Oh my Reds

Is it time to hit the panic button yet? I sure hope not but it's just ugly right now. Even our ace Aaron Harang got roughed up tonight. I know he can't carry this team by himself, and with the way the Reds are leaving guys on base, eighteen tonight by the way, I really feel for him. Also if you find someone crazy enough to trade him already after a 1-2 start then send me an invite to play in your league next year. I know they left over 30 men on base in the disapointing three game sweep the Priates just handed them over the weekend.


There was a few bright spots tonight, Griffey wearing #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson hit his 595th home run. I can only dream of the numbers this guy would have put up if he had stayed healthy his entire career.
Speaking of good things, how about Jeff Keppinger. He has played in every game so far this year and is hitting .327 with just a tad of power, two HR's, and a lot of plate displine. Jeff has only struck out twice in 14 games, how does that work for your fantasy numbers. I bet you can't guess who is leading the team in K's, no it's not Adam Dunn, try Brandon Phillps with 13 K's and yes Dunn is second with 11 K's I guess that's the price you pay for all that power.....oh yeah they both have one home run so far, yes I said one HR.


Well, I am a little late on this guy but has anyone noticed Kansas City's Zack Greinke is 3-0 with an ERA of 0.75. How many guessed right on him this week as you were looking for your two start pitchers? Well yours truly did and he got me my best start of the year so far....23 points and oh does my team need those points right now. Greinke is not a big time strikeout pitcher but did get seven K's last night. He usually gets a lot of ground ball outs. I read in "The Sporting News" today that one scout said he had the arm to be a top five pitcher in the American league. If he is still out there in your league you might want to take a look at him.


Watch out, the Tigers have won four of their last five but are still in the basement of the AL Central. Boston, Chicago and the Angels aren't that much of a suprise leading their respective divisions tonight. Actually Oakland has the same 9-6 record as the Angels in the west and yes that is a suprise that won't hold up.

The only team in the National league that isn't a suprise leading their division is the Diamondbacks in the west. I really don't think the Cards or Marlins have enough to stay on top of their respective divisions. I really hope the Cards can't keep this up. If they do it spells doom for my Reds.......

All right, I need to go find me a catcher that can come thru for me as good as Zack Greinke did.....any ideas for me now!!!!!!!!!

Rough Starts

Where do I start. First and maybe most importantly, my Cincinnati Reds just got swept by the damn Pittsburgh Pirates. I know the Reds are better than this. Johnny Cueto came back to earth today, but he could also sue for non support as he went to the fifth inning without the Reds scoring a run. Anytime the Pirates sweep you home or away things are not good. It's time, yes it's already time for the Reds to give all these young guns a spot and start them everyday and leave them there. I am begininng to think that Encarnacion isn't a major league third baseman. He is now on the interstate hitting an awesome .171 with at least four errors.


I was all over the Detroit Tigers at the begining of the season, yes I know we are only two weeks in, but they are in dead last in a very tough division where the Kansas City Royals might be the suprise of baseball. I still have to believe that the Tigers will be there when it's all said and done, but last place in a very competive central division, they better get it going after being shutout on Sunday 11-0 by the White Sox.


In other news....the Yankess found a David Ortiz jersey a construction worker buried in three feet of conrete at the site of the new Yankee Stadium across the street from the house that Babe built. The worker that buried it was you guessed it a Red Sox fan trying to put a jinx on the new stadium. Word got out and Yankee officals started jack hammering around where it was supposed to be buried and they found it in there and plan an extractment ceremony tomorrow. Make you you watch Baseball Tonight as I'm sure they will be there all over this story. Does anyone else wonder if ESPN understands there are thirty other teams in MLB besides the Yankees and Red Sox.


Speaking of rough starts, I will never ever draft that lame duck Rich Harden again, how many times will I get burned by the same guy. More players on my all time slow start team....Kenji Johjima, Hunter Pence, Justin Morneau and Jimmy Rollins gets hurt on me midweek....here's hoping your team got off to a better start than mine and that week three wakes up some of my guys and yours too.......GO REDS, GET IT IN GEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baseball 2Nite 4-11-08

*Yanks and Red Sox tonight in game 1 of 2008=Wang 2 hitter complete game and only 1 ER.

*Tigers won for only the 2nd time all year.

*Volquez looked great for the Reds tonight vs the Pirates. He went 5 innings with 3 Ks and no ER before being pulled after a long lightning delay. He dropped his ERA to 0.87.

*David Wright finally hit tonight going 2-4.

*Pujols' elbow is holding up. He hit bomb #3 tonight.

