Carl Pavano (SP - Twins) - Carl Pavano will take the mound tonight against the Tigers in one of the few "playoff-like atmospheres" in baseball right now. Pavano has had somewhat of a comeback season, but the real key here

David Price (SP - Rays) - Price just never really got his momentum under him this year. He was sitting on 3 straight quality starts heading into yesterday, only to allow 5 ER in 5.0 IP. He didn't factor into

Aaron Hill (2B - Blue Jays) - Another dinger for Aaron Hill gives him an incredible 33 for the year. That pace is a HR for every 19.3 AB. His next best was 35.8 when he hit 17 HR

Alexei Ramirez (SS - White Sox) - Another solid game for Ramirez, this time going 3-for-4 with a run scored. His RBI totals have been limited hitting at the bottom of the White Sox order, but he continues to post

Hideki Matsui (DH - Yankees) - Matsui has had a "quiet" year in a sea of superstars, but if you haven't noticed, he is putting up solid fantasy numbers. He's posting anFPI of 0.67 which consists of a .275 average,

Adam Dunn (OF - Nationals) - I think it might happen. He's at 37 now. I think he can end the season on exactly 40. I've written about this a couple of times this season, but one of the most

Kevin Youkilis (1B - Red Sox) - Youkilis continues to improve every year. Heading into 2009, it would have been tough to beat his 2008 numbers. Last season, he hit .312 with 29 HR, 115 RBI, and a .958 OPS.

Chris Davis (1B - Rangers) - We recommended Chris Davis as a pickup when he was called-up and Hank Blalock was relegated to bench duty. So far, its proving to be a fruitful call if you made the claim. Davis

Rich Harden (SP - Cubs) - Rich Harden had his worst outing since the all-star break, allowing 5 ER and 6 BB in 5.0 IP to the Astros. The loss evens his record at 8-8 for the year and raises

James Loney (1B - Dodgers) - Loney had gone from July 10th to August 26th without a HR. Now, he has 2 in the last 3 games for a total of 9 on the season. It hasn't just been a

Joba Chamberlain (SP - Yankees) - After hurling three consecutive quality starts to end the month of July, Joba has given up 4 ER or more in each of his 4 starts this month including a 7-spot in just 4.0

Johan Santana (SP - Mets) - Delivering this news is not easy, but its best to do it like a band-aid. Johan Santana will miss his start today with elbow issues and will visit the team doctor to get a

Matt Cain (SP - Giants) - Matt Cain was getting flashbacks with the lack of run support yesterday. He hurled 8.0 IP and gave up just 1 ER, 8 hits, 1 BB, and struck out 3. He wasn't handed the

Ian Kinsler (2B - Rangers) - Since coming off the disabled list last Friday, Kinsler has done nothing but hit bombs. With another one last night, Kinsler has 3 HR in the last 4 games and a total for 26

Brad Lidge (Closer - Phillies) - Deep breath for Lidge owners. He came in last night to shut-the-door on the Braves with a 3-run lead. He recorded the one out he was called to get, throwing three pitches and recording

David Price (SP - Rays) - The splits are looking pretty clear to me - Price can't pitch on the road. Another bad start away from Tampa on Wednesday against the Angels led to 5 ER in 6.0 IP,

Gordon Beckham (3B - White Sox) - Gordon Beckham continued his torrid hitting on Monday, going 2-for-4 with a HR and 2 RBI against the Angels. It was his 3rd straight multi-hit game and his 7th in the last 8

Tommy Hanson (SP - Braves) - Tommy Hanson has come back to the pack a little bit, but he's still pitching incredibly well. He gave up 4 ER in 6.0 IP with 1 BB and 4 K's to a very

Andy Marte (3B - Indians) - The Indians recalled hot-hitting Andy Marte on Tuesday and he will likely get plenty of ABs right away. The 25-year-old Marte has been on radar screens for a little bit, but it wasn't until

Jason Bay (OF - Red Sox) - Bay just can't seem to get it together. He was 0-for-1 with 3 BB and a run scored on Tuesday, bringing his average for the month of July to .184 and OBP to

Jose Contreras (SP - White Sox) - Contreras had been pitching well.... until Sunday. He was 5-for-6 in QS entering Sunday's game. Pitching against the Orioles, Contreras just couldn't get into a rhythm and had no feel or control. Baltimore

