Movestown, Population Me

Ah, the season is so young and one should just rest on their wonderful laurels and watch their teams statistics grow. That is, unless you own Mike Gonzalez and Brian Fuentes for your closers, and realize right off the bat if you don’t trade for saves you’ll be pulling a solid 1 or 2 in a category. Which will not win a league, by god. Which brings me to my first trade this season:

I trade Mike Cameron to Zegen for Brandon Morrow

If you remember, I have so many outfielders I couldn’t start Mike Cameron. I did manage to slot him into my line-up when he hit two homers (BONER!) but otherwise his starts have been wasted. I have all 5 outfield spots covered by sweet stats (besides YOU Maggs, hit a double or something!), and I still have Markakis as my UTIL. So yeah, you could say I was dealing from a strength.

So, bye bye Mikey C. and hello Brandon Morrow. Morrow is intriguing, a guy who went from closer to starter to closer this year, and the ride was bumpy. However, the day I made the trade, literally right after I clicked “Accept,” Jason Grey had this to say about Mr. Morrow’s future:

On Friday, we saw the power of a fully armed and operational Morrow, as he retired the Tigers on 12 pitches (11 of them strikes) to earn his third save. He legitimately hit 100 mph twice, and was 97 mph on the low end. The one ball was an 89 mph splitter that had sick break and dropped off the table, and Curtis Granderson just managed to hold up on it. This was the Morrow who posted a 1.47 ERA, a WHIP under 1 and 47 strikeouts in 36 2/3 innings as a reliever last season.

Um, could you say this destroyed any qualms I had with my acquisition? Yes. To be honest, I’d simply like a K/per inning with 22 saves and I’ll be happy. Cameron can be a beast for Zegen and that’s fine. Also, I’m not sure he’s planning on hitting .300 for the season. Just a guess.

Dropped Emmanuel Burriss

As much as this hurts, I don’t really need him currently. He was just moved back to eighth in the Giants lineup, and their are other options on waivers who have as much upside if not more. Plus he just can’t hit.

Activated Scott Baker

After stashing Scotty on my DL through his terrible starts, I feel confident that I will play him against the Rays. Much like I’m confident that he’ll probably get thrashed, but hell, what do I care? It’s just my precious ratios, right?

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Makin’ Moves

I gave up a three-run jack...TO A PITCHER

The first week of fantasy baseball is coming to a close, and my team is wonderfully hot and cold. One night I bash four homers (with 2 on the bench!), the next none. Thus is the first week.

Also, it happened again. Mike Cameron, on my bench, terrible career stats versus Randy Johnson. I start Randy Johnson. RJ gives up a solo shot to Cameron. On my bench. ALWAYS. HAPPENS. TO. ME.

Anyways, here are some roster tinkerings:

Dropped Andy Laroche for Emilio Bonifacio

There were some angry human beings in my league when I pulled this pick-up. Bonifacio had just stolen his second base, and I had been weighing whether or not to grab him for a week. This made it easier. Now if I could only have that homer and three steals…

Meanwhile, Laroche had a great spring and then started sucking. He could still be good this season, so this could come back to haunt me.

Dropped Jordan Zimmerman for Brandon Inge

Look, I drafted Ramon Hernandez. Need I say more? This gives me much better flexibility at catcher, and Inge also qualifies at 3B and OF in Yahoo leagues. Also, he has 25 homer potential. Yum.

Zimmerman will be dope for someone else’s team. And by dope, I mean he’ll have great K numbers, great ratios and no wins for the Nats.  He’s basically a carbon-copy of three pitchers I already have on my team.

Now I just have to make those stupid roster tinkering moves that make you want to smack yourself in the mouth.  Start Inge or sit him?  Will Hernandez hit two bombs on my bench and then never homer for the rest of the year?

Only time will smell.

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Separating the Wheat from the Chaff(Rajai Davis)

Last night I decided to bolster my chances of owning every single hypey pitcher available on the market. So I picked myself up Kevin Correia, a young-former-middle-reliever who has been slotted in the starter pool for the San Francisco. You see, Noah Lowry is injured, although one would say he is cowering in his mother’s basement, afraid to pitch with such poor run support.

So it comes down to this: Either Correia or Jonathan Sanchez get the last spot in the rotation once Lowry returns. I got my money on Correia and Zegen is on the other side of the fence (which I refer to as the wrong side of the fence). Sanchez has great make-up, and he always enjoyed an astonishing K rate. But he’s a reliever, you’ll see. Let’s check out their starting stats from last season.

Sanchez (in 4 starts): 0-3, allowed 13 earned runs in 16.1 innings of work, including the final outing where he barely made it out of the first inning, allowing 4 runs. He struck out 19 batters, but walked 5 and gave up 24 HITS. That’s a pant-load of hits, if I don’t say so myself.

Correia (in 6 starts): In 41.2 innings, he went 1-1, giving up a glorious 13 runs. In fact, only one of those outings involved more than 2 runs being scored on him. He struck out 34 batters in that span, walking only 12 batters and giving up 34 hits. Yeah, it’s ten more hits than Sanchez, but he pitched 25.1 more innings!

So yeah, Correia dope, Sanchez nope.

Also, goodbye Rajai Davis. Maybe someday you’ll get some regular duty as a speedy outfielder. His yahoo player note was afire as soon as I dropped him, making me think that he was starting; regret and panic set in.

And then I read the note:

“Apr 10 OF Rajai Davis is excited about the opportunity to wear No. 42 next Tuesday, the 61st anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s first game in the majors, which broke the color line. On that day, players are allowed to wear Robinson’s number as a tribute. Last year, some entire teams suited up in No. 42, including the Pirates. Davis was in the Pirates’ farm system at the time and didn’t get an opportunity, and now he says he wants to take advantage off it.”

Approximate fantasy worth? Nil.

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Hilarity: Profitable at the Expense of Others

Tonight I just pulled a classic move in our league. Our waiver pool is full of horror shows like Jamie Moyer and Merkin Valdez. However, let’s say that someone’s closer went down with tendinitis, a terrible ailment as it creeps slowly up your arm and devours your soul.

That soul, of course, belongs to chronically half-broken Raphael Soriano, a pretty brilliant closer without the addiction to soothing Jacuzzis, back rubs and the other perks of rehab.

I quickly scooped up Peter Moylan tonight, some big white guy with a goatee who Bobby Cox squints at from time to time.

Anyways, he’s got a huge old head and I now have 4 closers. That’s preposterous. You may wonder, where does a lonely man spend the night with two closers tucked under each arm?

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