Fantasy Baseball Bible

My favorite baseball websites are as follows (no particular order):

www.BaseballAmerica.com

Not taking the major leagues into account, baseball is played all over the United States. You can find minor league teams in towns and cities all across the country. Baseball America is a great source for finding out about your favorite major league team’s farm system. They provide comprehensive lists of players, sortable stats and commentary for all minor league teams. They also do a fine job covering college baseball, which is growing rapidly in popularity.

www.RotoWorld.com

Primarily a fantasy sports site, RotoWorld is not just for fantasy geeks. RotoWorld reports sports news in a very timely manner. Because of their superior coverage, they usually get their news items up faster than bigger sites like Yahoo or MSN. Plus, they report or comment on a much greater amount of players on a daily basis. You can look up a great number of professional sports players in their vast database, which gives you vitals as well as career statistics. You can also find quality articles in abundance there.

www.RotoJournal.com

A fantasy sports blog that currently covers baseball almost exclusively, Roto Journal provides quality articles and commentary on topics such as Division Inequality in Baseball and The Wisdom of Bill James.

www.TheBaseballCube.com

The Baseball Cube is a historical almanac providing major league, minor league and college statistics. The major league records go back over 100 years. I have often visited this site when I am trying to find information on minor league players, as they tend to have more info on the minors than any other site I’ve visited. You can also ’sponsor’ your favorite player’s webpage on their site.

www.Sabr.org

The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) was established in 1971. Their desire is to promote the study of baseball, both current and historical. Of primary interest on the site are their studies on everything from The Deadball Era (1901-1919) to Women in Baseball. It’s a fine source for anyone wanting to examine the history of baseball, and how the game has changed through the years.

www.Baseball1.com

This site is a nice archive of various topics, ranging from Sabermetrics to the Negro leagues. It also has a fine database of downloadable stats from baseball’s early era.

www.Baseball-Reference.com

In my opinion, this is the premier website for baseball stat junkies. Here, you will find current standings and boxscores, and past stats going back to 1871.
You’ll also discover a comprehensive list of past players, managers, post-season results and awards.

www.BaseballThinkFactory.org

A general discussion site, with articles on all kinds of topics, including the minor league draft and current baseball events. At any given time, you might find up to 1000 people viewing the site.

By: Scott Campanella

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The Phillies Baseball Club took home the prize of 2008 World Series Baseball Champions and the pitching of Joe Blanton and Jamie Moyer was for me the difference maker of the World Series. Going into the series I thought that the Tampa Bay Rays pitching would be too strong. On paper most felt that the Rays would win the match ups of Matt Garza vs. Jamie Moyer and Andy Sonnanstine vs. Joe Blanton, with Kazmir and Shields winning a game each, but it didn’t pan out that way.

Both Moyer and Blanton are not renowned for throwing strikeouts yet combined they managed to strike out twelve Tampa Bay rays batters over 12 innings of pitching. When you couple that with the fact they only walked three batters between the two of them it was no wonder the Phillies where able to win both games. Not just against Blanton and Moyer but through out the series the Rays top order seemed to be rushing too much and not waiting for the ideal pitch. The allowed Blanton and Moyer to get ahead, and you just can’t afford to do that against those two as their off speed pitches become more powerful.

Unfortunately for the Rays the bats got cold during the World Series. This was a surprise after they where able to overpower the White Sox and the Red Sox in the previous two match ups with their bats. During the World Series the Phillies hit nine home runs to the Rays four. Luckily for the Phillies this helped overcome their poor hitting with runners in scoring position.

I thought Cole Hamles was a worthy MVP recipient after his awesome pitching performances in Games 1 and 5 against Rays ace Scott Kazmir. The fact that Kazmir was unable to win either of those two match ups was another key reason for the Phillies winning it all. Moyer and Blanton clearly required recognition as they, for me, where the two players that stood up during the key middle stages of the series.

Questions will always be asked did the Rays choke on the big stage or where they simply just out played. When a team doesn’t lose a post season game at home they are going to be pretty tough to beat and when you look back at all three opponents for the Phillies their pitching was dominant.

So now the question gets asked can the Phillies Baseball Club repeat? Cole Hamels and Brad Lidge are staying put and with Ryan Howard , Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins also coming back you would have to raise a case that the Phillies have enough pieces in place to be more than a one season wonder. Statistically the Phillies will be up against it as only the Blue Jays and Yankees have repeated in the last thirty years.