Ryan Franklin (Closer – Cardinals) – I’ve been in St. Louis for the All-Star festivities since Thursday and I’ve been happy to see that at least some people have recognized how awesome Ryan Franklin has been this season. Of course,

AL Player Profiles - July 8, 2009 1. Jason Bay (OF - Red Sox) - Bay finally broke out of his month-long slump in a big way on Tuesday night, going 2-for-3 with a HR, a double, and 2 stolen

1. Jason Bay (OF - Red Sox) - Nobody is happier to see June end than Jason Bay. He ended the month hitting just .230 with a .301 OBP and 4 HR. Over the last week, Bay has just 2

David Price (SP - Rays) - David Price's night ended early. After hurling 88 pitches in 4.1 IP, Price left with a 5 ER, 7 hit, 2 BB line. He actually left the game with the score 10-0 in favor

Scott Kazmir (SP - Rays) - Its time to turn your attention back to Scott Kazmir. He begins a rehab assignment on Monday and is scheduled to throw 85 pitches. Monday should be telling if the right quad strain has

Alexei Ramirez (SS - White Sox) - Alexei has been hot and cold the last few weeks, hitting only .182 over the last 7 days, but with 4 HR and 2 SB in the month of June. He looked to

Nate McLouth (OF - Braves) - McLouth hit his 12th HR of the season last night (and his 2nd of the week) to bring his RBI total to 42 and his average to .260. He might be on track to

Jhonny Peralta (SS - Indians) - Peralta was benched by manager Eric Wedge on Tuesday. His season-long slump continues, as he is currently mired in a terrible 5-for-35 slump. You can hear the frustration in Wedge's quotes, making you wonder

1. Alex Rios (OF - Blue Jays) - Alex Rios has finally heated up for his fantasy owners. Over the last 7 days, Rios has hit 2 HR and driven in 5 runs while hitting .429 wit a .478OBP .

Kevin Millwood (SP - Rangers) - It was easily Millwood's least effective start of the year on a rainy, damp Tuesday night in Texas. After a LONG rain delay, Millwood took the mound against the Yankees and last 5.2 IP

Jordan Zimmermann (SP - Nationals) - Typically, no quality starts in 5 straight outings wouldn't warrant much of a write-up on a Saturday morning. But one of the Nationals' top pitching prospects, Jordan Zimmermann, deserves a blurb after pitching

Alexei Ramirez (SS - White Sox) - Maybe I'm just stubborn. Or maybe I have a hard time "letting go." But Alexei Ramirez continues to hold the SS slot in my 12-team mixed league and I plan on going down

Chien-Ming Wang (SP – Yankees) - Chien-Ming Wang had a very nice outing in Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday night, going 6.0 shutout innings with 6 K's and 3 Hits. He threw a total of 82 pitches in the outing

Alex Rodriguez (3B - Yankees) - While A-Rod continues to dominate the headlines, he's almost ready to actually play baseball. He played a full seven innings in an extended spring training game on Tuesday and hit two HR. With Jorge

Ubaldo Jimenez (SP - Rockies) - Jimenez hurled his second quality start of the season last night, going 7.0 IP on 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, and 5 K's. He was still handed the loss as the Rockies couldn't

Rickie Weeks (2B - Brewers) - I can feel the excitement coming from fantasy owners thinking this is the year Rickie Weeks puts it together. He's hitting a respectable .281 with a 0.59 FPI, 17.8 HR/AB with 5 HR under

Phil Hughes (SP - Yankees) - Hughes looked great on Tuesday night against the Tigers. In his first start of 2009, Hughes posted a quality start of 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 6 K, and the W.

Nelson Cruz (OF - Rangers) - The Nelson Cruz experiment continues to roll along. He hit his 6th HR of the season on Tuesday night, bringing his HR/AB to 8.2 and further solidifying his fantasy role on rosters. This will

Carlos Marmol / Kevin Gregg / Chicago Cubs (Closer Situation) - The boxscore doesn't always tell the full story. While Carlos Marmol did earn the save on Friday night (his second of the season), it doesn't mean Kevin Gregg is

Nick Swisher (OF/1B - Yankees) - I've heard it a lot recently: what are the Yankees going to do with Nick Swisher once Mark Teixeira is 100%? When you're hitting this well, manager Joe Girardi will find a place for

Jim Thome (DH - White Sox) - Thome may be turning 39 this year, but its not of the realm of possibility for him to equal his age with his homerun total. He got off to a hot-start yesterday, going

