Barack, Paul, Anji, And A Rag-Tag Slew Of Professional Baseball Players

THE PRESIDENT GETS A WORD OR TWO, EVEN DURING THE "SILLY SEASON"

I could go on and on (and on some more) about politics. Or not. It's the summer, so I choose the latter option.

That being said, I think The Economist--which is a fairly conservative magazine, by the way--had a very good recent take on U.S. President Barack Obama's foreign policy performance so far, in the context of former Vice President Dick Cheney's critical remarks.

(Like The Economist writer(s), I think Mr. Obama has done a generally good job so far, though he has not been perfect, of course.)

For what it's worth, here are a few excerpts from the article "Tough Enough?" from the May 30 issue of The Economist:

"...in fact Mr. Obama passes the Cheney test fairly well, providing a well-calibrated combination of toughness and strategic innovation. He may have abandoned Bush-era phrases such as 'the war on terror'... [but] ...he has increased the number of troops in Afghanistan by around 20,000. He has also stepped up drone attacks on what the American army calls the 'AfPak' region. Far from abandoning the war on terror, Mr. Obama is shifting its central front from Iraq to Afghanistan, and doing what he can to sell it better. That hardly counts and naive doveishness.

"Mr. Cheney concentrated his heaviest rhetorical fire on Mr. Obama's opposition to 'enhanced interrogation.' But such opposition is hardly a sign of wimpishness. Large numbers of military and former military officers, including David Petraeus, the head of Central Command, and John McCain, a man who was brutally tortured by the North Vietnamese, have come out strongly against practices such as waterboarding, for both practical and moral reasons. The information that such techniques produce is often tainted, and the damage that they do to America's image around the world is immense....

"[Still], Mr. Obama needs to fill the gaps in his administration as quickly as possible. He also needs to lower expectations about what can be achieved by replacing one American president with another...."

For the text of the entire article, please go to the following web address:

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13743258

OH, "ANJI," WE HARDLY KNEW YI!

My favorite musical artist is Paul Simon, who will turn 68 this coming October, the same month I turn 34. (I'm not ashamed to admit that my favorite musician is approximately twice my age.) Simon and Garfunkel were great, as was Paul's solo "Graceland" album, but he's done a whole lot more than those two things over his 50+ year career (!). For instance, the web address directly below this paragraph will send you to a clip of Paul and his look-alike brother Eddie doing their take on a classic instrumental piece. "Graceland" it ain't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBONNx8cvZ4

FANTASY BASEBALL IS NOT ALWAYS FANTASTIC

My fantasy baseball team is awful. Well, that's not entirely accurate. It would be far more accurate to say that my fantasy baseball team was awful. Now--by which I mean the past two weeks--they actually seem to be holding their own.

Playing in any sports fantasy league is fun when you are one of the original members of the league in which you play, because you can "work the rules" in order to allow yourself particular "keepers," who are players that you can keep on your team from one season to the next.

The scenario is quite different when you join the league a few years into its operations, as I did this past spring. I joined because I follow the Minnesota Twins, my favorite Major League Baseball team, in an almost religious manner every year. This also means that I follow quite closely the American League Central division, of which they are an integral part, as well as the entire American League. However, over the past few years I've lost interest in the other roughly-half of the MLB world, the National League (of which the Twins are not a part). I've found myself only really catching-up with them during the last few weeks of the regular season and the post-season.

Hence, I thought that joining a fantasy league would help me to keep interest in the whole of Major League Baseball. It has, and for that I think I made the right decision in joining.

Yet there is a problem with this situation, at least for me: I joined a fantasy league a few years after its inaugural year, which means that most of the other members had "keepers" from last year, such as Albert Pujols, Johan Santana, Mark Teixeira, etc., etc. The best of the best were already taken; I was playing from behind from the start.

This meant that on draft day I was going to have to be very savvy, in order to make up a little ground prior to opening day. Yet things started to go south immediately with my pitching strategy, because my first choice, Roy Halladay of the Toronto Blue Jays, was taken just before I had the chance to select him. Never mind, I thought, I'll select Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals, who I was sure would have a great year. People might snigger that I took him so early in the draft, but I'd have the last laugh. But then someone took him, too, just before I could select him for my team.

It's still pretty early in the season, but as of right now, Halladay and Greinke are the best starting pitchers in the American League. One of them will probably wind up winning the Cy Young Award. (My choice as of today would be Halladay by a hair, but as I say, it's too early to speculate in earnest.)

So, with some other great pitchers having already been selected, I settled for Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies as my first starting pitcher. He won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award last year, and he deserved it. However, my contentment with this choice fell to pieces when he was almost immediately injured and started the season in awful fashion. Then, when he overcame this injury several weeks later and started to pitch well, he sprained his ankle, which set him back another few weeks. Thankfully, he's finally healthy and pitching superbly at present, so I'm happy that I didn't trade him. Still, his godawful early performances hurt my overall fantasy team as much as his solid current performances are helping it.