Only Pat Burrell and Jamie Moyer will be free agents in the off season. Both will probably get bigger offers to play somewhere else but the lure of Moyer finishing hise career in the town he grew up in may give him a reason to stay for less.

The Phillies will have a tough job of keeping their payroll at $104.5 million with players such as Howard, Hamels, Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, Ryan Madsen and Chad Durbin all eligible for arbitration.

At the beginning of 2008 the players made a statement by walking around the clubhouse during spring training wearing t shirts that stated “Winning Starts Now”. The mindset was clearly where it needed to be for the Phillies from start until finish in 2008. The question will now be asked.

Can they do it again in 09?

By: Josh Hammer

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With the 2008 baseball season upon us, the fantasy baseball season is about to begin. Here are some tips to creating a successful fantasy baseball team.

1) Be smart

When you are drafting your baseball team, don’t take unnecessary risks. This year you shouldn’t be taking Pedro Martinez (36 years old and diminishing health) or Chris Carpenter (might be out until All-Star break) in any of the early or middle rounds. You may not know every player in the MLB, but it isn’t hard to use good judgement. Don’t fall into the mentality that you need to get certain positions early in the draft, just because the rest of the league makes a run on a specific position. You cannot afford to take catchers, like Victor Martinez and Russell Martin, in front of other Top 40 players such as Aramis Ramirez, Magglio Ordonez, Alex Rios, and Curtis Granderson. Closers fall into this same type of category; there are plenty of good closers that will be available after the 8th round. Decide what is more important: having the best catcher and closer or getting more stats for your draft picks.

2) Make a plan and stick to it

Have a plan before the draft starts. Of all the fantasy baseball teams of mine that have been good, only one or two have been very balanced. More so than in other fantasy sports, such as football or basketball, you need to choose some categories that you want to dominate your league in. Whether that is good pitching (Wins, ERA, K’s), power hitting (HR, RBI), or speed (SB, R), it doesn’t really matter what it is, but pick something and stick with it.

3) Drafts cannot make a season, but they can break one

It’s true that you need to research, know your stuff, and have a plan going into the draft, but don’t put too much emphasis on the draft. The baseball season is six months long and you can’t underestimate the value of staying on top of your league every day. Because of the length of the season, it is very easy to turn around a baseball league in the summer months by simply checking the free agents every day, watching what players get on hot streaks, and updating your daily lineup.

By: Jacob Davis

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Signatures of popular baseball players have always had great appeal to collectors. Autographs of baseball hall of famers such as Babe Ruth, Tee Cobb, Roberto Clement and Lou Geri top the list of the most sought-after collectibles. Even autographs of other baseball players who did not make the Hall of Fame but had outstanding careers, such as Roger Mares, Thurman Munson and Tony Consigliore, are also wonderful additions to a collection.

Where to find baseball autographs

Baseball autographs can be found in almost all baseball memorabilia (such as baseballs, caps, jerseys, etc), but checks, documents and letters signed by the players themselves are high in terms of collectible value. Autographed photographs are also scarce and highly valuable.

Fakes

Authenticity is the major concern of all autograph collectors. Recognized dealers have the expertise in determining and establishing the authenticity of an item, so try to buy only from them. The internet is especially full of fake vendors, so be very cautious.

One can almost always trust the authenticity of the signatures from old autograph books, because the original collector was probably fortunate enough to get an instant autograph. There is still a risk, however – forgers can easily find an old blank autograph book and fake signatures.

It is wise to have your baseball autographs authenticated. Authentication by special audit groups (such as Arthur Anderson) can get quite pricey, so go to trusted individual authenticators who have worked as auditors for a more affordable quote. Authentication can range from $20 to $150, depending on the rarity and overall condition of the autograph.

Collecting baseball signatures as a hobby has a lot of drawbacks, but it can also be very rewarding. Be sure to do your research and buy only from trusted vendors, and keep yourself informed of the latest trends in collecting so you can grow your own collection wisely.

By: Kristy Annely

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The assumption here is that you have either found the title of this article amusing to some extent, or you are looking for information on how to become more mentally tough as an athlete. Maybe both, which would be a bonus for you. Now, a little group participation… I want you to stop reading for a minute after you read the following question. Don’t read past until you have an answer.

The Question: What did you do differently this season (compared to last) to prepare yourself for a successful experience in baseball?

If your answer is nothing, many athletes have since passed you and have consequently helped improve their chances of getting to the next level, whatever that may be for them. However, if you have added something else to your game, then the opposite is true.

In order to become a mentally strong athlete, players must develop two types of skills.

