Justin Morneau was fantastic for the Twins yesterday as he went 2-5 with a homerun and 4 RBI. Morneau's line for the season is .312/21/108/85 and he still has plenty of time to surpass the 25 HR mark. I am...

Miguel Cabrera - Miggy might have been removed from the lineup on Friday due to a strained pectoral, but he was back in action yesterday and didn't really show any adverse affects of the injury. The first half of the...

Michael Bourn With the Astros firmly out of the NL Central race, the organization announced a few days ago that Bourn would get the majority, if not all, of the starts in center field through the end of the year....

Will Venable - With Scott Hairston gone for the year, Will Venable has gotten the call for the Padres as, likely, their everyday CF. The Padres' minor league system is full of offense-suppressing parks, as you'd expect given their big...

Daisuke Matsuzaka – Dice-K might have a sub 3 ERA this season, but he has not pitched as well as one might think. He has a pretty atrocious walk rate, allowing 5.29 batters to reach 1st base via a free...

Clayton Kershaw: The youngster couldn’t be the stopper for the Dodgers on Thursday night as things unraveled quickly for Kershaw in the first inning. After opening the game with a strike-out on 3 pitches, Kershaw gave up a HR to...

Howie Kendrick: Kendrick left the game on Wednesday night with a strained hamstring, the same hamstring that forced him to miss 42 games earlier in the season. He says the injury is not as bad as the first one, but...

Fausto Carmona- CLE- Cold- Carmona raised his record to 7-5 last night, pitching the Indians to their 10th straight win. It was not a performance to write home about, though, as he allowed 4 runs on 7 hits and 3...

Ryan Howard - Howard may be on pace for well over 200 strikeouts this season (which would break his own record of 199 from last year and be the first person EVER to K 200 times in a season), but...

Unfavorable Matchups, American League Dioner Navarro, Tampa Bay (20 for 54 .370 CS%): 3 against NYY (Johnny Damon, Alex Rodriguez, Bobby Abreu, Derek Jeter), 3 against Toronto (Alex Rios, Marco Scuturo, Joe Inglett) Kurt Suzuki, Oakland (27 for 75, .360...

First Pitch – Value Picks – August 27th, 2008 Alright gang, by the end of this week we’ll be in the final month of the season. At this point it’s become clear whether you’re playing out the string or making...

Gavin Floyd – Floyd won for the 14th time this season by defeating the Orioles yesterday, but I am still unconvinced that he is a good fantasy pitcher. I have not been a Floyd fan all season because I feel...

Brandon Lyon: Despite allowing 10 runs in his last 5.1 innings, Manager Doug Melvin said that Lyon’s job as the closer is safe unless he begins to struggle in save situations. Although he has converted 25 of 30 saves and...

Jordan Schafer- ATL- Idea- Schafer, ranked as the top prospect in the Braves’ system before the season, has rebounded from his HGH suspension and extremely slow July. Last month he batted a weak .228 for AA Mississippi, but is cranking...

Nelson Cruz - Just like last time he came up, Cruz returned to Texas with a bang last night, blasting a homer, double, and a single in five trips to the plate. Something to keep in mind every single time...

First Pitch - Sabermetric Tuesday - August 26, 2008 Looking At Recent Trends and Playing The "Hot" Hand If you play in head-to-head leagues, this column is for you.  Of course, rotisserie leagues can find value in it as well. ...

Robinson Cano - Quite the day from Robbie Cano - 2 doubles, a dinger, a couple of ribbies and runs scored, and 9 total bases. I think its safe to say his 2nd half "time to get hot" urgency is...

Brandon Lyon: Make it 3 consecutive appearances and 5 of his last 6 outings that Lyon has now allowed at least one run. His last two appearances have come in non-save situations and you have to figure at this point...

Grady Sizemore swiped 3 bags last night, bringing his season total to 34 and topping his 2007 finish. Sizemore will also reach the 30-30 mark for the first time in his career with one more homerun. As it stands, his...

Clayton Kershaw Entering Saturday’s game against the Phillies, Kershaw had been in the midst of a stretch of five consecutive quality starts, going 2-0 with a 1.45 ERA and a 29:9 K:BB in those 31 innings. Saturday though, the expected...

Tim Lincecum collected his 14th win of the year last night and I continue to have a massive man crush on the kid. He's incredible. Period. He's probably my 2nd round draft pick next year. I'm not kidding. Lincecum pitched...

Carlos Pena: I told you the best was about to come with Pena back at the beginning of August and Pena’s rewarded my faith. On Friday night Pena launched his 8th HR of the month and 13th extra base hit...

Jimmy Rollins – Rollins is having a disappointing season thus far, hitting .263/.329/.425 after an MVP season last year where he hit .296/.344/.531. The dip in Rollins’ batting average can largely be attributed to bad luck. Rollins is having the...

Garrett Olson: The Orioles send Olson to the minors, but he should be back when the rosters expand in September. He has struggled, 6.38 ERA, but a 63% strand rate and a .314 BHIP% can take part of the blame....

