A Big Deal

Andruw Jones for Tim Lincecum



Surprise, surprise, the blog lives on.

Now I report on my NL-only team and it's latest happenings.

We Have won a game and are now sort of out of the cellar. The team is tied for last place, though it is 7th out of ten teams in overall points scored.

The Fearsome Foursome remains. For the sake of refreshing all of our memories, it is

Cole Hamels
Ian Snell
Aaron Harang
Chris R. Young

and I have two semi-established closers

Kevin Gregg and Dan Wheeler

plus three other starting pitchers

Micah Owings
Jon Lieber
Brad Thompson

and one other relief pitcher

Angel Guzman

to compete for my sevnth and final pitching spot each week.

So why oh why would I do This?

Andruw Jones (pick #11 overall in the draft) for Tim Lincecum (undrafted in the draft)

A walk on the wild side, a risk, dumb fanmanship. All good reasons.

But no. I did it because I think Andruw Jones will get hurt.

Take a look at his picture above. If you have seen him swing recently, feel free to skip ahead in the post. Please, be my guest.

Otherwais, check out the pic. Tell me that is a good way to swing, just tell me that. You're wrong. Andruw Jones is desperate to hit the ball out of the park is what's happening.

I'm sure you've herd he's in a contract year. That's one of the main reasons I got him.

I started to get a little concerned a few weeks ago (maybe a month or so actually) when I tuned into the Braves game on TBS to hear the broadcasters talking about Andrew's 30th birthday. They said they asked him what it felt like to be thirty, and basically his response led me to believe that he felt like his best days were behind him. Not exactly the sort of thing a guy in his contract year is supposed to say. Maybe he was drunk.

So anybody who has Ben Following his stats this year knows that his BA is even below his career average of .266

BTW, Jones has only eclipsed that total twice four times in 12 major league seasons. He did three times between 1998-2000, then again in 2003, when he hit .277 for the whole season. The explanation for the high average (what a relative term!) is that he hit .303 in the year 2000.

Otherwise he has never sustained a BA above .277 for an entire season.

But of course I got him for the home runs. Of which he has eight. If he was to hit sixty, as some have suggested, then he would have twenty by now. And I saw one of his homeruns over the weekend. It barely cleared the fence.

Now I could get all into trajectory here and explain how his new swing is going to mostly result in flyouts, okay essentially I have just done that. Basically, line drives usually turn into homeruns when the hitter gets the bat just slightly under the ball and cranks it. What Andruw Jones is trying to do with this new swing is to hit fly balls *hoping* that they will leave the yard. That of course is not the *proper* way to hit gopher balls. It's like Jones just read Moneyball and realized that he is not a good singles hitter, therefore he must try to hit as many homeruns as possible, thus the change in his swing. What Jones hasn't realized yet is that he's retadred. Sucks for the Braves. I liked em better when they had Maddux and Glavine anyway.

It's really too bad, cause the Braves have gotten better, what with the comeuppance of Kelly Johnson, Willie Harris, Kyle Davies and friends.

Oh yeah, I forgot (almost) to explain why I think Jones will get hurt. Well if you still want to know, then ask me. I'm going to bed.

Eating my cake and trading for more

I may be in trouble, but not to worry, I will go the distance.

Okay, so for now I have Adam Kennedy at second base. He has done well the last two days and the rest of my team has picked up the slack. So far, it has been an outstanding week for my teem. So I'm knocking on wood, crossing my fingers, and am open to more superstitious suggestions that could help my luck continue.

Still Conor Jackson slumps. There has been a move by the D-Backs that left me very disconcerted a few days ago. They started Chad Tracy at first base. I guess he can play first; I didn't know that.

Before I already had a problem, because the Diamondbacks were starting Tony Clark at first against right-handed pitching and sometimes just for the heck of it. With Jackson slumping and then getting hurt and then slumping again, things were looking bad. What's worse, I didn't have (and still don't have) a backup to play first base! So I've been trying to trade for one.

The good/bad/ugly news is that I now have six good outfielders. Our leegue only has us start three, along with one utility player. In order of projected value, my six are

Andruw Jones
Juan Pierre
Carlos Quentin
Chris Duncan
Chris Duffy
Hunter Pence

though I actually think Pence will outperform Duffy if he continues to play everyday. Preseason forecasts did NOT expect Pence to take over the center field job before May.

Mor on that point: I think Phil Garner is freaking out a little too much. He already demoted closer Brad Lidge within the first two weeks of the season, and almost altogether stopped playing Chris Burke, his opening day center fielder and second hitter. And it's now like Burke was batting 100, rather he was batting about 220. Furthermore he had five steals and several doubles.

