Are the reigning MVPs any good?

Yes, and so are last year's 2nd and 3rd place finishers, too!

Andruw - 4-2-2-4 (HR)
D. Lee - 2-2-1-2 (3 BB, 2B)
Ortiz - 5-2-3-3 (HR)
Vlad - 4-1-2-2 (HR)

Out of curiousity, who'd you take at #8 in your fantasy draft after passing up the #1 spot?

Ground Balls-Fly Balls: D Lowe 11-2

Similar to Webb but amazingly different results.

Basketball? Yep, there was a game last night. Florida Gators beat UCLA by 16 points for the NCAA Championship! Since the media's favorite didn't win, you haven't heard anything about it.

The reds pitching might be even worse than was originally thought (if that is possible). The Astros shut-out "the marlins" despite being throttled by Dontrelle Willis.

Harang L, 0-1 5 9 9 6 3 3 100 10.80
CHammond 0 2 2 2 0 0 8 --
Burns 1 2 1 1 2 1 28 9.00
Belisle 1 1 0 0 1 0 22 0.00
Coffey 1 1 0 0 0 0 10 0.00
RiWhite 1 3 4 1 1 0 20 9.00

Houston
IP H R ER BB K HR Season ERA
R. Oswalt (W, 1-0) 8.0 5 0 0 1 8 0 0.00
B. Lidge (S, 1) 1.0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0.00

- Barry Zito's last 2 starts combined against the NYY, both in Oakland...

4.2IP, 13H, 13ER, 3HR, 7BB, 6SO, and 27.86 ERA.

- It's going to be a LOOOOOOONNNG year for Joe Girardi. The Marlins lose 1-0 with the only run being scored on a wild pitch with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th inning. Nice.

Zito puts up lines like that against the Yanks, and he thinks he can handle the pressure of playing in New York? This might turn out to be the biggest head case tragedy ever.

After seeing Sunday's opener, I finally get Cleveland's reasoning behind starting Boone over Marte at 3B.

Sabathia's gonna get hungry before the All Star break.

Tom Glavine is available in my league. Is he a pick up? I'd dump Kazmir...

One performance that really stands out in my head is Brandon McCarthy, who Rich mentions in this piece. McCarthy showed three real plus pitches against the Indians, including that curve that fools every hitter he throws it to. He also showed the improvements on his change from a year ago are for real, so he really does have three pitches he can use in any count.

Once a seller in McCarthy, I now see a future star ... all of which makes the Contreras extension that much more frustrating.

You are so right about the sacrifice fly joke. Just think, if a batter reaches base on an error - scoring a runner from third in the process, he is charged with an AB, may not be given an RBI, plus he becomes a baserunner and his team has not added an out in the inning, plus his team's run-scoring potential in the inning is increased.

Contrast this with a sac fly in which an out is added and no baserunner is gained, while a team's run-scoring potential in the inning is decreased. Somehow baseball thinks the latter situation is more of an accomplishment than the former. The sac fly was devised for the purpose of fattening batting averages, not for any meritorious reason.

Think there's something wrong with that guy Jim? There's been no coverage of Florida's NCAA win? Noah got more face time than any MLB player. Paranoia's for the weak, chump.

Hey Brian! You still thinking about getting Lyle Overbay to play first for the White Sox? he's pretty handy with the glove and respectable on the basepaths, and I think the Jays might let him go for a package of Brandon McCarthy, Jerry Owens and a good left handed reliever...say, Neal Cotts? I think that deal might get it done.

Man, that was the most lopsided trade proposal ever. It even motivated Kenny Williams to sign Paul Konerko, just to avoid the possibility that your trade could ever occur. Thank god for the Archives, huh?

Oh MikeQ, how nice of you to point that out. First, for accuracy sake, it was Damaso Marte, not Cotts.

The Jim Thome trade happened following my suggestions, and I will admit that Ken Williams plan was better than mine. Both of us realized the team needed some LH sock, but he found a bit more at a different cost. And for what it's worth, I still disagree with the Konerko signing.

