Jake Fox

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Top 10 Utility Players, 2011 Fantasy Baseball

| 2011 Fantasy Baseball Draft, 2011 Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 47 Comments

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We fill out the 2011 fantasy baseball rankings with the last few hitters, the top 10 utility players for 2011 fantasy baseball.  These players are only eligible at DH aka Utility.  Frankly, I don’t think you should draft any of these designated hitters.  They don’t allow enough flexibility.  For example, what if you had Travis Hafner clogging up your Utility spot last year and you really wanted to pick up Jose Bautista?  You would’ve been wretched, retching on all fours to borrow from The Decemberists.  These guys have no position eligibility for fantasy baseball.  As with past rankings posts, this top 10 for 2011 will be broken up into tiers, and their 2011 projections will be included.  Anyway, here’s the top 10 utility players for 2011 fantasy baseball:

1.

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Bats On The Pelfrey

| Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 101 Comments

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Mike Pelfrey went from totally chic to totally geek in the matter of 4 starts.  Last night, he dropped a 4 2/3 IP, 7 ER bomb and now he’s staring at nickels.  Pardon the wavy lines as we jump in The Way Back Machine and see what I said in April, “His K-rate prior to 2010 was pretty poor.  Even this year, it’s only a little above his career mark.  His biggest adjustment so far seems to be his ability to avoid the homer ball and leave men on base.  He can be usable as a 4th fantasy starter, especially in Metco.”  And that’s me copying and pasting me!  Nothing’s really changed other than he’s no longer leaving men on base, his homers have gone up (literally) and his lack of Ks are catching up to him.  Hmm… Maybe some stuff has changed.  He had a 1.98 ERA at Metco prior to last night, so that’s still a nice matchup start, but Pelfrey is no longer a must own.  At 109 IP on the year and only 67 Ks, he’s a notch below Jon Garland in K-rate.  I just popped a zit in the mirror and spelled out, “You can probably do better than Pelfrey.”  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Jose Reyes – Supposed to return on Tuesday.  I really want to believe this, but the Met doctors are a joke.  Did they go to that med school Steve Guttenberg went in Bad Medicine?

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Rollins With The Homies

| Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 315 Comments

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Jimmy Rollins went 0-for-4 in his return from the DL.  After the game, Charlie Manuel said… Actually, no one’s sure because he was chewing a piece of straw at the time.  I wouldn’t just yet start blowing your vuvuzela at your TV set that’s broadcasting the Philly game expecting an explosive 2nd half from Rollins.  J-Roll lost 16 steals from 2008 to 2009 and is now 31-years-old and on a bad set of wheels.  He’s in a great place to succeed — the Philly lineup and hitter-friendly Citizens Flank.  In a half a season, you may only get 10/15 with a .270 average.  It’s nice, but this isn’t your slightly older brother’s NL MVP anymore.  This is a guy that is one poor 2nd half away from plummeting in the shortstop rankings.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Jamie Moyer – 8 IP, 1 ER, 3 baserunners, 5 Ks.  He attributes his success to how well he prepares for each opponent.  Here he is checking the Indians’ scouting report.

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Sox Programmers Enable Perfect Nava Script

| Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 114 Comments

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The 27-year-old, no-name rookie, Daniel Nava, came out of nowhere, hitting a grand slam on the first major league pitch he saw.  This all came after not making his college team, working as their equipment manager, finally playing college ball, going undrafted in the major league draft then being cut by the Chico Outlaws, which I believe is the minor league affiliate for Chico’s Bail Bonds.  Even his ESPN player photo makes it seem like he was in the Witness Protection Program.  Shoot, maybe he is.  If so, I hope Hermida starts his car for him.  Eventually, Nava caught on with the Outlaws, impressed the Sawx and the rest is history.  Nava is old for a rookie and his success at the majors may be short-lived, but he showed a good eye in the minors with modest pop.  He could be a flash-in-the-pan, but he’s worth grabbing in AL-Only leagues and monitoring in mixed leagues.  He may get bumped when Ellsbury returns and then it’s back to egg noodles and ketchup.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Josh Beckett – Played catch from 90 feet.  Guess when he returns he’s going to pitch from 2nd base.

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Blow Hard With A Vengeance

| Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 495 Comments

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Trevor Hoffman has been lights out all year.  Maybe he jumped in the Cocoon pool.  Octavio Dotel?  The post office said they’re going to a five day week because of cutbacks and the amount of fan mail coming in for Dotel.  Now hold the preceding up to a mirror.  Dotel as a Pirate has done nothing except plunder his fantasy owners’ goodwill.  Even Roger ain’t Jolly.  The Hoff looks drunk.  And Trevor too.  The pickups for this duo of dud is Carlos Villanueva, Joel Hanrananananan, Brendan Donnelly, Evan Meek, Hawkins, Coffey, Shelley Duvall, the guy at Subway that kinda skeeves you out, the Polish Sausage in the 7th inning stretch race and Cher.  Pick them up in that order.  For full disclosure, I grabbed Hanaranananan because Villanueva was taken in all of my leagues.  I didn’t go deeper than that.  Some shituations just aren’t worth the ulcer.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Garrett Jones – 2-for-7, 1 RBI.  After his first four at-bats yielded 4 Ks, Robot really turned it on.  Fool him 5 times, shame on Robot.

