Francisco Liriano went four innings and gave up seven runs against a team that absolutely kills lefties in Fenway. Let’s run down his 3-year averages for the months of the season, starting with April: 6.93, 1.99, 1.51, 2.31, 1.13 and 4.36. You think he might need some time to get going? His April combined ERA for the last 3 years, not including this year, is almost 7. His combined May through August ERAs are under 2. Are you kidding me? Heffin’ hey, trade for him! This might be the best buy you find right now. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Kurt Suzuki – First HR of the season yesterday. He hit one HR through the middle of June last year. What is everyone doing at Yankee Stadium? Is it the Macarena? The Electric Slide? No, it’s The Jetstream!
Justin Verlander – 5 IP, 7 ER. It’ll get better, but it’s not going to get much better to make him a buy candidate.
Joe Saunders – 5 IP, 5 ER. Take out the Liquid Paper; more corrections to come.
Andre Ethier – Hit his 5th HR yesterday. Frankly, sometimes I’m wrong. (17% of the time!) I had my doubts about whether he would produce this year, but he’s doing it.
Hunter Pence – 4th homer, 3rd steal in yesterday’s game. Marching towards 25/15 and top 30 outfielder status.
Francisco Cordero – 6th save, 1.29 ERA. Member he was a mess in spring training? Uh-huh.
Kevin Gregg – 1 IP, 1 ER, 6.43 ERA. Member he was a mess in– Oh, wait.
Johnny Cueto – 7 IP, 0 ER. 2.55 ERA on the season. In the preseason, I said I was higher on Cueto this year than Volquez. I wasn’t joking.
Milton Bradley – 0-for-4, 3 Ks. Batting .043 so far this season when he shows up healthy and it’s not raining. Cubs fans were booing him yesterday like he was Bartman and a goat’s love child.
Willy Taveras – 0-for-2, batting .268. Wait, he’s no longer batting .400? Ah, dim the lights in Ted Williams’s freezer for one more year.
David Purcey – 5 1/3 IP, 3 ER. Still burping.
Omar Vizquel/Ian Kinsler/Andruw Jones – Is there anyone not batting over .400 on the Rangers? Oh, Salty B. Davis.
Jair Jurrjens – 7 2/3 IP, 0 ER. 1.42 ERA on the year. I really like Jar-Jar this year. I don’t think his ERA stays anywhere near where it is, obviously. But he can keep it around 3.75 with some Ks.
Adam Dunn – 0-for-4. Oh, well. .300’s in the rear view.
Scott Baker – 4 2/3 IP, 6 ER. Someone’s having a bit of a problem with the long ball. If you had to ask me if he’s going to rebound in May like CC last year, or if he’s going to become completely unusable like Gorzelanny. I’d take Gorz and June as the under. I think Baker’s headed for the Disgraceful List. You don’t give up 7 home runs in 8 and two-thirds and just suddenly say, “Hey, you know what? I just realized I was supposed to be throwing the ball harder. And in better locations.”
Brian Bannister – Maybe he just likes pitching in April. Pumpkin’s ETA is one week.
Josh Fields – HR, 3-for-5, batting in the 2 hole. If this sticks, and, with Ozzie, anything’s possible, this could boost Fields’s value a lot.
Carlos Villanueva – Back as the setup man. Only he was setting up Todd Coffey. The Baron, frequent commenter/guest poster, pegged Coffey as an out of nowhere closer that gets 30 saves this year as Hoffman continues to get injured. Not as crazy as it sounds.
Chris Young – 7 IP, 6 baserunners, 0 ER. I like him; you know that. But it sure don’t hurt when there’s only one guy in the opposing starting lineup hitting .300.
John Danks – 7 IP, 1 ER. I feel like this guy isn’t getting the respect he deserves. So far I’ve mentioned him in two of three Fantasy Baseball Buy/Sells as a Buy. I put him as a starter to target in the preseason. What do I have to do? Help me, help you.
John Maine – 5.2 IP, 5 ER. Outdueled by Joel Pineiro. I just vomited onto my wall and it reads, “Punt.”
B.J. Ryan – 1 IP, 3 ER. Downs wasn’t much better making this a save situation in the first place by giving up a run.
Rafael Soriano – Got the save yesterday. It was a tied game and Cox brought in his lefty closer into a tight game to face a tough lefty. Don’t need to read too much into it. Soriano’s 2nd in line, we knew that already though.
LaTroy Hawkins – Joey Valgreen’s decomposing right before our ojos – bad back, ankle, and calf. We have no faith whatsoever in Hawkins but if he asked us to the SAGNOF dance, we’d accept the offer. If you’ve got Valverde, go buy yourself some LaTroy Handcuffs…
Jay Bruce – Another HR. This time I had him in my lineup. Bruuuuuce!
Jeremy Guthrie – 6 IP, 5 ER. Gotta know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em. His team gives him no chances for wins, he faces the top offenses in baseball all the time, he doesn’t strikeout that many guys and he’s only a 4 ERA pitcher to begin with. You win, world of Guthrie haters. Are you happy?
Melky Cabrera – 2 HRs yesterday. 4 HRs in 23 ABs this year. Everybody, come on! We’re doing The Jetstream! (What? Trying too hard?)
