Around the Horn: August21, 2012

(1) Athletics deal to add Stephen Drew. Can he prove his skills are intact?

(2) Sean Rodriguez sent to minors for Rays as Luke Scott is activated from DL.

(3) Alejandro De Aza sent to DL. Dewayne Wise to fill in.

(4) Brewers rotation about ready to get jumbled due to IP concerns and returning Shaun Marcum.

(5) Juan Pierre better than expected.

(6) Troy Tulowitzki still improving. Hopes to return in September.

(7) Eric Young Jr. to avoid the DL. Has been white hot at dish.
*** NOTE: The Rockies changed their minds and did end up placing Young on the DL after this video was recorded.

(8) Carl Crawford to have Tommy John surgery – season is over.

By Ray Flowers

Daily Joust – Wk 14: Did We Learn Anything?

On Monday each week I take a look at the fantasy baseball game breaking down players who have produced noteworthy performances of late – not just positive outings mind you, but I’ll also delve into some of the players that have been sucking wind of late. Can you use this information to your benefit over at DailyJoust? To get your daily fantasy baseball fix make sure you head over to DailyJoust.com to set your salary cap club.

GAINERS OF THE WEEK

Cole DeVries (+78, $246K in DailyJoust Salary)
Though six appearances, and five starts, Cole has compiled a 3.00 ERA and 1.10 WHIP for the Twins. He’s also allowed just three runs in his last three appearances while striking out 12 and walking just two. Like seemingly ever Twins hurler, he just doesn’t beat himself with the free passes (eight in 30 innings).

Marco Estrada (+68, $291K)
In six games as a starter for the Brewers he has a 4.50 ERA and 1.02 WHIP. Not exactly numbers that appear to go together. So which arm has he been? Try the 1.02 WHIP guy. In those 42 innings as a starter this year eh has an impressive 45 Ks and thanks to just six walks his K/BB ratio is a HOF worthy 7.50. Well worth a look if available (even if no one has noticed. See Fleaflicker).

Zach McAllister (+70, $135K)
Through seven starts he’s 3-1 with a 3.40 ERA and 1.28 WHIP for the Indians. Though he’s allowed only three earned runs his last two starts he’s remarkably also permitted six other unearned runs or that ERA would look pretty bad. He does have 41 Ks an a 4.10 K/BB ratio in 42.1 innings though so it’s not like he’s bereft of skill.

Alex Rodriguez (+30, $105K)
He has seven hits in his last five games, but he’s still batting just .269 with a .793 OPS. Unfortunately the average is about what was expected – he hit .270 and .276 the past two years – and his OPS was under .850 each of the past two years as well. He’s also on pace for about 25 homers and 75 RBIs. Put that all together and we’d be talking about the worst full season of his career – by a substantial amount.

Will Venable (+28, $83K)
He’s always lurking on the edge of relevance in a 12 team league that starts five outfielders. He’s got a little bit of pop (six homers) and some speed (eight steals though he’s been caught six times). Still, he’s a .249 career hitter with a .320 OBP, and guess what, he’s hitting .248 with a .318 OBP this year. Only an injury fill in for mixed leaguers.

LOSERS OF THE WEEK

Alejandro De Aza (-16, $89K)
Hitting .283 with a pace for 25+ steals and 100 runs (including 11 in his last 10 games), there is nothing to complain about with De Aza. Sure he only has two homers in 61 games, and he’s swiped just four bases in his last 32 games, but that’s just nitpicking.

Eric Hosmer (-13, $77K)
Hosmer lifted his average up to .237 on July 2nd, the highest it had been since April 9th. Yeah, it’s been a rough year. Hosmer has scored seven times in his last eight games, and I’m still thinking a rebound is coming. His line drive rate, HR/F are the same as last year. He’s also walking more and striking out less. Sooner or later that will result in increased offensive production. Trust me.

Jed Lowrie (-13, $55K)
Once more into the breach…

Haven’t we been here before? You know, the point were I tell you that Jed Lowrie isn’t as good as everyone thinks he is? The point where I mention that he’s never going to help you out in the batting average category (.254 this year, .253 in career). Or how about his merely average ability to get on base (.343 OBP this year, .329 for his career). Or how about his streaky as all hell nature? Anyone notice that he’s hit .191 with one homer the past three weeks? Even worse, the guy has hit .211 over his last 34 games. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Anibal Sanchez (-68, $188K)
He’s had a rough go of it, but in his final start before the break he stopped the bleeding allowing two runs, without walking a batter, in six innings. He ends the first half with a 1.25 WHIP, 0.03 better than last season, and his 7.99 K/9 and 3.06 K/BB ratios point to a guy who has pitched pretty well this season. I know it’s hard to trust him given his recent downturn in production, but he’s a nice buy low option considering his perceived lack of value.

CONTEST: All-Star Game

Sign up to play in the All-Star Game contest at DailyJoust. Simply register at this LINK and the contest will show up in the lobby for you. Yet another reason you’ll want to watch the mid-season’s classic.

