Let's talk about everything and anything. It feels like a month since i last posted. Oh wait, it has been? Totally makes sense. Apparently these little baseball fans in training, newborn children, take up quite a bit of your time. Who'd have thunk that? My little guy's name is Theodore William.
I assure you we didn't name him after Teddy Higuera and Will Clark, two of my favorite players from the 80s. Nor did we name him after Ted Williams, but many of my baseball friends are already calling him Teddy Ballgame. Too funny. Theodore was a name we both liked and William is a family name, but no one has to know if I secretly appreciate his name for the baseball roots, right?
The nice part about my three weeks off from work is that I was able to get some scans in and recall some long lost trades I did.
My friend Brian and I also ran a team 50K race, so the Hoffman Rookie Card may or may not have changed hands, I'll have to do an update on that as well. What I can tell you is that we busted a box of 1998 Leaf Updates in search of the Crusade cards. If you've never seen these fantastic cards, take a look. I'm going to do a long post on that box break this week as well.
So back to where I started, the image that kicked off this post, the Jim Palmer Sports Royalty Goudey Graph. I actually purchased this card sometime back in January or February. I took such a liking to what most people decided was a horrible set - I knew my first Palmer auto should be from it. I'm very happy to have added it to my collection. I also spent some time bidding and losing out on a couple different Jim Palmer rookie cards from the 1966 Topps set. I'll likely make another run at one. Since I know there are many Palmer collectors out there, do any of you have one? Did you use ebay to snag it? Just curious.
Speaking of Jim Palmer, I could really use him on my fantasy team this week. First a quick recap of the first two weeks of my season.
Berkman got hurt, I got mad. Signed Aubrey Huff and Luke Scott. Guess which is still on my team? As a flier I also picked up Gaby Sanchez last week. Everything I've read says he should be a middle of the order bat for the Marlins down the road. I'd like that very much. He's hit 8th much of the season, but I've got the patience to wait on him. I like him.
I've also had to scramble at the outfield position. While I still like Jay Bruce, I can't let him do to me this year what BJ Upton did to me last year. I continually started Upton all year despite his lack of usefulness outside of stolen bases. I always thought to myself "this is the month he gets the power back". It never happened. While Bruce has 2 steals, he also only has 1 run scored and 2 RBI in two weeks. That's killing me. So I made the hot waiver pickup, Jeff Francouer. Other than the 20 inning extravaganza that was played last night he's been on fire. Taking walks even! I can't believe it. But I'll try to ride his hot streak this week.
Another guy on my 'list' is Raul Ibanez. I traded for him in the off-season full well knowing I despised the guy because I didn't understand where he came from and why he was good. He played in Philly and hit behind Howard and Utley so I was willing to give it a go. Well the Phillies decided to hit him 6th this year which makes him mostly useless to me. He was rendered completely useless by not hitting, ever. At all. Luckily I was able to trade Justin Frasor right before he lost his closer job for Magglio Ordonez.
The other trouble spot for me so far has been starting pitching. Verlander and Peavy had terrible first weeks, and while each had 2 starts this week, and both pitched better, I still didn't get a win out of either pitching. In fact, I don't think I have a win this week. Brett Anderson and Ian Kennedy also both had 2 starts and neither won their first game on Tuesday. Both also pitch today. Realistically I'm just looking for Kennedy not to get BLOWD UP, and Anderson to pitch well. Here's to hoping.
And to round out my first (long) post back in a while, I'll give you the tough calls I made this week in fantasy baseball.
I like the Marlins going on the road to Houston and Colorado. Houston might be the worst team in the NL. I've been saying that since before the season. Because of this, I'm going to give Gaby Sanchez a start at 1b instead of Aubrey Huff, and I'm going to play Dan Uggla (red hot) over Rickie Weeks (also red hot) just because I don't necessarily need the steals from Rickie right now. I can still cheer for him all week.
My last tough call is whether or not to promote Jeff Niemann this week to pitch against Boston and Toronto. Boston's lineup scares me, and no one has been able to stop Vernon (back on the roids) Wells. Seriously, does anyone else think that Wells was sick of being a punchline and just decided to do whatever he had to do to stop getting picked on? I do. Anyway, I can't decide if I want to use Niemann, double down on Ian Kennedy for a second week, or use Dave Bush on the road against the Pirates and at home against the Cubs. Leaning toward Bush. Bush is normally great at home and poor on the road, but it's the Pirates on the road. Bush would join Peavy, Verlander, Anderson, Beuhrle, Marmol, and Heath Bell for Week 3.
As for the rest of my hitters, catcher is set with AJ (ice cold) Pierzynski. Third base, shortstop and DH are set all season with Longoria, Derek Jeter, and Troy Tulowitzki - also known as the heart of my team. And Carl Crawford takes the other outfield spot next to Maggs and Frenchy.
This post got super long, but I'm glad to be back, I might have enough in me to do 2 posts a day for a while, so long as I can find the time.
One last note since I talked with a few of you other bloggers about MLB The Show. I spent three weeks playing this game, bought the PS3 just to play it, and I love it. I honed in on a set of sliders that make it realistic and fun for me, and now that I have I'm starting a Brewers dynasty. Let's see how much I get to play now that I'm back at work.
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