Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.
Meet the ... Eventual landing spot for Manny Ramirez. Seriously, it's going to happen sooner or later, so we'll just assume it's already happened for the purposes of this post. Obviously, if he either signs elsewhere (unlikely) or sits out this season (as unlikely as the holier than thou media embracing A-Rod), we'll have to re-fantasy-spin the entire offense. He's that important to the lineup.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.
It's hard to think of a team that's been on more of a rollercoaster than the Milwaukee Brewers have the past five months. In June, they acquired CC Sabathia and started steamrolling towards what looked like a certain playoff berth. In September, they collapsed and nearly lost what looked like a sure wild-card berth. Then they fired Ned Yost and slid into the playoffs anyways. In October, they were knocked out by the eventual world champion Phillies. Now they've hired Ken Macha and Willie Randolph, but CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets have filed for free agency.
Of course, the important thing for the Brewers and their fans to remember is that they're going to be in good shape next year, even without Sheets and Sabathia. They've still got a great offense, they've still got Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra, and hey, Eric Gagne's gone! They're going to be a different team next year, yes. But that doesn't mean they're going to be worse.
Every four years, Major League Baseball's postseason intersects with a presidential election. This is one of those years. In the spirit of the season, we here at MLB FanHouse have divided the playoff teams up for a series of debates. Here Pat Lackey and Mullet discuss the NLDS between the Brewers and Phillies. Mullet: This series may turn out to be the least competitive of all the four first-round matchups out there. There are a lot of reasons the Phillies should take care of the Brewers in three or four games, so I'll start with this one: Brad Lidge is 41-for-41 in save opportunites this season. The Brewers bullpen, meanwhile, has Eric Gagne and Guillermo Mota. You've seen it as much as I have, bullpens win in the playoffs.
Pat Lackey: It makes me vaguely sick to my stomach to point this out, but since mid-July Eric Gagne has a 3.52 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP. He's not the Gagne of old, as his strikeouts are way down (17 in 23 innings over that span), but he's at least done a good job of keeping guys off of the bases for the home runs he inevitably gives up. The Brewers will likely turn to Salomon Torres in a pinch before either of the guys you named and until a couple hiccups down the stretch, he was very good this year.
Doesn't it seem like just yesterday that the Brewers' biggest worry was a vaguely controversial scoring decision that may or may not have cost CC Sabathia a no-hitter? It wasn't yesterday, but it was only two weeks ago that the Brewers held a 5 1/2 game lead over the field in the NL wild-card race. Today, it's all gone after a double-header sweep at the hands of the Philies.
With the sweep today, the Phillies completed a four-game sweep of the Brewers that's brought them back from an exile nearly as deep as the one they bounced out of last year to win the NL East. In the first game today, they fell behind 3-1 early before four runs in the seventh off of Guillermo Mota and Brian Shouse. In the nightcap they jumped all over Jeff Suppan and cruised to a 6-1 lead behind a complete game from Brett Myers.
And the Brewers? They can't do anything right at the moment. They draw the Cubs (six games), Pirates, and Reds for their final 12 games while the Phillies have six against the Braves and one series with the Marlins and Nationals. Don't look now, but in two weeks the Brewers have gone from the overwhelming favorites in the NL wild-card race to decided underdogs.
I've always been one for letting my employer decide when I'm no longer capable of doing my job, but Eric Gagne and Jason Isringhausen apparently feel differently, being "honest" enough to let their managers know they're no longer worthy of the closer role. (Update: Gagne can apparently close again!) Either way, not a lot of confidence. What they did is rare in the sense of being voluntary, but it certainly underlies the basic fantasy notion that saves are easy to come by.
In Milwaukee, if you're looking for saves, you actually love Gagne flip-flopping; Ned Yost will probably go back to the well with him, and you'll have an easier time going after the guy who will probably end up getting the saves. Salomon Torres, Guillermo Mota and David Riske are the official closer by committee. (The reality is they shouldn't have let Francisco Cordero walk, but that's neither here nor there at this point). I've been saying that Riske is my guy since early in the season, but in fairness, he hasn't pitched perfectly. Then again, neither has Torres, so I'm sticking by my guns here and saying Riske ends up with the most saves in the Milwaukee pen this year (unless Yost does something cr-r-r-r-azy and puts Carlos Villanueva in the spot).
The Cardinals end of things appears to be a little more cut and dry, in the sense that Ryan Franklin is the new go-to guy from the bullpen in St. Louis. Russ Springer and Randy Flores are apparently in the mix as well to a degree, but when you look at Springer's walk count -- five! -- since Izzy went down, it's hard to imagine Tony La Russa trusts him. Plus, Franklin is actually locking down the ninth. And the guy you want to grab for your fantasy league.
Yorvit Torrealba has had himself a bit of a tumultuous month or two. After an historic World Series run with the Rockies, Torrealba hopped into free agency and fielded serious offers from the New York Mets. In all, Torrealba -- a thoroughly mediocre player -- looked set to go make a pretty penny for his mediocrity.
Alas, it was not to be. The Mets went in a different direction by unloading Guillermo Mota to the Brewers for Johnny Estrada, and Yorvit was left on the outside looking in. Now, he's accepting his fate; he'll re-sign with the Rockies:
Yorvit Torrealba is staying in Colorado, agreeing Thursday to a two-year deal worth about $7 million with a mutual option for 2010.
Torrealba, who filed for free agency after helping the Rockies reach the World Series, was set to sign a three-year contract for about twice the money with the New York Mets this month. The Rockies got back into the mix when that deal fell apart and the Mets traded for Johnny Estrada instead.
