Yardbarker: Matt Holliday

Fantasy Baseball 2008 Roundup

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:39:55 -0500

It was quite an eventful 2008 season for fantasy baseball managers. From the rise of Cliff Lee and Carlos Quentin to the fall of Erik Bedard and Victor Martinez, there was no shortage of events to talk about. But now that the 2008 season is over, how will looking back help you look forward? Screaming Sports' Phil Yoon explains.

MLB Busts of the Week - Week 25

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:10:46 -0500

Which fantasy studs dropped the ball last week? And which "sleepers" fell short of their hyped billing? Screaming Sports' Billy Smith runs down an six-player list of fantasy bombs.

Quick Hits

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:52:58 -0500

Quick Hits:

Rodriguez Negotiating Through Media: Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez is playing hard to get with the Angels through the media. It is obvious that Rodriguez is going to get 12-15 million dollars, but where. The Angels would love to have him, but they could easily make a play for Brian Fuentes and be fine. My money is on the Angels landing him, but it is hard to see at this point.

BoSox Favorties For Tazawa: The Red Sox are currently the favorites to land Japanese pitcher Junichi Tazawa. Not a surprise, the Red Sox are the leaders in Pacific Rim signings.

Braves after Holliday?: The Boston Globe picked up on my piece about the Braves and Matt Holliday. Check it out. (scroll down).

Mariners like Ibanez: The Mariners would like to keep Raul Ibanez, but it is likely he will look elsewhere. However, not too many teams are going to want to surrender two draft picks for him.

Target Field, Home of the Twins: Target Corp. won the naming rights to Twins Field, set to open in 2010. Target Field! Sounds okay...

Happy Birthday Mom!

Nationals Looking to Score Big?

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:52:57 -0500

According to the Washington Post, the Nationals plan to be very aggressive this offseason and will look to add a veteran pitcher as well as a power hitting player to help shape their lineup. The Washington Post believes the Nationals can take on a salary like Mark Teixeira or Adam Dunn, but they will need to convince him to take different amounts annually, so it fits into the Nationals payroll. One thing that could block the Nationals from landing a player like this is that both players are represented by Scott Boras and Boras is very big on annual salary. He is also known to shape his players contracts around the media opportunities in that city. Moving a prime time player like Teixeira in his prime to Washington isn't exactly a good idea. However, that doesn't mean the Nationals cannot land a big name player. The Nationals could package a deal together for Matt Holliday, or maybe Robinson Cano, to fill the void at second base.

As for pitching, I have been informed that the Nationals have some interest in Mike Hampton, as well as Braden Looper. For the Nationals, there best chance of improving is moving through trades and mostly small signings. Making a trade for Kevin Millar, if the Orioles make a serious run for Kevin Millar, would desperately help their squad. Several teams have failed to sign veteran pitchers who actually produce, so I wouldn't recommend that. But going after Oliver Perez, or making a trade for a pitcher like Jason Marquis, could prove to be a good move for the team.

MLB Buy 'n Sell - Week 26

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:15:35 -0500

Screaming Sports' Billy Smith break out MLB Buy 'n Sell and runs down a short list of players you should be buying or selling. Jose Reyes? Believe it or not, it's time to sell. Ryan Braun? Grab him while he's hot!

