Results tagged ‘ Joe Mauer ’
Young Chase
Players On The Spot
Chase Headley-The San Diego Padres’ Most Important Hitter
Headley arrived in the major leagues with post-Ryan Braun hype, meaning any minor leaguer with any type of hype was expected to immediately rake at the major league level like Braun. But things haven’t worked out well for Headley as he settles in for his third season with the Padres. He hasn’t hit for the power everyone expected and while some of that can be blamed on PETCO Park, Headley has hit more groundballs and made less contact than the league average. These characteristics don’t lend well to a corner outfielder and a middle of the order hitter.
So with all of this uncertainty and negativity surrounding Headley, why is he so important to San Diego? First, Headley is going to be the man hitting behind All Star Adrian Gonzalez. If Headley continues to struggle, opposing teams will simply pitch around Gonzalez and not allow the Padres one great hitter to beat them. Second, Headley has played left field the last two years, but played third in the minors. So over the winter the Padres traded away their only other power source, outside of Gonzalez, in Kevin Kouzmanoff, to free up third base. There is some thought around baseball that having Headley play an unnatural position caused him to struggle at the plate. Whatever the reason, this it is Headley’s position to loose and if he struggles expect the Padres struggles to continue as well.
Players On The Spot
Delmon Young-The Days May Be Dwindling
I really wanted to start off by making a Young and the Restless reference, but that kind of thing is as tired as Young’s game itself. Delmon is a very talented player, although he has yet to really follow through on that talent. There are some obvious things wrong with his game, most notably plate discipline. Last season, Young struck out 92 times while walking only in 12 plate appearances. I don’t care what type of league you are playing in, that’s not good. This lack of judgment caused Young to not find pitches he can drive, which lead to his Jack Wilson-like OPS. Yet, with all this said, Young is still only 24 years old so he still has time to develop his game.
The Minnesota Twins need Young to deliver this season to add some right-handed balance to the likes of Mauer, Morneau, and Kubel. But this is also a significant season for Young on a personal level as well. There is usually a series of measures that teams do when a young player struggles. Organizations will send a player back to the minors, bench them, change positions, bring in another player for competition and finally trade the struggling player. Looking back over Young’s short career, he has already gone through most of those. So in actuality this may be Young’s last shot at a starting job at the major league level. His days as an arbitration eligible player are coming to an end, which means his chances of cashing in on a big time contract are becoming less and less. More importantly, this may be his last opportunity to become an All Star rather than a bust that had tremendous amount of potential.
-Matt “Hack” Hackenmiller
It Is Alive!
Hey there!
Guess who is getting ready to rock n’ roll for the upcoming 2010 baseball season?! Yeppers, I am feeling that rumbly in my tumbly and that can only mean one thing (I watched too much Winnie-the-pooh as a child?)! It’s almost BASEBALL TIME! Wootage, baby!
Okay, so what does Johnny Archive have planned for ’10? Well, the podcast is definitely coming back — stay tuned for an official season premier date and time. Can you believe it, this will be year 3 and we’re getting better each and every year. The Fantasy Sports Channel Hosts, of which I am a member, just took down a nice award at the FSTA Awards as best podcast. Sweet, aye?! I’ll be focusing on a little different focus this, a smidge less extra stuff and a ton of more specific fantasy baseball content. To that, the podcast will be 1 hour long, still Sunday Evening (not 100% set in stone at this time) and there will be a few special episodes splashed in through the season.
Speaking of longevity, can you believe this little ol’ blog has been going strong for 5 years now?! WoW! I know I ran out of gas a little at the end of last year, and thank goodness Hack helped, but I will try and be more consistent all year in 2010.
What about the J.A.I.L. league, JA? Well, I’m glad you asked. It’s is back for it’s 4th season and we still have that strong core of players that got it going in the beginning. We’ll have a couple of new faces this year as we all go after Bill Brickley and his 2009 title. But this league has amazing staying power and I would argue some of the absolute best fantasiers in the game today. Looks like we’ll be doing our draft Saturday March 6 at 3PM ET, but I’ll confirm that as soon as I know for sure. And yes, I’ll be covering the draft live at BlogTalkRadio.com.
