Thursday, June 30, 2011

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Friday 7/1/11

Tuesday's Starter Stats - Freddy Garcia - 6.0 Innings Pitched - 1 Strikeout - Win - 3.00 ERA - 1.33 WHIP
Thursday's Starter Stats - Carlos Zambrano - Stats Not Available As Of Posting. Will Update.
Cumulative Starters' Stats - 508 Innings Pitched - 356 Strikeouts - 6.31 K/9 - 32 Wins in 83 Starts - 3.70 ERA - 1.24 WHIP
Starter Stats Spreadsheet Viewable Online Here

Apologies for the lack of a recommendation on Wednesday and the shorted recommendation for Thursday.  I was still recovering from my overnight work and was exhausted but couldn't sleep.  I seem to have straightened myself out now, so hopefully I'll be able to work uninterrupted moving forwards.

Freddy Garcia delivered six innings of average ERA and WHIP ball on the way to picking up a win.  Nothing to write home about, but still a quality outing from a spot started pitcher.  Yankee starters are always good for wins, so keep an eye on Phil Hughes when he comes back to the rotation.  If he returns to form he'll be ownable in basically all leagues.

Onto Friday's pickups.  We've reached July and you would think that the good pitchers would all be owned by now and yet there are still quality options available to us every day that are owned in less than 50% of leagues...

Top Ten NFL Quarterbacks 2011 - #10 - #6

With the lockout still going, I can't give my opinion on the NFL teams at this point, but it's getting to be that time of year where football writing should be going on. So I've decided to start evaluating the NFL players.  I'm starting naturally with the most important position in the league, quarterback, and will move on to the other positions as necessary until this lockout is over.

I have plenty to say about the quarterbacks, so I've broken down the list into multiple parts rather than wait and release just one large list.  I started with the notable omissions earlier in the week, and am moving on to numbers 10 through 6 here....

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Spot Starter For 6/30/11

Sorry all. Haven't slept still.  Just wanted to offer Carlos Zambrano for Thursday for everyone.  He's easily the best available choice.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Top Ten NFL Quarterbacks 2011 - The Not Quite Top Ten Edition

With the lockout on the verge of ending, It's time to start discussing the NFL more.  Unfortunately, it's hard to evaluate how teams are going to look this season until after the lockout ends.  However, I can discuss players.  I'm a man of my own opinions here at Big Derf Sports, and I don't want people to be too surprised when we get into the season and I've got a low opinion on a guy like Michael Vick.  Everyone should know what they are getting into.  It's also important to note that these are my opinions of the real world talents of these quarterbacks and should no way be confused with my fantasy football rankings, which will come after the free agency period.

Also, rather than blowing my whole load at once, I realized as I was writing the list that I have quite a bit to say about each player.  So, I'm going to release this list in three different posts over next few days.  The first post here is about the biggest name players to not make my top ten list.  Then I'll release the #10-#6 segment of my list, and then #5-#1 after that.

For now, onto to big name omissions...

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Tuesday 6/28/11

Monday's Starter Stats- Nick Blackburn - 4.1 Innings Pitched - 1 Strikeout - Loss - 14.55 ERA - 3.23 WHIP
Cumulative Starters' Stats - 502 Innings Pitched - 355 Strikeouts - 6.36 K/9 - 31 Wins in 81 Starts - 3.71 ERA - 1.24 WHIP
Starter Spreadsheet Viewable Online Here

My return to daily writing was the opposite of triumphant.  Hoped to return to a great game from Blackburn to help build my credit back up with my readers, but instead got a poor performance from a guy who had been great over his last ten starts.  Rather than dwell on Blackburn's bad start, I'm going to mention that alternate recommendation John Lannan was great yesterday, and move right on to Tuesday's recommendation.  As always, the following player is the one I recommend most that is available in more than fifty percent of ESPN leagues...

Monday, June 27, 2011

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Monday 6/27/11

I'm back. I'm going to update the spreadsheet with the full stats from while I was gone later today, but for now I wanted to get everyone my recommendation for a starter here on Monday night.  It's a decent travel day here Monday, but there are still quality options available in more than fifty percent of leagues for you to add to your team...

