(1) Stephen Strasburg headed to DL on Thursday with strained flexor tendon.
(2) Giants awarded Cody Ross. You can also read more about the Giaints’ outfield situation at GoldenGateGiants.com.
(3) Johnny Damon awarded to the Red Sox.
(4) Manny Ramirez likely to be placed on waivers this week.
(5) Ricky Nolasco (knee) might be done for the year.
By Ray Flowers
(1) Giants trade for Mike Fontenot.
(2) Curtis Granderson to revamp swing.
(3) Ryan Braun (wrist) takes swings in the cage.
(4) Gordon Beckham (groin) back in lineup.
(5) Placido Polanco will try to play through elbow injury.
(6) Astros have trouble in the 9th inning.
(7) Matt Kemp out of the Lineup Again. Should you be concerned?
By Ray Flowers
I went to the dentist today. (1) Who would ever want to spend their day with their fingers in someone’s mouth? (2) I hate the dentist – though who doesn’t? (3) At least if they are gonna make me go and inflict copious amounts of pain on me they could have some eye candy for me to look at, right? Only seems fair to me.
With each passing outing I grow more and more fond of this Mike Leake kid. He skipped the minors completely after being the 8th overall selection in the 2009 Entry Draft, and that looked like a major faux pas when he walked 12 batters in his first two big league starts. Well, consider those worries completely alleviated. Leake has gone at least six innings in each of his 10 starts, and nine times the outings have been of the “quality” variety as he has lowered his ERA to 2.45 on the year. Oh yeah, and the walks, they are no longer a problem as he has walked all of 13 batters in his last eight appearances.
The Braves are 16-4 since May 10th as they have made up 7.5 games in the standings. You didn’t make the mistake of thinking they wouldn’t be in the mix this year, did you?
The Brewers went 9-0 against the Marlins in 1998. Since then they are 30-48 in the matchup.
Speaking of the Brewers, Corey Hart is blazing hot right now with 10 homers and 21 RBI over his last 16 games. Hart also has a fantastic .800 SLG in that time as he is averaging one blast every 6.50 at-bats, though there are also some rather odd numbers to be found such as his .299 OBP and the fact that he’s only scored two runs when he didn’t knock himself in with a dinger.
I know it sounds crazy, but Aaron Heilman is the best reliever the D’backs have going right now. It’s not inconceivable that he could get a few chances in the ninth inning thanks to his 3.38 ERA and 1.17 WHIP, numbers that blow doors on Chad Qualls (7.64 and 2.09) and Juan Gutierrez (10.00 and 1.72).
How disappointing was that Giants/Rockies game on Monday? Ubaldo Jimenez was once again spectacular with a complete game four hit shutout, but Tim Lincecum failed to step up as he allowed five walks and four runs (three earned) before being pulled after 121 pitches and just 5.2 innings. The Giants desperately need Lincecum to figure out what ails him – possibly issues range from blisters to a mechanical glitch – or they’ll have no chance to compete in the NL West. As for Jimenez, he tossed 130 pitches on Monday and is third in baseball in pitches thrown (1,218) behind Justin Verlander (1,243) and Roy Halladay (1,220). Verlander has three 120-pitch outings, Halladay two and Jimenez four by the way. All bear close watching as they are throwing an awful lot of pitches right now. One last note on Jimenez. If he were to allow 19 runs in his next start and not record a single out he was still have an ERA below 2.95. That’s truly amazing.
Alex Rodriguez hit his 20th grand slam on Monday to move into third place all-time in salami’s behind the Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig (23), and the Iron Head, Manny Ramirez (21). A-Rod hit .250 with two homers in April, but he was the same old A-Rod in May hitting five bombs while knocking in 27 runners in 27 games played. He also hit a fine .330 on the month.
I just started watching the series 24 for the first time on DVD. Don’t know how people waited an entire week to watch the next episode. And yes, I find Nina attractive.
Grady Sizemore was transferred from the 15 day DL to the 60 day DL meaning that in a best case scenario he would return a couple of weeks after the All-Star game. He might still need more extensive surgery than what is currently planned, the doctors won’t know until they get in there, so there is a chance that he might end up missing the rest of the season.
