Today, I’ll take a look around MLB. (1) The latest on Carlos Beltran’s knee surgery. (2) Brad Lidge has second surgery this off-season. (3) Adam LaRoche signs with D’backs. (4) Josh Johnson wants 4 years. Will he get it? (5) Johnny Damon to Braves? (6) Joel Zumaya agrees to deal. (7) Jermaine Dye to Cubs? (8) Dodgers need starting pitching.
By Ray Flowers
The weekend is upon us. I’m sure you all have plans to have a nice meal with your significant other, or at the very least to meet your homies somewhere to pull back on a few brews while ogling the opposite sex (at least that’s what I do when I’m out with my friends). If you have time to squeeze in some baseball, and I hope you do, here is just enough info to wet your whistle until we hit things full-time next week (you can join my Twitter following to get some of my thoughts over the weekend, cause you know I can’t stay away for too long – sports are in my blood).
I gave a quick snapshot on my thoughts about some of the prospects I witnessed firsthand in the Arizona Fall League in my piece titled AFL Impressions. For a bit more depth on some of those players make sure you give Jason Collette’s piece, AFL Review, a read. And yes, we both noticed how young and smallish looking Buster Posey appears to be.
Jeff Francoeur might end up with the Mets long-term after all, he is under their control through 2012 if they abide by the arbitration process, as the team might be interested in signing him to an extended contract. Honestly, the guy has been mostly a mess the past couple of seasons, but he is just 26 years old and hit .311 with 10 homers and 41 RBI in just 75 games with the Mets. He still has simply atrocious plate discipline, he has 104 walks since the start of the 2007 season or just three less than his former teammate Chipper Jones had last season, but he still has one live stick. If someone could just teach him some strike zone control Frenchie really could be something.
Braden Looper will not be back with the Brewers in 2010 after his option of $6.5 million was declined by the club. Seems like the Brewers would prefer not to give the aging innings eater another 34 starts since he posted a 5.22 ERA while allowing the most long balls in baseball, an amazing total of 39. Maybe he should go to the New York Yankees and that explosive home park of theirs – I’m sure that would help him to reign in that trend.
Ben Sheets – remember him? You know, the guy who owns a 3.72 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and a 7.60 K/9 mark in his career. Last we saw him was 2008 when he went 13-9 with a 3.09 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP for the Brewers. Alas, he ended the year injured, and then missed all of the 2009 season following surgery to his flexor tendon in his elbow. After a few reports that he was going to call it a career, his agent came out and said that his client fully intends on pitching, somewhere, in 2010. Dr. James Andrews performed the same surgery on Andy Pettitte back in 2004, and he has done pretty well since then. Will Sheets be able to follow that roadmap back to success?
Vernon Wells had surgery on his wrist, and as I wrote on my Twitter acct (you can access it below), Wells “should be fine for ’10. Though ‘fine’ is subjective after last year’s debacle.” I’ve watched the guys for years, and much like former teammate Alex Rios, if you catch him on the right day he clearly looks like a 5-tool monster on the field. Problem is Wells is often injured, and the Jays are being hindered in their attempts to improve their squad as they continue to operate under the onerous conditions of the massive dollars they threw at Wells a few years back (he is entering just the third of seven seasons on a deal worth $126 million). The Jays probably would have been better off giving that money to Roy Halladay, don’t you think? Still, don’t sleep on Wells on draft day. After all, just a season ago he hit .300 with 20 homers, and last year when he struggled to hit .260 with 15 homers he did swipe 17 bases to add plenty to his value.
Jack Wilson signed a 2-year deal worth $10 million to stay with the Mariners. That’s certainly better than the $8.4 million option he had that was turned down, but at the same time Wilson hit .255 with five homers, 39 RBI and 37 runs scored over 373 ABs. He still plays solid defense at 31 years of age, but man, doesn’t that seem like a lot of dough to give a guy who isn’t even major league average at the dish?
Don’t forget to visit my Twitter Account during the day for hourly updates about what is going on in the world of baseball.
