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im in the first place orber moreno bal for a while i weaned myself off irrational attachments to closers of the future they almost never pan out after all and are just immensely frustrating to follow then the worst thing possible happened rafael betancourt got to the majors and started doing well you see betancourt was the very first prospect i discovered for myself back when i first started paying attention to the minors i noticed this kid in the red sox system who posted the single most insane k bb ratio i d ever seen in my life 52 2 in 32 innings for low a michigan back in 97 i was hooked surely no matter how poor the competion was anyone who could do something like that had a bright future in the bigs thus started my addiction to closers of the future betancourt henriquez matt anderson it didn t matter i took a shine to them all and got my heart broken every single time moreno was one of my favorites though he had everything going for him as the future kansas city closer heavy hard fastball nasty breaking stuff everything that is except health i d managed to put him out of my mind when he resurfaced in the mets system in 04 but with the example of betancourt doing well in the indians pen sitting there in front of me all the old feelings came rushing back and i started rooting for him to keep it up and push aside the clearly inadequate braden looper inevitably moreno got hurt again now here he is once more off the operating table and on a mound and have i learned my lesson of course not chris ray hasn t established anything yet dammit there s still time orber you can do it tim redding chw after working miracles with jon garland last season white sox pitching coach don copper will have a similar project on his hands in redding a pitcher whose numbers have always fallen far short of what scouts expected from his stuff like garland pre 2005 redding has been too hittable and not dominant enough throughout his career cooper s approach isn t going to change the latter but if redding buys into the program in the spring and carves out a role for himself on the big league roster the sox s infield defense should take care of the former just as they did for garland it all depends on getting onto the sox staff in the first place though which might require a jose contreras trade a move that would push brandon mccarthy into the rotation and open up the long man spot in the pen honorable mentions jason dubois cle see kelton scott dunn laa the angels pull a useful reliever out of thin air every year so if it s not dunn it ll be dustin moseley or chris bootcheck or jesse foppert sea and or clint nageotte sea the attention and pressure will all be on felix permalink comments 1 how s my drafting dial 1 800 2006 02 10 07 36 by erik siegrist tuesday officially kicked off fantasy baseball season for me as i too participated in sportsline s nl only 5x5 expert or expert if you prefer league carrying the banner for rotowire com this isn t just a mock draft with people i actually know involved including will and elias rob tracy there are some hard core bragging rights on the line i also wound up with my most loathed of drafting spots the second overall pick why most loathed well aside from the makeup of the nl talent pool for 2006 there s pujols and then a bunch of guys in a clump behind him making most of the first round a wash in terms of the caliber of player you get i also hate going so long without being able to draft anyone getting stuck down at one end of the snake or the other invariably means you are forced to take guys you want a little earlier than they re probably worth because otherwise you get to watch someone else take them in the 20 or so picks that come off the board it s a 12 team league before your turn comes around again here s who i ended up nabbing with comments as necessary 2 rotowire com david wright 3b nym my first dilemma was sorting through that mass behind pujols abreu was the first guy i thought of but i quickly moved away from him i just have a feeling he s going to start sliding this year not in batting average which will probably rebound back to his usual 300 or so but in steals bobby s in his 30s now and at the age where the speed part of the power speed combo starts to go i could have played it safe with a derrek lee or andruw jones but i wasn t comfortable with either in both cases last year s stat line has regression to the mean written all over it that left me looking at two young studs whose best days should still be ahead of them starting in 2006 miguel cabrera and david wright cabrera offered a better track record and position flexibility of and 3b on the down side the offense around him has been gutted and he s got no proven major league hitters to either drive him in or get on base for him to drive in hermida jacobs willingham etc could end up being very good but cabrera could just as easily hit 40 home runs and only get 90 rbi that s a lot of risk for