The Scoop

By Dalton Del Don

Matt Kemp and Jacoby Ellsbury are two outfielders having terrific seasons who barring injury or complete collapses will be top-10 fantasy picks next season, but Curtis Granderson might be having a better year than them both. Granderson is well behind in batting average, but his counting stats are ridiculous. In fact, he’s on pace to finish the season with 44 homers, 147 runs scored, 128 RBI and 31 steals. That’s right, 147 runs scored. As in, the second most since Ted Williams in 1949 (Jeff Bagwell scored 152 runs in 2000). After struggling mightily against left-handers throughout his career, Granderson has actually fared better versus southpaws (.944 OPS) than righties (.921), and while he no doubt benefits from the new Yankee Stadium, he’s also hit better on the road than at home (.941 OPS v. 916). He’d absolutely be among the top MVP candidates if not for his subpar defense, but Granderson’s fantasy owners have little to complain about. Considering his ADP, he’s easily been the single most valuable fantasy asset.

This spectator took his involvement in an arena league game to the next level.

Not only is “Poop, sing and learn” catchy, but it’s also highly informative.

Those who invested in the Braves’ closing situation and drafted both Craig Kimbrel and Jonny Venters have so far gotten a combined 1.51 ERA and 0.97 WHIP with 40 saves and nine wins with 163 strikeouts over 125.1 innings. Put differently, the most valuable closer in modern day baseball, especially those in innings cap leagues. After getting worked hard as a rookie last season, Venters has been used even more heavily in 2010, as his 64 appearances easily lead the majors (Kimbrel’s 59 are tied for second most), and he’s on pace to throw 93.0 innings. Whether it’s the workloads catching up or plain old regression, neither’s current level of performance should be expected moving forward, but they have been extremely impressive to date and appear to give Atlanta one of the league’s best back ends to a bullpen for years to come. Since June ended, they’ve combined for 33.0 shutout innings. After Neftali Feliz set a rookie record with 40 saves last season, Kimbrel is on pace to finish with 50 this year.

Woman addicted to eating her husband’s dead ashes.

Man acquitted of friend’s murder confesses to police, walks free.

Despite somewhat underwhelming numbers (.830 OPS) as a 24-year-old in Triple-A this season, the fantasy crowd had been clamoring for Desmond Jennings’ call up for quite some time, and he’s not only exceeded expectations but surpassed them so far. Jennings has a .328/.423/.582 line with three homers and eight stolen bases over his first 17 games with the Rays this year. Fantasy owners might be shrewd to actually shop him around in a trade right now, but those who were patient holding him all season will reap the rewards from here on out regardless. There’s a benefit to Tampa Bay holding back its prospects not only for arbitration reasons, but in making sure they are absolutely ready, immediate production at the major league level is more likely.

This hilarious new ABC comedy looks can’t miss.

Ahh, now that makes more sense.

What has gotten into Ervin Santana? Over his last four starts, he’s allowed just three runs over 34.0 innings (0.79 ERA) while posting a 0.68 WHIP and a 25:5 K:BB ratio. He hasn’t allowed more than three runs in a start since June 10 and has served up just one home run over his past seven starts. Santana’s velocity hasn’t returned to what it was during his dominant 2008 season, but his slider remains one of the most effective pitches in all of baseball. In fact, Fangraphs ranks it as 18.3 runs above average, with only Clayton Kershaw’s slider coming in higher (21.8). I still expect Texas to win the A.L. West, but even with a shaky offense, an Angels team with Jered Weaver, Dan Haren and Santana at the front of their rotation wouldn’t be an easy out in a short series in the postseason.

This parallel parker set a Guinness Book of World Records.

This “UFO guy” is the man.

Coming off a disappointing season last year, Justin Upton looks to be fully reaching his massive potential. It’s possible the shoulder injury greatly contributed to his down year in 2009 after posting an .899 OPS as a 21-year-old, but either way, it’s great to see continued growth. Upton has a .309/.353/.702 line since the All-Star break, and if you factor in defense, he’s suddenly looking like a legitimate MVP candidate, especially in an N.L. field that’s wide open. Maybe he was never a real threat to be dealt, but it’s crazy to think the Diamondbacks put him on the trade block this past winter. Since Upton is yet to turn 24 years old, is capable of stealing 25-plus bases and has Chase Field on his side, don’t be surprised if he’s a top-15 fantasy pick next season.

