Stumbled upon this on my home page:

 

Rotisserie By The Numbers: Conine Will Thrive in Florida

 

 

September 2, 2003

By Craig Rondinone

SportsTicker Staff Writer

 

JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY (TICKER) -- The Florida Marlins snuck one last deal in before the gun sounded on postseason rosters, and fantasy owners in NL-only leagues have to be pretty happy they did.

 

Florida traded two minor-league pitchers to the Baltimore Orioles for infielder-outfielder-designated hitter Jeff Conine, a day after discovering that All-Star third baseman Mike Lowell was most likely done for the season because of a broken hand.

 

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Conine has always been a serviceable but not spectacular fantasy performer. He is the perfect extra corner infielder or DH to have in fantasy leagues. He hits around .300, has 15-HR pop, drives in 80-90 runs and very rarely gets injured. But although he has had another solid season this year, his numbers might be even better now that he is back in Florida for a second tour of duty.

 

Here are three reasons why Conine's fantasy value should go up now that he is a member of the Marlins:

 

1. Conine did extremely well in Florida during his first stint with the club: Conine is not known for his power nowadays, but when he was with the Marlins during their first couple years of existence, he put up the best power numbers of his career.

 

In 1995 Conine hit 25 home runs, drove in 105 runs and batted .302, the best offensive season of his career. The following year he continued to hit with power, belting 26 homers while knocking in 95 runs and hitting .293.

 

So Conine should be comfortable going back to the place where he enjoyed the finest offensive success of his career. He will be familiar with the ballpark and the surrounding area, so there should not be as much time needed to adjust as the average traded ballplayer usually needs. Who says you can't go home again? Well, that person is an idiot.

 

2. Conine will be batting in arguably the best spot in baseball: Lowell had a super season before going down, but a lot of his fantasy glory has to be attributed to hitting cleanup for the best team in the universe to hit cleanup for, a team where you could stick Jack Wilson in the No. 4 hole and you could probably milk 80 RBI out of him.

 

Listen to this RBI paradise - The major league leader in stolen bases, Juan Pierre, leads off. The major league SB leader of 2002, Luis Castillo, who is also among the NL Top 10 in batting average, hits second. And Ivan Rodriguez, only one of the greatest hitting catchers of all-time and a person ripping the cover off the ball on a consistent basis this season, is batting third. The only thing that could make a cleanup hitter drool more is if he saw Anna Kournikova in the on-deck circle.

 

Conine looks like he is inheriting Lowell's cleanup spot, meaning there should be runners on base almost every time he gets up, and most of the time they will be in scoring position. He will also get RBI he never got before in Baltimore because Pierre and Castillo should be able to score on hits and outs normal players would have no prayer of scoring on.

 

3. Conine's hitting style fits better in the National League than it does in the American League: Conine is all about making contact. He does not strike out nearly as much as he used to. He puts the ball in play. He is the prototype for what you would call a professional hitter. Florida will put on plenty of hit-and-run plays for Conine since he is so adept with his bat control and since they have so much speed at the top of the lineup in front of him.

 

The NL relies more on the fastball than the AL does, a pitch Conine has no trouble handling, and the NL has hitter-friendly stadiums like Coors Field, Minute Maid Park and the Great American Ballpark. Conine will not see any of those parks during the last month of this season, but he is signed for next season, meaning he will visit those places in 2004, meaning his value in keeper leagues probably goes up a notch. And Conine will travel to Montreal's home away from home in Puerto Rico this weekend, where you could bunt a ball for a home run if you hit it right.

 

Conine, unlike others such as Aaron Boone and Scott Williamson, should thrive with a new uniform on. And he is not the only Marlin who gets a fantasy kick in the right direction because of this trade.

 

Rookie phenom Miguel Cabrera, who had been playing out of position in left field, now gets to shift back to third base. That transition should make him more comfy and should allow him to focus better at the plate, not to mention make him more versatile eligibility-wise in fantasy leagues for next season.

 

And Pierre, Castillo and Rodriguez, who could have seen their runs scored drop dramatically without a solid run producer batting behind them in Lowell's absence, should continue to be as effective as they have been all season long.

 

Everybody should be happy in Fishville, especially fantasy owners.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=fant...ov=st&type=lgns

nice piece....