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.

Resisting Temptation: Benching Max Scherzer

When you’ve got an exciting rookie hurler who seemingly could become a dominant force in the fantasy game, you’re going to have temptation to insert him immediately into your lineup. So what do you do when you’re at the bottom of your league looking up at the teams with established pitching rotations?

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.

Newspaperman’s Top 5 fantasy prospects

So you’re looking for this season’s version of Ryan Braun, huh? I know how it is. Braun, a relative unknown to the casual baseball fan, burst onto the scene last year and manhandled major league pitching. He likely led your arch rival to a league title, or a playoff berth anyway, and now he’s being chosen in the top three rounds of many fantasy drafts. Some publications have even projected Braun to hit 40 homeruns this year and chosen him to supplant David Wright as fantasy’s third best third sacker. (I aint buying that). That said, you’re probably looking for the “next best thing,” the prospect that will be overlooked on draft day because no one knows him. Here is a list of five prospects that should have immediate fantasy impact.