Posts Tagged ‘Chris Davis’

2010 Lineup Planner – Week 17

Posted by Todd Lammi on July 25th, 2010

Here is a look at the latest news and notes from around the diamond to help you set your fantasy baseball lineup for week 17.

American League:

It looks like the Texas Rangers have been scouting corner infielders in the likes of Jorge Cantu from Florida and Ty Wigginton from Baltimore as well as Mike Lowell in Boston. Reading the tea leaves, that could spell trouble for Chris Davis at first base. Since taking over after Justin Smoak was traded, Davis is hitting .200 with no home runs and one RBI in 45 at bats. His strikeout rate is down since coming back to the major leagues but it looks like Texas may not wait for his swing to come around.

Fantasy baseball owners are breathing a sigh of relief after Alex Rodriguez left the game Sunday after being hit on his wrist with a pitch. It looks like he escaped without any pain or broken bones so he is safe to leave active for next week.

Victor Martinez is expected to come off the disabled list for the Boston Red Sox and get the start at catcher at Monday. Matt Wieters came off the disabled list for the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday and hit seventh in the lineup going 1-for-4.

The Detroit Tigers lineup is in flux right now with a string of injuries over the last week. After losing Brandon Inge, the Tigers also saw Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez go on the disabled list. Ordonez is expected to miss almost two months with a broken ankle. It looks like recent call up Jeff Larish could see the majority of time at designated hitter with Ryan Raburn, Scott Sizemore, Ramon Santiago and Don Kelly rotating between second and third base. Larish was hitting .275 in Triple-A with 15 home runs and 55 RBI in 298 at bats.

Ozzie Guillen continues to ride Omar Vizquel at third base for the Chicago White Sox and you can too while he is hot, especially since he can qualify at up to three positions in a line up depending on your leagues requirements for games played at a position. Vizquel is hitting .333 in July in 48 at bats with two stolen bases.

Wilson Betemit gets a shot at the third base job full-time in Kansas City with the trade of Alberto Callaspo to the Los Angeles Angels. Betemit is definitely a play in AL only leagues although his batting average is off to a fluky .382 in 68 at bats this year. If you are a team at the bottom of a dynasty or keeper league, this is the type of guy you pick up to package with another player to a contending team for a better keeper for next season.

Orlando Hudson is headed back to the disabled list for the Minnesota Twins a strained oblique. AL only leagues in search of infield help could pick up Alexi Casilla while Hudson is out of action.

Brett Anderson is expected to return to the Oakland A’s  rotation on Friday against the Chicago White Sox. In his last two starts in Triple-A, he threw 10 1/3 innings, allowing 13 hits, four runs and 11 strikeouts.

The Cleveland Indians have tabbed 25-year-old Josh Tomlin to get the start on Tuesday against the New York Yankees. Tomlin was 8-4 in Triple-A with a 2.68 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 107 1/3 innings.

National League:

J.A Happ returned to the rotation for the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday, allowing three runs in five innings with eight baserunners and four strikeouts. His numbers were less than stellar in Triple-A so if you have better options for your rotation, I would leave Happ benched for now.

For those that still don’t believe that the place in the batting order has little to no impact on fantasy stats, check out Starlin Castro’s numbers for the Chicago Cubs since being moved to second in the batting order. In 73 at bats, he is hitting .329 with 10 runs scored, two home runs, nine RBI and three stolen bases, numbers that give you a chance to play him now in mixes league formats.

The Colorado Rockies lineup is going to cancel out a lot of players effectiveness this week with the team scheduled to face three left-handed starting pitchers. That means Seth Smith platoons with Ryan Spillborghs and Jason Giambi platoons with Brad Eldred at first base. In addition, the first basemen also have to deal with Brad Hawpe working into the mix with Dexter Fowler seeing more playing time in the outfield.

Troy Tulowitzki is supposed to return to the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday although he may receive a day off here or there more than usual in the early going. His return will move Clint Barmes back to second base and puts Jonathan Herrera back to the bench.

The trade of Dan Haren to the Los Angeles Angels knocks him out as a two-start pitcher in week 17 and leaves an open slot in Arizona’s rotation for Tuesday.

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The Daily Dirt from Thursday

Posted by Todd Lammi on April 22nd, 2010

I wrote just a few days ago in the Minor League Report that Chris Davis had maybe three more weeks until we saw Justin Smoak. It turned out to be actually only three more days as the Texas Rangers have recalled Smoak and designated Davis for assignment. No real big surprise with Davis hitting .188 with no home runs and striking out 35% of the time.  Smoak was hitting .326 with two home runs, but more importantly 16 walks with only five strikeouts.

Speaking of non-hitting first basemen, Troy Glaus has to be next up on the possible cut block. Freddie Freeman has started to heat up in Triple-A for the Atlanta Braves with three home runs in his last two games and six RBI and will be eventually knocking on the door if Glaus continues to struggle. Glaus went 0-for-4 Thursday with three strikeouts and is now hitting .170 on the season.