Well Garner is the manager; I am not. Obviously I would rather have Burke playing everyday. However, I am grateful that Kennedy has done so well his first two days on my team. In fact, he's competing to be Tony La Russa's everyday leadoff hitter in St. Louis!

Oh yeah the trade. I am trying to trade my two top outfielders for Lance Berkman and Rich Aurilia. This would give me eligibility at first base from both players and also Ss and 3b eligibilly from Aurilia.

I think it would be a good deal for me; of course I would like feedback if you'd like to provide it.

Cellar Strife in the NL Only League

It's been a crazy week in baseball. Roger Clemens is returning to the Bronx. Tim Lincecum made his debut. Bengie Molina became the first Giant to hit two homers in an inning since Willie McCovey did it in 1977. But the sad saga of my troubles in the NL Experts league continues.

My pitching actually seems great. Between the solid foursome of Aaron Harang, Chris Young the pitcher, Ian Snell, and Cole Hamels, I have a pretty outstanding staff. Coupled with closer-for-now Dan Wheeler and split-time closer for the we-are-officialy-back Atlanta Braves Rafael Soriano, that's six of the seven pitchers required each week. I finally got rid of dead wood Woody Williams, who has started the season 0-5, and I gave up on Pedro Martinez, because I need results now. For now, Micah Owings is my seventh pitcher, and Prince bopper Matt Capps is on my bench. I figure if I feel like it, I can grab a weak two-start pitcher off of waivers each week in exchange for one of my weak bench players.

Speaking of weak bench players, that's currently where Chris Burke stands, er, sits I mean. Chris Burke is the player that has me most engulfed in flames. He gives me the rage to go out and kick ass, but at the same time, has left me in a situation that if is not cured could ultimately lead to something being broken, probably this chair I'm sitting on.

The thing is, it's not all his fault, but it's close to 50% his fault. His manager should just have more patience with him. But apparently Phil Garner thinks they need more power right now. It's weird, I sort of assumed that wouldn't be problem before the season because they have Carlos Lee and Lance Berkman. I got Burke super-early in the draft because I knew he would be starting every day in center field, and I saw him putting up 270-15 HR-30 SB. Plus he would have second base eligibilty, and I thought those were pretty good numbers for a second baseman. He wasn't at the top of my list, but it was about Round 8-10, and I didn't have a second baseman yet, so he seemed like a good deal. I didn't want to be left with a backup to start the season. In the last round of the draft, I grabbed Kaz Matsui as insurance in case something happened to Burke.

In the first two weeks, I felt like I had played it wonderfully. Matsui was hitting over 350 with five steals, looking like the best 22nd round pick of the draft. Burke had five steals also, but wasn't hitting very well. No problem, I thought, I'll just put him on my bench. It became a problem when Matsui left a game with back spasms. Soon he was on the DL.

I didn't think back spasms were such a big injury. After all, Adam Dunn left a game with back spasms around the same time as Matsui and was back in the lineup the next day, no problem at all. However, as mentioned in a previous post, Dunn is 6-6, 275, and superhuman. Matsui is definitely not. Matsui is too skinny for baseball.

Rubbish, you might say. You're thinking, baseball's not even for athletes. The all-time home run king Babe Ruth was a fatass! He enjoyed beers, cigars, and debaucherous women after ballgames! You ought to be proud to own a fit speedster like Kaz Matsui! And yet, somehow I'm not.

What I'm saying is that Matsui is not fat enough for baseball. I hope this does not mean I am cursed to excessive back pain later own, though I may be due to my scoliosis and bad posture.

Now this doesn't mean I'm going to drop Matsui. After all, he should still start at second base for the Rockies when he returns. That's a good place to play baseball if you're a hitter trying to impress Ben by putting up good numbers for his fantasy teem. And he should be back by the end of this month, though I'm awfully skeptical of that. It already has been pushed back. It's been almost a month now and he's just starting to run. He hasn't yet begun Triple A rehab games. So I'm a bit worried.

Burke on the other hand is riding the pine. Houston has brought up Triple A slugger Hunter Pence to play, and the weird thing about that is that he instantly became the starting center fielder for the Astros. In the almost ten games since Houston brought up Pence, Burke has only had about three at-bats as a pinch hitter. He has not made one start. Oh and that second base ability, forget about it. Houston wouldn't dream of benching Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, and even backup Mark Loretta is outplaying Burke right now.

Woe is me. Vote on my polls. Give me feedback. Just don't do drugs. Or be dumb. Excessively. You can be dumb in moderation, I grant you permission.