If the Angels spend money on signing some of their other free agents, might they let Francisco Rodriguez walk and try the unproven Arredondo, or would that be too much of a gamble for a rich-market team like them?  It sure looks to me like he could do the job.  Or if they let K-Rod go (and by the way - what's the deal with "K-Rod"?  His name doesn't begin with K, and I suppose it refers to his strikeouts, which is equally dumb since strikeout doesn't start with K either?  How about now that he has the saves record we call him S-Rod?  Or after he signs for a bajillion dollars this year, he could be $-Rod?  Oops, no - already got one of those.  But I digress...), might the Angels go with a crappy veteran knowing they got Arredondo in reserve?  What do others think?

Like many other fans, I had never heard of Brad Ziegler til about a month ago.  Now he's closing games for Oakland with that unbelievable run of scoreless innings.  (Another run tonight - ouch - that brings the ERA way up to 0.44 or something.)  With Huston Street pitching in the 7th inning, it certainly looks like he's Oakland's new closer.  I know he had some pretty awesome stats in the minors this year (0.37 era, 0.78 whip), but the guy's 28, almost 29, and he'd never done anything until this year.  so the question is, can he keep it up, and will he be closing next year, too?  (Okay, I guess that's two questions.)

I thought you guys might be interested in seeing the results of my league's midseason (i.e., give us a reason to look up baseball stuff during the all-star break) supplemental minor league draft.  Our league is AL-only, and we already had four minor leaguers to start with, so most of the big names are already gone.  These names are the ones who are moving fast up the lists, I guess.  I thought it interesting that there were just six positional players versus 12 pitchers.  Anyway, here they are:

In my fantasy league, to help pass the down-time during the all-star break, we have a supplemental minor league draft.  We start the year with six minor leaguers (which could also include players from Japan, college/HS players, etc - anyone not signed to an NL-organization, since we are AL-only), then at the break, we can drop up to two of them (unless you already had some called up to the majors, in which case you wouldn't have to drop them) and get new ones.  My current "minor leaguers" are Wieters, Price, Moustakas, Smoak, Tabata, and Japanese player Yu Darvish.  (I don't want this to be a discussion on Darvish or Japanese players as a whole - let's just assume I'm holding on to him.)  Tim Beckham's not available, and remember we're AL-only, so which players from the draft would you take over any of the players on my list?  I'll probably drop Tabata for one of the top players in this year's draft (Hosmer, Matusz, GBeckham), but would you drop anyone else?  And would you drop Tabata for anyone other than those three?  And of course, whether or not a draftee signs with that team is also a consideration...

P.S.  There are a couple other actual minor leaguers who are still available that I'm considering, but since there are a couple guys in my league who read this, I'll not mention them :)

This doesn't exactly fall under minor league information, but it does affect how to determine prospects.  The Washington Post today published a chart titled "Lowest Batting Averagge on Balls Put in Play, Career".  Good - this is a good way to tell if BABIP shows luck or skill.  When I look at the top six for the American League: Jerrod Washburn, Tim Wakefield, Paul Byrd, Steve Trachsel, Mark Buehrle, and Brett Tomko, I don't see too many stars (Halladay was 7th and Mussina 8th), and think that once a ball is hit, it's all luck as to whether or not a pitcher is successful.  But then I look at the top six of the National League: Barry Zito, Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, and Tim Hudson (followed by Moyer and Park), and with four Hall of Famers and two guys who've made a few all-star games, you gotta think that BABIP is a reflection of skill.  I still don't know.  What do you guys think?

It's not often Joey Gathright would be compared to Justin Smoak, is it?  Let me explain:

I am in an AL-only league, with six hitters categories (avg,hr,rbi,sb, and two weird ones - bb and fielding pct).  We have six minor league slots, and this year we passed a rule saying we could draft, as a minor leaguer, anyone not in an NL franchise, including Japanese or collegiate players.  If they signed with an AL-team you keep him - if they signed with an NL team, you lose him.  I already had Longoria, Wieters, Price, and Tabata.  I had two open spots, which I wanted to fill with (1) a current minor leaguer, (2) a Japanese player, and (3) a college player.  Since I wanted to get three players, but only had two slots available, after our major league draft (and before our minor league draft), I called up Longoria to the majors, dropping Joey Gathright.  This enabled me to get my three minor leaguers.  I got Moustakas and Yu Darvish with my first two picks, then picked Smoak with the extra pick.  Had I not brought up Longoria this would have been the end of it.  But since I made the move, it essentially became a trade-off of Gathright for Smoak, who may not even sign with an AL-team.  (By the way, my other outfielders are Swisher, Cust, Wilkerson, Quentin, and Teahen - need 3 - and I already have Figgins and Lugo for steals, and Figgins could move to the OF, if I want to start Longoria.)  So my questions is, would you have made this move?

In our league, positions are determined by the number of games played at a position the prior year, but I don't know where to find that information for minor leaguers.  Does anyone know a webite I could use to find out the games played last year, by position, for a minor leaguer.  (For that matter, some of our minor leaguers didn't play in the minors last year - what do I do with Alexei Ramirez, or players who only played in college?)

Just wondering - if I'm going to be calling out any of these names, I'd like to know the correct pronunciation:
Longoria: long-GORE-ee-ya or long-uh-REE-ya
Porcello: por-SELL-oh or por-CHELL-oh
Moustakas: moos-TOCK-us?
Brignac: BRIN-yak or BRIG-nak
Jair Jurrjens:  uhhh??
Kalish: KAY-lish?
Balentien: bal-EN-tee-yen?
Hochevar: I think I heard it's ho-KAY-ver?

As part of our upcoming draft, in the minor league portion, we are now allowed to draft college players or foreign (i.e. Japanese) players.  Does anyone know of any top Japanese players that will probably come stateside in the next year or two that would be a top commodity?  I don't really know what college players would be hot property either, but I don't see a college player being instantly successful.  But if I could get a Dice-K, or an Ichro for the price of a minor leaguer, I'd certainly love that!

I'm in an AL-only keeper league where it costs a bit extra each year to keep players from year to year and I'm in a quandary about whether or not to trade Andrew Miller.  I have been offered Aaron Hill for him, which would be a slight upgrade from my current SS, Brendan Harris.  But here's the issue - I'd be dealing him to my arch-rival, and I would hate to have Miller starring on his team for several years.  I have had an incredible slew of injuries, so it's tough keeping a minor leaguer on my team for so long (we have 26 players on our roster with 18 starters and eight bench spots).  I've tried trading him to the rest of the league, but no one else in the league has much interest (maybe that's why the other guy and I have dominated the league the last several years :) )  I guess my real question here, is when do you think Miller will get called up to Detroit.  If I think he'll get called up in May or June, I think I'd rather hold on to him.  Other thoughts?