Well were are only a couple weeks away from seeing players starting to show up at camp which is exciting… especially after being drown in NHL lockout crap for 113 days or so. After what was somewhat of a boring off-season, even with the Hamilton and Greinke deals, the Napoli drama or the nomination of the Nationals to official best team in the NL (the Haren and Soriano deals are so good!), I will be very pleased to get to once again start evaluating news and rumours, crunching numbers, and all that other good fantasy sports nut stuff.  Let’s get it!

Some News This Past Week from the NL:

• The Brewers will be without Corey Hart until sometime in May most likely. For a team that pretty much has nothing else to offer then offense any loss of a 30+HR 80+ RBI threat is not an easy hole to plug. Not like these guys were going to be a threat to take the NL Central or make the playoffs or anything…
• Buster Posey settled with the Giants to avoid arbitration. The 25 year old landed an $8M contract to go along with his NL MVP and World Series title from 2012, his ROY and hitting crown and his ring from 2010... what a ridiculous collection of winning for the young backstop who still has room to improve at such a young age.
• Hunter Pence took $13.8M for 2013 going into his final year before free agency, but he is still only an OF2 at best.
• Jason Motte and David Freese asked for $5.5M and $3.75M, respectively, from the Cardinals – ridiculously good deals for the Cardinals who will look to lock up these two to longer term deals after this season, but both should have similar or slightly better numbers from 2012 this season.
• Somehow Matt Garza is worth $10.25M in 2013… he does put up decent numbers (usually a sub 4.00 ERA and 200+ IP with double digit wins), but he is far from a staff ace or #1. The Cubbies rebuilding under Epstein continues, and the fans will just have to deal with a poor club until the youth and talent arrive.
• Jason Heyward ended up with $3.25M for 2013 which is a bargain for the Braves during his first run at arbitration. Even more of a deal is the $1.625M for Jonny Venters. Both young studs will continue to produce numbers well above their paychecks this year.

Rants and Ramblings:

Top free agents still not signed – Michael Bourn, Rafael Soriano, Kyle Lohse… the cost of picks and money in return is killing the number of contract offers on Lohse and Bourn, but teams will have these guys signed before pitchers and catchers report in a couple weeks. 

Kung Fu Panda ended up in the hospital this week with stomach inflammation. The 26 year old Giants third baseman remained hospitalized Thursday in Venezuela with abdominal inflammation, but was expected to be released in 24 to 48 hours. Wonder if this is part of his next fabulous off season diet for him to get into shape… either way, after his massive post-season in 2012 and just two years left on his current deal, I think the Panda will continue to become the Dragon Warrior in 2013 (…sorry, too many cartoons with my little guy).

Jacoby Ellsury at $9M for 2013 will be the last mega bargain the Red Sox will see for a long time as he hits free agency before 2014. A healthy season is coming, barring a freak injury, so he will put on a show. His skills have NL written all over them!!

The biggest move this past week was the Nationals sending Michael Morse to Seattle in a three-way deal with the Mariners and A’s. I am a huge Morse fan and always felt the Nationals would be better off long term keeping him over an aging LaRoche, but the Nationals thought otherwise.  The Nationals won’t feel a big loss right now with LaRoche at first, but I am sure they will miss the utility and power Morse brought. Morse will move to a hard spot to hit with a young lineup that is in development, but Gregg Lavoie already covered all that here:

http://baseball.dobbersports.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2990:mike-morse-heading-back-to-seattle&catid=912:fantasy-take-on-the-latest-movements&Itemid=117

Don’t forget – we are getting closer to seeing the Dobber Baseball fantasy guide for 2013!

Catch me on twitter @CanuckHoppy

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