*The Cubs big three all hit homers tonight: Derek Lee (4), Aramis Rameriz (3), and Soriano (2).

*C.C. Sabathia sucked it up big time. That contract year isn't starting off so well. He's o-2 with a 11.57 ERA.

*Carlos Pena is at it again prooving he's no one year wonder. He hit two shots tonight. (4, 5)

*Mike Jacobs hit #5 for the Marlins tonight. If you're looking for a 1B, you might want to snatch him up.

*Jake Peavy is off to a rough start against the Dodger Blue tonight giving up 7 hits in the first two innings. My son is going to have a melt down when he wakes up and sees that.

Baseball 2Nite 4-8-08

Nice night of baseball. My high school team went 1-1 in a tourney today and the Kentucky Wildcats just hit a walk-off homer against those evil Cardinals from Loserville.

**Johnny Cueto had another wonderful fantasy outing tonight for the Reds going 6 1/3, 2 ER and 8 Ks in a no decision.

**Dice K had a nice 7 K win for the Red Sox against the still O'fer Tigers.

**Mark Reynolds is tearing it up for the D-Backs. He hit his 5th homer of the year tonight. He's batting a lovely .367 and 9 RBIs. If you haven't already.....pick this dude up.

**Matt Holliday is heating up......Mark Texeria is NOT!

**James Loney will win the batting title. I'm hoping so b/c I have him on my team.

Tigers or should I say Kittycats

After all the hype of the spring about this recreation of the 27 Yankees, I ask you is this the real Detroit Tigers we are seeing after the first six games of the season. I say no, not by a long shot. After being out scored 12-6 and being swept by the Kansas City Royals, yes the Kansas City Royals I said, the Tigers were licking their wounds. You might think this would wake the sleeping gaint, I mean Tiger, well think again. The Chicago White out scored the Tigers 26-10 as they also sweep the Tigers in another three game series. Yes the mighty Tigers that had the lineup that could score at will along with a decent pitching staff just couldn't get it done. We are heading into the second week of the season still loking for their first win.
These Tigers came into the season with all the power that Detroit use to love to put into their souped up high performance engines of yesteryear. The Tigers are playing like the auto's that are all so popular today though, those weak ass four cylinders that we all are headed back to fighting sky high fuel prices.
How does a team that is so stacked start off 0-6. Well don't think this will continue you can't hold down a squad like this for long. I still think they will be there when the season is over. The Sox will give them a run but look for Detroit to seal the deal and win the division.

Two Start Pitchers of note week 2 (4-7-08)

There are a ton of two-start pitchers for this upcoming week. Here are some fantasy notable two-starters.

**Ted Lilly will get two starts both at the Pennsylvania teams.

**Javier Vasquez will at home vs. the Twins and the o''fer the season Tigers.

**Cole Hamels will face Arroyo at Cincy and Zambrano at home vs. the Cubbies.

**Dan Haren will be at home vs. the Dodgers and Colorado.

**Matsuzaka will be at home for big games with Detroit Rock City and the Evil Empire.

**The Man Johnny Cueto will be on the road at the Brew Crew and the Pirates.

**Rich Harden will face another two start pitcher when he takes on AJ Burnett north of the border and then travels to Cleveland. Burnett will pitch his second game of the week at Texas.

**Erik Bedard will be at Tampa Bay and back home vs. the Halos.

**Tim Lincecum will be in San Fran vs. the Padres and Cards.

**Fausto Carmona will travel to the Angels and back home vs. the As.

Baseball 2Nite 4-5-08

Saturday Night update 4-5-08

**Jake Peavy dominated today pitching a complete game shutout and 8 Ks against the Dodgers.

**Big day from Justin Morneau with a homer and 4 RBIs.

**Ryan Howard hit his first bomb of the year but Harang and Cordero were too much for the Phils continuing the Reds march to the postseason.

**My Sleeper team of the year, the Blue Jays, rocked the Red Sox behind new Mr. Big Money Alex Rios.

**Justin Upton continues his red hot start hitting his 3rd homer tonight at Colorado. Get ready for the leagues next super star.

**Pretty much everybody hit for the Braves today. Francour had 3 hits and Texieria had another big day.

**Ichiro is right where he left off in the spring batting .211 this first week. Something has to be wrong with this guy.

**Everybody's playoff lock Detroit is 0-5. Dontrellle didn't give up much in his first Tiger start but they found a way to lose again b/c their bull pen sucks! Looks like the AL Central is wide open. It looks a lot like the NL Central now.

**Roy Oswalt is off to a rough start at 0-2 with an ERA of 6.00. I like Roy a lot. He's a deer huntin country dude that loves to win.

