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 his repertoire. He struck-out a career-high 9 batters on Sunday, bringing his season K total to 27 and his K/9 rate to 6.2. The name-of-the-game for Wang is the groundball and he has had it working in all starts but one, posting 5 QS in 6 outings (he had the one 8 ER blow-up against the Red Sox a couple of weeks ago). His propensity to throw the grounder yields a HR/9 of 0.23. At just 28 years old, and back-to-back 19-win seasons already to his name, his fantasy value still has room to grow. Up-arrow for Wang, bordering on great player status.
Justin Verlander - And the question still lingers, "What the #&@!$ is wrong with Verlander?" If I had that answer, I think the Tigers would hire me as Verlander's personal pitching coach. But instead, all I can do is rely on my observations and the stats. First, the stats. One quality start in 6 outings, a plummeting K/9 of 5.0, and ERA of 6.50, and WHIP of 1.47. Not exactly the numbers of an ace and enough to drive fantasy owners crazy. Now, my observations. Despite the 6 ER last night, I thought actually looked ok . His velocity was up, he threw his curve ball for strikes, and later admitted he had his best stuff of the season. If you can trade for him now, do it. Despite the non-quality start, I think Sunday night gave Verlander some confidence and I would be shocked if he didn't pitch well in his next outing against the Twins.
Melky Cabrera - With a skimpy Monday MLB schedule to begin Fantasy Week 5, it may be a good idea to fill your roster with streaky free agents or players that have good matchups. I'm going out on a limb and saying Melky Cabrera is a good pick for Monday's game. "The Melk Man" has delivered for the Yanks and fantasy owners this season, knocking-out 5 HR with a .354 OBP and .506 SLG to start the season. He'll face Indians pitcher Aaron Laffey Monday night, a favorable match-up for a couple of reasons. 1) Laffey is a lefty and Melky is a switch hitter. But from the right-side of the plate, Melky has a HR/AB of 9.5 compared to 20.0 from the other side. His average is only .211 as a righty and .317 as a lefty, but he also has a BB/K of 3.0 as a righty compared to 0.55 as a lefty. 2) Laffey is relatively inexperienced, with 9 career starts at the big league level, a 4.56 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, and a low K/9 of 4.6. Just a thought - but I like the match-up, especially with Cabrera swinging the bat well.
Jeremy Guthrie - Guthrie made a couple of mistakes to Paul Konerko that ultimately led to his 3rd loss of the season, but he didn't exactly get run support (again) from the Orioles offense. In his last 5 starts, Guthrie has given up 3 ER or less and is 4-for-6 this season in quality starts. All of that equates to a 4.34 ERA and 1.34 WHIP. I would be careful about getting too excited about Guthrie for a few reasons. His low K rate of 4.82 forces you to look for strikeouts elsewhere. His HR/9 of 1.7 is really high and it will get increasingly more difficult for Guthrie to pitch his way out of tricky situations. And finally, he plays for the Orioles who, while have played well in April, will inevitably have a correction and move downward in the AL East standings. Oh yeah, and one more thing - he pitches in the AL East and has to face a really tough division of four other teams with solid offenses. His fantasy value is dropping in my book despite an early season high QS %.
Michael Young - Michael Young's average had dipped all the way to .196 on April 14th, but the beauty of a low denominator (AB) means each additional hit has a greater impact average impact early in the season (gotta love 2nd grade arithmetic). Since then, Young has been smokin' hot, raising his average to .301 with 7 multi-hit games and a 12-game hitting streak. This isn't surprising coming from a player who has 5 straight season of 200+ hits dating back to 2003. The career .302 hitter isn't going to give you a ton of HRs (even though he does have 3 already, but only averages 1 for every 41.7 AB in his career), but gives a nice boost to roto averages and runs. Still a lot of life left in this veteran SS.
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