Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups for Thursday 5/5/11

Tuesday's Recommended Starter's Stats - R.A. Dickey - 6.0 Innings Pitched - 1 Strikeout - Loss - 9.00 ERA - 1.33 WHIP
Wednesday's Recommended Starter's Stats -Vance Worley - 6.0 Innings Pitched - 7 Strikeouts - Win - 1.50 ERA - 0.67 WHIP
Week Five Starters' Stats - 19 Innings Pitched - 15 Strikeouts - 7.11 K/9 - 1 Win in 3 Starts - 4.74 ERA - 1.00 WHIP
Cumulative Starters' Stats - 252 Innings Pitched - 203 Strikeouts - 7.25 K/9 - 16 Wins in 41 Starts - 3.64 ERA - 1.15 WHIP
Starter Spreadsheet Viewable Online Here

Once again, sorry about the shortened column yesterday.  It's going to happen on occasion unfortunately, because life gets in the way, but hopefully it will continue to be a rare occurrence.  Tuesday's spot starter was R.A. Dickey, who got blasted.  I still like him going forwards at home, but I want to wait a few weeks until I know he has the knuckleball going right again.  It wasn't breaking well Tuesday, and it showed in his stat line. Luckily I bounced back with the Vance Worley pick on Wednesday.  Strikeouts were there...The win was there...The ERA and WHIP were there...It was a great fantasy start.  Week five's numbers are solid save the ERA, which we'll get down over the next few days.  As a side note, Colby Lewis is owned in 50% of league still so is ineligible for my list, and Brandon Beachy is owned in 49.7% of leagues, and any active leagues so it would be cheap for me to recommend him here today.  Beachy is the best guy available under 50% and is my recommendation if he's available, but otherwise my official Thursday recommendation is coming up...

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Friday 4/29/11

Thursday's Recommendations' Stats - Kyle McClellan - 5.2 Innings Pitched - 2 Strikeouts - Win - 7.94 ERA - 1.77 WHIP

Week Four Cumulative Stats - 25 Innings Pitched - 13 Strikeouts - 4.68 K/9 - 2 Win in 4 Starts - 5.76 ERA - 1.48 WHIP

Cumulative Total Stats - 201.2 Innings Pitched - 153 Strikeouts - 6.83 K/9 - 14 Wins in 33 Starts - 3.70 ERA - 1.20 WHIP

Starter Spreadsheet Online Here

It was a weak starting pitcher day Thursday and McClellan was just one example of that.  My second recommendation, Baker, ended up being pushed back to Friday, and the only good starts that came from anyone were Jeff Niemann and Carlos Carrasco.  McClellan didn't do much else, but he did squeak out a win because of the amazing Cardinal offense.  It's been a rough week, but as we get into the weekend we have a few solid spot choices coming up Saturday and Sunday, and we'll make up this bad week yet.  Fridays starter coming up...

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Thursday 4/14/11

Wednesday's Recommended Starter's Stats - Carlos Zambrano - 5.2 Innings Pitched - 4 Strikeouts - Win - 7.94 ERA - 1.73 WHIP

Cumulative Recommended Starters' Stats - 94 IP - 78 Strikeouts - 9 Wins in 15 Starts - 3.06 ERA - 1.13 WHIP - 7.47 K/9

Week Two Starts' Stats - 19.2 IP - 13 Strikeouts - 2 Wins in 3 Starts - 3.66 ERA - 1.12 WHIP - 5.95 K/9

Cumulative Starter Stats Spreadsheet Online Here

I have nothing to apologize for with Carlos Zambrano's stats here.  I can't believe the Cubs let them rack up 5 runs on him without taking him out in the sixth inning. Just go look at the play by play. He lets up a walk, a single, then gets a guy to ground out.  Then lets up two more RBI singles and a fielder's choice RBI.  He should have been pulled there, if you didn't get him out of there before that. Instead, he then let up a home run to Matt Downs, the number seven hitter.  They even let him give up a walk after that to further hurt his WHIP.  Big Z still managed to pick up the win because in the top of the sixth he jacked a solo home run.  Hopefully this doesn't happen again with todays starter....