The Ellsbury's taste like Ellsbury's!

After smashing into Adrian Beltre and breaking 4 ribs last year, it almost looked like Ellsbury had suffered an injury that he would never fully recover from. He came off the DL last year, then went right back on. He played in 18 games and hit .192. 

After a slow start to the season, Ellsbury is now the #8 ranked player player in the game, hitting .297 and leading the league in steals at 19. Even better, he has 6 Ding-Dongs and 27 RBI's, proving to be healthy and stronger than ever before. 

To honor Ellsbury's resurgence, check out these facts

1.) Ellsbury owns a wine called "Zinfandellsbury- All profits to charity of course

2.) Ellsbury is the only Navajo Native American to ever play in the Major Leagues. Jaco is a member of the Colorado River Indian Tribe and is one of only 3 MLB players of any Native American descent. Other players are Kyle Lohse (who is killing it this year and a member of The Choo Choo Train) and Joba Chamberlain (NYY).

3.) Jacoby is on a one-year contract, worth only $2.4 million. Go get paid son...

4.) Other financial issues, some of Ellsbury's assets were frozen after the $8 billion dollar Allen Stanford scandal. Johnny Damon and Xavier Nady were also impacted by the same fraud case.

5.) Ellsbury averaged 15.6 points and 4.3 blocks per game on his Madras High School (Oregon) as starting guard on his basketball team, and was also a 4 year letterman in football. 

6.) Ellsbury's high school batting average of .567, and the fact he was only caught stealing once, are both still Oregon state records. On the grid-iron, he had 12 interceptions, and 5 kickoff returns for touchdowns. 

7.) Actually drafted in 2002 in the 23rd round by the D-Rays, but went to Oregon State U. instead and was drafter after his junior year 23rd overall by the Red Sox. 

8.) Ellsbury has the longest consecutive game hitting streak for the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox at 25 games. He finished that season with 33 steals, second in the league to Bernie Castro of the Columbus Clippers' 34, who played 31 more games at Triple-A that season. 

9.) Scored from second base on wild pitch in 2007. Johnny Peskey stated it was "the greatest play he's ever seen."

10.) Grew up in attending Mormon services and schools, but once he and his brothers got to their teenage years, they stopped attending. I wonder why...

ESPN's Buster Olney reports that the Nationals have "reached out" to the Giants to gauge their interest in making a trade for veteran catcher Ivan Rodriguez.

The Giants need a catcher pretty badly, you can't defend a title without one. Not sure if Pudge is the answer, but he could at least help out some of the young guys on the Giants roster. 

I've never seen this picture before, but I bet the fans in San Fran are thrilled to have some of this action!

Class

Nothing to do with fantasy baseball, but summer is here, and it's time for some baseball. Here is the classiest base baller of all time, Bernabie (Bernie) Williams.

Yes, I have his album, and it's incredible

"Worst Pain I've Ever Felt"

Did this guy live in a bubble as a child? How is lower back pain the "worst pain you've ever felt?" Too bad that this guy makes more headlines for being lazy and a cry-baby than producing. Has more natural talent than any other shortstop in the game, what a waste.

The Word: Ramirez stated that he stood for the entire plane ride back to LA to Phoenix, and he is also feeling pain and "tingling" in his leg and spine. Not looking good for the 178th ranked player so far this year. Trade him if you can.

Baseball Bitty of the Week

Ladies and Gentlemen, say hello to Mrs. Miguel Tejada. We don't know how old Miguel is, but who cares. They have been married for 13 years, but I haven't seen the official marriage certificate. This woman is hot stuff, and she scares the hell out of me. 

Superman

Complete Game, 4 Hit Shut-Out-

Haters??

Jay Bruce

Who the hell is this guy? I mean I know who he is, but didn't know he was this good. I had the pleasure of playing against him last week, and he put up 4 Ding Dongs, 13 RBI's and 11 Runs. Comparatively, my entire team put up 6 HR's and 25 RBI's. The scary thing about Bruce, besides the obvious power, is the speed. He has 4 steals so far this year, one away from his career high. If he could steal 15-20 bases this year, he will be a top 20 pick next year.

The Word: Not only is he crushing the ball, but he also won the 2010 Sportsmanship Award for MLB, the Tommy Edwards Award. This will help with your fantasy locker room chemistry.

En Fuego

These guys are on fire right now, just like Shakira's crotch,,,,just what this blog is missing,  and available in most leagues. Consider picking them up if you have someone like Jose Reyes on bereavement this week.