A. Physical skills: those that help you throw, run, pitch, hit, and field more effectively.

B. Mental skills: those that help you in dealing with failure, build confidence, get you in “the zone”, keep you out of slumps, etc.

The problem is that there is consistently more importance placed on physical development over mental. There are a few reasons physical skills are taught far more than mental skills.

1. Physical skills are more easily taught through the ease of information access in videos, books, and private baseball instruction.

2. The fixation on massive home runs and big power numbers fuel athletes’ desire to improve and learn the skill of hitting a baseball 400ft like the guys in the Bigs.

3. The results can often be noticed by everyone right away. Therefore, there is more of an immediate feeling of improvement with physical skill work through baseball drills, etc.

The mental side of baseball is taught far less for a multitude of reasons. Some include:

1. There are simply fewer resources available on the topic of sports psychology and mental training.

2. Many sports psychology and mental training information is written in a complex fashion making it difficult for a reader to comprehend the information.

3. Practice time is limited for many teams. Therefore, fewer coaches can afford to carve out the time to work on the mental game (assuming they know how to teach it).

So how do you begin to work on the mental game? You’re doing it now. Read, listen, and search for pieces of information on the topic. Post-game interviews from professional athletes are a good source. Countless players like Derek Jeter and Cal Ripken have devoted time to writing some of their thoughts on the subject. Buy their books or find them at a library.

Why should you develop you mental baseball skills? The answer to this question is lengthy and is a topic for another article at another time. But the simple answer is that you will be noticed by more college and professional scouts because they look for indicators of a strong mental game. And secondly, it will help to cut out slumps that linger and take away from consistent performance.

By: Nate Barnett

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If you want to maximize your draft and pick the best team possible, then there’s one question you should ask yourself before every pick. You can practice this during your fantasy baseball mock draft (remember to practice the mock draft on your own).

The question is, when you’re about to pick a player: “Is there a player of equal value still available in the draft and, if so, what round is that player expected to be drafted?” Okay, so that’s two questions in one. But that makes it doubly important.

If the answer to the question is yes, then you have to figure out which round that player is expected to be drafted in. If it is two or more rounds later, then you should seriously consider not drafting the player you have in mind and holding off for the latter player.

For example, in last year’s draft, it seemed odd to me that Joe Mauer was ranked so high (Yahoo average pick: 31). Here was a catcher who in 2006 batted an astounding .347, but racked up only decent numbers in other categories (86 runs, 13 home runs, 79 RBI, 8 SB), at least in terms of fantasy baseball strategy. Seeing as how Mauer batted .294 the year before, one could reasonably ask whether or not Mauer could sustain such a high average. And if not, did his other stats really make him a third round pick?

If you were to get to the third round and you were thinking of picking Mauer, it would beg the question, “Is there a player of equal value still available, and if so, where is he projected to be drafted?”

In my mind, that player was Russell Martin. In fewer games than Mauer in 2006, Martin had 65 runs, 10 home runs, 65 RBI, and 10 SB. His average was much lower at .282. But clearly that discrepancy did not justify Martin (Yahoo average pick: 179) being ranked that much lower than Mauer. Either Mauer was highly overrated or Martin was vastly underrated.

I tended to believe the latter. Thus, if Mauer was worth a third round pick, Martin surely should have been worth a fifth round pick or so. In such a case, I believe it was worth passing on Mauer and picking Martin at least a few rounds earlier than projected, which is what I did with my team last year and it paid off, as Martin went on to have a stellar year.
Where can we find such bargains in 2008? Right now, my number one player to look out for is Chris Young of Arizona. He won’t fly under the radar like Martin did last year, but if he’s slated for the ninth or tenth round because of his .237 average, bump him up at least a few rounds in your draft chart.

Others to potentially boost on your chart: B.J. Upton (2B eligibility), Ian Kinsler, and Corey Hart.

By: Gavin T

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Baseball Hitting is very challenging. Professional hitters are considered good if they get a hit 3 out of every 10 at bats. This essentially means they fail 70% of the time. With this type of rejection rate, it is easy to see why younger players can get frustrated with limited results. The good news is this will not be you if you are willing to put in some practice and apply our tips.

1. Get Lessons From a Top Baseball Hitting Instructor early in your career. A good hitting coach can help improve your swing and teach you the proper mechanics from the very start of your career. This will save you time and energy by doing it the right way first. Although the cost of the lessons may seem initially high, this will be quickly recouped when you start to see your batting average rise and begin to hit them deep.

