By Dalton Del Don
Adrian Beltre looks primed for the second best season of his career, already clubbing six homers to go with four stolen bases. Just as encouraging are the 18 walks, which is by far the highest BB rate of his career. In fact, he’s almost halfway to last year’s total, which took 595 at-bats. Settling in as the team’s cleanup hitter, Beltre is likely going to go down as a profit for anyone who drafted him.
How about Victor Martinez and Joe Mauer combining for zero homers five weeks into the season? Neither is actually hitting poorly, but the power outage is noteworthy. VMart’s is sure to return, but Mauer is officially a singles hitter. Brian McCann, on the other hand, looks like fantasy baseball’s most valuable backstop.
Just for fun: Chase Utley is on pace to finish the season with 66 homers, 15 steals, 142 runs, 132 RBI and a .357 BA. If that’s not enough, consider how massive the drop off is at second base after him.
Cedric Benson just got bumped down from 67th to 68th on my RB list.
Joakim Soria is a robot. It doesn’t get any better than starting a season with 13 scoreless innings and a 15:1 K:BB ratio. If you’re striking out nearly four times the amount of baserunners allowed, then you’re pitching pretty well. Last season proved this is no fluke. He’s a top-5 closer.
It is becoming increasingly more difficult to get charged with an error in the game of baseball. As if pitchers don’t already have the cards stacked against them enough already. I don’t like it one bit.
Scott Podsednik is no friend of Willy Taveras’ fantasy owners.
I’m buying low on Manny Parra. Make no mistake, he’s not pitching well, highlighted by the 17 walks, but the strikeout rate is solid and all those hits allowed can partially be blamed on his .385 BABIP. This is someone who had a 9K/9 IP mark with a 2.45 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in the minors last season and should receive plenty of run support in Milwaukee. Additionally, with Yovani Gallardo going down, he actually has job security. Sure, there’s Jeff Weaver to deal with down the road, but David Bush isn’t the answer, and Ben Sheets is hardly a lock to stay healthy. Parra will turn it around.
The Dallas Mavericks are leaning toward hiring Rick Carlisle? Really? Why go with proven mediocrity? What more proof do you need other than his teams consistently underachieving or him always coming across like he knows little about basketball when on TV? And for the record, I’m predicting Spurs 4-2, Lakers 4-3, Pistons 4-3 and Celtics 4-3.
Greg Smith can’t possibly keep this up, but Sunday’s performance (10 strikeouts, two walks) was eye-opening. He needs to be owned in all deep leagues.
Carlos Marmol is on pace to pitch 112 innings this season, which might be another way of saying Lou Piniella is overworking him a tad. Kerry Wood is pitching much better than his ERA indicates, but he’s still a time bomb, so Marmol owners better hope he’s been blessed with a rubber arm or Piniella comes to his senses.
I always knew Marvin Harrison was sinister! I already had Anthony Gonzalez ahead of him on my WR rankings, and now that gap has widened.
I thought this was a poignant look at the tireless bloggers versus journalists debate.
Call me immature, but I found “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay” extremely funny. Sure, plenty of jokes fall flat, but I’m also someone who finds this picture humorous.
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