Kevin Millwood- TEX- Caution- Millwood put in a pleasantly uncharacteristic performance for a Texas pitcher last night, but he needed 113 pitches to get through his complete game. That is a lot for a pitcher who has seen the DL...

Matt Cain: Cain was solid again on Wednesday night posting his 8th quality start in his last 10 outings and allowing 2 ER’s or less for the 7th time in that span. He limited the Marlins to just 2 ER’s...

Quite a few new names on this week's top 50s and team top 5s, as the deadline for teams to sign their 2008 draft picks passed on Auguste 15. Due to Major League Baseball's new compensation rules, failing to sign...

Value Picks – August 20, 2008 Good morning! The regular fantasy season is almost finished and by now you are either in the playoffs, on the bubble, or thinking about 2009. Most head-to-head leagues are just 10 short days away...

Every now and then, A.J. Burnett reminds us of why we take the chance on keeping him in our rotation from year-to-year, despite his injury and inconsistency history. Most of these times, the fantastic outing comes out of left field...

Ray Durham: Rickie Weeks says he will play through his finger injury, but if he is unable to go, Durham would become the full-time second baseman. The 36-year-old still has some power (4 home runs but 29 doubles in 311...

Jon Lester - Lester continued his emergence as one of the better young pitchers in the game last night, holding the Orioles to four hits and a run over seven innings to earn his 12th win of the year. He's...

Willie Harris- WAS- Hot- We may be seeing some regression to the mean in Harris’ performance. Since the All Start Break he is batting .289 with 4 homers and 9 doubles in 114 ABs. In his last 49 games, dating...

Randy Johnson: Make it 6 consecutive quality starts for the Big Unit as he allowed just 3 ER’s over 7 innings in a loss to Houston. Johnson made just one mistake during the outing giving up a 3 Run HR...

Shaun Marcum - After sitting on the DL with a strained elbow and struggling in his first three outings back in late July and early August, Marcum has returned to his early-season dominance in his last three starts. First, let's...

Matt Harrison: Baseball is a funny game sometimes. Matt Harrison could not have entered Saturday night’s contest with worse numbers in his first 7 major league starts from either an actual performance or peripherals perspective. Yet there he was tossing...

Pablo Sandoval Sandoval had his contract purchased by the Giants on Wednesday. It seems unlikely that the minor league catcher will supplant Benji Molina, but he could see quite a bit of time between catcher and first base as the...

Brad Hawpe is putting together some kind of season considering how awful most of his first half turned out. Hawpe slammed his 20th homer of the year yesterday as he went 2-4 with 1 HR and 2 RBI in a...

Hiroki Kuroda: Is there a bigger role of the dice from night-to-night with a mid-level starter than Hiroki Kuroda? In 23 starts this year Kuroda has notched 7 Disaster Starts in which he’s posted a line of: 0-3, 13.95 ERA,...

Anthony Reyes: Supposedly there were such major philosophical differences on the art of pitching between Reyes and former pitching coach Dave Duncan that a change of scenery for Reyes was absolutely needed. At first glance, it looks like it is...

J. J. Putz- SEA- Cold- Putz had a blown save last night, giving up a game tying homer to Mark Teixeira in the 9th inning. He has not thrown a 1-2-3 inning since July 20th, which was his first game...

Jorge Campillo - We road the Campillo roller coaster on the way up and now its going back down. Back-to-back shaky starts for Campillo who has now given up 10 ER in his last 11.1 IP. Of course, he had...

American League 15 Chris Carter OAK 1B B+ 34 HR and excellent 55% XBH%.127 K in 117 games but we'll overlook that for now. 19 Carlos Triunfel SEA SS B .357 since the end of June. 6 HR in July...

Stolen Base Report for the week of August 18th to August 24th Unfavorable Matchups, American League Kurt Suzuki, Oakland (24 for 69, .348 CS%): 3 against Minnesota (Carlos Gomez, Delmon Young, Nick Punto, Denard Span), 4 against Seattle (Ichiro Suzuki,...

Charlie Zink – Charlie Zink had been tearing up the minor leagues before being added to the Boston rotation. This year at triple-A, he had a 13 – 4 record thanks to a 2.89 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. He did...

Chad Tracy: Tracy could wind up being the big loser in playing time with the acquisition of Adam Dunn. For the time being he is safe, but once Justin Upton returns, it would take the longshot move of putting Mark...

First Pitch – August 13th – Value Picks: We’re back to the usual schedule and the usual format this week for our Value Picks column. It will be a bit of an abridged version since I’m travelling in the Pellston,...

Sabermetric Tuesday - August 12, 2008 Good Morning! Week 20 is here and the talk around all major media outlets has already turned to playoff races. Before you know it, the leaves will be changing, Fox will be running annoying...

Brandon Backe- HOU- Hot- Talk about bouncing back. Backe did a 180 degree turn from his last start, when he was charged with 11 runs on 9 hits and 6 walks in 3-1/3 IP. Last night he gave up just...

Denard Span - Span just keeps hitting, adding a double and a steal to his tally last night against the Yanks. He has looked every bit the leadoff man in August, hitting 325/400/525 with three steals in three tries. The...

