Fantasy Baseball Tonight, June 4: Randy Johnson Wins No. 300!

Congratulations go out tonight to Randy Johnson for joining the 300 win club.  Who knows when we will see another pitcher join this illustrious club, and Johnson deserves all the credit in the world.  He has been a dominant pitcher for a long time, and while he isn’t what he once was, he still knows how to get people out. 

He allowed no earned runs over six innings, but struck out only two.  The days of him being that crazy dominant pitcher are over, but he still could be a decent bottom of your rotation guy.

Andrew McCutchen had a great major league debut, as he collected two hits, walked once, and even drove in a run.  McCutchen got a lot of firsts out of the way in his major league debut, and even threw in his first stolen base for good measure. 

The Pirates showed a lot of confidence in the kid as they put him in the leadoff spot right out of the gate. 

I still wonder exactly how good McCutchen will be right away.  He is ultra talented, so the tools are there.  I just know that a lot of kids struggle when they come to the majors.  I am very encouraged by this first game, but there is a long way to go.  If you did pick up McCutchen, I would have him in my lineup right away if it makes sense.

In contrast, the other super prospect, Gordon Beckham was 0-3 with a striekout.  Now, that’s more like what you expect from a rookie his first time out.  If you picked up him, keep him in there.  I don’t know if he will play everyday, but he should play most days. 

The point of these last two is to not get too high over McCutchen’s first day, and not too low over Beckham’s debut.

Adam Lind was 5-for-5 to break out of a slump that he has been in.  Not sure how the guy had five hits and didn’t manage to get an RBI, but that is the case with Lind.  He still only has just three RBI in the last te10n games, even though his batting average has remained consistent.

Continue to start him if you own Lind, but I think his numbers will continue to regress some in the near future.  I see him continuing to be a very streaky player.

Chien-Ming Wang was predictably less than stellar on Thursday, allowing five runs over 4.1 innings.  The good news is that Wang had his control under wraps better, as he walked just one and whiffed five.

I am still not sold on Wang just yet, but I think it is more a matter of time, than of talent.  He’s shown talent before, i think he is just not right quite yet.

Has the D-Train derailed for good?  At least for fantasy purposes?  I am saying yes.  Dontrelle Willis allowed five runs in just 2.1 innings.  He also walked five and struck out only three. 

I have lost all faith in Willis, and would have to be in a pretty dire state in pitching to consider picking him up.  Don’t fall for the name recognition trap, Willis is not a good fantasy option at this point at all.

B.J. Upton finally hit his third homer of the season, and it is hopefully the start of a nice hot streak for him.  Upton homered on back to back days in the middle of May, and his owners’ thought he was finally ready to blast off.

Is this the time he does?  Or did we draft a guy who will have another nine homers with a ton of stolen bases?  I still think he will break out and meet our expectations.

Chris Carpenter is so damn good it is crazy.  I hate it when someone so good is also so injury prone.  Complicating matters further, he is on my favorite team.  So, needless to say I have Carpenter in various leagues.

Carpenter went the distance on Thursday, allowing just one run and striking out three while not walking a batter.  His ERA is a stupid 0.71 and his WHIP is even better at 0.63.  Enjoy this run by Carpenter, unfortunately he has been very injury prone lately, and hopefully he will be ok for the rest of the year.

Garrett Atkins actually had a two homer game.  Is this the start of something big?  Atkins has made more people mad in fantasy than a crying baby on an airplane.  Are you buying into Atkins now that he had a good game?

You shouldn’t be.  Not at all.  If Atkins hits twenty homers, I will be surprised.  If he hits .275, I will be more surprised.  If you own him, shop him everywhere ASAP and try to capitalize on this good game.  Even with this two tater game, he still has just five on the season.

A.J. Burnett was suspended six games for throwing the ball over the head of Nelson Cruz.  Yankee fans are, of course, really upset.  But let’s be honest.  First, if you are going to retaliate, hit the guy in the back, not over his head. 

Second, he’s going to appeal, it will likely get reduced to four games and he won’t miss a start. This is nothing to get excited about.

Evan Longoria is due to rejoin the Rays lineup on Saturday.  Thankfully he is not going on the Disabled List with the tightness in his hamstring. He is apparently available to pinch hit, but I wouldn’t be starting him if you had any sort of better option.

