Learning to Crawl (8-4 this week, 48-71-13 overall)

I've been away from the blog for a few weeks. I got married. Kinda took up some of my time. Maybe that's why my squad plummeted to 19th out of 20 over the last month and a half. Time to get back to business.

Lot of changes since the last time I posted. I've made a fundamental shift in my attitude regarding saves. I don't regret my non-investment in closers on draft day (though it's pretty apparent that I wasted most of my budget on chump hitters). However, just because I didn't spend dollars doesn't mean I'm not looking for saves. As previously mentioned, I picked up Mark Melancon of the Astros who was promptly elevated to the closer role upon Brandon Lyon's arm injury. I also took a gamble on Fernando Salas of the Cardinals which paid off as he emerged from the bullpen chaos in St. Louis. Slim Jim gave up on Frank Francisco last week and I quickly picked him up; looks like he's back in his closer role in Toronto. I also made a move for Matt Thornton who may earn his White Sox closer job back from Sergio Santos. Even if he doesn't, he's been a historically good reliever. Not to mention I got Jonny Venters for $2 on draft day. Smart.

I lost both of my 1B cheap power gambits. Kila Ka'aihue got sent down in favor of phenom Eric Hosmer. Adam LaRoche finally gave up on trying to play through a torn labrum in his shoulder and he's done for the season. That's $14 down the toilet. The only first baseman I have left on my squad is Adam Dunn, who finally is showing some signs that he's ready to turn things around. You would not believe some of the trade offers I've been getting for Dunn. Apparently when you're in next-to-last place, everyone in your league seems to think that you're actually very, very stupid and gullible. I'm not going to trade a 31-year-old guy with 361 career homers for a backup outfielder and a pitcher who's going to be on the DL for 2 more months. I'm also not going to trade him for a guy you picked up this morning, Hot Karl.

Back to the pitching staff, I took a flier on tomahawk-throwing righty Josh Collmenter of the Diamondbacks which has worked out pretty well so far. In 8 starts, he's 3-3 with a 2.33 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and 28 strikeouts (5.44 K/9). I'm thinking that he might be a sell-high candidate, though he's going to get plenty of turns against anemic west-coast offenses for the rest of the summer. Still, if I can get a solid bat for him, now would be the time before hitters get a book on him.

I'm also carrying 6 outfielders right now: Choo, Ethier, McLouth, Chris Denorfia, Ben Revere and Jon Jay. By the time the trade deadline comes around, it's possible that McLouth will be in a backup role as rumors are swirling that the Braves are looking to add an outfield bat. Jay is already losing playing time now that Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman and Colby Rasmus are all healthy. Revere will get playing time until Jason Kubel and Jim Thome come back, but he's impressed the Twins brass so far. I just don't know if I'll be able to pull myself out of the basement with Denorfia as a starting outfielder.

Speaking of the basement, I played AT&Love this week. As you may remember, this is the team that didn't show up for the draft and ended up with a really sorry squad. To his credit, dude has been trying the Dwight Schrute trading method to better his team, though there's really only so much talent you're going to get when you start with scrubs. Of course, he ended up with Alex Avila on draft day, then cut him and he has ended up being one of the few bright spots on my pathetic offense.

I ended up winning 8-4 despite some horrific pitching: my four losses were in the win and loss categories (3-8, ouch), ERA (5.49) and WHIP (1.43). My starters have not been as solid as they were earlier in the season. Kyle McClellan and Phil Coke just returned from the DL and aren't quite back in the groove yet. Dan Haren and Jon Lester have looked average at best. Jeff Francis is nearly useless away from Kaufman Stadium. Derek Holland is nearly useless at home. Collmenter has gotten tagged in his last two starts. The lone broght spot has been Erik Bedard, and who thought we'd be saying that this season? Besides me, of course.

I swept the offense categories, bringing home my first wins of the season in runs, homers and OPS. These were pretty much all squeakers though and a couple of bad breaks or wrong roster calls could have cost me the week. It's really sad that this lineup can barely beat an offense cobbled together from $1 draft day buys, waiver wire pickups and cast-offs from other teams.

I improve my ranking to 18th, 1/2 game up over the Love Rollercoasters and 17 games behind the division leader, Last Year's Champs. Halfway through our season and I've got a lot of work ahead of me. 8 teams make the playoffs, so I've got 10 teams to leapfrog if I'm going to have any chance. The bats need to wake up. Wish I had a hitting coach to fire so I could send a message to these guys...

