BY ADAM RONIS
Carlos Quentin , who leads the AL in home runs, has a fractured right wrist and will have surgey on Monday that could force him to miss the rest of the season. The White Sox said he had a sore forearm, which is why he was removed from the lineup Tuesday. A screw will be inserted into his wrist and will be reevaluated in two to three weeks. He is hitting .288 with 36 home runs and 100 RBIs.
BY ADAM RONIS
Somebody should have sent the Redskins a memo that the season started Thursday night. They looked awful. They ran almost every time on the first two downs leaving Jason Campbell to throw on third-and-long. It was a very conservative offense run by Jim Zorn. Campbell looked confused and tried to get rid of the ball too quickly. It's ok to throw the ball past the first-down marker on third down. Campbell looks like he'll need time to adjust to another new offensive system. He's a No. 2 quarterback in fantasy leagues. He went 15-for-27 for 133 yards with one touchdown.
Clinton Portis rushed for 84 yards on 23 carries. He look fine considering there was no threat of a passing game.
Antwaan Randle El had seven receptions for 73 yards. Don't expect that often. Most of the yards came late in the game when the Redskins were forced to pass.
Santana Moss had five receptions for 37 yards and a touchdown. He's the Redskins wide receiver you want to own if any.
Chris Cooley had one catch for seven yards, so drop him! Just kidding. Don't worry. He will still be targeted often in this offense.
Eli Manning looked great early and was inconsistent in the second half. The Giants dominated play in the first half, but capped just one drive with a touchdown. It was a 1-yard run for Manning. He was 19 of 35 for 216 yards and an interception. Another one of his passes could have been picked. I said he would be overvalued in drafts coming off last season's great postseason run. Remember, he threw 20 interceptions in the regular season. He's a low-end No. 1 quarterback.
Brandon Jacobs was his usual self, mowing over defenders for 116 yards on 21 carries for a 5.5 average.
Derrick Ward had 39 yards on nine carries, while Ahmad Bradshaw didn't have a carry.
Plaxico Burress looked great with 10 receptions for 133 yards after getting a new contract. Last year he had some big games and some very quiet ones.
John Carney, filling in for the injured Lawrence Tynes, kicked three field goals of 24, 25 and 47 yards.
Kevin Boss didn't catch a pass. He's a No. 2 tight end.
BY ADAM RONIS
I was the host of the fantasy baseball roundtable this week. The question is: What is the best way to handle trades? Should all trades be approved? A league vote? If you're running a league, what's the ideal way to approve trades without too much controversy?
Andrew Cleary http://www.fantasybaseballgenerals.com:
Ideally, I think trades would be automatically approved, and only subject to the commissioner's veto. Even though the best trades add to each team's strength, it's always possible that one team comes out better than the other (in fact, we all tend to try for this anyway). This is not an abomination. It is not unfair. It is an outcome to be expected in any game that features real human people playing against other human people (see also Major League Baseball). The flipside of this, of course, is that people get greedy, and trades that smack of collusion should be subject to veto, at the commissioner's discretion. Being the commissioner of a league takes responsibility and fairness, and it's appropriate that they should have the final say.
That said, however, I think such an ideal system is more suited to older leagues where the players have known each other for some time, and especially in keeper leagues--there's less of an incentive to pull off a stinker of a trade if you know it can affect next year's team, and your relationship with the managers next year. If you're playing in a league with a lot of people you don't know, and it's a non-keeper league, there's a higher chance someone abandons their non-contending team at the end of the year, and approves any trades that come their way, no matter how lopsided. I think it's better in this kind of league to have some sort of league veto, requiring half of the other managers to vote against a trade for it to be vetoed.
Tim Dierkes http://www.rotoauthority.com
I find it ridiculous that owners voting on each other's trades has become the accepted practice in fantasy leagues. Commissioners who run teams in the league having sole approval is also a terrible idea.
