*DO NOT READ THIS IS ONLY INTERESTING TO ME AND ME ONLY
I hate to do it, but I am officially throwing in the towel on my 2009 fantasy baseball season. In the league I joined with my buddies from Philly (which I absolutely hate the rules of) I am just getting destroyed. Part of this is because I don’t like setting lineups day-to-day and part of this is because I have gotten injuries to my top 3 picks (Reyes, Beltran and Quentin as well as Volquez one of my top pitchers). That league has been done for awhile, but I wasn’t ready to quit on my keeper rotisserie league. We have been hanging around in 12th for most of the season, but have been right near the middle in most categories. Our pitching was starting to come around and we were climbing in most of the categories. The only thing that was hurting me was my offense. We were last in batting average which affected us right down the line in all the other hitting categories. I threw in the towel this week after Johnny Cueto gave up 9 runs in 0.2 innings thus ruining all the upward momentum I had in pitching and I just didn’t see a way to dig myself out of this even deeper hole. So, it’s over and I am having a firesale for next year. I’ve traded Felix Hernandez (*tear*) and am going to trade a few of my other good pitchers for next year’s offensive core.
The only question I have to ask myself is: why did this happen? Did I draft bad? Did I misevaluate talent? I think I did a pretty good job really. I just blame these guys.
JJ Hardy: Projection 270/24/75 On Pace 220/17/62
Chris Davis: Projection 265/31/100 On pace 200/29/64 (demoted to AAA)
Corey Hart: Projection 21 steals/21 HRs/85 RBIs On pace 9 steals/19 HRs/66 RBIs
Jeff Clement: Projection 274/329/424 Actual 0 games played
I really don’t have answers for the JJ Hardy situation and the Corey Hart thing, that’s just a deal with a new manager. I get it. Tough breaks, these things happen. Beyond that I might put a little too much faith in young people. Davis was hot at the end of last year, but he couldn’t make the necessary adjustments to pitchers and I was relying on him for some serious power numbers. Clement can hit, but he can’t catch so they don’t know what to do with him. I get it.
I just wish I had drafted Russell Branyan like I wanted to.
Raul Ibanez was a pretty good Mariner. One of the few bright spots on a bad team, but at the same time he was everything that was wrong with the Mariners. He was bad at defense and the team didn’t realize it. He was more valuable at 1B or DH and the team didn’t realize it. He was signed for his track record and not for what he might do going forward. He did a good job, but his leaving is symbolic of the M’s future with Jack Zduriencik. No more overpaid veterans who will be bad by the end of their contract, we’ll leave that to the Phillies.
They do realize they signed him for his age 37 -39 seasons right? And are paying $10m/year for it? Here I was thinking the Mets would be the stupid NL East team to sign him. Pat the Bat turned down a 2yr/22M offer earlier, but you have to wonder if a third year would have kept him. For a couple more million they could have had someone 5 years younger who isn’t as atrocious in the outfield. Terrible signing.
I feel bad for Raul though, he seems like a nice guy (look at that picture! He bowls!) and the Philly fans are just going to absolutely murder him. His defense is terrible, will get worse and his OPS has only one way to go. I guess he’ll deserve it, but still.
On one hand you have a total idiot Philly fan climbing a lightpost, on the other you have asshole Philly fans throwing bottles at him. It’s win-win really.
There’s a post other at the MLB Fanhouse speculating that the real reason the Mariners didn’t announce their new General Manager this week is because they are waiting for Pat Gillick.
The reason for this is because they’re waiting for Pat Gillick. Gillick is a former Mariners GM, and he’s currently the Phillies general manager. He has made it clear, though, that he’d like to retire at the end of the year. I have no doubt that Seattle’s plan is to wait out the Series and then gauge Gillick’s interest in returning to Seattle as head of baseball operations, and then having him choose the new general manager.
It’s an interesting theory and not without merit, it’s completely obvious that Armstrong and Lincoln look at Pat Gillick as the best thing that ever happened to baseball in Seattle (besides Ichiro, of course) and desperately want him back. His success with the Phillies is not exactly helping matters.
The question is, if this is true, would Gillick choose from the finalists already selected? Or would he bring in his own guy? I have no problem with Pat Gillick being President of Baseball Operations or a similiar title. He’s better than anyone currently in the organization and if he trusts whoever the new GM is to do their thing and leave him alone, it could work out fantastically. It’s better to have a baseball guy behind a baseball guy, than a business guy who thinks he knows baseball behind a baseball guy. That being said, the next Mariners GM needs to be one of these finalists and if Pat Gillick comes in and screws that up we’re in trouble. I don’t want Jamie Moyer back.
Cole Hamels is awesome. He’s one of the best pitchers in the National League and one of the best young pitchers in baseball. He is the Phillies key this postseason. If he can shut the Brewers down they have a very good chance of winning this series. Here’s the thing though.
Hamels is up to a career-high 220 1/3 innings, or 37 more than last season. He gutted it out for six innings Thursday to pick up his 14th win, but he was consistently up in the zone and didn’t have anything close to his best stuff or command.
Jerry Crasnick posted that about a week ago and he settled on 227.3, 44 more than last year. Since then Hamels got to skip his start to rest up for today’s game. Will it matter? Last year, after settting his previous career high in innings, Hamels put up this line:
6.2 IP 3H 4BB 3ER 7K (115 pitches)
Terrible? No, but if the Brewers can get a similiar performance today they are in a very good position to win. The key is to have the lead or be tied when Hamels leaves the game, but also getting him out of there before they can go to Brad Lidge.
I'm 29 years old, a single dad and my name is Vince. I write about my life and the things that I find interesting which covers everything from movies to TV to wrestling to writing. I'm just trying to have fun, have a good life and figure out how I can be even more awesome. Still working on that last one. You can find my baseball blog at Miller Park Drunk. I've been told it's okay.
