Main Event Thoughts - So, how you been?
Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 10:21 am
Between two minor surgery’s in my house (one me and one my daughter), work, yard work, athlete’s foot, chronic halitosis, jock itch and just about anything else you can think of, I haven’t really had the time to keep up on my log. So I will just catch up a bit with a look at my team over the last three weeks (Week 10, 11, 12) as we roll down to the mid-point of the season. I had hoped to be a little ahead of my targets at this time and really going into the All Star Week since we will not get much out of that short week. This will not be the case for my team. I have fallen steadily since the first couple of weeks in the season and I evidently have done a poor job of managing. Sure, I have had and still have some injuries, but we all do so that is no excuse any of us can effectively use, except for those few who have had extreme bad luck.
Pitching – The Last Three Weeks. Without a decent second closer option, I decided to go with eight starters in two of the last three weeks. You can never predict these things, but last week, one of the two weeks where I did not use a second reliever, Putz got two vulture wins from the bench. That always kills you.
I used the same six starters each of the last three weeks, Matt Garza, James Shields, Jared Weaver, John Danks, Derek Lowe, and Brett Cecil. To say that each had at least one game where they blew up is an understatement. Though in total, I got ten wins from this group with 109 K’s in 132.3 IP, which is not great, but not terrible either. I am still in in 4th place in my league with K’s and about 25 K’s behind second place. We are all bunched up for wins, but I am only four wins behind the team in second place, so in both cases, this off period has brought me back to in the pack, but not out of contention. ERA and WHIP are a different matter. In this year of the pitcher, I have surrendered too many points to ERA and WHIP. It will be tough to get these points back to get near my targets. The corrections (my euphemism for bad games) by my top starters did not help. Like I pointed out, each had at least one, and several had more. For the three week period:
Matt Garza – 8.400 ERA and 1.800 WHIP, 15.0 IP
James Shields – 8.8269 ERA and 1.500 WHIP, 17.3 IP
Brett Cecil – 6.8507 ERA and 1.5672 WHIP, 22.3 IP
I also used Freddy Garcia (three starts), Jake Westbrook (one start) and Jeremy Guthrie (two starts). They combined for a 4.6154 ERA and a 1.2821 WHIP, though with only 24 K’s in 39.0 IP. They did generate three wins. The totals would have been a lot better if I had used Moyer over Guthrie (I got scared by Moyer’s road game in Toronto), but as it was it was not too bad out of my seventh and eight starter slots.
As it was, my starters combined for 13 Wins, 135 K’s, a miserable 5.4612 ERA and 1.3554 WHIP. I can come back, but I am going to need a string of excellent starts to sniff my ERA target again.
I am still losing ground in saves as Soria has been fine, but I needed much more than his five saves over the last three weeks.
Batting – The Last Three Weeks. I need full time AB out of all fourteen offensive positions. I look to get 285-300 AB each week. That means over the last three weeks, I should have gotten 855-900 AB. I didn’t (839). That would not appear to be that far off, but add to that shortfall the fact I have too may empty sticks in my line-up.
At catcher, Soto being in Sweet Lou’s dog house too frequently has kept him from getting full time AB. Catchers are generally behind most other players in this regard, but Soto is basically getting 15 AB a week. You would think that his .318 BA over the span with three HR would get him some more playing time. In Week 11, Hundley went five for twelve with one HR. In Weeks 10 and 12, he went one for thirty. Enough said.
Even with losing AmRam for two weeks, I have been able to piece together enough bodies to not make my CM a liability. Thanks in large part to Votto’s counting stats, I was able to get 196 AB with 8 HR, 29 R’s and RBI’s (not great, but not too bad) and even two SB to go with a combined 0.3112 BA over the period. I also used Miguel Tejada (78 AB with a studly .372 BA), while AmRam, Hinske, and Infante equaled about 80% of a full-time player with a rather empty .2745 BA.
For the period, my MI (Carlos Guillen, Furcal, and Guzman) gave me middling AB (especial with Furcal missing that time) of 165, though the BA was stellar (.297). Only four HR and SB plus 28 Runs and 18 RBI’s. Basically empty BA.
The six positions representing OF and UT was fairly consistent as far as players used (Kemp, Ethier, Victorino, Willingham, DeJesus for the OF and David Murphy for two weeks and Corey Patterson for one week at UT) and got me full time AB (392). However, the results were not great (.273 BA with 9 HR, 51 Runs and 48 RBIs). SB were good at 14, but otherwise this is not the type of results that will get you winning your league.
Speaking of my outfielders, Victorino continues to puzzle me. I like the counting stats output (12 HR, 16 SB, 45 RBI and 46 Runs), but with Rollins back, some of those numbers will drop. Still, he has a chance to be a 20/30 guy with 90+ RBI and Runs. What is confusing is his BA. For the three week period, he hit an anemic 2.12 and for the year he is at .249. Since 2005, he hasn’t hit lower than .281, so I hope he will come around in that department.