Why should trades be voted on? Most people will tell you it's to prevent unfair deals from being made. Are trades really supposed to be fair? I never give thought to fairness. I just try to help my own team. One apparent reason for vetoes is to prevent dumb owners from being ripped off. Making it a money league with decent stakes takes care of this problem, though. Otherwise, if you don't want a novice in your league, don't let that person in. Part of having a novice in the league is that people will try to take advantage of him. Let's be honest - you're only vetoing that rip-off trade because you didn't think to make the offer.
The one reason I find vetoes acceptable is to prevent collusion. If you have two brothers in a non-keeper league and the last place brother dumps off all his best players to the first place brother, that's collusion.
Say, for the sake of argument, trades need to be fair and veto power is necessary. How does it make sense that the other ten teams, with an obvious vested interest, are the arbiters? That'd be like Omar Minaya and Pat Gillick voting down the Braves' Rafael Soriano-Horacio Ramirez swap. At the very least, appoint someone outside of the league.
By the way, why are the players in the league authorities on trade equity? Can they predict the future? I have seen way too many trades vetoed because 10 amateurs took a quick glance and saw a "name" player swapped for a less famous guy. Last year I caused an uproar by trading Jeremy Accardo for Joe Mauer, even though the Accardo side ended up winning the deal.
Zach Piso http://www.mlbfrontoffice.com
I think this is pretty much status quo, but I am opposed to any sort of "League Vetoing". On paper, every trade is going to have a winner and a loser, but I've seen some pretty obviously slanted trades end up favoring the apparent loser. It is a strategic move available to everyone, so their is nothing "unfair" about an unbalanced deal. The obvious exception is collusion of any kind-and I think responsible league commissioners should invest more time recruiting sportsmanlike owners rather than worrying about how to handle trades. If collusion does happen, just veto it as the commissioner. The rest of the league should recognize the act as justified, as well as the owners involved.
Brett Greenfield http://www.fantasyphenoms.com
All trades should be automatically put through. If you find that certain owners are making lopsided trades that upset the league balance, use the offseason to replace them.
Commish http://www.fantasybaseballgeeks.com
Every league should have well defined rules in place that will determine the steps to take if a trade is deemed to be collusive in nature. All trades should be initialed automatically approved and then if an owner finds a deal to be too lopsided they should be able to request a league wide vote to determine if action needs to be taken. For the most part if you are in a league with dedicated owners that want to win then this type of behavior should happen quite infrequently. If this comes up a lot you should either consider joining another league or losing the owner that is causing all the fuss. In a moment of glaring self-promotion, our site offers a trade review
submittal for free in which our Geeks will vote on and provide feedback for questionable trades. This is not a computer generated piece of boilerplate output, but instead subjective feedback from the 12 Angry Geeks.
Michael Muschiano http://pojofantasybaseball.blogspot.com/
Having used both options before, commissioner review and league votes both have
their flaws and can easily stir up some drama. Commish review gives too much
power to one manager, almost like a dictatorship. League votes is a more
democratic way about things, but can get out of hand in a hurry. Managers can
hide behind their computers and vote against a trade with just one click and no
justification. That's why the ideal way to handle trades is a combination of
league votes and commissioner review (assuming this is a private league and a
not public one with strangers). Managers can send in their "votes against" in
the form of e-mail with a reason for why they wish the trade should be vetoed.
After X amount of votes against have been received with some reasoning to the
commissioner, the commish should veto the deal. However, it is at the
commissioner's discretion as to whether the votes are good reason.
Adam Ronis: I don't think a veto system is appropriate. I see too many people veto trades just because the team in front of them is getting better. Leaving the vote solely to the commisssioner doesn't work either because if the commissioner is involved in the trade, it's a conflict of interest. The only reason a trade should be vetoed is because of collusion. A lot of trades will appear like one team has an advantage, but as long as the league members are legit and it's a money league, a trade shouldn't be vetoed.
