Finally.....Winter's Over....Here's some baseball games that will count

Well, it's FINALLY time for the 2010 baseball season. No more winter, no more spring training....time to see how this goes down....how my predictions (and everyone elses will stand up over the season).....and also how Chedderhead/My Razzball team and the random Cbssports.com fantasy league i'm in that I haven't talked about does.......

Yankees vs. Red Sox

Sunday (Sabathia vs. Beckett) ESPN 2

Tuesday (Burnett vs. Lester) MLBN

Wednesday (Pettite vs. Lackey) ESPN 2

On a scale of 1-10 my interest is a: 1

Like a bad TBS movie that they "give you 3 chances to watch" you get 3 chances to watch the Yankees take on the Red Sox. The Sunday game stands out because its the first game of the season that actually counts. In the context of this season, this series is fairly insignificant but i'm pretty sure ESPN is hyping it like the ALCS because to them, the other 28 teams might as well be Triple-A teams for all they care.....as evidenced by this 2007 expose by the Onion.

In all seriousness, I don't care who it is...baseball is back. You have ex-Brewer Sabathia taking the hill against Beckett who is currently in negotiations for a massive extension (will this keep him in contract year blow the world away mode?)

On Tuesday, MLB Network gets in on the fun as they show game 2 of this series. MLB Network gets a pass on the Red Sox-Yankees criticism I give ESPN as they are taking the step of showing all 30 teams within the first 30 days of the season.

Wednesday marks the first Red Sox start for John Lackey....does he justify the piles of money thrown at him last summer or not? We begin to find out Wednesday

Cardinals (Carpenter) vs. Reds (Harang) Monday ESPN

On a scale of 1-10, my interest is: 6

A few interesting things here:

1) First look at a couple of NL Central rivals: The first look at a Cardinals team that just about everyone (except myself....and I don't see them missing by much) against a Reds team that is a perpetual sleeper in the NL Central

2) A first look at whether Chris Carpenter can replicate his strong 2009 season. Talent isn't the issue, the ability to stay healthy....well that's a completely different story......also he's one of my starters in the CBS league (Baseball, Beer and Bahkas) so i'll be a bit more interested in the results

3) Day 1 of Jay Bruce's breakout season: With Cliff Lee and Huston Street injured, someone is going to have to carry Cheddarhead on their shoulders, it might as well be Jay Bruce.

Indians (Westbrook) vs. White Sox (Buerhle) Monday ESPN2

On a scale of 1-10 my interest is a: 4

The Indians have lots of potential in 2010.....to be as bad or as worse than the Royals. If the Indians have any hope of making that last sentence sound horribly wrong, they are probably going to need Jake Westbrook to make more than 5 starts.

The White Sox on the other hand, have reasonable playoff expectations. They may not be a great team but then again they aren't in the strongest division either. Despite Joe Nathan being shelved for the season, I still think the Twins will win the division (barely.)

Another fun fact is that this game matches up 2 of the 3 pitchers who tied for the league in Hits Allowed in 2006. (The third player, Jon Garland gets the opening day nod for the Padres).

Cubs (Zambrano) vs. Braves (Lowe) Monday ESPN

On a scale of 1-10 my interest is a: 8

Well, the Cubs are involved so if nothing else I have a team to root against. Also, with Carlos Zambrano pitching you never quite know what your getting although this tends to equal itself out over each season as his ERA+ the last few years have been eerily similar (117,118,119) Usually an interesting and harmless experience unless you happened to be dressed like a Gatorade machine and Zambrano doesn't like the umpiring on a given day.

For the Braves, the have Derek Lowe taking the hill here. Lowe is coming off his worst year as a starter but I see him coming back strong in 2010....i'm confident enough in this assertion that he ended up on Chedderhead.

Giants (Lincecum) vs. Astros (Oswalt) Monday ESPN

On a scale of 1-10 my interest is a: 7

Good pitching match-up. Anytime Lincecum takes the hill, it's worth watching (right now he's my favorite non-Brewers player) because you never know whats going to happen. The Astros are looking to Roy Oswalt to anchor their staff this year.

From '01-'07 this would have been a fairly sound strategy. However, Oswalt's performance and his health have regressed a bit in the last couple years ......pretty much a microcosm of the Astors as a whole.

Twins vs. Angels

Baker vs. Weaver Tuesday MLB Network

Pavano vs. Santana Wednesday ESPN 2

On a scale of 1-10 my interest is a : 6

It should be interesting to see how the Twins come out of the gate. Will their saavy winter moves and the momentum of locking up Joe Mauer be the catalyst towards another playoff appearance. Or will the downgrade from Joe Nathan to whoever they have closing games bring them back to the pack.

For the Angels, will they rack up another AL West title or will the Mariners off-season moves allow them to overtake Los Angeles of Anaheim of North America of the Northern Hemisphere and be top of the class. To answer some of these questions but raise more questions than are actually answered, stay tuned to find out.

Brewers vs. Rockies Wednesday MLB Network

See, Brewers-Rockies Series Preview Post

A Retro-Active Diary Of My Razzball Team

Alright, a couple weeks ago I wrote a brief post about my Razzball team where the object of the game is to draft the worst team possible and listed who I drafted but didn't get into too much detail........until now. Today, one of my fellow league members dedicated a post to doing a blow-by-blow account of the team they drafted.

Well, this inspired me to do a blow-by-blow retroactive running diary of the trainwreck that I drafted.

Round 1: Jason Kendall

Being a Brewers fan, I was way too familiar with the sheer ineptitude that is Jason Kendall. It got to the point where any positive thing he did, no matter how insignificant (i.e. NOT hitting into an inning-ending double play, hitting the ball out of the infield) was seen as exceeding expectations. In the early rounds, I was improvising but all I knew was that I was taking Kendall if he was still available. Based on his probable .240 hitting with no power and that he somehow gets to start 130 games a year and he plays for a Royals team where he will probably drive in even less runs than he did in Milwaukee, there is no way this pick can go wrong

Round 2: Bobby Crosby

After getting Kendall, my next thought was to get First Base covered as Razzball-worthy hitters become catchers and middle infielders, not first basemen. Why Crosby? Plays for a terrible team? Pirates, check. Versatility at positions associated with offense? First Base/Third Base, check. Sub-.700 OPS/Sub-.240 Average/no more than 9 homers the last four years? Check.

Round 3: Brendan Harris

Got another corner infield player on accident. I was looking towards drafting some good old fashioned middle infield ineptitude here...I was trying to avoid drafting players from teams that are generally pretty smart (Twins) but anytime you can snag some Sub .700 OPS corner infield eligibility, you have to go for it.

Round 4: Gary Matthews Jr.

Matthews Jr. has answered the ultimate question of how you can catapult one above-average season and one You Tube worthy catch into making $10 million a year and making Jeff Suppan's contract look like a wise investment......even though the Mets weren't the ones that signed the contract (this one is on L.A. of Anaheim of California of America of Earth of Milky Way) it doesn't seem surprising that a player of this caliber ended up on the Mets.

Round 5: Fausto Carmona

After going with hitters in the first four rounds, I noticed that more pitchers were coming off the board around this time and started scrambling around to get my own piece of this pitching ineptitude. And what did I come back with? A pitcher whose WHIP has skyrocketed the last two years (1.76) if i'm lucky maybe he can break the 2 WHIP barrier. 70 Walks in 125 innings, 16 homers and an ERA north of 6. The icing on the cake? Carmona is projected to be the Indians #2 starter, making it unlikely that Carmona will lose said job because of his high ineptitude.

Round 6: Bill Hall

Not sure how many ABs i'll get out of Hall but my experience as a Brewers fan tells me that he's gotten progressively worse since his career year (pretty much the hitting equivalent of Fausto Carmona), the dude swings at just about everything regardless of how close the ball is to the strike zone and assuming he gets playing time, should be a valuable source of strikeouts.

Round 7: Oliver Perez

Got myself two pitchers in a three round period that have seen their WHIP skyrocket in the last few years. An ERA that looks primed to break the 7-barrier, a WHIP that is at 1.9.....oh so close to the 2 WHIP barrier and pitching for a Mets team where he shouldn't lose his job as long as he stays healthy.

Round 8: Willy Taveras

A player who has a chance to be a star.....if they ever make it legal to steal first.

Around this time I noticed a lot of the players I was drafting or was looking to draft either play or at one time played for one of four teams (Royals, Team Formerly Known As The Expos, Pirates and Mets). Around the 7th or 8th round, I shifted to a strategy to draft only players from those four teams unless I stumbled across from a player that was such a trainwreck that I couldn't resist. I would have mentioned this earlier but i'm partially distracted by the multi-OT epic that Xavier and K-State are putting on.

Round 9: Chris Jakubauskas

Had to double-check the draft page to make sure I spelt his name correctly. Don't know too much about him but considering the Pirates deemed him worthy, he should be a good source of losses. A high risk of wasted non-talent here as it looks doubtful that he will break camp with the Pirates.

Round 10: Nelson Figueroa

Time to stock up on some inept middle reliever with a slight chance of starting. He made 10 starts last year and logically could back his way into the rotation if the Mets rotation has injury issues (a matter of when not if). Anytime I can benefit off of the ineptitude of someone who pitched 30 games in the same year that the Brewers hit rock bottom and lost 106 times, there's no way I could pass it up.

