Crooked Pitch

Today’s pitch count is 15.

1. Closer by committee situations are never good in terms of fantasy baseball. That’s not stopping Tampa Bay from utilizing the strategy while Troy Percival is injured. Last night J.P. Howell got his second save of the year and R.J. Anderson wrote a post yesterday stating that Howell has some pretty exciting numbers. Better numbers in some regards then Papelbon and Rivera, to name a few.
2. You don’t see this very often. Both pitchers in last night’s Cincinnati versus St. Louis game pitched a complete game. Aaron Harang took the loss giving up three earned and striking out four. Chris Carpenter won his fourth game and has an ERA of 0.71 in six starts this season. He’s struck out 31 batters in 38 innings of work and only walked five.
3. David Wright stole his 13th base yesterday and is looking like he’s going wild on the base paths like he did in 2007 when he swiped 34. Unfortunately, he’s only jacked three home runs in the Mets’ new Grand Canyon like ballpark. Wright’s HR/F ratio of 5.8% is miserably low and show rise bringing his home run total up soon. But don’t look for him to approach 30 homers this season. With a hit rate of 44.4% I’m not even sure that his .326 batting average is safe. When his hit rate normalizes back towards his normal 34.7% we might see a huge drop in his average. Consider yourself warned.
4. Andrew McCutchen had a nice major league debut yesterday. He went 2-for-4 scoring three times and stealing a base. He’s owned in 13% of Yahoo! leagues right now but that number is sure to rise shortly. He’s NL-only worthy right now and you may consider taking a mixed-league flier on him too, especially in keeper leagues.
5. Has anyone noticed that Torii Hunter is batting .312/.395/.581 with 12 home runs and 11 stolen bases? His hit rate is a bit higher than normal (but, not much) and his HR/F ratio is too. But I can see Hunter finishing the season at around .290 with 25 jacks and 25 swipes. I’m especially loving his on-base percentage, which has been his achilles heel in the past.
6. Adam Lind had five hits yesterday and is currently enjoying a six game hitting streak. It’s amazing that he’s still only owned in 80% of fantasy leagues.
7. Chris Davis went 2-for-4 yesterday with two doubles. His bat usually wakes up in streaks so this could be your warning signal to get him back into your fantasy lineup for the next week or so.
8. Being banged up and bruised with minor injuries seems to be the norm for Kevin Youkilis this season. He left yesterdays game with tighness in his calf and is listed as day-to-day.
9. Mauer, Morneau and Jason Kubel combined for nine hits, nine runs and nine RBI yesterday and Kubel hit two home runs. Kubel is riding a nice, long hot streak right now and he’s only owned in 37% of Yahoo! leagues. Snap him up while he’s still hitting well enough to be a factor in mixed-leagues.
10. In James Shields‘ last three starts he’s struck out 20 batters while only walking three. He’s also earned two wins and a no-decision.
11. Congratulations to Randy Johnson for winning his 300th career game. He’s still not mixed-league relevant.
12. Manny Burriss started slow, but now has 11 stolen bases on the season and batted .309 last month. He’s only owned in 8% of Yahoo! leagues. You could do a lot worse for a cheap source of steals.
13. Prince Fielder hit a home run and a triple yesterday. What’s more amazing is that was his second triple of the year.
14. My man crush on Josh Johnson continues to grow. He struck out eight yesterday and earned his fifth win of the season. He’s 11th in the league in strikeouts with 11 and 12th in ERA at 2.63.
15. Garrett Atkins hit two home runs yesterday and I’m telling you to buy low on him now. He’s a hit rate adjustment away from climbing out of this funk.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 8:33 am and is filed under Fantasy Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.