Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners SP
Each and every day, I’ll be combing over box scores and scouring local beat writers’ reports to make sure you have all the information you need in order to make the right decisions for your fantasy baseball lineup. Make sure you check back at this very spot for Hot/Cold Streaks, Injury News, Closer Updates, Daily Stats, and more so that you can stay one step ahead of the rest of your league.
As always, make sure you’re getting your daily fantasy sports fix by playing the FP911Challenge. Not sure how to play? Don’t worry, because Dan Stack’s got you covered with a quick tutorial and some tips for this week.
Looking Back
It’s a fact of life that almost baseball player goes through hot and cold streaks. It’s important not to let those streaks influence a player’s fantasy value too much, but it is important to be aware of how a player is doing within a short period of time (a seven-day sorter is always a good tool to use). A player’s short-term numbers can be the difference between winning and losing in daily games, and it can also make a huge difference in year-long leagues. For instance, if you can keep finding the second basemen on hot streaks and dropping them for another streaking second basemen once they get cold, you can piece together a very useful middle infielder-by-committeefor your roto team. So before we get to today’s games, let’s take a spin through last night’s box scores to identify who had a good night and who had a bad night on Saturday, July 14th.
5 Good Nights
- Felix Hernandez: 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 12 K’s, W
- Tim Lincecum: 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 11 K’s
- Edwin Encarnacion: 2-4, 2 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI
- Alcides Escobar: 2-4, 2 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI
- Mark Teixeira: 3-5, R, HR, 4 RBI
Honorable Mention: Mike Trout, Adam Lind, Juan Pierre, Andres Torres, Chase Utley, Casey McGehee, Michael Brantley, Shelley Duncan, Carlos Quentin, Robinson Cano, Wilin Rosario, Omar Infante, Kelly Johnson, Will Venable, Carlos Ruiz, Chris Carter, Yoenis Cespedes, David Price, Mark Buehrle, Aaron Harang, Vance Worley, Ryan Dempster, Kevin Correia, Gio Gonzalez, Mike Leake, Tommy Milone, Wei-Yin Chen, Lucas Harrell, Marco Estrada
5 Bad Nights
- Ubaldo Jimenez: 2.1 IP, 7 H, 8 ER, 4 BB’s, 2 K’s
- Tommy Hanson: 5.1 IP, 9 H, 6 ER, 2 BB’s , 5 K’s
- Yu Darvish: 6.1 IP, 8 H, 7 ER, 4 BB’s, 4 K’s
- Austin Jackson: 0-6, R
- David Wright: 0-5
Dishonorable Mention: Carlos Beltran, Chipper Jones, Austin Jackson, A.J. Ellis, Jon Jay, Jemile Weeks, Bobby Parnell, Cole De Vries, R.A. Dickey, Jose Valverde, Santiago Casilla, Jim Johnson, Kenley Jensen, Jake Peavy, Jeremy Guthrie, Jerome Williams, Edinson Volquez, Aaron Laffey, Max Scherzer, Clay Buchholz, Freddie Garcia, Luke Hochevar
Daily Grab Bag
Check back here for daily updates on injuries, closer battles, player news, and anything else that might affect your fantasy baseball team.
- Steve Cishek got the Marlins’ first closer-by-committee save opportunity and looks like the guy to own in Miami if you’re trolling for saves.
- Johnny Cueto has been scratched from today’s start with a blister on his finger. Homer Bailey will start in his place.
- Adrian Gonzalez will likely miss today’s game with a sore back, but the Red Sox are hopeful he’ll be able to get back into the lineup on Monday against the White Sox.
- Jed Lowrie left last night’s game after suffering an ankle injury, and left the ballpark on crutches. Hopefully this isn’t too serious, but I think we all need to be prepared for at least a few days without Lowrie.
- Roy Halladay (shoulder) threw a bullpen session Friday and is scheduled to come off the DL and face the Dodgers on Tuesday.
- There are early reports that Matt Joyce (back) could return to the Rays’ lineup this Wednesday.
- Colby Lewis (forearm) is still progressing well in his rehab and is on-track to start against the A’s on Wednesday.
