Mark Teixeira and the Rangers

When is Mark Teixeira going to hit a Home Run? Here is my conversation with my fantasy baseball competitor and brother...

Me: Ah yes, Mark's up, bases juiced, no outs.
Dave: STRIKE OUT
Me: Nuh uh... great, skies one to left, and out at the plate. You've got to be kidding me, double play, and with Kenny Lofton too.
Dave: BETTER TRADE THAT GUY.
Me: Not his fault Kenny plays like he's on the wrong side of 40...

Except I feel like it is his fault. The Rangers had the bags full with no outs and they walked off without scoring a run. And don't tell me Mark was trying to hit a sac fly, because who does that with no outs in the top of the first? This guy has to seriously pick up his game. Dave offered me Adrian Gonzalez and Nick Markakis for Tex. I didn't take it. Simple word of advice to any fantasy beginners out there - whoever gets the best player 'wins' the trade. Two good players are not worth one great one, because they take up twice as much room on your roster. You would be surprised how many people ignore this rule. Either way, Nick Markakis has a cannon. Guy could throw out a laser beam trying to stretch a single into a double. And thank goodness the kid plays right field, because you know what that means - we are going to see him throw a guy out at 1st base. Ten bucks it happens to Frank Thomas. He'll hit a blooper in front of Nicky, put his head down, and run to the bag. Meanwhile, Nick scoops it up and lets loose with a Super Crow Hop throw to first, Thomas is out. Imagine the look of shock and disbelief on Biggy's face when that goes down. Unfortunately, such plays are not awarded points in our fantasy league. A few bizzaro leagues award points for assists though...

A little follow up on that Indians - Texans game - Kameron Loe, who is still on the Rangers, still 9 feet tall, and still not living up to his potential, gave up a 3-run Shot to Trot. Loe is getting a decent start on this season so far - 3.29 ERA in 13.2 innings - but I said it last year and I will say it again - the Rangers don't care about pitching. They will leave this guy in here no matter what he does. Like last year when he went with a 5.86 ERA in 15 games. After your young talent puts up a season like that, it seems wrong to just chuck him back into the starting roto. But he's only 25, so I guess they're thinking he'll break out soon enough. Of course, that is what the minor leagues are for. Unless you want to take the Ranger's route and just demoralize the crap out of the guy until he matures. I had the same complaint about the Tigers last year when they threw Justin Verlander into the rotation. I had seen the kid pitch and I didn't think he was ready. He proved me wrong. But that kid had lights out stuff. Kameron Loe can only fall back on his massive mound presence.

It's great to see the comments starting to stack up around here again. I have yet to see a comment for the Mariner's Payroll post I wrote, which makes me sad. That's the first post I've really been proud of writing since I got back, so I'm asking you guys to check it out. It's "funny and interesting" according to Kevin. So dive in! Saif, good to see you at BHGM. If I understand your comment, you're saying that the team with the most starts from their original rotation will win the rotation. I like it. Except this theory has a major flaw - it assumes that the starting rotation is a good one. If you've got a rotation of Kameron Loe, The Padilla Flotilla, Brandon McCarthy, Robinson Tejeda and Kevin Millwood, you aren't going to go very far - even if they never miss a single start. Surprisingly, there really is a team in the Major Leagues trying to pull this off - the Texas Rangers. It's funny... because I said the exact... same... thing... last year. And Joseph, thanks for the comment. You see, that's all I'm asking from you guys - a quick, 'good post, keep it up. Huddy's the man.' That's all we need to see around here. So don't get embarrassed if that's all you can contribute. Just be happy you could add something. One last update on that Ranger's game - they're down 5-1 now, and Tex just went another 0 fer. He's now 0-2 on that game... Leave your comments boys.

"This is our year!" - April 6th, 2006
The Mariners' Payroll is really $107 Million? - April 24th, 2007