Results tagged ‘ Carl Crawford ’
Free Tickets, Priceless Experience
A great night out at the old ballpark. Yep, the Archive Family had a terrific time at the Dell Diamond Friday Night thanks mainly to Mrs. Archive. You see, she scored some tickets from a guy from work. Sure, he mentioned they were great seats, but everyone says that, right?
Not only did he, this employee who my wife had never even met before, hook us up with 4 tickets, but parking passes, as well. So, no matter what we were going to enjoy the free entry into the stadium. I took a peek at the section number and noticed it was one of the expensive sections reserved for season ticket holders. Cool. But I didn’t notice the row, which Mrs. Archive casually mentioned should be decent since they were “row #1″.
Whoa. These were front row seats on the 3rd base side, right next to the home field dugout! My son Jacob actually leaned up against the dugout for most of the game. Though, at 7, he had a hard time taking his eyes off of the kid area — which was directly across from us on top of right center — that has climbing walls, hoops court and a bouncing area, plus tons more.
We all hope to score a ball when we go to the game, but now the level expectations were through the roof. Sure enough in the 2nd Inning after Reggie Abercrombie, who had a monster 4-hit night and a dazzling effort on a deep fly, hit a laser double that the 3rd-base umpire tossed to me after the play. I’m not talking about him throwing the ball in the stands that required me to plow over kids and elderly to fight to get. No, I mean he obviously through the ball to me. He threw me a low changeup, so luckily I had my glove on!
Of course, when I stood up to snag the ball, the seat – which is one of those that automatically flips up – disappeared and I almost fell right on my booty. But I regained my balance and handed the ball to my youngest boy, Zachary, who was thrilled!
Zachary-daqueri, as we call him, had even a bigger moment to come. Later in the game, they were doing one of those in-between inning deals where they would have the cameramen get shots of the crowd. Well, there was a camera right in front of us, just off to the right. The cameraman yelled to get our attention and he had his lens focused right on Zachary. It was a close-up too! Zachary, who has yet to meet a camera or mirror he doesn’t have a soft spot for, was the star of the game, at least for 5 seconds or so.
I mentioned Abercrombie’s night, he was just one player who had a big night. The Express won 12-10 in a shoot-out with the Oklahoma Redhawks, who happen to be the Texas Rangers triple A affiliate. So, the game almost felt like it had two home teams. Joaquin Arias, of the ‘Hawks, hit an absolute bomb to the upper deck of the left field cheap seats. Oklahoma City’s Brandon Boggs also hit a rocket to centerfield. Catcher Max Ramirez, who was recently sent back down, showed he has a major league bat as he hit balls hard all night as the DH.
The Express got a dinger from Tommy Manzella and steady Mark Saccomanno chipped in with all around solid play. The Express pitching was not exactly lights-out, but after Brendan Donnelly and starter Josh Muecke got knowcked around, Chad Paronto came in a closed the game out. I got to finally see Sammy Gervacio pitch, but he threw a lot more fastballs than I expected — I was hoping to see that nasty slider.
Just to add some icing for the kids, it was also a fireworks night! My icing was briefly talking to Ambercrombie about his banged-up left elbow and talking fantasy baseball with some of the event staff. One of them had just pulled off a 6-5 monster trade involving Carl Crawford and Josh Hamilton.
Bottom line, it was a great night at the ballpark.
-Johnny Archive
Archive Predictions: Pesky Pirate Alert
It’s time to go on the record with my predictions for the upcoming 2009 baseball season. As usual, I don’t encourage anyone to take this valuable knowledge and use it for personal gain. But, ummm, if you do, don’t forget my typical 15% cut. *wink-wink*
American League
West
- Seattle Mariners
- Los Angeles Angels
- Oakland A’s
- Texas Rangers
Central
- Cleveland Indians
- Minnesota Twins
- Kansas City Royals
- Detroit Tigers
- Chicago White Sox
East
- Tampa Bay Rays
- New York Yankees
- Boston Red Sox
- Balitmore Orioles
- Toronto Blue Jays
*Wildcard – Minnesota Twins
National League
West
- Arizona Diamondbacks
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- Colorado Rockies
- San Francisco Giants
- San Diego Padres
Central
- Chicago Cubs
- St. Louis Cardinals
- Cincinnati Reds
- Houston Astros
- Pittsburgh Pirates
- Milwaukee Brewers
East
- Philadelphia Phillies
- New York Mets
- Atlanta Braves
- Florida Marlins
- Washington Nationals
*Wildcard – New York Mets
Playoffs
ALCS
Tampa Bay Rays vs. Minnesota Twins
NLCS
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Philadelphia Phillies
2009 World Series
Tampa Bay Rays vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
World Champions
Tampa Bay Rays
A few notes…
- The Pittsburgh Pirates are the big surprise team of the NL and baseball fans across the nation start to root for the Bucs to eclipse that .500 mark, which they do by 2 games!
- A-Rod returns a few days earlier than expected, but is reinjured in mid June and is out for the year.
- George Steinbrenner has a horrible year health-wise and stress from the struggling Yankees is believed to be a major contributing factor.
