Kuzul

In preparation of the 2011 MLB Fantasy Baseball season, The Fantasy Fix team will preview a team’s pitching rotation each day. Jesse Mendelson’s third preview of the AL East features David Price and the Tampa Bay Rays.

Now this will be interesting. 

The Rays traded Matt Garza to the Cubs, opening a full-time rotation spot for Jeremy Hellickson, one of the best young prospects in baseball.  And he’s gonna be their fifth starter.  

David Price leads the way, and rightfully so.  A well-deserved second place in last year’s Cy Young voting, he was arguably the AL’s most consistent pitcher from April to September.

Pitching in a tight divisional race for most of the season, he finished 19-6 with a 2.72 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, .221 BAA and nearly a K per inning.  And as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 Draft and his dominant turn as a closer in the 2008 postseason, you know the guy’s got talent.  

Those of you who had Price on your team last year probably got him cheap—which unfortunately for you won’t happen this year.  I rank him just below the top tier of Halladay/Lee/Sabathia/Lester, et al.

Right up front, I will admit that I am NOT a James Shields fan.  I think he is consistently overvalued from a very good 2008 campaign, but since then, virtually every statistic has gone the wrong way for him.  Wins haven’t changed, he’s lost more games, given up more hits, more earned runs and more homers. 

His ERA has gone up every year, as has his WHIP and BAA.  Plus, he turns 30-years-old later this year.  

Shields does have fairly good strikeout numbers, but I can’t recommend him for ownership—there are spot-starters you can get that will be better than Shields.

Click To Continue Reading The Preview>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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WDAE’s drive-time show host Steve Duemig has a Facebook page for fans to talk sports in the Tampa Bay area.

Looking at his Facebook page, there are many vociferous Joe Maddon critics that post about the Rays manager’s decisions in a game.

This has been going on for the last few years. Many people think Maddon tends to outsmart himself by fielding different lineups or using different relievers to get an out.

After a Rays loss, Duemig’s Facebook page can be comic relief. It is interesting to hear what those armchair quarterbacks would do in a game. Some of them are so off-the-wall that it is not even funny.

Maddon gave another reason for those critics to rip him. He announced James Shields will start Game 2 against the Rangers on Thursday afternoon.

This is easy to second-guess here. Shields did not have a good season. It is surprising that he is starting, let alone that he is on the postseason roster.

He has not earned the right to go pitch in this round. It is interesting Jeff Niemann is not even starting in this series. As much as he struggled since being activated from the disabled list, Niemann at least gives the team a better chance to win than Shields.

The Rays were better off either starting Wade Davis or Matt Garza in Game 2. Jeremy Hellickson was not an option to start because the Rays felt he would be better off being the first guy out of the bullpen if one of the starters struggles in the first round.

Davis would have been this writer’s pick to start Game 2. He is the second best starter on the team at this point. The Rays can expect quality performance out of him in a start like this.

Maddon did not think that way. He figured experience counts for something. Davis does not have that, but that is overrated. We have seen experienced pitchers bomb in the postseason. It comes down to whether the guy has the stuff and the guile to get hitters out.

Does anyone trust Shields in this spot? The longtime Rays starter showed he can pitch well against great teams. He demonstrated that twice against the Yankees this year, but the Yankees also hit him well in several starts.

It is hard to think a starter can go turn it on now that he is pitching in October. If a starter consistently pitches awful for most of the year, it is hard to get that stuff back all the time.

With Shields, he has been thinking too much. It appears he expects to fail when he is out on the mound. He is not demonstrating the confidence factor anymore.

He wants everything to be done right. It has to be perfect. If he is not in a jam, he can get into a groove. Once he makes a mistake or two, it becomes a big inning where he implodes.

This is not what a team wants to see out of a starter in October. That is asking for a trouble.

The Rangers feast on pitchers who have command problems. That was the case for Shields in a start against the Rangers on June 5th. In that start, he gave up six runs (three earned) and 10 hits in seven innings.

To be fair to Shields, he allowed two runs on four hits in seven innings against the Rangers on August 18th. This took place at Tropicana Field, so Maddon hopes his starter can duplicate that in Game 2. Problem is that it is hard to do it.

