Friday, May 21, 2010

The Rise of Francisco Cervelli


Photo from fOTOGLIF


Jorge Posada
is out for the next few weeks with a hairline fracture in his foot. Posada suffered the injury on Sunday when a foul tip off the bat of Michael Cuddyer struck him on the foot. Top catching prospect Jesus Montero is not quite ready to replace him. The Yankees already have Juan Miranda on the roster and I am positive he will benefit from Posada's absence, but the player that I would grab would be Francisco Cervelli.

Cervelli will not hit for a ton of power or steal any bases. However, he has improving plate discipline, the patience to take walks and low strikeout rates over his career in the majors and minors. He should hit for a strong batting average and by virtue of being in the Yankees lineup will pile up the runs and RBI.
From MLB.com:

Girardi said he foresees Francisco Cervelli continuing to get the majority of at-bats in place of Posada. Cervelli has already made a good impression this season in his 17 starts, batting .375. He hit .298 last season in two starts.

"Jorge has been a leader," Girardi said. "It's something that we dealt with last year. [Kevin] Cash and [Cervelli] came up big and did a good job, and we're going to need someone else to come in and do a good job for us."

Friday, May 14, 2010

Re-Evaluating the Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals have fired manager Trey Hillman. I believe Hillman was managing the way General Manager Dayton Moore wanted him to manage. Moore wanted this team to win this season using veteran talent rather than continue to rebuild with younger players. If the Royals have reached the point of firing the manager, I hope that they have also seen that the present philosophy used to run the team was not working either.

If you want more on why Hillman is gone read Rany on the Royal's Hillman's Last Stand.

The Royals need to utilize the most talented players on their roster and those are also the younger players. Below are a few players you might expect to see increased playing time with new manager Ned Yost (formerly of the Milwaukee Brewers) at the helm, and one player I have a hunch will make an impact before the end of the season.

Mike Aviles, Shortstop - Avilles is playing a lot now but I expect the Yunisky Betancourt appearances to become less and less frequent.

Kila Ka'aihue, First Baseman - Jose Guillen will not be a member of the Royals' next winning team. Ka'aihue could very well be the starting first baseman or Designated Hitter. He can hit and deserves to play every day.

Alex Gordon, Third Baseman - The Royals need Gordon to be all that he can be even if that is not quite what they may have once hoped. He needs another chance and the Royals have little to lose by giving it to him.

Mitch Maier, Outfielder - Maier has the ability to hit 10-12 homers and steal 10-15 bases over a full season in the majors.

Jai Miller, Outfielder - Last year for Triple-A New Orleans he had 16 homers, 52 RBIs and a .289 average.

In Other News

Hechavarria makes pro debut tonight
The much anticipated professional debut for highly touted Cuban shortstop prospect Adeiny Hechavarria will be made on Friday night for Dunedin as the Blue Jays take on the FSL North Division leading Clearwater Threshers at 7 p.m. at Dunedin Stadium. Hechavarria is expected to be with Dunedin for a short while before seeing time at Double-A New Hampshire. His play with the Fishercats will then dictate his path to the Major Leagues either with a September call-up this year or a shot at the shortstop job in 2011.

Casper Wells Recalled By Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers today recalled the contract of outfielder Casper Wells from Triple-A Toledo and optioned the contract of right-handed pitcher Alfredo Figaro to Toledo. Wells will be in uniform tonight for the Tigers against the visiting Red Sox, wearing No. 57. Wells was batting .203 with a team-leading five home runs (tied with Jeff Larish) in 31 games for the Mud Hens. The 25-year-old is a Grand Rapids native. (From Tiger Tales: Billfer explains how he thinks the roster will shake out at Detroit Tigers Weblog and I agree with his thinking. Wells will likely replace Alfredo Figaro on the roster tonight. He then may return to Toledo on Sunday if Armando Galarraga is recalled to start a game. This would prevent Jeremy Bonderman or Rick Porcello from pitching on three days rest.)

