SB Nation User Blog: journeymen

Top amateurs behind Strasberg

journeymen — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:49:33 -0000

In our AL-only league, for our minor league draft we can draft amateurs or players from Japan/Cuba,etc as long as they have not signed with an NL team. One they sign with an NL team, we lose them. Considering that at this point, it would appear Strasburg will go #1 to the Nats, who are other top amateurs? More specifically, of BA's Top 50 prospects, only five are available - and three are catchers (and I already have Wieters) - and none in the top 25. (The five available are: CSantana, DHolland, AHicks, JMontero, &JPArencibia.) What amatuers, or what international players who might come over, would you rank above those five guys?

What do you know about Anthony Slama?

journeymen — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:18:16 -0000

So he had pretty mediocre stats in college, but in two years in the minors he has been absolutely lights out. 102 innings pitched with 159 strikeouts (14.0 per nine), 60 hits allowed and 34 walks (0.92 whip), and era of 1.23, and he has not given up a single homer in those two years! I guess part of it he's a man among boys, as he was a 24-year-old last year in High A ball, but that can only explain so much of it. Why does a guy have such incredible numbers, but no one seems to know who he is? What am I missing?

Peralta or Alexei Ramirez

journeymen — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:55:25 -0000

I am new to this site, but recently posed this question on a different site geared more towards prospects. I'm curious if a site geared towards established major leaguers would yield a different result. In my fantasy league, hitters compete in the following usual categories - avg, hr, rbi, sb, but also in walks and fielding percentage. Given that, who would you rather have, both for this year, and perhaps the next two or three years - Jhonny Peralta or Alexei Ramirez?

Poll

Who should I have on my fantasy team for this year (and maybe the next couple years)?

Jhonny Peralta

7 votes

Alexei Ramirez

31 votes

38 votes | Poll has closed

A Ramirez or Peralta and other blog preferences

journeymen — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:56:35 -0000

I know this is supposed to be a minor league blog, but my problem is that I haven't found other sites with as many intelligent and serious fans as this site. So, my first question is: what blogs are out there with good discussions with reasonable and reasoning fans of major league baseball. And the specific question I pose is who would you rather have - Alexei Ramirez or Jhonny Peralta? In my case I have a fantasy league with the following categories: avg, hr, rbi, sb, bb, & fielding percentage, and they'd be at a price where I could keep them for up to three years or so. That's for the poll, but for the sake of discussion, let's not limit it to fantasy baseball, but real baseball with the various parameters in real life...

Poll

For a fantasy team for up to three years, would you rather have Alexei Ramirez or Jhonny Peralta?

Alexei Ramirez

65 votes

Jhonny Peralta

30 votes

95 votes | Poll has closed

Could Arredondo be closing in Anaheim next year?

journeymen — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 05:48:10 -0000

If the Angels spend money on signing some of their other free agents, might they let Francisco Rodriguez walk and try the unproven Arredondo, or would that be too much of a gamble for a rich-market team like them? It sure looks to me like he could do the job. Or if they let K-Rod go (and by the way - what's the deal with "K-Rod"? His name doesn't begin with K, and I suppose it refers to his strikeouts, which is equally dumb since strikeout doesn't start with K either? How about now that he has the saves record we call him S-Rod? Or after he signs for a bajillion dollars this year, he could be $-Rod? Oops, no - already got one of those. But I digress...), might the Angels go with a crappy veteran knowing they got Arredondo in reserve? What do others think?

Can Ziegler keep it up?

journeymen — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:42:31 -0000

Like many other fans, I had never heard of Brad Ziegler til about a month ago. Now he's closing games for Oakland with that unbelievable run of scoreless innings. (Another run tonight - ouch - that brings the ERA way up to 0.44 or something.) With Huston Street pitching in the 7th inning, it certainly looks like he's Oakland's new closer. I know he had some pretty awesome stats in the minors this year (0.37 era, 0.78 whip), but the guy's 28, almost 29, and he'd never done anything until this year. so the question is, can he keep it up, and will he be closing next year, too? (Okay, I guess that's two questions.)