Preseason Outlook - March 30, 2009 1. Jason Motte (RP - Cardinals) - The Cardinals have yet to officially name a closer for the start of the season, but Jason Motte certainly seems to be the obvious front-runner heading into

Preseason Outlook - March 23, 2009 1. Alex Gordon - (3B - Royals) - Gordon was held out of the lineup for the second straight day with some hamstring issues. The injury doesn't seem too serious and the Royals are

Preseason Outlook - March 16, 2009 1. Chase Utley - Its looking more and more like Opening Day is a reality for Chase Utley. After off-season hip surgery, he played in his first game of the preseason on Sunday and

Preseason Outlook - March 9, 2009 1. Joe Nathan - Nathan's shoulder soreness kept him from participating in the WBC games this spring, but it certainly seems like its more precautionary than a serious concern. He struck out two in

Fantistics Preseason Outlook - 3/2/2009 1. Johan Santana - One of this week's biggest stories (non-steroid related of course) was Johan Santana's elbow strain and missed throwing sessions. Doctors have pinpointed a slight irritation in his triceps that is causing

First Pitch - AL Pitcher Keepers - September 23, 2008 Last week, Drew and I dedicated two First Pitch articles to fantasy keepers.  We solely focused on hitters in both the AL (found here) and Drew's NL analysis (found here). 

Jonathan Sanchez - Sanchez didn't last long on Wednesday, going just 3.2 IP while giving up 6 ER, 6 hits, and 3 BB while striking out 4. The risk profile for Sanchez has remained consistent all year long: Quality Start

First Pitch - AL Keeper Hitters: September 16, 2008 Welcome to the first of four editions of "First Pitch Keepers."  Over the final two weeks of the season, Drew and I will take you through the AL and the NL

Adrian Beltre - The season is officially over for Adrian Beltre. With surgery to his thumb scheduled for this week, the Mariners will shut the 3B down for the remainder of the year. This thumb injury was lingering all year

Ted Lilly - Lilly pitched fantastic on Wednesday, earning the W by going 8 strong innings of 5-hit, 1 ER ball while striking out 5. Here's how the season has gone for Lilly (from a fantasy perspective): he was drafted,

Sabermetric Tuesday - September 9, 2008 This will be the last Sabermetric Tuesday of the season.  The rest of the Tuesdays will be dedicated to looking at keeper candidates as we start to think about 2009.  Its kind of sad,

Justin Morneau - Just another huge game for Morneau as he helps his team and his fantasy owners make a run at the playoffs. He was 1-for-3 with a 3B but drove-in 4 and scored one, giving him 117 RBI

Ryan Howard - Howard is streaky and can go hot or cold at the drop of a hat. But his current hot streak is surely helping fantasy owners get over that playoff hump. During his current 10-game hitting streak, Ry-Ho

Value Picks - September 3, 2008 Its the first week of head-to-head playoffs and if you're like me, you're stressed.  But hopefully, you have pulled-out to an early lead and can start thinking about cruising into Week #2 with a

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Justin Verlander - Quite a tumultuous ride for Verlander in the first 3.5 months of the season. Recall his terrible start to the season - April = 6.50 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, 5.0 K/9. Since then, he has posted a 3.23

Adam Dunn - Its no secret that Dunn likes hitting at Wrigley Field and he proved it last night with a long HR to deep center. That gives him 23 HR for the season at a rate of 12.1 AB

Save Opportunities Versus Team Winning Percentage Welcome to last pre-All Star break Sabermetric Tuesday of 2008.  Today's topic was sparked by a friendly baseball debate during a 4th of July BBQ this past weekend.  Living in Chicago, I watched Kerry

BJ Upton - BJ had a respectable day yesterday, going 2-for-4 with a double and a couple of RBI. The ongoing theme with Upton has been the loss of power stroke year-over-year despite a steady FPI. Last season Upton posted

Hideki Matsui - Is a DL stint imminent for Godzilla? He's still nursing that sore left knee and will be examined by doctors on Friday to see if he's ok to at least DH in the first game of today's

Brian McCann - One of the best hitting catchers in the league is in a little slump right now. He has just 1 hit in his last 11 AB and is hovering around the .250 mark for the month of