Today’s post is the first of many this year and I will again be doing what I can to help you get that inside edge in your fantasy baseball league. As regular readers know, I enjoy looking outside the other so-called experts realm of thinking to give a different perspective on players and their values. For example, I was high on Joe Mauer last year because his value and upside compared to where you would be drafting him (rounds 7-12) was very good, this year I am staying clear of Mauer. Why? Because he will be a 1st or high 2nd rounder this year and there’s too many red flags (position, health, new ballpark etc…).
I’ll have much, much more on Mauer and the other players I am concerned with as well as players I think will be bargains on draft day. Once again, my list of MIPs will be filled with surprises. Ummm, I forgot, what’s a “MIP”? MIP = Most Intriguing Player
So, I hope you had a nice quiet, safe and restful winter, but it’s time to get busy. We’ve got work to do. Those Yoohoo Showers don’t grow on trees, ya know. I know, that doesn’t really make sense, but you know what I mean.
I’m back, baby! Let’s get this party started!
-JA
Good News, Bad News 04/29/09
Good News – Los Angeles is still a city.
Bad News – April 29th marks the day of the LA riots many years ago.
Good News – The US Supreme Court has ruled broadcasters can be fined for cursing on “live” T.V.
Bad News – Matt Vasgersian, of the MLB Network, just dropped 2 Tax Brackets.
Good News – “Matty V”, who is know for his humor and wit, tried interjecting some humor into the video of Rockies OF Brad Hawpe getting hit in the neck/head with a baseball and having to leave the field on a stretcher.
Bad News – Sometimes humor is just simply not appropriate, especially when your “joke” has a hint of racism.
Good News - We’ve made it to the 100th day of Barack Obama’s presidency!
Bad News – This is a very sad day for all those “Tea-Baggers”.
Good News – General Motors has announced a detailed plan to try and prevent the company from going into bankruptcy.
Bad News – They’re going to kill “The Bandit’s” car! GM will phase out several brands, including Pontiac — who made the Trans Am, which is the type of car Burt Renoylds drove in those Smokey and the Bandit movies.
Good News – From what I’ve heard, the Fantasy Sports Channel’s coverage (which included 2 Johnny Archive shows) of the NFL Draft went well this past weekend.
Bad News - Apparently, ESPN’s coverage of the NFL Draft that includes Chris Berman — who has been thought of as the king of draft for many years — has lost some of it’s coolness. Many sports fans are turning to alternatives like the NFL Network and The Fantasy Sports Channel at BlogTalkRadio for a fresh look at NFL Draft coverage.
Good News – I bit the bullet on Carlos Gomez and waived him in a couple leagues, the ones with shorter benches.
Bad News – It’s always hard when you tout a guy all spring and he gets off to a slow start, but better to look at the situaton openly, rather than to keep a guy out of pride.
Good News – Twins All-star catcher Joe Mauer is close to returning, which means owners who gambled on him have to feel good.
Bad News – A ton of owners who tried to avoid the risk of Mauer and take “safer” picks like Brian McCann, Ryan Doumit and Chris Iannetta are being reminded why Catcher is such a tough position for fantasiers to handicap.
Good News – New York City residents were in no danger from that huge government airplane that was buzzing the city the other day with 2 military jets following close behind.
Bad News – Everyone remembers the George Bush photo-op when he appeared in front of that “Mission Accomplished” banner, but this one was worse.
Good News – Twitter is really getting popular and you can find a lot of people using it now-a-days.
Bad News – Sadly, the spam is increasing so fast that it’s almost making Twitter overly trendy and useless.
Good News – The government seems to be doing a lot to prepare the citizens in case this Swine flu starts to get out of control in the United States.
Bad News – Some news outlets are spedning way too much time on the political correctness of what to call the flu. Swine-Flu insults pigs, Mexican-Flu insults Mexicans so now they’re call it a bunch of numbers. Bar codes are people too!
