Fantasy Baseball by the Numbers: Week 11

They did it! The Blackhawks finally got their Stanley Cup in one of the more bizarre endings you’ll see in a championship game.

My only regret is that they didn’t win it at home. The city was wild enough on a Wednesday during an away game; imagine what clinching on a Friday at home would have been.

Oh well, guess we’ll have to wait for the Cubs to win the World Series before we get another Chicago Fire.

Oh yeah, and there were some baseball games this week.

63 Percent

Combined stolen base success rate for Elvis Andrus and Julio Borbon, which has led to Ron Washington’s decision to limit their attempts until they can improve their technique. It’s a huge blow to each of their values, though Borbon didn’t have much anyway.

I’m especially concerned about Andrus; not only has his batting average dipped in recent weeks, but he has also stopped drawing walks. His BB:K rate has been an atrocious 5:14 so far in June, lowering his OBP to .377, down from his high of .431 just a month ago.

Let’s hope it’s simply a case of a young player needing to make an adjustment and not a trend that will continue.

Batting average over the past 25 games for Ian Stewart, another young player poised for a breakout season who has fallen off the wagon in recent weeks. How close this is to his 2009 average (.228) is unsettling to say the least, but you knew you were getting somewhat of a batting average liability with him.

What’s more alarming is that while the batting average is regressing to the norm, his power numbers have remained stagnant, with only one home run over that 25-game span. Looking at the numbers the culprit seems to be a severely decreased fly ball rate, which has turned into a bloated line drive rate (25 percent).

While this may sound great, it clearly hasn’t helped him recently. Plus, this number is unsustainable, so hopefully the line drives will turn back into fly balls and not grounders. I’m benching him until further notice.

Nine

Innings pitched by Zack Greinke in his last start, finally securing that ever elusive second win. We can all breathe a little easier now, the Zack Attack is back.

He struck out 12 batters and walked zero, an unbelievable performance despite two solo jacks allowed to Joey Votto. Reportedly the performance was a result of an “adjustment,” always music to a fantasy owner’s ears, and bodes well for future production.

Nevertheless, his struggles with keeping the ball in the park will keep him from repeating last year’s Cy Young numbers, but I’d still bet on a 3.3 ERA and over 200 Ks at the end of the season.

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