Last week we put together our final set of closer rankings for the 2011 season, and now it’s time to do the same for the guys handing them the ball. Here is August’s holds ranking, and here is the holds leaderboard for reference.
There’s a few minor injury notes I’d like to get to, so let’s group them and put them in one place:
– Cole Hamels will miss a start thanks to inflammation in his shoulder. He still could end up on the DL if things don’t improve, but the good news is that this is nothing too serious. While missing a couple of Hamels’ starts isn’t that big of a deal for the Phillies thanks to their division lead, it could be huge for fantasy owners, especially in head-to-head leagues.
Among the plethora of blue-chippers that the Kansas City Royals can call their own, Mike Moustakas was by most accounts the most anticipated Royal prospect to arrive on the major league stage (with due respect to Eric Hosmer). His 36 home runs and 124 RBI over 118 minor league games in 2010 had fantasy managers salivating for a call-up. After making mincemeat out of opposing minor league pitchers early this season, the Royals didn’t waste any additional time. He immediately singled in his first major league at-bat, hit a 391-foot home run off Joel Pineiro in his fourth at-bat, and it seemed the Moustakas era was off and running. But that’s pretty much the entirety of the good news.
What has gone wrong? Well, just about everything.
Over the weekend, two Pittsburgh outfielders started their rehab assignments at the same time. Since they’ve been injured, much has changed on their major league team. At one point, the Pirates were in first place. Now they are in fourth. They were above five hundred, now they’re seven games under. They were buyers, and now they are 13 games out of first and might already be looking to next year.
But, most importantly for fantasy baseball addicts, the two jobs that were theirs have been distilled down into one starting spot. Yup, Jose Tabata and Alex Presley will return soon and they may find themselves in a battle for playing time.
– After missing two and a half weeks with a strained oblique, Brian McCann was back in the Braves lineup on Sunday. The 27-year old catcher was having his best offensive season since 2008, blasting 18 homers and hitting over .300 in under 400 trips to the plate. If his oblique is truly healed, he should continue to be an elite catcher over the rest of the 2011 campaign. If you play in a shallow league, make sure to check to see if someone was stupid enough to dump McCann from their roster when he went on the DL.
RotoGraphs is looking for information on the types of leagues that our readers are in order to more specialize the content. Feel free to submit information on one or as many leagues you belong. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Goto the following link to answer the questions. Thanks for your time and we will publish the results soon.
I’m baaaack. After embarking on a week and a half long road trip through Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota, I was mostly deprived of keeping up with baseball, and the chances I did have to follow the news, I chose not to take advantage of. Blasphemy! I know, I know. Although my one (yes, to everyone’s surprise, I am only in one league this year) fantasy team has little chance at a money finish, I still did not want to have any distractions during this adventure-filled vacation. Of course, I probably picked the worst possible time to take this trip, as the crazy trading deadline was smack in the middle of it. As you could imagine, upon returning home and trying to figure out how to catch up on everything I missed, my head was spinning.
Ubaldo Jimenez is an Indian??? Huh??? That was the first thing I found out and my exact reaction. I later began my attempt at determining the best method to learn of all the baseball happenings, while not spending hours upon hours on doing so. Here is how I did it…
– The Royals continue to bring prospects to the big leagues, calling up catcher Salvador Perez. The 21-year old Perez is exactly what you would expect from a Dayton Moore catcher: his batting average is high, his walk rate is low, and he doesn’t have a whole lot of power to speak of. Still, the idea of a catcher with a high batting average is certainly attractive in non-OBP leagues, so it might not be a bad idea to give this kid a shot if you’re looking for a catcher in deeper than standard leagues. It sounds like he’ll be the main catcher in KC, and who knows, maybe he’ll hit .280? If you’re in deeper (dynasty) leagues, he’s certainly worth a shot if you’re in need of catching help.
– Granted he’s only had a handful of plate appearances in the bigs, but Trayvon Robinson does not look MLB ready to me. He’s been swinging quite a bit, often at bad pitches, and he has also been rolling over on balls. I was surprised to see him swinging so freely due to his high minor league walk rates, and it’s entirely possible that he’s just pressing right now in an effort to make an impression in his debut. Still, unless he becomes more patient and aware of what pitchers are throwing, he’s going to need another half-season in the high minors.