Our midseason supplemental minor league draft

journeymen — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:00:42 -0000

I thought you guys might be interested in seeing the results of my league's midseason (i.e., give us a reason to look up baseball stuff during the all-star break) supplemental minor league draft. Our league is AL-only, and we already had four minor leaguers to start with, so most of the big names are already gone. These names are the ones who are moving fast up the lists, I guess. I thought it interesting that there were just six positional players versus 12 pitchers. Anyway, here they are:

1	Galloping Ghosts	Michel Inoa	P	A's
2	Fun Monkeys	Matt LaPorta	OF	Indians
3	Journeymen	Trevor Cahill	P	A's
4	Elm Street	Neftali Feliz	P	Rangers
5	Fat Bastards	Henry Rodriguez	P	A's
6	Roadkill	Brian Matusz	P	Orioles
7	Beatlejoose	David Purcey	P	Blue Jays
8	Sam's Nationals	(No one)
9	Light Tower Power	Michael Bowden	P	Red Sox
10	Superbas	Eric Hosmer	1B	Royals
11	Superbas	Michael Saunders	OF	Mariners
12	Light Tower Power	Jeremy Hellickson	P	Rays
13	Sam's Nationals	(No one)
14	Beatlejoose	David Hernandez	P	Orioles
15	Roadkill	Troy Patton	P	Orioles
16	Fat Bastards	Jeff Niemann	P	Rays
17	Elm Street	Gordon Beckham	SS	White Sox
18	Journeymen	Max Ramirez	C	Rangers
19	Fun Monkeys	Jemile Weeks	2B	A's
20	Galloping Ghosts	Anthony Slama	P	Twins

our mid-season minor league draft

journeymen — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:46:28 -0000

In my fantasy league, to help pass the down-time during the all-star break, we have a supplemental minor league draft. We start the year with six minor leaguers (which could also include players from Japan, college/HS players, etc - anyone not signed to an NL-organization, since we are AL-only), then at the break, we can drop up to two of them (unless you already had some called up to the majors, in which case you wouldn't have to drop them) and get new ones. My current "minor leaguers" are Wieters, Price, Moustakas, Smoak, Tabata, and Japanese player Yu Darvish. (I don't want this to be a discussion on Darvish or Japanese players as a whole - let's just assume I'm holding on to him.) Tim Beckham's not available, and remember we're AL-only, so which players from the draft would you take over any of the players on my list? I'll probably drop Tabata for one of the top players in this year's draft (Hosmer, Matusz, GBeckham), but would you drop anyone else? And would you drop Tabata for anyone other than those three? And of course, whether or not a draftee signs with that team is also a consideration...

P.S. There are a couple other actual minor leaguers who are still available that I'm considering, but since there are a couple guys in my league who read this, I'll not mention them :)

What exactly does BABIP tell us?

journeymen — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:54:18 -0000

This doesn't exactly fall under minor league information, but it does affect how to determine prospects. The Washington Post today published a chart titled "Lowest Batting Averagge on Balls Put in Play, Career". Good - this is a good way to tell if BABIP shows luck or skill. When I look at the top six for the American League: Jerrod Washburn, Tim Wakefield, Paul Byrd, Steve Trachsel, Mark Buehrle, and Brett Tomko, I don't see too many stars (Halladay was 7th and Mussina 8th), and think that once a ball is hit, it's all luck as to whether or not a pitcher is successful. But then I look at the top six of the National League: Barry Zito, Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, and Tim Hudson (followed by Moyer and Park), and with four Hall of Famers and two guys who've made a few all-star games, you gotta think that BABIP is a reflection of skill. I still don't know. What do you guys think?

Strange question: Gathright vs. Smoak?

journeymen — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:04:40 -0000

It's not often Joey Gathright would be compared to Justin Smoak, is it? Let me explain:

I am in an AL-only league, with six hitters categories (avg,hr,rbi,sb, and two weird ones - bb and fielding pct). We have six minor league slots, and this year we passed a rule saying we could draft, as a minor leaguer, anyone not in an NL franchise, including Japanese or collegiate players. If they signed with an AL-team you keep him - if they signed with an NL team, you lose him. I already had Longoria, Wieters, Price, and Tabata. I had two open spots, which I wanted to fill with (1) a current minor leaguer, (2) a Japanese player, and (3) a college player. Since I wanted to get three players, but only had two slots available, after our major league draft (and before our minor league draft), I called up Longoria to the majors, dropping Joey Gathright. This enabled me to get my three minor leaguers. I got Moustakas and Yu Darvish with my first two picks, then picked Smoak with the extra pick. Had I not brought up Longoria this would have been the end of it. But since I made the move, it essentially became a trade-off of Gathright for Smoak, who may not even sign with an AL-team. (By the way, my other outfielders are Swisher, Cust, Wilkerson, Quentin, and Teahen - need 3 - and I already have Figgins and Lugo for steals, and Figgins could move to the OF, if I want to start Longoria.) So my questions is, would you have made this move?