Hiroki and Andruw: Money Well Spent?

Considering that he pitched impressively in his only loss in three outings for the Dodgers, which came against the red-hot Diamondbacks, Hiroki Kuroda (1-1, 2.89) should be having the Dodgers fans pleased with their big-cash signing last offseason. And speaking of big cash, Andruw Jones' opening-weekend cheers turned to second-homestand boos, as he took a lot of heat all this past weekend at Dodger Stadium--probably because he came in batting a paltry .129 with 1 RBI after his first 31 ABs. Kuroda didn't start Monday's contest particularly sharp, and it appeared that he was feeling a little residual pressure to prove to the Dodger Faithful that their money was well-spent in his case, which--at the present time--doesn't appear to be so in Mr. Jones' case.

Hiroki quickly overcame his jitters and settled down nicely after the Pirates put up two early runs. He shut down Nate McLouth and Jason Bay, both of whom can be quite the party poopers. The only mistake made was that someone forgot to tell Kuroda that no one should try to slip a fastball over the plate late in the game to fastball-hitting X Nady. Nonetheless, Kuroda left the low-scoring game with a one-run lead. That was his third impressive outing in as many starts--after going to San Diego and shutting down the Padres for his first win, then, going to Arizona where the only thing you can really put on him was walking pitcher Micah Owings in a big situation late in the game.

Not only is his pitching enough to get excited about, but so is his hitting. He showed a great eye in the seventh inning against the Padres, drawing a pretty crucial walk after going up to the plate fully expecting to bunt Blake DeWitt's lead-off walk over to 2nd Base in a tie ballgame. Now, rarely do you see full-time hitters able to pull the bat back successfully on a borderline pitch off the plate in a bunt attempt, but Kuroda did it 3, if not 4 times in that one AB--drawing the walk and giving up no outs to rally the Dodgers in putting up 6 runs in the inning. (May I interject that my baseball-crush is much bigger for the DH-free National League) Then in Monday night's game, Kuroda showed more plate presence with 1 out and a runner on 3rd--dribbling an RBI double down the 3rd-base line, scoring the go-ahead run.

BTW, it was Andruw that got the triple ahead of Kuroda and scored that run--add to that a couple of great swings at the plate on Tuesday and Wednesday nights for Andruw--and it's starting to look like his bat is coming around. I could foresee him getting a homerun or two by the end of this weekend...But he's too streaky, and will strike out in the pressure situation most of the time. Most of his RsBI will come when the runs aren't needed.

Last Place Roto

-Roto Words - By AJ Jackson

If you’re like me then you are in more than one fantasy league. If you’re in more than one fantasy league then the odds are pretty good that you have a team sitting close to last place after the first two weeks of the season. So in this spirit, I give you the steals. The steals are the guys who are about to make a big splash. You can grab them off the waiver wire or get them in a buy low style of trade. But, with steals come busts. So below you will find the busts, the guys who need to be traded.

Steals

Joe Crede 3B, CHW – The general consensus heading into this season was that Josh Fields would take over the third base job for the White Sox. Now just a few weeks into the season, Crede has three home runs and what looks like a strangle hold on the starting third base job for the White Sox.

Peter Moylan RP, ATL – With Rafael Soriano injured, it looks like Moylan will get the chance to close out some games for the braves. You should definitely pick him up if you already have Soriano.

Mark Reynolds 3B, ARI – This guy is mashing right now. With five home runs, Reynolds has more home runs on the season than my beloved Dodgers. Who cares if Reynolds can’t keep this pace. If he can just have two or three more spurts like this he will be worth the flyer.

J.D. Drew OF, BOS – Drew has played superior baseball up until this point. As long as he plays, he will produce. Batting in the mighty Red Sox line up, he should pile up RBI’s.

Bill Hall OF, MIL – Hall is mashing. Hall is also getting a chance to play a few positions which will give Hall’s value a big boost. He might never be the player he was a few seasons ago, however, he is still a great pick up.

Busts

Andruw Jones OF, LA – The guy has been horrible this year. I mean just horrible. Now he is batting seventh in Joe Torre’s line up. I wrote in my column for HomeTown9.com about how downright chubby Jones has been looking.

C.C. Sabathia SP, CLE – One word describes this pitchers last start, yuck.

David Ortiz U, BOS – Ortiz has been the biggest busts of all this season. Ortiz really looks like that knee of his is still bothering him.

Dontrelle Willis SP, DET – Remember when Willis was traded, the general consensus was that he would benefit from a change of scenery. That hasn’t happened. Now Willis is heading to the 15-day DL with a hyper-extended knee. It is now safe to cut bait with Willis as it is just not going to happen for him this season.

Prince Fielder 1B, MIL – The big fellow became a vegetarian in the off-season. Now Milwaukee fans are wondering, where’s the beef? Fielder has yet to hit a home run this season. In fact, J.J. Hardy hasn’t hit a home run yet either, leaving the Brewers relying on the surprising power of Gabe Kapler.

No Worries

Jose Reyes SS, NYM – Remember, the season is more marathon then sprint. Reyes may be keeping owners up at night, but there is no reason to think that with a couple of days worth of rest, the speedy shortstop will not be back to his old self.