Corey Patterson- OF, TOR

Mr. Patterson gets around, playing for his 8th MLB team, maybe he has finally found his soul-mate. 9 Hits, 2 HR, 6 RBI's, 7 Runs- These stats aren't for a wee, but for the last 3 games. The 31 year old out of Georgia (1st team All American, MVP of State Championship team, is seeing the ball well and has gotten his batting average up to .294. Hitting in the middle of the lineup will provide some solid RBI opps.

Denard Span- OF, MIN

11 hits in his last six games, the popular draft pick has been a dud so far this year. Bottom line is this guy has that athletic talent that some of the best baseballer's have. If he can pick up some SB's, he could be a solid player for the rest of the year, especially once Mauer comes back and Mornau starts hitting.

Spin: Span turned down a $2 million dollar bonus offer from Colorado for a pre-draft deal. Instead of taking the money, Span took his chances in the draft, and slipped to 20th overall, costing himself over 800K, not a good way to start your professional career. Someone get this guy a business manager.









David Pauley- RP, SEA

Tough to recommend picking up this guy since he doesn't get saves, but if you have the roster spot, Pauley has racked up 3 wins in the last 2 weeks, and has 15 consecutive scoreless innings. He leads all relievers with 32.1 IP this season. Seattle obviously uses this guy a lot, so he could be a source of cheap wins, or some contenders could be seeking a closer if the Mariners fall out of the picture.

CHOO CHOOOOO

With a 6-6 tie last wee, The Choo Choo Train is on the rise, moving up past Beantown into 5th place in the league. With a matchup against the league's worst team, don't be surprised to see The Choo Choo train crack the top 3 by weeks end. Watch out, this train is non-stop to the finals.  CHOOO CHOOOOO

Kendrick to DL

Howie Kendrick has been put on the 15 day DL as of today. Normally I wouldn't laugh about an injury, but hahahaha. Good thing I just pulled off a Cahill/Cliff Lee trade for Kendrick, Lowrie, Rasmus. In ya face

Genius?

15 minutes after my pickups of the week, Howard is intentionally walked, Ibanez hit's a 3 run Ding-Dong. Genius? I think so

Pickups of the week

You've seen these guys on the wire, get em if you can.

Mike Morse- Off to a slow start, but is hitting .395 in May, and Adam LaRoche just went down with a shoulder injury. With only 4 walks this year, if your league doesn't include .OPS I would grab him. He's not a stud, but will get you 20+HR by the end of the season. 

J.P Arencibia- Potential Rookie of The Year candidate, JP is second among catchers this year with 8 ding-dongs, and that's tops among rookies. He hits in the middle of that lineup and will get RBI opportunities. With all the great catchers out right now (Mauer, Posey), take a chance with JP.

Raul Ibanez: 

If my grandmother was hitting behind Ryan Howard, I would recommend picking her up. Ibanez is 38 years old, and could hit 20+HR with 100+ RBI's this year, if he can get his batting average to his usually consistent .280. Right now he is hitting .248, but .333 in the month of May. If you are in need of RBI's, grab Raul.

Broken Ankle for Posey

Just started and 2 Buster Posey blogs already, this is not a good one. Posey was crushed in a home plate collision. He has a broken ankle and POSSIBLE knee ligament damage.

THE WORD: Broken ankles heal, but knee ligament damage could be season ending for Posey. If you have people who don't know what theyre doing in your league, trade Posey. Stay posted for updated on knee ligaments. 2 years post knee-surgery, and I still cry every once in a while. 

The Grandy Man Can

In all the land, Curtis Granderson is second to Jose Bautista in Home Runs since the All-Star Break of last year. The question is, should you be selling high or buying low?

The Grandy Man, a former 2nd Team All-American at U. of Illionois- Chicago, is on pace to hit 56 HR's this year. You can't argue with the power from Granderson, he has 16 HR's already, averaging a ding-dong every 10.8 ABS. While he has been consistently killing the ball all year, if you can get some other top 20 fantasy players with a trade, get it done son. 

I have been rejecting offers to get Granderson since the season started, and have kicked myself every time he goes deep. Interesting Stat: Out of Bautista's 19 HR's, 12 would have been out of all 30 ballparks. For Granderson's 16, only 6. 

Yes the Grandy Man plays in New York, short RF Porch, I know. But Granderson hasn't show a high enough B.A. to be considered an elite player. He is 30 years old, and won't be stealing too many bases this year. At the end of the year, Grandy will drop his BA to somewhere around .240-.250 (.avg of .248 over last two seasons), so if you are hurting in B.A., you don't want him. 