Andre Ethier is the poster child for what can happen to a hot player when they get hurt. Through May 14th, Ethier had a .392 BA with 11 HR, 38 RBI, and 25 Runs scored in 33 games and 125 AB. Since May 31st, when he came back off the DL, one HR, 11 Runs, 8 RBI’s in 25 games and 104 AB with a BA of .225. Andre, come back!
On April 28th, Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti singled out Matt Kemp in a radio interview as one of the reasons why the team hadn't performed well out of the gate this season. At the time, Kemp was batting .292, 7 HR with 20 RBI’s and R’s in 89 AB. Since then, Kemp has had 210 AB, but hit .243 with 5 HR, 7 SB, 32 R’s and 20 RBI’s. Boy that Colletti…what a motivator. Kemp was my first rounder and I need more from him.
I expected Josh Willingham to have a good year given full time AB for the first time in a while, but he has given me just a little more so far. With SB (a career high 7 already) and BA is nearly as high as it has ever been (.276), the HR/RBI/R numbers also have a chance to reach career highs (currently 13/42/40). David DeJesus flirting with a .300 BA is not too uncommon, but the .331 is over his head. He is on track to give me, besides a decent BA, 10-15 HR, 75+ Runs, 75+ RBI’s and a half-dozen swipes as well. Those numbers don’t win leagues, but given I got him in the 21st round, he does give your team good stability.
What do I need? I need more of my players to bat in the meat spot of the order. I have too few, and one of those I have who gets regular AB from the 3-hole is DeJesus. It would help if Manny Ramirez would stumble over his dreads while chasing a fly ball and do a face plant into someone’s sushi at Chavez Ravine. Manny gets an allergic reaction to the cultured bait, Either bats fourth and Kemp bats third while he is out on rehab (reports are that he will be ready for spring training in 2011 as the DH for the Cleveland Indians). I need Aramis Ramirez to hit. Plan and simple, just hit the damn ball. I need Lou Pinella to resign to become a life coach at a resort in the South Seas, never infect baseball again, and the new manager of the Cubbies actually use the catcher who can hit. I need Victorino to raise his BA and Charlie Manuel to hit him second again. Brian Roberts playing baseball again would also be nice.
I also need a closer. Not a closer du jour from Baltimore or Arizona. I need the GM of the ChiSox to stop acting like putz and trade same to a team with some form of future. I need Garza and Shields to pitch like it was April again, and I need Cecil to alter his follow through so he can wind up with his head out of his on backside for a change. Arm-slot my XXX, I need Webb (yes, I am still holding on to him as I have not really found anyone better yet) to pitch…this year.
It is not too much to ask for, right? My chances of catching Steve Jupinka I think left the station sometime in early June, but I still think I can make some noise.
[ June 28, 2010, 04:23 PM: Message edited by: Edwards Kings ]
Pitching – The Last Three Weeks. Without a decent second closer option, I decided to go with eight starters in two of the last three weeks. You can never predict these things, but last week, one of the two weeks where I did not use a second reliever, Putz got two vulture wins from the bench. That always kills you.
I used the same six starters each of the last three weeks, Matt Garza, James Shields, Jared Weaver, John Danks, Derek Lowe, and Brett Cecil. To say that each had at least one game where they blew up is an understatement. Though in total, I got ten wins from this group with 109 K’s in 132.3 IP, which is not great, but not terrible either. I am still in in 4th place in my league with K’s and about 25 K’s behind second place. We are all bunched up for wins, but I am only four wins behind the team in second place, so in both cases, this off period has brought me back to in the pack, but not out of contention. ERA and WHIP are a different matter. In this year of the pitcher, I have surrendered too many points to ERA and WHIP. It will be tough to get these points back to get near my targets. The corrections (my euphemism for bad games) by my top starters did not help. Like I pointed out, each had at least one, and several had more. For the three week period:
Matt Garza – 8.400 ERA and 1.800 WHIP, 15.0 IP
James Shields – 8.8269 ERA and 1.500 WHIP, 17.3 IP
Brett Cecil – 6.8507 ERA and 1.5672 WHIP, 22.3 IP
I also used Freddy Garcia (three starts), Jake Westbrook (one start) and Jeremy Guthrie (two starts). They combined for a 4.6154 ERA and a 1.2821 WHIP, though with only 24 K’s in 39.0 IP. They did generate three wins. The totals would have been a lot better if I had used Moyer over Guthrie (I got scared by Moyer’s road game in Toronto), but as it was it was not too bad out of my seventh and eight starter slots.
As it was, my starters combined for 13 Wins, 135 K’s, a miserable 5.4612 ERA and 1.3554 WHIP. I can come back, but I am going to need a string of excellent starts to sniff my ERA target again.
I am still losing ground in saves as Soria has been fine, but I needed much more than his five saves over the last three weeks.
