Posts Tagged ‘Andrew McCutchen’

2010 Pittsburgh Pirates Team Preview

This is the sixth part our series of 2010 fantasy baseball team previews looking at the National League Central. The team previews will include the projected batting order, projected rotation, rookies that could make an impact in 2010 as well as each players current ADP for a 15 team mixed fantasy baseball league.

2010 Pittsburgh Pirates Projected Batting Order:

1.  CF Andrew McCutchen (ADP 86)
2.  2B Akinori Iwamura  (ADP 393)
3.  RF Garrett Jones (ADP 188)
4.  C Ryan Doumit (ADP 185)
5.  LF Lastings Milledge (ADP 312)
6.  1B Jeff Clement (ADP 382)
7.  3B Andy LaRoche (ADP ND)
8.  SS Ronny Cedeno (ADP ND)

2010 Pittsburgh Pirates Projected Rotation & Bullpen:

1.  Paul Maholm (ADP 412)
2.  Ross Ohlendorf (ADP 415)
3.  Zach Duke (ADP 360)
4.  Charlie Morton (ADP ND)
5.  Daniel McCutchen / Kevin Hart (ADP ND / ND)

Closer – Octavio Dotel (ADP 254)
Handcuff – Evan Meek

2010 Pittsburgh Pirates prospects with potential impact this year:

1.  Pedro Alvarez – 3B
2.  Jose Tabata – RF
3.  Brad Lincoln – SP
4.  Tim Alderson – SP


2010 Fantasy Baseball ADP – Outfield

by Todd Lammi

This is the sixth article in the series looking at the current 2010 fantasy baseball ADP (average draft position) for players in the outfield. The data uses ADP numbers from Mock Draft Central using the NFBC scoring system.

The chart below lists players arranged by my 2010 fantasy baseball rankings with the current ADP broken down by where that player would fall in a 12 or 15 team league by round and pick. The one caveat being that the 12 team numbers may be skewed slightly as some players may go later than others due to the larger player pool to pick from.

Undervalued:

Juan Pierre is currently being selected after the majority of base stealers like Michael Bourn, Nyjer Morgan, Julio Borbon and Rajai Davis which is baffling to me. He has a proven track record in the major leagues and out of all the players on the list has the best chance of hitting .300, scoring 100 runs and stealing 50 bases. Each of the players going before him have questions that he does not carry. The only downside to him the last two years was his lack of playing time which will not be an issue in Chicago this year.

I like Nolan Reimold this season based on his current average draft position. His limited at bats upon arriving in the major leagues his suppressing his value this year it seems.  Hit .299 after the All-Star break in 187 at bats with 6 home runs, 22 RBI and 6 stolen bases. If you pro-rate that to 540 at bats, you are looking at a line of roughly 78 runs scored, 18 home runs, 66 RBI and 18 steals. I expect the RBI to be a little more than that and steals less, but he should still crack double digits.

Cody Ross, not a sexy pick, but is good value based on current ADP with the ability to get you 20-25 home runs late in the draft with 80-90 RBI.

Overvalued:

One dimensional speed demons. I wrote about this back in the article on 2010 fantasy baseball rankings for outfielders. It is not a good idea to take an outfielder as high as Michael Bourn that has value tied up mainly in one category. If your team goal is 180 stolen bases and you have him projected for 60, that accounts for 33% of your teams total. Any type of pulled hamstring or injured ankle and then your team is scrambling for stolen bases during the year. There is also a lot of fluctuation in stolen bases from year to year so 60 stolen bases for him last season might only be 50 in 2010.

I also mentioned when discussing Bourn that taking him that high weakens you are another position that has less depth than in the outfield. I would much rather have the choice to pick between an outfielder at the end of the draft where the talent pool is much deeper that having to take a scrub middle infielder. Then you are taking hit in multiple categories like home runs and RBI by rostering Bourn plus a scrub infielder late, than getting an infielder where Bourn is being drafted and then grabbing an outfielder to close out the draft.

You are much better off getting stolen bases in the first four rounds of the draft spread out between four players rather than have the risk of your speed tied to the legs of one individual.

Andrew McCutchen is an exciting young player but much like Joey Votto at first base, the expectations for 2010 are pushing him very high in mock drafts lately. Started out as a 9th round pick back in December and has steadily been moving up the ladder ever since. Current ADP is toward end of 6th round in a 15 team mixed draft and I would not be surprised to see him going at the end of the 4th round by the time the season starts.

You have to remember though just like in an auction format, your goal when drafting is to get the best value out of each pick. The higher in the draft he goes, the higher his stat line you are forecasting becomes.

