The Blue Workhorse

We played the baseball name game on a lot of different road trips, including our trip to New York City and Yankee Stadium last summer. Coincidentally, when you are playing the baseball name game, a lot of random players that you may not have thought about in ages (such as Francisco Cabrera or Randy St. Claire) end up getting named.

With these players in mind combined with the inspiration of The No Look Pass’s “We Like Obscure NBA Players” & Sharapova’s Thigh’s “Random Retro Baseball Player” we’ve decided to start our own series of random former players titled “Remember Me? I’m…”

Our initial random former player played for 13 seasons for 5 different teams. He played all four infield and all three outfield positions, but he is most known for his days prowling the dirt of second base.Without further ado:

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Lots of great stuff this week from fantasy baseball awards to college football freshman to a sports blogger trying out for a professional team to a ridiculous hockey play:

* Need a Halloween costume? - Epic Carnival gives you the top ten sports related Halloween costumes of 2008. I still think the idea I came up with last year is the best (just check in the comments of the story).
* GameDay Classic Signage - Busted Coverage has the 20 all-time best ESPN College Gameday signs. The ones mentioned in the comments are classic as well.
* Best GameDay Sign. Ever. - From the Auburn/LSU game last month.

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Earlier this year, we individually previewed each and every MLB team giving you a team’s record from the 2007 season, key additions and key losses in ‘08, projected starting lineups and pitching rotations, an overall outlook, fantasy impact players, and our prediction for this season.

So were we right?

Well, we got some things right like predicting Josh Hamilton’s huge season, but we also got some things way off like saying the Florida Marlins would be the laughing stock of the league.

What did we get right? What did we get wrong? This week we’ll start in the National League with the NL East:

Mets, Phils, or Braves: NL East Preview (March 6, 2008)

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The first step in planning your own sports vacation trip is deciding to go, but then after that you’ve got to try to figure out where you would like to go.

Washington D.C.? Chicago? Boston? Dallas? New York? Detroit? Los Angeles? There are several historic sports cities you could potentially choose.

Our goal through the usage of this 6 part “Planning Your Sports Vacation” series is to help you get the most out of your sports vacation!!

And choosing the right destination is the first step. While this may seem like the easiest choice in your trip planning, there are actually several things to consider.

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Earlier today, Major League Baseball announced the rosters for the 79th All-Star Game being held at Yankee Stadium, which is only appropriate since this is the final season for the historic ballpark.

The starters were determined solely by the fan vote once again, unfortunately.

Nevertheless, we wanted to do what we hadn’t seen anywhere else and break down the selections team-by-team, so that you could easily see who was selected from your favorite team (starters are in bold):

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Let’s play a quick game of name those numbers. Who has produced these incredible statistics?

151.1 IP / 9 W / 2.28 ERA / 195 K / 1.13 WHIP

Jake Peavy? Johan Santana? Many of you might see the line and figure it must have been a line from Peavy, Santana, or one of the other top-flight starting pitchers 151 innings through the season.

However, these stats were the combined 2007 season statistics of Carlos Marmol and Jonathan Broxton, two of the most dominant middle relievers in the game.

In terms of fantasy baseball, middle relievers are often forgotten when they can be a huge weapon as an added bonus to your pitching staff. They can be the secret key to lower WHIP and ERA, and many of these guys also pile up the strikeouts:

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While #2 overall fantasy player Hanley Ramirez’s statistics are impressive, no one is that surprised after he was a top 5 pick in nearly every fantasy draft, but when Nate McLouth puts up similar numbers and is ranked as the #7 fantasy player overall…eyebrows are raised.

The McLouths and Cliff Lees of baseball is exactly what this list celebrates - the players who produce tremendous statistics considering the value they cost their fantasy owners, whether that be a late round pick or a timely pick up off the waiver wire:

For the past two seasons, there have been concerns about a couple of the most known and dominant closers in the game. Last season, it was New York Yankees’ stopper Mariano Rivera after he got off to a rough start. This season the troubles are in the other league, on the other coast as Trevor Hoffman, the man who enters to “Hell’s Bells,” has left without the lead, or a save, already twice in the early stages this season.

After week one of the MLB season, there have been several teams, including the Padres, that have already run into bullpen issues, particularly on Opening Day, so we decided to examine each of the 30 major league teams bullpen performances thus far and see which teams should really be concerned with their bullpen.