Live Chat With Greg Thursday At 2 p.m. EST

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:43 am

Originally posted by Edwards Kings:

Here is a question to top the hour...which team will be the most active trading or trading for players in the spring? It certainly could be the Braves, who appear to have several holes right now and maybe a spare closer or two. Or it could be the Brewers, who have too many marginally-poor outfielders. I suspect we'll see some deals this spring that will shape the NFBC season between Draft Day and Opening Day.

The Lollygaggers · Post by **The Lollygaggers** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:45 am

Originally posted by Edwards Kings:

quote:Originally posted by The Lollygaggers:

quote:Originally posted by Edwards Kings:

Let's make a deal! I am pretending to be a MLB GM and like many of our favorites, I cannot locate my own backside with both hands, but I know I need an outfielder. Which team has a glut of ML calibre outfielders that I can beg them to trade me? Ding! Ding! Ding! Who are the Milwaukee Brewers? Mench, Jenkins & Brady Clark crowd an outfield that already has Hall & Hart good enough to hold down starting positions. All three should be on the table to anyone looking for another OF. As a bonus, Clark can play CF. [/QUOTE]What would the Brewers want in return? They seem to have quality (Koskie?) or young talent at about every position. [/QUOTE]With Koskie still suffering from last year's concussion, a 3B of equal value to Mench or Jenkins is worth more to Mil. Or, any pitching prospect that could make it as a 4th starter in a year or two.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:46 am

Originally posted by The Lollygaggers:

quote:Originally posted by Edwards Kings:

Let's make a deal! I am pretending to be a MLB GM and like many of our favorites, I cannot locate my own backside with both hands, but I know I need an outfielder. Which team has a glut of ML calibre outfielders that I can beg them to trade me? Ding! Ding! Ding! Who are the Milwaukee Brewers? Mench, Jenkins & Brady Clark crowd an outfield that already has Hall & Hart good enough to hold down starting positions. All three should be on the table to anyone looking for another OF. As a bonus, Clark can play CF. [/QUOTE]I find it crazy that the Brewers have a glut in the outfield and yet they are moving Hall to centerfield while starting Corey Koskie at third base. Why don't they just go with Fielder-Weeks-Hardy-Hall in the infield and keep them together for the next 5 years?

Hall appears to be set at centerfield now, which again seems crazy. If they can't trade Jenkins, then he starts in right. Hart needs to start somewhere. It's a mess that only can be cleaned up by a trade or someone smart enough to move Hall back to third base.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:48 am

Originally posted by RODGER:

GREG--

With regards to FREE AGENT BIDDING, will you be implementing the adjustment to enable more legitimate conditional scenarios as was suggested last year? Specifically, will the method for placing bids be changed from the system of the past, with the emphasis for each bid on the player to be acquired, to the more appropriate format where the emphasis of each bid is on the player to be released?

As you know, this change unquestionably gives all teams more flexibility and has a truly zero negative effect of any kind. We have not changed anything with the FAAB bidding and I haven't requested anything for STATS. Please feel free to e-mail me exactly what you'd like to see changed and I'll request it through STATS. Send it to [email protected]. Again, be as specific as possible as I want to improve this wherever possible.

I thought we made a change that helped things last year, but again I'll do what I can to make this even better. But we definitely haven't done anything to date as I wasn't aware that there was something that should be implemented. Thanks Rodger.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:53 am

Originally posted by Edwards Kings:

How will the surgery Podsednik recently had impact his value? I mean, I know it can't hurt and the ChiSox haven't that enamored with him anyway, but given his speed potential, does he move out of the top 10 rounds? It's funny, Tom and I were just talking about this as we're finalizing our second baseball magazine now. On the one hand, I'm glad he had surgery as it obviously wasn't progressing and he might as well get this fixed two months before Opening Day. The bad thing is that now he's going to miss some spring training and he will either be behind the other hitters or try to rush himself back. Neither is good.