Value Picks - June 25, 2008 Welcome to the Fantasy Week 13 edition of Value Picks.  While I will still provide a list of players to snag off of your waiver wires for a good value, I'm also going to

Carl Crawford - This is the Carl Crawford you drafted. His Fantasy Week 12 results included a .524 OBP, 15 TB which include a double, triple and a HR, 5 RBI, and 3 R. He attempted one steal but was

Bronson Arroyo - With Lowe dealin' on the other end, Arroyo struggled against the Dodgers on Wednesday night. He gave up 6 ER and 7 hits in 6.1 IP while striking out 6. He only has 1 QS in his

First Pitch - Sabermetric Tuesdays:  Lefty/Righty Offensive Team Splits Sabermetric Tuesday gives us an opportunity to approach fantasy strategies with a statistical focus.  A common theme in fantasy baseball, especially in head-to-head leagues, is the concept of "pitch-and-ditch."  This strategy

Robinson Cano - Keep holding on to the hope of a second-half break-out. Cano might have ended another slump with a 2-for-4 performance yesterday, but you never can tell if one game is the official "breakout" point. Let's break down

Jorge Cantu - Will Cantu continue to fly under the radar or will his 2-HR game bring his season to the forefront? Cantu has a 0.70 FPI with a .296 average, .878 OPS, HR/AB of 17.9, and a total of

Value Picks - June 11, 2008   Fantasy Week 11 is upon us and for some leagues, it marks the half-way point to the fantasy season.  Lots of head-to-head leagues play 22 week schedules with 12 teams playing each

Jason Giambi - Maybe its the mustache. Maybe its the hot weather. Maybe its his unique choice of undergarments. Whatever it is, he's on fire and looks like the old MVP Giambi. Since May 1st, Giambi is hitting .333 with

Adam LaRoche - The Roach has had a tough season with the Pirates and is currently mired in a terrible 1-for-20 slump. This season's totals include a .213 average, .296 OBP, 0.42 FPI, 33.7 HR/AB, and a .653 OPS. Compared

BJ Upton - Upton's HR total remains low with just 3 in 197 AB for a rate of 65.7, but the rest of his game is making up for his low power numbers. He's hitting .305 with a .417

Ted Lilly - Walking to the Cubs game yesterday, I knew it was going to be "one of those days." The stiff wind straight over my head in the bleachers spelled trouble for my boy Ted Lilly who is a

Oliver Perez - Another disappointing outing for Perez. He's now just 2-for-5 in QS this month with a 5.58 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, and an atrocious BB/9 of 5.87. While walks and wildness has been his weakness, the long-ball was his

Value Picks - May 28, 2008 Good morning and welcome to Value Picks.  As we've been writing about all season, value picks aims to help you identify players who are either floating on your free agent wires or have been

Daniel Cabrera - Don't sit there and act surprised by this. We have all seen it way too many times before with Daniel Cabrera. After a few dominant outings of quality starts, low walk, and high strikeout totals, Cabrera always

A Closer Look - May 23, 2008 Good morning.  In today's closer report, we'll take a look at the closer situation for every team in the league.  Obviously, many of them are stable situations with little reason for worry.  But,

Jonathan Sanchez - Have you ever seen that web site that tracks the movement of dollar bills through the country? I think its called http://www.wheresgeorge.com/. Well, I want to stamp Jonathan Sanchez in fantasy leagues and track how many times

Sabermetric Tuesday - Variability in Weekly Head-to-Head Match-Ups Welcome to Fantasy Week 8's edition of Sabermetric Tuesday.  Every week, we aim to introduce some unique ways at looking at statistics to help you make educated decisions about your fantasy

Johnny Damon - A falling star? It certainly could be. Since joining the Yankees in 2006, Damon's FPI has gone from 0.71 to 0.64 last year and 0.61 so far this season. His OBP has also equally fallen from .358

Pedro Martinez - So you're hanging on to Pedro, hoping to salvage a little fantasy life from the aging star at some point this season. The good news is Pedro's hamstring strain is recovering nicely and its looking like he's

First Pitch - May 14, 2008 - Value Picks Welcome to the Week 7 edition of "Value Picks."  Can you believe its already mid-May?  With most fantasy leagues playing on a 22-week schedule before beginning fantasy playoffs, Week 7 means

Nick Swisher - We're all waiting for Swisher to turn the corner, but he has yet to really break-out of his early season slump. Whenever he posts a multi-hit game and looks like he's about to put his season back