Round 11: Yuniesky Betancourt

When in doubt, see who the Royals have available. If they have a .689 career OPS a career sub .300 OPS and on a team hopeless enough that that won't necessarily be a deterrent to starting. Now just as long as those 24-run Royals game only happen in spring training, I should be good.

Round 12: Craig Stammen

Young pitcher with an ERA slightly north of 5. A little concerned about his WHIP only being 1.29 and only walking 24 in 105 innings but c'mon he pitches for the Nationals. Their best pitchers are John Lannan and Jason Marquis, how good can he be?

Round 13: Mike Jacobs

On his second stint on the Mets......played a season for the Royals (which was an epic fail) he strikes out about once every four at bats, hits for a low average and comes to Citi Field.....if it can suppress the power of players that are actually good (David Wright), I can't wait to see what this stadium does to Jacobs' numbers

Round 14: Cristian Guzman

Only in a fantasy league like this, you have to worry about your starters losing time due to incompetency. .....I was feeling better about this pick until seeing that he lost his job to Ian Desmond.....fits the profile of someone that the Mets will trade for.....just a hunch

Round 15: Jeff Karstens

Had a near 1.5 WHIP and a 5+ ERA in '09.......he was so valuable in the Razzball world that he got shipped to minor league camp

Round 16: Jeff Francoeur

Banking on him NOT hitting .311 for the Mets again. Banking on pitchers realizing that he will swing at just about anything, banking on an excellent source of strikeouts.

Round 17: Tim Redding

Another player I was excited about until he got sent to the minors today.

Round 18: Mitch Maier

On the bright side, at least I ain't losing him to the minors. On the not so bright side, he's been tearing it up in the spring and his manager is lauding him for developing really quick this spring. On the bright side, talent evaluation isn't amongst the Royals strengths.

Round 19: Evan Meek

Looking at the numbers, didn't pitch that bad last year.....picked him more to a lack of familiarity and the PIT indicating he pitches for the Pirates next to his name.....if he keeps up his 8 to 1 K To Walk ratio he has this spring, he probably won't be long for this team....however, if he maintains his 5.79 ERA, Meek will be a most valuable asset.

Round 20: Ryan Church

Drafted a few rounds below the player (Francoeur) that he got traded for last summer. I actually wrote a post arguing that the Braves got the better of the deal for getting Church. Here's to both players not playing well this year.

Round 21: Jordan Zimmermann

A case of not doing my homework, getting lured by the fact that he plays for the Nationals and not realizing that he's on the 60-Day DL....oh well.

Round 22: Alex Cora

Mets utility fielder.....fine for opening day........658 career OPS.........welcome to Razzball Mr. Cora.

Round 23: Fernando Tatis

Mediocrity+multi-position eligibility+ Round 23= Jackpot

Round 24: Rod Barajas

Pro: Mediocre Batting Average

Con: He has 20 homer power

Pro: He's playing in citi field that has sapped the power of better, more talented players

Round 25: Colin Balester

5.87 ERA in 22 career starts....now if only he can crack the rotation

Round 26: Nick Punto

Protypical dime a dozen light hitting middle infielder

Round 27: Daniel Cabrera

Another player that is too valuable in the Razzball world to make a major league team....I am holding out hope that someone will give him a few starts this year. He drew 42 walks in 51 innings and showed himself perfectly capable of rocking a 2+ WHIP.

Well that in a nutshell is how I constructed the worst Fantasy baseball team that I could construct. I just have to wait a few more days to see how this goes down.

NL East Preview Part II

Our standings after the first half:

Phillies 17

Braves 22

Nationals 25

Marlins 27

Mets 29

Starting Rotation:

Phillies-4

Braves-8

Marlins-12

Mets-16

Nationals-20

The Phillies by far are best off in the rotation. Halladay ends up in Philly (finally) and it would be shock if he isn't one of the top 5 pitchers in the league. While Hamels didn't exactly light the world on fire in 2009 which was aided more by a high BABIP against and not on him suddenly turning into a mediocre pitcher. Blanton is your protypical mid-rotation pitcher...no better no worse. There's absolutely no way J.A. Happ replicates his breakthrough year but at the same time he's a better #4 option than anyone else has.

The Braves may be weak in the star-power at the top of the rotation but make up for it with depth. There's no way Lowe struggles as much this year as last, Hanson and Jurrjens are likely to come down a little bit from strong 2009 seasons but that doesn't change the fact that both of them are legit pitchers. Hudson pitched well after coming back from injury but 42 innings is too early to tell whether he can stay healthy and whether he can return to his dominant form.

Josh Johnson may not be a household name like Halladay or Santana but if 2009 is any indication, he could be within the discussion for best pitcher in the NL East this year. Nolasco should bounce back after struggles connected more to bad luck than being a bad pitcher. Volstad should hold his own as a #3 but beyond that don't expect much from the Marlins rotation.

For the Mets, its Santana and.....not much else. Maine and Pelfrey are pretty mediocre pitchers, Oliver Perez is an asset to Razzball and anyone that's a fan of pitchers who think the strike zone is a foreign concept.

The Nationals have John Lannan and Jason Marquis as their top two starters......and it gets worse from there......ouch

Bullpen

Mets-4

Braves-8

Phillies-12

Nationals-16

Marlins-20

Not too crazy about what any of these teams have with the game on the line. The Mets do have K-Rod.....while he does make lots of money and racks up lots of saves....i'm not quite sold on him as being elite.....but he has been relatively healthy (Unlike Wagner) and has never racked up blown saves and 7-plus ERAs like they were going out of style (Brad Lidge....cough....cough) so the Mets get this one by default.

Final Rankings

Phillies-33

Braves-38

Mets-49

Marlins-59

Nations-61

No surprises with the top two, no surprise that the Mets are nowhere near the top, not surprising the Nationals are at the bottom....the only difference between conventional thought and the final rankings is how low the Marlins are ranked.

NL East Preview Part I

Last but not least, the NL East:

Catcher:

Brian McCann-1

Carlos Ruiz-2

John Baker-3

Ivan Rodriguez-4

Rod Barajas-5

McCann wins this.....by a lot. The only catcher that you could definitely say is better than McCann is Joe Mauer. Since Joe Mauer plays in the AL Central, McCann is the #1 catcher in both the NL East and on Chedderhead. After McCann, it's the lesser of four evils....Ruiz has some decent upside but if he hasn't broken out already at 31 that's sort of a red light. I-Rod has had a great career and if we were talking about overall bodies of work he would be number 1 but he has seen better days. I could see Rod Barajas working out as a good signing, if he was a left handed hitter playing at Yankee Stadium. However, he ended up on a team that plays their home games at a stadium that suppresses his one strength (hitting home runs) which may explain how he ended up on my Razzball team.

First Base

1-Ryan Howard

2-Adam Dunn

3-Daniel Murphy

4-Troy Glaus

5-Gaby Sanchez

Howard continued to establish himself as one of the elite hitters in the game in 2009. I see no reason why this won't continue into the new decade. Adam Dunn has been and continues to be the Mr. 3TO.......Drawing Walks, Hitting Homers, Striking Out....Dunn has his game down to the basics. On name recognition, Glaus would get the nod over Murphy but a) it's tough to tell whether he will stay healthy all year and b) even if he is healthy, it's unclear whether he will return to form

Second Base

1-Chase Utley

2-Dan Uggla

3-Martin Prado

4-Adam Kennedy

5-Luis Castillo

Another position, another Phillies player amongst the elite of the game. Uggla has established himself as Adam-Dunn lite. Hits for a very pedestrian average, hits plenty of homers (30-ish but not as much as Dunn) he is drawing walks at an increased rate (14% vs. 18% for Dunn) but then again the power standards for second basemen is lower than for first baseman.

Shortstop

1-Hanley Ramirez

2-Jimmy Rollins

3-Yunel Escobar

4-Jose Reyes

5-Ian Desmond

One word.....LOADED. Han-Ram gives you 30-30 potential in any given year and makes a strong case for the best shortstop in the bigs (he even got drafted 1st overall in the league that Cheddarhead plays in). Yes, Jimmy Rollins had a rough season, it still seems odd that he won an MVP and doesn't draw very many walks. However, his struggles look to be linked to low BABIP and he should bounce-back strong in 2010. Escobar is a young talented player and will likely overtake Rollins as a player within a few years, I just don't think it happens this year. Jose Reyes is talented enough to be higher but with the injury problems he is facing/will inevitably face all year and the fact that the Mets fall back plan is Alex Cora, I can't really justify ranking him higher.

Third Base

1-Ryan Zimmerman

2-David Wright

3-Chipper Jones

4-Jorge Cantu

5-Placido Polanco

Seems to be a trend in the NL East where the best player by position is the best by a lot not a little. When that player happens to be the starting third baseman for Chedderhead, even better. Tough to tell what to expect out of David Wright in '10. He's still reliable to hit for a good average but whether his power remains at 2009 levels or returns to historical norms remains to be seen. His hr/fb% dropped last year which also coincided with moving to Citi Field. Too early to tell whether his power drop resulted just bad luck or the stadium. Regardless, this area of doubt is enough to drop him well behind Zimmerman but above Jones whose name recognition has overtaken production, Cantu who had one really good season and many indicators showing that his 2008 level of production is unlikely to replicate himself

Left Field

1-Josh Willingham

2-Raul Ibanez

3-Jason Bay

4-Matt Diaz

5-Chris Coghlan

An overall uninspiring group. I will always associate Josh Willingham as the guy who hit grand slams in consecutive innings off Jeff Suppan (making him single-handedly responsibility for my least favorite Brewers moment of the year). Given a chance to start he has a decent chance to go yard 30-35 times. Ibanez had a nice 2009....his home run totals were inflated by an abnormally high hr/fb ratio and had nothing to do with the weak steroid speculation or the bloggers that Ibanez thinks all live in their mothers basement. Jason Bay is a free agent bust waiting to happen. A combination of decreasing contact percentage (he dropped from 76% to 69% last year......only 3% away from becoming a Bill Hall All-Star) and moving to Citi Field where power goes to die.....a pretty good chance this goes down as another bad Mets contract before all is said and done.....also a generous ranking at 3rd....Also not sold on Coghlan replicating his Rookie of the Year Season.

