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 to Ty Wigginton in the 1st inning, but it was enough to cost him the game as Oswalt was magnificent. I’ve been driving the Johnson bandwagon all season and after this recent string of quality starts his overall numbers sit at 10-9, 4.16 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and 126 K’s in 138 1/3 Innings. I said at the beginning of the year he’d provide #2 starter value and I still stand by that as I believe he continues to work his ERA down below 4 and his WHIP into the low 1.20’s. If you’ve stuck with my advice and with the Big Unit you should have seen some nice return on your investment of late and that should continue as Johnson finishes with a friendly schedule in which he’s lined up to face: FLA, @SD, STL, @LAD, CIN, SF. Over his 26 August innings, Johnson has posted a magnificent 25:2 K:BB Ratio. While he likely won’t get to 300 Wins this season, at the end of the year you’re going to have one of the best draft day values in all of fantasy baseball on your hands.
Travis Ishikawa:
If you’re ever looking to test your knowledge of baseball just check the San Francisco Giants boxscore each morning and see how deep your knowledge goes! The Giants are fielding an offense reminiscent of the movie Major League and the newest guy worth paying attention to is Travis Ishikawa. Ishikawa’s a middling prospect who’s had an average bat throughout his minor league career while playing 1B. But this season he’s been mashing at AAA to the tune of .310/.370/.737, showing improved power in his 2B’s and HR Rates. The improved power has translated quickly to the big league level as Ishikawa has racked up 3 extra base hits in his first 13 ABs, including his first major league HR on Sunday. Ishikawa struck out far too many times at the minor league level, but he’s been making improvements in the contact rate as well, posting a 21% K Rate in ’08 as opposed to a 30% career K Rate. Long-term I’m not a big believer in Ishikawa but it seems things are clicking a bit this season for him and you could do worse in deep formats than riding a hot bat that’s showing good power potential.
Chris Volstad:
While Volstad hasn’t blown up just yet, I’m hopping on our own Mike Leone’s advice and suggesting it’s going to happen soon. I got to see Volstad up close and personal on Sunday and the same concerns I had when he first got promoted our clearly apparent with Volstad at the major league level. Volstad walked 3 and hit a batter in his 6 innings of work and has now walked 21 in his 44+ major league innings. Volstad’s strong GB Tendencies (54.6%) help mitigate some of the issues the poor command brings, but a Strand Rate of nearly 78% screams for regression. It hasn’t come yet but it will. Volstad simply doesn’t have the type of command to have big time success at the major league level right now. He’s a good prospect down the road, but his production right now is simply a mirage.
Clayton Kershaw:
There might not be a bigger Kershaw fan at Fantistics than myself, so to see the final piece of the puzzle (command) coming together I couldn’t be more excited. Kershaw made it 4 out of the last 5 starts in which he’s walked 2 or less after walking just 1 on Sunday against the Dodgers in 6 innings of work. We’ve talked about Kershaw’s tremendous K Rates and GB Rates and noted he was just 1 step away from quickly becoming an Ace. It appears he’s getting closer and closer to that as he’s walked just 9 in his last 32 innings (.28 BB Rate). Not surprisingly during that time he’s posted a 1.41 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, and 29 K’s in 32 innings. He’s an incredibly impressive pitching prospect, pitching in a fantastic home ballpark, with a team providing improved run support. There isn’t much more you’d want from the young gun, whose got the chance to make a Tim Lincecum/Yovani Gallardo circa 2007 impact the rest of the way.
Aaron Cook:
Cook returned to the mound on Sunday after being pushed back a few times due to back stiffness and he continued his good fortune earning his 15th win of the season despite allowing 10 base-runners in 5 innings. I’ve been on the sell-Cook high bandwagon since early May and continue to hold firm on that stance. Cook’s had a ton of good fortune this season with Wins, Strand Rate, BHIP%, etc. Basically if you can find a way to measure good fortune, Cook has had it. He’s the same high 3’s/low 4’s ERA, 1.30’s WHIP pitcher he’s been throughout his career with low K Rates and he’s been working his way back to that level steadily since the beginning of June when his ERA stood at 3.16. He’s a nice back-end option and the surprising W total this season has boosted his overall value, but the W’s aren’t reliable either as his Expected W total is about 4 wins less than his current W total.
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