Fantasy NBA (Five sleepers for ’09-’10)
I wish I had more time to describe the point of this article, but I’m currently under the gun for another piece. In short, here are five players whom you must own in fantasy leagues. If you don’t, your team will die. I promise you will become smarter if you read this PDF. How can you say no to that?
Yankee Stadium from the subway platform after Game 6 was called due to Mother Nature.
Andy Pettitte was supposed to be on the mound right now. Chone Figgins would be at the plate, and Pettitte would be digging his right foot into mound, preparing to toss the game’s opening pitch. And I would be aside a cameraman shooting the contest, documenting the process of filming a Major League Baseball playoff game. Instead, I’m sitting on my all-too-comfortable black leather couch in my Long Island City bedroom, listening to Dave Matthews and the pouring rain outside.
Although rain had been on the weather radar all day, MLB was willing to test everything Mother Nature had to offer, right up until MN showed that it can be a serious bitch. I reached Yankee Stadium at 5:35 pm and jettisoned over to Gate 2, where I thought I would pick up my credential for the night. However, they told me they didn’t have it and that the Press Gate (located next to Gate 4) was the credential pickup spot. Clearly, I’m a rookie.
As my friend Chris might say, I'm an Important Person.
So after dealing with that issue (my name wasn’t on any of the Press Credential packets due to a clerical error, so I received a fresh cred on the spot), I made it back to Gate 2. From there, I would simultaneously wait for my contact and prepare to meet the camera crew I’d be trailing the entire night. I stepped into the lobby for Gate 2 and found an area near the entrance to wait and to prepare a few more questions. I had just put pen to paper when, lo and behold, I heard The Voice.
I looked to my right and sitting on a black leather coach was a smallish black man wearing one of those golf hats that Payne Stewart used to rock. And he was talking LOUD. Of course, it had to be Joe Morgan. He was waxing poetic on some inconsequential topic with two intrigued, older white guys sitting opposite him.
Anyway, I immediately texted my buddy Tanner, who might dislike Morgan’s dismissive generalizations of advanced baseball statistics more than anyone else I know. Some people, like me, can’t stand Morgan because he’s so self-indulgent and uptight. Tanner can’t stand him because (I think) he despises Morgan’s resistance to new ideas.
So I facetiously asked Tanner if he’d like me to pass on a message to Mr. Morgan, and he texted back, “Tell him I hate him.” Yeah, he’s not a fan. Surprising as it might seem, I didn’t say that. I didn’t even approach the man who also might be the greatest second baseman in baseball history. I contemplated sneakily taking a cell phone pic of Joe while pretending to look through a text/e-mail, but I decided against it at the last minute. You know, I figured it’d be better not to act like a 16-year-old for a night.
What made Morgan’s speech (he was talking about a possible Yanks/Phils matchup) so entertaining was that even with him talking at a decibel level rivaling that of a Metallica concert, seemingly nobody else in the lobby noticed. There must have been 10 or so workers and another 20-25 people circulating through the area, yet only the two white guys were noticeably intrigued. Even an older Hispanic woman sitting on the couch next to the white guys was twirling her hair and looking away from Morgan as he spoke.
It hit me as so appropriate. Morgan was talking and practically nobody was listening, apparently tuning out the drivel coming out of this talkative and self-important man’s mouth. At that moment I felt like capping off the moment by walking up to Morgan and saying, “Tanner has a message for you!” and then punching him in the face! Maybe I’ll do it tomorrow.
I’m going to Yankee Stadium tomorrow for a story I’m covering…but I can’t say what or for whom. It’s gonna be fun.
Most of you reading this probably have played fantasy football. Slightly fewer of you have given fantasy baseball a shot. Yet I bet that if 20 people were to read this post (an ambitious mark given how much I market this blog, mind you), I’d reason only one or two had ever played fantasy basketball.
I can’t figure out why other than that the NBA season runs just a tad too long for people to hold the necessary patience to participate. Fantasy football is easy since you have to update your roster once per week. Plus, luck plays such a big factor that newcomers can enjoy it from the beginning.
Fantasy baseball takes skill and a huge level of commitment, but the game is so naturally apart of our country’s mentality that it’s easier to find others who will play. And that’s precisely the problem with fantasy basketball. Even if you want to play, can you think of more than two or three friends who’ll join?
If you do want to play, I suggest you read my amNY piece on four things that make it a unique fantasy sport. Just don’t whine to me if your team ends up more dysfunctional than the Golden State Warriors.
It continues to be a running joke that has ironically taken off the heat of the NBA’s inability to form a new contract agreement with its referees: MLB’s utterly incompetent umpires constantly making bad calls at the worst times. We had two more encounters within minutes of each other last night.
Top of the fourth inning, 3-0 Yankees, runners on first and second, one out. Scott Kazmir — whom Tim McCarver kept referring to as ‘cashmere’ (or was it ‘Kashmir’?) — turned around to pick off a sagging Nick Swisher off second base. The throw was perfectly spotted between Swisher’s outstretched hand and second base as he desperately tried to get back to the base. The tag was made, but, alas, the umpire saw something different from what the scoreboard clearly showed on replay seconds later. (Quick side note: If you were watching the game, did you laugh out loud at the crowd’s boos after they saw the wrong call was made? The only time I’d expect that Orange County crowd to react that negatively is when a neighborhood Starbucks is closing.)