Center Field

1-Nate McLouth

2-Carlos Beltran

3-Shane Victorino

4-Nyjer Morgan

5-Cameron Maybin

Another less than inspiring crop. McLouth is a decent player but definitely not a superstar. On talent and name-brand recognition Beltran should win this hands down but I have little to no faith in his ability to stay healthy. Victorino (like Bay) is a player i've never been too high on (being the same guy that hit a grand slam off C.C. Sabathia in the 2008 NLDS that made it official that the Brewers playoff appearance was only going to be a cameo don't help either) but get's the #3 spot by default. Not sold on Morgan replicating his strong 2009 season and not sold on Maybin.

Right Field

1-Jayson Werth

2-Cody Ross

3-Melky Cabrera

4-Elijah Dukes

5-Jeff Francoeur

Lost in all the Phillies firepower from players like Ibanez, Howard and Utley the fact that Werth hit 36 homers got lost in the mix. He comes back this year with an epic beard, a contract to play for and secondary numbers that indicate his power spike is legit....could he be dark horse MVP candidate.....not as crazy as it sounds. Cody Ross seems like a slighty improved version of Mike Cameron (at least as a hitter) slighty better average .260 range and 25 homers......but nothing that stands out....(well unless Ross hits 4 of said homers in a game or ever plays drunk and tells the media about it). Speaking of Mike Cameron, the player he almost (and thankfully) didn't get traded straight up for in the winter of 2008-2009 Cabrera gets the #3 spot mostly due to his competition being Dukes who seems determined to not live up to his talent and one of the members of my Razzball team, Jeff Francoeur.

Standings after Part I:

Phillies 17

Braves 22

Nationals 25

Marlins 27

Mets 29

AL East Preview Part II

Our Standings after the First Half:

Red Sox-18

Yankees-21

Rays-31

Orioles-31

Blue Jays-34

Starting Rotation:

Red Sox-4.5

Rays-9

Yankees-13.5

Orioles-18

Blue Jays-22.5

When I started looking at this area, I was debating between placing Boston or New York at #1 but obviously changed my mind. The Red Sox are behind at the ace spot (Lester versus Sabathia) but are stronger at the 2/3 spots (Beckett/Lackey) versus (Burnett/Pettite). The biggest question mark in the Red Sox rotation is Dice-K but I think they get more out of Bucholz than the Yankees will with whatever their 2010 version of the Joba Rules are.

The Rays don't have a full on ace pitcher (which is why they don't get the 1-spot) but they have greater depth in the back of their rotation (Davis/Niemann) who while they may not be as familiar to baseball fans as Javier Vasquez (no way he repeats his 2009 performance) and Joba Chamberlain (not sure what the Yankees will do with him this year but whatever it is is likely to backfire)

Overall, the Blue Jays/Orioles rotations are nothing to write home about. I don't see Millwood repeating his strong 2009 performance....there's no way Guthrie would be the #2 starter for a contender. On the same token, nothing really excites me about the Blue Jays rotation. The Orioles avoid the cellar because the young pitchers they have (Bergesen/Matusz/Tillman) have more talent/potential than the Blue Jays starters and there's a solid chance at least one of them (either Matusz and/or Bergesen) are on the cusp of a breakout season.

Bullpen:

Yankees-4.5

Red Sox-9

Rays-13.5

Orioles-18

Blue Jays-22.5

Who would you rather have with the game on the line.......Rivera or Papelbon? That's a very, very tough question. The Red Sox and Yankees have the back of their bullpen anchored by two of the elite closers in the game, this one is a toss-up. The arbitrary factoid that gives Rivera the nod as tie breaker: He enters the game to "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. That also happens to be the ringtone on my cellphone.

Final Standings:

Red Sox-31.5

Yankees-39

Rays-53.5

Orioles-67

Blue Jays-79

AL East Preview: Part I

Time to head East to the American League:

Catcher

1-Matt Wieters

2-Victor Martinez

3-Jorge Posada

4-Kelly Shoppach

5-John Buck

Tough call at this position. Wieters had a nice finish to 2009 and all signs indicate that he'll take some significant steps forward. Victor Martinez had a solid 2009 but couldn't justify him at #1 for a couple of reasons a) His OPS was 161 points lower at Catcher than at First AND the Red Sox have openly stated they plan to use him primarily behind the plate b) Is the Victor Martinez of 2007/2009 that had 13% of his flyballs turn into home runs or are we going to see the Victor Martinez that only saw 3% of his flyballs and 2 of his 266 At Bats turn into home runs.

First Base

1-Mark Teixiera

2-Kevin Youkilis

3-Carlos Pena

4-Lyle Overbay

5-Michael Aubrey

A Toss-Up between Teixiera and Youkilis. Teixiera has the slight power edge and a right field porch more suited for Little League giving him the edge. Both Youkilis and Pena have a penchant for hitting plenty of homers and drawing plenty of walks. Youkilis has a significant edge over Pena as Youkilis is able to draw his walks and hit his homers while still hitting .300 while Pena is usually south of .250

Second Base

1-Dustin Pedroia

2-Robinson Cano

3-Aaron Hill

4-Ben Zobrist

5-Brian Roberts

An very loaded field at Second. You have tier, 1 (Pedroia/Cano) where their performance is established and you know (mostly) what you are going to get. Could see Pedroia going 20-20, I don't see Cano hitting 27 out again. You have your second tier (Hill/Zobrist) of players who had breakout seasons last year but its still unclear how sustainable their level of production is going to be. Look for these two to settle into a rhythm of hitting from .260 to .280 with around 20 homers.

Shortstop

1-Derek Jeter

2-Marco Scutaro

3-Jason Bartlett

4-Alex Gonzales

5- Cesar Izturis

While Derek Jeter is one of the more over-rated players in baseball, he's still considerably better than the rest of the field. There was somewhat of a bidding war for Scutaro over the winter, i'm still trying to figure out why. That's nice that Bartlett had a great season last year. Too bad, that his home run numbers are not sustainable based on Bartlett's past.

Third Base:

1-Alex Rodriguez

2-Evan Longoria

3-Adrian Beltre

4-Garrett Atkins

5-Edwin Encarnacion

A-Rod may be one of the more unlikable players in baseball. He's also still one of the elite hitters in baseball. Evan Longoria has been a hitting machine ever since being called up in 2008. Longoria looks to move himself deeper into the elite echelon of Third Basemen this year. There is an off chance that Beltre could have a big season considering he's playing for a contract and getting away from Safeco field but this is far from a sure thing.

Left Field:

1-Carl Crawford

2-Nolan Reimold

3-Mike Cameron

4-Jose Bautista

5-Brett Gardner

These rankings are based on a couple of hunches 1-Carl Crawford is in his contract year, a solid chance to explode beyond his baseline .300-20 homers- 60 steal baseline. Nolan Reimold had a nice rookie year and looks to be on the cusp of a breakout season.......wouldn't be surprised to see him hit .275 and 25-30 homers. Mike Cameron is still a solid player, at this point what you see is what you get.... .250 average 20-25 homers striking out every 3 to 4 at bats and multiple hot and cold streaks.

Center Field:

1-Curtis Granderson

2-Jacoby Ellsbury

3-Adam Jones

4-Vernon Wells

5-B.J. Upton

Could see these rankings go a few different directions. Moving to Yankee Stadium should be one of the best things to happen to Granderson's career. He's already shown he can hit 30 out per year and with the little league sized porch that Yankee Stadium calls Right Field should inflate his home run totals.....now if only he can figure out hitting lefties. I'm completely unmoved by high stolen base totals which prevents Ellsbury from grabbing the top spot. Not bought or sold on Jones yet he got lucky in the first half, unlucky in the second half.....Vernon Wells had a chance to hit number-1 but then I remembered there were criterion other than contract size.

Right Field

1-J.D. Drew

2-Nick Swisher

3-Nick Markakis

4-Travis Snider

5-Gabe Kapler/Matt Joyce

One through three are fairly interchangeable sources of .270-.280 average (.250 for Swisher) and 20-30 homers. On talent alone, Drew is on top but as always, there are concerns about staying healthy. Swisher has better power than Markakis but hits for a lower average. Swisher's power was too good to pass up......plus Swisher is a cheddarhead member. Travis Snider is the toughest one to figure out.....I could see anything from struggling for a month and being sent to the minors to having a breakout season similar to what I'm expecting out of Jay Bruce and Kyle Blanks.

Designated Hitter:

1-Adam Lind

2-David Ortiz

3-Luke Scott

4-Pat Burrell

5-Nick Johnson

Skeptical on Lind hitting 35 out this year but could see him hitting .280 with 25-30 homers. Ortiz has the pedigree, and more power but the way his numbers have trended the last few years is a bit discouraging. Luke Scott.....another 20 homer hitter.....Pat Burrell, after last years epic fail anything will pass as progress.....

