Kevin Gregg:
The fantasy community was outraged by manager Lou Pineilla’s decision to utilize his best reliever as a middle man and insert Kevin Gregg into the closer’s role this spring, and that community is likely to get louder about it after Gregg blew his first save of the season in his 2nd opportunity. Gregg was called on to record a 4 out save after Pineilla went through 5 relievers to get 5 outs in the 7th and 8th innings. As has been the case when Gregg struggles, his command (or lack thereof) got the best of him as he walked journeyman Chris Duffy on a 55 foot 3-2 splitter, and then followed up a 2B by Rickie Weeks with a wild pitch and another BB. The end result was the Brewers plating two runs to win the game in the bottom of the 9th and the Cubs losing for the 2nd time in 4 games with Kevin Gregg on the mound. The Cubs as a team are best suited with the flexibility of utilizing Marmol in high leverage situations than just the traditional 9th inning role, so Gregg will likely get a long rope, but tomorrow may be an interesting test drive for fantasy owners and Lou Pineilla as Gregg figures to be unavailable after making appearances in 3 of the last 4 games.
Eric Byrnes:
While he hasn’t done too much to earn it, it’s worth noting that Eric Byrnes now has three starts in the Diamondbacks first four games. On Friday Justin Upton grabbed a seat as Byrnes was the choice in RF. He went 1-3 with a Run scored batting out of the 2 hole and notching his first hit of the season. Byrnes isn’t a great real life player, but he serves his purpose in fantasy with a nice power-speed combination and playing in a nice hitters’ park in the dessert. With a 20-50 season on the books for his last full season in Arizona, Byrnes deserves significant attention as long as he’s being run out there three out of every four games. He’ll have to hit (I’d hope) to stay out there but then again he was 0-7 coming into tonight and had still started in 3 of 4 games, so who knows. Regardless, us fantasy owners need to give him attention as long as Bob Melvin is.
Daniel Murphy:
I’ve been excited about Daniel Murphy as a hitter for some time now. Last year as a year-end keeper outlook article I discussed Murphy as a legitimate top-end keeper option at 2B (with the news he would play 2B in the AFL). Unfortunately the 2B position didn’t pan out, but Murphy’s bat can still play. After another mutli-hit effort on Friday night Murphy raised his early season average to .368. Murphy’s a fast-riser through the Mets minor league system with an advanced approach at the plate. Hitting in the 2nd slot in the Mets lineup he should see plenty of fastballs and plenty of AB’s with a large hole on the right side as teams hold on Jose Reyes. The combination should lead to good all around production with particular strengths in batting average and runs scored. The Mets appear committed to Murphy in the #2 hole and in LF and as such fantasy owners can feel the same as a back-end OF option.
Kyle McClellan:
Just one day after profiling the Cardinals bullpen situation I’m back at it again. Last night as predicted Jason Motte was given another opportunity to close out the game and as predicted, the leash was even shorter. After allowing singles to two of the first three batters faced, Motte was pulled in favor of another reliever. This time it wasn’t a matchup situation as RH Kyle McClellan was brought in. What do we make of all this? Well… first and foremost we know LaRussa has no confidence in Jason Motte and I’d be surprised if Motte is given another opportunity anytime soon. In traditional mixed formats, I think he can safely be dropped. I know this is one day after saying you can hold on and see how things play out but if LaRussa isn’t willing to allow 2 singles for breathing room, I can’t imagine he’s throwing him back out there again. Then who is worth owning in the Cards pen? Well, I still think matchups will be played with LaRussa at the helm and a number of options may be used for save situations, but I think McClellan may get the first crack from here on out. McClellan’s track record doesn’t scream closer but Ryan Franklin notched 17 saves last year and McClellan’s a better pitcher than Franklin. At this point I think McClellan’s still a speculative play but he’s now jumped ahead of Motte as the reliever of choice in a bullpen that may just best be avoided all together.
Cole Hamels:
Making his first start in three weeks and pitching in Colorado will be reason to comfort Hamels owners after he got shelled in his first outing of the season on Friday, but there was one sign in particular that gave me some concerns about Hamels going forward. Hamels struggled all afternoon with fastball velocity. He sat in the 86-87 mph range, a couple notches below his typical fastball velocity, and the impact was significant. Hamels had good offspeed stuff but Rockies hitters sat on his offspeed stuff knowing he couldn’t challenge them with a fastball. He finished allowing 7 ER’s on 11 hits and 1 BB in just 3 2/3 innings, while striking out just 1. As I mentioned before, there are enough logical reasons to eschew any concerns and we never want to make judgments on just 1 start. However, a pitcher coming off a season in which he threw 80 more innings than he has ever thrown before, who has already demonstrated some elbow concerns, struggling with velocity is something to watch. I’m not throwing up the panic sign early on but if I were a Hamels owner, given his history with health, I’d consider any offer of equal value seriously.
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