of Ken Rosenthal's musings but his last one gave me such a laugh that I had to post a snipet from it.

"The Dodgers' addition of third baseman Casey Blake reduced their need for offense at shortstop. Nomar Garciaparra could be headed to the disabled list with a sprained ligament in his left knee, but Angel Berroa offers solid defense, if not much offense."

Solid defense from Bullrroa?  What a laugh?  The Dodgers must not have any warm bodies in their system that can out perform our Angel.  Kenny, I think you need to readjust your rose colored glasses and take a second look at the SS for LAD. 

LOL..............

If so when... take the poll and show us your optimism. 

If we don't hit that magic number does that mean that Buddy Bell was a better manager than Trey Hillman or that the "improvements" to the 2007 team made by GMDM were flops.   Remember Jason "Lala" Larue has regained his powerstroke with the Cardinals.  Redman is still a starting pitcher in the bigs and lets not forget Angel Berroa ... who started at shortstop for the Dodgers last night. 

We are a month into the Pioneer League season and the Idaho Falls Chukars are in last place of the South division at 11-17.  The pitching staff has had their ups and downs initially but have had some very strong performances lately.  The team has made some roster moves in the past couple weeks moving Luis Cota and Paul Raglione to the Burlington Bees both were former propects that are coming off season ending injuries.  Cota should settle into the Bees rotation with Rags joining the bullpen.  Up from the Burlington, NC Royals is Tim Huber.  He has settled into the bullpen and is being used as one of the closers.

The Rotation consists of a 3 man core with a committee taking the other starts.  Casey seems to have become the ace of the staff.  You can't argue with a team leading 27.2 innings pitched with an ERA of 1.95.  His BB/K is a little high and he has given up 3 longballs in 6 outings.  But, for free agent signed out of a Community College, this is a good start and if it continues we may see him in Wilmington next season.  Hodgson, a 2007 draft pick, and Toribio, a free agent signed in 2007, round out the core.  Both have given up alot of runs, 18 and 14, in 27 and 20 inning respectively.  Their BB/K ratios are a little high as are their ERAs.

Rotation: W  L  ERA  G  GS  CG  SHO  SV  IP  H  R  ER  HR  HB  BB  SO  WHIP  HLD  GF 

Bryan Casey 1 1 1.95 6 6 0 0 0 27.2 18 6 6 3 1 12 21 1.08 0 0
Ivor Hodgson 1 3 4.00 6 6 0 0 0 27.0 28 18 12 0 1 15 26 1.59 0 0
Aneidy Toribio 0 3 5.40 6 5 0 0 0 20.0 21 14 12 1 1 13 25 1.70 0 0

The Bullpen has had some great outings this month.  Justin Garcia continues to have a good BB/K ratio.  Those 2 BB coming in his last two appearances.  He looks like another good college free agent pick up in the Greg Holland mold.  James Thompson continues his strong early performance with a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings.  Like Garcia, he has and excellent BB/K ratio.  He is another small college free agent signing and at 6'3" and 195 lbs he has the physical potential to become a good sleeper pickup.  What can you say about Saito?  He continues to show the flamethrower arm and decent control.  They are using this 16th round pick sparingly and it may be to reduce the chance of an injury.  The new guy in the pen Tim Huber, has been with the team only a short time.  He has 3 appearances and recorded 2 saves.  In six innings he hasn't given up a run while striking out 5 and walking 3.  He was born in Omaha, and was signed out of that baseball powerhouse Nebraska Omaha.  He may become my fan favorite.  The comeback award goes to Colby Beach.  After some disasterous appearances early he has rebounded with a dominant show stopping game.  In his last outing he picked up the win with three innings of shut out ball while striking out 5 with no walks.  It good to see him turning it around.  He is another of the southern college free agents.  The rest of the bullpen is listed below.   As usual, IDF has a couple of promising pitchers that will probably be playing on the east coast next year.  I will add more towards the end of the season.