Joey Votto - Votto was locked-in against the Cubs on Wednesday, turning the power hat-trick of 3-HR (and a SB), and improving his seasons numbers considerably in just one day. The talented Reds first baseman saw his FPI rise from

First Pitch - "Sabermetric Tuesday - The Setup Man" Good morning and welcome to the Fantasy Week 6 edition of "Sabermetric Tuesdays."  I've had a thought in my head for quite some time, but haven't had a chance to accumulate

Robinson Cano - Cano bottomed out and turned it around this weekend. As of Saturday, Cano's average had dropped to .150, OBP .213, 2 HR, and 7 RBI. On Sunday, his swing looked good and seemed to be right on

Troy Tulowitzksi - Its looking more and more likely that Troy Tulowitzski will be heading to the 15-day DL with left quad problems. He's had a rough April and hopefully a little rest and recovery will do him good for

First Pitch - "Value Picks" - April 30, 2008Welcome to Fantasy Week 5's installment of Value Picks.  As you may have realized by now, we have focused one "First Pitch" per week on identifying players on the wires that could

Chien Ming Wang - Wang's 4-hit shutout performance against the Indians on Sunday brought him to 5-0 with a 3.23 ERA and 1.18. The Yankee ace's value is higher than ever, especially now that he's added a strikeout pitch to

Ryan Howard - Its almost laughable at this point. Your #1 pick is bringing your entire team down and there's nothing you can do about it. Another 0-for-4 with 2 K's for Howard in last nights game, bringing his season

Value Picks - April 23, 2008Welcome to another edition of "Value Picks."  Once again, we'll try to focus on some players who are most likely floating around the waiver wires in your league and can be cheap value pick-ups. I'm

Gary Matthews Jr. is just one more example of an underperforming player early in the 2008 season. His huge drop-off over the last two years makes him even more unattractive from a fantasy standpoint and, for you, an opportunity to

Adam Wainwright - Sometimes, fantasy players are just a bit too premature when assessing value in players. Alex Gordon is a prime example, as he had a rough debut year and is now looking like he's going to have the

Jim Thome - This isn't the Jim Thome we're used to in April. He's only 6-for-38 this season (.158, with two of those hits coming as HR). In April 2007, Thome got off to a great start, hitting .340 with

Ryan Braun - With many first and early second round draft picks slumping to start the season (I'm looking at you A-Rod, Jose Reyes, and Ryan Howard), Ryan Braun is at least displaying a power stroke similar to his incredible

Sabermetric Tuesdays: The Quality StartIts baseball season and its a Tuesday.  You know what that means?  Its "Sabermetric Tuesday" here at Fantistics.  Last week, Drew taught us the "ins-and-outs" of the GB/FB and its importance in determining pitcher fantasy value. 

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

Oliver Perez - A great start for Oliver Perez. He was one of my key "watch" guys in this year's drafts of having the potential to post a big season. Granted, last night's game was against one of the weaker

First Pitch - April 2, 2008 - "Value Picks"Good morning!  In today's edition of First Pitch, we will take a look at value picks.  With a couple of games in the books and our fantasy teams up and running, its

Mike Sweeney - Sweeney hit a 3-run dinger on Sunday and looks ready to be the A's opening day Designated Hitter. It seems like Sweeney has been around forever, but he's only 34 years old and still might have some

Preseason Blog - March 21, 2008Vlad Guerrero - Vlad was removed from the game yesterday with stiffness in his right knee.  He'll take a couple of days off before he resumes his baseball activities.   I think Vlad is perceived as

Preseason Blog - March 14, 2008Curt Schilling - We all knew it was coming, but seeing Curt Schilling's name next to the 60-day DL list made it very real for Red Sox fans.  The Sox made it official yesterday after

Preseason Blog - March 7, 2008Noah Lowry - Lowry's start to the 2008 season has been about as bad as it gets.  Lowry has complained of "fatigue" in the area between his left thumb and wrist, which definitely does not

Miguel Cabrera isn't getting much press these days with the Marlins way out of playoff contention, but he's had another fantastic season for fantasy owners. I like to start off my analysis of Cabrera by reminding readers that he's still

This morning's First Pitch marks my last one for the 2007 season. Its been quite a ride. Hopefully some of the information I have included in this column has helped your fantasy team to the playoffs and ultimately, a championship.

