fat EMO kid baseball blog

Nice, short, week in Fantasy Land.  The acquisitions of Soriano and Lackey (and Aaron Cook) proved to be huge.  I am up 9-1 as I write this, thanks to Bobby Abreu’s HR in the tenth after 9 shutout innings from Lackey.  Looking forward to trying to upgrade the catcher position, and move one of my extra hitters for someone I can use more frequently. 

Random Thoughts:

• Finally get wins from Hamels and Halladay in the same week.
• I Wish I could have kept Dallas Braden, somone got a gift from me
• If Carlos Pena could hit his body weight, he’d be a very good fantasy player
• Leo Nunez looks pretty solid, he could be the Marlins closer for a while
• If Ian Stewart gets his average up to .250, I’ll write a thank you note to the Colorado coaches for letting him play enough games at 2B to be eligible.

In other news, the Yankees swept the Tigers, who have nice pitching, but little else.  I expect that whoever wins the AL Central will be making a quick exit from the playoffs.  The Yankees got great pitching all weekend, the best news being the solid start from Joba today, and more dominance from Phil Hughes, who, as long as he can throw his fastball 90% of the time, can’t be touched.  Translation:  KEEP HIM IN THE PEN. 

The best news of all was Boston losing two in a row to Toronto, letting the Yanks get to within one game of first place.  Toronto seems like they want to win enough games to make it tough to trade Halladay.  

Speaking of Halladay, I saw that Phillies scouts were at his start today against Boston, making it even more likely that the Phils are the front-runner in the trade sweepstakes right now….only 12 days til the trading deadline, it’s like counting down to Christmas.

Thoughts on last night’s game

• Rain at a Yankee game….again….
• Looks like we have to live with Texeira’s streakiness
• A-Rod is back in midseason form
• Phil Hughes is as good as anyone right now…6 K’s…and really 7 as he threw a perfect pitch to Brian Anderson that was called a ball
• You never know what to expect from Burnett
• Unless they are playing Boston or Anaheim, you really get the feeling this team can come back in any game
• Hey did anyone else notice that the Yanks actually beat a starter they had never seen before?
• The Tigers have a decent team, but this is the class of the AL Central?  There is a major gap between the AL East and the other divisions.

So they are saying it will take at least two “A” level prospects…and probably an agreement to take on Vernon Wells ridiculous salary..to land Roy Halladay.  Right off the bat that eliminates most teams, leaving the usual suspects like Boston and NY, the Phillies, possibly the Cubs and Angels, and probably a few darkhorses that no one has mentioned yet.  So, if you were a GM (and obviously we all think we could be GMs – “I thought of a way to get Griffey and Bonds in the same outfield, and we wouldn’t have to give up that much) would you make a move to try and get Roy on your team?

I would, and since you asked, now I will tell you why.  How many of these “can’t miss” prospects really turn out to be any better than the guys they could be traded for?  Remember when the Yankees wouldn’t part with any of their young trio of pitchers (Joba, Ian Kennedy, and Phil Hughes) in a deal to land Johan Santana a few years back?  Johan is exactly the kind of proven ace the Yanks needed, and ended up shelling out $200 million for a year later.  Meanwhile, of the prospects deemed too good to give up, only Phil Hughes is currently contributing for the Yankees, and even that has only come after being moved to a setup role.  Joba has been oridinary as a starter, and Ian Kennedy may never see the light of NY again.   Quick, name the propsects the Yankees gave up for Chuck Knoblauch (Eric Milton – but come on, seriously)?  How about Denny Neagle?  Even Bobby Abreu?  Got Nothing?  All those guys were contributers during the real Yankees run, and the guys they traded haven’t amounted to a whole lot.  This isn’t just a NY thing, there are stories like this all over the league. 

The bottom line is why keep guys who might be good…someday….instead of getting a guy who is already great…and has at least 4-5 years ahead of him.  Even if one of those two “A” level prospects turns out to be a star, what are the odds that he’s be any better than Halladay is now? 

