MILB, the new major leagues

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’d be impossible not to recognize the major league talent being relegated to minor league duties. Just this week we saw Jeff Francoeur and Tom Gorzelanny get sent to the minors. In recent weeks struggling hitters and pitchers, as well as promising prospects have been yanked from their parent clubs and sentenced to a summer riding buses and playing in parks where they actually have on-field between-inning entertainment.

Four Bagger: Ramble On

Listen, Newspaperman can’t hang with the hip hop knowledge that TheJon, PoiDog and TheOz bring to TheBaseballStars. While they were listening to the supposed good stuff, I was eating up what MTV was serving: 3rdBass’ Pop Goes The Weasel, Metallica ‘s Enter Sandman, and Warren G and Nate Dogg in Regulate.

But I digress. I’ve come to understand the finer things in life, and I’m not talking about Tchaikovsky or anything like that. I’m talking Zeppelin, baby! Anyhow, as the header video states, it’s time to Ramble On and talk fantasy baseball.

Major League Baseball’s draft needs help

I’m really not one for college sports, so when the NBA and NFL drafts roll around, you’re likely to find me out on a lake somewhere fishing while others are gawking over some 20-something who is fulfilling his dream and becoming a multi-millionaire. But if there’s ones thing that I admire about those drafts it’s the national hype and circus that surrounds them. I mean I could care less who gets drafted first overall, but I always make an effort to find out, for peace of mind, you know? So when ESPN started touting this year’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft my ears perked up. I figured maybe this is one draft I could rally around.

Four Bagger: Live by the Utley, die by the Utley

When is nine hits, nine runs, five homers and 14 RBIs a disappointment? When you own the player who produced them and his output was still not enough to help you win in one league, yet just enough to help your oppoent in another. Chase Utley had a spectacular week, but when it came down to it, he was not enough to keep me afloat in one league, and was the sole reason why I lost in another. What, were you expecting another Jay Bruce headline? Read more in this week’s FOUR BAGGER.

LIVE OPENING DAY BLOG

It all started in 1994. That was the 125th anniversary of Major League Baseball and I was psyched. So much so that I’d planned an “illness” (not unlike Ferris Bueller) and stayed home from school to watch the Opening Day festivities. Hey, I was only 13 at the time. Since then I’ve acted like I was sick — mostly faked headaches and stomachaches — but in recent years I’ve just flat out told the boss, ‘Hey, it’s Opening Day,” and used a vacation day. And then last year, when we started this site, I began blogging about it. So without further ado, I bring you Newspaperman’s (like the third-person reference?) 2008 Opening Day Blog.

Three-peat starts here (Draft Results)

The road to the three-peat has begun.

On Saturday three of TheBaseballStars got together for the SLO League draft. TheJon took part by Yahoo Instant Messenger while PoiDog and myself hung out with the other owners. I’m not going to run down every bit of the draft, it’s a bit complicated since it’s a keeper league. But I will share my results. Reminder: I entered the draft without a first-round pick, and with these keepers: Victor Martinez, Chase Utley, Carlos Lee, C.C. Sabathia and Justin Verlander; rookie keeper: Cameron Maybin. Here’s what my team looks like today …