Fantasy Baseball-- Week 8

Last week was calm. The rosters changed minimally. This week was a storm, with injuries, turmoil and trades. Both teams are in second place. The Yahoo team remained at 82.5 points and is 0.5 points back. Asakusabashi, the CBS team, advanced 4 points to 87.5.

Ballywood traded Roy Oswalt and Alexi Ogando for Evan Longoria. This made Adam Lind droppable, when he, Shane Victorino and Jason Heyward all went to the DL last week. The lineup stands at Napoli, Teixeira, Phillips, Andrus, Longoria, Quentin, Bourn, D. Brown, R. Howard, J. Lowrie with a DL of Zimmerman, Victorino and Heyward. Pineda (2W, 0er, 16K, .43 WHIP), Hudson (2W, 12K, 1.80, 1.20), Bumgarner (1W, 1.04, .92) and Liriano (1W, 12K, 2.08, 1.08) were strong last week. Jake Peavy and Eric Bedard were added based on dominating performances. Carpenter seems to be the poorest SP on the roster now. Kimbrel, Valverde, Wilson and Melancon are getting saves.

Asakusabashi traded Adrian Gonzalez, Clay Buchholz and Wilson Ramos for Roy Halladay, Prince Fielder and Hank Conger. Conger was dropped for Jared Saltalamaccia. With injuries to Brian Roberts and Jason Heyward, it is not yet clear how to fill the roster. Ramos had a huge day Friday, as he scored five runs. Saltalamacchia plays for the better team, and has started to hit homeruns, so I had considered adding him even before the trade. (Saltalamacchia was a target in the draft.) With their salaries at $19 and $6, giving up two Red Sox, Gonzalez and Buchholz, was giving up quite a lot. Roy Halladay might have been the only player strong enough for me to pull the trigger on this deal. Fielder should not be a huge downgrade from A-Gone, though Gonzalez has been nothing short of great lately. A-Rod, Stanton, Kemp and Granderson each added three HR last week, so the power department seems to be solid-- hitting stats last week were great.

Results from the five two start pitchers were mixed. Liriano was the best pitcher with one win and 13Ks. Garcia had 9Ks, good WHIP and good ERA, but no wins. Neither Kuroda nor Jackson helped the WHIP, but combined their ERA was neutral, both added a win, and combined they gave 23 Ks. Buchholz and Ogando did well on the bench-- good WHIP, good ERA. Nolasco did not contribute positively, but will be a two start pitcher this week. Ogando and de la Rosa will also provide two starts this week. Liriano and Halladay are the one start pitchers, and these two will likely provide no reason to be benched for the rest of the year. Edwin Jackson looks droppable at this point-- he goes to open up space to fill out the hitting roster if Brian Roberts goes to the bench.

Brian Roberts stole two bases before he went to the DL with a concussion after sliding head first into second base. I hope he is not done for the year ala Morneau last year. (As he might be done, I tried to get Furcal as a replacement.) Heyward contributed a mere SB for the week as he has shoulder problems that finally DL-d him.


Week 7 0.2894 16 50 43 8 3.240 56 3 5 1.5000
Total 0.2740 94 312 323 50 3.510 308 27 30 1.3298
Rank BA(1) HR(1) RBI(2) R(2) SB(6) ERA(6) K(9) W(2) S(1) WHIP(10)

Ballywood struggled to try to keep a full lineup. As Victorino, Heyward and eventually Zimmerman come off the bench, and make up for the lost games, Ballywood should regain first place in the offensive categories. The pitching has been great. It is just a matter of time before WHIP and ERA points accumulate.