Benchwarmer: March 2008

Friday, March 28, 2008

Angels - Dodgers Showdown!

As spring training comes to close, the Dodgers are happy to be back in Southern California, especially after spending time in Florida, China, and Arizona. It's great that Major League Baseball would schedule the freeway series rivalry of the Angels and Dodgers in a neutral site, so fans of both teams would be able to come out and root for their teams.

There's nothing like being out at the ball park. We took our seats behind the plate, about 20 rows up (that's how we roll!). After about the 4th inn this dude came to sit in front of us...

and quickly began to question where exactly we were... Where could you find a guy wearing faded jeans, a red Vlad jersey, black dress shoes and a tan visor? It wasn't too long before this guy solved our curiosity:

We were in freaking Anaheim, the 714, Angels stadium! Well, you really couldn't tell from thousands of Dodger fans in attendance. The game itself, it was spring training. Kudos to the managers for keeping the starters in for about 8 inngs. They played to a 2-2 tie, some would say, like kissing a distant cousin... nice, but you really can't win (some may say, I wouldn't know).

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Opening Day

It's the smell of fresh cut grass... hot dogs on the grill... it's the taste of an ice cold beer... of garlic fries and pretzels... it's the sight of military airplanes performing a flyby overhead... of girls in their summer skirts and flip flops... it's the sound of the peanut vendor yelling "nuts... nuts..!" and the idiot cholo sitting in front of you following it with the classic "in your mouth" inappropriate remark. It's opening day. A sacred holiday for basebally fans. We've been waiting all winter for it, and it's finally here. Wait... it's there... across the pacific... in Tokyo, Japan? WTF? Yup. Baseball opening day in Japan! Forget America's pastime, the Star Spangled Banner and apple pie.

In an attempt of world domination, the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland A's faced off for a two game series to open the season as part of Major League baseball's effort to widen its appeal on the international market. Studies predict that within the next few years baseball will surpass the NFL in total revenue... somewhere in the ballpark of 6 billion dollars (pardon the pun). Why opening day? If you're a member of the red sox nation or one of 34 Oakland A's fans in the Pacific time zone, first pitch for the games was 3:05am. Ask your coworkers around the water cooler and I bet most won't even know two games have already been played in the major league season.

Comming out of an off season in which steriods, Brian McNamee, congressional hearings, and Roger Clemens were the headlines, baseball doesn't need the World Champion Red Sox to open so far away from home. Now they return to the states to play three more spring training games in Los Angeles before heading to Oakland to finish up their four game series.

These games would have been scheduled best around the All-Star break, or at some point early in the season if they wanted to play meaningful games.. best bet was to play exhibition games... what can we expect next? the world ping pong championships to be hosted in Los Angeles? I think not.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Pre-Season Draft Analysis Power Rankings 1.0

12. Springfield- will hopefully move up from single A to double A this year... still too raw to move up into the big league of team managers.

11. Predators- If a teacher tells you that you are the only student in the class that will be allowed to use a laptop in an exam, you'd think.. easy A right? well, then there's Predators. Pitching staff has so many ?. Can Randy stay healthy? Can Harden? Can Lidge? when you're backups include Schilling.. on the 60 day DL... Mussina... WTF were you thinking?

10. sox2008- if your favorite team is the Red Sox, and you draft 5 red sox players you'd think not bad.. these studs won the world series.. this same thinking doesnt really apply if your fav team is the white sox... and they stink. Also from the school of ZekeUniversity of Phoenix strategy of drafting 3 pitchers is 1st 6 rounds (or 8 pitchers in the 1st 14 rounds) This team will probably come in dead last in batting avg... and will have to rely on the pitching to carry the team.

9. The Corporation- I'm disappointed by the draft of the corp. Markakis, Hart and Butler are young.. maybe too young to be dependant on for production. Pitching staff.. 4 deep, 3 and a half if you count liriano... it just doesnt look like a championship team.

8. Red Birds- After the first two rounds, I was ready to declare a back-to-back championship to Red Birds.... then came the rest of the draft. Drafting Pierre in the 7th round may prove costly, as Torre is ready to declare Andre Either the starting left fielder. This not only takes 100 runs off the board, but a .300 avg and 64 valuable SBs. James Shields and Adam Wainwright will struggle for wins on their poor teams. Soto, Damon, Renteria and Ankiel are umimpressive in this line-up. Work is cut out for the defending champs.

7. 1 for 4- 4 of his first 7 picks were pitchers... in most leagues, managers focus on hitting and and hope pitching can hold up... interesting to see how this plays out. All of sudden, zeke completely abandoned pitching and started draftng hitters.. leaving holes in 2/5 of his rotation (escobar is injured and buckholz may start the year at AAA. Look for the best rotation in the Carson Casino League to take effect in June. Problem, only one closer... Wood is expected to be the guy in chi-town and lyon has been declared the closer in ariz. Pudge, griffey, delgado, and Dye are old... and as prone to injury as John Wooden.

