Roy Oswalt pulled something in his back and is presumably headed to the DL. The bad news here is he was supposedly a 2nd half pitcher in some people’s minds, though my mind wasn’t yet made up. It’s a guy’s prerogative to change his mind, or just not make it up at all. As someone who has struggled with lower back pain for most of his adult life… Oh, who am I kidding? I’m fit as a fiddle. I once dwarf bowled a 170. (Of course, he helped by kicking over that 7-10 split.) Wait, what was I saying? Oh, yeah! Oswalt. Yeah, he’s off to see a back specialist, the Astros are calling up Bud Norris, hopefully related to Chuck. Bud Norris might sound familiar to some of youse. Why? Cause I just said his name in the previous sentence. Hello, Mr.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Randy Johnson
Yesterday, Shane Victorino went 4-for-5, 4 RBIs, 5 Runs scored and his 6th homer. For anyone who read the roundups last year, you’re probably wondering where my Victorino love went. Last year, Victorino was my ’09 Mark Reynolds. I saw good value in Victorino last year and pushed him on everyone. Unfortunately, he met expectations, performed well, his value skyrocketed and I don’t have him on any team this year. This will be the story next year when I rarely mention Reynolds. I won’t own him because he’ll be drafted too high in 2010. Alas, the story of the fantasy baseball ‘pert. Your loves are forever changing. One year Jeremy Guthrie, the next year Wandy Rodriguez. Behind the ‘stache lies a fickle man! But I still gots love for Victorino. My only concern is how low his steals are this year. Sitting — literally — on 13 steals. So run. You’re The Flying Hawaiian for a reason, not The Taro Masher, poi! Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Ryan Howard – The Phils scored 22 runs. Howard went 1-for-4, no Runs and one RBI. Ticker Tease!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Chris Davis was sent to the minors last night to make room for Josh Hamilton. In the preseason, Bill James’s projections for Chris Davis were 107/40/118/.302/8. I thought that was a tad optimistic. And “tad optimistic” there is like saying, “Hey, this Ben Affleck movie might be okay.” Those predictions and the proceeding hype sent Davis’s ADP through the roof. To the point where I decided to punt 3rd base in all of my drafts and take Mark Reynolds. I went over why in this preseason post. Now I’m not saying I wasn’t at fault either. Back in December, I said Davis was a sleeper when he was going after Zimmerman, Huff and Atkins. When the hype picked up, I backed off. Though I did give Davis pretty generous preseason numbers too at 75/30/95/.275/3. But I have a fantasy baseball blog; I’m not Bill James. I think someone should ping Bill James (the kids say ping, ask one what it means) and say, “Hey, Bill, big fan. Lots of great stuff through the years. Sorry to ping you this late, but a few quick rhetorical questions. Chris Davis? Seriously? Did you not follow the ruler across the paper correctly on Pujols’s name?” In the Better News Dept., David Murphy should get more time now that Davis is gone as Blalock moves to first. Though I’m not sure how long Blalock can stay healthy playing that demanding of a position. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Psyche!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Where do the starters exit the stadium when the game’s over because I’m a groupie for strikeout heavy pitchers, i.e., Grey’s high on a high K/9, i.e., ergo, henceforth, vis-a-vis, I’d own these starters. Why the hearts on the notebook, Grey?
Please, blog, may I have some more?Well you came and you gave without taking but I sent you away, oh Wandy….Wandy Rodriguez yesterday gave up four homers in five innings. That was one way to correct an abnormal home run rate. This is three starts now that he’s been rocked. His owners got a bye on the first one because they were called unearned runs.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Carlos Zambrano in his own special way welcomed the Cubs new arrival, Jake Fox, with a shizzfit of epic proportions. Zambrano was ejected for bumping an ump, I especially enjoyed when the ump ejected him and he then ejected the ump. I’m out of order?
Please, blog, may I have some more?Last week in a barrage of me making sense, I looked at fantasy starters whose ERAs will get worst. Well, do onto others or turnabout is fair play or some other cliché leads me to this post — the inverse of last week’s or fantasy baseball starters who will get better. If you weren’t around last week, I mentioned what FIP is; don’t really feel like going into it again and regular readers will tire anyway, so go back and read last week’s. Anyway, here’s a list of pitchers with the biggest difference between their actual ERAs and their FIPs.
Please, blog, may I have some more?I was alerted yesterday in our fantasy baseball forums that Ozzie Guillen will be sitting Alexei Ramirez for Jayson Nix. And it may not be for just one game. This makes perfect sense. A guy who has never played a game at shortstop in the major leagues. A guy who got the Rockies starting job at 2nd last year and hit .125 and 2 extra-base hits in 56 ABs. A guy who couldn’t hold off Omar Quintanilla for the utility man role in Colorado. A guy whose last name says it all.
Please, blog, may I have some more?In yesterday’s game, Matt Kemp had 2 HRs and 5 RBIs. On the season, he’s batting .383 with 3 HRs, 14 RBIs, 12 Runs and 4 steals. The 7th spot in the order is killing his value like Daniel Craig killed the Bond series. Kemp’s a solid choice for NL MVP and I could see him moving to the 1st round next year for fantasy baseball drafts. He said in the preseason that he wanted to go 40/40. Can he actually do it? Like Chris Young, it’s a tall order. You don’t fall into 40/40 and, in Chavez Ravine, it’s not going to be easy for the 40 homers. But the fact he wants to steal 40 bases is telling. Steals are partially about motivation. Sometimes guys just don’t want to steal (see Krispie Young in ’08). Other times, players pile steals on to show they can (Canseco’s 40/40 year). I doubt Kemp reaches 40 homers, but 30/30 with a .300 average isn’t crackers. We shall call him Sizemoremore. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Glen Perkins – 8 IP, 1 ER. You’re talking about a pitching who had a 4.41 ERA last year, but a FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) rate of 5.14. That’s pretty bad. Okay, I’m being generous. That’s awful. Yes, he was lucky to only have an ERA of 4.41. His MOLLY (Mitigating Of Lousy Loathsome Yuck) was 7. That means he got pretty lucky. So far this year his MOLLY is 9.9. His BABIP has been insanely lucky so far, his fly balls are all over the place yet falling into fielders’ gloves. He’s due for a regression. If you own him, you’re bound to get Mollywopped.
Please, blog, may I have some more?We’ve gone over whether or not you should grab a starter early, Rudy’s fantasy baseball strategy says sure, why not? My fantasy baseball strategy says not so much. Whichever strategy you subscribe to, you’re still going to need some late round value. The top 20, 40, 60 and 80 starters for 2009 fantasy baseball can be found under the 2009 fantasy baseball rankings. As I used to call Cliff Notes in college, this is a companion piece. If you click on some of the player’s names, you’ll see whole posts dedicated to these doodes with 2009 fantasy baseball projections. Anyway, here’s some starters to target for 2009 fantasy baseball:
Manny Parra – I hesitated to put Kershaw on this list because of his walks, but the same could be said about Parra, and, in a roundabout way, I just did. The deciding factor was Kershaw is a bit more expensive at drafts than Parra.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
