Robinson Cano is just one of many fantasy players in an early season slump to start the 2008 campaign. At .174, he has just 4 hits and one extra base hit through 6 games with the Yankees. Cano , who ended 2007 hitting .306 with 19 HR, hit just .264 with 2 HR in the first two months of the season last year. He doesn't have enough years under his belt to truly call him a "slow starter," but he definitely recovered last season to hit over .300 for the 2nd consecutive year (out of his 3 years in the big-leagues). Looking at his 3-year trends, Cano's BB/K rate has steadily improved from .235 in his rookie season, to .333 in his fantastic .342 average year in 2006, and continual improvement to .459 in 2007. At just 25 years old, I think he starts to put it all together this season, hitting for average, improved power (20+ HR), and continuing to improve his batting eye at the plate to over .50 to give a nice boost to his OBP.
Manager Joe Girardi knew Hideki Matsui was swinging the bat well, but was just not getting lucky with hits. He was right. Girardi moved Matsui from #8 to #5 in the lineup, leading to a 3-for-4 day with a homerun and 2 RBI. A little power (and a lot of health) from Matsui is a great sign for fantasy owners. If he can stay healthy and play a full season, he will certainly be in the mid-20's in HR and drive-in over 100 runs. He has achieved that feat three out of the last four seasons with the Yankees (with the other season cut-short with 172 AB due to a broken wrist). 33 years old and is obviously not getting any younger, but a regular round-robin of DH duty between himself, Jason Giambi, and Johnny Damon could keep him more fresh deeper into the season. In previous seasons, there was always the "fear' that he was experiencing fatigue toward the end of the season since he wasn't used to playing a 162-game season (the Japanese season is shorter by 27 games at 135 per year).
This year's Ryan Braun? Nah - Alex Gordon was LAST year's Ryan Braun before fantasy owners gave up on him for his slow start. Scouts and baseball insiders have insisted that Alex Gordon had as much (if not more) talent than Braun before he busted onto the scene with the Brewers. Gordon, however, started slowly in 2007 and didn't start to pick it up until late in the season. For the first half of 2007, Gordon his just .237 with 6 HR and an FPI of 0.47. In the 2nd half, Gordon rebounded for a respectable performance of .264 average, 9 HR, and an FPI of 0.58. So far in 2008, he is off to a nice start with 2 HR, 6 RBI, and a .538 slugging / .269 average. To duplicate a Braun effort would be quite a feat (and there's no way I'm going on record to predict that kind of season). But Gordon is a big-time talent that was probably underestimated because of his slow rookie start.
The guy knows how to win. After recording back-to-back seasons of 19 wins in 2006 and 2007, Chien-Ming Wang is off to a nice start with a 2-0 record through the first week of the 2008 season. Two statistical measures I like to look at with Wang is his GB/FB ratio and his K/9. First, Wang's sinker allows him to force the groundball out and keep the HR rate low. In his last 3 seasons, Wang has posted GB/FB rates of 2.96, 3.06, and 2.68. You can read that as Wang posted almost 3x as many groundball outs than flyball outs. This year, he's off to a nice start with a GB/FB of 4.17. A good sign from the sinker-baller that his main pitch is working well early in the year. With the groundball out comes an analysis of his low strikeout rates. However, he has shown slight improvement over the years and I was impressed with his ability to get the K in yesterday's game. Dating back to 2006, Wang's K/9 improved from 3.14 to 4.70 to 2007. This year, its already at 5.54 with a K/BB of 2.0.
Jeremy Accardo allowed a couple of 9th inning hits to the Red Sox, but held-on to earn his 3rd save of the season on Sunday. While Accardo has been great taking over for injured BJ Ryan (both last year and so far in 2008), Ryan is expected to return to the team next week. Ryan will resume his closer's role, downgrading and demoting Accardo to a setup role for the Blue Jays. While that will definitely help Accardo's "Hold" value, he will only get rare save opportunities. If you don't play in Holds leagues and decide to cut Accardo loose, keep your finger on that button. BJ Ryan has shown his fragility over the last couple of seasons and could easily return to the DL at some point during the season. Accardo will continue to be the likely choice to get the save opportunities if that is the case.
There are over 100 player news blurbs posted in the member area each morning. Members can read the rest of today's player news by clicking here. Not a member? Join today.
