The Scoop

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 his strand rate is a bit high, his .282 BABIP isn’t all that below his .293 career mark. Over his last four starts, Buehrle has an 18:1 K:BB ratio, and his 1.63 BB/9 mark is the sixth best in baseball. Is a career-year in store at age 30?

I understand I’m beating a dead horse, and it makes sense for a team in last place to play Dexter Fowler, but Seth Smith’s .890 OPS is the second-best on the Rockies, yet he’s received just one start over the past week. He has more walks (23) than strikeouts (17) and is coming off a season in Triple-A where he posted a .950 OPS. Smith is just 26, so it’s not like he can’t be in the team’s future either, especially if Brad Hawpe is traded. Carlos Gonzalez, who currently has a .341/.425/.631 line, should be a fixture in the outfield soon as well, but I just can’t understand why Ryan Spilborghs is getting so much playing time.

I’m as surprised as anyone, but Carl Pavano must be owned in all but the shallowest of leagues. He currently has a 5.29 ERA and 1.37 WHIP, but that’s about as misleading as it gets. If you remove his first start of the season, the ERA drops to 4.21 and the WHIP down to 1.24. His 3.85:1 K:BB ratio is simply fantastic, among the elite hurlers in the league. With a .341 BABIP, .62 strand rate and an impressive 1.31 G/F ratio, you can expect a big decrease in ERA from here on out. In fact, his xFIP is 4.03 – better than Carlos Zambrano, Edwin Jackson, Derek Lowe and Cliff Lee to name a few. Of course, Pavano remains an extreme injury risk, but he’s looking more like he did in Florida than when in a Yankee uniform this season.

I really don’t get this LeBron James controversy. Sure, I agree he should be criticized for ducking the media after the Game 6 loss, but who cares if he left the court right after the game? You want to talk about etiquette and class? How about Dwight Howard shooting a three-pointer at the buzzer up 13 points? I could link to dozens of articles by writers sitting atop their soapbox proclaiming James some sort of criminal, but call me crazy, I like it better when athletes get mad and care about losing, opposed to Asante Samuel laughing with the opposing team after falling to the Cardinals in the NFC Championship game. This isn’t hockey – players run straight to the locker room all the time after NBA games, and while I guess the end of a series is a different circumstance, I could do without the feigned congratulations.

After hitting 13 homers over 423 at-bats last season, Jason Varitek already has 10 long balls in 138 ABs this year. His batting average remains a liability, but his slugging percentage (.522) is currently a career-high. It’s also 235 points higher than David Ortiz’s, which is flat-out shocking one third of the season through.

The MTV Movie awards are so last decade, I know, but Bruno’s prank on Eminem was priceless.

He’s likely gone in competitive leagues, but Kelvim Escobar isn’t a bad speculative grab right now. He’s been dominant during his rehab outings, even hitting 95 mph on the gun. He may still take some time to get back to form after labrum surgery, but there’s also a decent amount of upside, and Escobar should be back up in Anaheim soon.

Between Dontrelle Willis, Joey Votto and Khalil Greene, what’s up with baseball players and personal issues this season? Clearly, Votto’s problem is in a different class coming off the diamond, as he’s been one of baseball’s best players in 2009.

Chris Liss has been arguing to anyone willing to listen that Joe Mauer has essentially become a top-five fantasy player in two-catcher leagues with his recent power surge. His argument, in summation, is that with his elite prospect status and body type, this outburst suggests a permanent skill growth as opposed to a general hot streak like Ian Kinsler’s outstanding April. It’s an interesting standpoint, and I’m fully on board with Mauer possibly being one of baseball’s five best players. However, I will disagree with Liss on a few things about Mauer’s fantasy value: while a .330 BA is fantastic, especially when you compare it to other catchers, Mauer has averaged 488 at-bats over the past four seasons, which comes with the territory of being a backstop (and someone who takes a bunch of walks), so that’s about on par with hitting .300 over 650 at-bats, give or take. It’s also true, as Liss states, that Mauer was a much better prospect than Kinsler, but the latter counters the real life affects by playing in Arlington and stealing bases. I love Mauer and would have voted him for MVP in 2006 (when Justin Morneau won), but I’d be shocked if he hit 20 homers from here on out.

Grammar Police: Kind of like the Karma Police, only not as catchy, I’m going to start a new weekly feature, where I highlight one common grammar mistake. It may not interest you, but it allows me to vent, which is therapeutic, so bear with me. With the first installment, I’d like to go over the most misused word in the English language, “irony.” For the love of God, this word is NOT synonymous with coincidence, no matter how often it’s used that way. You want to know what’s truly ironic? How none of the scenarios in Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” have any irony whatsoever.

(on a side note, thanks to everyone who was patient when the site was down last week – with a new host up and running, there shouldn’t be any more issues moving forward. In fact, the site should run faster than ever, so do me a favor and spread the word)


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11 responses to “The Scoop”

  1. Dreamweapon Avatar
    Dreamweapon

    Haha, man, having worked in IT support in pre-Netscape 1.0 days, i.e. before dimwitted AOL users wrecked Usenet in a cataclysmic flood of retardation (and I know you have an AOL account, but trust me, that would the exception that proves the rule–your kinsmen did more to wreck internet grammar/spelling/civility standards than a million Chinese hackers could ever have dreamed), I have witnessed a fantastic regression in spelling and grammar standards over the past fifteen years. My advise is that it’s a lost cause. There are only so many times you can tell a strident imbecile that there’s no such word as “irregardless”, or delineate the difference between contractions and possessive pronouns for people who only obtained HS diplomas due to social promotion, or mock the, well, irony of a jagoff screaming about some prosaic thing being “rediculas”. You may as well go stand on a skerry and attempt to command the tides themselves for all the good it will do you, the battle is lost. The fact of the matter is that Huxley’s Brave New World has already arrived, and people like most of the readers of this site happen to be Alphas and Betas surrounded by a sea of mouth-breathing Epsilons to whom we bestowed the gift of instant and near-free publication without taking time to consider the ramifications. Let this be a lesson for when the flying cars finally arrive.

