Pitch
ers and catchers are report this week to Spring Training and isn't it a glorious thing. The smell of the grass and the purity of every young boy's dream in the U.S. of A. comes to light in this glorious occasio ... Man shut the hell up. This is The Baseball Stars. That crap doesn't fly here.
We don't write stuff that is going to be written by every other crap-journalist out there such as extolling the greatness of Spring Training.
I know it's great. You know it's great. So let's leave it that.
I am one month away from trash talking, first-pick having and kicking-a$$ all over God's Spring Training.
So what are we going to write today? Whatever we feel like. Welcome to Free Forum Monday, which stands for: The Baseball Stars didn't have any good topics this week, so we are writing whatever we want to.
And to start it off, The Jon will take one of the oldest journalist tricks in the book: "Writing about three separate topics because I am too lazy to write one argument that needs to be effective and developed."
Here we go, fools ...
HOUSEKEEPING: Over the next month and a half, The Baseball Stars will provide the millions, dare I say billions across the planet that faithfully read our site with a draft preview. But how do we do that while maintaining our vision of being original? That is something The Baseball Stars have been fighting about. Newspaperman has been crying over his Your-Momma's-so-Fat defeat to me where I won with saying his mom is the lead singer of The Dixie Chicks. And why the hell did they win so many Grammy Awards? I'm tired of a bunch of old-time rich people telling me what good music is.
Gnarls Barkley is tight. Nicole Simpson can't rap. Grammies you suck. And Mary J. Blige, stop crying and shut the hell up.
This hatred has of course lead me to FreeSanJose. We have come to blows over this draft preview. Despite all of this, The Baseball Stars draft preview is coming Monday.
On another note, Poi Dog will be incognito for a while. We are going to miss his layman terms and telling us that Johan Santana and Roy Halladay are good pitchers. He was going to come at us this week by saying Albert Pujols is a really, really good hitter. He is a genius.
TRADING: I am the best trader on the planet. I have pulled off gems, son. Someday, the multitude will hear the brilliance of The Ichiro Trade. It has to be brilliant, it has it's own name. There has been a new trade added to the mix: The Daisuke Matsuzaka trade. Keep up.
I was down a first round pick after I sold my soul to FreeSanJose to get Francisco Liriano. I gave up on the season after Liriano got hurt and held a fire sale where I got a first round pick from Poi Dog. I realized my team was pretty good, so I traded for Bobby Abreu and ended up in finishing up in second place in the playoffs after knocking Newspaperman to the place where he belongs in the semis. I traded Abreu for a third round pick, shipped that third for Michael Young and traded Young and my first pick for the overall first pick in the draft. I will pick Daisuke Matsuzaka with the first overall pick. A trade isn't a one time deal. You may have to pull of three trades to get exactly what you want. That's what makes me The Jon ... i.e. the best.
AND FINALLY: As egotistical as The Jon is, he didn't create this site for himself. This is for you. We are going through a little bit of overhaul on the site to make it easier for you to be a part of this whole experiment.
We want feedback.
We want questions.
We want you to start discussions.
We want you to rip us to shreds.
We just want your participation.
Fantasy baseball is the best fake sport of all time. Let's enjoy the ride together ... but you have to pay for the food and gas.
Peace, fools ...
The Jon
By my own admission, I’m addicted to statistical projections and opinion.
I love
fantasy magazines, Web sites, and discussion. I enjoy seeing people talk about the players I own in keeper leagues, as well as those who I target on draft day.
But while I tend to overindulge in fantasy information, it should be understood that it is never a good thing to take any publication’s opinions and statistical projections as the word of God.
And projections are basically a guess – sometimes not even educated -- or a statistical average of a player’s past. Take a look at most fantasy magazines or sites. More times than not all the projector has done is take the last two or three years of statistics, add them up, find a middle-ground and then publish the result as their own projection. Well guess what, this game doesn’t work that way.
This game can’t be won strictly on someone crunching numbers before the season starts. There is so much more to this. There is some value in projections, but by no means is it truly indicative of how a player will actually perform. By using projection and opinion as the foundation of your reasoning, you could miss out on certain players or draft a guy too high.
Examples: Justin Morneau and Freddy Sanchez.
Who at the beginning of last season really thought Morneau would be the American League MVP (even though Jeter arguably deserved it more), and that Sanchez would be the National League batting champion?
Sure everyone thought Morneau would be a slugger who would post 30+ homers if he stayed healthy, but no one thought he would hit .320 and drive in 130 runs. And not even Freddy Sanchez’s mother, let alone some hack writing about fantasy baseball, thought Sanchez would get anywhere near a batting title. Ever.
