Ball Parks...

I'm busy with putting some finishing touches on my fantasy baseball work, so I wanted to write out a top-5 list of Ball Parks I want to go to most. I've only been to Tropicana Field in Tampa and Camden Yards in Baltimore so there is plenty left to choose from.

Honorable Mention: Kauffman Stadium; Kansas City

5.Comerica Park; Detroit

Comerica I've always considered the most aesthetically pleasing of all the recent parks. Combined with the amazing backdrop of downtown Detroit. This is of course paired with my desire to watch the Tigers play and a little bit of disappointment in my attempt to get tickets to the All-Star game when it was being played there.

4.Yankee Stadium; If you don't know where this you should be shot

If not just for the history, then the fact that you're in the Bronx (which is definetly not an every day occurance for this Floridian) and no doubt you will be watching an amazing collection of some of the best talent in the country. This is probably the least likely site for me to make it to since the new stadium opens next season.

3. Minute Maid Park; Houston

The wierdest ballpark by far, I enjoyed the all-star game there and can't help but marvel a that stupid hill in center field. And why is that flag pole in fair territory? Could somebody also explain the train or anything else about left field? Why are there holes in that wall????

2.Fenway Park; I could probably tell you this one's address

The only park in competition for stranger left field. I would absolutely love just to go there and poke around. It's also one of the smallest parks and draws more than capacity every year (how?) so it has got to be electric. I can imagine being there for a Yanks-Sawks game and enjoying every moment of A-Rod hazing... It would just be beautiful...

1. PNC Park; Pittsburgh

I would love nothing better to run around in Pittsburgh for a few days, the people there have the least pretensiousness of any big league city. The park is amazing, the river running in the background, the fairy tale bridge and probably one of the worst teams in the country. That's okay, I would love to watch a blowout and jeer every Penguins and Steelers jersey I see ('Even you guys can't support this crap, ha!)

Predictions....

I was bored so I wanted to write out my predicted standings for 2008


AL East......... AL Central............ AL West

1.Boston ..........1. Detroit ...........1. Anahiem
2.New York .....2. Cleveland .....2. Oakland
3.Tampa Bay ...3. Chicago.........3. Seattle
4.Toronto ........4. Kansas City.. 4. Texas
5.Baltimore .....5. Minnesota ....................


NL East .............NL Central ........NL West
1. Philadelphia..1. Milwaulkee ....1. San Diego
2. New York .....2. Houston......... 2. Colorado
3. Atlanta.......... 3. Chicago.......... 3. Arizona
4. Florida ..........4. Cincinatti .......4. Los Angeles
5. Washington ..5. Pittsburgh..... 5. San Fransico
............................6. St. Louis ............................


AL Wild Card: Cleveland
NL Wild Card: New York

Al Champion: Detroit
NL Champion: San Diego

World Champion: Detroit


AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera
AL Cy Young: Chien-Ming Wang

NL MVP: Prince Fielder
NL Cy Young: Jake Peavy

More Orioles Analysis

I saw a blog that had the current available free agents listed by thier apparent role for a team. I figure it would be a good oppotunity it see if any of them might be worth adding to Orioles.

The Blog can be found here.

Let's Look at their starters on offense currently for 2008, with their stats from 2007 in RC%.

C Ramon Hernandez............-15%
1b Kevin Millar..................... 7%
2b Brian Roberts..................33%
SS Luis Hernandez.............. -39%*
3b Melvin Mora................... -4%
LF Luke Scott...................... 24%
CF Jay Payton..................... -24%
RF Nick Markakis............... 27%
DH Aubrey Huff.................. 7%

*Luis Hernandez stats based upon minors in 2007 (-41%) and short time in majors (-21%)

This lineup would give me a 2% starting line up. As opposed to a 5% for last year.

The first choice to improve is short stop, there's only two choices: Aaron Miles and Marcus Giles.

Miles...... -17%
Giles....... -35%

Niether seem like great options, and Luis Hernandez is still young with room to improve (only 24 years old this season)

Best Choice: Stay with Luis Hernandez, he's defensivly solid and should play better every year.

How About Center Field? Jay Payton is a terrible offensive problem

Lofton............ 20%
Patterson...... -10%
Cameron....... -2%
Hairston........ -57%
Wilkerson..... 7%

Lofton and Cameron are long past their prime, they're also going to be way too expensive. Patterson is not as good as his stolen base numbers make him look and Jerry Hairston just isn't an upgrade.

Best Choice: Sign Wilkerson to a short (and fairly cheap) contract and use him in rotation with Chris Roberson (just aquired from the phillies, he's a young defensive center fielder) and Tike Redman. Wilkerson is fairly versataile but is a bit of a defensive liability.

Third base is the only other positon that needs a significant upgrade.

Branyan........... -8%
Ensburg...........-17%
Macpherson.... 32%*
Koskie.............. 13% (in '06)
Feliz.................. -10%
Nunez............... -42%

Macpherson's numbers base on minor league numbers last year.

Feliz and Nunez are older and getting worse. Ensburg and Branyan are on the downside of peak years but could produce better numbers. Koskie's coming off a concussion but could be useful, while Macpherson could use another shot at the Majors.

Best Choice: Cory Koskie should be signed to compete with Mora while Baltimore waits for Mike Costanzo or Billy Rowell to make it. I like Dallas Macpherson and Morgan Ensburg but I feel they will under perform even further.


UPDATE:

Orioles have designated Chris Roberson as their center fielder, he's around a 5% offensive player