Beyond the Boxscore–Fantasy MLB News and Notes 5/15/08 Unexpected Hitting and Starting Pitchers Notes
Most of the news tonight involves starting pitching, but we do have a segment of unexpected hitters.
For the first time since April 19th, Andruw Jones hit a home run. I know a lot of us had reservations about
Mr. Jones coming into the season because of the way he struggled last year, but I never thought he would fall this far. In 38 games, Jones is hitting just .182 with only seven RBI. He is completely unownable at this point, and shouldn’t be picked up after this either. You can’t touch Jones until he is over the .200 mark and more than five homers.
A surprise in a good way continues to be Nate McLouth. No matter how many times I keep saying that he can’t keep it up, McLouth doesn’t miss a beat. He is still hitting over .300, and he swatted his 11th homer of the year on Thursday. Not to mention his 33 RBI are among the league leaders. It is now over six weeks into the season, so it can’t be a total shock if McLouth’s production doesn’t take a dive off a cliff, but I still can’t see him hitting 30 long balls either.
One last quick tidbit under the unexpected header. After taking three of four from the New York Yankees, the Tampa Bay Rays continue to be in first place in the AL East at seven games over .500. On the flip side, the Yankees are now two games south of .500 and in last place in the division. I’m sure it won’t continue this way, but it is nice to see some of the bottom feeders having something to get excited about.
Starting Pitching Notes
Speaking of the Yankees, they wanted to give Ian Kennedy another chance after the total disaster that is Kei Igawa. Well, things didn’t go according to plan again for the Bronx Bombers. You knew right away that it wasn’t going to be a good day for Kennedy when he gave up a home run to the first batter he faced, light hitting Akinori Iwamura. It didn’t get much better from there. Kennedy lasted five innings, allowed five runs while striking out three. Continue to not even think of adding Kennedy.
Kennedy’s opponent was the hot hurler Scott Kazmir. Kazmir threw six shutout innings while striking out three. It is a shame that Kazmir seems to be hurt every year. He has the talent to be a top 20 pitcher.
Phillies starter Cole Hamels went the distance on Thursday, as he continues to show that he is a top 15 starter already. Hamels struck out six, and now has 54 in 65 innings. Cole has an ERA under three, and is one of the top pitchers at the age of 24.
Dodgers’ youngster Chad Billingsley continued to turn the awful start he got his season off to around, and picked up his third win of the year on Thursday. This was three of his last four starts that Billingsley allowed just one earned run, and he struck out four. After starting out 0-4, Chad took his record to 3-5 after today’s victory. He certainly is worth strongly considering to add to your lineup right away.
Brewers ace Ben Sheets continues to keep himself healthy, but right now he just isn’t being productive. This was four consecutive starts that Sheets has allowed three runs or more, as his ERA has gone up to 3.25, up from 0.96 before this run of bad starts. While he’s healthy, Sheets is a must start, but like I have been preaching all season, if you can move Sheets, please do so right away.
Indians’ rookie Aaron Laffey is proving that he belongs in the majors every time he takes the mound. For the third consecutive outing, Laffey failed to give up an earned run. Laffey was kind of cast aside after his first start of the year, but he has been lights out since then and certainly belongs on your roster in all league types at this point.
Ryan Dempster seems to be much more effective as a starter rather than a reliever. Dempster is now 5-1 as he has allowed more than three runs only once all season, and set his career high for strikeouts in a game with 12. As a closer, Dempster was a guy that was definitely worth owning, but he always made getting those three outs an adventure. He has proven to be a much more settled pitcher when he is starting the game.
Just when it seemed safe to write Mets’ pitcher Mike Pelfrey into oblivion, he comes out and throws a gem. Pelfrey went 7.2 innings, gave up just one run and fanned four. The Mets’ rewarded their young hurler with absolutely no run support, and he got hung with his fourth loss of the year. I still wouldn’t own Pelfrey on any of my teams. I still need to see some consistency before I would want him pitching for my team.
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