News, Links and Observations

The Cleveland Indians have fired manager Eric Wedge and the entire coaching staff. Why they bothered to do this with less than a week remaining in the season will probably remain a mystery.

The Indians are in the early stages of what general manager Mark Shapiro referred to as a "reloading" period, and the reload will extend to the managerial position and the coaching staff.

A 1:30 p.m. ET press conference was scheduled Wednesday at Progressive Field to announce that Wedge and his coaches have all been relieved of their duties. Wedge and his staff will stay aboard for the season's final six games, including the four-game set in Boston this weekend.

According to a team source, Wedge has known his fate for several days, while the coaches -- including pitching coach Carl Willis, hitting coach Derek Shelton, bench coach Jeff Datz, first-base coach Luis Rivera, third-base coach Joel Skinner and bullpen coach Chuck Hernandez -- were informed of the moves following Tuesday's rainout against the White Sox.

Taking over for Peter Abraham, the number one Yankees blogger at The LoHud Yankees Blog, will be Chad Jennings of the Times-Tribune in Scranton and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees Blog. I loved Peter's work and as a huge Yankees fan (I'll be sharing news on my own new Yankees Blog very soon). I follow a few blogs for each MLB team, and I'll certainly be adding his new Red Sox blog to my list. The Boston Globe sports section just became relevant again.

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Chad covered the Triple-A Yankees with distinction and his blog was a must-read for Yankee fans who wanted to be up to date on the organization’s prospects. Chad has a knack for blogging and is a fine writer and reporter.

As somebody who once covered the Double-A Yankees, I believe there is a lot of value in having a reporter who started in the minors and worked his way up. Chad is a young guy with a lot of ambition and knowledge of baseball and he’s the perfect choice to take over this blog.

Over at Athletics Nation they are discussing the 2010 roster and which players should be o n it. Every aspiring or returning fantasy league champ can use articles like this to get a little closer to the thinking of the front office and the most loyal fans.

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As much as I love Rajai Davis, never has the phrase "sell high" been more apropos. Unless we really believe he can hit .360 for half a season ever again in his career, it might be worth entertaining some offers. If not, we have a very fast leadoff or number two hitter for next season. The A's will also have to make a decision on Adam Kennedy (and third base), and it's possible they aren't fully committed to Jack Cust and/or Scott Hairston as full-time players next season. Have the A's found the shortstop answer in Cliff Pennington (and we're assuming that 30 year old Free Agent Bobby Crosby will finally leave Oakland) or are they still searching for something they haven't had since Miguel Tejada (coincidentally, who is a FA of his own this year)?

Lou Piniella described what he expects his 2010 pitching staff to look like and he gets very specific about it in this Chicago Tribune article. The article focuses on the Cubs apparently allowing Rich Harden to depart via free agency. I found the the quote about Jeff Samardzija to be pretty interesting...

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"You look at our starting pitching here for next year," Piniella said. "You've got (Carlos) Zambrano, you've got (Ryan) Dempster, you've got (Randy) Wells, you've got (Ted) Lilly, you've got (Tom) Gorzelanny, and you've got (Jeff) Samardzija, who is going to go to winter ball. And if this kid keeps improving, he'll be right in the mix. So we've got six nice arms."

Mike Pelfrey's season has mercifully come to an end and Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog, examines his season and what went wrong. I still think Pelfrey has some good years coming. I'm just not certain what I'd bet to have him on my teams...

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…that said, he was pitching in front of a terrible, ever-changing, often-out-of-place defense… also, he seemed to get more ground balls than in previous seasons, and that is important for him to be effective… the problem was his walks, and putting himself in a position to fail, which is something no pitcher should do with that sort of defense behind him…

Tommy Rancel of D'Rays Bay is predicting that Matt Joyce will take over right field for the Rays in 2010. He also sees Gabe Gross as a potential non-tender. I actually thought the Rays were going to give Joyce that shot this season mostly based on Joyce's solid rookie season with the Detroit Tigers. Joyce was traded for Edwin Jackson, a move that at this point heavily favors the Tigers but that could be changing in 2010.