12 Teams 15 Teams
Rank Name ADP Round Pick Round Pick
1 Ryan Braun 5 1 5 1 5
2 Matt Kemp 8 1 8 1 8
3 Matt Holliday 22 2 10 2 7
4 Jacoby Ellsbury 19 2 7 2 4
5 Carl Crawford 15 2 3 1 15
6 Jason Bay 26 3 2 2 11
7 Justin Upton 28 3 4 2 13
8 Grady Sizemore 26 3 2 2 11
9 Jayson Werth 35 3 11 3 5
10 Nick Markakis 50 5 2 4 5
11 Adam Lind 44 4 8 3 14
12 Nelson Cruz 65 6 5 5 5
13 Curtis Granderson 52 5 4 4 7
14 Andre Ethier 68 6 8 5 8
15 Manny Ramirez 64 6 4 5 4
16 Adam Dunn 55 5 7 4 10
17 B.J. Upton 59 5 11 4 14
18 Carlos Lee 70 6 10 5 10
19 Shin-Soo Choo 69 6 9 5 9
20 Bobby Abreu 76 7 4 6 1
21 Alfonso Soriano 75 7 3 5 15
22 Shane Victorino 70 6 10 5 10
23 Josh Hamilton 54 5 6 4 9
24 Torii Hunter 93 8 9 7 3
25 Hunter Pence 86 8 2 6 11
26 Ichiro Suzuki 41 4 5 3 11
27 Andrew McCutchen 87 8 3 6 12
28 Nate McLouth 88 8 4 6 13
29 Denard Span 122 11 2 9 2
30 Jay Bruce 118 10 10 8 13
31 Alex Rios 107 9 11 8 2
32 Raul Ibanez 95 8 11 7 5
33 Carlos Quentin 103 9 7 7 13
34 Johnny Damon 118 10 10 8 13
35 Jason Kubel 115 10 7 8 10
36 Adam Jones 88 8 4 6 13
37 Carlos Gonzalez 121 11 1 9 1
38 Nolan Reimold 201 17 9 14 6
39 Brad Hawpe 114 10 6 8 9
40 Carlos Beltran 89 8 5 6 14
41 Garrett Jones 152 13 8 11 2
42 Michael Cuddyer 116 10 8 8 11
43 Ryan Ludwick 192 16 12 13 12
44 Juan Pierre 205 18 1 14 10
45 Chris Coghlan 212 18 8 15 2
46 Vernon Wells 185 16 5 13 5
47 Jermaine Dye 176 15 8 12 11
48 Corey Hart 178 15 10 12 13
49 Colby Rasmus 195 17 3 13 15
50 Nick Swisher 236 20 8 16 11
51 Cody Ross 264 22 12 18 9
52 Michael Bourn 75 7 3 5 15
53 Nyjer Morgan 129 11 9 9 9
54 Rajai Davis 165 14 9 11 15
55 Julio Borbon 187 16 7 13 7
56 Juan Rivera 179 15 11 12 14
57 Josh Willingham 222 19 6 15 12
58 Franklin Gutierrez 241 21 1 17 1
59 Mike Cameron 227 19 11 16 2
60 Travis Snider 224 19 8 15 14

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Next up in the 2010 Fantasy Baseball ADP rankings will be starting pitchers.

The Daily Dirt for Wednesday

by Todd Lammi

After being bumped from the rotation, Scott Richmond returned to the hill as a starter on Wednesday night in grand fashion. Richmond allowed one run in eight innings and struck out a season-high 11 hitters to notch his 5th win of the year. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Wednesday…

Hitters:

Mark Reynolds homered for the 18th time this season, connecting off of Zack Greinke. Reynolds has homered five times in his last 10 games while collecting 14 RBI during that stretch.

Aaron Hill went 3-for-5 and slugged his 15th home run of the season. Hill drove in three runs giving him 47 on the season and he is now batting .315 on the year.

Corey Hart went 3-for-5 with three RBI and belted his ninth home run of the year. Hart has now driven in 1o runs in his last seven games while raising his batting average 21 points.

Curtis Granderson returned to the lead-off spot, going 3-for-4 with two home runs and a stolen base. Granderson now has 16 home runs on the season to go along with 11 stolen bases.

Aubrey Huff went 2-for-3 with three RBI and delivered his ninth home run of the season. Huff has a modest five game hitting streak going and is now up to 44 RBI on the year.

Matt Wieters hit his first career home run, taking Tim Redding deep for a two-run blast in the second inning. Wieters is now hitting .240 on the season.

