Baseball

For Philadelphia Phillies' pitcher Matt Anderson, being in Clearwater, Florida is a blessing.

A former flamethrower on the hill, arm injuries derailed Anderson's career before it even began. The former first overall draft pick was limited to far fewer appearances with the Detroit Tigers and Colorado Rockies than many would have expected when he was still a top prospect—long before he was considered one of the biggest draft busts of all time.

One of the more important aspects of drafting in fantasy sports is finding a solid “sleeper.” As most of you know, a sleeper is a player who is ranked low in the draft, but turns in gold numbers during the season.

With the fantasy baseball season rapidly approaching, and mock-draft lobbies filling up in anticipation, let’s take a look at potential pitching sleepers for this year.

Madison Bumgarner

There hasn’t been a lot to get excited about recently if you are a Pittsburgh Pirates fan.

It was again a year not to remember for the Chicago Cubs in 2010, as they once again failed to deliver on high expectations.

We’ve taken a look at third baseman for standard formats (click here to view) and for keeper leagues (click here to view).  Now, we have to turn our attention to those leagues that utilize OBP.  There aren’t too many changes to our standard rankings, outside of maybe an old favorite making his presence felt at the bottom.  Let’s take a look:

The last time the Chicago Cubs won a World Series, Teddy Roosevelt was president and World War I was six years in the future. Yeah, it's been a while.  

Three years ago the Cubs made a run at the playoffs, but a couple of bad seasons and a strong NL Central have pushed the lovable losers to the back-burner of Major League Baseball. A lot has happened since their last playoff appearance though, and a new ownership group coupled with a new manager may offer Cubs fans some hope. 

Just a little more than one month before the start of the 2011 MLB Season, the two top hitters in the game have dominated the news leading up to spring training.  Albert Pujols for his contract situation with the St. Louis Cardinals and Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers for his recent well-publicized DUI arrest.

9 Innings Blog will be bringing you previews of every Major League Baseball team for the next 30 days. This is in accordance with out 30 teams in 30 days series. Today, we will preview the 2011 Arizona Diamondbacks who are managed by Kirk Gibson. Gibson is entering his first full season with the team.

Quick, check your calender. OK it's still 2011. Yes, that was the theme of this offseason for your usual big spending, aggressive New York Yankees. I'm not sure if Hank and Hal Steinbrenner know what year it is, because they sure as hell don't know how to construct a team. If I didn't know any better I would of thought Tommy Boy was running this organization.

Every team enters every season with questions. 

The bottom line question for the 2011 Philadelphia Phillies is this: Can they live up to this unprecedented hype and bring home the franchise's third World Series?

I'm not going to go quite that far, but I'd like to give some evidence that, to me, suggests that there is absolutely no way that this Phillies team does not walk away with their fifth consecutive NL East Crown.