Bullpen:W  L  ERA  G  GS  CG  SHO  SV  IP  H  R  ER  HR  HB  BB  SO  WHIP  HLD  GF 

Justin Garcia 3 0 2.20 8 0 0 0 1 16.1 16 6 4 1 0 2 16 1.10 0 5
James Thompson 1 0 1.64 8 0 0 0 1 11.0 9 3 2 0 0 3 13 1.09 0 5
Derrick Saito 0 2 3.24 6 0 0 0 0 8.1 9 5 3 1 1 6 14 1.80 0 0
Tim Huber 0 0 0.00 3 0 0 0 2 6.0 4 0 0 0 0 3 5 1.17 0 2
Colby Beach 1 2 6.94 6 0 0 0 0 11.2 15 10 9 1 0 6 17 1.80 1 0

The rest...W  L  ERA  G  GS  CG  SHO  SV  IP  H  R  ER  HR  HB  BB  SO  WHIP  HLD  GF 

Gary Novakowski 0 1 3.60 6 0 0 0 0 15.0 19 8 6 2 1 9 11 1.87 0 3
Ryan Morgan 0 1 6.39 5 1 0 0 0 12.2 19 11 9 4 0 7 11 2.05 2 0
Orlando Rada 0 1 5.11 6 0 0 0 1 12.1 16 8 7 0 2 6 13 1.78 0 2
 Blaine Hardy 1 0 6.55 6 0 0 0 1 11.0 14 8 8 2 0 4 7 1.64 0 3
John Foster 0 0 5.06 9 0 0 0 0 10.2 11 6 6 2 1 8 13 1.78 1 7
Steve Miller 0 1 9.00 6 1 0 0 0 10.0 10 14 10 1 1 12 7 2.20 0 0
Stephen Gilgenbach 0 0 9.31 7 0 0 0 0 9.2 12 13 10 1 0 10 10 2.28 1 1
 Jesse Carver 2 0 10.13 5 0 0 0 0 8.0 12 9 9 2 0 5 9 2.13 0 0
 Brandon Sisk 0 0 3.00 2 0 0 0 0 3.0 1 1 1 1 0 1 3 0.67 0 0

I know...I know... it is way too early for this stuff.  While fooling with my Keeper League Baseball team I noticed that Yahoo has their football game up already.  My thought is that if we get the league started now we can discuss any problems or changes that managers may want or have.

The league is as named above.   League ID: 101060 League URL: http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/101060  Password is blue.

As you will see there are 16 teams so I hope everyone who wants to participate in the league can.  Sign up and lets talk about what we want in a league.  I set the league draft for August 17th at 9 pm.  That is negotiable too.

This is the year I beat Loyal2, that is if she has the nerve to play again.   Daddy, you are going down too.  That's BIG talk considering how I finished last year.  Oh well, it is a new season and anything can happen... just look at the Cubs.

We are just over ten days into the short season at Idaho Falls and the team is mired in a three game losing streak.  As you can see below none of the stats as of yet are dominating.  Still it is early and hopefully some of our draft picks will turn it around. 

Comments:

Justin Garcia ( Born: 10/19/1984 Birthplace: Violet, LA Height: 6' 0" Weight: 185 Bats: R Throws: R) seems to be hot right out of the box.  He has been used in relief and has had a couple of strong outings.  In the Chukers June 27th loss he was the third pitcher and his line was  2.0 1 0 0 0 3 0 1.13.  His line for the season so far is 2 0 1.13 3 0 0 0 0 8.0 4 3 1 1 0 0 8 0.50 0 3

Derrick Saito is performing as promised.  He is a (Leo Nunez type) fireballer.  His stats so far show that he is probably a situational pitcher at best  (0 0 2.70 3 0 0 0 0 3.1 5 1 1 1 0 1 6 1.80 0 0)  6 k's with 1 BB,  5 hits and 1 earn run in 3.1 innings.  Not bad for a 16th round draft pick.  I would like to see him close some games to see if this flamethrower has the "shove it in your face" attitude.

 Bryan Casey leads the team in innings pitched with 13.2.  He is sporting a 1.32 ERA but seems to have difficulty with his control 9 k's and 7 BB's.  He started last nights game and went 3.2 4 1 1 3 3 0 1.32.  His numbers aren't bad but with the anemic offense of the Chukers he is going to have to cut down on the walks to chalk up some wins.

Ivor Hodgson is leading the team with 15 K's in 9 innings.  He was in the AZL last year. 

Here are the team stats:  as of June 27th.