2. Practice your Swing daily. Never let a lack of access to the batting cage or batting practice prevent you from practicing your swing. Just simply swinging the bat 100 times each day will provide loads of benefits for you. This repetitive practice will make your swing more natural and automatic in games and you will end up having some additional benefits of gradual improvements in your bat speed and arm strength.

3. Review your Swing regularly. Be sure to videotape your swing and determine if you are picking up bad habits. Also, periodically follow-up with your hitting instructor. This should be an ongoing relationship where he acts your mentor. You can provide him with the tape and he can point what he thinks maybe some things you can focus on.

4. Be loyal to your Hitting Coach. Although it may seem like a good idea to ask for multiple opinions on your swing, it is best to take advice only from one or two people. If you have chosen a top hitting coach from the start, it only makes sense to take your cues from him and follow his advice. Avoid other well intentioned advice from less experienced players and coaches if it is in conflict with your hitting coach. Remember your hitting coach’s advice only helps you if you follow it.

5. Practice Bat Speed Drills. Plyometric exercises can go a long way toward developing your fast twitch muscles. This is very important in your batting swing where bat speed is determined by how fast your fast twitch arm muscles respond. By simply swinging lighter bats, you will begin teaching your fast twitch muscles valuable muscle memory. This will translate into faster bat speed when using your regular bat in games.

6. Mental Preparation is key. Much like a pitcher must learn to block out all background noise. You too must learn to block everything else out except for the delivery of the baseball. By simply repeating a simple mantra like “See the ball” again and again while you are batting, you will find your concentration improves and the background noise is filtered out. This improved concentration will translate into more consistent hitting for you.

By: Jack D. Elliott

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Maddux got off to a hot start in 2006, but has been below average since May. But, in what could be his last season, we could be see the future Hall of Famer receive a lot of interest from contending teams.

It is rumored that multiple teams have already contacted Cubs management in regards to Maddux, most notably the Dodgers, Yankees and Red Sox. Of the Cubs top starters, Zambrano is actually the only one who is considered “off the table’. The Cubs may want to move Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, but their history of injuries make them untradable becasue the Cubs are not going to “give them away”.

Maddux is well respected within the Cubs organization and will only trade him to a certain team if Maddux gives the team his blessingto do so. Being that this could be Maddux’s final season, he would be likely to okay a trade to a contender, but may prefer to go West, so he could very well end up with an AL or NL West club.

Neither Maddux, nor General Manager Jim Hendry have publicly indicated a trade is either eminent at the moment. Maddux currenlty has a 7-8 record, with an un-Madduxlike ERA of 5.00, so his trade value won’t be what it would have been five years ago when he was pitching for the Atlanta Braves.

But in a league where most teams are iffy once you get past #1 and #2 in the rotaion, Maddux could definitaly be a difference maker down the streich becasue of his experience in pitching in big games.

By: John Onan

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Do you know why you teach what you teach to your hitters? If I stopped you right now and asked you to tell me a couple advantages of any part of what you’re teaching, could you do it? If not, it’s time to kick into gear your learning habit and pick up some instructional strategies.

I’ve picked a couple parts of the baseball swing mechanics I hear taught repeatedly that are incorrect. Don’t worry, I’ll follow my own advise and explain why. Don’t just take my word for it, however, ask around. Get other perspectives. But most of all, build your baseball swing knowledge base. Baseball instruction is a funny thing. You can find information and hitting “experts” everywhere. However, please for your own sake make sure that you are qualifying your sources of information first before you accept it. If you don’t, you’ll end up spending a lot of money, and changing your philosophy often.

Two Mechanical Fallacies:

1. Keeping your back elbow up is NECESSARY for a proper baseball swing.

I hear this advice mostly in Little League or in some of the younger age leagues. There is no physical advantage or benefit for a hitter to keep his back elbow up (often sometime much above the back shoulder). I’m not quite sure where the idea originated, but I do know it spreads like wildfire. It’s like the cure all for a poor baseball swing. When it doubt, it must be the back elbow! And you can be sure you’ll sometimes hear from the dugout or the stands, “Keep your back elbow up, Johnny!”

Keeping the back elbow up for younger hitters is often a source of a slow and long swing. When the bat head travels into the zone, the elbow of the top arm on the bat is down and relaxed close to the hitters body (if done correctly). Because of that, it makes little sense for a younger hitter to move his back elbow from a stiff position in the stance to a relax and collapsed position in mid-swing. Extra parts moving during a baseball swing mean less consistency. As a hitter gets older, his preference may be of a back elbow that is raised some. At this point (assuming he understands swing mechanics) he can make the adjustments as necessary.

