Skip to main content

Phantasy Island

By
It's January, and for me that means prep time for fantasy baseball. It's true. I really do start running scenarios and draft strategies in my head this early. January is a good time for that. My fantasy football teams have usually recently made an early exit in the playoffs, and my fantasy basketball teams tend to be struggling at this stage. As I've now just traded away my prized power forward, as a desperation move in my salary cap auction hoops league, just about all that will calm my nerves is looking forward to fantasy baseball. While the other sports tend to stress me out, fantasy baseball soothes me. I don't always win, as my uncle will testify to, but I always enjoy it.

My yearly interest increase in the fantasy game coincides with the releases of various fantasy baseball magazines and guides. The Sporting News annual Fantasy Source guide is on news stands, and Phillies phans should be pleased to know that in the Sporting News experts' mock draft, three Phillies were selected in the first eleven picks. Chase Utley was taken 6th overall, Jimmy Rollins 7th, and Ryan Howard 11th. It is quite odd to see Howard, the league leader in HR and RBI, not in the top 10, but perhaps some of the experts in this draft were voters for the National League MVP award in 2008, since Howard was snubbed there also. Utley is a surprise to go so early, but it seems the news of Ch'Utley's hip surgery broke the day this draft began, so consideration for the injury was not given. J-Roll's drop in numbers in 2008 did not deter one drafter from taking the phormer MVP in the first round. This selecta' is looking for a big rebound year from Rollins.

The Sporting News' first three rounds of selections (top 36 picks) look like this...

1- Hanley Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, David Wright, Matt Holliday, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Grady Sizemore, Jose Reyes, Ryan Braun, Ryan Howard, Josh Hamilton.

2- Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Quentin, Johan Santana, Brandon Phillips, Tim Lincecum, Prince Fielder, Mark Teixeira, Ian Kinsler, Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann, Manny Ramirez, Lance Berkman.

3- CC Sabathia, Jake Peavy, Cole Hamels, Justin Morneau, Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Lee, Josh Beckett, Evan Longoria, Brandon Webb, Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon, Roy Halladay.

Other Phillies worth mentioning in this mock draft's top 100...Shane Victorino 67th overall, Brad Lidge 77th overall, Raul Ibanez 99th overall. Lou Marson is also in the Sporting News Bible as the #21 top prospect. They think Marson has a serious shot to win the everyday catcher job by the end of 2009. Carlos Carrasco is also on the prospect list at #37.
If any of you readers out there who don't already play against me in a fantasy league would like to step up, make sure you drop a comment on this post. CHAL-ONJ!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jealous Ones Envy

By
Joe Blanton continues to excel and prove his worth in the Phillies pitching rotation. In his latest outing on Sunday, Blanton threw 8 strong innings, striking out 6, while walking just 1 and surrendering 2 earned runs, improving his record to 7-4. This season in July, Joe is 3-0 over four starts with 22 K's, 5 walks and a 1.21 ERA. Over his last 6 starts, Joe's ERA is 1.94. As a member of the Phillies, Blanton has a 3.84 ERA after the all star break with a 5-0 record. The Phillies are 20-12 (.625 winning percentage) in games that Blanton has started, since being acquired last July. Combined this season against other National League playoff contenders St. Louis, Chicago and Los Angeles, Blanton has a combined 1.67 ERA in 4 starts with a 2-0 record. Blanton is on such a sizzling run that the Bowling Green Hot Rods, a Tampa Bay Rays farm team, will host a Joe Blanton bobble head give away tomorrow. Bowling Green will host Joe's mother, father and sister for the event, as Joe...
7 comments
Read more

Sunday School: Phillies History Lesson 71

By
Gene Kelly was the radio voice of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1950- 1959. Born in Brooklyn NY, Kelly pitched in the minor leagues after graduating from Marshall College in 1941. He would soon experience arm trouble, which ended his playing days. Kelly managed to continue a career in sports by turning to radio. When legendary announcer By Saam, who pulled double duty beginning in 1939 calling both Phillies and Athletics games, moved over to the A's side exclusively, Gene Kelly was the man who would fill the void and took over as the Phillies play-by-play man. The Phillies began broadcasting their games over the air in 1936, but until the 1950's, the broadcasters only attended home games and did not travel with the team. All road games were recreated, on the air, by the announcers who read a Western Union teletype account of the games from the studio in Philadelphia. During the decade of the 50's, Kelly was partnered with several different broadcasters, including Claude Ha...
5 comments
Read more

Heroes- Fight of the Century

By
VS. It's a big day for your boy, Jay Ballz . No work, X-Men Origins: Wolverine premieres, our Phillies face the Metropolitans for the first time this season and tailgating for BOTH doesn't sound all that absurd to me. Anyway, I surveyed some qualified phans and got several opinions on how exactly a fight might go down if the mutant hero Wolverine faced off against Phillies hero Matt Stairs. Well known blogger, Chris, of I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake , kept it real and said the following- "Wolverine has adamantium ( indestructible metal substance) claws, so that's a great advantage. Stairs' Wonder Bat is neutralized there. See, the problem becomes Wolverine's ability to recover (he has a regenerative power) faster. Stairs is merely human. Sure, he has a goatee, and goatees are great, but they're great for saving sauce, not for defeating mutants. I think Wolverine takes it in a fight to the death in about 15 minutes because Stairs simply doesn'...
7 comments
Read more