Howard Making His Case For NL MVP

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:34:51 -0500

Every year about this time the baseball world finds itself hotly discussing, or debating, who the league MVPs and Cy-Young Award winners should be, and this year is no different. Sometimes we all get jipped, like last season, when a player like Alex Rodriguez has a season that is heads and shoulders above that had by anyone else in the league. And then sometimes we luck and get a race like last year's matchup of Colorado's Matt Holliday and the Phillies' Jimmy Rollins. This year, the raging debate in the American League is between Carlos Quentin of the Chicago White Sox and Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers, and the Cardinals' Albert Pujols and Philly's own Ryan Howard in the National League. The real crux of the MVP issue is that the definition of what a Most Valuable Player is subjective to that particular voter. Is the MVP simply the guy who has had the best statistical year, no matter how his team has fared that season? Should a player on a last place team even be in the discussion? (see Rodriguez and the Texas Rangers) Or is the MVP the guy who carries his team into the postseason? A guy who single handily puts his team on his shoulders and extends their season into October, despite possibly not having the best all around numbers? This debate is epitomized in the comparison of the seasons of Howard and Pujols. Ryan Howard leads the major leagues* this year in homeruns (45), RBIs (138) and runs (97). Albert Pujols is tied for second in the National League in hits (177), second in batting average (.353), second in walks (96), second in on base percentage (.457), and is first in slugging percentage (.641). Howard's power numbers blow Pujols' away, and in fact they crush everyone else in the league by at least 10. And Howard would probably be a shoe in if his average wasn't around the .250 mark. But Pujols' non-power numbers are significantly better than Howards. For comparison, HR RBI AVG R H BB OBP SLG K AB Howard 45 138 .248 97 144 77 .337 .534 190 580 Pujols 34 105 .353 93 177 96 .457 .641 52 501 The fact that Pujols has almost 80 less at bats diminishes Howard's bigger power numbers, and in the categories that are less affected by the specific number of at bats (AVG, OBP, and SLG), Pujols crushes Howard. The most glaring disparity is in the number of strikeouts. Howard is competing with Arizona's Mark Reynolds for the major league lead in strikeouts, and could break the single season record, whereas Pujols has a paltry 52 all season. That number is obviously slanted since he has so many less at bats, so we'll compare their strikeout to at bat ratio. Howard strikeouts 33% of the time, whereas Pujols strikes out just over 10% of the time. That is a staggering disparity. So Pujols has clearly been the best all around player in the league this year. But the award is not the Most Outstanding Player award, or the Best Player In The League award. It is called the Most Valuable Player award, and that leads to a disambiguation in the definition of the award. One could very well argue that MVP refers to the player who is most important to his particular team, and I would argue that that player is Howard, not Pujols. One could even make the argument that Carlos Delgado is deserving of the award. Lets look at the numbers. Since September 1, HR RBI AVG R H BB OBP SLG K AB K/AB Howard 9 27 .371 19 23 8 .431 .935 14 62 23% Pujols 5 16 .279 10 17 9 .371 .623 5 61 8% Delgado 6 13 .328 14 19 6 .385 .690 11 58 19% In that time (Sept. 1 - 18) the Phillies are 11-5, the Cardinals are 5-10, and the Mets are 9-6. Howard has had a monster month, hitting in clutch situations like nothing I have seen in sometime, whereas Pujols has cooled off and his team has completely fallen out of contention. So by this other MVP definition, Howard clearly has to be considered the winner. The debate will continue to rage over who this year's MVP should be, as it will over what it means to be an MVP. *Stats as of Friday pre game time

Tim Lincecum - NL MVP?

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:17:54 -0500

It seems strange considering Brandon Webb was pretty much a shoe-in about a month ago for the National League Cy Young Award...but Tim Lincecum has rather quietly put together a great season with a young and very inexperienced San Francisco Giants team behind him. Sure, Lincecum won't reach that "plateau" of 20 wins this season like Brandon Webb already has, but if you compare stats between the 2 players, wins is the only category that Lincecum trails Webb. At 17-3, and an ERA of 2.43, along with a Major League-leading 237 K's, and having done this pitching for a team that's 15 games under .500, makes it all the more impressive to me. If you're thinking...well, he's pitching in a pitcher friendly ballpark in San Francisco. That may be true, but he's 10-1 on the road this season with a 2.13 ERA...so, that argument is "out the window" I'm afraid. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of giving an MVP Award to a pitcher, but when someone is deserving of it, I have no issues with it. Sure, you can make an argument for Ryan Howard, Ryan Braun, Matt Holliday, David Wright, and Albert Pujols, but I don't think any of those players has done more for their team than Tim Lincecum this season. Sure, he's on a losing team, but shouldn't that make his 17-3 record all the more impressive? If you take his 17 wins away from the Giants, and they're 32 games below .500...putting them in last place in their division and giving them the worst record in baseball. I know Ryan Howard's got 1 MVP on his shelf already, but I'm not real fond of giving someone an MVP that's quickly approaching the 200 strikeout mark. If a hitter has to get the award over Lincecum this season, it should be Albert Pujols or possibly Matt Holliday, and of those 2 guys, I give the edge to Pujols. You can actually make a similar case for Cliff Lee this season in the American League as he's having an even more dominant season than Lincecum, and facing the DH on the game-by-game basis. All-in-all, I just feel like Lincecum is deserving of the Cy Young and MVP awards for the 2008 season, and if nothing else at least deserves consideration for the MVP. I would find it very difficult to justify giving the Cy Young to Brandon Webb just because he has 3 more wins than Lincecum (as of right now anyways). Linecum is slated to make 2 more scheduled starts, and if he really wanted to go for 20 wins could potentially do that by going on 4 days rest on the final game of the season on Sept. 28 vs. the Dodgers. Webb, on the other hand, has 3 scheduled starts remaining, and if he would happen to win 2 of the 3 starts, giving him possibly 22 wins this season, I have a bad feeling the voters will give him the Cy Young based only on wins...which I feel would be a mistake in this case.

Quick Hits

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:03:52 -0500

Quick Hits:

BoSox Favorties For Tazawa: The Red Sox are currently the favorites to land Japanese pitcher Junichi Tazawa. Not a surprise, the Red Sox are the leaders in Pacific Rim signings.

Braves after Holliday?: The Boston Globe picked up on my piece about the Braves and Matt Holliday. Check it out. (scroll down).

Mariners like Ibanez: The Mariners would like to keep Raul Ibanez, but it is likely he will look elsewhere. However, not too many teams are going to want to surrender two draft picks for him.

