AP PHOTO
Zobrist Scores from 2nd on a Sac Fly
Brett Gardner's going to get a lot of attention for this catch (seen above). What's not going to get attention is the fact that Ben Zobrist was on 2nd base, and advanced 180 feet instead of 90 while tagging up. Never in my life have I seen anybody tag up from 2nd and go all the way home without an error of some sort, and this hustle is the reason the Rays are going to win the AL East. The Rays offense was nothing short of impressive tonight. They absolutely dominated A.J. Burnett and they did it with a brilliant combination of power, pitching (minus Andy Sonnanstine's performance in the 9th), and speed, stealing 6 bags. Their starting pitching's ERA is a tad below 3, and all of their pitching is definitely fantasy-worthy. Garza, Price, Niemann, Davis, and James Shields. They just look like the most complete team in the AL. With plays like the one Zobrist made tonight, it's hard to argue that there's a more well-rounded team in the AL.
The Diamondbacks Offense is a Fantasy Team
Sometimes I look at an offense and think to myself, "Self, how is this team so bad when their offense is so good." The Diamondbacks are one of those teams. This team is one of the best ones to look at when understanding the true difference between fantasy and real-life baseball. When you look at the D-Back's offense, you see guys like Justin Upton, a potential 30/30 guy. Then there's Stephen Drew, a quality fantasy short stop. Adam LaRoche was a great bargain for many fantasy owners at a very deep position. Chris Young is looking like he's finally taking walks. Chris Snyder is a bargain catcher who looks like he's on his way to 20 HR. Kelly Johnson looks like he's resurrected his career in Arizona, leading the NL in Home Runs. Mark Reynolds is one of the best power hitters in the majors.
With all of those great hitters, you can then look at their pitching and truly want to vomit. The fantasy baseball world doesn't allow us to recognize that one team has to have good pitching and good hitting to win. And if you don't have both, you won't get it done. The majors aren't like fantasy, if you sweep your hitting categories, you still need to have some pitching success to be a top tier fantasy team. No Diamondbacks reliever has an ERA under 3.80 and their starting pitching has been absolutely atrocious, but their Home Run display this evening was truly spectacular. They could be the best offense in the NL West by the end of the year, but the worst pitching.
Heyward Does it Again
As someone who is just a month younger than Jason Heyward, I'd like to be the first to admit that the kid is pretty good. It's amazing how much attention he garnered during April, but May's been his better month so far. It seems like so many young players want to get up to the majors and just hit home runs, and they really struggle with it (See: Bruce, Jay). There seems to be an adjustment period where these young hitters take time to realize that they don't have to hit home runs to be successful, they just have to make good contact, and that's exactly what Heyward's done. I was pretty high on the Braves today, and despite my recent obsession with the Reds, it was nice to see the Braves squeak out the win today despite blowing the lead.
I was pretty high on the Braves this season, thinking that they had a great shot for the wild card. But the poor performance of guys like Nate McLouth and Brian McCann, coupled with injuries to Matt Diaz and Jair Jurrjens makes me think that they won't be in the hunt come September. But that rotation is capable of getting things together. Tim Hudson doesn't look like he's going to strike a ton of guys out, but he's been a solid fantasy pitcher this season.
Closers Closing the Door on Themselves
I talked about him yesterday, but I feel pretty confident that Carlos Villenueva is the next closer in Milwaukee. The fact that Ken Macha said that Hoffman won't pitch in the Brewers series with the Pirates, coupled with the fact that it was Todd Coffey that he brought in with the game tied at 4 in the 7th, makes me think that had Coffey not blown it, Villenueva would have gotten the save. I went ahead and picked him up for 6 bucks in my main league and if you need saves, I think this is the guy I'd get.
I also watched Kerry Wood implode today against a relatively weak Royals lineup. It can be pretty amazing how a bad offense only seems to get that sense of urgency when the game is on the line, but the Royals just took batting practice on Kerry Wood. While Chris Perez didn't dominate in his role as closer for the first 5 weeks of the season, he didn't have any games like Wood had tonight. 5 earned runs and only recording 1 out is just not going to get it done. Wood was throwing in the high 90's, but the ball was straight as an arrow. I think if you need saves, that Perez could get this job back eventually.
Notable Injury News
I'm one of many extremely frustrated Grady Sizemore owners, and I hope that this DL stint ends up being really good for him. He just hasn't gotten it together at all, and it's quite a conundrum to own him right now. Maybe some time off will help him refocus. As someone who drafted him in the 3rd round, it's been very frustrating having to own him.
Josh Beckett is another guy like Sizemore who has just underperformed more than every Super Bowl halftime show since Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction." Backs and pitchers can be very tricky, so this is something I'm definitely keeping an eye on. Beckett is someone I might be trying to buy low on depending on the severity of the back injury. He's a notoriously slow starter and watching him, it looks like he's making some good pitches, but he's not in his perfect form yet.
Asdrubal Cabrera goes on the 60-day DL. Doesn't the 60-day DL just scare you? 60 days feels like a really long time. But if you saw that play where he collided with Jhonny Peralta, it looked like he was in a lot of pain and he's going to be out for, well, at least 60 days. This really hurts people in a lot of leagues. Short stop looks like it's a shallower position than we thought this year, and losing one who was leading off and hits for good average really hurts a lot of fantasy owners. I don't think I stash him on the DL even if I had the space. I think he may be a lost cause and I'd look elsewhere for SS or MI options.
Strasburg's a Dude
Any baseball fan has heard all there is to hear about this kid. Having seen him pitch in Syracuse, I can honestly say it's all real. He is this good. He hasn't allowed a single run in 18.2 innings in AAA, and has just made these offenses look stupid. I understand why the Nationals are making him stay down, but he honestly is just wasting everybody's time down there. The Nationals look like a team that might be starting to slip a little bit, but I honestly believe that calling him up sooner rather than later will only help the team. The Nats can't honestly expect guys like Livan Hernandez and Scott Olsen to keep up their hot starts. While there are obviously many merits to keeping Strasburg down, I worry he may get into some bad habits. I feel like it's easy to become somewhat complacent when you dominate opponents, which is why I thought it was interesting that the Nationals moved Strasburg to AAA right after his shaky performance at AA where he gave up 3 Earned Runs in 4.1 innings. Either way, when he gets to the majors he's absolutely going to do work. I see him being a top-20 starter, in the same level as Kershaw/Oswalt/Price, when he gets up to the majors.
Those were just some quick thoughts from the night that was. I still really think the Mariners should move Ichiro to 2nd or 3rd in that order, as crazy as that may seem.
Another note: MLB Network just introduced their "Solid 60" segment where they show an hour of live look-ins from 9:30 to 10:30 which coincides directly with the end of the 7 o'clock games. The best part about "Solid 60" is that there were no commercials. It was absolutely awesome and a great idea. Just figured I'd share.
Enjoy tomorrow's games. If you are a reader, please sign up as a follower so I can see if the blog is growing.
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