Sports: A Game of Inches has a nice piece on Jonny Gomes and his improvements this season. Those of you who have read my stuff for a while know I've been on that bandwagon. I called him potentially the next David Ortiz. This article breaks down his tools and skills very well and will give you a true sense of his value and upside.

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But let's not be too hard on Gomes here. A marginally better than league average walk rate is nothing to sneer at when paired with legitimate power (.230 career ISO) and defense skills that are only half as crappy as his predecessor. In fact, in less than half as many PA's as Adam Dunn this season, Jonny Gomes has been, when you combine and compare offensive and defensive production, exactly half as valuable as Adam Dunn this season. Extrapolated, that insinuates that two have the same production rate per game for their respective teams. Such is true for 2009, but is this a legitimate expectation for 2010 and going forward?

If you enjoy the MLB offseason as much as I do, you should like this piece by BUCCOfans.com. They examine the needs of the Pittsburgh Pirates and a few of their potential targets come the free-agency period. According to their calculations the Pirates have nearly $20 million to spend. I'm sure a good portion of that will go to raises and arbitration but they should be able to add a quality bat and do some bargain hunting for bullpen arms.

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The first thing anyone should say is "we've heard this before". Many will point to last year when Neal Huntington said "we're going after a right handed power bat, a starting pitcher, and a bullpen arm". He came away with Eric Hinske, Virgil Vasquez, and Chris Bootcheck, although it should be noted that Daniel Cabrera, Rocco Baldelli, and Derrick Turnbow all turned down more money to play elsewhere (although that's not really a bad thing for the Pirates).

The Red Sox desperately need to re-sign Jason Bay. Bay is their primary power source and a key element in the middle of their lineup. Unfortunately for Boston fans, the Red Sox underestimated what it would take to re-sign him and will now most likely have to compete with other teams for his services. The New York Yankees could be lurking, ready to steal another Red Sox target from under their noses. The Bottom Line (a quality Red Sox blog) examines this situation.

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My point is this... Teixeira got away and now he's a major part of why the Yankees are the World Series favorites. If they win it all this season, many will say that they "bought" another ring with the huge contracts they dished out this offseason, but the Red Sox can't afford to let another potential "anchor" sign with someone else.

Get Ready for Rookies, Rookies Everywhere

As more and more Major League Baseball teams reshape their team-building philosophies from "sign free agents and trade minor leaguers" to more development-centric methods, we will see a greater and greater number of rookies and young players making rosters out of spring training. Rookies will be given longer chances and more opportunities to contribute than we are used to seeing from most teams. Conversely we are going to start to see older veterans, who have begun to fade, shuffled out of the majors sooner than was once the case.

For fantasy owners this is both good and bad news. The good news is this will mean that there are lots of interesting new players available on an annual basis. Rather than filling out the ends of your rosters with the Shawn Dunston, Omar Vizquel, and Ken Griffey Jr types, you will find yourself drafting more Daniel Murphy, Justin Masterson, and Ben Zobrist types. These are players whose upside has often been higher than their initial roles might indicate. Insouciant owners who continue to waste their endgame picks on old guys will be far less effective.

The bad news is this means more work for fantasy owners. You will have to work hard to gain an edge. That geek in your league (it could be you) that reads every page of the Baseball America Prospect Handbook and the Baseball Prospectus will suddenly be more of a contender than he was before. Sure there are many websites that publish Top 100 lists but they won't help you much if you don't understand why a player is ranked the way he is. You need to immerse yourself into reading the work of writers like Kevin Goldstein of BaseballProspectus.com, John Sickels of MinorLeagueBall.com, Adam Foster and his extremely talented staff at ProjectProspect.com (a lot of their focus is on gathering and filtering information for people who play in deep fantasy baseball leagues, so they can help you quite a bit), or any of the talented guys like Jim Callis and John Manuel at Baseball America, the standard for tracking minor leagues and top prospects. If you just commit to reading the work of these writers you will be way ahead of the curve of the changes coming to baseball's player population.

