It’s that time of year again – sure, opening day for baseball, but more importantly, opening day for fantasy baseball leagues. The industry has been growing steadily, especially over the past decade. It has grown into a multi-million dollar industry and has also cemented the game into the minds of its fans.

As this new season approaches, millions will be scouring over reports of players and compiling lists in order for there final preparations before their drafts.

And it is interesting to note that several Marlins are hot commodities for these cyberspace GMs.

According to Yahoo.com, Josh Willingham, the Marlins young catcher in the rough – who will also be splitting time in LF – is one of the top 5 in their ‘Buzz Index’. With 2,092 adds, he is #5 on their list and has been added to many rosters. One of the reasons is he is catcher eligible, but also because of a very strong spring and his stats from his minor league career. All indications show that Willingham is going to hit in this league.

Another hot commodity is Jeremy Hermida. The young RF put up very good numbers in his rookie campaign with the Marlins – making a strong first impression with a grand slam homerun in his first AB. He hasn’t been spectacular this spring, but the potential in undeniable. He is a potential 5 tool star, in the long Marlins tradition of Miguel Cabrera and…Gary Sheffield.

All joking aside, some scouts and others around the league have taken notice of Hermida as well. A former teammate noted that he feels this kid is going to be a 30/100 guy for many years to come – even as soon as THIS season.

Let’s not forget about Mike Jacobs either. Coming over from the Mets in the barrage of deals this offseason, the Marlins are penciling him in as their starting 1B. And he has been impressive in stints – he batted only .275 with 2 homers in 69 ABs, but had a .357 OBP and had 9 K’s vs. 8 BB’s. He shows pretty good plate discipline and the power is there (Jacobs belted 11 home runs in 100 ABs last season with the Mets). One Met scout really likes his potential hitting at Joe Robbie Stadium (oh yeah, ‘Dolphins Stadium’…) and towards the RF porch.

In fact, both Jacobs and Hermida are listed as ‘rookies to watch’ over at Yahoo.com.

Then there is the intrigueing talent Hanley Ramirez. A highly touted prospect in the Red Sox system, he is going to be starting at SS and has all the physical tools to excel at the position. Now, he just needs to play – and play he will. Hitting .319 with 3 home runs in the spring, he has quickly impressed his coaches. With all the playing time ahead of him, he may prove to be a very smart gamble in later rounds of your draft.

Also, Dan Uggla has some potential – he is playing 2B and has demonstrated over his minor league career that he has some power. He had 2 bombs this spring.

Along with the “crusty old vets”, Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, the Marlins have a ton of talent that will play tough and should put up pretty strong numbers over the course of the season. And fantasy GMs are already taking notice.

Southern Illinois Marlin Fan, or SIMF as we like to call him, has taken the liberty of breaking down his projections for each position for the Marlins over the coming ’06 season. Let’s take a look at what his brain has eeked out…

Hello all, Spike here(or SouthernIllinoisMarlinsFan). I have been quite quiet lately, computer was being molested by trojan horse viruses. I also got a DUI and I cant drive.

But hey, my boys are dancing, hopefully to the Final Four…about time a Missouri Valley team makes it there, dont you think?

Anyway, I am here to give my thoughts on EVERY POSITION that is being battled out by our hatchlings, the baby fish, the 2006 Florida Marlins.

C: It seems that this is Willingham’s job to lose. Makes sense, Olivo has only shown the ability to bat at certain times, and rarely close together. He’s as streaky as a 90 year olds depends. As for Treanor, well he gets defensive, but thats about it. Jourgenson has already been reassigned to minor league camp, and Brett Hayes was hurt. Hopefully he gets well soon, he will be the guy in a year and a half IMO. Now on to Willingham. Everyone and their mother has a serious jones for this guy, and it is understandable…he puts up good #’s from the plate. It sucks he is as useful as a gargoyle statue behind the plate, but from all accounts he can hit. I seem to be the only skeptic. He put up good #’s in the minors, from the start…when he was a college product older than the competition. Then he put up great #’s in Albaquerque, in the Pacific Coast League, where Joe Dillon looked like Joe Dimaggio. In his first stint in the majors, he sucked offensively and defensively, struggling to hit .200 and showing little power. It was a minimum # of plate attempts, but it was a minimum # of plate attempts against seasoned MLB pitching. Then, his second stint, he hit well…still, in minimum attempts, but better…against other late season callups that were once again below his skill level, and he still failed to flash any real power like everyyones predicting.

