Better late than never, right? Here is this week’s Gearing Up:
News and Notes:
Victorino is back from the disabled list and should be activated in all formats.
The Astros released Hall this morning. That has to hurt your ego. It helps your fantasy team if you own Jeff Keppinger.
Furcal is hitting the disabled list again this weekend with what appears to be an oblique injury. This will put him out of action for a few weeks.’
Cook is set to return on June 8. Proceed with caution here. Juan Nicasio may stick in the rotation at the expense of Clayton Mortenson.
Mike wrote about de la Rosa already. The news here is that de la Rosa should be starting against the Phillies next week in place of Jon Garland. Garland is on the disabled list with a right shoulder injury; the Dodgers have been vague about the nature of the injury.
Both Hamilton and Carpenter are up from Memphis. This is bad news for Memphis, since both were incredibly productive. Playing time for Carpenter will likely be limited, but Hamilton should see a little time in the outfield with Holliday out. Neither is an attractive option solely due to the lack of playing time available.
Free Agents and Waiver Wire:
Schierholtz is now hitting .261 on the year with 4 home runs and 3 stolen bases. He received the managerial nod of approval this week, and has 17 at-bats coming into the weekend’s games. He may be a full-time player now, and if you have a hole on offense to fill, you should look aggressively to Schierholtz at this time. I do not love him as a player, but as I have said before, full-time players are hard to come by in the free agent pool (waivers this week in my home league).
Wood, as expected, verified that he cannot hit in the majors. He is losing playing time, and unless you have already packed it in for next year and want to take a flier on him, I would pass.
Phillips caught a little fire this week, hitting a couple of home runs. He and Rob Johnson are still splitting time pretty evenly, so both are possible options if you have had a catcher go down.
As expected with the return of Jeff Keppinger, Downs has begun to lose playing time. He brings a little positional flexibility and is still productive in limited at-bats, so if you are desperate, you can still throw a dollar here.
Ciriaco has never really been a prospect. While he runs well, he has difficulty getting on base due to poor strike zone judgment. If you are desperate for speed, you might look here, but it is unlikely he will see significant playing time.
Harrison, on the other hand, does get on base quite a bit, not due to high walk rates but instead due to his quickness and ability to hit the ball in play on the ground. Harrison has a slight amount of pop, a better amount of speed, and the Pirates like him. He should see some steady playing time for a couple of weeks with Pearce and Alvarez both still out, and, if you need counting stats, you can drop a couple of dubloons on Harrison.
D.J. LeMahieu.
I wrote about LeMahieu here. He will see limited action with Jeff Baker on the disabled list.
As Mike said to me earlier this week: “The Dodgers couldn’t use this guy? Really?” Paul is quickly becoming a favorite with the Pirates. We know Paul’s limitations. At this point, however, he is an “own” in NL-only leagues. If he keeps running, and he keeps playing, he may become a consideration in deep mixed leagues as well.
Lindstrom is available on our waiver wire this week. Given Huston Street’s struggles, and given Lindstrom’s success so far this year, he may be worth a pickup. Mike wrote about Lindstrom in more detail here.
John Sickels only gave Lance Lynn a C+ grade and referred to him as a 4th starter innings eater (Joe Blanton anyone?). If Lynn is going to eat innings like he did this week, I think we should run out and pick him up. Coming off three days rest and an outing where he threw 102 pitches, he threw a nice game for the Cardinals, striking out 5 in 5.3 innings and walking no one. He will likely only be up for one more start, but he should be stashed in NL-only leagues.
2 comments:
Hey Mike, hope you are well.
How about a write-up on Volstad, please? Is it time to cut bait? He's a real tease.
Thanks very much and take care. Carter
Carter -
Volstad is a guy in 5x5 that works at the back end of the rotation when he is striking out batters and performing at a league average or even slightly worse rate.
Here is the problem: the strikeouts are up, the walks are down, and his ERA is still over 5.6. Zips projects him to put up a 4.6 the rest of the way...not sure if this really helps your team at this point, and I would say you could do better with a high strikeout reliever.
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