Hump Day Look See: 5/13/09

Originally published 5/13/2009 at www.jelletlambie.wordpress.com

It’s time again for the hump day look see, a random collection of stats and thoughts to help get you through your fantasy week. the look see will appear every Wednesday evening for the remainder of the season. You can make sure you catch each installment by grabbing a free email subscriptionthrough feedburner or picking up the RSS feeds on the main page.

If Jayson Werth is on your fantasy team you’re probably smiling a big ole smile right about now. Werth had a heck of day yesterday, going 2-4 with 3 runs scored and 4 steals, including a swipe of home to complete his thievery spree around the bases in the 7th inning against the Dodgers.

On the season Werth is hitting .295 with 6 home runs, 21 RBI’s, 27 runs scored and 7 steals. He’s made a habit so far this year of putting up big single game numbers. He’s gone 4-4 twice and has driven in 2 runs or more in a game 7 times.

On April 15th I went to the Tigers/White Sox game at Comerica Park with my dad. We watched in awe as Armando Galarraga dismantled the White Sox en route to a 9-0 Tigers victory. The win put his record at 2-0 with an 0.68 ERA.

On April 15th Justin Verlander was 0-1 with a 9.35 ERA. While chatting up the guy behind us about ‘mando’s impressive start another fan down the row boldly proclaimed Galarraga was the true ace of the staff.

I asked him “what about Justin Verlander?” He replied with “Justin who?”, to which I replied “the guy who won 35 games in 2 years”.

After last night’s disappointing performance Galarraga is now 0-3 in his last 3 starts with an 8.64 ERA with 9 K’s and 9 walks in that span. Verlander in his last 3 starts is 3-0 with a 0.39 ERA, 31 K’s and 5 walks.

I hate to say I told you so, especially to a guy I don’t even know, but if you’re out there, I told you so. To be fair, Armando carried the staff last season and early this year until Justin found his way. Galarraga is a better pitcher than he’s shown in his last 3 outings, here’s hoping he figures it out.

Brian Bannister will take the hill for the Royals tonight, in search of his 4th win. Bannister is 3-0 with a 1.48 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP through his first 4 starts, impressive. Before you push your way to the front edge of the free agent pool to catch him, you might want to take a look at his numbers from last year.

In 2008 Bannister started the season 3-0 with an 0.86 ERA and a WHIP of 0.71. He then proceeded to go 0-4 in his next 4 starts with an ERA/WHIP split of 8.14/1.81. While I’d like to think that I have powers of prognostication, I can’t tell you if ‘09 will be a repeat of ‘08, where Bannister finished 9-16 with a 5.76 ERA.

He’s been good so far, the Royals are playing pretty good ball and perhaps his early season stint in the minors helped work out some of the kinks. I don’t know. I only number there is a history of hitters figuring him out quickly.

He’s known as a cerebral pitcher who works hard and studies film like his life depends on it, he’s the kind of guy I want to root for and do, I just get nervous when I remember how hard he crashed last spring.

Speaking of pitchers who make me nervous—welcome back Dontrelle Willis! The D-Train will take the hill in Minnesota tonight as the Tigers try to recover from last night’s loss. I could throw a pile of stats and splits at you, trying to make the argument one way or another about what to expect, but honestly neither you nor I have a clue what comes next. We all know Willis was great once upon a time.

We all know he’s been putrid the last couple of years. Like Bannister he’s a good guy and a guy I want to see succeed. I’ll be rooting like hell for him but I’ll be waiting a few starts to see if he’s fantasy worthy (except on my undrafted team where anything goes). Where have you gone Johnny Grubb wrote about Willis and his return today, a nice piece, worth a look.

Early May has turned out to be a bad time to be a strong corner infield option in fantasy baseball. Kevin Youkilis is on the DL (oblique), Aramis Ramirez is on the DL (shoulder), Conor Jackson is on the DL (flu….really?) and according to reports Carlos Delgado may be put on the DL with a bad right hip.

Perhaps his AARP supplemental health insurance will cover the hip replacement surgery. I kid because I care.

In addition other CI options such as Carlos Guillen, Edwin Encarnacion, Alex Gordon and Nomar Garciaparra are also resting on the disabled list. If one or two of these names appear on your fantasy roster you may want to look into some short term options to fill the holes, such as….

Casey Kotchman (1B) has been hot the last week, hitting .385 with 2 home runs and 11 RBI’s, he’s owned in 12% of Yahoo leagues.

Todd Helton (1B) is available in 57% of Yahoo leagues. In the last 7 days he’s hitting .348 with 2 bombs and his season numbers come in at .343, 4 HR, 20 RBI’s and 16 runs scored.

Adam Rosales(3B) of the Cincinnatti Reds is a .333 hitter in the last 7 days. Since being called up he’s filled Encarnacion’s spot at 3B with a lot of promise and potential. He’s a reach and you probably have more proven options available, but if you’re in the market for a 1% owned longshot, he’s your man.

Casey Blake (1B/3B) is available in 74% of Yahoo leagues. Over the last 7 days he’s a .381 hitter and has season HR/RBI/Runs totals of 6/18/18. He can fill the 1B and 3B spots as well as the CI hole, which is a nice bonus.