Boras: Hank Blalock - promote him or let him become free agent!
Agent Scott Boras indicated Tuesday that Blalock would activate the out clause in his Triple-A contract within the next week, forcing the Rays to either promote him to the big-league team or allow him to become a free agent and sign elsewhere. Blalock, 29, has been sizzling at Durham, with an International League-leading .366 average plus four homers, 23 RBIs (in 24 games) and a .959 OPS, while playing third base regularly.

Cameron expects offseason surgery inevitable
Rehabbing Red Sox outfielder Mike Cameron believes that even if he can make it back on the field through simple rehab of his sports hernia, he'll still undergo postseason surgery to correct the problem. While immediate surgery seems to be ruled out, and Cameron told the Providence Journal he could return to the Sox Monday, the outfielder indicated that he is still in significant pain from the injury, which he believes he initially suffered during spring training.

Fractured tibia lands Young on shelf

Eric Young, Jr. never made it to the dugout. He reported to Coors Field with a lump in the middle of his right tibia and was sent to a local hospital, where x-rays revealed a stress fracture. Young sustained the injury while awkwardly rounding first base in the seventh inning of Thursday's game. He continued to play before complaining of soreness in the ninth inning.


Photo from fOTOGLIF

Monday, May 03, 2010

Emerald Guide to Baseball 2010

The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is pleased to to offer the Emerald Guide to Baseball 2010 as a free PDF to the world baseball community.

Edited by accomplished and acclaimed baseball historians Gary Gillette and Pete Palmer with Rod Nelson and Ted Turocy and published by SABR, The Emerald Guide distills the 2009 season down to 570 fact-filled pages that contain the pitching, fielding, and hitting statistics for every player active in the major and minor leagues in 2009. A bound version is available via print on demand at Lulu.com for $24.95. Every page in the bound edition is in the PDF.

Go to this link for your FREE PDF.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Patience is also a Virtue for Fantasy Owners


Photo from fOTOGLIF


The toughest moves to make in Fantasy Sports is none at all. Everyone preaches patience this time of year but inevitably some owners will overreact to Grady Sizemore hitting .192, Mark Teixeira batting .139, or Aramis Ramirez hitting .159. These stats are horrible and they hurt your fantasy squad but dumping these players just because they're slumping would be a huge mistake.

The second toughest move to make in fantasy is to acquire a player like this while in the midst of such a slump. I do recommend it. Especially if you can trade a hot hitter unlikely to last for one of them. Players like Kelly Johnson ( I love the guy, he was one of my sleepers, but if you believe he's going to hit the 60 homers he's on pace to hit there is a bridge I'd like to sell you), Paul Konerko (on an incredible hot streak but I'll eat my hat if he leads the league in homers), or Austin Jackson (a rookie hitting .330, please).

I'll leave you with The Three Most Important Aspects of a Good Trade:
  1. Mission Accomplished - You went into the trade talks with a clear objective, and even if the players changed you still accomplished what you set out to accomplish. (You acquired the steals you needed, Re-Built for next year-- wuss, Or sold high on a player with an inflated value.)
  2. Feeling Good - You are happy with the package you received in return. You should love your side of a trade or at the very least be satisfied that the package you received will accomplish your goal of improving your team. (If you feel bad or uneasy about a deal DO NOT MAKE IT!)
  3. Integrity Intact - Your deal doesn't need to make your league mates happy but it should past the smell test. You should not have deceived your trade partners in any way. You did everything by the rules of your league. (Sometimes the rules are not so clear, its okay to test those rules as long as you do not break them. Maybe the new rules will be named after you.)

RosterSlots.com Caters to Fantasy Baseball Micro-Managers

My friend Peter would like me to share with you the news of a great new fantasy oriented website. RosterSlots.com allows you to build a fantasy team through a virtual slot machine. I'm participating in an expert league with teams built with this system I'm expecting it to be a blast. But I'll let Peter's press release do most of the explaining.

For Immediate Release

RosterSlots.com Caters to Fantasy Baseball Micro-Managers

Northborough, MA - Ever picked up a free agent starting pitcher on a hunch? Ever traded away a star player just to shake things up? Ever just wanted to "do something" during the season, but thought better of it? If so, RosterSlots.com is for you.

