Fantasy Baseball Week 15

This was a short week with the All-Star game, and really not worth talking about. I beat Bay+LaRoche=1000rbis (that name turned out to be a bad joke, those two will be lucky to hit over 150 rbis) 6-4-2, and keeps me 3.5 games up on Offord, who I play this week.

Instead of going into details about the week, let me tell you about the stupidity I heard on SportsCenter the other night. It was during the Diamond Cutters segment, I think, John Kruk and Steve Phillips were debating whether Barry Bonds should play road games. I had to agree with Kruk, which scares me, since the guy is an idiot. Let me explain each of their arguments.

Philips
Barry Bonds should not break Hank Aaron’s homerun record on the road, therefore the Giants should not play him on road trips. The integrity of baseball would be ruined if Bonds breaks the record somewhere and something bad happens, like a riot breaks out, or someone throws syringes at him or something. Since the Giants are out of the division race, it does not matter if Bonds sits out and they lose away games. As Philips says, in 20 years no one will remember much about the season, except the moment that Bonds hit number 756. That should not be tainted by something horrible happening during that moment.

At this point I think ESPN should have tested Phillips for drugs. Now let’s hear what Kruk had to say.

Kruk
He should not sit out games on the road. If he sits out games, doesn’t that ruin the integrity of the season anyways? There are plenty of tight races in the National League, and for the Giants to just sit their best player, could make a huge difference at the end of the year. All players have to deal with adversity, and Bonds should just suck it up. Also, it’s not so easy to hit homeruns. Bonds could take all season at home just to hit the four or five he still needs.

Needless to say, Kruk was spitting and slobbering a bit more and as usual was barely coherent, but I cleaned it up a little bit for him. Regardless of that, he is pretty much right, although Kruk is the kind of guy who stumbles into right answers and has no idea why.

1. How many people went out and calculated Bond’s HR/AB ration and tried to figure out when he would break the record? How many of those people bought tickets to road games and plan to fly out and try to get that ball? I would love to know how many stadiums are sold out in their right field section for the next couple of weeks when the Giants play. Even if they are coming out to boo him, they still paid for tickets, and teams are still making money off them.

2. Security. Hire extra security for Giants games. Make sure if anyone jumps out on the field they get tasered or something. Hell, let Bonds carry his bat after he hits the HR. If some crazy fan wants to attack the dude, who may have taken steroids and weighs like 280 lbs of solid muscle, then good luck to that dude because I am pretty sure Bonds would destroy the average drunken fan in a fight.

3. The main thing that Kruk was trying to say, about the other teams is fairly important. If the Giants play at Atlanta, who is one game behind Dodgers for the wild card (this is all hypothetical), and Bonds sits out and the Braves sweep them, then the Giants return home and play the Pirates where Bonds breaks the record. After that they head on down to L.A. and beat the Dodgers 3 out of 4 games because Bonds is playing road games now. This would also go back to the argument Chipper Jones said about interleague play, about how it is unfair that the Mets and Braves have to play the Yankees/Red Sox, while the Marlins play the Devil Rays. It means the schedule, which is supposedly equal for the most part become easier for some teams.

I know some people will say that it would be the same if the best player of a team gets hurt and misses games during a playoff race. However, that is not something anyone can really control (in most cases), Bonds sitting out would be a decision by the front office.

Anyways, enough about that for a moment. I would also like to say that I am tired of people constantly ripping on A-Rod. Nine times out of ten it’s people who do not check statistics and see that he is the best player in baseball.

I also love how people bring up last years playoffs against the Tigers. You would swear that A-Rod was the only Yankee. Does everyone forget that the Yankees bats were terrible during that series? The Tigers pitching was just awesome.

For most of you who do not believe me about A-Rod, go over to Fire Joe Morgan and read any of the posts about A-Rod. The arguments they write do not come from die-hard Yankees fans (actually most of them are Red Sox fans), but instead from rational people who can read stats and say “oh, that guy is fucking amazing.”