the 2 pick wright hasn t established himself yet the way cabrera has but did have two things going for him steals and a much better lineup around him true five category third basemen are a rarity and it was hard to pass one up and so in the end i didn t 23 rotowire com ben sheets p mil 26 rotowire com ryan howard 1b phi 47 rotowire com ken griffey of cin 50 rotowire com brandon webb p ari all these picks came when i was at a doctor s appointment that couldn t be re scheduled and were auto picked from the players i had queued up in the draft room i blame no one but myself for forgetting that sheets still has some concerns about the torn muscle in his back in retrospect i should have had oswalt the safer choice ahead of him in my queue howard i m comfortable with that early if he s an overdraft he s only a slight one and if he puts up the numbers everyone keeps expecting from adam dunn he ll be an outright steal at that spot griffey was the best of what was left in the of and considering how things went when i got back i m glad i got him webb i took ahead of john patterson and deliberately i think the improvements made in the arizona defense behind him specifically the addition of orlando hudson will have a bigger impact than people expect look at the numbers josh towers and gustavo chacin put up for the blue jays last year despite their peripherals then tell me a guy like webb can t do them one or two better 71 rotowire com ryan p freel 2b cin 74 rotowire com matt cain p sf 95 rotowire com brad hawpe of col 98 rotowire com brian mccann c atl 119 rotowire com josh willingham c fla freel i grabbed because when i looked around at who came off the board while i was gone both steals and middle infielders were getting thin after that comes four picks of exactly the kind i described above players i wanted who were somewhere in the next couple dozen names on my list and who i didn t think would be there when it got back to me hawpe was the biggest reach but outfielders had gotten shockingly thin at that point in the draft as well i am inordinately happy with my catchers though i m usually the guy who punts catcher in these things so getting two guys who can actually y know hit back there is kinda novel 122 rotowire com brad penny p la 143 rotowire com adam everett ss hou one thing taking mccann and willingham cost me though is a shortstop i had my eye on bill hall but figured taking two catchers back to back might set off a positional run instead i got to watch hall go at 120 before the snake turned the corner and got back to me d oh no problem i thought to myself i ll just take j j hardy instead but first i ll shore up my pitching staff since surely hardy won t go any earlier than 130 apparently double d oh enter adam at least i ll get a few steals everett as my starting ss oh boy 146 rotowire com ryan madson p phi 167 rotowire com chris duffy of pit 170 rotowire com eric byrnes of ari 191 rotowire com wilson betemit ss atl betemit given my needs at that point is a pick i really like he can cover both my ci and mi spots which gave me the flexibility to take some chances later on hart hairston izturis baker and miles if betermit is at least decent i don t need more than one or two of those guys to pan out positional flexibility is far more valuable in deep drafts than most people realize 194 rotowire com kip wells p pit he could rebound hey why not at this point in a draft any starting pitcher with reasonable upside looks pretty darn good 215 rotowire com corey c hart of mil he s either be a steal if he gets 300 400 at bats or a waste of a pick i thought i needed to take some chances on offense though 218 rotowire com damaso marte p pit the lack of closers on my roster should be glaring by now but they always go far too early in 5x5 drafts for me to waste my time with i ll take my chances on caddies and longshots like marte sanchez bruney and resop plus whoever i can grab off the waiver wire to keep me out of the basement in the saves category 239 rotowire com scott hairston 2b ari 242 rotowire com duaner sanchez p nym 263 rotowire com cesar izturis ss la probably too early given how long izturis will still be out for but the gaping hole in my middle infield was making me nervous 266 rotowire com brian bruney p ari 287 rotowire com jeff baker 2b col i m shocked i got baker quite frankly every rockie who should have reminded folks in the draft that he was still out there ian stewart quintanilla even jorge piedra went between picks 266 and 287 i even commented via sitemail to rob tracy that bruney had been a mistake pick and would cost me a guy i really wanted i m glad i was wrong 290 rotowire com aaron miles 2b stl 311 rotowire com matthew cepicky of fla another guy i like late someone has to play in the outfield for the marlins after all 314 rotowire com jon rauch p was 335 rotowire com john mabry of chc hopefully mabry will be dusty s designated veteran who robs deserving kids like matt murton of playing time i mean you know he ll have