Overall batters are hitting.215 this season against Justin Verlander. However, they seem to be able get to him before he settles in as evidenced by his .370 batting average against in the first inning. After that, they have no shot.
By Ray Flowers
Today was a good day. I accomplished all the writing I had hoped to get to, answered a ton of emails, had a strong podcast this morning with Kyle Elfrink, and closed down the day with a nice two hour shift of Live Advice. Before I drift off into the mist of Friday night, and a potential date (keep your fingers crossed), I thought I would wrap up the day with some notes from what is going on around the diamond, so here goes nothing.
Giants fans, here is your catcher update for the week. Bengie Molina is second on the Giants with eight RBI and he is batting .317 through 12 games. Amazingly, he also has two walks already, a breakneck pace for a guy who walked 13 times last year in 132 games (how pathetic is that and the corresponding .285 OBP?). Down on the farm the heir apparent, Buster Posey, is batting .373 through 15 games. Buster also has eight walks against nine strikeouts helping him to post a .457 OBP and a .949 OPS. There is no doubt that Posey already has a better approach at the dish than Molina, but Molina has enough power at the plate, and works very well with the staff on defense, so don’t be at all surprised to see Posey continue to toil away in the minors for a while unless there is an injury with the Giants.
The A’s Kevin Kouzmanoff has hit .215 with .308 SLG and a .572 OPS in his first 17 games with his new club. Some other disturbing numbers with KK follow. (1) He is hitting .056 with RISP (1-for-18). (2) He is batting .156 with runners on base. (3) Fifty-eight of his 66 ABs this season have come out of the cleanup spot. The A’s finally dropped him to sixth in the order the other night.
Manny Ramirez has been placed on the DL with a calf injury. It’s being called a strain so let’s hope that 15 days on the sidelines will be enough to cure him. Xavier Paul has been recalled from the minors to take his roster spot, though it looks like Reed Johnson and Garret Anderson will likely take Manny’s place in the everyday lineup. None of those three have close to the presence of Manny, and none figure to be able to match his early season work at the dish either (.415 with a 1.159 OPS through 13 games). I really went out on a limb with that statement didn’t I?
The Red Sox have been about as successful throwing out attempted base thieves this season as I have been trying to convince beautiful ladies to go out with me. Let’s just say neither of us has had a high success rate, but I would have to think my mark is better than the what the Red Sox have been getting from Victor Martinez and Jason Varitek (the Sox have thrown out just one of 38 steal attempts). The rumor is that the Sox have an interest in bringing Chris Snyder out east to join their club. Of course, this won’t happen for a while as the D’backs can’t afford to move Snyder at least until Miguel Montero returns from his knee injury. Snyder has thrown out just 25.9 percent of base stealers in his career, and is only 2-for-12 this year (16.7 percent), but the Sox are fairly desperate at this point because of their inept duo.
Ryan Zimmerman is out of the lineup on Friday after injuring his other hamstring. He also figures to miss Saturday’s game, but the belief is still that he should be good enough to go come next week. Cristian Guzman will continue to fill in with Adam Kennedy at second and Ian Desmond playing short.
Ben Zobrist was given a 5-year deal that could be worth up to $32.5 million dollars after last year’s breakout season. Apparently he’ll get about $18 million guaranteed with a couple of option years that could take the deal up to that original total. The Rays aren’t usually wrong with their talent evaluation, and they certainly have to be proactive given their financial situation, but that seems like a fair bit of loot to lavish on a guy who has only one full big league season under his belt.
Finally, here are a couple of links to stories I wrote on Friday.
What are the Cubs thinking with their move of Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen? Impact Report: Gorzelanny/Silva/Zambrano.
For those of you who have a special place in your heart for hockey, here is a quick jaunt around the frozen pond where I discuss all the first round playoff matchups. Frozen Pucks.
By Ray Flowers
Today I’m going to pause long enough from my sniffles, yes, I seem to have picked up another case of the cooties, to give my thoughts on a few of the pertinent issues in the game. I’ll also post a link at the end to a video I made for one of the expert baseball leagues I’m in this season.
Things are so spotty with the health of Lance Berkman (knee) that running 50-yard sprints at 75 percent is newsworthy. He still hopes to be back next week, though I really have no idea if that is a reasonable goal or not.
