drafts are happening on-line and in basements all over the United States this week. We had our draft on Sunday. I always think the draft is the most fun day of fantasy baseball right next to collecting the cash. There were some interesting picks in our 10 team foxsports.com league. The first two picks went as I expected with A-Rod and Matt Holliday going 1/2. The third was a big shocker as Victor Martinez left the board. That's right, I just said Victor Martinez was our 3rd pick!!!! I picked Utley 4th. Some people will never read this again after reading that tidbit. No, I wasn't drunk. I actually had him ranked 5th on my board and then I remembered that girly outfit and man-purse that Jose Reyes had on at the Pittsburg All-Star Parade and just couldn't take him. The 1st round finished out with Puljos, Hanley Rameriz, David Wright, Jose Reyes, Johan Santana, and Miguel Cabrera.

Round-2

Carl Crawford
Ryan Howard
Jimmy Rollins
Prince Fielder
David Ortiz
Vlad
Magglio Ordonez
Russell Martin
Carlos Lee

The two catchers going early was surprising and prompted me to take Mauer in the 4th round after McCann got snatched up too in that round.

Spring Training Notes 3-13-08

**Ichiro finally got a hit after going 0-21. Nice job. I'm still not drafting him in the first 6 rounds.

**Cross Curt Schilling off your list. He just got placed on the 60 day DL. He is my least favorite player anyway. I'd love to see Clemen's HGH butt smack Schilling in the mouth. The Yanks will own the Red Sox this year.

**Great night for me today on a personal note. My two least favorite college basketball teams got bounced today from their conference tourneys.............so long Loserville and Florida GAYtors.

**Billy Crystal struck out today for the Yanks. He almost got a hit, but it just bounced foul.

The Year The Reds Contend ?????

Is it finally time that my Reds become contenders instead of pretenders again. I find a lot things to be excited about this year. I also find a few things that tells me not to get too excited, so let's see what happens this year. First, I am excited about all the young players that could make the twenty five man roster when the Reds break camp at the end of the month. Where do we start, Joey Votto has nothing left to prove about being a solid major league first baseman. Votto might not be tearing it up this spring but trust me he has talent, with a great command of the strike zone. The hits and average will be there as they have been at every stop in the minors. Now as to what I am not real excited about in Votto. New Reds manager Dusty Baker seems to not trust the youngsters as he does the veterans so don't be surprised to see Scott Hatteberg getting plenty of starts at 1B as well. I do have mixed feeling here as Hatteberg had a pretty solid year last season, I guess I just want to see what Votto can do given the everyday job. Next thing I am excited about is OF Jay Bruce who is everybody's minor league player of the year. Now again, does Baker go with the veteran or give the "Minor League Player of the Year" a real chance to prove himself at Great American Ballpark. This next young guy that I think everyone already knows is Homer bailey and the 90+ fast ball he throws. He had some limited success last season before the injury bug hit him and was sent back to triple A Louisville for an extended period of time. This year Bailey will get a fresh start GAB and if you can pitch there you can pitch anywhere. Bailey hasn't been having the greatest of springs as of yet and he might get some competion form a couple of other guys trying to make the rotation. Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez, are having a pretty good spring so far. Speaking of Pitching, Aaron Harang puts up league leaders stats year in and year out but gets no love when the Cy Young is awarded....could this be his year to capture this award. Yes Harang can feel a little more confident when he leaves the game with a lead now. And speaking of leaving, if you want Harrang you better get ready to spend an early pick on draft day or he will leave the board along with the top tier K's he will put up. The Reds filled one of their biggest holes in the off season by adding a proven closer in Francisco Cordero. How many times did the bullpen blow a lead in the eighth or ninth ining last season. I think adding Cordero means at least 10-12 more wins. After Harang the pitching does get a little average with Bronson Arroyo the number two and followed by Matt Belisle, and whoever wins the last spot in the rotation.

We have already talked about 1B so let's move over to 2B and another of the leagues most underrated player in Brandon Philips. You will want to grab this guy early in your fantasy drafts. Philips is a top five 2B with 187 hits and 30 HR's to go with 94 RBI's and enough speed to steal 32 bases last season you can see why he will leave the board early.

The Reds also have a pretty solid OF with Dunn and Griffey manning the corners and probably the center field spot being shared by a number of players that might not get enough AB's to matter a lot in fantasy terms.

And last will this be the year that Edwin Encarnacion becomes the player everyone thinks he can become. The Reds also will start the season with SS Alex Gonzalez and C David Ross fighting nagging injuries. All in all the Cubbies better not order the Central Division title trophy yet. The Brewers will also be in the mix but being the homer I am I say: Yes this could be the Reds year to contend.

Ichiro is on fire?

