Fantasy Baseball: Friday’s Spring Training Roundup

Here are my thoughts after reviewing Friday’s spring training boxscores:

From a Dodgers blog that I read daily, and something I had not thought of previously, but good for Joe if that is the reason:

A few days ago when Joe Torre named Vicente Padilla the Opening Day Starter, eyebrows were raised because the guy who is arguably the #4, maybe the #5 starter on the team was picked. That is troubling, especially in light of the fact that some of the writers who regularly cover the team believe that Joe did it to spite Ned for not getting him an “Ace pitcher” over the winter. Of course, no one can answer that but Joe Torre himself. I am not accusing him of that, merely saying out-loud what some people say in private.Don’t blame Ned. Blame the owner for this mess.

Colby Rasmus batted 5th on Friday and went 2-4 with 2 runs scored and his 5th spring HR. I have Rasmus on two of my teams so far, with two drafts to go. I’m looking at you DB11.

Marlins outfield prospect Mike Stanton homered off Ricky Nolasco and threw out Hanley Ramirez at 3B in a game between the Marlins and their AA affiliate Jacksonville. We could see Stanton manning RF for the Marlins come June or July. Brian and Greg will keep us posted as to his performance in AA this season.

Ben Zobrist has been batting 3rd for the last few games, at the least, so that tells me how much they think of Zobrist’s 2009 performance.

Matt Garza held the Mets to one hit over 5 innings while walking 2 and striking out 6. Andrew Friedman stole him from the Twins.

The Mets had first baseman Mike Jacobs batting 4th today vs the Rays. Really?

Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz threw 6 quality innings on Friday vs the Nationals. He gave up 2 hits and a walk, but only struck out one. He did induce 10 groundball outs, which is a good sign.

Reds 2009 first round pick Mike Leake was named their 5th starter on Saturday. I am scratching his name off my list of minor leaguers I was targeting in the UBA minor league draft, but haven’t forgotten about him.

Mariners closer David Aardsma gave up 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk in 2/3rds of an inning on Friday. Was 2009 a fluke season for him?

Phillies starter Cole Hamels gave up 3 runs on 8 hits in 3 innings of work vs the Pirates on Friday. I haven’t read too many stories recently of how good Hamels is looking and throwing in spring training so I am starting to wonder if 2009 was a fluke season for him or not. From what I can tell, the Pirates lineup is still not that good.

Corey Hart is looking to rebound from his dismal 2009 season, but hasn’t performed well in spring training so far. There is talk that he could be riding the bench in favor of old man Jim Edmonds on Opening Day. Could we see a AAA demotion come Sunday afternoon?