ADVICE: SELL HIGH

What to do with Crawford and his tattoo

So you drafted Crawford in the first round because you are either a huge Sox fan (went 5th overall in my draft, but I live in Boston), or you just saw him running amok in Fenway Park. He has been the biggest disappointment of the fantasy season so far, and you need to decide if your team will sink or swim with Crawford. 

Carl Crawford is in that elite group of MLB players, who are simply put, freak athletes. These type of players (see previous blog on Phil's CF Domonic Brown) have the ability to dominate fantasy leagues, combining power and speed that can help you in every major stat category. But for one reason or another, the talent is not enough this year for Crawford.

Mr. Crawford was born and bred to be an extraordinary athlete. Coming out of Houston's 5th ward, he lettered in basketball, football, and baseball. He had offers to play PG at UCLA, and QB at Nebraska, Tulsa, USC, Oklahoma, and Florida...pretty decent options, but he still chose baseball. Because of his natural ability, he will end up around .265 at the end of the year, with 20HR/25-30SBs). Not a bad year for the average outfielder, but for a $20 million/year player who turns 30 in August, ouch. Once he starts to pick it up, Francona will have to put him in the 2 hole, where he and Ellsbury can run whenever they want, and will score tons of runs with Gonzalez and Youkilis following.

Look at Crawford's #s (.215, 2HR, 14RBI, 6SB)........pitiful. No matter what league you are in, target the team that has Crawford, figure out what they need, and lock yourself in a room with person until you come out with a deal.

ADVICE: BUY LOW

SP RANKS

With no steroids and 2011 being the Year of the Pitcher, here are my SP ranks for the rest of the season:

1.) Roy Halladay- Phi
2.) Tim Lincecum- SSF
3.) Dan Haren- LAA
4.) Felix Hernandez- SEA
5.) Cliff Lee- PHI
6.) Justin Verlander- DET
7.) Josh Johnson- FLA
8.) Jon Lester- BOS
9.) David Price- TAM
10.) James Shields- TAM
11.) CC Sabathia- NYY
12.) Jered Weaver- LAA
13.) Trevor Cahill- OAK
14.) Tommy Hanson ATL
15.) Cole Hamels- PHI
16.) Clayton Kershaw- LAD
17.) Shaun Marcum- MIL
18.) Matt Garza- CHC
19.) Matt Cain- SF
20) Kyle Lohse- STL

Notes:

Dan Haren gets 2.8 run support/game. That is an absurd number for a team who usually puts up runs. He has 9 quality starts out of 10, and once the Angels start scoring runs, he could be in line for a Cy Young in the AL. Currently has a .85 WHIP and 66 K's.

Matt Garza- You won't see him on many top 20 lists, but Garza is a strikeout machine with 68 over the year. He reminds of Rick "Wild Thing Vaughn" just striking people out, but also getting drilled every now and then.  He isn't in the AL East anymore, and it looks like he has just gotten unlucky with his W-L record so far this year. If he is available in your league, go after him now.
ADVICE- GO GET HIM

                                                                  

David Price- 56 K's with a 1.08 WHIP, excellent numbers for an AL East pitcher. People have been saying for years that price has CY Young stuff, but I think this is the year he is going to dominate.
ADVICE: GO GET HIM

Kyle Lohse- Probably the least sexy pitcher in my top 20, you can't ignore the numbers this guy is putting up this year. In 8 of his last 9 starts, Lohse has registered a quality start, pitching 8 innings in his last two contests. He will pick up wins in STL, and his ridiculous ground ball rate means that not too many guys in the NL will be taking Lohse out of the park this year. He is now working on a career and league best WHIP of .90. Something about the half-crooked smile of Lohse makes me want to get rid of him.
ADVICE: SELL HIGH

Being Michael Brantley

If you have no idea who Michael Brantley is, but are pissed off  because you missed out on picking him up, we will be friends for this article.

Brantley was actually drafted by Milwaukee in 05, and in 08 was sent to Cleveland as a minor part of the CC Sabathia deal.

 Brantley could be a hidden gem this year in the runs/sb categories. He usually hits leadoff for Cleveland, followed by one of the hottest hitters in the game in Asdrubel Cabrera, and the sexiest swing in baseball of Shin Soo Choo. Nobody wants to pitch to Cabrera right now, so Brantley will see some great pitches. If he can keep from swinging at balls outside the zone (only 17 walks this year), he will be a very dangerous fantasy pickup this year.

