Despite his unfortunate name, Homer Bailey pitched the first Reds’ no-hitter since 1988 last night, completely shutting down the Pirates down-and-out offense, allowing just 2 base runners on an error and a walk and striking out a career high 10 batters. If you were lucky enough to be streaming Bailey last night, pat yourself on the back. Well done, Homer Bailey probably just won your fantasy league for you. Alternately, H2H players going against those streaming him may have just lost their season on account of Homer’s gem. My condolences — so sorry for your loss. There’s always next year. Maybe you’ll draft Homer Bailey as a late round bargain in 2013, but more likely you will always have a deep hatred for him. Regardless, Bailey has been an adequate-to-decent fantasy option this year. He’s had the best season of his young career (he’s still just 26), managing 13 wins with a 3.75 ERA and 162 Ks. He lowered his ERA to under 4 for the first time in his career (4.59 career ERA). Homer’s been especially good in the stretch with a 2.52 ERA, 3 wins and 32 Ks in 6 starts in September. Pro tip!* That will help your fantasy team! When Mr. and Mrs. Bailey named Homer so many years ago they first prayed to the fantasy gods that their son would become the greatest slugger baseball had ever seen. But little Homer hit adolescence and went all Jonathan “Mox” Moxon on his father, and was like “I don’t want — your life!” and confessed to his dad that he preferred pitching to hitting. Homer’s father shunned his son for his treachery, and Homer left town to become a star. Bailey’s dream finally came to fruition pitching the first no-hitter of his career and late last night he got a phone call from his old dad, “You done good, kid.” he said, and hung up the phone. Isn’t that special? Homer Bailey pitched the seventh no-hitter in 2012, after Phillip Humber, Jered Weaver, Johan Santana, Kevin Millwood and five Mariners relievers who combined for the no-no and whose names have been cut due to spacing issues, Matt Cain and Felix Hernandez. Quite a list of pitchers to belong to and looking back it’s been quite a season, I’ll be mighty sad to see it go and — aw shucks, getting all teary eyed so thinking about it let’s just get right to it, your final Friday recap of 2012!
Here’s what else happened Friday night in fantasy baseball:
A.J. Burnett – 8.0 IP, 1 ER, 5 Ks. I know you hate him — but he’s been a completely different pitcher since he left New York for Pittsburgh, a top 25 pitcher even. So maybe, hate him less next year?
Chris Tillman – 8.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 4 Ks and his 9th win. Lots of pitchers pitched well last night, but since most will not get a second start before the fantasy season ends it’s not worth mentioning it to you. So forget I said anything about Chris Tillman.
Mark Buehrle – 8.0 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 8 Ks. Always has a better year than I think he will, aka he pitches over my head.
Giancarlo Stanton – 2-for-3 with his 35th HR in his first game back after missing nine games. Making up for some lost time, Giancarlo still loves his fantasy owners. He now has more home runs than he had last year in over 30 less games played. (Fantasy pro tip!* Draft Giancarlo Stanton, he will hit home runs).
Cliff Lee – 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 5 Ks. It took him until the end of August, but The Adverb finally came around to his old low WHIP-ing self. He should be a real bargain on draft day next year.
Bryce Harper – 2-for-3 with a run. If he’s this good in the regular season just imagine how good he’s going to be in the playoffs?! He’ll be like, Mike Trout good!
Allen Craig – 4-for-4 with 2 runs and 2 RBIs as the Cardinals smashed the Nats with 12 runs on 12 hits. The Wrench could be a huge steal in drafts next year. I get the feeling people don’t value him as much as they should. Perhaps it’s the playing time concerns, but more likely it’s the two first names.
Edwin Jackson – 1.1 IP, 7 H, 8 ER, 4 BB. Sigh. Edwin Jackson hates your fantasy team.
Lucas Duda – 2-for-3 with a 3-run HR, his 15th. The Duda-bides — every Friday! Shomer Shabbos! L’Shana tova!
Bobby Parnell – 1,0 IP, K, 6th save. Got his second save in as many days last night with a scoreless inning. In the closer post, I said Jon Rauch was most likely to get the chances — so of course the Mets go with Bobby Parnell. Ho hum. He is the better pitcher anyway. If you’re scraping for saves Parnell is likely available and could see another chance or two before the season ends.
Gavin Floyd – 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 Ks and his 11th win. It wasn’t that pretty (he walked five in the outing) but if you need a streamer for next week he gets the Injians so I guess you could do worse.