CONTEST – KING FOR A DAY; Win $12,000

Here’s the deal. Every Friday through September 7th, 12 qualifiers will be given a shot to win $12,000 in the final contest on September 14th. Here’s how it works from the official web page of the tournament.

Each weekly qualifier is a $10 entry multiple-entry tournament with the winner earning a seat in the Sept 14th $12,000 King’s Crown tournament. In the event of a tie for first place, normal Daily Joust tie-breaker rules apply. If a tie still persists, a playoff will occur to determine the winner.

That’s right. Be a weekly winner and you’ll get your shot to view for the $12,000 in prizes ($5,000 to the winner)… for the cost of $10.

Sound like a game you’d like to try your hand at?

By Ray Flowers

One Of Those Days

You ever have one of those days? You know the type. You wake up with a little bit of an extra pep in your step. The morning sun hits your face as you sip on your hot coco. You’re looking forward to a good day of work which will then be capped off by an evening with someone you care about. What could be better than those simple pleasures, right?

And then the real world smacks you in the face.

That happened to me today. Oh there’s still plenty of time to turn things around, it’s still well before 11 AM as I write this, but darned if life doesn’t just try and beat you down whenever it can. Why is that (in case you are wondering, nothing “really” bad happened to me, it was actually more about typical annoyances)?

In the vein of “bad days,” here are some guys that have had life beat them down of late. Hopefully they’ve got some Bailey’s Irish Cream to throw in that hot coco.

Alejandro De Aza – A solid option really late in drafts for the speed upside, that outlook was crushed when the White Sox decided to add Kosuke Fukudome to the outfield mix. So much for that 26th round pick of De Aza offering much of anything. He’s now merely an AL-only option.

Josh Hamilton – No need to pile on here. Let’s just hope that he gets his life back on track. A positive note came out Thursday. Hamilton will not face any discipline from the Rangers or Major League Baseball for his recent off the field transgressions with the bottle.

Scott Kazmir – He was supposed to throw for interested parties on Wednesday, but for some unknown reason the session was pushed back until Friday (he claims it has nothing to do with any physical sort of limitations and the most likely explanation is that some team that had an interest likely wasn’t going to be able to present at his throwing session on Wednesday). What the hell happened to Kazmir by the way? Just 28 years old, it’s amazingly easy to forget that it was a mere couple of years back that he was locked at as one of the up an coming lefties in the game. He wasn’t just coming on to fill a 4th or 5th rotation spot either. Kazmir was going to be an elite hurler. In 2005 he posted a 8.42 K/9 mark in 186 innings. In 2006 he upped that number to 10.14 over 144.2 innings. In 2007, his best campaign, he won 13 games, posted a 3.48 ERA and struck out a significant total of 239 batters in 206.2 innings. Those K’s led to a 10.41 K/9 mark which just so happens to be the 8th best mark that any left-handed pitcher, who threw at least 162 innings, has been able to post in the 21st century (if we remove Randy Johnson’s efforts that would put Kazmir’s mark in the 4th spot). Alas problems with his conditioning and dedication came up, and his arm ran out of juice (his average fastball was 93.7 mph as a rookie, 92.6 mph in his second season, and it dipped all the way to 86.5 mph in his 1.2 inning outing last year for the Angels). He’s still young enough to carve out a role but he will never reach the heights that were predicted.

Derrek Lee – I know he’s older at 36 years of age, and that he struggled for much of the season last year, but Lee still hit .267 with 19 homers in just 435 at-bats. So why is he still without a team? Certainly there are offers on the table for Lee, likely as a part-time option, so I’m going to assume that Lee is holding out for a starting gig somewhere. I find it hard to believe that there are 30 better first basemen out there right now but he’s still sitting at home.

Johan Santana – Coming back from shoulder surgery, all eyes are on the one time superstar of the Mets, but come on now. Did you see the report that the Mets’ pitching coach – Dan Warthen – was impressed by a video of Santana throwing. Really? I’ve got better things for you to watch on your laptop than Santana chucking the ball around – maybe an episode of Grimm? Did you also see the report that he was throwing from 175 feet? Whoopie freaking do. I haven’t regularly thrown the ball in about 10 years and I could go our and play catch from 175 feet. That means nothing. Johan plans on throwing at the Mets’ camp today so I guess the eyes of the baseball nation will be upon him. Newsflash everyone. Santana will never again be the pitcher he once was. As if age, workload and shoulder surgery weren’t enough to worry about, have you bothered to look at his numbers the last few years? I can list one series of numbers for you that should make you exceedingly nervous, even if he is healthy once more in 2012. Here are his K/BB ratios the past six seasons (remember, he didn’t throw a big league pitch in 2011): 5.29, 5.21, 4.52, 3.27, 3.17 and 2.62. Uh, that’s not a good trend even if the 2.62 K/BB ratio he posted in 2010 is still well above average.

By Ray Flowers

To purchase the 2012 BBGuys Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide, click on the link.