American League East:
1. Boston Red Socks
2. New York Yankees (Wild card)
3. Tampa Bay Rays
4. Baltimore Orioles
5. Toronto Blue Jays

American League Central
1. Minnesota Twins
2. Detroit Tigers
3. Kansas City Royals
4. Chicago White Sox
5. Cleveland Indians

American League West
1. Texas Rangers
2. Oakland Athletics
3. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
4. Seattle Mariners

National League East
1. Atlanta Braves
2. Philadelphia Phillies
3. Florida Marlins
4. New York Mets
5. Washington Nationals

National League Central
1. Milwaukee Brewers
2. Cincinnati Reds (Wild Card)
3. St. Louis Cardinals
4. Chicago Cubs
5. Pittsburgh Pirates
6. Houston Astros

National League West
1. Colorado Rockies
2. Los Angeles Dodgers
3. San Francisco Giants
4. Arizona Diamondbacks
5. San Diego Padres

American League MVP: Alex Rodriguez
National League MVP: Troy Tulowitzki

American League Cy Young: Jon Lester
National League Cy Young: Josh Johnson

AL Divisional Series: Yankees over Twins, Red Socks over Rangers
NL Divisional Series: Braves over Reds, Brewers over Rockies

AL League Championship Series: Yankees over Red Socks
NL League Championship Series: Brewers over Braves

World Series: Yankees over Brewers

Dear Red Socks Nation,

Today is a big day for you.  The news hit late last night that you signed “perhaps the best example of how baseball teams need to built [sic] in the post-steroid era, with versatility, athleticism, speed and defense.”  A seven year contract that will pay Carl Crawford $142 million to snag balls off the Green Monster and steal bases like Dave Roberts.  What incredible news after agreeing to a contract extension with slugger Adrian Gonzalez for $154 million, also for seven years.  Remember all that talk about never going over six years?  Well, those days are clearly over.

$296 million for two players.  ”But it’s not as much as the Yankees spent two years ago” is what I’m sure you’re thinking.  ”We’re still not as bad as the Yankees.”

According to Sports Illustrated’s John Heyman, NESN and Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal are reporting that the Red Socks also offered Cliff Lee a seven-year contract. Who knows if that offer is still on the table now that Crawford has agreed to play for seven years in Boston himself.  If it is, you’re officially worse than the Yankees…at least in the all important perception standings (then again, the Yankees will probably go to seven years for Lee now for that Crawford, Gonzalez and Werth got that many).

What a turnaround this has been.  Nevermind the fact that pitching was ultimately the problem last year and the Red Socks have done nothing to address it other than potentially offering Cliff Lee a seven-year contract.

I’ll admit that I’m a bit bitter.  I had accepted that the Red Socks were going to get Adrian Gonzalez as soon as Jed Hoyer went to San Diego.  The Socks pulled the ultimate old-Yankee move of giving up their top two prospects for the slugger, then gave him a contract extension (I know Gonzalez hasn’t signed it yet, but he will).

But Crawford is a bit different.  It’s not that I wanted the Yankees to get him; I actually didn’t.  I felt he wasn’t worth $140 million and wondered how he’d react in a rich media market (I have the same thought about Gonzalez).  I was more comfortable with the idea of Crawford going to Los Angeles of Anaheim to play with his buddy Torii Hunter.  All the rumors made it seem like it was a done deal that Crawford would sign with the Angels, but the Red Socks eventually offered him almost $35 million more than the next highest bidder.  Sound familiar?  Grossly overpaying a player to play for you even though he wanted to play somewhere else…I know it does because you used to make fun of the Yankees for doing just this sort of thing.

With the offensive additions, the Red Socks will throw out Josh Beckett, John Lackey, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz and… Daisuke Matsuzaka?  It’s a pretty formidable rotation other than the fact that Beckett has been a mess since he signed his four year, $68 million contract and Lackey’s five year, $82.5 million deal looks a tad high for his production.  But paying two pitchers $150 million is nothing when you can pay Crawford $142 million or Gonzalez $154 million.

