bigh0rt's blog

Well, the fantasy season is drawing to a close, and while I haven't been around since not too long after it was underway, I certainly did enough jibber jabbering before things kicked off to look back and reflect on some of the little nuggets of information I broadcasted out to the series of tubes known as the internet. Let's take a little trip down memory lane, shall we?'

As mid-May approaches, college campuses across America are turning into ghost towns, as millions of young adults begin their Summer vacations, jobs, internships, and fantasy baseball addictions. When they finally park themselves back at Mom and Dad's, they will soon realize that the Memorial Day benchmark that a lot of owners use as the date they start tinkering is fast approaching.

Closers may be the most intriguing breed of baseball players. They are highly debated, analyzed, ridiculed, and speculated on. Their biggest contribution to a fantasy lineup (Saves), they have little control over. They warm up, get ready to pitch, and when their offense scores a run to put their team up 4, they sit down and go back to spitting seeds while a guy, possibly just as capable, making a fraction of what the closer makes, trots out for the 9th inning. If you tried to describe fully, the modern MLB closer to somebody who had never heard of the concept, they'd look at you like you were crazy.

Back with a few more random news & notes (with links) to kick off your fantasy baseball week... happy cinco de mayo...

I landed tickets to the highest revenue maker ever... $400 a pop...

Here is a team players available in one of my 12-team mixed Roto leagues...

Its the last day of April, and what an opening month to the 2008 Fantasy Baseball season its been, eh?

April has handed us everything but the kitchen sink. From potential breakout players, to slumping first round picks, to a 22 inning West Coast duel, and as I write this, the Baltimore Orioles and Florida Marlins sitting atop their respective East Divisions; April has had it all.

Just a few random news & notes (with links) to start your fantasy baseball week...

Lost in the midst of April's blitzkrieg of Flavors of the Week is a 25 year old righty who has logged over 500 innings at the Major League level. He's shown flashes of brilliance, flashing a mid-90s fastball and a nasty, hard slider. I am talking, of course, about the Dominican Republic's very own Ervin Santana of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of the state of California of the United States of America of North America of planet Earth.

As I scour the countless sources, blogs, message boards, etc. etc. that I read daily from March through September (let's be honest, all year), I can't help but notice something... Today's date is April 24th.

Now, I know what you're saying.  "... And?"  To that I say, "And, why on Earth is every struggling player not on Yahoo!'s Can't Drop List being dropped left and right?"

During the Pre-Season, one of the buzz words is always 'cheap sources...'  Cheap sources of speed, power, so on and so forth.  In 2008, names like Bourn and Gomez were brought up for speed, while others such as Cust were regarded as cheap sources of power.  Now, most, if not all, of the players discussed as cheap sources of x, y, and z in the pre-season have been drafted or scooped up in competitive leagues, so the time has come to re-evaluate, and find new cheapies...

Earlier in the week I outlined fantasy owners who, two weeks into the marathon that is the MLB season, were reaching for the panic button, ready for drastic changes.  Today, we'll take a look at the flip-side of the coin.  Invariably, every season players emerge, unexpectedly, and catch fire right out of the gates.  Some go on to have great seasons (Ryan Braun, 2007), and others, well, they go somewhere else (Chris Shelton, 2006).  Let's take a look at a few of 2008's most popular candidates, and discuss which road each might travel...

This is a Public Service Announcement:  "We are currently two (2) weeks into a twenty-six (26) week fantasy baseball regular season.  No, you are not out of it.  No, you should not start planning for next season.  No, you should not be scrambling to pluck Xavier Nady, Gabe Kapler, and Ángel Pagán from your Waiver Wire to replace your drafted OF of Magglio Ordóñez, Hunter Pence, and Brad Hawpe.  No, you shouldn't be picking up every single reliever who gets an odd Save Opportunity when the team's normal Closer is unavailable or taking a brief DL stint."

One of my favorite sites to go to when it comes to sports is The Onion.  The mock news site offers an array of hysterical articles, including its absurdly funny Onion Sports Section.  The site currently has, on its main page, an image noting the Keys to Success for 2008's Red Sox/Yankees matchup.  Some good stuff here.

Well, Week 1 of the Fantasy Season is in the books, and for H2HWS USA East, it's all about the tri-state area, and why shouldn't it be? It's not a bias, folks. It's the real deal...

Not surprising, the Top 3 teams in the Standings look like this:

As the Opening Week in Fantasy Baseball 2008 draws to a close, we are left with a week that gave us everything; well, except a Tiger win (Sunday Night Baseball will finish that story) of course.  Some players are red hot (Nate McLouth),  others are struggling mightily (Johnny Damon), while others are performing right on par with expectations.  The story of the week would have to be Cincinnatti Reds hurler Johnny Cueto, who fanned 10 in his Major League debut.  But Cueto wasn't the only young arm to come out firing.  Here's a list of other babies who took the mound successfully; some of which, including Cueto, are barely old enough to enjoy a cold one after striking out Ryan Howard.

Okay, so it's April 3rd.  It's the 4th day of full MLB Regular Season action.  So why, why are so many of my (and probably your) players on the Disabled List?

Here are just a few of the players I am targeting, watching daily on my Yahoo! Watch List across the five leagues I'm participating in this season...

1. Johnny Cueto -- Ever since I saw he was added to the Yahoo! Database, he's had a spot on my Watch List.  I waited, patiently, for the day in which he would take the hill for the first time.  That day was today.

It's early afternoon, EST. As I write this sentence, we're less than four hours from Opening Night 2008 on ESPN (presented by Bank of America). The Washington Nationals will be showcasing their new home against the NL East Division Rival Atlanta Braves. After waiting nearly four entire days since the first official Major League game of 2008 in Japan, at 8:05 PM EST, a pitch that counts will be thrown on American soil. The pitch should be from left-handed, 30 year old Odalis Perez to Braves Second Baseman Kelly Johnson. I'm much more excited than I ought to be.

If you've been following baseball during the latter part of this off-season into Spring Training, you've been given quite the treat.  Newly hired Reds skipper Dusty Baker has been weighing in on a number of issues, and we've been there every step of the way, laughing, crying, and offering Cincinnati fans our condolences and moral support...

You've heard about it.  You must have.  If you've turned on ESPN, read a Sports section of any major newspaper, or followed the game of baseball even loosely at any point over the last half decade, it's been thrown in your face.  You have an opinion on it.  No, you do.  Whether you think it's ruining the game, the next step in modern science, or don't care either way, you know that steroids and HGH are, and have been, in the game of baseball, and they don't appear to be going away.