Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Monday 7/4/11

Sunday's Starter One - Freddy Garcia - 7.0 Innings Pitched - 1 Strikeouts - No Decision - 1.29 ERA - 0.86 WHIP
Sunday's Starter Two - Ervin Santana - 7.2 Innings Pitched - 8 Strikeouts - Win - 1.17 ERA - 0.91 WHIP
Week 13 Starter Stats - 50 Innings Pitched - 32 Strikeouts - 5.76 K/9 - 4 Wins in 8 Starts - 2.34 ERA - 1.14 WHIP
Cumulative Starter Stats - 547.2 Innings Pitched - 386 Strikeouts - 6.34 K/9 - 35 Wins in 89 Starts - 3.50 ERA - 1.22 WHIP
Cumulative Starter Spreadsheet Viewable Here

Closed out a great week here Sunday night. It started off ugly, but the spot starter choices over the weekend got the ERA and WHIP down to fantastic levels.  Could use more strikeouts, but an otherwise solid spot starting week.

Freddy Garcia turned in another great start here Sunday.  His strikeout totals will never be high, but as long as he turns in these one run outings, he'll do great things for your fantasy team.  He would have picked up a win here Sunday too, but a rare blown save by Mariano lost the game for them.

It's a full slate of games here on a holiday Monday, but only half the starters are available under the 50% owned line, and the two most owned options under the line have been scratched from their Monday starts.  Still, I found a pair of strong options from the thirteen available starters....

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Sunday 7/3/11

Saturday's Starter One - Bartolo Colon - 6.0 Innings Pitched - 6 Strikeouts - Win - 0.00 ERA - 0.83 WHIP
Saturday's Starter Two - Doug Fister - 9.0 Innings Pitched - 7 Strikeouts - Loss - 1.00 ERA - 0.78 WHIP
Week 13 Starter Stats - 35.1 Innings Pitched - 23 Strikeouts - 5.86 K/9 - 3 Wins in 6 Starts - 2.80 ERA - 1.25 WHIP
Cumulative Starter Stats - 533 Innings Pitched - 377 Strikeouts - 6.37 K/9 - 34 Wins in 87 Starts - 3.56 ERA - 1.23 WHIP
Cumulative Starter Spreadsheet Viewable Here

Another solid day to help clean up a week that started off poorly.  Fifteen innings of one run ball will help out any ERA or WHIP.

Colon came out in his first start off the DL and turned in a strong six innings against a decent Mets lineup before being taken out after 80 pitches.  He's picked right back up where he left off before he went on  the DL and should be allowed to go deeper into his next start.  Pick him up if he's available in whatever league you are in.

Fister was robbed by his offense of a win, as the complete game of one run ball should have gotten the job done.  That's the drawback with a Mariners pitcher, can't rely on any sort of run support.  Even when Fister is great like Saturday night, he still will lose more than he wins.

Onto Sunday's starters.  Two recommendations coming right up...

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Thursday 5/26/11

Tuesday Starter's Stats - Kyle McClellan - 6.0 Innings Pitched - 4 Strikeouts - No Decision - 0.00 ERA - 0.33 WHIP
Wednesday Starter's Stats - Erik Bedard - 6.0 Innings Pitched - 4 Strikeouts - Win - 0.00 ERA - 1.17 WHIP
Week Eight Starter Stats - 16.2 Innings Pitched - 10 Strikeouts - 5.40 K/9 - 1 Win in 3 Starts - 2.70 ERA - 1.20 WHIP
Cumulative Starters' Stats - 412.2 Innings Pitched - 301 Strikeouts - 6.56 K/9 - 26 Wins in 65 Starts - 3.58 ERA - 1.20 WHIP
Starter Spreadsheet Viewable Online Here

Was never able to re-update yesterday's post, so I'm going to just talk about McClellan's stats on Tuesday here.  And it was a great start.  He let up a two run home run, but it was in an inning extended by an error, and wasn't charged to his ERA.  Other than that he only let up just one hit over the six innings he was in there.  He didn't catch a win, but it was an otherwise great six innings to add to your team.

On Wednesday, I had a good day with everyone i talked about.  Bedard delivered six innings of actual shut out ball (even though that doesn't matter in fantasy) but scattered six hits in a walk over that time so the WHIP was just good, not amazing like McClellan's Tuesday.  Luckily he did pick up the win that McClellan didn't.  If you couldn't get Bedard and went with Ervin Santana, you still got a win in six innings, but he let up an earned run over that time.  Deep league players got good ERA and WHIP from Mike Minor, but he didn't pick up the win in a game that went to extra innings.

No Pickup/Drop column today, as I have work early tomorrow and it's four AM as i write this.  I'm not just dodging Denard Span's hot week, as Brantley has been nearly as good.  Just very late at night.  Thursday's travel day starter coming up....

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Wednesday 5/25/11

Tuesday Starter's Stats - Kyle McClellan - N/A

Cumulative Starters' Stats - 400.2 Innings Pitched - 293 Strikeouts - 6.58 K/9 - 25 Wins in 64 Starts - 3.68 ERA - 1.21 WHIP

Starter Spreadsheet Viewable Online Here

Writing this on Tuesday afternoon because I don't think I'll have time to do it late tonight, so will update with McClellan's stats either late tonight or tomorrow morning.

Wednesday there are many options available, but they aren't all pretty.  Picking out the good options from the bad for your Wednesday needs...

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Monday 5/9/11

Sunday's Recommended Starter One's Stats - Erik Bedard - 5.0 Innings Pitched - 9 Strikeouts - No Decision - 1.80 ERA - 1.40 WHIP
Sunday's Recommended Starter Two's Stats - Kyle McClellan - 8.0 Innings Pitched - 3 Strikeouts - Win - 1.13 ERA - 0.88 WHIP
Week Five Starters' Stats - 55.1 Innings Pitched - 39 Strikeouts - 6.34 K/9 - 2 Win in 9 Starts - 4.39 ERA - 1.28 WHIP
Cumulative Starters' Stats - 288.1 Innings Pitched - 227 Strikeouts - 7.09 K/9 - 17 Wins in 47 Starts - 3.71 ERA - 1.19 WHIP

Bedard and McClellan both came through with great starts here to save my week five numbers.  First Bedard gave us five innings of one earned run ball with nine strikeouts...almost two per inning.  Then, McClellan pitched eight innings of great ball and picked up a win, which had been hard to come by so far this week.  Week five closes looking good, and week six is going to bring a change to the format of this column.

When I started this column, it was a good way to make myself write every day, but I spend so much time working on this column at this point, that it is making it hard for me two write anything else.  In order to get time to write more fantasy baseball stuff and continue working on other endeavors, I'm no longer going to rank all of the starters every day.  I'm still going to offer daily recommendations, but I'm just going to give the recommendation and an alternate owned in less than fifty percent of leagues, along with a recommendation owned in less than five percent of leagues for deeper players.  And don't worry, I'm still going to offer extra recommendations for head to head players on weekend.  This new format debuts right now...

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickup For 4/2/11

Whether you are streaming starters or just looking for a spot start because of injury, you've come to the right place. Everyday here on my blog I offer the best starting pitcher that is readily available in espn.com standard leagues and rank the rest of the available pitchers in the order I would pick them up.  See who I recommend today right after the jump.