Must Be On Your Team

Andre Ethier OF, LA – The kid is out of control right now. What a smooth swing this guy has. Seriously, when you watch him play, you think, Wade Boggs. Joe Torre has been trying all sorts of different batting orders; the one constant is Ethier batting third.

April Showers Cause Rain Delays

April Showers Cause Rain Delays

Through the first week of season there’ve been a few surprises, a few injuries, and a lot of good baseball. But before you start predicting a Baltimore vs. St. Louis Word Series, let’s take a look at the contenders, pretenders, and everything in between.

Detroit Tigers: My favorite stat of the week: No team has ever started 0-6 and made it to a World Series. Another little known fact is that no pitcher has ever won a game in which he drank 9 gallons of chocolate milk and ate 12 boxes of graham crackers two hours before a start. Point is, the Tigers will turn it around and win the AL Central.

Colorado Rockies: At 2-5, the Rox are starting off like they do most seasons. People forget that before they went on that incredible 14-1 streak last year to close the season, they were a mediocre team. The Rockies are the 4th best team in the NL West.

Mike Hampton: For those who missed my earlier posts, I mentioned that Hampton has been paid $30 million over the past two seasons to not pitch an inning. Minutes before his first start of the season he pulled his pectoral muscle while warming up and now he’s back on the DL. On the other hand, if we were talking about Brett Tomko, it would probably be wise to pay him $30 million to not pitch for your team.

San Francisco Giants: They’re 1-6 record is deceiving; they could easily be 0-7.

Pedro Martinez: No shock here, he’s out 4 to 6 weeks with a hamstring injury. What is surprising though is he injured it in a freak cock fighting accident.

Baltimore Orioles: Tied for the best record in baseball! They’re on pace to win over 130 games! Buy your playoff tickets now!

Larry Bowa: Still a crazy, ornery, S.O.B.

If you’re anything like me, you’re name is Matt Toomey and you love ‘em with apple bottom jeans and boots with the fur.

Making Moves

-Roto Words - By AJ Jackson

Mike Pelfrey SP, NYM – Pedro is hurt. Surprise! Pelfrey will see a lot of primetime runs from one of the best batting orders in the game. He is now firmly entrenched in the starting rotation so this could be the year.

Billy Butler DH, KC – He may be a DH only, but he can hit. Get him if you still can, the Royals have more pop than you think.

Mark Lowe RP, SEA – J.J. Putz goes on the DL so Lowe becomes the guy of the moment in the city of rain. He is a must have if you already have Putz and a little roster space.

Joe Saunders SP, ANA – Saunders pitched 8 shutout innings the other day against a pretty good Twins line up. With injuries to Kelvim Escobar and John Lackey, Joe should get the ball a lot this season. He is somebody who should be picked up, especially if you own Lackey. Every year the Angels have a break out pitcher; there is no reason to think that won’t be Saunders.

Kevin Youkilis 1B, BOS – This guy scores runs. He is always on base and hits in the sweet spot of an obscene batting order. Yuuuuuuuuke won’t give you many homeruns, but he will draw a lot of walks which sets him up to score a lot of runs. Youkilis is looking to continue the production he had in 2007 when he helped lead the Red Sox through the post season on their way to the World Series Championship.

Gary Matthews OF, ANA – What people don’t realize is that Matthews is batting second in the Angels line-up. That means he bats in between Chone Figgins and Vladimir Guerrero. Matthews will see a ton of fastballs because teams will need to throw them to keep Figgins from running, and he will see a ton of strikes because nobody will want to put runners on in front of Vlad.

Mike Napoli C, ANA – Never underestimate a backstop with 20 home run potential.

Clayton Kershaw SP, LA – Kershaw is the next Dwight Gooden. At 20 years old, he is the best prospect the Dodgers have. Joe Torre practically drools over the guy and he has even said he thinks Kershaw will be ready to pitch in the big leagues sooner as opposed to later.

Nick Johnson 1B, WAS – Johnson is seeing most of the playing time at 1B for the Nats. He is worth a flyer if you have an injury risk like Albert Pujols. He could prove to be an effective stop gap down the road.

Blake Dewitt 3B, LA – The Dodgers are very weak at 3B. Dewitt, hasn’t looked bad at all in his first real playing time. It would not be a stretch to think that he could hold on to the job even after Andy LaRoche and Nomar Garciaparra come back.

Before I sign off for the day, let us discuss the often debated closer situation. I am always interested as to how people feel they should use closing pitchers. I personally do not feel that a closer is very important. There is always one who can be grabbed off of the waiver wire. Usually, the value you have to give to get a name closer isn’t worth the contribution the team gets in return. Closers really only contribute in Saves. If you look at the stats for the season to date, there are a bunch of guys who have saves that could have been had for nothing, and it is only the first week of the season. Well, that is just my opinion.

