The Morning Offering - April 20, 2005

Written by The Fool on April 20, 2005

I tried to get one of our Rotogods who might have more of a sentimental attachment to this date to write an offering for this morning . . . but as you probably already know, that marijuana makes you lazy. So instead, you get an offering from a newly-minted 30-year-old The Fool. Cheers!

The Nats’ new home
I spent part of my birthday weekend in the refurbished RFK Stadium, courtesy of Ms. The Fool – who arranged to have a number of old friends greet me in the upper deck. A good time was had by all, especially once the overworked beer vendors found their way up there.

Highlights and observations:

- RFK won’t be a bad home for the Nationals for a few years. Considering what a dump the place was, a nice job was done cleaning it up and getting it ready for one final tour of duty with baseball. It’ll do for a few years.
- While the corners (335) are shallow, the center field is super deep at 410. In five games, no one has hit one out in the middle; in fact, no one has really come close.
- I finally got to see Craig Counsell bat in person. What a treat! And then, when bidding on him later that night in my big keeper league, I lost. Oh well.

The Fool will head back to RFK on Thursday for an afternoon tilt before heading to work – it’s Braves vs. Nats. I’ll be the sober guy with a foam tomahawk.

Realistic expectations
I’m starting to read some backtracking on Jason Giambi from fantasy “experts” around the World Wide Web, most recently (and perhaps notably) from ESPN.com’s Eric Karabell, who made this comment on Tuesday while breaking down the struggling Yankees: “While I didn't expect a .300 average or 30 homers, I did expect more than this.” He then altered his Giambi projection to .241 with 21 homers and 61 RBI.

Karabell was one of many folks, like our very own Xach, who clung to the past, forgot about all of those roid-inspired 40-home run seasons and decided Giambi would hit .300 with 30 or more homers this season for the Yankees, no problem.

To which The Fool says, “Huh?”

Giambi admitted to a grand jury that he used steroids and human growth hormone in 2000, his best season – the year he won the MVP award with the Oakland A’s, hitting .333 with a career-high 43 homers and 137 RBI at age 29. Giambi averaged 41 homers during his final two years with the A’s and his first two years with the Yankees. . . then showed up to camp in 2004 looking like stick boy, got sick, played 80 games and hit 12 homers. Then during the offseason it came out that he admitted to doing all of his best work while on the juice.

(The Fool stops, furrows his brow and scratches his head)

And still, fantasy experts thought Jason Giambi would come back this year, at age 34, and have a year resembling those he had in his late 20s?

(The Fool shakes his head)

There was no rationale to support such a foolish idea. . . . which is why you’ll find no Giambi on any of The Fool’s fantasy teams this season. Giambi has three homers and a .262 average and by most reports appears as lost or more last than his listless Yankees squad. That’s not even a fantasy sleeper – that’s an end of the bench, waiver wire dud.

For comments, questions, ideas or crazy love, please e-mail The Fantasy Fool.

-- Written by The Fool on April 20, 2005