Rookie Andrew McCutchen hit his first major league home run, connecting for a two-run shot off of Francisco Liriano. McCutchen is now hitting .339 since being recalled from Triple-A.

Troy Tulowitzki hit a three-run home run off of David PRice for his ninth home run of the season. Tulowitzki has four home runs in his last 10 games with eight RBI during that stretch.

Evan Longoria homered for the second consecutive game, giving him 16 home runs on the season. Longoria is second in the American League with 60 RBI, leaving him three behind Jason Bay.

Jose Lopez homered for the fifth time in his last nine games, giving him 10 home runs on the year. Lopez has knocked in 13 RBI during that span, plating runners in eight out of nine games.

Jason Werth hit a solo home run, number 11 on the season, and has now homered three times in his last four games.

Pitchers:

John Danks allowed one run in seven innings with nine strikeouts to even his mark at 5-5. The win broke a two game losing streak for Danks who has allowed three runs in his last 14 1/3 innings.

John Lannan allowed two runs in 8 1/3 innings with four strikeouts to pick up his fourth win of the season. Lannan has allowed two runs or less in his last three starts, going 2-0 during that span.

Brad Penny tossed five shutout innings and struck out three to improve his record to 6-2 on the year. Penny picked up his 100th career win and will remain in the rotation with John Smoltz returning to action next week as the Boston Red Sox for now are saying they will go with a six-man pitching rotation.

Max Scherzer allowed two runs in six innings with five strikeouts to even his record at 4-4. Despite allowing runs for the first time in his last three starts, he still managed to lower his ERA for a third straight start.

Ian Snell picked up his first win since April 18th, allowing two runs in six innings with six strikeouts. It seemed like he had turned the corner in 2007, but his stats have been trending downward the last two years. His control has gradually deteriorated, going from a 2.6 K/BB ratio in 2007, to 1.52 in 2008 to his current number of 1.29.

Trevor Cahill hurled 5 1/3 scoreless innings with three strikeouts to earn his fourth win of the year. Cahill continues to whittle away at his overall ERA, lowering it for a six consecutive start.

Closers:

Trevor Hoffman blew his first save of the season, allowing two runs in the ninth inning against the Cleveland Indians.

Mike MacDougal picked up his forst save of the season for the Washington Nationals. McDougal’s line has been much better since coming over to the National League at the end of May. MacDougal currently has a 1.29 ERA in 6 2/3 innings.

The Daily Dirt for Sunday

by Todd Lammi

Chipper Jones smacked two home runs and went 4 for 4 with 5 RBI to lead the Atlanta Braves to an 8-7 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. Yunel Escobar went 3 for 5 and drove in the game-winning run in the 8th inning. Rookie Tommy Hanson was taken deep three times in his debut, allowing six runs in six innings with five strikeouts. Ryan Braun went 2 for 4 with two home runs and four RBI for Milwaukee. Braun now has 38 RBI on the season to go with his 12 home runs. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Sunday…

Hitters:

Nelson Cruz moved into a tie in the American League home run race after clubbing his 17th home run of the season. Cruz went 3 for 4 with three runs scored. Since May 20th, he has not gone more than three games without hitting a home run.

Shane Victorino went 2 for 5 with two RBI including his fifth home run of the season. Victorino is now hitting .295 on the season with 29 RBI and 9 stolen bases.

Juan Rivera went 3 for 5 with three RBI and his sixth home run of the year, giving him 25 runs knocked in on the season. Rivera has driven in a run in 7 of his last 8 games, giving him nine RBI during that period.

Aaron Hill broke out of an 0-for-25 rut by connecting for his 13th home run of the season and boosting his RBI total to 40. Despite a roughly 60 point drop in batting average from the beginning of May to the start of June, Hill still hit .307 for the month of May.

Alexei Ramirez went 2 for 5 with three RBI and delivered his fourth home run of the year. After ending May on a high note by hitting .281 for the month, he has started off slow in June batting .174.

Clint Barmes has been on a roll, going 3 for 4 with two RBI on Sunday, which gave him five consecutive games with two or more hits. He has now driven in seven runs in his last four games.

Jose Lopez went 3 for 5 with two RBI and hit his sixth home run of the season. Despite batting only .236 on the season, Lopez has still managed to drive in 31 runs so far this year.

Rookie Andrew McCutchen went 3 for 5 with an RBI and is batting .333 early on since his promotion from Triple-A this week.

Mark Reynolds finally put an end to an 18 inning game, delivering a three-run home run off of position player Josh Wilson. The home run was the 14th of the season for Reynolds who had struck out four times earlier in the game.