In fantasy baseball, there aren't a lot of opportunities for experimentation with your roster. Teams that show patience and discipline are rewarded in the standings, but it's roster transactions (the draft, free agent pickups, and trades) that make fantasy baseball fun. At RosterSlots.com, which begins fantasy baseball play on May 1, transactions are the focus of the game. RosterSlots.com's "slot machine" user interface provides a fun, easy access outlet for serious players and casual players alike - especially those seeking more immediate gratification (or a second chance) as the baseball season plods along.

The slot machine user interface is the key to the transaction-rich game play. Each day, you are provided with a certain number of "spins" to build your team. Each spin of the slot machine's reels returns 3 players. You decide to keep or replace all 3 players together, as a single unit. To replace the players, you either use another spin or trade the players to another team for more spins. Your team consists of 15 players and you score points based on the daily performance of each player.

Your lineup and your spin count reset everyday, but you don't need to play everyday: there are daily, weekly, average-per-play, and season long leaderboards. You can also create your own Personal League of unlimited size by adding teams (friends or foes) from any of the leaderboards - sort of a social network for fantasy baseball.

The slot machine interface works because slot machines are the ultimate in transactional gaming, but this is not a gambling site; in fact, it's free! With traditional slots, you go broke. With RosterSlots.com, you get to evaluate and experiment with more players, invite more of your friends to play, and you always have something to do during the fantasy baseball season. Go to www.rosterslots.com and use your existing Google, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or MSN user account to sign up, or create a new account.

About RosterSlots.com

RosterSlots.com is a fantasy sports-based Internet startup founded by Peter Wikander. RosterSlots.com provides a unique fantasy baseball game where you build your team using a virtual slot machine. The idea originated in 2007 as a way to create a more interactive fantasy baseball experience. The site launched for a closed beta for the Arizona Fall League in November of 2009, and then an open beta for the Winter Olympics in February of 2010. The open baseball beta launches on May 1, 2010 and will feature a 12 team Expert League, featuring industry veterans from such web sites as KFFL.com and FantasyPros911.com.

Mr. Wikander works as a technical writer in Chelmsford, MA and resides in Northborough, MA with his wife and daughter. He can be reached at peter@rosterslots.com.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Top Prospect: Adeiny Hechavarria


Photo from fOTOGLIF


The story has been out there for weeks but the Toronto Blue Jays finally made their signing of Cuban shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria official. The 21-year old received a four-year, $10-million major-league deal. He expects to be playing in the majors very soon. So soon in fact that he chose the Blue Jays over the Yankees based on the contract extension Derek Jeter is expected to get, while Alex Gonzalez has just a one-year deal.

Bob Elliot of the Toronto Sun describes all the events that led to the signing by the Blue Jays. This is a great article that will give you a true sense of the talent level of the player and what the team was thinking when they signed him.

“Scouting is about comparison,” Anthopoulos said. “I wanted Dana there because he’d been scouting director (Washington Nationals) for eight years. Andrew knew shortstops eligible for the draft.”

Beeston’s question was “where would Hechavarria go in the draft — if eligible.”

“Marco felt really strongly about Hechavarria, we thought we could set the competition at our complex,” Anthopoulos said.

Antopoulos’ first impression seeing the 5-foot-11 178-pounder?

“His body, he’s wiry, strong, not an ounce of body fat,” Anthopoulos said. “Watching him walk was impressive. When you look at young shortstops you wonder if they are going to get thicker in the lower half which might cause them to lose a step defensively”

Anthopoulos said the prospect was not as thick as Alfonso Soriano, but had a similar build to Julio Lugo, Edgar Rentaria and B.J. Upton, who is taller.

What the Jays entourage saw was an athletic fielder with quick twitch muscles.

Hechavarria runs a 60-yard dash.

“He was 6.4 or 6-5, but he’d been 6.3 before,” Hernandez said.

The right-handed hitter took batting practice with an inside-out swing, hitting the ball the other way.

Anthopoulos said they did not see him swing and miss a pitch.

Hechavarria faced some of harder throwers from the Jays rookie-class Dominican summer league and free-agent international pitchers.

In a simulated game Hechavarria led off every inning. If he got an extra-base, hit or made an out he returned to first and attempted to steal.