Order Now The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 features articles by THT's staff as well as Bill James, Tom Tango and Craig Wright. Please support THT and use this link to purchase the Annual.  Derek Ambrosino
John Burnson Derek Carty Marco Fujimoto Eriq Gardner Matt Hagen Jonathan Halket Rob McQuown Troy Patterson Mike Silver Paul Singman Michael Street And here's the full roster. Got a question for our fantasy baseball experts? Email us:
Heater MagazineAdd 10 MPH to your fantasy team — see for yourself
HEATER MAGAZINE Winner, 2008 CBS Sportsline Fantasy League of Experts  Plus our Statistical Definitions Most Recent Comments
The stats we target (6)
Clone Wars: Clay Buchholz and Felix Hernandez (2) This isn’t fantasy baseball, Joe (5) Top 10 prospects for 2010: Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants (12) Waiver Wire Offseason: AL (10) Monthly Archives
February, 2010
January, 2010 December, 2009 November, 2009 October, 2009 September, 2009 August, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 February, 2009 January, 2009 December, 2008 November, 2008 October, 2008 September, 2008 August, 2008 July, 2008 June, 2008 May, 2008 April, 2008 March, 2008 February, 2008 January, 2008 December, 2007 November, 2007 October, 2007 September, 2007 August, 2007 July, 2007 June, 2007 May, 2007 Gear up for baseball season with Chicago White Sox tickets and New York Yankees tickets. LA Angels tickets, Houston Astros tickets, and Atlanta Braves tickets are hot sellers! You can get Boston Red Sox tickets, San Diego Padres tickets or Chicago Cubs tickets for your favorite baseball fan. Coast to Coast Tickets has the best MLB tickets like Minnesota Twins tickets, LA Dodgers tickets, Milwaukee Brewers tickets, New York Met tickets and St. Louis Cardinals tickets. Find premium Chicago Cubs tickets and other Chicago tickets at JustGreatTickets.com. Chicago Cubs Tickets Chicago Tickets  All content on this site (including text, graphs, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |
Most Recent Posts
Thursday, August 13, 2009The nominees for most disappointing player of the yearPosted by Matt Hagen at 3:07amIf you haven't already heard, a man crush of mine, Jordan Zimmermann, is having Tommy John surgery. We're all hoping for a speedy and successful recovery. All you Top 100 followers, take note. This procedure will drop him completely from the Top 100 list, which will be updated next week. That's why it's always a bigger risk to invest in a pitcher rather than a position player. Last week, I brought you the nominees for Minor League Player of the Year. Lets visit the other end of the spectrum, shall we? Here are your nominees for Most Disappointing Player of the Year. Jeremy Jeffress Everyone had high hopes for the hard-throwing Jeffress. His velocity was through the roof. His control ... not so much. But we all did have those high hopes, didn't we? Well, Jeffress fell flat on his face, in more ways than one. His walk rate gave the Brewers' front office nightmares, and his extracurricular activities even more so. Jeffress is currently serving a 100-game suspension for testing positive for an illegal substance. One more suspension means a lifetime ban. Jeffress went from being one of the more raw, talented pitching prospects in the game to a guy that wouldn't even make an appearance on a Brewers top prospect list. Jason Donald Donald was featured on many publications' top 100 list at the beginning of the year, and rightfully so. His 2008 performance pointed toward a young man with solid big league tools, including a solid glove at shortstop, average contact skills, average plate discipline, a bit of pop in his bat, and speed enough to contribute a handful of steals. All in all, his tools equaled out to an above average major league shortstop. This year, he has had a hard time staying above the Mendoza line and his power production has nose-dived. He was traded to Cleveland in the Cliff Lee deal, which means the Indians must see something in him. But in another month he will be 25 years old and finishing up a cringe-inducing Triple-A season. I don't see much to like anymore. Kyle Skipworth Skipworth's stat line says it all. Every bit of it makes me shake my head. Well, except for the seven home runs over 264 at-bats, which is a good sign for a 19-year-old catcher. I always have to keep his age in perspective, otherwise there is absolutely nothing there to like. This former first round pick is going the wrong way. The next Max Sapp, perhaps? There is still time to turn it around. Michael Main I really thought this would be Main's breakout campaign. Unfortunately, the young man took a step backward. While he is playing in the California League, a notorious hitter friendly environment, there is no excuse for a kid with his stuff putting up 45 strikeouts and 36 walks over 54 innings of work, not even the strange, undiagnosed illness he has suffered through. But there is still potential, of course. Mike Moustakas Moustakas has not taken the step forward that everyone expected. His contact skills are still a question mark, his patience at the plate a liability, and his baserunning skills a work in progress. Combine that with his now permanent move to third base, and you have yourself a disappointing year. But the wrist speed and power are still present, and they will carry his reputation going forward. Still in the picture: Lars Anderson Max Ramirez Aaron Hicks Eric Hosmer J.P. Arencibia Comments
GrandSlamSingle said...
Keep in mind that Jason Donald went on the DL on 6/12 for knee surgery and didn’t return until 7/28. I don’t know how long he played with the injury, but it might account for his poor start. Posted 08/13 at 10:00 AM
Mike Eller said...
I don’t really think that LaPorta has been disappointed. If I were him I would have stopped trying completely. There’s no reason Trevor Crowe or Andy Marte should have been called up instead of him. Jim Callis has to be pretty sad seeing Moustakas on that list. Posted 08/13 at 10:22 AM
David said...
I suppose he’s slowly slipped off everyone’s radar but how about Adam Miller? He’s certainly been one of the more disappointing, or at least frustrating, prospects of the decade as he has found new and ridiculous ways to get hurt each and every season. Posted 08/13 at 10:39 AM
Mike Eller said...
I agree with Miller. I admit I do not have the greatest knowledge of minor league baseball, but I doubt there has ever been a prospect as good as Miller who was derailed by such an odd injury. Dude hasn’t been truly healthy since 2006. Posted 08/13 at 10:44 AM
ecp said...
Never mind how Jim Callis feels. Imagine how Royals fans feel seeing their 2007 and 2008 number one picks both appear on this list. Posted 08/13 at 11:08 AM
Travis M. Nelson said...
I guess you left him off the list because he’s been in the majors more than the minors this year, but you’d have to say David Price has been a huge disappointment this season. After all the hype, his performance in Sept ‘08 and in the playoffs, and being named the #2 overall prospect by Baseball America, a lot was expected of him, but his ERA is over 5.00 and he’s got only three Quality Starts in 14 outings. That’s got to be among the most disappointing prospects in the game, and a big part of the reason the rays aren’t contending for the AL East like people thought they would. Posted 08/13 at 12:52 PM
Jake said...
How about Andrew Brackman? His numbers are pathetic now, after starting off decent. While, yes he is coming of major surgery and all, still a huge disappointment. Miller is another one, great stuff, just can’t stay healthy. Posted 08/13 at 09:35 PM
AxDxMx said...
GO ROYALS!!! Dayton Moore’s draft process is awesome!! Posted 08/15 at 12:03 AM |
I would really like to see 3 rookie batters named Matt added to this list. Two-thirds of the way through the season I vowed to avoid all rookie batters named Matt after enduring tours with these three:
Matt LaPorta
Matt Joyce*
Matt Wieters
*I’m not sure if Joyce is technically a rookie, but I feel comfortable calling him a rookie batter based on his time in the show this year.