"March 2007" Monthly Archives

Preseason Pitcher Box Scores

It's that time of the year again, Preseason Baseball is underway and we'll be carrying the pitcher box scores here every morning. Please be aware that the early preseason box scores can be deceiving. Pitchers, especially veteran pitchers, sometimes try new things during the early games of the spring. I typically pay particular attention to the players coming off of an injury or young pitchers trying to make the rotation:

And onto the NL... NL East 1. New York Mets Despite the starting pitching issues, I think the Mets will still be the ones holding the NL East division crown when all is said and done. While Oliver Perez, El...

As promised, today will begin a seemingly endless string of blog entries that will hopefully be entertaining and informative. If not please send all complaints to Anthony Perri as he's the brainchild behind the decision to give me an open...

Tom Gordon: All that talk about Brett Myers becoming the closer was all just smoke. Despite being 39 years old, Gordon's 2006 numbers of a 10.4 K/9 and a 3.4 BB/9 are still in the upper tier of closers. His...

Before we get to the notes this morning, I wanted to give a little introduction to the subscribers out there. I'm the guy that Anthony Perri thinks looks like Zach Greinke, but most people know me as Drew Dinkmeyer. This...

It seems Bobby Jenks has gotten a bit tired of all the growing concerns within the media about where his arm is heading into the season. After firing 1 1/3 scoreless innings on Wednesday, Jenks told reporters that his location...

Reds Bullpen: There have been some rumblings that Dustin Hermanson could take over the closer role from David Weathers. Back problems caused him to miss virtually the entire 2006 season, but in 2005 he saved 34 games in 39 tries,...

Freddy Sanchez's second opinion on his knee sprain didn't provide positive news for fantasy owners. He'll likely start the season on the DL and appear back in the lineup sometime around April 7th. The reigning NL batting champion is still...

Internet problems forced me to post this late, but hopefully some of you still see it. Even if Freddy Sanchez starts the season on the DL, he will only miss the first week. It seems as if the debate within...

The D-backs Edgar Gonzalez has pitched extremely well this spring, since March 9th. Gonzalez has pitched 19 Innings, while only allowing 14 baserunners, 3 Earned Runs on 12 Ks. During his  5 year minor league career Edgar posted unspectacular...

Quick Pitches: Cubs Wade Miller likely locked a rotation spot on Saturday night when he tossed 5 innings of 3 hit ball. As we've discussed, Miller isn't the same pitcher who won 16 in 2001, his fastball is topping...

Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners started and ended strong in his start on Friday, but he struggled in the middle. Hernandez retired the first six and the last six batters of his outing in order but allowed four runs...

The JJ Putz watch continues for those intrigued by the Mariners closer situation. Putz did some soft throwing on Thursday for about five minutes to see how his arm reacted and said he felt fine afterwards. Putz's breakout 2006 season...

Rays Manager Joe Maddon was very definitive yesterday when he said that Rocco Baldelli (hammy) "is going to be"in Tampa's Opening Day lineup on April 2nd. Rocco left Tuesday game with what Maddon is terming a "mild"hamstring strain and understandably...

Sure preseason box scores can be deceiving, especially when we're taking about veteran pitchers or others who are coming into camp with a secure rotation spot. However when we're dealing with young pitchers vying for a starting job, these...

Eric Gagne made his first appearance in "A"games this spring and was rudely welcomed by Kevin Frandsen with a long HR. Gagne settled down after allowing the HR getting two groundouts and a strike out to end the inning. Gagne's...

Speculation surrounding Alex Rodriguez leaving the Yankees continues, this time with rumors about a move to the west coast to join the Angels at the end of the 2007 season. This is just one of many rumors that will be...

Devil Rays Closer: It is no shock that alleged closer Seth McClung has struggled this spring with 7 ER in 4 innings. With a 2006 BB/9 of 5.9, his skills are not even major-league worthy. If the Rays break...

With 2 weeks of Spring action in the books, today we'll take a peak at how the young prospects are performing. For veteran players, spring stats are to be ingested but not digested. Veteran players typically take it easy during...

New Page 1 3/17/2007 Runs Scored - The Ugly Duckling of Fantasy Baseball Part II Earlier this week we discussed the players who led the league in Runs Scored Percentage. This morning we'll take a look at the guys...

One of the biggest knocks on Matt Murton of the Chicago Cubs in 2006 was that he wasn't showing enough power potential. As a result the Cubs acquired Cliff Floyd in the off-season to play left field (when he isn't...

Marlins Closer: The Fish still have not named a closer. There are some rumblings about importing Jorge Julio from Arizona, but as of now, it is a battle between four in-house candidates, Kevin Gregg, Taylor Tankersley, Matt Lindstrom, and Henry...

HOU Hunter Pence OF - The last thing the Astros expected coming into this spring was another outfield playing time dilemma.  With a cast that already includes Lee/ Scott / Lane / Burke / Hidalgo, Hunter Pence is making a...

Chad "Don't Call Me Barbara"Billingsley continues to be the front-runner to fill that last coveted spot in the Dodgers rotation. However, despite a solid spring of 6.3 IP without an earned run, manager Grady Little has guaranteed the 22-year-old a...

Sammy Sosa continues his march to nail down a spot on the Texas roster. After going 2-for-3 in yesterday's game, Sosa is hitting .464 with 2 homers, 2 doubles, a triple and 6 RBI. At this point it looks like...

The Masters of Inconsistency (Player Projections at Risk) Last week we introduced Consistency Factor and it's implications to both Head to Head leagues as well as all Fantasy leagues regardless of their scoring setup.

Lets start here ... there isn't too much about baseball I don't love. Baseball is the drama and angst of a great television series like 24, but it's on every day for, perhaps fittingly in this analogy, 24 hours a...

Chan Ho Park was, well, Chan Ho Park again on Monday. The right-hander gave up four runs in three and one-third innings to the Nationals. Park is probably the leading candidate right now to be the Mets fifth starter (especially...

With all the controversy swirling around Gary Matthews, Jr. it seems like the Rangers may have really done the right thing in letting him walk. Looking through some old reference material (I knew there was a reason I saved those...

Regular subscribers to Insiderbaseball.com know all about how I feel about starting pitching. No matter how good any given hitter is, even at a scare position, he's still just 1- of -14 hitters in most formats. An elite SB guy...

Rich Hill of the Chicago Cubs is coming along nicely in Spring Training. Hill is a guy who can be a high risk high reward player this year. He is high risk because he is a sophomore and because he...

The following news items were collected from each MLB team's Official website, and its impact is updated each morning in our player projections software. O's Daniel Cabrera Starting to Dominate "I'm starting to see all the things that I...

Today we'll take a close look at catchers. Usually, it's the position you dread drafting most. You get to that special point in the fantasy draft when someone takes McCann and Mauer and you end up throwing your hands in...

Kris Benson was back in the news on Wednesday, with the word that he isn't experiencing much success in rehabbing his torn rotator cuff. Benson, who was 11-12 with a 4.82 ERA and an ugly 88:58 K:BB last year with...

Travis Hafner: Took the step up from a fantasy superstar (FPI: .82) to the elite (FPI: .91). The move up in class was fully supported by the growth in his underlying stats. His batting eye rose to .90 in 2006...

One of the benefits of living in south Florida is the availability of spring training games. Yesterday morning I saw in the paper that the Marlins were going to put 200 tickets on sale for that day's game against the...