Roto-Rx

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The Doctor is in...

Question #1: When I’m comparing Ben Zobrist to other players, what position do I compare him at to get a gauge for his relative worth? – East Hampton, NY

Hampton: Zobrist should be considered a 2B if you have to give him a position, considering he played the most there last year. Remember, his true value lies in his versatility.

Question #2: Now that the regular season is over, who are your MVP and CY award winners? Does Dr. Roto get an actual vote? – Jose, Ramapo, NJ

Jose: No, Dr. Roto does not get an actual vote...hopefully, he will soon. My MVP's are: Albert Pujols in the NL and Mark Teixeira in the AL. Cy Young will go to Zack Greinke in the AL and Chris Carpenter in the NL.

Question #3: Do you think that Hideki Matsui will have a full time gig in MLB next year of will he go back to Japan? – Roy, Bowling Green, MO

Roy: The only place you'll be seeing Matusi next year will be in Yankee Stadium (so long as they want him). If he is not a Yankee, he will go back to Japan.

Question #4: Did the post season problems of Joe Nathan this year affect your outlook for him for next year’s fantasy season? – Felix, Bethel, CT

Felix: Joe Nathan's struggles in the post-season have not deterred Dr. Roto from him at all. In fact, I would use it to my advantage. When his name comes up at your auction next year, you should clear your throat and say, "Nice job in the playoffs". This should drop his value 3-5 dollars in the room and you get a steal.

Question #5: Would you protect Michael Cuddyer for $12 next year? He qualifies at two spots in my league. – Salvatore, San Mateo, CA

Salvatore: I think I would. He had over 30 HR and looked sharp for most of the year. He is always undervalued to boot. Keep him.

The Doctor is out...

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And the winner is!..........

With two weeks left to go in the MLB regular season, the Around The Horn staff has voted on the AL / NL CY Young Award candidates and AL / NL MVP Award candidates (if the season ended today).

Looking at it objectively, in our eyes there really isn’t anything that can happen from here on out that would change the voting.

Here’s how the voting played out.

NL MVP

1 - Pujols, Albert - 1B - STL
2 - Ramirez, Hanley - SS - FLA
3 - Kemp, Matt - CF - LA
4 - Fielder, Prince - 1B - MIL
5 - Howard, Ryan - 1B - PHI
6 - Lee, Derrek - 1B - CHC / Dunn, Adam - LF - WAS (tie)

AL MVP

1 - Mauer, Joe - C - MIN
2 - Jeter, Derek - SS - NYY
3 - Teixeira, Mark - 1B - NYY
4 - Cabrera, Miguel - 1B - DET
5 - Morales, Kendry - OF - ANA
6 - Figgins, Chone - 3B - ANA

NL Cy Young

1 - Lincecum, Tim - SP - SF
2 - Carpenter, Chris – SP - STL
3 - Haren, Dan - SP - ARI
4 - Wainwright, Adam - SP - STL
5 - Vazquez, Javier - SP - ATL
6 - Johnson, Josh - SP - FLA

AL Cy Young

1 - Greinke, Zack - SP - KC
2 - Hernandez, Felix - SP - SEA
3 - Halladay, Roy - SP - TOR
4 - Sabathia, CC - SP - NYY
5 - Verlander, Justin - SP – DET
6 - Lester, Jon - SP - BOS

Have a Fantasy Football or Rotisserie Baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship!

Think the Matt Holiday trade worked for the Cardinals?

Somebody throw a bucket of ice water on the Cardinals already because they are on fire. No team in baseball had a better record in August. The St. Louis Cardinals were 20-6.

They put together the best winning percentage in baseball in August (.769) and increased their lead in the NL Central from a half-game at the start of the month to 10 1/2 by the end of the month. The biggest reason has been their phenomenal pitching; Cards hurlers posted a big-league best 3.06 ERA for August. That would make pitching coach Dave Duncan as much of an MVP for this team as Albert Pujols, and make keeping their pitching coach almost as big a priority as keeping their star slugger.