Nick Johnson (1B) has 10 RBI’s in the last week and is hitting .314 on the season. He’s owned in 8% of Yahoo leagues.

If you want a guy so under the radar it makes your head spin, consider Jeff Larish of the Tigers. He’s owned in 0% of Yahoo leagues (exact number of teams owning him unavailable).

He’s been the hot hand in the Tigers lineup over the last week with a .444 average and 2 home runs. He’s a very short term fix at best unless many things change, but he’s still better than leaving a guy on the DL in your lineup.

Check your own free agent pool and due the stat dance, there’s quality depth out there to fill your short-term needs.

I realized this morning that I haven’t written about Adam Jones much this year. I was at a concert last night and missed the nightly game recaps so I turned to the internet to see how he did yesterday. Good thing I decided to write about Adam Jones today.

Jones hit 2 home runs, drove in 4 and raised his season splits to .363/8/25/35/3.

Damn.

At 23 years old his coming party is in full swing. Jones has 41 hits in 31 games on the season, a .420 OBP and a 1.090 OPS, good for 4th best in the American League. He looks to have secured his spot in the Orioles lineup to say the very least.

Fellow Oriole outfielder Nick Markakis is again tearing up AL pitching, hitting .349 with 6 home runs, 30 RBI’s and 33 runs scored in 33 games. Now if only the Orioles could find a strong left fielder to complete the trifecta.

If you don’t know the name Nolan Reimold, write it down. He’s a 25 year outfielder for the Orioles AAA affiliate Norfolk who is punishing the ball so far this year.

Through 106 minor league at-bats this season Reimold is hitting .396 with a 1.239 OPS. He has 9 home runs, 27 RBI’s and 17 walks against 23 K’s to date. The Orioles have no one on the major league roster at the moment worthy of keeping this kid at AAA.

Everyone has seemingly been waiting for Matt Wieters to be called up, but don’t be surprised if Nolan beats him to the big leagues this year. If he gets the call, keep an eye on him.

In deep leagues with big rosters a call-up alone may be enough reason to grab him. In softer leagues he should at least end up on your watch list if (when) he comes up. Minor league numbers don’t always equate to major league success, but this kid seems to be the real deal.

And finally, I’m experimenting with different ways to include the top 10 hitters and pitchers from the last 7 days in this piece. I’m using the Yahoo game rankings from a standard 5 x 5 roto league. Bare with me on the appearance, still working out the bugs.

Top 10 hitters:

1) Hanley Ramirez – .583/3 HR/6RBI’s/9 Runs/3 SB

2) Ryan Braun – .478/3HR/10 RBI’s/ 9 Runs/ 1 SB

3) Jayson Werth – .444/ 2 HR/ 4 RBI’s/ 7 Runs/ 5 SB

4) Willy Taveras – .481/ 1 HR/ 5 RBI’s/ 7 Runs/ 4 SB

5) Carl Crawford – .448/ 1 HR/ 5 RBI’s/ 9 Runs/ 3 SB

6) Jose Reyes – .333/ 1 HR/ 7 RBI’s/ 6 Runs/ 5 SB

7) Justin Upton – .357/ 3 HR/ 6 RBI’s/ 8 Runs/ 2 SB

8) Evan Longoria – .348/ 3 HR/ 11 RBI’s/ 6 Runs/ 1 SB

9) Johnny Damon – .462/ 3 HR/ 10 RBI’s/ 6 Runs/ 0 SB

10) Ryan Zimmerman – .469/ 3 HR/ 7 RBI’s/ 7 Runs/ 0 SB

Top 10 Pitchers:

1) Roy Halladay – 2 Wins/ 11 K’s/ 1.06 ERA/ 0.76 WHIP/ 17 IP

2) Jered Weaver – 1 Win/ 12 K’s/ 1.12 ERA/ 0.50 WHIP/ 16 IP

3) Johan Santana – 1 Win/ 16 K’s/ 0.00 ERA/ 0.98 WHIP/ 13.33 IP

4) Justin Verlander – 1 Win/ 11 K’s/ 0.00 ERA/ 0.44 WHIP/ 9 IP

5) Ubaldo Jimenez – 2 Wins/ 10 K’s/ 1.29 ERA/ 0.93 WHIP/ 14 IP

6) CC Sabathia – 1 Win/ 8 K’s/ 0.00 ERA/ 0.56 WHIP/ 9 IP

7) Eric Stults – 1 Win/ 5 K’s/ 0.00 ERA/ 0.44 WHIP/ 9 IP

Wandy Rodriguez – 1 Win/ 7 K’s/ 0.00 ERA/ 0.63 WHIP/ 8 IP

9) Mark Buehrle – 1 Win/ 5 K’s/ 0.00 ERA/ 0.38 WHIP/ 8 IP

10) Brian Wilson – 1 Win/ 2 Saves/ 3 K’s/ 2.45 ERA/ 0.55 WHIP/ 3.67 IP

Hazaa

 If you have comments, questions, swarmy outbursts or ideas for a future Hump Day Look See segment your comments are welcome below. If you prefer the more traditional electronic mail route you can drop me a line at [e-mail]