Okay, You Have Santana, Now What?

The Mets traded for Johan Santana during the offseason, but they also seemed to forget that the rest of their rotation is riddled with holes. Pedro Martinez limped off the mound today in his start, sporting a fresh hamstring injury (reportedly) and the Mets are left reeling. Instead of having 2 HOFers (1 guaranteed, the other making his way there) spearheading their rotation, now they have 1 dominant starter, followed by a bunch of surprises (other than John Maine). I mean, can you really trust Oliver Perez?

Maybe the Mets should have kept those youngsters?

So This is How it Begins

The Yankees beat Roy Halladay and the Blue Jays tonight and we saw a variety of changes within the club play out upon the field. We saw Joe Girardi pickup his first win as the Yankee manager and we saw a very strong performance by our often disputed ace (well, I guess that’s not really a change). We also saw Joba Chamberlain, the newly annointed figurehead for the Yankee youth movement, come up big and pitch a solid 8th inning followed by the normative 9th inning monster that is Mariano Rivera.

Another signficant change that was discussed a bit by Paul O’Neill and Michael Kay in the beginning of the game was the new batting order. Girardi had Robinson Cano hitting 6th which is a move that Girardi believes will continue throughout the year. I honestly thought that the Yankees were simply tinkering with it for this game since Matsui’s numbers are pretty poor against Halladay. But nope, he intends on keeping him there unless his performance says otherwise. If this occurs, you could see more RBI and run opportunities for Cano (with Matsui/Posada behind him) in the future.

Opening Day Redux

Here’s the lineup (courtesy of PA):

YANKEES
18 Johnny Damon LF
2 Derek Jeter SS
53 Bobby Abreu RF
13 Alex Rodriguez 3B
25 Jason Giambi 1B
24 Robinson Cano 2B
20 Jorge Posada C
55 Hideki Matsui DH
28 Melky Cabrera CF
40 Chien-Ming Wang RHP

BLUE JAYS
11 David Eckstein SS
4 Shannon Stewart LF
15 Alex Rios RF
10 Vernon Wells CF
35 Frank Thomas DH
17 Lyle Overbay 1B
2 Aaron Hill 2B
19 Marco Scutaro 3B
9 Gregg Zaun C
32 Roy Halladay RHP

It’s go time. Melky Cabrera will be the player of the game, I’m calling it. I’m watching the game via MLB.TV (and the YES Network).

UPDATE — Nice opening although Kay’s voice didn’t do that montage any justice. Nice to see Paul O’Neill in the booth. Speaking of O’Neill, LaTroy Hawkins will be wearing 21, O’Neill’s old number which could cause any Yankee fan to cringe. However, Hawkins will be wearing the number to honor Roberto Clemente, so how can you be mad at him?

UPDATE (7:15): Wang’s pitching well, but he’s had some tough breaks. Shannon Stewart hit a dribbler to third and Alex Rios hits a liner into left (1st and 2nd). Then Wang was down 3-0 on Vernon Wells and he threw a changeup to him for a strike. Wells hit the next sinker to Cano and Rios was doubled off. Great pitching so far by Wang.

UPDATE (7:23): RBI double for A-Rod. MVP predictions anyone?

UPDATE (7:32): Wang’s breaking bats left and right but a lot of hits are falling for the Blue Jays. As O’Neill has described them, they are rather “cheap.” Frank Thomas just advanced on a fly ball so he’s at third now.

UPDATE (7:52): Wang walks Rios and Michael Kay says, “Well, why wouldn’t you be careful with Rios, he’s got a hit in 21 games against the Yankees” (paraphrased), which doesn’t make any sense since RIos could easily steal 2B. Either way, Wells slaps a shot at Jeter who throws Rios out on the force. Nice work by Wang.

UPDATE (8:07): Melky does his thing. He had some great jumps and routes on those 2.

UPDATE (8:42): HA! I called that HR for Melky. Check out the prediction.

UPDATE (8:55): Chien-Ming Wang is definitely pitching like an ace, holding the Blue Jays to 2 runs over 7 strong innings. The strike outs aren’t there, but you can definitely see the effectiveness of his sinker on the damp field. Seems like he’s probably done for the day, so maybe we’ll get a chance to see our new-look bullpen in action.

UPDATE (9:55): Joba Time. 3-2 Yanks.

UDPATE (10: 38): Mariano is in and he just struck out Lyle Overbay. It amazes me to see him get the velocity up even after all these years. He’s basically a machine.

FINAL: A prototypical Yankee victory for 2008. Wang for 7, Joba for the 8th, and Mariano secures the win in the 9th. Great game.

