Fantasy Baseball: Take a Chance on Me

That's right - I'm not above using ABBA references in my titles to grab people's attention. Okay, so I may be driving more people away than attracting, but their loss, right? (Right?)

Take a look at Aaron Rowand's splits from last season. Then take a look at them this year. Alright, you're too lazy - I can understand that. Here you go:

2004 Pre All Star Break:
208 ABs, 37 Rs, 9 HRs, 21 RBIs, 9 SBs, .298 AVG

2004 Post All Star Break:
279 ABs, 57 Rs, 15 HRs, 48 RBIs, 8 SBs, .319 AVG

2005 Pre All Star Break:
302 ABs, 43 Rs, 5 HRs, 34 RBIs, 11 SBs, .275 AVG

2005 Post All Star Break:
96 ABs, 17 Rs, 4 HRs, 14 RBIs, 1 SB, .333 AVG

It may be a little early to say he's definitely back this second half, but the numbers suggest a pretty big improvement. I've seen him available in several leagues - he's worth dropping a non-producer for right now. He may be worth trading that extra infielder you've been lugging around that someone could use, if you're an OF short.

Fantasy Baseball: Monday's Statement of the Obvious

Miquel Cabrera is good.

Folks, you can quote me on that. Mark it on your 2026 calendar, and come back to me if this turns out to be a false statement. Now, he's not Pujols good. Or Bonds good. One could certainly argue that he's not Lou Gehrig good. But man, he's pretty darned good.

You see, I had tagged him as a 2nd or 3rd round pick this year - but in most of my leagues, I was focusing on pitching early in the draft (I'd always gone hitting, so I wanted to see the results - ask me later about how that turned out). So I don't have Miggy in any of my leagues. Not a one. And in the majority of the leagues I'm in that matter, Average isn't a category (OBP and SLG are much better categories).

But yesterday I was looking through the sports section at the league leaders. Cabrera's batting .352 in addition to other fantastic numbers?!? Why didn't someone tell me this? I'd have made an incredibly ridiculous offer to his owner in my keeper league if I had been aware sooner.

Yes, yes - as the proprietor of this establishment, I should take better care of being up to date on the state of the MLB. But average is a fairly unimportant number, even in fantasy baseball. I just made an offer of Manny Ramirez and Jeremy Bonderman for Miggy - typically a vast overpayment. But I think this could really pan out, and Bonderman's not irreplaceable. Miggy just well may be.

Fantasy Baseball: The Best Laid Plans...

Okay, so it would appear that Phil Nevin was traded to the Rangers*, and won't be getting a lot of time behind the plate - none in fact. Please return him to the free agent market as soon as you get a chance. He'll get a few more HRs going from Petco to Arlington, but he's still an absolutely horrible option at 1B for any normal fantasy team. Without that tasty "C" next to his name, this guy's worthless.

*Uh...Rangers' front office? You have historically had terrible pitching. The deal with trades is, you see, to improve your team by offering excess talent for talent in areas you're lacking. You don't trade away pitching when your pitching sucks, especially for a crappy overrated fossil that will occassionally pinch hit and fill in at DH when your outfielders need a day off. With an infield of Teixeira, Soriano, Young and Blalock, isn't this a bit high of a price to pay?