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Isn't it amazing just how many pitchers are enjoying unexpected success in the early going this 2008 major league baseball season? I mean you have Cliff Lee, Gavin Floyd, Andy Sonnanstine, Joe Saunders, Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum combining for a 25-4 record. What gives? Well, what gives is that every season there are new faces emerging into the elite status of pitching. However, expect some if not all of these players to come back down to earth a bit. At least to let us know they are human. But one thing is for certain, every season produces a new breed of exciting baseball players, and in Cliff Lee's case, comeback players.
Barrack "Hussein" Obama will be the nominee for the democratic party. Its just a matter of time before Hillary Rodham Clinton folds up her tent. I was wondering whether or not Hillary would use her success in key democratic states as an excuse to run as an independent in the upcoming election. However, money just won't be there. She's better off dropping out soon, getting behind Obama and hoping he loses so that she can make a run in 2012 against McCain or another republican candidate.
I'm getting sick and tired of reading about seperation of church and state arguments when it comes to Christian symbols or prayer in public places. Yet, Muslims and Jews, especially Muslims, are allowed to pray in public and even get special privledges because of their faith. I believe its all a combination of bias against the true religion, Catholicism (and it's Christian branches), political catering to special interest Jews and pondering to Muslims out of subconcious fear of future punishment (ie future attacks).
And speaking of biased views. Nothing has been more blatant an abuse of human intelligence than the natural evolution theory. The entire evolution database has been built on a godless premise and pieced together by special pleading regarding just where each bit of evidence fits in the wouldbe godless scenario. Well, the special pleading really comes in from the outset, abiogensis. There is no possible way that proteins, without any direction, could come together all at once (due to reproductive barriers) and just suddenly form a complex organism (correlating cell structures housing a dna or rna biofeedback system) all capable of either copying itself or reproducing. Yep. I got it. NOT.
There are some fantasy baseball studs and there are duds. Thus far, Ryan Howard, Carlos Beltran and Robinson Cano appear to be the biggest stud duds. However, don't panic. If you invested your team's fate, (an early round pick or high priced purchase), do not unload any of these three or any other top tier player. They ower you! Wait it out. Wait until they repay you with some numbers which will jolt your team up several notches in those categories they temporarily have you hurting in.
In fantasy baseball leagues, there's always a fantasy whiz in your league who will pick up a player and drop a play at just the right times. But clever moves like (no moves at all), at least in the case of keeping a Cano, Beltran or Howard, could well pay dividends as the season progresses. One thing I've learned in the past is that if you drop a player who you expect to eventually produce, you pretty much have dropped yourself from contention in any fantasy baseball league. In most cases, the Beltrans, the Canos and the Howards will do what you expect of them. There's no league titles won by having a great April or lost by having a bad April. You draft for seasonal stats and that means when you draft studs, let them play the entire season.
Baseball is nearing the end of its first month and there are few surprises thus far. The reason for this is simple, its just too early. It won't be until August until the real contenders are revealed. You can expect the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies all to be in contention come August 1. Right now, Baltimore, a team I picked to lose over 100 games, is in first place. Sorry. Aint happening O's.
Notes: There's a little concern in New York as Jorge Posada's season is in jeopardy due to what appears to be a tear in his shoulder. Alex Rodriguez twinked his Hammy last night and the Yankees will continue to have him take it easy for now. The Mets fans and Carlos Delgado have to straighten things out (NOT - this isn't a story folks, I mean who cares?). The Phillie bullpen looks solid so far. The Cards and Larussa are off to a solid start. The Joe Torre curse of starting out slow has reached LA. Barry Bonds isn't playing baseball (I guess he snuck out the backdoor). Other than these tidbits, there's really not much going on. I won't give credit to the phenom pitchers from Cincinnati or S.F. just yet. Let the hitters get the leg cramps fixed and their bats swinging before we tout anyone as another Doc Gooden. May May make many merry.
Hank Steinbrenner has to get with the program. His Yankees are 10-10 and just because Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy are off to slow starts, he's pushing the panic button. He is taking after his dad, that's for sure. Today Hank "Chip off the ole block" Steinbrenner stated publicly that Joba Chamberlain cannot be wasted as a setup man and was destined to be a starter this season.
Can somebody tell Hank that he'll have to send Joba down to the minors for about 4 weeks to extend his throwing arm? That the Yankees will only then get about 12 starts from him this season if they did this now? That during the rest of the season, Le troy Hawkins and Kyle Farnsworth would give the pennant to the Red Sox, gift wrapped and all? What a riot! Baseball is definitely back when you start to see homeruns by Chipper "Larry" Jones, Manny Ramirez, Chase Utley, and the usual rantings of a madman in charge of the New York Yankees.