Prediction: Willingham wins job, struggles to do anything useful as he is garbage behind the plate and is not the hitter everyone thinks, bitchslapped back to Carolina before May

1B: This is a more contested battle, mainly because Stokes and Jacobs are having a round of “anything you can do I can do better”. Still, Stokes is unreliable and the organiztion knows this, Jacobs has shown he can do it at the MLB level. Albeit shortly. Still more than Stokes has shown.

Prediction: Jacobs wins the job, Stokes is sent back to the AA or AAA, if he stays healthy he is traded at the deadline

2B: It’s Ugglas job, since theres no one else to do it and we have to keep him on the roster anyway, unless we want him to go back, which wouldn’t be good since theres no one else to do it. Way to go Dan.

Prediction: Uggla’s the man, at least for half a season

3B: Cabrera, nuff said.

SS: HanRam comes in with stiffer competition than anyone thought, as Andino has been fighting tooth and nail. That shows me that Andino’s struggles are more to do with the situation he was called up to do last season than actual lack of talent. But still, Uggla is not a long term answer, HanRam is a potential superstar, and Andino has the ability to become a great defensive 2B.

Prediction: Hanley wins, Andino goes back to AA to work at 2B, if he shows promise and hits well, he gets to promoted to AAA for a month(give or take), if he cuts it there for a certain period of time, Andino relegates Uggla to utility duty.

LF: This is a real head scratcher, because our beloved organization rarely thinks ahead when it comes to position prospects. Still, this is a battle, IMO, between Reggie Abercrombie and Chris Aguila. Aguila has never gotten a fair shake, or at least in alot of opinions he hasn’t. All things considered, neither has Abercrombie, but he is my choice here. He has more upside right now, and really there are not many options.

Prediction: The job is yours Mr. Abercrombie, I hope your as stylish on the field as the clothes you share your name with.

CF: Another battle in which Aguila will be embroiled in, but once again, he falls short. We need a leadoff hitter, and Eric Reed can hopefully fill that mold. He has the speed, and he is the top rated defensive OF in our system.

Prediction: Eric Reed, Need for Speed

RF: Jeremy Hermida…do I really need to go on?

Bench: Helms, Harris, Aguila, Olivo, Amazega

SP: There are 5 spots, and we know Willis, Vargas, and Moehler have 3 of them. Of the other two, it’s a battle between Ford Pinto, “String Bean” Scott Olsen, Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco, Brad Penny version 2 Josh Johnson, and Sergio Mitre. Sergio Mitre has no business in the rotation, the bullpen, MLB, MiLB, or even being a hot dog vendor at a ballpark at any level. He is flat out garbage.

Prediction: Willis, Moehler, Olsen, Johnson, Vargas…until the allstar break, and then we get to see Willis, Johnson, Olsen, Nolasco, and Vargas.

Pen: The hardest part is to predict this mess. Boworski sucks, but Bowyer is not quite ready yet. Other notables include Kensing, Resop, Messenger, Bump on the forehead, Matt Herges, Kerry Lightenberg, Tankersly, Garcia, Delgado and MeGrew.

Prediction: Lightenberg, Herges, Bump, Mitre, Boworski, Resop, Messenger…until the allstar break, when the we cut lose and deal some of the losers or a few get their walking papers. MeGrew will likely start the season on the DL for a sore right eyelid or other bs, just as long as we dont send him back until we see wether our other lefties are cut out for the job. Post all star break bullpen: Messenger, Resop, Delgado, Tankersly, Kensing, Bowyer, and Harvey Garcia. And this will be the 2007 opening day bullpen, minus Bostick.

Traded or released by the break: Lightenberg, Herges, Mitre, Olivo(I’m not kidding), MeGrew, Seabol, Amazega, Stokes, Bostick, Moehler
What we will get: OUTFIELD, CATCHER, and MI DEPTH in the form of prospects. An interesting trade I heard came in the form of sending Bostick and Mitre to the Astros and plucking Hunter Pence and John Anderson from their OF rich system. Possible, maybe not likely, and definantly not discussed by anyone other than a select few baseball fans.

