Tuesday, February 20, 2007
How do I feel about the upcoming baseball season?
I am very aroused.
I think my Astro's have a solid shot at winning the Central this year. The central is not going to be a very strong division and I like what the Astro's accomplished in the off-season. First off, they let Pettitte go and replaced him with Jason Jennings. Jennings is coming off a year where he posted one of the best era's by any Colorado Rockies pitcher ever. Plus, Pettitte sucked last year for the most part. I could seriously see his era being around 5 this year in the AL. If Woody Williams and Brandon Backe can stay healthy I will be very happy with this rotation. The bullpen is solid and could be even more solid if Brad Lidge returns to old form. From top to bottom, this pitching staff could be the best in the NL central.
Carlos Lee will be a huge help to the offense. He should be able to put up some big numbers pulling the ball down the line at the juice box. Most importantly though, he will give some protection in the order for the fat Elvis. Berkman was third in the MVP vote last year despite not having any protection at all. I plan on taking Berkman very early in my fantasy draft this year and recommendend you all do the same. I mean look at his numbers last year with no one hitting behind him: AVG .315 HR 45 RBI 136 OBP .420 SLG .621 Yeah, that's pretty good. The offense will need some help and hopefully some of the young players on the team will step up namely Chris Burke and Luke Scott. Oh and Ensberg, just like Lidge, really needs to return to his 2005 form.
Clemens recently said that he was 80% retired which means he is definitely coming back next year. 3 years ago he said he was 99.9% retired before signing with the Astro's. The Astro's do need to be in contention for him to sign with them though.
On another note, there seems to be a debate on whether Jeff Bagwell deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. He was the best all-round first basemen of the 90's. He didn't have a weakness. He was a great base runner, he could hit for average, he could hit for power, he got on base, he won Rookie of the Year, he was an MVP, he was a Gold Glove winner, and he was a clubhouse leader that hustled on every play. And I might add, he was/is the only person in the world who could have sex with my girlfriend with out me caring. Infact, I would be thrilled. But seriously, what else did the guy have to do? Due to his arthritic shoulder his numbers dipped the last few years of his career and I think people forgot what a monster he was. To help remind everyone lets look at Bagwell compared to Bonds. Now it is believed that Bonds started taking steroids during his 15th season in the Majors so I am only comparing them based on the first 14 seasons of their careers. Here is the average season for Bonds during his first 14 years of play
AVG .288 HR 32 RBI 92 SLG.559 Walks 102
And for Bagwell
AVG .297 HR 32 RBI 108 SLG .542 Walks 99
People say that Bonds had a Hall of Fame career before he started juicing but if you look at the numbers, it looks to me like Bagwell might have been a slightly better offensive player than Bonds during that time period and he was playing in the spacious Astrodome, a pitchers park. So how is it that anyone can deny that Bagwell deserves to be in the Hall?
I think my Astro's have a solid shot at winning the Central this year. The central is not going to be a very strong division and I like what the Astro's accomplished in the off-season. First off, they let Pettitte go and replaced him with Jason Jennings. Jennings is coming off a year where he posted one of the best era's by any Colorado Rockies pitcher ever. Plus, Pettitte sucked last year for the most part. I could seriously see his era being around 5 this year in the AL. If Woody Williams and Brandon Backe can stay healthy I will be very happy with this rotation. The bullpen is solid and could be even more solid if Brad Lidge returns to old form. From top to bottom, this pitching staff could be the best in the NL central.
Carlos Lee will be a huge help to the offense. He should be able to put up some big numbers pulling the ball down the line at the juice box. Most importantly though, he will give some protection in the order for the fat Elvis. Berkman was third in the MVP vote last year despite not having any protection at all. I plan on taking Berkman very early in my fantasy draft this year and recommendend you all do the same. I mean look at his numbers last year with no one hitting behind him: AVG .315 HR 45 RBI 136 OBP .420 SLG .621 Yeah, that's pretty good. The offense will need some help and hopefully some of the young players on the team will step up namely Chris Burke and Luke Scott. Oh and Ensberg, just like Lidge, really needs to return to his 2005 form.
Clemens recently said that he was 80% retired which means he is definitely coming back next year. 3 years ago he said he was 99.9% retired before signing with the Astro's. The Astro's do need to be in contention for him to sign with them though.
On another note, there seems to be a debate on whether Jeff Bagwell deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. He was the best all-round first basemen of the 90's. He didn't have a weakness. He was a great base runner, he could hit for average, he could hit for power, he got on base, he won Rookie of the Year, he was an MVP, he was a Gold Glove winner, and he was a clubhouse leader that hustled on every play. And I might add, he was/is the only person in the world who could have sex with my girlfriend with out me caring. Infact, I would be thrilled. But seriously, what else did the guy have to do? Due to his arthritic shoulder his numbers dipped the last few years of his career and I think people forgot what a monster he was. To help remind everyone lets look at Bagwell compared to Bonds. Now it is believed that Bonds started taking steroids during his 15th season in the Majors so I am only comparing them based on the first 14 seasons of their careers. Here is the average season for Bonds during his first 14 years of play
AVG .288 HR 32 RBI 92 SLG.559 Walks 102
And for Bagwell
AVG .297 HR 32 RBI 108 SLG .542 Walks 99
People say that Bonds had a Hall of Fame career before he started juicing but if you look at the numbers, it looks to me like Bagwell might have been a slightly better offensive player than Bonds during that time period and he was playing in the spacious Astrodome, a pitchers park. So how is it that anyone can deny that Bagwell deserves to be in the Hall?
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Kyle I am going to ruin Christmas for you. . .Bags (the good friend of Ken Cam) juiced in his career.
Please stop lying to yourself
Please stop lying to yourself
Is it possible? Yes. I mean everyone in the 90's is a suspect. But Bagwell never grew in size during his career. His numbers never made large leaps. Unlike Big Mac and Palmero, there were never whispers about alleged use. As far as Caminiti, he claimed that he didn't start taking steriods until he was playing for the Padres. A story that seems to be true for anyone who has ever looked at a Ken Caminiti Rookie card. The guy was a stick. But he supposedly started taking roids to speed up his recovery time after he suffered some type of injury as a Padre. I don't think Bagwell juiced and I think the majority of the baseball community would agree with me.
If what you mean by "the majority of the baseball community" is "Craig Biggio & the 25,000 Astro fans out there," then yes, I would agree with you.
Also, this song and dance sounds awfulling familiar...
http://heavysoul.blogspot.com/2006/02/february-mlb-predictions.html#links
Also, this song and dance sounds awfulling familiar...
http://heavysoul.blogspot.com/2006/02/february-mlb-predictions.html#links
It should sound familiar because the Astro's contend every year. I would like to point out that I also said that the rest of the NL would struggle to be .500 which was exactly right. The only thing I was way off on in the Central predictions was that I thought the Bucs would be the laughing stock of the division but that honor went to the Cubs.
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