Fantasy Baseball Happy Recap - 5/8/09

Bat Of The Night: Ryan Ludwick – 2/4, 2 R, 2 HR, 2 RBI

How much longer can fantasy owners ignore Ludwick? Only owned in 28% of CBS leagues, Ludwick now has 7 homers on the season with three coming in the last two nights. Additionally, he is hitting .363 with 21 RBI and 20 runs scored. The biggest issue surrounding Ludwick has been the threat of inconsistent playing time given the Cardinals 4-man outfield rotation. But as long as he keeps hitting, he will see playing time over Skip Schumaker and Chris Duncan. Ludwick slugged 14 homers in only 303 at bats last season showing his power potential is real. Add and use him while he’s hot.

Arm Of The Night: Daniel Cabrera – 9 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K (W)

Cabrera has popped up all over FSE since the start of the season from mentions among those Making A Case in our daily Happy Recap to Top Pickups On The Mound. Well, after putting up his sixth straight quality start, a complete game three hit gem against the Royals, it’s time to admit this guy has arrived. Cabrera is now 3-1 with a 3.54 ERA and 1.20 WHIP on the season and has shown greater maturity and composure on the mound. While the soon to be 27 year old is still prone to a bad outing where he walks the farm, he has shown over the first month that the good should outweigh the bad in 2008. Given his strikeout potential and ability to pitch deep into games, Cabrera deserves to be owned in more than 54% of leagues.

Bottom Line: Curtis Granderson – 0/4, 4 K

Granderson can thank Josh Beckett for his first golden sombrero of the season and a 5-1 Tigers loss.

Honorable Mentions

Top Five

Dioner Navarro’s 13th inning grand slam capped a solid night at the plate for the up and coming Rays catcher. On the mound, the aces came to play. Brandon Webb pitched a complete game for his league leading 8th win while Josh Beckett dominated the Tigers on the way to his 5th win of the season.

Bats

Dioner Navarro – 3/6, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI
Nick Markakis - 1/3, 2 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI
Matt Treanor – 2/3, 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI
Johnny Damon – 2/4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Ian Kinsler – 2/4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI

Arms

Brandon Webb – 9 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K (CG, W)
Josh Beckett – 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K (W)
John Lannan – 6 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K (W)
Edwin Jackson – 8 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K (ND)
Jesse Litsch – 7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K (ND)

Bottom Five

Some tough nights at the plate for AL batters and awful relief performances in today’s Bottom Five. Also, feel free to cross Kyle Lohse and Carlos Villanueva off your sleeper lists….

Bats

Shannon Stewart – 0/6, 3 K
Nick Swisher – 0/4, 3 K
Billy Butler – 0/4, 3 K
Matt Stairs – 0/6, 2 K
Brian Roberts – 0/5, 2 K

Arms

Kyle Lohse – 4 IP, 8 H, 7 ER, 5 BB, 4 K (L)
Carlos Villanueva– 5 IP, 10 H, 7 ER, 2 BB, 6 K (L)
Brett Myers– 5 IP, 9 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 5 K (L)
Shawn Camp – 1 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 1 K (L)
Joe Thatcher – 0.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K (L)

Making A Case...

Chris Snyder – 2/4, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI

Lots of catchers have made a case this week with the latest being Arizona’s 27 year old backstop Chris Snyder. After an awful start, Snyder has come on his first six May games hitting .529 with 1 HR, 5 RBI and 4 runs scored. He is a decent catching option while he’s hot given that he hits in a potent D’Backs lineup and has shown 15-20 HR potential in the minors.

Jesse Litsch – 7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K (ND)

The Blue Jays young fifth starter hasn’t received much pub given the hot starts of ace Roy Halladay and fellow phenoms Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan; however, Litsch’s consistency is making people take notice. He has now compiled three straight quality starts, going 7 or more innings in each. Litsch is 4-1 on the season and has shown great command walking only 7 batters in 40 1/3 innings. He won’t get you too many strikeouts, but should be a decent source of wins and quality starts.

Closer Corner

- Troy Percival blew his first save of the season and saw his __ inning scoreless streak come to an end after he was unable to hold a 3-0 lead in ninth inning of last night’s game against Toronto. Percival allowed 3 ER in the ninth, spoiling a great outing by Rays starter Edwin Jackson. Fourtunately, Tampa would go on to win 8-3 in 13 innings… no harm, no foul Troy…

- Braves interim closer Manny Acosta was the beneficiary of Atlanta’s ninth inning rally, earning his first of the season after recording the final out in the top of the inning.

- Mariano Rivera pitched a flawless ninth inning to earn his 12th save of the season. Rivera has yet to allow a run in 13 innings of work this season and better yet has allowed only 5 baserunners to reach base; none via walk…

- Other Closers Locking Down Saves Last Night: Matt Capps (8)

Fantasy Observations & Thoughts

- Carlos Pena showed signs of life hitting a solo homer against the Blue Jays after going hitless in his previous two games. Pena has gotten off to a poor start, currently hitting only .200 with 43 Ks as he battles Ryan Howard for the title of most disappointing slugger.

- Speaking of struggling, after losing again Thursday night, Justin Verlander is now 1-6 with an ERA of 6.43. Verlander has lacked control, walking nearly three batters an outing and has failed to put up good strikeout totals. Verlander is too talented to pitch like this all season, things should turn around for him soon enough.

- Complete the blanks with the words provided: In last night’s game between Seattle and Texas, a hot-headed (1)__________ charged the mound setting off a brawl between the two clubs. Fortunately, (2)_________ played peacemaker and kept the brawl from escalating.

Word Bank: Milton Bradley, Richie Sexson

Answers: 1 - Richie Sexson, 2 - Milton Bradley (those aren’t typos…)


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