Posts Tagged ‘Nyjer Morgan’

2011 Fantasy Baseball – NL Hitting Stats

Posted by Todd Lammi on April 15th, 2011

Nearing the end of the third week of the season and close to 50 at bats in the book, it is time to start looking to see if there are any early trends in terms or at bats or performance that could lead us to make some adjustments in terms of statistical projections for the rest of the season. While 50 at bats may seem like a small sample size and it is, we can watch the trends to see if they continue over the next few weeks to then get ahead of the other fantasy baseball owners in your league.

With that said, here is a look around the National League in order of runs scored per team to see if there are any numbers that stand out:

Cincinnati Reds: currently the highest scoring offense in all of major league baseball, the Reds have a couple of players that stand out. Jonny Gomes has all of a sudden turned into Frank Thomas at the plate, walking 14 times with only eight strikeouts, after a 39 walk to 123 strikeout season in 2010. Drew Stubbs has cut his strikeout rate four percentage points so far in 2011 which should give him a better chance to make some small gains in batting average. Jay Bruce on the other hand is heading in the wrong direction with a 10 percentage point jump in strikeouts, leaving him with 15k’s in 41 at bats and a .220 average.

Philadelphia Phillies: despite the loss of Jayson Werth to free agency and Chase Utley to injury, the Phillies are second in the National League in runs scored, thanks to six of the regulars hitting over .300. Wilson Valdez has been solid at second base and is hitting .351 with a stolen base and should be owned in all NL-only formats. Catcher Carlos Ruiz has gotten off to a good start as well hitting the same .351 with tow home runs and eight RBI.

Colorado Rockies: Troy Tulowitzki is justifying his position as a top 5 pick in fantasy baseball drafts this year, hitting .364 with seven home runs and 14 RBI. Jonathan Herrera has been the big surprise, hitting .458 with four stolen bases and eight walks against two strikeouts and is likely to start eating into Jose Lopez’s playing time.

St. Louis Cardinals: Lance Berkman has been the story in St. Louis so far with a .311 batting average and four home runs to go with 11 RBI. So far his move to the outfield has been going well, but I would still bet on an injury at some point this season. David Freese has hit when playing, batting .342 with two home runs and six RBI, but with him sitting out every third or fourth game, it makes him tough to own in mixed league formats.

Arizona Diamondbacks: only five players on the team currently have over 30 at bats this season and one of them is Willie Bloomquist who filled in nicely while Stephen Drew was out. The rest of the players like Gerardo Parra, Mevlin Mora, Juan Miranda, Russell Branyan, etc. are splitting too much time to give them any value in mixed leagues.

New York Mets: David Wright seems to have made progress on his strikeouts as his rate is at 25% which gives him a much better chance to hit over .300 again. Brad Emaus (30 at bats) and Daniel Murphy (27 at bats) are still in a battle for the second base job. Murphy has a lot more value in fantasy leagues because of his multi-position eligibility.

Houston Astros: who would have guessed that the best hitter on the Astros at this point would be Angel Sanchez? Sanchez is hitting .353 with one home run, eight RBI and a stolen base. Jason Boureois has some value in deeper NL-only leagues since he does not get many at bats, but he has managed to steal four bases early on thanks to some pinch-running.

Chicago Cubs: rookie Darwin Barney has been a pleasant surprise, hitting .345 with three walks and only one strikeout in 29 at bats. Tyler Colvin has seen additional time this week with Kosuke Fukudome out with a bad hamstring;.

Milwaukee Brewers: Nyjer Morgan has been out hitting Carlos Gomez which has not been an issue yet since Corey Hart has been out of the lineup, but once he returns, someone is going to lose some playing time. Prince Fielder looks motivated as he heads toward free agency and is hitting .372 with three home runs and 15 RBI.

Florida Marlins: Logan Morrison looks to be ahead of schedule in terms of the power department with three home runs and five doubles this season to go with nine walks and nine strikeouts. Donnie Murphy has not been the answer at third base, hitting just .143 in 28 at bats.