This happens to be the start of that point in the season where you start to see rookies added to the major league roster of contending teams. The trade deadline has passed and the stretch run has begun. Every team wants their best hands on deck. Sure, you will see even more rookies added in September but they will be there to watch and learn on the contending teams. This is when you should be using low FAAB bids to acquire players, especially if you can reserve them or you are not really in contention for a title. They may be very useful next season.

Five Fantasy Blogs You Should Be Reading

Last week the Poll Question of the Week was "What is your favorite source of fantasy information" and the overwhelming favorite source was Fantasy Baseball Blogs. Maybe this was to be expected coming from a poll based on a fantasy baseball blog, but I still found it interesting. There are hundreds if not thousands of fantasy baseball blogs of various degrees of quality. There is a long list of them in the blog roll in the sidebar to your right. There are actually lots of interesting things in the sidebar of this blog aside from advertisements. You can find links to all sorts of great information that aren't just fantasy based. I've been slowly building a list of the best MLB team blogs. You can catch up on my twitter comments and check out the RotoWorld.com widget. I also share HUNDREDS of articles every month through my Google Reader that could provide you with valuable information in your fantasy leagues. But I want to personally introduce you to five blogs that I love reading and I'm betting you will too. Please note these are not even close to all the blogs I read on a regular basis but an article that listed them all would have to list hundreds.

Baseball By Paul by Paul Sporer

Paul is a writer for FanBall.com's Owner's Edge and a frequent poster on the RotoJunkie Fantasy Forums in addition to his long running baseball blog. His last two articles helped inspire this article. If you aren't reading Paul on a regular basis read Roy Halladay: The Complete Picture and Patience is a Virtue and you will be hooked. His articles are very well written and occassionally statistically oriented. He is a big believer in examining the evidence and not making subjective decisions.

RotoProfessor by Eric Stashin (the Prof)

Eric is very good at breaking down players to get at what makes them tick (or not). With rare days off you'll get Eric's look at the daily boxscores where you are certain to hear about any pressing news or new situations for your fantasy players. But the best aspect of this site are the player breakdowns. I don't always agree with his conclusions, but that isn't as important to me as getting a studied second opinion on a player. Check out his recent look at the de-powered David Wright. I agree that there is more going on with Wright than just the new ballpark but unlike Eric I also believe that the park is having a significant impact.

The Jason Collette Blog by Jason Collette

Jason is another veteran of the RotoJunkie Forums (in fact he runs them now). He is an associate editor over at FanBall.com and a contributor to the Owner's Edge series. Jason used to write tons about minor league prospects which I loved but he's slowed on that angle in favor of others. Jason's blog tends to get at the questions lots of fantasy owners have about trading, using FAAB, farm systems and the waiver wire to better your team. Check out his top post today about Trade Vetoes.

The RotoExperts.com Staff Blog by RotoExperts.com Staff

The RotoExperts.com staff has a deep collection of great writers. The blog can be a little chaotic at times with several different writers chiming in on it. But the information is top notch and covers a wide gamut of topics. I used to write over there and I still love those guys so maybe I'm biased. But good is good and their blogs are good. They also have equally good staff blogs for Football and Basketball. Check out Jonathan Phillip's Letter to Frank Wren for some quality writing.

Razzball by Grey and Rudy

This may be the blog that I least needed to list, seeing as everybody who reads this blog already seems to read that one. But I'm doing it anyway for those that just don't know. These guys are funny and knowledgable. This is a rare combination in the Fantasy Industry. Everyone thinks that they're funny but they try too hard. Razzball isn't a blog full of jokes. It is like meeting your favorite experts at the bar and talking shop. They tend to list lots of players with lots of opinions. Sometimes they write mean things about Sidney Ponson and Livan Hernandez but that's part of the charm. But what I like most is the loyal community thay have over there. If this blog ever develops as large a loyal audience (and I think it will) I'll be a jolly jolly fat guy.