with Chris from Atlanta
League 17
Week #22
The boys of summer are giving way to the monsters of the gridiron. As the leaves start to change colors, your attention will be pulled away from your fantasy baseball teams. This late in the season it is much, much harder to move up in the standings but very easy to fall down in the standings. This time of the year it is all about treading water. Field a competitive squad for the integrity of the league. No one likes a quitter. Keep paddling …
Left-hand hitting outfielders on the move - Sunday marked the deadline for teams to submit their playoff rosters. I wonder if the Pirates had to submit one? The Red Sox did, and Mark Kotsay is on it. Boston sent 19-year old minor league OF Luis Sumoza to Atlanta for Kotsay.
Sumoza is a long way away from the Big Leagues; batting .260/322/444 with 15 HR and 18 SB in 143 minor league games. The 32-year old Kotsay, on the other hand, is a career .282/337/415 hitter who will platoon with Coco Crisp until JD Drew returns from his back injury (could be this week). Kotsay doesn’t provide much help, fantasy-wise, so you are better off just leaving him on the waiver-wire.
Atlanta called up 25-year old OF Josh Anderson from AAA to take over in center. If you are looking for a .300 hitter with some speed (who isn’t?), you could do worse than Anderson. In 121 minor league games this year, he is batting .314/358/405 with 4 HR and 42 SB. In 11 games with the Braves in June he hit .318/375/409 with 2 SB and no homers. In his first game last week, he stole another base, so it looks like he has the green light from Bobby Cox. The Braves aren’t going anywhere this year, so they will give Anderson enough chances to show that he belongs in Atlanta next season.
It was rumored that Philadelphia was interested in Kotsay. Losing out on him, they went and acquired Matt Stairs from Toronto for a minor-leaguer to be named later. With Geoff Jenkins out (hip flexor), they need another left-handed bat. The 40-year old Stairs is batting .250/342/394 with 11 HR and 44 RBI. Even if you are desperate for OF help, I still wouldn’t look at Stairs.
Guardado traded for a Hamburger - About a month ago, ‘Everyday Eddie’ was named the Texas closer. Since then, he has appeared in eight games; notching two saves and a loss to go along with his 7.36 ERA, 2.18 WHIP and 0.80 K/BB rate. Prior to being named the closer he had a 3.09 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and a 2.08 K/BB rate. The Twins did something you probably shouldn’t do. They acquired Guardado to be Nathan’s primary set-up man. The price? 21-year old RHP Mark Hamburger.
If the name Mark Hamburger doesn’t ring a bell, that means you’re not related to him. With the trade of Eddie Guardado, Frank Francisco, whose claim to fame until yesterday was tossing a chair at a lady in the stands, will get the nod to take over as the Rangers closer.
In 53.1 innings, Francisco has a 3.71 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and a 3.05 K/BB rate. These numbers look very similar to his outstanding 2004 rookie year. Since then, he has been struggling with his recovery from Tommy John surgery and, just this year, is starting to show that he has returned to form. You know the drill, if he has been named the closer, he belongs on a roster. Keep your expectations low, though, since Guardado only had two save opportunities over the last month.
Remember these guys? - Seems that there are a lot of players returning from injury right about now. Some have expiring contracts and need to prove that they are healthy enough for that next big deal. Some just want to prove that they are not this year’s biggest fantasy bust.
Heading into this season, I had a hunch that Rafael Furcal was going to have a very good season. I was looking great on that prediction until May 5th when it all came crashing down. In case you forgot just how good he was earlier this year, here are his numbers: .366/448/587 - 34 Runs - 5 HR - 16 RBI - 8 SB. Word on the street is that he will be returning to the lineup sometime this week. Oh, and one more thing: Furcal’s contract expires at the end of this season. One would think that he is going to want to prove that he is healthy.
Another player with an expiring contract, Ryan Church, returned to the Mets lineup on August 22nd. Church was having a breakout season, hitting .307/370/512 with 10 HR in 231 plate appearances until post-concussion syndrome forced him to stop playing on July 5th. The injury happened on May 20th when he was kneed in the head by Atlanta’s Yunel Escobar on a collision at second.
It was Church’s second concussion of the season. He suffered a Grade II concussion in spring training. The return of Church makes Fernando Tatis a part-time player; meaning you can drop him now. In the few games since returning, Church was batting .300, so it appears that he might have recovered and might be an option now.
If I have the same number of homeruns as a catcher drafted in the 3rd round of this year’s draft, that catcher has to be considered one of the biggest fantasy busts of this year. Victor Martinez was in the discussion for who was the #1 fantasy catcher heading into 2008.
Through 54 games, he was hitting .278/332/333 with no homeruns. Then came the elbow injury that has prevented him from playing since June 11th. He started at first for the Indians on Friday night. He will get most of his playing time at first, because 28-year old Kelly Shoppach has gone .279/357/583 with 15 HR and 40 RBI since taking over for V-Mart. If you still have Martinez on your DL, you can keep him there until he shows you that he is ready.
When a 20-year old phenom starts the season hitting .415/447/805 and smacks five homeruns in the first 11 games, you take notice. Everyone expects Justin Upton to be a star. No one expected it to be so soon. After his red-hot start, he went ice-cold. In his last 30 games before going on the DL with an oblique injury, he was batting .176/318/352 with 4 homeruns.
If he was activated over the weekend, like the D-Backs reported, start him only in home games. Here’s his home/road split:
Home - .324/415/586 - 8 HRs - 23 RBI - 30 Runs
Away - .152/285/265 - 3 HRs - 8 RBI - 13 Runs
A 20 game winner on just about any other team - The San Francisco Giants only had 59 wins as of Friday night. Of those 59 wins, Tim Lincecum has 15 of them. He is leading the Major Leagues in strikeouts with 210, and his 2.43 ERA is tied for the Major League lead with Cliff Lee.
Imagine if the Giants were a better team … or even just an average team. San Fran’s 3.83 runs per game is the second lowest in MLB (Washington 3.76). The Major League average is 4.62 rpg. Here are Lincecum’s stats in games where he didn’t get the decision: 2.60 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and a 3.26 K/BB rate in 62.1 innings. With numbers like that, and an extra 0.79 rpg, you would think that he would be a 20 game winner and Cy Young candidate.
Who’s Hot
Josh Johnson’s last 5 starts: (3-0) 2.38 ERA - 1.18 WHIP - 2.33 K/BB
Brian Roberts’ last 122 plate appearances: .355/430/477 - 2 HR - 16 RBI - 23 R - 6 SB
Who’s Not
Jair Jurrjens’ last 6 starts: (1-4) 5.56 ERA - 1.65 WHIP - 1.62 K/BB
Conor Jackson’s last 125 plate appearances: .221/296/301 - 0 HR - 13 RBI - 13 R - 1 SB
Let’s hope your week is more Johnson/Roberts and a little less Jurrjens/Jackson! Until next week …