Have a great day!
-Johnny Archive
Catching Quagmire
Let’s talk backstops today, shall we?
And no, I’m not talking about this Quagmire. Silly, boy.
I was gazing at the top 300 players ranked at CBSSports.com and noticed an interesting little tidbit. The players who come in at numbers 68, 69, 70 and 71 are all catchers. Now, I’m sure you can figure out who they are, but I wonder if you agree that they all deserve to be ranked/drafted in this range?
I suspect that at least one will not live up to this billing and probably one will exceed it. The tough part, as usual, is figuring out which player is which. So, a closer look is advised.
#68 Brian McCann C ATL
First off, Brian’s birthday is tomorrow (Feb. 20th), so Happy Birthday Brian! He’ll be 25. WoW! He’s only 25. Doesn’t it seem like he’s some veteran that has been around for years already? Actually, he is. He’s got 3 solid years of MLB experience averaging around 500 PA per year. He’s tough, but fairly durable — for a catcher anyway. The combination of power (averaging 21 bombs a year and 90 RBIs) and AVG (he’s .300+ 2 of the 3 years) makes him a real nice “get” as your 1st string catcher.
#69 Russell Martin C LAD
This guy also celebrated a birthday recently (Feb. 15th) when he turned 26. Happy Birthday, Ru-Mar! As I touched on yesterday, I bet alot of fantasy owners are kinda miffed at Martin entering ’09. So many expectations and such a bad start to ’08. His end of the year tallies aren’t that bad (.280/13HR/69RBI/87R/18SB), but probably came way too late for most of the fantasy owners who stepped up and drafted him or bid heavy for this catcher with speed. 650 PA shows that this guy gets his opportunities.I wouldn’t be at all surprised if ’08 was the small step backwards before the big leap forward in 2009.
#70 Geovany Soto C CHI
Ge-So has a special place in my heart. I nabbed (stole? 
) this guy early in ’08 from a desperate owner in the JAIL league and rode him to the JAIL championship. He was about as close to an untradable player as I had last year — another year where I traded every single player during the season that I drafted. His birthday was in January (26), close, but so much for the Happy Birthday run. But he certainly continues the run of talented young catchers. I have socks that are 26 years old! Anyway. This guy is slow; he will help not with SB. That’s it. That’s the only bad thing I can think to say about this stud who is a great fantasy catcher and even better real baseball backstop. Let’s see here: 563PA/26HR/86RBI/35DBL. Yeah, he can be on my team.
#71 Joe Mauer C MIN
The “Mauer Power” is not exactly accurate, as he’s failed to reach double digit homers the last two seasons. Somewhat surprising since he’s so good at working the count into favorable situations. He has no problem taking a walk and utilizing his speed on the basepaths (98 Runs), though his stolen base days are definitely over. He is clutch, driving in 85 last year, which exceeded his previous high in ’06 (84). Playing in the great white north hurts his pub, but sharp “fantasiers” (my word, if you use it you owe me a nickel ) know him and will quite comfortably “settle” for him as their anchor at catcher. This youngin’ (have I mentioned my socks yet?) won’t be 26 until April ’09.
So, there you have it, four of the finest young catchers you’ll ever see for a long time. Sit back, grab some snacks, and enjoy watching these blue-chippers do their thing for the next 5 years or so. It’ll be fun…especially if you have one, or more, on your fantasy team.
Okay, Archive, which one is the best? Good question, grasshopper. Snatch the tastykake from my hand, too slow!, and I will tell you. On second thought, I have decided to ponder this question further. *Btw, you have to imagine me talking in an old Chinese accent to fully enjoy that last sentence. For the answer you must listen for to me speak gently to you. If you cannot hear my soothing voice, perhaps tuning into my podcast this Sunday at BlogTalkRadio.com will help you grasp the essence of life or at least which of these catchers I will target in 2009 drafts.
Well, that’s about it, I’m heading out to grab some food. I have this intense hunger for egg rolls for some reason…
-Johnny Archive
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