OK.  I didn't get much of a response last night, so I will try a post. 

I was out of town during the scheduled draft for my fantasy team, so I had to prerank for an autopick.  I registered, preset my team, and now I got nuthin!  I waited till after the draft, logged onto Yahoo! and attempted to find my team to no avail.  I entered the team number and the password, and it says that the league is full.  That is fine with me, but I should already be IN the league. 

Can anyone help?

Update [2008-1-3 16:26:32 by lboros]: Cards Sign Clement to one-year deal.

Matt Clement, who last pitched for the Boston Red Sox in 2006, signed a one-year contract with the Cardinals today. The deal includes a club option for 2009.

Clement's base salary was not immediately known. The contract includes significant incentives for appearances.

Clement, 33, had shoulder surgery in September 2006. He has an 87-86 record with a 4.47 earned-run average to show for a nine-year career that began with the San Diego Padres.

[end update]

* * * * * * * * *

Nick Swisher traded.

From Yahoo.com, I saw that the A's traded Nick Swisher for 2 minor league pitchers and Ryan Sweeney from the White Sox.  Swisher is a saber-hero, with his good pop and phenomenal walk rates.

This trade is interesting in that it seems people have generally burst the Billy Beane bubble for saber-metric genius.  Sorry Azruavatar.  It seems your darlings are finally getting their due.  

From what I gathered at MLB Traderumors, the pitchers that the Sox gave up were their top 2 pitching prospects in the deal.  

What does this mean for us?  Does this de-value Duncan and Ankiel, as their OBP is never going to be great?  I think it certainly lowers the bar for anything we can get for Reyes.  If the pale hose had to give up this kind of pitching talent for a decent CF with a good batting eye, surely Reyes won't be worth a bag of chips, will he?

I believe this trade at LEAST reflects the move to the saber-metric means of measuring players has resonated throughout the league.  No longer are guys like Swisher and co. going to fly under the radar and sign cheap contracts.