Standings after First Half:

Red Sox-18

Yankees-21

Rays-31

Orioles-31

Blue Jays-34

A few surprises here. The Red Sox grabbed the top spot despite having less players in the 1-spot than the Yankees (2 vs. 4). The Yankees ranking was dragged down due to weaknesses in left (Brett Gardner) and DH (Nick Johnson). A bit surprised of how far back the Rays were. The O's and Blue Jays are ranked about where I thought they would be.

Introducing my Razzball team

So, this is the introduction to the bizarro team. A couple weeks ago, I was scrolling through the multitudes of blogs I subscribe to on Google Reader and came across a Fantasy Baseball league that was unlike the typical Fantasy Baseball league. The league, run through the Fantasy Baseball blog Razzball. Unlike most Fantasy Leagues where drafting players like Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, Ryan Braun and Chase Utley will help you win, the league that I joined is aimed at purposely assembling the worst team possible. The winner of the Razzball wins a Hot Tub. No word on whether or not this Hot Tub takes you back to the year I turned 3, 1986.

Anyways, here is the line-up I am going with:

Catcher-Jason Kendall

First Base-Bobby Crosby

Second Base-Brendan Harris

Third Base-Bill Hall

Shortstop-Yuniesky Bettencourt

Corner Infield-Mike Jacobs

Middle Infield-Cristian Guzman

Outfield-Gary Matthews Jr.

Outfield-Willy Taveras

Outfield-Jeff Francoeur

Outfield-Mitch Maier

Outfield-Ryan Church

Utility-Alex Cora

Bench-Fernando Tatis

Bench-Rod Barajas

Bench-Nick Punto

Most Commonly Used Hitter (In Reality):

Jeff Francoeur who somehow is starting in 11 percent of leagues.

Number of Starters Starting in 0% of Yahoo leagues:

7

Pitching:

Fausto Carmona

Oliver Perez

Chris Jakubauskas

Nelson Figueroa

Craig Stammen

Jeff Karstens

Tim Redding

Evan Meek

Jordan Zimmermann

Bench:

Colin Balester

Daniel Cabrera

Most Commonly Used Pitchers:

Fausto Carmona/Oliver Perez (1% each)

Pitchers on 0% of Yahoo Leagues:

Everyone else

Apparently, i'm not the only one not high on Carlos Gomez. Carlos Gomez is allegedly the Albert Pujols of the Razzball world as he was the first overall pick. I was also glad to know that i'm not the only one to see through Michael Bourn's 2009 season as he was the 3rd overall pick. Unlike the last couple years, i'll actually be able to enjoy Jason Kendall's mediocrity as a) he's not on the Brewers anymore and b) he was my first round draft choice.

Another thing to note that 21 of the 27 players I drafted play for one of four teams, all of which could make a compelling argument for being the dumbest team in baseball (Pirates, Royals, Nationals and Mets). My thinking was if any of these teams see something in these players to sign them, 90 percent of the time there is something so fundamentally flawed in their game that they have the potential to become superstars in the Razzball world.

NL West Preview Part II

So after the first half, the NL West power rankings are as follows

D-Backs 17

Dodgers 22

Rockies 25

Giants 26

Padres 30

Starting Pitching

Giants-4

Dodgers-8

Rockies-12

D-Backs-16

Padres-20

The Giants rotation is the class of the division/league. The concept of scoring runs may be foreign to them but the concept of preventing runs from scoring is something they have a knack on. Tim Lincecum has already won the last two Cy Young Awards and is looking to rack up a third one. Matt Cain looks to build upon his breakout year and continue his ascent towards the leagues elite pitchers. Sanchez and Zito aren't going to win any awards but both will have their moments of brilliance.

The Dodgers don't have any pitchers in the neighborhood of Lincecum/Cain (right now). Kershaw is on the cusp of a breakout season (he needs to stop walking people all the time) and Billingsley should bounce back from his 2009 season. Charlie Haeger is a nice sleeper candidate in the back of the rotation. He had a couple nice starts with the Dodgers after getting called up....his track record in the minors doesn't indicate it but with the knuckleballers, you never really know.

The Rockies have a solid front 3 of Jiminez, Cook and De la Rosa (two of which are members of Chedderhead). On talent alone, the D-Backs should be at least #3, maybe higher but that would hinge on Brandon Webb staying healthy (already not off to a good start). The Padres, they have some young pitchers with potential. They have a possible sleeper pitcher in the back of the rotation in Clayton Richard (part of the package they got from Jake Peavy) but overall, not that impressive.

Bullpen

Dodgers-4

Padres-8

Rockies-12

Giants-16

D-Backs-20

Pretty solid crop of closers/bullpens in the division. Broxton looks to be the most likely to replicate his success. He's still young (26 in June), overpowering 114 Ks in 76 innings and he's proven to be effective at closer. The Padres lost Trevor Hoffman to the Brewers in '09 but Heath Bell made sure the bullpen remained a strength in San Diego......and gained my respect for calling out ESPN for only caring about the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets .

Close call between the Rockies and Giants. Huston Street looks to have another solid year (which should be a given as he's one of two closers for Cheddarhead). Brian Wilson should rack up some more saves and possibly set a single-season record for saves recorded after loading the bases. The D-Backs aren't in terrible shape with their bullpen provided Chad Qualls stays healthy......their bullpen would rank higher in another division but with the depth in the NL West, someone has to be last.

And now our final standings:

Dodgers-34

Giants-46

Rockies-49

D-Backs-53

Padres-58

Nothing like doing the second half of a divisional preview to course correct the projections. While the Dodgers had an inactive off-season, they still have a pretty strong team and should 3-peat in the west. The Giants are on the upward swing but inept offense is going to do them in (again). I've had a sinking feeling that the Rockies aren't going to be as good as most people think so i'm not shocked to see them in third. The questions surrounding the Arizona pitching staff moved them down to a realistic 4th place finish. The Padres, the only reason to pay attention to them is A-Gon (until he's gone) and the newest member of Cheddarhead (fresh off the waiver wire) Kyle Blanks.

NL West Preview Part I

Off to the NL West....the division I see the most of (outside of Brewers) because why? They show a lot of Dodgers games on TV where I live. Time to see how the West is going to be won:

Catcher:

1-Miguel Montero

2-Chris Ianneta

3-Buster Posey

4-Russell Martin

5-Nick Hundley

Toss-up between Montero and Ianneta for the top spot. Montero a better source for contact/average, Ianneta a better source of power....factor out the Coors bump and he goes in second. Buster Posey was the hardest one to project. According to the Baseball Forecaster, his Minor League numbers equate to a .836 OPS. With those numbers over a full season, Posey has an argument for being 1 or 2 but with the learning curve to adjust to Major League pitching and the likeliness that the Giants will insist he needs some time in Fresno to develop his game (say till late-May/Early June....regardless of whether or not said time to develop is needed).

First Base

1-Adrian Gonzales

2-Pablo Sandoval

3-Adam LaRoche

4-Todd Helton

5-James Loney

As usual, a deep position. Gonzales gets the nod for now (Sandoval will probably get bumped to first when NOT if A-Gon gets shipped out of San Diego). I see Pablo Sandoval having a nice breakout season.......he was THIS close to being a member of Chedderhead but Ryan Zimmerman got the pick instead with the deciding factor being Pac Bell Park. Few things in life are guaranteed Death, Taxes and LaRoche struggling in the first half, surging in the second half and ending with a .270 average and 25 homers. Unlike Sandoval, LaRoche is a member of Chedderhead as he got drafted in the second to last round.

Second Base

1-Freddy Sanchez

2-Clint Barmes

3-Ryan Roberts

4-Jamey Carroll

5-David Eckstein

The wasteland. Clint "Sub .300 OBP" Barmes, Ryan "Didn't Get A Chance Till 28" Roberts and The King of Grit himself David Eckstein. Interesting thing about Barmes......it took me a few years of him in the bigs to realize that his last name was Barmes not Barnes. There were countless times where I would think things like why does Clint Barnes last name look different, why that n looks like an m and finally realizing that oh his last name is Barmes not Barnes.

Shortstop

1-Troy Tulowitzki

2- Stephen Drew

3-Rafael Furcal

4-Edgar Renteria

5-Everth Cabrera

Tulowitzki graduated from promising young player to Star last year. Stephen Drew has shown flashes of promise and hopes to join Tulowitzki at the top of the class in 2010. Furcal and Renteria are interchangeable 30-somethings who have seen better days and Cabrera is in last because I don't care for light hitting middle-infielders regardless of how many bases they steal why? Because you are more likely to score a run when you hit a home run than when you steal second.

Third Base

1-Mark Reynolds

2-Casey Blake

3-Mark DeRosa

4-Chase Headley

5-Ian Stewart

Like Tulowitzki, Reynolds graduated to the top of his class at his position last year. Casey Blake and Mark DeRosa are interchangeable players that will give you between a .265-.275 average and 15-20 homers a year. The musical equivalent is Nickelback. They've been releasing the same album for the last decade with the same songs under but with only slight variations. This applies here because Casey Blake and Mark DeRosa are the same player with slight variations. The tie-breaker....Casey Blake is on Chedderhead so if he does better than expected, that would contribute to Chedderhead's inevitable title while DeRosa playing better than expected won't impact my life what so ever. Why is Ian Stewart last? Well when factoring in MLE equivalent numbers in the Forecaster, his contact rate has dropped 16 percent and in 3 straight years.......he doesn't strike me as a breakout candidate, he strikes me as a candidate for the Bill Hall All-Stars.