Jose Reyes had an MRI that revealed a tear in his hamstring, and he will not be coming back this weekend like originally planned.  In fact, it will likely be a while before the Mets have their shortstop back in the lineup.  I have not seen a timetable for his return, but we aren’t talking about a couple of days here people, we are talking weeks.

OK, so it is Thursday and it can only mean one thing...softball game!   I missed last week’s game because it was little Morgan’s first birthday, so I was itching to get back on the field. 

My tour around the entire diamond continued as I was playing short field.  I think that it would be where I would like to play, but I never say anything, I’ll play wherever. 

Nothing really came out to me the whole night on defense, except for one grounder through the middle which was easily handled.   I attempted to lay down a bunt my first time up, but was thrown out at first base. 

But at least the guy on first base was able to advance all the way to third.  Second time up I figured they weren’t expecting it, so I laid down another bunt (the defense was begging for it) and this time it was successful. 

The next batter also laid down a bunt, and the pitcher instead of fielding it decided to just watch it roll to a stop (I don’t think they were liking the bunt parade, but they weren’t trying to stop it either), so since he wasn’t picking the ball up, I just kept running and got to third. 

Third time up, hit a solid single up the middle to drive in a run, and took second when they continued to pay absolutely no attention to me on the bases.  Fourth and final time with us up only one and two guys on I had a chance to put the game away. 

The pitcher was able to change speed well, and had a VERY slow pitch.  I just couldn’t wait on it enough and grounded out to the third baseman. 

We, of course, gave up the game tying run in the top of the seventh, but a beautiful diving catch by the center fielder kept it tie.  The same guy drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the seventh, and our catcher was able to drive him in a couple of batters later, giving us a 6-5 victory.  Whew!

Major Announcement

I would like to let you all know that in the near future you won’t be getting your daily fantasy update from Fighting Chance Fantasy any longer.  I have agreed to team up with my podcast mates over at Fantasy Baseball Search. 

Todd Farino, Jeff Mans, RC Rizza, myself, and the guys are forming a formidable team.  I am not abandoning you, however, but making the coverage better.  Over the next couple of weeks I will be transitioning the site over to its new home at www.fantasybaseballtonight.com. 

I have already started to post on that page, so feel free to start heading there whenever you want.  We are still in the process of doing some work, but your nightly fix will be there.  You will see improved features, more professional emails, and better coverage. 

You can find a plethora of information at Fantasy Baseball Search as well from me and the guys, but Fantasy Baseball Tonight will just be me and links to the podcast.  The email address will also be changing slightly to [e-mail], but I will continue to check both for quite a while.  I am very excited about this change, and I believe that it will be great for both of us….me and you.

Mailing List

For those of you who are regular readers, or even new to the site, I would like to offer a new service.  I am starting a mailing list.  Sometimes I see news during the day, but I wait until this nightly article to pass it along to you guys.  Prospects coming up, injury news, closer movement, etc. 

Just send me an email to [e-mail] with “Mailing List” in the subject line and I will add you to the list.  Then, whenever I find news that I feel is breaking and important, I will send it to you as soon as I find out about it.  Hopefully this is something that you all will find valuable to make a possible move before your competition.

Also, you can now follow me on Twitter for more updates.  Go to www.twitter.com/fightingchance.

Got another mention on Steve Gardner’s Fantasy Windup blog on the USA Today site.  You can check out the post here.  It is a great blog, and they also have some good contests for you to check out.  I know some of you have already started to participate in some of them and are enjoying it.

Attention League Commissioners!  If you are looking to spice up your league some, go and visit Fantasy Sports Trophies.  Tom Harkins has put together a great site with all kinds of different trophies to give the winner of your league something besides just bragging rights.  There are trophies for fantasy baseball, football (check out the Beer League Fantasy Football Trophy), basketball, hockey, and auto racing.  I invite you to take a look at the site and try them out.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome at [e-mail]. I guarantee a response within 18 hours. Also, don’t miss the “Fantasy Baseball Tonight” podcast four nights a week from Monday-Thursday.  

The Big Show on Wednesday is co-hosted by Todd Farino of fantasybaseballsearch.com, RC Rizza of junkyardjake.com and myself, Ryan Hallam at fightingchancefantasy.com. 

To hear the show go to www.blogtalkradio.com/the_true_guru.  You can also hear me weekly on the Tuesday Night show.  Join me with Jeff Mans every Tuesday night at 10pm EST for all the the info and craziness we can pack into one hour.  A can’t miss if you plan on winning your league.