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Baseball Fantasy: Time to Scrutinize Talent

March 12th, 2008 · No Comments · Fantasy Baseball

The month of March is critical for anyone involved in a baseball fantasy league. It’s during spring training that probable closers are identified, 3-4-5 starting pitchers decided on and batting orders are formulated.

It’s also when lots of players show signs of impending weakness.

And who among us hasn’t done his/her due diligence and gone ahead drafted a guy who, turns out, is on the DL. Or just got off it. Or ought to be on it, and we would know if we really were paying attention.

A couple of red flags I’ve seen of late.

–Dmitri Young, Nationals, 1b. Dmitri resurrected his career last season with the Nationals, making him a marginally useful guy. But he reported to camp a biscuit short of three bills, and he’s also a diabetic. Overweight and diabetic? He’s not going to be playing 162, and probably not 102.

–Rocco Baldelli ALREADY is hurt. Or something. The story today on the once-promising Rays outfielder is that he’s tired all the time.

To quote the AP story:

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Rocco Baldelli will begin the season on the disabled list because of a condition that leaves him extremely fatigued after short workouts.

Baldelli, 26, has been sidelined since last May because of lingering hamstring problems and has appeared in just 127 of 486 games the past three seasons because of an assortment of injuries. He has played in two games this spring, going 0-for-4 as a designated hitter.

Baldelli will be sidelined indefinitely, but said he is not retiring. He said there hasn’t been an exact diagnosis but that doctors have told him he has “some type of metabolic and/or mitochondrial abnormalities.”

“When I say ‘fatigued,’ my body is literally spent after a very short amount of time out on the field, which makes it extremely frustrating and difficult, but it’s kind of a reality right now,” he said during a 13-minute session with reporters before Wednesday’s game.

OK, I’m back. That doesn’t sound like a guy you want on your team. “Extreme fatigue” sounds a lot like “general soreness,” the infamous condition cited for the absence of former Dodgers outfielder Mike Marshall. Baldelli may not be the soft guy Marshall was; maybe this is something serious.

The point is … he’s not going to be playing. Don’t draft him. Just stay away.

And be on the lookout for other guys with ouchies.

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