Espn is now providing an embed version of their updated major league baseball scoreboard. As you can see above, it also gives anyone viewing it a button to click for which to save it on their internet explorer browsers. I have it in a sticky post so it will remain on the top of Baseball Etc.
Baseball is off to it's typical cold April, which means many elite pitchers are struggling early on. Roy Oswalt is off to a horrible 0-2 start with an ERA of 9.00. C. C. Sabathia is also off to a horrible start and Erik Bedard appears to have problems with hip inflammation, which can be triggered by damp, cool weather. Its early, so just sit back, relax and watch the 2008 major league baseball season unfold, and don't forget to add the ESPN baseball scoreboard to you browser or blog.
Just a little reminder to all of you Fantasy Baseball mangers: Don't panic early on. Although some of your players may appear to be finished, washed up, odios amigos, it's not true! They are just off to a rough start. Don't sell them out just yet. Give them a month and they'll hit eventually and make up the points they owe you. Remember, if you have a hitter hitting .100 in your league, with no homers, no RBIs, and he has hurt you in your fantasy baseball standings, he owes you.
Now unless we are talking about rookie players or players you shouldn't have drafted, you can expect them to improve those owed numbers and then you can decide whether to trade or drop them. For now, stay the course and don't panic. Let April playout before we analyze all of the players. The ones that are off to great starts, average starts or poor starts. Be patient for now.
Baseball is here and what is Google doing? Instead of placing a spinning baseball on their Google homepage to welcome in the major league baseball season, they play a weird April Fool's joke on their visitors with Project Virgil. Not Virgil, Virgle. Maybe tomorrow they'll have a picture of William Shatner on their homepage saying "April Fools!" lol
Well, it's here. The long awaited start to the 2008 major league baseball season. It's time for the teams to take the field. Time for the C.C. Sabathias, Johan Santanas, Erik Bedards, Josh Becketts and other aces to take to the mound. It's time for the Alex Rodriguezes, Derek Jeters, Miguel Cabreras, Matt Holidays and Albert Pujols to stand at the plate. It's time for the fans to take their seats. It's time for the throwing out of first balls, the national anthem, the 7th inning stretches. It's time for the rookies to shine. It's time for America's greatest sport to begin. Enjoy.
The Oakland A's, considering their recent history of possessing some of the best arms in baseball, would seem to be an unlikely candidate to finish with the worst record in major league baseball. But with all of those arms departing, the A's find themselves way short of a starting rotation which can compete and they are also rebuilding from top to bottom.
With the departure of Dan Haren and with Rich Harden's health always in question, this may well become the worst Oakland pitching staff in their franchise history. Besides the fragile Rich Harden, all they really have is Joe Blanton. Blanton is average at best and yielded 240 hits last season. Following him are unproven names like Justin Duchscherer, Dana Eveland and Chad Gaudin. Gaudin will have to improve alot over his performance last season where he yielded over 200 hits and walked 100 more. This is a pitiful looking group of pitchers. Harden, if healthy can be the best in the game. Although he would have to get a few seasons under his belt to reach that level. To put it plainly, they'll stink this year, and they'll probably lose Harden again to the DL. The bullpen consists of proven talent in Keith Foulke, Alan Embree and closer Houston Street. So it should do okay.
When I said the A's were rebuilding, I didn't just mean their pitching staff. Their offense will consist of young names like 1b Daric Barton, 3b Jack Hannahan, rf Travis Buck, cf Ryan Sweeney, c Kurt Suzuki. In fact they don't have one bonified hitter in their lineup. Folks, we won't go any further here. We'll just project the worst record in baseball as Billy Beane finally hits rock bottom in a haphazard rebuilding project. Projected record, 59-103.
Take heart Texas Rangers fans. Your team will not finish in the cellar in the 2008 major league baseball season. The reason for this is simply because the Oakland A's are rebuilding and the Rangers will finish 3rd by default.
Now I'm not mocking this Rangers team. It would be nice if they went out of their way to add a much needed ace to their pitching rotation. But their rotation of Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Jason Jennings as their top 3 starters possess experience and they all should all improve their performances over last season. Kason Gabbard and Luiz Mendosa look to fill out a rotation which will be better than Oaklands this season. In the bullpen the Rangers have the experience of Eddie Guardado, a decent pitcher in Joaquin Benoit and Japanese pitcher Kazuo Fukumori to set it up for new closer C.J. Wilson. It doesn't promise to be a great bullpen, but it should get the job done. Now this pitching staff is what I would consider adequate enough but it is one ace shy of being considered good.
