Jerome Williams - Back in 2003 a rookie right hander came on to the baseball scene in San Francisco, pitching 131 innings with a 3.30 ERA and 128 ERA+. At that time, 21-year old Jerome Williams looked like a sure bet to have a long and successful major league career. Unfortunately, one good season doesn't always mean a good career and Williams struggled for much of the following 4 seasons before being demoted to the minors where he stayed from 2007 to 2009. He played the 2010 season in Taiwan and started this year with the Lancaster Barnstormers of the independent Atlantic League. Needless to say, it's been a long journey for Williams, who started a game for the first time since 2007 and won for the first time since 2005 on Sunday by beating the Orioles. Williams was brilliant, tossing 7 innings and allowing just 1 ER. He walked 0 and struck out 6, throwing 107 pitches. At 29-years old, Williams still has time to carve out a career, although for the time being it's hard to tell how fantasy relevant he'll be for the remainder of this season. He owned a 3.91 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in 73 innings for AAA Salt Lake prior to his call up. With Tyler Chatwood demoted, Williams has a spot in the rotation for now and will face Texas next Sunday with the Angels getting two off days this week.
Jose Valverde - It took a sac bunt, fly ball and perfect throw from Austin Jackson to gun down the tying run in Kosuke Fukudome for Jose Valverde to stay perfect in save situations this season. But that all happened on Sunday as Detroit swept Cleveland and now Valverde is 37-for-37 for saves in 2011, lowering his season ERA to 2.60 and WHIP to 1.27 in the process. Valverde has been pretty lucky to not have a blown save as his FIP was nearly 4.00 entering yesterday's game. He continues to walk more than 4.5 batters per game and his xFIP is 4.08. As a closer on a division leader, Valverde has a lot of value, but I wouldn't be surprised if he goes through a tough stretch in the coming weeks. Unless, of course, he's just doing his best Brad Lidge impression, circa 2008.
Carl Crawford - The Red Sox outfielder connected for his 8th HR of the season Sunday, blasting a shot off Aaron Crow in the 7th inning. Crawford now owns a .251/.287/.356 line with 17 steals and 40 RBI. If you're a Crawford fantasy owner in search for any good news, the outfielder is posting a .723 OPS in August after tallying just a .599 mark in July . Woo-hoo! Crawford was never going to be mistaken for a patient hitter, but he's been swinging at everything this year, even by his standards. His walk rate is just under 4% and his chase rate is 38%. When you add in his BABIP, which is more than 30 points below his career average, you start to understand how Crawford can own a sub-.300 OBP and .250 average. He's been anxious in his first season in Boston, but it'd be surprising if he doesn't have a nice bounce back season in 2012.
Ivan Nova - Maybe A.J. Burnett can learn something about how to pitch from Ivan Nova. A day after Burnett was shelled (again), Nova showed what a competent pitcher should do against the Twins offense, allowing 0 ER over 7 innings to pick up his 13th win of the season. Yes, that's right. Ivan Nova has 13 wins. He also has a 3.97 ERA and entered yesterday's outing with a 4.31 FIP. The Yankees couldn't have asked for more from Nova so far this season and he's worth a roster spot in leagues using wins as a category. I love his 54% GB rate and sub-1.00 HR rate, but it's hard to get too excited about a pitcher with a 5.28 K/9 and 3.21 BB/9. He gets Baltimore in 2 of his next 3 starts, so feel good plugging him into your lineup for those outings.
Ubaldo Jimenez - The Indians acquired Ubaldo Jimenez for big games like the one they played Sunday versus the Tigers. However, Jimenez was not just bad, he was there-has-to-be-something-wrong-with-him bad as Detroit clobbered the big right hander to the tune of 8 ER and 12 base runners in only 3 1/3 innings. Jimenez has now allowed 17 ER in 4 starts with the Tribe. Entering the start, Jimenez's overall numbers (3.53 FIP, 8.70 K/9) were right in line with his career averages so I wasn't too worried about any drop in velocity or early struggles as an Indian. But on Sunday it just didn't seem like Jimenez knew where his pitches were going. He hung curveballs on 0-2, missed badly when trying to nibble the corners and looked like two completely different pitchers between the first two innings and the last two. He'll face the Royals in his next start, so I'd start him but it's certainly risky considering how poorly he's pitched in 3 of his past 4 games.
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