You Go Tell Rafael That I Ain’t Taking No Jive
David Robertson to the DL for three weeks with a left oblique strain. 2009 was the Year of the Oblique, then there was the Middle Infieluenza Outbreak of Twenty-Ten, and 2011 was a war between General Soreness and Major Discomfort. This year is The Closepocalypse. If you’re a closer and gonna go to the DL, at least get your make-believe plague right. (Oh no, I Can Haz Razzburger has taken over the site!!! Guys and four girl readers, picture the earth is a lolzpop, then this is The Closepocalypse. My apologies, but our advertisers asked if I could bring in more of the teenaged Asian girl demographic.) So Rafael Soriano will continue to get saves. I wouldn’t assume the Yankeensteins will just go to Robertson when he’s healthy, so it’s imperative and other serious-sounding words to grab Soriano. Bee tee dubya, it’s crazy how much Soriano sounds like Sanrio, right? Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Brett Lawrie – Got two marginal-to-bad strike calls on him and went DRUNK HULK on the ump. DRUNK HULK WISH UMP BAD THINGS LIKE HAVE TO TEACH FIELDING TO EDWIN ENCARNACION. I hope the fact that Lawrie was right about the lousy calls gives him solace when he gets his 5-10 game suspension.
Freddie Freeman – Day-to-day with corneal abrasion. I always thought corneal abrasion was being constipated after you ate corn. Eh, what do I know?
Kevin Youkilis – On Wednesday, he will begin a minor league assignment. That assignment is to re-injure himself so Middlebrooks can keep playing. If he fails, Middlebrooks will be back in the minors in a week.
Josh Beckett – 7 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 9 Ks. Nothing kills the inspiration for country song writing like a start vs. the Mariners.
Alfonso Soriano – Ended his HR drought on his 116th AB. He’s also at 1 SB. He went from 40/40 to probably 40 in 10 years.
Bryan LaHair – 1-for-4 with his 10th homer. *phone rings* “This is Grey.” “LaHair LaHere. Sell this!” *dial tone*
Chris Heisey – Has now started three games in a row and is 6 for his last 7. In mixed leagues, it’s still wait and see right now, but he’s got a nice bat if Dusty would stop chewing on his toothpick long enough to let him play.
Johnny Cueto – 4 IP, 5 ER and his ERA is still 1.89. Ridiculous. I wouldn’t freak out just yet, ERAs aren’t meant to be that low. Lance Lynn, “Shh!”
Matt Carpenter – 1-for-4 with his third homer as Berkman sat out sore. Well, at least I didn’t have to talk about Craig’s three hits. D’oh!
Jon Jay – Onto the DL with shoulder soreness. Carlos Beltran and Lance Berkman can shift over to CF if the Cards schedule all home games in 2007. Short of that, it’s going to be a blahtoon of Skip Schumacker and Shane “Reggie Cleveland All-Star” Robinson in CF. If you don’t have the DL room, feel free to drop Jay in shallow leagues.
Jason Motte – 1 IP, 1 ER as he blew his 2nd save, but Dolis returned volley with a run, so Motte got the win. With The Closepocalypse, it’s a wonder some games ever end.
Bartolo Colon – 6 2/3 IP, 4 ER, 12 baserunners, 3 Ks. Oh, no, Bartolo needs another collagen injection! FWIWuertz, there should be a DRUNK BARTOLO Twitter account.
Cliff Lee – Pitched 8 innings of one run, 10 K ball against the Astros, but he still couldn’t earn his 1st win of the year because of a blown save by Chad Qualls. Really? Chad Qualls? Fine, Papelbon needs a breather now and then but that’s the 2nd best option in the Phillies’ pen? Ruben Amaro is tugging on something and it ain’t no McGraw.
Hunter Pence – 3-for-5 with his 8th and 9th homers, raising his RBIs to 25. You can set your watch by Pence’s stats, and right now it’s 9:25.
Vance Worley – Scratched due to a sore arm. If it’s sore, stop scratching!
Mike Moustakas – Hit his 5th homer yesterday. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go… It’s Greek Lightning!
Colby Lewis – 5 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 10 baserunners, 4 Ks. We talk a bit about Colby later today in our podcast. You can hardly wait. No, you!
Scott Van Slyke – 0-for-4 as he got the start in the Dodgers’ outfield (and in the three hole), and will continue (to start in the outfield) while Kemp’s on the DL. In Triple-A this year, he had 8 homers and a .336 average, showing solid plate discipline, but that was in the PCL. Van Slyke looks like a ‘just okay’ grab for NL-Only leagues if you’re an outfielder down. I will say this, he’s a much better fielder than Bobby Bonilla’s son.
Jake Peavy – 5 1/3 IP, 6 ER, 11 baserunners, 4 Ks. Cruised through 5 innings against the tough Tiger lineup, then got blasted for six in the 6th. Ventura should’ve pulled him before he gave up the 3rd/4th/5th runs on a homer to Ryan friggin’ Raburn. I think Ventura went to pull him out and Peavy’s southern drawl reminded him of Nolan Ryan and he wanted him to suffer.
