"July 2008" Monthly Archives

Zack Greinke: After spending a good part of 2007 as a reliever, Greinke has pitched exclusively as a starter this year with good results, 8-7 with a 3.98 ERA. He is still just 24 years of age and with his...

Arthur Rhodes- SEA- Cold- Rhodes showed a lack of control in more ways than one during his appearance against the Rangers last night. Besides the angry flare up that got him ejected, he also tossed a ball in the direction...

Russell Martin – Martin went 2 – 4 last night, and his average now sits at .294, which is where it ended last season. I would not be surprised, though, to see Martin end this season with his average at...

Crazy times for me right now with the prospect spreadsheet. As I type this, the Manny Ramirez / Jason Bay / Jeremy Hermida deal has yet to go through, with multiple prospects rumored to be included in this one. Also,...

Stolen Base Report for the week of August 4th to August 10th Unfavorable Matchups, American League Dioner Navarro Tampa (17 for 45 .378 CS%): 3 against Cleveland (Grady Sizemore, Jamey Carroll, Franklin Gutierrez), 4 against Seattle (Ichiro Suzuki, Adrian Beltre,...

Mike Aviles – When Aviles was first called up, I liked him in AL leagues because of some of the things he had done in the minor leagues, but I did not expect the level of success he is having...

First Pitch – July 30th – Value Picks: Welcome to another edition of Value Picks! This week we’ll get back to the usual bag of tricks, scoping the waiver wire for golden nuggets that can help your team make a...

In today’s belated edition of Sabermetric Tuesday we’re going to talk about the most unheralded aspect of Fantasy Baseball: Defense. In traditional or “real” sports the cliché “Defense wins Championships” is one of the most commonly used phrases throughout the...

Mark Teixeira: If Teixeira is traded; Arizona would be the best place for the switch-hitter to land for fantasy purposes. Turner Field, his current home stadium decreases left-handed batting power by 17% and is neutral for right-handed batting power where...

C. C. Sabathia- MIL- Caution- Yesterday’s 124-pitch effort is the third time this month Sabathia has cracked the 120 pitch mark. Even though he does not have a trend of ill effects from lengthy outings, that kind of workload is...

Adam Jones - Jones has been hot since about the 20th of May, and after last night's 3-6 performance he is virtually assured of putting up his second straight month with a better than .800 OPS. He still swings at...

PITCH COUNTS You won't see any regression analysis in this week's edition of Sabermetric Tuesday.  Heck, you won't even see a scatter plot this time around.  I'm keeping it simple and straight forward today.  After all, these are the dog-days...

Miguel Cabrera - He hasn't produced this year like a first round pick, but Miguel Cabrera is quietly flirting with the .300 mark. Hitting .341 for the month of July, Cabrera is now at .294 for the season. His other...

Jeff Samardzija: Those in holds leagues or deep dynasty formats may want to take notice of Jeff Samardzija who was called up earlier this week when the Cubs placed Kerry Wood on the DL. Samardzija picked up his first major...

Alex Rios has certainly warmed up since mid-July and he continued the trend last night with a 2-2 performance with 2 HR, 3 RBI and 2 R. Rios is batting .366 (11-30) with 3 HR, 8 RBI, 7 R and...

John Van Benschoten There are some guys you see in box scores and wonder, “Him again? Why?” I had that sort of feeling when I saw that Van Benschoten was going to get the start on Saturday. Predictably (though apparently...

Mike Pelfrey - Pelfrey won his seventh in a row last night, shutting down the Cards over seven innings in a 7-2 win. The Mets have won his last nine starts, he's only walked three men in his last 36...

Jack Hannahan- OAK- Hot- Hannahan went 2-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI last night against the Rangers, making him 6-for-17 in his last 5 games with a homer, 2 doubles, 6 RBI, and 3 runs scored. We may be...

