Thursday, April 7, 2011

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Friday 4/8/11

Thursday's Starter Stats - Edwin Jackson - 8.0 IP - 13 Strikeouts - Win - 1.13 ERA - 0.63 WHIP

Cumulative Stater Stats - 49 IP - 43 Strikeouts - 7.9 K/9 - 4 Wins in 8 Starts - 3.49 ERA - 1.18 WHIP
Starter Spreadsheet here

I told you Jackson was a no-brainer.  The Tampa lineup is just dreadful, and Jackson made them look silly.  His one earned run came in the eighth inning, late in a start for this early in the year.  The 13 Ks are one less than the last three guys I suggested combined.  All in all it was an amazing start for fantasy purposes.  As I wrote in my Week 1 Thoughts and Pickups column Thursday, Jackson is worth rostering in all leagues.  He has a decent match-up with the As next followed by another game against Tampa Bay.  But if you need help sooner for this week's matchup, I have another great starter for you after the jump...

Fantasy Baseball Musings And Pickups From Week 1 (3/31-4/7)

This column is going to be all about the season so far.  Where you should be reacting.  Where you shouldn't be reacting.  Who to grab off of waivers.  All the good stuff you need to know through the first week.

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

Wednesday's Starter - Mike Minor - 4.1 IP - 2 Strikeouts - No Win - 10.38 ERA - 2.54 WHIP

Cumulative Starter Stats - 41 IP - 30 Strikeouts - 3 Wins - 3.95 ERA - 1.29 WHIP
Starter Spreadsheet here

Wow, Minor was just horrible.  He walked the first three batters he faced in the game and I knew it was going to end bad from there.  Thats two misses in a row I'd like to apologize for.  Hopefully you don't judge my work based on just those two outings.  Even after having two pitchers get blown up I still have an ERA under 4.  It's workable.  Today's starter pick is a better pitcher and has an amazing match-up.  Find out who after the jump...

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Wednesday 4/6/11

Tuesday's Starter Stats - Gavin Floyd - 7.0 IP - 5 Strikeouts - No Decision - 5.14 ERA - 1.29 WHIP

Cumulative Starter Stats  - 36.2 IP - 28 Strikeouts - 3 Wins - 3.19 ERA - 1.15 WHIP
(Full Starter List With Full Stats Here)

Floyd was my first big miss so far this year.  The five Ks weren't bad, but any ERA over 5.00 has to be considered a failure.  Buehrle had a worse ERA, but that was only because he was left in too long with the White Sox having a double digit lead.  I apologize for Floyd, but if you've been taking my starter recommendations since I've started it shouldn't affect your ERA too much.  Anyways, just click through the jump break to find out who I like today.

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Tuesday 4/5/11

Monday's Starter Stats - Brandon Beachy - 6.0 IP - 7 Strikeouts - No Decision - 1.50 ERA - 0.83 WHIP

Cumulative Starter Stats - 29.2 IP - 23 Strikeouts - 3 Wins - 2.73 ERA - 1.11 WHIP

Got another great spot start yesterday out of Beachy.  He let up just one run over six innings and kept the WHIP down while racking up over a strikeout per inning.   He is someone who should be owned in way more leagues than he currently is.  The Brewers are a solid hitting team and he just made them look goofy.  Of his 88 pitches 61 were strikes and he threw first pitch strikes to 18 of the 24 batters he faced.  He's going to have a very solid overall year and can be having it for you if you scoop him up between now and his next start.  Click through the jump to find out who is available in more than 50% of standard ESPN leagues that I like tomorrow...

Monday, April 4, 2011

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

Sunday's Starter's Stats - Zachary Britton - 6.0 IP - 6 Strike Outs - 1 Win - 1.50 ERA - 1.00 WHIP

Cumulative Starter Recommendation Stats - 23.2 IP - 16 Strike Outs - 3 Wins - 3.04 ERA - 1.18 WHIP

As you can see, Zach Britton worked out wonderfully as a spot start yesterday and through four days worth of recommendations the total stats are very workable. Obviously could use a few more strike outs, but that total is being brought down by Mark Buehrle's 0 strike outs the other day. Going to be looking to grab more strikeouts in the future but not going to sacrifice ERA and WHIP in order to do it. Find out my recommendation for today right after you click through the jump...

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickups For Sunday 4/3/11

Another day, another spot starter recommendation from me.  If you'd been following along so far, I've recommended Derek Lowe, Mark Buehrle, and Carlos Zambrano on the first three days of the year.  The  Buehrle and Zambrano picks suffered because their managers left them each in too long, but combined the three have thrown 17.2 innings of 3.66 ERA and 1.27 WHIP ball with 2 wins and ten strike outs.  Not bad numbers considering these are guys you are getting off of the waiver wire.  Sunday presents the best opportunity for pick ups yet, as teams get to their third ,and generally less owned, starters.   See who i like today after the jump break...

Friday, April 1, 2011

Daily Links For 4/1/11

Just a quick pair of links today.  Running late for work.

