Tidbits

I'm not sure what it is about Fantasy Baseball that gets me excited. I assume is somewhat similar to people who bet on games, races, or anything else under the sun. I think it makes it more exciting to watch, knowing that you have a (somewhat) personal connection to something you wouldn't normally have. For what other purpose would I daily watch the box scores of Yadier Molina and Ramon Hernandez, trying to squeeze every point I can from my catcher position? And why else would I be worried about having two pitching staffs from the same division (Blue Jays and Rays) because they'll both have to face the Yankees and Red Sox lineups down the stretch?

Only in Fantasy Baseball.

Normally I just compete in the Yahoo Sports leagues, but this year I decided to make an MLB.com Fantasy Open team. After not paying too much attention for the first half of the season, I've gotten into it a little more over the last month, especially when I realized that the grand prize is $10,000, and someone has to win it. Even the final 32 teams in the tournament get $100 to the MLB.com store, which I decided would go a long way in decorating the future Twins room in the house.

I'll probably keep updating my chances of coming out on top, but here's where I stand right now:

I'm 11-5 in my division, 1 game behind the 1st place team who I just beat last week, and tied with another team, who is my opponent this week. I have more points overall than any of the top three teams, so in the case of a tiebreaker, I win. This is the last week of competition, and I need to win and have the leader lose to gain a postseason playoff berth. If I don't get in that way, I still make it to the postseason because I already have the 2800 points needed to automatically qualify (I'm at 3417).

Not that most people care...I'm just a little excited.


Twins notes:

We went to the game on Saturday vs. the Rangers where the Twins dominated 14-2. I can't wait for the day when I go to a game and nothing goes wrong. The backup of traffic on 35 started earlier than I expected and we were in stop and go with 30 miles to the Dome. Thanks to some quick navigational skills, we made a slight detour only to find more construction. We made it to the HHH at the same time the downpour did, which thankfully scared off enough fans for us to still get our Delmon Young bobbleheads. After driving around through Minnesota's 10,001st lake, and our 3rd parking spot in the same lot, we swam through the newly formed sea 4 blocks back to the gate.

And what do you know...the game was right on time, even with all the rain. Who would've thought that a roof on a baseball stadium in Minnesota would be such a good idea?

For those of you who don't faithfully check the Twins minor league stats, I'll give you a bit of an update on some of this year's draft picks. Here are the stats of the players for Rounds 1-10:

Aaron Hicks: .317 AVG 1 HR 15 RBI .406 OBP

Carlos Gutierrez: 0-0 6.00 ERA 3 IP 2 K 1 BB

Shooter Hunt: 0-0 0.47 ERA 19 IP 34 K 6 BB

Tyler Ladendorf: .222 AVG 0 HR 7 RBI 5 SB

Bobby Lanigan: 2-2 3.00 ERA 27 IP 29 K 6 BB

Daniel Ortiz: .222 AVG 0 HR 15 RBI .602 OPS

Nicholas Romero: .241 AVG 4 HR 14 RBI .758 OPS

DJ Hermsen: Still playing HS ball in Iowa for #1 ranked West Delaware. He's currently 9-0 with a 0.70 ERA with 114 K and 9 BB in 63.1 IP. He's also hit for a .425 AVG with 23 HR and 71 RBI. Interesting note: He doesn't even have the most wins, best ERA, or most K's on his own TEAM! That would be fellow senior and teammate Garrett Linderwell, who's name wasn't called on draft day.

Daniel Osterbrock: 2-2 3.78 ERA 33.1 IP 40 K 3 BB

Jeff Lanning: .227 AVG 2 HR 4 RBI .775 OPS

Michael Gonzales: .393 AVG 2 HR 9 RBI 1.025 OPS

Evan Bigley: .286 AVG 4 HR 13 RBI .858 OPS


Now obviously no one's making predictions on how the rest of their professional careers will turn out, but it is interesting to see how HS and college stars make the transition to pro ball. In looking at these stats, Shooter Hunt obviously stands out above the rest of the pitchers, as does Michael Gonzales among the hitters.


NAIA news:

A couple of recent NAIA stars updates:

1st round (13th overall) draft pick in 2007 for the Indians, Beau Mills from Lewis & Clark State is at high A ball hitting .279 with 15 HR and 64 RBI...

13th round pick in 2006 Ben Jukich from Dakota Wesleyan was recently promoted to AAA in the Reds organization. He was 8-4 with a 3.57 ERA at AA...after one start at Louisville is 0-0 with a 8.31 ERA...

My buddy Mihai Burlea signed a contract with RCH MediaMonks of the Dutch Major League. He went 3-3 with a 1.99 ERA while striking out 53 in 45.1 innings. Too bad his team is 5-25 on the year and has a team batting average of .233...He left the team for a bit to pitch for Romania in the European championships. While there he went 1-1 with 2 CG. He left with an ERA of 1.42, striking out 22 and walking 5 in 19 innings. His highlight came when he faced heavily favored Ukraine and beat them 1-0 with a linescore of 10 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 13 K.

That's all for now...