"August 2008" Monthly Archives

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...