Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.
The Pittburgh Pirates wrapped up their record 17th consecutive losing season last month by avoiding 100 losses with a rain delay. During the season, they traded away four Opening Day starters, plus two starting pitchers and two of their better relievers. It might be easy to say that the Pirates have their work cut out for them this offseason if they want to avoid losing season No. 18.
It's not quite that straightforward, though. The team does have a pretty solid core of youngsters, so anything they do this winter has to be accomplished without blocking players like Lastings Milledge and Andy LaRoche from getting at-bats so that the team can accurately assess just what they have in those players.
For a number of major league teams Mondays and Thursdays are travel days. Every Wednesday and Sunday, Fantasy Fill-Ins finds guys who should be widely available on the waiver wire and can step in for the day, helping you gain ground or hold off the pack.
There are nine games scheduled for Thursday. That means we may need to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find some solid fill-ins. Here are five of the best options.
Jack Cust, Athletics - Cust hasn't been the model of consistent hitting this season and as of late he's been less then stellar batting .221 over the last month. But, he has a pretty good track record against Scott Feldman (five hits and two home runs in 15 at-bats) so could fill-in nicely on Thursday. Cust is only owned in 16% of fantasy leagues.
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Before the season started, I was rough on Derrek Lee. I named him the biggest bust on the Cubs for this coming season and included him on the list of "five guys to lose" your fantasy league. I even predicted Mike Fontenot would hit more home runs than Mr. Lee. Obviously, it sounds outlandish now, in hindsight, as Lee clubbed his 35th home run Tuesday night. In the process, he established a new career high in RBI with 109. His OPS is the second-highest it's ever been -- trailing only his insane 2005 season when he did an Albert Pujols impersonation.
Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.
The reason that Futilitywatch wasn't made a weekly feature earlier in the season was fairly simple; I wasn't sure the Pirates would be interesting enough to do weekly updates on. The three weeks since we've looked in on the Pirates' slow march towards infamy is emblematic of that; there just isn't much that happens week to week. In a basic week, the Pirates win two or three games and lose four or five, their record slowly eroding, with hope slowly extinguishing.
That said, three weeks encompasses almost the entire career of Garrett Jones and with the trade deadline looming, it's certainly time for an update on the team that's a mere 29 losses from setting one of the most dubious records in sports history.
Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.
How many teams in baseball history have traded 2/3rds of their starting outfields in consecutive years? The Pirates started 2008 with an offense-oriented outfield of Jason Bay, Nate McLouth, and Xavier Nady, from left to right. With Bay and Nady slated to become free agents in the two coming offseasons and having good years at the plate, the Pirates dealt them and shifted towards a defensive outfield of Nyjer Morgan, McLouth, and Brandon Moss. Now, Morgan and McLouth are gone and GM Neal Huntington may not be done dealing. Where does that leave the Pirates?
MLB Power Rankings:Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.
It's a funny thing, sometimes, to see how Power Rankings shape up over the course of the season. Just like when we started the year, there are a number of teams from one particular division sitting atop the rankings. Of course, there are plenty of surprises -- WHERE DID THE FREAKING GIANTS AND ROCKIES COME FROM?? -- and some other interesting stuff, like the fact that the Mets and Cubs just haven't been that good, which we discussed on the inaugural BaseCast recently.
FanHouse first reported the talks last Friday via Twitter, and a high-level source with one of the teams confirmed the ongoing discussions Tuesday afternoon. Pittsburgh had been seeking right-hander Craig Stammen along with Milledge, so this represents a compromise.
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.
"This concludes our test of the emergency attendance enhancement system. We now return to the regularly scheduled season."
Yes, the 13th season of interleague play wraps up Sunday, except for a Cubs-White Sox makeup game. We have survived six San Diego-Seattle games (that's more zeroes than an A-Rod paycheck).
We didn't learn much we didn't already know: the system has inherent flaws and the American League rules.
For the sixth straight year, the AL has had** the better record in interleague play – 129-108 going into today.
Take out Cleveland and Oakland, and the AL is 119-84.
"It probably is" as big a gap between leagues as in past years, one AL team official said, "until you get to the World Series. Then it doesn't matter."
After failing to come through as the Nationals everyday leadoff hitter/center fielder, Lastings Milledge has been mired in the minor leagues. He's been living out of a hotel in Syracuse since the demotion, and he's only hitting .250 with a .602 OPS. He doesn't have a home run, but he does have 4 stolen bases. He's struck out 12 times and only walked 3.
It's true that Milledge does have loads of talent, and he's only 24 years old. He showed signs of that talent with a decent 2008 campaign -- when he hit .268 with 14 home runs, 24 doubles, and 24 steals. This is the selling point for the Washington Nationals, who need to just trade Milledge and move on.
WASHINGTON -- It's awfully hard to argue with the early returns on Washington's decision to demote the talented, but frustrating Lastings Milledge to Triple-A.
Two days after the Nationals dropped that bombshell, they returned to the field in the nation's capital and got in the win column, beating the Phillies 8-2 Thursday night and ending an embarrassing 11-game regular season losing streak that stretched all the way back to 2008.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.
For a number of major league teams Mondays and Thursdays are travel days. Every Wednesday and Sunday, 
A four-player swap of pitchers and outfielders between Pittsburgh and Washington became official Tuesday afternoon.
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in 
After failing to come through as the Nationals everyday leadoff hitter/center fielder, 
WASHINGTON -- It's awfully hard to argue with the early returns on Washington's decision to demote the talented, but frustrating 