Ouch. Torrealba could have been making oh, $15 million or so, and now he's back in Colorado for half that price. I'm sure he likes being in Colorado and all ... but probably not more than an extra $8 million. Ouch.
Estrada for Kendall is a pretty lateral swap behind the plate, I think. They're both pretty terrible hitters at this point in their careers and just generally past their primes. I suppose the net benefit of this is that the Brewers pick up Mota, if you can call that a benefit. Mota was pretty terrible last year after coming back from his steroid suspension. Still, he's another arm in the bullpen for the Brewers, which they may need if they can't keep Francisco Cordero, who figures to be one of the hottest properties on the free agent market this year.
Honestly, I thought the Brewers would've tried harder to replace Estrada with someone that could hit. Kendall was traded from Oakland to the Cubs last year and promptly lost his job to the completely unproven Geovany Soto. He did hit better with the Cubs than he did with the A's, but that doesn't mean his .270/.362/.356 line is good. If Ned Yost bats him at the top of the order, we'll know he's officially gone insane.
The Mets have been trying, and failing, to go in any direction away from Paul Lo Duca this offseason. After talks with Yorvit Torrealba fell through, the Mets found another route: trade Guillermo Mota!
You wouldn't Mota would be good enough to acquire anyone of note, and, well, you'd sort of be right. Because you'd get Johnny Estrada:
"Johnny adds depth to our catching situation," Mets general manager Omar Minaya said. "He's a former All-Star who switch-hits and has hit over .300 three times in his career."
Estrada had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Oct. 4 to repair a torn meniscus. He also had a bone spur removed from his right elbow. The operations were performed by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala.
The 34-year-old Mota was 2-2 with a 5.76 ERA in 52 relief appearances this season. Often booed at home, the right-hander struck out 47 and walked 18 in 59 1-3 innings.
Mota wasn't just booed this season; he was in many ways the focal point for angry Mets fans during the team's historic stretch-run collapse. Tim Marchman, a normally level-headed columnist, even wrote a scathing ode to the pains involved in watching Mota pitch. Hated doesn't begin to describe Mota's standing with Mets fans.
So to gain something, anything, for Mota -- even if it is Estrada -- is a minor coup for the Mets. At the very least, it's a subtly pleasing PR move.
Guillermo Mota is not well-liked. Well, maybe by Phillies fans, but certainly not by fans of his own team, the Mets. Because Mota is a terrible, terrible pitcher, perhaps the worst in all of baseball. As Tim Marchman describes, he actually has the ability to make one sick while he pitches:
It's almost physically painful to watch him pitch; a call to the bullpen for Mota is always a renunciation of the hope of success. [...] Mota is probably best known for throwing at Mike Piazza's head over a period of years, at one point starting a highly entertaining spring training brawl by doing so, and for being one of the more famous players to serve a 50-game suspension for using steroids. Because of this, because he is terrible, and because the way in which he is terrible makes people want to gouge their eyes out with grapefruit spoons, he is easily the most hated Mets reliever since Armando Benitez.
Armando Benitez! Ouch. Fortunately, to add a little perspective, Can't Stop The Bleeding checked in last week with a quick and dirty list of people you should hate more than Guillermo Mota:
So with that mind, and hoping to restore some sense of perspective amongs Mets fans, i've compiled a list of individuals, living or dead, who've done far more than Mota to inflict abject misery onto others.
1) Hitler 2) Pol Pot 3) Idi Amin 4) Rick Dees 5) Arkan 6) Stacy Q 7) Dr. Harold Shipman 8) The Homolkas 9) Stephen Baldwin 10) Mel Rojas
As CStB says, that list is pretty comprehensive. Any additions, FanHousers?
There's been a lot made over the half-boos and half-cheers that Guillermo Mota got after the reliever returned from his 50 game suspension for steroids in comparison to the raucous hate that Bonds received from basically the same Shea crowd on Tuesday, and the exact same crowd on Wednesday. From Joe Gergen of Newsday:
At least, that reflected a moral dilemma of sorts. But after Mota threw two shutout innings in the Mets' 3-0 loss last night, yielding only a bloop single and retiring six batters on 22 pitches, the fans were almost unanimous in their applause. Many around the dugout stood and cheered as he walked off the mound.
"They're nice fans," said the pitcher who was acquired last August and had appeared in only 25 previous Mets games, including seven in the postseason. "I expected a little more like booing. This was more like, 'Welcome back.' "
New York radio personalities called for Mets fans to treat Mota on Wednesday the exact same way as they treated Bonds on Tuesday with their chants of "You Did Ste-roids" as he pinch hit in the tenth inning. Those people are missing the point.
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over. 
Doesn't it seem like just yesterday that the Brewers' biggest worry was a vaguely controversial scoring decision that may or may not have cost CC Sabathia a no-hitter? It wasn't yesterday, but it was only two weeks ago that the Brewers held a 5 1/2 game lead over the field in the NL wild-card race. Today, it's all gone after a double-header sweep at the hands of the Philies.
I've always been one for letting my employer decide when I'm no longer capable of doing my job, but 
Within a day, the Brewers have completely changed their catching situation. 
The Mets have been trying, and failing, to go in any direction away from 
There's been a lot made over the half-boos and half-cheers that Guillermo Mota got after the reliever returned from his 50 game suspension for steroids in comparison to the raucous hate that Bonds received from basically the same Shea crowd on Tuesday, and the exact same crowd on Wednesday. From Joe Gergen of 
