Hurricane Irene Strikes Fear Into MLB

It’s unfortunate that God doesn’t like baseball as much as I do. He’s attacking the east coast with his spinning tropical winds, causing four games to be postponed.

The Yankee/Oriole doubleheader will be moved (one game will be added to Sunday’s scheduled games, and the other game on September 8th).

The Mets/Braves Saturday and Sunday games have been postponed and will be played as a doubleheader on September 8th.

The Marlin/Phillies Saturday game has been postponed as well, although as of this update no rescheduled date has been set.

What does this mean? If you’re making a playoff push and you have players in these games, you could be in trouble. Hopefully you have a few backups you can plug-in. If you’ve already clinched a playoff spot, this could be a blessing in disguise. Hurricane Irene guarantees players from the Yankees, Orioles, Braves, and Mets will play extra games in the first week of the playoffs. We’ll have to wait and see when the Marlins and Phillies will make up their game, but it’ll likely be next week when the Phils travel to Florida.

Going Out of Business! Sale! Everything Must Go!

I went to Borders today to see what kind of loot I could gather up before their big ship quickly went under. I found a few good finds: The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010 edited by Dave Eggers. But the real reason I went was to see what it looks like when a big-time corporation dies. That’s really why anybody was in the store. Sure, you could say they were there for cheap books and half priced calendars, but that’s just a front to watch a bit of America burn away. Any store could have a sale, 50% off everything, and people would undoubtedly show up, but not like this. There were droves of people. People who didn’t even buy anything. Just standing around, looking at the carnage. Us Americans, we’re tickled by failure. We love to watch a high profile celebrity crash and burn. We’re thrilled when a hated sports rival loses. It’s no different when a company fails.

This dude doesn't even work at Borders, yet he's toting a sign.

Going out of business!

Everything MUST go!

Boom. People. By the soccer mom van-fuls. Snapping pictures of the barren rafters. Flinging books all over the place. Smiles on all their faces.

What’s funny about this? I can relate it to fantasy baseball. Trust me, everything can be related back to fantasy sports.

Thome Reaches 600

Congratulations, Jim Thome. We hope all your home runs were clean.

Words from the Editor: Late Night Drinking

Maybe I’ve been drinking too much sherry on a school night, but I have a desire to ramble, and maybe some of this will have something to do with baseball. No promises, folks.

• Generally unknown Jim Ward is my latest musical musing. Check him out here at Tembloroso.

• 

  Looking forward to the end of September.

  One of the biggest surprise players this year is easily Melky Cabrera. His name is funny because my girlfriend says I pronounce “milk” as “melk”. Anyway, Cabrera was ranked 369 by Yahoo! in the preseason. Before the start of Sunday’s games, he was ranked 17th on the season! He’s got a 15/16 season going so far, while hitting .312. Bet the Braves wish they had this production from him last season. One of the reasons I wanted to talk about the Melk Man was because I’ve recently tried trading him in my keeper league, and NOBODY wants him, not as a keeper, not even as a solid option for the playoff push. I guess it’s fine, I’ll ride him out the rest of the season. He’s not going to stop hitting. And he’s going to help me win a championship.

Postponed Games

If you read this in time, the Tampa Bay v New York game and the Washington v Philadelphia game have been postponed due to heavy showers and thunderstorms. Adjust your teams and get some bench players in before your lineups lock.

Pressure is rising in the East.

Players of Week 17

by Ryan Butler

"Ain't burstin' my bubble yet."

Billy Butler (6/5/12/0/.406) 13-for-32: Not sure what got into Billy “No Relation” Butler but, boy howdy, he was feeling frisky last week. Everybody knows that Butler can swing it; he’s a .298 career hitter. He’s a bit of a bummer in the power and production departments though. He hit 21 home runs in 2009 with a career-high 93 RBI. 51 doubles that season helped him to a respectable .853 OPS. He also struck out a career-high 103 times. That’s not a high K total for a guy with 678 PA, but his next -highest single-season K total is 78 in 2010. Perhaps he vowed to never again punch out 100 times, power numbers be damned. He has an outside shot at reaching 20 home runs this season (he’s got 13) and will probably reach the 80 RBI mark (currently 58). He’s a nice utility player because of his good BA, but I wouldn’t  want to roll with him as my starting first baseman.

Joey Votto (7/4/9/0/.385) 10-for-26: Hardly seems to fair to say that a guy hitting .324 with a .953 OPS has had a disappointing season, but Votto set the bar very high last year when he lead the league with a Bondsian 1.024 OPS on his way to winning the NL MVP, garnering 31 of 32 first-place votes (he almost Caminiti’d it). But the fact is that his production is down this year, and he’s not going to get anywhere near the 37 HR, 113 RBI, or 16 SB that he had last season. OK, so steals from a first baseman may be viewed as an ancillary statistic, and a .324 BA and .941 are great, but, he should have more than 17 home runs playing his home games in the Great American Phone Booth.

Closer Circle of Trust: August

by Brian Dorsey

		Trusted	Solid	Danger
		Joe Nathan	Mark Melancon	Jason Isringhausen	Brandon League
	Ryan Madson	Drew Storen	Fernando Salas	Carlos Marmol	Heath Bell
	Javy Guerra	Craig Kimbrel	Mariano Rivera	Sergio Santos	Brian Wilson	Jordan Walden
	Kyle Farnsworth	Houston Street	Andrew Bailey	Jonathan Papelbon	Jose Valerde	Kevin Gregg
		Neftali Feliz	Joel Hanrahan	John Axford	Francisco Cordero	Joakim Soria
		John Rauch	Leo Nunez	Chris Perez	JJ Putz

Notes: The trade deadline put some of us on edge because having relief pitchers changing teams is a bit like musical chairs. We were all waiting to see who would be without a seat when the music finally stopped. Now that it’s silent and the dust has finally settled, we can assess the winners and losers of the closer carousel.

Players of Week 16

by Ryan Butler

Better late than never. Right? Here are my very favorite players to write about: the ones of the week.

Cameron Maybin (8 R/1 HR/6 RBI/8 SB/.538 BA) 14-for-26: The Padres have been looking for a center fielder since Mike Cameron left as a free agent after the 2007 season. It appears they have found one in Maybin. He has succeeded in each of his last 17 stolen base attempts, having not been caught since April 29th. He’s been on fire since the All-Star break, and fantasy  owners seem to be taking notice, as he’s now owned at a respectable 45% clip in Y! public leagues. He’s been the most dynamic component of a pitiful Padres’ offense, at times looking spectacular. He is a player to watch closely, especially if he develops the 20 HR power many expect he will.

Justin Upton (6/2/11/1/.514) 14-for-27: Not yet 24 years old, but in the midst of his fifth Major League season, the younger Upton has finally put it all together. The reasons are pretty obvious when you look at some advanced stats. First and foremost, his K% (18.2) is considerably down from his career rate of 24.3%. Take a gander at his exceptional BABIP of .337 and you may see it as evidence that his success involves a good deal of luck. But his 2011 BABIP is actually below his career mark of .343. So his breakout season, it seems, is a direct result of his putting the ball in play with greater regularity. If the trend continues, there’s no telling what he is capable of.