Chicago -
By Dan O’Shea
On the enormous crap shoot that is the market for fantasy saves, I usually have very little to say, but I have noticed a few things in the last week that I think are worth sharing, especially if losing saves every week is what’s keeping you out of playoff position.
These observations include three players that don’t appear to be much on the radar of most fantasy owners right now:
Posted on June 30, 2015
By Marty Gangler
Okay, that wasn’t much of a week. And you could be one of those fans who is all mad about the lack of offense, the continued Starlin Castro issues, or a bunch of other stuff – but forget all of that. There something that Cub fans haven’t had to worry about in a long while, the All-Star game. And sure, it’d be nice, I guess, to get a few Cubbies in there, but forget that too. As stupid as it sounds, Cub fans have to actually care who wins that game for the first time since, well, since whenever Bud Selig got mad about that one tie and made the game count for home field advantage in the World Series.
Posted on June 29, 2015
By Roger Wallenstein
“Learn Spanish,” wrote the celebrated chef/author/TV personality Anthony Bourdain in his best-selling autobiography Kitchen Confidential.
Bourdain was spewing his advice to anyone contemplating a culinary career as a chef.
“I can’t stress this enough. Much of the workforce in the industry is Spanish-speaking. If you can’t communicate, develop relationships, understand instructions and pass them along, then you are at a tremendous disadvantage.”
Creating a culinary experience and managing a major league ballclub might be worlds apart, but Bourdain’s words may just be pertinent to the challenges facing White Sox manager Robin Ventura and his brethren.
Posted on June 29, 2015
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Just call him Portishead. Plus: Jon Lesster, Chris Not For Sale, Breaking China, Elene Della The Dream Donne, The Chicago Fire Did Something This Week, and Here Comes Chrome.
Posted on June 26, 2015
By Thomas Chambers
Horseplayers tend to swim on, like sharks, looking just ahead for the next score, the big overlay.
Racing fans do much the same thing, except that if a big-name horse is still running, you keep an eye on him, perhaps nostalgically. California Chrome falls squarely into this category.
Seems there’s plenty of intrigue, speculation and politics surrounding the star of the 2014 Triple Crown drive, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner who fell about two lengths short in the third jewel, the Belmont Stakes.
‘Chrome is heading home to America and will land at none other than Arlington Park, for both U.S. quarantine and race preparation purposes. He’ll be pointed to our own Arlington Million on August 15 at Chicago’s white palace of racing, Arlington Park (What’s with that home page, about 12.5% devoted to racing?)
Posted on June 26, 2015
By Dan O’Shea
Picking up or trading for an injured player is always a gamble, especially when the player has been a long-term resident on the disabled list, like a pitcher coming off Tommy John surgery. Yet, it also could be one way for a losing fantasy team to pursue a turnaround, or at least stake a claim on a long-term investment.
There are a number of players who have recently come off the DL, or are expected to in the days ahead. Some of them, who haven’t played at all this year and largely were ignored during drafts, could provide a nice mid-season boost for a fantasy team in need.
Posted on June 24, 2015
By Steve Rhodes
Starlin Castro is one of the most aggravating players in recent Cub history.
Consider this exchange I had with Cub Factor impresario Marty Gangler over the weekend:
Steve: (After Castro’s walkoff single) Castro still has to go.
Marty: He’s fearless in bigger situations at the plate it seems. And I don’t know if it’s bad to have a guy in the lineup that can get hits on horrible pitches. If he’s your 7th batter maybe he’s fine. Idk. His d is just below average too. If you have Schwarber and the left field masher to be named later in the lineup maybe you count on nothing from Castro and you are ok. He’s 25 and already has 916 hits. Bryant is 23 and has 62 hits.
Posted on June 22, 2015
By Roger Wallenstein
Crash: Learn your clichés. Study them. Know them. They’re your friends. Write this down. “We gotta play ’em one day at a time.”
Nuke: Boring.
Crash: Of course. That’s the point.
This has been a season of clichés so far for the White Sox. Chances are manager Robin Ventura and most of his players don’t have the Bull Durham scene playing in their heads, but they have been well-schooled nevertheless.
“It’s still early” was the mantra back in April, when the promise of a contending team was questioned due to a sluggish beginning when the team lost 11 of its first 20 games.
Back on May 3, pitcher John Danks proclaimed, “There’s a lot of season left, but definitely [we] don’t want to dig ourselves too deep of a hole. We’ve got to pick it up.”
Posted on June 22, 2015
By Jim Coffman, Roger Wallenstein and Steve Rhodes
Blackhawks not Jordan’s Bulls, but are they at least the ’85 Bears? Plus: Fire Robin Ventura Already; Kyle Kub; U.S. Women’s Soccer’s Nostalgia Trip; The Sky’s New Dynamic Duo; The Chicago Fire Did Something This Week; Springfield’s Very Own NBA Finals MVP; and The Cell Is Supposedly Fun.
Posted on June 19, 2015
By Dan O’Shea
If a guy can steal five bases in a single game, as Billy Hamilton, OF, CIN, did last Sunday against the Cubs, he doesn’t need to do anything else to provide fantasy value – or so the thinking goes.
Hamilton is without argument the fastest player in baseball. After the first week of the 2015 season, he was on track to steal about 180 bases. He’s cooled down since then, stealing 24 bases in 60 games played by CIN, with 19 of those SBs stretched out over a 59-game span if you discount his thievery against the Cubs (though to be fair, he missed a few games during that stretch, and entered as a late replacement in a few others). In any case, he had 31 total SBs heading into Tuesday.
I’ve never been a big fan of Hamilton, though I have acquired him for a couple of my fantasy teams the last two years just to use him as a lottery ticket – if my team is losing the SB category going into the weekend, I’ll start him one or both days, assuming his lack of other fantasy contributions doesn’t hurt me too bad elsewhere.
Posted on June 17, 2015