Nate McLouth – McLouth has certainly shown by now that he is not a fluke, and he did that once more yesterday. McLouth finished up the day going 1 – 3 with 2 runs, and 3 RBI’s. His 1 hit...

Carlos Quentin: Quentin took over the AL lead in home runs with 26 and is having an MVP type season. Based on his 2007 season, 5/31/.214 in 229 AB, and skills; 7% BB%, 76% Ct%, and 41% FB%, this season...

Casey Kotchman- LAA- Hot- Maybe Kotchman is a Fantistics subscriber and read Monday’s blurb about him needing more patience at the plate. Only once yesterday did he swing at a first pitch and went 5-for-5. In 3 of his at...

American League 30 Lars Anderson BOS 1B B Torrid July got him the AA promotion prior to his 21st birthday. 3-for-14 in AA so far. 37 Beau Mills CLE 1B B .351 in July with 4 HR. May be the...

J.D. Drew is having a far better season than I, or anyone else, could have predicted. Drew went 2-3 last night and hit his 18th HR of the year, which surpasses his total from 2007. His 57 RBI are also...

Welcome to Fantasy Week 17 Value Picks.  There are lots of considerations this week as we start gearing up for fantasy playoffs.  Too soon you say?  Week 22, typically the last "regular season fantasy week" is right around the...

Russell Branyan: In what could be a sign of things to come, Bill Hall got the start against a right-handed pitcher on Monday and responded by going 3 for 5 with a solo home run. After a great start, 11...

Howie Kendrick - Kendrick added to his scorching July with another couple of hits (including a homer), bringing his line for the month to 373/387/678. Basically, Kendrick now has a remarkably similar line to his 2007, with a bit of...

Chan Ho Park- LAN- Rise Value- Park’s shift in role to setup man and second closer option boosts his value, particularly in leagues that count holds. Maybe I am still bitter about his Texas years, being a Rangers’ fan, but...

Emmanuel Burriss: The biggest winner in the Brewers-Giants trade from a fantasy perspective yesterday was a man not even involved: Emmanuel Burriss. We’ve touched on Burriss’ tremendous speed potential in the past and noted his limited experience above A ball...

Jason Giambi - Giambi was 2-for-2 including an integral HR that put the Yankees over the top of the A's to complete the weekend sweep. Giambi hit the home run off the pitcher he has owned: Justin Duchscherer. In 4...

Sean Gallagher: I’ve been touting Gallagher as a nice sleeper option since the trade to Oakland and while Saturday’s performance was a bit shaky, it provided more reason for me to believe in Gallagher for the 2nd half. The patient...

Kevin Kouzmanoff Kouzmanoff isn’t getting much coverage this year for obvious reasons – the Padres are terrible and Kouzmanoff has been consistently average at best. Saturday, Kouzmanoff was 1-for-3 with an RBI single and is now hitting .277/.322/.442, but .308/.369/.488...

Robinson Cano – Cano is very high on my list of bounce back players for the second half of the season. We have said it before, but the fact of the matter remains true: Cano’s current singles average is a...

Jorge Cantu continues his feel good story this year as he put together a 2-4 performance last night with his 55th RBI. He’s now hitting .285 with 18 HR, 55 RBI and 59 R and is well on his way...

Edwin Encarnacion: I need a new 3B to post repeatedly about since you’ve all figured out Troy Glaus needs to be owned, and sure enough I’ve got one. Three flipping years I’ve been talking about Edwin Encarnacion and I promise...

Francisco Liriano: After 3 consecutive extremely effective outings. 3/24 BB/K in 20 scoreless innings, it should be only a matter of time before Liriano rejoins the Twins. There has been some talk about him working out of the bullpen, but...

American League 10 Chris Davis TEX 1B A- .259 with 6 HR in 58 at-bats. That kind of power could keep him around for awhile. 12 Mike Moustakas KC SS A- .304/.380/.478 since his ASB in an otherwise disappointing full-season...