At present, team chemistry is so good that nearly every Cardinals player -- plus manager Tony La Russa and GM John Mozeliak -- showed up at Pujols' charity golf outing on their off-day last Monday. Of course, maybe they just wanted to see if Pujols can do with a golf ball and a driver what he does with a baseball and a Louisville Slugger, but still, impressive. - Blake Kearny

Blake Kearny is a retired baseball scout from Los Angeles, California. He currently runs a baseball school for children in Los Angeles

Inside the numbers

HR’s
Albert Pujols – 40
Mark Reynolds – 38
Carlos Pena – 34
Adam Dunn - 33
Prince Fielder – 33
Adrian Gonzalez – 33

SLG
Albert Pujols - .6651
Joe Mauer - .6352
Prince Fielder - .5942
Mark Reynolds - .5929
Adam Dunn - .5857

OBP
Joe Mauer - .4487
Albert Pujols - .4410
Chase Utley – .4229
Hanley Ramirez - .4215
Adam Dunn – 421.2

RBI
Price Fielder – 110
Albert Pujols – 106
Ryan Howard – 99
Justin Morneau – 94
Mark Teixeira – 93
Adam Dunn - 89
Ryan Braun – 89

A few observations:

- Prince Fielder is both a better hitter and a better eater than his father (which is sating quite a lot on both fronts) and the Fielder father / son tandem takes a back seat to only the Bonds and Griffey famlies (but another few years at this pace will undoubtedly place them ahead of the Griffey’s).

- Albert Pujols is really good.

- The numbers that Joe Mauer is putting up as a catcher are 2nd on record to only Mike Piazza’s 1997 year. 40 HR / 124 RBI / .362 BA / 104 RS / .431 OBP / .638 SLG

- Carlos Pena is Dave Kingman from the left side of the plate.

A closer look:

Adam Dunn is batting is batting .288 (not bad right? – you would have signed for that in a heart-beat in the beginning of the year) and having fantastic year!

In all of MLB he ranks tied for 4th in HR, ranks 5th in SLG, ranks 5th in OBP, and ranks tied for 6th in RBI.

But Adam Dunn has it even worse than Adrian Gonzalez in terms of a supporting cast behind him. The guys in front of him are ok but after him, other than Josh Willingham – it is minor league central. How inept can the Nationals be? They don't put out a major league product on the field, heck they can't even dress their players properly? They sent their two best players Dunn and Zimmerman out on the filed with misspelled jerseys! (see pic above)

Dunn has 66 runs score and ½ of those are produced by himself with his 33 Hrs!

Even with his new contract, the Nationals could have gotten quite a lot for Dunn at the trading deadline. They aren’t going to win during the duration of his contract anyway (Strasburg may add 5-7 wins to their total over the course of a year, but that's it.)

The Nationals didn’t move Dunn at the trading deadline; they should do so this off season. – Mike Cardano

Mike Cardano is the founder of the Around The Horn (Baseball Blogs) and Extra Point (Football Blogs). Mike is also the founder of the fantasy sports games Ultimate Franchise Baseball™ and Ultimate Franchise Football™.

REMINDER - Starting September 1st, you can can your fill of both NFL and NCAA Football on our sister site @ Extra Point (Football Blogs)

Albert Pujols’ quest for the Triple Crown

It’s been 42 years since anyone has won the Tipple Crown in Baseball.

Perhaps you emember reading Professor Lee Moquin’s piece on Carl Yastrzemski back on June 3rd. Carl was the last player to win the Tripple Crown in 1967.

Here are the previous winners….

1967 AL Carl Yastrzemski BOS .326, 44 HR, 121 RBI
1966 AL Frank Robinson BAL .316, 49 HR, 122 RBI
1956 AL Mickey Mantle NYY .353, 52 HR, 130 RBI
1947 AL Ted Williams BOS .343, 32 HR, 114 RBI
1942 AL Ted Williams BOS .356, 36 HR, 137 RBI
1937 NL Joe Medwick STL .374, 31 HR, 154 RBI
1934 AL Lou Gehrig NYY .363, 49 HR, 165 RBI
1933 AL Jimmie Foxx PHA .356, 48 HR, 163 RBI
1933 NL Chuck Klein PHI .368, 28 HR, 120 RBI
1925 NL Rogers Hornsby STL .403, 39 HR, 143 RBI
1922 NL Rogers Hornsby STL .401, 42 HR, 152 RBI
1909 AL Ty Cobb DET .377, 9 HR, 107 RBI
1901 AL Nap Lajoie PHA .426, 14 HR, 125 RBI
1894 NL Hugh Duffy BSN .440, 18 HR, 145 RBI
1887 AA Tip O'Neill STL .435, 14 HR, 123 RBI
1878 NL Paul Hines PRO .358, 4 HR, 50 RBI

Albert’s got a shot. Right now he has the NL and ML lead in HR’s with 38 and the NL and ML lead in RBI with 102. Mark Reynolds has 36 HR’s and Price Fielder has 100 RBI, so it’s not like he can coast to the finish.