- Matt Holliday wins the MVP and is almost traded at the deadline.
- The San Francisco Giants get extremely hot in May, lead the NL West by 7 games, national media credits their staff as the best in baseball before the team struggles big time in August and September, falls out of the race.
- Carl Crawford wins AL Comeback Player of the Year, sets career highs in RBIs and Runs.
- Adam Wainwright wins NL Cy Young, even after bullpen blows 4 wins for him.
I’m still working on my MIPs list, so look for that later in the week. What’s an MIP? A Most Intriquing Player, of course.
I’ll Never Draft That Guy Again!
Good Monday Sportsfans!
First off, using the spring forward clock adjustment as an excuse to be late for work is lame! I want to thank everyone for checking my podcast on Sunday. I continue to get great numbers, as far listeners, which makes it all the effort I put into the show — and it’s alot more than most people would probably realize — worth it.
I am entertaining the thought of adding a second show, possibly Wednesday or Thursday. Again, I appreciate all the excitement people has shown me as I talked about that prospect over the weekend.
Today’s post will be about taking a look at some of the players out there that people are downright angry with heading into the 2009 season. Let’s face it, most of us fantasiers try to be centered and balanced when evaluating players for the upcoming season, but we are human and there some big leaguers who we just flat out don’t like.
And that’s fine.
But, a bi-product of that negative sentiment is that some players get a bad wrap based on what they did to make fantasy owners dislike them and that can create an opportunity for these players to be under-valued. Last year, Carlos Delgado of the Mets was a perfect example of this phenomenom.
So, man of the ‘chive, who are some of these players? I’m glad you asked.
Carl Crawford OF Rays – He was the only fantasy worthy player for years and so last year he had some injuries and didn’t live up to his drafted level. Yeah, let’s give up on this has-been, afterall he is 27 now and so I’m sure he’s used up all his talent. /sarcasm off
Eric Bedard SP Mariners – Big trade to great pitchers park and he has the nerve to get injured and not live up to the hype!? But all the so-called experts said he was worth a high round pick last year, and since he dissapointed , he must be forever banished from consideration. Yeah, I’m sure the 227 SO in ’07 was a fluke. We’re double-dipping with sarcasm aren’t we?
Jake Peavy SP Padres – At 27, and coming off of two 200+ IP seasons in which he struck out 215 and 240 batters, some experts considered Peavy good enough to draft him over Johan Santana — who everyone knows has dibs on the top SP taken in every draft. The Jake-ster then proceeded to go 10-11, pitch fewer than 200 innings and only made 166 batters whiff. Yuck! Now he’s 28 entering the ’09 season and he is falling into the 5th, 6th and even lower rounds. The “Pads” probably won’t be much better as a team, but Peavy could have a nice rebound year and could even be dealt to a contender before the deadline which might help rekindle his effort.
Colby Rasmus OF Cardinals – Alot of youngsters made their mark in the bigs last year. Many of them had much less hype than the Redbirds 5-tooler. A sprained knee took a chunk out of his season and he never had that bust-out stretch like Evan Longoria or Jay Bruce. So, many fantasy propsectors have discarded Rasmus as last year’s news and moved on to this year’s crop of gems. Not so fast my friend, as this is the year to hype the 22-year-old Rasmus since he is being given every opportunity to win a starting gig with the Cards.
Andy LaRoche 3B Pirates – Bright lights and the big city. The LA Dodgers touted this youngin’ as the next big thing to hit the infield. It was just a matter of time and the hot corner would be filled for years to come. Well, it didn’t happen and a mid-season trade to the Bucos only flat-lined an already cardiac batting average. Even big brother Adam couldn’t help. But the Pirates haven’t given up on this 25-year-old just yet and neither should you. Would it really be all that surprising if this kid rebounded in ’09 and hit 20+ HR? Keep him on the radar.
Phil Hughes SP Yankees – Yes, this is same untouchable prospect that has continued to get pounded pretty-much every time he has taken the ball in the majors. Everyone is sick of hearing about him and his potential while he has put up horrible ERA numbers the last two years, 6.62 and 4.46. Maybe we can cut the 23-year-old a little slack since it might be a little tough living up to all the NY hype, especially when the Yanks kept you instead of going after Johan Santana. This might be a kid who gets a start, puts it all together and has 6-10 solid years of production.
Robinson Cano 2B Yankees – An AL batting title has already been engraved with this 26-year-olds name on it, according to fantasy and real baseball fans all over the country. Least that’s what everyone said heading into ’08. Then a .271 season happens and everyone wonders what’s wrong? I remember when 14 HR and 72 RBIs out of a 2B was pretty awesome, and that was a down year for Cano! True, he doesn’t bring much speed, but he can still put up some meaty numbers from a typically thin fantasy position.
That’s all for now, but I’ll be highlighting more of these type of players as we get closer to the start of the season and I start noticing solid fantasy players being dissed by the masses.
Have a great week and adjust all your clocks already, including your car radio!
-Johnny Archive
Weekend M.A.S.H. Recap
Good Monday to you all!