Jack Wilson was out of the starting lineup on Wednesday with a hamstring strain, but he's considered day-to-day at this point. Wilson has quietly put together two fantastic months to end the season. Since August 1st, he has hit .415

Aaron Hill set the Toronto Blue Jays doubles record on Sunday with his 42nd of the season (broke Robert Alomar's record set back in 1991). He's had a nice season with all of these doubles and is hitting .276 with

It wasn't a quality start (officially), but Brandon Webb hurled 7.0 IP and allowed 4 ER to win his 15th game of the year. Talk about consistency. A look at his last three years shows a slowly improving ERA (3.54,

When the Yankees have needed him most, Chien Ming Wang has stepped up in a big way. He has converted W's in his last 5 outings, including another one against the Royals on Sunday. In those 5 starts, Wang is

The month says "September"on my calendar, but for true fantasy players, this is our October. Fantasy playoffs have begun in head-to-head leagues. Fantasy GM's everywhere are making more roster moves than George Steinbrenner. Now is not the time to sleep.

I feel like Adrian Gonzalez has quietly lived up to his fantasy expectations, but doesn't quite get the credit he deserves. First, let me give you his preseason projected line: FPI of 0.71, 28 HR, 91 RBI, 88 R, .306

Alex Gordon never quite turned out to be the rookie-of-the-year candidate everybody thought, but he has shown some signs of greatness throughout the season. He hit 2 HR against the Twins yesterday, giving him 14 for the season. His 0.54

Ask the average fan to name the great hitting SS in the game, and you'll get a list of names like Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, Derek Jeter, Miguel Tejada, and maybe Edgar Renteria. Few will ever mention Carlos Guillen, but

Maine, Cain and Pray for No Rain   As I sat through the monsoon that hit Chicago yesterday, I thought about the fantasy effects of rainouts, doubleheaders, and schedule make-ups. Those who play in daily leagues have certainly picked

Brian McCann is heating up just in time for the fantasy home stretch. His power numbers have been down all year from his 2006 breakout season, but he has managed to raise his totals slightly over the past week. He

Tim Wakefield is a solid play for his Monday start against the Devil Rays. The young Tampa Bay team typically has lots of trouble with the knuckleballer. For his career, Wakefield is 18-2 against the Rays with a 2.83 ERA,

Yovani Gallardo was rocked for the 2nd straight outing. After giving up 11 ER in just 2.2 IP against the Rockies last week, Gallardo followed with a 7 ER outing against the Cardinals last night. That's 18 ER in 8.1

Ian Kinsler has gone from a power hitter to a base stealer in a single season. He has 3 SB in August, but no homeruns. He sat out for most of the month of July, but his last HR came

Garret Atkins had quite an afternoon against the Brewers, going 4-for-4 with two doubles, 6 RBI, and a run scored. This extends his hit streak to 9. During that span, he has 5 multi-hit games including 2 HR, 19 RBI,

The Joba Chamberlain era has begun in the Bronx. Chamberlain's name has been discussed alongside Phil Hughes as the two pitching saviors in the Yankee farm system. The Yankees made room for Chamberlain and called him up as a bullpen

Fausto Carmona was on the tough end of a 1-0 loss on Sunday. Despite pitching 7.0 innings of 1 ER, 5 K, 5 H ball, Carmona was handed the loss, bringing his record to 13-6. Unfortunately for Carmona, his nemesis

It continues to be one of those years for Richie Sexson and his owners. He showed some signs of breaking out last week, hitting his only two homeruns of the month, but is still hitting just .178 in July and

The Elusive Hold   The Hold is a relatively new metric that attempts to measure the effectiveness of a middle relief pitcher. The growing popularity of fantasy baseball has given the hold a little more air time in recent

Josh Johnson looked good in a rehab start, throwing three perfect innings in a Class A game on Wednesday. The Marlins are considering bringing Johnson back to pitch on Tuesday against the Rockies, which would make him a two-start pitcher

Manager Joe Torre stole my thunder yesterday. I was really excited to compare Shelly Duncan to Shane Spencer in today's column and then Torre decided to drop Spencer's name in his post-game show. Well anyway, Duncan joined the Yankees late

While Carlos Zambrano earned his 12th win in the opposing dugout, Matt Cain watched his record drop to 3-11. Of course, Cain didn't help his cause this time around, giving up 6 ER in just 4.0 IP against the Cubbies.