Left Field

1-Manny Ramirez

2-Kyle Blanks

3-Carlos Gonzales

4-Conor Jackson

5-Eugenio Velez

Well, Manny Ramirez may be a bit older his bat may be a bit slower after going on a 50-game maternity leave and Manny is still Manny which still means expect Manny to put up some crazy power numbers. Kyle Blanks....well he was the one that got away from Chedderhead. If it weren't for the fact that Chedderhead was drafted while I was hungover and functioning on 3 1/2 hours of sleep, we would have realized he was available in the last round and given him Mike Cameron's position instead of feeling like a complete idiot when he got picked a few picks later. We were even discussing using a pick on Blanks the night before when we were discussing who we wanted, who we didn't want and who we liked but knew they were going to get picked at least a few rounds earlier than we wanted to pick them....point being Blanks has 35-40 Home Run power written all over him.

Center Field

1-Matt Kemp

2-Chris Young

3-Scott Hairston

4-Aaron Rowand

5-Dexter Fowler

Matt Kemp has graduated to the top of the class in 2009. OMG did you hear he's dating Rihanna. In a related story, TMZ needs to go away. Nothing about Young and Hairston inspire me too much. Dexter Fowler gets hype for having a breakout season coming up. I'm not one of those people.....not sure if his high BABIP from last year is sustainable, he could be in for a long year.

Right Field

1-Justin Upton

2-Andre Ethier

3-Brad Hawpe

4-Nate Schierholtz

5-Will Venable

Look for Upton to break into the elite players section this year. Look for Andre Ethier to show that his career year in 2009 was no fluke. Look for Hawpe to quietly go yard 20-25 times this year.

Standings At The End Of Part I:

D-Backs 17

Dodgers 22

Rockies 25

Giants 26

Padres 30

Just finished doing the NL Central preview that produced some unconventional results. After the first half of this preview we have a team (Arizona) on top that absolutely nobody thinks has a chance. Is this just a fluke of being early in the process or am I about to make another risky this may make me look like a complete moron type pick? If i've learned anything from being a fan of Lost, its to leave questions unanswered and to just end

NL Central Preview Part II:

In the quest to answer the ultimate question of where do the Brewers stack up against their NL Central brethren, it is time to complete the second park (pitching half) of the NL Central Preview:

Our standings after the first half are:

Brewers 22

Cardinals 23

Cubs 25

Reds 29

Pirates 34

Astros 35

Starting Pitching

Cardinals-Carpenter/Wainwright/Lohse/Penny --4

Cubs-Zambrano/Lilly/Dempster/Wells/Silva-- 8

Brewers-Gallardo/Wolf/Davis/Bush/Parra/Suppan's Expiring Contract--12

Reds-Harang/Arroyo/Bailey/Owens/Chapman-16

Astros-Oswalt/Rodriguez/Norris/Paulino/Moehler--20

Pirates-Malholm/Duke/Ohlendorf/Morton/Hart

The rankings for this are fairly relative and contextually based as none of these rotations are without their question marks. The Cardinals get the nod because their question marks are less glaring. For them the questions are Can Carpenter stay healthy ? Maybe Will Wainwright pitch as well as he did last year? Probably not Will Lohse do what Kyle Lohse usually does ? Probably Will we see the Brad Penny that struggled in Boston or the Brad Penny that pitched strong in San Francisco ? Arguments for the latter--He's still in the National League, he had Dave Duncan as pitching coach--Argument against--He doesn't get to make half his starts at Pac-Bell

For the Cubs--Can Zambrano stay healthy AND not be a distraction? Probably and Probably not Will Ted Lilly be an All-Star and be the only representative again? Maybe and Probably not Will Randy Wells sneak up on anyone again? Unlikely Will Cubs fans still rationalize that trading for Carlos Silva was a good idea even though he is one of the WORST pitchers in the league. Regardless of how rocky Miton Bradley's tenure was in Chicago, they reality is that they got ABSOLUTELY FLEECED IN THIS DEAL. Since we are on the subject here are five things the Cubs could have gotten in return from Milton Bradley and have it work out better for them than trading for Carlos Silva.

1) Random AA Player

2) Random A Player

3) $20 Starbucks Gift Certificate

4) CDs from any of the following artists......Nirvana, Heart, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Queensryche, Jimi Hendrix, Soundgarden

5) Matt Hasselbeck......he might play a completely different sport but it's not that hard to top Carlos Silva's "production"

6) A bag of baseballs

On one hand I feel I am being too generous with the Brewers rotation rankings. On the other hand, the rotations ranked below them ain't setting the world on fire. The argument for....Yovani Gallardo has ace potential. He showed many flashes of promise as he struck out 200+ batters last year and he was the only Brewers starter that didn't make me absolutely cringe. I am a bit concerned that he walked 94 batters as well but he's only 24 and he's on the cusp of being one of the elite pitchers in the game.

The argument against--relative weakness from 2 to 5. The Brewers addressed their rotation needs by signing Randy Wolf over the winter. While the Brewers stretched it money-wise with their decision based on his career year, I still see him eating some innings winning about a dozen games and having an ERA close to 4. Not exactly #2 pitcher caliber stuff but an improvement over last year. The Brewers also brought back Doug Davis and its reasonable to expect his performance will be similar to Wolf.

In the 4-5 position it's likely that Suppan will get a spot he does not deserve well because he gets paid a lot of money. The last spot will be between Parra (who is too talented to pitch as bad as he did last year) and Dave Bush while not having the high ceiling as Parra has shown the ability in to put up Wolf/Davis type numbers. Not to be forgotten is that the Brewers have a new pitching coach (Rick Peterson) who does have a sucessful track record in the bigs.

In terms of starting pitching, the Reds are the biggest wildcard in the equation. In terms of how they actually do in terms of starting pitching comes down to 1) Is this the year Homer Bailey lives up to the hype surrounding him? and 2) Is Aroldis Chapman as good as everyone says he is?

For the Astros the question is begged Can Oswalt stay healthy and will Rodriguez pitch as well as he did in 2009? Maybe and Maybe and will the Pirates pitching be as bad as it looks on paper? Dude, it's the Pirates and the last time I checked the calendar it isn't 1992.

Bullpens

Brewers-Hoffman/Hawkins/Coffey-4

Reds-Cordero/Rhodes/Herrera-8

Cardinals-Franklin/Reyes/Miller-12

Cubs-Marmol/Grabow/Marshall-16

Pirates-Hanrahan/Asciano/Veal-20

Astros-Lyon/Lindstrom/Fulchino-24

While the Brewers starting pitching cost them a chance to contend for their second straight trip to the playoffs, the bullpen did what they could. Hoffman had a 2009 season that defied his age. It would be too much to expect a repeat of 2009 but Hoffman is still one of the better closers in the league. Like Wolf, the Brewers stretched a little bit on years and money for Hawkins. Still, Hawkins has shown he can be an effective pitcher as long as the team hes playing for isn't dumb enough to put him in the closers role. Todd Coffey is example one of too many to count of players that seemingly were going nowhere until Doug Melvin picked them off the waiver wire. There's a lot to like about Coffey....the full on sprints from the bullpen....the fact that it took him forever to give up a run when the Brewers signed him. Plus the full on vendetta he has against the broadcast team of the Reds.

The this single-handedly makes Todd Coffey the man story as found via a Google Search for Jeff Brantley Todd Coffey and the first organic result from the Dayton DailyNews:

Former Reds relief pitcher Todd Coffey, now with Milwaukee, pitched a 1-2-3 inning against the Reds then ran into a railing in front of the Brewers dugout because he was staring at the radio booth where Jeff Brantley was seated. When Coffey was with the Reds, Brantley said of him, "It is difficult to pitch with both hands around your throat."

If that's not epic I don't know what is.......

The Reds get the second spot with the back of their bullpen anchored by Francisco Cordero. I'm going to skip talking about the Reds bullpen and discuss a random Francisco Cordero anecdote. So the gym that I work out at has 7 TV screens. Five of them actually have cable (unfortunately one of these...sometimes two is dedicated to the vile that Sean Hannity calls "analysis".....but thats another rant for another day).....Anyways, the two other TV screens run a blatant inundations of local ads on a 5-10 minute cycle and usually there's some recent news and some sports trivia questions that run within the cycle of these advertisements. Anyways, I was working out one day and one of the trivia questions was who won the 2006 NL MVP. The first choice was the winner (Ryan Howard) the second choice (Barry Bonds) while off his MVP-peak would still pass for a plausible wrong answer....the third choice.....Mr. Francisco Cordero.....hmm I wonder which one isn't like the others. The same Francisco Cordero who while having a fine career being a 3 time All-Star and quietly putting up a career ERA+ of 148 but also the same Francisco Cordero who has never finished above 24 th in MVP-voting.

If we were going solely on what happened in 2009 instead of what's likely to happen in 2010 the Cardinals would have a higher rank based on Franklin's career year. I'm definitely not sold on Franklin repeating his career year........I'm not sold on Carlos Marmol getting through the year without giving the Cubs fits at closer.....I'm not sold on anyone that puts on a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform.......Also, if the Astros keep Brandon Lyon in the closers position....wait for disaster.......some people were made to be middle-relievers and not closers....Brandon Lyon fits perfectly within this scope of some people.