Author: Ngewo

6 thoughts on “Fantasy Baseball Week 15

  1. First off, nothing is gonna happen when Bonds breaks the record, whether it be in Frisco or Lynchburg, MS. So that shouldnt even be part of the argument. The only people loopy enough to try anything violent would most likely be psycho racists, which shouldnt factor in considering he already has the single season record and he wouldnt be taking the overall from a white person.

    I’m pretty sure even the most diehard baseball purist still realizes this is a sport and the most protesting they’d do is to dress up as an asterisk.

    Then there’s the possibility of rioting for riotings sake. Not necessarily because one is pro or anti-Bonds, but because something happened riot worthy, and that can happen in San Fran just like it could anywhere else in the country. Then it would just be funny.

    And on the flip side, Bonds should definitely be playing as many games as he physically can because of the reasons mentioned. Purposely losing a game is just bullocks any which way you scrape it, whether it be to accomplish something at home or to increase draft position. Any and all offenders should be publicly flogged. Or pubicly flogged. In public.

    And living in NY, I hear the A-Rod debate all the time. Most people around here recognize his divinity. Even the Mets fans own up to it, partly because the Yanks are tanking, and still while advocating their preference for Reyes. There’s always the odd hater though, but upon further inspection, its usually found that that either the person is an obstinate Yankee hater, or has been wronged in a fantasy league at some point in recent history.

  2. i agree with you man.
    being near detroit at the time i watched all of those games. you almost had to. hell, law profs in evening classes were asking for updates on the score. the yankees bats were generally weak. and the tigers pitching staff played very well. that was my whole reason for jumping down the list to take verlander, cause the guy throws hard. its impressive. and you hear about it on all the local sports talk shows, which we have 2 in lansing…btw, the rebroadcast of that show screws up the 24 weekends reruns…dammit!

    i’m also with gid on this one too. there won’t be rioting. people honestly can’t care that much. and race is a non-factor. i figure the worst that is going to happen is people throwing some syringes out, or booing. big deal.

    i get tired of hearing comments about bonds destroying baseball or things like that. barry bonds doesn’t across as warm and fuzzy, but he’s not destroying baseball.

    besides, A-rod is going to destroy the career home-run record. and people should just admit he’s great.

    oh, and he’s so clutch!
    ok, so i’m mocking A-rod detractors who say he’s not “clutch.” which i’m not sure i believe in, and i know that its not a compiled statistic…

    as a general rule, i do not trust that sort of evidence.

    later.

  3. Thanks guys for the input. Gideon, Buster Olney is the guy that likes to write about A-Rod and tends to ignore that he has been the best player in baseball for the past decade…

    I also agree with you that if a team goes out with the purpose of not winning, they should be flogged.

    Imler…you are right, clutch is not something that is statistical. the closest argument you can make for it is RBIs w/Runners in Scoring Position, unfortunately it becomes a small sample size and is dependent upon other players getting on base. A-Rod is not clutch when he hits a single and gets on base in the 9th inning, and then someone after him hits a homerun. he is not clutch for hitting a homerun in the first inning. blah blah blah. clutch is one of those things that make it seem like nothing that happened before the 9th inning mattered. For people who say that the only thing that matters is a Win, well there is a stat for that, it’s called WARP. Wins Above Replacement Player…

  4. I have to say something about the Izturis trade…

    FINALLY WE’VE FOUND THE MISSING PIECE!

    *sigh*

    The only good that will come of this is getting rid of Jack Wilson, who I never liked. Maybe this will give Bixler a chance; he can’t be worse than Wilson offensively. And, on the bright side, we can start discussing the prospect of a winning season next year…is it too early to do that?

  5. From what I heard on the radio today, Bixler still needs one more season at AAA. I think he will be better offensively, but from what I understand his glove needs work.

    I would be happy to see Jack go. I just wonder if they can really get anything for him though. Only team that really may want him is Boston, but what would they give up? Probably not much.

    That trade really made me scratch my head, but at least we really do not give up too much for him, so I guess it is not a big deal.

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