And this year projections could really kill fantasy owners who are looking at Garrett Atkins and Ryan Howard. According to one publication, Atkins’ 2007 stats will be akin to David Wright’s 06 stats (minus the steals), and Howard will blast 60 homers.
Really? Well then crown their asses.
To me, projections -- as well as opinions -- are another form of entertainment and should be viewed as another element that helps you understand how this game is played or what is expected of someone. (I like to add projections in my Hypness pieces because I think it helps the reader understand how I feel about a certain player.)
All of the stuff that we discuss on this Web site and things you read elsewhere are beliefs of individual fantasy players. They are not words from some “expert,” as some Web sites, news channels and agencies like to proclaim. Just because some guy writes about fantasy baseball over at one of the three- or four-letter networks does not make him an expert. It just means that he’s a good writer with a journalism background who gives a lot of advice -- often stating the obvious -- and to top it off it doesn’t even have to be good.
But like you, I enjoy this banter, which is why I am writing this and you are reading it. I find that it keeps me in touch with the fantasy baseball world during the off season and actually helps me prepare for the upcoming year.
I like to read what people say about particular players because sometimes I agree, other times I do not, and on occasion some else’s opinion may open my eyes. The important thing to remember about this game is to be open-minded, but not to the point where your own beliefs are shaped solely on someone else’s thoughts.
ers and catchers are report this week to Spring Training and isn't it a glorious thing. The smell of the grass and the purity of every young boy's dream in the U.S. of A. comes to light in this glorious occasio ... Man shut the hell up. This is The Baseball Stars. That crap doesn't fly here.We don't write stuff that is going to be written by every other crap-journalist out there such as extolling the greatness of Spring Training.
I know it's great. You know it's great. So let's leave it that.
I am one month away from trash talking, first-pick having and kicking-a$$ all over God's Spring Training.
So what are we going to write today? Whatever we feel like. Welcome to Free Forum Monday, which stands for: The Baseball Stars didn't have any good topics this week, so we are writing whatever we want to.
And to start it off, The Jon will take one of the oldest journalist tricks in the book: "Writing about three separate topics because I am too lazy to write one argument that needs to be effective and developed."
Here we go, fools ...
HOUSEKEEPING: Over the next month and a half, The Baseball Stars will provide the millions, dare I say billions across the planet that faithfully read our site with a draft preview. But how do we do that while maintaining our vision of being original? That is something The Baseball Stars have been fighting about. Newspaperman has been crying over his Your-Momma's-so-Fat defeat to me where I won with saying his mom is the lead singer of The Dixie Chicks. And why the hell did they win so many Grammy Awards? I'm tired of a bunch of old-time rich people telling me what good music is.
Gnarls Barkley is tight. Nicole Simpson can't rap. Grammies you suck. And Mary J. Blige, stop crying and shut the hell up.
This hatred has of course lead me to FreeSanJose. We have come to blows over this draft preview. Despite all of this, The Baseball Stars draft preview is coming Monday.
On another note, Poi Dog will be incognito for a while. We are going to miss his layman terms and telling us that Johan Santana and Roy Halladay are good pitchers. He was going to come at us this week by saying Albert Pujols is a really, really good hitter. He is a genius.
TRADING: I am the best trader on the planet. I have pulled off gems, son. Someday, the multitude will hear the brilliance of The Ichiro Trade. It has to be brilliant, it has it's own name. There has been a new trade added to the mix: The Daisuke Matsuzaka trade. Keep up.
I was down a first round pick after I sold my soul to FreeSanJose to get Francisco Liriano. I gave up on the season after Liriano got hurt and held a fire sale where I got a first round pick from Poi Dog. I realized my team was pretty good, so I traded for Bobby Abreu and ended up in finishing up in second place in the playoffs after knocking Newspaperman to the place where he belongs in the semis. I traded Abreu for a third round pick, shipped that third for Michael Young and traded Young and my first pick for the overall first pick in the draft. I will pick Daisuke Matsuzaka with the first overall pick. A trade isn't a one time deal. You may have to pull of three trades to get exactly what you want. That's what makes me The Jon ... i.e. the best.
AND FINALLY: As egotistical as The Jon is, he didn't create this site for himself. This is for you. We are going through a little bit of overhaul on the site to make it easier for you to be a part of this whole experiment.
We want feedback.
We want questions.
We want you to start discussions.
We want you to rip us to shreds.
We just want your participation.
Fantasy baseball is the best fake sport of all time. Let's enjoy the ride together ... but you have to pay for the food and gas.
Peace, fools ...
