"April 2007" Monthly Archives

John Maine Maine was fantastic again on Sunday shutting out the Nationals for 7 innings. He allowed 3 hits and 3 walks while striking out a season high 8. Maine's now 4-5 in quality starts and pitching for the Mets...

Richie Sexson My name is Drew and I'm a Richie Sexson owner (Hi Drew!), alright so there's not any meetings for us Sexson owners just yet that we can attend, but I'm here to help you guys through it. Sexson...

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...

Chris Sampson Sampson turned in another solid effort on Saturday, going 6 1/3 innings and allowing just one run while striking out eight. This coming off a seven-run 14-hit pounding in his previous start was certainly needed from Sampson. The...

April's Under/Over Performing Batters Another April is almost in the books and as typical there are quite a few players who are in our doghouse and a quite a few players who have the keys to the penthouse...but who deserves...

Steve Trachsel- BAL- Caution- The 2 runs and 5 this allowed in 5-2/3 innings yesterday was not too bad, but some other numbers in Trachsel's loss to the Indians are worrisome. His workload was stretched a bit farther than you'd...

Felix Pie of the Chicago Cubs appears to have earned his spot on the Major League team. It appears Lou Piniella has no plans of moving Jacque Jones to center when Angel Guzman is recalled on May 1st. The Cubs...

Gerald Laird: Prior to his last two games in which he has gone 3 for 6 with 2 walks, Laird had been mired in a 1 for 34 slump. Laird's breakout 2006 season of 7/22/.296 was partially luck driven, .269...

The headline news in the bullpen this week comes from Texas where Eric Gagne was placed on the DL with a strained hip/glut. Akinori Otsuka returns to the closer role which he handled quite well last season, recording 32...

Bartolo Colon- LAA- Inj Update- The Angels pushed back the decision on whether Colon will start until literally the last minute. They will wait and see how he does in his pre-game warm-ups before deciding whether he will pitch. Colon's...

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...

As you can see by yesterday's mailbag article by Lou, we get our fair share of email around here and we try our best to get to all of it and respond. Sometimes we'll respond back through email, through our...

Jorge Cantu was recalled by the Rays on Tuesday after a tumultuous spring and a limp minor league stint in which he hit .267 without a homerun. He didn't play in yesterday's game against the Yankees and it's hard...

Anthony Reyes: Reyes continues to struggle, after 3 starts, his record stands at 0-3, with a 5.63 ERA. A 57% strand rate is not helping, but his K/9 of 5.6 is below the levels that he has put up in...

A little mailbag this morning … This subscriber didn't want his letter published so I will paraphrase his questions to protect the innocent … Dear Lou,   I enjoyed your article about the value of analyzing splits to make...

Luis Gonzalez- LAN- Hot- Gonzalez is riding a 5-game hitting streak in which he has gone 6-for-15 to bring his batting average back up to .317. So far this season he has recorded an astounding Batting EYE of 1.80. Of...

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...

Scott Olsen I've been getting a lot of questions regarding Scott Olsen of late and with good reason. Olsen's off to an atrocious start this season and as Schuyler reported late last week the control issues are the obvious concern....

This week we look at some of the hottest prospects around.    Tom Gorzelanny and Adam Lind are in the majors now but the rest of these guys can best be described by Dennis Leary’s first catch phrase …...

Michael Young: There is no reason to panic about Young's .171 batting average after his first 70 AB. Players with a 3-year BHIP% of .291, who currently have a BHIP% are .143, will normally bounce back. Ignore the .15 batting...

Mark Hendrickson No, Mark Hendrickson isn't going to carry the Dodgers to the pennant or fantasy owners to their league title, but he's looking like a nice little bargain right now. Last season, Hendrickson lost his rotation spot due to...

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...

On the trick or treat scale that John Patterson seems to be skipping around so far, this start landed squarely in the "Trick"  area. He allowed 3 runs, all earned, in 4 IP on 7 hits and 4 walks...

Howie Kendrick: The injury-depleted Angels suffered another blow when it was learned that Kendrick suffered a broken bone in his finger. He is expected to miss anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks. Kendrick was off to a good start, going...

Hello everybody. As I watched in horror at another craptacular performance from the Phillies bullpen, an idea rattled around in my head. Part of the problem we have as fantasy analysts is that we are in some situations constrained by...

  So...the only reason you haven't seen this rant posted earlier is that I have been too stunned up till this point to even comment. First, you have Charlie Manuel's profanity-laden tirade at an eminently unlikable reporter/talk show host.Â...

An abbreviated look at this week's Prospect Spreadsheet Updates: TOP 50 HITTING PROSPECTS From the AL: 1 Alex Gordon KC 3B A+ - Very slow start, but he did hit his first big-league home run. I don't see Triple-A in...

Trot Nixon- CLE- FYI- The Indians are using Nixon very sparingly, trying not to expose him as much and hoping to keep the injury bug away. Part of the handling of Nixon will be to avoid playing him in the...

The big ninth-inning story in baseball right now plays out north of the border in Toronto where primary closer B.J. Ryan came up with an elbow injury.  Jason Frasor is the man for the Jays for now and he...

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...

Juan Encarnacion: Encarnacion is scheduled to play in a few extended spring training games this week and if pain free, he should begin a minor league rehab assignment next week. At 31 years of age, Encarnacion has average power for...

Gustavo Chacin out dueled Daisuke at the Roger Centre last night limiting the Red Sox to 1 earned run over 6.2 IP. He allowed 6 hits, including Wily Mo Pena's monstrous third-inning solo homerun, without a walk while striking...

A few weeks back we took a look at how to go about evaluating a potential Hitter when looking to make a free agent acquisition. We talked about evaluating specific statistics like EYE, BHIP%, HR Rate, etc and how to...

Brad Penny- LAN- Hot- Penny ran his record to 3-0 and dropped his ERA to 0.89 by holding the Diamondbacks to 1 run on 5 hits and 3 walks in 7 innings of work. Penny's WHIP of 1.23, while solid,...

It's not as if we all need to wear name tags or anything, but there's a certain "getting to know you"atmosphere around most fantasy baseball teams this year. Of course, we know most of the names and the stat lines...

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,...