For the week on offense, I got my 300+ AB (327 for the week and for the three full periods 935) with a solid 0.275 BA. My target is approximately 10 HR a week and last week I got 18, led by Walker (4) and Morneau (3 and also had 12 RBIs) with everyone contributing except Avila, Escobar and Pagan. I have had some months where I have only gotten 18! I got 45 runs scored (good enough to put me on target for the month) and 59 RBIs, which may be a Kings record. Lagging yet again is SB with only two. I am falling farther and farther behind already in speed. With Ortiz in my UT and with a stacked outfield, I may have screwed up in reverse. I need speed and most of available speed in the FA pool is in the OF. Once Boston starts some interleague play, I can sit Ortiz for a half week. I am not sitting Pagan (already one of my best SB sources) or Myers (yes, I was lucky enough to stay with him and rode him and others to a Saturday night to remember!), or Choo or Justin Upton or Gomez (gonna miss him when he is suspended!). I need a real speedy infielder that is for sure especially as MI is my weakest position right now, Walker accepted.
Better days on pitching, too. Minimal games started (8) but had great outings from Weaver and Lester. Lincebum was also serviceable. And whatever juice Cueto was on last week, gimme a double! Despite the bad starts from Nolasco and Feldman (knew those would be coming), I hit my K target (53) and win target (4). K’s may have to be adjusted way if the current sick rate continues. Last year, you needed about 1,375 K’s to take 80% of the available points in the category, or about 53 a week. The current run rate for 80% is 59. Six K’s may not sound like much, but that represents an 11% increase. It is early so we (or I) cannot know if this is a trend or a hot month (somebody else may have K’s by month for recent MLB seasons), but in any regard there are hurricane level breezes in ballparks right now. The week ERA (3.396) and WHIP (1.208) were definite improvements, but not enough to bring me in line with expectations. And saves. ZERO for the week. Really hurting and really behind for the year. It is early, but ditching saves may be considered soon as I am wasting roster spots on Qualls as well as DL’d Nate Jones and Jesse Crain, both of which at best may be decent closers on bad teams. Glen Perkins, my closer “stud” got in two innings of work for the lousy Twins last week. Not good.
Talking about pitching and closers just sucked the giddy clean away….
Week Four FAAB – I need to upgrade my MI, hopefully with speed and none was really available. Only one MI was taken last week (Schoop), whom I really don’t see as much help for me as he only stole five bases in the minors over the last two years (and only one in the minors in 2013). Young guy with decent potential, just not with speed. Bourjos has played he way out of yet another golden opportunity, so I was going to drop him. With no MI speed really out there, I thought I might sit on Tyler Flowers to see if he could be an upgrade to Avila (who, by the way, sucks royally). I bid $9, but came in second to a $22 winning bid. It was just a flyer for me, so no big deal. I ended up trading Bourjos for Jay ($6 with no second place bid), who is getting the better of the platoon right now. I also considered Maybin, Shuck, and Denorfia, all of whom were picked up. For whatever reason, I ranked Jay higher, though the other three went for more (sometimes much) than $6.
I dropped Qualls (late but like a bad habit). I placed a minor bid ($7) on Keuchel who has two decent looking starts this week. Not really excited about another Houston pitcher to go with Feldman, but thought he was certainly worth a flyer. Was outbid by a smarter fantasy player, so maybe I should have gone deeper. Not sure I would have bid to top the $38 winning bid under any but the most desperate circumstances. I had a string of $1 conditionals beginning with Fields, who instead went for $19. I ended up with Putz again. Reed, like most of the rest of the Diamondbacks, is way underperforming. It could happen!
Week Four Plans – I am ok with sticking with Sanchez (ole “Five-and-Out”), Weaver (hope his team can carry him though to date his K-rate is up and hit rate is down…good combo), Lester (great K-rate, better control), Cueto (over his head high K and low hit rate…but a breakout could help carry this team), and Lincecum (he is striking them out, not walking them, but is getting hit more frequently than Rocky Balboa).
The rest are a train wreck waiting to happen (Nolasco, Feldman, and Young), but I may roll the dice and start all three. None have the requisite K-rate, but maybe I can get two starts worth of strike outs in their combined four games. Otherwise Putz in in for one of them.
I will continue to ride a hot Kouzmanoff for the first half of the week (Beltre is due back when Texas is in Seattle next weekend, effectively ending Kouzmanoff’s short term viability), though Plouffe has played really well (for Plouffe). It looks like the Yanks will continue to find ways to start Solarte somewhere on the infield, so he will probably start over Yunel Escobar who has scored only one run, had one RBI, and one homerun (basically if I had him in for one AB over three weeks I would have captured his YTD stat contribution). Talk about empty. Cozart is not as bad as his stats currently make him (yes, I am taking a knee right here in the office praying that is true), so I will stick with him this week. Did I mention I needed MI help? Otherwise, I know the wheels will come off Morneau and Walker at some point. Recognizing that point before I ride them too long will be the trick.
but what place is this team in?