Want to know how fickle managers are when it comes to the ninth inning? Frank Francisco and Mike Gonzalez have already lost their closers jobs – though both teams have said they will regain them once they are back to throwing the ball as they can. It appears there might also be a changing of the guard in Toronto as well where manager Cito Gaston came out on Tuesday and said that he was no longer going to go with Jason Frasor as the exclusive closer. Gaston has changed his tune after going into the year saying he would pick just one guy, and now he will go with a different option in consecutive games. Certainly it hasn’t helped that Frasor has a loss and two blown saves, but come on now Cito. Don’t give us that B.S. that you don’t want to use the same guy in back-to-back games, just be honest with us and say that Frasor has been awful and Kevin Gregg deserves a shot. No one is stupid enough to buy your explanation.
Conor Jackson is one of the odder leadoff men in the history of baseball from a physical standpoint. He’s obviously only there because the D’backs don’t have a better option, but I gotta say that his stroke basically looks like the mirror image of Joe Mauer. Seriously, it’s that pretty.
Nick Johnson crushed a homer today, way out of New Yankee Stadium. Gotta tell you though, everything that guy does makes me nervous. It’s kinda like the beautiful woman with the evening gown who looks like someone you’d like to take back to the hotel room until you see her walk in her heels which makes her look like a reject from gymnastics class who couldn’t balance on the balance beam. In the batters box the swing looks pretty, but when Johnson is doing anything other than swinging the lumber I just want to close my eyes.
Clayton Kershaw will never reach his potential if he keeps throwing so many pitches. For the record, Kershaw needed 110 pitches to record just 16 outs (5.1 innings) against the D’backs on Tuesday. You just can’t win too many ball games, or be a big game pitcher, if you can never make it out of the sixth inning. The talent is immense, but the lack of control with his pitches is certainly holding him back.
Manny Ramirez crushed a homer 435 feet on Tuesday with one of his effortless swings. Those people who predicted failure from him in 2010 just don’t get it. This guy is one of the top-10 right-handed hitters in the history of the game. Yeah, I said it.
It looks like the Mets will follow through on their plan to bat leadoff man Jose Reyes third in the lineup. Reyes will likely move back into the leadoff spot when Carlos Beltran returns from his knee injury, but that still might be a month or more away given that Beltran still hasn’t been allowed to run yet as the doctors continue to hold him back. Reyes is capable of handling the role, but he might be less inclined top run wild with the middle of the order right behind him.
And finally, for those of you who weren’t aware, I’m in JED WARS this season. What is Jed Wars? It’s an offshoot of Tout Wars, the preeminent fantasy baseball experts league in the country, and is named after Jed Latkin (for more on Jed you can given the movie Fantasyland a view at the link). Back to me, and let’s face it that’s what I’m always all about, you can click on my brief little intro at BaseballGuys Introduction if you want to get some insight into who I am complete with happy faced sweats, gnomes and a Nerd Herd hat from the television show Chuck.
By Ray Flowers
(1) Johnny Damon finally signs with Tigers: 1-year, $8 million.
(2) Jonny Gomes signs with Reds.
(3) Mets – Jose Reyes to hit third, Carlos Beltran to miss April?Former Met Carlos Delgado has second hip surgery.
(4) Khalil Greene out in Texas. Will the Mike Lowell trade to be revisited?
(5) Rich Harden hopes to make 180 innings with Rangers.
(6) Alfonso Soriano dealing with knee – he is concerned.
(7) Brian Roberts – is his back injury serious?
By Ray Flowers
A year after being a bit unsure about this guy because of his lack of patience and a whole bunch of strikeouts, I’m finally sold on the superlative slugger from the Brewers. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a naysayer last year, but I did have my doubts about whether or not he could be a top-10 fantasy performer (I was thinking more like top-20). Turns out I was wrong. I think Ryan Braun could go 30/30 this year, he seems a fair bet to at go 30/20 as he did last season, and if he continues to show growth in his plate discipline he could rival Albert Pujols in the Triple Crown categories. Given that, I thought it might be fun to compare Pujols and Braun’s first three seasons in the league to one another, though remember that Braun was called up late in 2007 and appeared in only 117 games as a rookie while Pujols appeared in 161 games in his freshman season.