Target Field, Home of the Twins: Target Corp. won the naming rights to Twins Field, set to open in 2010. Target Field! Sounds okay...

Happy Birthday Mom!

Fantasy Baseball Five Questions: Keeper Leagues

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:03:32 -0500

It's easy to look at MLB superstars and say they're "keepers," but what about some of the players that sneak under the radar? Screaming Sports' Phil Yoon takes a look at several Major League Baseball players and determines who you should be keeping and who you should send packing.

Rockies

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:22:16 -0500

Colorado Rockies Todd Helton, Matt Holliday, Brad Hawpe, TroyTulowitzki, Garrett Atkins [...]

MLB Buy 'n Sell - Week 24

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:27:54 -0500

Screaming Sports' Billy Smith break out MLB Buy 'n Sell and runs down a short list of players you should be buying or selling. Roy Oswalt? Believe it or not, it's time to sell. Lance Berkman? Grab him while he's hot!

Paul Daugherty is probably making stuff up

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:14:45 -0500

In his latest story Paul Daugherty named the Reds offseason wish list.

Right now, the Reds' winter wish-list is 1) a middle-of-the-order banger, preferably someone who hits right-handed and is named Matt Holliday; 2) a full-time catcher who, if he follows the Jocketty mold, will be sturdy and a good handler of pitchers in the Mike Matheny mold; and 3) a speedy left fielder who can run balls down in the gap, and hit them there as well.

I have trouble figuring out if Paul has any inside information about this being true, or if its just his opinion on what he thinks their wish list looks like. Either way after that paragraph he poses this question.

Has No. 3 been granted?

He obviously is talking about Chris Dickerson considering the main part of the story is about him, and his performance since his call up.

Only Paul Daugherty would try to claim that Chris Dickerson is some how a completely logical choice to play left field. Centerfield is completely possible because the average centerfielders OPS is in the mid to low .700 OPS range, but certainly not left where the lowest OPS in the league is .718. You can figure in defense all you want, but I'll take a guy who can OPS league average in center while playing above average D over a guy who is going to be hitting near the bottom of the league at his position regardless if hes the greatest left fielder in the history of baseball defensively.

Just for noting purposes Dickerson's career line in the minors is .258/.361/.411 for an OPS of .772.

As you can see I really have nothing to type about so I just tried to start a fight with someone who will probably never read this page. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Paul Daugherty is probably making stuff up

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:14:45 -0500

In his latest story Paul Daugherty named the Reds offseason wish list.

Right now, the Reds' winter wish-list is 1) a middle-of-the-order banger, preferably someone who hits right-handed and is named Matt Holliday; 2) a full-time catcher who, if he follows the Jocketty mold, will be sturdy and a good handler of pitchers in the Mike Matheny mold; and 3) a speedy left fielder who can run balls down in the gap, and hit them there as well.

Has No. 3 been granted?

Will the NL West playoff race be Rocked?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:15:16 -0500

The Colorado Rockies enter the last month of the season 9 games under .500 but just 6 games behind the division leading Arizona Diamondbacks. Ironically, in 2007, it was just 6 games that separated the Colorado Rockies from the Wild Card lead with 1 month left. There are several reasons why the Rockies can repeat their memorable run, but will they?

Ramirez versus DeRosa for Player of the Month

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:04:46 -0500

With three days left in August, the Cubs have two legit contenders for player of the month honors in August. The only player of the month winner so far for the best team in baseball has been Geovany Soto's rookie of the month honor in April, although he's certainly a strong contender to win it again in August. His only real competition is the July winner, Ian Stewart who has a slight edge in OPS and both have 20 RBI's in August.

All the NL contenders after the jump...

Name	HR	RBI	R	XBH	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
DeRosa	7	24	22	17	.378	.442	.768	1.210
Cameron	8	18	17	14	.366	.458	.744	1.202
Pujols	7	20	16	16	.372	.481	.721	1.202
Wigginton	10	22	17	17	.370	.381	.783	1.164
Ludwick	9	23	21	17	.359	.413	.739	1.153
M. Ramirez	7	23	14	11	.375	.465	.635	1.100
A. Ramirez	6	26	20	14	.325	.418	.639	1.057

Cameron also has seven stolen bases this month although I doubt that's valued too highly for the award. With Ryan Braun and CC Sabathia sweeping the July honors, I doubt they'd give it to another Brewer unless Cameron goes off the next three days. DeRosa has the OPS edge at the moment over everyone and is tied for the most extra base hits. He's tied for second in RBI's with Carlos Delgado, both of whom trail Aramis. DeRosa is second in runs scored to Matt Holliday's 28. So a little battle within the battle to end the weekend.

On the pitching side, Rich Harden is 3-0 with a 1.82 ERA this month but in just four starts and 24.2 IP. Sabathia and Tim Lincecum are both 4-0 so far with nearly double the innings and 1.37 ERA for Sabathia and 1.27 for Lincecum.