Crawford’s deal is the second highest amount ever given to an outfielder.  The highest?  Manny Ramirez’s eight year, $160 million with the Red Socks.  Wait, what?  The Red Socks have given out the two largest outfield contracts in history?  Huh, how about that?

But enough about the on-field stuff.  I am here to warn you about how your pocket will be lighter because of this deal.  Whenever the Yankees made a splash by overpaying for a superstar, the fan response was always “who cares? it isn’t my money.”  Over time, it’s clear that it is.

Do you think Fenway Park is expensive now?  Tickets themselves are absurdly priced because of the small park, but everything else is pretty pricey.  Well, this is nothing.  It’s only a matter of time before that Sam Adams you enjoy at the game is $11 or $12.  Ever see a $6 hot dog?  You soon will.  How do you think the owners make the money to pay these players?  Yup, from you.  At $18.99 a pop, you’d need to sell almost seven and a half million pink hats to pay for Crawford.

The days of cheering on a hard working, blue collar team are over.  You are a team of elite mercenaries that were brought to Boston (or bought by them) to compete with the Yankees, the team you are emulating now more than ever.  Sure, you have some of the homegrown talent like Pedroia, Youkilis, Lester and Buchholz.  Maybe we can give them a cool nickname like the “Core Four” or something.  Oh wait, that’s already taken.  Well, maybe those celebrity fans of yours can start thinking of something better.

What I am simply saying here is, welcome to the new era of Red Socks Nation.  No more complaining about the Yankees.  With a single outfielder that will cost more than the entire Yankees outfield next season, you’ve lost all ability to say you aren’t just like the Yankees.  You are.

Except for the World Series rings.

A little funny, but mostly not.

So what happened?  I won the league by 19 points and finished with the highest point total since we started using standard 5×5 scoring (runs, homeruns, runs batted in, stolen bases and batting average x wins, saves, strikeouts, ERA and WHIP).  I lead the league in stolen bases, wins, saves, and strikeouts, tied for the lead in WHIP, was second in batting average and ERA, third in homeruns and fourth in runs and runs batted in.  Since I know you’re dying to see it, below are the full standings (you can click on the picture for a bigger view):

Looking back, obviously by Barry Zito for Jacoby Ellsbury trade didn’t work out because of the latter’s rib injury, but the loss of Zito hardly hurt me in the end.  The late season injuries to Hanley Ramirez and Evan Longoria worried me for a bit, but it was really my pitching that brought me the crown.

Yahoo’s Fantasy Baseball has a graph view option, which will show how the top four performed over the course of the season.  My team is the orange line (obviously, since it’s at the top by the end of the season):

While the full season graph obviously shows my ascent throughout the season, it’s the “Last 30 Days” graph that shows the true separation around September 20th:

So there you have it.  In case you’re curious, my final roster was:

C: Buster Posey
1B: Adam Dunn
2B: Brandon Phillips
3B: Evan Longoria
SS: Hanley Ramirez
OF: Matt Holliday
OF: Ichiro Suzuki
OF: Alfonso Soriano
Util: Drew Stubbs
Bench: Mike Aviles
Bench: Pedro Alvarez

SP: Adam Wainwright
SP: Ubaldo Jimenez
SP: Tim Lincecum
RP: Carlos Marmol
RP: Hong-Chih Kuo
P: Kevin Gregg
P: J.A. Happ
P: Carlos Zambrano
Bench: Brian Matusz
Bench: Ted Lilly
Bench: Edinson Volquez

With Junior Griffey’s retirement midway through the 2010 season, we are left with an interesting question: if baseball ended today, who would be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame?  I’d like to ignore the steroids issue for this conversation and simply try to see which players have had Hall of Fame careers up until today.  I realize this is a little pie-in-the-sky because the steroids issue has been the issue in baseball over the past couple of years, but maybe you can humor me for a few minutes.

