Recent Promotions: Arencibia & West

by
August 4, 2010

A day late, but here’s some recent call ups to consider for your squad…

J.P. Arencibia | C | Blue Jays | 1% owned

The Jays lost starting catcher John Buck to the disabled list after the backstop took a foul tip off his right hand today, opening up a laceration on his thumb (don’t they teach you to keep your throwing hand behind your back?), and have replaced him by calling up one of their best prospects in Arencibia. The powerful yet free swinging 24-year-old hit a (park adjusted) .291/.348/.601 with 31 homers in 420 plate appearances this season, raising his homer total to 79 since the start of 2008.

I wrote a little bit about Arencibia earlier this month, noting that his likely homerun production makes him a viable fantasy option even if he provide little in terms of AVG (and OBP). Nothing’s changed, except now he has a clear path towards some playing time for the next two weeks or so.

Sean West | SP | Marlins | 0%

You are forewarned, I’m a bigger West fan that most. Something about a 6-foot-8 lefty with a fastball in the low-90’s excites me. He followed up last season’s 4.49 FIP (103.1 IP) with strong peripherals in Triple-A this season (7.2 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, 43.9% grounders), and now gets the chance to prove himself in the place of the departed Nate Robertson. West allowed a pair of homers and struck out four Phillies in five innings of work against the yesterday, and going forward he’s clearly just a matchup guy. (R) ZiPS doesn’t like West at all, for what it’s worth (5.32 FIP, 6.62 K/9).

His next two starts come at home against the Cards and in Cincinnati, but after that he lines up to face the Pirates and Mets (in CitiField). Plan ahead, and you might end up stealing a W and a few ERA points.

Ownership rates are based on Yahoo! leagues.





 

Mike writes about the Yankees at River Ave. Blues and baseball in general at CBS Sports.

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tdotsports1
13 years ago

Arencibia has been playing in a fairly inflated offensive environment, I doubt he makes a huge impact the rest of the way, but at catcher, a bit of pop can go a long way.

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GreenLantern
13 years ago
Reply to  tdotsports1

I take issue with the “inflated” comment. While Las Vegas is considered a hitter-friendly environment and Arencibia has mashed at home, he is even better on the road this year. For 2010, Arencibia has hit .277/.340/.598 with 15 HR’s at home and .328/.378/.677 with 16 HR’s on the road. In 2009 while also playing for the 51s, he had a better AVG & OBP at home (.255/.306 vs. .215/.260 on the road), but his power numbers were very similar between home and away (SLG .449 vs. .438 and HR’s 10 vs. 11). While you can try to argue the entire PCL is a hitter-friendly environment, he is still leading the entire league with 31 HR’s. The next closest player has 26.

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Jono411member
13 years ago
Reply to  tdotsports1

fwiw, his MLE for this year is .242/.291/.483, and that already accounts for the hitter friendly park and league. I’d say that’s a pretty reasonable projection, although given his greatly improving plate discipline over the course of the season (K% by month of 24.3, 20.4, 17.1, 13.2) and the fact that he’s absolutely been mashing since beginning of June (.442 ISO in June, .392 ISO in July, .417 ISO in 16 August PA), I could see him doing even better than that.

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hjhjkhjk
13 years ago
Reply to  Jono411

I agree… I think he can probably hit at least .260 or so… probably with a .310ish OBP and .550 slugging.

His power is very legit. Sure its a hitters league/park/whatever, but as greenlantern said, he is leading the league by 5 homeruns…

Once he is acclamated to the bigs i wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes a 30 homer guy.

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