MLB Mailbag: March 9, 2011

Photo by Gary McCabe

I am in 5×5 roto league and have a stacked offense, but my steals are so-so. I’m considering offering Brandon Phillips and Matt Holiday for Ian Kinsler and B.J. Upton. Am I giving up too much in reliable players for a couple with questions?
– Tom, Cypress, Texas

This question brings up an obvious point some people forget at times – nothing is done in a vacuum. Sometimes trading “better” players to get “inferior” ones might be more beneficial to your spot in the standings. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you win the homer category by three or 33, you still get the same amount of points in a rotisserie league. Dealing from an overwhelming strength to shore up a weakness often makes a lot of sense.

Straight up I’d prefer Holliday over Upton – by a lot.
Straight up I’d prefer Kinsler over Phillips – but it’s pretty darn close.

In this scenario however…

Last year Phillips (16) and Holliday (nine) had 25 steals.
Last year Kinsler (15) and Upton (42) had 57 steals.

Per 162 games in their careers…

Phillips (23) and Holliday (14) average 37 steals.
Kinsler (28) and Upton (40) average 68 steals.

Clearly, if the goal is to improve your steal total, this is a move you have to make.

There is obvious risk however. Holliday will hit .300 with 30 homers and 100 RBI while Upton could hit .230-15-60. I personally think Upton has a legit shot to be a dominating force this season, he’s a 20/40 threat in my mind, but their reliability grades couldn’t be more different. I’d also make the argument that the upside with Kinsler is immense, we saw what he could do in 2009 when he went 30/30, but he’s also played more than 130 games just once in five seasons. As for Phillips the ceiling may not be as high as it is with Kinsler, but he has averaged a mighty impressive 21 homers and 24 steals the past five seasons.

Given your situation, and your stated need for speed, I can support this deal as long as you have enough batting average strength to take on the potential downside that Kinsler and Upton could bring.

What do you think of the outlook for Edinson Volquez this year? I have him as a $3 keeper in my $100 salary cap auction league. I have an owner with Cole Hamels ($9) that is interested in Volquez. Would you recommend trading Volquez for Hamels?
– Tom, Baltimore, Maryland

Edison Volquez was a star in 2008 with a 17-6 record, a 3.21 ERA and a mouth watering 206 Ks in 196 innings. He struggled in 2009 before being shut down due to an elbow issue that led to Tommy John surgery, and last season he wasn’t much better in his return to the bigs. In fact, over his last 21 starts the only thing that stands out is his still impressive K-rate: 8-5, 4.33 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 9.13 K/9. He’s also really struggled to throw strikes with a walk rate of 5.37 per nine the past two years. No matter how dominating your stuff is you simply cannot succeed long term when you issue that many free passes. Some of that lack of control can be blamed on the injury and working his way back into shape, but even when Edinson dominated in ’08 he still had a BB/9 rate of 4.27, a full batter above the big league average.

Hamels, for some reason, gets about as much love as Paris Hilton at the Academy Awards. Last year Hamels was 12th in the NL in ERA (3.06), had the same WHIP (1.18) as Clayton Kershaw, Johan Santana and Chris Carpenter, and had a career best 211 Ks, 6th in the league. Flat out, this guy is an ace, even if he doesn’t always get the love that he should in fantasy leagues. He is a safer and vastly superior option when compared to the Reds’ Volquez.

But what of the cost? Converting the dollars to the standard $260 scale, Volquez would be $8 and Hamels $23. Obviously Volquez is a tempting hold given that his cost is 1/3 of Hamels. Would I pay $23 for Hamels in a keeper league? I would. Would I pay $8 for Volquez in a keeper league? I actually answered yes before I finished typing the previous sentence. Without knowing how long players can be kept, if there are any salary increases in successive years, how much money you have invested in your other players, and without knowing who else is on your staff, I’d keep Hamels. If everything breaks right for Volquez we’ve seen that he can be an elite level producer, but Hamels is already there. I know the cost is significant, but in this case I’d go with the higher priced ace from the Phillies and sleep more comfortably at night.