San Francisco Giants: I wrote last season about the impact of people changing positions and what it meant to their batting stats. It is too early to tell if we are seeing that with Aubrey Huff, but he definitely doesn’t look comfortable in the outfield. There was talk of switching Huff and rookie Brandon Belt in the field, but Belt is hitting .195 and moving him to the outfield is not going to help matters. There is also the issue of Cody Ross returning to the lineup soon which will impact at bats as well.

Los Angeles Dodgers: Matt Kemp looks like a new man this season and is hitting .444 with two home runs and eight stolen bases, to go with nine walks and only seven strikeouts. Jamey Carroll is hitting .372 with two stolen bases and has more value now with Rafael Furcal out of action due to injury.

Washington Nationals: lots of young hitters struggling in Washington around the Mendoza line, including free agent signee Jayson Werth. Wilson Ramos has been one of the few guys hitting with a .455 batting average and should see more time going forward over Ivan Rodriguez.

Atlanta Braves: the lone bright spot in Atlanta on offense is that Chipper Jones is healthy and hitting with a .304 average with one home run. Rookie Freddie Freeman has struggled with a .214 average and Alex Gonzalez has returned to earth after his first half power outburst in 2010 leaving the Braves a hitter short in their quest to win the division.

San Diego Padres: Orlando Hudson has taken advantage of the Padres aggressive attitude on the base paths and already has six stolen bases, putting him well on his way to surpassing his career high of ten. Brad Hawpe has been awful so far with a .129 average and more alarming, 13 strikeouts in 31 at bats. His platoon mate Jorge Cantu has not fared much better, hitting .148 in 27 official trips to the plate.

Pittsburgh Pirates: the lone bright spot so far in Pittsburgh has been Jose Tabata with two home runs and six stolen bases to go with a .302 average. Pedro Alvarez continues to struggle making contact, hitting .196 with 16 whiffs in 46 at bats.

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2011 Fantasy Baseball – Players Value Rising

Posted by Todd Lammi on March 27th, 2011

With spring training coming to a close, here is a look at some of the hitters by position that are seeing their fantasy baseball value rise due to a number of circumstances.

C – Ryan Doumit (Pit) – Chris Snyder has been dealing with back soreness for the past 10 days and missed yesterday’s game with the same issue. There is a chance that Snyder could start the year on the disabled list and back injuries can tend to linger through the season so Doumit gets a small bump in value.

2B – Brad Emaus (NYM) – Rule 5 pick has won the second base job for the Mets. Is hitting .295 this spring with a home run and two stolen bases. Worth a grab at the end of NL only leagues, should hit .250-.260 with 8-10 home runs and 8-10 stolen bases.

SS – Elliot Johnson (TB) – if you are desparate for speed in a deep AL only league, Johnson could help your team out. He is a bench player but given how much manager Joe Maddon mixes and matches his lineup, he could see a few spot starts here and there. He is hitting .303 in spring with 11 stolen bases.

3B – Donnie Murphy (Fla) – looks to have claimed the third base job in Florida over Emilio Bonifacio. Another NL only play guy, has a career minor league average of .281 with a season high of 14 home runs in 2006 & 2008.

3B – Jack Hannahan (Cle) – won the third base job in Cleveland with the injury to Jason Donald, so his stay at third base will be short lived. If you need to find some at bats just for the first month on the season in a deep, deep, AL only league, he could work, just don’t expect much.

OF – Nyjer Morgan (Mil) – just picked up by the Milwaukee Brewers in a trade for a prospect, he goes from possibly being demoted to Triple-A to now having a chance to grab some playing time in center field. Although Carlos Gomez is hitting well this spring at .339 with three home runs, he has been mediocre at best in past seasons. If the Brewers decide to go with a platoon role, Morgan will see more at bats as the left-handed hitter.

OF – David Murphy (Tex) – has always seemed to end the season with 400 at bats per year in Texas but now could be in line to get some more if Julio Borbon is sent to the bench or to Triple-A. Borbon has had problems playing the outfield on defense and missed Saturday’s game due to a sore elbow giving Muprhy a bump in value in deeper mixed league formats.

