Looks like the talks over Marte were moot, since no one took a chance on a guy that would come cheap. I guess the stipulation is that he has to be on your major league roster, sort of like Rule 5 as Josh was saying, so maybe that turned them off. Good thing they're saving that roster spot for future star Luis Cruz. Nomar is pondering retirement because no one wants him, which I find surprising because if you project his numbers out over 600 abs last season, he goes .264 29 103. Not bad for an utility man, right? Granted, the chances of him making 600 abs is slim to none, but you could sign him super cheap and add tons of incentives, right? Well it will never happen, I'm just short on things to talk about this week. Except..
PRESEASON HAS STARTED! I wish I could have been there to hear the first crack of the bat, feel the warm Florida air, watch Andy LaRoche break something...ah that would be heaven. So far they are 2-0 and the pitching has looked great. By "looked great" I mean from what the box score said and some notes on the PBC Blog. One guy I'm starting to love is Craig Hansen. He dominates in MLB Front Office and he's pitched great so far in spring training. Same goes for Ohlendorf, and others. Snell was okay, but gave up 2 unearned runs. Sometimes I dislike the unearned run stat because even though Bixler committed an error, Snell then gave up a walk and a hit or something like that. Either way, Snell is off to a shaky start, but can work things out in the WBC.
Speaking of the WBC, the USA has a pretty dominant lineup, rivaled only by the Dominicans. USA's starting pitching is very suspect, but the offense might carry them at least to the finals. Here are my projected lineups for the USA and Dominican, let me know which you think is better:
CF Granderson
SS Jeter
DH C. Jones
LF Braun
3B Wright
1B Youkalis
C McCann
RF Hawpe
2B Pedroia
SP Peavy
CL Nathan
SS Reyes
1B H. Ramirez
3B A. Rodriguez
DH Ortiz
RF Guillen
LF M. Alou
2B Cano
C Olivo
CF Tavarez
SP Volquez
CL Arredondo
Granderson gets the start since Sizemore just dropped out due to injury. I project Hanley Ramirez to play 1B since they are loaded on IFs (also have Beltre and Tejada). I could also see Hanley moving to LF and Beltre moving to 1B.
Back to the Pirates, Pedro Alvarez hit a big RBI double for the Bucs in their 9th inning comeback over the Red Sox. 2-0 against the Phillies and Red Sox? Good thing preseason is a good indication of the regular season!
Some other notes:
- Apparently the Pirates want to trade John Grabow, especially if they get Ohman. Why? He's too good to play on the Pirates? Sheesh, there goes both great Lefties from last season. Why not have Ohman AND Grabow? That's crazy talk, Sean Burnett is a superstar.
- Shelby Ford has a ridiculous name.
- Adam LaRoche loves Pittsburgh and wants to retire as a Pirate. Strange that this comes after all the trade talks. I actually like him and think if he ever pulls together a decent first half he could be a 30, 100 guy. As soon as he hits that mark, though, he's out of here.
- Nate McLouth recently heard that Ryan Kearney compared him to Barry Bonds. Even he thought it was crazy, but claimed that if he could be in 20 years where Barry is now, he'd consider his career a success. I wonder what new, crazy way players will learn to bulk up by then, because you know those sneaky guys will come up with something.
- Up next for the Buccos are the hated Braves. Let's see if they can continue their march towards a perfect spring training.
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3 comments:
whatever fantasy team-which is basically what the wbc is for some countries-has dustin pedroia batting 9th in the line up, is definitely the better team.
next they'll make a testosterone inhancer you can inhale through and aerosaul can and a steroid you can sprinkle on your salad.
Adam laroche has to say he wants to retire as a pirate. It's good publicity for the home town...as of now.
I wouldn't say Grabow is an elite left hander. I'd use him more as a specialist than a set up man.
How far are you in front office? I haven't played it since i won the world series.
Nate McLouth is going to be a fantasy stud, and Jason Bay is going to be a fantasy God this year with the red sox.
Maybe this will be the year that LaRoche breaks out of that early slump. I would love to see it. If you look at his last two season second half stats, he looks like a superstar. Those first half stats though, not so impressive. Very sad.
And that is another reason why ERA is a very misleading stat. You can have a low 4.00 ERA, but have a ton of Unearned Runs, which means you still allowed runners to score, which is the opposite thing a pitcher is supposed to do...it's pretty much like RBIs (if you play for a shitty team and no one gets on in front of you, you get few RBIs, but if you play on a team with a ton of good OBP guys, you have way more opportunities to knock some guys home)...okay, sorry I will not rant about this. We all know my feelings on these things.
How long before Alvarez is brought up? If he dominates in the minors, do we see him take the same path as Longoria and Zimmerman?
HRam and Reyes hitting in front of ARod and Ortiz...that is like a fantasy sports wet dream. Although, Alou might have a heart attack out there, how old is he? 81? I think I remember his rookie card back in 1974...
Only trade Grabow if some team is willing to over trade for him. Some teams need a good lefty specialist, or if you can really sell them on the idea that he is a dominant set up man, a contender could use him as the set-up, set-up man (i love teams that have that 7th-8th-9th dominating trio).
I predict in the future, players will actually inject themselves with undetectable nanobots. These super advanced "smart cells" give controlled boosts to the muscles, making a human achieve far more than the usual steroids and drugs of today can offer. I mean a guy like Nate will be benching 600 lbs and hitting 90 HRs by the All Star break, at the age of 70. These nanobots will also help slow down the aging process and people will be living to the age of 300. All sports records will be shattered by average players. We will reminisce about the days when players only hit 73 HRs because of dangerous chemicals they put into their bodies that had permanent damage to their bodies and minds...
Wow, I read way too much Cory Doctorrow and Warren Ellis.
So instead of urine testing there will need to be X-Ray testing? I mean, how would you catch nano bots??
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