Credibility. I know it’s hard to trust a new guy coming in calling himself “The Fantasy God” without knowing what he really knows. But after a few short days those of you who followed my blog are realizing that the things I say come true. I have a gift. And those of you who listened are being rewarded. And those of you who haven’t listened will soon start.
When I look at the top ranked catchers so far I see JP Arencibia hitting .429 with 2 HR and 5 RBI. I see Jorge Posada hitting .286 with 3 HR and 6 RBI. And I see Russell Martin hitting .429 with a HR and 2 SB. Look at my last blog about waiver wire pickups when I quoted, “Jorge Posada will be the DH for the Yankees and should play most days. He’s a better option than owning a guys like John Buck or Carlos Ruiz. JP Arencibia is also worth looking at. Arencibia may hurt your average a bit, but he has a lot of power potential in a power hungry Blue Jays lineup.” Enough said.
At 1B how about Brandon Belt? I said in my 1B rankings to get him immediately if he made the opening day team. I repeated myself in the waiver wire pickups blog. Belt hit a massive HR in his major league debut and even stole a base the following night. He is a future 5 tool guy. Kila Ka’aihue was also praised in both blogs and he already has a walk off HR.
Guess who hit a grandslam on Opening Day at 2B? Neil Walker. He’s only hitting .417 so far. Not only did I praise him and rank him high, but I’ve had to defend myself for my projections on him in the comments. Gordon Beckham, who I said was a great value pick, is also off to a hot start. 2B was very deep this year, and The Fantasy God said it first.
How are you Pablo Sandoval owner’s feeling? Do you like his .333 AVG with a HR so far? Do you like how he’s already climbed from 8th to 5th in the batting order? Expect more big things from panda. To quote my last blog once again, “Believe it or not, Chipper Jones may be your guy. Chipper is healthy (at least this hour), starting, and hitting in the heart of the best lineup in the National League. He has Prado in front of him and McCann, Heyward, and Freeman behind him. Enough said.” Chipper looks great, is batting third, and hitting .353 with a couple of RBI’s.
At SS don’t sleep on my boy Nishioka. He now has hits in 3 of his first 4 Major League games and has already stolen a base. He had his first 2 hit performance yesterday. Expect him to continue to improve as he gets used to everything in America.
Remember when I ranked Nelson Cruz 4th on my outfielder rankings and said he could be the AL MVP? I also said he is better than Josh Hamilton. Well, Cruz has a HR in all 4 games so far, and thus leads all of baseball in long balls. If he stays healthy he wins MVP. You should have listened and drafted him.
I understand that its still early. But that’s my point here. If these guys who I said would perform have already performed after a few days, imagine what they will continue to do. So now that I’ve earned a little credibility, Its time for the doubters to start listening.
For now I offer you Danny Espinosa. Espy is hitting .444 and should soon replace Ian Desmond as the National’s leadoff hitter (who is hitting .000). Espinosa looks like he may hit for a decent average and has a nice balance of power and speed. He will eventually be a 20/20 hitter and if he’s the permanent leadoff hitter that could be now.
A quick note. It’s okay to jump on guys who start hot if they have a decent ceiling because its low risk for you. If you have a move limit be smart about who you add. Looking at Yahoo rankings I see Ryan Hanigan ranked #5 overall. I would not cut any decent catcher to grab him. But a guy like Carlos Quentin who is ranked #8 is good to take a chance on because of his ceiling. Don’t be fooled by buying high though. Guys like Kyle Drabek, Jaime Garcia, (and I hate to say it) Chris Tillman, probably already peaked for the season. Will they have another game all year as good as their first? I doubt it for all 3. So don’t go crazy cutting an established pitcher who had one bad outing to pick up Drabek or Tillman.
The main thing to say this early is to hold on to your talent. Its a loooooooong season and the last thing you want to do is start cutting guys in the first month and then watch them explode in May or June. And watch your waiver wire to grab guys who are prematurely cut. If you see a guy who was drafted in the first 9 rounds cut, you probably should jump on him. Because baseball is a very streaky sport and sometimes it takes guys awhile to get started. So if you see a Manny Ramirez, or Max Scherzer, or Derek Jeter cut, get them immediately. Their numbers will be there at the end.
Any questions on who to add? Who to trade? Strategy? Want a review of your team? Comment or email me. I always respond. Thanks for reading.
Mark – shoot me your e-mail. I’d like a review of my team.
@MGW, The Agenda – mbrown3486@gmail.com
Send me your email too, please!
What’s your email? Mrw562@gmail.com
it is extremely douchey to list off all the things that you “got right“ 4 games into the season.
people who read your @#$@ will be able to tell if its good advice or not. you dont need to brag about advice, especially when alot of it is common knowledge.
you arent the only person hyping cruz, people have been on kaàihues #$$% for years now, etc. dont act like you have some secrets that others dont.
steve, tone down the language or get lost.
