Archive for June, 2009

Big Papi Comes Up Big in June

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Nick Kappel’s Fantasy Focus: Three Prospects to Keep an Eye on

Last week’s Fantasy Focus centered around three prime sell-high targets.

This week, we’ll turn our attention to the minor leagues to find out which prospects are most likely to make a fantasy impact this season.

Jhoulys Chacin

Chacin’s value has skyrocketed since the beginning of the 2008 season, when Baseball America ranked him as the No. 18 prospect in Colorado’s system.

After an 18-3 record with a 2.03 ERA in…

Baltimore Orioles Midseason Report: Seeing Past the Ugliness

From the very beginning, the goal of the 2009 season for the Baltimore Orioles has been to be respectable on the field while continuing behind the scenes to develop the pieces needed to eventually lead the Orioles back to contention in the American League East.

With the season now three…

Friday Night Links

In this edition of Friday Night Links, we return to our main focus for this series…promoting other sites that we like or think that you should look into. In this edition we will be focusing on Baseball and general sports equipment sites.

Sports Diamond.com: a general sport equipment site that focuses on

Effective Communication Is Important For Coaches

Effective communication is important for coaches

to make baseball rewarding and fun for young players

Chicago – It was the chance I had waited for since I was a 16th round draft pick drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1976. As a second baseman, I had…

June Reflections on the Blue Jays

When my partner in crime, Tom, penned his last epistle about our beloved azure corvidae, things were just going great in the Queen City.  He mentioned how much he was enjoying the season thus far, and confided that he wasn’t sure how long the Jays could keep it up.  The answer – not long.  Almost immediately after his missive, the Jays went…

The Pendulum Continues To Swing in St. Louis

Joe Morgan would have put the Cardinals on his bad list in June, because they’ve been pretty inconsistent during the month.  A pitching staff that is lit up against the Rockies early in the month settles down to some better pitched games, with hiccups along the way.  An offense maligned as inept is able to put up four double digit scores in 10 games.  What, exactly,…

Interview With Former MLB Catcher Brent Mayne

Whenever you get the chance to talk to someone that has been there, it’s always special to see it through their eyes.

On June the 19th, 2009, I was given the pleasure of an audience with Brent Mayne, a 15 year Major League Veteran. My connection with Brent was made through a

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Nick Kappel’s Fantasy Focus: Three Players To Sell High On

In my last Fantasy Focus, I outlined three pitchers whose slow starts made them prime buy-low candidates.

This week I’m going to nominate three players whose hot starts make them excellent sell-high targets.

Keep…

Royals Showcase Textbook Bad Baseball

When I last reported on the Royals, the team was sitting just one game out of first place in the American League Central with a respectable 20-18 record.   Sure, Kansas City had dropped seven of their last nine games to get to that mark, but all was still well in the land of blue.   My, my, my, what a difference a month makes.

Friday Night Links

It is out of regret that we have to use this section to once again announce the departure of 2 more writers, but we do have 2 additional writing coming on board, but he will not (as of yet) be covering a specific team.

The two gentlemen who will be leaving us are Tony DeMarco who has been writing our Reflections on the

Miller-McCune on Baseball

In a March 16^th article in Miller-McCune online, Tom Jacobs wrote about the possible bias in baseball, pop-ups and economics. The article was titled, “Race Ball: Our National Pastime?“.

I found the first section on race to be inconclusive as the dates they researched were from three different date ranges 1954-1968, early 70’s to early 80’s and All Star voting from 1990 to 2000. In my…

Why The Trade Deadline May Be Disappointing For Tigers Fans

With just about six weeks remaining until the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline the Detroit Tigers find themselves in first place in the AL Central, albeit with some gaping holes in their roster. Through ineffectiveness or injury the Tigers are struggling to fill the bottom two spots in the starting rotation, are platooning various youngsters in the outfield with mixed results and have little flexibility in the…

Amazon VOD “SPACEMAN: A BASEBALL ODYSSEY”

Another One Bites The Dust

In yesterday’s New York Times, Michael S. Schmidt reported that “Sammy Sosa…is among the players who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the…

Ryan Hanigan: From Rollins College to the Cincinnati Reds

When the Rollins College baseball team hosted the Cincinnati Reds for a spring training exhibition in 2001, no one could have anticipated that one of the Tars would some day be living the big-league dream as a key member of the Reds. But fast-forward ahead eight years and sure enough in 2009 former Rollins standout Ryan Hanigan is making a huge impact behind the plate for…

Nick Kappel’s Fantasy Focus: Three Pitchers To Buy Low On

Many starting pitchers who are usually reliable such as Brandon Webb, Jake Peavy, John Lackey and Roy Oswalt have been wildly unpredictable and/or injured through the first ten weeks of the season. If you are one of the unlucky ones who have…

Dodgers Looking Great with 2/3 of the Season to Go

Editor’s Note: Due to my being on vacation, Jim’s article that he wrote on June 5th below has been posted just now.

According to Chris at Dodgerfan.net, the Dodgers are the favorite in Las Vegas to win the World Series, with odds at Mandalay Bay at 7-2.
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Chasing the Aces and the Pennants

It’s officially trade rumor season in the MLB and teams are now just beginning to assess their needs and see what is available on the market. This season marks a special one in the starting pitching…

The Future of the Astros…

The Lancaster JetHawks are the Astros High-A farm team in the California League. For the last few years, Lancaster was the Red Sox‘ California League…