Deep fried butter on a stick.

French bread now available in vending machines.

Don’t look now, but Jarrod Saltalamacchia quietly has a .257/.323/.477 line this season. He still strikes out too much, but an .800 OPS as a catcher in today’s offensive environment is far more than sufficient. It’s a good thing the Red Sox stuck with the former top prospect, as after entering May 15 with a .203/.250/.266 line and zero homers, Salty has clubbed 11 home runs and raised his OPS nearly 300 points over the next 162 at-bats. A switch-hitter in an absolutely loaded Boston lineup with Fenway Park as his home digs, Saltalamacchia is in fine position to make an impact down the stretch. Still just 26 years old, there’s legitimate power here from a position consistently lacking it. He’s even thrown out 24.7 percent of potential base stealers, which ranks seventh-best in baseball. Salty looks like a long-term solution behind the plate for Boston.

Last week I was at an otherwise boring Giants game that quickly became much more exciting when the benches cleared. I wouldn’t exactly call it a “brawl,” and admittedly it certainly didn’t get as out of control as this brouhaha, but it was pretty unexpected to see in person.

An informative read on why S&P’s ratings are substandard and porous.

It’s nice that a recent MRI revealed no structural damage, but it’s a safe bet Tommy Hanson’s shoulder is hurting him. Over his last five starts, he’s allowed 24 runs over 26.2 innings, raising his season ERA from 2.44 all the way up to 3.60. His K rate has remained strong over that stretch, but his velocity has been down, albeit only slightly. After striking out just 5.5 batters per nine innings over the final two months of last season, Hanson’s current 9.83 K/9 ratio ranks third in baseball, although it’s worth noting his 1.18 HR/9 mark is the highest among the top-28 pitchers with the best strikeout rates. In fact, among those top-28 on the K/9 leaderboard, just four others have a HR/9 ratio 1.0 or higher. That’s because pitchers with more strikeouts have lower HR/FB rates and induce weaker contact. Maybe it’s a bad stretch of luck, but most concerning is the true health of Hanson’s shoulder, as his current condition is bringing many fantasy teams, including mine in Yahoo Friends & Family, down with him.

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11 responses to “The Scoop”

  1. Stevie Yay-Yo, Pro from Dover Avatar
    Stevie Yay-Yo, Pro from Dover

    Desmond Jennings’ start reminds me of the splash Andrew McCutchen made upon his arrival. Both put in more than a full season at AAA in a time when that level is usually considered skippable for top prospects. I wonder if more teams might consider baking their hitting prospects longer and letting them see more retread hurlers in AAA to better prepare them for the type of control they’re likely to see in the bigs? (I’d keep promoting pitchers aggressively where possible — no sense wasting a hard thrower’s best stuff in the minors if he’s having success. Them bullets are precious. But hitters who signed out of high school? Maybe they do need more time.)

    On the flipside, Moose Tacos’ 450 ABs in AAA haven’t seemed to help him all that much in the bigs….

  2. Dreamweapon Avatar
    Dreamweapon

    What, nothing on Martz’s folly? If Roy Williams is a #1 NFL receiver and Devin Hester is a legit starter, I’m Count Chocula. Still loving Cutler?

  3. FlyingSpaghettiMonster Avatar
    FlyingSpaghettiMonster

    Not to get all political, but F it…why can’t the public see how the GOPTP caused this mess? The S&P downgrade is a joke…these lazy good’fer nothin’ tricksters gave AAA ratings to the banks that committed white collar murder and their intentions are so transparent. I won’t play the race card, because it is already implied.

  4. FlyingSpaghettiMonster Avatar
    FlyingSpaghettiMonster

    Keynes>Reaganomics, at least at the present moment.

  5. RotoScoop Avatar
    RotoScoop

    Stevie – Could not agree with you more regarding treating pitchers differently as far as when to call them up. If they are dominant and remain healthy for 4-5 years and end up costing more, that’s actually a best-case scenario if you think about it. Def. don’t waste those bullets.