I’m a football convert trying to get into fantasy baseball this season. My question is about draft strategy. Which positions should I target early – like a RB in football – and which should I leave until the end – like a kicker?
– Wilson, Nashville, Tennessee

I get a version of this question every once in a while, and I’m afraid my answer always disappoints – there is no single way to do a baseball draft. There are general rules, and I’ll get to them in a second, but there is nothing like there is in football where you can basically say go running back and wide receiver in the first two rounds and defense and kicker in the last two. There are many reasons for this.

First, there are more positions to fill in fantasy baseball. There are six main starting positions in football (QB, RB, WR, TE, DEF and K) while there are eight in baseball (C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, SP and RP). Seceond, there are more players drafted in fantasy baseball – sometimes as many as 10-14 more. Third, there is less certainty in some respects. In football when a RB goes down you know who the team will turn to for 20 touches the next week. In baseball, when a starter goes down, there is often a mix and match scenario that takes place, in addition to there being nothing akin to the replacement player being given a ton of touches and work at the goaline. Simply put – the situation is more variable in baseball.

As for some general rules, here is what I would suggest.

(1) Never draft a closer in the first couple of rounds. Don’t wait until the last round like you would with a kicker, but there is no reason to jump into the closer mix until the middle rounds of a draft.

(2) I would not take a starting pitcher in the first round. Moreover, in most scenarios, I wouldn’t take a starting pitcher in the first five rounds of a draft. This is not a hard and fast rule of course, but I rarely deviate from this plan unless I’m in a scoring setup which favors pitchers. In a standard 5×5 setup, there will be plenty of pitching available in the middle rounds.

(3) I would never take a catcher in the first round. I probably wouldn’t take one in the first couple of rounds actually. Catchers are so susceptible to injury, especially foul tips to their hands or issues with their knees, that consistency from them is elusive. It’s also not at all rare for a starting catcher to play 75 to 80 percent of their teams games, and that dampens the ability for them to post strong counting totals (especially in the RBI and runs scored columns).

(4) While paying attention to position scarcity early on, at least in the first couple of rounds I’m still targeting the best players with my first few selections. As an example, I’m not going to draft Jose Reyes in the second round if players like Matt Kemp, Justin Upton or Andrew McCutchen are still there. Reyes might play shortstop, a position that is in arguably thinner than the outfield, but if I have Kemp, Upton and McCutchen ranked ahead of Reyes on my draft board, I’m still going to go with the outfielders.

Have fun with it – and welcome to the world of fantasy baseball.

Ray Flowers can be heard daily on Sirius/XM Radio on The Fantasy Drive, 5-8 PM Eastern, on Sirius 211 and XM 147. Ray’s baseball analysis can be found at the BaseballGuys’ Twitter account.

2011 Player Capsules: Second Base, Shortstop

I love it. The response has been overwhelming, and I want to thank you all for your support and kind words.  I’m borderline ecstatic at the response I’ve received, but at the same time I’m sending so many of these files back to everyone that I needed to come up with a better plan moving forward. Hence, I’m going to be combing positions up the middle in order to cut down on the emails I’ll need to send out. I need time to go out to find the love of my life people.

In case you’ve missed it so far, here is how this all works.

(1) You stop by BaseballGuys.com.

(2) You’ll get a chance to review a handful of the players at the position of the day.

(3) You’ll find a CODE at the end of the article.

(4) You’ll take that CODE and email it to me at: fantasyfandom@yahoo.com

(5) I’ll send you back a neat and tidy PDF file with the top-50 or so players at the position that is under discussion for that day.

How does that sound to you?

The best part? How about the cost… it’s 100% FREE.

All I ask is that you tell a friend.

SECOND BASE / SHORTSTOP

Here are a few examples of what you will receive in the PDF.

Stephen Drew
For the first time Drew hit double-digits in steals, and the results was one of four efforts last year in which a player had double-digit homers, doubles, triples and steals at the position. Drew has never taken the next step to fantasy stardom, but if you add together his best yearly totals you end up with a 5×5 line of .291-21-67-91-10. Who wouldn’t take that from their shortstop?

