Empty the Bench

It’s hard to believe, but the 2007 Major League Baseball season has kicked off with catchers, pitchers, last year’s injured players, and coaches trickling into camp before the rest of their teammates start joining them tomorrow. April 1 (not an April Fools joke) marks Opening Day this season, so Empty the Bench still has over a month to get you prepped for the season. We thought we’d start you off with a few primers today, though, to get you thinking about the return of fat men with big butts in tight pants (that one’s for you, Hardaway).

- Brandon Funston over at Yahoo! Fantasy Sports has posted his first Big(ger) Board of the season, just in time for all you fantasy baseballers out there to pick through it and send him hatemail because your favorite player didn’t make it (again). All things considered, he does a pretty decent job with those fantasy player boards, but stay tuned for ETB’s very own MLB fantasy rankings very soon. We promise that all your favorites will be ranked juuuuuuuuuust where you want ‘em to be.

- Sporting News catches up on the three biggest issues facing every American League team and every National League team, and also has relatively in-depth looks at every roster, too (click around, you’ll find ‘em).

- Fans (or interested observers) of the defending American League Champions, the Detroit Tigers, will not want to miss MLive beat writer Danny Knobler’s Detroit Tigers Bulletin. This gentleman does some fantastic work/reporting, and he’s already posted quite a few juicy tidbits from the first few days of camp.

- USA Today’s Mel Antonen has what to expect from each American League team this year. Nothing too groundbreaking here, but a good place to start for casual fans looking to acquaint themselves with the American League.

- From the “Does Anyone Still Care?” department, somewhat-embattled New York Yankees 3B Alex Rodriquez says that he and Derek Jeter were best friends 10 or 12 years ago, but their relationship has changed since then. Here’s hoping these two, along with the rest of their teammates, have another long offseason of answering “what if” and “what happened” questions again this year.

- MLB.com has a nice little fantasy news section called Fantasy 411: Player News and Updates. Not crazy about the name, but some decent info there.

- Fanball has their spring training previews up for every MLB team… and lo and behold, it’s not Owner’s Edge content! Gasp!

- I hate to send you to Yahoo! Sports’ “new and improved” site, but they have an insider’s 2007 MLB Spring Training blog up. So far the blog includes entries about Barry Zito’s search for enlightenment (or something like that), the so-called ‘Kenny Rogers Rule,’ Bernie Williams’ status as a New York Yankee, and curiosity about Japanese import and new Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.

- Senior Fantasy Writer for CBS SportsLine Eric Mack ranks the top 25 rookies coming into the season. He’s also got his preseason all-rookie team and preseason all-prospect teams up. Mack has Tampa Bay Devil Rays OF Delmon Young in the #1 spot… can’t say I disagree, as long as Young doesn’t go the way of older brother Dmitri.

- Finally, if you want to see an example of what ETB’s fantasy baseball rankings will certainly NOT look like, check out CBS SportsLine’s Top 300 MLB players. Casual fans, first-time fantasy baseballers, this board is definitely not for you. Sheesh, CBS… is that the best you could do?

Check back at ETB very soon for more updates on the 2007 Major League Baseball season, including our predictions for how the season will unfold. And if you find any good reads yourself, please drop us a line and we’ll be sure to post it.

Possibly Related Content:

1. Fantasy MLB: Some Resources


2. Rotoworld’s 2007 MLB ‘Stay-Away List’


3. Fantasy MLB Resources Roundup


4. Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy from Yahoo


5. 10 Darts at the MLB Board