"March 2010" Monthly Archives

Corner Infield Preview Part 1 First Base Must Haves Albert Pujols 1890 (STL) – Pujols is this year’s most expensive player, but with a few risks on my roster, I can ill afford to leave the best, and most consistent,...

March 31, 2010 - Fantistics Preseason Notes   Chicago White Sox   1.  Carlos Quentin (OF - White Sox) - Its no secret I'm a big supporter of the "Carlos Quentin 2010 Bounce Back" campaign.  He's had a modest spring, but...

Nelson Cruz- TEX- Cruz is hitting .358 in the Cactus League with 5 homers and 18 RBI. This indicates that his power explosion of last season, when he hit 33 homers, should keep going, and is reflected in his projected...

Los Angeles Angels – Is Pitching Already a Problem? – Opening day is just a week or so away but the Angels already have a few concerns with their pitching rotation. Two of their starters, Ervin Santana and Scott Kazmir,...

Jason Frasor - It looks like Cito, as is his wont, is going back to the well for Jason Frasor as the Jays' closer to start the season. Frasor improved his control by more than a full walk per nine...

The Oakland A’s Bullpen: Last year in this space I talked about the A’s bullpen noting the team’s unusual ability to find saves beyond the primary closer. Over the last 5 years, the A’s have averaged 35% of their total...

Cleveland Indians Right Fielder – After hitting .300/.394/.489 with 20 HRs and 20 steals in 2009, Shin-Soo Choo will once again roam right field for the Indians in 2010. Choo has an excellent eye (career OBP of .386), above average...

March 24, 2010 - Fantistics Preseason Notes    New York Yankees   1.  The 5th Starter - We predicted it here a few weeks ago and it will likely be official later this week.  Phil Hughes WILL be the fifth...

The Must Haves Gordon Beckham (CHW) 710 – Beckham is just too valuable to pass up at that price, unless you think he’ll fall victim to the sophomore slump. At Fantistics, we do not, and it is more than just...

C. J. Wilson- TEX- For now, Wilson appears headed to the Texas rotation on the strength of his performance this spring. In 14 IP Wilson has allowed 10 hits and 2 walks while striking out 10. On the down side,...

Atlanta Braves – The Young and the Aging – There were a lot of raised eyebrows during the off-season when the Braves traded Javier Vazquez to the Yankees for Melky Cabrera. Vazquez was coming off his best year and the...

If you play in a Rotisserie league and would like to give different weights to each Roto category that you select, you can with our player projections software. Within the Setup|Edit League Settings section, select the Rotisserie scoring option and...

Mets: With Carlos Beltran out for at least the first month of the season, Angel Pagan and Gary Matthews Jr. will battle for AB. Pagan has a decent power/speed package, 6/32/.306 with 22 doubles, 11 triples, and 14 steals in...

Twins 3B - The Twins' 3B "battle" pits the disappointing Brendan Harris against the scourge of all that is good, Nick Punto. With a career OPS of .647 and 5 HRs in 509 games over the last four years, you...

Cleveland Indians First Base - Given regular at-bats for the first time since 2002, Russell Branyan provided Seattle with an excellent first half last season, posting a .280/.382/.573 line while clobbering 22 HRs. He struggled in the second half (.193/.274/.414...

March 17, 2010 - Fantistics Preseason Notes    New York Yankees   1.  Mark Teixeira - A Pre-Season Favorite for MVP - (1B - Yankees) - It all seems to be adding up now.  The monkey is off the back with...

Pittsbirgh Pirates Closer Situation Right now, Octavio Dotel is slated to close out ball games for the Pirates. For three straight seasons he has posted elite level K rates (12.03/12.36/10.83). Last season he posted a really bad WHIP of 1.43,...

UMA - Undervalued Mound Aces.  A situation predicated by a market condition in the fantasy community where: TOP TIER PITCHERS are discounted beyond reasonable ration.  Yes pitchers are more injury prone thus offering less predictability, however they are being...

Houston Astros – The Puma Is Out – Spring training is supposed to be about hope and optimism but this March has many teams scrambling trying to figure out backup plans for key players that are going down. Include the...

What can we expect from Alfonso Soriano? Just three seasons into a monstrous eight year deal, Alfonso Soriano looks nothing like the 40-40 candidate with a .900+ OPS that came over from Washington. Soriano’s coming off the worst season of...

Blue Jays Bullpen - The season-ending injury suffered by Joe Nathan has send tsunami warnings to baseball shores far and wide this week, with waves starting to wash ashore at Jay's camp. The Twins have reportedly expressed interest in Jason...

Dodgers #5 starter-As of now, the front-runner here has to be Eric Stults. Stults is left-handed, has two big league shutouts on his resume, is out of options, and while it’s early, he’s looked good in camp (two scoreless innings)...

Cleveland Indians Rotation: Do the Indians have one starter worthy of a roster spot in a 10-team fantasy baseball league? The fact that a post-Tommy John surgery Jake Westbrook or the horrendously wild Fausto Carmona could potentially battle for the...

March 10, 2010 - Fantistics Preseason Notes    New York Yankees   1.The 5th Spot - Joba Chamberlain vs Phil Hughes - One of the biggest question marks for the Yankees heading into spring training is who will earn that...

Pittsburgh Pirates Andrew McCutcheon - McCutcheon is one of the game’s better young hitters and one of the few reasons for hope for Pirates’ fans in the coming years. He is a young and exciting player, and if his pre-season...

My counterparts at Fantistics have been doing an amazing job breaking down the pre-season players and the key situations to watch for all the teams and I’m excited to jump into the foray and push a few more teams onto...

Cardinals SS - Brendan Ryan continues to progress. Ryan will take soft toss on Monday with hopes of seeing live BP the following week. That schedule would have him seeing game action in the third week of March. Tony La...

Up the Middle The Shortstops Asdrubal Cabrera (CLE) 740 - I like Asdrubal Cabrera as a safe, lower priced option at the SS position. He should be a well balanced player, who doesn’t impress in any one single category, but...

Tigers No. 4 and 5 starters – Detroit has a very competitive 1-2-3 with Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello, and Max Scherzer, but it’s the other 40% of the rotation that could determine the club’s fate this season. A healthy Jeremy...

Dodgers Backup Outfielders – The top three is obviously set with Manny, Kemp, and Ethier, but what about the backups? Reed Johnson was signed this winter to be the No. 4 OF, and he brings with him, a .329/.395/.483 line...

Cubs Bullpen: One of the least talked about situations in fantasy baseball is the Cubs bullpen. With Carlos Marmol, a long-time fantasy darling, securing the role last season (1.84 ERA, 63 K’s in 44 innings in Save opportunities) most fantasy...

Cincinnati Reds Chris Dickerson - Dickerson is a tad upset after he was passed over for a shot at the Reds’ CF job, which is likely to go to rookie Drew Stubbs. This leaves Dickerson most likely in a platoon...

2010 DC Catcher Preview I hate catchers. I can never get this position right, much in part to the fact that I refuse to play it safe. Well, I guess old habits die hard. After making one of my goals...

Elvis Andrus- TEX-Andrus gets most of his notice for his Web Gem work at SS. His .267 average during his rookie season was somewhat of a pleasant surprise. However, it is quite possible that it is sustainable, given his...