Beyond the Boxscore–Fantasy MLB News and Notes 4/26/08 Abbreviated Version
After writing the two start pitchers article, that really leaves me very little time, so we are just going to have a quick Beyond the Boxscore. Please leave me feedback if the two start thing is useful to you, if not I won’t do it every week and will stick to what I’ve been doing up to this point. Now, to the news
Highly suggested by Fighting Chance, Royals rookie Luke Hochevar was much better in his second start. Hochevar went six innings, gave up just one run and struck out three in earning his first major league win. There will be ups and downs with Luke in his rookie year, but he should be a useful fantasy starter going forward.
The Cleveland Indians called up starter Jeremy Sowers to take the place of injured Jake Westbrook, and after one start, so far, so good. Sowers did well against the New York Yankees. He went 5.1 innings, gave up three runs, and struck out three. He isn’t a huge strikeout guy, but has a lot of talent and could win a decent number of games with the Indians offense behind him.
Red Sox rookie Clay Buchholz had his most impressive major league start since his no hitter last year. Although he took the loss, Buchholz went eight innings, gave up only three hits, one of which was a two run homer, and fanned nine. Expect Buchholz to be an effective starter throughout the season, but will have an occasional bump in the road like all young starters like him.
Mariners’ free agent prize, Erik Bedard, now seems to be past his inflammation of the left hip. In his first start off the DL, Bedard went 6.2 shutout innings, striking out four. Bedard ran his record to 2-0, and although he appears to be a guy who will always have nagging injuries, he does tend to stay away from really bad ones, and will be a great option during the year.
Cardinals’ ace Adam Wainwright went the distance today, and has gone at least seven innings in all four of his starts. Wainwright is not only proving to be durable, but at 3-1 and a 2.79 ERA, Wainwright is everything the Cards thought they were getting when they traded J.D. Drew for him to the Braves. He may
still not cost an arm and a leg if you can make a trade for him.
A huge buy low candidate, Phillies 1B Ryan Howard, hit his fifth homer of the season, although he is still hitting under .200. Try to take advantage of the guy who spent his first pick on Howard and is not fuming that he is striking out more than I did with girls in high school. Howard got off to a bad start last season, and check out the end of the season numbers. He will be great by then, don’t worry.
After letting go of Frank Thomas, the Toronto Blue Jays called up prospect Adam Lind to fill the roster spot. Lind has good numbers in the minors, but we at Fighting Chance are not convinced that he will be a good major league hitters. Some guys are too good for the minors, but not good enough for the majors. Lind falls in this category. He may still develop into a good hitter, but on Saturday he as 0-4.
Orioles rookie Adam Jones is finally starting to comfortable in the majors. Jones has 13 hits in his last ten games, and has started to show some consistency. He still hasn’t started to perform at the level expected of him when he was traded for Erik Bedard, but it appears he has started to get on the right track.
As always, your questions about your team (adds, drops, trades, etc) and comments are welcome at fightingchancefantasy@gmail.com. I guarantee an answer within 18 hours.
