Minor League Ball Fantasy League Update

Week Two finds the Free State Liberators still stuck in ninth place in the 12-team Bob Feller Division. You can find standings and follow the league here

Starting pitching remains my strength, with the Beckett/Duke/Cain/Wells/Hudson rotation all performing nicely. I still have Matsuzaka and Moyer as reserves. The bullpen, on the other hand, has been terrible. The hitting is erratic, with black holes at catcher and second base but decent production from other positions.

Here is the weekly league update, courtesy of Boomer. Boomer has some interesting observations about Adam Wainwright's development.

TEAM OF THE WEEK: Jake's Snakes - John Stenger
The Snakes jumped up +70.5 points in the standings, climbing all the way from 15th place up to 4th place. Now, if I were to tell you that two of the key players in this massive rise were Barry Zito & Andruw Jones, what would you say? No, even with all the Old Prospect stuff that John is doing on the site, we in the MINLB Fantasy League are NOT in a time warp back to those halcyon days of 2002... Zito out-pitched the Beloved Clayton Kershaw yesterday & Andruw went 7-19 with 3 HR last week.. So there.. I wonder if "John Stenger" is a Witness Protection name for Jake Roberts? Either way, the Snakes have been very active in the early going, causing some consternation amongst some fellow owners with the very first trade in MINLB Fantasy League history(!) by trading Nick Blackburn, Trevor Cahill, Chris Davis & Placido Polanco for A-Rod... He's also picked up Dan Uggla, Joba Chamberlain, Rajai Davis & Johan Santana in trades in the early going. Hell, even my mediocre FOG.. has gotten a few trade offers from the Snakes! It'll be fun to see if it all works out for the Snakes.. So far, so good..

HITTER OF THE WEEK: Shin-Soo Choo - Anything's Possible
He hits left-handed.. plays a good RF.... has power, speed, patience.... sits a few times a year with seemingly mild maladies.... has a strange story that won't seem to go away hanging over him... and his last name rhymes with.... DREW! Shin-Soo Choo is the Korean J.D. Drew! They even have the same amount of syllables in their names... Spooky.. Choo-Choo was 11-19 with 3 HR & 6 BB's last week, personally destroying the White Sox.. and he stole a base too... If you read all of that really really fast, it sounds a little like Dr. Suess...

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Adam Wainwright - Amson
To me, Wainwright is Exhibit A for using young starting pitchers in the bullpen to begin their career. As a Cardinals fan, I remember before the '06 season how Wainwright's star had begun to diminish some... John gave him a B- in '06, ranking him 5th in a weak Cardinals farm system after he was just OK at Memphis is '05... In the '06 BP book, the first sentence in Wainwright's write-up states, "Is he a monster prospect? Not really, if he ever was." He then pitched out of the bullpen for all of '06 & got tabbed as the closer in September when Izzy finally succumbed to whatever of a million injuries that Izzy had & well... Carlos Beltran can tell you all about the rest... Now I don't know if John will agree with me on this but I believe that the biggest reason for Wainwright's success as a starter so far in his career is the confidence he gained by getting some very high-leverage outs in '06... If a young pitcher can do THAT, then starting may not seem like such a big deal.. What do you guys think? Of course, we all know how Wainwright came to the Cardinals... He was sent over in the trade for... J.D. DREW!! ARGH!!! What is happening!!?!?!?

THE BUMS WILL ALWAYS LOSE, LEBOWSKI!: Tie - Veni Vedi Vici & Defenders of Zordon.
Until they participate & have a legal line-up, both teams will remain mainstays here (Editor's Note: both owners need to contact me)

BUM HITTER: Carlos Lee - Caballeros Guapos
First of all, it's a wonder of modern technology that El Caballo somehow ended up on the Handsome Horsemen... although at this point, I'm sure Jim wishes that wasn't quite the case... Lee went 2-25 with two singles last week. What really disappointed me about Carlos Lee last week was that he had numerous opportunities to due significant damage to the Hated Cubs.. and didn't. He usually kills the Cubs! ( .299/.351/.572 vs the Hated Cubs over his career).. Oh well. Maybe when Berkman comes back, things will turn around? He beat out Chris Coghlan for Bum Hitter even though Coghlan went 0-19 last week! The reason? Coghlan drew a walk; Caballo didn't.. See? Moneyball? Carlos Lee was also Bum Hitter because he has no obvious connection to J.D. Drew...

BUM PITCHER: Jason Marquis - BatCats
Marquis De Sade did this yesterday without recording an out:
Infield hit, single, single, hit batter, walk, hit batter, single..
He then got pulled for the Poet Miguel Batista who prompted allowed Craig Counsell to take him deep.. thereby leaving Marquis with the beautiful line: 0 IP / 3 HA / 1 BB / 2 HB / 6 ER...
And yet.. here's the other pitcher who came to the Cardinals with Wainwright for... J.D. Drew... Dogs & cats living together.. MASS HYSTERIA.

Random Anecdote From Watching Too Much Baseball At Work
I was watching Mat Latos Intolerant get beat by the Braves on Thursday and a familiar voice was calling the game for Padres TV, Dick Enberg. Now, for those that are younger than some of us, Dick Enberg was to NBC what Jim Nantz now is for CBS. Enberg would call the big NFL game of the week (with Merlin Olsen!), call the NCAA National Title game with Al McGuire; he'd do golf and other things as well, so it was a little strange to here him as the TV voice of the Padres.. Anyway, former Cardinal Luke Gregerson entered the game in the seventh (side note: the prospects the Cardinals gave up to get Matt Holliday will be worth LESS over their careers than the prospects the Cardinals gave up to get Mark DeRosa & Khalil The Deal Greene.. discuss). Enberg then mentioned on the air that Luke Gregerson skateboards to the park each day... Does that surprise anyone else? I mean, when I was younger, skateboarders were athletic masochists who, by nature, rejected team sports. Now, pro ball players, certainly not the most adventurous of sorts, are skating to the ball park? What next?

That's all I got. And when you tuck yourself in tonight, think of J.D. Drew & what he means to you.
Have a great week!

Boomer.
The Velvet FOG...

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