Braun: .308-103-317-296-49 with a .363 OBP and .574 SLG in 1,697 ABs
Pujols: .334-114-381-367-28 with a .412 OBP and .613 SLG in 1,771 ABs
OK, Braun clearly comes up short, but Pujols does arguably own the greatest three season run to open a career of any man who has ever played the game. Therefore, let’s lower the bar a bit and compare Braun’s first three season to some of the best hitters of recent memory to see how he stacks up. In order to make this comparison fair to everyone, I’ll list each players first three “full seasons” in the bigs since no one hits .324 with 34 homers in their rookie season as Braun did. This gives “the field” an advantage over Braun whose numbers come from his true rookie season and following two campaigns. Can anyone use that edge to best Braun’s barometer of success?
Miguel Cabrera: .318-92-342-319-15 with a .394 OBP and .547 SLG in 1,792 ABs
Prince Fielder: .276-112-302-277-12 with a .372 OBP and .536 SLG in 1,730 ABs
Todd Helton: .336-102-358-30-15 with a .415 OBP and .607 SLG in 1,688 ABs
Matt Holliday: .326-89-338-307-35 with a .387 OBP and .571 SLG in 1,171 ABs
Manny Ramirez: .315-90-307-278-16 with a .405 OBP, .559 SLG in 1,595 ABs
Alex Rodriguez: .322-101-331-364-90 with a .375 OBP and .562 SLG in 1,874 ABs
Mark Teixeira: .282-107-340-279-9 with a .362 SLG and .541 SLG in 1,718 ABs
Chase Utley: .310-82-310-328-40 with a .388 OBP and .543 SLG in 1,731 ABs
David Wright: .314-83-325-308-71 with a .396 OBP and .534 SLG in 1,761 ABs
———-
Ryan Braun: .308-103-317-296-49 with a 363/.574/.937 line in 1,697 ABs
Braun is the only player surveyed, other than Pujols and Teixeira, whose production is from his first three seasons in the bigs, while all others were from their first three “full seasons.”
So what does all of this mean? A couple of points stand out.
(1) Braun’s combination of batting average and home runs is nearly unmatched by any of the games current crop of stars. Only Braun, Helton and A-Rod hit at least .305 with 100 homers.
(2) Only A-Rod and Wright can match Braun’s 5×5 talents across the board.
(3) Braun is off to a start that, if not for Albert Pujols, could legitimately be called the best three season run to start a major league players career in 15 years. Sign me up for some bratwursts and Braun Milwaukee as there is little doubt in my mind that he is the top option in the outfield for fantasy leagues in 2010.
By Ray Flowers
Who Am I?
From time to time I like to play this game of leading you down the Yellowbrick road to the Wizard of Oz (here is a link to my most recent venture in the world of Who am I?). With that brief intro, let’s get right to it.
* I made five All-Star teams (1993-97).
* I hit .301 in my career. Only 192 men who have ever played that game have posted a higher mark (minimum 3,000 plate appearances).
* I didn’t reach 2,500 career hits, but I did smack 2,468 of them, the 96th best mark ever.
* I didn’t reach 1,500 career runs but I did stroll across home plate 1,494 times, good enough for 68th all-time.
* I didn’t reach 500 doubles, but I did slug 495 two baggers, the 55th best mark ever.
* I knocked in 1,704 runs, the 22nd best mark of all-time.
* I had one of the best eyes at the dish – ever. In fact, I often was picked on by the media because I took too many pitches. As a result of my approach I walked 1,667 times, the 9th most ever, and that helped me to post an OBP of .419 (21st all-time).
* Because of all my extra base hits (26th all-time with 1,028) I was able to post the 25th best SLG ever at .555.
* Not surprisingly, since I’m 21st all-time in OBP and 25th in SLG, my overall OPS of .974 is top notch, 15th best ever actually.
* I was the AL MVP twice (1993-94).
* I have 4.79 Win Shares, the 13th highest mark in the history of the game thanks to those two wins, and six overall top-5 MVP finishes.
* I hit 521 homers in my career, the 18th best mark of all-time.
