Insert Johnson Everyday Or Night

First I have to say I’m glad to be back from vacation. My teams took a small hit while I was gone as I was limited to internet access on a lake in Northern Michigan. Anyway back to baseball and the latest move happening in Atlanta.

A Search Brought Up Some Rotten "HAM" In Fantasy Baseball

While recently looking in one of my leagues for a manager who owned Cole Hamels, I typed “ham” into the player search box. The search revealed of course all the players in MLB whose name included “ham”. What surprised me was the 6 current players that came up in my search were all playing well below their pre-season rank and thus in some cases crushing their fantasy owners. One was a minor league player that most prognosticators felt could lead the lead in SB if called up. A majority of these players were early round selections and were anchors of fantasy teams. Here are the players with their pre-season and current Fantasy rank.

Gordon BeckHAM: Pre-season 339 now1023 3% owned. A late round pick in many leagues at MI. Many still think Beckham is a solid 15/15 option but he has been hurt and has taken up DL space on some rosters.

Billy HAMilton: Pre-season 305 now 1136 10% owned. The all team single MiLB season SB leader in history at 155 was suppose to be called up once any Reds’ player went down with injuries. Well that injury happened and then happened again but still no Hamilton. That is because he is struggling to hit above .200. 1 out of every 10 Fantasy managers is still holding out hope…not sure why.

Josh HAMilton: Pre-season 24 now 676 98% owned. One of my favorites to win AL MVP. Luckily I do not own him in any league as he went 1^st round in all my Leagues.  I liked him but not 1^st round. Those that did are floundering in the back half of most leagues. He is the type of player that most managers would rather sink with than trade at a low value.

Josh WillingHAM: Pre-season 122 now 370 71% owned. Willingham has battled injuries with his wrist. With 35 HR last year there was a big fantasy expectation for Willingham this year. I feel he is a great buy low candidate at this time.

Joba CHAMberlain: Pre-season 683 now 684 1%owned. Really his only fantasy option was for in Holds leagues. He is currently on the DL and is becoming categorized more as a bust as the Yankees have waited nearly 5 years for him to produce.

Cole HAMels: Pre-season 35 now 778 97% owned. Hamels has been very good in all but 2 of his starts but he is still 1-6 with an ERA near 5.00. The Phillies are near the bottom in all hitting stats and their OF is well below par defensively.  I do not own Hamels but would like to trade for him. Unfortunately Hamels owners would be trading on his name rather than his current stats. If you can snag him up on the cheap do so.

Jason HAMmel: Pre-season 244 now 930 44% owned. Hammel somehow has collected 5 wins on the year with a 5.72 ERA and a 1.57 WHIP. If you own him congrats on the Wins but his other counting stats have probably brought your staff way down. To me has amassed his win by smoke and mirrors and is not even close to owning.

A Call-Up in Tampa Bay Is Coming

With David Price getting pulled early last night due to triceps soreness and possibly looking at a DL stint the Rays will be forced to call up one of their Triple A studs. I personally feel Price needs the DL stint both physically and mentally at this point. If not a DL stint he surely will miss his next start at the very least.

The Quality Start...A Good Measure of Quality in Fantasy Baseball

In baseball, a Quality Start is a statistic for a SP defined as a game in which the pitcher completes at least 6 innings and permits no more than 3 Earned Runs. In today’s Fantasy Baseball world there are leagues that use QS as a counting stat. Last year in a Points League I was in, it was one of the more weighted counting stats. Currently I am not in any QS leagues but do follow the stat.

Roy Oswalt Version 3.0

Is it time to own Roy Oswalt once again? Let’s see what the former NL leader in ERA, Wins, winning % and starts brings to the table. The 35 year old recently allowed 1 ER on 5 hits in his first outing for in extended spring training. It was 3 innings and 43 pitches. His stuff was consistent and his velocity was decent according to Colorado scouts. The projections on Oswalt are to arrive in Colorado’s rotation by early June.

We all remember the time in Texas last year where he signed late, had a poor performance as both a starter and a middle reliever. His line last year was un-Oswalt; a 4-3 record with a 5.80 ERA and a 1.52 WHIP.  His career numbers are better. A 163-96 record with a 3.28 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP over 12 seasons. Oswalt was always the quiet and consistent star in Houston, which I feel most people have forgotten because of the last two part time odd seasons. I know Oswalt has things to prove and he is ready to be a full time MLB pitcher. That means competing, not complaining and reporting for spring training next year, according to him

Things to remember; Oswalt has finished in the top 6 of the Cy Young voting 6 times, he has an excellent stat line while pitching in Coors. In 5 starts he is 4-0 with a 2.25 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP and a K/9 ratio near 8. The word is he is taking this chance extremely serious and wants to pitch well beyond this year…so I would declare it is safe to say this is probably his last chance. With that being said I am picking Oswalt up on all teams I have bench room at the moment. No need to scoop up Oswalt immediately because he is still owned in less than 1% of leagues. If I just showed you his career number then labeled him as Player A and told you he was widely available you would be eager to pick that SP up. He is worth a month long look on your team.

Stashing Minors On Your Bench

It’s that time of year where we will start to see more and more players being called up, the AAAstros just brought up Trevor Crowe and Jimmy Paredes. The Rockies called up Nolan Arenado and he has already paid dividends. Everyone wants to find the next Trout or Harper and stash them on their bench until they make their MLB debut.  Now we are only talking about single season pick-ups because all these players are already on Dynasty teams. Here are the 10 most owned Minor Leaguers in CBS Fantasy Baseball and I will try and give you an analysis if they are worth stashing and taking up potentially valuable bench space.

What’s Happened To David Price?

 

His start over the weekend went from bad to worse. When he left the game he was charged with 4 earned runs. Then shortly after the game, the official scorer changed an error on Zobrist and that put Price on the hook for 9 earned runs.  That put his season stat’s to an abysmal 1W 3L with a 6.25 ERA and a 1.48 WHIP. He has now given up over 50% of his 2012 earned run total in just 7 starts. Hitters are pounding him to a tune of a .302 average.  The major reason for his inflated numbers this year is what he is doing with RISP.  Hitters are drilling him to a tune of a .478 average with RISP and 2 outs. In previous years he has dominated in those situations. He has only 1 K in those situations where as in the past he has posted a K 24% of the time.

April's Surprise Players

Now that we are into May let’s look back on some of the biggest surprises of April at each position. These players and their hot starts may not translate into yearlong Fantasy studs but they are worth a look and some are readily available in most leagues. The major criteria I looked at were Fantasy counting numbers and average draft position. What we can learn is that there is so much value late in drafts that drafting players in rounds 10-15 that out produce their counterparts will propel you the top of your leagues every year. Then there are those undrafted players who thrust themselves into mainstream Fantasy radar every year. So here is a snapshot by each position on who has come out of the April gate on fire.