Hey Newspaperman …

Now you gotta realize, Newspaperman stole Francisco Liriano from The Jon in our draft.
Liriano was The Jon’s rookie keeper two seasons ago and The Jon held Liriano on his bench all of last season just for the chance at having the pitcher with the best slider in years to play for The Greatness. But alas, all good things must end, and The Jon dropped Liriano last season to keep Fausto Carmona thinking Liriano would be available in the second to third round of our redraft. So what does Newspaperman do?

The Four Horsemen: A video history

Just back from a rendezvous in Cambridge Massachusetts, and The Jon gets the news that the WWE retired Ric Flair? Ric Flair of the Four Horsemen, the elite gang of professional wrestling? You know The Four Horsemen, the charter member of The Jon’s Man-crush Club? Part of The Jon has been seriously hampered knowing Ric Flair will no longer show off his shoes that cost more than my house, pal. Whether his retirement is real is up for debate, but to honor the best in the business, the Video History returns. While not as extensive as the L.O.N.S. retrospective it will still relate to fantasy baseball.

Draft advice: Top 20 Starting pitchers

Every league has a pitching guru. Not to toot my own horn, but more times than not, I proudly proclaim that mantle. Once upon a time, I insisted on keeping five pitchers. But even I know that’s not a sound strategy. I prefer to take one or two studs early and fill in my staff with high-upside hurlers on the young side of 30 who are capable of becoming dominant. I’ll leave low-WHIP, low-ERA, low-K, low-risk guys for someone else. Our rankings largely reflect that philosophy. Although The BaseballStars had a pretty wide level of varience — some of our top-10 pitchers didn’t even appear on everyone’s top-20 list — I would feel perfectly comfortable following this list straight down.

I.T.T.O.T.M.

So it was the first one of the 2008 baseball season. The Jon got the look from The Wife. It’s a look only you can get when you are on the phone for 3 hours talking fantasy baseball. To The Wife it sounded like a bunch of gibberish: Granderson-for-a-first-only-if-Carmona-is-available-in-the-first or … Maybe-Pujols-can-stay-healthy-all-year-but-it-will-suck-
if-you-get-stuck-with-his-exploding-arm. So, The Wife came through with that look of utter disgust combined with the look of deep, intense dislike that makes one feel guilty for learning how to talk, let alone talk on the telephone. Well, The Jon has had enough. The Jon takes care of his kids, changes diapers and plays dressup with Barbie dolls. The Jon has been emasculated for five months over here. Yes, Godfather it’s time to act like a man.

Another victim of the hype: Roy Oswalt

Francisco Liriano. Two seasons ago, he was the hottest pitcher in baseball and possessed the best slider in baseball.
The guy was real talk. Every pitch in his arsenal had that zip. That extra kick that hasn’t been seen since the 1999 version of Pedro Martinez.
And then it happened, the exploding arm trick. It seems Liriano’s best slider ever caused too much movement and he went this side of Tommy John.
of course the jon had him. He fell into the category of the rookie keeper in the jon’s SLO and San Jose league named after respective college alumnus. And this is where the sordid tale of the jon went against all of his natural championship instinct. The Jon has just pulled a deal in the SLO league to secure Liriano as one of his keepers. Oswalt was traded for an 8th round pick so Liriano could be a keeper. A bad deal all the way … or was it?

The Jon’s five most overrated players

Fantasy baseball writers like to feel special. They like to make bold predictions of players that will breakout so they can puff out their chest and tell a faceless community that they told you so. You won’t get that from The Jon. What you got here is a champ. The Jon gets results and trophies. With top three finishes for the past 5 seasons and a championship just this past year, The Jon doesn’t need bold predictions. Just results. So without further to do, here are the five most overrated players this season.

Carl Crawford: It’s a broken record. Check out this sight long enough and you will know the quasi-love-hate relationship The Jon has for Carl Crawford.