I completely forgot to pick up Gil Meche again in one of my more shallow leagues last night and I paid for it. Meche was very good again, allowing just 1 ER on 3 H while walking 2 and striking out 10 in 7 innings. If not for a miserable April where Meche collected a 7.81 ERA, his numbers would actually look great at this point in the season. He has yet to pitch for more than a 3.65 ERA in any month besides April and finished August with a K/9 of 9.89 while posting a 3.49 ERA and a 1-1 record (more due to the Royals offense than Meche). This is a guy I’m going after hard next year, particularly if he continues to finish this season strong. With Greinke having a breakout this year and the Royals offense another year under their young belts, 2009 could be a career year for Meche and I think he would do very well as a 3rd or 4th starter. You should be able to draft him in a good position as well considering he is normally overlooked.
Kevin Youklis is honing in on 100 RBI as he went 1-3 last night with a 3-run bomb to boost his year’s numbers to .315/25/97/83. We’ve seen a noticeable drop in his eye (.52 as opposed to .73 in 2007) but that seems to be much more of a result of becoming a free swinger than an actual degradation in batting eye. With Manny out of the picture I think it’s very likely we’ll see a repeat type year in 2009 for Youk, especially considering his BHIP is only slightly above last season and he’s still hitting .315. Either he or Dustin Pedroia will be cleaning up in 2009 (more likely Youklis I think) and that makes his value even higher.
Justin Verlander was unimpressive once again last night as he allowed 4 ER on 8 H and 4 BB with 4 K in 5.2 IP. As great as he was in the month of June, he has been pretty bad since then and absolutely horrid in his first two September starts. His control has been awful (3.86 BB/9) for the entire year and yet almost every other peripheral is exactly the same as 2007 when he pitched very well. I was lucky enough to unload Verlander after his sparkling outings in June and I’m concerned his arm is going to have a lot of fatigue this offseason, just as it did last offseason. He doesn’t seem to perform well in the second half so far in his career and he didn’t get much rest this entire year. Not to mention he’s pitched very badly, so he’s someone I’m staying away from going into next season unless I hear very positive things in the winter months.
Curtis Granderson has been awesome since coming back in June and although he only hit .275 last month, he did hit a season high 5 HR during the month. With his 2-3 performance including a HR, 2 RBI, and 2 runs last night, Granderson has upped his numbers in September to .391/2/4/10/1. His season line is up to .305/18/56/101/10. The runs are excellent, particularly in an underachieving Detroit offense, and he’ll definitely reach 20 HR this year. Granderson should come into 2009 completely healthy and I think he’ll be as valuable as almost any OF in the game when it comes to 5-tool production. For my money, he’s Grady Sizemore with almost as much power, less SB but much more BA and he plays on a far better offense.
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