Opening Day!

Hey All

Thanks to work obligations, vacations, and general laziness, I haven't been able to do much up until now. With baseball season underway, I plan to contribute more articles here. I no longer have the time necessary to do daily recaps of every game, but I instead plan to write a couple pieces each week about player values. It's too late to do a draft value analysis, obviously, but I can comment on what's happened so far.

- Numerous sources indicated that Manny Ramirez re-dedicated himself to the gym this year, and given this is his contract year, you can expect big things from him. Given his age you can almost bet on 1-2 DL stints, but he'll be plenty motivated to light up the stat lines this year. Given his down year last year, his value was depressed enough to where he was going in the 3rd round, which is solid value for a hitter of his pedigree.

- Rich Harden enjoyed his first healthy offseason in some time, so if there was a year that he'll make 30 starts, this is probably it. I'm not saying that he will, and odds are that he'll only make 10-15 starts again. He is often compared to Kerry Wood, but one must remember that Wood did manage back-to-back 30+ start seasons in 2002 and 2003, posting a big fantasy season in 2003. Harden got things going with a great outing last night (6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 9 K). Given he was picked as a 4th starter type this year, it's no big deal for your team if he gets hurt again.