My email is mbrown3486@gmail.com
Some people think Cruz will be huge, and others predict a bust. Those who are predicting big things are correct so far. Also, if people were hyping Kila Ka’aihue for years then I wouldn’t listen to their advice since he hasn’t done a thing in the majors coming into this season. And I’ve hyped him as a late draft add. That’s not enough to hype him for years. Especially since he’s already 27. 4 games into the season the guys I wrote about to pickup have done well. This comes as a reward to those who added them through my column. Baseball is a game of splits so as the season progresses I could write to cut those same guys for new guys, or to sell them high. So for the success of splits through week 1 people who listened are probably winning. Every expert gets plenty of predictions right and wrong, but I’m guaranteeing that over the long haul I will be more accurate than the others.
I have Chone figgens on my team at the 2b/ss position…. good guy to keep or is he a speedster on the decline?
The mariners are always a risk.
@steve – Your hatred is both telling *and* ugly. You probably just had a bad day, if you want to talk about it, I run a support group: http:\\www.disgu.st
The only commitment is restraint.
Best,
Heinecke
@Jarred – Depending how deep your league is he’s okay to take a chance on. I do think he is declining, but I think his numbers will improve from 2010. He should hit around .275 which the chance to get up to the “hit for average” total of .280+ And he can still run. He’s better to platoon against good matchups and plug in when you need stolen bases. I don’t think he’s a great starter even in deep leagues.
It is only a ten team league and i also have Juan Uribe on my bench who has struggled to say the least so far. There are some other guys on the free agent market right now like Jose Tabata, asdrubel Cabrera,J.P. Arencibia (although i do have matt Wieters at cathcer already) and chipper Jones. I’m really not in love with either chone figgens or Juan Uribe, but i do see that there is potential with both of them to give me some extra points as the rest of my team is fairly strong. I’m just kinda stuck as to what i wanna do whether to let them just ride for awhile and see if they pick it up or go out and get someone else and dump them before someone else picks up the before mentioned free agent players.
@Jarred – Uribe has struggled because of injury. Although I think his 2010 numbers were a fluke. He has great eligibility though. If you don’t need steals that badly then Chipper Jones is a better option than Chone Figgins. That’s also if you don’t have a move limit. I wouldn’t waste moves on the possibility of Chipper. Tabata will be decent this year if you have a bad OF to cut. Asdrubal is just mediocre and doesn’t do a whole lot of anything. Arencibia was a nice add, but only for power. Keep Wieters. Basically I like Uribe over Figgins and Chipper over Figgins. But thats for power and not speed. So if you have nobody else that steals you obviously need Figgins or someone else who can steal.
well heres my lineup; Catcher-matt wieters, 1B-Ryan Howard, 2b-Dan uggla, 3b-Casey McGehee, ss-elvis andrus,2b/ss- chone figgens, 1b/3b-scott rolen, OF1-carlos gonzalez,OF2-jason Heyward, OF3-BJ upton, OF4-Nick Markakis, OF5-Jason Kubel, UTIL-Brandon Belt, and on my Bench Manny ramirez and Juan Uribe. My pitchers are Tim lincecum, Tommy Hanson, John Danks, Madison Bumgarner, Derek Lowe, Mark Buehrle,Joakim Soria,Francisco Rodriguez, JJ Putz,Leo Nunez, and Andrew Bailey on my DL….do you have any suggestions for my team? do you think any of the before mentioned free agents would be good adds? there are quite a few interesting prospects on the free agent market also, but none that have really got me thinking about dropping any of my other players.
@Jarred – @Jarred – I have a feeling that in a ten team league if I looked at the players available I would find a good 5 changes. You probably need to keep Figgins because it looks like you need the speed. In a ten team league I’m not a fan of having Figgins/Rolen/Kubel/Buehrle. I feel like there will be many better options out there. Also why do you only have a few starters? Thats going to make it very hard to win K’s and Wins, especially against other teams who have 10 starters. Their 10 starters will get many more starts than your 6 will and you wont be able to compete in Wins or K’s. More than 3 closers are too many.
@The Fantasy God – I didn’t want that to be all negative. Besides the positions I named above the rest of the team is very good. Very good catcher, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, and top 4 OF. You have a very nice first 5 starters will plenty of K’s and run support. Soria and K-Rod are nice closers. I like Walden better than Putz and Nunez if he’s available.
I’ve been reading a lot of good things about Walden and he was surprisingly available yet. I have been doing a lot of reading on Manny Ramirez as well and more times than not it keeps telling me the numbers will come,but i’m having a hard time believing that. I’m also a Kubel fan because he is more than capable of putting up some big numbers, but i’m concerned this year with how much playing time he will be getting due to the twins overhaul of outfielders and their up and coming young and talented outfielders waiting for their shot and we all know the twins love their youngsters.
@Jarred – Walden should be elite…this year. Very high K’s and plenty of save opportunities. I say he will make the allstar team this year. Its too early to write of Manny. I like him this year and think he will be fine. I wouldn’t hold on to Kubel because he doesn’t start every game. Your right that he could put up good numbers, but he wont get a big enough chance to.
@Jarred – Looks like it wasn’t too early to write off Manny. Now we have to cut him.
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