Micah Owings: The Man, the Myth, the Legend

Since no one else is blogging throughout the month of January, you are stuck with me and my constant (and sad) Diamondbacks updates. Which brings me to the most exciting news of the Arizona off-season. . .MICAH OWINGS IS BACK. Quite possibly my favorite pitcher in the big leagues, due to his duel fantasy baseball threat, Kevin Towers is looking to take his game to the next level.

While competing throughout spring training in the bullpen for the long reliever slot, Owings will also play some innings at first base. While the Diamondbacks already have Juan Miranda and I-will-never-play-in-the-big-leagues Brandon Allen, Owings could still get at bats as a pinch hitter, or a late game substitution. This actually looks to be a smart baseball move. You add another pinch hitter to your roster without depleting the bullpen of an arm.

For a little background on Owings, he is still the career high school home-run leader in Georgia with 69. As a sophomore in high school, Owings hit .630 with 21 home-runs. He played college ball at Georgia Tech for two years before transferring to Tulane for his final two. As a senior, he led the Green Wave to a #1 ranking all while hitting 18 home-runs, slugging .733, and posting a 9.61 strikeouts per nine on the mound. Owings then went on to the minor league system and converted to a full time pitcher going 16-2 with a 3.33 era in 2006. Sadly, that success never carried over and he has spent the rest of his time bouncing between levels.

Why would they have him hit you ask? Lets take a look at his major league career stat line as a hitter.

PA: 198
HR: 9
RBI: 34
K: 62
AVG: .293

Going with a rough average of 600 plate appearances for an everyday ballplayer, a full season in the field could see him finish with something like this. . .

PA: 601
HR: 27
RBI: 103
K: 188
AVG: .291

While the strike out numbers are Mark Reynolds-esk, the offensive numbers themselves are staggering. Yes, I know that most of his numbers are hitting out of the 9 hole, and yes I know his numbers dipped in Cincy, but he will be going back to a very hitter friendly Arizona ballpark and there is a chance for him to replicate. He was an extremely good hitter in high school and was still a very good hitter in college, Owings is just a few years out of practice. After trading away Reynolds and letting Adam Laroche go, the Diamondbacks will be searching for someone to hit the ball a long ways. Enter Micah Owings and his journey to become the MLB's first two way player since Brooks Kieschnick was for the Brewers back in 2003.

Lets hope this goes better than the Melvin Mora experiment at third base.

The Text That Made My Pants Vibrate...Twice

With the Carolina Panthers locking up the first pick in the NFL draft and the Phoenix Suns doing their best to stay under .500, there haven't been many sporting events that I could enjoy this winter. Couple that with Kevin Towers deciding to trade away all of my favorite Diamondbacks, made me crawl into a sporting world hermit mode for most of December. After battling the plague/bird flu for the first part of January, I just realized yesterday that we are less than 2 months from spring training. . .which means one thing. . .

FANTASY BASEBALL.

While I'm still not proud of the irrational choice of Omar Vizquel in the third round last year (note: I did get him for $1 and he provided priceless veteran leadership for the Bed of Love), I did manage to secure Ian Kennedy as my #1 pick in the NL league for $1 as he went along and provided a 2.7 WAR (roughly worth $14 using a $5 per win estimate). I'm a bargain shopper when it comes to fantasy sports. A lot of times it produces an average team of sleepers that never wake up.

But who cares? For 7 months of out of the year I become friends with and a devote follower of my fantasy baseball team. Without fantasy baseball, I never would have gotten text updates on my phone when Drew Stubbs hit a home run and I never would have googled Neil Walker and followed his games on my MLB.TV account. Fantasy baseball allows me kill multiple hours at work during the summer while also looking extremely productive. When people come in and see multiple spreadsheets and numbers they have no clue that I'm really just checking the home/away splits for Ian Desmond.

That's why this is going to be the year that I crack the top. I'm tired of Cooly almost winning both leagues every year, tired of Brew Crew and his terrible trades, and tired of my trades with Mr. Anonymous never paying off. No more Mr. Nice Guy, I'm going for blood this year. So as a fair warning, this is where it starts. Don't bother signing up, you won't win anyways. I'll leave this ego pumping article with a couple of suggestions for the league this year followed by my predictions for year's end.

Suggestion #1: Keeper League

For the love of (religion will not be discussed on this site) make this happen. We have a core group of people who have joined or played almost every year. I need this connection with my player(s) in the off-season as well. I need to get pissed off or cry when Carlos Gonzalez crashes his scooter and breaks his arm.

Suggestion #2:

There are no other suggestions. I just needed a platform to get my keeper league idea out into the open. I will not rest until this happens.

Predictions:

Cooly - Has a strong year for most of the season. Leads by almost 20 points until September rolls along and his team starts to tank. In the end it won't matter and he will win by 10.

Zach - Sits in the middle of the pack for most of the year. Makes a late inning surge just to fizzle out and place 4th.

Mr. Anonymous & Tristan - We end up having much of the same fate. Battle with each other for the right to 7th place only for Dave Matthews to pass us by. I trade him Ronny Cedeno for Louis Castillo and Ronny Cedeno goes on to hit 14 home runs. We end up neck and neck for 9th with both of us tying for last.

Sam Fuld's Thoughts

Have no fear, we are not dead... yet. I know there hasn't been much posting lately, and there probably won't be for a little while. Cooly just got promoted to Vice Czar of Working Crazy Hours, Tristan contracted bird flu- or some other terrible disease-, and I have been without internet for a few weeks. We will try to post, but this month may be a little sparse.

Anyways, I thought I would bring to light an article the Fangraphs posted about Sam Fuld. (I understand that I am analyzing a written account that Fuld did with another news outlet, I am just to lazy to link with the original story). The most interesting parts of this piece are the 3rd and 4th questions when Fuld gives his thoughts on the Cubs organization.

Keri: Then there’s the church and state idea, when you’re out on the field, that you try to shut [statistical thinking] out. Do you feel it needs to go that way?

Fuld: I think baseball, in a way, the more brain-dead you are on the field, the more success you have. Which is why you see some big old dummies who are Hall of Famers (laughs). That’s the way it goes. There is a time to think on the field, but when you’re in the batter’s box, it’s all reaction. Maybe there’s an opportunity when you’re in the dugout to think on the stats side, but really your job is simple as a player, and ultimately you have to do what your manager expects you to do.

I suppose it depends on who your manager is, and who your front office is. I came up in the Cubs system, and they’re probably not as involved in the statistics side of the game as some other organizations. It still is important to me to get on base, even though (laughs) there were some guys who, all they cared about was my average.

Keri: Were they telling you, “be aggressive, be aggressive, swing, swing, swing?”

Fuld: Yeah, I definitely got a lot of that sort of instruction. It’s frustrating, but it’s reality. You have to please your boss before anybody else. That’s one of the things I’m actually looking forward to in going to the Rays, is maybe a little more advanced thinking when it comes to the numbers of baseball.

This is a huge shot at the entire Cubs organization. Saying that, "they're probably not as involved in the statistics side of the game as some other organizations" and that it was frustrating when all his bosses cared about was his average is damning to the Cubs. He even adds insult to injury and mentions that the Rays will hopefully be more advanced in their thinking of baseball statistics.

This astounds me. I can not believe that a Major League organization will turn its back on numbers and their affect on the game. Hopefully, Fuld does find some luck with the Rays as their 4th outfielder. And, until the Cubs finally see the light on the statistics revolution (that occurred 15 years ago at the Major League level) their ineptitude will continue.