Travis Ishikawa – 3-for-4, 5 RBIs and 2 homers. Eh, he’s nothing but a deep NL-Only flyer. Does that make sensei? See, he is Sucky-san.
Jose Valverde – Left yesterday’s game with back stiffness that isn’t supposed to be serious. Too bad, I was hoping for a reason why he’s been so terrible all year. Octavio Dotel ended up saving the game after allowing two runs to be tacked onto Valverde’s line. Thanks, friend! I grabbed Benoit then dropped him immediately for Dotel. My figuring is Dotel has a bit more closer experience. He’s cagey! It could easily be Benoit who sees saves too. If anyone knows exactly which closer will be used while Valverde is on the mend, Dotel!
Max Scherzer – 4 IP, 5 ER. You know how they’re doing that dopey MLB cave thing where they take a bunch of fans and subject them to every inning of every game like it’s Clockwork Orange? I have a spinoff for MLB. Tell one guy, while he’s been cooped up in the fan cave for the last two months, the entire west coast was wiped out due to an earthquake. Then compare that heart rate with his when he owns both Scherzer and Gallardo in fantasy.
Anthony Bass – 8 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 7 Ks. This comes two starts after he gave up 6 ER to Miami, so I’d grab Bass, but get ready to throw him back.
Josh Johnson – 7 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks with his first win, but second quality start in a row. By Josh, I think he’s got it! Sorry, that’s terrible.
Omar Infante – 4-for-5, 1 run and 2 RBIs. Okay, I’d trade you Zack Cozart for Infante right now. Can we make that happen?
Bryce Harper – 1-for-4 with his 2nd homer in as many games. On the bright side, ESPN’s 24 hour Harper news cycle has a 2nd highlight.
Stephen Strasburg – 4 IP, 4 ER, 9 baserunners, 5 Ks. The sub-par start was due to him being bothered by the ointment, Hot Stuff, in his groin area. Now when he’s pitching well, Nats fans can yell, “It’s da bomb!” and when he’s pitching poorly, they can yell, “It’s da balm!”
Ervin Santana – 7 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners, 9 Ks. Pitchers like Ervin should have their own category. They’re not Hodgepadres. They’re not Marginers. They’re mixed league starters that are must-starts against weaker offenses, then you pray in other starts. Maybe you suggest a glossary term in the comments.
Albert Pujols – 3-for-4, 2 RBIs. And just like that he’s hitting .212! Yeah, that’s still not so good.
Mike Trout – 3-for-4, 3 runs and a slam (3) and legs (3). Maybe he can have a half of a blurb on the ticker right when ESPN HARPER is going to commercial.
Adam Jones – 2-for-3, 2 runs and also a slam (11) and legs (6). Let’s play a little game. Who’s higher on the Razzball Player Rater? Ryan Braun or Jones? Bruce or Jones?
Wei-Yin Chen – 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 4 Ks. Lowered his ERA to 2.45 but unless I lowered my standards (see what I did there?) I wouldn’t pick him up in a mixed league.
Elliot Johnson – 2-for-4, I’m not going to point out again that he’s hot but I will point out that I’m not pointing out that he’s hot.
Alex Cobb – Sounds like he could take Niemann’s spot in the rotation. He didn’t exactly shine last year in his call-up (6+ K/9, 3.90 xFIP), but in the minors he was able to push his K-rate towards 9 with decent ratios. In AL-Only leagues, I’d grab him if you need to *pinkie to mouth* Cobble together some pitching. And that was corny on the Cobb. I’m on a roll! Literally, it’s pumpernickel.
Derek Lowe – 9 IP, 0 ER, 10 baserunners, 0 Ks vs. Twins. It was throwback day at Target Field. Derek Lowe pitched like it was 2002, and the Twins hit like it was the Dead Ball Era.
Michael Brantley – 2-for-4 with a steal. Now hitting around .350 in the last week with one steal. Well, it’s better than batting .150 with nothing. Hey, Hosmer!
Shin Soo-Choo – 2-for-4, 2 runs, 1 RBI and his 2nd homer. He was Soo-Overdue.
A.J. Pierzynski – 5-for-5. 3 RBIs, 2 runs with 4 singles and a double. Solid year for A.J. (.288, 24 RBIs is 4 more than Konerko) although I keep thinking he’s on Arizona. That’s A.J. Pollock which is really close depending on how you pronounce it.
Yoenis Cespedes – Cleared for all baseball activities except hitting. Cool, he can spit and grab himself now.
Manny Ramirez – Billy Beane knows that the Johnny Gomes show isn’t going to do too well in summer re-runs so get ready for May 30th when Manny brings his brand of zany mediocrity to Oakland’s part-time DH slot. His show is called, “Once Too Manny” with Jerry Blevins as The Bleaver.
