Not So Yankee Doodle Dandy

By Corey R. Cunningham 

The New York Yankees had 2 of their pitching aces go down at the same time and headed to the Disabled List together. Pitcher CC Sabathia landed on the 15-day DL with left groin strain and South Paw Andy Pettitte went on the 60-day DL with a fractured left ankle.

Andy Pettitte signed late this year, and with CC combined they both have 12 Wins this year, and both have sub par 3.00 ERA. This leaves the Yankees with some tough decisions to make, and they may not have an easy answer. They could always go out and grab a power ace arm and they have been linked to RHP Zack Greinke and RHP Matt Garza, who both have pitched in the AL before.
One of the many top Yankee pitching prospects, Dellin Betances was demoted Thursday June 28^th, to Double-A Trenton. This is bad timing on his bad pitching performance, as now the Yankees are in need of SP badly. Has a 3-5 record, with a 6.39 ERA, 69 BB, in just 74 IP for AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. They Yankees will have to look elsewhere for pitchers to start in place their two top DL pitchers. I do not think Manny Banuelos is ready after coming off an early injury this year and has just pitched 24 innings this year for AAA Scranton/Wiles-Barre.

Looks as though CC Sabathia will be back after the All-star break, and will miss only 2 starts, with Freddy Garcia taking his place in the rotation. The good news is the Yankees have 3 series left before the break with a day off in the middle, on top of 4 games off between series with the break. This will give CC plenty of time to get back into the rotation and perhaps the Yankees then switch back to Garcia for Pettittes spot in the rotation.

FBV & 40,000 Hits...Thanks So Much!!

Nice milestone for FBV...our 40,000th hit today. I want to thank all of you who visit the site. I would like to give a big thanks to those of you outside of the U.S. who come by and peruse our writings. I hope we have been a valuable asset to your Fantasy Baseball knowledge. I would ask you, from outside the U.S., how you found us, what you like about the site and if you play Fantasy Baseball. You can e-mail me here with your answers and your location. Once again a BIG THANKS to all of you. Without readers like you, this site would not be where it is today!! Here is a breakdown of the top 10 countries and the number of hits we have received from them over the last 17 months since we started back on that cold January night.

United States  33,878

Canada  2,421

Russia   614

United Kingdom  401

Sweden  259

Germany   243

Taiwan  93

France  92

Philippines  80

India  67

Rookies Looking Like All-Stars

  By Corey R. Cunningham

This may be a bit premature; however, it is necessary to advise fantasy managers of these players, and their capabilities of what is to come. There are a lot of rookies who succeed their first year in the big leagues, yet again; it is typical of a second year failure, to what we like to call, a “sophomore slump.”

 

The rookie players below have been called up to the big leagues, due to either injury from other players, to add some spark to the offense, or better yet, because they have earned their way up the ladder. Some of the players below have more time in than others, yet all of them have enough major league experience under their belt now either from this year or from last year.

 

1B-Anothony Rizzo, Chicago Cubs has been on a lot of teams in the past 3 years, ranging anywhere from the Boston Redsox organization, where he was drafted by Theo Epstein, then to the San Diego Padres where he was traded for left Handed power bat, Adrian Gonzalez, now to Wrigley Field where he has been reunited with Theo Epstein. Rizzo was officially called up on Tuesday, against the NY Mets, a day after the Mets opened up the series with South Paw Johan Santana. Rizzo has now completed 2 games with the Cubs and has a .375 BA, with 3 H, 2 2B, and an RBI. Rizzo had a tough 2011 with the Padres, and in just 128 AB, he had 18 H, 1 HR, and 19 RBI, while carrying a .141 BA. After Rizzo put on a  show at AAA Iowa this year; 70 G, 257 AB, 48 R, 88 H, 18 2B, 2 3B, 23 HR, 62 RBI, 23 BB, and a .342 BA. I think it is safe to say, Rizzo is staying put, especially with the Cubs 15.5 games out of 1^st place.

