The commish, Jesse Pereira, stops by to talk a little early spring-training baseball because, well, that time of the year is upon us!

Why do the Dodgers sign every Cuban middle infielder? Why did the Yankees spend so much money in the offseason, and did they do so wisely? What is the real fantasy baseball value of Matt Moore and Brandon Phillips? Listen and find out.

Harvey, Cingrani, or Sale.

They are all 24 years old, all have amazing stuff, and each has impressed in the major leagues. They are all on my fantasy team. I already have David Price, so I can only keep one after this season. Until today, it was a no-brainer: Matt Harvey was poised to be dominant for years to come.

Now, it’s a serious question. Who do I keep? Here’s a break-down.

Chris Sale has proven pretty reliable over his first two full seasons as a starter. By Keith Allison on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons

Note: the league I’m in allows league members to keep two pitchers and two hitters each year. You can only keep a single player twice in a row before he has to be traded or go back into the draft.

Chris Sale

Sale is, by far, the most seasoned of the three pitchers. In his first full year as a starter in 2012, he was an All-Star and finished 6th in Cy Young voting. Sale’s awkward, left-handed motion is tough on batters. Some said he would fall-off considerably this season after increasing his innings pitched from 71 in 2011 to 192 in 2012.

But Sale has continued to dominate. He has improved his control, posted a lower WHIP and an equal ERA+ this season compared to last — all while maintaining a similar number of innings. His record doesn’t reflect it, but he has truly had a great season.

 Matt Harvey

It was a no-brainer. Matt Harvey was going to be a keeper. In his first season starting, the 24 year-old was leading the league in strikeouts, started the All-Star Game in his hometown, and claimed the hearts of Mets fans with little else to cheer about.

But today came crushing news for both the Mets and my fantasy team (incidentally named Harvey’s Honeyhuts).

Matt Harvey looks like he’s having Tommy John surgery. For pitchers, Tommy John surgery means that Harvey is probably out for the entirety of next season and, when he does come back, he will surely have a Strasburg-like innings limit. He is tempting to keep and stash, but if I did that I would be, at some level, giving up on next season. It takes more than a winning record or being top-5 in points in my league to get into the playoffs, and I don’t think I could ever make it back there with a keeper sitting on the bench all season.

 Tony Cingrani

Tony Cingrani may be the most interesting out of the three of these players. A guy who throws a lot of fastballs — Cingrani pitches at a hitters park (so does Sale), but has managed to rack-up strikeouts and wins when he has pitched.

Unlike Sale or Harvey, the Reds have treated Cingrani with kid gloves, staggering his starts and generally keeping his innings down around 100 for the season at the Major League level.

Cingrani may be the least polished of all three — throwing his fastball at an insanely-high rate (85% in 2012). Add onto that a 10.3 K/9 rate and you can see why Cingrani is also an enticing upside guy for next season.

Crap. This is gonna be a tough decision.

What do you think? Who should I keep? Who will I be kicking myself when I don’t have them in 2 years?

In a league with only four keepers, Yasiel Puig was not drafted this year. It’s safe to say that he probably will be on a team within a year or so. By Owen Main

In this week’s podcast episode, Owen sits down with Jesse Pereira, the commissioner of the fantasy baseball league he and Andy are also in. We get into some mental parts of the draft, why Jesse thinks Owen picked some regression candidates, and why Owen has a much better chance than he has in the previous few years.

A breakdown of a few key players on each of the teams in the league that everyone who plays fantasy baseball will enjoy.

Who do YOU think is the most overrated player in fantasy this season?

1) I really wanted a chocolate shake and they agreed to stop on the way.

2) I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

3) The third, and possibly most important reason I went was because I wanted to explore what the trade market was like for Yankees slugger Mark Teixeira.

In our fantasy baseball league (Trash Talkers Unanimous Fantasy Baseball), you can keep a player twice. This being the third season of the league’s existence, many players have now been kept twice and are in need of dealing. Teixeira and Felix Hernandez are my two keepers that I can’t keep anymore and I need to get something back for them before the season ends.

Usually, I’d post something on the league’s message board, but who better to bounce trade ideas off than the co-commissioners who also happened to be the gentlemen I was going to the movie with?

In the car, I steered the conversation toward Teixeira (whose 32nd birthday is today), how great he is, and who I could get for him in a trade. When we sat down at the theater (one empty seat between each one of us…) all I wanted to do was talk fantasy baseball.

