Fantasy Beat – End One Fantasy Season, Begin Another!

For all of you fantasy basketball players, Justin and Trevor talk about players that you can still find on your waiver wire who can help you win your fantasy basketball league. The guys also recap the first week of the 2013 MLB season and talked about which players came up huge. The guys make some serious predictions.

NBA: Carl Laundry, Derrick Favors, Kyle O’Quinn

MLB: Chris Davis, Tyler Flowers, Michael Morse, Josh Hamilton, Giancarlo Stanton, Tyler Colvin, Carlos Marmol, Kyuji Fujikawa, Yu Darvish

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO.

Around the Horn: August28, 2012

(1) Erik Bedard released by Pirates. Kevin Correia to take over.

(2) Mark Teixeira out 1-2 weeks with calf strain.

(3) Felix Hernandez tosses 5th shutout. Amazing in second half.

(4) Tyler Colvin hot again.

(5) Brett Jackson driving ball into seats. Still striking out.

(6) Luke Gregerson Padres new closer?

(7) Dice-K on waivers. Roy Oswalt passes through waivers.

By Ray Flowers

Daily Joust – Wk 18: 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

Yovani Gallardo (+31, $359K)
In three of his last five starts he’s allowed one run, and in four of six he’s allowed one or no runs. Despite that, his ERA has only gone down from 4.14 to 3.92. Why? Because in the other two outings Gallardo allowed 11 runs in 10.2 innings. So is the case with Gallardo. One game he’s great, the next a total disaster. In the end Gallardo is what he is. Check out the numbers for this season compared to his career levels.

2012: 9.00 K/9, 3.59 BB/9, 1.35 GB/FB, 1.32 WHIP
Career: 9.21 K/9, 3.47 BB/9, 1.23 GB/FB, 1.29 WHIP

He may never take the next step to true greatness, but if you run him out there every time he takes the hill the end result will include wins, passable ratios, an a big strikeout total.

Adam LaRoche (+21, $127K)
It doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense, but we know it to be true. For whatever reason, and there really is no rational explanation for it, Adam is simply a better hitter in the second half of the season. For his career his OPS goes up .129 points after the All-Star Break (.897 to .768). He’s done even better this year. In a mere 24 games LaRoche has gone deep eight times, knocked in 18 runs, scored 15 times, hit .348 and posted a 1.035 OPS, .199 points better than his first half mark. I’m unable to explain how LaRoche continually does it, so I’ll just report that he does, in fact, do it.

Wade Miley (+40, $397K)
His ERA has gone up three quarters of a run over his last six outings, but he’s still sporting a 2.98 mark for the year. Showing few signs of slowing, Wade has allowed three walks in his last four starts while he’s punched out 25 batters, a surprisingly total given his mere 6.75 K/9 mark on the year (the low walk total is expected given his 1.71 per nine mark on the year). His skill set scream out 3.98 ERA not the 2.98 that it actually is, but he has been remarkably consistent this year. He’s also been amazing in four starts during the day with a 4-0 record, 0.36 ERA and 0.67 WHIP.

Chris Tillman (+109, $362K)
The last time he took the hill was a bit rough (5 R in 5 IP), but he’s won each of his last three starts and through five outings he has a 2.70 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. Unfortunately his K/BB ratio is 2.22, pretty much the league average, ditto for his 1.03 GB/FB ratio. He’s also posted a HR/9 mark that is about half of his career rate this year, all of which paints Tillman as a guy who is faring pretty well while at the same time not really deserving of all the success he’s attained.

LOSERS OF THE WEEK

Tyler Colvin, (-28, $55K)
Through 243 at-bats Colvin has been impressive with a .280 average, 13 homers and 43 RBIs. Unfortunately people were expecting a lot more after he hit .339 with five homers and 17 RBIs in June. I warned ya. Did you listen? In 26 games since then Colvin has hit .233, and though he has gone deep five times in that stretch the last time he hit a ball into the seats was July 6th, a full month ago. Colvin  has regressed to being the type of hitter he is – one that can have success if used in the right situation, but not necessarily someone who should be in a fantasy lineup every day without question.

Yu Darvish (-72, $298K)
The good. He’s won 11 games and struck out 145 batters in just 127.1 innings. The bad. He’s walked 70 batters, the fourth worst mark in baseball, an as a result both his ERA (4.38) and WHIP (1.41) are way worse than a league average hurler despite the fact that batters have a very difficult time producing hits off him (his OPS against is just .601). His performance has also taken a decided turn for the worst as he’s allowed 21 runs over his last four starts (spanning 23.2 innings). It’s getting harder and harder to throw him out there unless you are in desperate need of strikeouts.