It was not a good trade proposal, I realize that now. If we all had our poor winter suggestions pointed out, no one would make a good armchair GM.

Out of curiousity, who'd you take at #8 in your fantasy draft after passing up the #1 spot?

I took Jason Bay at #8. I didn't slide back to that spot because I liked Bay better than ARod or Pujols. Instead, I opted to move to the middle of the draft for four reasons:

1. As great as ARod and Pujols are, I thought 3B and 1B were rather deep this year. By the same token, I actually felt as if OF were surprisingly thin, particularly given the fact that our league has 15 teams and, therefore, our starters go 45 deep.

2. I thought I would have a much better shot at another outstanding offensive player in the second round by drafting 23td rather than 30th. I selected Chase Utley with my second pick. I don't think he would have been there had I kept the #1 pick.

3. When you draft #1 or #15, you're always 30 picks from your next selection. Lots can happen between picks.

4. I also like drafting from one of the middle spots because I think I'm less apt to reach and make bad choices, knowing I'm never too far from my next pick.

The bottom line is that one can't view it as ARod or Pujols vs. Bay. For better or worse, my team would have been totally different had I kept the #1 pick. I'll report back from time to time and let you know how I'm doing. Thanks for asking.

Tom Glavine is available in my league. Is he a pick up? I'd dump Kazmir...

Well, I wouldn't give up on Kazmir so quickly. Like Glavine, Kazmir had a huge second half. He is young and has a lot of upside--much more than Glavine, particularly given where they are in their respective careers. That said, Kazmir had a poor spring and his outing on Monday gave no sign that he has turned things around.

I guess it comes down to two things:

1. Time horizon (this year vs. keeper league)

2. Categories (Kazmir will do better in a format that counts strikeouts)

Good luck!

1. i really wonder what hideki matsui would have done against korean/cuban/etc pitching in the wbc. but an OBP and AVG of 1.000 for 1 day aint too shabby. Johjima doesnt seem to be too overwhelmed by MLB pitching so far either.

2. zito had a pretty good 1st inning i think. its just when he decided to stop throwing strikes in the 2nd that he really got in trouble. im glad for one thing though, it put a sock in the talk of all the cubreporter posters who kept belly-aching that the cubs should have tried to trade for him!

3. keep an eye on the florida pitching made up of ex-cubs or could-have-been-cubs (the majority of it: willis, mitre, wellemeyer, borowski, nolasco, pinto). so far, so good, eh?

4. adam dunn is a comedy in motion. even when catching a pop-up, he ends up smacking womack in the head with his mitt!

I know about Cotts. I read your original post. The Sox already traded Marte, and you can't trade players to whom you no longer have the rights. Neal Cotts was a fascetious stand in for the departed Mr. Marte.

And I agree with you on Konerko. If he sucks this year...man oh man. That contract is untradable.

But man...McCarthy + 2 bits for Overbay? Considering that the Brewers eventually accepted David Bush + 2 bits for him, that's farfarfarfarfarfarfarfarfarfarfarfar too much from the White Sox. Though I will concede you had the form of the trade down. Lyle Overbay would get traded...and he'd be traded for a young starting pitcher, an outfield prospect, and either a starting pitching prospect or a veteran reliever. You were dead on in that regard.

I'm glad that you're on McCarthy's side, though. He's going to have his ups and downs, but odds are he's starting by the end of 2006, and certainly by 2007. He should be pretty decent, with a chance to be more than that.

I wonder what the odds are on Overbay outperforming Konerko this year?

"Ground Balls-Fly Balls: B Webb 15-2

Did I mention that this game was played at Coors Field?"

Are they still humidifying the balls in Denver? Has this process been shown to have any effect?

as per the Dodgers game,I notice that they've lost a huge amount of foul territory at Chavez due to the new box seats along first and third. What's next? Moving every outfield fence in by 20 feet? After all,the more runs,the more "entertainment",right? Sorry about the rant :)