Grant Green
Green should one day be a star in the big leagues. The A’s watched him destroy High-A pitching last year to the tun of a .318-20-87-107-9 line with about the only complaint being 117 strikeouts. Given that he finished his career with the sixth highest batting average in USC history, that’s hardly a surprise. He should only be rostered in keeper leagues at this point.

Brandon Phillips
Even in a down year he was just a couple of homers and four steals from a 4th straight 20/20 season. Moreover, Phillips has averaged 21 homers and 24 steals in his five seasons with the Reds. His batting average is rarely impressive, he owns a .267 career mark, but his ability to produce homers and steals is unparallelled at the position the past five seasons.

The Middle Infielder code is: Have Glove, Will Travel

By Ray Flowers

Anatomy of a Draft: Vegas Style

This is the final piece of my three part series reviewing the FSTA Draft that was held in Las Vegas last week (ah, how the good times fade fast don’t they?).

Part I - I gave a review of the team I drafted in Vegas Baby, and the FSTA.

PART II - I discussed why I chose Carl Crawford over Troy Tulowitzki in the first round in Pick Your Poison: Crawford or Tulo.

In PART III, thanks to the work of Jason Collette of Dock of the Rays, we have the answer as to who made the best selections in the FSTA Draft compared to the current ADP data (you can see the entirety of Jason’s work in the spreadsheet he put together of the draft). In what follows I’ll discuss some of the key selections that stood out, either players that I got on the cheap or guys I might have reached for according to ADP, and give my thoughts on why I made the decisions that I did.

Carl Crawford (taken 7th, ADP of 16): You can click in the link above for PART II to see why I think Crawford’s current ADP mark is way off.

Jimmy Rollins (taken 33, ADP of 42): The last of the elite shortstops on the board was my second choice with my third round pick with the first one being Ryan Howard (he was taken 32nd). For my thoughts on Rollins see Top-10 SS for 2011.

Brandon Phillips (59 taken , ADP of 35): A nice value given where he was drafted, and because he was the last of the top shelf second sackers left on the board. Coming off a “down” year he still scored 100 runs, hit 18 homers, stole 16 bags and batted .275. I’ll take a repeat of that while knowing that he went .276-20-98-78-25 in 2009.

Aramis Ramirez (taken 85, ADP of 104): Aramis is scaring some people off with his down 2010 effort that included a bunch of time on the shelf (he had just 465 at-bats). Would it surprise you to know that he still had 25 homers, the same total as Ryan Zimmerman and three more than Evan Longoria? Heck, his RBI total of 83 was only two less than Zimmerman and Mark Reynolds.

Dan Haren (taken 98, ADP of 52): The steal of the draft? I almost took Haren in the 6th round, then the 7th, before finally selecting him in the 8th. From 2008-10, Haren is only of only three hurlers to win at least 12 games, with an ERA under 3.95 and at least 200 Ks each season. The others are two pretty strong hurlers – Tim Lincecum and Roy Halladay.

Joakim Soria (taken 111, ADP of 78): Drafting at this point of the year is tricky, you don’t even know who the 9th inning arm will be for some clubs, and that was reflected in the draft as most of the experts waited on taking their first closer. I still remember being burned last year when I took Joe Nathan early “knowing” he was a lock for 35 saves. Hopefully this call works out better.

Aaron Hill (taken 124, ADP of 180): I needed power, so I’m not worried about having overshot Hill’s ADP by so much. With guys like Chone Figgins, Brian Roberts and Howie Kendrick the best options left on the board at second, and already having a roster loaded with speedy guys, I needed pop and Hill was the best option left to fill that need. After all, Hill is second at the second base position the last two years with 62 homers and third with 176 RBI.

Carlos Lee (taken 163, ADP of 132): A solid choice for two reasons. First, he also qualifies at first base giving me some depth behind Prince Fielder and another option as a corner infielder. Second, while his bat is slowing, Lee still hit 24 homers with 89 RBI last season. That makes it 11-straight years with 24 homers and at least 80 RBI.

