Fantasy Baseball Tonight: June 13

Rich Harden had a mixed outing on Saturday.  His numbers look good, but there are a couple of trends that I don’t like.  For the day Harden pitched five innings, allowed two runs, and struck out nine.  His team, unfortunately, didn’t score so he took the loss, but overall it was a pretty good outing. 

Harden hasn’t been going deep into games, although it could have been expected today as it was his first start off the DL, but it has been a problem this season.  Second, he has been allowing a lot of home runs. 

Jason Kubel took him yard for the ninth homer allowed by Harden, after he gave up only eleven all last season.  That just says to me that Harden’s pitches aren’t as sharp as they were last season.

Speaking of Jason Kubel, he probably should be owned by someone in your league if you play with 12 teams or more.  His jack off of Harden was his eleventh of the year, and he is hitting .313 with 37 RBI. 

The problem with Kubel was he couldn’t stay healthy, his bat never was questioned.  If he is able to stay on the field he should be able to hit you 25 homers.  If you have someone that is grossly underperforming (not Jimmy Rollins, Martha) I would think about adding Kubel.

Jeremy Hermida is another injury prone guy who was supposed to be a star.  Hermida hit a grand slam in his first major league at bat, and unfortunately for him, he might have peaked in his first major league at bat.  He has been healthier his last couple of seasons, but he has still not performed where we thought he would.

Hermida is in the middle of a nice hot streak now though and could be worth taking a chance on in the right situation.  He homered for the third time in five days, and has eleven hits over the last five games.  I am still skeptical of him and his health, but if you are looking for a hot hand, look no farther than Hermida.

My hitting streak in the USA Today 56 Game Hit streak was broken at four thanks to Nick Markakis.  He did walk twice, but was unable to get a hit.  I am bitterly disappointed that my streak is now broken, but I guess you get back on the horse and pick again for tomorrow. 

My guy for Sunday is Ichiro.  If you want to join our ever growing group go to the main page for the game and follow the link for the game.  Our private group is called Fantasy Bball 2night and the password is fantasy. 

See if you can do any better.  Right now the group continues to be led Jennifer who has a six game streak thanks to David Wright.  I can figure out who some of you are by your team names, but let me know which of you are playing with us.

Sean West of the Marlins has started to garner some fantasy attention.  But I guess throwing eight shutout innings with six Ks in your rookie year will do that.  West wasn’t nearly as good this time out, he pitched 5.2 innings but allowed four runs.

He was also disappointing in the punchout numbers as he didn’t strike anyone out and walked four batters.  Lucky for him, Toronto is in a free fall, so it was good enough for his second win of the season.

I still like West as a guy at the end of your rotation, and in keeper leagues he has great potential.  Just remember the rookie pitcher road tends to have its share of bumps in it.

Omir Santos deserves to be catching everyday for the Mets and Brian Schneider should never come off the bench.  He might not be the next Brian McCann, but Santos hits for a good enough average, he has a little pop, and can actually move OK for a catcher. 

He had two more hits on Saturday, including his fourth homer and drove in three more runs.  I’m not sure how much fantasy value he holds because he doesn’t play every night, but hopefully the Mets wise up pretty quick and only sit him in day games after night games like normal catchers.

Fernando Nieve filled in admirably for John Maine who went on the DL, but please don’t go picking him up.  In his first start since 2006 (OMG!), Nieve had his way with the New York Yankees over 6.2 innings. 

Nieve allowed just two runs, walked two, and struck out two.  I’m pretty sure he earned himself another start, but unless you are in a huge league (20+ teams), I wouldn’t go near this guy.  Anyone with any talent doesn’t go nearly three years between starts.  It was a nice day for him, just don’t expect it to continue.

Can Gary Sheffield possibly swing any harder? This guy pretty much decides that he is either going to put the ball in the seats or strike out.  He did put another ball out of Yankee Stadium (not saying much, I think I could get it to the warning track in right field) and drove in two runs. 

Sheffield has been a great surprise for the Mets, and for fantasy owners.  Not sure how long this production will continue, but you might as well take advantage of it why he is staying hot.

After being so bad that they threatened to ship him back to Cuba (ok, the minors) Jose Contreras has made two great starts in a row.  He threw eight shutout innings for the second straight outing, but this time he struck out eight.  The guy is 38 years old (yeah right, more like 48), and isn’t getting better.

His best fantasy days are behind him.  Leave Contreras in free agency, let him be someone else’s mistake.

Jordan Zimmerman was pretty effective over his five innings of work, allowing just one run and striking out six.  It was the second straight solid start for Zimmerman, as he allowed just one run over five innings and struck out six.  A

fter getting off to a pretty rough start, Zimmerman has only allowed three runs in his last two start, while striking out thirteen guys in the last eleven innings.  I’m still not quite ready to trust him on an start to start basis, but at worst Zimmerman is starting to strikeout more guys and is going deeper into games.

It might be next year before a reliable starter, but he is showing some improvement each time out.  He could be a good guy to own in August and September, but I am not ready to advise that just yet.  Continue to monitor his progress.

Antonio Bastardo had a humongous bump in the road tonight against the Red Sox.  The Phillies’ rookie only pitched one inning, allowed four earned runs, walked three, and only struck out one. 

I worry about this guy’s long term life in the rotation.  From the time that Brett Myers got injured they said they would look internally for a short term solution, but explore the trade market for a long term answer. 

That means to me that they would pitch Bastardo until he didn’t get the job done.  I still think he will make his next start, but if he falters again, look for the Phillies to go in a different direction.

Chris Young (the Arizona guy) is starting to show up at the ballpark again.  There has been some guy who looks like him and wearing his uniform, but he wasn’t playing like Young. 

Not only did he play for the eighth straight day, but Young connected on his on his sixth homer of the year, and his second in consecutive days.  I am starting to gain some confidence that the D’Backs are going to play Young and keep Eric Byrnes on the bench, but I wouldn’t be letting go of anyone solid to pick him up. 

Unless you have someone who absolutely stinks or an injured player, I wouldn’t be adding Young at this point.

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