Fantasy Baseball 1, MLB Baseball 0

Just like all the other professional sports who have claimed they owned the events taking place on the field, you lose.

In this PDF, it tells of how the Supreme Court rejects fantasy baseball dispute. Good day for the world of collaboration and sharing information.

In other news, I heard a few items today on the topic of Josh Hamilton. First off, Jim Rome was to have him as a guest in the third hour of the broadcast. His wife and Josh held a Q&A about how support from his family was vital to his comeback. Josh was voted the player of the month for May in the American League. Lastly, there was an item on how the Hamilton’s have switched to an agent that closely resembles their faith. I could care less. If I were Josh, I’d sign on the dotted line before they change their mind on a long term contract. I say that only because Hamilton has a track record with the injuries. Long term money in baseball is guaranteed.

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Brandon Webb Does It Again

In a fitting tribute to the QS, Brandon Webb continues the Quality start steak going six innings with 0 ER and picks up the win to make it 6-0 on the season. Lets not forget who he was facing in Jake Peavy who also pitched a good game, but takes the loss.

I told you about James Shields brilliant first year numbers from last year, he backs it up yesterday to complete the sweep against the Red Sox. Lets me say that again, The Rays have swept the Red Sox, and welcome to first place! Let I say, help is also on the way.

In case you missed it, Edwin Volquez who the Reds traded for one of my favorite player Josh Hamilton is fooling many NL batters so far this season. He is an emerging Ace. Talk about a trade that really helps both teams. Too bad John Daniels has made some mistakes along the way. The biggest probably being trading Chris Young for Adam Eaton.

The Pirates fan base seems like another club who thinks their GM is doing no favors for them in releasing Matt Morris. I personally would blame the last GM for acquiring that bad contract, more so than not getting value for Morris when he had some.

To me, the surprise team the first four weeks is the St. Louis Cardinals. This is a team that the experts were saying had a good chance of shutting down Pujols down by mid season. They are in the thick of it in the NL Central. They are doing it with solid role players like Skip Schumaker and Aaron Miles. Tony LaRussa is working some magic. They do have some concerns such as at closer where Isringhausen has blown some games. But, overall its Pujols in his MVP form, along with some surprising good pitching especially from the two Kyles – Lohse and McClellan. They have Mulder and Colby Rasmus who could help later on in the year. By September, maybe Chris Carpenter is there in the mix too.

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Josh Hamilton Time Already!

If you have been viewing this blog a while, you should know that I am a big Josh Hamilton fan. The Hammer is at it again. He is showing he is the real deal. After finishing up an impressive spring in the Cactus league, he has started hot on the regular baseball season:

His game-winning, two-run homer in the ninth will be replayed over and over again. That’s the moment that Rangers fans will remember for a long time.

“First pitch, had no clue what it was, swung and hit it,” Hamilton said, describing the moment for the FSN Southwest crew. He made it through the interview without getting a pie in the face, sporting a big smile the whole time.

Hamilton flashed tools that are rarely found in 6-4, 240-pound packages while making three key plays to keep the Rangers in the game. He made two great running catches to rob the Mariners of extra-base hits and beat out a chopper to first to get on base before scoring his first run.

Is Josh Hamilton Wonderboy?

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Josh Hamilton Sleeper Pick Alert

The Hammer moves to the American league in 2008. Its more of a pitcher friendly park in Arlington Texas than what he experienced with the Reds. He is being called a top undervalued pick by David Luicani :

We’re projecting a huge year for Hamilton, much more than we would have expected just a year ago. His power skill looked to be for real, even as he only got just short of 300 at bats. He moves from one good hitter’s park to another good hitter’s park, has high job security and just needs to stay active for a full season to have the breakthrough to true star status, beyond that which he already received in his top prospect days.

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Josh Hamilton’s Wonderful Comeback

In 2007, Josh Hamilton defied the odds and became the heart warming story of the baseball season. This chapter of his life was one about turning his life around and being able to fight off the drug problem that practically ruined his life, let alone a baseball career. After being the top overall pick in baseball’s free agent draft of 1999, Hamilton showed promise early on in minor league ball, and looked like he was a star in the making. But, along the way he battled injuries and a serious car accident that kept him off the field. Along the way, the quiet kid from Raleigh, NC found himself with an addiction to cocaine. He was unsuccessful early on battling this addiction, and eventually was kicked out of the game for several years and looked like he would never resume his playing career. He did have several setbacks. But, with a family now in his life he got the support he so much needed and was able to stay clean. Baseball eventually let him back in, and the Reds took a shot on him.

