Fan News

Jose Bautista has a very good eye for the difference between balls and strikes. (Even otherwise critical former teammates of the Pittsburgh Pirates would concede that much.) Maybe too good an eye. Ordinarily that is an advantage. But yesterday afternoon, may have been a different story.

Saturday was not one of Bautista's better games. No home runs for one. And no other hits, either. Whatever contribution he is going to make will be through his other main weapon, walks.

The 2010 baseball season has clearly been the year of the pitcher.

Six no-hitters, three perfect games (I'm including Armando Galarraga's), fifteen no hit bids broken up in the seventh, and four no hit bids broken up within the 8th inning or later. One would be so cruel not to call it the year of the pitcher.

It’s time to look at the potential two-start options for the upcoming fantasy week.  If I have someone rated as a three-, four-, or five-star option, they are someone I would definitely use. 

A two-star option is someone who is borderline, but I’d strongly lean against it unless I have no other options.  The one-star options are an "absolutely not" scenario.

So, with that said, let’s take a look at the players available to you this week:

Down 4-0 by the fifth inning, the Giants did not throw in the towels. Not one bit.

Matt Cain settled down and threw shutout innings in the fifth, sixth, and seventh for a final line of 7 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 6 K.

It’s time for another ride on the waiver wire roller coaster.  I know some of you are searching high and low for any bit of help with all the trade activity and waiver claims that went down.  These moves can wreak havoc on a fantasy roster. 

Before I begin, I must state two things: I am a Yankees fan and I fully believe in utilizing advanced metrics to determine who deserves certain awards.

What exactly does that mean? That means I think the individual performance should far outweigh aspects of a player's profile that are affected by their team's performance.

Perhaps negative emotions like spite consume our love for sports too much. "Anyone but Philly" is the clean version of a reply I'll give to anyone who might ask me, "If it's not going to be the Mets, who's it going to be?"

Over the past few weeks, the Phillies have been winning in a variety of ways. Whether it's a big win, a late comeback, a close pitchers' duel, or just a game won on smart baseball like the one they played Saturday night against the Brewers, they're getting the job done.

That's what we're used to seeing from the Phillies, but it had been a rarity for a lot of the 2010 season. This didn't look like a championship-quality team only a month or so ago, but now they look like a group that could definitely make a push.

Debating the pros and cons of a player's Hall of Fame chances is without a doubt one of the most controversial issues in baseball.

For example, how much do stats matter? What about longevity?

And should a player's attitude, whether positive or negative, have any impact?

Then there's the all-important question of steroids, and how much they should affect a player's chances.

Taking all of the above into consideration, I evaluated the careers of fifteen players and ultimately picked a yes or a no for the Hall of Fame.

11 of the players are still playing.

The 2010 Cubs season certainly will go down as one of the most disappointing and, in fact, utterly disgusting seasons in recent memory. That’s saying a lot, too, since this is a franchise that has had more than its fair share of bad seasons.

This season has featured sloppy play and poor fundamentals, and a captain who was asleep at the wheel before he resigned, twice, from the team last month.

To rub salt in the wound, next season does not look promising either, with bloated, unmovable contracts and an owner possibly looking to pare some payroll.