Cafe Home
Fantasy Football
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by bigh0rt » Mon Jul 30, 2012 1:30 am Starling Marte is up, belting bombs on the first Major League pitch he sees, fanning quite a bit over the following two games, and swiping a bag in a 2/5 effort just yesterday. We've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's no secret that I think he's going to be overwhelmingly underwhelming (to me the guy might as well be Andy Marte), but he has a SpecialFNK place in some hearts. Join in on the discussion going on over the young Bucco HERE.
As the trade deadline approaches, the Scutaros and the Greinkes of the world have landed in their new homes, but here's a few other names who may be trading their jerseys in prior to Wednesday (team in parenthesis indicates where all-galaxy Grantland author Jonah Keri postulates the players may land or make best sense landing:
- Jonathan Broxton (Giants?)
- Alfonso Soriano (Indians?)
- Justin Morneau (Pirates?)
- Bryan LaHair (Pirates?)
- Yunel Escobar (Athletics?)
Broxton is all but sold in Kansas City already, he's just not sure where his goodbye flight will be taking him. San Francisco seems like a reasonable landing spot with the seemingly constant state of disarray in their bullpen. A week or so ago Francisco Rodriguez's name was being kicked around quite a bit in trade rumors, but he spent the better part of this week destroying any and all of his trade value; apparently he likes it in Milwaukee. Other closers who could change zip codes, though really speculatively at this point, include Heath Bell and Rafael Betancourt, and it should also be noted that Huston Street is effectively off the market with his signed extension in San Diego (he loves 70 degree days more than winning I guess?).
Zack Greinke was impressive in his debut as an Angel of Anaheim in Los Angeles, though not impressive enough to earn a victory, as he was out-dueled by Jeremy Helickson and the Tampa bullpen, who somehow kept Mike Trout from scoring a Run. I feel like if you do that against the Angels, you should just automatically be credited with a Win. You know those random meaningless, stupid stats they flash up during the 6th inning of baseball games in local broadcasts? I want to know what the Angels' record is when Mike Trout scores a Run. Is it 1.000? It's gotta be 1.000 right? Less than that doesn't even make mathematical sense. I'm going with 1.000 until shown otherwise. Back to Greinke, though... I read an interesting FanGraphs article over the impact of Greinke moving to the AL, inheriting a much better defensive team in Anaheim than he left in Milwaukee, and his new park factors, and they ultimately decided that the difference would be: not much. Though a slight improvement due to the defense and park, over the loss of facing the pitcher was ultimately deduced. How good is the Angels' rotation?
Buckle your seat belt and prepare for the obligatory Mets' section of the CV Thread! Am I ready to name my first born son Matthew Edward Harvey Horton? No, but I'm almost there. Matt Harvey fanned 10 in his Met debut, which is far less impressive than the impact he's had as a whole. I went to my parents' for dinner tonight, and as we're chatting, my 61 year old father says to me, "When's that kid, the pitcher, starting at Home?" You being who you are can't possibly feel the magnitude of this man asking that question, but when I tell you it's monumental, you've got to just believe me. Oh you don't care? That's cool. I digress. Wanna cream your jeans? Watch this. (Editor's Note: If you're not a Mets fan, it's far less jean creaming material). The only thing I'm waiting for is to see if I'm going to have to somehow incorporate the names Zack and Wheeler into my firstborn son's name... P.S. -- R.A. Dickey looked pretty Dickey-ish yesterday. For those who were knee-jerkingly calling for a return to 2011, he notched 7 shutout innings, fanning 8, allowing just 4 Hits, and 3 Bases on Balls. Get off his Dickey.
Raise your hand if you missed out on Chris Tillman's 2012 debut performance, picked him up, started him for his 0.2 IP, 5 H, 2 BB performance @MIN, dropped him, and have since watched him 12.2 IP of 3 ER baseball with 9 Ks. Just me? That's what I figured. I'm not picking him up. Nah uh. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice and I'm liable to go on a metaphorical killing spree. Dude's xFIP and SIERA are both in the mid-4s, but what's his deal? Is he still gassing up to 94+ MPH? My experience with him this season is like my fantasy life in a nutshell. Dude has 3 solid outings in 4 trips to the hill, and I managed to roster and start him for his one stinky egg. Trevor Bauer and him probably call each other and laugh at me about it.
You know who suddenly decided to stop sucking? Carlos Santana, and thank the Lord baby Jesus he did. Dude is finishing up, by far, his hottest month to date. His July slash marks look like .286/.438/.537, which equates to approximately 1,000 times better than he was in every single at bat prior to the calendar flipping to July. This is the dude I thought I drafted. He is who I thought he was! Can only hope this continues the rest of the way. And just because neither of these deserved their own stand alone piece, Anthony Rizzo has now homered in 3 of his last 4 games, driving in 7 Runs, and crushing St. Louis pitching, making me hate myself less and less for missing out on Mike Trout.
As I watched the 9th and 10th innings of the Red Sox/Yankee game last night, I wondered but was too lazy to ask, and figured I'd just ask, in hopes that somebody would explain and not just paste some random paragraph from the MLB Rule Book, despite knowing that's exactly what will happen, if it gets answered at all:
- Is it possible for a reliever to pick up multiple Blown Saves in the same game? (i.e., Alfredo Aceves blew the SV for Boston in the 9th inning. Boston took the lead in the Top of the 10th. Aceves could have theoretically blown his 2nd SV chance in the Bottom of the 10th. Would he have been credited with 2 Blown Saves? I want the answer to be yes so bad, but I'm anticipating disappointment here. I feel like during their tenure as Mets closers, Armando Benitez or Braden Looper had to have achieved this at some point, if it were possible.).
And finally, in today's bizarre figure of the day, the Cincinnati Reds have now won their last 10 consecutive games, despite the absence of their All-World First Baseman. They are tied with the Washington Nationals for the best record in baseball. Take a brief moment and just let that previous sentence sink in. ... ... ... ... No Votto? No Problem!
I hate you all.
Love,
bigh0rt
Today's Matchups:
LAA: Santana (4-10, 6.00 ERA)
TEX: Oswalt (3-1, 5.22 ERA)
NYM: Hefner (1-4, 5.40 ERA)
SF: Bumgarner (11-6, 3.10 ERA)
BAL: Gonzalez (2-2, 4.28 ERA)
NYY: Garcia (4-4, 5.16 ERA)
MIA: Buehrle (9-9, 3.31 ERA)
ATL: Hanson (11-5, 4.39 ERA)
DET: Scherzer (10-5, 4.49 ERA)
BOS: Buchholz (8-3, 4.93 ERA)
SD: Volquez (6-7, 3.30 ERA)
CIN: Leake (4-6, 4.12 ERA)
CHW: Quintana (4-1, 2.58 ERA)
MIN: De Vries (2-2, 3.64 ERA)
PIT: Bedard (5-11, 4.32 ERA)
CHC: Germano (0-1, 3.00 ERA)
TB: Price (14-4, 2.57 ERA)
OAK: Griffin (3-0, 2.25 ERA)
HOU: Norris (5-8, 5.05 ERA)
MIL: Estrada (0-4, 4.52 ERA)
TOR: Romero (8-7, 5.75 ERA)
SEA: Iwakuma (1-2, 4.56 ERA)
ARI: Cahill (8-9, 3.86 ERA)
LAD: Harang (7-5, 3.39 ERA)
