Bullish on Jason Kipnis

It may be because he's on one of my fantasy teams but I'm feeling pretty good about the future of Jason Kipnis.

Darwin's Gold Glove

Darwin Barney was presented with his Gold Glove yesterday for his amazing defensive season at second base last year that saw him rank 7th among all MLB players in UZR (15) and 6th overall in UZR/150 (17.2).  These pictures are straight from Bleacher Nation, I thought this great:

Ranking the hitters

I'm doing a weekly series on ranking the top 150 batters for fantasy baseball over at Vigilante Baseball.  Check out week one.

Cooper's dream

In light of Carlos Marmol's struggles in his first two appearances of the year, which have seen him give up four hits, three earned runs, two walks, and one hit batsmen in just an inning and a third of work, I felt it necessary to post this text message from my brother Cooper:

Luckily somehow Marmol has not caused the Cubs to lose a game yet, and he did miraculously get the save yesterday.  I may need to change the name of this blog soon, however.

Looking for a shortstop on the waiver wire?

Jean Segura, the Milwaukee Brewers rookie starting shortstop, was just dropped in my keeper league and I could not contain my excitement.  At the end of our annual auction draft I had drafted too many offensive players and ESPN would not allow me to draft any more, so I had to watch as Segura went for $1 as one of the last players taken.  On my way driving to work today I couldn't wait to see if I had won him on waivers, although I held the last wavier priority in the league.  The last time I was driving to work hoping I had won a waiver was just a few weeks ago as I was trying to add Matt Carpenter in the same league, having not been able to draft him for the same reason as Segura.  In that instance, the league commish won the waiver and brought me down from my post-draft high, so I was fully expecting for him to have beaten me to Segura, especially after seeing that I had traded away Rickie Weeks last night.  Much to my delight, Segura is now mine, and if he is sitting out on your waiver wire, what are you waiting for?  Make him yours.

Despite the tangent on Jean Segura, this Vigilante Baseball article actually focuses on Everth Cabrera, with some scouting reports from Baseball America on Andrelton Simmons, Josh Rutledge, and my boy Jean Segura.

Everth Cabrera and middle infield sleepers

Vigilante Baseball: Hating on Pujols

                                Pujols can smell his decline, 

It’s hard to move on from Albert Pujols.  The man known as The Machine was the best player in baseball from 2001-2010, an unprecedented eruption of offense that saw him hit .300+ with 30+ HR and 100+ RBI for ten consecutive seasons.  The streak finally came to an end in 2011, but with 99 RBI and a .299 batting average to go along with 37 HR it was easy to expect Pujols to bounce back to his old self in 2012.  Instead, the deterioration continued.  Pujols’ decline has now become a pronounced trend as he has regressed each year since 2008.  Overvalued: Albert Pujols

Vigilante Baseball: Don't pay for catchers

Instead, draft my boy Weli Castillo or one of the many solid backstops that will be available late in the draft. Just don't pay for catchers.