Will Miguel Cabrera pay immediate dividends for the Tigers?

Ready, Set… Go!

Have you drafted yet?  How did you do?  Actually, forget I asked.  It’s too early to either pat yourself on the back or to rake yourself over the coals.  Trust your instincts and let your players play.  I would give it at least a month before you hit the waiver wire aggressively.   In April the batting averages will fluctuate like Bear Stearns stock, so don’t panic.

Most successful fantasy owners go into a draft with a plan.  One good plan, for example, is to draft closers and catchers after everything else.  But draft plans, like battle plans often don’t survive first contact with the enemy.  That run on closers may have spooked you into taking Manny Corpas far earlier than you intended to. It’s natural to have a few regrets on draft day, but don’t get too compunctious, as the late William F. Buckley would say.    Every owner in the league would probably make a couple of changes if he had more than 90 seconds to think about his pick.   Remember, the league champions were not necessarily the people that you thought had the best draft on draft day.   They won by striking gold with breakout stars like Prince Fielder and Josh Beckett.   Will Adrian Gonzalez and Clay Buchholz be this year’s versions of Fielder and Beckett? It is impossible to say in March.

You can still join a league into the first week of April at many of the big online sites.  So there is still time to try again if you think you need just one more draft to execute your plan to perfection.

If you are all done with your drafts, just sit tight and keep an eye on the injury news, like Curtis Granderson’s or Scott Rolen’s broken fingers, and how position battles pan out. 

The following is a preview of some of the questions we will address in this space during the coming weeks.

For Better

1. Will the hitting improve at the new ballpark in Washington?  It should, since the dimensions of the new park are several feet shorter than RFK Stadium’s. RFK was a notorious pitcher’s park where many a homerun died on the warning track.  It was the fourth worst park for hitters last season, in terms of runs scored, and the absolute worst for homeruns.   They attempted to make Nationals Park fair and balanced, so it’s reasonable to assume that Nationals hitters, like Ryan Zimmerman, will get a boost.  

2. How will the new look Tigers do? Expect new Tigers Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to pay immediate dividends in Detroit.   Both are great April performers.  Cabrera has hit .343 with 15 homeruns in his last three Aprils.  Willis has a career mark of 14-2 in April, which is by far his best month on the calendar.