July 20, 2012;Washington, D.C. USA; Baseball reflect in a glass case prior to the game between the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-US PRESSWIRE

Wednesday was a relatively quiet day for Baseball (at least in these parts), as close to the trade deadline as we are.  Rumors about Josh Johnson being dealt persist, although most of the bloviaters seem to think that the asking price is prohibitively astronomical. If JJ is still a Marlin on Wednesday, it will stifle some of the “here we go again” comments that have surfaced since the Hanley Ramirez deal. However, if he lands someplace like Texas, and we don’t get two or three all-stars and a top prospect in return, I think that knives will be sharpened all over town. Until that worst-case scenario actually plays out, I wish this guy’s editor would make him blow into a paper bag until he’s capable of writing something rational..

Oakland and Pittsburgh continue to ink their place as the Cinderella stories of this season. Both are on hot streaks of epic proportions, and are looking like they will embarrass preseason prognosticators. Like Jack Sparrow’s compass that points to what he wants the most, the compass that is George Will (always points to good baseball) has been pointing towards the West.  He’s been seen at a couple of A’s games, sitting in the always available Billy Beane seats.

In bizarre baseball news that rivaled the off-season kidnaping of Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos, Vi Ripken was apparently carjacked near her Baltimore-area home.  Fortunately, she was found unharmed. Also related: On their return from a road trip, a number of the Rockies visited an Aurora hospital.  No need to go into why. Good on them for the visit.

Christopher Orlet penned an article  for American Spectator on the pros and cons of air conditioning. I suspect anyone who has endured a matinee game at SunLife stadium would find themselves firmly in the pro-A/C camp.  I got uncomfortably warm sitting in the sun at Safeco field in September, so I know where I stand.

Tim Lincecum continues to struggle on road trips.  Here’s a link to a video analysis of the mechanics that earned him a Cy Young a few years ago.  I’ve always liked watching him throw, and I hope he regains what he seems to have misplaced. Another rabbit hole to go down is to compare the mechanics of Josh Beckett from one year to the next. He’s got to be near the top of the heap when it comes to consistency in his mechanics and delivery. It’s also illuminating to look at PitchF/X data to see how consistent the release point is for good Major-League pitchers.

March 11, 2012; Port St Lucie, FL, USA; Florida Marlins first baseman

I come from the pre-Moneyball era, back when batting average and ERA ruled the earth, and one’s skill at rubbing sticks together determined one’s comfort level across a cold winter.  The days when a duplicate baseball card and a clothespin meant a new noisemaker for the Schwinn. Free agency was still pretty new, and the idea of following an individual player over your hometown team was in its infancy.

As I was forming my lifetime bond with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Walt Alston was at the helm, and the Durable Dodgers were packing the seats in Chavez Ravine. Three time zones away, Bill James was wearing out his first shirt pocket pen protector as he fomented revolution.  My family moved East, I grew up, the Sabremetrics gospel spread like wildfire, and I missed it.

An offshoot (sect?) of Sabremetrics is fantasy sports. For the last few years, I’ve been looking in from the fringes, feeling like the Little Match Girl watching the holiday feast from the frozen streets of Dickens’ London.  Like so many things that I’ve been doing with baseball lately, my 10-year-old son is the instigator.  He and I sat down with a couple of primer texts, and started looking at what it would take to run a team for a season.

We settled on the ESPN system, and decided that for the first year, we’d stick to a simple rotisserie league.  Once we had the basics figured out, we ran a couple of mock drafts for practice.  This weekend was my son’s first out-of-town tournament, and we had a couple of hotel nights free from honey-do’s and homework. Draft time.

In between breathless reports on the progress of “elevator tag” and trips to the pool (close your eyes and picture a hotel full of ‘tween boys on a road trip), we made our picks. For good or for bad, our team has the following roster:

P: Stephen Strasburg

P: Yu Darvish

P: Gio Gonzalez

P: Anibal Sanchez

P: Jaime Garcia

Bullpen: Ryan Dempster

Bullpen: Ricky Nolasco

Bullpen: Kenley Jansen

Closer: Craig Kimbrel

Closer: Ryan Madson

C: Wilson Ramos

1B: Albert Pujols

2B: Rickie Weeks

3B: Adrian Beltre

SS: Elvis Andrus

RF: Giancarlo Stanton

CF: Cameron Maybin

LF: Logan Morrison

Utility: Erick Aybar

Utility: Sean Rodriguez

Utility: Emilio Bonifacio

Bench: Gaby Sanchez

Bench: Jarrod Saltalamacchia

Bench: Jason Heyward

Bench: Torii Hunter

Like I said…for good or for bad.  Almost as soon as the draft finished, I read that Madson was out for the season for a Tommy John (I remember watching Tommy pitch).  And if being kidnapped and held for ransom wasn’t bad enough, Ramos is day-to-day with a bum knee.  So are Stanton and Morrison, as we Fish Fans are well aware.

So, right out of the gate, we dropped Madson and picked up Aroldis Chapman out of the undrafted players pool.  We’ll see how it works out.

We weren’t drafting from an array of analyses and spreadsheets.  We used a combination of the USA Today fantasy preview, ESPN’s in-draft rankings, and our own gut and emotion.  We’ll see how the “shoot and holler ‘Boo’” draft method works over 162 games.

I’ll be watching three things this year: first is the attention span of a fifth-grader over a season. Second is the attention span of a 47-year-old over a season. Finally, I’d like to see how we do against the other nine guys in our league.

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What we are doing today is we are going to grade each teams position players and see if one team has a significant advantage over another based on the projections. We will do this by grading each position. The top players at each position will receive 4 points, second best 3 points, third best 2 points, and fourth best 1 point. Let us go ahead and get started.

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I know it may seem early, but today I will be starting an NL East preview series. Every day, I compare each teams players at each position. Today we are starting off with the catching position. We will take a look at each players projections for the 2012 season. I will then open a poll to allow you guys to vote for who you feel is the best catcher in the NL East.

Before we get started, let us take a look at each NL East team and who their starting catcher will be in 2012: (more…)