He wasn't my only pick that went awry in these first two months of this season. I selected an ostensibly "healthy" Lance Berkman as my first baseman (Pujols, Teixeira, and Morneau were already taken). His production tailed off in the final few months of last season, but overall last year was a huge success for him. That has yet to translate to this year, however, as he has started off cold-as-ice at the plate. (His batting average is under .250 right now, and it was under .200 for quite some time; his home run total is 10, which is good for a lot of players but only so-so for Berkman). This may be due to the suggestion that he is, according to a few little birdies who have picked-up some possibly-true information of late, evidently "working-through a few wrist problems early this season." If true, I'd have appreciated knowing that prior to selecting him....

And so it goes. Please let it suffice to say that my team has been awful this season, with a few exceptions. So I dumped a few of my original players and acquired a few other players who have generally helped my team. But--let the sunshine in!--a few of my original players who I've kept have started to really come around of late, too, to the point where I basically tied my opposition of two weeks ago and beat my opposing team of last week. I could still use some starting pitching help, but my relievers are solid and my hitters have woken up of late.

I'm "in the game" again.

The following is my rather rag-tag fantasy team, and how they've done for me so far....

Catcher--JASON VERITEK (Boston). I initially selected Ryan Doumit, but he almost immediately got hurt badly. So I scrambled to get Veritek, who only plays about four or five days a week, but is fairly solid. GRADE: C+

First Base--LANCE BERKMAN (Houston). You've already heard about him. I'm hoping he turns it around. He's certainly capable of doing that. GRADE: D+

Second Base--FREDDY SANCHEZ (Pittsburgh). I tried to take a chance on Mike Aviles, and that proved a bad move. So I switched to Asdrubal Cabrera, who was having a great start to the season, but then hurt his shoulder and is currently not playing. It was pure luck that the talented Sanchez was available, but this is the first week I've played him, so I have to give him a GRADE of INCOMPLETE.

Short Stop--DEREK JETER (New York Yankees). He's always a good choice, and his numbers this year are strong once again. GRADE: B+

Third Base--AUBREY HUFF (Baltimore). He got off to a spectacular start, but he's cooled off considerably of late. Still, he's been openly angry at himself for his recent performances. If he can channel that energy, he should be fine. GRADE: B

Outfielders--ADAM DUNN (Washington, D.C.); CARLOS LEE (Houston); BOBBY ABREU (Los Angeles Angels). Dunn's batting average hardly inspires confidence, but it never really did, so that's par for the course. Anyway, his other numbers are great so far, and that's what matters. Lee is a bit of a mixed-bag, as his average is very strong but he could drive in a few more runs. Still, I'm content with him so far. Abreu seems to have lost (almost completely) the ability to hit for power, but he's made up for it, at least to a certain extent, with his solid on-base-percentage and stolen base numbers, so he's doing fine. DUNN: A-; LEE: B; ABREU: B-.

Bench Players--JASON KUBEL (Minnesota); MIKE NAPOLI (Los Angeles Angels); PABLO SANDOVAL (San Francisco). Kubel is off to a very good start to the season, but he's bothered by knee troubles at present, which is not a good sign. Napoli is in a slump at the plate; I hope he shakes it off. Sandoval is a talented youngster in his second season at the Major League level. KUBEL: B+; NAPOLI: C+; SANDOVAL: B+.

Starting Pitchers--ZACH DUKE (Pittsburgh); COLE HAMELS (Philadelphia); UBALDO JIMENEZ (Colorado); JASON MARQUIS (Colorado); TIM WAKEFIELD (Boston). Jimenez and Marquis are recent acquisitions, though they've pitched fairly well for me in the short while they've been on my fantasy team. We'll see how it goes with them. Duke has been a pleasant surprise so far. Hamels was awful due to injuries, but is now pitching very well. (He's basically gone from F-level to A-level over the past month.) Wakefield plays on a team that wins a lot, which is why he's in my starting rotation. DUKE: A-. HAMELS: C+. WAKEFIELD: C. JIMENEZ and MARQUIS: INCOMPLETE.

Relief Pitchers--RYAN FRANKLIN (Saint Louis); JOE NATHAN (Minnesota). They're both putting up consistent, solid numbers. (Franklin's performance is a bit of a surprise, Nathan's is not). My only complaint is that Nathan hasn't had enough save opportunities, but that will probably turn around in the coming months. FRANKLIN: B+. NATHAN: B.

Bench Pitchers--BRETT MYERS (Philadelphia); ANDY PETTITTE (New York Yankees); RAFAEL SORIANO (Atlanta). I blame myself for selecting Brett Myers, which I felt was a bad idea at the time and still do. I don't know why I selected him, to be honest. Pettitte is solid as always but battling back problems, so his numbers aren't as good as they could be. Soriano is a pleasant surprise, at least so far. MYERS: D-; PETTITTE: C+; SORIANO: B+.