one 338 rotowire com jason j ellison of sf 359 rotowire com chris resop p fla and someone has to close for the marlins too all in all comparing it to the other 11 rosters i think i m in decent shape unlike last year when i stubbornly refused to take part in an early starting pitching run and wound up with greg maddux as my ace this year s roster didn t immediately make me think ninth place here i come i actually finished in seventh three spots ahead of will but who s counting permalink comments 4 wonder if bud s concerned 2006 02 04 17 39 by erik siegrist in developments that should have surprised no one big name players continue to withdraw from participating in the wbc don t get me wrong i think the world baseball classic is a fine idea but as with most things baalzebud touches the execution doesn t do the idea justice pretty much every decision made with regard to the wbc was made with profit not competition in mind and it shows take the decision to hold the tournament in march before the pitchers are even in game shape ludicrous i ve heard arguments that the tourney should have been held after the world series too but that just puts a different kind of pressure on pitchers arms no the logical thing if you wanted to make it a true world cup style affair would have been to skip the all star game this year expand the break by a couple of weeks and hold the thing mid season but i doubt that option was even considered and in typical selig fashion they even screwed up the safe schedule they decided upon the final games of the wbc will overlap with the first rounds of the ncaa basketball tourney cutting into the tv audience and revenue streams brilliant anyway the decision to make it a preseason tourney led of course to the enforced pitch counts which just highlighted to everyone how much this was simply going to be a product showcase rather than a purely competitive event and so star players given a choice between a contrived show of patriotism or getting themselves ready for a world series chase are choosing the latter i m actually hoping the pitch count rule embarrasses selig to the point that they do this thing right the next time they hold it if they do imagine this scenario it s the final game showdown between the us and japan tied 0 0 roger clemens is on the hill having thrown 4 2 3 perfect innings to start the game the crew chief signals to buck martinez sorry buck roger s reached his pitch limit you ll have to replace him martinez calls for the pen while clemens fumes on the mound the crowd at a packed astrodome rises in unison to protest let him pitch let him pitch ok maybe not but right now the only real reason i have to watch is to see some cuban players before they get to the majors so i ll hang onto my little fantasy for the moment permalink comments 3 two bits 2006 01 29 04 54 by erik siegrist it slipped by everyone here but bob and his eagle eyes but joe girardi and the marlins announced a major policy change this past week from now on florida players will be clean shaven girardi of course picked up this idea while coaching for the yankees notorious whisker haters that they are i wanted to laugh when i read the article but something held me back and now a few days later i realize what it is girardi s right he s a frickin genius really if you ll pardon my french now of course the policy is silly while it s true that a majority of world series winners throughout mlb history have been clean shaven the statistical case supporting it s efficacy is still a bit weak but that s the genius part the 2006 marlins season is not going to be about winning a world series it s going to be about taking an extremely young extremely inexperienced bunch of kids and turning them into major leaguers essentially girardi s most important job right now is to teach this huge next wave of florida prospects how to be professionals and if a silly policy like this and i d suspect related policies about dress codes on team flights and such is what it takes to remind them every morning as they reach for a razor hey i m a major leaguer now i ve got to focus then that job is well on the way to being done before those kids even get to the ballpark while we re on the subject has anyone else noticed the gaping hole in the marlins offseason acquisition plan here s yet another list of the prospecty type kids they traded for travis bowyer rp gaby hernandez sp mike jacobs 1b sergio mitre p ricky nolasco sp yusmeiro petit sp reynel pinto sp hanley ramirez ss anibal sanchez sp scott tyler sp and here s some of the spare parts they picked up as well alfredo amegaza inf joe borowski rp matt cepicky of wes helms inf mike megrew p miguel olivo c pokey reese inf dan uggla inf notice anything missing like people who can catch a fly ball as it currently stands the marlins are going to go into spring training with exactly one outfield position set the one occupied by jeremy hermida and his whopping 41 at bats of big league experience worse they only have thr...