Albert is tied for 3rd with Todd Helton @ .327 and has Pablo Sandoval batting .329 and Hanley Ramirez batting .351 ahead of him. Albert does in fact have a realistic shot at it but more than anything he needs Hanley to slump. With only 46 games left for Albert and 48 games left for Hanley there isn’t much time left. Averages are harder to move towards the end of the season because of the number of at bats and that compounds the problem.

If Albert is going to be able to catch Hanley, it will have as much to do with stuff out of his control as it will with stuff that is in his control because he will need Hanley to slump. Hanley won’t get many days off down the stretch because the Marlins are in a pennant race so it’s not like he can sit out at all and protect his lead.

I don’t recall the last person to have a legitimate shot going down the stretch but this one has the chance to be real exciting. Enjoy. I’m not sure why, but I think we are going to be in for a treat. - Robert FairchildRobert

Fairchild is a professional sports gaming professional. He legally wages on professional and collegiate sporting events for a living. Robert is NOT suggesting that you quit your day job and try to wager on sports for a living. He is contributing his thoughts and experience to assist you in a recreational activity that you as an informed adult may choose to take part in. Robert will NOT give specific wagering advice on any particular proposition in this forum.

What the hell was Cecil Cooper thinking?

Cecil Cooper's postgame quote on the subject was: "I don't have a problem with that."

He doesn't have a problem with Hanley Ramirez knocking in a run AFTER the Astros intentionally walked Nick Johnson with a man on second and two out in the sixth to bring up Ramirez? That RBI capped a three-run inning that gave the Marlins a 7-2 lead. What the heck?

I'm not a big fan of second guessing managers. Even when they do something that prompts fans and us in the press box to raise a collective eyebrow, they typically have a darn good reason that's just not abundantly clear. In this situation though, I'm at a loss as to why Cooper would call for the IBB on Johnson with Ramirez and his NL leading .419 average with RISP on deck.

Unless the guys name is Albert Puljos, how do you intentionally walk anyone pitch to H-Ram? I understand that Johnson is a lefty first basemen like you were Coop, but Johnson doesn’t have anywhere near the resume that you did, and even if he did, walking him would still be crazy!

Ramirez figured Cooper just wanted a righty-on-righty match-up. OK, let's look at that...Ramirez is hitting .362 against right-handers compared to Johnson's .280. Sampson is holding right-handers to a .245 average. Lefties are batting 53 points higher off him, but with no homers.

Sampson hadn't faced either Johnson or Ramirez before.

“It was surprising, but I don’t pretend to be the manager," Marlins catcher John Baker said. "Maybe he knows something about the match-up I don’t know. The way Nick has been playing, he probably would have walked anyway.”

No need for the Marlins to ask why. They should just say thank you and move on.

I’m guessing that in today’s game Cooper might walk the pitcher to get to the leadoff hitter……. - Keith A. Baker

Keith A. Baker is a sports agent in Stamford, Connecticut. His goal is to offer a unique insight to the world of sports and Major League Baseball in particular. Comments in his columns are for entertainment purposes only and do not reflect the views and opinions of his firm or his clients.

No testicular fortitude...

Was anyone else watching the Saturday afternoon FOX game of the week between the Phillies and the Cardinals as pissed off as I was?

If you did not see it, Saturday afternoon's game between the Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals had to be stopped for several minutes during the top of the seventh inning due to one particular moron along the first base line who was continuously directing his laser pointer at the faces of Cardinals' first baseman Albert Pujols and shortstop Julio Lugo while they were at bat. Seems like that's the type of thing fans in Philadelphia do when they are not busy fighting each other.

Perhaps the sick fan would have been proud if Lugo or Pujols would have been distracted enough that they lost track of an inside pitch and couldn’t get out of the way and took one in the head. What an e’ffing moron.

The thing that pisses me off the most is that there were 40,000 other people sitting there and not one person had the testicular fortitude to be an upstanding citizen and point the guy out.

Great job dude, now when you get older you can tell your grandchildren what an A-Hole you were when you younger. I hope someone does that to you while you are driving home from work today. Jerk. - David Fry

David Fry is an independent sports photographer currently covering Major League Baseball. David will be reporting on observations as he sees them in MLB stadiums throughout the year.

Matt Holliday is now a St. Louis Cardinal

The St. Louis Cardinals have acquired Matt Holliday in exchange for three minor league prospects. Brett Wallace, Clayton Mortenson and Shane Peterson.

Brett Wallace is the crown jewel in this deal. The A's will also kick in $1.5 million to help offset the $6 million remaining on Holliday's contract.

