Category: BASEBALL

By Dalton Del Don – Senior Writer Major League Baseball gone crazy – Not sure what is more ridiculous, the MVP award winners or the insane contracts being handed out recently. Since the writers get it wrong more often than not, I’m going with the cash giveaways. Let’s start with the awards: Ryan Howard beats…

St. Louis vs. Detroit After an unprecedented run at predicting playoff outcomes, it all comes to a merciful end after one more series. While the Cardinals’ win wasn’t surprising, given the state of the Mets’ pitching staff, the Tigers’ sweep over the A’s certainly was. I’ve underrated this Detroit team all season long, never truly…

After my impressive Division Series performance, I look to continue my streak with some Championship Series predictions. First, we’ll start with the American League: Detroit vs. Oakland Comments: While I wasn’t surprised to see Oakland advance, I was rather shocked to see Detroit knock off the Yankees – in an impressive fashion I might add.…

NL MVP: 1. Albert Pujols 2. Ryan Howard 3. Lance Berkman Ryan Howard is very deserving and obviously had one hell of a year, but don’t overrate home runs here. Pujols beats him in average, OBP and slugging percentage, while striking out 131 fewer times. He plays a far superior defense, is more of an…

ALDS: Yankees over Tigers Twins over A’s NLDS: Dodgers over Mets Padres over Cardinals ALCS: Yankees over Twins NLCS: Dodgers over Padres World Series: Yankees over Dodgers

By Robby Wellington – Staff Writer With football season in full swing, it seems as if we’ve all but forgotten fantasy baseball. Well, today marked the first day of the playoffs in my head-to-head league, and I plan on micromanaging my squad until the bitter end. Assuming your league has no limit on transactions, only…

By Robby Wellington – Staff Writer I have never rooted for the American teams in the Little League World Series. Ever. You see, I grew up playing Bronco baseball, the unheralded yet vastly superior brother of Little League. In Bronco ball, 11 and 12-year-olds are actually allowed to lead off and steal bases, there are…

I want to preface the following article by stating Bill Simmons is one of my favorite sports writers. He gets criticized for talking too much about himself and whatnot, and although I couldn’t care less about his “buddy J-Bug” or whatever arcane reference he too often makes, I find his writing as a whole very…

By Dalton Del Don – Senior Writer There have been two particularly strong baseball bets this year. The first came about six weeks ago, when the Vegas line had the Minnesota Twins as 30/1 long shots to win the World Series. They may have been 8-10 games out of a playoff spot, but any team…

By Robby Wellington – Staff Writer With the trade deadline fast approaching in my head-to-head fantasy league, I’m looking to open up a couple more roster spots. Now my team is not particularly deep, mind you, but unless I have a top-level talent in my lineup, I would rather have an open revolving-door type position…

By Robby Wellington – Staff Writer The trading deadline came and went with a flurry of activity that actually had a fairly insignificant impact on the fantasy landscape. That is unless you’re in one of those silly NL/AL only leagues, in which case Carlos Lee, Bobby Abreu and even Julio Lugo caused some major waves.…

The following are players I like as trade targets or as excellent pick ups if somehow still available. While not all are your typical buy-low candidates, make sure their respective owners value them properly, as their production may exceed perception. Alex Rios – Not that his play has been poor, but maybe Rios’ owners grew…

Alex Rodriguez is one of the most talked about people in all of baseball. While he consistently puts up nice numbers, most of the chatter surrounds his ridiculous paycheck and failures on the field. Of all the non-steroid suspected players, no one is viewed more negatively than A-Rod. It’s entirely possible Rodriguez brought most of…

After giving out my midseason awards, I figure it’s time for some predictions on what’s to come. The following is how I see the playoff picture unfolding. Unfortunately, these teams don’t exactly match the ones I predicted entering the season. NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers – A much, much better division from top to bottom…

NL MVP: Albert Pujols – An easy call. He misses 18 days with a strained oblique and still leads the league in homers. A run at 60 bombs cannot be ruled out. He single-handedly makes the Cardinals a threat in the National League. AL MVP: Jim Thome – My top three picks for AL MVP…

Nomar Garciaparra was a fine choice, but the American League fan vote is more of a joke than ever. First, let me say that this isn’t a huge deal in the big scheme of things, but it does, however, underscore how little the average fan pays attention. Or maybe popularity just overrides common sense. The…

First off, it’s tough to get the rosters perfectly right, as the system is obviously fallible. I do like the fans having the ability to choose, but this certainly leaves room for error – as does the absurd rule of every team having a representative, Mark Redman, anyone? Another rule worth mentioning is the winner…

By Robby Wellington – Staff Writer Last week, Bill Simmons wrote an excellent piece for Page 2, singing the praises of YouTube.com and linking to over 30 clips that belong in the Web site’s “imaginary Hall of Fame.” As a proud owner of a mindless desk job, I consider myself somewhat of an expert on…

Sorry for a somewhat inactive weekend with posts. It was a busy one; highlighted by a Radiohead concert in Berkeley. Great show, and the venue was small, intimate and made it that much better. If you have never done so, you should probably check out the best band in the world for yourself. Anyway, trading…

By Robby Wellington – Staff Writer Three days ago, Troy Glaus played his fifth game at shortstop and with six under his belt and counting, he is now shortstop eligible in most formats. Other than catcher, shortstop is by far the thinnest position in fantasy baseball, meaning that Glaus’ value just went through the roof.…