Maddon can talk about how Shields does fine at the Trop, but giving up 111 hits, 14 home runs, and 53 runs at home does not strike anyone as a confidence builder. He had bad outings over there too, so the difference of home and road splits mean nothing.

On Friday night, Shields was coming off a lousy start against the Royals, who will not be confused with the Big Red Machine. He gave up 12 hits and seven runs in that start. This is not the way to fine-tune for a postseason start or convince a manager to start him.

This is a surprise to see him start days after a bad start. This is a starter who went 0-4 with a 7.59 ERA in his last six starts. This is a starter who leads the league in most home runs, runs and earned runs.

When Ron Washington and the Rangers found out about this news, they had to be giggling among themselves. If the Rangers can win Game 1, they could be in a position to win the series at home in either Game 3 or 4. They have the edge in the starting pitching matchup between C.J. Wilson and Shields.

Wilson can be counted on to pitch a great game. His wins and his command speak for themselves. Shields cannot say that.

It will be interesting how Maddon proceeds in using his struggling starter in this game. Will Shields go five innings only? Can Maddon muster relievers to pitch through the middle innings before he can give it to Joaquin Benoit and Rafael Soriano?

If Shields can somehow pitch six good innings, it will be a victory in itself for him and the Rays. Maybe the Rays can get by with a so-so start out of him. That would be the best scenario, but who knows if Shields has it in him?

Maddon is hoping his gut will pay off here. He is banking on Shields to show his savvy here.

One thing’s for sure: If it does not work out, Duemig’s Facebook page will be a must read.

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It was another nail-biting, extra innings game for the New York Yankees who needed to win and did.

Now, the Bombers are back in first place after losing it for 24 hours to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Only a half-game separates the two ball-clubs making Wednesday night’s outcome a declaration for who ever wins. That is until next week when the Rays come to the Bronx for four games.

Pitching has dictated this series, as the Yankees look to Phil Hughes to keep the Rays bats quiet. Hughes will face Rays James Shields, which is not Sabathia vs. Price but it looks to be a fair fight.

Hughes-Shields Preview

Phil Hughes innings limit has him coming off a skipped start, but threw a solid inning out of the bullpen in Texas.

It will be Hughes first start since September 5.

Hughes has the stuff, as the first-half of the season proved by earning a trip to the All-Star game.

Hughes’ development is being monitored, but Joe Girardi has no other options. Pettitte has been on the DL for two months; add that to Vazquez and Burnett who remain unreliable.

Otherwise this situation would be different.

In his last 10 starts, Hughes has 5-4 record, with a 4.83 ERA, striking-out 36, walking 17 in just shy of 51 innings.

Hughes has allowed 37 earned runs in his last 10 starts and looks to improve against the heavy Rays lineup. Hughes has to settle down early, locate his pitches and throw his curve-ball confidently for strikes.

Even with the recent decline, Hughes’ excuse is legit. His young arm has never thrown this many innings, as well as his inexperience pitching a full season.

Hughes needs to be extra careful with Rays Carlos Pena who has knocked Hughes around in the past.

The Rays counter with James Shields, who has been even streakier this season.

In his last 10 starts, Shields has a 6-3 record, with an ERA of 5.25, striking out 54, walking 14 over 58 innings pitched. Shields’ allowed 34 earned runs and 74 hits over that time, which is not good.

Like Hughes, Shields has gotten hammered lately. When he is on, Shields can throw for strikes as long as he is locating the ball. In his last two starts he allowed 10 earned runs, three home-runs, striking out seven in total and took a loss on both games.

The Yankees got a taste of what a dominant Shields looks like back on August 1^st when he stuck out 11 Yankee batters over seven innings. 

PREDICTION      

This looks to be the highest scoring game of the series, unless both youngsters find their groove with little margin for error.

If Derek Jeter can muster up his old-self again, and Nick Swisher’s wrist is ok to play, than Shields better watch out.

My bold prediction is Yankees win 8-5. Hughes and Shields will get a no decision, both going five innings.

