All posts under "Preseason Prep" - Page 17

Welcome back to the Insider Baseball blog. It's good to be back and see the players start reporting to Spring Training. There have been a lot of changes in theh majors and we will be looking at them and other...

Expected ERA (XERA) depicts a pitcher's "True ERA" based on the factors within a pitcher's control. These factors include Hits, Walks, Home Runs allowed and K's. When one considers the inequity with the ERA calculation, specifically related to defense and...

Preseason Fantistics Analysis - Wednesday, March 30, 2011 We’re only one day away from Opening Day. At this point, you probably already had your fantasy draft and just want to get the season started. We do too. For today’s preseason...

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...

There Is Value In Houston’s Rotation, Part Deux I wrote about Wandy Rodriguez and Brett Myers in Saturday’s article, so now let’s focus on Bud Norris and J.A. Happ today. First, did you know Bud Norris’ real name is David...

There Is Value In Houston's Rotation The strength of this year’s Houston Astros team lies in the starting rotation which features Wandy Rodriguez, Brett Myers, J.A. Happ and Bud Norris. I’ll talk about Rodriguez and Myers today and leave Happ...

A 2B Battle on the north-side of Chicago? Heading into the season it seemed likely the Cubs would go with a straight platoon of Jeff Baker and Blake DeWitt at 2B, but with DeWitt struggling mightily this spring (.167/.180/.250) its...

TORONTO BLUE JAYS Closer Update The Jays’ bullpen has been hit with a couple of injuries, shaking up the closer situation. Expected closer Frank Francisco received good news from Dr. James Andrews the other day – no structural damage, a...

Preseason Fantistics Analysis - Wednesday, March 23, 2011 New York Yankees Is a bad start to the season a thing of the past for Mark Teixeira? Mark Teixeria is a notoriously slow starter. Ask any fantasy owner about Tex’s April...

New York Mets The Second Base Situation Shaping Up?...The day Mets fans have been waiting and hoping for finally came this past week. Luis Castillo was shown the door and the Mets firmly locked the door behind him. Don’t feel...

Jhonny Peralta - After struggling during his 27 and 28 year old campaigns, Jhonny Peralta finds himself written off by many as a second-tier option entering the 2011 season. It seemed to me, however, that there were some positive signs...

Injury news, positional battles, a retirement announced. Lots of things happening in spring training. You can follow me on Twitter @fantisticspaul (http://twitter.com/fantisticspaul - for the full link) for occasional (and hopefully increasingly frequent) baseball insights. Neftali Feliz- TEX- Feliz will...

Another day, more happenings at major league Spring Training. You can follow me on Twitter @fantisticspaul (http://twitter.com/fantisticspaul - for the full link) for occasional (and hopefully increasingly frequent) baseball insights. Opening Day is right around the corner! Chris Davis- TEX-...

Preseason Fantistics Analysis - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 New York Yankees The rotation saga in the Bronx (or Tampa for now) continues as we try to figure out how the Yankees plan on wrapping up the back-end of their rotation....

Jarrod Saltalamacchia – Red Sox – Salty draws more attention this spring as the Red Sox primary catcher with the ancient and venerable Jason Variteck backing him up. The Red Sox chased Salty like a jilted lover before landing him...

Jason Castro Is Out. Houston, We Have A Catching Problem. Heading into spring, the Astros expected their best minor league prospect Jason Castro to claim the starting job behind the dish. Unfortunately, a torn ACL has sidelined Castro for most,...

Here are some news, notes and glimpses of the future from spring training... I have finally joined the twitterverse. I'm sure I won't be as frequent with my tweets as our resident Twitter king, Drerw Dinkmeyer, if you would like...

As we enter into the third full week of spring training games, we’re right at the precipice of when spring training starts to become a bit more meaningful. We’ll have the first round of roster cuts this week, as minor...

Dodgers notes… My first day out at Camelback Ranch here in Glendale, Arizona for Dodgers spring training was rather uneventful. A few quick observations on a couple key players / situations: Jerry Sands (1B/OF) – Man-crushes…nothing wrong with them. I’m...

Preseason Fantistics Analysis - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 Milwaukee Brewers The big news hitting the wires in the last 24 hours is that Zack Greinke will be starting the season on the 15-day DL with a broken rib and is...

New York Mets Being Shown the Door? Part One...Things are heating up in Mets camp as manager Terry Collins plans on making the first cuts and trim the roster by March 14th. One decision that Mets have already made is...

Kansas City Royals Jarrod Dyson- Speedster in consideration for leadoff spot As of writing this, the Royals’ have played 5 Spring Training games, with Mike Aviles leading off three times, Lorenzo Cain once and Jarrod Dyson once. Dyson is the...

Carlos Guillen - 2B and LF are really the only spots where there is potentially some competition this spring for Detroit, and most of the 2B uncertainty surrounds Carlos Guillen's health. The 35 year old has only averaged 386 PA's...

Everyone enjoying the first week of spring training? As we get the first taste of games it’s a natural reaction to begin over-analyzing and reacting to the data. While it’s fun to speculate on some of the early results (Domonic...

New York Mets And now playing centerfield… Yes, the big news to come out of camp for the Mets is the decision that Angel Pagan will be handling centerfield for the Mets this year with Carlos Beltran switching over to...

Following our second-year theme of the return of starting pitching in fantasy baseball, let’s look at some profiles of starters from the teams I am covering this spring … Josh Beckett – Red Sox – What to do, what to...

LA Dodgers Pitching is expected to be this team’s strong suit, but we’re already seeing a reason why the old adage that “you can never have enough pitching” applies. Vicente Padilla underwent forearm surgery this week and is out until...

Spring training kicks off in full force this weekend with a full slate of games on Saturday and Sunday. In addition to the team breakdowns we’re providing we’ll start digging in on game data, largely focusing on young players and...

James Shields - James Shields is a popular bounceback candidate in 2011, a sentiment that I'm willing to go along with to a point. Shields' ERA and winning percentage have deteriorated significantly the past two seasons, and it's worth examining...

Kansas City Royals Billy Butler 1B – How much will the power develop? Billy Butler is an intriguing fantasy option once again this year. He is an incredibly talented hitter, but he plays on an awful offensive club and had...

Dodgers Last week I highlighted the obvious situations to watch – closer and left field. This week we’ll dig a bit deeper and focus on third base and what we can expect from Don Mattingly in terms of a lineup....

Cleveland Indians The Choices at Third Base – Jayson Nix, Jason Donald, Luis Valbuena or a box of rocks. By the rules of Major League Baseball, the Indians must employ a living, breathing human to play third base this year....

Punxatawney Phil said we'd have an early Spring. I don't know whether that's holding true for you but at least we have some baseball to talk about. We'll start off with some insights dealing with the Orioles, defending AL Champion...

Today we’ll tour the NL West sans the Rockies… Arizona Diamondbacks: First base: Contenders for this slot include Juan Miranda, Russell Branyan, Xavier Nady, and Brandon Allen. Allen and Nady could also slot in left field if they aren’t selected...

It is GOOOOOOOOD to be back! After a nice little hibernation through January and February, we’re back at it here at Fantistics. Richard Gross got us kicked off yesterday covering situations surrounding the Mets, Mariners, A’s, and Angels and I’ll...

Play ball! Not quite—but almost. Even though official games are still a month or so away, the terrific fantasy baseball analyst here at Fantistics will get things rolling with some player notes and team outlooks for the upcoming season and...