The Colby Echo

Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: Sports

Danny Epstein

Through the first two weeks of the fantasy baseball season, there have been some surprises and some shockers across the sport. It is important to keep this in context since most hitters have only had 40 out of 600 expected at-bats, and most pitchers have had two, maybe three starts maximum out of the expected thirty. The old saying goes, "Two weeks does not determine the fate of a season." Teams that panic at this state of the season are teams who do more long-term damage than help to their roster.

Obviously, if your team has a serious weakness, such as no stolen bases or only one starting pitcher, you have to make a move to address this problem but otherwise, minor tinkering should be all that you are doing for a few more weeks. Let's look at a few players who have either started quickly or have underperformed and examine whether these results should be expected to continue throughout the season.

David Ortiz (Boston): Big Papi is hitting a miserable .070 and looks very uncomfortable at the plate for the Red Sox. It has gotten so bad that Terry Francona gave him the night off on Sunday as a "mental health day." As bad as Ortiz has looked, he seems to be hitting the ball hard a few times each night but lining into outs with that ridiculous shift that teams employ against him. Yet Ortiz has a history of hitting a ton of HRs and driving in lots of runs by the end of the season, and it should be no different this year. If someone is seriously considering dealing David Ortiz in your league, make him an offer because his value will never be lower than it is right now. He'll finish the season with at least 30 HR and 100 RBI with a near .300 AVG-barring injury, of course.

C.C. Sabathia (Cleveland): C.C. has even more problems than his weight this season with his ERA up to 11.57 after three starts (he has given up 18 runs in 14 innings.) From someone who knows a lot about the sport of baseball, Sabathia is struggling right now because of his contract issues. He is scheduled to become a free agent after this season and has been unable to reach an agreement with Cleveland, and told the club that he would not talk with them until the end of the season. I watched one of Sabathia's starts because he is on my fantasy team, and his stuff looks fine and the velocity seems to be consistent. In fact, he seems to be slightly distracted on the mound and unable to focus on the hitters. His control is an issue but this is something that the pitching coach should be able to straighten out. Sabathia will again be nasty and produce great numbers so here is another player to look at in the trade market.

Continued...

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