David Wright, Aramis Ramirez, and Yankees-Red Sox

For those of you who read my Mock Draft, you'll see that I drafted David Wright as my starting 3rd baseman. Wright has only been in the Majors for a year and half, but I'm already very excited about him. He just turned 23, and he's already putting up exceptional numbers. Last year he played 160 games - amazing for a guy in his first full season, (in 2004 he appeared in 69 games.) Let me point out the important stuff. In 575 AB's - the same number as White Sox 1B Paul Konerko - Wright had 99 R, 102 RBI, and .388 OBP, with a .306 BA. Konerko's numbers? 98 R, 100 RBI, and a .375 OBP. Wright's average is also 23 points higher than Konerko's. The difference? Wright has 27 HR, Konerko has 40. Yet they've driven in the same amount of runs. And I can't stress this enough - David Wright is only 23! Right now we're looking at a guy who is putting up stats better than Hank Blalock - who's 25, surrounded by a more potent lineup, and in a hitters park, as opposed to Shea, which tends to favor pitchers. Wright is on his way to being a superstar, no doubt. I always worry about young players and guys that have only played one good year. Could it be a fluke? Could they break down next year? I'm still a little weary of Wright for these reasons, but less so than the typical young player because his stats were so solid. A .306 average is one of the reason's I'm not as worried. You can't just go out and do that without skill. On top of that, Wright was playing in New York on a team with a ton of new guys. Not only is he a good player, but it looks like he's a solid guy too. Such traits aren't always easy to find in a young kid, and I think Wright will have a great future with the Mets or wherever else he plays. But, it's possible his last year will be his only exceptionally good year - like Rick Ankiel, with complications. In that case, I've got Aramis Ramirez to back him up if he does anything weird.

Aramis Ramirez
Aramis Ramirez is an underrated player, flat out. Every year people seem to start to notice him again, but then he's forgotten by draft day the next year. The guy turns 28 in June, which is always a good age. He had 27 HR in 2003, 36 in 2004, and 31 in 2005. Last year, he played 123 games before straining his quad and sitting out the rest of the year. His stats are otherwise comparable to Wright's. I still can't understand why no one seems to have any knowledge of his existence. I drafted Ramirez with the 105th overall pick in my draft - other players who went in that round included Jermaine Dye, Pat Burrell, Matt Holliday, Ryan Howard... it just seems crazy. Evidence shows that age 27 is the 'average' breakout age. Therefore, Ramirez being 27 and already a proven great performer, I simply don't understand why he's not getting more run - in Fantasy circles or elsewhere. Maybe it's just because he's on the Cubs, and no one likes to be around the ornery people. Maybe one day I'll talk about why I always say the Cubs are ornery, wimps, crying, etc. Not today.

Yankees - Red Sox
The Yankees played the Red Sox in Spring Training last night. And of course, what would a Yankees-Sox game be if it wasn't... more than baseball. This time, Mike Myers - formerly with the Red Sox, now with us - drilled J.T. Snow - formerly with the Giants, now with the Sox. After that, David Riske hits Jeter with a splitter. Splitters tend to sail away from pitchers at times, because they're that kind of pitch. That being said, there's a good chance Jeter wasn't the victim of a retaliation strike. However, with the first pitch of the next inning, Tanyon Sturtze drilled Mike Lowell. This looks bad, because it looks like Sturtze gunned down Lowell for no good reason. First off, Jeter was probably an accident. And even if he wasn't, then it was just in response to us nailing Lowell. We nail them, they nail us. Continue playing the game. You don't escalate it, because that's how wars get started. So, if Sturtze hit J.T. on purpose, he was wrong to do so, not just because Jeter was probably an accident, but because we got them first. However, Sturtze was not gonna lie down. After the game he said,

I don't care if they get upset. They can get upset at whatever they want. I was trying to go fastball in and I got it in too deep. I don't care who gets upset. I'm still trying to work on my command. I've been struggling this whole spring.

I have no picture, but you can imagine he was probably popping a vein while he said that. Basically, he's gonna screw up however he wants and he doesn't care what anyone thinks. Hold on, Tanyon. You've pitched 5 innings so far this spring, and you've given up 5 runs. You've nailed 3 guys, walked another, and given up 7 hits while striking out 2. In short, you've been getting jerked around the yard. I know it's spring, but you're 35 and there are 3 people you should worry about upsetting: Joe Torre, Brian Cashman, and George Steinbrenner. Any one of those guys gets pissed at you, and you're done. This reminds me of last years Devil Rays - Red Sox pitching scandal. That was pretty hilarious.

In all seriousness, sometimes pitchers need to put themselves ahead of drilling guys, if only because their team would benefit more from them going deep into games then earning an early exit. Last year, Mark Buehrle had a streak of consecutive starts in which he went at least 6 innings, which is why I always liked him. He's consistent. This streak was a big deal - at least once, Guillen left Buehrle out there without his best stuff just so he could keep his streak going. However, one game some White Sox batter got hit. Buehrle was on a roll and it was about the 4th inning or so, and he went out and drilled the next batter to get tossed. He knew it was gonna happen and he said as much after the game. He already had the record at something like 50 consecutive games, but I would've liked to see him keep it up. I know it's big to stand up for your team, but I don't think anyone in the Sox clubhouse would fault Buehrle if he hadn't done that. Knowing that, let me say that Buehrle is one of my favorite pitchers, up there with Halladay. Both of them are on my fantasy team this year, which I love.

That's about all for now. Baseball has been kind of slow these last couple days, so we'll just grit our teeth and wait for the season opener. It'll be here soon, don't worry.