James Shields (taken 189, ADP of 173): He might have been the unluckiest pitcher in baseball last year. Shields went 13-15 with a 5.18 ERA despite a career best K/9 mark of 8.28 and a superb K/BB ratio of 3.67. If things normalize he should be back on track and that means posting an ERA of about 4.00 with a 1.25 WHIP and about 175 Ks, a point I made, in depth, in Breaking Down: James Shields.

Scott Baker (taken 228, ADP of 183): He may never put it all together, but we’ve all have a crush on someone that doesn’t really make sense (I don’t even want to hear who some of you have fantasies about). Still, I can’t help but think if he ever put it all together that he could be a difference maker. If we take the best numbers of career and combine them we end up with 15 wins, a 3.45 ERA, a 1.18 WHIP and 162 Ks.

Carlos Zambrano (taken 241, ADP of 331): I guess no one is buying his unbelievable finish to 2010 (8-0, 1.58 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 64 Ks over 74 IP)? There are valid concerns about his workload and his absolutely bonkers personality, but the guy can still pitch when he’s healthy and motivated.

Ryan Madson (taken 280, ADP of 400): One of the best right-handed setup men in baseball. Madson is second in line to take over the 9th inning in Philadelphia, and you can argue that he is coming off his best season with career bests in K/9 (10.87), BB/9 (2.21), K/BB (4.92) and WHIP (1.04). Now if he can just avoid trying to beat things up when he is angry.

Nate McLouth (taken 293, ADP of 400): The man gets no respect. The Braves say he will open the year as the starter in CF, he is just 29 years old, and he went 26/23 in 2008 and 20/19 in 2009. You can hear more of my thoughts on McLouth in Around the Horn: January 21, 2011.

By Ray Flowers

Vegas Baby, and the FSTA

I was in Vegas for a couple of days in order to attend the Fantasy Sports Trade Association event. While there we did a couple of our radio shows for Sirius/XM Fantasy Sports Radio (we can be heard daily from 5-8 PM EDT), and of course we mixed in some fun including random dancing, a few cocktails (maybe more appropriately a slew of them), and some general merriment. Between all of that I was able to participate in the annual FSTA Mixed League Draft which we were able to hold on air in its entirety (to listen to it again, or for the first time, tune in to Sirius147/XM211 Radio at the following times: Friday at 5pm and 11 PM Eastern, and Saturday and Sunday at 3PM and 11PM Eastern). As for the draft results, you can follow the link to The Sirius/XM FSTA Draft for all the picks taken in the 13 team, 29 round draft. Here is a review of the team that I was able to put together, with the help of the beautiful Kay Adams.

C: Carlos Ruiz, Yadier Molina
1B: Prince Fielder
2B: Brandon Phillips, Aaron Hill
3B: Aramis Ramirez, Jhonny Peralta
SS: Jimmy Rollins, Jason Bartlett
OF: Carl Crawford, Andrew McCutchen, Carlos Lee, Denard Span, Nate McLouth, Cameron Maybin, Roger Bernadina

SP: Yovanni Gallardo, Dan Haren, Jonathan Sanchez, Wandy Rodriguez, James Shields, Scott Baker, Carlos Zambrano

RP: Joakim Soria, Ryan Madson, Brandon League, Rich Harden, Kyle Farnsworth, Jake McGee

Here are some of my thoughts on the draft.

* I was very pleased to see Carl Crawford fall to us at #7 overall. There seemed to be about a 50/50 split between people at the conference over taking Crawford or Troy Tulowitzki in that spot.

* Some people questioned Rollins in the 3rd round, though I don’t see why there would be any doubt about him at that spot. I have him as the #3 shortstop on the board this year (see: Top-10 Shortstops for 2011).

* Overall I love the talent of of this club. Some have said the team might be short on power, and while I can’t say we have any chance to lead the league in homers, I think our hitting should be highly productive. In taking a general overview I think we have a shot at having four guys who could at least go 15/15 (Crawford, Rollins, McCutchen, Phillips), and that is some serious talent that doesn’t even include two others who could go 15/15 (Maybin and Bernadina) as well as another guy who has already done that before (McLouth). We were one pick from nabbing Ryan Howard in the third round to be our corner infield option or that power talk would have been completely removed (we ended up with Rollins).

