Join me and Jeff Erickson for Rotowire's Fantasy Sports Hour on Blog Talk Radio, starting at noon central time.

OK, Happy Readers!  We are down to a baker's dozen books to sell.  This sellout is earlier than we planned, but whatcha gonna do?  If you still need a book, act quickly.  I will closely watch orders, and when the last one is sold we will remove the order links from the site. 

As for selling the PDF, we typically wait to release that until the end of the season, so as to not discourage sales of the hard copies.  We will keep you posted on what we decide in that area.

UPDATE: as of 11 pm (central time) we are down to three books.  I don't want to take the links down yet, but if you do place an order and it is after we run out, your money will be refunded in the morning.

FURTHER UPDATE: STOP ORDERING!  The links are down, and sadly, a few of you are going to be receiving heartfelt apologies with your refunds...Just remember, though, we will start taking orders for the 2011 BPB in October.  Oh, and to the state of Montana:  ^^$%^$# &%%%^ # !$%^ $%% !!

Best Regards, JERI

Montana readers, follow the jump for a personal message...

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Community Projection Result: Derek Holland

We had 19 entries. The tally:

29 games, 24 starts, 1 complete game, 149 innings pitched, 81 runs, 74 earned, 4.46 ERA, 130/52 K/BB, 144 hits allowed, 21 homers, 10-8 record.

Comparisons to other projection systems:

Minor League Ball:    4.46 ERA, 7.85 K/9, 3.14 BB/9, 8.70 H/9, 149 IP
CHONE Projection:   4.71 ERA,  7.03 K/9, 3.17 BB/9, 9.6 H/9,  105 IP
Marcel Projection:     5.12 ERA, 7.14 K/9, 3.10 BB/9, 9.70 H/9,  116 IP
Fangraphs Fans:       4.34 ERA, 7.68 K/9, 3.07 BB/9, 10.87 H/9, 164 IP
ZIPS Projection:        5.15 ERA, 6.31 K/9, 3.73 BB/9, 9.61 H/9, 147 IP

As you can see, the Minor League Ball Community Projection is more optimistic than CHONE, Marcel, and ZIPS, especially when it comes to Holland's hit rate. Either the community is a lot more optimistic about the Rangers defense, or you guys expect Holland's BABIP to improve for some other reason. Interestingly, the Fangraphs Fan projection (another community-style projection that tries to use the "wisdom of crowds") is also more optimistic than the computery outcomes.

My own projection (which I included in the community aggregate) was 19 games, 18 starts, 98 innings, 55 runs, 51 earned, 4.69, 90/40 K/BB, 105 hits, 14 homers, 5-7 record.

More photos » Kathy Willens - AP

7 months ago: New York Mets third base coach Razor Shines greets Daniel Murphy (28) after Murphy hit a sixth-inning home run off Arizona Diamondbacks starter Dan Haren in a baseball game at Citi Field in New York, Monday, Aug. 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

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Not a Rookie: Daniel Murphy

There were some mixed signals coming out of Mets camp in February regarding first baseman Dan Murphy. In mid-February, GM Omar Minaya said that Royals reject Mike Jacobs would compete with Murphy for the first base job in spring training. This was contradicted a couple of days later by Manager Jerry Manuel, who said that it wasn't a true contest, implying that Jacobs (and Fernando Tatis) were around to provide pop on the bench.

Does Murphy have enough in his bat to hold down first base? Let's take a look at Murphy's development as a prospect.

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More photos » Kathy Willens - AP

Toronto Blue Jays' Travis Snider hits a two-run home run at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009 (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

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Blue Jays outfielder Travis Snider was a bit disappointing in 2009, but he was just 21 years old. Let's do a Community Projection for 2010.  Please project the following numbers, in this order for ease of data entry purposes.


Games
At-bats
Runs
Hits
Doubles
Triples
Homers
Walks
Strikeouts
Steals
Caught Stealing
Batting average (make sure numbers are right)
I will calculate OBP and SLG for you.

The Minor League Ball Fantasy League

    The thread about Fantasy Baseball a couple of days ago generated an excellent response. It is obvious that most of you have a strong fantasy baseball interest, and this has convinced me to move forward with a special project.
     I often get questions about what fantasy leagues I'm personally involved in. The answer is usually "none," mostly due to time constraints, but that is going to change this year.
     Want to kick my butt in a fantasy league? Here's your chance.
     CBSSports.com is introducing the CBSSports.com Fantasy Baseball Commissioner League. Partnering with our SB Nation network, CBSSports.com is offering Minor League Ball a free league (normally a $179.99 value). I'm running a team, and I need 11 other owners to join up with me. Additionally, CBSSports.com is offering a 50% discount on any leagues you might want to start yourself, using this link.
     Interested in playing me? Keep reading.

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We've done Community Projections every year, but I've never been especially diligent about keeping track of how things went. That will change this year; it will be a more organized endeavour.

We are going to do projections for 14 players, seven pitchers and seven hitters, and keep much closer track this year, then compare the final results at the end of the season with reality and other projection systems. So far we've done Alcides Escobar, Clayton Kershaw, and Derek Holland (results for Holland will be collated Monday). The ideal projection candidate is someone who is either a rookie with a guaranteed job like Escobar, or someone who is young, not a rookie, but not fully established yet (like Kershaw and Holland).

Use this thread to make suggestions on what other players to include in the Project.  Please don't suggest Heyward or Strasburg at this point given that we don't know how much they are going to play.

We have a very diverse group of readers and participants at MinorLeagueBall. I want to know more about you, so  I'm going to be asking you guys some questions. The first topic: fantasy baseball. Some queries below the fold.

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More photos » Charlie Riedel - AP

5 months ago: Kansas City Royals' Alex Gordon hits a two-run single during the first inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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Not A Rookie: Alex Gordon

2009 was supposed to be the year that Alex Gordon broke through and became a star. Instead, he went down with a hip injury, missed most of the season, didn't hit well when he did play, and became just another sad bit of flotsam amidst the shipwreck of the Royals season. He enters '10 as a big questionmark. How did this former Grade A prospect get to this point, and can he rebound?

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More photos » Mary Schwalm - AP

Texas Rangers pitcher Derek Holland (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)

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Continuing with the Community Projection Project (more on that later), we turn to Derek Holland of the Texas Rangers.

Please project the following numbers, in this order for ease of spreadsheet data entry.


Games
Games Started
Complete Games
Wins
Losses
Innings
Runs allowed
Earned runs allowed
ERA (make sure math is right)
Walks allowed
Strikeouts
Hits allowed
Home runs allowed