Pence Fills A Need In Philly

July 29, 2011: The Phillies acquired OF Hunter Pence and cash from the Houston Astros for 1B Jonathan Singleton, RHP Jarred Cosart, RHP Josh Zeid and a player to be named later.

(Impacts: Pence who has been one of the elite options in the OF this year will solidify the weak hitting Phillies offense. The Phils desperately needed an OF bat from the right side after losing out on Beltran earlier in the week.  The Phils were hitting only .244 as team this year and Pence’s arrival can give the team a boost. I see Pence hitting behind Howard in the 5 hole and should get many more opportunities to drive in runs than he did in Houston from the 3 hole. Pence owners should be happy with the trade. The loser in the trade is Dominic Brown. His value has just bottomed out after an already poor showing this year. If you still own Brown drop him now, his value is nil.

I feel Houston will replace Pence with Double A standout JD Martinez. His slash line for 2 ½ years of minor league ball is .342BA .407OBP .551SLG .958OPS. He could go to LF with Carlos Lee back at 1B and Peter Bourgeois in RF. Monitor Martinez in very deep leagues and NL only leagues.)

2 Days Worth Of Trades...New Faces In New Places

July 28, 2011: Tampa Traded INF Felipe Lopez to Milwaukee for cash.

(Impacts: With Weeks going the DL for a couple of weeks the Brewers Recalled 2B Eric Farris from Nashville. Farris who is a .262 hitter in his Triple A career will split time with Craig Counsel. Counsel is something like 0 for his last 30. Neither is worth owning at this point and both should bat 8^th while getting the start in Milwaukee. Lopez will start in Triple A and is really only an insurance policy for the Brew Crew until Weeks returns.)

July 28, 2011: Mets Traded OF Carlos Beltran to San Francisco for RHP Zack Wheeler.

(Impacts: Looks like Beltran will play RF with Shierholtz going to LF and Torres playing CF. The odd man out will be Huff. He will split time with Belt at 1B. SF is saying it wont release Burrell but I feel he is gone by Sunday.)

July 28, 2011: Cubs Traded OF Kosuke Fukudome to Cleveland for RHP Carlton Smith and OF Abner Abreu.

(Impacts: With the Indians signing Fukudome it tells me Sizemore may be done for the season and Choo is on a slow rehab. Fukudome will get a majority of the starts now, more than in Chicago. His replacement in Chicago will be Tyler Colvin. I would pick up Colvin if you are in need of some OF help this time of year.)

July 27, 2011: Toronto Traded RHP Jason Frasor and RHP Zach Stewart to the Chicago White Sox for RHP Edwin Jackson and INF Mark Teahen. Traded Jackson, RHP Octavio Dotel, LHP Marc Rzepczynski, OF Corey Patterson and three players to be named or cash to St. Louis for OF Colby Rasmus, LHP Brian Tallet, LHP Trever Miller and RHP P.J. Walters.

(Impacts: Listed by player

Edwin Jackson’s move to the National League is a plus for his owners.

Mark Teahen has no value and was only a payroll dump for Chicago.

Frasor, Rzepczynski, and Dotel will not compete for Saves but they still have great value in Holds leagues.

Corey Patterson is a fringe player who will get spot starts and used for pinch running frequently.

Colby Rasmus gets a fresh start and should bat near the top of the Order in Toronto. Look for a bump in his Run production and I feel he will light it up in Toronto very quick. If your leagues owner of Rasmus is down on him go trade for him quickly.)

July 27, 2011Milwaukee Traded C Wil Nieves to Atlanta for cash.

(Impacts: Nieves is only around till McCann is healthy.)

Recent Trade

July 26, 2011: The Nationals announced that they have acquired Jonny Gomes and cash considerations from the Reds for outfielder Bill Rhinehart and left-hander Chris Manno. The Nationals have been searching for a CF who can lead off so this trade seems slightly strange to me. Gomes has never played an inning in center nor is he a lead-off hitter.

(Impact: Gomes may be used slightly more than he has been in Cincinnati. He has played in half of the Reds games and is batting just over the Mendoza line. He does have power and some speed but is primarily a platoon/pinch hitter; and by pinch hitter he is awful. He is 0 for 15 with 10Ks in that role. This may take away at-bats from both Lance Nix and Jerry Hairston Jr. but both were fringe candidates for playing time in fantasy anyway.)

July 20, 2011: The Tigers have acquired Wilson Betemit from the Royals for prospects Antonio Cruz and Julio Rodriguez.

(Impacts-Brandon Inge gets sent down if/when he clears waivers. The Tigers stated they were looking for a little offensive help. Well “little” is the key word. Betemit is hitting .281 in just over 200 ABs this season with a horrible K-rate nearing 30%. The career journeyman/platoon/bench player is not worth owning in any league due to his lack of power, speed and contact rate.)

July 19, 2011: The Giants acquired Jeff Keppinger from the Astros for right-handed pitchers Henry Sosa and Jason Stoffel.

(Impacts-Keppinger can play anywhere in the infield but has been a mainstay at 2B for the ‘Stros since returning from a foot injury in May. Hitting over .300 on the year he is a good contact man with little power and no speed.  He has a K-rate of less than 6% and an above average OBP. For SF he will hit lower in the order so actually losing a little value.)

July 13, 2011: The New York Mets traded Francisco Rodriguez to the Milwaukee Brewers for 2 players to be named later from a group of 5 candidates. These players will be moved sometime in September to the Mets.
(Impacts – Francisco Rodriguez loses significant value, he will not close games therefore losing saves. If you are in a Holds league he still has great value. John Axford may occasionally lose a Save but his value remains high. Jason Isringhausen and Bobby Parnell will battle for the Saves in NY, personally I feel Izzy will get the first cal but both are worth owning if you have the space on your roster.)

