Just a few late notes from the bullpens on this holiday weekend:

-A Felix Hernandez/Jose Quintana pitching duel in Chicago this evening seemed like it would provide each club’s bullpen with some extra rest as we approach the All-Star Break. Well, that fact became clear once the game started to be honest, as both hurlers were firing on all cylinders. But, a couple of late runs from each club led to a 14-inning battle that featured 10 relievers combining for eleven-and-two-thirds innings on the hill. None of the five relievers for the Sox appeared impressive. Surkamp, Putnam and Belisario each surrendered earned runs while Javy Guerra gave up two free passes and a hit in his two frames of work. Everything about the White Sox bullpen is red right now. The Mariners, however, failed to allow an earned run on one hit, one walk and struck out seven in six innings. One of the seven strikeouts came from Fernando Rodney, who put forth a clean effort in the bottom of the 14th to earn his 25th save of the year and maintain his ~27% K%. Rodney’s 197 career saves are good enough for sixth among active closers and just 161 behind Joe Nathan’s 358 career saves.
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First a look at the running totals through half of week 13:

25-14 record
3.93 ERA
7.4 K/9
2.7 K/BB
1.27 WHIP

On a side note, this is the last #2xSP before the All Star break. So I hope you enjoy the festivities — played in my home city of Minneapolis — and we’ll see you again in a couple weeks.

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses:

Jake Odorizzi – 7.8% ESPN/16% Y!/57% own, 33% start CBS – v. KCR (.306), v. TOR (.334)

It didn’t start out so nice for Odorizzi this season. At the end of each month so far this season, here’s how his ERAs have laid out: 6.85, 5.13, 4.14. Read the rest of this entry »

I hope everyone had a grand day yesterday! Between eating, baseball (including a massive trade by my favorite club, the Oakland Athletics) and having a beer or two, yesterday was a grand time for yours truly. I’ll leave the fantasy implications of the trade to smarter minds but I can’t imagine two starting pitchers ever complained about going from Wrigley Field to the Coliseum, even when factoring in the NL to AL difference.

On today’s agenda:
1. A glance at two Mets hitters
3. Brandon Belt’s return
4. Logan Morrison’s hitting
5. The daily five

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Damn, I wish DraftStreet held 5,000-person tournaments with big prize money every day. The 4th of July tourney was a lot of fun, and a No. 257 finish out of 4,811 was good for a 173 percent profit. Four people even broke 100 points on the night, which, yeah, I hope you all had Chris Sale if you were in standard tournament formats.

Here’s also hoping you’re not too hungover to get things together in time to play Saturday, with a 16-game slate and nicely staggered start times. Matter of fact, if you are hungover, I can think of few better cures than watching baseball all day.

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Agenda

1. Trade Notes
2. Daily DFS
3. Sunday Picks
4. Table

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Agenda

1. Merry July Day
2. Daily DFS
3. Saturday Selections
4. Table

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Happy Fourth of July Eve, my fellow bullpen bystanders. And with tomorrow being a holiday, yours truly will be out-and-about enjoying America’s finest libations and fireworks with the family. Therefore, we won’t be chatting again until late Saturday.

Now, here’s a look at tonight’s short slate:

Southpaw Zach Britton dished a scoreless ninth-inning, yielding just a leadoff double to Chris Gimenez, en route to his 12th save of the season in 14 opportunities. The Orioles’ closer needed just ten pitches to induce a strikeout and two groundouts to seal the 5-2 victory over the Rangers. Tonight’s trip to the hill made it three consecutive days the Orioles called on their closer, so if you’re looking for a reliever to stream tomorrow in search of a save in year-long or daily league, Tommy Hunter could be considered. Three in-a-row for Britton plus an inning and two-thirds tonight for Darren O’Day could mean rest for those two arms on Friday. Keep an eye on the weather though, apparently Hurricane Arthur may have different plans for the contest between the Orioles and Red Sox at Fenway Park tomorrow.
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Episode 137

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is now live! Jason Collette and Nicholas Minnix discuss Addison Reed; Joaquin Benoit, Huston Street and the Detroit Tigers; the Rays’ bullpen now that Brad Boxberger has entered the saves picture; T.J. House and Miles Mikolas; Hunter Pence to the leadoff spot; Allen Craig’s playing time now that Oscar Taveras is up; Steve Pearce, by request and of interest; how to leverage current and future performance for keeper leaguers, another topic by request; and what to make of Kevin Kiermaier, Brandon Guyer, and Logan Forsythe playing regularly for Tampa Bay.

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions so that we may answer them on our next episode.

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• I wrote about the currently state of Tommy John surgeries at The Hardball Times on Monday and Tuesday.

The key points for fantasy owners are ..

… no velocity increase after surgery…

Tommy John surgery doesn’t help a pitcher increase velocity. While there was a small increase from Season 1 to Season 3 in our sample, it would not be worth it for a pitcher to miss at a minimum one season to see a 0.1 mph bump that they then will immediately lose. Probably most of the increase is from a decline in production before the injury knocked them out of action, as well as the time spent rehabbing.

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Agenda

1. More About Park Factors
2. Daily DFS
3. Friday Picks
4. Table

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