Fred Slacks' Fantasy Stats: Aimless Ramblings of the Week

Looks like some people threw on the crabby slacks last week and decided to debate topics. Love it, keep it up with the spirited comments. Let me clarify something, I in fact didn't bring up any political leaning at all, I simply stated that fans should be celebrating baseball, and when a famous/important person is on hand to kick things off such as to simply throw out a pitch or "christen" a new stadium it should be celebrated regardless of your personal opinion of the person. If Bush would have mangled the national anthem ala Rosanne or Carl Lewis, then let it rip. Again Bush was there to celebrate baseball, not promote war or anything, and in the booth he kept the talk strictly to baseball, as he should have. I'm not sure how that's political, but its an opinion and as a reader you certainly are entitled to one too. Now on to the rambles.

- Bill Hall hit two homers in one game in an effort to make me look stupid. I'm not retracting my statement either. I still think hes a 15 HR type of player who will hit for a decent average this year with more doubles. And don't give me just because he hit two homers hes gonna hit 35. Gerald Laird hit 2 homers today, and he has yet to eclipse double figure home runs in his 5 year career.

- On a related note, my old college roomie brought up a great point. Bill Hall may hit 35 home runs if he switches his at bat music back to "What You Know" by T.I. I feel like that was the real reason he hit 35 bombs.

- Arizona's young OF's have looked better than advertised. Both Chris Young and Justin Upton have hit 3 home runs. They could be great trade bait as the season moves on, while Young does have 30/30 ability, his value lies in the fact that other managers may be willing to send a better player in a deal. He has a propensity to hit solo home runs and hit for a meager average which your average manager may ignore. Upton will be streaky in his first full season in RF, the hot start may be the perfect time to get a great value in return.

- As of Saturday night, there were 17 players with 2 or more stolen bases. Stolen bases are not a huge commodity this year, shop some of your big SB threats who don't do a whole lot else i.e. Michael Bourne, Willie Taveras, and Carlos Gomez. These are players that managers will always over value, and you could definitely take advantage of that.

- Memphis looks darn near unbeatable. I think they beat Kansas for the National Championship, but seriously Kansas has probably looked as good. That is really a shot in the dark, I don't even know where to begin in breaking down this matchup so I won't. The game should be an amazing one.

- OK even more off topic, MTV has just previewed A Shot at Love II with Tila Tequila. Awesome, in the last 3 years MTV/VH1 has pumped out three Flavor of Love's, two I love New York's, two Rock of Love's, two Shot at Love's, and a That's amore with some Italian weasel. Thats 10 seasons of garbage packed into 3 years that is clearly scripted and has yet to work for the show's love seeking personality. This probably makes me a hypocrite because I love the Real World and The Challenge, but at least those have some relateable characters, and not just ugly, slutty, attention getting idiots. Wait, it does. Where is my argument here?? I guess I don't have one.

- Cardinals and Royals continue to tease everyone as much as the Tigers do. The Tigers pitching is clearly going to be an issue, but their hitters will get hot. The Royals are really not that bad of a team this year, but they are a few years away from seriously contending. The Cardinals are riding Rick Ankiel and a bunch of SP's who are clearly over preforming. In a month I'm sure hell will thaw out and things should be more normal in MLBville.

- Going into Sunday, Alfonso Soriano was 1-22. And David Ortiz was 2-22. Yikes. A week or two more of this, and you could be looking at two fantastic buy low candidates, who impatient owners may get fed up with. I'm not saying anybody will give these guys away, but their stocks will be as low as they will ever be.

- Jason Kendall looks like the Kendall circa 1998. As a Brewer fan you really have to love that, apparently he likes hitting in that 9 spot.

- Chris Berman, stop with the nicknames. Nick "coffin corner" Punto and Nate "hey hey get off of" McClouth suck. You peaked in 1992 with Barry "Bananas" Foster. It's old, you got a great voice for sports but this gimmick has got to stop.

- Lets make sure Johnny Cueto hangs around a bit more before anointing him the next Pedro Martinez. He should be grabbed in leagues, and I'm assuming he's gone in most, but he is only 22, and probably not going to be a top 20 pitcher this year. Temper your expectations a bit and you''ll be happy with him. Lets be thankful that it appears hes not Brien Taylor or Todd Van Poppel. Please tell me you know who those two are.

- Speaking of Cueto, he threw 92 pitches over 7 innings in Thursday's games. Watch out for that, Dusty Baker is known for destroying young arms by having them throw 23239408234 innings a season before they turn 25. See Mark Prior and Kerry Wood.

- Sabathia and Oswalt have looked very hittable thus far.

- Sheets, Peavy, Harden have looked the exact opposite.

- Guys I really like that are probably available on your wire: Jeff Keppinger, Micah Owings, Scott Hairston, Ryan Church, and Franklin Gutierrez

- Guys that are playing well that I don't like: Aubrey Huff, Jermaine Dye, Kevin Millar, Ben Broussard, Dana Eveland, Carlos Silva and Ryan Dempster

- Why do people copy names in fantasy leagues of superior teams, its lame and shows little creativity. We get it you're jealous. But don't do it. Instead confess your jealousy by publicly announcing that you refuse to trade with said team under any circumstances. So don't do it. You just look like an idiot. Plus you give the better team an even bigger head, and you don't need that to happen.

ICHIRO UPDATE: In the debut column I stated my (super on a limb) claim that Ichiro would hit under .300 for the first time in his career this season. Let's take a look at how hes doing so far. Drum roll please.......................................................... .250!!!! He's 6-24 through Sunday's games. So far so good.