Fantasy Baseball: Philip Humber Threw a Perfect Game, What's the Fantasy Impact?

Lets not bury the lead here.

It is incredibly difficult to throw a complete-game shutout in baseball. It is even more difficult to throw a no-hitter. Past that, its almost impossible to throw a perfect game.

That's why it has only happened 21 times in MLB history. Philip Humber was terrific on Saturday. He racked up nine strikeouts without walking a batter or allowing a hit. That's what we call control, folks.

The problem here isn't what Humber did. The problem is the set of circumstances that arose to give Humber a shot at a perfect game.

The Seattle Mariners have some good young pitching, but their lineup is almost completely devoid of major-league caliber hitters. Outside of Ichiro and Dustin Ackley, I'm not sure that the Mariners have another position player who would start on a decent MLB team right now.

So the Mariners can't really hit. Neither can almost half of the teams in baseball. And that right there, is the problem. Maybe the introduction of drug testing and the banning of amphetamines made that big of a difference.

More likely, we are seeing an evolution of pitchers that the batters haven't caught up to yet.

There was a reason I (and most fantasy baseball types) kept repeating the phrase "hitting over pitching". We don't say that to devalue pitchers. In fact, Justin Verlander was the most valuable player in fantasy baseball last season, hitter or pitcher. This is strictly a numbers game. There is a tremendous amount of quality pitching available in fantasy baseball leagues.

Quality hitting? Not so much.

Which brings us full circle back to Humber.

He's a quality pitcher who should be owned in all AL-only leagues as well as leagues with 14+ teams. Outside of that? He's still really just a streaming option or a two-start week option. Sure, if you have the roster spot available, by all means pick him up.

Would I drop, say, Clay Buchholz or Ervin Santana for Humber? Probably. But would I drop a struggling Adam Wainwright or Tim Lincecum for Humber? Not a chance.

We will see no-hitters this season. We may see another perfect game. Maybe even two. We are in the middle of an era of pitching right now. Quality pitching options are plentiful. So the value is in the options which are NOT plentiful.

Stockpile hitting.

Position players are going to be a more valuable asset to have right now. You should always be able to either pick up (and stream) pitchers from the waiver wire or sell one of your hitting assets for help at pitching. I'm always more likely to trading pitching FOR hitting, but you need to make moves based on what is best for your team.

If you want to pick up/stream a pitcher, just pay attention to a few details:

1. The quality of the hitters on the team that the pitcher is going up against
2. The ballpark the game is taking place in
3. How has the pitcher performed over the last month or so
4. Any imbalance in the number of left or right-handed batters in the opposing lineup

You're looking for pitchers who have been pitching well recently going up against a light-hitting team in a ballpark that plays favorably for pitchers. It sounds really simple because it is.

Follow this formula and you will be able to capitalize on the next Humber instead of chasing players after they've already made their big splash.

Thanks for reading. If you have anything to add or any questions, please use the comments below. 

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