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The 2010 Montero Has Been Recalled

| Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 299 Comments

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Miguel Montero is out with a torn meniscus.  I can think of other cuss words that his owners may be thinking right now.  A knee problem seems like a bad thing for a guy who’s supposed to be crouching for 9 innings.  Like a can’t-Catch 22.  Montero was a popular sleeper pick to enter the premium catcher tier of Mauer/Martinez/McCann after a strong 2nd half, but the only thing he’ll have in common is the M factor.  It’s unclear if he’ll be out for at least a month or longer.  Either way, Snyder now has a full time gig.  And that’s about where the good news ends.  Don’t get caught up in the Montero afterglow.  Snyder has a career .233 average in over fourteen hundred at-bats and averages about 15 homers over a full season of ABs.  So, ya know, you can probably do better even if Chris Snyder hit a homer yesterday with 5 RBIs in Arizona’s blowout (last time Arizona scored that much on Pittsburgh was the Super Bowl).  Actually, Snyder’s a surefire top 10 catcher if he gets 100 more games against the Pirates.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Frank Francisco – I go about buying closers like I buy wine.  I pick up a closer.  Swirl it around in my glass, take a quick waft and whiff then I guzzle it.  Two Buck Chuck tastes the same to me as a twenty-year-old Bordeaux.  In fact, I don’t even know if a twenty-year-old Bordeaux is good.  I’m guessing and too lazy to Google it.  I’ll drink a red wine with chicken, a Chardonnay with a Nathan all-beef frank.  Doesn’t matter to me.  Mad Dog 20/20 and ice passes the “cheap and it will get me drunk” test.  So it’s only natural I ended up with a bunch of cheap closers.  Frank-Frank was one of them.  Belch.  Frank2 is out for the near future in favor of Neftali Feliz.  Could Feliz run with the job and end up having it all year?  Yup.  Frank-Frank went womp-womp.  I wouldn’t drop Francisco yet, except in the shallowest of leagues.

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Top 80 Outfielders for 2010 Fantasy Baseball

| 2010 Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 40 Comments

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I know most of you are champing/chomping at the bit for me to finish these facacta 2010 fantasy baseball rankings.  Well, the pitchers are right around the corner.  Some of these top 80 outfielders for 2010 fantasy baseball are long shots to make the club, but they might give you value if they do.  Or they might just give you value when they’re called up in the summer.  As Kanye West said, I’ll show you how I cook up summer in the win-turr.  As with the other rankings, where I see tiers start and stop are mentioned with my projections.  Anyway, here’s the top 80 outfielders for 2010 fantasy baseball:

61.

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The Cubs Have Been Out-Foxed

| 2010 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper | 50 Comments

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Usually on Fridays the royal we brings you fantasy baseball keepers, but we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for Jake Fox, the man who made the phrase “Unathletic like a fox” almost make sense.  Looks like the Cubs decided to unload their DH since they play in the National League, sending Jake Fox and Aaron Miles for Jeff Gray.  ($5 says the Cubs had Milton Bradley change his name to Aaron Miles to get rid of him.)  Now the A’s reporters can find and replace Cust’s name for Fox’s and just recycle old articles.  “Jack Cust Jake Fox homered and struckout in the A’s four-run seventh inning.”  Since Jake Fox has 3rd base eligibility in fantasy, it doesn’t really matter where the A’s play him.  DH him all you want.  Like a Newport cigarette, Jake Fox is now alive with pleasure.  Should now get 500 ABs.  This will either be terrific or all the people who were screaming to let The Fox out of his cage will suddenly realize The Fox needs to go back in the cage for batting practice.  I’m on the fence for how it’ll all work out once he’s exposed.  He’s not going to win a batting title, but he could be a cheap Branyan.  If that sounds boring, then you’re not in a 12 team league or deeper.  For 2010, I see a line of 75/24/85/.250 with the possibility of more on the power side.  Definitely worth a flier.  Let’s look at some other minor trades and how they’re going to affect 2010 fantasy baseball:

Billy Wagner – Stop three on the NL East Tour pulls into Atlanta.  Right on his heels, Takashi Saito was signed by the Braves, too.  Wagner will be the closer with Saito being the first pickup all Wagner’s owners make in April.  Wagner will be in the bottom of the donkey-corns to start the season and should be underrated on draft day.  He’s no guarantee to stay healthy but saves are saves are saves.

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Lincecum Shot, Mad-Bum The Lucky Recipient

| Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 112 Comments

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Tim Lincecum missed yesterday’s start vs. the Padres (there goes that 14 K start) and gave way to the Giants big-time rookie pitching prospect, Madison Bumgarner.  Lincecum should be back by this weekend.  A detailed Madison Bumgarner outlook can be found where it says, “Madison Bumgarner outlook.”  (Yeah, still haven’t figured out how to naturally link to something.  I feel like Buzz Bissinger.  Bleh!  What are these things you call links?  Bleh!

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