When you lose a star like Manny Ramirez in fantasy leagues, there is no "quick fix." You're either going to make a trade to fill the glaring hole, or you play mad scientist with waiver-wire options to tide your team over. I've always been a fan of the latter before resorting to the block. Luckily, there are seven players available who are capable of giving your team the needed power in mixed leagues. Not Manny-type power, obviously, but enough to mitigate the damage for a few months. And if that's not up your alley, we've got some trade targets, too.
MLB Power Rankings:Where we care what you've done for us lately when we break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world each week.
HAVE YOU HEARD? YANKEE STADIUM HAS A WIND TUNNEL!!! Does it matter/is it real? Probably not. In fact, it might actually be on the other end of the spectrum of importance when compared to MLB Power Rankings. This week, we welcome another brand new No. 1 at the top of our rankings, although, all spoiler alerts aside, it's from the same division as last week! Debate the quality of your team, after the jump.
OAKLAND -- Terry Francona was having one of those mornings.
Not only was his team reeling from its worst eight-game start in 13 years, but he had just hours earlier milked 11 innings out of his bullpen and had to put Daisuke Matsuzaka on the disabled list. The pitcher who was coming from Triple-A to take Matsuzaka's spot was traveling all the way from Rochester, with no chance of arriving in Oakland by the start of the game.
So the Red Sox manager was somewhat heartened when Tim Wakefield stopped by his office with a message.
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... Most average team in the league. It's weird, because there don't seem to be many real weaknesses on team -- but can you really find a bunch of strengths? I hate the term "very average," but this team is pretty close to the mean across the board. As you scroll through ADP charts, you'll find the A's aren't often towards the top of the lists, but they are definitely there. As I said, average.
Nomar Garciaparra isn't ready to hang up the spikes just yet. Multiple reports on Tuesday indicate that he'll sign a one-year contract with the Oakland A's, pending a physical, and join the team as a jack of all trades off the bench. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the deal will be announced on Friday.
Garciaparra battled injuries with the Dodgers last season and appeared in just 55 games for the NL West champions. He'd been contemplating retirement after hitting .264 with eight home runs and 28 RBI on the season, one year after he slumped to his worst big league season.
Strange as it might seem, the Oakland Athletics -- the very same club that has built its reputation on jettisoning All-Stars for the better part of the decade -- are pretty clearly in go-for-it-now mode. That's the only way trading for Matt Holliday, signing Jason Giambi and making a serious play for Rafael Furcal makes sense.
It's really going to happen: Jason Giambi is going home. Mike Puma of the New York Post reports that Giambi has agreed to return to the A's on a one-year deal worth $4.5 million, with a team option for 2010 worth $5 million or a $1 million buyout. Once he passes his physical tomorrow, the deal will become official.
The A's now have a logjam at first base and DH with Giambi, Jack Cust and Daric Barton, who's now the odd man out. Still, it's not hard to see why the A's jumped on bringing Giambi back.
Pat Burrell, whose offensive numbers were nearly identical to Giambi's last year, looked like a bargain when news broke that he agreed to a two-year, $16 million deal. Billy Beane, king of capitalizing on market inefficiencies, should get the same production for almost half the price. Granted, Burrell is six years younger than Giambi, but Giambi has shown little sign of decline the last few years, at least at the plate.
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 obvious that Billy Beane doesn't understand the concept of Footprints in the Snow. You see first, we tell major league GMs what they oughta do, then we predict what they will actually do. After that, the GMs go and do something nobody expects and they show us why they're running baseball teams and we're blogging about it.
Beane has the order wrong. He's not supposed to go and leave his footprints in the offseason snow before we write about it? What fun is that? But that's exactly what Billy did yesterday as he went and traded for Matt Holliday. So what you're about to read is a second draft done through the prism of the Holliday trade. Thanks a lot Billy. Next time, could you take better notes at our meetings?
Who said you can't go back home again? While Derek Lowe pines for a return to Boston, it seems some of the Oakland A's are hoping for a reunion with Jason Giambi, who's once again a free agent after seven years in the Bronx.
"I think it's a great fit," Chavez said. "I don't know if it will happen or not, and I don't know what the shape of the team will be, but Jason has had productive seasons in New York and there's no doubt he could still be a good hitter. And he'd be a big hit in the clubhouse.
"Every time I watch him, it seems like he comes up with a big hit or a home run."
I hate to pluck the same low-hanging fruit as Steve Lombardi from Was Watching, but what was Chavez watching? Giambi had a fine season by traditional (32 home runs, 96 RBI) and non-traditional metrics (130 OPS+) alike, but if there's one thing he didn't do was shine in the clutch: he hit just .216 (.707 OPS) with two outs and a runner in scoring position and .155 (.596 OPS) late and close.
Jack Cust has handled being named in the Mitchell Report pretty well. Instead of blustering about like Roger Clemens -- though we ought to thank Clemens for giving us something, however frivolous, to talk about the past few weeks -- or issuing half-denials like Andy Pettitte, he's been laying low and presumably plotting the best way to, you know, convince people he's not a cheater. This is a pretty good start:
Cust told reporters that he never has used performance enhancing substances, saying, "No. No. Not even one game." And, he said, he does not remember having any conversations with Bigbie about steroids.
"He was a teammate of mine five years ago and we haven't talked since," Cust said. "I don't remember any conversations about (steroids). He might have misinterpreted something I said, but I don't remember anything.
"I read the report, and he said he had the locker next to me. I didn't have a locker next to him. I don't know how something like that gets misinterpreted, but I haven't talked to him in five years. ... A lot of people say the same thing, that it seems weird my name is in there when there were other cases where there was a lot more (evidence) accrued."
Since this is the Mitchell Report, and this is professional baseball, effective denials are almost impossible. Anyone with even a hint of steroids in their past is immediately considered Public Enemy No. 1 and Cust might not be any different. But on the nebulous cheater's denial spectrum I just concocted in my feeble head, Cust's denial seems more genuine, or at least more believable. Maybe that's personal bias, or the advantage of Cust's timing. Or maybe it's possible that someone in The Report isn't as guilty as we might think.
Ugh -- steroids ruin everything. They even make me think (sort of) hard! No fun in that.
When you lose a star like Manny Ramirez in fantasy leagues, there is no "quick fix." You're either going to make a trade to fill the glaring hole, or you play mad scientist with waiver-wire options to tide your team over. I've always been a fan of the latter before resorting to the block. Luckily, there are seven players available who are capable of giving your team the needed power in mixed leagues. Not Manny-type power, obviously, but enough to mitigate the damage for a few months. And if that's not up your alley, we've got some trade targets, too.
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
Strange as it might seem, the Oakland Athletics -- the very same club that has built its reputation on jettisoning All-Stars for the better part of the decade -- are pretty clearly in go-for-it-now mode. That's the only way trading for 
It's really going to happen: 
Who said you can't go back home again? While 
