But it could just be a coincidence.

Good point about Greinke also dealing with anxiety issues in the past, and I agree, if K. Greene can’t perform outside of Petco and under that staff, it’s not looking good. And Rick Ankiel never recovered from a pitching standpoint.

Good stuff man, keep bringing it.

Speaking of not wanting to waste bench spots on minor league pitchers for too long, what are the odds Matusz makes it up this year?

Good info on Pavano. I am staring at him as a FA in my other league, but am embarrassed to pull the trigger. Seriously, he is Carl F’ing Pavano. So what now, he has a good 2009, is a free agent, and the yanks sign him to a 4 year 40 mil deal? You read it here first!

Granted, Mauer hitting 20 more homers would put him on a 30 homer pace, which would be huge, but I can see him being a 25 hr catcher (splitting hairs?), and with a 330 ba, he isn’t a top 5 player, but he is probably a 2nd rounder in most leagues (who plays in 2 catcher leagues anyway?)

By the way Dreamweapon, it was me calling Price a bust one week ago. He has clogged up a roster spot for me for a year and a half, and after a 4 era in AAA, with too many walks, and a horrible first start, my patience was thin. But 17K in 9 IP will change things.

As for the anxiety issues, remember Zack Greinke went through this himself just a couple of years ago and was essentially out of the game for a season. We can probably stick a fork in Greene, he’s been a disappointment his entire career, and Willis’ thing could have easily been made up as a convenient way to make him go away for a while, but Votto can probably bounce back. It would be interesting to hear more about this and the issues that affect athletes in particular in recent times. I was somewhat fascinated by what happened to Chuck Knoblauch when he just completely lost his release point, he looked like a girl throwing a frisbee for the first time. There’s a lot of issues at play here–technology has exploded at such an exponential rate over the past couple of generations, every decade the pace of life and intrusions on privacy seem to double or more. It’s doubtless the biggest adaptation humankind has had to make, and in evolutionary terms, I don’t know that the species has the ability to keep pace en masse at the present rate. Some of the anxiety cases, all of the mental illnesses, autism, etc. could be impacted by this. I don’t know, it’d be interesting to read more on it.

Funny you mention Pavano, I’ve been yo-yoing him on and off the FA heap for a few days now, I have to keep dropping him to get two-start pitchers or replacements for injured OFs, but I’m definitely going to grab him again before his next start. It’s hard to have a lot of faith, but the numbers look good.

Speaking of, any Sizemore or Hamilton owners who haven’t already done so need to rush out and grab Scott Hairston. I did so early yesterday when I heard about Sizemore, since then all he’s done is go 4-for-7 with four runs, 2 homers and a steal. He looks like a Neanderthal, granted, but the production is hard to deny.