* I share the same name as a slugger who once hit 10 home runs in just 20 at-bats over six games in May, 1968.
Who am I? I’m Frank Thomas.
The reason I decided to write about Thomas should hopefully be obvious after reading all those numbers above (not to mention the fact that he officially retired from baseball on Thursday last week). The bottom line with Frank is that he was one of the most fearsome sluggers the game has ever seen – period. Let me place all of the above numbers into perspective.
How many players in history have hit .300 with 500 homers, 1,700 RBI, 1,400 runs and an OPS of .950? The answer is six, and obviously Frank is one of them. The others, well to say that they are some of the all-time greats is an understatement: Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Jimmie Foxx, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams.
Not just a “numbers” guy, Frank was exceedingly well respected in his career as evidenced by his dual MVPs and the 13th most Win Shares of all-time, and that should clearly have led to some “love” for the guy from the fans and the media, but all many seem to remember is the lumbering injury prone hitter of the past few years.
As a counter argument to his potential election to the Hall of Fame you’ll get the argument that he wasn’t very athletic and that he was a poor defensive player. I can’t refute that in the least. However, the totality of his offensive work was so spectacular, remember the group of six referenced above, that if Frank is kept out of the HOF they should revoke the credentials of the voting body because if the voters don’t put a check in the box next to his name they clearly have no inkling of an understanding of what it means to be a dynamic offensive weapon, and therefore they have no business determining who is immortalized in the Hall of Fame.
By Ray Flowers
Of all the players on the HOF ballot not tied to the performance enhancing drug scandal, none engenders more heated debate than Edgar Martinez. Purists scoff at the notion of a designated hitter being enshrined in the Hall of Fame, while those who study the art of hitting, as well as the numbers seem to suggest that there is little to warrant keeping Martinez out of the Hall. Let’s take a look at both sides.
1- A DH cannot be in the Hall of Fame.
No full-time DH has been elected to the HOF (Martinez played in 2,055 games with 591 coming as either a first or third baseman meaning less than 29 percent of his career games required a mitt). Personally, I think the DH is an abomination to the game – akin to Velcro on shoes – but it is part of the game so it makes no sense to simply ignore the “position.” It may not be a “position” like first or third base, after all there is no need for the fella to even bring a glove to the ball park, but should that preclude him from being elected to the Hall of Fame? It might be comparing apples to oranges, but do you know how many at-bats Mariano Rivera has in his illustrious career? Try two. Should he be kept out of the HOF because he only helped his club in one facet of the game? Of course not, so maybe we should view the DH in the same vein?
2- Martinez could flat out rake.
The numbers are pretty darn impressive. Let’s go through a few of them.
* Martinez was named to seven All-Star teams.
* Martinez won five Silver Slugger awards, including one while playing third base (1992).
* Martinez owns a .312 career average, 91st best in history. He won the batting title in 1992 and 1995 and five other times he finished in the top-8.
* Not just the producer of hits, the man also knew how to work the count. Martinez led the AL in OBP three times (1995, 1998-99) and eight other times he finished in the top six. He retired with a .418 career mark, 22nd all-time.
* A fair slugger (.515 SLG), Martinez owns a .933 OPS in his career, good for 34th overall. Six times he finished in the top-5 and two other times in the top-8.
* Martinez also had 514 doubles (41st all-time), knocked in 1,261 runs (115th), hit 309 homers (112th), and produced 2,247 hits (154th).
Those numbers are clearly impressive, and they only grow in importance when you line them up against others. Consider the following.
* Martinez hit .3115 in his career. That’s less than two percentage points behind Manny Ramirez (.3132).
* Martinez hit 309 homers. Ivan Rodriguez, a fair home run bat in his own right, has only 305 homers in his career in roughly 1,800 more at-bats.
* Martinez knocked in more runs (1,261) than Bernie Williams (1,257), Albert Belle (1,239) and Matt Williams.
* Martinez owns a .418 career OBP which is 22nd — ever. Think about that for a minute. Done thinking? There are only two players who are currently active and have at least 3,000 plate appearances who can better that mark – Todd Helton (.427) and Albert Pujols (.427).
* And finally, that OPS of Martinez which sits at .933, is good enough for 34th in the annals of the game. If that number is adjusted for era and park, he drops a bit with an OPS+ of 147, though it still ties him for 39th – ever.
