Much of the talk of the Rangers’ staff this offseason was Neftali Feliz moving to the rotation, with Alexi Ogando’s re-entrance to the bullpen seemingly being a backstory. Ogando had previously pitched out of the bullpen in 2010, throwing 41.2 innings and earning 0.8 WAR in the process.
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With my many fantasy baseball squads, sometimes I feel like I’m in complete control, and sometimes I feel like I’m flying down a snowy mountainside on a bike at near 60 miles per hour, surely destined for an epic crash (click on the link, it’s must-watch stuff). Owning Josh Johnson on a couple squads, I’ve felt a little of both.

Coming off of a serious shoulder injury in 2011, Johnson,28, had a strong enough Spring with 24 strikeouts over 22.1 innings pitched that indicated he ought to be healthy, and when Josh Johnson has been healthy, he’s typically been a guy you want in your fantasy rotation. As soon as the stats counted though, the results were sorely lacking. That is, until his start on Tuesday where he looked much more like the guy we either loved or coveted throughout all of 2010. So is it time to trust Josh Johnson going forward?

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A little haggard around the edges, but I’ll be here at 12:30 to chat. Cause it’s fun!

In order to one-up Zach, I bring you 5, yes five bullet points today for the Roto Riteup today:

• Now to add to Zach’s Roto Riteup yesterday, after Carl Crawford visited Dr. James Andrews it was discovered that Crawford has a sprained ulnar collateral ligament. His recovery is supposed to be played out in phases, and phase one is a suspension of all baseball related activities. A possible 3 month downtime was discussed, but Crawford maintains that he’ll be back sooner than that. Boston fans and fantasy owners are most assuredly upset and frustrated at Crawford for his struggles last year and injury this year. I was optimistic of his ability to bounce-back, but a quality 2012 bounce-back is looking less and less likely. Expect his ranking to plummet on Monday.

• Ryan Zimmerman missed yesterday’s start. It has now been six days (probably seven today) since he saw any game action. He’s been held out of the lineup due to shoulder inflammation, specifically in his throwing AC joint. The most likely scenario at this point is a cortisone shot and a DL stint retroactive to April 20th. After missing most of April and all of May of last season with an abdomen injury, Zimmerman still can’t quite shake the injury bug. If you can find the (potentially) disgruntled Zimmerman owner in your league, I would e-mail them an offer. When healthy, Zimmerman is a top three third basemen. Read the rest of this entry »

Bryan LaHair (ESPN: 32 percent owned; Yahoo!: 41 percent owned)

In many ways, LaHair’s start is what I expected from him. He’s not leading the league in home runs — hat tip to you, Matt Kemp, and your home run every 8 PAs — but he’s in the pack tied for sixth in the NL after jacks in back-to-back games against St. Louis. He’s also striking out a fair amount, which should come as no surprise for a young player whose ability to stay in the majors is directly related to his power. His 33 percent strikeout rate ranks him fifth in the NL, which isn’t great, but in most leagues it’s really neither here nor there, since outs are outs when strikeouts aren’t a hitting category. Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time, Todd Helton was a fantasy monster and one of the very best players in the world. His 2000-2004 seasons were off-the-charts great — .349/.450/.643 with a .452 wOBA in 3,448 PA — and it wasn’t just Coors Field because a ton of other players played there as well, and none of ’em hit like that. Age and injuries have taken their toll on the greatest player in Rockies’ history, but Helton has remained productive in recent years and is currently a nice little buy-low candidate for fantasy owners.

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Mike Minor being owned in just 58% of Yahoo! leagues is near criminal. While he is far from an ace, he should probably be owned in at least as many leagues as Lance Lynn (77%) or Brandon Morrow (85%). Not that those pitchers are bad, but Minor seems to be at least their equals. The fact that he is available in this leagues means there’s at least a decent chance he is available in your league, and probably an even better chance that an opponent in your league would be willing to trade him for less value than he should be worth.

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So we’re now three to four starts in as our sample size gradually increases. Of course, it’s still way too small to have that much meaning. However, we could still dive as deeply as possible and look at underlying skills like F-Strike% and SwStk% because those stabilize more quickly than the surface stats. I still advise completely ignoring ERA and focusing on the peripherals. Anyway, here are some notes on some of the mid tier and bottom tier guys.

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Four bullet points today? Merry Christmas, America.

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Edwin Jackson

It’s way too early for “I told you so” except, of course, in situations that have already come to their conclusion. Three starts aren’t enough to make concrete judgments from, but after talking him up this offseason, I do like what I’ve seen of Edwin Jackson so far. Last Thursday’s outing against the Astros was abnormally rocky — I somehow doubt that giving up multiple triples in one inning is going to become a habit for Jackson — but even amidst a tough outing, there were some good signs. Read the rest of this entry »