NOPE. Ichiro Suzuki is now 0-21 for the spring. He's not exactly tearing it up after batting .353 last year. He'll come on once the lights come on. I still don't think he's anything more than the 30th plus pick in any fantasy draft. Even batting .353 last year, he scored less points than players like Corey Hart and Shane Victorino. I did get a chance to see Ichiro take batting practice during the American League All-Star practice day before the Home Run Derby in Pittsburgh two years ago and that dude is unbelievable. I still say at 165 pounds, he could hit 40 homers any season if that's what he wanted to do. In that batting practice, he put numerous balls in the river and was hitting the ball as far as Ryan Howard. I was pretty intoxicated, but I'm pretty sure I didn't dream that!

Great article on draft strategy

I normally dog the foxsports.com fantasy writers b/c I think they either don't study or might be smokin crack while they are writing but Roger Rotter has an excellent article today on foxsports.com about draft strategy. It's pretty much right on the money regardless of what kind of a league you play in.

http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/story/7848640

Spring Training Notes 3-10-08

**The Big Unit looked like crap in his opening game trying to come back from a very disappointing 2007. Looks like 1 1/3 and 3 earned runs and a strikeout.

**Josh Beckett looks like he'll start the regular season on the DL after his back spasms worsened today. I have them from time to time and they're no fun and I don't get my butt off the couch most of the time. I can't imagine pitching with them.

**Reds and Yanks today with pretty much their best lineups on the field and a great pitching matchup between Homer Bailey and Joba Chamberlain. Jay Bruce is starting in center for the Reds along with Votto at first. That is exciting!

Interesting Player Comparisons

In looking over and comparing some players a little farther in the draft, it's interesting to see just how close some players in fantasy points........Based on 2007 numbers:

**(Outfield) Most sites have Ichiro Suzuki in their overall top 20, but Ichiro averaged 2.70 fantasy points per game last year which computes to roughly 16 fantasy points per week. As compared to somenoe like Soriano who averaged 3.13 pionts per game, Ichiro only scored about 2 to 3 less points per week but over a season, it adds up. You can get Ichiro early, or wait around and get Shane Victorino in the 10th round and get the same production. I can't really see Ichiro better a .353 batting average. Here are some other outfielders and their averages:
Soriano-3.13
Nick Markakis-3.1
Cory Hart-3.00
Shane Victorino-2.71
Carl Crawford-3.18 (in almost everyone's top 15)
Tori Hunter-2.9 (monster year last year)

Top 15 overall revisited

A lot of my top 15 is based on my points per game system from the point system I like to to use the most. You get 1 point per base, a point for a walk, RBI, run, and two for a steal. You get a negative point for a strikeout or caught stealing. For pitchers: 6 for wins, 1 per inning pitched and strikeouts, and a negative point for earned runs and 2 negative points for losses. We also use 3 points for saves. Here are the points per game for last year in my top 15. Obviously, you have to base much of it on drafting by position too. A number over 4.00 for a batter is rediculous and anything over 3.00 is good. By the way, Pujols is not here because of elbow issues and he still showed a 3.58 point per/game average last year. For pitchers, anything over 11 is really good. I'm also starting to re-think not putting Braun into this list with a 3.72 as well as Carlos Lee's 3.38. It sounds like Carlos Beltran is having trouble with both of his knees that he had surgury on in the off-season.

1-Alex Rodriguez 3B (Yankees) ========4.39
2-Johan Santana P (Mets) ======13.5
3-Matt Holiday OF (Rockies)=======3.78
4-Jose Reyes SS (Mets) ========3.73
5-Chase Utley 2B (Phillies)=====3.73
6-David Ortiz DH (Red Sox) =======3.93
7-David Wright 3B (Mets) =========3.70
8-Jimmy Rollins SS (Phillies) =======4.03
9-Jake Peavy P (Padres) ======14.8
10-Hanley Rameriz SS (Marlins)=====3.83
11-Vlad Guerrero OF (Angels) ======3.58
12-Prince Fielder 1B (Brewers) =====3.49
13-Magglio Ordonez (Tigers) =======3.90
14-Carlos Beltran OF (Mets)=======3.47
15-Miguel Cabrera 3b (Tigers) ========3.17

Young Catchers to watch Towles and Soto

Two good young catchers you might want to snag in your draft are Geovany Soto from the Cubs and J.R. Towles from the Astros. Soto came up for the Cubbies at the end of 2007 and looked great batting .389 with 3 homers and 8 RBIs in just 18 games after being named the Pacific Coast League MVP. His on-base was also impressive at .433. I got a chance to watch Towles in the opening spring training game and he looked brutal at the plate. Since then, he's looked really good. Towles put up similar numbers to Soto in 2007. He came up from the minors and posted a .375 average and .432 on-base in just 14 games. Towles began 2007 in single A ball and finished in the majors. Both are expected to start and should be nice options at a catching position that looks dismal for fantasy owners this year.