By Ray Flowers
In today’s The Day in Baseball entry, I’ll highlight the plight of an all-time great, alert you to a guy who has been crazy hot of late, and point out a decision, about four months in coming, that might actually, finally, end up coming to fruition.
Did you catch Marlon Byrd’s act over the past two days? In case you didn’t, let me review it for you. Byrd played in three games, went deep twice, knocked in seven runners and produced nine hits. Yeah, he is pretty much en fuego right now.
If you missed it, Adam Jones’ season is over as he was transferred to the 60-day DL with a sprained ankle. It shouldn’t require surgery, or be a long term issue, but the team realized that he would likely need something like three weeks to recover, and that would basically take them to the end of the year (plus, putting him on the 60-day DL allows the club to add another player to the roster). As a result of the injury Jones falls just short of his first 20 homer season, he finishes with 19 long balls, though a .277-19-70-83-10 season certainly isn’t anything to be upset about in his second full season.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Tim Lincecum return to the hill this weekend. He was in the dugout on Tuesday after being forced to miss the start because of a sore lower back, and he was caught smiling and moving around fairly well. As for the Giants offense, there is no word when it might be back in action. In nine games in September the G-men have recorded more than three runs just twice. Pathetic.
Could it finally be happening? Could The World’s Biggest Idiot, aka Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel, finally be conceding that he is destroying the moral of his club by continuing to throw Brad Lidge out there in the ninth inning? “…I want to be loyal to him and things like that, but at the same time, like I told him last night, winning the game is the first priority.” Ryan Madson owners can rejoice. It looks like you might get a handful of saves out of the man you have held on to for months waiting for the Phillies to do the right thing. Of course, Brett Myers could end up swooping in to pick up a few saves chances as well, so perhaps Madson owners shouldn’t be too excited after all.
Albert Pujols hit two bombs today and is just three homers short of his first 50 season. Just spit balling here, but is it possible that 20 years from now we will be talking about Pujols as the greatest “steroid free” home run hitter of all-time? Let’s play a little game of what if. (1) Pujols is just 29 years old. (2) In nine seasons he has never hit fewer than 32 home runs in a season. (3) He has averaged 40 home runs a season over his nine year career. (4) If Pujols plays another 10 years while averaging 35 homers a season he will end up with something along the lines of 720 home runs. That would still leave him behind Hank Aaron and his 755 home runs. Just goes to show you how amazingly consistent that Mr. Aaron was in his career.
Huston Street continues to make progress with that sore biceps muscle, but the latest word out of Colorado is that he still isn’t likely to return to action this week as previously hoped. In his place, the Rockies will continue to go with Franklin Morales who has converted 5-straight save chances in his last five appearances during which time he has allowed only five base runners and not a single run. Overall Morales has a 2.60 ERA, a.1.13 WHIP and 36 Ks in 34.2 ABs, and that’s pretty darn good no matter where you are pitching.
Trivia Question: How many straight seasons has Braden Looper won at least 11 games? The answer is three – each of his seasons as a starter. Do you know how many NL hurlers have won at least 11 games each of the past three seasons if we include this season? Try seven (including Lopper): Jamie Moyer, Derek Lowe, Adam Wainwright, Ted Lilly, Jason Marquis and Chad Billingsley.
By Ray Flowers
The FSWA winner of the Best Baseball Series of 2011, BaseballGuys.com is the only source you will need for your fantasy baseball knowledge. OK, you might need other sources, but BaseballGuys.com should be on your daily list of must reads for the insights an analysis it provides on the world of baseball.
The co-host of The Drive on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87: M-F at 5-8 PM EDT), Ray has spent years squirreled away studying the inner workings of the fantasy game to the detriment of his personal life. Specializing in baseball, football and hockey, some consider him an expert in all three. Ray's work can also be found as feature writer for: Fantasy Alarm, Rotoinfo, Rotowire and Sports Illustrated.
You can contact Ray through e-mail at fantasyfandom@yahoo(dot)com or on Twitter.