July 12, 2011: The Toronto Blue Jays traded Juan Rivera to the Los Angeles Dodgers.     (Impacts – Juan Rivera will gain in LF for LA and maybe a look at 1B if he hits and Loney continues to struggle. James Loney will lose a few Abs every week with the arrival of Rivera, and Tony Gwynn Jr become useless. Personally, I would not roster a single one f these players except for in very deep leagues.)

Time To Stream...2 Start SP

It is getting late in the season and many teams have pitching problems due to injury or innings limits placed on starters. This time of year streaming is even more important to move up in your pitching categories. I have been getting some emails over the summer about the “ethical” quality of streaming. They say it hurts the league as a whole and it’s a loophole in the rules. I feel they have taken my posts to the extreme. I do not suggest you dump your entire SP staff week after week  or day after day and replace them with new guys on a rotating basis. I suggest you could stream 1 SP a week to gain possibly an extra win or a few Ks. I have been in many leagues for many years and I have never seen ANYONE dump their staffs on a daily or weekly basis. Just because the possibility exists does not mean people take it to such an extreme. Personally I wish I had someone in a league trying this tactic because they would end up with high W and K totals but be killed in ERA and WHIP trying to salvage everyone else’s discards from the waiver wire.
With that in mind here is some of the better SP to stream this week that are owned in less than 50 % of leagues. The best attribute os these of the 5 are that they all pitch BOTH games at home this week.

Freddy Garcia (21% owned) SEA~Vargas and BAL~Johnson

Mike Leake (20% owned) NYM~Dickey and SF~Bumgarner

Brandon McCarthy (5% owned) TB~Price and MIN~Pavano

Dustin Mosley (4% owned w/ RP eligibility) ARI~Saunders  COL~Nicasio

Chris Narveson (13% owned w/ RP eligibility) CHC~Dempster HOU~Myers)

More Help For Your MI

The Indians finally call up 2B prospect Jason Kipnis from Columbus. From this point forward he will be Cleveland’s starting second baseman. Originally a CF in Arizona State the move to second has been effortless. With the Indians OF is such disarray with all the injuries this kid might gain OF eligibility before the year is out.

While in Columbus he hit 279 with 12 HR and %% RBI. He also had 15doubles and 9 triples. He truly can hit to all fields and drive the ball with power.  He also has a little speed so he is an immediate pick up in all leagues that need help at Middle Infielder.

Another Trade

July 20, 2011: The Tigers have acquired Wilson Betemit from the Royals for prospects Antonio Cruz and Julio Rodriguez.

(Impacts-Brandon Inge gets sent down if/when he clears waivers. The Tigers stated they were looking for a little offensive help. Well “little” is the key word. Betemit is hitting .281 in just over 200 ABs this season with a horrible K-rate nearing 30%. The career journeyman/platoon/bench player is not worth owning in any league due to his lack of power, speed and contact rate.)

July 19, 2011: The Giants acquired Jeff Keppinger from the Astros for right-handed pitchers Henry Sosa and Jason Stoffel.

(Impacts-Keppinger can play anywhere in the infield but has been a mainstay at 2B for the ‘Stros since returning from a foot injury in May. Hitting over .300 on the year he is a good contact man with little power and no speed.  He has a K-rate of less than 6% and an above average OBP. For SF he will hit lower in the order so actually losing a little value.)

July 13, 2011: The New York Mets traded Francisco Rodriguez to the Milwaukee Brewers for 2 players to be named later from a group of 5 candidates. These players will be moved sometime in September to the Mets.
(Impacts – Francisco Rodriguez loses significant value, he will not close games therefore losing saves. If you are in a Holds league he still has great value. John Axford may occasionally lose a Save but his value remains high. Jason Isringhausen and Bobby Parnell will battle for the Saves in NY, personally I feel Izzy will get the first cal but both are worth owning if you have the space on your roster.)

July 12, 2011: The Toronto Blue Jays traded Juan Rivera to the Los Angeles Dodgers.     (Impacts – Juan Rivera will gain in LF for LA and maybe a look at 1B if he hits and Loney continues to struggle. James Loney will lose a few Abs every week with the arrival of Rivera, and Tony Gwynn Jr become useless. Personally, I would not roster a single one f these players except for in very deep leagues.)

Trade Recap

July 19, 2011: The Giants acquired Jeff Keppinger from the Astros for right-handed pitchers Henry Sosa and Jason Stoffel.

(Impacts-Keppinger can play anywhere in the infield but has been a mainstay at 2B for the ‘Stros since returning from a foot injury in May. Hitting over .300 on the year he is a good contact man with little power and no speed.  He has a K-rate of less than 6% and an above average OBP. For SF he will hit lower in the order so actually losing a little value.)

July 13, 2011: The New York Mets traded Francisco Rodriguez to the Milwaukee Brewers for 2 players to be named later from a group of 5 candidates. These players will be moved sometime in September to the Mets.
(Impacts – Francisco Rodriguez loses significant value, he will not close games therefore losing saves. If you are in a Holds league he still has great value. John Axford may occasionally lose a Save but his value remains high. Jason Isringhausen and Bobby Parnell will battle for the Saves in NY, personally I feel Izzy will get the first cal but both are worth owning if you have the space on your roster.)

July 12, 2011: The Toronto Blue Jays traded Juan Rivera to the Los Angeles Dodgers.     (Impacts – Juan Rivera will gain in LF for LA and maybe a look at 1B if he hits and Loney continues to struggle. James Loney will lose a few Abs every week with the arrival of Rivera, and Tony Gwynn Jr become useless. Personally, I would not roster a single one f these players except for in very deep leagues.)