RP – Jon Rauch (Tor) – with Frank Francisco and Octavio Dotel injured and out of action, Rauch starts the year as closer in Toronto and could very well keep the job for the whole season. He has worked eight scoreless innings so far this spring with seven strikeouts.

RP – Jose Contreras / Ryan Madson (Phi) – one or both of these guys are going to get the chance to close with Brad Lidge starting the the year on the disabled list, with Contreras getting the first save chance this week. Given the injury history of Lidge, there is a good chance that all three guys end the season with double digit saves.

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The Daily Dirt for Tuesday

Posted by Todd Lammi on June 30th, 2009

by Todd Lammi

The Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals made an interesting trade, swapping outfielders Nyjer Morgan for Lastings Milledge with Joel Hanrahan also going to the Pirates and Sean Burnett going to the Nationals. The trade does nothing to alleviate the crowding in the Nationals outfield since Milledge was in Triple-A. Milledge is hitting .253 in the minor leagues with one home run, seven RBI and seven steals in 25 games. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Tuesday…

Hitters:

Albert Pujols blasted two more home runs bringing his season total up to 30. Pujols currently leads the National League every key offensive category (discounting stolen bases), except for placing sixth in batting average with a .332 mark.

Martin Prado went 4-for-5 with his fourth home run of the year and four RBI. Prado is hitting .299 on the season and is getting more at bats with Kelly Johnson struggling this year.

B.J. Upton homered for the second time in three games and drove in a run for the fifth straight contest. Upton has seven RBI in his last five games and has raised his batting average to .247 on the season. Upton is hitting .327 in June with four home runs and 21 RBI.

Kevin Youkilis went 3-for-5 with three RBI including his 13th home run of the season. Hopefully this will jump start Youkilis at the plate as he is hitting .224 in the month of June.

Marlon Byrd went deep twice and drove in five runs, giving him three home runs in his last two games. Byrd is now hitting .286 on the season with seven home runs and 39 RBI.

It took him a little time, but Gordon Beckham is starting to come around at the plate. Beckham went 3-for4 with his second home run of the season and is now hitting .267 on the year. Beckham has a five game hitting streak with five RBI during that stretch.

Ryan Braun went 3-for-4 with four RBI, raising his batting average to .327 in the process. Braun has two home runs runs and nine RBI in his last 10 games.

Lance Berkman went 2-for-3 and hit his 17th home run of the season. Berkman has homered four times in his last 10 games with 10 RBI and has raised his batting average 20 points during that period.

Pitchers:

As much as Johan Santana wanted to dispel rumors awhile ago that he was not injured, the stats seem to point to the contrary. Santana allowed five runs in six innings on Tuesday, dropping his record to 9-6 on the season. In his last five starts, has has allowed five runs twice and nine runs in another outing. In his last six outings he has struck out a combine 18 hitters. Compare to that to his two starts back on May 22 and May 27 when he combined for 19 punch-outs in those two starts.

Dan Haren allowed one run in seven innings with nine strikeouts to notch his seventh win of the season. Haren has allowed two runs or less in seven consecutive starts dating back to May 28th.

Ross Ohlendorf tossed seven shutout innings and struck out eight to pick up his seventh win of the season. If you subtract his rough start at Coors Field on 6/19, Ohlendorf has allowed three runs or less in his last four starts.

Matt Garza allowed one run in seven innings with three strikeouts to up his mark to 6-5 on the season. It is impressive that his whip ratio is only at 1.18 despite being third in the American League in walks allowed.

Jason Marquis pitched a complete game shutout, limiting the Los Angeles Dodgers to two hits while striking out three. Marquis improved to 10-5 on the season and lowered his ERA to 3.87.

Closers:

J.P. Howell continues to roll as closer for the Tampa Bay Rays, picking up his sixth save of the season. Howell has collected two wins and two saves in his last four appearances. He has been unscored upon in June through 12 innings.

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