Spring Training Report: St. Louis Blues

The question of who will open the season as the St. Louis Cardinals closer just got a lot murkier (if that's possible) with the announcement that front-runner Chris Perez will be shut down with shoulder discomfort. Tony LaRussa has not named a closer as of yet and it is not that far-fetched to see him employing a closer-by-committee approach. The other names in the mix for saves include Jason Motte, Ryan Franklin, Josh Kinney and Kyle McClellan with Motte seemingly in the lead at this point. Elsewhere around major league camps:

• Joe Torre says that Hideki Kuroda will be the Dodgers Opening Day starter. He will be followed in the rotation by Randy Wolf, Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw. Torre has yet to name his No. 5 starter.
  
• Time to scratch SP Shawn Hill off your cheat sheets. The Washington Nationals released the promising but chronically injured pitcher yesterday. Someone else will probably sign him and give him a look, but the chances of him having any value this season are very slim.
• Marlon Byrd's big spring means that Andruw Jones' chances of making the Texas Rangers out of camp are slipping away.
• Hideki Matsui will be restricted to DH duties until June. This could be a problem for the Yankees and manager Joe Girardi. Jorge Posada is coming back from shoulder surgery and won't be able to catch everyday. LF Johnny Damon also seemed slated for DH duty at least once a week to help keep his legs fresh. So it looks that Matsui will be sitting at least once a week and with that his overall numbers will take a hit. Adjust your values accordingly.
• Carlos Villanueva. That is a name you are likely to hear called out late in a lot of drafts after today. Closer Trevor Hoffman strained a rib cage muscle over the weekend and might miss the beginning of the season. In case you forgot, Hoffman is 41 years old. Villaneuva struggled as a starter last year but flourished once moved to the pen. Before Hoffman was signed manager Ken Macha mentioned that Villeneuva was first in line for closer duties, so likely he is the Brewers Plan B.
• No real surprise, but the Jose Reyes will bat third experiment has likely been scrapped.
• Not that you were likely looking to draft the Pirates 4th or 5th starter this year, but it is still worth noting that Tom Gorzelanny has been demoted and former Yankee Ross Ohlendorf has firmly grabbed the 4th spot.

Luck of the Irish

With less than a week to go before my NFBC Main Event draft it is time to cross one more thing off my to-do list.
I need to come up with a name for my team.


A quick look at the last names of my competitors reads like a roll call from a Sopranos convention: DiVeglio, Bono, Martino, DiMauro, Ciepela, Crescenzi, Piazza, Janovici and Sisto. I look at that list and sense that Ryan Patrick Carey needs to call on his Gaelic roots and put it out for all to see. Never mind that I'm half Italian - in this league I will assume the role of resident Mick.

So, we need to come up with a name. I have a short list but am open to any clever suggestions. Here is what I have so far:

Drunken Irishmen
Irish Rovers
Finnegan's Wake
Vernicious Micks
Shane McGowan's Liver
Lucky N' Charming

Got anything better? Let me know.

"My [butt] feels good and that's that."

That's how Erik Bedard summed up his successful return to the mound today for the Mariners. It was his first appearance since being scratched due to a sore butt. Bedard has a 1.59 ERA on the spring in 5.2 innings pitched, so it's time to move him back onto your radar as a big value play later in drafts. It should be noted that this is a contract year for Bedard and if he proves he is healthy the M's will surely deal him by mid season. Lots of other stuff happening in camps as teams continue to prepare for the season and we prepare for our drafts:

• If you were thinking of drafting Jason Schmidt as an end-game pick, you might want to think again. Manager Joe Torre said he was out of the running for the 5th Starter's job. It bears mentioning that Jeff Weaver got shelled and will be used exclusively in relief.
• Cole Hamels is going to have his elbow examined, which is never something you like to hear at this point in camp. He very well may be fine, but if I was drafting this week I would be very leery of spending the high pick or big bucks it will take to draft him.
• By now you know about Ervin Santana's elbow sprain which will likely delay the beginning of his season. He reportedly started his throwing program today, which while encouraging still can't get me to stop thinking about Francisco Liriano. Like Liriano, Santana relies on his Slider to be effective, throwing it 33% of the time last season. My worry is that when he returns, will he shy away from the slider?? Will he compensate by changing his arm slot and lose control? History tells me that the answers are Yes and Yes, at least in his first few starts.
• I guess the fact that the Mariners signed Chad Cordero means we have to at least add him to the closer mess/mix in Seattle.
• Khalil Greene is having a great camp, hitting .447 as he settles into the St. Louis lineup. I temper your excitement by pointing out that another SS, Angel Berroa is tearing it up this spring at a .429 clip.
• Baltimore's Adam Jones stole his 7th base of the spring yesterday. He stated earlier in ST that he wanted to steal more bases this year, and if he can deliver on that promise he will be a nice find later in drafts (ADP 184)
• Jordan Zimmerman had another nice day pitching 4 scoreless frames and striking out 6. For the spring, Zimmermann, 22, hasn't been scored upon in 12 1/3 innings and has struck out 16 batters.
  

National Fantasy Baseball Championship

Today I will be participating in an NFBC satellite draft in preparation for the Main Event. I realize that many of you may not be aware what the NFBC is, so follow one of these links to their homepage to see for yourself. As you can see, it is a national contest with an overall grand prize of $100,000.
This season thee will be 390 individuals competing in 4 different cities: Las Vegas, New York, Orlando and Chicago. Also, due to the lousy economy, organizers have added a phone option this year that will allow those that could not afford to travel to the live drafts to continue to participate. The NFBC holds the Main Event draft simutaneously in the 4 cities. In addition to the Main Event, the NFBC has bookend events on Friday and Sunday. On Friday, they hold Al, NL and Mixed League Auctions and on Sunday they hold their Super and Ultimate drafts in which owners pay $2500 and $5000 dollars to compete. The entry fee for the Main Event is $1300.

