"August 2008" Monthly Archives - Page 2

Brad Hawpe is putting together some kind of season considering how awful most of his first half turned out. Hawpe slammed his 20th homer of the year yesterday as he went 2-4 with 1 HR and 2 RBI in a...

Hiroki Kuroda: Is there a bigger role of the dice from night-to-night with a mid-level starter than Hiroki Kuroda? In 23 starts this year Kuroda has notched 7 Disaster Starts in which he’s posted a line of: 0-3, 13.95 ERA,...

Anthony Reyes: Supposedly there were such major philosophical differences on the art of pitching between Reyes and former pitching coach Dave Duncan that a change of scenery for Reyes was absolutely needed. At first glance, it looks like it is...

J. J. Putz- SEA- Cold- Putz had a blown save last night, giving up a game tying homer to Mark Teixeira in the 9th inning. He has not thrown a 1-2-3 inning since July 20th, which was his first game...

Jorge Campillo - We road the Campillo roller coaster on the way up and now its going back down. Back-to-back shaky starts for Campillo who has now given up 10 ER in his last 11.1 IP. Of course, he had...

American League 15 Chris Carter OAK 1B B+ 34 HR and excellent 55% XBH%.127 K in 117 games but we'll overlook that for now. 19 Carlos Triunfel SEA SS B .357 since the end of June. 6 HR in July...

Stolen Base Report for the week of August 18th to August 24th Unfavorable Matchups, American League Kurt Suzuki, Oakland (24 for 69, .348 CS%): 3 against Minnesota (Carlos Gomez, Delmon Young, Nick Punto, Denard Span), 4 against Seattle (Ichiro Suzuki,...

Charlie Zink – Charlie Zink had been tearing up the minor leagues before being added to the Boston rotation. This year at triple-A, he had a 13 – 4 record thanks to a 2.89 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. He did...

Chad Tracy: Tracy could wind up being the big loser in playing time with the acquisition of Adam Dunn. For the time being he is safe, but once Justin Upton returns, it would take the longshot move of putting Mark...

First Pitch – August 13th – Value Picks: We’re back to the usual schedule and the usual format this week for our Value Picks column. It will be a bit of an abridged version since I’m travelling in the Pellston,...

Sabermetric Tuesday - August 12, 2008 Good Morning! Week 20 is here and the talk around all major media outlets has already turned to playoff races. Before you know it, the leaves will be changing, Fox will be running annoying...

Brandon Backe- HOU- Hot- Talk about bouncing back. Backe did a 180 degree turn from his last start, when he was charged with 11 runs on 9 hits and 6 walks in 3-1/3 IP. Last night he gave up just...

Denard Span - Span just keeps hitting, adding a double and a steal to his tally last night against the Yanks. He has looked every bit the leadoff man in August, hitting 325/400/525 with three steals in three tries. The...

Ian Kennedy - Kennedy's time in the big leagues was, once again, short-lived as he was sent back down to the minor leagues on Sunday after another disappointing outing on Friday night. His stuff just hasn't been able to translate...

Max Scherzer: It’s time to start paying attention to Max Scherzer again. Scherzer’s returned from a brief stint on the minor league DL with shoulder issues and is being stretched out with the anticipation of being used as a starter....

Carlos Beltran is another Met getting hot at the right time as he collected his 4th multi-hit game in 6 tries last night with a 3-3 performance, including a HR and 3 RBI. Despite hitting in the .260-.270 range for...

Mark Teixeira put together his 4th multi-hit game in his last 5 with a 2-5 performance last night, including his 22nd HR and 86th RBI of the season. His line for 2008 now reads .287/22/86/73 and I have a feeling...

Omar Infante - Infante is tearing it up right now, showing huge jumps in LD%, BB rate, and contact% this year with the Braves. This is a guy that had 52 extra-base hits in Comerica Park as a 22 year...

Denard Span- MIN- Hot- Span had his second straight multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 with a walk, 2 stolen bases and 2 runs scored. He has been enjoying a .299 BHIPx, but it would be expected that his would be above...

Chris Volstad – Don’t get too excited about Volstad shutting down the Phils over 6 innings yesterday. He only struck out 3, and meanwhile, he yielded 4 walks. On the season, the rookie has posted a K/BB ratio of 1.60...

Eddie Guardado: Although his numbers look good, 3.02 ERA and a perfect 3 for 3 in saves, Guardado is a disaster waiting to happen as the new Rangers closer. He has a pedestrian 5.2 K/9; plus his 55% FB% is...

Johnny Damon- NYA- Hot- Damon went 2-for-5 to extend his current hitting streak to 7 games and has hit safely in 12 of his last 13. He has definitely benefited from good luck, with a .290 BHIPx, but he also...

Jorge Cantu – Not exactly a Wally Pipp parallel, but if Josh Willingham didn’t go on the disabled list earlier in the season, I’m not sure if we would have gotten the opportunity to see Cantu put up these kinds...

American League 1 Matt Wieters BAL C A Think he wants a Sept. call-up? .441 in last 10 games. For the year: 1.03 EYE, 1.041 OPS. 5 Matt LaPorta CLE OF A- Just .212 in 52 at-bats for CLE before...

First Pitch - AL Value Picks - August 6, 2008 As brother Drew so eloquently put it yesterday, we are splitting up the AL and NL value picks for Fantasy Week 19 and give you our risers and fallers...

Carlos Quentin continued his quest for AL RotY last night with a 4-7 performance, including his 29th HR as well as 2 RBI and 2 R. The great game for the youngster puts him at .285/29/86/79. I really don't think...

Yoslan Herrera: After posting a 9.82 ERA in five starts, the Pirates mercifully sent Herrera back to the minors. Considering that he was not exactly blowing Double-A hitters away; 5.2 K/9 and a 3.1 BB/9, his lack of success in...

Marlon Byrd - Byrd was the hero last night with a walk-off grand slam against the Yanks, bringing his post-All Star break line to 283/406/528 in nearly every-day play. Byrd is posting career highs in walk rate, K rate (in...

Prince Fielder- MIL- Hot- Lost in last night’s brouhaha (or is that a “brewhaha” when it involves Milwaukee?) was Fielder extending his current hitting streak to 8 games, in which he has gone 11-for-28 with 5 homers. He has not...

First Pitch – August 5th – Value Picks: For the first Tuesday in August we’re going to switch things up a bit and take a break from the traditional Sabermetric Tuesdays to provide you with a more comprehensive set of...

Matt Kemp: Kemp’s putting up one of the more underrated fantasy seasons quietly making a run at a 20-30 season. Kemp knocked out his 13th HR of the season in a 3-5 effort that also yielded 3 runs and 2...

Kevin Millar - The player formerly known as an "idiot" is anything but an idiot at the plate. Millar has been on fire since the beginning of June. He has 8 HR and 31 RBI since June 1st with a...

Barry Zito I’m pretty sure it was Barry Zito tossing eight scoreless innings against the Padres on Saturday, but with the lineup San Diego is rolling out there these days, it may as well have been horse trainer Nick Zito....

Esteban German: With Mark Grudzielanek going on the 15 day DL, German gets a boost in value as he slides over into the everyday 2B role. I’ve always liked German and thought he deserved more of a shot at the...

Jeremy Sowers – In 2006, Sowers had a brilliant rookie season, pitching in 88.3 innings as a starter with an ERA of 3.57 and WHIP of 1.189. The Indians then expected him to be a critical part of the rotation...

Tim Lincecum was robbed of a win as he put together yet another brilliant start for the offensively inept Giants. Lincecum allowed 1 ER on just 3 H with 3 BB and 11 K and if he were on a...