BY ADAM RONIS
Patrick DiCaprio from fantasybaseballgenerals.com asked me to be a guest columinist and write an article on the top five stories relating to the New York Yankees this season. Here's the link.
http://www.fantasybaseballgenerals.com/2008/09/top-five-stories-new-york-yan
BY ADAM RONIS
Antonio Bryant will start at wide receiver for the Bucs. He missed the final two preseason games with a swollen knee. Bryant showed when he did play in the preseason the ability to make plays after the catch. He didn't play last season. His best season came in 2005 with the Browns when he had 69 catches for 1,009 yards and four touchdowns. He's worth adding in deep leagues.
BY ADAM RONIS
Rich Harden made it through nine starts with the Cubs before missing one. Harden, slated to start Friday, was scratched from his start. The Cubs originally said they wanted to give him some rest and there was no injury. I didn't buy it considering the Cubs lead is only 4 1/2 games and Carlos Zambrano is also hurt. Harden said he has discomfort, but it's not serious. Sure. It's Rich Harden. He has been on the disabled list six times in the last three years. In nine starts with the Cubs he has pitched seven innings four times and never more than that. The other five starts he has pitched 5 2/3 innings or less. He has made 22 starts this season, the most since 2004 when he threw 189 2/3 innings. He pitched seven games last year and nine in 2006 and is up to 131 innings this season. Remember, always sell high on Harden.
Zambrano was scratched from his start over the weekend with a dead arm and was removed after five innings Tuesday. He went 1-1 with a 7.43 ERA in August. Zambrano will not start Sunday.
BY ADAM RONIS
Dallas McPherson hit 42 home runs in the minors this season, but with the strong play of Jorge Cantu and the Marlins in contention, he didn't get the call until rosters expanded. He started at third base today and went 0-for-2 with a run, two walks and a strikeout. In 362 major league at-bats, he has 122 strikeouts. It's no secret he's trying to hit the ball over the fence all the time. I wouldn't expect much from him. His playing time could increase as the Marlins fall out of it. He might give you some home runs, but don't expect much more.
Alexei Ramirez is having a nice rookie season and boosting his value for 2009. He is hitting .306 and hit his 16th homer and has 62 RBIs. He has walked just 10 times, but only struck out 54 times in 395 at-bats.
I discussed the sick numbers put up new cleanup hitter Dustin Pedroia today on the Fantasy Bonus with Adam Ronis. He went 3-for-4 with two runs and his 17th homer. He is hitting .333 with 44 doubles, 17 homers, 76 RBIs, just 47 strikeouts and 41 walks. He is 17-for-18 in stolen bases.
Nate Schierholtz was called up when rosters expanded and should get the chance to play often. He went 4-for-5 with three runs and is a good addition in NL-only leagues.
If you need some power and speed, pick up Elijah Dukes. He stole his 13th base today and has only been caught once.
Ty Wigginton's home run surge continues. He hit his 22nd homer.
In a supposed down year, Carlos Beltran has scored 100 runs, stole 20 bases and has 22 homers and 96 RBIs. I'll take it on my team.
Yunel Escobar is day-to-day with a sore shoulder.
BY ADAM RONIS
I participated in another football draft tonight with a partner who is a Giants fan, while I am a Cowboys fan. I would not draft a Giant. Well, I relented and let him draft one as our backup tight end. Who's the starting tight end? You guessed it. Jason Witten. It's a PPR league with 12 teams. We had the No. 7 pick overall. We start 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 WR/RB/TE, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF and have nine reserve spots.
Round 1: Marion Barber
Round 2: Marques Colston
Round 3: Calvin Johnson
Round 4: Jason Witten
Round 5: Carson Palmer
Round 6: LenDale White
Round 7: Nate Burleson
Round 8: Vincent Jackson
Round 9: Steve Slaton
Round 10: Jerious Norwood
Round 11: Tim Hightower
Round 12: Jerry Porter
Round 13: Drew Bennett
Round 14: Trent Edwards
Round 15: Bills defense
Round 16: Kevin Boss
Round 17: Chris Taylor
Round 18: Rod Bironas