Games against the Royals can boost a young pitcher's confidence. Fausto Carmona pitched a solid 7.0 IP, 2 ER game to earn his 11th win of the season. He struck out 4 and walked two in the outing as well.

Maybe I'm going down with the ship here, but I continue to claim that Raul Ibanez is a buy-low option for the latter half of the season. His 6 hits and 4 RBI in the last four games give Ibanez

Frustrated Rickie Weeks owners can gather here for solace. First the bad: Weeks' average plummeted to .230 with an 0-for-4 against the Pirates on Wednesday. Ok, you know how rough its been being a Weeks owners. Now for what I

With another HR in yesterday's slaughter of the NY Yankees, Jack Cust now has 14 dingers this season and is averaging a HR/AB of 11.1. He hit 3 HR last fantasy week and is posting a 1.026 OPS since joining

Brian Giles will be activated from the disabled list on Friday and should be back in action for the weekend series in Los Angeles after missing a month with a bruised knee. Giles and fantasy owners have seen quite a

Moose's record dropped to 3-5 with another loss on Sunday. His ERA has ballooned to 5.12 and WHIP to 1.35. The Giants hit him up for 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 3 BB, and 5 H. Mike Mussina had a string

Manager Bobby Cox gave the slumping Andruw Jones a night off on Wednesday. With a scheduled off-day for the Braves on Thursday, Cox hopes that back-to-back days of rest may help Jones get his swing back in order. He's not

Chien-Ming Wang struck out a career-high 10 and earned his 7th win of the season against the cross-town rivals New York Mets on Sunday night baseball. Wang's 10 K's was quite a surprise, considering his K/9 is just 4.71. His

There has been a lot of talk recently about the "Unwritten Rules"in baseball. When Alex Rodriguez rounded third in Toronto a couple of weeks ago and shouted "hey"at the fielder, causing him to miss the ball, the "unwritten rules of

Livan Hernandez made a bid for his 6th straight quality start, but the Yankees had another thought in their minds. Livan gave up 7 ER and 9 hits against the red-hot Bronx Bombers including 3 HR and 5 BB. Tough

The Phillies will turn to rookie call-up Kyle Kendrick to take Freddy Garcia's spot in the rotation on Wednesday. In 12 games this season with the Double-A Reading Phillies, Kendrick is 4-7 with a 3.21 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, and a

Carsten Charles Sabathia put together another gem yesterday, going 9.0 shutout innings with 6 K's, 1 BB, and just 3 hits. Its his second straight 9-inning shutout game and his 3rd quality start in the last four outings. With no

If Victor Martinez could only play the Tigers everyday... He hit his 12th HR of the season on Sunday and 6 of them have come against Detroit. Martinez's HR/AB has been cut in half at 15.6 from last season's total

Aaron Cook was dealt his 2nd loss of the season with a 7.0 IP, 5 ER performance against the Cardinals last night. It was his first loss since April 19th and his QS % is now 58%, 7-for-12. Cook is

Brian McCann continues to be a fantasy disappointment this season, yielding little power, a lower than expected average, and significant drops in multiple categories. Let's start with power. McCann only has 3 HR on the season and is averaging a

Its been feast or famine for Jack Cust since joining the A's earlier in the month. After being the hottest and trendiest fantasy name in the game, Cust has fallen back to earth and has gone hitless in the last

Kelvim Escobar was light-out in the Bronx yesterday, going 7.0 solid innings while giving up 1 ER, 1 BB, and striking out 8. It was his second highest strikeout total of the season and his 6th win of the year.

Here at Fantistics, we get lots of e-mail from subscribers asking for our advice on the typical fantasy issues that arise.... Spot starts, trade proposals, lineup structure, and the value of free agents are the main ones. But last

Chris Duncan went yard for the 9th time this season and is quietly putting together a solid season of a 0.74 FPI. His HR rate is a solid 16.2 and is posting a .905 OPS while hovering around the .300

Alex Rios has done it quietly this season, but with his 9th HR of the year, is now posting a HR/AB of 18.8 and an OPS of .850. That's good for a decent FPI of 0.66, in-line with his preseason

Another solid outing for Andy Pettitte without the support from the Yankee offense. He has pitched four quality starts this season while earning a no-decision or loss. He's 6-for-8 in quality starts and is 3-for-3 in May. Little has been