Jonathan Lucroy (-33, $78K)
People seem to think this guy is Mike Piazza Jr. He’s not. Though he’s hitting .323 with a .920 OPS, he’s hit a mere .200 with a .646 OPS in eight games since he’s been back off the DL. Given that he owns a career .272 batting average and .720 OPS, which hitter do you think he is more likely to be the rest of the way – Mike Piazza or Jonathan Lucroy?

Jarrod Parker (-34, $353K)
Parker has allowed six runs in three of his last 10 starts, and as a result his ERA sits at 3.44, the highest it has been since May 18th. He’s actually done a much better job limiting the free passes as he’s issued just five batters in four games, and he’s also struck out 19 batters in that time. Overall he’s been impressive with that 3.44 ERA and 1.28 WHIP, but it’s fair to question whether or not he is starting to wear down given that he has thrown 130.2 innings this season after tossing 136.1 last season.

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

Wrapping Up The Winter Meetings

As we wrap up the wild and wooly week that was dominated by the Angels and the Marlins, there are still plenty of newsworthy stories that we need to keep an eye on.

Gio Gonzalez is coming off two impressive seasons for the A’s as an innings eating, K machine (at least 200 innings and 171 strikeouts each of the last two years). He’s also won 31 games for a less than elite club in Oakland, and he’s a 26 year old left hander. So of course the A’s are looking to deal him. I get it, the A’s don’t have a lot of options since they are not exactly flush with cash, but what’s the point of having a club if you have to deal exactly the type of players that you should be building around? There is also a growing belief that the A’s and D’backs might work out a deal centered around Trevor Cahill.

Hiroki Kuroda is still looking for a home. It’s hard to tell if the reason he hasn’t signed is because teams fell that his heart really isn’t in it, i.e. that he wants to return to Japan, or if Kuroda is just being super picky about where he’ll sign.

Matt Moore is the best pitching prospect in baseball, a fact I spoke to in my Around the Horn Video from September 23rd (I compared him to Stephen Strasburg). The world saw that potential start to be realized late in the playoffs and the Rays, never one to ignore talent, have taken a big risk that could end up being a huge win for the team. The Rays signed Moore, who has just 9.1 innings of regular season work to his name, to a 5-year, $14 million deal (there are also three option years in the deal that could extend the contract out to $37.5 million over eight years, an a couple of escalator clauses could actually boost the total value up to $40 million). It’s a huge risk given his youth an inexperience, the Rays are saying their prayers that he doesn’t end up turning into Scott Kazmir, but if we’re six years down the road and Moore has been an All-Star four times, it will be a huge win for the club.

The Twins are operating under the assumption that Justin Morneau will be able to return to playing first base next season. Don’t count me in that group. As I said all offseason last year, I had no interest in adding Morneau to my fantasy squad, an unfortunately I was right (he appeared in only 69 games). For the Twins to expect the oft injured one to be handle first base duties is asking too much if you ask me. They’d be better off just sticking him at DH and letting him help the club with his bat.

Carlos Pena is a mere consolation prize for whomever doesn’t add Prince Fielder, but given that there could be a $100 million difference between their contracts, maybe he isn’t that bad a fall back option. Pena’s career batting average is pathetic (.239), an as I’ve written before he’s hit under .230 the last three seasons, but he is a legit power bat. The Cardinals, who now have an opening at first base, are reportedly kicking the tires.

Francisco Rodriguez apparently didn’t like what he was hearing from the marketplace, so he decided to accept the Brewers offer of arbitration. Given that the Brewers aren’t very likely to be pleased about paying a setup man $13 million a year (that’s the estimate of what K-Rod will get in arbitration), it’s hardly a surprise that the Brewers are engaging in talks with multiple teams about the setup man who wants to be a closer.

And finally, the Cubs and Rockies worked out a deal that involved Ian Stewart going to the Cubs along with Casey Weathers for Tyler Colvin and D.J. LeMahieu. Colvin has some nice pop, he’s hit 26 homers with 78 RBI and 78 runs in 581 career at-bats, but he really struggled last year hitting just .150 with a .509 OPS in 206 at-bats. The Rockies figure to give him some time in the outfield and at first base. As for Stewart, he’ll be given a chance to compete for the opening at third base with Aramis Ramirez no longer in the mix. A talented hitter with prodigious power, Stewart is a strikeout machine that simply hasn’t been able to figure out big league pitching. Still, he’s only 26 years old, so perhaps a chance to play on a regular basis will allow the former first round draft pick to finally find his footing at the big league level.

By Ray Flowers