The bottom line? If you value hitting, few did it better than this man. Considering that the final couple of years of his career that he resembled Bengie Molina in his ability to move around the bases, it’s pretty amazing that he was able to produce the numbers that he did (not to mention that the Mariners stupidly held him back from full-time work until he was 27 years of age). If he even possessed average speed throughout his career he may have hit .320 with an OPS over .950, and only 10 men who ever played the game reached both of those numbers.
It pains me to say it – I simply detest the DH – but I think Martinez should be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. He was the best DH when he played, and even if I abhor the entire concept, it’s not like we can ignore its existence. Symbolically I wouldn’t vote for him on the first ballot, but sooner or later, I would pull the trigger.
To read my thoughts on others in my HOF series simply click on the following links:
HOF: Mammoth McGwire Misunderstood?
By Ray Flowers
Mark McGwire, like the mythic figure of Babe Ruth, seemed to transcend the game. Massive muscles, topped only by mammoth blasts that reached the upper levels of seats, were his calling card. A huge man who stood 6’5″ while weighing something like 250 (or more) pounds, he was a cartoon character who made pitchers look foolish when they grooved a pitch. He was a generational icon who did what he did – blast long balls – just about as well as anyone who had ever played the game.
Alas, McGwire’s run as a hero to many was destroyed well before it should have been when he was tainted by the whole PED scandal (Performance Enhancing Drugs). I’m not here to say whether or not he did anything illegal, goodness knows there have been reams of articles dealing with that very subject (for my thoughts on the topic take a look at Death of the Hero). The bottom line is that unless you want to exclude every player who suited up from 1995-2005 from the Hall of Fame, you have to make the decision to judge the players based on the merit of their works on the field and not by the suppositions of the masses. If everyone was or wasn’t cheating isn’t the point. The point is we don’t know who was “cheating,” we don’t have anyway of knowing who was cheating, and there will never be a way to prove, one or another, who was cheating. So let’s just examine McGwire through the lens of the men that he played against to see how he ranks, and by extension, whether or not he should be elected to the Hall of Fame in his fourth year on the ballot (I’m under no illusions that he will be selected for enshrinement, he certainly will not).
* McGwire, a pitcher in college at USC, started out his career as an offensive force being moved to third base before finally being shifted over to first base. In his first year in the bigs (1987), a 6’5″, 220 lbs McGwire won the Rookie of the Year award hitting .289 with 49 homers, 118 RBI and a .618 SLG (the HR and SLG led the league).
* McGwire never won the MVP award in his career, likely a result of a career batting average of just .263, but he still finished in the top-7 five different times finishing second to Sammy Sosa in 1998 despite hitting .299 with a then record 70 homers (he also scored 130 runs and knocked in 147 while posting a massive 1.222 OPS).
* Despite the plethora of talented men who played first base during his career, McGwire was named to the All-Star team 12 times. In fact, from 1987-2000 he missed out only in 1993 and 1994 when he was injured and limited to 27 and 47 games.
* From 1987 through his final year in the big leagues (2001), here is how McGwire ranked in a myriad of categories for that 15-year stretch.
McGwire hit 580 homers, the most in baseball (Barry Bonds had 551).
McGwire had 1,405 RBI, third most in baseball (Bonds had 1,494).
McGwire had a .590 SLG, the third best mark in baseball (Bonds and Manny Ramirez led the way at .594).
McGwire had a .985 OPS, fourth in baseball (Bonds at 1.017).
McGwire clearly dominated when compared to his peers, a fact that isn’t lost when we compare him to the immortals of the game. Here are McGwire all-time ranks in a handful of categories.
583 home runs, 8th all-time
1,414 RBI, 66th all-time
.394 OBP, 78th all-time
.588 SLG, 9th all-time
.982 OPS, 11th all-time
Clearly this man was one of the greatest sluggers of all-time, period. To me, that record of achievement deserves enshrinement in the Hall of Fame. I’ll leave the value judgments to others. What was it that Jesus said way back when? “Let he who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone…” (John 8:7).
To see my thoughts on others in my HOF series simply click on the following links:
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.