In the buildup to the big draft weekend, the NFBC also offers a full slate of Satellite drafts. These range in price from $125 to $1000, and are a great place to dip your toes into this competiton. I played in two Satellite leagues last year and was lucky enough to win one of my leagues, here are the final standings from that league. So, by virtue of winning my league I won a Free Invite to this years Main Event. I will be blogging a little more about that team this week as I look back on what went right with that team. The NFBC has also teamed up with NBC this year, and is offering an online contest consisting of 12 team leagues. The entry fees are lower and this contest already has over 400 people signed up with weeks still remaining til drafts take place.

So, today is my last Satellite before the Main Event. I have the #3 pick and have already decided I am going to take whoever is left between Jose Reyes and David Wright. I already have Albert Pujols on another Satellite team and as a New Yorker, look forward to having a local star to anchor my team and follow all season long (even if it's a Met). I will post the results of this draft later in the day. Sorry, gotta go check my sheets and prepare for the draft to begin.

Stuck in the Middle

Okay - the results are in and I now know what spot I will be drafting from and who I will be drafting against. Drum roll please.......#8 pick.

Good news and bad news here.

First off I got my 8th preferred slot from my KDS - and ended up at 8. I like to draft in the middle because you can see the draft developing around from both directions. You don't have to wait to long between picks in either direction, so it makes it easier to keep yourself from missing out on positional runs on scarce positions, like Catchers and Closers.

The somewhat bad news is that since the Arod injury, in my mind there is a definite talent dropoff after pick #7. My draft board right now from #1-7 looks like this: Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, Albert Pujols, David Wright, Grady Sizemore, Ryan Braun and Miguel Cabrera. 8 would have been alot sweeter before the news that Arod would miss at least 6 weeks as you could have just allowed the draft to dictate who to choose. Sizemore, Braun or Cabrera would have fallen to you and you happily snap him up. Pick 8 is a tough one now - You have to consider all the guys not in the Elite Tier of players: Mark Teixeira, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton, Matt Holliday, Carlos Lee, Dustin Pedroia and then the real wildcards...Chase Utley and Arod himself. I will be looking at all the players mentioned above and will likely go to find out more about hip injuries than I ever planned as I evaluate the risk/reward of Utley and Arod.

Who knows, since it is a New York league, I can say a prayer that someone above me has to have Big Tex and somehow Sizemore slides to me at #8. Hey, it's my birthday...let me enjoy my wishes. Anyway, here are the guys I will be drafting with on March 21st. Most interesting name on the list, Mike Piazza. Could it be him???? We'll see.

NEW YORK LEAGUE 4
1. Lenny Diveglio, Medford, New York
2. John Bono, Albertson, New York
3. Joe Martino, Melville, New York
4. Brian Zirlin, Short Hills, New Jersey
5. Louis DiMauro, Staten Island, New York
6. Steve Ciepela, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
7. Michael Crescenzi, Wake Forest, North Carolina
8. Ryan Carey, New York, New York
9. Bobby Brendler, Rockville, Maryland
10. Larry Lensak, Wayne, New Jersey
11. Mike Piazza, Watervielt, New York
12. John Sisto, New Rochelle, New York
13. Scott Fleming, Totowa, New Jersey
14. Justin Pappas, Farmingdale, New York
15. Steve Janovici, Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Today is my birthday.

Friday the 13th...Gotta love it!!!

So what am I doing to celebrate the big day...as you might have guessed, right now it is fantasy related. I am camped out in front of my computer at high noon here on the East Coast along with 100's of other National Fantasy Baseball Championship owners eagerly awaiting the announcement of my League and draft position for the Main Event.

The Vegas leagues are coming out first, so I'll have to wait a little longer to learn my fate and begin my 8 days of draft prep for my Main Event draft.

KDS - What is it???

The first big decision of the NFBC season is setting your KDS. For those of you saying to yourself, "What the heck is a KDS?", here is a primer:

KDS stands for Kentucky Derby Style preferences. It is the system used to determine draft positions in the NFBC Main Event, Ultimate League and all NFBC Satellite Leagues. The KDS process allows owners to rank their order of preference for Draft Day, ranking their preferences 1 through 15 before the leagues are randomly selected.

It adds another level of strategy to the season as you get some say in determining where you will pick in the draft. Even before the leagues are formed all owners submit a ranking list to the people running the contest. Once leagues are formed, names are drawn at random. Rather than simply slotting the owner into that position, KDS allows the owner to indicate alternate preferences via your KDS rankings.

As an example, I set my KDS preferences this way for the Main Event:

1, 4, 6, 5, 7, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

Now I did this quickly right before the deadline, so I didn't really spend a lot of time debating the merits of my choices - but I made one clear choice - after pick one, I moved the 2nd and 3rd slot down in my preferences. How will this work? Easy. When the names are drawn, the powers that be at the NFBC will look at the corresponding owners KDS and assign the best possible position based on your rankings. If my name gets drawn second say, and the #1 pick is already taken, I would be assigned pick #4 instead of pick #2.

Some owners would rather draft in the middle, if they are selected early in their league; others like to stay near the top and others like to move down to the lower end. Many owners leave their KDS 1-15 and live with the luck of the draw. The good people who run the NFBC say that most NFBC owners will get a more preferred draft spot than the random slot would have given them.

I personally like the KDS system a lot and if you are the commissioner of a league looking to add a little spice to the run-up of your upcoming draft, give KDS a try. I think you will find that your league members will enjoy the added element of draft strategy.