And when the movie came on, all I could think was, WOW! If these people in this future world had sports and fantasy baseball in their lives, there probably wouldn’t be the need for them to kill like 23 teenagers a year….

Sports are a cultural mirror and outlet for people around the world. Long ago, gladiators fought to the death in front of thousands of adoring fans (or was that just a Russell Crowe movie?).

Natives to North and Central America played an early version of basketball where the loser was sacrificed to the Gods.

While our sports and games have become less lethal over the years, what they represent is the same. Fans get a sense of belonging, somewhere to yell and express emotion with far less judgment than in real life.

Fansmanship’s Luke Johnson waxed poetic on the subject in describing riotous, beer-guzzling gangs of fans, gagging on trash talk and name-calling, in order that as they victor, they might swell with superiority.

In other words, a collective experience of victory, emotion, and the rush of combat without the consequences.

Many of these values are identified in The Hunger Games as a means of political control. When one of the districts riots about the game in the movie, images of Detroit or more recently Lexington are evoked. The viewer realizes that, while we don’t kill the losers of our sporting events, the fans of the events have a shockingly similar amount of emotion entangled in the outcome. For evidence, all you have to do is search YouTube for “soccer riots,” or search the news for “Brian Stow.”

Despite these too-common acts of social discord, I am thankful that I live in a time and place that lets the “acted out” violence or adversity take place on the field, court, or gridiron and that generally people do not get killed on or off the field.

And maybe, someday soon, someone will make me an offer Mark Teixeira.

First, I saw Rickie Weeks in person. In case you didn’t know, I drafted Weeks in the fifth round of last season’s fantasy draft. With a 4th-round run on second basemen, I picked-up the undervalued Brewer and, despite an injury during the previous year, Weeks was one of my most solid players. Because of the sideways looks and jeering laughter I got after making the pick, my team was named the “Rickie Weeks All Stars” last year. The All-Stars weren’t very good, but Weeks was awesome – and because he was awesome, he was picked by someone else early in this year’s draft.

RICKIE WEEKS!

This year, my team is called Orange Jhoulys (after Rockies pitcher Jhoulys Chacin, who I also got funny looks after drafting with my final pick). But my love of Rickie Weeks remains steadfast. I’ve tried trading for him thrice this year to no avail. On Wednesday, I gave him his just due – shouting “RICKIE-WEEKS” in a falsetto tone that Knox Harrington (the video artist) would have appreciated. My friend, Christopher, was pretty embarrassed I think.

The second thing that was really interesting happened I think in the 6th inning or so (was hard to know since the game wasn’t exactly a bundle of excitement). Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something come out of the Brewers’ dugout and fly into the air. It turned out to be a cup full of water, or Gatorade, or something. As it ascended above the dugout, lots of liquid splashed over the dugout and onto the fans.

The first row of fans almost came over the top of the dugout. They were NOT happy. On of them took the empty cup and tossed it back into the dugout, causing a similar reaction from most of the Brewers’ bench.

During the entire at-bat that was going on, most of the Brewers in the dugout turned around and faced the front row of Padres fans.

Arms waved. Fingers pointed. Bad words were certainly exchanged. Padres security (about one for every 10 fans… where are you Pads fans?) was quick to the scene. One security person was stationed on each side of the dugout and one person walked atop the dugout to confront the fan who had thrown the cup back into the Brewers’ dugout.

In most situations like this, fans usually get the brunt of the blame. For whatever reason, the Padres security personnel made an informed and well thought-out decision not to remove the fans from the game. Eventually the Brewers, who clearly “started it,” went back to paying attention to the game, and a situation that could have been a lot worse was nullified.

The easy thing to do would have been to kick the fans out. Instead, the security folks gathered relevant information and made an informed decision.

Good job Padres security personnel.

Now all the Padres need are ownership and management who are willing to spend the same energy on the players on the field. When Ryan Ludwick is your best position player, you’re in trouble. Without the draw of Adrian Gonzalez this year to get people to the park, the Friars are not a very exciting team…

Random thought during the game:

Corey Hart is going to have 20 HRs by the end of the year. He hit at least one that would have been out of any park but Petco. He squared up a few others. The Brewers’ offense is fun to watch.

Random thought of the day:

I just saw an interview with him and, is Lebron losing some hair? I hope the pressure of the multiple championship guarantee isn’t getting to him. He needs to go with the all-shaved look I think.