Fantasy Baseball Links

The Xavier Nady Debate
I've already declared Nady my choice as right-fielder for the Yankees. The guys at River Ave Blues (one of the best New York Yankees blogs in the business) are still thinking it over. They do a great job of explaining why Nady deserves the regular job.

He has steadily improved from being a platoon player who only hit lefties, to one who hit righties better than lefties last season. Even if that was a peak year for him, if he was to revert to his 2007 line he would still be a fine everyday player and a good replacement for Abreu, especially when you factor in his value as a (slightly better than league average) fielder, and Abreu being the worst RF in the AL by most measures.

Fantasy Pros 911
This site launched on New Years Day and already has loads of interesting stuff to read. Minor league coverage, injury reports, experts leagues, reader contests and tons more. I spent a couple of hours there this morning and I never spend that much time on one site.

If you have listened to my Daily Podcasts you should know,"The Best Time To Prepare For Fantasy Baseball IS NOW! In addition to reading and listening to Podcasts,you should also be doing the following: 1.Make sure you retrieve LAST YEARS FINAL stats of your leagues catagories.You will need to refer to last years stats as you formulate your team 2.Begin to compile a list by position ,of ALL players you feel will be drafted in your league...

A Tough Act To Follow
Ok, my Yankees fandom is showing. However, the guys at this site are some of the best writers on the net. They are always worth reading. This isn't much of a post but I'mcrazy about the new MLB network so any chance tomentionit is alright with me.
The MLB Network launches this evening at 6pm (EST) and will celebrate by airing the unedited original broadcast of Don Larson’s perfect game (including original commercials!) at 7pm, the first time it has been shown to a mass audience since it happened 52 years ago. You can find the new network’s location in your channel lineup by using MLB’s channel locator here.

Why I’m enthusiastic about the MLB Network
Derek from USS Mariner nails exactly why the new MLB network is such a great idea. Not to mention the potentialfor fantasy baseball participants. There is no better place to read up on the Mariners than this site. It should be in the bookmarks of everyone who plays fantasy baseball.

...drawing in new people in other ways and converting them to dedicated fans of the game. I’d love to see shows with different managers talking about strategies, and you could do some amazing things walking through big decisions in their careers. I’m not a Tony LaRussa fan, but I’d love to spend an hour hearing him talk about how his bullpen management philosophy came about, and where he thinks it’s won games and where it’s failed him. Earl Weaver’s still alive — put that guy in front of a camera and start showing him game footage. I’ll bet it’d be must-watch television...

Mastersball 2.0
One of the best fantasy sites that ever existed was swallowed up by fantasybaseball.coma couple of years ago. This was the site that brought Jason Grey (now with ESPN) and Todd Zola (one of the better number crunchers) to our attention. The message board was one of the best in the business, right up there with the RotoJunkie Bullpen and the Baseball HQ message board (paid members only). Be sure to check out their triumphant return.

We simply could not wait another minute! Instead of building a fully functional website with all the bells and whistles, we decided to launch once the core functions were working. It is too close to the start of the season to do otherwise. Our hard-core readers expect nothing less.

Mark DeRosa is traded to the Indians….and the Twins couldn’t top THAT deal?
Okay, I admit I'm a Yankees fan living in Boston and I secretly love listening to teams cry about why their team is still better than another team. Even if they weren't smart enough to pull off the same great deal.

Jeff Stevens. Chris Archer. Jon Gaub. Those three pitchers - none of them highly touted - helped Cleveland raise the stakes in the A.L. Central. They were traded by the Indians to the Cubs for Mark DeRosa, a player the Twins coveted during the winter meetings but couldn’t find a, `match,’ with Chicago. DeRosa, 33 and in the final year of his contract, joins the Tribe after batting .285 last season with 30 doubles, 21 homers and 87 RBI. Those numbers sure would have looked nice at third base for the Twins. My first reaction was to grab a copy of Baseball America’s Top 10 A.L. Central prospects. Stevens, Archer and Gaub were not listed among Cleveland’s top ten prospects. My second reaction was to click onto John Sickels minor league baseball site and look up his list of Cleveland’s top 20 prospects for 2009. Unless my eyes deceived me - I haven’t begun to ring in the New Year yet - none of those pitchers were listed there, either.

Red Sox made play for SS Ramirez
I never for even one second believed that the Marlins would deal Hanley Ramirez to the Red Sox. Not just a few months after signing him to a very club friendly extension. The Red Sox are desperate to add a big bat to their lineup. They seem to have some serious doubts about what Mike Lowell, David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Jed Lowrie will contribute to their lineup. This is easy to understand because despite the flash in the rotation this is a team built around its mashing lineup...which isn't mashing quite so much anymore.

It was originally believed that these recent discussions came after Boston lost out in the running for Mark Teixeira, who signed an eight-year, $180 million deal with the Yankees last week, but in fact, they were held a few weeks prior to that. Though the Red Sox can't quite match the Yankees dollar for dollar (Boston was believed to be offering at least $170 million over eight guaranteed years plus two additional years that could be voided by the team based on plate appearances), Boston is willing to think creatively to try to enhance its offense.

What A Putzy Deal!!!
I love the crusty old fantasy sports veterans. Charlie is like our industry's Bob Ryan. You don't always agree with him but you're always interested in what he might have to say.

...the ‘09 draft will be filled with a lot of guesswork on whom the closers will be. Do your homework, and you can use this to your advantage. And while you’re at it, don’t forget about Putz. Our fantasy injury guru Rick Wilton has been predicting KRod is going down with an arm injury for the last three years. Having signed the big contract, Frankie might try a little too hard to impress the New York fans, and Mr. Wilton’s prophecy might come true. A late round or reserve pick of Putz could reap big rewards...