If the Blue Jays are dumb enough to trade him within the AL East, the Yankees better do whatever it takes to get him.  Joba?  TAKE HIM.  Hughes?  eh, we’d rather not, but go ahead.  Melky?  Sure.  And you’ll give us a halfway decent CF back?  OK.  Come on Brian Cashman, don’t let this turn into Johan Santana part duex.   You’d better make this happen, because I know about 50,000 people who can do your job better than you.

Useless thoughts on the all-star game:

• The all-star game should not “count”.  All this does is keep teams from playing hard down the stretch.  Reward the team with the best record, just like the first two rounds of the playoffs.   You want to make the players take the game seriously?  How ’bout all-star bonuses only go to the winners.  Even better, losing team pays the winning team’s bonus.
• How about some offense?  No more 4-3 games.  There’s a reason why the HR Derby is the main attraction.  Extend the all-star break to the length of a steroid cycle and let them juice up for one game a ear, give them aluminum bats – do something. 

Random thoughts on the second half from a guy barely qualified to run a fifth place fantasy team:

• The Mets are not done
• How about a rotation of Halladay, Pedro, Hamels – and those other guys.  Could be another big year in Philly. 
• The Cubs will be a player for Roy Halladay
• The Yankees will pay dearly for leaving a dozen or so wins on the table against Boston and Anaheim…another third place finish will not be good for anyone.
• Joe Mauer will finish behind Ichiro in the AL batting race
• Pay attention to the San Francisco Giants – and the Kung Fu Panda who plays third
• As bad as your team is, it could always be worse:  you could be a Pirates fan

Road Trip ‘09 is officially in the books, and now it’s time for all of you to care what I think.  You can see more of the fun here, but for now here are my thoughts on Camden Yards in Baltimore, Citzen’s Bank park in Philly, and the new Yankee Stadium. 

Camden Yards:  It’s almost twenty years old now, but I’d still rather watch a game here than in most new stadiums.    The seat are affordable (especially when someone else pays), the people are friendly, and the views from everywhere are great.(http://fatemokid.com/scry/index.php?v=image&i=0&p=Road Trip 09/baltimore/DSCF2906.JPG)   The concourse between the warehouse and the right field wall is a great place to spend time before the game, and you are actually allowed to get into the outfield stands during batting practice for a chance at a homerun ball.  I’ve also heard good things about the daquiri’s…

Citizen’s Bank Park:  A beautiful day in Philly was capped off by a night game, in the rain, at Citizen’s Bank Park, which was very easy to get to, even for a scared white kid from NY.  The stadium is nice, but it’s typical of most of the other new stadiums, and really doesn’t stand out in any way, except for the concession stand which sells only “The Schmidter”.  Also, it’s apparently a felony in Philadelphia to print a Pete Rose jersey.  The highlight of the game was watching the Phillies fans boo Scott Rolen; I’m almost positive most of them had no idea why they were booing.  Overall it was very unimpressive, and while I would go again, I would not plan a trip around it. 

NEW Yankee Stadium:  The new Yankee Stadium is exacty what you would expect:  big, bright, and expensive.  After paying several tolls just to get to the stadium, you are treated to a nice $19 parking fee, which apparently can be avoided by purchasing “Special People” parking ahead of time online.  We had a nice 5 1/2 hour rain delay, so we got to experience pretty much everything the new stadium has to offer:  the team store, the Hard Rock, being told we aren’t rich enough to go to the Mohegan Sun Bar, and the Tommy Bahama bar full of drunk high school gym coaches.  A few hundred dollars later, you will realize that, while the new stadium is nice, you kind of miss the old place.  The new stadium is comfortable and clean, and has enough bright lights to give your grandmother a seizure, but part of the charm of the old stadium was sitting on hard, plastic seats, sticking to the ground when you walked, and having to wait in a line of cars for 2 hours just to get on to the highway to get back to Albany.  Maybe if there was no rain, or if the Yanks could have managed at least a run off of the Nationals (did you know Will Ferrell plays for them?), things would have been a little better.  All in all, while the new stadium is a great, I’d still rather be in the old dump watching the rats run by. 

Overall, while any Yankee Stadium will always be my favorite place to watch a game, Camden Yards was by far the best of the trip.  In terms of affordability, sitelines, and overall atmosphere, this was the best by far, it’s just too bad the Orioles have to play there.