A Holliday, Pujols 1-2 punch. Nice!

Fastest to 200 HR's

Last night, Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard launched a sixth inning solo shot for his 23rd of the season; it was also the 200th of his career, making him the quickest in Major League history to eclipse that mark. That’s right—quicker than both modern marvels Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols. He replaces Ralph Kiner as the quickest, who did it in 706 games, and pushes Juan Gonzalez to third, doing it in 766 games. Howard did it in an astonishing 658 games! So he’s going to be the new all time home run king, right?

Not exactly. Ryan Howard, ladies and gentlemen, is 29 years old.

His first full season in the Bigs was 2006, when he launched a career high 58 jacks. He played half of the 2005 season and had a cup of coffee in 2004.

But, despite his age and delayed arrival to the big leagues, Howard is a flat out star. He is already a two time All Star, a Silver Slugger winner, a Rookie of the Year, and a MVP. He also finished second in MVP voting in 2008, when he played in all 162 games, blasting 48 home runs and 146 RBI.

The guy is a stud. Period. It’s really a shame that he must live in perennial triple crown threat Pujols’s shadow. And the emergence of Prince Fielder doesn’t help his notoriety much either.

Pujols burst onto the scene at age 21. Fielder: his rookie year had him at just 22. These guys have a huge head start on Howard, who was 25 during his rookie campaign.

My point? Howard may hit 500 home runs in his career (in all probability, he will), but this guy is not going to be setting career records. He’s just too old. It’s truly a shame that he was relegated to the minors when Jim Thome was clogging the Philadelphia first base.

But I love Ryan Howard, folks. Pencil him in for 40 jacks, 120 RBI at least, and, although in the past years his average has dipped, let’s call him a .275-.280 hitter.

He slimmed down this off-season, shredding 20 pounds, making him more agile at first base. Howard is a stud.

And I would love his bat in my lineup, any day.- Blake Kearny

Blake Kearny is a retired baseball scout from Los Angeles, California. He currently runs a baseball school for children in Los Angeles.

And the winner is!..........

With the official half-way point in the MLB season upon us, I wanted to take a look at who's stuck out in the first half of the season by selecting who would win each of baseball's major awards if the season were to end today! So here we go:

AMERICAN LEAGUE AWARDS

AL MVP: Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins: Justin Morneau is on pace for a career year, and that's saying something, seeing as he's already won an AL MVP award (2006). One pace for a 40 home run, 135 RBI year, and he's hitting .312 to boot. His teammate, Joe Mauer, could also get some votes, as should Torri Hunter, Mark Teixeira and Evan Longoria.

AL Cy Young: Zack Grienke, Kansas City Royals: Grienke is having the best season out of any AL starter right now, and despite being snubbed for the AL all-star start, he shouldn't miss out on the Cy Young award if he has a second half that's close to matching his first half magic.

Rookie of the Year: Andrew Bailey, Oakland Athletics: Bailey has kind of come out of nowhere and taken reigns of the A's closer position. His 10 saves, 1.92 era and 60 strikeouts lead all major league rookie relievers. Should be a solid closer in Oakland for years to come.

Manager of the Year: Ron Washington, Texas Rangers: The former A's coach took a couple of seasons to get settled in Texas, but he's finally turning that franchise around, as they sit at 48-39, their best record they've had at an all-star break in many years. They're only 1.5 back of the Angels in what should be a tight division race down to the wire.

Comeback P.O.Y.: Aaron Hill, Toronto Blue Jays: After struggling through an injury plagued 2008 season in which he hit just .263 with 2 hr's and 20 RBI in 240 at-bats, he's bounced back and is having a career year. Amongst the AL leaders in home runs (20) and RBI (60) and has had his average right around .300 or better all year.

Rolaids Relief Man: Joe Nathan, Minnesota Twins: Joe Nate just continues to dominate year in and year out. He's aging terrifically, as he's 34 years of age, but quite possibly putting together his best statistical season of his career. I still can't get over the trade that sent him, Liriano and Bonser to the Twins for that POS catcher.

NATIONAL LEAGUE AWARDS

NL MVP: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals: Forget just the mid-season award, I think it's pretty safe to say, unless he gets injured of course, that Pujoles will real in his third career NL MVP Award. The dude has put up numbers (.332 avg, 32 HR, 87 RBI, 73 R, 10 SB) that most stars, not just average players, but most all-stars would take over course of a full season. The best-right handed hitter I've seen on my 25 years on the planet.

