Luis Castillo (2B--Mets) Here's a suggestion: rather than play "Take me out to the Ballgame" at CitiField, during the 7th inning stretch, about the Mets play the theme from M*A*S*H? There must be some dark magic that is working against the Mets or perhaps Jimmy Rollins owns a complete set of Met voodoo dolls and is sticking pins in them one by one. The Mets lost Gary Sheffield and Jon Niese to injuries on Wednesday. And not 24 hours before, Luis Castillo was unable to navigate the dugout steps as he also came up lame, spraining his ankle and is listed as day to day. And no doubt Tonya Harding is lurking in the shadows of CitiField ready to take out David Wright with a lead pipe. Whatever dark cloud that is hanging over the team, Castillo’s injury will probably not throw a complete wrench into any fantasy owner’s season, but Castillo has been one of the Mets hottest hitter of late. Until his injury, Castillo had enjoyed a .348 BA since July 1st with an OBP of .444. Of course there is no power to speak of, but you don't expect that with Luis "Slappy" Castillo as most of the balls he hits go the other way. But he is one of the most difficult players in baseball to strikeout as he has a CT% of 94% and has an amazing EYE of 2.13. Perhaps somewhat underrated this season, Castillo can be a good low-end option in deep mixed leagues as he will provide a strong OBP and solid BA and can also be a source of stolen bases. But, until the extent of this recent injury is assessed, fantasy owners should use a backup plan.
Kaz Matsui (2B--Astros) It seems that the secret to getting the most out of Kaz Matsui is to lessen one's expectations of what he will do. Certainly, when he first arrived in the U.S., there were very high expectations of him when he joined the Mets. But since he performed his own version of “Escape from New York”, Matsui has been a moderately serviceable middle infielder. He has split time between the Rockies and the Astros and has put together a .293 BA over that time, showing terrific speed with 61 SB. Matsui has been heating up of late and has hit .323 over the last 8 games with 2 homeruns. The home runs are certainly a bonus, but the current hot steak could be an indication that Matsui's .253 BA is on the raise and his OPS should increase from its current .655 to a figure that is over .700. While these are not numbers that will make any fantasy owner jump for joy, Matsui's number fall into the "you-could-do-a-lot-worse" category. If Matsui gets hot, he might be worth taking a flier on in deeper mixed leagues or NL leagues as he is due for some better times and can maintain a decent BA with very good speed. Just don’t expect too much and you should be just fine.
Justin Lehr (SP—Reds) Baseball is a funny game. Before Wednesday, Justin Lehr had pitched a total 5 of innings for a major league club in the past 3 years. Any Vegas odds maker would have would have picked the Cubs as heavy favorites with Rich Harden on the mound against Lehr who had a lifetime ERA going into the game of 5.32 and a WHIP of 1.591. So what does Lehr do? He pitches a complete game shutout, limiting the Cubs to 5 base runners and striking out 4. Lehr attacked the strike zone, throwing 67% of his pitches for strikes. This was definitely the game of Lehr’s spotted career and while it would be great to say they he is a must-have in every format, it would be impossible to make that kind of recommendation based upon one game and barely any history of success. In fact, Wednesday game was only his second career start at the age of 31, with the other coming last Friday. While he certainly has earned another start in the Red’s rotation, Lehr is not an advisable pick up, as a complete game shut out for him was the equivalent of a Hail Mary pass. But, its performances like Lehr’s that make baseball the wonderful game it is and a funny one at that.
Will Venable (OF--Padres) The trade of Jake Peavy was the official wave of the white flag on a season that the Padres (and their fans) hope to quickly forget. The nice thing about a team playing for nothing but pride is that they get to give young talent an opportunity to show what they can do on a regular basis. Will Venable is one of those players who is doing his best to impress and has been doing a good job hitting .481 over the past 7 games including 5 home runs and 12 RBI. Over the last 30 days, Venable has overcome a rough start of the a season and is hitting .321, with a SLG of .545, but he also has a very poor CT% of 70%, so at this point in his career, there shouldn't be any expectations for his average to raise much higher than .260. In the minors, Venable has hit for some power and has shown good speed, so there may be a chance that someday he may be a 20-20 player. But that accomplishment will have its challenges playing half of his games at Petco Park. Not to discount Venable's improvements, but at this point he is probably not worth adding to a fantasy roster as he hasn't shown the promise of consistent speed or power on the major league level and he swings and misses at too many pitches to provide a solid batting average.
Eugenio Velez (OF--Giants) Since being called back up on July 27th to replace Nate Schierholtz, Eugenio Velez has hit in every game, with a slash line of .419/.488/.605. A nice surprise but hardly what the Giants were expecting considering Velez's first stint with the club this season he only batted .194. In the minors, Velez has been able to showcase excellent speed and with him hitting so well, the Giants have recently inserted him into the leadoff spot. However, any comparison to a Rickey Henderson type player needs to be put on hold because there are some concerns with Velez as a leadoff hitter. First, his EYE is much less than what is desirable for a leadoff hitter (or any hitter for that matter) at 0.20 for the season and 0.33 for his young career. Secondly, his CT% needs a lot of work as it is currently at 73% this season, so one has to wonder if his current hot streak has a lot of legs especially with a BHIP of .397 which would indicate that he has been more lucky then good. But he does have a good GB% at 59.3% so Velez can utilize his speed to his advantage as he is a player that may get away with a higher than norm BHIP even with a poor CT%. But even at .397, it is excessive, so you can expect Velez to slow down (no pun intended). But while he remains hot, he might be a nice pickup, especially for stolen bases in deeper mixed leagues.
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