Yes had a very odd and underrated music career. For years they were this prog rock band that never quite broke out. Sure, people knew of them. They had an abbreviated version of their single Roundabout peak on the billboards at 13 back in 1971 and then their album Close To The Edge broke things wide open for them at #3 in the US billboard charts and #4 in the UK. The future was bright for a band that would go on and become an influence for such acts as Rush, Dream Theatre and even Tool and Mastodon. But then the following album disintegrated any good will they had with their fans. That’s what happens when you put out a pompous sounding album like Tales From Topographic Oceans. Not quite as bad as Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water – thank you for going away quietly, Limp Bizkit – but it was clear that commercial success was no longer something that was gonna happen for these guys. Or was it? I give you this long and – unless you’re a Yes fan – boring intro to draw parallels to James Loney and his career to date. Ok, I’m stretching things more than Dhalsim here but bear with me, we’re getting to it. What we are currently witnessing in Tampa Bay could be Loney’s out of nowhere hit after a promising start to his career that went flat, then down, then seemingly out. See? See what I did there? Continuity! So tease your metal hair out with some Aqua Net while we tell you why you should be an owner of a Loney start for week six of the 2013 fantasy baseball season…
You’d probably know more about Loney if he didn’t start off so cold this year. By April 16th, James owned a .167 average and looked like he’d probably start losing playing time once Luke Scott came back. But we know how these Tampa Bay resurrection stories go. We’ve seen it before, and as recently as Jeff Keppinger in 2012 when he batted .325 and Casey Kotchman when he batted .306 in 2011. Well, despite that cold start for Loney, he’s now up to .360 as of Saturday morning. Think about that for a second. He’s raised his average over .200 points since mid-April, i.e. since about 3 weeks ago. All this to say, Loney isn’t struggling with the bat right now and he’s got a good slate ahead of him this week to keep that rolling. What’s so good about it, you ask? Well, how about getting to face two teams with ERAs in the bottom ten of the league? Currently, Toronto has a 4.63 team ERA and is being closely chased by the Padres and their 4.53 in a battle for non-supremacy. Those stats are good for 3rd and 4th to last, respectively, and probably won’t see any change to that anytime soon given the Blow Jays will probably have to start Ricky Romero for the near future and the Padres ‘ace’ coming into the year was Edinson Volquez. Yikes…anywho, I suggest this start for anyone struggling through a player like Ike Davis at their 1B position. James Loney won’t bring you power but he hits in a decent RBI slot most nights and won’t tank your BA like Ike has been doing. So go throw on that 90125 album and crank it up for a week and relive that hit single while James Loney hits singles for you. See? I did it again!
