Enough Already, Yankees!

Just to be clear, COSFBA is a fantasy baseball blog dedicated to news about all players from all teams all the time. Except now. At my core I am a Brooklyn-born die-hard New York Yankees fan but even deeper is my love for the entire game of baseball. But what the Yankees have become (the team everyone loves to hate) is bad for everyone. Unfortunately it's not going to get any better any time soon.

I hate everything about the Yankees trying to sign Cliff Lee especially when the numbers being thrown around are 5yrs/$115M and as high as 7yrs/$175M. UGH! That's a lot of money for a guy that runs it out there just 34 times, at best, during the regular season. Didn't the Yankees make it to the playoffs WITHOUT him and roll right past Minnesota? I'd rather see them throw some incentive-laden contracts at guys like Rich Harden, Brad Penny and Brandon Webb or a much more affordable offer at Jorge de la Rosa.

And while I'm talking pitching, thank you for all you've done for the Yankees, Andy Pettitte, but the game of "will I pitch or will I retire" is getting old. If the desire to pitch only comes with another $15M contract, stay home and enjoy the family you so desperately struggle leaving each year.

Next up, Mariano Rivera. Mo will go down in history as the greatest reliever of all-time. No doubt. And I think the Yankees should bring him back for another year, even with a $15-18M price tag. My question is, "Who's next in line?" Joba Chamberlain will never be the closer in New York. They let Kerry Wood walk. They aren't grooming anyone to be a closer. The bullpen is a mess and all that Cliff Lee money would be much better utilized in shoring up innings six, seven and eight while developing a closer-to-be.

Speaking of Joba, is there a trade market for this poor guy? If so, pull the trigger. Let some other team figure out if he's a starter, reliever or closer. Joe Girardi and the New York media have messed with his head long enough.

Thankful

This is the time of year where everyone takes a moment to voice all that they are currently thankful for, reflect on the past year and look towards what the future has in store. COSFBA is no different. The following are the Top 10 things COSFBA is very thankful for this holiday season:

10. Players with multi-position eligibility. These are the types of players that make every fantasy baseball roster better. Martin Prado (1B/2B/3B), Jose Bautista (3B/OF), Omar Infante (2B/3B/SS/OF), Ben Zobrist (1B/2B/OF) are just a few valuable players whose positional flexibility kept them in the lineup.
9. Bryce Harper. What's not to love about the future of the Washington Nationals? From the ridiculous amounts of eye black to tearing up the Arizona Fall League, this guy will keep fantasy baseball writers busy for years to come.
8. Perfect games and no hitters. Ubaldo Jimenez. Dallas Braden. Roy Halladay (x2). Edwin Jackson. Matt Garza. Sign me up for more of the same in 2011.
7. The Hot Stove season. Rumors. Signings. Trades. This time of year is why I gave up on fantasy football several years ago. Who needs football when baseball is now truly a 12-month sport. Twitter has been a phenomenal source of great information if you know who to follow.
6. Statistics. I'm a huge fan of advanced baseball statistics but will admit I'm a little late to the game. You won't see me quoting a whole lot about BABIP, FIP, WAR, VORP or wOBA but I'll be sure to make reference to resources I find valuable in my hunt to become more SABR-literate.
5. Awards. Starting with the Derek Jeter Gold Glove fiasco and ending with Josh Hamilton's AL MVP, the 2010 awards gave bloggers plenty to talk about and COSFBA got in on the action, too.
4. Albert Pujols. I'm sorry, but Pujols is fantasy baseball royalty and until he proves to be less than superhuman, he's the number one pick in all fantasy baseball formats.
3. Impact Rookies. Here's hoping 2011 brings another crop of rookies as good as Buster Posey, Jason Heyward, Neftali Feliz, Austin Jackson, Jaime Garcia, Danny Valencia, Gaby Sanchez, Neil Walker and more.
2. Closers on the cheap can change the fantasy baseball landscape of any league. Guys like John Axford, Kevin Gregg and Chris Perez will be the poster boys for next season's "never pay for saves" reasoning.

Finding Keepers: Detroit Tigers

It's not hard to find keepers on the Detroit Tigers considering they have an MVP candidate, Cy Young candidate and the runner-up Rookie of the Year candidate. 1B Miguel Cabrera ranked fifth overall on ESPN's Player Rater with a robust line of .328/111/38/126/3 and shows no signs of slowing down at just 27 years old. With career averages of 101 runs, 34 HR and 120 RBI per 162 games, Cabrera is the perfect player to build your fantasy baseball team around for years to come.

SP Justin Verlander won 18 games this season, striking out an AL fourth-best 219 batters and ranking as the tenth-best starting pitcher on ESPN but surprisingly garnered only one fifth place vote in the AL Cy Young race. Have no fear, though, in using a keeper selection on a pitcher with a 20-win, 220 K, 3.40 ERA, 1.17 WHIP potential as the cornerstone of your fantasy baseball pitching staff.

Some may feel that OF Austin Jackson has too many holes in his game (only four home runs while striking out 170 times) to warrant a keeper tag but I find it hard not to want to keep a 23-year old outfielder that batted .293 and lead all rookies with 181 hits, 103 runs and 23 stolen bases while finishing second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. Keeping him comes with risk but could pay off big dividends if he figures out how to make better contact and hit a few more home runs.

COSFBA Goes Yard

This offseason, I'm dedicating myself to taking COSFBA to the next level as a legitimate source for fantasy baseball news, advice and opinions. Here's some of the things I've accomplished so far:

1. Purchased a domain.
2. Cracked the 200 followers mark on Twitter with @COSFBA.
3. Made it easier to connect with COSFBA on Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo! and via Feedburner.
4. Added the feature to become a friend of this blog and follow it publicly.
5. Continuing my series of articles, Finding Keepers, geared towards identifying keepers on each major league roster.
6. Joining a sports bloggers network geared at exposing what I do to a larger audience of readers and maybe making a few bucks in the process.

The sports bloggers network I chose to join was Yardbarker, and happily they accepted me. Yardbarker has a great lineup of fantasy baseball bloggers, many that are also fellow members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, so take a moment to check them out.

One of the last things I'm hoping to accomplish soon is a brand new logo and possibly some more tweaks to the lay out of the blog that will incorporate Yardbarker a bit more seamlessly. So keep an eye out for those changes and be sure to spread the word of COSFBA through the share options below.

Sincerely,

Daniel

Finding Keepers: Cincinnati Reds: 11/16/2010

The Cincinnati Reds had an unexpected run into the playoffs this season and several players showed why they should be considered keepers going into the 2011 season. Not only is 1B Joey Votto a serious MVP candidate but quite possibly could be drafted 1st overall in many leagues come draft day (finished as the 4th-ranked player by ESPN's Player Rater) and an obvious no-brainer to be kept.  Slot Votto and his .320/100/30/100/10 line into your lineup for years to come and enjoy.

OF Drew Stubbs gave owners the speed (30 stolen bases), low average (.255 BA) and high strikeouts (168 Ks) to be expected but no one saw the 22 home runs coming along with that (28 HR in 423 minor league games) too. How can a guy with 20/30 skills NOT be considered a keeper? It will be very interesting to see where his ADP plays out in new league drafts for 2011.

Position scarcity or positional ranking needs to be a factor when evaluating a player's keeper potential and this is why 2B Brandon Phillips should be considered a keeper heading into 2011. Overall, some may have considered 2010 a disappointment for Phillips after an ADP of 44.9 produced an end of the season ranking of 91st on ESPN's Player Rater but he still managed to finish as the 6th-ranked second baseman and possess better than 20/20 potential at age 29. I'd safely pencil him in as a keeper and expect something closer to his 162 game career averages of 86/20/80/23 next season.

COSFBA's 2010 Word Cloud: 11/01/2010

 I used a website called Wordle to create a "word cloud" based off my website's feed, summarizing my coverage of the 2010 season into a picture.

Click the image to enlarge. Enjoy!