Is it time to become a believer? Its difficult not to believe with the kind of pitching performances Braden Looper has been putting up. Another quality start last night makes Looper 7-for-8 in QS's and brings his ERA to 2.29

A few weeks ago, we took a glance at the top-15 fantasy first basemen and their lefty/righty splits. The results were compelling (check it out here). Some 1B with super-star reputations simply became average performers based on the handedness of

Jamie Moyer continues to demand some fantasy love, but owners are remaining skeptical. I don't blame them. Who knew he would start 2007 going 7-for-7 in quality starts with a 3.00 ERA and 1.08 WHIP. My concern with Moyer at

Roger Clemens is probably long-gone in just about every fantasy league at this point. With his official announcement to join the Yankees yesterday, he becomes a valuable fantasy pitcher down the stretch for many fantasy owners. But just how valuable?

Adam Dunn loves to hit 'em in bunches. He hit another HR last night for his 3rd in three games and his 8th of the season. Dunn's power in 2007 is consistent with his previous two years at a rate

Raul Ibanez is trying to get things going, but can't quite seem to turn the corner. After knocking-out 33 HR last season with 120+ RBI, he's hitting just .263 with 1 HR and 10 RBI. He's a great buy-low candidate

Adam Dunn is in a power drought. He has not hit a HR since April10th, 12 games ago and his HR/AB ratio has dropped to 19.3. Over the last two years, Dunn averaged a homerun for every 13.6 and 14.0

What would you give to have Hank Blalock to return to his 2003 and 2004 seasons? Those were the years Blalock posted 0.69 and 0.66 FPI's, HR/AB under 20.0, and OPS in the high .800's. Let's take a walk through

Daniel Cabrera is certainly posting the strikeout numbers we expected. With another 7 K's in last night's start, he now has 26 strikeouts for a K/9 of 8.9. The good news for Cabrera owners is that he's keeping his walk

Struggles continue for Carlos Zambrano. In his game against Atlanta last night, Big Z threw 5.1 IP and gave up 5 ER, 5 BB, 8 hits, and 2 HR. Four of those runs came in the first inning and then

Bartolo Colon is set to return to the big leagues this week. After missing the last two months of the season last year with a rotator cuff tear, he made a final rehab start on Sunday and threw 95 pitches,

Lefty/Righty Match-Ups We all know about the advantage a pitcher has over a batter when the handedness is the same. It's usually tougher for a lefty hitter to hit off a lefty pitcher. The same thing goes for righties. But

Tom Gordon finally earned his first save of the season (of course, it wasn't entirely his fault that the Phillies have been so bad early this season). The 39-year-old closer has certainly had his ups and downs, but has been

Its been frustrating to be a Mark Teixeira owner over the last couple of years and the first fantasy week of the season is no exception. He had another 0-for-4 night last night and is just 4-for-19 (.211) in 2007.

If you play in head-to-head leagues with the option for daily transactions, you may already be thinking about the "pitch-and-ditch"strategy for the upcoming fantasy weekend. If you have the incredibly unfortunate luck of having all of the following players on

John Maine made Met fans forget about the strength of their rotation (well, at least for now). He was masterful against the Cardinals last night, giving up just 1 hit in 7.0 IP with 6 K's. Maine is not the

Which Corey Patterson can we expect for 2007? Remember when he was considered a potential 30/30 guy? We think he's more like a 20/40 guy, but if he can put together more than 500 AB for the first time since

Freddy Sanchez's second opinion on his knee sprain didn't provide positive news for fantasy owners. He'll likely start the season on the DL and appear back in the lineup sometime around April 7th. The reigning NL batting champion is still

Speculation surrounding Alex Rodriguez leaving the Yankees continues, this time with rumors about a move to the west coast to join the Angels at the end of the 2007 season. This is just one of many rumors that will be

Chad "Don't Call Me Barbara"Billingsley continues to be the front-runner to fill that last coveted spot in the Dodgers rotation. However, despite a solid spring of 6.3 IP without an earned run, manager Grady Little has guaranteed the 22-year-old a

Today we'll take a close look at catchers. Usually, it's the position you dread drafting most. You get to that special point in the fantasy draft when someone takes McCann and Mauer and you end up throwing your hands in

Having done many mock drafts over the last couple of months, I've been faced with a difficult decision a few times late in the 2nd round - Carlos Lee or Jason Bay? Using the Fantistics Player Projection software customized to