Wednesday, February 28, 2007

I KNEW IT!

One Marlin says Girardi helping Lieber amounts to "expletive."

Even so, Dontrelle Willis shrugs it off.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Burrell, etc.

Mike Schmidt hones his God-given ability to not leave well enough alone. I guess it's good for him to soften his comments about Burrell, but he clearly meant what he said before and he should have enough respect for Burrell as a man to stick to his accusation of "mediocrity." Which is a little harsh, but not far off.

Sheridan takes a more historical tack, and indirectly chastises Philadelphia fans for the millionth time. Old news, Philly-boy.

Finally, Burrell says his foot feels good -- I have totally not heard that before, or something -- and Schmidt thinks McGwire should apologize for his testimony to Congress. Hey, one of these days your advice will be taken in the spirit in which it's offered, right Mike?

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Starting over

Say the entire MLB tossed all its players back into a pool for a re-draft, but each team was allowed to hold onto one player before that happened.

Who would you keep?

Who would I keep? Chase Utley.

Here's my argument for him over Ryan Howard:
1) Position scarcity. Many more power-hitting first-basemen of Howard's ilk (if not caliber) than second-basemen of Utley's.
2) Speed. Utley has it, even if he's no Shane Victorino, and Howard doesn't.
3) Though they both strike out a decent amount, Utley's swing is more compact, so I can more readily imagine him cutting down on the K's.

They're about the same age, Utley born December '78, Howard born November '79, and they both hit lefty. And in fact, they can both play first base, whereas I don't think you'd ever want to put Howard at second.

Let me hear some arguments for Howard.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Mench isn't one

  • So sad we didn't get this guy in exchange for Lieber. I understand guys having pride and wanting to play all the time, but painting your manager into a corner is bush-league. Plus, he also apparently doesn't wear the right-sized shoes.
  • If I have to have a guy on my team who smacked his wife, I suppose I'm glad it's him.
  • Having a fast guy steal bases is a concept that only occurred to the Phillies once they hired a former base-stealer as first-base coach? My head hurts.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Mahalo, Victy!


  • How about this promotion?
  • Rowand reacts to Linebrink-trade rumors.
  • Linebrink reacts to Rowand-trade rumors.
  • Joe Girardi gives Jon Lieber advice on mechanics in the middle of the 2006 pennant race? I know they were once battery-mates, but if I read that as a Marlin or a Marlins fan I'd be ticked off.
  • A guy I've never heard of has a bum shoulder. Dang.
  • A cap that dries in 10 minutes and doesn't smell? Blasphemy.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Inky links and quick thoughts


At this point, what 25-man roster do you go with? Here's mine:
C: Barajas, Ruiz
1B: Howard
2B: Utley
SS: Rollins
3B: Nunez, Helms
LF: Burrell, Werth
CF: Rowand, Roberson
RF: Victorino, K. Garcia
SP: F. Garcia, Myers, Moyer, Eaton, Hamels
RP: Gordon, Smith, Geary, Madson, Castro, Alfonseca, RP from Lieber trade

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

New caps!

Here's a bunch of links to atone for my inattentiveness:

  • Sheep baa in appreciation of MLB's new headgear policy.
  • Time to snap up passes to one-night stands.
  • A breaking story from the AP: Apparently it has been a long time since the Phillies attended the postseason. Huh.
  • Nice work if you can get it, but on the Phillies, it'll be harder than usual for some marginal big-leaguers.
  • Jayson Werth shares a cringe-worthy anecdote about bones breaking.
  • I'm clearly stealing my bulleted-links style from this man, whose blog you'll need an ESPN Insider account to read in full. That's true of a lot of the good stuff on this site, and I pay 75 cents a week for the privilege. I don't think that's too steep, and as someone who hopes to eventually write for a paper with a solid online business model of paid subscription, I want to be able to put my money where my mouth is. Or something.
  • A familiar mug, sans moustache, weighs in on a Phils team whose confidence has surged.
  • The onetime gold standard in center field is entering his contract year and looking beyond Atlanta. I would not bet against a 45 HR-120 RBI-.280 AVG campaign.
  • Another Drabek!

Monday, February 12, 2007

Back, back, back, back... not gone

Registration for Yahoo! fantasy leagues begins Thursday, and the fact that I'm giddy about being able to get on a fantasy-league message board and name my team tells you 85% of what you need to know about my personality. Sit next to me during a movie or a Maryland-Duke game to pick up the rest.

This will be the seventh year of my 10-team keeper league from my college newspaper. We're pretty far-flung by now -- over seven states! -- but it's still such a fun dialogue, with the right balance of civility and idiocy. I'm already poring over my 2006 roster in preparation for three things:
  1. Choosing who to pursue and protect in the faux free-agent signing period. Any player a general manager (me) adds to his team once the season begins is classified as a free agent. When the offseason rolls around, the other nine teams can place bids on him. The more you want a guy, the earlier you'll commit to drafting him. So if the highest bid on Joe Blow is Round 3, I can either let him walk or I can keep him one round later, in Round 4. Conversely, if I want to pursue a free agent, I know I'm only allowed to bid on eight players in all. (We're allowed to keep 12 to begin the year.)
  2. After we sign free agents, we decide who to keep in the 23-round draft. Players must be kept one round earlier than they were drafted the year before. So if John Smith was drafted in Round 20 in 2006, and I want to keep him, I forfeit my Round 19 pick this year. It gets a little more complicated when I keep multiple guys drafted in the same round or keep a guy several years in a row, but you don't give a crap. Actually, if you've read this far, maybe you do, but I need to move on.
  3. The draft lasts 27 rounds, plus injury time. 2006 draftees can't be kept in Rounds 24 through 27, so this is the spot for rising minor-leaguers and veteran spare parts. After the 27 rounds, for every dude who's already on the disabled list, you get to draft another guy to take his active roster spot until he's healthy again.
The draft is March 31, but the free agent draft and keeper deadline are early next month, and I'm competing in a league chock-full of sports journalists, so I have to overprepare.

Here's my roster. It's an NL-only league. Who should I keep? If you have two guys in the same round, you have to draft one of them a round earlier. I can keep between six and 12 guys.

Oh yeah: I draft first in every round.

Round 1: Aramis Ramirez, Jason Schmidt
Round 3: Mark Mulder
Round 4: Armando Benitez
Round 5: Geoff Jenkins
Round 7: Austin Kearns, Brett Myers, Hanley Ramirez, Jon Lieber
Round 9: Ryan Dempster
Round 11: Brandon Claussen
Round 13: Ryan Madson
Round 14: Nick Johnson
Round 15: Adrian Gonzalez
Round 17: Dan Uggla
Round 21: J.J. Hardy
Round 22: Jeff Francoeur, Jeremy Hermida, Juan Encarnacion
Round 23: Anibal Sanchez, Taylor Buchholz, Dustin Nippert
Free agents: Oliver Perez, Aaron Cook, Cesar Izturis