Anyway, I did all that predicting, threw in a few snide remarks, and have come to the conclusion that this is what our 2007 team will look like:
C-Gaby Sanchez
1B-Mike Jacobs
2B-Robert Andino
3B-Miguel Cabrera
SS-Hanley Ramirez
LF-Kris Harvey
CF-Eric Reed
RF-Jeremy Hermida
Chris Aguila, Reggie Abercrombie, Dan Uggla, Ryan Jourgenson, Jose Campusano
SP-Dontrelle Willis
SP-Josh Johnson
SP-Scott Olsen
SP-Ricky Nolasco
SP-Jason Vargas
Logan Kensing, Chris Resop, Randy Messenger, Taylor Tankersly, Harvey Garcia, Jesus Delgado, Travis Bowyer
r />And now to the actual rant part of this very special rant:

This 2006 team will not be good. It won’t be as bad as 98, and it wont be a group of laughing stocks, but it wont be good. Manager Joe Girardi has said he wants to go young, COMPLETELY YOUNG, and starting in 07 he will get his wish. This group of vetern misfits that was stockpiled is just to ease the young guys in, until a group of youngens is set to come in and takes the place of the old wankers.

We will do one thing good this season however: play spoiler. And, still, probably not even finish last in the NL East. That spot is likely reserved for the Nationals. And, realisticially, if we play our asses off we can finish 3rd, because the Mets are not as good as everyone thinks. Their pitching staff is still complete garbage, likely worse than ours, likely worst in the NL, with Wagner and Pedro being the only ones worth more than a buffalo nickel. Their offseason acquisitions not withstanding, they are the Mets and those players are sure to have a polar opposite of a break out year. As for the spoiler part, we will do our part to keep teams that piss us off out of the playoffs. And we will also give fits, because with youth comes stubborness(i.e. we wont know we arent supposed to win…hey, worked for the 2003 team).

And, my bold prediction…we will compete, maybe fall short, of at least the wild card in 2007. And in 2008, we return to where we rightfully deserve to be, the playoffs.

Thank you, and good night.

Before you proceed reading this, let’s get one thing straight here – this is about Shandon Anderson, not the recently acquired Derek. Although he is very talented as well, it is the re-emergence of Shandon that seems to be benefitting the Heat very much as of late.

A sigh of relief can be heard from the Heat faithful nowadays. Why?

Defensive intensity is starting to return to fashion for this team. Most especially, perimeter defense.

Shandon Anderson was out for most of the season with lower back spasms. He couldn’t seem to get healthy enough to work his way back off the Heat bench. The Heat were in desperate need of another perimeter defender as James Posey seemed to be the only player capable of defending a slasher on the wing. Of course, such a dilemma could only mean more penetration against the Heat and foul trouble for Shaq at the pivot. Witness the January 6th game against Phoenix.

Anderson played then, for 30 painful minutes. In fact, he had some activity on the floor during spurts in December and even for a few game in early January, but since Feb. 2nd, it seems his return is permanent. And he doesn’t look likely to go anywhere else except deep into the playoffs with the Heat.

Over his last five games, he is averaging 14.7 minutes and getting 5.0 points per game on 62.5 FG% and even grabbing 2.2 rebounds during is minutes. Highly efficient from the field, he is also helping the Heat defense force opponents into becoming much less efficient on their scoring chances, too.

Coming into last night’s game, Paul Pierce was on fire. He has had two straight 30+ point performances (37 and 39) and was shooting over 50% in both games. He was able to get 38 against the Heat, but he was more human (10-22 45%) in his performance. He even shot 2-6 from 3 point range and got a bulk of his points from the free throw line, 16 (16-18). Mr. Anderson had a say in that, but also put on a little offensive show of his own. Playing his second highest minute total on the season (23:07), he was able to score 15 points on 71% shooting (5-7) while grabbing 6 rebounds and 1 assist.

Ever since the embarrassing loss to Dallas on February 9th, the Heat have won 7 straight. Anderson has seen his share of minutes during that span, getting over 11 minutes in each contest – each team presenting its share of perimeter threats: Ray Allen (6-20), Morris Peterson (7-16) and Mike James (10-19), Stephon Marbury (2-11), Jamal Crawford (3-8), Jalen Rose (2-8) and Quentin Richardson (6-11), Rip Hamilton (10-17), Tashaun Prince (2-12) and Chauncey Billups (10-20).

Every one Anderson has seen and in his limited minutes and has given the Heat a defensive boost on the perimeter that has helped push them over the top onto the 7 game win streak.

Perhaps this was the little spark that the Heat needed.