Kelvim Escobar was sent to the bullpen. His value goes from potentially good to potentially nothing. Scioscia said Escobar will be pitching out of the bullpen for the rest of the season. Scioscia also said Brandon Wood would start at shortstop two years ago and said Arredondo, the guy now in the minors, would be the closer and he said Rex Hudler’s got the best herb, when he wants to get wiggy with Figgy. Escobar will probably start games again in a month or two. But even if that is the case, he’s about as good to you now as those X-ray glasses you bought out of the back of a comic book when you were twelve. Matt Palmer gets a boost in value, which is to say he actually has value now. Palmer’s K/9 is 5.48. Not great. His BABIP is .228, that’s pretty lucky. He’s rocking a 4.06 ERA right now, that’ll go up. In AL-Only leagues, Palmer’s worth a spot, but he’s probably on a team already. In mixed leagues, 15 or deeper? Sure, but I wouldn’t touch him in 12 team leagues outside of matchups. Friday vs. the Padres is a good matchup. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Ervin Santana – 4 2/3 IP, 6 ER. Member when he was only good at home? Yeah, now he’s not good anywhere. I think he’s headed for the Disgraceful List.
Matt Joyce – The return of Burrell pushes Joyce back to Triple-A. Hopefully, he gets a real chance at some point.
Pat Burrell – He skipped his Single-A rehab assignment and, instead, will sit the bench for the next six games then be back in the DH spot when interleague’s over. This is fascinating to me. He was going to DH in a rehab game? So he gets four ABs against a Single-A pitcher? He couldn’t get that in batting practice? Then he returns to sit the bench for a week? The guy running the local Dairy Queen could make better decisions than some big league clubs. A Sour Worm Blizzard is brilliant compared to this.
Hanley Ramirez – Sat out for a normal day of rest. What’s Hanley doing this year? 8/8? Who are you, Shin-Soo Choo? The Marlins have been threatening to put the brakes on Hanley for a few years now. I think they finally manned up and told him to chillax. Last year he only stole 12 bases in the 2nd half. Now with his groin flare-up (no, not in that way) and the Marlins realizing he’s their bread and butter, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 25/25 year. Still a great year for a shortstop, just not what you might’ve thought you were getting.
Chien-Ming Wang – Will stay in the rotation for one more turn. Just because Hankenstein’s sticking with him, doesn’t mean you need to.
Zach Greinke – 7 1/3 IP, 3 ER. Okay, I get the whole great-season-let’s-countdown-to-his-Cy-Young thing. But is “Greinke Suffers a No-Decision” really a headline? Suffering from indecision maybe.
Willy Taveras – He relies on his legs and they’re hurting him. Right now, he’s AGNOF! The S is really critical.
Chad Qualls – Got the save. I need saves in the league I own him in and I hate seeing him come into the game, not a great place to be.
Max Scherzer – 7 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 6 Ks, only 4 baserunners vs. the Giants. I like Scherzer, so don’t read too much into this, but Schierholtz and Juan Uribe were the two and three hole hitters. Hitting sixth, Kevin Frandsen with an .071 average on the year. Protecting him was Eli Whiteside. Didn’t he win the Nobel for his book, Night? A Giants split squad game would be a 0-0 tie called on account of darkness.
Derrek Lee – HR yesterday. .367 in June after hitting .313 in May. The steals look like they’ll never come back, so he might be Lyle Overbay in disguise.
Ian Stewart – 12th homer, or one less than Ryan Braun. In Yahoo, Stewart has 2nd and 3rd base eligibility. Cust kayin’.
Nomar Garciaparra – Had an MRI done on his calf. Who insures this guy?
Luke Scott – Hit his 14th homer yesterday. All he does is hit home runs! No, really, that’s all he does.
Gavin Floyd – 8 IP, 1 ER. He’ll be in this afternoon’s Buy/Sell. You can hardly wait.
Edwin Jackson – 5 IP, 2 ER, 9 baserunners. Whoa, don’t you dare go back to being mediocre. Armando Galarraga’s filling that role.
Clete Thomas – Went from batting 3rd to being optioned to the minors. Ah, yes, perfect sense. Don Kelly will be recalled. I’m assuming he’ll slot right into the three hole next.
John Maine – Headed to the DL with a sore shoulder. Hey, a couple of days ago he had a dead arm. Sore is progress.
David Wright – 3-for-4 and stole his 17th base as he tries to challenge Alex Rios’s 2008 season as the most perplexing in recent memory.
Joe Beimel – Got the save yesterday as Acta pulled the old banana-in-the-tailpipe on MacDougal owners. MacDougal is supposedly still the closer, he had just worked too many days in the row. The Nats might be the only team where their announced closer is the only one that doesn’t get saves.
Ricky Romero – 6 1/3 IP, 1 ER. I liked him for a while in April, then he went to the DL and I got bored. Now he’s back (from outer space), he’s an ‘okay’ flier in deeper mixed leagues, but he’s been getting lucky with men left on base. I’d be careful.
Kevin Millwood – 7 2/3 IP, 0 ER. Would you believe he has a 2.72 ERA on the year? That’s not rhetorical. Seriously, I had no idea. I own him on an AL-Only team and I didn’t even know that. Maybe he’s having one of those renaissance years. But then he’d be walking around saying, “Good morrow, Kinsler!” and “Davis, fetch me some mead!”
Ross Gload – 2 HRs. Army with harmony…Dave, drop a Gload on him! What? Nothing? Oh, well. I got the reference.
Todd Wellemeyer – 6 IP, 5 ER. Gload’s on you, Jack! What? Still nothing? Hmm…
Ryan Franklin – 14th save, 1.14 ERA on the year. Next year, he’s going to be so overvalued. People are gonna be like, “Franklin had a sub-2 ERA. He’s the bee’s elbows, knees and toes!”
Javier Vazquez – 8 IP, 1 ER, 12 Ks. Then Rafael Soriano threw Javy’s one bad inning for him giving up 2 runs.
Raul Ibanez – HR yesterday. After the home run, he declared a fatwa on the whole Midwest.
