A last-ditch effort by the Tigers brass prevented Anibal Sanchez from tossing for this third team in less than a year, and also gives fantasy players a bit more clarity in regards to his fantasy expectations for the upcoming season.

I had largely touted Sanchez prior to last season for a couple of reasons. For one, his durability the past two seasons led me to believe he’d rack up another solid season near 200 innings. Granted, unless it’s Mark Buehrle or Justin Verlander, one can’t really predict such a thing, so I won’t count this as a feather in my cap. One thing I was counting on was the strikeouts, which had returned in a big way in 2011 after taking a hiatus in 2010. Additionally, Sanchez’ walk percentage was trending quite nicely, and in fact settled under 6% when the dust settled on 2012. Finally, I had heard rumbles from a few different folks that the new Marlins Stadium would be Petco East. For a pitcher who is kind of a tweener with batted-ball rates, I figured he’d benefit from these conditions. Read the rest of this entry »

The writing had been on the wall for some time: Denard Span was unlikely to be long for Minnesota. And while the earliest rumors — dating back some 15ish months — suggested the Twins were looking at a package of Drew Storen and Roger Bernadina, the Twins wisely waited until Span proved healthy and got a relatively good return in exchange for the talented, young, and cost-controlled centerfielder.

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The Diamondbacks signing of Jason Kubel was widely panned, including here at the mother site. And it was panned for good reason; what in the world did the Snakes need a stodgy, stout outfielder with poor defensive skills and a dormant bat? But a furtive glance at StatCorner proved enlightening; Chase Field was a launchpad for hitters like Kubel, while Target Field was a cemetery. Read the rest of this entry »

On a different website, I’ve made my opinions pretty clear: Joe Mauer should not catch much longer. But luckily for most fantasy owners — myself included — there seem to be no indications that the Twins will move Mauer off the backstop position anytime soon. This season, Mauer graded out as the third-best catcher at $17, trailing only NL stalwarts Buster Posey and Yadier Molina, who incidentally finished first and fourth respectively in the MVP balloting on the senior circuit.

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I’m rarely much of a political person — at least publicly — but the hardest I’ve ever campaigned was for the Twins to NOT trade J.J. Hardy after the 2010 season. It wasn’t as though I had any emotional connection to Hardy; the closest I ever came to even speaking to the guy was that I stood a few lockers away from him while I interviewed a few of his teammates.

But what I never really understood was what went wrong in that relationship. Hardy had a very good second half with the Twins. He was finally healthy and started hitting the ball better, and was essentially what the Twins and everyone could have dreamed for: a solid shortstop on both sides of the field. Read the rest of this entry »

Due to the magnificence that is MLB Network, I was able to take in an early-season Adam Wainwright start. For me, the draw was how Wainwright would pitch after a season off. For Wainwright, it was pretty ugly, as he allowed eight earned runs and was chased after three innings.

But what caught my attention was my perception of how the announcers were trumpeting David Freese as though he was some sort of Schmidtian force to be reckoned with. Like many viewers, I too had taken in the glory of his World Series heroics, and eventually I chalked it up to how few business days had elapsed since then, but it really had me wondering if this Freese guy was as good as these announcers were saying, or if it was simply hometown announcing at its….finest?

Schedules being what they were, I didn’t actually dig too deeply into Freese, at least not until today. Today, let’s have a look at Freese’s 2012, and how he looks heading into the next baseball campaign. Read the rest of this entry »

I have little doubt at this point that you the reader hasn’t figured out what we should have all figured at some point this fantasy season: second base was pretty deep. In fact, there were 29 different keystoners whom Zach Sanders listed at $0 and up, with Darwin Barney reeling in that break-even evaluation.

Today I’m tasked with evaluating Dan Uggla, a player with plenty of real-life utility — 3.5 WAR ranks as his fourth-best season out of seven — but one who was probably over-drafted given his season-ending 17th-place ranking. The list of players he finished behind contains some surprises, namely Omar Infante and Danny Espinosa, but again that’s more due in part to the depth at the position than anything. Read the rest of this entry »

If you know much about me, you’re not terribly surprised I’ve chosen to profile Justin Morneau in the scope of Colonel Sanders publishing his first base rankings this past Monday. And while I think the conception that Morneau had a less-than-optimal season is probably apt — he’s 26th in Zach’s rankings — there are some underlying factors to his season that might be signs for optimism that one doesn’t usually find in a stiff-bodies first baseman entering his age-31 season. Read the rest of this entry »

It occurred to me while getting ready to prepare my Turtle piece — buy lows who panned out wonderfully — that I really had a pair who were virtually identical in each league. Oddly enough, it was ‘out with the old, in with the older’ as I more or less doubled down on a departed Twin — Jason Kubel — and an incoming one — Josh Willingham — as late draft power sleepers.

I think the Willingham pick was a bit more difficult to justify, though neither by themselves would be considered a ‘lock’ to produce. Willingham certainly played relatively well, hitting about half of his home runs on the road, and half at cavernous O.Co Coliseum. The 29 homers were Willingham’s largest power output home run-wise, but there was no guarantee that Target Field, which to date hadn’t been very accommodating to any sort of power hitter, would provide any sort of boost to the Hammer in his age-33 season. Read the rest of this entry »

“If you change your mind, I’m the first in line. Honey I’m still free; take a chance on me” –Abba

A very popular fantasy football radio show on Saturday mornings uses these lyrics — often sung by different artists or even Andy Bernard from The Office — to open up a segment on players to take a chance on for that week’s action. In fact, the headliner on the show is Paul Charchian, a fantasy football legend in Minnesota and quite frankly, probably across the United States.

When I was invited to the Fangraphs Staff League II in Ottoneu, I quite honestly had no idea what to expect. I didn’t expect an eight hour, two day draft. Neither did my wife. I didn’t really understand fantasy auctions all that well, so I just went ultra-conservative, like I do in fantasy football auctions as well. Read the rest of this entry »