Daily Joust – Wk 11: 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.
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

Jake Arrieta (+43, $212,000 in DailyJoust Salary)
Arrieta dominated the Pirates in his last outing (1 ER in 7 IP) reminding everyone just how good he can be. Of course, the previous start his evil twin came out as he allowed 11 hits and nine runs in just four innings against the Phillies. He pitches in the toughest division in baseball (AL East), and consistency has always eluded him, but this is a young fella that does own a big arm (8.33 K/9, 3.13 K/BB this season).

Craig Gentry (+14, $91K)
Josh Hamilton is dealing with a nasty flu bug, and Nelson Cruz is seemingly always hurt somewhere, so Gentry has been generating a lot of excitement offensively this season in limited playing time. Craig has hit an uber impressive .349 while stealing nine bags in just 109 at-bats, and he has been raking it the past two weeks hitting .484 over his last 31 at-bats. Leonys Martin was called up which could eat into the playing time of Gentry, but he still makes a fine AL-only target.

Mike Minor (+30, $238K)
He’s finally found his game. In his last two starts Minor has allowed a total of two runs to drop his ERA by nearly a run to 6.01. Still, he walked six batters in those two outings signaling that everything isn’t totally “fixed” with his game. His skills far outpace that ERA and his WHIP (1.42) so buying low here certainly makes sense as the Braves have decided to return Kris Medlen to the pen to allow Minor and Randall Delgado to continue to start.

Alexei Ramirez (+17, $77K)
You’re killing me smalls. After improving to .245 with 18 RBI in May, June has been more of the same blah for Alexei as he has hit .212 with a .462 OPS in 52 at-bats. The only thing keeping him in the lineup at this point is his history of success cause he certainly hasn’t merited full time at-bats given his sickly .527 OPS through 64 games.

Jonathan Sanchez ($37, $207K)
A 2-start pitcher this week (HOU, STL) the enigma that is Sanchez continues to vex. In his return from injury he held the Brewers to one run in five innings and walking two batters has to been as an improvement for a guy who has issued 24 free passes in 30.1 innings. He’s not to the point where you can trust him – obviously – but if he goes out and looks solid this week it would be a great time to pounce.

LOSERS OF THE WEEK

Jose Altuve (-11, $91K)
After hitting .283 in May he’s upped that mark back to .317 in June, which just so happens to match his year mark. His speed is allowing him to leg out a few more hits than I expected, but it’s a long season. Given that he’s no power hitter, and that he doesn’t really draw walks either, he’s going to have to keep that average up or he’ll also see his steal total fall do to a lack of times on base to attempt a theft (his OBP is just .359 despite that .317 batting average).

Jose Bautista (-16, $118K)
Flashing the power bat that has produced 40 homers, 100 RBI and 100 runs the past two years, Bautista is on pace to reach all of those marks yet again in 2012 (19 homers, 47 RBI, 42 runs scored in 66 games). However, like I’ve said about 97 times over the past two years, Bautista is NOT a .300 hitter, not even close. Batting .230 on the year, I’ll write it again – in a career that began in 2004 Jose Bautista has finished a season with a batting average over .265 one time – once. It’s an open question if he will make it two times this year.

J.A. Happ (-38, $155K)
Bombed in his last start (8 ER in 3.1 innings against Giants), Happ is sporting a 5.33 ERA and 1.60 WHIP. Consider me shocked (if you could see my face right now you’d understand that I’m not shocked in the least – the guy just isn’t that good a pitcher). NL-only leaguers have had the benefit of Happ’s 76 KS in 72.2 innings, but even in that setup you’re paying a high price for some punchouts (as you can tell over at Fleaflicker, most people are doing the right thing an avoiding Happ).

Derek Lowe (-16, $181K)
If you had said back in March that on June 19th Lowe would have seven victories an a 3.78 ERA I’d have said he would have exceeded all expectations. However, he’s seen his ERA go from 2.15 to that 3.78 mark in his last four outings, though that could hardly be a shock for a guy who has only two more Ks than walks (28 Ks, 26 BBs) in 78.2 innings. Lowe is a middling innings eater who should only be used in certain matchups — and that K-rate is vomit inducing at 3.20 per nine.