Let’s discuss some of the haps over the weekend. Unfortunately, it was a weekend where many fantasy owners saw their hopes dashed by injuries. Before we get into it, though, I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for joining me at The Johnny Archive Fantasy Baseball Show on Sunday at BlogTalkRadio.com. It was one of the better shows
recently, since I was finally physically healthy and we had a lot of active listeners. I want to thank Lenny Melnick for calling in and talking baseball with us.
This is my first year doing a podcast and it seems every week I learn something new. It has been so cool to realize that I am building a solid core of listerners who are devoted, knowledgeable and are doing a great job of getting the word out about the show. I was prepared for the show to take a drop in numbers some when we moved into August and football began to get more national media attention. But I am amazed and thrilled to state that not only has the show not lost listeners, we’ve actually continued to grow steadily, as we have all year.
I just wanted to say “thank you” to everyone who takes the time to read this blog and listen to my podcast. You’d probably be surprised to know how much time I spend doing both, and at this point without any financial compensation. But just knowing people are interested and benefitting from what I have to say is payment enough. Obviously, at some point it would be great to be able to figure out a way to get some income from all the time and effort I put into fantasy sports. However, it’s pretty cool knowing that I enjoy this so much that I would indeed, literally, do it for free.
Okay, on to baseball…
Carlos Lee, outfielder for the Astros, was lost for the year when he was hit in the hand by Bronson Arroyo. He suffered a broken pinky finger which has to be a serious blow to a ton of
fantasy owners out there. Probably the hardest type of player to get this time of year is a power bat. Replacing Lee’s production via the free-agent market is not likely and even if your trade deadline hasn’t passed, getting a thumper like Lee will be almost impossible to acquire.
Not only do the ‘Stros lose his bat, which is one of the most consistant sources of the power in the game, but I think Lee was a great clubhouse guy this year. Many times I observed him in the dugout laughing and joking with teammates. He was also a fan favorite, so this is a big-time loss to the entire organization.
Orlando Hudson was also lost for the season on a freak base-stealing play in which the “O-dog” collided with the base runner and broke his wrist. This is probably a more substantial real baseball injury then it is a fantasy baseball blow because you can find a middle-infielder with a little speed/pop on the free-agent list. It’ll be interesting to see how the pitching staff of the Snakes copes with the loss of the captain of the infield, especially ground ball pitchers like Brandon Webb and Dan Haren.
Carl Crawford, the speedy outfielder for the upstart Tampa Bay Rays was placed on the DL with a hand injury. He said he heard a pop and feels it is a ligament injury of some sort. He’ll undergo a battery of tests this week to deteremine exactly what the diagnosis is and how long he’ll be out. Crawford wasn’t having his best season before the injury, but now it doesn’t look like he’ll get an opportunity to turn it around with a September hot streak. There are a few speed burners available in most leagues, but not the caliber of Crawford, of course.
Some key pitchers also fell victim to injuries this weekend. The White Sox lost Jose Contreras for the season with a ruptured achilles. He had just come off the DL before the game with an unrelated injury, so the thinking that Contreras would be a big part of the rotation down the stretch was dashed and now the White Sox will need to find another arm.
The St. Louis Cardinals saw their long-time ace Cris Carpenter, who had just returned from the DL a couple of weeks ago, leave the Sunday Night game against the Cubs with what is being described as a mild forearm strain. Carp’ had displayed in his previous starts that he was close to returning to the dominant form he had prior to major surgery in 2007. His next start was scheduled to be in Cincinnati, but I doubt that will happen and even if he were to make it, I highly suggest fantasy owners stay clear of that start. Frankly, this time of the year — especially in 1-year leagues — it’s not worth the trouble to take risks with pitchers who are possibly/probably injured.
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I have increased my lead back to 23 points in the Fantasy 411 Ron Cey Listener League, which makes me feel a little better as the lead had been reduced to 10 points a few weeks ago. It’s still far from over, but I have a little bit of breathing room.
In the JAIL league, I’m up by 14.5 points, but there have been several teams making a serious run at me. Keith Wire and the ‘Lollygaggers are 2nd, but the big mover this week was Kris Hatfield and the Selling Used Carrillos who jumped up to 3rd when he gained 10.5 points for the week! Joe Lano and David Miller are still in the thick of things, though they both lost ground this week. If you want a darkhorse to keep an eye on, look no further then John Page and the PBR Streetgang, who gained 3 points this week, and continues to move on up the standings. The last 6-7 weeks are going to be very challenging for all of us, but it should be interesting and fun!
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Tomorrow night, I will co-hosting a fantasy football podcast of a fantasy football draft at BlogTalkRadio.com. I’m a member of the expert fantasy football league run by Todd ”The True Guru” Farino and the public is encouraged to follow the draft over at MockDraftCentral.com, as well as listening to the podcast live as it unfolds.
Also, a week from tonight we will doing the JAIL Fantasy Football League draft live at BlogTalkRadio.com. Cruise on by the Friday Night Football podcast for more details or to catch the archive version of past shows.
Okay, that’s a wrap. Have a great rest of your day!
-Johnny Archive
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