On July 16th, Padres GM, Kevin Towers, said there’s a 50-50 chance that Jake Peavy would pitch again. Turned out there was a 50-50 chance that he was lying. On July 16th, Peavy’s boot came off and his ankle is healthy. Peavy now says he’ll pitch again this year. Oh, okay. Peavy is the Padres ace, i.e., they’re not going to mess with bringing him back to make sure they win 60 games instead of 58. Then consider he’s not coming back until September at the earliest, so you’re looking at a guy that might pitch five games. As my dead, Jewish grandmother would’ve said, big whoop. I know it sucks you lost Peavy, but now you’re compounding your misfortune by wasting a roster spot on him. If you don’t have a DL spot for him, give Peavy the boot. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Josh Whitesell – Will be in this afternoon’s Buy/Sell. I’ll give you a teaser. Later on today, I’ll say, “Whitesell doesn’t have…” Ah, what doesn’t he have? Power? A middle name? Feet? You’ll have to wait to find out.
B.J. Ryan – Signed by the Cubs. B.J. becomes a LOOGY. Hmm… That sounds wrong.
Raul Ibanez – 2 HRs in his first two 2nd half ABs. In my fantasy baseball top 100 for 2009, I pointed out how he’s a 2nd half hitter (#34 for the time-deprived).
Derek Lowe – 6 IP, 3 ER. It’s little consolation, but he shouldn’t have given up the three 4th inning runs. Just bad defense.
Rafael Soriano – Save yesterday. Soriano’s putting together a year like Waking Joey Devine did last year. In related news, Gonzalez is battling elbow tendinitis.
Oliver Perez – 6 IP, 3 ER. Could throw 200 scoreless innings and you’d pick him up and he’d give up 8 runs in two-thirds of an inning for the first start with you. Guaranteed.
Jeff Francoeur – 0-for-4, 1 RBI in his return to Atlanta. In honor of Frenchy’s return, Chipper swung at a ball in the dirt.
Cliff Lee – 9 IP, 1 ER, 6 Ks. Deja vu? Nope, deja vs. the Mariners.
Rich Harden – 6 IP, 0 ER, 7 Ks. Since it took the Nats to bring out Harden’s best start in almost a month, I wouldn’t go as far to say he’s back.
Edwin Encarnacion – HR yesterday. Now has two homers in his last five games. Might have 10 more homers in his bat for the rest of the season. At corner, that’s ownable.
Homer Bailey – 5 1/3 IP, 7 ER. You trusted him, he shit your house.
Jamie Moyer – 7 IP, 0 ER, only two baserunners. Considering most of you were in diapers when he started pitching, it’s pretty incredible what he’s doing now that he’s in diapers.
Dallas Braden – 5 IP, 6 ER. You know when you have two or more mediocre starts going and there’s that one critical start that can make or break your whole staff’s night? That was Braden on a few teams for me (as I had Wolf, Gaudin, Cook and Wandy also going). With a good start, I could’ve went to respectability and a low 1 WHIP and a mid-2 ERA. We might need a glossary term for that critical start. I’ll open it up to the Razzpound for suggestions.
Ervin Santana – 8 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 1 matchup with the A’s. There’s worst fliers to take if Ervin’s healthy. I can’t think of any right now because I’m on some serious cold medicine. (The flu in the summer sucks. I blame the pierced, Goth kid who sneezed on me at Bruno. Teach me to leave my office. Seriously, if I’m dead by Sunday from The Swine, frequent commenter, Mr Baseball, may be doing your roundups. You’ve been warned.) I’d pickup Ervin for his next start vs. the Royals, but it’s risky until we see back-to-back quality starts.
Chad Gaudin/Aaron Cook – 11 IP, 2 ER, 16 Ks. Doesn’t take a ‘pert to tell ya, start anyone in Petco, but Josh Geer.
Ichiro Suzuki – While in St. Louis, Ichiro went to visit the grave of George Sisler, whose single-season hit record Ichiro broke in 2004. Jose Reyes should go visit the graves of all the fantasy baseball teams he killed this year.
