The Final A.L. Gearing Up - Part II

Last time out I looked at some hitters who might help out over the last three days of the regular season (assuming you're on a weekly Sunday/Monday transaction schedule like most Rotisserie leagues are).

If you're looking for a starter in a deep A.L.-only, the pickings are slim. Below are the confirmed starting pitchers that are available in my A.L.-only next week:

Monday: Dustin McGowan @CHW (Mark Buehrle)

Tuesday: Jeanmar Gomez @DET (undecided)

Philip Humber TOR (Henderson Alvarez)

Wednesday: Alfredo Simon BOS (Jon Lester*)

Anthony Vasquez OAK (Gio Gonzalez)

*TBD if the Red Sox clinch a play-off berth prior to Wednesday.

Of the pitchers on this list, I'd stay away from Simon and Vasquez no matter what category or categories you're chasing. McGowan has shown flashes of brilliance and had a decent five innings his last time out, but nonetheless is a risky play.

Gomez and Humber are probably your best bets here. The hope is that Gomez faces a B Tigers line-up and continues to ride the hot hand despite a 3.74 xFIP in his last five starts that tells us he's pitching way over his head (1.80 ERA). Humber's the anti-Gomez here. His ERA stinks in his last four starts, but the xFIP speaks of much better things. At the very least, if you're in a K battle, Humber's a better bet than Gomez.

For teams playing for next year, I have to squint to try to find pitchers worth $10 or more on the waiver wire. John Danks is available, but is at $20, and given his poor finish I'd throw him back at that price. Rich Harden would seem like a no-brainer, but his lousy ERA/WHIP offset his strikeouts quite a bit. Guillermo Moscoso continues to put up a pretty ERA, but all of his other numbers scare me. I do like the ballpark he's pitching in but after the Trevor Cahill flop this year, I'm wary of looking an Oakland pitcher and thinking that the park will save him.

If you're thinking about trying to luck into some saves in the last three days, have at it. It's entirely possible someone like Ryan Perry or Boone Logan accidentally falls into a save, but trying to figure out who that guy is going to be is like trying to figure out which ball is going to be the Powerball.

Speculating on future closers is a waste of time, but if you're inclined to take a stab, try Joel Carreno. John Sickels turned me on to Carreno. While Sickels points out he might start, I think that Carreno's stuff is better suited to the pen and he might wind up there. The Jays have a lot of veteran arms ahead of him in the pen, but said pen is also weak. This will probably amount to nothing, but again if you're inclined to do this, Carreno's at or near the top of this list.