By Roger Wallenstein

“Chris is gonna be fine.”
The words rolled out of pitching coach Don Cooper’s mouth as though he was saying, “Looks like we’re in for a stretch of good weather,” just as the temperature was dropping last week and hail stones began to fall.
Any time I hear that someone is going to be “fine,” I cringe. Check that. On occasion I get tremors. The implication is that the person in question isn’t “fine” in the present. Ahh, but don’t worry about the future because things are going to be “fine.”
In this case, we’re talking about Chris Sale. He’s not fine? Even with a 3-1 record, a 2.81 ERA in 32 innings having allowed just 24 hits while striking out 29 and walking a mere five batters? Opponents are hitting .205 against him. He’s reduced entire lineups to nine Brent Morels. But he’s not fine?

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Posted on May 7, 2012

By Dan O’Shea

It happens every season: A handful of traditionally reliable fantasy baseball stars begin the season as utter failures. In the first couple weeks of April you are not too worried about them, but if they are still mired in misery by the first week of May, you start getting nervous.
Should you bench them until further notice or keep playing them in hopes they will turn things around any day now? Should you trade them? Should you dump them? Well, you probably shouldn’t just dump them.
Here’s a few bona fide stars off to terrible starts this year, and what you should consider doing about it:

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Posted on May 2, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

Hey, Jim Kirk, here’s your first crisis: What do you do with a sportswriter who wonders if he should be worried because the plane he’s on his piloted by a woman and who advises one of his female Twitter followers to “hottie up” her pic?
Apparently you delete his Twitter account but you keep him on the job. Backwards!
Instead, you should fire Cowley and hire this guy to replace him. He deserves it.

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Posted on May 1, 2012