 

3B-Will Middlebrooks, Boston RedSox has been on a roll lately and due to that, Boston shipped out long time tenure 3B, Kevin Youkilis. Youkilis was traded to the Chicago White Sox on Sunday. As of late, Middlebrooks has been bobbling balls down at the hot corner, however, he still can hold the bat very strong. Middlebrooks is batting .310 with 9 HR, 36 RBI, 23 R, and 2 SB. Last week Middlebrooks was named AL player of the week going 10-16 with 3 doubles, 3 home runs in 6 games. Although Middlebrooks has been hitting in the 5^th and 6^th hole most of the season, he should still produce and his numbers will show. The RedSox are 6.5 games out of 1^st place, yet with a tight division race just 1.5 games out of 2^nd place and the wild card spots.

 

CF-Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels, has been hot, and that is a major understatement. Mike Trout was said to be called up to add a much needed spark in the Angels offense after getting off to a terrible start. With new additions to 1B and SP, the Angels were the front runners to win the AL West division against the defending champions, Texas Rangers. Angels started off horribly and then promoted Trout from the Minors and have been on a roll ever since. Going 16-7 so far in the month of June, and only 4.5 games out of first place, that is after winning only 2 of the first 9 series to start off 2012. Since joining the Angels in the leadoff spot, Trout has a .344 BA, 7 HR, 30 RBI, 47 R, and 21 SB. Torii Hunter was quoted by saying Trout will be the best player in MLB in 3 years.

 

This list is not complete of all rookies, as just a few missed my board of potential All-stars, and even though Anthony Rizzo has made only 2 appearances’ so far in the season, he does have MLB experience, and his AAA record of demolishing pitching proves he can hit the ball. The above named players, have been tried to been sold for cheap before the season on fantasy teams, now they will become Icons of “Keepers” on all fantasy lineups.

Take A Flier On A Friar

Some great upside is coming to Petco. Andrew Cashner is up and ready to take over a spot in the Padres’ rotation. Remember back in May, he was sent down to Double A to work on becoming a starter. He stretched his arm out and his 99mph fastball is ready to be showcased.

What Cashner needs to do to be effective is work in his change-up in regularly to offset hitters who will be locked in on his fastball. If he can do that on a consistent basis the Pads will be happy they traded away Rizzo. His 3 starts in the minors were a great success as he posted 23 Ks to go along with only 3 BB. Even though that was expected to dominate at that level it is still impressive.

What I like the most about Cashner is that he dominates lefties. So much so that he has never given up an extra base hit to any lefty in his major league stints over the last two years, though it is only a small sample size 61 total batters faced.

He gets the light hitting Astros on Thursday and he would be a great pick-up to stream this week. From here on out he would be a good play at home, as most Padres starters tend to be. I feel he can be solid the rest of the year and mature into a solid play for the next few years. If you are need of some pitching help this week take a chance on the 6'6" Friar.

The Sun Will Shine Even Brighter Thursday

By Corey R. Cunningham

With the 3rd overall pick in the 2011 June MLB Amateur draft, the Arizona Diamondbacks selected RHP Trevor Bauer. Trevor bats R and throws right and was selected out of UCLA. Trevor was signed early last year by the Diamondbacks and they put Trevor right on the bus to High-A where he started to get into the grove of pitching against the wooden bats.

Trevor will be making his start MLB start for the Diamondbacks this Thursday against the Atlanta Braves, in Atlanta. The Diamondbacks have enough confidence in Bauer to make this first start on the road let alone his first career start. If it were I, I would have waited to get him a home start with the support of the home crowd. The Braves are coming off a series loss against Boston and had an off day on Monday.

Bauer pitched a total of 116 IP during his minor league stint, and pitched 90 innings this year in AA and AAA. In 2011 Bauer had a horrible 16.2 IP in AA, with a 1-1 record and an ERA of 7.56, however in 2012 he redeemed himself. Trevor had a 7-1 Record with 11.17 K/9 and a 1.68 ERA. In 42 IP at AAA in 2012 he finished with a 4-0 record, 10.93 K/9, and a 2.79 ERA.