More Troubling Pujols news

Albert Pujols continues to scare me with all of the elbow talk. News today says that Pujols has a torn ligament in his throwing elbow, bone spurs, inflamation, and arthritis in the elbow joint. At some point, he will have total reconstruction surgury on the elbow. He wants to wait until the end of the year but it'll have to hold up all year for that to happen. Look for him to DH in all interleague play games. I can't see Albert going in the top rounds of fantasy drafts this year but I might be wrong. He did go 2-3 yesterday with a homer and a single in spring training. The elbow problem led to 17 fewer homers, 34 few RBIs, and a lower slugging percentage but his average and on-base stayed pretty much the same last year as compared to the previous few.

Watch out for Keppinger!

Watch out for the new Big Red Machine's Jeff Keppinger. Now that it looks like Gonzalez may miss a substantial amount of time, if not the season, the starting SS job should belong to Keppinger. Thank goodness because I don't care to see Gonzalez on the field. He came on at the end of 2007 and tore the baseball up. He came in and batted .322 with 32 extra base hits and 32 RBI in just 67 games and posted a .400 OBP. The stat I love is that he only struck out 12 times and walked 24 times in 265 plate apperances. He can play any position on the diamond. This could be a big time sleeper that will qualify for SS and 3B.

American and National League Early Picks 2008

Spring Training has barely begun but here are my early picks to head to the playoffs from the American and National leagues.

AL East-Wide open between the Yanks, Red Sox, and I'd watch out for the Blue Jays. I think they're going to give the Yanks and Red Sox a run if their pitching stays healthy. I really think the Yanks will be the one.

AL Central-Tigers

AL West-Angels

Wild Card-Indians

NL East-It's another wide open race between the Mets, Phillies, and Braves. I'm not sure how anyone in his right mind could pick against the Mets with that rotation, a solid bullpen, and that lineup, but after seeing the Braves on stage at ESPN the Weekend, I'm going out on a limb and saying the Braves could get it done.......but they won't-METS.

NL Central-My heart tells me the Reds can get it done in a close race with the Cubs and the Brew-Crew. If the young pitching comes through in the starting rotation, the bullpen is finally strong enough to get it done. This is a wide open division with the exception of the Cardinals. I think 5 of the 6 teams could come through and win this division.

NL West-This one is all Dodgers and D-Backs. The Dodgers have a better lineup and bullpen. The D-Backs have a really strong starting rotations. This one will go down to the wire with the Dodgers finally getting it done.

NL Wild Card-Here's where the Braves will come in and get back to the playoffs after a big 1 year drought.

Brian Roberts to the Cubs????

It sounds likely that Brian Roberts will be heading to Chicago to play for the Cubbies. This is a huge move for the Cubs if it happens. This will give them a ligit leadoff hitter with a ton of speed and I think it moves Roberts up the ladder at 2B. If it happens, the Cubs lineup becomes brutal.

1-Roberts
2-Fukodome
3-Soriano
4-Derek Lee
5-Aramis Rameriz
6-Pie/Theriot
7-Pie/Theriot
8-Soto
9-Pitcher's spot

ESPN the Weekend at Disney

ESPN the weekend at Disney was pretty cool. We got a front row seat to the commercial for Baseball Tonight that will air on Sunday March 2nd with the crew and the Disney characters. John Kruk sort of looked like one of the Disney characters up close. We also got to see Inside Baseball Tonight with Ravich and the crew with Berkman, Oswalt, McCann, Tim Hudson, Francour, and Texeria. That was great. Berkman is a funny dude. Francour and Texeria were great too. After seeing that, I think the chemistry of the Braves may put them right there in the fight for the NL East. As a side note, Carl Ravich comes off to me as a complete turd off camera. My son and I also got a up-close look at Cal Ripkin Jr, Gary Carter, John Franco, and Jim Palmer being interviewed on the big stage and taking questions from the audience. Ripkin is a good fella.
So long from sunny Florida.

Grapefruit League opening weekend

We made it to the first spring training game of the year. The Indians and Astros Spring Training Opener wasn't much of a spectacle. The Astros didn't bring much of a lineup and started Wandy Rodriguez on the hill. The Indians opened with a minor leaguer on the hill and the normal starting lineup except Johnny Perralta. Nothing big to see b/c the Astros didn't get their first hit until the sixth. It was sort of like watching paint dry. The Tribe will be moving to Arizona next year for Spring Training. The stadium in Winter Haven will be turned into houses and condos. I have no doubt, it's time for that place to be bulldozed. It looked like the stadium in Major League for sure! My son did catch two homers in batting practice and the experience was pretty cool as a whole.