  6. RotoScoop Avatar
    RotoScoop

    Dreamweapon – Here’s what I just wrote about Williams for a Barometer column:

    “I talked briefly about Williams last week but wanted to take a more in-depth look at his situation. Williams has averaged just 518.6 receiving yards over the past three seasons and has looked downright sluggish at times. He has eclipsed 900 receiving yards just once during his seven-year career and will almost certainly go down as something of a bust as a former No. 7 pick. Still, Williams is only 29 years old, and he is a relevant fantasy player again following the move to Chicago. Not only does Williams no longer have to compete with Miles Austin, Dez Bryant and Jason Witten for targets, he’ll also rejoin offensive coordinator Mike Martz, who during his lone season in Detroit helped Williams have his best season as a pro – 1,310 receiving yards and seven scores. Martz’s hyperbole aside – he recently referred to Williams as “elite” – it’s good to know he remains a believer; and it looks like Williams is going to get a chance to lead the Bears in targets and be the top option in the red zone. With Martz and QB Jay Cutler on his side, Williams should enjoy a career resurgence in 2011. That is, if he’s not already done at age 29.”

  7. RotoScoop Avatar
    RotoScoop

    Of course, I was speaking strictly from a fantasy perspective, and it’s become clear Martz is something of a mad man, as opposed to a mad genius, these days. I still like Cutler. But don’t consider him elite. He’s in the 15ish range among NFL QBs I’d say. Still time for further growth tho, of course. But he’s been something of a disappointment.

  8. RotoScoop Avatar
    RotoScoop

    FlyingSpaghettiMonster – I would respond, but I’d much rather hear Dreamweapon’s take.

  9. FlyingSpaghettiMonster Avatar
    FlyingSpaghettiMonster

    I can’t wait to hear him wax poetically!

  10. Dreamweapon Avatar
    Dreamweapon

    What, me? I’m close to giving up on this country; in all honesty, if I could swap my citizenship for that of any nation in Europe west of the Danube, New Zealand, Australia or even South Africa, I would almost certainly do so without hesitation or remorse. I’m not kidding, either–if Sweden, Finland or Germany had any law of return for descendants, I would already be seven years gone. This nation has been in precipitous decline for longer than I have been alive. As near as I can tell, the last time the U.S. was still clearly in ascent was probably during the LBJ administration (apart from an ephemeral blip in the 90s that Clinton basically lucked into presiding over, coincident to advent of web commerce). Which, I suppose, also happens to mark the end of Bretton Woods and the demise of Keynes’ influence in the West. Since then, the political establishment and commercial elites have been doing yeoman’s work destroying the American middle class in a bid to re-establish feudalism. I can’t let the Democrats off the hook, they’re complicit and should be driven into the sea along with the rest of the trash in Washington. But where the Dems are merely incompetent and gormless buffoons, the GOP are knowingly evil. The entire thrust of their policies is squarely aimed at redirecting wealth, from the poor and especially the middle classes, to the already scandalously rich, while simultaneously increasing the degree of control the rich can exert over our lives. Their veneration of sheer, unadorned avarice is disgusting beyond belief, and I’m completely gobsmacked that they can get away with this horseshit simply by dressing up their ongoing theft with a few laughable quotes from Nietzsche (has any man more frightened of women ever walked the Earth?) or Rand (hahaha, seriously?), or by claiming to somehow be more “patriotic” than the opposition (because of course our country was founded on the principle of beggar thy neighbor, apparently, although that rarely comes through in the history books).

