Peace.

A day after I espoused the notion that starting pitching, no matter how terrible, is invaluable in a 20-team league, I'm sending James McDonald packing.

0-2, 10.13 ERA, 1.98 WHIP and 12 Ks in 18-2/3 innings (4 starts). He only made it out of the 5th inning once. With any pitcher, there's always a chance he could give me a couple of solid starts or even completely turn it around, but I don't see it in the cards. His fastball velocity is down about 5 mph from last fall and, well, he still pitches for the Pirates, so the W-L record is going to be suspect.

Picked up 2B Daniel Murphy from the Mets, just in case Aaron Hill hits the DL. MRI on Hill's leg was inconclusive.

However, this still leaves me short on starting pitching. Well, short for me since I'm punting saves. I've got nine active starters and three more on the DL (Brandon Webb, Andrew Cashner and Justin Duchscherer) but none of them are close to returning. Cashner would be first as he's starting his rehab throwing program today. The reports on Webb are mildly encouraging, but the guy hasn't pitched in the bigs in over two years AND he recently told a reporter that he'd take a relief role if that's all there was for him. He might be onto something there, as the Rangers rotation looks pretty good apart from Colby Lewis' early struggles. Duchscherer was recently transferred to the 60-day DL, though it was primarily a move to free a spot on the 40-man roster. There's no good timetable for his return.

As expected, the free agent/waiver market is barren. The only available guy with a start in the next four days is Brad Bergesen, but he's pitching against the Yankees. No deal.

A Matter of Trust

Looking at the matchup situation on Saturday morning, it seemed like an easy call. My opponent this week (last year's champ) had Indians hurler Josh Tomlin and inconsistent Royals pitcher Sean O'Sullivan going on Saturday with the less-than-stellar D-backs righty Barry Enright scheduled for Sunday. My Saturday had Derek Holland against the Yankees, James McDonald against the Reds and Kyle McClellan matched up against Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers. On Sunday I'll have my aces - Jon Lester and Dan Haren - as well as the surprising Jeff Francis against the anemic Seattle offense. All categories (except saves) are either close or competitive, though I'm leading all of them going into Saturday's games.

Thinking about last week, I decided to play a little closer to the vest: Holland has been very good, McDonald has been lackluster, and McClellan has been lucky but effective. I start Holland on principle, well, two principles actually: he's throwing well and screw the Yankees. I bench McDonald against the red-hot Cincinnati offense. I vacillated on McClellan: he's getting wins, but matched up against Kershaw makes his probability of losing much higher. Ultimately, I benched him.

Holland guts out seven strong innings against the Bombers, only to give up a 2-run homer to Robinson Cano in the eighth. Loss.

McDonald gets lit up by the Reds, giving up nine hits and seven runs (six earned) in 4-1/3 innings. Benching him turned out to be a very smart play, but now I also have to think about whether he's worth keeping on the roster. I'll have Andrew Cashner back in a couple of weeks and I'll likely have to make a roster spot for him.

All Kyle McClellan did was beat the Dodgers, holding them to one run and six hits over seven innings, lowering his ERA to 1.89 on the season. Kershaw did not fare so well, giving up five runs on six hits and five walks. He did strike out five, but had to be lifted after 4-2/3 innings and 111 pitches.

Part of my draft strategy was to rely on young pitchers with upside. That's how I got guys like McClellan, Kyle Drabek, and Phil Coke on this team. Same way I got Mat Latos, C.J. Wilson and Wade Davis on last year's squad. In the early going, I need to learn to trust these guys more. I'm going to get burned every once in a while (see Erik Bedard) but there's really only one way to let these bets pay off: let them play.

So going into Sunday's games, I'm down 4-3 in wins and tied 3-3 in losses. I have pretty safe leads in strikeouts and ERA and a smaller lead in WHIP. I'm in the exact same spot I was in last week, sitting on a loss and a tie with three starters to go. I'm going to let it ride again, though it's not that tough a call to let Lester and Haren throw. I've got some faith in Jeff Francis against the Mariners, though if it were just about any other team, I'd sit him down.

My offense still isn't showing much, though there have been a few bright spots. Aaron Hill lit up the Red Sox the last couple of days, bringing his average up to .241. The OPS is still a dismal .555 and he hasn't left the yard yet, but he does have five steals on the young season, only one short of his career high. Shin-Soo Choo is showing signs of breaking out of his slump, going 10-for-29 (.345) in his last 8 games. Andre Ethier's .386 average is somewhat deceiving, as he's hitting a blistering .500 off righties, but only .190 off lefties. He's a career .245 hitter against southpaws, so I'm expecting an overall dropoff at some point since that .500 against righties is wholly unsustainable.

4-7-1

This one's a little dated, sorry.

Going into the last day of my Week 1 matchup, I found myself down 5-4 in the wins category and tied at 3 in losses. I had an adequate lead in strikeouts and a commanding advantage in ERA and WHIP. I had three starters slated to go on Sunday afternoon: Derek Holland, James McDonald and Erik Bedard (pictured above.) My opponent had no starters going on Sunday, so I had a decision to make:

1) Bench my starters and settle for a tie and a loss.
2) Take a shot with the best starter I've got and hope to tie in wins.
3) Go for the gusto, start everybody and shoot for the win in wins, even if it means taking a loss in losses.

There's an old saying that you can't win the pennant in April, but you can lose it. There's also an old saying that fortune favors the bold. I decided to start all three guys. No guts, no glory.

Holland went six shutout innings and beat the Orioles, drawing me into a tie in the wins category. McDonald pitched to a no decision against the Rockies. Bedard, unfortunately, got shelled for six runs in four innings of work against the surprising Indians. At the end of the day, I had a tie and a loss just like I did in the morning.

I lose 4-7-1, but it's close. My offense is less than impressive with Dunn out and Choo struggling, but I end up winning RBIs and only losing homers by 1, runs by 5, average by 3 points and OPS by 22 points. Wins and losses are unpredictable, but the skill numbers on my pitching staff (86 Ks, 3.01 ERA and 1.07 WHIP) all look really good.