Fantasy Baseball 2011! Now with hot Razzball action!

[TeamRAD]

How do you think Bill Hall will do this year?  I keep ending up with him on my team for the past few years and he kinda let me down last year.  I got him in the Head To Head draft today as my final pick.

For Bill Hall, it was rock bottom last season. If you take out June's OPS (.911), he sported an overall OPS of .695 for the rest of the season. It was tough to swallow. Especially, after his breakout 2006 campaign. His approach offensively last year was atrocious for the most part. It's hard not think his positional change had a lot to do with his early struggles. Nevertheless, his struggles were season-wide for the most part, so who knows. It was odd within our burgeoning offensive juggernaut. Arbitrarily, he can't do any worse than last year, and I look for him to rebound. I don't know if you're into PECOTA projections but these are his for 2008...

AVG - .267
OBP - .335
SLG - .485
EqA - .274
2B - 27
3B - 2
HR - 19
RBI - 65
BB - 40
SO - 106
SB - 8

The PECOTA is projecting a rebound as well. It looks to be solid considering where he's going to be batting in the order. I don't know what other options you've at 3rd, but for value wise with the last pick, I'd like to think you did very well.

And what does Bill Hall do? He hits walk-off home runs with pink bats on Mother's Day...

By the way did you notice he got lit up last night in their exhibition game?  (Granted it's spring training and doesn't mean much)

I caught the box score and chuckled a bit to myself. The great thing about the box score from that game is the Ryan Braun stat line:

IP - 1
H - 0
BB - 1
SO - 2

If he needed anymore swagger. Fun quote from this past week concerning Ryan...he's on the cover of the Baseball Preview Issue of SI and sharing it with Upton and Tulowitski. Here's a quote from him on it:

"It's pretty exciting," said Braun. "I'd prefer not to share it, of course, but I'll take anything I can get."

Beertown has some attitude, and I love it. Cub-nation has to deal with this for the next 6 years at least!

I'm trying to convince the guy who is a die hard Cubs fan to rejoin our league.  For some reason he's not in yet.  It'd be fun to get some quality Cubs/Brewers arguing

That would be super. I like Cub fan!

[k1]

I've also got Josh Fields & Youkilis for 3B.  I snagged Hall in the hopes that they shift him around so I can plug him in wherever I need someone that day.

Actually I just remembered.  He was my next to last pick.  Bob Howry got the honor of being the last one.

I took a gamble on BJ Ryan in the 17th round.

[TeamRAD]

I've also got Josh Fields & Youkilis for 3B.  I snagged Hall in the hopes that they shift him around so I can plug him in wherever I need someone that day.

I'm all but ascertain the Crew won't be moving Hall around anywhere this year. The days of super-sub Billy Hall are all but over in Milwaukee. Counsell, Dillon, and Rottino will be the ones spelling the infield this season. That's an interesting group of 3rd basemen you have there. I'm huge fan of Youkilis. He's an OBP machine. With Fields, here's hoping he builds on his banner September, and the Crede situation gets sorted out. Lastly, Hall, without question, you'll have to make a point to start him against the Reds. The man slays their pitching. Here's his OPS against the Reds the past three seasons...

2005 - 1.014 (53 AB)
2006 - .956 (73 AB)
2007 - .916 (37 AB)

He's unconscious against them.

I took a gamble on BJ Ryan in the 17th round.

I don't have any clue when I'll be taking a closer on Saturday and have been thinking about B.J. Ryan myself. I'm eager to see how he does this year. I just took a look at his stat line again from 2006, and good god...the definition of phenomenal.

Again, it's spring training, but did you check out Zito's line from Saturday?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore;_ylt=AtCmkOKA1qNoXLbdVnTTLYipu7YF?gid=280301126

Holy crap!

[k1]

You like how Yahoo just shuts it down as soon as the last pick is made?

I honestly have no bad feelings towards the Cubs.  It's kind of a joke with a bunch of us in the league.  We usually have a hardcore Cubs fan who we mock but he didn't make it this year.

Plus last year Rick (Charlie Murphy) and I got talked to by security for yelling at Borowski when he was warming up for the Iowa Cubs.  Apparently they don't like you yelling things like "Borowski, you suck!  You're killing my fantasy baseball team!  I hope you stay on the DL!"

