AGRI Biz

Two playoff teams down, four more to go. With the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 victory over the hapless Pittsburgh Pirates, they became the first National League and second team overall to clinch a spot in the 2009 postseason. The Dodgers have the best record in the NL with a 93-62 mark. The Dodgers have done it with a very steady offense and a bullpen that is currently the best in the ...

A couple of quick, early morning fantasy notes that I wanted to touch upon. First, the Tampa Bay Rays shut down closer JP Howell. Howell has logged a lot of innings the last couple of years and with the Rays out of the pennant race, I am sure Howell could use the rest. Despite finishing the season with 18 saves and increasing his K/9 ratio from 2008 (9.27 to 10.67), Howell had ...

Over the last 10 years, the Florida Marlins have probably produced more young talent than any team in the major leagues. Josh Beckett, Brad Penny, AJ Burnett, Dontrelle Willis (at the time), Derek Lee, Mike Lowell, Juan Pierre,áand Miguel Cabrera all became stars wearing teal and black. As we all know, because the Marlins have a payroll that hovers around the $55.00 mark, they have not been able to keep any ...

Advanced statistics or “sabermetrics” such as FIP, WAR, OPS, BABIP, and UZR have become as common in baseball as RBI and ERA. People like Bill James have written books on top of books on the subject of advanced statistics. Sites like Fangraphs, consistently produce content that delves deeper into a player’s performance. Teams like the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, and of course the Oakland A’s have entire divisions dedicated to ...

With three strikeouts last night against the San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks 3B Mark Reynolds broke his own single-season strike record of 204. Reynolds now has 206 strikeouts on the season. While some people think this is the ultimate embarrassment for the hitter, I say what’s the big deal? Strikeouts for a hitter is the most overrated stat in baseball. Here is all you need to know about strikeouts: Reggie Jackson is the ...

With the Texas Rangers losing to the Oakland A’s 9-1 last night, the New York Yankees became the first team in baseball to clinch a playoff spot. With that last sentence, at least 5,000 New York Mets fans just converted to Yankees fans just to be “cool.” Today, they all came into school with red Yankee hats and replica Joba Chamberlain jerseys. If you lived in New York in the mid-to-late 90’s, ...

With all due respect to CC Sabathia, Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez, Roy Halladay, and Mariano Rivera—they are not winning the American League Cy Young Award in 2009. That honor will go to Kansas City Royals ace Zack Greinke. My preseason pick to win the AL Cy Young award (I am going to take that to the grave with me) all but wrapped up the award with a solid six-inning, zero-run performance ...

Having lost three out of their last four games, and with the Minnesota Twins breathing down their necks, the Detroit Tigers needed somebody to step up last night against the Cleveland Indians. That person last night was RHP Edwin Jackson. Last night, in front of a raucous 25 fans at Jacobs Field, Jackson pitched seven strong innings in a 3-1 victory against the Indians. Jackson scattered seven hits and allowed zero runs in those seven innings ...

Wherever Houston Chronicle writer Richard Justice is today, he is smiling. If anyone has ever read his Sports Justice blog, you will know that he has been calling for Houston Astros’ manager Cecil Cooper’s head for quite some time now. Well, today he got his wish. With 13 games to go, the Astros fired the beleaguered manager. The Astros are in forth place in the NL Central, 16.5 games behind the first-place St. ...

For the majority of fantasy baseball leagues, the playoffs are well underway. Since most leagues don’t allow pickups during the playoffs unless someone is injured, I am not going to list the potential pickups for this week. Here are the fantasy studs and players who might be ruining some teams playoff chances. Fantasy Studs Miguel Olivo:.253/4/13. What was amazing about Olivo’s performance last week was that he walked three times. That accounted for ...