John Hollinger Murders Derrick Rose's MVP Candidacy (Link ESPN Insider Only) - I don't like stepping on the toes of my links too much usually, but since this one is insider only I'm gonna.  Hollinger out right destroys the idea that D-Rose should be MVP.  First, he goes back and rips the Nash and Iverson MVPs and Jason Kidd's 2001 MVP candidacy as all about the story.  He shows how all of those guys had better years in other years but received no MVP support in their better years because there was no story.  Derrick Rose's candidacy is all about the story and the improvement of the Bulls from last year and that they have been good in spite of all their injuries.  But that doesn't make him the MVP.  His team doesn't get as much worse when he leaves the floor as the Heat do when LeBron sits or the Magic do when Dwight Howard sits.  And their defense, their league best defense, actually gets better when he comes off the floor.  Hollinger comes to the conclusion that Rose is definitely not the MVP and Dwight Howard is the clear cut MVP and I'd have to agree with him.

Bill Simmons Breaks Down The NBA Season - Simmons wrote an 800 page basketball bible... So when he writes about the season itself, you should take a look at it.  This link is to part one of his two part review.  He power ranks all the non-contenders in this column as the look for the future.

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.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter Pickup For 4/1/11

Any good fantasy baseball player knows that acquiring free agent pitchers is huge for any kind of fantasy team.  If you drafted a lot of relievers, streaming starters can be a great way to accumulate innings and strikeouts and even if you have great starters, picking up the right free agent pitcher can be great help on days when your starters have bad match ups.  Everyday I post my recommendation for starting pitchers to pick up for the next days games.  If you read this space yesterday for today's (3/31) games you would have picked up Derek Lowe and got great value out of him.  Lowe pitched 5.2 innings of no run ball with just three hits and two walks...picking up six strikeouts and a win with a slick 0.88 WHIP.  Lowe had a great day but won't have another good matchup for a while, so you can drop him for tommorow's (4/1) pickup if you need to.  So who do I recommend for Friday?  Find out after the jump....

Daily Links For 3/31/11

NBA Investigating Jay-Z - Jay-Z Was in the University of Kentucky locker room after their win over North Carolina and there are photos and video to prove it.  As a part owner of the Nets, Jay-Z should know better than that and I'm betting he does.  However, I think that Jay-Z, like everyone else, just doesn't care about the NCAA.  Because he's not an athlete, the NCAA can't really punish him and the NBA has already set a precedent of just fining executives for smoozing up to college players.  Jay-Z can afford to pay a fine or two.  The NBA should make an example out of him or someone for this kind of activity, whether it's a draft penalty or something else it shouldn't be just a fine.

Wilpons Continue To Try And Sell Part of The Mets - The Wilpons need to come back to reality.  Everyone knows that the Mets aren't doing too well financially...No one is going to buy part of the team from them if it's not a majority share.  It'd basically be a sunk cost to give the Wilpons the money for a minority share of the team.  You're just buying in to the ability to lose money with the Wilpons.  And everyone knows that the Wilpons absolutely need to get capital.   Each time you hear about what the Wilpons are willing to sell, the share gets bigger and bigger.  If investors just wait it out they know they'll be able to eventually work out a deal for a majority share of the team and likely get it at a good price as the Wilpons will be desperate.

Warren Moon angry about Cam Newton's treatment - Warren feels that people's dislike of Cam Newton stems from the fact that Newton is a black man playing quarterback.  That is crazy.  It has nothing to do with the fact that he is black.  Newton has proven himself a bad character guy.  He had problems at Florida before transferring.  He not only stole a laptop but was also caught cheating three times.  That is a red flag.  At the Combine, before he's played a NFL down, he was calling himself an entertainer and icon and talking about himself in the third person.  That is a red flag.  It's not because he's black, it's because he has shitty character.  Moon brought up the fact that people had seemed to get over their racial bias after JaMarcus Russell went first overall, but JaMarcus had horrible character and was not a hard worker off the field which is why he failed.  Teams don't want to draft Newton for his amazing potential and have the same thing happen with Newton that happened with Russell.

Pegged Cap was NFL Players Idea - The NFLPA was complaining about the NFL's cap offers and the fact that anything over the predetermined cap would be going mostly into the owners pockets...But as it turns out the pegged cap was the players idea.  It makes sense.  The pegged cap protects the players if the NFL ends up falling short of revenue projections.  It gets them a guaranteed cap set point even if the NFL itself isn't making money.  But because they are getting that, they shouldn't be complaining about the NFL getting more of the money over projections.  If the players want that protection from the NFL not making enough revenue, the NFL owners should get some sort of compensation for offering that protection, and that should be the owners getting a greater share of the money over projections.

