Who Didn't See This Coming?

NEWS FLASH: Erik Bedard is injured.

For the third straight season, Erik Bedard makes 15 starts and then heads to the disabled list. In fairness, Bedard's 2008 and 2009 campaigns had a short DL break *during* his 15 starts, only to be capped with a season-ending arm injury. The 2011 Bedard made 15 straight starts, looking downright dominant for the last 11. And the injury that's landed him back on the DL is a sprained left knee, which is a relief considering that this is a guy who missed all of last season recovering from shoulder surgery.

Still, Bedard's injury leaves me in a really tough spot. Jon Lester and Dan Haren continue to anchor my starting pitching, but the situation looks pretty bleak past those guys. Josh Collmenter has gotten tagged for 5+ earned runs in 3 of his last 4 starts as it appears the league has caught up with the tomahawk-throwing righty. Kyle McClellan has been inconsistent since his return from the DL, allowing 27 baserunners in 17.1 innings over three starts. Derek Holland continues to be ineffective at home, sporting a 5.89 ERA in Arlington, over 2 runs higher than his road mark. Jeff Francis has the opposite problem, posting a 3.41 ERA at home and a 6.75 away from Kauffman Stadium. Jesse Litsch is still on the DL and may not have a spot in the rotation open for him upon his return.

The Phil Coke era is over, by the way. Jim Leyland pulled the reliever-turned-starter from the rotation and put him back in the bullpen to be used as a lefty specialist. Coke showed some potential but ultimately couldn't string together enough consistent outings to keep his job, especially after a late May DL stint. He was replaced by Charlie Furbush, who I'm sure was never made fun of as a kid.

So I have 6 starting pitchers, 2 of whom cannot be used half the time due to their home road splits and 2 more that are showing signs of decline. Starting pitching is an incredibly rare and valuable commodity in a 20-team league, so naturally there are no legitimate options in the free agent pool. The Marlins just recalled Brad Hand to pitch today against the Rangers, which is not exactly a prime fantasy matchup for a dude with exactly 3 big league starts. Greg Reynolds will take the ball for the Rockies today against the Royals, but this will be his only start and then he'll be sent back to Colorado Springs. The Pirates are going to give Brad Lincoln a look today against the Nats; he's been pitching very well at AAA Indianapolis, but this is likely to be a spot start as well and he'll be sent back after the game.

My team has no chance of competing if I'm going to be heavily relying on spot start call-ups to give me innings. But who am I kidding? My team has no chance to compete anyway.

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 Win Is A Win: 6-5-1 (10-12-2 overall)

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.