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.

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Today’s guest post comes from Mark Hinton who is a fantasy baseball addict and long suffering Cincinnati Reds fan.  When not scouring the waiver wire for players to turn his fantasy league fortunes around, Mark enjoys punishing his body with drink and heart-stopping foods.  Mark can be reached at mhinton_us[at]yahoo[dot]com.

Every year I do it. I remind myself not to do it.  It’s like a diet ….at first it’s easy, then a big chocolate cheesecake comes along and it all falls apart.  Of course I’m referring to drafting too heavily from your favorite teams.

My favorite team is the Cincinnati Reds.  Yes, I know, right there is reason enough to question my intelligence….let alone my ability to formulate a successful fantasy draft.  Last year my draft was destroyed when I overpaid for I thought were the two “steals” of the draft in Edwin Encarnacion and Aaron Harang.  You can guess how the rest goes.

For me the urge to do this is too great.  It’s only natural that when I get the chance to draft a player whose past exploits has provided me with euphoric joy that I pounce on him like a tiger on an injured gazelle. This is the road to disaster.  I follow my team so closely that I believe that only I know the “inside information” about my favorite players that will bring me a championship.    I often dream of the unbridled jealousy of the other owners when my “sleeper” pick of Homer Bailey will win the CY Young.

I’m afraid that I extend my hometown bias to teams located in the Midwest as a whole.  Several times during the season last year I would go to bed with my fantasy team leading the daily totals for my league.  Upon waking, only to discover I had fallen back to the bottom of the pack by morning.   At first, I blamed it on faulty calculations by computer systems running our league, But then, I noticed something…..I had no west coast players on my team.  Games with the Pirates, Cubs and Tigers were long over by the time The Dodgers, Angels, and the Giants were scoring runs.

This year is different, I drafted from the whole league…not just from my backyard.    Every player was drafted on their own merits, not just because I could watch them on the local cable broadcast.  My team is a great melting pot from all over the country.  This year I even let Jay Bruce fall to the second round.  Who say’s people can’t change?

Not that you’re dying to get his 3-11 record with a 4.76 ERA back into your lineup, but Aaron Harang seems to be ready for MLB action action after being placed on the DL before the All-Star break.

Harang pitched in a Triple-A rehab game Monday night and went six innings while striking out six and walking none. He threw only 69 pitches, 46 for strikes, and allowed only five hits.

Dusty Baker would like to see Harang make another rehab start in Louisville, but Harang would rather pitch in Cincinnati next. With the power of this great performance last night, Harang might get his way and be back in Cincinnati by this weekend.

Although Harang’s record is sub-par this season, he’s still a strikeout machine. And he is coming off of back-to-back 16 win seasons. Harang is an easy start in mixed leagues, and if you can get him really cheap via trade, you might try and do so.