Pitchers:

Roy Halladay pitched a complete game shutout, allowing seven hits and no walks with six strikeouts, to improve to 10-1 on the season. More impressive is that the shutout comes on the heels of throwing a season-high 133 pitches in his last start. Halladay has been a true workhorse this season, pitching at least seven innings in every start he has made.

Rookie Antonio Bastardo moved to 2-0 after allowing two runs in five innings with four strikeouts. He had some control problems, as he only managed first pitch strikes to 7 out of 23 hitters, but he pitched well with men on base to minimize the potential damage.

Livan Hernandez improved to 5-1 by hurling seven shutout innings with four strikeouts. Hernandez has dropped his ERA almost 3.5 runs since his only loss of the season back on April 23rd.

Ubaldo Jimenez allowed two runs in eight innings with nine strikeouts to notch his fourth win of the season. Take away his three starts against the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team that has pounded him for a 10.20 ERA this season, and his numbers would be even better.

Rookie Vin Mazzaro improved to 2-0 by pitching 7 1/3 scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Mazzaro has yet to allow a run in 13 2/3 innings since being recalled from Triple-A.

Erik Bedard allowed two runs in five innings with four strikeouts to up his mark to 5-2 on the year. Despite his good record and low ERA of 2.47, he has not made it to the seventh inning in a start since May 5th.

Ricky Nolasco pitched better in his return from Triple-A, allowing two earned runs in seven innings with four strikeout, but was still tagged with his sixth loss of the season.

Closers:

Chad Qualls blew his third save of the season, allowing two runs in 2/3 of an inning. Qualls, who complained of  forearm stiffness this past week has blown two of his last three save opportunities.

Fantasy Baseball – the Daily Dirt for Wednesday

by Todd Lammi

If you are an Atlanta Braves fan, today has provided quite a swing of emotion. Three events happened which all somewhat coincided with each other depending on who’s version of the story you want to believe to shuffle the Atlanta roster. The first move was the Braves fleecing the Pittsburgh Pirates out of Nate McLouth for three prospects, none of whom were named, Tommy Hanson, Kris Medlen, Jason Heyward or Freddie Freeman. Even with the addition of McLouth who takes the spot of Jordan Schafer who was recently demoted, the Braves are still short a bat in their line up. At only $2 million, the Braves take on very little salary by adding McLouth this season.

The next move the Braves made frees up salary, by surprisingly releasing Tom Glavine who was due to return from the minor leagues on rehab assignment very shortly. The release of Glavine saves the Braves $3.5 million in salary, in addition to creating a roster spot for top prospect Tommy Hanson who was called up from Triple-A. Hanson will move into the Braves rotation Saturday and get the start against the Milwaukee Brewers. Kris Medlen gets a pat on the back for striking out nine in his six innings in his last start and a trip to the bullpen.

For the Pirates, the trade of McLouth opens up center field for Andrew McCutchen who should see the majority of starts for the rest of the season. McCutchen was hitting .303 with four home runs, 20 RBI and 10 stolen bases in 201 at bats in Triple-A.

If you are a fan on minor league players or have some on your team, these last two weeks have to feel like Christmas with Matt Wieters getting called up and then Hanson and McCutchen getting called up today. If that was not special enough, late Wednesday night it was announced that Gordon Beckham has been recalled by the Chicago White Sox.  If the White Sox are calling him up after just a week in Triple-A, it stands to reason he is going to be in the starting line up somewhere in the infield. Beckham was hitting .464 in Triple-A with three RBI and one steal in seven games. Between two levels on the season, he was at .326 with four home runs and 25 RBI. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Wednesday night…

Hitters:

Ben Zorbist, wow, where did all the power come from?  Zorbist should be a permanent fixture in the Tampa Bay Rays line up going forward, and is rewarding fantasy baseball owners, by connecting for home runs on consecutive days. Zorbist is currently on pace for a .300 average with 33 home runs, 105 RBI and 16 steals.

Nice to see Elvis Andrus finally turning on the jets a little bit, as he stole two bases and went 2 for 3 at the plate. With stolen bases in consecutive games, he is now on pace for 30 thefts on the season.

Jorge Posada homered for the second straight and has been on a nice roll since returning from the disabled list on May 29th with three home runs in six games with six RBI.

Bobby Abreu went 2 for 5 with 4 RBI including his second home run of the season. After being on a stolen base tear for the first month and a half of the season, Abreu has not stolen a base since May 19th.

Dan Uggla homered for the second consecutive day and is now up to 11 home runs with 39 RBI. His batting average is s-l-o-w-l-y creeping up t0 .219 after being around the Mendoza line for much of the season.