The Jon
By my own admission, I’m addicted to statistical projections and opinion.
I love
fantasy magazines, Web sites, and discussion. I enjoy seeing people talk about the players I own in keeper leagues, as well as those who I target on draft day.But while I tend to overindulge in fantasy information, it should be understood that it is never a good thing to take any publication’s opinions and statistical projections as the word of God.
And projections are basically a guess – sometimes not even educated -- or a statistical average of a player’s past. Take a look at most fantasy magazines or sites. More times than not all the projector has done is take the last two or three years of statistics, add them up, find a middle-ground and then publish the result as their own projection. Well guess what, this game doesn’t work that way.
This game can’t be won strictly on someone crunching numbers before the season starts. There is so much more to this. There is some value in projections, but by no means is it truly indicative of how a player will actually perform. By using projection and opinion as the foundation of your reasoning, you could miss out on certain players or draft a guy too high.
Examples: Justin Morneau and Freddy Sanchez.
Who at the beginning of last season really thought Morneau would be the American League MVP (even though Jeter arguably deserved it more), and that Sanchez would be the National League batting champion?
Sure everyone thought Morneau would be a slugger who would post 30+ homers if he stayed healthy, but no one thought he would hit .320 and drive in 130 runs. And not even Freddy Sanchez’s mother, let alone some hack writing about fantasy baseball, thought Sanchez would get anywhere near a batting title. Ever.
And this year projections could really kill fantasy owners who are looking at Garrett Atkins and Ryan Howard. According to one publication, Atkins’ 2007 stats will be akin to David Wright’s 06 stats (minus the steals), and Howard will blast 60 homers.
Really? Well then crown their asses.
To me, projections -- as well as opinions -- are another form of entertainment and should be viewed as another element that helps you understand how this game is played or what is expected of someone. (I like to add projections in my Hypness pieces because I think it helps the reader understand how I feel about a certain player.)
All of the stuff that we discuss on this Web site and things you read elsewhere are beliefs of individual fantasy players. They are not words from some “expert,” as some Web sites, news channels and agencies like to proclaim. Just because some guy writes about fantasy baseball over at one of the three- or four-letter networks does not make him an expert. It just means that he’s a good writer with a journalism background who gives a lot of advice -- often stating the obvious -- and to top it off it doesn’t even have to be good.
But like you, I enjoy this banter, which is why I am writing this and you are reading it. I find that it keeps me in touch with the fantasy baseball world during the off season and actually helps me prepare for the upcoming year.
I like to read what people say about particular players because sometimes I agree, other times I do not, and on occasion some else’s opinion may open my eyes. The important thing to remember about this game is to be open-minded, but not to the point where your own beliefs are shaped solely on someone else’s thoughts.
I prey
to one god: Statistical analysis. Some use their guts, others their eyes. I use a calculator.This is odd coming from someone who abhors math and science as I do, yet I am totally intrigued. And I'll admit, it pretty much started with "Moneyball." (If you don't know what that is, stop reading)
You see, as much as I may not actually enjoy crunching numbers myself, I understand it. I happen to believe there are such things as repeatable skills (hitting homers and striking people out) and non-repeatable skills (coming to bat with runners on base and having a good defense behind you). I also believe in track records: If you've done it repeatedly, you're likely to do it again.
And those are the things at the heart of statistical analysis, which makes life a lot easier, if not less interesting.
While there is much to be loved about baseball and its unpredictability, that's for the folks who buy pennants, eat hot dogs and go hoarse cheering at games. Fantasy baseball is about none of those things: it is about cold, hard facts. It shouldn't matter to you if ARod hit a grandslam in the bottom of the ninth to win the game or hit it in the sixth with his team up by six runs; in fantasy baseball they count just the same. Above all else, you should keep that in mind when making your team.
Invariably, you're going to read about how David Eckstein or Orlando Cabrera can help your team ... that's my definition of hype. Unless a player can do something particularly well (hit homers, strike people out), I don't want him. I could care less if he "does the little things" or "contributes to the cause." I want guys who mash, steal bases and score runs. If they don't do one of those three things better than half their peers, they won't be considered for my squad.
There is no room for sentimentality in this game. I have overhauled my roster of my keeper-league team three times over in five years. The most I've ever kept one player in three years, and it's not for lack of success. I've traded Alex Rodriguez in his prime, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder the year they moved to the National League and Francisco Liriano just as he was blowing up ... and I made out like a bandit every time. I have a saying: No one on my team is ever untouchable.
And it all comes back to the cold-hearted truth of statistical analysis. When every player simply represents a number, your fantasy baseball life makes a lot more sense.
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