Shelby Miller is living the high life. Major league success, fame, fortune… and twins! Everything’s coming up Shelby. He was masterful last night, tapping the Rockies in a complete game, 1-hit shutout with 13 strikeouts. The 13 Ks was a career high and Miller time is now. It’s been an amazing start for the rookie, but this was easily his best performance so far. He gave up a hit to Eric Young Jr. to start the game and then proceeded to retire the next, oh I don’t know…27 batters! Sweet sassy molassy! That’s called dominance, folks. That’s not just a “Shelbyville” idea either, that’s what aces do, and Miller may well have proven himself last night as a legit fantasy ace. He was painting the corners with his fastball yesterday, showing pin point control and throwing serious cheese between 94-96 mph, dude was untouchable. Shelbs grabbed his fifth win and now has a 1.58 ERA with a 0.88 WHIP. The player rater has him as a top five overall pitcher. Yeah, he’s been that good, and it’s the 51/11 K/BB ratio that keeps me up at night thinking about him. He’s the champagne of pitchers and looks like the early favorite for rookie of the year honors. I had my own Shelby Miller fantasy last week and here’s what I said about him, “I believe the best is yet to come for Shelby Miller and have made some substantial offers for him in redraft leagues. I’m buying Miller if I can, even though I prefer Budweiser.” There may be some regression coming, but I expect Miller to continue his success going forward. No matter what beer you prefer to drink, or whether its Miller’s great taste, or the fact that he’s less filling that makes him so good, either way fantasy owners can agree that Shelby Miller has arrived and he’s here to stay.
Here’s what else happened in fantasy baseball Friday night:
Jon Lester – 9.0 IP, 1 hit, 0 ER, 5 K. After giving up 11 runs in his past three starts, Lestah rebounded in a big way. He was perfect through 6 innings until Maicier Izturis doubled in the 6th, but that was the only hit Lester would allow. Lester must have channeled his inner Shelby Miller, because he was untouchable last night, too. “Cahdinals! Owah 1-hittah was bettah and wickedah than yourah 1-hittah, no one denies this!” That was Ben Affleck. He’s a supah fan. It took Lester 118 pitches to record the complete game shutout; he’s 5-0 and he’s looking like a good bet to keep it rolling in Tampa next week.
Adam LaRoche – 2-for-4 with 2 runs. Adam’s got a seven-game hitting streak going and three straight multi-hit games since you dropped him. Some power would be nice to see, but this is a start.
Ian Desmond – 3-for-4, 3 runs, 3 RBI and his 5th HR. After he hit the homer he yelled to the ball as it sailed over the wall, “See you in another life, brotha!”
Starlin Castro – 2-for-5 with an RBI. My Starlin lead off last night as the Cubs faced a lefty. Generally, I like the idea of Castro leading off, it might even help his speed numbers. Manager Dale Sveum had been using David Sappelt in the role but nobody knew who that was and he eventually disappeared.
Jeff Samardzija – 5.0 IP, 8 hits, 7 R, 5 ER, 5 K and his 5th loss. You take the good, you take the bad, you take the Ks and then you have a Samardzi[expletive deleted]zjizjza.
Nick Swisher – 3-for-4, 2 runs, RBI. You know the sound the net makes when Kobe Bryant hits a jumper? It was kinda like that. The Injians can hit, people! Now let’s get some asses in those seats, Clevelanders! Your team is winning, and we know there’s not much else to do in Cleveland besides the Ikea and the Rock and Roll History Museum, so get to the ballpark!
Miguel Cabrera – 2-for-5, 3-run HR, his 7th. Prince Fielder also hit his 9th HR (a 460 foot shot, natch) because that’s what best friends do for each other.
Wandy Rodriguez -6.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 K. Way-Rod’s best start in over a month, but it was the Mess and he did surrender a HR to Anthony Recker, whoever that is. I’m keeping him on my bench next week vs. Milwaukee.
Shawn Marcum – 4.2 IP, 9 hits, 6 ER, 2 K. NOPE. Needed an MRI on his non-pitching hand after the game and his status for his next start is up in the air. Sounds like the Zack Wheelers are beginning to turn, at least in my head. Besides being the awesome thing to do, it would make sense too. Grey told you to BUY him so check out his Zack Wheeler fantasy, he wrote it in a van down by the river.
