I was at Wednesday's Rockets-Mavericks game when I heard about the Ian Kinsler-for-Prince Fielder and cash trade. I was right in something I wrote a few days ago that it would be better to trade Kinsler than any of the Rangers' other major league or nearly major league-ready middle infielders. I was wrong in thinking that Kinsler would be moved as part of a trade for Rays LHP David Price. And that made me partly wrong that once Texas traded Kinsler or another middle infielder, it would have to trade for a bat.
Instead, the Rangers gave up Kinsler for a bat and some money to pay for that bat. What that means is that now Texas will have to make another trade for Price or some other front-line pitcher.
Since the trade came down, I've seen other opinions about it. Something from mlb.com, by Richard Durrett from espndallas.com and Jamey Newberg's take in The Newberg Report Email. I realized from reading them that naysayers should probably look at this deal from this perspective. Are the Rangers better with an infield of 3B Adrian Beltre, SS Elvis Andrus, 2B Jurickson Profar and 1B Prince Fielder than they would be with an infield of Beltre-Andrus-Profar and 1B Ian Kinsler?
The breakdown from the Tigers' perspective is more complex. Detroit hasn't been an organization that seemed to prize defense. And it's still not clear whether they do. Unless other moves are made, rookie Nick Castellanos is the likely third baseman, with Miguel Cabrera trading whatever he has been waving at ground balls for a first baseman's mitt. Kinsler could fill a hole at second base, but his defense isn't what it used to be. What he does best in the field is going to his right, with an above-average arm for a second baseman that's capable of throwing out runners from behind second base.
It's also true that Kinsler's offense isn't as good as it used to be, but he's an improvement over what Detroit has had at second base. But Kinsler and Castellanos or whoever else plays third base will not equal the production of Fielder and even a cipher at second base.
Where the Tigers benefit is that even with $30 million going to Texas to defray Fielder's salary, they can have some money freed up to extend the contract of RHP Max Scherzer and possibility some other soon-to-be free agents. That money will be even more important in years going forward. Or haven't you seen the state of Detroit's economy?
On another burner of the hot stove, the Royals signed LHP Jason Vargas to a four-year contract.
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That baseball stuff won't have a whole lot of meaning for a few months, when we all start keeping track of the players' fantasy numbers.
But it's Thursday night in late fall, which means there was quite a bit of fantasy sports activity.
Let's start in football.
In my scoring-and-yardage league, I'm projected as a 70-point winner. I currently trial 2-0 because Atlanta WR Roddy White caught 20-some yards' worth of passes for my opponent. He has just four of his nine players remaining, because Saints RB Darren Sproles had 0 yards and three other players in his lineup are on bye weeks. All nine of my players haven't even started pre-game warmups. This situation is one of my pettest of pet peeves: giving up on a season. Hey, my team in this league has sucked too, but I think a big part of being in a LEAGUE is that you owe it to everyone in the league at least to try. In my points-only league, I trail 6-0 (a couple of TD passes by Saints quarterbacks). This opponent has five players remaining to my full roster of eight. He received no points for the aforementioned White's evening and also has a player on a bye. Now I'm on a bit of a roll in this league, but as much as what would appear to be a cheap win for me, is that really fair to the league's other contenders?
Oh, and the dumb-ass Saints didn't cover the spread, so I'm already down a game in the Pittsburgh office pool.
Hockey. I was at the Rangers-Stars game Thursday night. You can read some of my handiwork in The AP's game story. I was there with none of the players on my fantasy roster. And that accumulated Nobody might have been better than the players on my roster whose teams took the ice tonight/last night, depending on your time zone. Ten skaters, 0 goals. Thank God for Henrik Zetterberg and his three assists and plus-2. My team combined for another minus-2, which I think might have cost me a point. No, just checked, and it appears that I didn't lose any points but I lost some of my cushion in some categories. And wouldn't you think that with all three of my goalies' team playing, at least one of them would get into the game? I'm trying to replace Jonathan Huberdeau because I'm tired of having to take him out of my lineup when I see that his NHL team is playing. I did make a waiver claim, but after tonight's game I was hoping (in vain) that Rick Nash would be available.
Basketball. Let's hope this sport went better. Perhaps I got some help from the newest player to don the uniform of Team Fresh Prints in an LA H2H league -- that's the Bulls' Taj Gibson in a Los Angeles head-to-head league, if you don't know the lingo. Well, 9 points and 8 rebounds. I added him to replace the injured Danilo Gallinari because Gibson seemed to be the best option among the players actually playing Thursday night. I'll look to see if there's someone better for Friday. Joakim Noah, Gibson's teammate on both fantasy and real teams, had a good night with 11 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists. Just set my lineup for Friday so that I have players filling 8 of the 10 active roster spots, including Gibson. I'll keep my eyes open to watch Markieff Morris and maybe John Henson, though I'd be distracted looking for his skunk stripe. After seeing Chandler Parsons Wednesday, I was hoping he might have slipped through my league's draft. No such luck. Hope my lineup scores more than my hockey players have been.
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