Bauer will be taking the place of SP Joe Saunders, who is hitting the DL, and pending on how Bauer does, will stay in the major leagues, if not get at least 3 starts. Arizona is 37-35, and 5.5 games behind first place, they are certainly still in the hunt, and with an arm like Bauer’s coming in, they will certainly put pressure on the 1st place Dodgers, and 2nd place Giants.

New Closer to Grab…If You Dare

With Frank Squared going on the DL it time to showcase the “closer” of the future in Gotham. Parnell has been speculated as the apparent successor to Francisco and now that Francisco is down for a couple of weeks with a bad oblique he gets his chance.

Remember last year when K-Rod was moved and everyone jumped on the Parnell bandwagon…except yours truly who guided you over to Isringhausen instead.  Well there is no Isringhausen this year. That means it’s all Bobby for the next couple of weeks. The question is do you want him? With a career 4.16 ERA and a WHIP at a buck and a half is it worth chasing a handful of saves to possibly have your ERA and WHIP suffer? What Parnell does bring is Ks. At almost 8.4K/9 he has that swing and miss stuff you want from your closer.  On the other hand he walks too many for my taste, he is now posting a 3.75BB/9 for his career. He also has twice as many blown saves as saves.

 Personally I do not see the Mets playing as good as they have been the rest of the year and I see some major regression (and losing) in the Mets future. One stat I saw yesterday was that they have 150+ runs scored with 2 outs…in 70 games that’s phenomenal and unsustainable as well. Over the next two weeks the Mets have the Cubs, Dodgers, Phillies, and Cubs which is a cupcake schedule so if Parnell gets some chances he should succeed. If he falters early just remember I warned you.

Rizzo To Chicago This Week

It has been calculated that Rizzo has passed the date when his service time gives the Cubs another year of control over his destiny. The Cubs can promote Rizzo this weekend in Arizona and have him end the season with 171 days of service time, one fewer than what he would need for a full season. That would mean he won't be a free agent until after 2018, not '17, and this apparently matters to Tom Ricketts.

With the experiment of placing LaHair in RF during the White Sox series and placing Catcher Steve Clevenger at 1B it is clear the Cubs are experimenting with an Outfield going forward of Soriano, DeJesus and LaHair. LaHair held his own in the troublesome Wrigley RF wind.

I would expect an announcement later tonight that Rizzo will be in Chicago for the Mets series, if not he will be in Wrigley for the Houston series by week’s end. With 23 home runs and a slash line of .364/.426/.745 at Iowa — bringing his career Triple-A totals to 49 homers and 160 RBIs in 156 games — it's safe to say Rizzo is ready for his National League re-joining party. His long swing was exposed by Petco Park's pitcher-friendly dimensions a year ago, but he has shortened the swing and become less pull-conscious, according to reports.

This morning Rizzo was only owned in 16% of leagues. I picked him up in one league just to block others from grabbing him. With the Cubs facing Left Hander Johan Santana on Monday look for a call-up as early as Tuesday against Dillon Gee. The Cubs do face 3 LHP this week so the call-up will give Rizzo a chance to flounder early. Long term he is a no brainer Dynasty play. In all deep leagues and NL leagues he is a must wire grab. In shallower leagues he will be  await and see. The loser in the Rizzo call up will be NL steals leader Tony Campana. His starts will be weekly instead of daily and his only contributing stat for the rest of the year will be SBs on pinch running opportunities.

The Future is Bright

By Corey R. Cunningham 

Taking a look below of the youngsters who will make an appearance all together in this year’s futures game on Monday, July 8^th. Below is an all star lineup of names to say the least, the young men are highly touted prospects in each of their organizations and will continue to be until further notice. If you have a dynasty league of minor leaguers as I do in one of my dynasty keeper leagues, all the players below should be taken and on your particular roster.

 

Taking a look at the rosters, you have 7 Triple-A players, 26 Double-A players, 11 Class A advanced players, and 6 Class-A players. If you can, please tune in for this year’s futures game, as it will be one of the better games of late.