Garrett Jones – 3-for-5, 3-run HR, his 5th. He’s got a four game hitting streak with two homers and five RBIs in that span. Amazingly still available in about a quarter of leagues so get on that people.
Pedro Alvarez – 2-for-4, 1 run and a RBI. Hey, I remember you! From my nightmares! How ya been? Pedro now has back to back multi-hit games and hit a HR on Thursday so if your going to own him now’s the time. He’s about ready to pop.
Jayson Werth – Headed to the DL with a strained hamstring. The stint is backdated so he’ll be eligible to return on May 18. You can take this information for what it’s Werth.
Alex Cobb – 4.2 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, 13 Ks. Don’t call him corny! He had 9 Ks through the first three innings and had already thrown 74 pitches. Threw 117 pitches total but wasn’t able to pitch deep enough into the game to get the win. Still the 13 Ks sure are purdy.
Matt Joyce – 2-for-4, 2 runs. Grey told you to BUY him and he goes and hits, not one, but TWO baseballs last night. Happy happy, Matt Joyce. He will sit against lefties but could be worth a look in the right match-ups and is available in more than half of RCL leagues.
Carlos Quentin – 1-for-3 with his 3rd HR. Boo! Hiss! Jeer! He is the Pete Campbell of baseball. Somebody punch him. No, not you, Greinke.
Carlos Beltran – 2-for-4, 9th HR. Remember how good he used to be? How pretty that swing was? The pure power he possessed? Yeah, it’s all still there.
Nelson Cruz – 1-for-4, 8th HR. Continues his quest to destroy my soul because I owned him last year and stayed far away this year. My bad, Nelly. I’m hoping we can still be friends after this, but I really do not like you anymore. Shimmy shimmy coco puff, listen to me now: stop hitting homers.
Norichika Aoki – 3-for-3, 1 run, 2 BB. Caught stealing. But the important thing here was that he tried — oh, and that he reached base 5 times. Again, he reached base five times and tried to steal. I like the sound of that. Nori, that’s A-OK.
Jean Segura – 2-for-4, 5th HR. Ryan Braun homered in this one too, but oh man, do I love me some Jean Segura. What a name. What a city! I think one of the most interesting things about Milwaukee is that it’s the only American city to elect three Socialist mayors. Party on, Brewers!
Brandon Phillips – 2-for-4, his 6th HR and 2 RBI. B-Phil my beating heart, the Reds’ cleanup hitter leads the NL with 31 RBI. That’s 18 more than Joey Votto for those of you keeping count. Is it me or is Jo-Vo the least exciting top 10 player to own in all of fantasy? I know he’s good, the picture of consistency and the power stats will come, but man I’m tired of waiting around for him.
Tony Cingrani – 4.0 IP, 5 hits, 2 ER, 4 K. Threw just 85 pitches and gave up back to back homers to Braun and Segura. Can you blame him? Those guys are awesome. Despite the sparkling 2.89 ERA and the Ks for dayz (37 Ks in 28.0 IP), Tony C. has given up 6 HRs in 5 starts. As much as I like the kid and hope he stays up over Mike Leake, I have a bad feeling he’s odd-man out when Johnny Cueto returns. I only say that because life is unfair, everything is stupid and everyone sucks. The world is a vampire, sigh, what’s the point.
Alex Gordon – 2-for-4, 2 RBI. Gordo has a six game hitting streak with 3 HRs and 9 RBIs in that span. Since Razzball mentioned he should bat third, Alex has four hits, a home run and 4 RBIs in two games. If your reading this Royals GM (and why wouldn’t you be), why not try batting Eric Hosmer lead off? He’s batting .321 over the past week and he’s got (or had at least at one point) a skill set that could thrive at the top of the order. Get on it, Royals!
Mike Moustakas – 1-for-3, 4th HR. He like-a the juice, eh! Helios! Get some more juice for da man. Grey told you to BUY this hot little gyro. But make sure you get extra juice on the side. He like-a the juice!
Vernon Wells– 0-for-5. Yup. He must have ran out of Michael’s Secret Stuff. Spoiler: it was vodka.
Ichiro – 3-for-5, HR, SB, 3 runs, 3 RBI. Ichiro drank the rest of the secret stuff with his slam & legs, all wrapped up in seaweed.
