The new owner of this franchise gallantly stepped into the breach last season following the abrupt departure of the enigmatic M**e. In doing so, he followed in the proud interim replacement footsteps of Sam Perlozzo, the Hotter Becky from "Roseanne", and, of course, Paul Westerberg of the seminal '80's indie band The Replacements.
We turn our delightful gaze now towards the 2006 champion Le Dupont Torkies, a squad whose success on the virtual diamond is only exceeded by their owner's hilarious indignation at the idiocracy of others. If you think Teddy and I are brutal, you have never seen the Wrath of Tucker post a hideous trade. It's a combination of humor, honesty and history. In other words, he's Ben Franklin, minus the pot belly and unrepeatable foibles.
Sadly for the Torkies (though not the balance of the league), 2008 represents a fulcrum year for the squad, as A-Rod next year becomes a 4-slot keeper under the new rules, and it's hard to see how they'll be able to keep him plus additionally expensive players like Chase Utley, Joe Mauer and Chone Figgins. So while it's not quite an end of an era season for this team, the immediacy of the pending availability of those players will make him, by necessity, an active trader throughout the year, be it as a buyer or seller.2007 Recap: The 2006 Champs burst out to an epic lead by Memorial Day, amassing a 15+ point lead by June 1st. In keeping with league history, the lead fizzled by the All-Star game and they were caught by It's Enrico Pallazzo by August, who ran away with the title. This is the third time we've had a team open a huge lead in May (me in '03, Alex in '04) to watch it disappear by mid-summer. Let's call this the Terry Leach Phenomenon, named after a perennial quick starter that lapsed into craptitude every August.
Outfield: Magglio Ordonez, Bobby Abreu, Manny Ramirez, Chone Figgins. An interesting vet collection that's high OBP, could slug 100 homers, and is probably good for 50 steals. Let's call this an "asset", though I'll note that Magglio is prime to bounce off last year and nobody likes Manny this year, meaning he'll hit 45 home runs
Relievers: Jon Papelbon, Trevor Hoffman, Brandon Lyon, Jon Broxton, Heath Bell, Brian Fuentes. It's a mixed bag of closers here, with a young guy on a good team (Paps), a fair guy on a good team (Lyon), and an old guy on a fair team (Hoffman). The sad part is that Broxton's (left) the 2nd best pitcher here and he'll be of minimal value barring injury.
Leading off my quartet of previews is something we haven't seen before: a resuscitated name in Wu Tang Financial. Now, we've had a bunch of squads that have had the same name year after year (Evil Empire, The Spam Avengers, Le Dupont Torkies, to name three). We've had folks like myself, Teddy, Andy and Scot who cycle in a fresh name every year. We had M**e, who stubbornly refused to actually name his team, and has rightly been banished to the Duke Snider penitentiary. And we have Ironhead, who changes his name every lunar cycle, yet somehow keeps it consistent by failing to ever note that his keyboard has a shift button.
Which brings us to his roster, which in and of itself is an interesting gambit. For the third straight year, WTF has assembled a team of hard throwing starters and burly hitters that pound the ball a lot, but can't run for shit. In short, he's put together the Nintendo Ice Hockey team with 5 fat guys. How does that play out in rotisserie baseball?
Outfield: Rick Ankiel, Fat Squirrel, Lance Berkman, Jay Bruce. A useful collection of outfielders that's no worse than good at any position, as even I've come around on the virtues of the Burrell. If Ankiel develops, this is a pretty nice collection of men patrolling the green, albeit 4 guys with absolutely no speed whatsoever.
Bust Potential: I'll go on the record as skeptical that Chris Young can repeat his All-Star performance of last year. Partly because I think he's overrated and mostly because I think he's now in front of a porous defense and is lacking a good offense to produce, I like him to regress to below the median. Plus, everyone hates Princeton kids.
I will admit that I initially made the error of assuming that this team's name was a reference to current Knick coach/former ABA executioner Isiah Thomas, which would have made for a parade of easy jokes for this preview. Instead, we've learned that the Isaiah in question is the team owner's son, which somewhat circumscribes this article's cheap shot potential. Regardless, we'll soldier on by ignoring both Thomas and the kid, and proceeding in the spirit of the team's namesake prophet.
Our congratulations goes out to Rickie Weeks, who has won the first GRBG trophy this year: the Worst Keeper Award. Teddy will have a transcript of his interview with Mr. Weeks up for all to view after the season has begun. Congrats Rickie. It's a helluva achievement.
With the draft being a mere 48 hours away, let's take a ride down memory lane for a few minutes and review the wayward ways of our past. With a league that started in 2002, we're now coming up on our 7th draft, which means there have been six opportunities for players to shoot themselves in the foot by fouling up valuable first round picks. What have been the worst of the first rounders? Let's take a look-see:
2004: My efforts to find a draft results sheet have resulted in nothing; however, I distinctly remember Ironhead taking Vincente Padilla in the first round, two picks before Jake and I took Ben Sheets and David Ortiz, respectively. I think Padilla was cut before Mother's Day.