So when it comes down to it, who has had a Hall of Fame career so far?  I don’t mean players who are on there way to Hall of Fame careers, I mean guys who could finish playing baseball today and eventually be inducted in Cooperstown.  I checked out a couple of the basic statistics that so many baseball writers use to build the foundation of their votes and I’ve come up with a list of eleven guarantees:

Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Ivan Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Jim Thome, Omar Vizquel, Vladimir Guerrero, Manny Ramirez, Ichiro Suzuki, Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman.

Three other players just missed my list: Andy Pettitte, Chipper Jones and Jamie Moyer.

I think Moyer will miss out because his statistics are simply based on longevity, which hasn’t worked out yet for Bert Blyleven so why should it work for Moyer?

Pettitte is an interesting figure, as his career record is currently 240-137 and no pitcher who is 100-games over .500 in his career is sitting outside of Cooperstown.  Pettitte also owns the record for the most career postseason wins and that has to count for something.

Jones could potentially have made the list of 11 a list of 12, but injuries have really hurt the latter years of his career and he is still well short of two major Hall of Fame barometers (he’s currently 510 hits short of 3,000 and 64 home runs shy of 500).

The one thing that surprised me right away is that there were no starting pitchers on the list of 11 and the only relief pitchers are arguably the greatest closers of all time.  Again, this is not a list of people I think will make the Hall of Fame when their careers are eventually over; it’s who could make it if their careers ended today.  Things are looking good for C.C. Sabathia, Ryan Howard and Joe Mauer.  Heck, even Johnny Damon might reach 3,000 hits and begin the conversation of whether he is the worst player ever to reach that milestone.  Roy Halladay, Adam Wainwright and Tim Lincecum might get their call one day too.  But as of right now, we’re left with only ten players who could expect to hear their names called at Cooperstown if baseball ended today.

Before yesterday’s moves, my team looked like this:

C: Buster Posey
1B: Adam Dunn
2B: Brandon Phillips
3B: Alex Rodriguez
SS: Hanley Ramirez
OF: Ichiro Suzuki
OF: Matt Holliday
OF: Jason Heyward
Util: Alfonso Soriano
Bench: Johnny Damon
Bench: Matt Wieters

SP: Adam Wainwright
SP: Ubaldo Jimenez
SP: Mat Latos
RP: Leo Nunez
RP: Kevin Gregg
P: Juan Gutierrez
P: Chad Qualls
P: R.A. Dickey
Bench: Ted Lilly
Bench: Barry Zito
Bench: Joe Blanton

A quick side note: I traded Stephen Drew, Francisco Liriano and Cole Hamels for Hanley Ramirez and Ted Lilly on May 16th and then Phil Hughes for Kevin Gregg on July 30th.

Yesterday was the beginning of the roster overhaul. Here’s how it broke down:

- Dropped Juan Gutierrez for Aaron Heilman after the former was placed on the disabled list.

- Dropped Chad Qualls for Hong-Chih Kuo

- Dropped Hong-Chih Kuo for J.A. Happ (Happ was available because he’s been hurt for so long)

- Dropped Joe Blanton for Carlos Zambrano (he’s returning to the starters role and I thought he might be worth the risk due to his high strikeout rate this year)

- Dropped Johnny Damon for Mike Lowell (another injured player who was still available, but should be getting some playing time thanks to the injury to Kevin Youkilis)

But then the real action started.  While I was making these moves, I was presented with the following trade proposal:

Derrek Lee and Tim Lincecum for Alex Rodriguez and Adam Dunn

While the guy in my league wouldn’t know this, I absolutely hate Derrek Lee in fantasy baseball.  I’ve had him once before and he just ruined my team, plus I always feel that his owners always think he is better than he is.  Look, I know he hit .335 with 46 HRs and 107 RBI in 2005 and I also know he’ll never do it again.  No thanks.

I countered with Alfonso Soriano for Tim Lincecum hoping that his glut of pitchers would allow him to do this (he also owns Roy Halladay, David Price, C.C. Sabathia and Matt Cain, to name a few).  My offer was firmly rebuffed, as expected.