6.Dirty Dozen- This rookie has a good line-up... back end of the pitching staff has some questions.. but overall solid team... should contend all year...

5.Wise Cracks- The line-up lacks power (178 homeruns last season compared w 228 for the res dogs) and batting avg.If Ben Sheets, Burnett stay healthy, this could be the 2nd best rotation in the league...and if it doesn't, the lack of depth could be exploited. Update: Kazmir already looking to start the season on the DL.

4. SuperStarz- I would like to give myself props for drafting a really good team for Abel and SuperStarz. Maybe too good. I advised Abel not to draft Dan Uggla in the 4th round and told him to draft Travis Hafner when he wanted to go with Gary Matthews Jr (or something like that). SuperStarz have the best line-up of the Carson Casino League. Too bad I didn't help him with his pitching! muahahaha.

3. Reservoir Dogs- went into the draft with the strategy of taking 7 hitters with the first 10 picks. If Wood and Sherrill pan out and have solid seasons... I predict this strategy will revolutionize fantasy baseball as the development of google did for the internet. The Dogs are solid all around, fielding the 3rd best line-up, and 3rd best rotation in the league.

2. Cartel- 4 leadoff hitters in the line-up equals runs and SBs but will lead to Cartel to fall short in the RBI and power dept. nice rotation... solid team.. will contend for a top 3 finish ; )

1. The Real McCoys- Second best line-up in the league. Pitching...it will be tough for Penny, Blanton and Francis to match the years they had in 07... but bench players Petitte and Hernandez are on really good teams and could be the band aid for the rotation... Hitters will carry the pithcing. I like this team a lot.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Fantasy Basbeball Rankings: Overall

1 Alex Rodriguez
2 David Wright
3 Hanley Ramirez
4 Matt Holliday
5 Miguel Cabrera
6 Jimmy Rollins
7 Albert Pujols
8 Chase Utley
9 Ryan Howard
10 Ryan Braun
11 Prince Fielder
12 Jose Reyes
13 Johan Santana
13 Alfonso Soriano
14 Grady Sizemore
15 David Ortiz
16 Carlos Lee
17 Vlad Guerrero
18 Magglio Ordonez
19 Lance Berkrman
20 Jake Peavy
21 Brandon Phillips
22 Carlos Beltran
23 BJ Upton
24 Mark Texiera
25 Brandon Webb
26 Ichiro
27 Carl Crawford
28 Josh Beckett
29 Justin Verlander
30 Curtis Granderson
31 Victor Martinez
32 Russel Martin
33 Aramis Ramirez
34 John Lackey
35 Travis Hafner
36 Erik Bedard
37 Manny Ramirez
38 Garrett Atkins
39 Carlos Guillen
40 CC Sebathia
41 Justin Morneau
42 Eric Byrnes
43 Cole Hammels
44 Jonathan Paplebon
45 Adam Dunn
46 K Rod
47 Alex Rios
48 Dan Haren
49 Bobby Abreu
50 Torii Hunter
51 Nick Markakis
52 Troy Tulowitzky
53 Chone Figgins
54 Derek Jeter
55 Brian Roberts
56 Chipper Jones
57 Carlos Pena
58 Robinson Cano
59 Aaron Harang
60 John Smoltz
61 Brad Hawpe
62 JJ Putz
63 Adrian Gonzalez
64 Miguel Tejada
65 Roy Oswalt
66 Derek Lee
67 Mike Lowell
68 Takashi Saito
69 Carlos Zambrano
70 Corey Hart
71 Hunter Pence
72 Mariano Rivera

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Pitchers

Don't pay for pitching. Sure, Johan Santana has the potential for a 20 win season. But every picther has a great potential for injury... or a bad season. See Peavy 2006. A great way of ranking pitchers is the tier system, separated as ace, 2nd starter, 3rd starter etc. Verlander, with a world series appearance and a no-hitter under his belt... is my target for the 4th round.
Draft at least one in each category to fill out your rotation.
Ace
1 Johan Santana
2 Jake Peavy
3 Brandon Webb
4 Josh Beckett
5 Justin Verlander
6 John Lackey
7 Erick Bedard
8 CC Sebathia
9 Cole Hammels
10 Dan Haren

Tier 2
11 Aaron Harang
12 John Smoltz
13 Roy Oswalt
14 Carlos Zambrano
15 Chris Young
16 Felix Hernandez
17 Roy Halladay
18 Scott Kazmir
19 Fausto Carmona
20 Pedro Martinez

