Which is happier, man or boy?
The soul of the father is steeped in joy,
For he’s finding out, to his heart’s delight,
That his son is fit for the future fight.
– Edgar A. Guest –
In honor of today being Father’s Day, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk abut the men that help make us men. For those of us who are fathers, the above excerpt from a poem will resonate with you. If you’re a father, I hope you have a memorable day, and for those who are not fathers, I hope you can go out and try and become one! Who’s a better father figure in MLB than the man with more juniors than any other? Adam Dunn is the big donkey, and however you want to interpret that is up to you. In fantasy, he hits a lot of home runs and strikes out a lot. He has many offspring, with new ones coming to the surface on a regular basis. There is the Mini-Donkey in Mark Reynolds, and the Mini-Mini-Donkey Ian Stewart. I also recognize El Burro Pedro Alvarez and the Urban Donkey Chris Carter. Do you have any other Donkey nicknames? [Jay’s Note: Does Pronk count?]
Dunn has been a consistent streamer in fantasy over the last couple of years. He was my first creeper of the week this year, and has been under consideration on other occasions too. This week though it is slim picking out there in creeper land. Last week’s Creeper Brock Holt (26.9% owned) has continued hitting and my runner up Danny Santana (85.2% owned) has blown the Farquhar up! But this week it’s about a bat that will continue to hover in the available zone even if he goes off. It’s how the fantasy world works. Before you get all hyper critical on me for a repeat creeper I would like to say in my defense that there is nothing in the rules that says someone can’t be a Creeper of the Week twice. When Luke Scott was playing he would drop a handful of creeper worthy weeks on us every year. Oh how I miss Mutton Chops McGets Hot. I hear he’s in Korea with Jorge Cantu pounding Bulgogi and Korean pitching, you can view his stats here.
With 6 games this week starting Tuesday the 15.8% owned Adam Dunn leaves you empty handed on Monday. Usually I prefer a full week but I didn’t find any lead to be creeper worthy who has a full tilt. It will be a good chance to use the Hitter-Tron on Monday if you want to batty call the gap or you can read our resident lineup maximizer Paul. As we all know Dunn is useful for one thing and one thing only and this week he gets some history on his side. He opens the week with two games at hitter friendly U.S. Cellular facing the Giants Matt Cain and Tim Hudson. He’s gone 6/20 with 2 HR’s and 11/34 with 4 HR’s, respectively. I like that to open my week. Following the Giants series he gets a road set against the Twins facing four right handers that he has combined numbers against of a .250 average and 5 home runs. Don’t mind the pitchers park label for Target Field, he hit 5 dong’s there last year and 2 the year before. There is no park that can contain the big donkey. He’s already feasted on Twins pitching this year blasting two in their opening season series. Hitter-Tron isn’t super in love with him this week, he has him as the 33rd rated 1st baseman and a $7.90 play. I think this has more to do with the Target Field factors, which I demonstrated can’t contain the donkey. He’s a solid fill in for you at CI or Util.
Here are a few more under owned plays for the next week. Junior Lake, who I have a huge crush on, should get an uptick in playing time with Emilio Bonifacio hitting the DL. Drew Stubbs returns home to hitter friendly Coors on Friday where he’s batted .407 on the year. Tommy La Stella, Brad Miller, Scooter Gennett and Roughned Odor are all hitting well and very under owned for the middle infield slot. Eugenio Suarez has been swinging a hot stick and was a single shy of the cycle on Saturday. A schmotato he is becoming. And lastly Kevin Kiermaier won’t hurt your batting average and has shown a little pop in his short stint. Have a happy father’s day everyone. Go celebrate the men that made us baseball addicts.