 

PITCHERS

Name	ORG	Level	Birthdate
Matt Barnes	BOS	Class A Adv.	06/17/1990	Stats
Trevor Bauer	ARI	Triple-A	01/17/1991	Stats
Dylan Bundy	BAL	Class A Adv.	11/15/1992	Stats
Gerrit Cole	PIT	Double-A	09/08/1990	Stats
Danny Hultzen	SEA	Triple-A	11/28/1989	Stats
Alex Meyer	WAS	Class A	01/03/1990	Stats
Jake Odorizzi	KC	Triple-A	03/27/1990	Stats
Jameson Taillon	PIT	Class A Adv.	11/18/1991	Stats
Taijuan Walker	SEA	Double-A	08/13/1992	Stats
Zack Wheeler	NYM	Double-A	05/30/1990	Stats

CATCHERS

Name	ORG	Level	Birthdate
Travis d'Arnaud	TOR	Triple-A	02/10/1989	Stats
Tommy Joseph	SF	Double-A	07/16/1991	Stats

INFIELDERS

Name	ORG	Level	Birthdate
Nolan Arenado	COL	Double-A	04/16/1991	Stats
Nick Castellanos	DET	Double-A	03/04/1992	Stats
Scooter Gennett	MIL	Double-A	05/01/1990	Stats
Billy Hamilton	CIN	Class A Adv.	09/09/1990	Stats
Manny Machado	BAL	Double-A	07/06/1992	Stats
Mike Olt	TEX	Double-A	08/27/1988	Stats
Jonathan Singleton	HOU	Double-A	09/18/1991	Stats
Kolten Wong	STL	Double-A	10/10/1990	Stats

OUTFIELDERS

Name	ORG	Level	Birthdate
Tyler Austin	NYY	Class A	09/06/1991	Stats
Michael Choice	OAK	Double-A	11/10/1989	Stats
Anthony Gose	TOR	Triple-A	08/10/1990	Stats
Wil Myers	KC	Triple-A	12/10/1990	Stats
Christian Yelich	MIA	Class A Adv.	12/05/1991	Stats

2012 World Team

PITCHERS

Name	ORG	Level	Birthdate
Lisalverto Bonilla	PHI	Double-A	06/18/1990	Stats
Edwar Cabrera	COL	Double-A	10/20/1987	Stats
Jose Fernandez	MIA	Class A	07/31/1992	Stats
Kyle Lotzkar	CIN	Double-A	10/24/1989	Stats
Chris Reed	LAD	Double-A	05/20/1990	Stats
Felipe Rivero	TB	Class A	07/05/1991	Stats
Julio Rodriguez	PHI	Double-A	08/29/1990	Stats
Enny Romero	TB	Class A Adv.	01/24/1991	Stats
Bruce Rondon	DET	Double-A	12/09/1990	Stats
Yordano Ventura	KC	Class A Adv.	06/03/1991	Stats

CATCHERS

Name	ORG	Level	Birthdate
Christian Bethancourt	ATL	Double-A	09/02/1991	Stats
Yasmani Grandal	SD	Triple-A	11/08/1988	Stats

INFIELDERS

Name	ORG	Level	Birthdate
Jesus Aguilar	CLE	Class A Adv.	06/30/1990	Stats
Xander Bogaerts	BOS	Class A Adv.	10/01/1992	Stats
Wilmer Flores	NYM	Double-A	08/06/1991	Stats
Francisco Lindor	CLE	Class A	11/14/1993	Stats
Chih-Fang Pan	OAK	Class A	11/12/1990	Stats
Jurickson Profar	TEX	Double-A	02/20/1993	Stats
Carlos Sanchez	CWS	Class A Adv.	06/29/1992	Stats
Jean Segura	LAA	Double-A	03/17/1990	Stats

OUTFIELDERS

Name	ORG	Level	Birthdate
Oswaldo Arcia	MIN	Double-A	05/09/1991	Stats
Jae-Hoon Ha	CHC	Double-A	10/29/1990	Stats
Rymer Liriano	SD	Class A Adv.	06/20/1991	Stats
Alfredo Marte	ARI	Double-A	03/31/1989	Stats
Oscar Taveras	STL	Double-A	06/19/1992	Stats