i know john has some love for Jon and i hear good things about Brad, too.  i believe John put Niese in his book as a B.  i've got no idea where he ranked Bergesen.  i know neither one is a front of the rotation guy...but which one ends up better long term?  career length...peripherals...success in general.

i'm curious where they might rank in terms of ability...at least estimated...with guys like Sean Marshall, Rich Hill, Anthony Reyes, John Danks, too.

as a graphic came up mid-game to show the stats of zambrano and lowe, mccarver said "both pitchers throwing first pitch strikes for the most part."

zambrano = 9 fps to 20 batters

lowe = 11 fps to 23 batters

this guy's been making me nuts since i first noticed him as a bad, saying something stupid announcer back in the 1990 WS.

and now as i post this, i see the second blown call at 1st base by an ump in this series.  this one leads to an extra run on the martin hr.

ok...look through past diaries and you'll see i've supported the right of fantasy posters to ask questions freely on this site.  i am a two league dynasty team owner and found this site myself while trying to get up to see on evaluating minor league players.  well, if evaluating can be reading what other people believe about someone instead of seeing them myself.

but, in my opinion, there's a world of difference between asking intelligent people (mostly) about the futures of all these players and posting your draft for people to evaluate.

drb had an interesting reason to do so...never played before...big time prospect nut...deep knowledge of his own team.  i think the community was interested to see what he did for that reason.  but what followed was a litany of diaries on the "rate my team" topic.  to me, really...that's a yahoo sports level forum.  but it could be done here...in one diary.  but people are so concerned that nobody will look deep into a diary that each person has to have their own.

well...put it in one (and i believe the fantasy trades one could be done the same way) or don't put it up.  your fantasy roster isn't about minor league ball.  it's just not.  it's not about it because you drafted stephen drew or jay bruce or joba chamberlain.  it's about you showing the community how smart (or in most of the diaries i've read here) how average or below, you drafted.

i'm not trying to flame.  i'm trying to say if you're talking about fantasy baseball on this site, the right to which i defend completely, make it about minor league ball, or recently promoted prospects.

i've got picks 3 and 4 in an upcoming draft.  most all of the stud guys are on rosters.  these are guys who weren't drafted in our june draft, but were added into the waiver system since the offseason.

i have a good idea of who i'm taking, but these guys are all sitting around, too.  i want to make sure i'm not missing out on someone here.  i've read and perused and they're all starting to seem like an average of the total of them...if that makes sense.  so help me out a little, please.

brett sinkbeil
chris coughlan
chris tillman
alan horne
willy aybar (tearing up venezuala league)
george kottaras
jaime garcia
jonathan niese
jordan walden
wes roemer
jesus montero

it's a 14 team league with 18 roster players and 25 prospects.  no limits on keeping who you drafted.  sp is always at a premium

thanks

what's the one move (realistically) that you're team could make tomorrow for you to have a mlb merry christmas?

i want the rumors of roberts and bedard to the cubs to happen.  i think with az's new front two of webb and haren, and the starting front two of anyone that gets santana, we need another front line guy.

and now that fukudome is in the fold, one more on-base kind of guy to fill out the lineup would be perfect.

there's a lot of people who do play fantasy baseball with rosters that include minor league players.  that's how i first found this site.  i have a lot more interest in what goes on now than just the ROI for my dynasty teams.

i haven't been a frequent poster here, mostly because i usually see someone already has written something along the lines of what i'd contribute.  but i do think this site is valuable to people for more than just the facts and minutia about their favorite team or players.  and i know team owners all think they're the best thing that ever happened to a league.  so...

around that...post your best roster.  i have 4 teams, and some of them have taken massive amounts of work to bring to respectability.  the roster below is the only one over which i had control from the beginning.  it's a little different than the others in that we all started with a mlb roster and system, then drafted from the 10 remaining mlb clubs to fill out rosters.  teams were taken as available.  i joined with the pirates and twins off the board.  i wanted to go young with upside rather than established.  so i took tampa bay 3rd.

in the draft i got felix hernandez with the 12th overall pick (hitters went first...thank God), then got tulo and lincecum in the next two rounds.

i just traded lincecum for justin upton earlier this week and my roster now stands like this:

Continue reading this post »

i can't find anything on espn or anywhere else, but the headlines for the chicago news just came on wgn and they said the cubs got him.  the news starts in about 5 minutes, so i'll see what they say...probably no terms yet, i'd imagine.

i am a cubs fan, but i think they're probably gonna overpay for this guy.  maybe i'll be wrong...hopefully.  there weren't too many options out there for them, with maybe the most reasonable being sam fuld from their own system.

i know the cubs are under .500, but they're on a decent streak, winning 5 in a row and going 15-10 so far this month.

the interesting thing to me is it's been greatly on the backs of players they developed.  felix pie, mike fontenot, ryan theriot, carlos marmol, rich hill, sean marshall, and now today, billy petrick (who just k'ed two of three batters he faced, hitting 96 several times according to wgn's radar.

there's no way all these young guys play last year with dusty.  and some while some of them have been highly touted, like pie and hill, during their minor league careers, there's a lot of what most people would look at as future journeyman-type placers.  thing is they play hard (fontenot just hit a 415 foot hr, and has a single and double to go with it).

have the cubs finally hit upon the right mix of guys...a few studs in lee/soriano/ramirez/zambrano, and a lot of team player gamers?

i was at the wsox/astros game tonight.  i know there can be some variaton in the radar guns around the league, but this was really weird to me.  lidge hit 96, jenks 95, danks 91...so it couldn't have been too far off.

dewon day hit 87 on one pitch.  everything else was 83 or lower...mostly 82-83.  crazy slow.  and he k'd nearly 2/inning in the minors this year.  granted it was only 25 innings/48 k's...but still.  how can he be successful throwing that slow?

also...don't know how long pence will be out, but i guess it's better his hip than his groin, which it looked like live.

and finally...damn, the sox suck!  bad defense, bad swings, and that bullpen should make the cubs' bullpen glad to be alive.

i used to hear really great things about this guy.  maybe not lastings milledge/fernando martinez level, but high ceiling talk, nonetheless.  

now i don't hear anything at all.  is he a viable prospect now?  what's the best case sceneario for the mets with him?  does he have the tools to make it to the majors, or will just stay off the radar for good?