The Player's Edge welcomes your comments and will try
to answer questions in the context of the narrative.
Roster Shuffle:
Jimmy Rollins shuffled off to Clearwater to choose which
course of rehab he wants to follow. He can play with the
minor league affiliate or he can just participate in extended
spring training. The Phils are now saying he may return by
Thursday. This has to rank as the goofiest DL/rehab ever.
He's gone from a broken ankle to J-Roll your own and has
been rumored to be returning last week, Sunday for Mother's
Day, Monday at home or Thursday in Arizona. The Edge gets it,
clearly Charlie Manual is using the same advanced techniques
in psychology that he employed to snap Ryan Howard out of his
funk. Oh, Howard's still funking you say, just like Jimmy it's all
coming together, kind of. Oh, Jimbo finally decided on extended
spring training and went 4/4 with 3 doubles.
Ian Kinsler returned to action going 0/4.
Chone Figgins has a mild strain and hopefully will be back by the
weekend. With China Kendricks imminent activation they can
play it safe with Figgy for a few days.
Speaking of Kendricks, he was nowhere to be found last night.
Rumor has it that he was injured getting out of the cab when
he arrived at the hotel in Kansas City.
Pudge Rodriguez is batting ninth much to the chagrin of his owners.
You'll see plenty of him on waiver wires if he stays at the bottom of
the order.
Gary Sheffield told Leyland he'd hit better if he played the field. So
Jim took him at his word and started him in leftfield. Sheff went 0/1
with 3 free passes.
Smoltz is bullpen bound when he comes off the DL next week. He
says that he simply cannot go the distance any longer. Obvious he'll
close with Soriano, if he ever returns, vulturing on occasion.
Eric Gagne received the infamous vote of confidence after blowing
his 5th save of the season. That's almost always the precursor to
change. The problem is that there's not an heir apparent as both
Mota and Torres could comprise the dreaded closer by committee
if a change is made.
B.J. Ryan has finally been cleared to pitch back to back games so
let's see if Gibbons uses him tonight after a 3 walk, 28 pitch save
last night. My guess is he'll use Accardo or Downs due to the high
pitch count.
The young phenoms Cueto and Scherzer were on display last night.
Cueto has a solid rebound outing from last week's disaster in St.
Louis. He picked up a win with a pedestrian 6ip/3e/8w outing that
had 8 k's of upside. Mad Max, on the flip side, disappointed his
owners with only4 innings of work allowing 2 earned on 9 whip with
5 k's. Start Max right back but you might want to give Johnny Gun
one more start before bringing him back on a regular basis. He's on
the road against the Mets on Saturday. Cueto has done his best
work at home so far this season.
Paleontologists in Argentina have determined that Neanderthals
are a separate species from Humans. The study came with a
photo of Aaron Harang as exhibit 3.
Streamers: (tomorrow's probable starters available as free agents)
Use these players to gain advantage in wins and strikeouts.
Jon Lieber- Joe Morgan considers Lieber the toughest hombre
that the Big Red Machine faced in the 70's. He's been restored
cryogenically for tomorrow's soiree in Cincy. After the contest
he'll be dry iced once again. 11-8, 4.04/1.18 with 119 k's over
165 innings.
Micah Owings- Kendrick is more concerned about facing Owings
bat than are the Phillies with his arm. They should all take heed
of young Micah. 2-0, 2.25/1.33 in 12 frames against the Manuals.
Spotties: (tomorrow's position players available as free agents)
Use these players to fill in for injured players and on off days.
Moises Alou- is a proponent of the old adage "a Penny faced is a
Penny blasted to kingdom come". 10/24 with 0 k's.
Rich Aurillia- leads the revolt to overthrow the wicked Duke of
Three Rivers as the conquering Giants rejoice. 4/6, a jack,
3 ribbies, a steal and 0 k's.
Start/Sit: (today)
Guide to using bench players when matchups are favorable.
Ken Griffey (start)- the bigger the Zambrano the harder he falls.
He's enormous and Junior seeks to chop him down to size.
12/33, 7 extras, 2 blasts, 8 rbi and only 4 whiffs.
Andruw Jones (start)- if he's still somewhere on your roster this
is your one chance to use him with a 50% confidence level.
4/11 with a jack vs. Senor Figueroa.
Guide to sit starters when matchups are unfavorable.
Normally sit these players in Roto formats only.
