Fantasy Mlb Biz

Brandon Webb is still on pace for 23 wins, which is absolutely ridiculous, considering he's scuffled his way to losses in four of his last seven starts. Obviously he wasn't going to go 118-0, or whatever he started out heading towards, but he should still have a really good, Cy-Young-worthy season.

And it seems, based on what Webb is saying, that he could be due for a drastic improvement, now that negotiations for a contract extension have been called off. Because these negotiations, which have been going on since Spring Training, were clearly just killing him.

'It's off my mind now,' Webb said. 'It's not something I'm thinking about. I'm just going to go out there and pitch; we're still talking about 2 1/2 years here. Yeah, I was very disappointed that we didn't get it done, but I'm moving on from that. I've got a responsibility to pitch for these guys in here and for the fans.'

Yes. Yes, you do, Brandon. And you also have a responsibility to get my fantasy team off the schnide. I tend to side with Bob Melvin on this one when he points out that "it's not like he hasn't pitched in games with that out there" already this year.

I understand the point that continued discussion of the extension finally just wore on him, but come on. It seems like a pretty feeble excuse.

Fantasy Spin: Webb is actually a pretty good buy low right now. There has been discussion about his "dead arm" and his continued struggles over the past four starts might make his owner think injury. Now there's a possibility that there is an injury, but Webb has too much upside not to make him worth the risk.

You want to know how to be a successful Major League general manager? Two things you need to know. First, always sign multiple, expensive and washed up or worthless centerfielders to your ballclub. Secondly, make sure to use ridiculous verbage when described free agent to be pitchers.

Take Ned Colletti for instance. A true professional indeed, listen (in your head's reading voice) as he politely discusses the Dodgers' starting pitching and the possibility of Derek Lowe's return next season.

'I am concerned about our starting pitching in two cases,' Colletti says. 'I had a nice chat with Derek the other day.

'I told him we're not slamming the door on him from coming back,' Colletti says. 'In Boston he might have known he was not coming back.'

Maybe Boston did treat Lowe -- World Series hero Lowe at that -- poorly on the way out. But not "not slamming the door" isn't anything nice. That's just not being rude. The door, Ned, if you want to maintain a positive stance in negotiations, should always be open.

Unless of course Ned is secretly trying to get D. Lowe down from a 10 mil a year asking price (maybe in the range of 8 a year for the next 12 season, Ned?). That would explain why he's playing hard to get.

Fantasy Spin: Not that you care about Derek Lowe's contract negotiations, but now seems like a good time to point out that Lowe is starting to not be horrible again and is fantasy relevant. Shallow leagues probably saw him get dropped, but you can get the jump by grabbing now.

As Fornelli put it yesterday, the Supreme Court refusing to hear MLB Advanced Media's case regarding statistics on fantasy sports is a good thing, especially for fantasy players. Note that it is also a good thing for American sport fans who like their sports coverage cheaper and enjoy this basic thing we call "freedom" as well.

It really should not be an issue -- these statistics only exist because we, the American consumers, are willing to pump billions of dollars each year into attending, watching and becoming obsessively immersed in these sports. And judging by some of MLB.com's CEO Bob Bowman's responses in an interview with Darren Rovell, that concept is not lost on the large entities that are attempting to take control of stats back.

Darren: What was your reaction when you found out that the Supreme Court wouldn't hear this?

Bowman: I don't think our reaction was one of great surprise. Since September of '06, when the magistrate first ruled in Missouri, we've been operating as if that was going to be the case. The Court of Appeals upheld it, now the Supreme Court denied, so it won't be heard. Until further action, that is the law of the land. Further action may occur. We weren't surprised and we've been running our business as if it were the case.

It's a brief but excellent interview, and I highly suggest taking the link over to Rovell's page for the full answers. The other main points of contention -- and these are the "good" reasons, if I may play moral policeman for a second -- are the $50 million MLBAM paid to the players' union for the rights to the statistics several years ago and the "likeness" issue.

There's a company called C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing Inc. in Missouri that's been selling a fantasy baseball game on their website. They're having a minor problem though, because Major League Baseball won't let them use any of the players' names without obtaining a license from the league first.

C.B.C. thinks this is a bunch of crap, and that they don't need no stinking license to run their game. MLB thinks that they do. When there is something so important as fantasy baseball being kept from the masses of the United States, there's only a small group of nine people who can decide once and for all who is on the side of the righteous and just. They are the Supreme Court, and they don't care.

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to step into a dispute between a fantasy sports business and professional baseball.

Without comment, the justices declined to hear the case involving a segment of the $1.5 billion fantasy sports industry in the United States, in which participants manage imaginary teams based on the real-life performances of professional players.

This is actually good news for C.B.C. as it was MLB who was appealing to the Supreme Court after a federal court and the 8th District Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis both ruled in C.B.C.'s favor saying that MLB was trying to violate their right to free speech.

I'm not exactly that familiar with the way the legal system works in these cases, but I'm not quite sure how keeping a company from running a fantasy baseball site limits their free speech. Of course, as someone who plays fantasy baseball, I'm all for the decision.

The news just keeps getting better for the Padres, owners of the worst record in baseball, as it turns out the elbow issue that caused Jake Peavy to miss his start Monday will send him to the DL, possibly for an extended period of time.

Apparently, no one's really sure just how long he will be there either.

Manager Bud Black said the club has no timetable for Peavy's return.

"Hopefully," Peavy said Monday night, "this will be a short stint. Best-case scenario, maybe I miss a few starts."

A hiatus of at least six weeks could be more like it, based on Peavy's other stay on the DL, a six-week term in 2004 because of a tendon strain near his elbow. Peavy said this ailment is closer to the ligament than the 2004 ailment was. "That is a concern," he said.

Peavy's injury -- "short stint" and "few starts" really don't jive by the way -- buys GM Kevin Towers and manager Bud Black some more time. Yankees expected, the Fathers are probably the biggest underperformers of the 2008 season so far, and both guys are on the hot seat. Now, with the staff ace sidelined, they can at least claim some sort of excuse. It is still very likely that you see a firesale of the veteran talent and some early callups from the farm system though, as this season is basically white-flagged as of today.

Fantasy Spin: Nightmare for Peavy's owners, but you just can't do much at this point other than hold onto him. He's a Cy Young winner and one of the best pitchers in the game when he's healthy, so unless you're getting full value (you won't) or at the very least a decent return (good luck with that), trading him is not worth it, given the lack of timetable.