Fantasy Ball Junkie

Quick Hits: Happy Happ; Hughes Blues; Upton Down

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:23:08 +0000

J.A. Happ is trying to show Philadelphia that his 2009 rookie campaign was no fluke. Since finally coming back from injury, Happ has posted a 2.86 ERA. However, his walk rate is not pretty (34 BB in 61 IP). He must be limiting hits somehow, but there’s likely some luck mixed in there as well. [...]

Quick Hits: H2H Playoffs Begin Tomorrow!

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:21:18 +0000

The great Josh Hamilton is again hurting this weekend after running into a wall against the Twins. He got some x-rays and they think he has some bruised ribs. While it may not be too serious, owners should keep an eye on this situation when setting lineups for the first week of the H2H playoffs [...]

Quick Hits: Slow Thursday; Important Players for Upcoming Playoffs

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:41:40 +0000

Not a lot of action on Thursday in the baseball world, but you may be interested in knowing that Dallas Braden left his game early with some leg cramps. The A’s aren’t sure if he’ll be back for his next start. After a very good season that helped many fantasy owners into the playoffs, having [...]

Quick Hits: Car-Go’s 30-20-.370 BABIP season; Brandon Allen; Chris Sale

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:57:23 +0000

September 2, 2010: Carlos Gonzalez now has a 30-20 season on the books after clobbering another HR last night. He’s also hitting .329 and easily on pace for triple digits in both runs and RBIs. Car-Go is certainly making his case as a bonafide 1st round pick heading into next season, but it’s going to be [...]

How to Make Enemies and Influence Standings

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:59:36 +0000

This is our favorite part of the fantasy baseball season. At the start of the year, everyone is jazzed over a new season, pouring over player rankings with fresh optimism about championship glory. By now, many competitors have fallen out of standings contention and may be chasing other pursuits, like fantasy football. Meanwhile, for those still in the [...]

Quick Hits: Notable Sept. Call-Ups, Minor Trades, 12-win pitchers for CYA?

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:43:18 +0000

Due to Sept 1 roster expansion, we have several prospects of interest getting MLB time in addition to the aforementioned Aroldis Chapman: Jeremy Hellickson (reliever), Freddie Freeman, Desmond Jennings, Jenrry Mejia (starts Sat.), Yonder Alonso, Cory Luebke (rotation, starts Fri.), Lucas Duda, and Rocco Baldelli (with the Rays!). Check here for updates. We also have [...]

Quick Hits: Hiroki means “One-hit”, what’s the Happy Happs?

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:02:54 +0000

August 31, 2010 Hiroki Kuroda gave up 1 hit in nearly 8 brilliant innings against the Phillies. With a 3.39 ERA and 1.18 WHIP to go with 131 K, he has been sneaky effective this year, posting better ratios than his more heralded teammate, Chad Billingsley (3.73/1.34/123). J.A. Happ threw a 2-hit shutout vs. the Cardinals last [...]

Adrian Peterson To Sue Fantasy Sports Competitors

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:04:53 +0000

Gary Busey, aka Norman Tugwater, is representing Adrian Peterson and others in court, demanding that “fantasy football pansies” pay his clients for drafting him. Unfortunately, they’ve tried this before and failed.

Quick Hits: Manny tries the Windy City

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:30:40 +0000

August 30, 2010: Manny Ramirez is taking his act to Chicago. The Dodgers (6 1/2 games out of WC) have decided to give him to the White Sox (4 1/2 games out of AL Central) in a divorcing-owners, sick-of-Manny-being-Manny salary dump. This could be good news for Manny, who gets to play DH everyday in a [...]

2010 Fantasy Football Sleepers

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 19:21:58 +0000

Everyone loves a sleeper. This paradoxical state of affairs has always given us a lot to write about. How can a player legitimately be called a “sleeper” if nobody is really sleeping? Nevertheless, the wisdom of crowds do tend hit the mark sometimes. We’ll spend more time on this in our post-season baseball review, but checking in [...]

