Especially this time of year, I check Rotoworld's fantasy news religiously. This morning there were plenty of tidbits, as usual, including several that expose how incredibly dumb some teams can be. However much we get frustrated with Ned Yost's occasional antics, just remember: it could be worse.
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The Orioles are monitoring the Josh Fogg situation closely.
That's because they need more starters. True, they didn't foresee losing Kris Benson for the entire year, but they're largely scouting for starters because they traded Rodrigo Lopez to these same Rockies for a couple of minor leaguers. That's like the Diamondbacks calling Doug Melvin and saying, "can we have Mike Rivera? We forgot to replace Johnny Estrada, and we're scrambling here."
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According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, "the feeling in camp" is that the Reds will name Dustin Hermanson their closer.
Um, this is the Dustin Hermanson who got zero interest from any other team. Zero. He's not throwing 90mph any more, and he was never that great to begin with. The guy basically had a year and a half of successful closing, and that's it. It's like the Pirates naming Dan Kolb their closer. On the other hand, it's not like the Reds have a lot of great options; I wrote my Reds preview the other day and discovered that the late-inning cupboard is bare.
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Manager Ozzie Guillen said Sunday that Darin Erstad will bat second in the lineup against right-handed pitchers.
This takes the friggin' cake. It's bad enough that Scott Podsednik (2006 OBP: .330) is plugged in as their leadoff hitter, but Erstad behind him? There'll be an awful lot of small ball for a team that lead the AL in home runs last year. It's great for the White Sox that they have such a strong middle of the order (Paul Konerko, Jim Thome, Jermaine Dye), but you'd think they'd try harder to, you know, put runners on base for those guys.