Sounds like Jacoby Ellsbury will be out until the All-Star Break. Break being the key word. The Boston Globe reported that Ellsbury has, “a non-displaced rib fracture and edema in the left posterior-axillary line.” Ribs and edema? What’s that, a fusion Japanese-rib joint? The doctors didn’t find a blooming onion in there? Member in the preseason when I said you could have Ellsbury ten rounds later in Borbon? Borbon has not endeared himself in fantasy owners’ hearts yet, but he’s picking up his game of late, Ellsbury can’t pick himself out of a chair. Gotta hold Ellsbury if you have DL room and hope for a big 2nd half. I do have my doubts though about how well a guy is going to be able to steal, most specifically slide, when this latest injury happened diving for a ball. The good news is if you listened to me, you didn’t draft Ellsbury. Right? Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Carlos Santana – Getting called up for Friday’s game. Yes, the same catcher the Indians were waiting until August to bring up. Yes, the Indians were messing with you. Where do you think Justin Masterson: Passive Aggressive Fantasy Starter learned it from? As I’ve already said on the blog, I don’t expect the 2nd coming of Mike Piazza. At least not this year. Think about what you got from Matt Wieters last year. Shoot, think about what you got from him this year. If you’re starting Joe Schmohawk at catcher, sure, take a chance on some upside. I think he can give a bit more power than Posey, but they’re in the same ballpark. No, not literally. For this year, I’d give him a .280 average and 13 homers. Actually, I already wrote that. Here’s my Carlos Santana fantasy. In keepers, he should be owned already. If not, grab him immediately.
Todd Wellemeyer – Injured his leg. Giants have been looking for a reason to bring up Madison Bumgarner. This is probably as good a reason as any. I’ll go over Bumgarner in detail in this afternoon’s Buy/Sell. He’s a Buy, but by (stutterer!) how much?
Mat Latos – 6 IP, 2 ER, 3 baserunners, 8 Ks. As many other teams this year, the Mets proved to be Latos intolerant. Hodgepadre or no hodgepadre, he should be started everywhere at this point.
Tyler Clippard – On his mantle, Clippard puts a save next to his 8 wins and autographed photo of ALF. Capps was just rested, no reason for alarm. This does show you there’s no reason to hold Storen for vulture saves.
Jon Niese – 9 IP, 0 ER, 1 Hit, 6 Ks. Not to take anything away from Niese (yes, that means I’m about to take something away from him), but this was vs. the Padres B lineup. Two Hairstons, Denorfia, Salazar, Torrealba and Zawadzki, which I believe is the most Polish a last name can be. Niese has been fantastic since he returned from the DL and gets the Indians next. I’d definitely give him a shot.
Mike Leake – 4 1/3 IP, 5 ER, 15 baserunners, 2 Ks. Well, you knew it was coming at some point. Or at least you should’ve known it was coming at some point. I’ve only been saying it for the last three weeks.
Max Scherzer – 7 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 6 baserunners, 7 Ks vs. White Sox. Nice start coming after he was shellacked by the peasant Royals. Really hard to start that kind of inconsistency. He reminds me of Kershaw. They have Ks, walks, bad pitch economy and youth. Scherzer shows a bit better control, but Kershaw has a better league/park. Then Kershaw has the best K/9 for starters with more than 50 innings and Scherzer is around 40th and even Edward Woodward can’t equalize that.
Gordon Beckham – 1-for-2 with a double. I didn’t see the double, but I’m guessing the Tigers were playing the Beckham defensive shift, which is the outfielders go for pizza and life-sized, cardboard replicas fill-in for them.
John Danks – 7 IP, 5 baserunners, 1 Hit, 4 Ks. Now has a 3.27 ERA on the year. His K-rate has rebounded this year and his ground balls are up, um, down, um… His ground ball percentage is up. The homers per fly balls is lucky, but he should keep his ERA respectable enough to meet your mother.
Alex Rodriguez – Left the game with a stiff groin. Was Jeter doing calisthenics near him? A-Rod will see a doctor today. My guess is he will miss a few days. When I was fifteen and had stiffness in my groin, I’d go missing for weeks.
Kevin Youkilis – Left the game with a back spasm. He’s day-to-day. Or Day II Day, if you’re into R&B.
Jake Arrieta – 6 IP, 3 ER, 8 baserunners, 6 Ks. Before you get crazy with yourself, this game could’ve been much worse. He escaped a bases loaded jam in the 6th by striking out Marcus Thames. I still don’t think you should get involved with Arrieta outside of AL-Only or keeper leagues. Unless you wanna get roofied.
Josh Johnson – 8 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners, 5 Ks vs. Halladay. I’d say he beat the best pitcher in baseball, but on the surface that seems like Ubaldo. Josh Johnson, however, has a better K-rate than Halladay and Ubaldo and his ERA is 1.91. Johnson is actually making a case for the best pitcher in the NL.
Corey Hart – 2-for-3 and his NL-leading 16th homer. Will he never surrender the NL HR lead? Doubt it. But it’s worth noting that it’s like he’s hitting with a 2-iron. Since May 1st, he’s hit 12 HRs and hitting over 55% fly balls (career mark is 43% percent). The only guys equal or ahead of him are Mark Reynolds, Jose Bautista, and Jayson Werth. If he keeps it up, expect a strong HR pace with a very streaky average.
Ryan Theriot – 3-for-5 and his 13th steal as he gets the start over the other Silent T. Now has four steals in the last four games. Or as I like to say, “Two more than Alcides has all season.”
Matt Lindstrom – Missed the game with a stiff back. Well, you Lindstrom, you lose some. I grabbed Lyon all over the place just in case the stiff back becomes a “I can’t come back,” but it looks like Lindstrom will be fine to go on Friday.
Trevor Cahill – 8 IP, 1 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks. Now has a 2.91 ERA on the year. Whatever, I still don’t buy it. You say stubborn, I say obstinate, let’s call the whole thing off.
Brian Roberts – Given his third epidural. Betcha he wishes he chose natural childbirth. My guess is he’ll return in September for a few days just to mock his fantasy owners.
David Hernandez – Got his first save as Juan Samuel finally instilled some common sense into the O’s bullpen and removed the LOOGY from the ninth inning. Trembley should’ve been fired for that alone. Do I think Hernandez runs with the job and forces the O’s to put a memorial park in center with his statue in it? No, probably not. I don’t think Hernandez even gets out of June still saving games, but grab him now and ask questions later. He is the closer, which in the O’s bullpen is also known as the tallest midget.
Brett Cecil – 6 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 2 Ks. At some point, you’re just gonna have to start all your Blue Jay pitchers in every start.
Carlos Pena – Guess what he did yesterday? Yup.
Miguel Montero – Will return this weekend. It’s gonna get awkward around the clubhouse when no one is returning Chris Snyder’s phone calls.
Chad Qualls – 1/3 IP, 4 ER, 5 H. What song comes on when he enters a game? Daydream Reliever? A song from Billy Joel’s ‘Turnstiles’ album? Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Qualls?”
Tommy Hanson – 5 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 10 Ks as he threw 121 pitches. Although, it should be noted that every time he got 3 strikes on the batter, Hanson insisted the umpires let him go to a 5 strike count a’la King Kong Bundy. This comes just one game after Kenshin Kawakami introduced a new pitch that blows green smoke into batters’ eyes.