Josh Hamilton took advantage of the opportunity presented to himself, he tore the cover off the ball in Spring Training, and made the opening day 25 man roster. On opening day, he got the call on the bench, and made his Major League debut. As I wrote in a short preview last year making the claim Is Josh Hamilton Wonderboy? :”At the age of 25, he is not the 35 year old player the Robert Redford played in that incredible movie the Natural. However, what Josh has been through just to get to this point sure parallels the story.”

Josh not only showed he belonged but went on to become the starting outfielder for the Reds. He showed the ability to hit the long ball, and his bat speed was still in existence. Here I look at Josh Hamilton’s 2007 data with Reds and its clear he is one of the better CF in baseball.

• OPS : .922 (Sizemore 0.852, Rowland 0.889 , Beltran .878)
• OPS -PrOPS : – 0.18 (Sizemore 0.001, Rowland 0.050 , Beltran -0.025)
• RC: 58.1 (Sizemore 122.4, Rowland 111.9 , Beltran 107.1)
• VORP: 26.4 (Sizemore 53.8, Rowland 52.0 , Beltran 51.1)
• GroundBalls:107 (Sizemore 155, Rowland 214 , Beltran 173)
• Fly Balls:77 (Sizemore 204, Rowland 177 , Beltran 187)
• G/F: 1.39 (Sizemore 0.76, Rowland 1.21 , Beltran 0.93)
• Win Shares : 13 (Sizemore 31, Rowland 23 , Beltran 27)
• PMR(defense) : 102.62 (Sizemore 97.93, Rowland 99.27 , Beltran 102.13)

Now, fast forward one year and the journey continues, but the story has changed a little bit. This off-season Josh Hamilton was the subject of trade rumors, and eventually he was traded to the Texas Rangers for Right handed starter Edinson Volquez and near MLB ready left handed reliever Daniel Herrera.

The good thing about this deal for Josh is he heads to Arlington as the CF starter for the Rangers. Although the numbers say Texas is not as great of a park for MLB hitters, I still think Texas  is a good hitters park. Josh is walking into a good place for him with the year of success under his belt and a nice array of quality young players. Hamilton’s competition Marlon Byrd is the subject of trade rumors, and more than likely could be playing elsewhere in 2008.

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Beyond the Boxscore Visits Baseball Happenings

It’s preview season at Beyond the Boxscore and people are taking notice . I had the opportunity to ask R.J. Anderson, Columnist at Beyond the Boxscore and DRaysBay a bunch of questions. Anderson has also appeared at Deadspin and just completed a book on the Tampa Rays called Lamar-itis.

With the loss of 40 year old Tom Glavine to Braves, how much of an impact to the Mets pitching staff of the Mets be affected? To what extent will this help or hurt the Braves in the N.L. East?

It won’t hurt or help either team as much as his name would suggest, last year he was below average and I’m not sure I really can see him responding like he did in 2004 with a 119 ERA+, but who knows, maybe he has one last run in that left arm. It certainly can’t hurt the Braves to have him as their third starter at least it’s not someone like Mark Hendrickson.

The Mets are rumored to be considering surrendering a ton of minor league minor league talent to the Twins to land Johan Santanta. The package of Fernando Martinez , Philip Humber , Carlos Gomez, Kevin Mulvey, and Mike Pelfrey to land the Ace of its staff. Would you make this deal to win now?

No, the deal reeks of short-sightedness and frankly I don’t trust either Omar Minaya’s prospect valuing skills or the idea that Johan will simply re-sign with the Mets without at least fishing on the open market for a few days. Do I think the Mets will end up with Johan? Wouldn’t surprise me, this is the same general manager who went for a “win now” approach with the Expos and Bartolo Colon, how’d that end up?

Chipper Jones has been a household name for the past decade for Braves. Would you consider him a Hall of fame player. Is he worthy of a gold glove at this point of his career?

I really don’t get into either the Hall of Fame or Gold Glove arguments since both are pretty arbitrary, but at first glance I’d assume he’s pretty close to being a HOFer, I’m not sure if he is or not though.