His counter was an interesting one, offering me Carlos Pena and Tim Lincecum for Alex Rodriguez.  It was a pretty fair offer, but I had no interest in adding Pena’s .212 batting average despite his homerun numbers.  My other problem at this point was that if I traded Rodriguez (who hit his 600th career homerun as we were negotiating), I would be empty at third base, clearly not an ideal position.  It was at this time that I tried to see if Evan Longoria might be available.

I emailed the guy who had Longoria and asked him if he’d be interested in one of my pitchers, assuming he’d be most interested in Ubaldo Jimenez or Adam Wainwright.  While he’s been awesome this year, I was hoping that Jimenez would be the one he liked more, but alas, he wanted Wainwright.

While I thought it might come down to it, I wasn’t thrilled about trading Wainwright for Longoria.  The former was the #4 ranked player overall in our league and while I don’t really like to rely on rankings, it’s a tough thing to ignore when it’s a top-five player.  Luckily for me, my potential trading partner hinted that he might be interested in a combination of Mat Latos and a hitter for Longoria; now we’re getting closer.

I offered up Latos and either Heyward or Holliday, neither of which I really wanted to trade, but might be willing to give up for Longoria.  I naturally preferred to give up Heyward, he wanted Holliday, which I eventually balked at.  However, he decided to roll with the young guys and agreed to trade me Longoria for Latos and Heyward.

Separately, I was IMing with another guy in our league who was talking about how Jacoby Ellsbury was returning soon but that he was so frustrated with his injuries that he wanted him gone.  I offered him Barry Zito and the deal was accepted.  Just like that.  It couldn’t have been easier and I think it was a good move for both of us (which is my way of saying that it will help my team and I don’t care what happens to his team).

Back to the A-Rod deal.  Our negotiations kept going back and forth, with me looking for a closer in addition to Lincecum.  While I like Lincecum a lot, I didn’t think trading him straight up for Rodriguez was a good deal; luckily, my trading partner felt the same.  I told him I was looking for a closer and he offered me either Carlos Marmol, Huston Street or Bobby Jenks; I jumped at Marmol and proposed Marmol and Lincecum for Rodriguez.  At that point, we were close, but not quite there.

“How about adding Wieters?” he asked.  With Buster Posey playing most days and filling my catcher position, I was more than willing to give Wieters up.  And with that, we had agreed to exchange Alex Rodriguez and Matt Wieters for Tim Lincecum and Carlos Marmol.

With the other moves I made earlier in the day, my team now looks dramatically different than it did a few days ago:

C: Buster Posey
1B: Adam Dunn
2B: Brandon Phillips
3B: Evan Longoria (previously Alex Rodriguez)
SS: Hanley Ramirez
OF: Matt Holliday
OF: Ichiro Suzuki
OF: Jacoby Ellsbury (previously Jason Heyward)
UTIL: Alfonso Soriano
Bench: Mike Lowell (previously Johnny Damon)
Bench: Open (previously Matt Wieters)

SP: Adam Wainwright
SP: Ubaldo Jimenez
SP: Tim Lincecum (previously Mat Latos)
RP: Leo Nunez
RP: Kevin Gregg
P: Aaron Heilman (previously Juan Gutierrez)
P: Carlos Marmol (previously Chad Qualls)
P: R.A. Dickey
Bench: Ted Lilly
Bench: J.A Happ (previously Barry Zito)
Bench: Carlos Zambrano (previously Joe Blanton)

Will it win me a championship?  I sure hope so.  A pitching staff anchored by Wainwright, Jimenez and Lincecum seems liks it should be solid enough and with three legitimate closers,one more than most teams in the league, I should be able to jump in that category.  If this were a keeper league, obviously the moves would most likely not have happened, but since it’s only a one-year league, it’s much easier to roll the dice.

Things seem to already be moving, as the guy formerly in second place dropped three points last night and combined with my 1.5 point gain, I am not firmly in second place only eight points back of first.