On the other side of the diamond, it is time for Brandon Wood to also go pretty soon I think. Wood is hitting .087 with zero home runs or RBI and only two runs scored in 46 at bats. Not helping matters is still his lack of plate discipline with two walks and 15 strikeouts. If Maicer Izturis is a free agent in your league and you need middle infield help, I would pick him up in advance of something happening.

Daisuke Matsuzaka is supposed to return from the disabled list and could get the start either Monday or Tuesday in Toronto, making him potentially a two-start starter in week 4 with the second start coming at Baltimore. In three starts in Triple-A, Matsuzaka had a 1.62 ERA and a 0.72 WHIP with 13 strikeouts in 16 2/3 innings.

Ubaldo Jimenez picked up a win Thursday night with 7 1/3 innings of shutout ball with five strikeouts. He is now 4-0 with a 0.95 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP. While all that is well and nice, he has rang up pitch counts of 115, 128 and 121 in his last three starts. Those are some awfully high numbers and we’re not even into May yet. His trade value is never going to be higher and with his recent pitch count numbers, there is no better time to trade him.

Aroldis Chapman worked 5 1/3 scoreless innings in Triple-A, allowing three hits with five walks and striking out eight. Until he gets his control in order which is going to enable him to pitch past the fifth inning and not blow out the bullpen on days he pitches, he is going to be stuck in Triple-A for awhile.

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The Daily Dirt from Thursday

Posted by Todd Lammi on April 8th, 2010

I had a chance to watch Brian Matusz in his start Thursday night and while there were some things I liked, there were a couple of concerns I had. He got himself into way too many three ball counts and ended up walking five batters. Part of the problem was Tampa Bay hitters were able to fight off his fastball most of the night, resulting in a whopping 25 foul ball strikes.

While he has four pitches he can throw for strikes, he still needs to do a better job of putting hitters away. Yes, I say this despite the fact he struck out seven hitters in five inning. He also recorded zero ground ball outs and six fly ball outs. He was able to record two outs via pick-off moves. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Thursday…

Hitters:

Vernon Wells hit his 4th home of the season, giving him seven RBI on the young season.

Chris Davis sat against the lefty starter Ricky Romero in place of Ryan Garko. If you are a Davis owner, you have to hope this is not going to be a permanent platoon situation.

Miguel Cabrera went 4-for-5 with four RBI and drilled his second home of the year.

Chipper Jones will miss the next 2-3 days with a strained oblique with Omar Infante expected to fill in for him.

Pitchers:

Brad Penny was good, 7 innings with one run and four strikeouts (ah, the magic of Dave Duncan) while Bronson Arroyo was just a little better in 8 innings with one run allowed and six strikeouts, though neither factored in the decision.

Similar results in Texas as Ricky Romero (7 innings, one run four k’s) squared off with C.J. Wilson,7 scoreless innings and nine strikeouts. I had a chance to catch part of the game and Wilson looked legit as a starter. He had some natural tail to his fastball as a lefty so it looked like a screwball at times. The announcers mentioned Wilson’s goal is 12 pitchers per inning and he was pretty close to that with 98 through seven innings of work. By the end of the season, it is not unrealistic to think that Wilson may be the most valuable Texas starter from a fantasy standpoint.

Brett Anderson tossed six shutout innings with four strikeouts to notch his first win of the year.

Randy Wells used 13 ground ball outs in six scoreless innings against the Atlanta Braves to earn a win. Wells walked two and struck out one in the game.

Jeff Niemann of the Tampa Bay Rays lasted only four hitters before leaving the game after being hit with a line drive from Miguel Tejada in his pitching shoulder.

Closers:

Frank Francisco blew Wilson’s win, allowing four hits and three runs in the ninth inning.

Leo Nunez rebounded from his poor outing the previous night to work a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his first save.

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2010 Fantasy Baseball ADP – First Base

Posted by Todd Lammi on February 11th, 2010

by Todd Lammi

This is the second article in the series looking at the current 2010 fantasy baseball ADP (average draft position) for players at first base. 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.

You can see from the grid below where the value drops off at first base, right after Billy Butler in round six or eight depending on the size of your league. There is then a seven to nine round gap before the next first basemen, Chris Davis, is selected. As mentioned in my 2010 fantasy baseball rankings for first base, based on the current ADP I see Joey Votto and Chris Davis currently as overvalued with the players still left on the draft board where they are being selected.

Billy Butler keeps moving up in mock drafts to a point that he is almost overrated as well because you are now paying for last seasons numbers plus some improvement. People are discounting Lance Berkman because of his age and his injury in 2009, but to be able to get him at the end of the fourth round in a 15 team league gives him great value.