EXTRA EXTRA…..TROPICANA FIELD HAD FANS CHEERING AND FILLED THE PARK. GUESS PEOPLE IN TAMPA DO GO TO CERTAIN BASEBALL GAMES. PATHETIC RAYS FANS!

PLEASE VISIT…..LADY LOVES PINSTRIPES.

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For several years now, it has been Major League Baseball tradition that cash-strapped teams shop one or more of their best players during the annual Winter Meetings. Lately, the biggest deals have been for elite pitchers: The Oakland Athletics traded Dan Haren to the Arizona Diamondbacks in December 2007–a deal that included current stars in pitcher Brett Anderson and outfielder Carlos Gonzalez–and the dominoes have fallen each winter since. 

Johan Santana, Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee are three other big names that have moved over recent offseasons, and it seems only logical to believe that someone of that general caliber will move this year.

Who could be the biggest catches? There are no fewer than five legitimate trade candidates with a chance to make a long-term impact in a new home. Here they are:

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It doesn’t get any better than this. 

A 19 game winner. 

A 17 game winner. 

The best two teams in baseball. 

Did I forget to mention they play in the same division? 

What about the part that they are only 1/2 of a game apart for the division lead? 

What about the historical significance that no two teams have had this many wins and been this neck-and-neck for a division race in MLB‘s 100 plus year history?

Think about it.  In all these years of the Yankees and Red Sox pounding it out, they have not been this good together in the same season.

Enter the 2010 Tampa Bay Rays.

It has been an exciting season for the Rays.  Their fast start.  Their starting pitching. 

They haven’t gone away. 

National pundits said they’d fade, at least a little bit.  And when the Rays had their first rough stretch of the season, critics were quick to think this was the team they should be expecting.

But the problem is, the Rays haven’t gone away.

Just ask the Red Sox.

If not for the Rays, the Red Sox would be contending for the AL Wild Card.  Instead of setting up their post-season rotation, they are playing the “spoiler” role in late September.

And now, the Yankees and Rays start a three game series with the division on the line.

Every game matters.  Every pitch matters.  Every checked swing, every non-call, every managerial move will be dissected to the “nth” degree.

Post-season baseball has come early.

The Yankees and Rays have another chance to duke it out next week.  In all, the Rays and Yankees play each other in 7 of the next 11 games.  But which team needs to strike the first blow more?  Which team has the upper hand coming into this series?  Who is most likely to shine when the lights are at their brightest? 

Here’s a quick breakdown:

What Team Needs The Series Win The Most:  Tampa Bay Rays

Both sides could really use this.  The Yankees were just swept by the Texas Rangers.  A series loss to the Rays could be damaging.  But the truth is, the Yankees get another crack at the Rays next week.  Even more, those games are at Yankee stadium. 

The Rays need this series win because it will be easier to win at home, than at Yankee stadium.  Sure, the Rays have the AL’s best road record.  But it would be much better to have that confidence going into Yankee stadium with the division lead, rather than trying to win on the road AND play catch-up.

Which Team Has the Upper Hand Coming Into This Series:  Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays are at home, they are starting to regain their health, and currently boast the deepest team in baseball.  The Yankees are 4-6 in their last 10 games, and while they have Cy Young contender CC Sabathia in Game 1, they are relying on youngster Ivan Nova for the biggest series of the season to date.  Phil Hughes may have hit a late-year wall, having given up 5 ER or more in two of his last three starts.  As the Yankees have also been watching his innings limit, he had his last start skipped and time will tell if he comes back rusty or refreshed.

Who Are The Potential Difference-Makers:

1)  Ben Zobrist – few players have been hotter than Zobrist in the past week.  He drove in two runs in each of the three games against Toronto this weekend.  Six of his last seven hits have been for extra bases.  Despite not showing as much power as last year, Zobrist has quietly had a productive season in other ways, ranking 5th in the AL in walks and 10th in stolen bases.  If his power re-emerges for this series, the Rays may once again be unleashing “Zorilla” on the defending champs.