The Royals have made a alot of moves the past few years. How do you see the moves working out this upcoming season?

Dayton Moore has done a solid job, but I didn’t really like the Jose Guillen signing, it seemed like he was their third choice – at best – and they decided to write a large paycheck to get their “man”. I’d like to see them finish in front of the White Sox, but even that might be a bit of challenge.

How much of an impact offensively will Mike Cameron be aided by his move to the Brewers ?

I’m not sure how much it’ll help him with his bat – although moving from PETCO elsewhere can’t hurt. If nothing else it gave the Brewers a reason to move Ryan Braun to left.

The Mets obtaining a defensive minded catcher Brian Schneider and Ryan Church for youngster Lastings Milledge, how sweet of a trade was this for an up and coming team like Nationals?

Very sweet in a vacuum; the market for “troubled” young outfielders is non-existent and the Nats took advantage in both the Milledge and Elijah Dukes deals. If neither work out people will mock the Nationals, personally I don’t blame them for either deal, consider they essentially acquired two players who would be top prospects in their organization for a top 10 in their system and two major league players who I don’t think they’ll miss too much given their glutton of outfielders.

Is Rockies Chris Iannetta worthy of playing time in Colorado or should Torrealba be given most the work at catcher?

I think they should give Iannetta more playing time, it’s not like he could do much worse than Yorvit Torrealba did with the bat last year.

Tell me about Michael Bourn and what he may be able to do now that he gets a starting job in Houston . Is he Juan Pierre II?

He’s a young lefty bat who went to the University of Houston and was actually drafted by the Astros in 2000 but didn’t sign. I suppose he’s Juan Pierre like, and I don’t doubt he’ll produce better than Willy Taveras as soon as next year.

Who got the better end of the Troy Glaus / Scott Rolen Trade?

I think the Cardinals, Glaus is younger, lately a little more consistent, and not nearly as volatile. He has his own issues, but at least he’s not gun powder waiting for a spark.

Is Josh Hamilton going to stay healthy and break out this year?

Didn’t he break out last year? Health wise I have no idea, two seasons in a row ended by injuries, eh it’s a trend that can be broken at least.

When Dan Haren was last in the NL, he was not special the way he is today. Why was he successful in Oakland and not under LaRussa?

Well he barely had over 100 innings in St. Louis , and remember Oakland ’s ballpark dimensions include a ton of foul room, there probably isn’t a correlation between Haren’s success and his departure from St. Louis.

Tell me about Brian Barton who came to St. Louis in Rule V draft. Was he the best talent made available in the Rule V draft?

He’s a rocket scientist, seriously. I’d like to think he wasn’t the best talent in the draft because he slipped and I’d like to believe the teams picking would’ve taken the best talent. Speaking of the Rule V isn’t it a bit amusing that the purpose is to prevent farm system monopolies yet in theory the teams with the highest potential to have a good farm system – bad teams with high draft picks – are the ones who pick first?

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WonderBoy 2008

In being the first overall pick in the major league draft over 10 years ago, Josh Hamilton was pegged to be the cog that the Tampa Bay Rays hoped to build their organization around. His life went in turmoil due to a serious drug problem that got him kicked out of baseball and a return to baseball was seriously in doubt. Down on his luck, now with a wife and a family he somehow managed to get his act together. It was then baseball ended Josh’s drug suspension, and allowed him back for one last try. In minor league play, he showed that despite being away from competition all these years, the talent still remained. The Reds gave him a shot and he did not dissapoint and it turned into the feel good story : Is Josh Hamilton Wonderboy?

Now, fast forward one year and the journey continues, but the story has changed a little bit. This off-season Josh Hamilton was the subject of trade rumors, and eventually he was traded to the Texas Rangers for Right handed starter Edinson Volquez and near MLB ready left handed reliever Daniel Herrera.

The good thing about this deal for Josh is he heads to Arlington as the CF starter for the Rangers. Although the numbers say Texas is not as great of a park for MLB hitters, I still think Texas  is a good hitters park. Josh is walking into a good place for him with the year of success under his belt and a nice array of quality young players. Hamilton’s competition Marlon Byrd is the subject of trade rumors, and more than likely could be playing elsewhere in 2008.

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