As Stephen Drew tried to take that step forward in 2009 that fantasy baseball owners craved, he hurt his hamstring. Wonder what a Drew family vacation is like… “J.D., you wanna go see the world’s largest bottle cap? It’s supposedly 17 inches in circumference!” “Sure, I’ll go tell Mom and Pop.” On the way to the Sequoia, two hamstring pulls, a fractured hip and the Mom needs Tommy John surgery. Pretty sure no one’s giving them joint family coverage. The MDs in AZ say Drew’s injury shouldn’t knock him out longer than the 15 days. When you consider he hadn’t even started to hit yet, looks like Drew’ll begin his season mid-May. All in all, this is a decent buy low guy right now. If you can trade some spare parts for him (closer-du-jour, extra OF, etc.), he should prove worth stashing. He’s still talented and he can have a solid three-quarters of a season. Hopefully, he spent the first quarter on someone else’s team. Anyway, here’s what else we saw yesterday for fantasy baseball:
Brandon Webb – Earliest return date is late-May. Still a long season so you can’t really sell him short, but with the trouble coming in his right shoulder, I’d be worried this doesn’t become a worst situation before it gets better.
Brian McCann – Headed for Lasik with eye problems. Maybe he said fudge and Cox made him suck on some soap. David Ross is filling in for him on the Braves and he hit a HR yesterday. Ross actually isn’t an awful replacement for fantasy owners either. You might get some pop and his killer average shouldn’t hurt for only two weeks. It matters how deep your league is, but I’d also look at Salty, Hundley, Shoppach and Laird, in that order.
Chris Getz – Headed to the DL. I know what you’re thinking, Gordon Beckham gets his chance! Yeah, but what matters is what Ozzie Guillen’s thinking. Ozzie’s thinking Brent Lillibridge and Jayson Nix. I know what you’re thinking now, what’s Ozzie thinking?!
Jake Peavy – 5 IP, 5 ER. I know this is no in-depth observation, but he just doesn’t look right. This is very sad for me. He’s given up way too many home runs and walks. I wouldn’t sell him short because he can go on a ten game run where he’s unhittable… Or at least I hope he does.
Justin Upton – HRs in back-to-back games in between numerous flailings at breaking pitches (Jaboo strikes again). At this point, he should just change his last name to Upside. Because that’s both his allure and the reason he’s overvalued in every non-keeper league.
Mark Reynolds – 5th homer yesterday. Guess who else hit his 5th homer yesterday? Davis. We got ourselves a hot one, America!
Conor Jackson – 2-for-6. Got the game winning hit yesterday, which means poopie-squat for fantasy, but it might be the confidence builder he needs.
Cameron Maybin – 0-for-5, batting .189 on the season. Sleeper pick went comatose the first month of the season. I’m ready to pull the plug in 12 team leagues. Potential replacements are Spillborghs, Kubel, Cody Ross, Teahen or Juan Rivera, obviously depends on what is out there.
Clayton Kershaw – 4 2/3, 9 ER. Walk, tried to get ahead of a hitter resulting in a home run… Rinse and repeat. From an absolute gem against the Giants where he K’d 13 to back-to-back beatings. He’s too good/erratic to bench. If you bench him, you’ll miss a gem.
Adam LaRoche – 2 HRs, bringing his season total to 5. Guess all it took was being on the same team as his little brother, Andy. (Why haven’t the Yanks signed Mark Teixeira’s little brother to get him off his typical slow start? Like Cody Ransom or Angel Berroa are better?) Maybe now he’s a 2nd half of April hitter. His upside still seems like Jorge Cantu… And his downside too.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia – 7-for-13 this weekend. As I said last week, I was giving him one more week. This was the kind of weekend I was looking for. He’s earned a bit longer leash.
Kenshin Kawakami – It’s 4 starts now and the control (11 BB in 21.2 IP) + gopheritis (5 in 4 games) has us thinking Atlanta signed some 1/2 price sushi. The K’s are intriguing but he has to be downgraded to matchup starter vs. start every game.
Manny Parra – 5 IP, 1 ER. Hey, I’m a fan, but frankly this could’ve been a five earned game just as easily.
Jose Valverde – Got the save but was noticeably limping. Cuddle Boy, Hawkins should be held for now.
Andy Sonnanstine – 4 IP, 7 ER. The A’s whooped that trick.
B.J. Upton – 0-for-4, .156 on the season. While J. Up is all upside, B. Up is not this bad.
Justin Masterson – 5 1/3 IP, 1 ER. Keeping walks down and Ks up. Hopefully, Dice-K doesn’t take the bullet train back.
Pablo Sandoval – 4-for-4, HR, now batting .292. Hope everyone held out hope where he was eligible at catcher. He’s stocky (read: fat) but doesn’t have that much power. My preseason projections gave him 14 homers and a .300 average. Still sounds about right.
Jered Weaver – 7 shutout innings leaves him at 2-1 with good ERA, WHIP, solid K rate (almost 8 per 9 IP) and, most importantly, he’s not another Angel pitcher with a broken wing. Only owned in 87% of ESPN leagues. Seems to be underrated – maybe because of his brother?
Jordan Zimmermann – 5 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 Ks. No weepstakes here so far. Very impressive start against the Mets. He won’t obviously stay below a 3 ERA, but while teams try to figure him out, he could coast to a solid 1st half.
Jarrod Washburn – 5 1/3 IP, 6 ER. Looks like someone let my Fantasy Baseball Buy/Sell get in their head.
Joakim Soria & Brandon Morrow – Both have sore shoulders that – for now – are just day-to-day. (Soria + Morrow = Sorrow?) Morrow seems ready to go for next game where Soria might be due back middle of next week. Might be worth playing Aardsma and Juan Cruz in deep leagues or if you need saves.
Derrek Lee – Removed because of neck spasms. When you’re batting .197, you’re snapping your neck from the pitcher to the catcher a lot.
Ross Ohlendorf – Outdueled Peavy to go to 2-2 with a 3.24 ERA. We really want to root for a guy with such a fun last name to say but his crazy low K rate (10 K in 25 IP) hints at a pitcher who’ll get flogged sooner vs. later and often vs. seldom.
Aaron Laffey – Won his 2nd game this week since being called up from the minors. He’s far from a K guy but he is throwing a lot of ground balls right now. Consider him for spot starts but he’s more likely to earn a full-time spot this year on a Razzball staff right now vs. a real fantasy baseball staff (real fantasy baseball staff – is that an oxymoron?)
Armando Galarraga – Now at 3-0 with a 1.85 ERA. Guess the fact we named him #1 most risky pitcher motivated him or something. He’s K-ing nearly a guy an inning which is above last years 6.35/9 IP rate. We haven’t flipped positions on him just yet but getting there.
Shawn Hill – To the 15-day DL. Hmm… maybe he’s part Drew?
Chris Ray – Sherrill won’t see saves in back-to-back games according to the O’s. Then again, according to the O’s they have a major league pitching staff.
Adam Jones – 3-for-4, HR and 1st steal of the year. The steals will come and the power will continue. He’s not a sell candidate, unless you’re against Prop 420.
