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 sinker was nasty last night, inducing 12 ground ball outs while giving up just 4 flyball outs. His groundball approach yields a 0.46 HR/9 and a WHIP of 1.15. Wang had some early season injuries, but the 27 year old certainly seems to have recovered 100% at this point. He has become one of the more dominant pitchers in the game, but his fantasy value is slightly muted because of his typical low strikeout rate.
The Oakland A's gave Jack Cust a boost of confidence by officially announcing over the weekend that Mike Piazza would return as both the catcher and the designated hitter. This should continue to give Cust AB's as the DH. Cust responded to the news on Sunday with his first HR of the month. He also had himself quite a weekend against the Cardinals, getting 3 hits in each of the 3 games to end the series 9-for-12 with a HR, 3 doubles, 3 RBI, 3 BB, and just 1 K. In Cust's brief MLB career with the A's, he has already proven his streakiness. He looks to be in the middle of one right now - might not be a bad Monday pickup if you're looking for a free-agent spot start. Otherwise, most of his long-term value is probably AL-only.
I've preached patience with Alex Gordon and its finally paying off. It feels like it has been a long ride, but in the grand scheme of things, it really has only take Gordon two months to get accustomed to the big leagues. That's a long time in the life of a fantasy owner, but a small time frame in the course of an entire major league career. Anyway, Gordon had his 3rd multi-hit game in the last four days and is hitting .309 in June with a .872 OPS and a 0.75 FPI. He has two dingers this month with 9 RBI and 7 runs. I'm not surprised to see Gordon hitting the ball well right now as the rest of the Kansas City lineup has seemed to click over the last two weeks (evidence: two games of 17 runs last week). He's still striking out too much with 60 K's this season and just 21 BB's, but he's definitely swinging the bat better. Again, I believe he's worthy of a cheap pickup.
As we enter trade-season, lots of names are being thrown around as guys on the trading block. Mark Buehrle is one of them and his fantasy value could be affected positively if he is traded. The early guess on Buehrle's next team is NY Mets, moving him from a hitter's to a pitcher's park (US Cellular ballpark factor of 118, Shea Stadium of 91). That increases his fantasy value right away. And, playing for a contender should mean a higher probability of earning wins down the stretch. We can only speculate on trades and player destinations over the next couple of months. But my guess is that Buehrle gets dealt somewhere and his fantasy value should go up.
It wasn't Scott Kazmir's best outing of the season, but it was still an official quality start and it was good enough to earn his 5th win. His line was 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 2 HR, 4 BB, and 5 K's. Walks continue to be Kazmir's biggest setback, averaging a BB/9 of 4.40 this season, up from 3.24 last year. Consequently, his K/BB drops from 3.13 in 2006 to 2.07 in 2007. His next start will be this weekend against the Dodgers who rank in the top-5 in walks in the National League.
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