Alex Rios – 3-for-4 with his 25th HR. Rios is destined to be drafted too early next year. He’s batting .301 with 25 HRs and 23 SBs. Dios Mios Rios! Let someone else gamble on the chance he does it again in 2013.
Ichiro Suzuki – 2-for-5 with a SB. Ichiro is absolutely on fire right now. Who would of thought he’d be the one to carry the Yanks into the playoffs. In September, Ichiro’s batting .378 with 9 SB, 2 HRs, 15 Rs and 10 RBIs. Oh hello there. Where’d you say you were from again? Japan? That’s in Asia, right? No sorry, I don’t think I’ll be drafting you next year, but I sure wish I owned you right now.
Rajai Davis – 4-for-4 with 0 SB. That’s right, zero! Seriously, you were on base four times! You’re killing me Rajai! Worthless.
Jean Segura – 3-for-4 with a SB. See, Jeany boy knows what I’m talkin’ about.
Wilton Lopez – 1.1 IP, 2 R, 1 ER and his 9th save.Whew, that’s a little more like it. After converting 6 straight scoreless save opportunities in September I was starting to think something was wrong. If you need saves and Wilton is out there, he’s been as good as any other closer this month, and I’m finally willing to admit he’s worth picking up. In my last post of the season.
Justin Upton – 2-for-4 with the slam (16) and legs (17). J-Ups continues to perform well since the trade. My trade. I traded him away. Everywhere. As bad as he was all season he’s had a pretty respectable September batting .294 with 5 HR and 4 SB. So yeah, I’ll probably draft him too early again next year. I’m all in on Upton!
Clayton Kershaw – 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 10 Ks. Oh, I’m sorry, sore hip, are you not feeling well? Don’t worry, Hip. You rest here while I go completely dominate the Rockies without/despite you.
A.J. Griffin – 5.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 Ks and his 7th win. Alfredo Jettucine Griffindor has struggled lately, but nothing like a home start at the coliseum to get you back on track and ready for the postseason (the home runs from Stephen Drew and Coco Crisp didn’t hurt either). Note to self: draft A’s pitchers next year. For reals, like, all of them.
Sanitago Casilla – 0.2 IP, 2 H and his 25th save. If this was Bruce Bochy’s way of giving Casilla a chance to get his job back, Santiago blew it. Not literally, he converted the save, his first since July 21(!), but I don’t think we’ll see Casilla get another chance to close it out this season. Maybe there is a method to Bochy’s madness!
Billy Butler – 2-for-4 with his 29th HR. Power has always been the issue with Butler and it looks like he found his power swing in 2012. He’s batting .315 on the season with 106 RBIs, and if Eric Hosmer decides to show up next season the counting stats could even see a bump. With the pool of first baseman for 2013 getting weaker and weaker, Billy B. could be worth targeting on draft day.
Nelson Cruz – 3-for-3 with a HR and 2 RBIs. I hate owning Nelly Cruz. Whenever I bench him he does his thing. SO, last night I had him benched all day but switched him into my lineup 2 minutes before first pitch. BAM! Dinger! I know, I know. I am a fantasy genius. As always, all questions asked will be answered in the comments!
Adrian Beltre – 2-for-4 with his 36th HR. Yo, Adrian, you did it! The 36 homers is his most since hitting 48 with the Dodgers in 2004. People are always wary Beltre is gonna burn them if he’s not in his contract year, and it’s time to give him the credit he deserves. Doode is an absolute beast, and he seems to be getting better with age. (Not that we’ll ever now what age that is exactly). He went to Seattle and died a little inside, but when he left he was reborn and has hit 96 HRs in 3 seasons since leaving Safeco. He’s the top third baseman on the player rater (outside of just Miggy and Edwin who are also eligible at 1B), and what impressed me the most was him coming back from injury so soon to absolutely mash. Yo Adrian, you did it. You the man again.
Mark Trumbo – 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs. He’s Aliiiiiive! His first multi-hit game since August 30. Ugh, where you been all month, Trums? The Halos needed you. Mike Trout needed you.
Mike Trout – 2-for-5 with his 29th HR. It seems only fitting that I end the Friday night recaps the way they started: by fawning over Mike Trout. Oh, the hits, the homers, the steals… the memories. I was totally hooked on Mike Trout all season long. And I’m gonna miss him most of all. The Catatafish totally called that one.
Good luck to all in the finals —I hope everyone wins everything equally! Friday night baseball returns next season, all season long!
