2009 Offseason: Billingsley hurt, other news

Dodgers fireballer Chad Billingsley fractured his leg after slipping on ice outside his home in Pennsylvania. It was bad enough that he had to have surgery. He will be sidelined for a lot of this offseason, but is expected to be back by Spring Training. He’s still very young, but it will interfere with his offseason conditioning. I would downgrade him just slightly for next year, at least until we see how he recovers.

2009 Offseason: Minor trade, Quad-A signings

Minor league free agents were set free on November 6, and yesterday was the deadline for teams to set their 40-man rosters, causing several players to be moved around. Let’s look at some of the smaller moves:

Resources: 2009 Oliver projections

The 2009 Oliver hitters projections are out. For those of you not familiar with Brian Cartwright’s Oliver the Chimpanzee projections, they are a slightly more sophisticated projection model taking into account 3 years of performance, regression, aging and some batted ball data. Similar to the type of analysis I have done, but better. All stats are neutralized, and so do not include park effects.

2009 Offseason: Utley hurt, Crisp traded

Chase Utley will undergo hip surgery, the Phillies announced today, and recovery might take 4-6 months. When we get closer to Spring Training, we’ll have to evaluate how that will affect his fantasy value. Pedro Feliz will also have surgery, but that doesn’t have any fantasy impact unless the Phils go get a new third baseman.

2009 Offseason: Giants ink Affeldt, Baltimore adds depth

The San Francisco Giants are pursuing bullpen help, and they got a big piece yesterday in Jeremy Affeldt. The 6-4 lefty signed a 2-year deal worth $8M, according to sources. He will be 30 years old next season, and really bolsters a thin Giants bullpen.

2009 Offseason: Free Agents now free

A collection of news from around MLB:

• Closer Trevor Hoffman has filed for free agency, and he will land with a team that has shown a willingness to use less than a top-flight closer, like the Indians or the Tigers.
• Why would the Nationals be interested in Mark Teixeira? He’s from the area and good for ticket sales, that’s why.
• Milwaukee reliever Salomon Torres calls it a career. As if Doug Melvin needs any more pitching holes to fill.
• The Yankees acquired Nick Swisher and Kanekoa Texeira in return for Wilson Betemit, Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez. Betemit has marginal value, but the other players are not much bounty for a former All-Star (and a prospect).
• Peter Bendix says the Swisher trade only makes sense if they also sign Teixeira.
• The LoHud Yankees blog says that getting Swisher is just a ploy to get CC Sabathia to sign.

2009 FantasyScope early projections

UPDATE: I’ll refer you to our updated (beta) projections as of January 30.

Can’t wait to think about who to draft for next year? We have just published our early projections for 2009!

We’ve covered all the 5×5 categories, save saves. Those will be added as we get closer to Spring Training and find out who will close for each team. The main changes you will see from now on are park adjustments as players move around, as well as playing time adjustments as team announce who their starters will be at each position and on their pitching staff.

2009 Offseason: Nats-Marlins trade, Hoffman stiffed

In what amounts to a salary dump, the Washington Nationals acquired left-handed pitcher Scott Olsen and outfielder Josh Willingham from the Florida Marlins yesterday in return for second baseman Emilio Bonifacio and minor leaguers Jake Smolinski and P.J. Dean. The Marlins continue their cost-cutting moves, having already dealt Mike Jacobs this offseason. Their plan is to also trade away closer Kevin Gregg to lower their team salary.

2009 Sleepers: Quad-A hitter extrapolation

If you look at the Triple-A home run, SLG, OPS and wOBA leaderboards, you’ll see a ton of nearly 30-year olds who mash Triple-A pitching. Are there any players there who might be able to surprise in 2009? Here are my picks, based on my Minor League extrapolation method (over .800 OPS):

2009 Closers List

An updated list of closers for fantasy drafting purposes.