Individual Stats (Pitching) (click column headers to sort)
 
Player  W  L  ERA  G  GS  CG  SHO  SV  IP  H  R  ER  HR  HB  BB  SO  WHIP  HLD  GF 
Bryan Casey 1 0 1.32 3 3 0 0 0 13.2 10 2 2 1 0 7 9 1.24 0 0
Ivor Hodgson 0 1 2.00 2 2 0 0 0 9.0 10 5 2 0 0 3 15 1.44 0 0
Ryan Morgan 0 1 3.12 3 0 0 0 0 8.2 12 5 3 1 0 3 6 1.73 1 0
Luis Cota 0 0 5.40 2 2 0 0 0 8.1 9 6 5 1 0 6 8 1.80 0 0
Aneidy Toribio 0 1 4.50 3 2 0 0 0 8.0 9 4 4 1 0 5 11 1.75 0 0
Justin Garcia 2 0 1.13 3 0 0 0 0 8.0 4 3 1 1 0 0 8 0.50 0 3
Paul Raglione 0 1 6.14 2 2 0 0 0 7.1 6 5 5 1 0 4 6 1.36 0 0
Blaine Hardy 1 0 6.00 3 0 0 0 0 6.0 7 4 4 2 0 1 3 1.33 0 1
Orlando Rada 0 1 3.18 3 0 0 0 1 5.2 7 3 2 0 1 3 7 1.76 0 2
James Thompson 0 0 0.00 3 0 0 0 0 4.2 2 0 0 0 0 2 8 0.86 0 1
Gary Novakowski 0 1 4.15 2 0 0 0 0 4.1 7 2 2 0 0 3 2 2.31 0 2
John Foster 0 0 4.50 3 0 0 0 0 4.0 4 2 2 1 1 4 4 2.00 0 2
Stephen Gilgenbach 0 0 7.36 3 0 0 0 0 3.2 2 5 3 0 0 6 5 2.18 1 0
Derrick Saito 0 0 2.70 3 0 0 0 0 3.1 5 1 1 1 0 1 6 1.80 0 0
Steve Miller 0 0 2.70 2 0 0 0 0 3.1 1 2 1 0 0 3 2 1.20 0 0
Colby Beach 0 1 9.00 2 0 0 0 0 3.0 7 3 3 1 0 2 3 3.00 0 0
Jesse Carver 0 0 15.00 2 0 0 0 0 3.0 8 5 5 0 0 2 3 3.33 0 0 

RR Division 1 fantasy baseball league.

The Fantasy Baseball season is heading into the home stretch.  We have ten weeks left until the playoffs so here are the standings as of week 12.

RR Fantasy Baseball Keeper League

As you can see "his awesomeness" is holding on to first place by one game with Ham and Stuck hot on his heals.  The old "Bar and Grill" is in the "kissing your Grandmother"range.  I am not last but not in the playoff hunt either.  It has been a tough season so far for the Grillers.  It will considered to be a good season if I just finish ahead of the dreaded #7 team.  One can hope.

I hope all the managers are having fun with the competition.  More chatter would be appreciated.  Remember, this is a KEEPER league so start thinking of your SIX (6) players that you want to hang on to for next year.  Good luck.... Go Blue...

The 17 member Chuker's staff consists of a little bit of everything.  They have a rehabbing AAA pitcher and a highly rated prospect coming off an injury.  Add to that four 2008 draftees, three players up from the 2007 AZL team, and 8 non drafted free agents. The staff is made up of 9 righthanders and 8 lefties for an even balance.  Here is an alphabetical listing and a short description of each player.  As with any short season staff, we have to let the season play out to really see what sort of talent we have.

Carver, Jesse P LHP  L/L  6-0  183  Sr.  1L  Starkville, MS (Starkville HS)  Mississippi State U.undrafted free agent

 Bryan W Casey Born: 06/05/1986 Birthplace: Yuma, AZ College: Arizona Western College Height: 6' 1" Weight: 200 Bats: R Throws: R  started opening night...1 1 0 0 0 4.0 3 0 0 0 1 4 1.00 .200 undrafted free agent

Cota, Luis P   injury prone prospect. Tabbed as the Royals seventh-best prospect by Baseball America entering the 2005 season...Named Royals Minor League and Burlington Pitcher of the Year after compiling a 5-8 record and a 4.01 ERA in 26 starts for Burlington (A)...allowed just 143 hits in 148.0 innings, walking 63 and striking out 137 batters, good for fifth in the Midwest League and second among all Royals minor leaguers....Named to the Midwest League mid-season All-Star team.  Went 2-1 with a 5.81 ERA for Idaho Falls (R) in his first season of professional baseball in 2004...appeared in 14 games (12 starts) for the Chukars, allowing 61 hits in 48.0 innings...he walked 21 and struck out 40.
hasn't pitched since 2006.

