Baseball

Many fantasy owners feel it’s unnecessary to draft stable closers since you can always find someone either late in your draft or in free agency.  You don’t have to look further than Ryan Franklin or David Aardsma from 2009 as support. 

So, this week we’ll take a look at the National League bullpen situations and next week we’ll shift our focus to the American League, looking at each team’s closer and those who could step in if something were to happen.  Additionally, we’ll continue to update these columns as draft day moves closer.

Anytime the Oakland A's deficiencies are brought up, the first thing that tends to come up is "They need a shortstop."

Why?

Cliff Pennington hit .279/.342/.418 last year. Shortstops as a whole hit .271/.328/.393.

He ranked 12th among shortstops in OBP and OPS. That places him in average to above-average starter territory, and Pennington is only 25.

His UZR last season wasn't incredible (-7.3 UZR/150), but that knocks him only from a bit above average to average.

2010 Top 50 Twins Prospects | #43 | Brad Tippett

On Wednesday, the writers made a mockery of the baseball Hall of Fame yet again when they left a handful of worthy players out of the hallowed institution. The most notable player left out was Roberto Alomar, who many talking heads have argued is the finest all-around second baseman of all time.

What makes this an even greater shame is that five writers turned in ballots that were completely blank.

This is now the eighth installment in my series in which I am naming who I feel are the top ten players in the history of each MLB franchise.

With the Brewers struggles throughout the 1990s and most of the 2000s, this list is dominated by players from the 1980s, and there are seven players from the 1982 World Series team on this list.

Now that I have gotten into teams with a slightly larger talent pool, I need to set some restrictions on minimum Plate Appearances/Innings Pitched for the candidates.

There is no doubt in the minds of many baseball followers that although some teams lose in style, none can quite do it like the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates have set a sports record for most consecutive losing seasons. Though I am an avid Pirates fan, I must admit I know when to say we stink.

It isn't all the players fault though. The management here was awful for a really long time. We've had awful players stroll through here such as Pokey Reese and Josh Fogg. The losses are blamed on our General Managers and anyone who was involved in signing and scouting our so called "players".

Owner : David Glass

Team : Kansas City Royals

Education : BA, General Business, Missouri State (Springfield, MO)

In 1937, someone who wasn't very intelligent invented the product pictured above. If it isn't evident from the image or from this article's title, the Baby Cage was meant to give an infant some fresh air by suspending them outside of a window in a wire cage.

Putting a child in a cage is inhumane enough, but hanging that cage dozens of feet above a busy street with nothing holding it up but thin metal rods borders on sadism. 

A big deal has been made about the length of Matt Holliday's contract.  There's certainly a risk that his production could decline after age 35 or that a big injury will hit him.   But this is something the current Cardinals ownership and management have done when they want to lock down a player to be part of their core. 

They've done it with Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Albert Pujols, and technically, Chris Carpenter.  The Cards added five years with an option to the one year with an option remaining on his previous deal.

Congratulations to Andre Dawson for getting into the Hall of Fame, and as always after the Hall of Fame voting a few short sided characters (who seem to know nothing about baseball) start griping that Mark McGwire isn't in the Hall of Fame.

First of all, I want to give a disclaimer that I DO think that he should be in the Hall of Fame...eventually. I think he is deserving of the Hall of Fame simply because even if he used steroids, allegedly, when he hit all of those home runs, the reality is that the pitchers throwing to him were 'roided up too.