Final Results:

Brewers-38

Cardinals-39

Cubs-49

Reds-57

Astros-75

Pirates-79

Wow.....by every other projection and even my pre-conceived notions of this team......best case was second worse case was fourth and probable case was third. If this holds up we could be up for an epic battle for the NL Central title. Of course, this assumes a lot of things go right, i.e. the starting rotation getting their act together, the bullpen being strong all year and what I believe will be the make or break factor assuming little to no change elsewhere....the ability of Rickie Weeks to stay healthy AND effective all year. It will take seven months to figure out whether this is the smartest or dumbest posting I write all year. I'm either on to something that no one else is or I just gave homerism a really, really, bad name......not the avant gard homerism you see given to the Yankees by ESPN but Carlos Silva-bad homerism........now we play the waiting game.

NL Central Preview Part 1

So there are a lot of important questions to be asked for the upcoming baseball season. How bad are the Royals going to be? How epic is my fantasy team going to be? Who's going to win it all? Isn't dedicating a prime 9 to the Tampa Bay Rays sort of like making a greatest hits album for Vanilla Ice? But all of these questions are inferior to THE ultimate question........Where Can I expect the Brewers to finish in the standings this year?

Only one way to find out.....break it down the NL Central just like it's any other division

Catcher

1-Geovany Soto

2-Yadier Molina

3-Gregg Zaun

4-Ryan Doumit

5-Ramon Hernandez

6-J.R. Towles

Yes Soto had a terrible season last year. Note the emphasis on a terrible season, not being a terrible player. Easily attributable to an obscenely low BABIP. Yadier Molina had another All-Star season last year and he can play defense but I find it hard to associate a Molina brother with being an offensive juggernaut. For the Brewers, having Zaun instead of Kendall allows them to jump from the bottom to the middle of the pack in this position but a sense of reality and perspective needs to be placed in that Zaun is a middle of the pack catcher...no better...no worse.

First Base

1-Albert Pujols

2-Prince Fielder

3-Derrek Lee

4-Joey Votto

5-Lance Berkman

6-Steve Pearce

All I have to say about 1 to 5 is......wow. First Base is deep in this division. It's obvious that Pujols is the best at this position and in the league until proven otherwise....still in a love/hate mode with myself for drafting him onto Cheddarhead but c'mon it's Pujols. Prince Fielder is amongst the top candidates to dethrone King Albert as the best hitter in the league but wanting to be number 1 and being number 1 are two different things. There are talks of a contract extension in place so maybe this will motivate him to go from his status as an already great hitter to being in his own top echelon. Derrek Lee is a great hitter in his own regard but a notch below Albert and Prince. Votto and Berkman are fairly interchangeable. Votto is on the way up and could be in line for a breakout season. Berkman, while still a great hitter is getting up there in years and seems more vulnerable to injury and/or regressing numbers than Votto.

Second Base

1-Brandon Phillips

2-Rickie Weeks

3-Felipe Lopez

4-Akinori Iwamura

5-Kaz Matsui

6-Mike Fontenot

How production from this position actually shakes out is highly reliant on the ability of certain players (Rickie Weeks....cough...cough) to stay healthy. Phillips and Weeks are in the top tier for this division. Both Phillips and Weeks have the talent to put up 20-20 seasons. Phillips gets the nod because as of now, he's been the one to fulfill said talent.

Weeks is definitely a talented player and has been a breakout prospect for a long time but has been plagued by under-performance and health injuries. 2009 was beginning to look like his breakout year but then....BOOM....out for the season. Here's to Weeks fulfilling his potential in 2010.

Shortstop

1-Alcides Escobar

2-Ryan Theriot

3-Brendan Ryan

4-Ronny Cedeno

5-Tommy Manzella

6-Paul Janish

The shortstop position in two words......Paper Thin. Yes, I realize Escobar is a work in progress especially in the Power and Walks department but a combination of his assets (good contact, blazing speed, strong defense) and going up against players that peaked last year and even then didn't peak that high (Theriot) a prototypically bland middle-infielder (Ryan) and three players that despite being on the wrong side of 25 don't have anything screaming about them that they will ever be stars (Cedeno, Manzella and Janish)..leads to a pretty weak crop of Shortstops.

Third Base

1-Aramis Ramirez

2-Casey McGehee

3-Scott Rolen

4-Pedro Feliz

5-Andy LaRoche

6-David Freese

Another fairly weak crop. Despite the injury concerns/issues surrounding Ramirez the reality remains that he is by far the most talented amongst this crop. McGehee is definitely a Major-League caliber starter but how good he ultimately will be is still debatable. On one hand, McGehee's breakout season was aided by a fairly lucky BABIP. On the other hand, he had his breakout season without being completely healthy. While Scott Rolen's ability to stay healthy is highly questioned, hes still a fairly productive hitter. That is more than we can say about Pedro Feliz has overcome hitting double figure home runs on a yearly basis to consistently hit 20 percent below league average.

Left Field

1-Ryan Braun

2-Matt Holliday

3-Carlos Lee

4-Alfonso Soriano

5-Chris Dickerson

6-Lastings Milledge

This field busts out into 3 tiers. Braun/Holliday are in Tier One. If I were to reduce the face of the Brewers to one player, it would be Ryan Braun. All he's done since coming to the bigs is knock the cover out of baseballs. He's asserted himself as the vocal leader of this squad even saying things to the media that pretty much every fan was thinking (i.e. last year's pitching was terrible).

While Holliday is also amongst the elite hitters in the league, he does have the strike against him that he struggled a bit in his stint in Oakland (regardless of how much McAfee stadium is to blame). That and in full disclosure I am a bit biased towards Braun.

Carlos Lee is a distant third. He's become so reliable to hit .300 and go yard about 30 times a year that he's sort of fallen into the background. A great hitter, a solid producer its just that Braun and Holliday are better. Soriano obviously has lots of talent (its sort of hard to be a 40-40 player without it) but things have definitely gone south for him since becoming a Cub. Definitely a make or break year for him.

Center Field

1-Andrew McCutchen

2- Marlon Byrd

3-Colby Rasmus

4-Drew Stubbs

5-Michael Bourn

6-Carlos Gomez

McCutchen was good enough to actually make the Pirates decision to trade McLouth look justifiable. He should continue to improve and progress until the Pirates decide to trade him in the name of continuing their perpetual cycle of losing. Byrd had a nice year in Texas....not sure how the momentum of that and being away from Texas will affect his game this year. Rasmus had moments last year....he's better than the players below him....but haven't seen enough to rank him any higher.

Yes, Drew Stubbs had a nice run after getting called up but I would like to see him sustain that level of play for more than a couple months before signing off on him as a star. Bourn had his career year last year and I wouldn't be surprised to see him struggle at the plate this year....as I've mentioned here before....I am not very confident in the current ability level of Carlos Gomez and he is ranked accordingly.

Right Field

1-Jay Bruce

2- Hunter Pence

3-Ryan Ludwick

4-Garrett Jones

5-Corey Hart

6-Kosuke Fukudome

One of the tougher rankings by position. Jay Bruce may have only hit .223 last year and struggled with injuries. However, he is on the cusp (i.e. a couple months away) from stardom.....he was ridiculously unlucky at the plate as evidenced by a .222 BABIP. In other words, he should have hit closer to .260.....even with this bad luck he still went deep 22 times in 345 at bats. Also, he'll be 23 next month indicating he'll only get better than where he is currently. Even if he doesn't actually improve and the only difference is he doesn't get hurt and he doesn't get horribly unlucky we could be looking at .260-.270 hitter with 35-40 homers.

Two through five are fairly close. There's something about Astros hitters with power that makes them hard to notice. I don't know whether its the hitter friendly park or if its because their team isn't very good but Hunter Pence has managed to go deep 25 times the last couple years without anyone really noticing.

Where to rank Hart, Jones and Ludwick is a bit more ambiguous. That could be because their bodies of work are so similar, they make each others Top 10 lists for similarity scores. Both are average to slightly above average hitters whose reputations are expanded by a career year aided by an inflated BABIP (Hart in 2007, Ludwick in 2008). Both players could potentially drive in 100+ Runs because of pitchers opting to pitch around star hitters in the lineup (Fielder/Braun and Pujols/Holliday). Corey Hart is younger and likely has more years ahead of him while Ludwick has done more with the opportunities given as he has the advantage in OPS+ (117 to 106).

Thus Ludwick is 3rd and Hart is 5th. Why does Hart fall to 5th? Because i'm not quite sure what to do with Garrett Jones. On one hand, his monster season last year would have projected to a 40 homer season. On the other hand, the fact that he was aided by a generous BABIP (.327) and he didn't get his first chance to play regularly until 28 raises a few red flags. I don't think hes going to be total bust (i.e. Michael Bourn) and he's still better than Fukudome but I don't see him hitting 40 out this year. Not sure exactly where he will fall in the context of Hart-Ludwick but I could see him moving to a new normal of slightly above average and thus I am splitting the difference and ranking him 4th.