"Sirs, please step away from the talent."

"You call what he has talent?"

"Go back to your seats"

[TeamRAD]

Yeah, what went on there?!?

I love my team.

- Utley and Tex...for my 1-2 punch in the lineup
- C.C. & Sheets in contract years.
- Gordon & Longoria at 3rd (w/ a couple of veteran backups in case the worst case scenario comes into the forefront)
- Saito/Jenks spearheading the 'pen.

I'm ready for this!

Also, kudos to Murphy's last pick...that made for a great laugh before Yahoo kicked us all out.

The holiday season is coming...23 days until Opening Day and 25 days until the first roadie of the season to Wrigley!

[k1]

Checking in with Napalm Gagne:

http://blog.masslive.com/redsoxmonster/2008/03/checking_in_with_napalm_gagne.html

[Tripe]

Bollocks, I missed the draft and I've been dealing with a crash on my laptop until yesterday.

I'll check what's what tonight.

Edit: Ok I'm mostly pleased with my team. However what do I do now?

[k1]

Pretty much sit and stare at your team for awhile til games start.

Or browse the Free Agent poo for anyone who might be a better fit for your team, or try to trade for players you want/need.

But mostly sit and stare, and watch some hockey while that's still happening.

[TeamRAD]

Checking in with Napalm Gagne:

http://blog.masslive.com/redsoxmonster/2008/03/checking_in_with_napalm_gagne.html

*mumbles to self*

It's only a one-year contract, a one-year contract, a one-year contract, a one-year contract.

k1, I've resigned to placing my head into the metaphorical sand and see what comes of this in conjunction with my fantasy baseball team's vested interest in his performance to boot. The opportunities will be there, and he has a chance to become a legend in these parts.

Fun fact, Prince Fielder hasn't hit a home run since he's become a vegetarian.

So what's the scoop with Beckett in Beantown, k1?

And...can I trade the Milwaukee Bucks to Pittsburgh for the Penguins? That would be neat.

[k1]

It'd be neat if you could trade players from one area to another regardless of sport.  It'd never work though with some states having a bunch of teams (like California).  It would make things really interesting though.

I'm not too worried about Beckett just yet.  Although the pictures of his flabby stomach were a little surprising.  But I won't be worried unless he hits over the 15 day DL to start the season.  He's still good for at least 16 wins easily.

[TeamRAD]

Wow, this would suck...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5621709.html

Matsui will undergo surgery Monday in Houston to repair an anal fissure, which is a tear of the skin near the anus that causes bleeding and pain. He's expected to miss two weeks, which would put him in doubt for the March 31 season opener at San Diego.

14 days until Opening Day...

[TeamRAD]

k1, have you seen this yet?

It's the theme song for Peter Gammons!

[k1]

Thats great!  I hadn't seen that yet.  (He's actually a pretty good guitarist himself and plays at the Hot Stove Cool Music thing out here each year)

Gammons is the man. 

On a cool side note, if you remember he had a brain anuerysm a little while ago.  My aunt ended up being his speech therapist.  She said he was a really great guy and she's not a big fan of his.

[k1]

It's really weird getting up for work and having the baseball game on.  (And not be a rerun of the night before)

Dice-K took 60 pitches to get through the first 2 innings... not pretty so far.

I'll go on record as saying 6am EST games are not fun to be awake for.  Although there's alot of bars out here that are open for the game which is even weirder.

[TeamRAD]

I woke up this morning, turned on TBS for some Saved by the Bell, and caught myself a minute later...there's regular season baseball on right now!

Johnny Dakota, you can take a backseat!

Dice-K and his 60 pitches through 2 innings more than likely can be attributed to the anxiousness of being home. Looking at the stats, he settled down somewhat nicely and pitched 45 throughout the next 3.

The Tokyo Dome looks like Tropicana Field, ick!

And I had the opportunity of seeing Gagne pitch yesterday, and his wiffle-ball curve looked to be in fine form. Come on Goggles Pizano, let's see it in the regular season.

Baseball in the morning, I don't mind this. 6 days until it begins for me!

Edit: 45 pitches? More like 35 pitches, DK really settled down. Extra innings...