Waiver Wire: July 29th

by
July 29, 2010

Danny Valencia | 3B | Twins | 4% owned

There’s nothing like six games against the Orioles and Royals to help jump start the bat, eh? Valencia went 14-for-23 with four doubles and homer in those two series, enough of a surge to guarantee him some regular playing time until the Twins trade for someone better. David Golebiewski broke Valencia down in detail last month and concluded that he’s not an every day fantasy option, but there’s never anything wrong with riding out a hot streak while it lasts.

R.A. Dickey | SP | Mets | 30%

I’m not going to lie, I’ve been waiting for what I figured would be Dickey’s inevitable crash back down to Earth for a few weeks now, but I’ve got to hand it to him, the guy’s been great. Knuckleballers tend to be late bloomers, so it’s not out of the question that Dickey has gotten a hold on things at age-35 and can be a viable ML starter.

Will he maintain the 2.32 ERA he has following 8.1 shutout innings of work this afternoon? No, of course not. His FIP coming into today was rock solid at 3.24 thanks to an abnormally low 2.34 BB/9. That should rise in the future just because of the nature of the knuckleball, but he could very easily settle in as a ~4.00 ERA guy for the rest of the season with just enough wins and strikeouts to keep you interested. His next start comes against the Braves next week.

Ownership rates based on Yahoo! leagues.

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

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rogerfan
15 years ago

I’ve always thought that FIP and xFIP were terrible ways of predicting knuckleballer’s performance. That’s just the nature of the pitch. Dickey’s been showing good performances, so regardless of what DIPS metrics say, I’m just going to ride him until he explodes (if he does).

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quincy0191
15 years ago
Reply to  rogerfan

That’s what she said.

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