2004 Postings and Free Agents

I'm afraid that this question was recently asked and ignored here.

The season is about to start. I'm afraid that nobody here is really thinking about who'll be leaving in 2004.

Besides, there are currently a number of issues that may make a big difference on how many people qualify, namely eleminating the number of 1-gun registered days that are considered for a year - making it a real, physical year instead.

Sorry, but this isn't the time for this question. (Personally, I don't want to hear it until October, but I realize that a number of people can't wait that long.)

I'll reprise some of what I wrote in another thread to a poster inquiring if I was doing an article on 2004's possibles now:

As for 2004's possibles, I'm not even going to think about such an article until near the end of the coming season. For one thing, the 2003 data is an essential part of the picture. Also, while we might be able to determine whose contracts are up, etc., we don't know who will sign during the season or who might get hurt. Frankly, the article I did included a lot of guys who never got a look by the majors (and some who didn't demonstrate the talent to deserve one). That degree of spinning my wheels is something I can live with. However, spinning my wheels over guys who sign contract extensions during the season is the kind of wheel spinning I have no intention of doing.

In review, any article done now would be incomplete (no 2003 data or info on injuries) and could well involve a lot of wasted effort. Besides, an article on 2004 just isn't timely now. I've got other fish I want to fry first. If you're interested in doing it now, my article here [BaseballGuru] tells you how to do the conversions.

To those two paragraphs, I would add that if you monitor the discussions here and Gary Garland's column in baseballguru.com, by late in the season, you'll know who most (if not all) of the top possibles for 2004 are.

Jim Albright

Thanks for the reply, Jim. I completely understand your desire to keep from wasting effort and time on an issue that very few actually want to read about at the moment.

Just as an FYI, rotisserie baseball players in the U.S. need to speculate on 2004 Japanese imports by late March, 2003. For rotisserie purposes, finding out who may come over as the season progresses (i.e. in July or August, 2003) doesn't help.

That said, I realize that your writing is not directed towards U.S. roto players, though some of us have found it very helpful in the past!

I have to agree. My roti league is about to have it's supplementary minor league / reserve draft, and knowing who might be coming over after the 2003 season would be extremely helpful. Thanks.

Nope, not besides Kazuo.

- Nope, not besides Kazuo.

It's a little too early to make that claim. Iguchi could very well be posted, for instance. So could Ohtsuka.