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Programming Note

Ladies and Gentlemen... your regularly scheduled programming will be returning to the blog starting next Monday, June 27th.  Will be off overnights by then.  Back to daily fantasy baseball posts, and when the lockout ends, hopefully more than daily football and fantasy football posts.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Sunday 6/12/11

Still working overnights but will be off them and returning to a normal schedule soon.  A week or two.  Until then it's going to be short posts like this.  Sorry.  Anywho, Sunday's spot starter is a good one.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Friday 6/10/11

Still on a short posting schedule here for Friday adjusting to my overnight work, but wanted to keep updating you guys with spot starters...

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Spot Starters For 6/8/11 and 6/9/11

Too tired from adjusting to working overnights to pound out the full column, but didn't want to leave any loyal readers hanging any longer.  Will update the spreadsheet and everything at some future point, but just a pair of quick recommendations...

6/8/11 Starter - Jason Vargas - He is coming off a complete game shut out of the Rays and his matchup with the White Sox is the best of some bad draws for other good pitchers.

6/9/11 Starter - Aaron Harang - Harang has been good over his last four starts and draws a solid matchup here home against the Nationals.  He is unowned because of his past performances, but as a Padre now, it's going to be all gravy for Harang.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Friday 6/3/11

Thursday's Recommended Starter - Bud Norris - Results Not In Yet
Cumulative Starters' Stats - 460.1 Innings Pitched - 330 Strikeouts - 6.45 K/9 - 28 Wins in 73 Starts - 3.56 ERA - 1.22 WHIP
Cumulative Starter Spreadsheet Viewable Online Here

Posting this earlier than usual because I have things to do later Thursday night.  Friday is my Birthday so going to be celebrating early at midnight.  May not be another update until Saturday depending on what I end up doing tomorrow.

As always, all recommendations are available in more than 50% of ESPN Leagues.  Friday's recommended starter coming up.....

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Thursday 6/2/11

Wednesday's Recommended Starter - Rick Porcello - 6.2 Innings Pitched - 4 Strikeouts - Win - 2.70 ERA - 1.35 WHIP
Cumulative Starters' Stats - 460.1 Innings Pitched - 330 Strikeouts - 6.45 K/9 - 28 Wins in 73 Starts - 3.56 ERA - 1.22 WHIP
Cumulative Starter Spreadsheet Viewable Online Here

Porcello picked right back up where he left off before the Red Sox beat him up, delivering 6.2 innings of strong ERA and WHIP and picking up a win.  The strikeout numbers weren't great, but they were solid enough.  Strikeouts in general have been harder to come by than they were at the beginning of the year, as most of the strong strikeout pitchers have been rostered at this stage of the year.  The ERA and WHIP have been solid for a while, so going to look to pick up extra strikeouts going forward.

If you went with alternate recommendation Brian Matusz off the DL on Wednesday, you didn't pick up a win, but you had even better ERA and WHIP.  Matusz should be good to go from here on out and is worth rostering in mixed leagues.  If you went with Chris Capuano in your deep league, you would have had a strong start if they didn't leave him in to start the seventh inning.  When they did, Capuano let up five straight singles, and all of them made it across home plate, ruining an otherwise awesome start.

As always, looking to do better today than I did yesterday.  Recommendations are, as always, available in more than 50% of leagues.  Travel Thursday recommendations coming up...

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Wednesday 6/1/11

Tuesday's Recommended Starter - Mike Minor - 6.0 Innings Pitched - 4 Strikeouts - Loss - 4.50 ERA - 1.83 WHIP
Cumulative Starters' Stats - 453.2 Innings Pitched - 326 Strikeouts - 6.47 K/9 - 27 Wins in 72 Starts - 3.57 ERA - 1.22 WHIP
Cumulative Starter Spreadsheet Viewable Online Here

With no starter offered on Memorial Day, we started off the week with a disappointment out of Mike Minor.  It wasn't an awful blowup your stats start, but it wasn't good either.  He was left in the start the seventh inning and walked a man on before being pulled from the game. That batter made it home and turned a 3.00 ERA day into a 4.50 ERA and a no decision into a loss.  Luckily, it wasn't embarrassing and we can make up for it easily the rest of the week. Freddy Garcia is still playing as i write this on Tuesday night, but has cruised through four innings so far against the As.  He should deliver for deep league players.

Before I move on, just a programming note for the week.  It's my birthday on Friday and I'm working out the details on a promotion in my actual job, so the other daily pickup column is going to be taking the week off.  I'm going to miss a second day of this column later in the week (likely the Saturday edition), but will at least provide you with my recommendations either here or via twitter.

Wednesday's recommendation coming up right now...