Bay Area Baseball

Okay so Matt Wieters hasn’t quite been elected to the Hall of Fame, but the Baseball America #1 prospect in baseball was sent to the minors to start the season. Barring an injury he should be up sometime after the first two weeks. Keeping him in the minors for that amount of time would keep his rights under Baltimore control for an additional season. Because their chances this year are so slim it makes no sense to waste a year of .400, 100 HR, 200 RBI seasons in a losing effort.

Fantasy Impact: Expect Wieters to immediately become one of the top five catchers offensively. Have no fear in drafting a stop gap type of catcher to hold over your team while you await his callup. He should hit in the .280-310 range with 20-25 HR and 80+ RBI depending on when he reaches the majors. A floor of a Jay Bruce rookie season and a ceiling of a Ryan Braun type season.

Washington Nationals general manager Jim Bowden resigned last week amid rumors of bonus skimming and the Esmailyn Gonzalez fake name fake age scandal. Bowden presided over one of the worst franchise constructions – or perhaps destructions – in recent memory. Washington has made a variety of bizarre moves from the acquisitions of Alfonso Soriano to the inability to sign first round pick Aaron Crow.
Whoever takes the reigns has a number of decisions to make about repositioning the team. Whoever this unlucky person is should start with this list:

1. Sign Crow, the Missouri righthander was the best pitcher in college baseball last season and would instantly become perhaps the franchise’s closest pitcher to the majors besides Jordan Zimmerman.
2. Draft Stephen Strasburg with the #1 overall pick, and sign him. Strasburg, who hit 101 on the gun a number of times last season, is without question D1 baseball’s finest starter. He struck out over 20 in a game and was the only college player on Team USA at the Olympics last season.
3. Trade Elijah Dukes. Dukes is just trouble. No team needs a guy who threatens women and children. Not to mention Dukes has never even had a season that reflects his so called prodigious talent.
4. Rebuild through international free agency and the draft. Ignore the Adam Dunn’s of the world – admit that the team is nowhere near contention and spend the money on young players instead of flawed veterans like Dunn.
5. Attempt to trade aging players. Cristian Guzman had a better average than Ichiro Suzuki last season – explore trade possibilities for him, Dukes, Dunn and anyone else making more than $5 million.