* This draft just goes to show you that you don’t have to reach on catching. While neither of my guys will win the league for me, Ruiz (16th round) and Molina (17th) give me two of the more stable options in the game. In leagues that start two catchers knowing that you have two guys who should hit .280 with 50 RBI is a nice feeling.

* Things turned out pretty well with the starting pitchers. I waited a bit to take a starter, though with all of them flying off the board I did go earlier than I normally do with Gallardo in the 6th round. I then grabbed the ultra consistent Haren in the 8th meaning that through 10 rounds I had rostered: 1 1B, 2 2B (one for MI), 1 SS, 1 3B, 2 OF, 2 SP, 1 RP.

* As for relievers, that unit is short on saves as we sit here today. With the draft being done so early, it is January after all, there is just no way to know how certain situations are going to pan out. Therefore I did something I hardly ever do, and that is go for a closer within the first 10 picks. I took Joakim Soria in the 9th round knowing that he was one of about 15 guys that seemed to have the 9th locked down for his team. Given that he is a top-5 option in my mind, it was an easy call to take him in that spot. I grabbed League who could open the year as “the man” with David Aardsma coming back from injury for the Mainers, an truthfully I think he’s a better pitcher than Aardsma (remember the Mariners had been looking to move David prior to the injury). Ryan Madson is an injury to Brad Lidge away from the 9th, and he is the better pitcher at this point if you gauge each man in a head-to-head manner. Remember, roster skills over roll in the pen and nine times out of 10 you will come out ahead. And in my nod to fantasy football, I handcuffed my Rays’ relievers to one another taking the young guy (McGee) and the old one (Farnsworth). Hopefully one of them pans out and locks down the role.

This is a solid squad and one that should allow me to remain competitive this season, provided that (a) my players stay healthy, and (b) if my “I was down in 2010 but I’m really a better player than that” plan comes to fruition in 2011. You did pick up that strategy I employed right? Take a look at the guys who had down seasons last year that I think are primed for a strong comeback in 2011: Ramirez, Hill, Lee, Span, Shields, McLouth, Bartlett. Hopefully I didn’t out think myself.

Now, where is my waitress with those fruity drinks…

By Ray Flowers

Fact or Fiction

I’m gonna throw some thing on the wall today and see if they stick. Speaking of that, is there anyone out there who hasn’t chucked a piece of pasta at the wall to see if it sticks. I have no idea if that really helps you to decide if the pasta is cooked, but it certainly is fun.

Mark Teixeira has been a disappointment: FICTION.
Tex may not be at his finest, but is it fair to label him a disappointment? Hardly. Mark leads baseball with 79 runs scored which ties him with Brandon Phillips. Add in the fact that Mark has knocked in 81 runs and he is a mere run from being the first 80-80 man in baseball this season. Certainly his batting average is down at .258 (career .287) but he is still on pace for 35 homers, 122 RBI and 119 runs scored. Do you consider that to be a “down” season? I dont when his per 162 game averages are 37 homers, 122 RBI and 104 runs scored.

Johnny Cueto is a fantasy star: FACT.
Over his last eight trips to the hill Cueto has won five games, hasn’t once picked up a loss, and is sporting a sterling 1.55 WHIP. That’s fantasy stardom right there. On the year he has a 3.24 ERA, just 0.04 behind Johan Santana, and his 1.26 WHIP is a hundredth better than Cole Hamels and Yovani Gallardo. By the way, with his 11-2 record Cueto is tied for second in baseball, with Andy Pettitte, in winning percentage amongst hurlers with at least 10 victories at .846. The only man who is better is Ubaldo Jimenez at .895.

Aubrey Huff has been more valuable than Ryan Howard: FACT.
I know it seems crazy, especially when you go back to the start of the season when Howard was going as a top-15 pick while Huff was lucky to be taken in the top-150, but the fact of the matter is that Huff has been a more valuable fantasy contributor. Not only does he qualify at first and the outfield, Huff has provided more fantasy relevant production that Howard in 5×5 leagues of 12 teams according to our Player Rater Tool. Here are the 5×5 numbers.

