Saturday, May 28, 2011

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Saturday 5/28/11

Friday Starter's Stats - Scott Baker - 7.0 Innings Pitched - 6 Strikeouts - No Decision - 0.00 ERA - 0.83 WHIP
Week Eight Starters' Stats - 31.2 Innings Pitched - 19 Strikeouts - 5.40 K/9 - 1 Win in 5 Starts - 1.71 ERA - 1.11 WHIP
Cumulative Starters' Stats - 4.27.2 Innings Pitched - 310 Strikeouts - 6.52 K/9 - 26 Wins in 67 Starts - 3.47 ERA - 1.19 WHIP
Starter Spreadsheet Viewable Online Here

On a great roll right now with four straight great starts, including three of four scoreless.  Baker was one of those scoreless starts today, striking out six over seven without letting up a run.  He would have picked up the win too, as he exited with a five run lead after seven, but three relievers each let up two runs a pop over the eighth and ninth innings and the Twins ended up losing the game.  Wins are crazy. If you went with my alternate recommendation, Rick Porcello, you ended up getting beat up by the super hot Boston offense.  Tyler Chatwood didn't take advantage of his matchup with the Twins either, for those in deep leagues.  Hopefully, you got Baker in and added the seven scoreless to your numbers.

Saturday means it's the weekend, and that means two starters for those of you trying to catch up in your head to head matchups.  Hopefully can keep up the sparkling ERA and WHIP.  Saturday's guys coming up...


Saturday's Starter Recommendation One - Randy Wolf - Milwaukee Brewers vs San Francisco Giants - 4:10 PM ET - 20.4% Owned in ESPN Leagues

The starter options aren't very pretty. It's mostly ugly starters with just decent matchups, or decent starters with ugly matchups. Wolf isn't great, but he isn't awful, and he draws a solid matchup here against the Giants.  He's coming off a pair of solid starts against the Dodgers and Rockies, and the Giants lineup is worse than both of those offenses right now.  The walk rate has been a little high the last two games, but it hasn't gotten him hurt.  He should be able to put the ball over the plate more against the powerless Giants offense and keep the walks down.  Take Wolf here and count on a solid ERA and WHIP with some strikeouts involved.  As always, wins are volatile, but the Brewers should beat the Giants.

Saturday's Starter Recommendation Two - Ivan Nova - New York Yankees at Seattle Mariners - 10:10 PM ET - 3.9% Owned in ESPN Leagues

Nova is everything that you are looking for out of a spot starter... save the consistency.  He has the powerful Yankee offense backing him up, playing against a horrible Seattle offense.  He also gets to play in Seattle, at pitcher-friendly Safeco Field.  Nova's one problem is he has been inconsistent so far this year.  He has had six good starts on the year, but has mixed in two bad starts and an awful start in between.  You hope that the great matchup helps him deliver another good start here.  Look for a sub-3.00 ERA and sub-1.30 WHIP on the way to pick up a win.

Saturday's Alternate - Matt Harrison - Texas Rangers vs Kansas City Royals - 7:10 PM - 13.9% Owned in ESPN Leagues

Harrison has been pitching solidly for most of the season short of a two start hiccup at the end of April.  I love his talent, but hate the matchup at home against Kansas City.  It has been warming up outside, and Rangers Ballpark is going to be getting more and more hitter-friendly as that continues.  It wouldn't be bad just with the ballpark, but when you add in the matchup against the hot Royals offense, it puts him out of the top choices.  He's still good enough to be a solid alternate though, so don't be too afraid to start him if you need him.

Saturday's Deep League Recommendation - None

It's another ugly day for deep league starters, and i don't like any of the players owned in less than 1% of leagues. Just pass it today.

-Fred "Big Derf" Tobin

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