2)  Robinson Cano – Due to the injuries to Nick Swisher and Brett Gardener, Yankees manager Joe Girardi is moving Cano up to #2 in the batting order.  Will moving up Cano mess with his approach at the plate?  Or will he continue to tear the cover off the ball?  Cano’s ability to produce at the top of the order will help their run producers do their job.

3) James Shields or James Yields – Shields has already pitched seven shutout innings against the Yankees in a previous start.  But he also leads the AL in home runs allowed.  Shields has been a boom or bust type of pitcher this year.  Which Shields come up in the final game of this series could very well determine who takes home a 2-1 series win in this three game set.

4) Ivan Nova – It’s not easy to pitch in New York and so far, this 23-year-old has more than held his own.  In 4 starts, Nova has compiled a 2.92 ERA.  No one is expecting a CC Sabathia-type performance, but if he can give the Yankees 5 or 6 innings of 3 ER or less, the Yankees will definitely like their chances in game two.

Tonight’s Lineups:

Yankees

Jeter ss
Cano 2b
Teixeira 1b
A-Rod 3b
Thames dh
Posada c
Kearns lf
Granderson cf
Golson rf
Sabathia p

Rays

Upton cf
Bartlett ss
Crawford lf
Longoria 3b
Zobrist rf
Pena 1b
Rodriguez 2b
Aybar dh
Shoppach c
Price p

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This Baseball Digest writer suggested the Rays trade James Shields for a hitter in the trade deadline, and he questioned why Joe Maddon would start the struggling
Shields in the divisional showdown against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium several weeks ago.

Good thing he is just a guy with an opinion not a baseball manager or the president of a team’s baseball operations. If he ran or managed the Rays, they would not
be the team they are today.

Since the post All-Star Break, Shields won three straight games prior to his start against the Yankees on Sunday afternoon. His ERA was at 4.88 despite the winning streak, but disregard that for a second. Shields has gone deep in games, and he found the location to throw strikes in those three victories. Those are things Shields could not do in the first few months of the season.

Sunday’s performance showed Shields is back to being the bulldog pitcher the Rays expect him to be. He hit his spots well, and the Yankees had a hard time of finding a way to disrupt his change-up.

Shields started off well by pitching inside to Derek Jeter couple of times to start the game, getting newly acquired Lance Berkman out on two pitches and striking out Mark Teixeira with a heavy diet of fastball.

In the second inning, Shields ran into trouble. He gave up a couple of hits after getting Robinson Cano out, and just like that, Shields was in a jam with runners at first and third. Anyone think the Yankees were going to take the lead with two men on and one out?

No one could have blamed others for feeling that way, but Shields had other ideas. He struck out Curtis Granderson with a change-up, and Austin Kearns popped up meekly to end the threat.

This was the only opportunity the Yankees would get against Shields. After that, he shut the Yankees down for the rest of the day.

Shields was locked in from the third inning by being ahead of the count. At one point, he struck out six in a row.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi had a secret weapon waiting for Shields, and he used it in the seventh inning with one on and two outs. After intending to give Alex Rodriguez a day off just to get his mind off the home run milestone he is pursuing, here was Rodriguez with a chance not only to get that 600th home run of his career, but to give the momentum to the Yankees.

Instead, Rodriguez represented the 10th strikeout for Shields.

Shields could have went eight innings, but with his pitch count approaching 120,  Maddon elected to end his day with 116 pitches. The Rays starter finished the day by allowing four hits, striking out 11, and walking one in 7.1 innings.

The best way to describe this is dominance.

It was a vintage performance from Shields to say the least. It brought back memories from couple of years ago when he dominated the AL East teams.

Maddon mentioned this was the best performance he ever saw out of Shields. Maybe the Rays manager was caught up in the moment, but it’s hard to believe this was Shields’ best performance ever. Shields’ best performance came when he pitched a shutout against the Red Sox at Fenway Park couple of years ago in April. He blew the Red Sox away by throwing fastballs at every Red Sox hitter.

Shields’ recent starts have been encouraging, and if he can duplicate more performances like Sunday, the Rays’ starting rotation gets even better. The Rays have a good starting trio in David Price, Matt Garza, and Jeff Niemann. Shields makes it better with his postseason experience. He was the team’s best postseason pitcher couple of years ago.

