new 2B trading chip

Introducing the new second baseman on your contending Roblisserie team: Albert Pujols!

Top Doggs This Year?

Yovanni Gallardo, Salomon Torres, Todd Wellemeyer, John Lannan - what do these pitchers have in common?

They're not good enough to be active on the Doggs pitching staff. (Of course Gallardo gets activated once he's healthy but you get the point.)

The Doggs currently have 44.5 pitching points - tops in the league. They have Cole Hamels as their anchor and Adam Wainwright, Johnny Cueto, Hiroki Kuroda, and Aaron Cook to fill out the rotation. The bullpen has the Phillies combo of Lidge/Gordon but also Guillermo Mota (a lottery ticket in that Milwaukee pen), Ryan Franklin and Taylor Tankersley - two other solid relievers.

And let's not forget Clayton Kershaw and Sean Gallagher as well...

The question about the Doggs is whether they'll hit. Their lineup looks solid but doesn't inspire awe...yet. And lot of it depends on Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre - two prior stars whose value fell significantly this year in the auction. But look at the minors - the Doggs have Colby Rasmus, Cameron Maybin and Chase Headley waiting in the wings - all players who could get called up in the next month or two and whose teams have openings in the lineup at their positions (assuming Headley plays OF).

Everyone wanted to label this a two-team race coming into the auction and an one-team coronation coming out of the auction. But from where I sit, it's looking like a Dogg race...

Sneak peek at a great Giants lede

Well, it'll be on the Internet in a few minutes, but had to pass this one on to you Giants fans. It's Chronicle writer Henry Schulman's lede from today's humiliation.


One event captured the essence of the Giants’ first week. It did not happen on the field, but in the clubhouse. Reliever Keiichi Yabu was doing an arm exercise, pulling a long rubber tube attached to a hook inside his locker, when the tube came loose, snapped back to his face and hit both of his eyes.
It happened Saturday, and Yabu’s vision remained blurry with corneal abrasions Sunday.
The proof came when Yabu was asked if his vision was better and he told a reporter, “Yes, you look good.”

Zito, Appel, Monty

Zito bombed again. Pitiful.
Cardinal will need a good 24 points from Appel tonight to survive UConn. I'm figuring Wiggins for 14. Go Lady Cardinal.
Going to the Warriors was a good move for Montgomery, cause he made $10 million or so. But going to Cal? I guess if he could recruit decent teams at Stanford, he ought to be able to at Cal, but could be rough-going.

That's what I'm counting on ...

... long-relief victories for Tim Lincecum. Do I get points for his hit, and run, too?

Early musings

Some random thoughts since the auction/draft:

* I vowed that I would be more patient this year and that I would pace myself in terms of watching games or the following the live scoring at the website. That lasted about 24 hours...I did abstain from the Nationals-Braves game but did watch the Pirates-Braves wild opener and then last night, flipped back and forth among all 4 games.

* DirecTV's free preview of its MLB package is a good thing...still can't imagine purchasing it though.

* In the course of fifteen minutes on opening day, the Edition went from first to last...(thanks to Jeff Francis). Bet Ed's happy with the rain...

* There is a chat feature at the website on the live scoring page...scroll to the bottom after the reserve players...expect to see everyone there tonight

* Watched the Giants-Dodgers game last night as I'm scouting some players I'm interested in trading for (how's that for a tease?) Didn't get to see the Giants score but am glad they finally did. I'm trying to figure out how many starts I can manufacture from my staff by activating bad starters against the Giants. Maybe I'll track those stats separately.

* Matt Capps looked awful vs. the Braves...he had no command of his pitches...I wonder if his arm is bothering him...and the Pirates just released their closer of the future...