12 Teams 15 Teams
Rank Name ADP Round Pick Round Pick
1 Albert Pujols 1 1 1 1 1
2 Ryan Howard 11 1 11 1 11
3 Mark Teixeira 7 1 7 1 7
4 Prince Fielder 9 1 9 1 9
5 Miguel Cabrera 10 1 10 1 10
6 Lance Berkman 57 5 9 4 12
7 Joey Votto 29 3 5 2 14
8 Kevin Youkilis 33 3 9 3 3
9 Justin Morneau 44 4 8 3 14
10 Adrian Gonzalez 32 3 8 3 2
11 Carlos Pena 75 7 3 5 15
12 Kendry Morales 54 5 6 4 9
13 Derrek Lee 85 8 1 6 10
14 Billy Butler 86 8 2 6 11
15 James Loney 205 18 1 14 10
16 Paul Konerko 201 17 9 14 6
17 Chris Davis 145 13 1 10 10
18 Adam LaRoche 194 17 2 13 14
19 Todd Helton 195 17 3 13 15
20 Aubrey Huff 287 24 11 20 2

The FBT Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide is now available for purchase for just $9.99. You can view a sample here to see the template for the top 10 catchers and top 10 starting pitchers.

The Draft Guide includes the following:

  • Projections in Excel for 480 players using the standard 5 x 5 fantasy baseball categories
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  • Expanded player rankings for all positions
  • Ages for all players as of opening day
  • Word / PDF document that explains how to use the projections and some tips for some neat things to do in Excel.
  • The first article that will be only available to subscribers (and not posted on the website) for “how to win your fantasy baseball draft league”. This is a seven page document with 3,500 words of fantasy baseball goodness based on my 20 years of playing in fantasy baseball leagues.
  • You will also receive weekly reports every Monday that feature updates to rankings and a new article all the way up to opening day.
  • Support for any questions you have in regards to Excel to ensure you get the most out of the data.

Order now to get the information you need to dominate the competition!!!

Next up in the 2010 Fantasy Baseball ADP rankings will be second basemen.

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Fantasy Baseball – the Daily Dirt for Tuesday

Posted by Todd Lammi on May 12th, 2009

by Todd Lammi

With all of the talk in the news again about performance enhancing drugs, it is nice to see there are still some legitimate hitters in the major leagues, as several players had multiple home run games last night.

Hitters:

Adam Jones hit two home runs, giving him eight on the season, to go along with 25 RBI. His batting average is now up to .363 and he leads the American League in runs scored with 35.

Jim Thome hit two home runs, scored three runs and had four RBI. The home runs were Thome’s first since April 22nd and he now stands one behind Mike Schmidt for 13th place on the all-time home run list.

Prince Fielder went 3 for 4 with two home runs and four RBI to power the Milwaukee Brewers to a 6-3 win over the Florida Marlins. He is currently on pace to far surpass his walk total of 84 from last season with 27 free passes already through 33 games.

Jason Werth went 2 for 4 with two runs scored and stole four bases, giving him seven on the season. His thievery included a steal of home in the seventh inning.

Aaron Hill hit his ninth home run of the season, and is now hitting .357 with 30 RBI for the year.

Josh Hamilton returned from the disabled list and hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning to spark a six run rally in the Texas Rangers 7-1 win over the Seattle Mariners.

Chris Davis hit his ninth home run, but he is going to have a hard time getting his average over .240 with 50 strikeouts in 108 at bats.

Adrian Gonzalez hit his 11th home run and drove in two runs in the San Diego Padres 6-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs. He is getting little help from his teammates as the second best hitter in the lineup is David Eckstein with a .263 batting average.

Joe Mauer homered for the third time in four games and missed another home run when he was robbed by Clete Thomas in the first inning. Mauer has now driven in nine runs in his last five contests.

Brad Hawpe went 4 for 4 with 5 RBI including his fifth home run of the season in a Colorado Rockies 12-1 rout of the Houston Astros. Ian Stewart added two home runs and drove in five runs as well.

Matt LaPorta got his first start in the last five games and went 1 for 3 while playing first base. LaPorta is now hitting .188 on the season.

Pitchers:

Roy Halladay became the first pitcher to seven wins, tossing a complete game against the New York Yankees. Halladay scattered five hits and one earned run while striking out five.

Zach Duke picked up his fourth in of the season, allowing one run in eight innings to lower his ERA to 2.52. Duke allowed five base runners and struck out five.

Jair Jurrjens lost a win on a blown save by Mike Gonzalez in the ninth inning. Jurrjens allowed two runs in 7 2/3 innings with four strikeouts.

Rich Harden allowed two runs in six innings with five strikeouts to move to 4-1 on the season. His counterpart Jake Peavy took the loss, allowing three runs in six innings with nine strikeouts. There is little room for error when Peavy is on the mound as the San Diego Padres offense has scored only nine runs in his last five starts.

Kevin Slowey allowed one run in six innings with two strikeouts to improve his record to 5-1 on the year.

Ubaldo Jimenez allowed one run in seven innings with four strikeouts to pick up his third win of the year. Jimenez has now allowed one run in back to back starts.

Micah Owings allowed one run in seven innings with four strikeouts to pick up win number three on the year. Owings was much more effective with his pitches Tuesday night, needing only 90 pitches to get through seven innings.

Recent call up Luke Hochevar got a rude awakening coming back to the major leagues, allowing eight runs in two innings against the Oakland Athletics.

Closers:

Scott Downs got a vote of confidence as the Toronto Blue Jays closer going forward after G.M. J.P. Riccardi announced that B.J. Ryan would serve in a set up role when he comes off the disabled list.

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