**I'm excited to see Volquez for the Reds tomorrow. Hopefully he can duplicate the start of Johnny Cueto.

Baseball 2Nite 4-4-08

Friday night update 4-4-08

**Chase Utley has 2 bombs and 3 RBI Friday night against my Reds. Big night for Chase.

**Pat Burrell continues to stay hot going 2-2 so far tonight with a bomb.

**Pick up Jeff Keppinger if you already haven't. I said it before, this guy won't hurt you in your lineup.

**Bill Hall....man of a thousand positions had 2 homers and 6 RBI today.

**San Francisco is TERRIBLE. Their lineup is brutal. I feel sorry for Matt Cain and Lincecum.

**The other Upton, Justin, is off to a hot start. He's one of those young players that could break out that you had to take a chance on somewhere in your draft.

**Rick Ankiel is off the juice and still hitting. He hit homer #2 from the 2 hole tonight for the Cards.

**If Toronto's rotation can stay healthy, they can give the Sox and the Yanks a run for their big $ in the AL East. Marcum beat the Red Sox tonight. He's a guy you need to put on your watch list.

JOHNNY CUETO

Nice MLB debut for the Red's Johnny Cueto. 7 innings 1 hit 1 ER and 10 Ks. Not a bad fantasy line. With Cueto, Volquez, and hopefully Homer Bailey coming back soon, the Red's staff looks like solid enough to more than contend in the NL Central. It'll be a sad day when the pretenders in my league log on tonight and see that I snagged Johnny C up!!

Opening Day 2008-The State of Baseball

The Nationals and Braves open it up tonight in the Nats new ball park with Tim Hudson and Odalis Perez. Goodness, opening with Odalis Perez tells you what the Nats rotation looks like!
I'm excited about tomorrow and probably will stay home from work and check it all out.

I went looking for some Reds tickets on-line recently and it got me thinking about the state of baseball today. Not really all the steroids/HGH crap that I'm tired of, but where the game is heading with the children of this country.

Other than Baseball Tonight, it's become increasingly hard to find baseball on TV. Fox is continually improving their highlight shows and you get that one game a Saturday but not until the middle of the summer. The Foxsports satellites like Foxsports South and Ohio shows games but not all cable companies offer them. If you want to get all the games, you have to pay 15 dollars a month to watch it on MLB.COM but how many people have a computer monitor that you can enjoy the games on or a computer that can handle the streaming?

Less and less kids are playing baseball. I was just thinking last week about where a baseball field kids can get to in my community is even at. I remember playing wiffle ball every Sunday. Most yards are so small now that kids can't even do that. When I was at ESPN the Weekend a few weeks ago, someone asks Peter Gammons about the issue. He was at a loss and said even baseball havens like Sarasota were seeing the same problems.

Fantasy baseball is picking up. Someone needs to develop kid-specific fantasy leagues or a father and son league for kids to participate in. Get your kids involved in your league. My 8 year old is drafting in a league this week.

Baseball card prices continue to rise. When I was a kid in the 80's, 50 cents was the top price you'd pay for a pack and you actually got a bunch of cards in it. Now, for $2.99, you might get 8 cards. There were three brands: Donruss, Fleer, and Topps. Now, there are about 25.

Baseball ticket prices are up 12%. My wife and I are both teachers and I truely can't afford to take my family to a game. That may also say something about teaching salaries. I live about two hours away from Cincy. After tickets, food, and gas, I'm looking at $175 minimum to see a game.

I'm not sure I have any answers but I'd love to see the "genious" that is MLB management come up with some strategies to get kids back involved at an affordable price.

Your Watch List

This might be one of the most important things a good fantasy player will do through out the year. Make and maintain a watch list. Of everything you and I have read this year we havn't got a true crystal ball to how some of these guys will perform. Spring training is just that spring training, not the real season. Well the last week or so might be as close as it gets to the true thing but there is still going to be suprises out there. Find you a few guys that have had a pretty good spring and watch them the first few weeks and compare them to the one or two guys on your roster that you are already asking yourself, why did I even draft this jackass.
Here are a couple I have already targeted to watch as the seaon unfolds:
Chris Snyder, the Diamondbacks catcher went undrafted in our league which is ten teams deep. Check to see if he could be available in yours. With the catcher always the thin spot you are looking for anyone that can hit .260-.270 and get you a few knocks a month, Snyder might be able to fill that need for you. I really like everything I have read on him this spring.
Another guy I think is worth watching is Brandon Inge of the Detroit Tigers. Inge is going to fill in for Granderson until his broken finger heals. Inge is only elgible at 3B, but when Granderson gets back Inge will be one of those guys you can keep on your bench with eligibilty at 3B and the OF. This is going to be the time for him to prove himself, if it works out he could help your fantasy team at more then one spot, we all like that.
And how many leagues drafted this guy, Skip Schumaker of the St. Louis Cardinals. I understand the Cardinals will be down this year, but this guy did have a nice spring. Will it continue as the season starts for real? Schumaker is going to lead off and play RF for a manager that is out of rehab and showing so much man love for Bobby Knight, well that's another story. All that aside, put this guy on your watch list and let's "PLAY BALL"