Podsednik went in the ninth round on Tuesday night and it's hard to believe anyone with that much stolen base potential will drop out of the Top 150. He's actually a terrible basestealer who is allowed to attempt 60+ steals a year. I'd still grab him as a late SB provider and I think the surgery should cure the problem and give him a chance to regain his stature with the White Sox brass.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:57 am

Originally posted by Edwards Kings:

quote:Originally posted by The Lollygaggers:

quote:Originally posted by Edwards Kings:

Let's make a deal! I am pretending to be a MLB GM and like many of our favorites, I cannot locate my own backside with both hands, but I know I need an outfielder. Which team has a glut of ML calibre outfielders that I can beg them to trade me? Ding! Ding! Ding! Who are the Milwaukee Brewers? Mench, Jenkins & Brady Clark crowd an outfield that already has Hall & Hart good enough to hold down starting positions. All three should be on the table to anyone looking for another OF. As a bonus, Clark can play CF. [/QUOTE]What would the Brewers want in return? They seem to have quality (Koskie?) or young talent at about every position. [/QUOTE]Arms, arms and more arms. The Brewers can never have enough starters because they all go down for lengthy periods each year. I assume Koskie will stay for one more year and then it's Ryan Braun's time to step in at third base. But they should trade veteran outfielders for young arms and develop the deepest starting rotation they can because low budget franchises like the Brewers will NEVER be able to enter the free agent pitching market again. As you can see by Zito's contract, starting pitchers and Japanese players (due to that stupid bidding system MLB has) are only for the rich teams these days!

[ January 25, 2007, 01:57 PM: Message edited by: Greg Ambrosius ]

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:00 am

Originally posted by Kimo:

Greg,

It looks like MLB has sold the rights to DirecTV

Extra Innings only on DirecTV.

DirecTV is available to about 15 million subsribes.

Cable is available to about 75 million.

Do you think this will hurt the growth and fanbase of baseball and fantasy baseball might take a hit.

I will miss watching 5 games at a time. Wow, really? I heard they were exploring that, but I thought it wasn't going to go through. Are you sure that's finalized?

If so, it means the price of Extra Innings just went up. I have DirecTV and enjoyed paying $149 per year for baseball and couldn't understand why the NFL Sunday Ticket went from $99 to $249. I pay for it anyways, but that's ridiculous.

Yup, the price of MLB Extra Innings will go up under that scenario and the number of people who get it will go down. The cable companies are going to be livid.

No, it won't hurt the growth of baseball or fantasy baseball, but it's not the way I'd do business. But I also wouldn't have Thursday night NFL games solely on the NFL Network, either!

nydownunder · Post by **nydownunder** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:01 am

Pujols is off the board, you pick next: who do you pick and why?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:01 am

Originally posted by Gordon Gekko:

Greg - will the bars of NY get me to drink too much? If you plan on going out with Tom on Friday night after the auction leagues, then the answer is "yes." In fact, no question.

Do me a favor and take the subway in on Saturday morning, show up to the draft on time, draft well and THEN party like it's 1999 with Tom in Manhattan!

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:03 am

Originally posted by Gordon Gekko:

Greg - who does better in the main event this year...me, cc despadros, or eddie gillis? Be honest. Thanks Okay, this is a tough one, but don't take it personally.

I'll take Shawn in any draft, but there's a good chance Shawn AND Eddie will both win a league title in the main event and finish in the Top 20. I'll take ol' Eddie in any auction. The man is solid there, too. And I think you could be a contender for the Comeback of the Year award.

Does that suffice?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:06 am

Originally posted by nydownunder:

Pujols is off the board, you pick next: who do you pick and why? This is just my preference, but it would definitely be Jose Reyes. He's a shortstop who you know can steal 60+ bases and he's just 23. The hamstring injury was two years ago, so he's not injury prone. For me, securing the shortstop spot (even though I know it's deeper than others like 2B) with a stolen base guy is a great double-double with my first pick.

For me, Pujols-Reyes is unquestionably my top two in that order.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:11 am

Okay all, I have to split. Two more signups to welcome on the boards. It's good to see so many folks from past seasons back and I trust over the next six weeks we'll bring in several new signups. It should be a great, great season.

We'll do what we can on sponsors and giveaways and everything else, but some plans I had in place didn't come to fruition and now we're back in scrambling mode. It's a shame because we had some good things in place, but those things happen in the business world. We'll still make this work and put on a first-class event and year-long competition.

Feel free to ask more questions and I'll pop in throughout the day to respond. Thanks everyone and grab a spot in the main event or the satellite leagues soon if you can. We actually want to cap some of the satellite leagues this year as Tom and I have to put a limit on those for certain nights. Don't delay if you see one you want now just in case we close them out after we fill a few on certain nights.

It's almost time to PLAY BALL!!