Ian Kennedy - Kennedy's time in the big leagues was, once again, short-lived as he was sent back down to the minor leagues on Sunday after another disappointing outing on Friday night. His stuff just hasn't been able to translate...

Max Scherzer: It’s time to start paying attention to Max Scherzer again. Scherzer’s returned from a brief stint on the minor league DL with shoulder issues and is being stretched out with the anticipation of being used as a starter....

Carlos Beltran is another Met getting hot at the right time as he collected his 4th multi-hit game in 6 tries last night with a 3-3 performance, including a HR and 3 RBI. Despite hitting in the .260-.270 range for...

Mark Teixeira put together his 4th multi-hit game in his last 5 with a 2-5 performance last night, including his 22nd HR and 86th RBI of the season. His line for 2008 now reads .287/22/86/73 and I have a feeling...

Omar Infante - Infante is tearing it up right now, showing huge jumps in LD%, BB rate, and contact% this year with the Braves. This is a guy that had 52 extra-base hits in Comerica Park as a 22 year...

Denard Span- MIN- Hot- Span had his second straight multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 with a walk, 2 stolen bases and 2 runs scored. He has been enjoying a .299 BHIPx, but it would be expected that his would be above...

Chris Volstad – Don’t get too excited about Volstad shutting down the Phils over 6 innings yesterday. He only struck out 3, and meanwhile, he yielded 4 walks. On the season, the rookie has posted a K/BB ratio of 1.60...

Eddie Guardado: Although his numbers look good, 3.02 ERA and a perfect 3 for 3 in saves, Guardado is a disaster waiting to happen as the new Rangers closer. He has a pedestrian 5.2 K/9; plus his 55% FB% is...

Johnny Damon- NYA- Hot- Damon went 2-for-5 to extend his current hitting streak to 7 games and has hit safely in 12 of his last 13. He has definitely benefited from good luck, with a .290 BHIPx, but he also...

Jorge Cantu – Not exactly a Wally Pipp parallel, but if Josh Willingham didn’t go on the disabled list earlier in the season, I’m not sure if we would have gotten the opportunity to see Cantu put up these kinds...

American League 1 Matt Wieters BAL C A Think he wants a Sept. call-up? .441 in last 10 games. For the year: 1.03 EYE, 1.041 OPS. 5 Matt LaPorta CLE OF A- Just .212 in 52 at-bats for CLE before...

First Pitch - AL Value Picks - August 6, 2008 As brother Drew so eloquently put it yesterday, we are splitting up the AL and NL value picks for Fantasy Week 19 and give you our risers and fallers...

Carlos Quentin continued his quest for AL RotY last night with a 4-7 performance, including his 29th HR as well as 2 RBI and 2 R. The great game for the youngster puts him at .285/29/86/79. I really don't think...

Yoslan Herrera: After posting a 9.82 ERA in five starts, the Pirates mercifully sent Herrera back to the minors. Considering that he was not exactly blowing Double-A hitters away; 5.2 K/9 and a 3.1 BB/9, his lack of success in...

Marlon Byrd - Byrd was the hero last night with a walk-off grand slam against the Yanks, bringing his post-All Star break line to 283/406/528 in nearly every-day play. Byrd is posting career highs in walk rate, K rate (in...

Prince Fielder- MIL- Hot- Lost in last night’s brouhaha (or is that a “brewhaha” when it involves Milwaukee?) was Fielder extending his current hitting streak to 8 games, in which he has gone 11-for-28 with 5 homers. He has not...

First Pitch – August 5th – Value Picks: For the first Tuesday in August we’re going to switch things up a bit and take a break from the traditional Sabermetric Tuesdays to provide you with a more comprehensive set of...

Matt Kemp: Kemp’s putting up one of the more underrated fantasy seasons quietly making a run at a 20-30 season. Kemp knocked out his 13th HR of the season in a 3-5 effort that also yielded 3 runs and 2...

Kevin Millar - The player formerly known as an "idiot" is anything but an idiot at the plate. Millar has been on fire since the beginning of June. He has 8 HR and 31 RBI since June 1st with a...

Barry Zito I’m pretty sure it was Barry Zito tossing eight scoreless innings against the Padres on Saturday, but with the lineup San Diego is rolling out there these days, it may as well have been horse trainer Nick Zito....

Esteban German: With Mark Grudzielanek going on the 15 day DL, German gets a boost in value as he slides over into the everyday 2B role. I’ve always liked German and thought he deserved more of a shot at the...

Jeremy Sowers – In 2006, Sowers had a brilliant rookie season, pitching in 88.3 innings as a starter with an ERA of 3.57 and WHIP of 1.189. The Indians then expected him to be a critical part of the rotation...

Tim Lincecum was robbed of a win as he put together yet another brilliant start for the offensively inept Giants. Lincecum allowed 1 ER on just 3 H with 3 BB and 11 K and if he were on a...

Anibal Sanchez: Marlins fans went to the stadium, err… couch, angry last night at the missed opportunity to acquire Manny Ramirez but probably went to bed excited about Anibal Sanchez’s return. Sanchez looked great on Thursday night through the first...