Two Start Pitchers WK 1

Countdown to the real opening day.................Here are the important two start pitchers for week 1. It's big time important to watch out for two-start pitchers. I try to keep one roster spot open to drop and add a two-start pitcher every week. It could be the difference in winning and losing in head-to-head leagues when you talk about 5 to 15 points per week possible.

*Johan Santana (NYM) will be at Florida and at HotLanta.

*Jake Peavy and Chris Young (SD) will be home versus Houston and LA.

*CC Sabathia (Indians) will be home against the CWSox and at Oakland.

*Harang (Reds) will be at home in Great American against Arizona and Philly.

*Erik Bedard (Ms) will be at his new home against Texas and back at his old home against the Os.

*Carlos Zambrano (Cubs) will have his crazy butt at home vs the BrewCrew and Houston.

*Roy Halladay (Jays) will be at Yankee stadium and home vs Boston. Ugly start for him!

*Brandon Webb (D-Backs) will be at Cincy and at Colorado. He'll be pitching in two big time hitters parks but it'll probably be pretty chilly for both games so it shouldn't matter.

*Justin Verlander (Tigers) will be at home vs. KCity and the White Sox.

*Ben Sheets (Brewers) will be at the Cubbies and at San Fran. He'll probably be on the DL by the end of the week.

*Jared Weaver (Angels) Weaver was selected today to be the opening day starter for the Halos. He'll be at the Twins and home against the Rangers.

MLB Notes 3-27-08

Well Spring Training is winding down and it's time for opening day Monday........oh wait.....Did the A's and Red Sox already play two? Rediculous. For me, opening day is MONDAY which is the way it should be. While the Sox and A's get readjusted to normal time, the rest of the league will open up Monday and Tuesday. Spring Training brought quite a few injuries but to me was rather uneventful. I'm already irritated with Dusty Baker. I was hopeful the Reds were on a road to something positive this year but I've got a bad feeling they will go right in the crapper like ususal. Hurry up Jay Bruce and Homer Bailey and get back where you belong.

Rich Harden has already rang up 9 Ks. Manny is actually playing hard so far and has 5 RBIs. Good luck in your first fantasy week.

Spring Training Notes 3-24-08

**The D-Rays sent Evan Longoria to the minors and the Marlins sent Maybin to double A. These teams join the Reds and Cardinals as the latest idiots in Major League Baseball. Guess what D-Rays and Marlins?? You're going to finish dead last in your divisions. Let them play. You're going to suck either way.

**Jim Edmonds is heading to the DL............big surprise.

**Looks like Brian Roberts is now NOT going to the Cubs. This is big positive news for my Reds. By the way, somebody wake up Dusty Baker.

**Here's my take on the opening series starting tomorrow in Japan...................It's RE-COCK-ULOUS. Continued fantastic leadership from Bud Selig. Send two teams away for a week with a 10 hour time change. It'll take them two weeks to recover. By the way, the game comes on at 6:05 am EST. They'll be tons of people watching that one at 2 am PCT. I've said it a half million times.....Bud Selig is a tool.

**Kerry Wood will be the Cubbies closer.

Spring Training Notes Easter Day 2008

Tons of injuries already in MLB.

**Curtis Granderson will start the season on the DL after breaking his finger.

**Jeff Kent still isn't ready to play. He's old and decrepid.

**Scott Kazmir still isn't throwing well and will be on the DL when the season starts.

**Saltalamaachia could be heading to triple A. That sucks for some of you'll because the catcher position is thin.

**Edwin Encarnacion is still stinking it up. My sleeper of the year is looking like he's going to sleep.

**Miguel Cabrera just signed 8 years for $153 million. Good gracious, that re-cock-ulous. A guy that was 40 pounds overweight just a year ago getting some serious bread. Maybe he'll hire a chef and full-time trainer to keep his fat-butt out of the fridge.

**Long time Brave catcher Javy Lopez announced his retirement. He hasn't been fantasy worthy in 4 or 5 years and I never liked his contact rate as a fantasy player. I don't think he cares what I think b/c he's wicked rich and probably never has to work another day in his life.