By JIMMY D / Cuba loves baseball, Jimmy struggles on beach | Jimmy's archive
In life, stealing is bad – very bad.
In fantasy, stealing is good – very good.
And last week saw theft on a record-tying scale, which probably upset the stolen base category cart in your fantasy baseball league.
Carl Crawford was the master thief of the week. The Tampa OF ripped off six bags against the Red Sox in one game, tying a modern record achieved only twice in the past 20 years (Otis Nixon and Eric Young). He probably could have tried for more, but he didn’t know about the record.
His crimes left him at 17-0 on the season, a far cry from the crappy stats he produced while a member of Jimmy’s roster last season.
A night earlier, Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury stole three against Crawford’s Rays. That burst moved Jimmy closer to the top of his league standings, where his Grass Gremlins sit in second place.
And a few days earlier, someone who might still be available in your league stole five bases in a single game. Dexter Fowler, the rookie Colorado CF who has earned the lead-off role for the Rockies, is owned in just 40 per cent of Yahoo! leagues.
At 6 foot 4 and 170 pounds of raw scrawny talent, he has been hitting nearly .300 with nine steals. If the kid ate some steak and eggs and put on a bit of weight, he might be able to improve on his power stats too. Let’s just say he’s one player we can safely assume is not on steroids.
Based on early MLB results, it looks like stolen bases could be at a premium this season. Only four players had more than seven and one of them is named Bobby Abreu, an unlikely source of SBs in 2009 (he is a perfect 11-0, maybe surprising catchers who saw him steal only 22 all of last season).
Jimmy was counting on Grady Sizemore for some thefts in 2009 and the Tribe CF is 5-3 so far. Thankfully ‘caught stealing’ is not a category in his league, because Dustin Pedroia is just 4-3.
There are other waiver-wire possibilities for poolies in need of steals.
Denard Span in Minnesota has seven swipes, is batting .298 and had hit safely in eight of 10 games as of Monday.
Josh Anderson in Detroit is another player with potential. He stole 10 in 40 games with Atlanta in 2008, which is 40-SB pace. He has six already for the Tigers, while hitting .326 in limited duty so far.
Derby is for the ‘Birds’
Just before post time Saturday, Jimmy fired up his trusty computer and made three bets on the Kentucky Derby. After I Want Revenge was scratched in the morning, Jimmy’s pick Dunkirk was made the favourite.
Jimmy liked the closing skills of Hold Me Back, a 12-1 longshot, so we wagered a smaller sum on him too. Summer Bird was a 50-1 longshot and since a sloppy track sometimes produces upsets, Jimmy wanted a longshot.
Looks like Jimmy picked the wrong ‘Bird’ from the field. Mine That Bird flew past the field under jockey Calvin Borel to win by nearly seven lengths. Jimmy didn’t have a penny on that horse and if he had, it would have paid 80-1 just before post time.
Of course, had Jimmy searched the archives of his brain, he would have remembered the disappointment from 2003 when Smarty Jones, the little colt from Philadelphia was 200 metres from the Triple Crown. Out of nowhere, a brown colt named Birdstone chased him down as a 40-1 longshot.
Birdstone was Mine That Bird’s daddy.
Note to self: before betting on the next horse race, ask ‘Who’s yer daddy?’
Jimmy D
jpoole@herald.ca |
