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Orioles and their chances in the AL East |
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MASTERSBLOG
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Written by Jason Mastrodonato
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Tuesday, 25 January 2011 01:18 |
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I know it’s only January, and I know the American League East will be the same old slugfest between the Yankees and the Red Sox. But forgive me for thinking that the Orioles will be the third best team in that division.
My colleague Perry Van Hook did a nice job of breaking down the Rays here yesterday, but I believe the O’s are an even stronger team, with substantially more upside.
The starting rotation consists of three guys who are 24-years-of-age or younger in Chris Tillman, Jake Arrieta and Brian Matusz - who I think, has a very good chance of joining Jon Lester, CC Sabathia, and David Price as one of the dominant lefties in the division.
The bullpen has five guys capable of being shut-down arms for at least an inning. Kevin Gregg and Koji Uehara will battle it out for the 9th-inning job, while Michael Gonzalez, Jim Johnson, and Jeremy Accardo are all capable of being very productive relievers.
And there really isn’t a hole in the entire lineup.
While the rumors swirling Vlad Guerrero have dimmed over the past week, the offense should have plenty of pop without him – though he would make a much better fit in the lineup than Luke Scott, who can’t touch lefthanders.
If Brian Roberts and Derrek Lee can stay healthy and return to form, Mark Reynolds, Adam Jones, and Nick Markakis should provide production from the two, four, and five-spots in the order. We still don’t know what Matt Wieters is capable of, and Felix Pie and Nolan Reimold both have potential to be solid every-day players.
And if JJ Hardy could hit another 25 home runs…
Hey, it’s only a piece of paper at this point, and it’s still the cold months of winter. But Andy MacPhail has quietly put together a team capable of winning 80 games, even more if all the pieces of the puzzle would fall in place.
There has been a popular notion that Buck Showalter provided a much-needed change of scenery in the Baltimore clubhouse too, and he appears eager to be back in the dugout on an every-day basis.
Maybe I’m dreaming, but this could finally be the year the O’s climb out of the AL East cellar and field a respectable team at Camden Yards.
Oh wouldn’t Cal Ripken Jr. be proud…
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 09:39 |
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LAWR MICHAELS' ENTRY IN SIRIUS XM FSTA LEAGUE |
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MASTERSBLOG
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 25 January 2011 01:05 |
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On Monday evening in Las Vegas, our own Lawr Michaels (with his faithful cohort Todd Zola texting maddeningly from 3000 miles away) drafted from the 3-hole in the FSTA Fantasy Baseball Draft, covered live by Sirius/XM. Lawr will be interviewed Tuesday by Jeff Erickson on XM-147, Sirius-210 on Tuesday at noon ET, 9 AM PT.
13-team, 5x5, no trades, weekly transactions
Click HERE for a link to the entire draft
C: K Suzuki-7, J Jaso-17 (H Conger -23)
1B/3B: K Morales-5, K Kouzmanoff-20, J Lopez-19
2B/SS: M Prado-6, H Ramirez-1, T Nishioki-24 (Ellis-28)
OF: M Holliday-2, D Stubbs-9, Swisher-10, Kubel-13, Crisp-15
UT: A Gordon-27 (Cust-29)
SP: T Lincecum-3, C Kershaw-4, T Lilly-11, M Garza-12, J Lackey-16, E Santana-18, T Stauffer-21 (D Braden-22, J McDonald-25)
RP: B Wilson-7, Franklin-14 (Motte-26)
What do you think?
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 01:24 |
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FSTA Draft on Sirius Jan. 24, 5:00 pm, PT |
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MASTERSBLOG
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 23 January 2011 12:24 |
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Tune into SiriusXM Radio Channels XM-147 and Sirius-211 Monday, January 24, at 8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific Time, for the Fantasy Sports Trade Association's Experts draft, 2011.
The 24-hour fantasy sports channel will be broadcasting both pre-draft discussions with owners, featuring defending champ Ron Shandler, but also a litany of industry stalwarts including Mastersball's Lawr Michaels, KFFL's Nick Minnix and Tim Heaney, Rotowire's Jeff Erickson, and the inimitable Charlie Wiegert.
That will be followed by a player--by--player analysis of the picks, as they happen.
The pre-draft starts at 8:00 pm ET, 5:00 pm PT , with live coverage of the draft from Las Vegas an hour later.
Here is the list of participants and draft order:
1) Charlie Wiegert, Godfather of Fantasy Sports
2) Ron Shandler, Baseball HQ
3) Lawr Michaels, Mastersball
4) Rick Wolf, Rotoworld
5) Tony Holm, Fantasy Sharks
6) Howard Kamen, USA Today
7) Ray Flowers, Fanball
8) Anthony Perri, Fantistics
9) Scott Swanay, Sherpa Fantasy Sports
10) Peter Madden, CBS Sports
11) Tim Heaney, KFFL
12) Scott Engel, RotoExperts
13) Dalton Del Don, RotoWire
Any predictions who Lawr takes with the 3rd pick?
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Last Updated on Sunday, 23 January 2011 13:27 |
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Angels Dig Into the Wells |
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MASTERSBLOG
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Written by Todd Zola
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Saturday, 22 January 2011 21:55 |
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On the surface, it looks as if the Angels got the short end on the Wells/Napoli deal. That is because the Angels are getting KILLED because of Wells' contract.
Or are they?
I think the Angels could give a rats ass about the money, they similarly couldn't care less about bang for the buck. That is because they are a better baseball team with Wells, and will likely get more at bats from Conger (and Wells) than they would be/get with the Napoli and Rivera tandem (subtext=BANG for the BUCK).
If the Angels can continue and get Vlady back, then they become much much better, with Wells, Torii Hunter, Peter Bourjos, and Bobby Abreu, patrolling the outfield, while Vlady and Abreu also share DH duties. Provided Kendry Morales returns to form at first, and providing Conger can realize his minor league (.297-47-254 over 410 games), the Angels, despite what seems like a dormancy during the winter talks, have come back strong. (And FWIW, we are discussing this on the forum in a thread.)
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Last Updated on Sunday, 23 January 2011 00:11 |
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