Fantasy Baseball Week 15

This was a short week with the All-Star game, and really not worth talking about. I beat Bay+LaRoche=1000rbis (that name turned out to be a bad joke, those two will be lucky to hit over 150 rbis) 6-4-2, and keeps me 3.5 games up on Offord, who I play this week.

Instead of going into details about the week, let me tell you about the stupidity I heard on SportsCenter the other night. It was during the Diamond Cutters segment, I think, John Kruk and Steve Phillips were debating whether Barry Bonds should play road games. I had to agree with Kruk, which scares me, since the guy is an idiot. Let me explain each of their arguments.

Philips
Barry Bonds should not break Hank Aaron's homerun record on the road, therefore the Giants should not play him on road trips. The integrity of baseball would be ruined if Bonds breaks the record somewhere and something bad happens, like a riot breaks out, or someone throws syringes at him or something. Since the Giants are out of the division race, it does not matter if Bonds sits out and they lose away games. As Philips says, in 20 years no one will remember much about the season, except the moment that Bonds hit number 756. That should not be tainted by something horrible happening during that moment.

At this point I think ESPN should have tested Phillips for drugs. Now let's hear what Kruk had to say.

Kruk
He should not sit out games on the road. If he sits out games, doesn't that ruin the integrity of the season anyways? There are plenty of tight races in the National League, and for the Giants to just sit their best player, could make a huge difference at the end of the year. All players have to deal with adversity, and Bonds should just suck it up. Also, it's not so easy to hit homeruns. Bonds could take all season at home just to hit the four or five he still needs.

Needless to say, Kruk was spitting and slobbering a bit more and as usual was barely coherent, but I cleaned it up a little bit for him. Regardless of that, he is pretty much right, although Kruk is the kind of guy who stumbles into right answers and has no idea why.

1. How many people went out and calculated Bond's HR/AB ration and tried to figure out when he would break the record? How many of those people bought tickets to road games and plan to fly out and try to get that ball? I would love to know how many stadiums are sold out in their right field section for the next couple of weeks when the Giants play. Even if they are coming out to boo him, they still paid for tickets, and teams are still making money off them.

2. Security. Hire extra security for Giants games. Make sure if anyone jumps out on the field they get tasered or something. Hell, let Bonds carry his bat after he hits the HR. If some crazy fan wants to attack the dude, who may have taken steroids and weighs like 280 lbs of solid muscle, then good luck to that dude because I am pretty sure Bonds would destroy the average drunken fan in a fight.

3. The main thing that Kruk was trying to say, about the other teams is fairly important. If the Giants play at Atlanta, who is one game behind Dodgers for the wild card (this is all hypothetical), and Bonds sits out and the Braves sweep them, then the Giants return home and play the Pirates where Bonds breaks the record. After that they head on down to L.A. and beat the Dodgers 3 out of 4 games because Bonds is playing road games now. This would also go back to the argument Chipper Jones said about interleague play, about how it is unfair that the Mets and Braves have to play the Yankees/Red Sox, while the Marlins play the Devil Rays. It means the schedule, which is supposedly equal for the most part become easier for some teams.

I know some people will say that it would be the same if the best player of a team gets hurt and misses games during a playoff race. However, that is not something anyone can really control (in most cases), Bonds sitting out would be a decision by the front office.

Anyways, enough about that for a moment. I would also like to say that I am tired of people constantly ripping on A-Rod. Nine times out of ten it's people who do not check statistics and see that he is the best player in baseball.

I also love how people bring up last years playoffs against the Tigers. You would swear that A-Rod was the only Yankee. Does everyone forget that the Yankees bats were terrible during that series? The Tigers pitching was just awesome.

For most of you who do not believe me about A-Rod, go over to Fire Joe Morgan and read any of the posts about A-Rod. The arguments they write do not come from die-hard Yankees fans (actually most of them are Red Sox fans), but instead from rational people who can read stats and say "oh, that guy is fucking amazing."