The Darren O'Day Era is Over

Darren O'Day leaked his injury status to Facebook today and it turns out that his hip labrum is torn and will require surgery. I promptly took the opportunity to give him his limping papers. But who should replace him on the roster?

Punting saves doesn't mean ignoring opportunities to pick them up, hence why I took a flyer on O'Day in the first place. I just didn't want to spend draft dollars on closers and I'm not going to be heartbroken if I lose saves every week. Let's back up and take a look at the dollar values and April stats of the top ten (eleven, actually) highest paid closers:

Carlos Marmol, $25: 1-1, 5 SV, 15 K, 2.53 ERA, 1.31 WHIP (10.2 IP)
Mariano Rivera, $22: 1-0, 7 SV, 9 K, 2.53 ERA, 1.13 WHIP (10.2 IP)
Heath Bell, $21: 1-0, 5 SV, 7 K, 0.90 ERA, 0.90 WHIP (10.0 IP)
Neftali Feliz, $20: 0-0, 5 SV, 6 K, 1.08 ERA, 1.08 WHIP (8.1 IP) *injured*
Brian Wilson, $20: 0-1, 6 SV, 8 K, 8.64 ERA, 1.68 WHIP (8.1 IP)
Joakim Soria, $19: 1-0, 5 SV, 5 K, 5.59 ERA, 1.55 WHIP (9.2 IP)
Jonathan Papelbon, $19: 0-0, 5 SV, 11 K, 2.16 ERA, 1.08 WHIP (8.1 IP)
John Axford, $18: 0-1, 5 SV, 11 K, 5.79 ERA, 1.61 WHIP (9.1 IP)
Jose Valverde, $18: 2-0, 5 SV, 9 K, 0.93 ERA, 0.93 WHIP (9.2 IP)
Francisco Rodriguez, $17: 1-0, 5 SV, 13 K, 2.08 ERA, 1.73 WHIP (8.2 IP)
Matt Thornton, $17: 0-2, 0 SV, 7 K, 6.43 ERA, 2.43 WHIP (7.0 IP) *removed from closer role*

Marmol, Rivera, Bell, Papelbon and Valverde were clearly worth the investment. Feliz was doing well until he got hurt. K-Rod is converting saves and getting out of trouble, but that WHIP suggests that the situation could change at any time. Wilson, Soria and Axford have struggled but kept their jobs. Thornton has been a complete failure.

When you consider that the next two closers on the list are Jose Contreras (injured) and Jonathan Broxton (removed), that means only 5 of the 13 top drafted closers can be considered good investments. Makes me feel a lot better about spending my money on other guys. I just wish those guys were performing.

Anyway, since the available starting pitching in the free agent pool is, dare I say, crappy, I checked through the available list of middle relievers. Slim Jim dropped the Padres' Luke Gregerson, one of MLB's elite bullpen strikeout men. Unfortunately, he's on the waiver wire until Friday. While my waiver priority is only 15 out of 20, I don't want to go back to the back over a middle reliever. If he clears waivers, I'll probably pick him up. However, I could use a player now.

Enter Mark Melancon (pictured above). The former Yankee prospect was traded to Houston in the Lance Berkman deal last summer. So far this season, he's posted a 2-1 record, 0 saves, 10 Ks, 1.54 ERA and 1.29 WHIP in 11.2 innings. Good numbers, but the most attractive thing about Melancon is that he's the set-up man behind Brandon Lyon, who has a tenuous grip on the Astros closer job (2-1, 4 SV, 4 K, 4.82 ERA, 1.82 WHIP in 9.1 innings). If Lyon loses the gig, Melancon is likely to take over as closer.

Which would explain why Last Year's Champ sent me two trade offers for him. LYC previously owned him and, ironically, Melancon's only loss this season directly contributed to my 6-5 victory two weeks ago. LYC also owns Brandon Lyon and clearly believes in the handcuff rule. He's not offering me much: one offer is a one-to-one trade for injured Indians starter Mitch Talbot, the other offer is Talbot, Joe Mauer (also injured) and Royals OF Melky Cabrera for Melancon, Jonny Venters and Adam Dunn. I'm not seriously considering either offer, but mostly just because I get an injured player (or two) back no matter what and I already have 3 full DL spots and 2 other injured players taking up spots on my bench.

Clearly LYC wants Melancon, so I'm thinking of making a counter-offer for a healthy player, maybe Angels catcher Hank Conger. But I'll probably keep him and hope he grabs the closer job. 2 or 3 saves in a week can be enough to win in this league, so one closer may be enough to compete.