Tier 3
21 Francisco Liriano
22 Ben Sheets
23 Chad Billingsly
24 Rich Hill
25 Dice K Matsusaka
26 Tim Lincecum
27 Javier Vasquez
28 John Maine
29 Brett Myers
30 AJ Burnett
31 Matt Cain
32 Randy Johnson

Tier 4
33 Jona Chamberlain
34 Yovanni Gallardo
35 James Shields
36 Chin Ming Wang
37 Ted Lilly
38 Brad Penny
39 Ian Snell
40 Jeff Francis
41 Hiroki Kuroda
42 Jered Weaver
43 Derek Lowe
44 Kelvin Escobar
45 Jeremy Bonderman
46 Adam Wainright
47 Rich Harden
48 Phil Hughes

Tier 5
49 Tom Gorzelanny
50 Tim Hudson
51 Zack Grenkie
52 Gil Meche
53 Shawn Hill
54 Dustin McGowan
55 Joe Blanton
56 Andy Pettite
57 Clay Buckholz
58 Tim Hudson
59 Tom Glavin
60 Mike Mussina
61 Micha Owings
62 Barry Zito
63 Dontrell Willis
64 Tim Wakefield
65 Kenny Rogers

Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Outfield

Don't make the most common Fantasy baseball mistake: drafting Ichiro and Carl Crawford in the first two rounds! I'm baffled how these two one category (two for Ichiro) are always taken in the 1st or 2nd rounds. Ichiro didn't steal as many bases last season as he did in 06 and Crawford has yet to fill his home run potential. I've managed to trade for Ichiro in the last two years at the all start break for Chin Ming Wang. Owners who draft Ichiro high are usually frustrated by his lack of procduction. Look for Man Ram to bouce back in a free agent year (the Sox do have a $20 million option), and he's recently changed agents and is now represented by Scott Boras. Watch Carlos Beltran this spring, he's coming off knee surgury.

1 Matt Holliday
2 Ryan Braun (will play OF this season)
3 Alfonso Soriano
4 Grady Siezemore
5 Carlos Lee
6 Vlad Guerrero
7 Magglio Ordonez
8 BJ Upton
9 Carlos Beltan
10 Ichiro
11 Carl Crawford
12 Curtis Granderson
13 Manny Ramirez
14 Erik Brynes
15 Alex Rios
16 Bobby Abreu
17 Torii Hunter
18 Nick Markakis
19 Brad Hawpe
20 Adam Dunn
21 Cory Hart
22 Gary Sheffield
23 Chris Young
24 Hunter Pence
25 Vernon Wells
26 Jermaine Dye
27 Jason Bay
28 Hideki Matsui
29 Jeff Francoeur
30 Matt Kemp

Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Catcher

I wouldn't spend a top 2 pick on a catcher. I'd rather get a stud hitter and pick up Jason Veritek in the late rounds of the draft. With the workload on the shoulders of Russell Martin, his production has gone down in the 2nf half of his last two seasons. Look for McCann to bounce back, Posada to come back to earth, and Maur to be nothing more than a great one category hitter. Advice: Wait on catchers.

1 Victor Martinez

2 Russell Martin

3 Brian McCann

4 Jorge Posada

5 Joe Mauer

6 Kenji Jojhima

7 Benji Molina

8 Ivan Rodriguez

9 Ramon Hernandez

10 Geovany Soto

11 Jason Veritek

12 AJ Perzynski

13 Mike Napoli

14 Carlos Ruiz

15 Ronny Paulino

Fantasy Baseball Rankings: 3rd base

In the first round of your draft you'll either be drafting a shortstop or a 3rd baseman. Best case scenario, Jimmy Rollins falls to you late in the 1st round and you can pick up Ryan Braun in the 2nd... well, you can hope miracles! 3rd base is a deep category, aside from Arod I think David Wright is the second best fantasy option.

1 Alex Rodriguez

2 David Wright

3 Miguel Cabrera

4 Ryan Braun

5 Aramis Ramirez

6 Garrett Atkins

7 Chipper Jones

8 Chone Figgins

9 Mike Lowell

10 Ryan Zimmerman

11 Josh Fields

12 Adrien Beltre

13 Kevin Kouzmanoff

14 Troy Glaus

15 Alex Gordon

Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Shortstop

Grab one of the top three shortstops early! The dropoff between tiers in the shortstop category is significant.

1 Hanley Ramirez

2 Jimmy Rollins

3 Jose Reyes

4 Troy Tulowitzky

5 Carlos Guillen

6 Derek Jeter

7 Miguel Tejada

8 Rafael Furcal

9 Johnny Peralta

10 Orlando Cabrera

11 Michael Young

12 Kahlil Greene

13 Edgar Renteria

14 Ryan Theriot

15 Julio Lugo

Benchwarmer