The Texas Rangers lineup doesn't look to score its usual runs. Next to proven hitters like Matt Young and Hank Blalock, the Rangers will be relying on names like Marlon Byrd, Milton Bradley, Josh Hamilton and Ian Kinsler to contribute to their offense. Even though this team is mediocre at its best, and it doesn't seem to be committed to winning any time soon, it will prevail in securing a 3rd place finish in the woeful AL West with a record of 66-96. Now if that Rangers fan who yelled at me last season for picking them to lose 92 games is reading this, you guessed it, I'll be close again this year.
The Los Angeles Angels are a team which always seem to be in contention, but always come up short. Last season, they fell to the Red Sox, losing 3 straight in the first round of the playoffs.
The Angels will have their work cut out for them in 2008. Their ace John Lackey will miss the entire month of April and 18 game winner Kelvim Escobar may be out for the season with a shoulder tear. So to start out, their rotation will rely heavily on Jon Garland and Jered Weaver. Weaver may emerge this season as an elite and will be a nice number 2 behind John Lackey. Young pitchers Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana will fill out the rest of the rotation. So if they can get through April still standing, a rotation of Lackey, Weaver, Garland, Saunders and Santana may be good enough to keep them in the hunt. Their bullpen will be just fine with one of baseball's top closers in Francisco Rodriguez and two solid setup men in Scott Shields and Justin Speier. All in all though, the temporary absence of John Lackey and the questionable status of Escobar will set the Angels back a bit as they struggle early on.
The Angels lineup has lacked punch of late and they needed another bat to compliment Vladimir Guerrero. Tori Hunter was signed during the off season and this should help run productivity. With Chone Figgins, young talent like Erick Aybar, Howie Kendrick and Casey Kotchman, there is now a nice blend of speed, power, veterans and youth. Garrett Anderson and Gary Matthews Jr. however, are experiencing health setbacks this spring so there are some question marks in their batting order.
You have to think that a team with this many injury woes this early on in the season will struggle. And struggle they will. I'll still pick them to have a winning season and even be in the race down the stretch. But the injuries to Lackey and Escobar as well as health concerns with Anderson and Matthews make me feel that Seattle is in better shape and will finish ahead of the Angels. Expect a 84-78 second place finish in 2008 for the Los Angeles Angels.
Seattle Mariners 2008.The Seattle Mariners took a big step for an immediate run at the AL West title by trading a future superstar prospect. That prospect, center fielder Adam Jones is now starting in center field for the Baltimore Orioles. What did Seattle get in return? A solid ace in Erik Bedard who went 13-5 with a 3.16 ERA and 221 strikeouts with the Orioles in 2006. He is now nearing age 29 and the prime of his career. Will this addition be what the Mariners needed to get atop of the Western Division? We'll soon see.
I think whether or not the Erik Bedard deal will put them over the top all rides on how well Felix Hernandez does coming off of a season of setbacks and under achievements. The rotation looks to be Bedard, Hernandez, Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista and Carlos Silva. Washburn is coming off of a disappointing 10-15 season while Carlos Silva seems to be a good fit in this rotation. Its a rotation which looks to be very competitive and which pitches very deep into games. This will help their bullpen which is a bit unsettled. The Mariners need to know that Brandon Morrow, who has been sidelined by biceps tendinitis, is healthy enough to pitch to start the season. He threw recently with no ill effects so it appears to be the case. They also need to find out whether Derek Lowe and/or Chris Reitsma can come back from their respective elbow surgeries. The thing that will help is the fact that their starters can go deep into ballgames. So I'm guessing that all they'll really need is one solid setup man for J.J. Putz.
The batting order will be missing Jose Guillen who is now a member of the Kansas City Royals. Brad Wilkerson isn't what I call a good replacement either. But their lineup still has alot of talent with Ichiro Suzuki, Jose Lopez, Raul Ibanez (21/105), Adrian Beltre (26/99), Richie Sexson, Yuniesky Betancourt and Kenji Johjima. Jose Vidro looks like the DH. Hey, its not the prettiest offense, but it will get the job done. They have perhaps the best table setter in baseball in Ichiro Suzuki, alot of good young hitters like Lopez and Betancourt as well as some contact and power hitters with experience. Jose Vidro can really play an important role, but even if he can't I expect this Mariners team to get the better of their foes more often than not and emerge on top of a less than stellar division. Look for a 87-75 record and a trip to the playoffs.
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