Lyle Overbay – 4-for-5, 2-run HR, 5 RBI. That’s two more homers and seven more RBI than Joey Votto. This makes perfect sense.
Curtis Granderson – 1-for-4 with a HR in his rehab game. He’s set to return next week and I bet he hits the ground running. If you can find an owner who’s worried the power will be sapped I’d try to buy Grandy while you still can. The power is real, and it’s spectacular.
Manny Machado – 3-for-6, 2 runs and a RBI. Drove in the game-winning run in the 10th inning. Our hero! The Orioles managed 18 hits in this one including 3-hit games for Chris “The Dish” Davis and Adam Jones. In dynasty/keeper leagues there’s really no player I’d rather have at third base than Macho Manny Machado. Oh yeah!! This kid’s gonna be a star! Ha-cha-cha!
Oswaldo Arcia – 2-for-5 with a run and a RBI. Grey told you to BUY, him. If the rookie can hit at Target Field he can hit anywhere. It’s kind of like throwing him into the fire. Or like throwing the Khaleesi into the fire, and instead of burning at the stake, she births dragons and takes over all the kingdoms Westeros. Oswaldo is a dragon warrior. Are you ready MLB?
Josh Hamilton – 0-for-5, 2 Ks. If you got your hopes up by J-Hammies nice start to the week, keep in mind he has hit all four of his home runs and six of his 11 RBI versus the Lastros. Coincidentally, Houston is the only team with a worse record than Los Angelheim. The Angels look really bad you guys, and Josh Hamilton looks the worst.
Alejandro de Aza – 2-for-5, 7th HR. Second straight game with a HR. The .252 average is ugly for a lead off hitter, but everything about the White Sox is ugly right now, so they’ll take what they can get.
David Hernandez – 1.0 IP, 1 hit, 1st SV. Are you wondering why he went to Hernandez over Bell after you just picked up Bell? Manager Kirk Gibson commented post game, “Because [expletive deleted] you, and your [expletive deleted] fantasy [expletive deleted] team.” Fair enough. Bell pitched the past three days and should get the next chance, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up splitting the role until one of them truly steps up. Currently the Bell tolls for Heath.
Hisashi Iwakuma – 7.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, 9 Ks. Good gravy! Where did this guy come from? No, I mean I know he’s Japanese, I meant that metaphorically. I’m saying he’s awesome.
Brian McCann – 1-for-3, HR, 2 RBI. His second homer in as many days. Remember Evan Gattis? Me neither.
Matt Cain – 8.0 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER, 7 K and his 2nd win. After a few rocky starts, Matt has won two straight with 3 ER and and 11 Ks in 15.1 IP. He Cain do it!
Jose Fernandez – 6.0 IP, 8 hits, 3 ER, 7 K. The rookie grabbed his second win. Jo-Fer’s set to take on Tony Cingrani and the Reds next week at home in rookie nookie match up. Must see TV, people!
Carl Crawford – 3-for-5, and his 7th SB. Everyone is so surprised that Carl Crawford is playing like Carl Crawford. He makes $140 million, he should be at least this good. No? Matt Kemp also stole his 5th base in this one, but he is dead to you anyway.
Adrian Gonzalez – 1-for-4, 3-run HR, his 4th. A-Gone was sidelined a bit last week with a neck thing but that looks like it’s behind him now. The days of 40-HR Adrian are A-Gone and forgotten, but 25-28 homers with a .300 -.320 BA is looking like money in the bank.
Zack Greinke – 4.1 IP, 6 hits, 8 runs, 3 ER, 0 BB, 4 Ks. Greinke looked just fine in his rehab start at Rancho Cucamonga, but he didn’t quite look good enough to convince me to start him in his first start off the DL. If I’m on a starts cap, and Greinke’s on a pitch count I’m worried Zack doesn’t pitch deep enough into the game to even get me a win. I’d take my chances on another starter next week, but going forward the Greinkster should be fine as long as he stops picking fights with angry sluggers. Let Nick Punto fight your battles from now on ZG, that’s what utility players are for.
Questions? Problems? Complaints to management? Advice, small gifts or large bribes? Please leave it in the comments below, or you can get at me on twitter @dandemanco. Join us next Saturday for another Friday recap as fantasy baseball continues next week, all week long!