DAILY CONTEST

Today you can sign up for the King Arthur’s $50 Free Roll on DailyJoust. No entry free is required to get a chance to play the game and earn your free chance to take home part of the $50 prize pool. All games that start at 7:05 PM EDT or later are open to add players to your daily fantasy baseball squad. So get over to DailyJoust, put together your one day lineup, and get ready to win some free $.

By Ray Flowers

Around the Horn: July 23, 2010

(1) David DeJesus out for the year with injured thumb.

(2) It’s true, Brian Roberts is back.

(3) Carl Crawford returns to the starting lineup.

(4) Justin Masterson could be shut down in September.

(5) Rangers could get Rich Harden and Derek Holland back soon.

(6) J.A. Happ to return to Phillies because of injury to Jamie Moyer.

(7) The Royals have recalled Alex Gordon. Should you care? Read Five Questions to find out (there is also more in that piece about Roberts return and what to do with Happ).

By Ray Flowers

Around the Horn: May26, 2010

(1) Jacoby Ellsbury might be headed back to the DL.

(2) Bobby Jenks continues to struggle in 9th. Is it time for Matt Thornton?

(3) Brian Roberts to report to work on Friday.

(4) Carlos Ruiz dealing with some shoulder pain.

(5) J.A. Happ still a ways away from return.

(6) Max Scherzer finding his groove in minors.

By Ray Flowers

The Day in Baseball – April 15

Today is a special day as every player in baseball will be wearing the number 42 as a tribute to Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color barrier in major league baseball. A year ago I wrote my thoughts down about Jackie Robinson – how special a person he was, and what his lasting legacy would be. It’s still as poignant today as it was then. Here is the link to Here’s to You Mr. Robinson.

Jacoby Ellsbury can’t take deep breaths without having a sharp pain in his side. I’m no doctor, but that sounds like a serious issue with his rib cage. That return date of Friday isn’t going to happen. Ellsbury will go for more tests on Friday to determine what’s going on and if a DL stint is needed.

Jose Guillen is a man on a mission. Whether that mission is to return to relevance on the ball field, to work his way out of Kansas City, or just to be healthy again, Guillen is making noise. He has certainly placed his stamp on the season having gong deep in each of the past four games with a total of five homers and eight RBI. Don’t forget that Guillen has gone deep at least 20 times in each of his last five healthy seasons during which time he has averaged 92 RBI a season (he had only 241 at-bats in 2006 and just 281 last season). As for the last part, he obviously seems healthy, a fact that he no longer takes for granted after he literally feared for his life this offseason because of blood clots. “The doctor started talking about dying,” he said. “I didn’t even know what a blood clot was. It was so bad that I couldn’t feel my legs.” You can read more about the harrowing experience at Guillen Almost Died.

Francisco Liriano looked like the “old” Liriano today. He threw seven shutout innings against the Red Sox striking out eight. If he throws strikes this season, he could have a ton of success given that he has rediscovered about three mph on his fastball and some bite on that once nasty slider.

Bud Norris – that’s a young arm I really like. He may struggle at times since he really doesn’t have a third pitch, but when he is on, he can dominate batters. He did just that on Thursday allowing the Cardinals only a single unearned run in five innings. He whiffed nine in the victory.

I was pleasantly surprised today watching Scott Olsen pitch today. I know he gave up four runs in 5.2 innings to the Phillies, but he actually pitched much better than that – though I still wouldn’t count on him to be effective enough to be a weekly option in NL-only league. At the same time, I wasn’t at all impressed by J.A. Happ who continues to work with a massive rabbit’s foot in his pocket. Somehow he didn’t allow an earned runs despite walking six batters in 5.1 innings. He’s walked eight guys in 10.1 innings this season yet he owns a 1.65 ERA. Just like I said last year, a correction is a coming.