NL Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants: Dan Haren is equally deserving, but Tim Lincecum has led his team atop the NL Wild Card standings and has earned himself the start for the National League in Tuesday's all-star game. Putting up even better numbers than the ones he won his first Cy Young award with last season. Again though, if Dan Haren's era and WHIP continue to drop, it would be hard to argue against him as well.

Rookie of the Year: Randy Wells, Chicago Cubs: Tommy Hanson and Andrew McCuthen have had nice first-halfs, but Wells has been a solid cog in the Cubbies pitching staff all season long and is sporting an impressive 2.72 era and 1.12 WHIP. He's only been credited with 4 wins do to lack of run support, and he's only had one bad start in 12 outings.

Manager of the Year: Bruce Bochy, San Francisco Giants: Boch has the Giants, a team everyone thought would struggle to make it to .500, atop the NL wild card standings and has led them to the second best record in the league at the break. He's been pushing all the right buttons in order to win ballgames and squeeze runs out of an average-at-best starting lineup.

Comeback P.O.Y.: Chris Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals: After missing most of the last two seasons due to a broken down elbow, Carpenter has returned back to his ace-like ways (7-3, 2.47 era, 0.87 WHIP with a 64:13 strikeout/walk ratio in his 83 innings pitched this year. In fact, there are some that feel he's throwing the ball better now than he did during his last healthy season in 2006.

Rolaids Relief Man: Ryan Franklin, St. Louis Cardinals: There's a reason why the Cards are atop a very deep division in the NL Central. Albert Pujols and Chris Carpenter are doing what they do best, but the Cards have developed themselves an elite closer in Ryan Franklin aka "The Beard", and I think his steadiness has really made a difference in the standings. His 0.79 era and WHIP are by far the best in the league and he's tied for third in the NL in Saves. Heath Bell and K-Rod should also get some recognition.- David Fry

David Fry is an independent sports photographer currently covering Major League Baseball. David will be reporting on observations as he sees them in MLB stadiums throughout the year.

Albert Pujols - "The Machine"

I don’t want to make this site a shrine to Albert Pujols, but if we simply objectively report the facts and that’s what it looks like, then hey I guess it is what it is right? The guy is a machine!

We’ve mentioned that he is the Lebron James of Baseball, Dr. Roto must have mentioned him in one way or another in 25% of his posts including placing him on the Dr. Roto 2009 All-Star Team, we’ve mentioned that he’s already scored his 1,000th run, we’ve talked about how he’s performed better than Joe Freakin` DiMaggio (now how many players can you say that about?), and now this:

Pujols reached another milestone on Friday when his 32nd home run of the season tied him with Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner for the most home runs in the first nine years of a career.

Pujols' towering blast off Chicago Cubs starter Rich Harden nestled into the basket overhanging Wrigley Field's center field warning track to break a 3-3 tie. The solo shot left Pujols with career home run No. 351, the same as Kiner during his first nine seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cubs.

Kiner got there in 5,866 at-bats; Pujols needed 4,882.

Pujols has never amassed fewer than 32 home runs or 103 RBIs in a season.

Friday's blast came in the Cardinals' 88th game, by far the fewest team games he has needed to reach the number. Pujols reached 32 home runs in the team's 96th game on July 22, 2006. He endured a 15-day stay on the disabled list earlier that season.

Pujols is the only player in major-league history to begin a career with 30 home runs, a .300 average and 100 RBIs in each of his first eight seasons. - Mike Gross

Michael Gross, in conjunction with a prominent sports agency runs a strength, conditioning and agility program that many agents send their “to-be-drafted” athletes, prior to being drafted. Many pro athletes have also used the facilities for rehabilitation after injury. Over 90 professional athletes including current MLB ball players have attended his institution during the past 3 years.

Pujols scores 1,000th career run of Career

Albert Pujols, who does not turn 30 until January, is now hitting .320 with 23 homers and 60 RBIs.

Albert is now on pace for 54 HR/142 RBI/.319 BA/126 RS/21 SB this year

On May 23rd I Keith A. Baker put up a post about how Albert Pujols was better than Joe DiMaggio. I saw the numbers but for some reason didn’t take it seriously.

After looking back at it again, Joe DiMaggio vs. Albert Pujols I can now see the light.

What a career, what an unbelievable career. Let’s just hope it turns out that he’s clean. I’m just saying……. - Paul Leume

Paul Leume is a MLB columnist from Montreal, Canada. Paul, a one-time beat writer covering the Montreal Expos for the Montreal Gazette is a proud grandfather of 3 girls and now spends his time offering his thoughts and prospective on Major League Baseball on a variety of blogs and websites throughout Al Gore’s internet.