So, the Angels are denied the second out. Derek Jeter subsequently walks, loading the bases for Johnny Damon. Everybody’s favorite Jesus lookalike flies out to center field, apparently knocking in Swisher from third on what was for all intents and purpopses a sacrifice fly. Only the third base umpire, who replays show was clearly looking at the ball flying to center field, says that Swisher tagged off third base before Angels center fielder Torii Hunter caught the ball. Once again, the replays clearly show otherwise.
We all know the saying “two wrongs equal a right” but why must umpires take it so literally? Don’t penalize the Yankees by making up for a poor call earlier. Instead of making two horrific calls, why can’t the umps just settle for one?
Of course, it kind of proved moot the next inning when Alex Rodriguez turned another pitch into a souvenir for some poor Angels fan. The umps surely couldn’t screw up the home run call at that point.
I knew I’d be writing this blog post immediately after dropping my fourth f-bomb in the first inning of last night’s 11-0 Dodgers loss to the Phillies. Hiroki Kuroda turned in a gutless 39-pitch performance over a meager 1 1/3 innings, a span in which he permitted six earned runs on six hits. Ryan Howard tripled off him. Then Jayson Werth went yard off him. That was just the first inning.
Kuroda allowed doubles to Carlos Ruiz and Jimmy Rollins in the second inning (somehow managing an out in between) before getting pulled in favor of Scott Elbert. You want to know the real reason for his horrific performance? Check out his luck with his four-seam fastball.
Kuroda threw his four-seamer 23 times (remember he tossed 39 pitches). The good results he attained were two foul balls, four called strikes, a swinging strike and a ground out. As for the bad…
He tossed 12 balls (remember, he earned just seven strikes) plus a single, a double, a triple and a home run. So he effectively gave up the cycle even though he faced just 10 batters. Hence, the litany of f-bombs.
Here’s a more wide-encompassing reason why the Dodgers are down two games to one:
They’re 4-for-23 (.174) with runners in scoring position. They managed a .259 batting average with runners in scoring position during the regular season. That’s still a poor mark, but it’s no .174. Just as concerning is their 1-for-11 (.091) showing with two outs and at least one runner in scoring position.
And if that didn’t top it off, there’s the fact that the squad hasn’t managed an extra-base hit since Andre Ethier doubled in the seventh inning of Game 1. That’s 73 batters and eight singles since the last extra bagger, if you were wondering.
Let’s see if the Dodgers can provide some sort of turnaround tonight.
It’s been said that Alex Rodriguez’s resurgence this October (.368 AVG, 3 HR, 8 RBIs) has removed the black cloud that previously hovered over him in the postseason. There’s no denying that A-Rod’s legacy and mental mindset — as well as the Yankees’ World Series chances — have benefited from his improved production at the dish. What been discounted to some degree is the benefit on Major League Baseball overall.
MLB has done a much better job in recent years at promoting its players. There are the commercials that ran this year in which various players — Grady Sizemore, Tim Lincecum, Ryan Howard — had their life stories and love for the game briefly discussed in 30 second spots. It was a way to personalize the names that most fans might know only from SportsCenter highlights and fantasy lineups.
In A-Rod’s case, no commercials have been needed. He’s not only improved his offensive production; he’s saved his biggest hits for the most important moments. His game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 2 of the ALDS provided the first monumental postseason play in just the second playoff game at New Yankee Stadium. He followed that with a game-tying solo shot in the top of the seventh frame in the following contest. And then last night’s solo jack that tied the game in the bottom of the 11th inning sealed A-Rod’s 2009 reputation as a “clutch” player. (It’s been proven with statistical analysis that there is no such thing as a “clutch” hitter in baseball, but don’t tell that to MLB’s Marketing Department.)
All the A-Rod-related sunny news has been a shot in the arm to MLB. He’s always been a player whom most would think could carry a league. He’s been the game’s best player, or at least somewhere in the top 3, for over a decade, he’s a good looking guy and he plays for the most marketable team in North America, perhaps in the world. Any league, no matter the level in which they promote their players, gains an advantage by having its very best players thrive on its biggest stage.
It means more casual fans become involved because they want to see the big slugger, in this case, take another crack at a pitch in another pressure-soaked moment. For the loyal and die-hard fans who’ve already been watching, it results in more highlights which they’ll register in the baseball-loving part of their brain. We all like to see players come up big when their number is called. But it means a lot more to see it from Alex Rodriguez than from David Eckstein. (He’s likely the worst player to ever win the World Series MVP, which he earned in 2006 for the Cardinals.)
Best of all, there are perhaps more moments to come from A-Rod. The Yankees still have to win six more games to reach their goal of winning a World Series. Now that they lead the ALCS 2-0, they’re guaranteed to see Yankee Stadium again even if the Angels win the next three out in Anaheim. For MLB, that means potentially another dramatic A-Rod play in front of the New Yorkers who were never sure if he’d be able to harness his talent when his team needed it most.