- Trout/Harper/Rizzo/Bauer Watch: With two of baseball’s best prospects being called-up earlier this season, I’m going to dedicate this space to keeping tabs on the youngsters. Here’s to hoping that you were able to grab some of them! (UPDATE: Anthony Rizzo and Trevor Bauer are the latest uber prospects to get the call, so I’ve added them to the list, as well.)
Bryce Harper: Harper went 0-3 yesterday. (.277, 44 R, 8 HR, 25 RBI, 11 steals on the season).
Mike Trout: Trout went 3-5 with one run and two steals yesterday. (.348, 59 Runs, 12 HR, 40 RBI, 30 steals on the season).
Anthony Rizzo: Rizzo went 1-4 yesterday. (.357, 9 R, 4 HR, 9 RBI on the season).
Trevor Bauer: Bauer will make his next start on Tuesday against the Cincinnati Reds. (1-1, 5.40 ERA, 1.58 WHIP, 13 K’s on the season)
3 Up, 3 Down, and Throwing Darts
Starting and sitting the right pitchers on a day-to-day basis is often the linchpin of winning any league – roto, head-to-head, daily, and otherwise. In order to give you some help picking your pitchers for today, I’ve gone through all the stats I could (pitchers’ career numbers vs. certain hitters and lineups, home/road splits, lefty/righty splits, etc) and made nine recommendations. I’m not going to proclaim that I’ll get these 100% correct all season, but anyone that does should be sitting on an island they own in the Pacific – not writing fantasy baseball articles. The goal here is to play the odds the entire season and slowly build your “win” percentage closer to 100% than to 50%.
Here’s today’s recommendations with, 3 Up (three pitchers you shouldn’t think of sitting), 3 Down (three pitchers with some warning flags for today), and Throwing Darts (three pitchers that I’ll be taking a flier on):
3 Up
Chris Sale at Kansas City Royals
Stephen Strasburg at Miami Marlins
Matt Cain vs. Houston Astros
3 Down
Ben Sheets vs. New York Mets
James Shields vs. Boston Red Sox
Derek Lowe at Toronto Blue Jays
Throwing Darts
Jarrod Parker at Minnesota Twins
Trevor Cahill at Chicago Cubs
Bud Norris at San Francisco Giants
Swings and Misses
A hitter’s career numbers against a pitcher don’t always tell the whole story, but it can be informative if used correctly. I’m of the opinion that some information is better than none, and while there are other pieces to the puzzle of setting your daily lineup (splits, weather, etc.), I think a hitter’s career numbers against a pitcher can be very indicative of future success or failure. Some guys just own certain pitchers, and vice versa. As such, I’ve gone through today’s matchups and picked the best (and worst) matchups I could find. Anything less than 10-12 career at-bats is a relatively small sample-size (so take those with a grain of salt), but sometimes that’s all that is available.
Swings
- David Ortiz is 15-for-49 (.306) with three home runs and 15 RBI in his career against today’s starter, James Shields.
- Curtis Granderson is 15-for-49 (.318) with four home runs and 15 RBI in his career against today’s starter, Jered Weaver.
- Check to make sure he’s in the lineup, but Raul Ibanez is 14-for-27 (.900) with four home runs in his career against today’s starter, Jered Weaver.
- Adam Jones is 1-for-16 (.063) in his career against today’s starter, Justin Verlander.
- Dan Uggla is 1-for-21 (.048) in his career against today’s starter, Johan Santana.
- Andre Ethier is 1-for-21 (.048) in his career against today’s starter, Jason Marquis.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the great content on FantasyPros911.com, starting with some of our most recent updates:
- Greg Marta takes a look at today’s pitching matchups in the latest edition of Pitch or Ditch.
- Matthew Dewoskin helps you find the next closing-in-waiting in this week’s Blown Opportunities.
- Dan Stack identifies some guys to keep a close eye on in this week’s Players to Watch.
- The calendar has turned to July, which means it’s time to start talking fantasy football! Before you start mock drafting, make sure you check out Paul Greco’s pre-season rankings, including Quarterback, Running Back, Wide Receiver, Tight End, and Strength of Schedule.
- Collin Hager continues the fantasy football trend with a look at the impact of this year’s rookie quarterbacks.
- Steve DeAngelo previews Roy Helu’s impact on this year’s class of running backs.
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