“Eleven of his 15 RBIs have come with people on base,”
-- Linda Cohn talking about Jose Reyes
on Sportscenter sometime last year.
And you wonder why I kept Jose Reyes. Considering the fact that he had all of one home run, I have no idea where those other three RBIs came from. So if a guy can magically inflate his RBI total by 20%, I figure that’s a good thing.
Yes, it’s that time of year again – I’m looking at spring training stats and thinking, “Who the %^&$ are these guys?” But enough looking through the flotsam and jetsam that the Yankees didn’t buy – hey, Marcus did have some people he could protect – it’s time for our annual pre-draft news and notes update.
The draft is this Saturday, April 3, at the Imperial Palace. We’re in a different room this year because the IP wanted to charge us more for the room, so Glenn made them give us a bigger one. I think it’s the Cocoa room, but check with Glenn after you get to Vegas. You can find him at the sportsbook, betting the farm on UConn.
One thing that’ll be interesting to see; Glenn usually fill out his team late. But with the Huskies playing in the Final Four that afternoon, I wonder if we’ll see Mr. Cekala, who has the most work to do of all of us, rosterwise, scooping up players at a record pace.
A few housecleaning items since we last met:
We’ve had three trades, two name changes and several owner relocations in the past few months. I think I’ve kept up with all the changing addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, but check out the CRL contact information page and let me know if I’ve missed any.
The hot stove was merely warm this off-season, with only three trades being made. Spencer shipped Adrian Beltre and Greg Maddux to Terry for Alex Cintron, Frasier sent Danny Graves and Tom Goodwin to the Torrens’ for Wes Helms, and I swapped Otis Jeff Kent for Brian Lawrence. Lawrence immediately responded to being on my roster by serving up batting practice in Arizona and making me glad that spring ERAs don’t count.
As to our owners that changed the team letterhead, Mike and Ken, realizing that they haven’t sniffed a championship under the Nice Tie moniker, have announced their intention not to try out for the CRL dance team by adopting the name Dos Pies Izquerdas. Spencer, Scott and Dan likewise wanted to shake their team out of its doldrums by changing their name to Power Alley. But given the amount of money Spencer, et al, have to spend this year, I don’t know how much power they can afford. The only power they’ll be able to get are a few stale D-cells from the clearance rack that have been sitting in the store for 10 months. Given their bankroll, I’m thinking the name Penny Arcade might be more appropriate.
Oh yeah, one more thing on the trade front. When Vern called me to tell me about his trade with Fraser, he said that he felt like he’d “just made a deal with the Yankees.” That should give Fraser a warm feeling inside.
And since we are talking about trades, I wanted to point out a new addition to the CRL page this year – the No Trade List. As you know, when you acquire a player in a trade, you cannot trade him back to his original owner for a period of one year. I’ve been keeping track of this, but I’ve decided to post it on the website. It will be permanently linked off the main page. I will keep it updated as trades occur and and as old trades move past their anniversary date.
Time to get back to learning Japanese so I can read the stats of the Mets new starting shortstop – the one who’s so good he’s supposedly moving Jose Reyes to second base.
See ya this weekend.
Jim