With him, it’s all about confidence. If he can find his command of his pitches, he can go on a roll like he did Sunday afternoon.

Comparing his starts in May to his recent starts, there’s a change in demeanor. Shields was frustrated on the mound when he struggled. He was intimidated by the hitters at the time, but lately, that has not been the case. On Sunday, it was his turn to intimidate the Yankees.

It was hard to believe Shields would get back to the level he was two years ago. He looked done going back to last year. Teams figured him out by either homering off him
or hitting line drives off him, which inflated his ERA at either four or five. His fastball looked dead, and that’s his bread and butter pitch.

There were reasons to be concerned about him.

To Shields’ credit, his strikeouts were still there despite his struggles. He felt it was a matter of time until he got it together.  He finally mixed his change-up and fastball together, and that helped him to be successful again.

After seeing him in July and Sunday, it’s okay to call him Big Game James again.

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New York Yankees ace CC Sabathia will square off against Tampa Bay Rays James Shields, in the third and final game of this series.

Let’s check out this matchup:

 
Tampa Bay Rays: James Shields (9-9)

James Shields is a lights-out pitcher, if you are referring to his high strikeout numbers.

In 2010 Shields has posted 122 strikeouts over 135 innings. He maintains a minimal number of walks with 31.

So what explains Shields ERA being 4.79?

It is because Shields has given up 22 home runs this season, along with 72 earned runs. His weakest pitch is his fastball and it gets hit hard. Shields’s change-up is his strongest pitch, but without it he is very hittable.

Over his last three starts, Shields is 2-0, pitching 19 innings, allowing nine earned runs, while walking five, and striking out 13. Still, he has been better after a horrible June and he has won his last two starts.

If Shields doesn’t shield his pitches and is predictable, the Yankees bats will eat him alive. Jeter and Cano have done it in the past, so look for them to go after Shields from the start.

 
New York Yankees: CC Sabathia (13-4)

Yankees ace CC Sabathia had his first loss since May 23, but he actually pitched very well. Lack of run support, along with some sloppy fielding behind him, was to blame for the result.

Sabathia has a 3.15 ERA in 151 innings this season. The Yankees ace has two complete games, giving up 53 earned runs, 12 homers, and 124 strikeouts.

Sabathia’s 52 walks are not great, but no matter what he can go deep into games, which allows the bullpen to rest.

Even in his most recent start, where he took the loss, Sabathia pitched seven solid innings, struck out five, walked three, but allowed two hits.

Sabathia is not going to have another bad start, so expect him to dominate from the start of this game.

The Rays to watch for against CC are BJ Upton, who is off the DL, and Evan Longoria. Otherwise, the rest of the Rays pose no threat.

 
Prediction:

Yankees beat the Rays 4-1. Sabathia gets the win. Shields take the loss.

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Another day, another big time prospect comes to the majors.  Today it is Carlos Santana of the Cleveland Indians who was perhaps the best hitting prospect left down in the farm.  I wont start gushing too much about him, you will have to read the article to see the rest.  There is some injury news on one of the best players in the game, and also some of the more interesting pitchers of the night. 

Carlos Santana was FINALLY called to the major leagues by the Cleveland Indians and was third in the batting order in his first game.  He was 0-for-3 with a walk in his first action, but there is no doubt that the team has nothing but confidence in him and he will be their everyday catcher or at least DH if they think he needs a day off from behind the plate. 

There is absolutely nothing not to like about this kid.  He is just 24 years old and has hit at every level of the minors.  In 57 games in AAA in 2010, Santana was hitting .316 with 13 homers and 51 RBI. 

I think that he will have similar numbers to that of Buster Posey, but I think that he is going to hit more homers than his National League counterpart.  Santana is a good pick-up for any fantasy team, even if you have one of the top catchers in the league. 

The “groin injury” that caused Alex Rodriguez to come out of yesterday’s game turns out to be a hip problem after all, although according to his manager it is not in the area that caused him to have surgery and miss the first month of last season (although I don’t believe that for one second). 

