Fantasy baseball is here. I am in a head-to-head points league that gets pretty intense in terms of trades and transactions. We are allotted four keepers and unlike many other leagues, there is no time constraint on how long you are allowed to keep said player.
The trade market opens one week before the draft and over the past three seasons, my keen general manager (fantasy teammate) and I have thrown together a team that is young and full of keepers. This offseason, we had the toughest decision in our fantasy baseball lives.
This has been an interesting week for the Chicago White Sox. No it has nothing to do with the fact that they have won two games in a row, nor does it have anything to do with Tyler Saladino (who?) hitting his third home run of the spring.
No, the whole world knows what’s wrong on the South Side and it has to do with Adam LaRoche, Kenny Williams, Chris Sale and this kid named Drake.
The Great Bambino. George Herman Ruth would retire a legend to the sport of baseball, so much so that one could argue that he was the most important player to ever play the game.
Before he was a New York Yankee, he was a member of the Boston Red Sox. Before he was the most iconic slugger in the history of Major League Baseball, he was a pitcher.
And on June 23, 1917 he brought new meaning to the Sultan of Swat.
Last year, all the talk was surrounding the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros monumental turnarounds. Their “tear-it-all-down-and-build-it-back-up” approach worked, and after years of patience, they appear to be on the cusp of several years of exciting baseball.
Over in the American League Central, another huge turnaround went rather unnoticed. The Minnesota Twins — under the tutelage of Hall of Fame first-year skipper Paul Molitor — improved in the win column by 13 games, finishing at a surprising 83-79.
So, did the 2015 Minnesota Twins over achieve or should we expect more of the same in 2016?
Not everyone that heads to the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft in June is a household name. They come from all walks of life. Some are highly ranked on lists by Baseball America, others come straight out of high school. Some eagerly await three or four years in DII.
That’s why I love working for NCAA.com and covering DII Sports. Over the past few weeks, I have met some coaches that have pumped out big leaguer after big leaguer, and have talked to a few players that you will hear called this June in the draft.
Earlier this offseason, we took a look at the top ten rotations heading into the 2016 MLB season. There were two teams that weren’t mentioned in the top ten, but were debated about back and forth several times.
One of those rotations is the Seattle Mariners. Any rotation anchored by Felix Hernandez immediately deserves top ten consideration, and Hisashi Iwakuma is about as much the model of consistency that you will find, although I am weary of his injuries last season. I like the young arms of Walker and Paxton, but Wade Miley as the No. 3 kept them right outside of the top ten.
The other rotation was the New York Yankees. Is it completely outlandish to think that this team can be a top ten rotation? It really isn’t.
The first week of Spring Training is in the books and the Atlanta Braves are sitting pretty much exactly where people thought they would be. They are currently 1-4 in Grapefruit League action, but as we all know, what happens in Orlando isn’t necessarily about the wins and the losses, it’s about getting better.
One of two things will be said in September in the case of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The first may be, “Dave Stewart is a genius.” The other may be, “What a moron.”
Stewart had a very busy offseason, and his moves were questioned by many. That being said, the Diamondbacks’ GM clearly went for a win-now mentality, trading away two big pieces of their future to create some stability in the current pitching rotation.
As everyone knows by now, the newest Yankees bullpen toy Aroldis Chapman has been suspended by Major League Baseball for 30 games without pay. While the decision seems to be split amongst Yankees fans, it appears to be heralded by the baseball community.
It’s hard to argue with Rob Manfred. He definitely got it right.
This past week sports’ fans were subject to three huge stories. Dexter Fowler signed on with the Baltimore Orioles. Peyton Manning was set to announce his retirement. The San Francisco 49ers were set to trade Colin Kaepernick, and both the Houston Texans and Cleveland Browns were highly interested.
All reports were according to “sources”. None of the three proved to be true.
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