While expectations for his on-field performance are surely to be monitored to see if he can live up to the hype, it’s Strasburg’s off-the-field value that may be at an all-time high.  And by off-the-field value, I mean his baseball card and memorabilia value.  Not only are companies like Topps doing all they can to make a quick dollar off of the hype, but even Major League Baseball is getting into it, coming out with a “Welcome to the Show” t-shirt, now available for $19.99.  And of course, let’s not forget his official jersey, now retailing for a paltry $259.99.

The ball he used for his first Major League pitch is potentially headed to Cooperstown, or the highest bidder if it goes that way.  The baseball card company Topps, which has some type of exclusive card deal with Strasburg, has already issued a press release that his rookie card is now available.  Oh, the rookie card isn’t enough for you?  Well then how about a signed baseball for $275.00?  If you’re not a signed-ball kind of guy or gal, then maybe the $275.00 autographed baseball cap is more to your liking.  Then again, if you think the $275.00 is just simply too much to pay for an autographed piece of memorabilia, then you might as well go on the cheaper side and grab the $250.00 autographed mini-helmet.

There are many people aware that the baseball card industry has struggled over the past couple of years and that signed memorabilia is really the way to invest…or is it collect?  According to CNBC’s Darren Rovell, you can now own a small pile of dirt from Strasburg’s start last night.  I’m sure that will certainly end up paying for the kids’ college tuition.

Look, I’m not here to rain on the Strasburg parade.  The kid had a fantastic debut and there is a ton to like for the future.  But you cannot possibly convince me that buying any of this stuff is a good investment.  I say this as someone who is a 28-year old bitter former-baseball card collector who has seen pretty much all of his cards become worthless over the years.  My most prized card is a 1991 Upper Deck Heroes card autographed by Hank Aaron.  I got it in a pack of cards that my mom bought me for Christmas.  When I first got the card, Beckett Baseball Card Monthly said it was worth $500.  Now I could barely sell it for $100.  And let’s not forget that Hank Aaron is one of the greatest players ever to play the game.

Look, I understand that Strasburg is going to be great.  Or at least we all think he is going to be great.  He could be great.  Well, we just don’t know.  Which is why you have to sell high on Strasburg now.  His value will never be as high as it is now.  Even some of the best pitchers in the game don’t get their autographs sold for $250.  You can get a Roy Halladay signed ball for $127.77 right now on eBay.  How about Tim Lincecum’s autograph for less than $120.00?  Heck, how about Nolan Ryan’s for $124.95!

Stephen Strasburg could go down as the greatest pitcher of all-time.  But in order to do that, we have to wait at least twenty years to see how his career turns out.  Add five more because he’ll surely be a first-ballot Hall of Famer and we’re already talking about a quarter of a century before you have the autograph of a Hall of Fame pitcher.  Comparing Strasburg’s current autograph price to that of the all-time strikeout leader lends me to believe that now is the best time to sell on Stephen Strasburg.

I was born and raised in New York City and am a die-hard Yankee fan.  I cringe watching highlights of the Mariners eliminating the Yankees in the 1995 playoffs and to this day refuse to acknowledge how good Edgar Martinez was during his playing days (did he even own a glove?).  I was 14 years old when Ken Griffey, Jr. led the Mariners over the Yankees in 1995, a series that saw the end of Don Mattingly’s storied career in the Bronx.  And yet, despite those brutal memories, Ken Griffey, Jr. remained my favorite (non-Yankee) baseball player.

“He played the game the right way.”  I’ve heard and read that phrase countless times when describing Griffey.  He was never accused of taking steroids, was never on any lists of suspected users of performance enhancing drugs and he never put himself in a situation where people said “boy, Griffey sure looks bigger this year than last.”  There are no side-by-side comparison pictures of Griffey that show him any larger than he used to be, except maybe in his midsection, which tends to get bigger as you get into your late-30s and early 40s.  His four most productive home run years were 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 when he hit 49, 56, 56, and 48 home runs, respectively, and yet we knew he was the one who did it right; he did it cleanly unlike our tainted stars Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Juan Gonzalez and Manny Ramirez.

