Month: June 2009

By Dalton Del Don Tim Lincecum won the Cy Young last year, but he’s been an even better pitcher this season, despite a 7.56 ERA after his first two starts. His K rate is ever so slightly down compared to last year, but 10.42/9 is still an acceptable number, and his walk rate is down…

1. Evan Longoria 2. Alex Rodriguez 3. David Wright 4. Mark Reynolds 5. Chipper Jones 6. Aramis Ramirez 7. Pablo Sandoval 8. Mark DeRosa 9. Ryan Zimmerman 10. Chone Figgins 11. Michael Young 12. Hank Blalock 13. Garrett Atkins 14. Edwin Encarnacion 15. Ian Stewart 16. Casey Blake 17. Brandon Inge 18. Scott Rolen 19.…

1. Albert Pujols 2. Mark Teixeira 3. Prince Fielder 4. Miguel Cabrera 5. Justin Morneau 6. Joey Votto 7. Adrian Gonzalez 8. Ryan Howard 9. Kevin Youkilis 10. Lance Berkman 11. Carlos Pena 12. Paul Konerko 13. Todd Helton 14. Derrek Lee 15. James Loney 16. Adam LaRoche 17. Russell Branyan 18. Jorge Cantu 19.…

By Dalton Del Don Over his last six starts, Felix Hernandez has a 1.00 ERA and 1.04 WHIP. Three games against the NL West have certainly helped, but after back-to-back seasons with WHIPs approaching 1.40, Hernandez may finally be realizing all that potential, and it’s easy to forget he’s still just 23 years old. While…

By Dalton Del Don There have been a lot of rookies who have failed to impress this year, but Colby Rasmus isn’t one of them. His .772 OPS doesn’t jump out, and his .114/.220/.182 line against southpaws is an abomination, but Rasmus is hitting .358 in June, and his defense in center field has been…

Harold Reynolds made a recent blog post talking about those kids and their wacky statistics ruining baseball. What stat does he have a problem with in particular? VORP? WPA? UZR? xFIP? No, what really gets under Reynolds’ skin is the crazy, convoluted, new stat known as “OPS” – that’s on-base plus slugging for those of…

By Dalton Del Don With just six wins on the season and playing for a last place team, Dan Haren is getting a little overlooked, as he’s quietly become one of the three best pitchers in baseball since coming to Arizona. His 7.38:1 K/BB ratio ranks best in MLB, and his mediocre record obviously can’t…

By Dalton Del Don Most of the spin coming out of Cleveland is the “good news” regarding Grady Sizemore, but if you actually read the article, I’m more pessimistic about surgery being in his future than ever. Maybe I’m crazy, but I’d think about selling him for 70 cents on the dollar right now. Maybe…

By Dalton Del Don With 14 homers and six steals, Alfonso Soriano has hardly been a bust, but his on-base percentage is now below .300, and he doesn’t have a multi-hit game since May 19. He’s actually been a pretty terrible player since April ended, and it’s clear he’s not 100 percent physically. Soriano’s current…

I was on Fantasy Focus over at Blog Talk Radio on Friday. I enter for the second half of the hour.

By Dalton Del Don I really don’t know what to make of Ben Zobrist, but it’s impossible to ignore what he’s done so far in 2009. While uncommon, it’s not entirely unique for a 28-year-old to burst onto the scene like this, and he more than held his own in the big leagues during 198…

By Dalton Del Don David Wright is having quite an interesting season. He has just three home runs, putting him on pace for nine for the year, and his .492 slugging percentage is easily a career-low. Just 5.6% of his flyballs have gone over the fence, and when you compare that to 16.9% in 2007…

By Dalton Del Don Joe Blanton currently has a 5.86 ERA, a 1.51 WHIP and pitches in a hitter’s park. What does this mean? There’s a worthy add likely available on your waiver wire, at least for those in deeper leagues. Blanton never lived up to Oakland’s expectations, and although his strikeout rate increased after…

By Dalton Del Don While Mark Buehrle is a perfect guy to be shopping right now, there’s still no denying how well he has pitched this season. Despite playing in a park that ranked as the second easiest venue to homer in last season, the soft-tossing lefty has a 2.71 ERA and 1.15 WHIP. While…