Hunter Pence went 4 for 5 with 3 RBI and slugged his sixth home run of the season. The home run Wednesday night matched Pence’s home run total for the entire month of May.

Ryan Howard hit home run number 16 and knocked in two runs giving him  45 RBI on the season. He has now driven in a run in five consecutive game, totaling 11 plated runners.

Laynce Nix hit two home runs and drove in four, giving him seven RBI in June which matches his total for the entire month of May. He should continue to get the majoirty of at bats against right-handed pitching.

Brandon Phillips went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI and two stolen bases and has homered three times in his last five games.

Scott Hairston was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained biceps. Will Venable was recalled from Triple-A and should see time along with Tony Gwynn Jr.

Asdrubal Cabrera was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained left shoulder and is expected to be out 2-4 weeks. Jamey Carroll should see time at third base with Jhonny Peralta moving over to shortstop. Carroll went 2 for 6 batting second on Wednesday. Peralta, back at his old position of shortstop went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI, including his second long ball of the year.

Pitchers:

Possibly there is light at the end of the tunnel for Jeff Niemann who tossed a complete game shutout with nine strikeouts to earn his fifth win of the season and lower his ERA to 3.77. Niemann has allowed two runs in his last 18 innings with 18 strikeouts and has seen his overall ERA decrease in his last five outings.

Jered Weaver hurled seven innings of one run ball with 10 strikeouts to improve his record to 5-2 on the year.  He has now allowed one run in five of his six last starts, although he only has two wins in those outings due to a lack of run support.

Ted Lilly allowed one run in seven innings with seven strikeouts in a no decision against the Atlanta Braves. He cost himself a win with a throwing error that caused an unearned run to score.

Josh Beckett tossed 7 2/3 shutout innings with nine strikeouts to up his record to 6-2 on the year.  He has allowed two runs or less in his last four starts while shaving two full runs off of his ERA.

Scott Feldman allowed two runs in 6 1/3 innings with five strikeouts to improve to a perfect 5-0 on the season. As a starter this season, remember that he had three relief appearances that threw his ERA out of whack, Feldman had an ERA of 2.59 heading into the game.

Josh Outman moved to 3-0, after allowing two runs in 6 2/3 innings with two strikeouts. Check out the top 2o in pitching for May, he ranked high in several statistics.

Cliff Lee allowed one run in eight innings with five strikeouts to notch his third victory of the year. Despite his 3-6 record, Lee has a 2.96 ERA as the Indians have been shut out or scored one run in six of his starts this year.

J.A. Happ tossed seven shutout innings with four strikeouts to earn his fourth win of the season and second in three starts.

Chad Billingsley hurled six shutout innings with nine strikeouts to up his mrk to 7-3 on the year. His numbers would be even more impressive if he managed to reduce his walks, after walking four or more batters in 5 of his last 7 starts.

Closers:

Jose Valverde is expected to go on a short rehab assignment next week and if all goes well is on track to return from the disabled list around June 12th.

Joakim Soria returned to action, facing two batters and throwing 13 pitches. I would still hold on to Juan Cruz for another week or two if you need saves, just in case.

Fantasy Baseball Minor League Report – week two

by Todd Lammi

Here is a week two update of some of the top minor league players that might make an impact this fantasy baseball season.

David Price got his second start of the season for the Durham Balls (Tampa Bay) and tossed five scoreless innings with six strikeouts. Price threw only 65 pitches, 48 of them for strikes.

Pedro Alvarez of the Lynchburg Hillcats (Pittsburgh) hit a walk-off three run home run and drove in six runs on Thursday. Alvarez has been off to a slow start at the plate hitting only .214 but he does have 14 RBI already on the young season.

Drew Sutton was traded from the Houston Astros to the Cincinnati Reds to complete the trade that sent Jeff Keppinger to the Astros in March. Sutton will report to Triple-A Louisville.

Outfielder Matt LaPorta hit his second home run for the Columbus Clippers (Cleveland). LaPorta is hitting .375 so far this year.

Matt Wieters hit his first home run of the season for the Norfolk Tides. Wieters had two hits and is hitting .261 on the season.

Tom Gorzelanny got the start for the Indianapolis Indians (Pittsburgh) and allowed two runs in five innings. Outfielder Andrew McCutchen stole his third base of the year.

Tommy Hanson of the Gwinnett Braves (Atlanta) allowed one run in 5 2/3 innings on Tuesday, striking out seven. Hanson threw 95 pitches, 65 for strikes. Hanson might only be a bad start or two from Jo-Jo Reyes away from making his major league debut.

To read the week one minor league report, click here.

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