Quick Hits: Jay Bruce is a pre-post-hype-sleeper; Brian Roberts’ hip; Tim Lincecum curses

admin — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:41:43 +0000

August 28, 2010: The Twins acquired Brian Fuentes in a trade, meaning he’s lost his closer gig. Too bad too, as Fuentes was having a very nice season, having recovered his ability to strike out batters. Fuentes will be setting up Matt Capps in Minnesota. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Fernando Rodney moves into the closer position. [...]

Quick Hits: Heating Up or Playing Injured

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:16:49 +0000

Vladimir Guerrero seems to be back on track after a miserable July and early August, hitting a HR on back-to-back nights. We’re not sure if he’ll get more rest or not after Cruz comes back, but if he keeps this up, he’s going to be tough to sit. Vlad seems like a safe play for [...]

Quick Hits: Fantasy busts heating up

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:09:02 +0000

August 26, 2010: It’s no secret that Pablo Sandoval has been one of the biggest busts this season. Coming off a 25-HR, .330 AVG season at the age of 24, there was no reason to expect such mediocre output this year. Not with a good batting eye. Nevertheless, Sandoval has struggled this year, although not of [...]

Quick Hits: 2-start pitchers!

admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:04:02 +0000

Jorge De La Rosa may be settling back into a groove after a fine start against the Braves yesterday. He claims his nagging index finger hasn’t affected his performance too much lately, though the results since coming off the DL in July are not great (4-5, 4.82 ERA, 1.41 WHIP). What he does have is two [...]

Comparing Fantasy Football with Fantasy Baseball

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:29:52 +0000

Let’s face it — fantasy football is a lot more popular than fantasy baseball. There are several possible reasons why this is the case. Here’s three: Football fandom has surged in the last couple of decades to the extent it has arguably surpassed baseball as America’s true pastime. Fantasy football is a less intensive pursuit: Much fewer games, [...]

Quick Hits: Rich Harden returns; Jose Bautista controversy; Jordan Zimmerman makes 2010 cameo

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:31:14 +0000

August 24: Rich Harden has had a putrid season that combined with his injury history makes him unappetizing to own. However, Harden had a very nice game off of the DL last night, no-hitting a fairly good Twins lineup through 6.2 innings. His fastball was up a couple of ticks last night. That may be a [...]

FBJ’s Fantasy Football Projections for 2010

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:49:20 +0000

FBJ Fantasy Football is here. Below we have provided our own standard valuations based on CBS scoring systems. We assume a 12-team football league with a $200 salary cap and standard rosters (QB-RB-RB-RB/WR-WR-WR-TE-K-DST). It is important to keep in mind the scoring system when in your auction draft, as football scoring differs across sites. This is [...]

Quick Hits: Young starters impress; Manny is back; Considering Jason Heyward

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:19:19 +0000

8/23: Two young pitchers had impressive performances yesterday. Mike Minor struck out 12 batters in 6 IP in a win against the Cubs. It was Minor’s third quality start in three outings as he’s shown he can be quite effective on the MLB level. Minor came up to the bigs earlier this month after boasting an [...]

Quick Hits: Hellickson to minors; Prediction: EY Jr. & Coco Crisp are top 50 players going forward in 2010

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 14:15:45 +0000

8/21 Jeremy Hellickson was stellar once against last night. Seven strikeouts and a single walk in a quality start against the Oakland A’s. Unfortunately, despite four great starts to begin his career, he’s now ticketed back to the minors with the return of Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann. The season is too short to hold onto [...]

Quick Hits: Great Value; Released!; and Reds’ Wood

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:13:00 +0000

-Other than maybe Jose Bautista and his case of the Brady Andersons, no one has outperformed their 2010 draft position more than Paul Konerko. Fantasy owners had all but given up on the slugger before the season, as he was being taken near the end of fantasy drafts. Konerko went 5 for 5 with a [...]