I loved Griffey so much that I even had a Griffey for President ’96 poster hanging in my bedroom from 1996-2007 when I finally moved out of the house I grew up in.  I still have the poster and hope to hang it in my kid’s room some day.

Griffey won a Gold Glove every year during the 1990s.  Every year.  He won the AL MVP in 1997 after hitting .304 with 56 home runs, 147 RBI and 15 stolen bases.  The following season, Griffey hit .284 with 56 home runs, 146 RBI and 20 stolen bases and finished fourth behind Juan Gonzalez (.318/45/157), Nomar Garciaparra (.323/35/122) and Derek Jeter (.324/19/84 and 30 stolen bases).  He was a 13-time All-Star, won the All-Star Game MVP in 1992 when he was 23, and was a seven-time Silver Slugger.

Only four players in Major League Baseball history have hit more home runs than him (Bonds, Aaron, Ruth, and Mays) and he is 14th all-time in RBI.  And despite all of his accomplishments, his career will forever be mentioned with the phrase “imagine if he never got hurt.”  Griffey’s Cincinnati Reds years were his career downfall.  After hitting .271 with 40 home runs and 118 RBI, Griffey would never again play more than 145 games in a season.  His numerous injuries took such a toll on his body that Griffey only appeared in 206 games during the 2002, 2003 and 2004 seasons combined.  Everyone felt so bad for Griffey; with such a sweet swing and an amazing attitude towards the game, we wanted him to succeed so badly, except his body just simply wouldn’t let him do it.  He could have easily done what so many other stars in the game had and taken a new supplement or injection to get his body back, but he didn’t.  His integrity would be too strong to cheat the game…and that’s why we continue to praise him.

Despite going to tons of Yankee games over the years, I had never seen Ken Griffey, Jr. play in person until June 23, 2008 when he came to Yankee Stadium as a member of the visiting Cincinnati Reds.  I took a video on my digital camera throughout every at bat and I was able to witness in-person what I had on television so many times.  I leave you with that video:

Thank you, Ken Griffey, Jr.

The first update of MLB All-Star votes was announced today for the American League squad, led by Minnesota Twins’ catcher Joe Mauer with 1,138,286 votes to date.  While the expected fan favorites are in the lead, such as Derek Jeter at shortstop and Ichiro Suzuki in the outfield, the interesting surprise is how low the voting turnout has been for members of the Boston Red Socks.

I’m sure many will blame the lack of votes to the success of the Boston Celtics, who have been able to take a majority of the sports coverage in Boston away from the struggling start by the Red Socks.  The latter has picked it up as of late and is now 29-23; good enough for fourth in the American League East with the surprising start of the Toronto Blue Jays.  After early struggles by David Ortiz, the slugger has really turned it on and is no longer the uncomfortable embarrassment that he was in April.  Unfortunately for Big Papi, the fans haven’t taken their fair weather love to the Internet to vote for him.  As of today, Ortiz’s 235,986 votes put him a surprising fourth in voting for the American League designated hitter behind Vladimir Guerrero (725,752 votes), Hideki Matsui (465,615) and Ken Griffey, Jr. (323,564).

But Ortiz’s vote issues are hardly singular.  First baseman Kevin Youkilis, arguably the team’s best position player, is also fourth in voting as he trails Mark Teixeira, Justin Morneau and Miguel Cabrera.  Scrappy Dustin Pedroia currently has the best position, trailing only Robinson Cano for the starting nod; unfortunately, he trails by 323,567 votes.  Third baseman Adrian Beltre trails Evan Longoria, Alex Rodriguez and Michael Young, while Victor Martinez is looking up towards Mauer and Jorge Posada.  And finally, we look towards the outfield list, which shows the top 15 vote getters…and not a single Red Sock.

Obviously lots can change before the final votes are tallied, but at this point, Red Socks Nation is coming up small.