Fantasy Baseball Dugout

Are you two-start pitcher streaming? If not, you’re likely missing out on a great opportunity to increase your weekly strikeout total, win total, log more innings pitched, and potentially lower your team ERA and WHIP in head to head leagues that allow daily lineup changes.

Some leagues don’t allow such activity by limiting the number of player adds you can make each week. However, if you can find a loophole in your league settings and add/drop pitchers all season long – you’re going to have a great chance to win the whole thing come September!

For the fifth consecutive season, we will be tracking two start pitchers to make sure you always win your pitching categories. That way, if you consistently lose strikeouts each week – you can find someone who can help you in that category in a double capacity right away.

Fantasy Baseball Dugout’s exclusive two start pitcher rankings for 2012 Fantasy Baseball Week 4 start AFTER the jump! Read the rest of this entry »

Many fantasy baseball leagues implement Free Agent Acquisition Budgets (FAAB) as a way to level the playing field for acquiring players on waivers and the free agent player pool.

ESPN has been offering FAAB as a waiver management option in their free fantasy baseball games since 2010. We’re not sure when Yahoo! and some of the other major game providers began offering it.

But thanks to back to back seasons participating in the BBA Blogzkrieg! as members of the fantasy chapter of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance – we’ve gotten quite familiar with the ins and outs of managing FAAB (even if our roto rankings in the league may indicate otherwise).

AFTER the jump, you will find five tips for getting the greatest return on investment for your FAAB dollars.  Read the rest of this entry »

There’s nothing like the food at a ballpark.  Yes, eating it is not going to make any of us more healthy, but you have to love some of the smells around the ballpark.  Here’s some of the more interesting ballpark food that we’ve seen thus far this season.

These are our must-eat foods in Major League ballparks for the 2012 season.  Be sure to wash them down with our top baseball park go-to beers from other stadiums around the league.

Whatever happened to “peanuts and cracker jack?”

BLEED BLUE: In the stomach with this Dodger Dog topped with macaroni and cheese and, or course, Fritos.

Phillies Pizza: Hey, isn't Philly the place for cheesesteaks?

CARRY A BIG STICK: The Broomstick Dog in Texas is a 2 foot, 1 pound hot dog that costs a mere $26.

The Strasburger is the Nationals newest heart attack inducing delight. At $59, this mega-burger is designed to feed 8 people and comes with a healthy order of fries and a pitcher of soda.

Eric Chavez of the New York Yankees has a smokin’ hot wife in Ashley Chavez, as pointed out to us by reader Samantha Christiansen.  Samantha says that Ashley has it all.  “She is absolutely stunning and even a greater person!  Stunningly beautiful on the outside and the sweetest most compassionate nice woman on the inside!!”

We won’t argue with Samantha on her assessment.

As for husband Eric Chavez, Eric is in his second year with the New York Yankees and is in his 15th year in the Big Leagues.  Chavez has a .267 lifetime average and 232 career homeruns–230 of which were with the Oakland Athletics.  He has just 6 at bats thus far this season.

While Eric Chavez is no longer a fantasy baseball consideration except in the very deepest of fantasy baseball leagues, wife Ashley Chavez will be a serious consideration to earn a spot in our finalists for Baseball’s Hottest Wives this season.

Eric Chavez's wife Ashley Chavez

Every year, we come out with our best value pick in fantasy baseball.  Last year, we picked J.J. Hardy of the Baltimore Orioles.  All Hardy, a career .263 hitter, did was hit 30 home runs and drive in 80 for the Orioles–numbers that even exceeded his 2007 and 2008 stats from Milwaukee.

In Hardy’s case, our selection was based more on a guy moving from pitching friendly Target Field to Camden Yards.  It was also a case of a healthy J.J. Hardy that did not have the 2010 season we all anticipated.  It was also the case of having seen Hardy in action on my annual Spring Training visit to Florida.

None of these same factors had any bearing on our 2012 Best Value Pick of Eric Hosmer of the Kansas City Royals.

Eric Hosmer is one of those guys that we talked about a few years ago when the Royals were known as having the deepest minor league system.  The Royals no longer have that deep talent in the minors; they’re mostly all playing in the Bigs instead.  In addition to Hosmer, there’s third baseman Mike Moustakas, center fielder Lorenzo Cain and pitchers Danny Duffy, Kelvin Herrera, Greg Holland and Everett Teaford.  These guys will be fixtures in the Royals lineup for many years to come.  The Royals hitting is there today, but their pitching will likely hold them back from contending in 2012.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tips on adjusting your roster in weekly fantasy baseball leagues.

Many fantasy baseball leagues are set up so that teams accumulate statistics based on the players that are active during that particular week, often a Monday through Sunday week.  Some leagues allow daily changes to be made in the league, but this is often too much for the average fantasy baseball player as most of us don’t really want to bother looking at our rosters every day.  It seems as though Sunday night is the perfect night to make changes since most Sundays are day games and we often have sufficient time on Sunday night to do our homework.

Carlos Ruiz is hot: 3 for 3 on opening day.

Here are some tips to help you make roster adjustments for weekly leagues.

Check Games Scheduled

Some teams will play 7 games per week and others may only play 6 some weeks.  This is possibly the single most important factor and its the first thing I check each week prior to determining my starting lineup.

Check the Weather

You don’t have to worry about it in Miami anymore, but if there’s a big storm in a particular part of the country, that may mean a rainout for your player and a rainout means that player scores you no points.

Matchups are Everything

Go to your favorite site and take a look at who your team is playing that week.  Make your roster moves according to the strength of the opponent and if you are playing home or away.  AccuScore is a great resource for projecting statistics for all fantasy baseball players for the upcoming week.  AccuScore is for managers that like to play it scientifically rather than by hunches.  They’ll even break down the stats by saying that a particular player is anticipated to have 21.4 at bats that week!

Read the rest of this entry »

According to MLB.com, here are the top selling Major League Baseball jerseys.  No surprise that the Phillies and Yankees both put 4 players on the top selling jerseys list, especially given that they were the two teams with the most loyal fans, according to this article.

1. Derek Jeter, Yankees

Top Selling Jersey: Derek Jeter

2. Cliff Lee, Phillies

3. Albert Pujols, Angels

4. Josh Hamilton, Rangers

5. Roy Halladay, Phillies

6. Tim Lincecum, Giants

7. Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox

8. Ryan Braun, Brewers

9. Hunter Pence, Phillies

10. Buster Posey, Giants

11. Chase Utley, Phillies

12. Joe Mauer, Twins

13. Justin Verlander, Tigers

14. Adrian Gonzalez, Red Sox

15. Alex Rodriguez, Yankees

16. Ian Kinsler, Rangers

17. Robinson Cano, Yankees

18. Mariano Rivera, Yankees

19. Carl Crawford, Red Sox

20. David Freese, Cardinals

Interestingly, the top two ranked players in fantasy baseball, Miguel Cabrera and Jose Bautista, do not have jerseys ranked in the top 20 best selling shirts.

Fear the beard!

Not sure why Virgin Airlines would want you to fear traveling on its airplane, but apparently Giants’ closer Brian Wilson was the inspiration for Virgin to paint one of its planes in honor of Wilson and the Giants.