Adam LaRoche, I take back everything bad I ever said about you. Your 8th inning homer against the Brewers on Sunday clinched a victory in batting average, .257 to .249. I know, that doesn't seem altogether that close, but between your three hits and Casey McGehee's 4 hits in the doubleheader, you gave me what I needed to best last year's league champ. Just don't exacerbate the tear in your left shoulder and we'll get along just fine.
My pitching gambit almost backfired. I was down one in wins and tied in losses. I started Jon Lester, Dan Haren and Jeff Francis to try to win one of those categories. Lester and Haren brought home W's, but Francis got beaten by the Mariners. My opponent benched his only Sunday starter (Barry Enright), who eventually took the loss in that game. However, Astros reliever Mark Melancon got battered by the Padres and took an L. At the end of the day, I clinched the victory in wins and had a 4-4 tie in losses. Trust your guys, and with a little luck they'll pull through for you.
I won steals (8), batting average (.257), wins (5), strikeouts (61), ERA (2.90) and WHIP (1.21). I tied losses (4) and lost everything else. It's amazing to me that I was actively trying to punt steals in the draft and I've won that category two weeks in a row now.
The beginning of this week has been a role reversal as far as season trends go. My offense is still not hitting for average or OPS, but we're competitive in runs, homers, RBIs and steals. Pitching, however, has been a struggle so far with Kyle Drabek, Phil Coke and Erik Bedard all getting roughed up. I only get one start each from Lester and Haren this week, so I decided to start everyone, including Bedard and James McDonald. I also picked up the A's Tyson Ross who's filling in for the injured Dallas Braden. Had to drop Joaquin Benoit to make room, but there's a chance I could get him back or at least pick up another similar middle reliever like Joel Peralta from the Rays. As badly as I wanted to drop the underperforming Bedard or McDonald, starting pitching is at an absolute premium in this league and Ross won't be in the rotation long enough to give up an established starter.
Bad news: Aaron Hill had to be lifted from Tuesday's game with a "sore hamstring." It was bad enough that they had to perform an MRI on Wednesday; no report on the outcome yet. Hill hadn't shown the power bat yet, but was making up for it on the basepaths. In fact, he hurt his hamstring on his 6th steal of the year, tying his career high. He was hitting .242 at the time of his injury, which was a marked improvement over last year's .205 or even his struggles for most of the first two weeks. Phillies infielder Wilson Valdez is my backup, but if Hill ends up on the DL, I'll have to hit the free agent pool for 2B at-bats. With Rule 5 experiment Brad Emaus gone, Daniel Murphy is on the good side of the 2B platoon for the Mets. Hill's potential replacement, Jayson Nix, comes off waivers on Friday. Apart from those two, the cupboard is bare. This league is DEEP.
No comments:
Post a Comment