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Thursday, May 15, 2008

Rosen's Randoms

It's been awhile since I've blogged so I thought I'd rant about a few topics. By the way am I ridiculous with all this alliteration? Absolutely, but I love my last name and it is quite conducive to alliteration.

Fantasy Baseball:

For the first time in years I decided to partake in a fantasy baseball league and I must admit I have my regrets. It's an unlimited keeper league with 12 teams that will in theory exist for many years. Now I must admit that I joined this league partly due to the flattery I experienced from some members but I really did think I would enjoy it.However I've learned a few things about fantasy baseball that could be quite useful for newcomers.

1. The money versus team issue is worse then in football. My reasoning is that with so many players you are bound to face your favorite team every week and this stuff can weigh on you. For example I drafted Rafi Betancourt this year and he flat out stinks. So when I find out today that the tribe won 4-2 I was very pleased. Then I heard that Rafi got lit up and Masa Kobayashi got the save. I'll admit my thought process shifted from "the tribe just swept the A's at home," to "how has the best setup man in the bigs in 07 single-handedly ruined 3 fantasy weeks for me." I also just cut Paul Byrd before his latest gem that included a season high 7 k's. Now I understand that this makes me sound like a crappy fan (which I'm not seeing as I watch every game in every month basically)but it stings. Is this a flaw not of fantasy baseball but of Brian Rosen? Quite possibly but it's enough to make me regret the decision to join the league in the first place.

2. A league of your peers is flat out shady. This may seem commonplace but I forgot how much of a hidden agenda everybody has. It truly boggles my mind that a group of very good friends could seek to screw each other so badly all the time. While most of the leagues members are older and not in my group of friends, I still find it wrong that 80 percent of the league doesn't believe in a mutually beneficial trade. It's hard for a completely fair trade in fantasy but purposely trying to offer a completely unreasonable deal is dead wrong from where I'm sitting.

3. Pay special attention to players that offer outstanding specializations such as a Javier Vazquez who consistently has high strikeout games and Willy Taveras who is awful but a stolen base machine.

500 sounds about right:

Currently the Indians stand at 3 games above 500 but they sure remind you of a 500 team. By 500 I mean they are among the best pitching teams in the MLB and among the worst hitting clubs. This drives me nuts as I cannot comprehend why we haven't dealt for a bat yet. Now thinking you have to much pitching is dumb but thinking that you can bring the same sometimes downright awful lineup back from 07 is foolish as well. I'm a Mark Shapiro guy but I think he made one critical error this off season: not accounting for regression. To assume that Hafner, Gutierrez, Cabrera, Dellucci, etc would all provide offense was illogical. The Pronk is a project again without the mental toughness to succeed as of now and the youngsters (minus Dellucci who's not young) have all been disappointments. Sure any number of these guys may wake up but if Victor Martinez is your lone consistent hitter then you have problems. Both Grady and Garko haven't wowed anybody either and Peralta/Blake are much closer to 200 then 300.

Overall, I do think this team can have success but they will miss the playoffs without acquiring a bat. Mark me down for that right now. They have the talent on this roster to compete all year right now but the Tigers will overtake the Tribe in time unless Shapiro can add a quality bat. Sorry Markie, Kenny Lofton will not suffice this time around.

That's all I got be sure to tune into Rumblings every Tuesday from 6-8. Peace Buckeye fans