Mat Latos, Jered Weaver, Wandy Rodriguez, Frank Francisco, and Charlie Morton all got lit up yesterday. If you owned any of the above pitchers yesterday, you suffered a dreaded ERA correction. Since I had three of those guys in my lineups last night, I took solace in some tasty Bell's Oberon Ale. Latos should not have been in your lineups last night if you were playing matchups. However, Weaver had been on a roll but that Oriole lineup can come up and bite pitchers in the ass. Last night it did. Wandy was coming off a good start so that's a bit more puzzling. Brewers buzzsaw? Didn't see that one coming. Frank Squared? If he's one of your closers, no doubt you had him in last night. Perhaps it's not as safe as you thought to drop C.J. Wilson yet. And if you are starting Charlie Morton in anything shallower than 16-team leagues, I guess you now learned your lesson. Let's put it this way: If Paul Maholm is not worth starting in most leagues right now, there's no way Morton is either.

Other things I took notice of last night:

-- Bobby Parnell looks like the real deal in the right matchups. That Giants lineup is still brutal. Ryan Garko and Freddy Sanchez did not amount to much offensive help. It's a damn shame for Giants fans, too, as they might have been able to land Adam Dunn this past offseason if they were not paying Aaron Rowand and Randy Winn tons of money to be less than average outfielders.

-- Over the next few weeks the September callups will be showing up in droves. Now is the time to start scouting positional weakness in the teams out of the wild card race, as those lineups will turn into swiss cheese soon. This is why it is important to hold back some innings in leagues with inning limits. You want to have innings left so that you can have those starts against teams like the Giants, Mariners, A's, Indians, and Pirates. These teams already have very little offense and you will want to have your pitchers facing them as much as possible. Other teams will begin to fade over the next couple weeks so you really need to start looking for these opportunities now. They will help you lower WHIP and ERA.

-- Keeper leaguers, do you have space on your bench for Stephen Strasburg? If so, it seems as if negotiations are heating up. Perhaps he makes a token start or two in September in a Nats uniform. You'd figure that if they are giving him that much of a bonus, they might want to put a few more asses in the seats as their awful season winds down. If you are not playing for this year's title, there's nary a reason he should be unowned in your keeper/dynasty league (provided he's available). Worst case scenario, he makes a nice trade chip in the offseason. Best case scenario, they are building one of those goofy statues of him in the nation's capital by August 2010. In my keeper league, Evan Longoria was picked up prematurely two years ago. Right now, he's better than David Wright.

Comments (0)

Name

Website

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment