Â
Random Observations: July 16th
Â
Â
Â
Shane Youman
Shane Youman has gotten off to a hot start with the Pirates, reeling off two wins in two starts. His next turn is in Colorado, so expect his 3.00 ERA to take a bit of a hit.
Ryan Doumit
Sticking with the Pirates, they have one of the games best fantasy catchers in Ryan Doumit. When Doumit was originally recalled, it was primarily to start in the OF. But the piss poor batting of Ronnie Paulino has forced the Bucs to move Doumit back behind the plate. In 171 AB he has 7 HR, 24 RBI and a statistical line of .304/.378/.520. If he can maintain this pace he’ll end up being a fantasy catching force.
Andy Sonnanstine
He’s been better than his ERA would indicate; having thrown four quality starts in 8 outings. The 50% QS rate is a god send when compared to other Rays pitchers like Edwin Jackson & Jae Seo. Going back to why I follow this guy, he has 38 SO against 7 BB. That 5.42 rate would place him 4th in the AL if he had enough IP to qualify.
Daniel Cabrera
How many chances can Daniel Cabrera get? I know he has a €œmillion dollar arm€ but the fact remains that he just isn’t getting the job done. This season he’s in typical form, with a 5.16 ERA. He has cut down on the walks (still high at 65 in 127.1 IP) and lowered his WP ratio, I’ll give him that. Maybe he’s worth a shot in the bullpen, although I don’t think he could be relied upon to throw strikes in a pinch. Perhaps a change of scenery
could help young (26) Daniel out.
Curtis Granderson
Curtis Granderson is on pace for 28.5 triples this season. If he can maintain that pace he’ll surpass the previous mark of 26 shared by Joe Jackson & Sam Crawford for the all-time American League single season record. (The NL record is 36 by Chief Wilson in 1912.)
Matt Stairs & Jack Cust
Who would have thought that $850,000 Matt Stairs would be a bigger contributor to the Toronto Blue Jays than $10.12 million dollar Frank Thomas? Both have 14 HR and Stairs has a .889 OPS vs Thomas’ .821 mark.
Speaking of cheap options, Jack Cust is still going strong with 15 HR and a .935 OPS.
Talk about €œmoneyball€ economics. Stairs & Cust make about $1.25 million dollars combined or about 7 games of A-Rod.
Joe Saunders
What does Joe Saunders have to do to get a starting gig? Last year he was 7 €“ 3 in 13 starts for the Angels. This season in five starts he went 3-0 with a 2.97 ERA and was rewarded with another minor league demotion. If I’m a GM dealing with the Angels at the all-star break, I’ll see if I can sneak in Saunders for a bag of balls, which is about the value that the Angels place on him.
Someone has a Pirates fetish! At least someone does. Good call on Cabrera and Saunders. Every year is always going to be “the year he finally puts it together”. I remember our boy Gammons penciled him in as the AL Cy Young winner for either last year or the year before out of spring training.
Saunders was a nice waiver wire pickup for me last year in fantasy and am surprised the disrespect he is shown while they keep throwing Ervin Santana to the dogs and watch him get eaten alive.