David Ortiz is hitting .154 with 13 Ks in 26 at-bats, and all you hear about is the fact that he could be the worst hitter in the history of baseball, which makes me wonder – why is it that J.D. Drew is basically getting a pass despite being just as awful (.143 with 13 Ks in 28 at-bats)?

I’m totally shocked that Jeff Suppan gave up four runs in five innings in his season debut. Actually the only shock is that it was only four runs.

Carlos Zambrano threw 123 pitches today — and only lasted five innings. Besides the stupidity of allowing anyone to throw that many pitches in just five innings, how could anyone let someone do that in the second week of the regular season? And people say that Dusty Baker abuses his pitchers.

By Ray Flowers

I’m Still on the Case

I know that the NFL is ramping up to a fever pitch, and that NCAA football is also up and running, but that doesn’t mean I can turn my back on the game of baseball that I love. I will certainly touch on football in the coming weeks, though I promise to only touch on the NFL game (something about the atmosphere of college football just rubs me the wrong way – perhaps it has something to do with the fact that there are about 39 college football games on television from sunrise to sunset on Saturday’s while I only get one baseball game because of MLB’s stupid contract with the networks). With that, here are some of my thoughts as we head into the opening weekend of the NFL season with tons of baseball to still be played.

Gordon Beckham is a pretty darn good hitter with an opposite field stroke that reminds me of Derek Jeter. If we remove his first 23 games this season Beckham is hitting .277 with 39 RBI and 34 runs scored in 61 games, a pace that would net him a season of 96 RBI and 84 runs over 150 contests. That’s pretty good when you toss in something like 15 steals.

Josh Hamilton had yet another cortisone shot on Friday, this one in his back. As a result, he will likely miss another week of action. Not to make light of a serious situation, but Hamilton might be able to get a bit of a high off of all the drugs he has been forced to take for his bumps and bruises this year (so yes, I did make light of the situation with my snarky comment). Still, through it all Hamilton has put up a pace that would lead to 18 home runs, 88 RBI, 77 runs and 14 steals if he maintained his current work over the 156 games he played last year. That is a far cry from the 32 HR, 130 RBI, 98 run effort he posted last year, but with all the starts and stops it certainly isn’t an awful pace (though that likely isn’t a sentiment shared by those who took him with their first or second pick this season). Look for Julio Borbon to continue to be in the starting lineup in Hamilton’s absence.

J.A. Happ, who by the way pronounces his first name “Jay” and not “J – A,” may miss a third straight start because of continuing issues with his right oblique. Jamie Moyer will continue to fill in proving once again that you can never have enough starting pitcher. As for Happ, it remains to be seen if missing this time late in the year will cause voters to turn in another direction when it comes time to vote on the NL Rookie of the Year award. After all, Happ has posted the sixth best ERA in the NL (2.77), while his 1.18 WHIP is good enough for 10th in the Senior Circuit, so he certainly has a pretty good case to be in the mix for the award.

Rich Harden needed 104 pitches to make it through just four innings on Friday against the Reds. He allowed but a single run and just two hits, but he walked five while striking out six and the Cubs were forced to remove him from the game. I watched the game and I tell you what – that guy can fling the baseball. If he could simply stay healthy there is no way he wouldn’t be a top-10 SP, but injuries and frequent bouts with controlling the strike zone continue to hinder what could be an extremely impressive career.

Since I obviously have a love of “H’s” today, I should direct everyone to a recent article I wrote titled What’s Wrong With Me? where I break down why Cole Hamels has struggled this season compared to the level of production he offered last season. As a lay it out in the piece there hasn’t been near as much difference this year as you likely think.

So that’s it. I’m gonna get ready to get my groove on tonight. Yeah you know what I mean. I’m gonna fire up the microwave, pop in a Jane Monheit CD, and crawl under a blanket on the couch. What, you thought I was going to leave my house and go trolling for single ladies on Friday night?

By Ray Flowers