2007: It's only one year out, but I think it's safe to say the fact that B.J. Ryan pitched exactly 4 1/3 innings forM**e last year makes him the worst player on this list. Which is saying something: the bottom of last year's draft included Hideki Matsui's cranky legs, Troy Glaus' strained groin and the immortal Dick Harden. Still, at least those teams didn't lose their owners.
That's Yankee designated lumberer Shelly Duncan introducing himself to Aki Iwamura's boys in a spring training game earlier today. The gesture prompted a bench-clearing brawl highlighted by Jonny Gomes's decision to demonstrate unusually sure hands (for him) by charging in from the outfield to tackle Duncan
You'd have to assume that if Duncan, Gomes, and the rest of the players known that a cold one or five awaited them in the clubhouse, they would have skipped the histrionics, played out the string, and contented themselves with making the rookies do keg stands. Instead there was a fight that served no purpose for anybody.
Indeed, although the peanut gallery over at NYY Fans thought that the fight showed good heart, sass, gumption, etc. on the Yankees' part, all it really did is set the stage for a season-long beanball festival of the sort that Tampa and Boston used to engage during the Pedro Era. And that's bad news for New York--any time a team has the more talented roster (and despite Tampa's improvements, New York still has the better lineup), it has more to lose by engaging in a beanball war. The better team has the better players at risk, and more to lose by dropping a game or two that it might otherwise have won.
So, Hank, wise up and bring back the beer. In fact, the next time the Yanks and Rays play a spring training game, pony up the money to put a keg at each base. The fans will almost certainly get their money's worth, and you just might save your self a Derek Jeter broken hand somewhere down the road.
To date, we've seen exactly 4 horses that have looked impressive on the road to the Kentucky Derby:
We at the Gazette are nothing if not thorough in our dissection of minutia and insignificant details. So while we laud good moves when we see them, it's time to call someone out for a new award: the Worst Keeper of the Year. We're going to retroactively give the 2007 version of this award to Chris Ianetta, who was last seen washing cars in Fort Collins, Colorado.(Link to article.) I think the basic thrust of Kaufman's argument, that these guys need to suck it up and stay quiet about their renewals, is correct, but just about everything else in the quote above is off base.Fielder, Hamels and any other young ballplayer who doesn't like the terms of his renewed contract should remind himself that he's operating under a system that was arrived at in collective bargaining, and it's a system that lavishly rewards those who make it through three years. It isn't exactly chicken feed in the first three, either. . . . Any young gun who doesn't like the bargain that was struck should take it up with the union, but of course they all stop complaining about the system once it starts working in their favor in Year 4.
I liked where Prince Fielder said he "respected the Brewers scale.'' Fielder was talking about pay scale, but still, I never expected Fielder to say anything nice about a scale. Anyway, I do agree with him that $670,000 is awfully cheap when you consider Ryan Howard was renewed at $900,00 by the Phillies the year before. The Brewers admitted they'd have paid more if Fielder won MVP, as if third in the final voting was his fault (Jimmy Rollins and Matt Holliday finished one and two because their teams made it to October, not because they outplayed Fielder).For starters, it's wholly unclear how the hell you could argue that Fielder was a better MVP candidate than Albert Pujols, a player at the exact same position who had better numbers for the entire year and is leaps and bounds a better fielder than Sir Prince. Hell, it's arguable that Ryan Howard was better than Fielder. And Pujols' team didn't make the playoffs either, so if you're going to harp on the idea that not making the playoffs is fatal to an MVP candidacy, then aren't they both in the same boat? (Unless we're now grading for how far out you finished, at which point I just fucking give up.)
But let's return to the more fun quote therein: "as if third in the final voting was his fault". Explicitly, Messr. Heyman acknowledges that it's not one person's doing to make the playoffs, and that 24+ other players contribute to the entirety of making the postseason, and that you can only judge a player on what he's done. Hallelujah! Praise the lord! He's seen the light!
After five-plus months of dicking around and dozens of posts with little or no relevance to this league, or baseball in general (but some fantastic insights on the Super Bowl, the Breeders Cup and Ivy League hoops), we bring you back to our bread and butter. That's right folks, it's TA time! 
For the record, I picked this team name not only because it's one of my favorite historical references and movements, but because the use of numbers allows my crappy 2008 edition to come first in all TA's and get the madness out of the way. (I suppose you could argue that it should be under "F", but I scoff at your alternative collation methods.)
Now, there's a pair of ways to look at this trade. The first one is that trading up 46 slots is never a bad idea, especially when you haven't given up a player that was a real "keeper" for your team, and in essence you've gotten something for nothing. But I respectfully don't buy that point of view---Hill's eminently a better keeper than Bobby Abreu, and the third round, I think, is going to have either prospects going to early or veterans who are fungible with guys available 4 rounds later. So while there's obviously nothing wrong with trading up in the draft, the real query is whether you should have just kept Hill instead. I say yes, which isn't surprising given that I dealt for him. (El Angelo)