THE DEAL: I don't like how Brantley has only swiped one base in the last 13 games, which you can attribute to the low walk total. With all the positive press around the Indians lately (best record in baseball), I don't see things getting much better for Brantley. If you can find someone in your league looking for steals/runs, pitch the hell out of Brantley, and get a deal done.

Do you think it is a coincidence that Michael Brantley shares a name with the character from Boiler Room who screwed all of his investors out of their money?? I didn't think so...

ADVICE: SELL HIGH

Bartolo Colon is Superman

I want you to take a good look at this picture.... Look at it again, focus on the face....and gotcha. This mammal is currently the New York Yankees best starting pitcher. Ya, the second most valuable franchise in the world, and this is their best pitcher. 

From that statement, you would never know I am a Yankees fan, but I am, and this freakin scares me. If there is a Bartolo Colon band-wagon, I'm driving. Not pitching in 2010, Senor Colon had an operation done transplanting stem cells into his shoulder. Personally, I didn't know this was even possible, but now Dr. Lionel Liriano is getting requests from some of MLB's best senior pitchers requesting the operation, without disclosing any names. (Clemens...... why not right?) I also have to throw Buehrle's name out there after hearing what he said following a Colon performance:

"It's the best I've ever seen him throw," Buehrle said. "He's always got that movement, but velocity-wise and the pitches he was throwing, they were pretty much unhittable pitches."

Bartolo is now 37 years young and lighting up the radar gun with consistent mid-90's fastballs. He has 56 K's through 57 Innings. The last time Superman had a better Innings:K ratio...... 11 years ago during the 2000 season in Cleveland. 

For the sake of the game and the Yankees, I pray the following statement from Dr. Liriano is true:

“We didn’t use human growth hormone with Bartolo,” Liriano said previously to the Associated Press. “It was a totally clean process in which we did not use anything out of place or regulated by the major leagues.”

Ok Bartolo, I believe you, now please get rid of that look on your face where you clearly let one slip out. 

ADVICE: If he's available, your league is weak, but grab him now. 

Player Profile: Domonic Brown

Sports Illustrated featured Dom Brown in numerous articles coming into this year, and I can see why just by looking at this guy. He is a monster, and I had to do a double take because I thought it was Ryan Howard. This dude is 6'5, and 200 lbs at 23 years old, and if he drinks his milk, will only get stronger. 

Coming out of High School, Mr. Brown received a free ride to the U (Miami) to play wide receiver, an offer most kids from Florida only dream of. But there are about 200 thousand reasons why Brown chose the Phillies, if you catch my drift (signing bonus if you're slow). 

So now, he is available in 72% of Yahoo! Fantasy Leagues The sheer size and raw talent of this guy makes him a must-have. If you're in a league where you have someone to drop, or an empty roster spot, take a chance on this guy, let's see if he can be a five-tool player in Philly. If he get's regular playing time, he will last longer in Philly than the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. 

The Choo Choo Train

One thing I hate about most "expert" fantasy analysts on the major networks, they don't talk about their teams! Are they allowed to have teams? Who do they pick/trade for? Anybody can give advice, but I want to see how these guys do in their own leagues. The name of my Team is The Choo Choo Train, after Indians outfielder Shin Shoo Choo, who has had a lethargic start to the season, but will pick it up soon. I am in 6th place in our 10 team league, and will be climbing the standings shortly due to a Blockbuster 3 Team trade that just occurred: I gave up H. Kendrick, Jed Lowrie, and Colby Rasmus, for Cliff Lee and Trevor Cahill, I obviously needed some pitching...

The Choo Choo Train:

C- Wieters
1B- M. Cabrera
2B- Martin Prado
SS- J. Reyes
3B- A-Rod
OF- Hunter Pence
OF- S Choo
OF- J Ellsbury
Util- A. Jones
Util- E. Hosmer
3B/OF- A Gordon
OF- D. Brown

SP:
R Romero
C. Lee
D Haren
K Lohse
B Colon
T Cahill
C Carpenter
S Baker

Closers:
H Street
C Perez
K Gregg
B Fuentes
A Bailey (DL)

1st Blog Post

This blog is made to transform the typical fantasy sports player into the expert who is the envy of your league. You will be the first team to pick up Buster Posey ("The Great Pickup of 2010"), or will know immediately if Domonic Brown is being called up to the Majors. I encourage feedback, questions, criticism, and praise.