2. Rolling your wrists as your bat comes through the zone is a must to create bat speed.

I have to bite my tongue (quite hard actually) when I ever hear this advice being offered for baseball instruction. While the back elbow up philosophy can be dismissed somewhat as a youth baseball strategy that does relatively minimal damage, this wrists rolling business can not be ignored in order to create a fundamentally sound baseball swing.

What “Wrist Rollers” can’t do:

A. Hit an inside fastball to the pull side (right field as a lefty and left field as a righty).

B. Hit an outside fastball with any consistency to the opposite field (left field as a lefty and right field as a righty).

C. Hit line drives with back spin consistently (you know the kind that get over an outfielders head in a hurry for a double).

Here is why I can make those statements so confidently. In order to roll the wrists through a baseball swing, your arms must be straight at the elbows on contact with the baseball to do so. Youth hitters can get away with this because the velocity of the pitch is not overpowering yet. Add another 10-15 mph to the pitch and those inside pitches cannot be hit (or if they do, it stings) because the bat will be slow to sweep into the hitting zone. Outside pitches will also be difficult because the barrel of the bat will only cover the outer portion of the plate a fraction of the time necessary.

So what to do?

Teach your athletes when hitting a baseball to have their palm facing up on their top hand as they come in contact with the baseball. As the hands stay close to the body through the swing, the hitter will extend his arms after contact is made with the pitch. This proper extension is extremely important for good bat speed and plate coverage.

By: Nate Barnett

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There is no denying the power of an aluminum bat. In fact, one reason they are not allowed in the major leagues is to help protect pitchers from having a line drive take off their head. However, occasionally practicing with a wooden bat in batting practice or the batting cage can definitely fine tune your swing and improve your baseball hitting.

A wooden bat has the advantage of encouraging the batter to hit the ball in the sweet spot. If the hitter hits the ball with the inside part of the bat, he runs the risk of breaking his bat or getting a stinging sensation in his hands. If the hitter hits the baseball with the outside part of the bat, the baseball will not travel very far. For these reasons, a wooden bat will encourage a batter to hit the baseball with the sweet spot. The more repetitions you get hitting the baseball with the sweet spot will translate into better hitting when you switch over to an aluminum bat which has an even bigger sweet spot and is slightly lighter.

One caveat: Wooden baseball bats can break very easily. One thing that can be done to help increase the life of a wooden bat is to wrap baseball tape or electrical tape around the sweet spot of the bat. This should help absorb some of the sting of a baseball when it hits the wooden bat in the wrong area. This is especially important because batting cage balls (the ones with the dimples in them) are a little bit harder on bats than a regular baseball.

Regardless of how you treat your wooden bat, you can expect to break a few wooden baseball bats if you play long enough. The good news is they are cheaper than aluminum bats ranging any where from $30 to $100. Another way one can make lemonade out of these lemons is to use the broken wooden bat for other purposes. Depending on how much is salvageable, you may be able to use the fat end of the bat as a club (miniature bat) for additional wiffleball practice by putting baseball tape on the tail end of it. This would allow you to practice your batting swing with your extension hand. This type of exercise helps with driving through the baseball.

Also, the handle of the bat may be converted into a strength training tool as well. You can create this baseball training tool by:

1. Drilling a hole on the bat handle. Drilling a hole through the handle of the bat and tie a very thin rope to it. The rope should have about 3 ½ to 4 feet of slack.

2. Tie a small weight to the rope. Then, tie a small weight to the other end of the rope. This weight should be under 10 pounds. I recommend starting with a 5 pound weight.

3. Roll up rope using back and forth motion. From here, you will want to hold the handle out in front of you with two hands. It should be in front of your body at roughly chest level. Then, you will want to start using your hands in a back and forth rolling motion to start rolling up the rope and weight around the handle.

4. Reverse the motion to control the decline. Once you are at the top, you will want to do the reverse by controlling the decline of the weight to the bottom again.

5. Do enough repetitions until you get muscle fatigue. You will want to do enough repetitions to get to the point where you have exhaustion in your forearms.

6. Add weight to increase resistance. If after doing a number of repetitions, you find that you are not getting forearm muscle fatigue, increase the weight used. This exercise is very good for improving the strength of your forearms. This will be directly helpful with your swing and help strengthen your throwing arm as it will give you more muscle control of your arms.

In conclusion, wooden baseball bats provide another sound way to improve your baseball hitting. Be sure to make the investment in at least one wooden bat to see if it works for you. You will be glad you did.

By: Jack D. Elliott

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