Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball

It's that time again. Signups for Fantasy Baseball is going on. We'll be playing NL only, weekly matchups. Here's a link to the fantasy page: Yahoo! You have to login with your Yahoo account and then select Join League, the group id is 125953 and the password is baseball. Please respond to the post if you wish to play. Thanks.

ESPN: Jones wants "Market Value"

This doesn't suprise me. In the same article, Andruw Jones states that he will not allow to be traded during the season, fully exercising his no-trade clause. He also says that he wants to be a Brave for life. I for one, would like to read/hear something from the Braves camp like "Yes, we are working on it", or "Yes, we are just waiting to see how much Liberty Media will budget for us next year". Something, just something! My odds are 30/70. 30% he stays, 70% he goes to free agency.

Other ST bytes:

Anthony Lerew is trying to return to "top prospect" form and has been working on mechanics. Mike Gonzalez, Blaine Boyer, and Kyle Davies are throwing w/out discomfort, and Andruw lost 10 lbs.

Finally...

Pitchers and catchers report today. That's a good thing. A good thing, indeed.

Thinking about getting a fantasy baseball league set up. If'n you're interested in playing, leave some feedback in the comments section for me-- I'm curious what format everyone enjoys the most.

Ownership Changeover: Liberty Media

Pending an approval from MLB, Time Warner will have finally let go of the Atlanta Braves. A year of negotiations have come to an end as TW and Liberty Media struck a deal that moves the team, some craft magazines and $1 billion in cash to Liberty Media in exchange for 60 million shares of TW stock. As of right now, everything stays the same, structure wise.

Nobody really knows how this will affect the team in terms of payroll. I'm sure that's a top concern for fans and players alike. For the past few years the team has been penny pinched, and we want to know if this will be a continuing saga. Liberty Media also owns a hefty stake in DirectTv. I wonder if the players will get free DirectTV as an employee benefit?

FoxSports.com Power Rankings

It's the time of year where analysts, "experts", and armchair gm's come out with their annual power rankings. I checked over at Foxsports.com and Dayn Perry has released his rankings. The Braves are ranked #19. What is this supposed to mean? How do these rankings affect your team? How are these rankings determined?

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/powerRankings

Power rankings don't mean much to me. I mean c'mon, it's a number given out based on the previous years results, whatever offseason transactions you make, and how you will match up against your division and more or less the rest of the league. I don't think these "rankings" affect the team at all; it's just another number. It's not like college football where rankings are a highly valued number. Anyway check if out if you like as we slowly get closer to the days of Spring.

Villareal re-signs with Braves

The Braves and Oscar Villareal have agreed to a one-year, $925,000 contract; he was the only player still in arbitration. The contract also includes incentives that could be worth another $100,000 based on how many games Oscar starts and finishes. He'll receive three points for each start and one point for every game finished; $25,000 bonuses will be paid for 30, 39, 48, and 60 points.

Desperation?

It's official: The Mets are attempting to sign every available pitcher left in Free Agency. The club and Chan Ho Park have reached an agreement on a one-year contract worth $600,000. Performance bonuses could increase the contract's value to $2.4 million. Makes you wonder how he must have felt signing such a paltry contract after riding that $65 million deal the past five seasons?

Former Brave passes away

Lou Burdette, former Milwaukee Braves pitcher and 1957 World Series MVP, passed away today in Florida. He was 80.

Burdette was a two-time All Star and went 203-144 with a 3.66 ERA during 17 Major League seasons. He's best known for his performance during the '57 Series, when he went 3-0 with a 0.67 ERA in three complete games against the Yankees. During his Game Seven win, he threw a seven-hit shutout and capped off a run of 24 straight scoreless innings.

Other career highlights: 20 wins in 1958; 21 wins in '59; pitched a no-hitter against the Phillies in 1960.

Didja go to Fanfest?

I had thought about heading down for Fanfest, but didn't. Looks like 15,000 other Braves fans did make the trek though. Were YOU one of those?

AJC: LaRoche-Braves fans were spoiled!!!

Mr. LaRoche had some comments toward Brave nation while in attendance at the Pirates FanFest. This is taken from the AJC:

[He also said this about Atlanta fans: “They got spoiled, and they’ve got to know that. Somebody’s got to have told them by now. They were spoiled, and we were spoiled as players.”]

I've heard it before that Braves fans get a bad rep. for not showing a "fighting spirit" for their home team. Do the quick exits from the playoffs contribute to this?, or how about the lack of World Series championships? Same old team, same old results.

[“They need to get that fire back like I think teams have that don’t win. And it’s weird _ I’m seeing it in Pittsburgh, and they haven’t even been over .500 in how many years? These fans are going crazy, they’re the underdog, and these are their guys. It’s almost like they’re part of it."]

The 2005 season showcased the "baby braves" that sparked a new fire in the team. The Braves were playing and winning with homegrown talent. This ignited a new interest in the team. I can kinda see why LaRoche would say these things. Some people come to the ballpark to just hang out/socialize while the rest of us come for the game. Look at Turner Field, you have many things to do while the game is going on. I think this can be said for other stadiums and even other sports. Some people just come to hang out, period.

What does everyone else think? Are we as Braves fans spoiled?