Carlos Guillen (sit)- would rather face Koufax, Gibson or
Marichal than Wakefield.............now. 4/21 with 7 k's
against the flutterer.
Placido Polanco (sit)- would rather face Koufax, Gibson or
Marichal than Wakefield.........then. 1/12.
Studs and Duds: (a recap of yesterday's picks and pans)
Jamie Moyer (stream)- W 7ip/2e/6w/5k
Shannon Stewart (spot)- 3/4
David DeJesus (spot)- 1/4
Jeff Kent (start)- 0/4
Gary Sheffield (start)- 0/1, run
Nick Swisher (sit)- 0/3
Kevin Youkilis (sit)- 1/4, homer, 2 rbi
How To: (this section is devoted to the fundamentals of daily play)
Head To Head: Player's Edge(PE) vs. Opposition(OP):
Week 5: Tuesday
Weekly Tot: R-H-RB-SB -BA/ W-SV-K ER-WH -SCORE
--------PE--2--1--0--2--.333/-0--0--3-3.00-0.33---4
--------OP--2--1--0--1--.130/-0--0--5-5.14-1.57---1
Offense: Lineups:
-----PE-----/----- OP
^B.Molina---------^Varitek
^Teixeira---------^Pena
^Roberts---------^Kent
^Braun-----------^Wright
^Escobar---------^Furcal
^Griffey--------- ^Ordonez
^C. Young--------^Bay
^Kemp---------- ^Beltran
Figgins-----------^Giambi
^Lewis------------Weeks
-------------------Kapler
-------------------Aurillia
------PE------//-----OP
7/21-2-1-2-0 //3/23-2-1-1-0 (daily totals: H/AB,R,HR,RBI)
Pitching: Rotation-Closers
-----PE----/------OP
^Harang----------Sheets
Shields----------- Miller
Weaver---------- Beckett
Cain--------------Bonderman
^S.Hill------------Glavine
^Betancourt----^Batista
^Saito------------Buehrle
^Fuentes-------^Putz
^Wood----------^Lyon
Buchholz---------
Lilly
Harden (DL)
-----PE--------//------OP
0W/0S, 3-1-1-3//0W/0S, 7-4-11-5 (daily tot: W/S,IP,ER,WH,K)
Weekly Totals- Batting Avg. PE(7/21) - OP (3/23)
Weekly Totals- ERA (1/(3/9) - OP ERA (4/(7/9) -(er/(ip/9)
Weekly Totals- Whip (1/3) - OP WHIP (11/7) - (w+h/ip)
Weekly Starts(est/week to date) PE---9-----OP--8
Daily Activity:
PE Smith(drop)/DeJesus-Sun
PE DeJesus(drop)/Lewis-Mon
Strategy: PE will use Betancourt for Verlander as a priority waiver
giving PE 2 save chances before Betancourt is jettisoned. There is
a bit of rhetoric from former Tigers ace turned broadcaster Jack
Morris that it looks as though Justin's delivery flaw might be the
result of an injury. PE has 48 hours to research Verlander's condition.
Hopefully Figgins may return by the weekend as it would be nice to
use Lewis after his start on Thursday as a flex should more
pitching help be needed. OP gets an unexpected start from Batista
tonight which evens the anticipated weekly starts to 9 a side.
Harang and Hill toe it up for PE as both squads are all in on offense.
Game Keys: Bonderman got the OP off to a mediocre start with a
no decision 6ip/4e/9w/4k outing. PE had all 3 closers pitch an inning
without registering a save. OP's offense stalled going 3/23 while PE,
behind a 2 run homer by Kemp, weighed in at 7/21. This marks the
1st time in 6 weeks that PE has led in BA after a Monday. Neither
team had a breakout in any category as PE takes a 4-1 lead into
Tuesday's full slate of games.
^ -designates an active player on today's roster.
Final Thoughts:
PE is in 5th place, 8.5 games out of 1st and 2 games behind the 2nd
place team heading into week 6.
The Player's Edge participates in many leagues but elected to
follow a team in a Public League to better approximate what might
be faced by a wide majority of players that use the Edge daily. This
team plays in a standard 5x5 scoring format and drafted 7th of 12
teams in a 21 round on-line live event in late March. We'll follow this
team throughout the entire 2008 fantasy campaign.
All Done!
No comments:
Post a Comment