Brian Fuentes heads to the Angels, confirming some suspicions I had. The guy at Subway spit into your tuna? No, those weren’t suspicions, that was *spooky voice* paranoia. While so many fantasy baseball ‘perts were appointing Arrendondo the closer of the Angels right after the K-Rod departure, I had my suspicions it was a bit premature. Why couldn’t Scot Shields take over as the closer, I thought? (Yes, when I think I do it in a Yoda-syntax. Deal with it!) Just because Arrendondo was better didn’t mean he was going to be the closer. Borowski and Todd Jones were the closers for too long when they weren’t the best men for the job. Well, the Angels acquisition of Brian Fuentes made all of this moot. (Sometimes I’m as bad as a Developmentally-Challenged Sandinista.) Let’s look at Brian Fuentes for 2009 fantasy baseball:
Brian Fuentes – Becomes the closer in The Town that Bobby Grich Built as of right now. Lest we forget, Fuentes is the same schmohawk that couldn’t hold off Manny Corpas, someone who then couldn’t keep the closing job. Fuentes should be fine in SoCal, but Scioscia has no allegiance to Fuentes and he’s the type of manager that could let a $10 million/year guy pitch setup. I think they call it ornery.
Jose Arrendondo – Arrendondo was the fourth best rookie pitcher in 2008. But with no closing job he has no value, right? (Not rhetorical, but it is a trick question.) For anyone who has read this site for a while knows I’m a big time Mr. B. So Arrendondo has value for me, even if I thought he’d be pitching the eighth inning only. If anything, fantasy owners should be rejoicing (Rejoice, ya’ll! We’re almost out of the naughts!). Now no one will want Arrendondo because they’ll think he has no value. You know better, don’t you? (That’s a rhetorical. Try to follow along.)
Next up, Mark DeRosa heads over to the Indians with his up and down staircase capitalization. (What is the deal with this up and down last name capitalization? Who started this? Can anyone do this? Can I just start writing Grey AlBright?) When I first heard about DeRosa going to the Indians, I yawned. Then I scratched my head. Then I wrote this:
Mark DeRosa – I’m glad he’s on the Indians now. I think people will see him out of Wrigley and a Cubs uniform and no longer overrate a player that was underrated. Let me explain, because I partially confused myself with that last sentence. Going into 2008, Mark of the Roses was underrated and very useful. Then in the winter, someone somewhere noticed that DeRosa had a good 2008 and he suddenly started getting hyped up. Now that he’s moved to the Indians, people won’t know exactly what to think of him anymore and he’ll no longer be overrated. He’ll simply be written off as a guy who had one good season. Excellent, because it was a career year at 34. Let’s be real, he’s not the second coming. He’s barely a top ten 2nd baseman. Think 15/65/.280. Speaking of 2nd base…
Asdrubal Cabrera/Jhonny Peralta – The Indians should have an Asdrubal Night where proctologists get in for half off. With the addition of DeRosa, Asdrubal will move to shortstop and Peralta will move to 3rd. This seemed to be happening anyway, as Peralta has been getting used to the hot corner in the winter leagues even before the trade, as I mentioned in the post on multiple position eligibility.
Aaron Miles/Mike Fontenot – Fontenot…. Theriot…. They sound like they’re going to be a defensive pairing on the Blackhawks. Or a cheese pairing with Merlot. Miles and Fontenot will split time at 2nd base. Miles will cover the weak side of the blahtoon. Mike Fontenot seems like a decent endgame bargain. Since we’re talking about 2nd base or MI, I’d even call him a 2009 fantasy sleeper.
