Spring Fever

With baseball players reporting to camps, spring training games about to start, and outside temperatures creeping towards tolerable, spring is here! Officially spring doesn't start until March 20th, but I'm not a slave to what 'The Man' says, it's here in my book. However, you can't talk about spring without mentioning the dreaded spring fever.

Spring fever manifests itself it several ways, but to fantasy baseball fans it often shows up with bad decisions. How so? For those who have had their draft, or are in keeper leagues, the desire to 'play' takes over. Since the season is still some time off, 'playing' happens in the form of trades. When you make a trade, your playing. This desire to play/trade is strong, so strong that bad offers are made in order to make a deal. For some reason we forget how good this player was, or how average that player performed and we offer lopsided trades, generally not in our favor. It's possible to 'play' your way right out of the post season without the season even starting! For those who haven't had a draft yet, you are protected as there is no bad decisions to be made... yet.

The bright side is that you are not alone. This fever affects other owners as well and this knowledge can be used to your advantage. To win the battle of spring fever and maybe come out ahead, follow these steps:

1) Know your team. There is nothing like making a trade for a player that fills a position that you already have nicely filled. Trades should always have the purpose of making your team better.

2) Research your trades. Do not be quick to pull the trigger. There is nothing wrong with offering trades this time of year, even lots of them, just do not be too hasty.

3) Test the waters. Send out trades that favor you (within reason, let's stay in the realm of fair) and see if you get any bites. Chances are, the fever is hitting someone and you can make some nice deals for yourself. Perhaps target some guys who are good but didn't perform well last year due to injuries, such as Jose Reyes, or Chien-Ming Wang.

Baseball is not too far off. The fever will subside. Until then, follow closely the above remedy and keep your yourself and your team healthy.

-Scout Monkey

( scout_monkey@gmx.com)

Wang Nats!

Chien-Ming Wang has signed with the Washington Nationals. It's hard to believe, but I like how the Nationals are shaping up! With the latest addition of Wang, they could have a good rotation, dare I say excellent (especially with the potential of Strasburg).

What should we expect from Wang? I am willing to overlook his unbelievably bad stats from last year and just chalk it up to injuries (9.64 ERA, 1W, 6L). If I am right, then he will be back to his old form - ace (or near ace) capabilities! Prior to injury, he pitched stongly in a very tough AL division (2007 - 3.70 ERA, 104 Ks, 199.1 innings). Now he is in the NL, still a good division, but he will now have the advantage of no DH to go up against. Also, lets face it, in general the NL is a weaker hitting league (I hate to say it, I'm an NL guy, but it is what it is).

Now you still have to be concerned about run support, but I believe the Nationals will be alright, after all, it wasn't their biggest problem last year. *cough*bullpen*cough*

I can't really say that you should draft Wang as a top pitcher (especially since he will miss at least a month recovering from surgery), but he has the potential to be that, especially if he keep his pitches down. A mid to late round pick could deliver in a big way. Do I hear come-back player of the year?

Scout Monkey

( scout_monkey@gmx.com)