And our standings after one half:

Brewers-22

Cardinals-23

Cubs-25

Reds-29

Pirates- 34

Astros-35

Some surprises some non-surprises. I am slightly surprised that the Brewers have a lead (albeit slight one). I'm not shocked that Milwaukee, St. Louis, Chicago and Cincinnati occupy the top four positions. However, i'm surprised at the exact order of the four teams. To my absolute non-shock, the Pirates and Astros are not even to the top. In all fairness, the halves are broken down into hitting and pitching and one reason the Brewers are even close to the top (let alone at the top) is that the pitching staffs don't get ranked until the next post. Well whatever helps me sleep easier at night.

Introducing Cheddarhead

So I have finally joined the masses and officially entered the world of Fantasy Baseball. It has been a long time coming. I'm definitely hitting the ground running as this is the 1st of 3 teams that I am going to be a part of in 2010.

The first team I am on has been a few years in the making. My buddy Diego has been playing fantasy baseball for several years and has mentioned several times that I would be good at fantasy baseball. A couple months ago, the idea of running a fantasy baseball team together came into consideration. With his knack for picking up players in their breakout/one good year (i.e. Carlos Quentin, Eric Bedard, Mark Bellhorn, etc.) and my knack for the numbers aspect of the game we pretty much decided that we have the potential to dominate Fantasy Baseball.

After corresponding over Facebook and agreeing to do the draft on Sunday, it was time to develop our strategy of who we wanted (i.e. Pujols) who we didn't want (i.e. Molina Brothers, Michael Bourn, Juan Pierre) and at that point it was time to play the waiting game. We quickly signed ourselves up for a Yahoo league and scheduled ourselves for an 11 a.m. draft.

After having some drinks the night before, sleeping a few hours and armed with some gatorade, a sick stomach and a hungover brain filled with baseball knowledge, it was go time.

We had the 2nd pick in the draft and were debating whether to take Utley or Mauer with that pick but knowing we wanted to draft Albert Pujols in the unlikely chance he wasn't picked first. For some reason, the person above us picked Hanley Ramirez and Pujols was ours. From, there things got even better as we drafted a juggernaut with so much power it should almost be illegal.

Our starting line-up:

Catcher-Brian McCann

First Base-Albert Pujols

Second Base-Jose Lopez

Shortstop-Alexei Ramirez

Third Base-Ryan Zimmerman

Outfield-Jay Bruce

Outfield-Mike Cuddyer

Outfield-Torrii Hunter

And if any of those players falter, we have plenty of back-up fire power if needed. We have Geovany Soto (no way he plays as bad as he does last year) J.J Hardy (another player who's poised to bounce back....and if the Twins new stadium is hitter friendly........even better....if it's abusive to hitters that's cool too as we have Kevin Slowey).

We have Adam LaRoche who is a good source for 25 homers (and was available in the second to last round......I still find it hilarious that he fell to us because the person before us drafted Juan Uribe). The only regret in the draft was picking Mike Cameron in the last round instead of Kyle Blanks. Overall, I am very happy with this team

Even with a loaded offense, we still have ourselves covered with pitching. We have Cliff Lee who is in 1) his contract year and 2) pitching at Safeco....we have Ubaldo Jiminez who is on the cusp of stardom.....Derek Lowe who was the victim of bad luck last year. We have a strong bullpen with Joakim Soria (who unlike our original choice Joe Nathan didn't get injured yesterday) and Huston Street who was still available late on probably because of his NLDS struggles.

In conclusion, I see Cheddarhead running away and winning it's fantasy league. Victory is ours.

AL Central Preview Part--Two

Time to finish off the AL Central by taking a look at the pitching.....after part one our standings are

Twins 21

White Sox 21

Indians 26

Tigers 32

Royals 35

Starting Rotation

White Sox--Jake Peavy/Mark Buerhle/Gavin Floyd/John Danks/Freddy Garcia-4.5

Twins--Scott Baker/Kevin Slowey/Nick Blackburn/Francisco Liriano/Carl Pavano-9

Tigers--Justin Verlander/Rick Porcello/Armando Gallaraga/Jeremy Bonderman/Max Scherzer 13.5

Royals--Zack Greinke/Gil Meche/Kyle Davies/Luke Hochever/Brian Bannister-18

Indinas--Fausto Carmona/Jake Westbrook/Justin Masterson/David Huff/Aaron Laffey

Cluster A: White Sox/Twins--Ultimately this comes down to a couple of areas 1) Can Jake Peavy Stay Healthy? 2) Can Freddy Garcia stay healthy and be productive? 3) Can Francisco Liriano stay healthy and be effective?

The White Sox get the nod for a couple of reasons 1) While both teams have decent depth from 1-5, the talent in the White Sox rotation is better 2) Jake Peavy looks more likely than Liriano to stay healthy and even if Liriano stays healthy it is still unlikely we are not going to see the Francisco Liriano that dominated the summer of 2006.

The Tigers and Royals are in Cluster B: Kansas City's ace (Greinke) gets the nod over Verlander however the supporting cast for Kansas City (Meche/Bannister) is not close to the caliber of Detroit's mid-rotation starters (Porcello.....tough to believe he'll only be 21 and Max Scherzer who looks primed for a breakout season.

Cleveland is projected Fausto Carmona as their staff ace.....nuff said.

Bullpen:

Twins- Joe Nathan/Matt Guerrier/Jose Mijares-4.5

Royals-Joakim Soria/Robinson Tejeda/Kyle Farnsworth-9

White Sox-Bobby Jenks/Matt Thornton/J.J Putz-13.5

Tigers-Joel Zumaya/Ryan Perry/Bobby Seay-18

Indians-Kerry Wood/Chris Perez/Jensen Lewis-22.5

Twins have the best bullpen (by far) and the best closer (Joe Nathan) by a pretty good margin. The Royals got their ranking solely based because of Soria and despite Kyle Farnsworth. The Royals aren't going to get many chances to win but Soria will do his part to squander very few of those chances. I'm not overly optimistic on Jenks having a strong year. I get creeped out everytime I see a recent ex-closer (J.J Putz) hanging out in middle relief (this combo screams a red light similar to the Fuentes/Rodney combo from Los Angeles of Anaheim).

If this was a competition of who could throw the fastest fastball or the competition of who struck out 20 batters in a game once, the Tigers and Indians would be ranked higher than they actually are.

Speaking of Kerry Wood, i'm closing this out on a rant where I tie in Kerry Wood and Al Bundy. The career of Kerry Wood and the life of Al Bundy both started pretty sweet. Kerry Wood burst onto the scene in '98 and struck out 20 in a single game. Al Bundy had a pretty sweet life in high school as he scored 4 touchdowns in the same game.

But then luck and circumstances changed things. Wood struggled with injuries for a few years but eventually bounced back and had a few gasps of brilliance (i.e the 2003 season). The struggles in Wood's career and the struggles in Bundy's life can both be placed on external sources (Dusty Baker/Peg Bundy).

Kerry Wood spent the next few years in a world of injuries, simulated games and hanging out at the disabled list before settling into the role of closer for a flailing Indians team. Al Bundy on the other hand ended up selling shoes and being perpetually unlucky. This part sort of messes up the analogy because while Kerry Wood didn't become the superstar/hall of famer everyone expected him to be, it is still 10 years later and he still has a job in the bigs which even if it's not for a great team, your still in the bigs. Sadly, Al Bundy has no shot of redemption as he's stuck selling womens shoes at the mall in syndication.

Anyway, our final rankings:

Twins 34.5

White Sox 39

Royals 62

Tigers 63.5

Indians 71

If this holds up the Twins will be fighting for their playoff lives till the bitter end for the third straight year (and being sucessful for the second straight year). I was surprised that the Royals snuck into third for these rankings but that happens to be more on the strength of Greinke and Soria and based on these rankings it in no way indicates them having any hope of contending.

AL Central Preview--Part One

Well we got through the AL West, time to move towards the Central.

Catcher:

Joe Mauer-1

A.J. Pierzynski-2

Carlos Santana-3

Gerald Laird-4

Jason Kendall-5

Joe Mauer is far and away the best Catcher regardless of if you are talking about the league or the AL Central. It's a toss-up between Pierzynski and Santana. While Santana has the highest ceiling (he is one of the hottest prospects his Minor League numbers equate to pretty solid MLB numbers but he's still an unsure thing as he's yet to play in the bigs)......at the same time, there's no way he could be any worse than Laird and Kendall.

A side note about announcers and baseball players with the same name as musicians. The one pet peeve I have after watching nationally televised Brewers games is goes as follows: Yes, I am aware the Brewers regular right fielder's name is Corey Hart. Yes, I am aware he has the same name as that guy from the 80's who sang about Wearing his sunglasses at night. No, I do not need to hear announcers make lame jokes about Corey Hart wearing his sunglasses at night. This rant has been several years in the making. Which brings me to my main point, I am already cringing at the Carlos Santana references that are inevitably going to be made (fortunately the Indians aren't going to be very good and not be on TV very often). Point being I don't want to hear about how "smooth" is swing is or how we can say "oye como va" to a ball after he hits a home run (2 cliches that took me about 5 seconds each to make up). There's about at least a dozen cheesy Sports Center made for Stuart Scott cliches that are inevitable going to be unleashed upon the public if the high expectations set aside for Santana turn out to be fulfilled.

If Gerald Laird was half as good at getting arrested at Phoenix Suns games as he was at playing baseball, he may be higher on this list. However, his career to this point indicates that this is not the case. If being a Brewer fan has taught me anything, it's that Jason Kendall just isn't that good.....in fact he's a pretty terrible ball-player. Luckily for him, the Royals have a thing for making bad baseball decisions, are one of the dumbest teams in baseball and somehow made a conscious decision to sign him to a 2-year deal to a player who hasn't even been a league average hitter since 2004. These two were made for each other.

