We were back to our usual cast of suspects in this week’s episode of RotoRob’s Fantasy Baseball Weekly, heard every Thursday at 9 p.m. EST on Blogtalkradio.

This week, Buck, Tim and I had a real impromptu show, fielding several questions from the chat room and discussing big league action as it was happening (now that we have a full slate of games to follow — yay!). Among the topics we tackled this week were:

• The rare early-season deal that saw Juan Francisco head to the Braves for J.J. Hoover;
• The latest on the injury front including health reports about Michael Pineda, Andrew Bailey, Josh Beckett, Corey Hart and Kyle Farnsworth, plus the Fantasy implications in each situation;
• Jamie Moyer breaking camp as the No. 2 man in the Colorado rotation;
• The Juan Carlos Oviedo legal situation — how is this dude not facing legal charges?
• The closer scenario in Cincy and which pitcher holds the most value there; and
• An in-depth review of our Relief Pitcher Rankings with sleeper and bust choices from each of us.

  Listen to the Podcast in its entirety by clicking that groovy-looking arrow thingy below.

  [podcast]https://rotorob.com/podcasts/RR_Fantasy_Baseball_Weekly_Apr0512.mp3[/podcast]

  

The 2012 season is underway (sort of), and with it comes a whole new set of discussions. In this week’s episode of RotoRob’s Fantasy Baseball Weekly, both RotoRob and Tim M. were out of action — not to worry, it was for sports reasons in both cases — so Buck brought out some guests in the form of KFFL.com managing editor Tim Heaney and RotoExperts’ executive editor Doug Anderson. more

The Grandy Man handled southpaws like never before in 2011, smacking out an absurd 24.6 HR/FB rate. While he’s only a career .226 hitter against lefties (with an equally underwhelming 685 OPS), he somehow managed to post a .272/.347/.597 slash line against portsiders in 2011. Granderson obliterated his career highs in runs (136 – previous best 122), homers (41, up from 30) and RBIs (119, from his old high of 73) last year, and it’s tough to buy in on the sustainability of that kind of breakout. Granderson should be very good again, especially in the potent Yankee lineup, but be careful not to expect a repeat of his gaudy 2011 numbers. more

nother Thursday has come and gone meaning it was time for another episode of RotoRob’s Fantasy Baseball Weekly Podcast, once again this week a March Madness distracted version thereof. Buck, Tim and I still found time to discuss RotoRob’s new job with the Saints and Tim’s taste in video games (Pong? Really?). Prickles the hedgehog was also front and centre in this week’s episode. more

Two-time Cy Young winner Halladay enjoyed an even better season in his second campaign as a Phillie last year, massively reducing his home run rate while setting a new career best in strikeouts. His walks were up a tad, but not enough to worry about, and he remains among the best control pitchers in the game. To top things off, Halladay enjoyed his lowest ERA ever and he continues to head a rotation that’s the envy of every other big league squad. He’ll be hard pressed to continue to average 20 wins per season as he’s done since getting dealt to Philadelphia, but thanks to his deadly splitter, Halladay remains the best starting pitcher option in Fantasy baseball for 2012. more