Chad Pennington Tears ACL in Basketball Game - Only news because Pennington is such a class act.  He's a guy who has come back from injury after injury and was working his way back from another shoulder injury when this happened.  He's likely to miss the whole 2012 season, and is expected not to come back after that.  Hopefully he catches on as a coach somewhere next year if he's not going to be playing.  Too smart a player to end his relationship with football just because he won't be playing.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Fantasy Baseball Spot Starter For 3/31/11

Every good fantasy baseball player knows the value of the spot starter.  In head to head leagues, good spot starts can help you win four categories a week and in roto leagues you need to use spot starters to accumulate more stats when your starting pitchers either have bad days or are injured.  That's why I'm going to offer daily recommendations for spot starter pickups.  Obviously I'm only going to offer guys that are readily available in most leagues but I haven't decided on the official ownership cut-off yet.  Also, the plan is to offer these spot starters a day or two in advance so you have time to put in the pickup and get the player starting on your roster before the day that it happens.

Daily Links For 3/29/11

Football Outsiders' Aggressiveness Index - Cool article about who are the most aggressive coaches in the league and all time on fourth down.  Statisticians over the last few years have determined that NFL teams don't go for it often enough on fourth and short in opposing territory.  Football Outsiders tries to determine if teams have been following that logic or not and then takes a look at coaches' general aggressiveness.  Fun data tables in there to check out even if I don't know how useful they are.  Everyone knows that Bill Belichick is extremely aggressive and Mike Tomlin is extra conservative.

Dez Bryant Needs To Grow Up - Dez Bryant now has two civil lawsuits against him totaling about 850,000 dollars.  I love to say I told you so... So I told you so Jerry Jones.  Before the draft, everyone knew that Bryant was an elite talent but that he also had off the field personality issues.  But Jones was enamored with his talent and traded up in the draft to get him.  Now he's got nearly a million in lawsuits against him before accounting for damages and legal fees.  Even Deion Sanders has walked away from helping him.  Bryant needs to grow up fast and not waste all of his potential.  Physically he could be one of the best receivers in the league but between this news and his inability to make it to meeting on time and stay awake through them...It's clear that he is not even close to being one of the best mentally.

Iowa's Adrian Clayborn Accepts Draft Invite - This is only news because the NFLPA was attempting to get the highly touted rookies to not go to the actual NFL draft event.  This is the first player I've seen accept his draft invite and likely signals that the NFLPA won't be successful.  I've established I'm with the owners in this lockout, so anything that hurts the NFLPA I'm probably going to report on.

Fantasy Baseball Injury Updates -
Mat Latos On 15 Day DL - Mat Latos is eligible to come off the DL on April 6th but any DL stint has to worry you after his massive innings increase last year.
Chase Utley Doesn't Have a Timetable for Return - The Phillies still don't know when Chase Utley will be back.  He's losing all kinds of value here. Don't know when he'll be back or if he'll be effective when he gets back.
Jason Bay Could Start Year On DL - Jason Bay wasn't drafted that highly to begin with but him going on the DL hurts his value even more.

John Hollinger Rates Every NBA Team's 4-12 Players (Link For ESPN Insiders Only) - Hollinger uses his PER system to rank each team in the league based on their 4th-12th best players.  Surprisingly the Nuggets grade out as the best 4-12 team and totally unsurprisingly the Heat ranked last.  Not going to spoil more than that, but it's getting more obvious now that many people were right. The Heat can be good with their big three but need to get more players over the next off season or two and improve before they are going to be winning any titles.

MLB Announces 7-Day DL for Concussions  - Great great move here by Major League Baseball.  Hopefully the 7-day DL will have teams be more cautious with players with concussions and help prevent players developing bad post-concussion syndrome in the future.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Daily Links For 3/25/11

Browns Fan Sues NFL Over Lockout - The suit is so small that it's not going to get anything done quicker negotiation wise.  Just mentioning it because I think he's suing the wrong people.  While technically his "contract" of his seat licence is with the NFL... It's the players association's fault that we are in a lock out right now, not the NFL's.

Twitter In The Lockout - Column from Mike Tanier of the New York Times about what has been happening on twitter during the lockout.  Just a round-up of what NFL players have been up to on twitter for the last week or two.  Good read for those who haven't been following on top of every little thing.

Cubs a 2011 Sleeper? - Jay Jaffe over at Baseball Prospectus takes a look at the Cubs chances as a sleeper team this year.  The NL Central is more open as a result of the Wainwright injury but the article doesn't see that as putting the race wide open.  The Cubs are still pretty mediocre on paper and would need some exceptional performances to win the Central.

Carolina Panthers Need a QB - Kerry Byrne in an article on si.com explains the obvious.  That Carolina needs to draft a QB with their first overall pick.  Mocks I've seen have been keeping Carolina away from a quarterback but not providing a good reason for them to be taking players for their already solid defense.  They should draft Blaine Gabbert and not look back.

More QB Needy Teams - Mike Lombardi breaks down the teams that need quarterbacks and how he believes they can go about acquiring one.  Best link in here... You can tell by how little I'm writing about it... Just click through and read it.

Boise State's Mike Coughlin Getting Buzz - Coughlin is the backup quarterback from Boise State but has been generating interest after wowing scouts in Boise yesterday.  QB is one of the hardest positions to find quality players and Coughlin wouldn't be the first backup college QB to be drafted.  Both Tom Brady and Matt Cassel were backups in college.