He did not play on Friday and the team says that he is day to day.  If I had to guess, I would say that he probably won’t play until Sunday, but I wouldn’t be totally shocked if he was back with the team on Saturday.  It might cause him to miss some games sporadically over the next couple of weeks, but it appears that this won’t be  major. 

Austin Kearns is having a nice little bounce back year as he attempts to actually have a season that he can actually stay healthy.  Kearns has only played more than 90 games once in the last five seasons.  He had two home runs on Friday, bringing his season total to seven in just 40 games. 

If you are considering adding Kearns, allow me to offer these words of advice.  I can see you adding him to your roster if you are a little weak in the due to injury or other factors.  However, just know that this is probably going to be short lived because he has never proven to be consistent or able to stay on the field. 

For those of you who have been worried about Francisco Liriano regressing after his hot start, how are you feeling now? 

Liriano absolutely dominated the Atlanta Braves on Friday as he gave up just one run over eight innings and struck out a very impressive 11 batters.

This is now back to back games in which he has double digit strikeouts and has allowed only one run, so any concern coming off that little rough stretch should be gone.  His ERA is under 3.00 and he has more than a strikeout an inning for the season. 

R. A. Dickey got his fourth win in just five starts for the New York Mets, but I don’t see any way that you can possibly trust this journeyman knuckleballer to be a consistent contributor for you.  There is no way that you can take away today’s performance though as he allowed just one run over seven innings and struck out eight. 

Most of the time with knuckleballers it is either feast or famine.  Either the ball is jumping all over and it is hard to hit, or it just isn’t moving much at all and it is batting practice for the offense.  So far, so good for Dickey, but I think you are grasping at straws if you are expecting a 35 year old pitcher with a career record under .500 and a ERA of 5.31 to pitch well throughout the season. 

Granted it is easier to pitch when your team gives you nine runs of support in the first two innings, John Lackey had a strong outing today regardless of his cushion.  He gave up just two runs over seven innings and struck out three. 

Like I wrote last time he took the mound, I think the days of the John Lackey in Anaheim with the good strikeout numbers might be gone, but I still think he is a very viable fantasy pitcher.  He has gone from a possible staff ace to a very solid third starter on your team; but on the Red Sox he should really be able to pile up some wins as he got number seven on Friday.  It has been an uncharacteristic season for Lackey, but perhaps he can get back on track. 

Speaking of getting back on track, hopefully tonight’s game will do just that for David Ortiz .  Big Papi was starting to turn back into a pumpkin again as he had just one hit in his previous eight games—but he broke out big time on Friday as he collected three hits and drove in four runs to bring his season total to 39 RBI.  Looks like it is going to be similar to last year for Papi with a good number of homers and RBIs and a pretty putrid batting average. 

James Shields has hit a major bump in the road lately, a bump that hopefully is temporary.  He had a streak from April 22^nd to May 25^th in which he did not allow more than three earned runs, and now two of his last three outings he has coughed up at least seven.  He gave up a whopping ten earned runs on Friday in just 3.1 innings, but at least he struck out four (like that is any consolation to his owners!).

At least Shields is still getting exceptional strikeout numbers for his career, as he now has 82 whiffs in just 85 innings pitched, which is well above his career rate.  If you have Shields, you have to continue to start him no matter the opponent and hope that this is short lived. 

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Coming into this season, critics and fans were well aware of the Tampa Bay Rays ability to score runs. With one of the best young line-ups in baseball, the Rays were predicted to fight for the AL East crown with the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.

Most people picked the Yankees and the Sox to finish ahead of the Rays because of one thing: starting pitching. After a sub-par year from both Matt Garza and James Shields in 2009, the Rays aces have gotten off to great year in 2010.

Lets take a closer look at James Shields, Matt Garza and the rest of the Tampa Bay rotation.

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With close to 50 games in the bag, some player trends are starting to mold. There are some huge surprises on the list and many big names are missing. Pujols, Howard, Fielder, A-Rod, Teixeira are all guys that missed this list.

Here are your top 10 fantasy players thus far. Four are pitchers and 6 are position players. They are not necessarily in any order. Andre Ethier has been left off the list due to injury.

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