Huff: .312-20-65-70-5
Howard: .292-23-81-65-1

In fact, Huff has been the 11th most productive hitter in fantasy baseball according to the tool, so where is the NL MVP talk?

Jaime Garcia is a fantasy ace: FICTION.
I know he started out guns a blazing for the Cardinals going 7-3 with a 1.79 ERA in his first 14 starts, but over his last seven trips to the hill his record has been a mere 2-2 record while his ERA has spiked to 4.29. In addition, his K/9 rate over those seven starts is 6.81, and that is far from an impressive number. Has he been really good this season? Of course he has. He is a solid 9-5 on the year, and his 2.53 ERA is 7th in baseball. At the same time his 1.31 WHIP is tied for 57th amongst starters while his total of 97 strikeouts is tied for 54th. Add that all up and according to the aforementioned Player Rater tool he is merely the 50th best pitcher in fantasy baseball this season.

Livan Hernandez has a better ERA than Johan Santana, Tim Lincecum, CC Sabathia, Roy Oswalt, Justin Verlander and Dan Haren: FACT.
And I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Hernandez currently has a 3.12 ERA the 21st, more vomiting, best mark in baseball. For a guy who has posted an ERA of at least 4.83 each of the past four years, and marks of 6.05 and 5.44 the past two years, that is truly astounding. Moreover, Livan hasn’t had a mark under 4.00 since 2005, and his career best mark is 3.20 set back in 2003. Where is my Dramamine?

Prince Fielder stinks to high heave: FICTION.
OK, OK, the 52 RBI are flat out pitiful for a guy who has knocked in at least 102 runners in each of the past three seasons. You’ll get no debate about that from me. At the same time, his other numbers really aren’t that far off of normal. I’m seriously (that’s for Cartman from South Park). Check out his projected production over 162 games this season versus his established career rate.

2010 pace: .267-36-77-95 with a .399 OBP and a .892 OPS
Career: .281-38-104-92 with a .383 OBP and a .926 OPS

Like I said, other than the poor RBI total, Fielder’s other production has pretty much been spot on – even if you didn’t realize it.

By Ray Flowers

Turn Back the Clock: Second Base

In my continuing trip down memory lane I’ll review the second base position to see how my prediction for the top-10 at the position panned out (the following list is taken from the 2009 Fanball Annual Guide that was on newsstands prior to the start of the 2009 season).

To read previous positional reviews click on the following link:

CATCHERS

FIRST BASE

1. Ian Kinsler

2. Brian Roberts

3. Chase Utley

4. Brandon Phillips

5. Dustin Pedroia

6. Dan Uggla

7. Robinson Cano

8. Mark DeRosa

9. Kelly Johnson

10. Rickie Weeks

Kinsler was injured yet again and hit a career worst .253 making this call a bust right? Well, not really. Kinsler went 30/30 with 31 homers and 31 steals, as he also knocked in 86 runners while crossing home plate 101 times. Nothing wrong that that effort at all.

Roberts is historically good, and I’ve written it before. He has produced at least 100 runs, 30 steals and 40 doubles in 3-straight years. It may not sound like much, but it is an all-time major league record for second sackers.

Utley would have been the #2 guy on the list if it wasn’t for concerns about his surgically repaired hip (remember this was back in January when we thought Utley could miss April, and yes, I would have still had Kinsler higher than Utley last season even if dude was healthy). All Utley did was go 20/20 for the first time while hitting 31 bombs with 93 RBI and 112 runs.

You are pretty darn good when you’re an afterthought after the top group despite going 20/20 in each of the past three years. If you have to “settle” for Phillips consider yourself in good hands.

Dustin Pedroia didn’t repeat his MVP effort of 2008 (.326-17-83-118-20), but that was never going to happen anyway – though he got awfully close. He settled in and had a fine season one that was well worth a top-5 selection at the position (.296-15-72-115-20).

Uggla is a beast at the dish, a fact I recounted in Player Movement Thoughts.

Cano was, simply put, amazing. He hit a career best 25 homers, knocked in his second best total of 85 runners, scored a career-high 103 runs all the while batting .320 with 48 doubles. Time to include this man in the discussion of outright stars at the position.

