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Rounding the Bases: Bullpens, Injuries & Expectations
Another day, another bullpen mess to deal with. The Cubs, by my count, appear to be on their 5th closer, and boy is he a blast from the past. The Tigers are promoting Jose Valverde and it looks like he will be given a shot in the 9th inning right away (so much for the Tigers saying, oh for about five months, that they had no interest in Valverde closing for them). The Yankees continue to have to deal with injuries and it's seeming more like, with each passing day, that they aren't being honest. Asdrubal Cabrera has been a mess at the plate, and the injuries are piling up. The Mariners have two guys who can't hit at shortstop, but the backup is now the starter as the team is making a change. Finally, should we be looking at Brandon Belt as a total failure at this point?
Rounding the Bases: Injury Turmoil & What It Means
Every time we look up it seems like another player is hurt. Some of the players you could care less about, I didn't see anyone shed a tear when the Cubs announced that Ian Stewart's quad injury would cause him to miss Opening Day, but when the Dodgers started to tell us what the deal was with Zack Greinke's elbow, the Twitterverse went into a tizzy (Greinke might only misss one start from the sound of things). And that got me to thinking. I haven't written an article this year that deals directly with injured players and how we should treat those players in the fantasy game. Every player is different, some injuries are minor others major, but if we have a defined time-line for a return from injury, let's say 4-6 weeks as is the case with Chase Headley who we will discuss, what does that do to the value of the player in the fantasy game? If you've ever wondered how to think about injured players when trying to put together your fantasy squad, then this is the article for you.
Rounding the Bases: Position Battle Updates
We spend a lot of time in fantasy baseball talking about who to draft in the first two or three rounds that we often times don't focus enough on the positional battles that teams are going through during Spring Training. Does the second base decision with the Blue Jays impact a guy like Emilio Bonifacio who has such huge upside given his wheels? What about the Cardinals second and shortstop decisions – do they matter? Of course you are going to care about what the Angels do in the 9th inning, but maybe what the injury ravaged Yankees do in the outfield should also be something you concern yourself with? We'll discuss those battles and more in this piece.
Rounding the Bases: Finding Late-Season Help Wherever You Can
As we head into the final two scoring periods of the season, fantasy baseball owners have some tough decisions to make. Do you stick with those that got you here or do you try to infuse some new blood into your team and play the hot bat regardless of what type of overall player they may be. Do you continue to start Brandon Phillips who is batting just .191 over his last 50 at-bats or do you switch it up to the red-hot Logan Forsythe who is batting .404 with two home runs, eight RBI and two stolen bases over the last two weeks? It’s not always the recommended choice, but in some cases, it just might behoove you to make an alteration or two.
Rounding the Bases: Greinke's Faux Milestone; Soriano, Tex, Braun and The Hammer Double Up
So the big story as we jumped into the second half of the 2012 season was that Zack Greinke became the first pitcher since 1917 to start three consecutive games for his team in one season. Impressive? Maybe. I’m still sifting through data trying to find box scores and pitching lines for Red Faber, the pitcher for the White Sox who accomplished the feat back in the days of yore, but am still coming up empty. My assumption, though, is that he threw more than eight innings in total for the three starts thus rendering Greinke’s accomplishment a pretty lame technicality more than an impressive feat.
Rounding the Bases: The Always Injured Josh Hamilton and What LoMo Needs
To a certain extent, every player is an injury risk. They are grown men, playing a game, throwing their bodies around with reckless abandonment. They get hurt. That’s just fact. But obviously, there are some that are riskier than others and for all intents and purposes; Josh Hamilton is the riskiest of them all.
Rounding the Bases: Santana Shuts 'Em Down, Jeter Ties Brett and Adam Jones Cashes In
If there’s one thing you can say about Saturday’s games, there was quite the flair for the dramatic. It seems like every game you turned to, there was something big happening. There were three walk-off home runs, two complete-game shutouts, Derek Jeter tied George Brett for 14th on the all-time hits list, and yet another Heath Bell meltdown. We had more great pitching performances and plenty of offense to keep your fantasy teams juiced. So without further ado, let’s get to the highlights…
Rounding the Bases: Morrow, Vogelsong and Kershaw Shine While McCutchen's Power Continues
Interleague is bringing out the best in a lot of players right now and we’re seeing some real good ball played here. I’m in weekend quick-wrap mode though, so let’s just get right to the action. A few nominees for top honors this week as several pitchers had tremendous outings and a number of hitters kicked in to do their part. So without too much build-up or fanfare, let’s just get right to it…
Rounding the Bases: Humber Perfect, Teixeira Raking and a Slew of Starting Pitchers Hit the DL
I hate using that “any given Sunday” cliché here, but if there’s one thing you can take away from Philip Humber throwing the 21st perfect game in Major League Baseball history, it’s just that. Anyone, anywhere, anytime….so long as the stars are aligned, I suppose. I mean, how else do you explain a 29-year old journeyman who is on his fourth team in five years and whose biggest claim to fame is that he was one of the prospects the Mets traded to Minnesota in the Johan Santana deal achieving one of the most difficult feats in the game? Even if you were going to turn around and try to trivialize the moment and speak of the ineptitude of the Mariners’ offense and the fact that none of them are batting over .300, your argument still wouldn’t hold water. The moment is too tough to achieve and guys like Ichiro Suzuki, Jesus Montero and Dustin Ackley are still too good a group of hitters.
Rounding the Bases: Fantasy Baseball's Easter Sunday Edition
“Wait, wait, wait….whaaaat? What’s today? Easter? Really? Well did they know it was the first weekend of baseball when they made it Easter? Oh, really? It was Easter before it was baseball? Hmmm. Yeah, I don’t know about that, but ok, I guess.”
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