with Chris from Atlanta
League 17
Week #8
Last week at this time, I was sucking down Coronas in Key West with the wife. I diligently spent all day Tuesday going through and setting my roster for each day I would be away from “the Internets.”
I was moving starters in and out as needed. I even tried to plan for rainouts by keeping starters in an extra day. It was the perfect plan. That is, until I saw the news Wednesday morning on ESPN (I told my wife that it was the Internet or ESPN - but not both). I didn’t plan on Ryan Doumit breaking his thumb! I knew that Paulino was available on the wire, but I had no way to pick him up!
It wasn’t until Thursday afternoon that I realized I could access the Sporting News site on my Blackberry. So there I was, in the Southern-most part of the United States, sitting in my hotel room, trying to pick up a #2 catcher on a 2″ x 2″ screen. Fantasy baseball … you gotta to love it!
Players starting to heat up - My wife and I try to make it to Memorial Day before turning on the air conditioner in our house. Every year, we give in during the week before as the temperature rises down here in Georgia. Many players have also been heating up lately as well.
Atlanta Braves first baseman, Mark Teixeira, is a notoriously slow starter, and it looks like 2008 is more of the same. On May 16th, Big Tex was hitting .240 with 5 HRs, 21 RBIs, and 21 Runs. In the six games since then, he has gone 12-for-22 with 0 HRs, 6 RBIs, and 7 Runs. His average is up to .279, and as he continues to find his stroke, the homeruns will come.
Ryan Howard doesn’t have to wait for the dingers to come. They are coming in bunches lately. In his last 12 games, Howard has hit seven HRs and has 14 RBIs. He has brought his average up from .169 to .207 in those 12 games. There is no way that he will get near his .313 of 2006, but he should finish just south of his .268 of last season. Meaning, he is about to starting tearing things up.
Teixeira and Howard were drafted high because they were expected to produce at that level. Jose Guillen wasn’t drafted high. He was going around the 16th round in most leagues. Since May 7th, he has gone 24-for-54 with 3 HRs, 19 RBIs, and 10 Runs. He put up 23 HRs, 99 RBIs, and a .290 average last year in Seattle. I think those numbers are not out of reach again this year.
Brandon Webb loses a game - Looking back at the top 16 pitchers drafted this year, Webb looks to be the cream of the crop so far in 2008. Six have missed time due to injury (Peavy, Bedard, Beckett, Kazmir, Young, and Smoltz). Five haven’t quite put it together yet (Sabathia, Verlander, Harang, Oswalt, and King Felix).
For the remaining five, I scored them as if they were each a roto team. I ranked them 5-to-1 for each category (Ws, Ks, ERA and WHIP). Webb finished first with 16 out of a possible 20 points. The rest: Hamels with 13, Zambrano with 11, Johan with 9, and Haren with 8 points.
Many experts were saying that you had to take a SP earlier than in the past. I couldn’t disagree more. Sure, five of the sixteen are putting up some quality numbers. But why risk the high draft pick for a 30% chance at getting one of the true aces.
Quick side note: this year, I had a dilemma during my Mafia league draft. I lacked SBs with my five keepers, so I targeted Figgins or Furcal with the 3rd pick in the draft (actually the 6th round after keepers). Both were there for me, so I took Figgins.
My plan was to take a closer in the seventh and either another closer or my first SP in the eighth. Well, Furcal fell to me in the seventh. I was high on Furcal this year (and I was correct until he got injured).
All of the “quality” starters were gone, so I was looking at the likes of Vazquez, Dice-K, Smoltz, and an injured Kazmir. When faced with a choice like this early in the draft, I look to the Godfather. Not GP, but the classic quote, “Leave the gun. Take the cannolis.” I opted to not take the starter and took Furcal.
The first three starters I selected were Myers, Lilly and Francis in the 11th, 12th, and 13th rounds, respectively. Myers is scaring the hell out of me. Lilly looks to have turned things around from a poor start recently. Francis was scaring me early on, but I am starting to relax a little with him. Why? Because …
Jeff Francis hates Arizona - In three games against the Diamondbacks, he went 0-3 allowing 20 earned runs, 32 hits, 7 HRs, and 4 walks in 15 innings. That is a “are you freaking kidding me” 12.00 ERA and a 2.40 WHIP.
If you factor out the three disastrous starts against Arizona: 15 earned runs, 32 hits, 17 walks, and only 3 HRs in 38 2/3 innings. That figures out to a respectable 3.49 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. The good news is that Colorado will not see Arizona again until August (and hopefully, they will plan it so that Francis doesn’t have to pitch in that series). Much like Dutch Kincaid owned Sam Malone, Arizona owns Jeff Francis.
Daniel Cabrera, a relevant fantasy player? - He came into 2008 with a career 4.99 ERA, a 1.53 WHIP, and a 4.71 K/BB rate. He was the “Nuke” LaLoosh of the MLB - a million dollar arm and a five cent head. Well, it looks like the head may be catching up with the arm.
Through ten games, he has a 3.48 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and a 5-1 record. He has improved in every area of his game … except Ks. His K/9 is down to 5.48 from a career mark of 7.57, showing that he is not just trying to strike every single batter out, he is actually pitching.
If you factor out his first two games of the year, his line reads: 2.51 ERA, 1.03 WHIP with 33 Ks. If he is out on your waiver wire, go get him now. I picked him up last week, and I have no intention of letting him go. It would take a string of really bad starts for me to release him.
Unlikely Triple Crown threat - I’m not talking about Big Brown. I’m talking about Josh Hamilton. He is currently tied for 7th in HRs with 12 (four back of Berkman), leading with 53 RBIs (eight more than second), and batting .335 which is 8th in average (.080 behind Chipper).
Last year, with Cincinnati, he put up 19 HRs, 47 RBIs, and a .292 average in 298 ABs. The question is: can he sustain it for a whole season? He was a career .295 hitter in the minors, so he has the ability to be a .300 hitter. What about the power? He has already passed the RBI total and is closing in on the HR total.
Odds are against him to win the Triple Crown. But, the odds have been against him for a while now. With his troubled past, you can’t help but root for him to succeed.
Joba prepping for role as starter - Looks like Hank gets his way. “It’s laid out, but it’s flexible,” manager Joe Girardi said of the plan to stretch Chamberlain out to 100 pitches.
In Spring Training, it typically takes about four weeks to get a pitcher stretched out to 100 pitches. So don’t expect him to be starting soon. The move makes some sense as the New York starters have not been anything special so far in 2008.
The starters have posted a 19-19 record, a 4.77 ERA, a 1.43 WHIP, and a 5.60 K/9 rate. Moving Chamberlain to the starting lineup just might provide the spark that the Yankees need to get going. He is the electrifying presence that is sorely missing from the emotionless, business-like Yankees.
Johjima = Japanese for “thank you for the money; I will start sucking now” - In April, he signed a three-year, $24 million extension. The Mariners thought they were paying for three more years of a .289 hitting catcher with some pop (32 HRs and 137 RBIs in two years).
What they are getting in 2008 is a .217 hitting catcher with 2 HRs and 12 RBIs. Word came out this week that Bedard and Washburn would rather have Jamie Burke as their personal catcher. Not good news for Johjima owners. If you have him and there are better options on the wire, drop him.