The McNamee Baseball Grounds

If you can visualize with me the title of this article on a sign at a youth baseball facility, you can see that there is a chance for Brian McNamee, accused sellout, to come out of this entire thing as a definite hero. The bipartisan episode that took place at the Congressional Hearings turned the entire event into a circus, ran by actual elephants who just wanted to get The Rocket's autograph and on his good side--which thankfully was all summed up perfectly in Chairman Waxman's closing statements. Taking a step back and looking at it as a whole, McNamee never had any intention of destroying Clemens' image or anyone else's for that matter until he was himself called a liar. He was asked to tell the entire truth from the beginning, which unfortunately he avoided to do, but only out of his own compassion. I wouldn't want to hand over hard evidence incriminating a friend of mine, for I would hope that my testimony alone would be enough--that is until I'm called a liar on the front of the "USA Today." A lot of people look at McNamee as a guy that's just trying to make a quick buck during his 15 minutes, when in reality he was simply trying to not commit perjury, after trying to not be a jerk.

Apparently a dealer -- on behalf of Brian McNamee -- has posted all of his Roger Clemens memorabilia on eBay....which is good considering that he was originally going to just throw it away. An estimated $75,000 could be fetched for the items, and I think there would be nothing better to do with the money than to put it to good public use. Spreading good clean baseball would be a great boost for his public image, but more importantly, his 80% of the total sales would be a great donation to start a nice little McNamee Baseball Foundation or something similar.

In a short period of time, McNamee was bombarded by investigators, Senators, the media, and a Congressional Hearing, but only time will tell if the whole thing merely afforded him the opportunity to just make that quick buck, or if he will use his past experiences and newfound national attention to do some good things for the game.

Opening Thoughts

-Roto Words - By AJ Jackson

So after the longest off-season ever, the fantasy baseball season is finally underway in earnest. It is important for owners at this time of year to remain patient. Two games is not a good sample of what kind of season a player will have. However, it is possible to get a feel for the way a team plans on using a certain player. Also, it is a time to see which rookies and sleepers look like they could make a splash this season. Here is a look at some developing players and situations that have come up in the first few days of play.

PLAYERS TO GRAB

Andre Ethier OF, LA – This guy straight up took the left field job from Juan Pierre. Joe Torre seems to be taking a youth first mentality with his Dodgers and Ethier is the main beneficiary. Ethier played in the first two Dodgers games, with Torre opting to bench Matt Kemp in order to get Pierre in the batting order. Grab Ethier if you can, it looks like he is in the starting line up for at least a minute.

Carlos Gomez OF, MIN – Jose Reyes has called this guy FASTER. In the first two games of 2008 he stole 3 bases. As the lead-off hitter for a not half bad Twins line up, he can help a roto team in both steals and runs scored.

Manny Corpas RP, COL – Corpas is the closer for a team that is going to win many, many games. Enough said.

Yunel Escobar 2B, SS, 3B ATL – He is eligible to play everywhere, bats second in a fairly strong line up and could hit .300.

DUMP THEM NOW

Pedro Martinez SP, NYM – Martinez had to leave his first start of the year early with a tweaked hamstring. Even if the injury is not severe, it is definitely a sign of things to come. Now is the time to pick up Mike Pelfrey who will go from being the Mets fifth starter to their fourth if Pedro is out for a start or two.

Barry Zito SP, SF – His first start was yuck, no need to think his second will be any better against Prince Fielder and the Milwaukee Brewers.

Juan Pierre OF, LA – When I was a kid I was the guy who bunted, stole bases and never hit a home run. This is why I love Juan Pierre. Sadly, his time is up. He has been outplayed by somebody who is younger and more talented. His fantasy value is down to just a marginal contribution in stolen bases.

I DON’T BELIEVE

Xavier Nady OF, PIT – No way he continues to jack out home runs, he is just not that guy.

Livan Hernandez SP, MIN – Stay away! He doesn’t do anything to help your team win a championship over the long haul. Really, stay away, he might get you innings, but he’ll hurt your ERA and he couldn’t strike out either one of my dogs.

I DO BELIEVE

Kevin Kouzmanoff 3B, SD – He has got 20 home run potential. He could hit 25 if he didn’t play at PETCO Park.

Jim Thome DH, CHW – 35-40 Home Runs. Yeah, I said it.

Jeff Kent 2B, LA – Future Hall of Famers are that way for a reason. He will get 20-25 home runs, that makes him a top ten 2B.

PITCHER YOU WANT TO PICK UP

Ubaldo Jimenez SP, COL – Jimenez will be a two start pitcher in the second week of the season and he will have decent match ups against Atlanta and Arizona.

Jair Jurrjens SP, ATL – The future is bright for this 22-year-old although I have no idea how to say his name. As the Braves No. 3 Pitcher Jurriens will get two starts in fantasy week 2, he has sleeper possibility.

THINK BLUE BABY!

Joe wins his first two. Larry Bowa loses his mind, I mean he really lost it, poor Joe is not spry enough to hold back Bowa, the Dodgers need to develop the Bowa meltdown contingency plan..... Seriously though, how could anybody say that Vin Scully is not the greatest sportscaster ever? The man is poetry….. Wait till Russell gets going, we haven’t seen the big gun unload yet…..Derek Lowe was impressive…..Takashi Saito is perhaps the best closer in the game.