    I have to admire the cleverness of their approach, in much the way Machiavelli admired Cesare Borgia for his skill in manipulating people and events, even while abhorring his ends. They’ve managed to gut regulatory laws and agencies, destroyed our ability to manufacture almost every value-added thing, instituted policies that have put access to basic medical care for tens of millions of people on a level consistent with that found in the average third world state, found a way to justify spending more on annual military expenditures than every other nation on Earth, combined (and are now building jets apparently designed to fight aliens in a world where our enemies live in caves and mud huts), and have generally crushed the prospects of an entire generation (or more) of Americans. Even though 1% of the population or less actually benefits from GOP policies, they continue to win elections because, even though they’re probably the least “Christ-like” people alive (the camel and the eye of the needle and all that), they’ve managed to convince religious voters that they’re the rightful agents of the alleged Judeo-Christian god. The GOP panders to these people (and let’s just call them sheep; I was forced to attend countless Baptist sermons as a child, I know damn well they call themselves that as well, so it seems fair enough) on a couple of social issues, most obviously abortion and gay rights issues, although also increasingly (to my utter horror) science education, saying this and that but ultimately doing very little on social issues (being too obsessed with creating tax loopholes for the megarich and distributing massive corporate welfare), and these sheep continue to buy in, year after year, after year. Despite their numerous disappointments, despite the alleged admonitions of Christ–and the real and verifiable admonitions of Augustine and Jerome–that Christians were to avoid entanglement in politics and the affairs of state, despite their declining fortunes, despite all of it, they’re the ones who are putting up the votes that keep putting Republicans in power, and pushing the rest of us that much closer to serfdom. I want to lash out and annihilate these imbeciles in text, of course, but we’re talking about a group of people who honestly believe the world is 6,000 years old. Apparently a number of bristlecone pines alive today actually personally witnessed the dawn of creation, which I guess is pretty cool, but seriously, how can you argue with a person who truly believes dinosaur fossils (and apparently the remnants of a number of civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Indus valley and the Peruvian coastline) were placed in situ by their god in order to test his adherents’ faith? Or who refuses to believe the very basic and incorruptible science of radiometric dating? How can you reach a person who is allergic to the very light of reason? These people are insane in their level of credulity. They are retrograde in the extreme, scarcely better than sort of baying rabble that used to attend witch burnings centuries ago. They cannot be taught, they can only be programmed, and unfortunately, their pastors are sitting at the coding terminal, while taking their own commands directly from Pat Robertson and other shoeshine boys for the elite. Christ I wish Frederick II had followed through on his plans to create an artificial religion in opposition to Christianity, there is no way it could’ve been worse.

    Anyway, yes, Keynes’ approach of deficit spending to escape a depression is obviously the way out of this; I’ve been preaching since this thing began that we desperately need to start major public works projects, building new roads, bridges, clean power plants (nuclear included), high speed mass transit, new schools, new national parks, public commons, etc. It worked before, and hell, half of the infrastructure we still use now was created during the huge works projects back in the 30s (FDR) and 50s (Eisenhower)–of course, most of it was engineered with a 30 or 40-year expected life span and is badly crumbling. We need these things, regardless, and the longer we hold off, the less competitive and less safe (as someone who drives on the I-35 every day, this point is very real) we will be. There is nothing to be gained by waiting, and much to be lost. Moreover, obviously this would create legions of un-exportable jobs by which we could bootstrap our way up out of this thing in there here and now. Unfortunately, those jobs would largely be in the skilled trades and require actual wages on the order of $15, 20, 30/hour, etc., rather than the 80 cents/hr our avaricious overlords would prefer to pay a desperate Mexican or Indonesian laborer, and that would run the attendant risk of increasing the level of “uppitiness” amongst the proletariat as they become less desperate and less afraid of their families starving, in direct contravention of the GOP’s adherence to the Malthusian approach of paying workers the barest minimum they needed in order to simply survive, save after a pestilence. Perhaps once they find a way to import cheap third-world labor en masse for works projects without triggering an armed revolution they’ll get round to approving it, but my guess is not, since so many of them have jets anyway, and it’s easier to keep a serf on the fief when he has no means of escape.

  11. FlyingSpaghettiMonster Avatar
    FlyingSpaghettiMonster

    DW-You nailed it, as usual.

    Just to beat the dead horse on a few things:

    I certainly embrace the idea that the US has gone to shit, and I would love to move to NZ, Australia or even Canada, but the whole wife and kid thing makes it an exercise in daydreaming.

    Religion is ruining our public discourse on so many levels. It truly is Machiavellian how the Koch Bros, Norquist, Rove and Murdoch pander to the rubes in our electorate. These people vote based upon 1) Yay, Jebus, 2) God hates Fags, 3) get the colored fella out of the WH.

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