More on A-Rod and Canseco

From Christian Red and Michael O’Keeffe (Daily News):

It’s been a week, of course, since an obscure blog first reported on the juicy parts of “Vindicated.” It’s been a week since fans learned of Canseco’s claims that he introduced A-Rod to a steroid dealer, and that the third baseman returned the favor by trying to sleep with Canseco’s then-wife. Canseco is still reveling in the discomfort he’s caused Rodriguez. Every awkward “no comment” from A-Rod gives Canseco great glee.

The best part, Canseco says in an exclusive interview at the Omni Berkshire in midtown, is that Rodriguez can’t do anything about it. If A-Rod threatens to sue Canseco or goes on “60 Minutes” to attack his credibility, Canseco will respond with “Max,” the Canadian steroid dealer he claims to have hooked A-Rod up with in the late 1990s. If Canseco is sued or attacked, Max - up to this point simply known as an unidentified .steroids supplier - will go public with everything he knows about A-Rod, says Canseco. This, Canseco adds, is not a war that A-Rod can win.

“I’ve got the ace in the hole,” Canseco says with a laugh. “And he knows it. So there’s no way that he’s going to fight me. He’s trying to make it go away.”

Meanwhile, Jon Heyman (SI) is singing a different tune, writing that “close confidants” of Canseco have said that he’s trying to “get” Alex Rodriguez for “…spurning him when Canseco was trying to get into the sports agent business,” which was another aimless and fruitless journey (sort of like Canseco’s entire baseball career). It’ll be interesting to see how A-Rod handles this as Canseco keeps yapping to the press.

Fantasy Baseball: Closers

 

A quick note for those searching for closers for their fantasy team. I never put much stock into drafting closers in the earlier rounds. Granted, if you’d like use a top pick or two in order to grab a faithful closer like K-Rod, Papelbon, Puttz, or Nathan, then go right ahead. You’ll never really have to worry about your closer slots (not much anyway).

However, if you’re trying to maximize your draft, that means picking SP’s and hitters in early rounds as these two groups of players tend to have greater value in the grand scheme of your fantasy league. Then, as the draft dies down, feel free to pick up the rest of the closers that are available. Remember,  your K, WHIP, ERA, etc. categores are largely dictated by your starters and not you relievers, although the relievers do offer some help with those statistics. In the end, when drafting closers, you basically want to remain competitive with the saves category. That’s all that really matters.

In a 10-team league, you’ll probably still have a lot of options available to you that can allow you to do that. In deeper leagues, you’ll still have some other options as well. Here are some good sleeper candidates for your saves category that you’ll likely find rotting away on the waiver wire:

1. Todd Jones - Jones is a liability in terms of statistics. His numbers have been pretty awful these past 2 seasons and I don’t think you’ll see them get any better. However, in a weak Detroit bullpen and with Joel Zumaya out for an extended period of time, he’ll keep getting his opportunities and he’ll likely get around 30+ saves, especially with such a strong lineup to protect leads. Jones should be drafted but his horrible numbers cause him to sit on waivers.
2. Joe Borowski - Basically, what I wrote for Jones goes double for Borowski. He’s one of the scarier options out there. Every closing situation is an adventure for him, but he still managed to pick up the most saves in 2007 (AL). Yesterday was a perfect example. Borowski gave up a HR, a walk, and still managed to get his first save of the season. He can easily get you 40+ saves again this year. There is some risk here, however, as the emergence of Rafael Betancourt (or Perez) can jeopardize Borowski’s save numbers, although he’d have to fail multiple times (in a row) in order to lose his position at the back end of the bullpen.
3. George Sherrill - Sherrill is an interesting option because he’s on a horrible team yet he has some great potential coming off a spectacular season in Seattle. Offensively, the Orioles aren’t as bad as some think with Luke Scott, Adam Jones, Brian Roberts, Melvin Mora and a few others, but, their pitching is terrible so that will hurt a number of Sherrill’s save opportunities. Hell, even bad teams need closers though and Sherill will see his share of saves (25-30?).
4. Brian Wilson - Wilson will be closing for the SF Giants, a team that will likely be the worst in baseball. What’s good about the Giants though is that their starters have a lot of talent and can carry the games into the later innings. Zito (if he’s reborn), Cain, Lincecum and Correia will be solid enough to hand the ball over to the bullpen and Wilson, while he won’t strike out many, will still get his chances (30).
5. C.J. Wilson - Again, Wilson is on a fairly decent offensive team with some questionable pitching. However, like Wilson and Sherrill, he will get his chances to close and if he can’t do the job, Eddie Guardado and others will be lurking behind him. He’s still a good pickup for 25+ saves.

So, if you’re in dire need of a closer, remember, there’s no need to trade away your top SP’s or position players for one guy. If you really want to remain competitive, just pick up 2 of the guys on this list and enjoy the rewards. You’ll be happy that you did (even if it’s not very pretty in the end).