DeRosa was traded from the Indians to the Cardinals, and dealt with a left wrist injury that eventually required surgery when the season was over. He wasn’t great, but it’s not like a .250-23-78-78 line is weak if you play second place.

Johnson completely tanked – completely. After 2-straight years of at least .276-12-68-86-9, Johnson struggled all year hitting just .224 with eight homers and 29 RBI in just 303 ABs. Eventually the Braves turned to Martin Prado who hit .307 and now appears the favorite to start at second for the club in 2010.

I was higher on Weeks than anyone on staff. Though mid-May, I was looking like a genius. Unfortunately, Weeks was once again struck by another wrist injury, and as a result he appeared in a mere 37 games. Still, if we quadruple his effort we would end up with a .272-36-96-112-8 line which would have made me look like a genius. What could have been.

By Ray Flowers

Wednesday Baseball

Today I’m going to look around the landscape of baseball and point out a few of the more interesting tidbits as the clock winds down on this Wednesday.

Eric Byrnes went 1-for-4 on Wednesday to “raise” his average to .152. He did steal two bags and appears to be running very well after a lost 2008 because of hamstring issues.

D’backs, please start scoring some runs for Dan Haren. In his four starts this year the club has scored a total of three runs. As a result, instead of being the early favorite for the NL Cy Young, Haren is 1-3 despite a 1.38 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP.

Brandon Phillips is hitting .143 on the young season thanks to an 0-for-21 slump. As a result he has been dropped to sixth in the order. Miscast as a cleanup hitter, Phillips would likely be better served hitting second or fifth, but the Reds really don’t have a better option at the moment than Phillips. Dating back to August first last year, Phillips is hitting a miniscule .183 over 191 ABs. That isn’t a slump, it’s a trend. Oddly his struggles this year have come despite the fact that he has more walks (nine) than strikeouts (seven). You can blame his inordinately low BABIP mark of .147. When things normalize, the average should return to at least the .260 level.

CC Sabathia had another rough outing on Wednesday as he allowed six earned runs in 6.2 innings against the Athletics who entered the game hitting an AL worst .237 with the second worst OBP in the league at .309 (only the Mariners were worse at .305). Just like last season when he started slowly, Sabathia has had a very difficult time throwing strikes as he has struck out just 12 batters while walking 14 leading to a K/BB mark of 0.86 through four starts. Considering he owns a career mark of 2.63 and has posted a mark of at least 3.91 in each of the past three seasons, one has to figure things will turn around quickly. Still, his slow start cannot be leading to too many smiles in the Yankees’ front office or with those people who took Sabathia as their fantasy ace in 2009.

Jose Valverde has struggled a bit to start the year, and now he is dealing with a bruised right ankle and a strained calf muscle that he suffered on Tuesday night. At this point there isn’t necessarily a substantial worry that he will end up on the DL, but that is the LaTroy Hawkins train warming up in the station to take over in case Valverde cannot go. Here is my advise – you had better think long and hard about adding Hawkins in anything other than an NL-only league. Sure LaTroy posted solid numbers last year with a 3.92 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP over 62 innings, including some great work with the Astros (0.43 ERA, 0,73 WHIP, 25 K in 21 IP), but come on now we are talking about LaTroy Hawkins here. Dude has 77 saves and 47 blown saves in his career, and he hasn’t been given even 10 saves chances since the 2005 season when we has six saves and nine blown chances. For whatever reason, and it makes no sense, the man simply cannot come through in the ninth inning. It’s as simple as that. Don’t fool yourself into thinking it will be any different, even if Valverde ends up on the disabled list.

Barry Zito was 3-0 with a 3.21 ERA last year when Pablo Sandoval was behind the plate. On Wednesday Sandoval caught his first games of the year, with Zito on the hill, and he went seven shutout innings though it was against the Padres. The Giants aren’t ready to say it, but we might be getting awfully close to Pablo serving as the personal catcher for Zito, and that would be music to Sandoval’s owner’s ears if he doesn’t qualify as a catcher in your league at the moment (this was his first game behind the dish this season).