Batting – The Last Three Weeks. I need full time AB out of all fourteen offensive positions. I look to get 285-300 AB each week. That means over the last three weeks, I should have gotten 855-900 AB. I didn’t (839). That would not appear to be that far off, but add to that shortfall the fact I have too may empty sticks in my line-up.
At catcher, Soto being in Sweet Lou’s dog house too frequently has kept him from getting full time AB. Catchers are generally behind most other players in this regard, but Soto is basically getting 15 AB a week. You would think that his .318 BA over the span with three HR would get him some more playing time. In Week 11, Hundley went five for twelve with one HR. In Weeks 10 and 12, he went one for thirty. Enough said.
Even with losing AmRam for two weeks, I have been able to piece together enough bodies to not make my CM a liability. Thanks in large part to Votto’s counting stats, I was able to get 196 AB with 8 HR, 29 R’s and RBI’s (not great, but not too bad) and even two SB to go with a combined 0.3112 BA over the period. I also used Miguel Tejada (78 AB with a studly .372 BA), while AmRam, Hinske, and Infante equaled about 80% of a full-time player with a rather empty .2745 BA.
For the period, my MI (Carlos Guillen, Furcal, and Guzman) gave me middling AB (especial with Furcal missing that time) of 165, though the BA was stellar (.297). Only four HR and SB plus 28 Runs and 18 RBI’s. Basically empty BA.
The six positions representing OF and UT was fairly consistent as far as players used (Kemp, Ethier, Victorino, Willingham, DeJesus for the OF and David Murphy for two weeks and Corey Patterson for one week at UT) and got me full time AB (392). However, the results were not great (.273 BA with 9 HR, 51 Runs and 48 RBIs). SB were good at 14, but otherwise this is not the type of results that will get you winning your league.
Speaking of my outfielders, Victorino continues to puzzle me. I like the counting stats output (12 HR, 16 SB, 45 RBI and 46 Runs), but with Rollins back, some of those numbers will drop. Still, he has a chance to be a 20/30 guy with 90+ RBI and Runs. What is confusing is his BA. For the three week period, he hit an anemic 2.12 and for the year he is at .249. Since 2005, he hasn’t hit lower than .281, so I hope he will come around in that department.
Andre Ethier is the poster child for what can happen to a hot player when they get hurt. Through May 14th, Ethier had a .392 BA with 11 HR, 38 RBI, and 25 Runs scored in 33 games and 125 AB. Since May 31st, when he came back off the DL, one HR, 11 Runs, 8 RBI’s in 25 games and 104 AB with a BA of .225. Andre, come back!
On April 28th, Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti singled out Matt Kemp in a radio interview as one of the reasons why the team hadn't performed well out of the gate this season. At the time, Kemp was batting .292, 7 HR with 20 RBI’s and R’s in 89 AB. Since then, Kemp has had 210 AB, but hit .243 with 5 HR, 7 SB, 32 R’s and 20 RBI’s. Boy that Colletti…what a motivator. Kemp was my first rounder and I need more from him.
I expected Josh Willingham to have a good year given full time AB for the first time in a while, but he has given me just a little more so far. With SB (a career high 7 already) and BA is nearly as high as it has ever been (.276), the HR/RBI/R numbers also have a chance to reach career highs (currently 13/42/40). David DeJesus flirting with a .300 BA is not too uncommon, but the .331 is over his head. He is on track to give me, besides a decent BA, 10-15 HR, 75+ Runs, 75+ RBI’s and a half-dozen swipes as well. Those numbers don’t win leagues, but given I got him in the 21st round, he does give your team good stability.
What do I need? I need more of my players to bat in the meat spot of the order. I have too few, and one of those I have who gets regular AB from the 3-hole is DeJesus. It would help if Manny Ramirez would stumble over his dreads while chasing a fly ball and do a face plant into someone’s sushi at Chavez Ravine. Manny gets an allergic reaction to the cultured bait, Either bats fourth and Kemp bats third while he is out on rehab (reports are that he will be ready for spring training in 2011 as the DH for the Cleveland Indians). I need Aramis Ramirez to hit. Plan and simple, just hit the damn ball. I need Lou Pinella to resign to become a life coach at a resort in the South Seas, never infect baseball again, and the new manager of the Cubbies actually use the catcher who can hit. I need Victorino to raise his BA and Charlie Manuel to hit him second again. Brian Roberts playing baseball again would also be nice.
I also need a closer. Not a closer du jour from Baltimore or Arizona. I need the GM of the ChiSox to stop acting like putz and trade same to a team with some form of future. I need Garza and Shields to pitch like it was April again, and I need Cecil to alter his follow through so he can wind up with his head out of his on backside for a change. Arm-slot my XXX, I need Webb (yes, I am still holding on to him as I have not really found anyone better yet) to pitch…this year.
It is not too much to ask for, right? My chances of catching Steve Jupinka I think left the station sometime in early June, but I still think I can make some noise.
[ June 28, 2010, 04:23 PM: Message edited by: Edwards Kings ]