    As for the anxiety issues, remember Zack Greinke went through this himself just a couple of years ago and was essentially out of the game for a season. We can probably stick a fork in Greene, he’s been a disappointment his entire career, and Willis’ thing could have easily been made up as a convenient way to make him go away for a while, but Votto can probably bounce back. It would be interesting to hear more about this and the issues that affect athletes in particular in recent times. I was somewhat fascinated by what happened to Chuck Knoblauch when he just completely lost his release point, he looked like a girl throwing a frisbee for the first time. There’s a lot of issues at play here–technology has exploded at such an exponential rate over the past couple of generations, every decade the pace of life and intrusions on privacy seem to double or more. It’s doubtless the biggest adaptation humankind has had to make, and in evolutionary terms, I don’t know that the species has the ability to keep pace en masse at the present rate. Some of the anxiety cases, all of the mental illnesses, autism, etc. could be impacted by this. I don’t know, it’d be interesting to read more on it.

    Funny you mention Pavano, I’ve been yo-yoing him on and off the FA heap for a few days now, I have to keep dropping him to get two-start pitchers or replacements for injured OFs, but I’m definitely going to grab him again before his next start. It’s hard to have a lot of faith, but the numbers look good.

    Speaking of, any Sizemore or Hamilton owners who haven’t already done so need to rush out and grab Scott Hairston. I did so early yesterday when I heard about Sizemore, since then all he’s done is go 4-for-7 with four runs, 2 homers and a steal. He looks like a Neanderthal, granted, but the production is hard to deny.

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  3. Donald Trump Avatar
    Donald Trump

    I can get used to this pace of postings.

    Good info on Pavano. I am staring at him as a FA in my other league, but am embarrassed to pull the trigger. Seriously, he is Carl F’ing Pavano. So what now, he has a good 2009, is a free agent, and the yanks sign him to a 4 year 40 mil deal? You read it here first!

    Granted, Mauer hitting 20 more homers would put him on a 30 homer pace, which would be huge, but I can see him being a 25 hr catcher (splitting hairs?), and with a 330 ba, he isn’t a top 5 player, but he is probably a 2nd rounder in most leagues (who plays in 2 catcher leagues anyway?)

    By the way Dreamweapon, it was me calling Price a bust one week ago. He has clogged up a roster spot for me for a year and a half, and after a 4 era in AAA, with too many walks, and a horrible first start, my patience was thin. But 17K in 9 IP will change things.

  4. Dreamweapon Avatar
    Dreamweapon

    Ah–well, it sucks to hold an active bench spot open for a guy in the minors, esp. if you don’t have a lot of them to begin with. Too bad you guys don’t have a minor league system, but if you have a lot of keepers (say 70+ for the league), I’d say you still have to hold onto him and will probably be better off for it. The SEC is at least as good as High-A ball and possibly a tick better than that, and he flat-out abused that conference for years, he’s pretty close to a proven commodity already. The walks sucked but he said he was working on new pitches and tons of guys let up when they’re not being properly challenged. That K/9 is absurd, and it’s hard to disregard entirely despite its brevity b/c the Twins are so damn hot right now, spanking them has to mean something.

    Speaking of not wanting to waste bench spots on minor league pitchers for too long, what are the odds Matusz makes it up this year?

  5. Renel Brooks-Moon Avatar
    Renel Brooks-Moon

    In March I never thought I’d be asking this, but… Guthrie or Pavano? I hate – hate – how many HR Guthrie is giving up. Maybe his FB/HR rates are out of whack and due for a correction, or maybe injury is lurking.

  6. RotoScoop Avatar
    RotoScoop

    Dreamweapon – I know it’s ridiculous to still have an AOL account. I actually do have a gmail one and just need to transition everyone over. You’re probably right about it being a lost cause, but I will fight on for now.

    Good point about Greinke also dealing with anxiety issues in the past, and I agree, if K. Greene can’t perform outside of Petco and under that staff, it’s not looking good. And Rick Ankiel never recovered from a pitching standpoint.

    Good stuff man, keep bringing it.

  7. RotoScoop Avatar
    RotoScoop

    Donald – I can get on board with your Mauer assessment – .330, 25 HR, 2nd rounder. And I hear ya about Pavano – I’m sure there’s an injury right around the corner anyway.

  8. RotoScoop Avatar
    RotoScoop

    I could see Matusz as a September call up, but he’s more of a 2010 help than anything else.

  9. RotoScoop Avatar
    RotoScoop

    Renel Brooks-Moon – I may be nuts, but I think Pavano has a bit more upside. However, Guthrie is coming off a 10:1 K:BB ratio game, so maybe he’s ready to rebound. Still, with his low K rate, I’ve never been a big fan.

  10. Eddie Avatar

    Dreamweapon — In your context, it’s “advice,” not “advise.” Unless, of course, you were trying to be ironic.

    But it could just be a coincidence.

  11. RotoScoop Avatar
    RotoScoop

    Well played Eddie.

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