Week 2

I was in first place the majority of the week, but a bad final two days pushed me into second. Still better than last week. Here are the current top 4:

1 ~ Fantasy Tools 82.0
2 ~ Antelope Crusaders 76.0
3 ~ Dittoheads 66.5
4 ~ Gang Green 64.0

I'm in first place in... Batting Average, HR, RBI, RS and Wins (yes, wins!)... and in last place in ERA and saves, and second to last in Ratio. For the scoring period, I came in 4th overall... but just 10.5 points out of first.

Hitting (84 for 307, .274ba, 10hr, 48rbi, 56r, 6sb)
Virtually all of that production came in the first 5 days. I closed the week by going something like 10 for 90. Incredibly ugly! Still a solid week though with plenty of production. Placido Polanco stayed hot and looks to be a solid value. Hanley Ramirez is starting to heat up which is exciting. Bengie Molina went nuts going 10 for 18 with a HR. Very nice to see that. Notice the Giants are resting him more, but I think that's a good thing.

Far and away though, my player of the week was Matt Kemp. 8 for 24 (.333) with 4hr, 8rbi, 8rs, 1sb. He finished 10th in the MVP voting last year, and that was with him batting 8th a big chunk of the first half. Now he's hitting second behind A Either and M Ramirez. There is every reason to expect him to be right in the thick of the MVP race in 2010.

Other good news this week... Greg Zaun got a hit! He actually had 5 of them and a couple of RBI and RS. Nate Schierholtz got a couple of starts and produced, 3 for 9 with 3 walks. John Bowker has cooled considerably (3 for 20) and Aaron Rowand has landed on the DL... so even more playing time looks likely. Ryan Spilborghs, Ronnie Belliard and Chris Dickerson all also pushed for more playing time.

On the negative side, Troy Glaus continues to struggle. He did hit a HR, which was nice. But that's his only extra base hit on the season and he was 3 for 19 for the week (with 0 walks). Have to start to worrying about him, especially with him losing ABs recently. Tony Gwynn is an even bigger concern though. He was 1 for 13... he's not hitting leadoff when he starts... and the Padres have 5 OFs they like to play. The good news is, none of them are hitting so no one is running away with the starting job(s). But, Tony needs to get things going. As is, he was the goat of the week.


Pitching (67.2ip, 5.19era, 1.51ratio, 50k, 7w, 0s)
A lot like my hitting, the last two days killed me. But unlike my hitting, overall it wasn't a very good pitching week. A shame too, because there were some good performances. Hiroki Kuroda and Zack Duke were again solid... and Vicente Padilla and Brett Myers turned things around and posted solid efforts. Nick Masset picked up 2 wins, and Tyler Clippard, Brian Bruney and Ramon Troncoso also picked up wins... so 5 wins this week for the bullpen, which is spectacular. Betting that will be my most bullpen wins in a week this season.

A lot of good news. The player of the week though was Kevin Correia...11.1ip, 2 wins, 11k, 1.59era, 1.11ratio. I like both my Padre pitchers (Jon Garland threw 5 shutout innings this week)... and when one of them picks up two starts in a week (especially at home), they have a good chance at being my best pitcher for the week.

So, with all the good news... and I just mentioned by name 10 of my 13 pitchers... you know there had to be some big time eggs. The one that hurt the worst was the one Juan Gutierrez laid. The Dbacks brought him in to close a 3-2 game... a golden chance to push himself into the save mix in Arizona. He had 2 outs and needed only to get David Eckstein out for the save. He hit a double though... and 4 runs later he had the loss... and good luck getting another save chance anytime soon. Very-VERY ugly.

Figured he for sure was going to be my goat of the week. But... that was before Jason Marquis closed out my week with his Sunday start. He'd already been hammered earlier in the week... 4.1ip, 6er, 8on. Well, we went from worse to worser (to quote my brother Kenny)... 0ip and 7er.

That got him the goat of the week... and... a one way ticket out of Antelope. A poor second half in 2009, a bad spring and now a horrendous start to 2010. Enough! He's a Washington Nationals pitcher so his win potential was already limited... and he's a below average K pitcher too (115 in 216ip last year in his 'good' year). So even if he turns it around, he's never going to be all that valuable. I'm not waiting around to see if he turns it around to become a below average pitcher though. I've seen enough.

So, I dealt him to the Dittoheads for Burke Badenhop and a 6th rounder. I'm already looking to add a starting pitcher and will dump my worst RP when I find one (and it well might be Badenhop... certainly no fan of his). Might even be open to adding a hitter if I find the right one. I was going to cut Marquis last night... so this move gives me a free draft pick and some time to think about it (plus Badenhop could stick over one of my other RPs).