John Foster.  The Kansas City Royals have assigned left-handed pitcher John Foster to Idaho Falls for a rehab start. Foster injured his right bicep earlier this year and will look to work his way back to the Royals' AAA team in Omaha and then hopefully on to Kansas City. Foster was drafted in 1999 by the Atlanta Braves and first appeared in the Majors in 2002. He has appeared in 90 big league games in his career, all in relief. Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho is where Foster attended school before turning pro. He helped the Warriors win a National Championship in 1999.

Garcia, Justin P ...Justin Garcia Born: 10/19/1984 Birthplace: Violet, LA Height: 6' 0" Weight: 185 Bats: R Throws: R undrafted free agent 

Gilgenbach, Stephen P
Wisconsin-Parkside  (drafted 47th round) Born: 02/12/1986  Birthplace: Fond du Lac, WI College:Wisconsin-Parkside   Height: 6' 2" Weight: 215 Bats: L Throws: L

Hardy, Blaine P........ (drafted in the 22nd round) Born: 03/14/1987 Birthplace: Shoreline, WA College: Lewis-Clark State Col Height: 6' 2" Weight: 195 Bats: L Throws: L pitched in relief on opening night 4.50 1 0 0 0 0 2.0 4 1 1 0 0 0 1.00 .500  yet another Hardy to cheer for.... 

Hodgson, Ivor P AZ league... Born: 04/25/1986 Birthplace: Emmitsburg, MD College: Mount St Mary's Col Height: 6' 3" Weight: 190 Bats: S Throws: L
AZ league 1 1 5.29 14 0 0 0 0 32.1 45 24 19 1 1 15 36 1.86 1 2 brief stint with IDF.

 Steven Michael Miller Born: 03/23/1986 Birthplace: Houston, TX Height: 6' 2" Weight: 220 Bats: R Throws: R undrafted free agent

Morgan, Ryan  (drafted in the 26th round) Morgan elected to forgo his senior year at Rockhurst College after being taken in the draft. Born: 01/29/1987 Birthplace: St. Louis, MO College: Rockhurst Col Height: 6' 1" Weight: 190 Bats: R Throws: R

Novakowski, Gary Height / Weight:6-4 / 215 RHP 06/15/1985 2007: Named America East Pitcher of the Year and a first-team All-conference selection ... selected as honorable mention All-American by PingBaseball.com ... went 5-2 with 4.28 ERA in 67.1 innings of work ... made 10 starts with four complete games ... undrafted free agent

Rada, Orlando P
Orlando Rada. Bats: Left, Throws: Left Height: 5'11", Weight: 165 lbsBirthplace: Higuerote, Venezuela Born: December 20, 1985 ... Level Totals Rk P 10 2 3 0 0 1.000 0.50 ... up from AZL  pitched in relief on opening day picking up the loss...6.00 1 0 0 0 0 3.0 5 2 2 0 2 4 2.00 .455 
 
Raglione, Paul PPaul Raglione - up from AZL.  Birthdate:1/15/1987 Bats/Throws:R/R Height/Weight:6-5/220    AZL... W L ERA G GS CG ShO SV BS IP TBF H R ER HR BB IBB HBP WP BK SO
2006 Royals (R) 3 0 3.11 10 7 0 0 2   46.1   53 27 16 1 10   4   

Saito, Derrick P  (drafted in the 16th round) Born: 12/26/1987 Birthplace: Wailuku, HI College: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Height: 5' 9" Weight: 155 Bats: L Throws: L

Thompson, James R (drafted in the 38th round) Born: 08/15/1987 Birthplace: Westpoint, GA College: Columbus State Height: 6' 3"Weight: 195 Bats: R Throws: R

Torbio, Aneidy T, Born: 05/21/1988 Birthplace: Santiago, Dominican Republic Height: 6' 1" Weight: 172 Bats: L Throws: L  undrafted free agent

GO CHUKERS......

It is week 11 at the Royals Review Fantasy Keeper League and things have moved into the "get serious" part of the season.  Is Loyal2 going to make her move into history or fade like used paper towels?  Is Marbotty going to find his way again?  What about Daddy de los Royales?  We aren't even going to talk about Stuck except to say he had a great draft.  With 11 weeks to go...let's hear some chatter... let's hear some trash talk... let's get excited. 

RR Keeper League

Starting Pitcher Rowdy Hardy (1-3) picked up his first win of the season. Hardy threw five innings striking out two batters. He gave up three earned runs off of nine hits. Jarod Palmer recorded his third save of the season for the naturals.

Naturals 7 and Tulsa 3.... 

Not a great outing by Rowdy but a win is a win.  The way his season is going I bet he is breathing a big sigh of relief.   Go Naturals...