First Base

Miguel Cabrera-1

Paul Konerko-2

Justin Morneau-3

Billy Butler-4

Matt LaPorta-5

This division is LOADED from top to bottom at 1st. Unlike the Catcher rankings which are relatively easy, the Top 3 here was fairly difficult. While there are concerns regarding how last season ended with Cabrera, the reality is he is an elite-class player. If he can get past his drinking-related problems, he looks destined to be one of the greatest hitters of this generation.

The Konerko versus Morneau was a tough decision to make. More of a hunch than anything else, I think Morneau will come back strong from his injury problems from last year but I think that Konerko is going to have a monster season in '10. Even the back end players are pretty solid, Billy Butler was one of the few bright spots not named Zack Greinke in 2009 and I see that being repeated in 2010. Just like the Catcher rankings, the last spot is taken by someone who has connections to the Brewers (while he was traded before seeing Major League action, he was a major reason why the Brewers were able to land C.C. Sabathia in 2008 and is thus made his own contribution to getting the Brewers their first playoff appearance in 26 years). Anyways, LaPorta is definitely a can't-miss prospect he looks headed in the right direction of having a long and productive career and he's going to have a solid 2010, it's just that Cabrera, Konerko, Morneau and Butler are all happen to be really, really good at baseball.

Second Base

Gordan Beckham-1

Luis Valbuena-2

Orlando Hudson-3

Alberto Callaspo-4

Scott Sizemore-5

Fairly weak at second. Beckham seems poised for a breakout season. Valbuena, while not having the high profile like Beckham is a sleeper candidate for a breakout season. O-Hud is likely to give his typical .280 average and 10 homers.....may not be exciting or stand out but it's a lot more than they would have gotten out of Punto.

Shortstop

Alexei Ramirez-1

J.J Hardy-2

Asdrubal Cabrera-3

Mike Aviles-4

Adam Everett-5

Toss-up between whether Ramirez or Hardy will have a better season. Ramirez has had a more consistent last couple years and a higher upside. J.J Hardy, was more unlucky than bad last year. Last year, it seemed like about every other day, someone was robbing J.J. Hardy of an extra base hit. Didn't really think too much beyond until I saw that his BABIP was significantly lower for him in 2009. Despite this, the Brewers still sold him for 50 cents on the dollar for Carlos Gomez. Asdrubal Cabrera is still young at this point he's Orlando Cabrera version 2 at the plate.

Third Base

Alex Gordon-1

Jhonny Peralta-2

Mark Teahan-3

Brandon Inge-4

Brendan Harris-5

A fairly close but fairly weak crop. Gordon and Peralta are probably going to produce similar numbers but Gordon gets the nod since his ceiling is higher. Nothing special about the other three.

Left Field

1-Delmon Young

2-Ryan Raburn

3-David DeJesus

4-Juan Pierre

5-Michael Brantley

Another close call. Young and Raburn are both solid candidates for breakout seasons. Young has the disadvantage of not living up to his potential (yet) Raburn has the disadvantage of being five years older. Juan Pierre has the disadvantage of it being illegal to steal first in baseball......almost put Brantley above Pierre on the sole basis of him being the Player To Be Named Later in the Sabathia deal and thus his minor part of letting me see the Brewers make the playoffs.

Center Field

1-Grady Sizemore

2-Johnny Damon

3-Denard Span

4-Alex Rios

5-Mitch Maier

This field is middle-heavy. Sizemore may have struggled with injuries last year but he should bounce back in 2010. Damon and Span are fairly interchangeable. Damon is the bigger name and still has at least a couple solid seasons in him (but don't expect a 2009-esque power burst....well unless the bring in the fences and turn Comerica park into a little league field). Span might not be the most exciting player but he can be penciled in for a .300 average 10 homers 20 steals and being more valuable to a real team than a fantasy team (or what I refer to as the Orlando Cabrera All-Stars). The only thing big about Alex Rios' game is that monster $77.5 million contract he somehow got.

Right Field

1-Carlos Quentin

2-Micheal Cuddyer

3-Shin-Soo Choo

4-Magglio Ordonez

5-Jordan Parraz

Pretty solid group from 1 to 4. It was a toss-up between Quentin and Cuddyer. Quentin has a question mark around him due to dealing with injuries pretty much every year of his career (even costing him the 2008 AL MVP).

Cuddyer also has a pretty good case for the top spot but Quentin got the slight nod as has demonstrated the ability to carry his team on his back for longer (5 months ) than Cuddyer (although his September was pretty sweet).

A random Mike Cuddyer story/anecdote/me being weird. I was rocking out to "Holy Diver" by Dio earlier today and I mentally started coming up with alternate lyrics about Mike Cuddyer's epic September.

Designated Hitter

1-Jason Kubel

2-Travis Hafner

3-Andruw Jones

4-Jose Guillen

5-Carlos Guillen

Kubel gets the nod as the question marks surrounding him are relatively smaller. For how the rest of these rankings actually go down, it will be a war of attrition of whoever gets hurt last wins.

On pure talent level, Hafner is the best of the rest but staying healthy has been a problem for him. For Andruw Jones, the problem is it isn't 2005 anymore and his peak has come and gone (though he still should be good for about a .260 average and 20 homers).

Exhibit 234 of the Royals being one of the dumbest teams in baseball: They are actually paying Jose Guillen $12 million a year......didn't realize that hitters with an OPS+ of 90 over the last two years were that expensive.

Standings at the End of Part One:

Twins-21

White Sox-21

Indians-26

Tigers-32

Royals-35

Well, the top of the division looks like a re-enactment of the 2008 AL Central. The Indians are closer than I expected them to be and the Royals are exactly where I expected them to be.

AL West Preview Part Two

So, we did the first part of the AL West preview, yesterday. At the halfway point the power rankings are as follows:

Angels-16

Rangers-19

Mariners-23

Athletics-30

Now off to the Pitchers, First the Starters.

Mariners- Felix Hernandez/Cliff Lee/Ryan Rowland-Smith/Ian Snell/Luke French-4.5

Angels- Jered Weaver/Joe Saunders/Scott Kazmir/Ervin Santana/Matt Palmer-9

Athletics- Dallas Braden/Brett Anderson/Ben Sheets/Trevor Cahill/Vin Mazzaro-13.5

Rangers-Scott Feldman/Rich Harden/Derek Holland/Tommy Hunter/Brandon McCarthy

The Mariners might be a bit short at the back of the rotation but have a couple of things going for them.

1) Felix Hernandez/Cliff Lee is a VERY potent 1-2 punch

2) It's a contract year for Cliff Lee so expect his A-Game (and a possible Cy Young in 2010.

In terms of depth, the Angeles are stronger but i'm not buying Weaver as a staff ace. The A's have a lot of good young talent (Braden, Anderson, etc.) that will make this rotation to be reckoned with in a few years. Anderson is on the cusp on a breakout season but Braden, Cahill, et.al are still a couple years away. The wild-card in this equation is Ben Sheets. If they can somehow get 25-plus starts out of Sheets, they could push themselves into the second best rotation in the division but if being a Brewers fan has taught me anything it's that getting that many starts out of Sheets is anything but guaranteed.

The Rangers.......their rotation hinges on Rich Harden staying healthy (an even bigger IF than Ben Sheets staying healthy) but beyond Harden, nothing about the Rangers rotation is particularly impressive.

If the game is on the line, we are likely to see

4.5 Athletics- Andrew Bailey/Michael Wuertz/Craig Breslow

9- Rangers Frank Francisco/Darren O'Day/Neftali Feliz

13.5 Mariners-David Aardsma/Mark Lowe/Sean White

18-Angels-Brian Fuentes/Fernando Rodney/Scot Shields

Andrew Bailey had a pretty epic rookie year and looks poised to have a strong follow-up. Wuertz and Breslow had solid seasons last year and I see that continuing in '10.

Went back and forth on the positioning for the Rangers and Mariners. I'm skeptical on Aardsma ability to follow-up his 2009 season and that ended up being the deciding factor.

As for the Angels, yes Fuentes racked up a bunch of saves but that seems to be more because the Angels are in the position to win more often than not. Fuentes and Rodney may be familiar to more fans but i've never been blown away by these two pitchers. Add in that Shields is coming off an injury marred year and may or may not be effective and that's why their bullpen ranks dead last.

The total scores for the pitching staffs are:

Athletics -18

Mariners- 18

Angels-27

Rangers- 27

Bringing us to a final tally off:

Mariners-41 1st

Angels-43 2nd

Rangers-46 3rd

Athletics-48 4th

So what do we have here? A division that is pretty close top to bottom and a division where 10 games or less could be the difference between first and last. Looking into my crystal ball that may or may not exist, I see the 1-2 combo of Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez to do enough to mask other weaknesses (back of the rotation) and injury concerns (Milton Bradley...matter of when not if) to win their first AL West title since 2001.

For the Angels, A weak bullpen may cause them to miss the playoffs for the first time since '06. For the Rangers, weak pitching is likely to undermine their offensive prowess (in other words the Rangers are in the same predicament they've been in for the last 15 years).

The Athletics are definitely a team on the rise....I think their time will come in a few years but they still have a few too many holes to put together a playoff run.