6.0 Innings, 9 hits, 8 runs, 7 earned runs, 5 walks, 3 strike outs, 32 batters faced, 10.50 ERA, 2.33 WHIP
Wins:None
My Starting pitcher gave up 5 runs in his first inning. Speier came in in relief and gave up 2 earned runs before being removed without even an out. 0.0 innings, that gives him an infinite ERA. He is not helping his cause to remain on my team. At least Marte came in for the last inning without damage, but he didn’t get a save because the White Sox had a pretty big lead.
I shall begin to discuss some problems I have encountered while building a PC. To begin, read about the basic PC configuration
3 starts, 2 losses and 1 no-decision. They pitched 17.333 innings, gave up 9 earned runs on 21 hits and 7 walks. That results in an ERA of 4.68 and a WHIP of 1.62. The no-decision guy left the game with a two run lead, but the bullpen didn’t keep the lead and the Indians ended up losing in 10 innings. I’m no longer in the lead in Wins, getting passed by two other owners last night.
I see that Shingo Takatsu is no longer the ace closer for the White Sox. With a 12.16 ERA I can see why. Amazing that he got three saves already.
Looks like the White Sox are going to close by committee and Damaso Marte is on that committee. So I may end up with more saves than originally planned. Another member of that committee, Dustin Hermanson, is a Free Agent. No other UBL team has him. Is it worth my while to make a move for him? Since I never planned to make a run at saves, Dustin is a bit of excess luggage. It’s not like that, even between Marte and Hermanson, I will get enough saves by the end of the season to get more than 5 points in the category. There are other members of the committee. DH does have some good ERA and WHIP numbers though. And picking up some saves makes him a top prospect.
Question is: who do I exchange him for? Speier is my other setup reliever, and the natural candidate, but I have high hopes that he will end up as the ace Toronto closer in a few months. I like my approach of having 7 starters on my staff. This gives me the best opportunity to keep W and K numbers up. On the other hand, dumping someone like Lohse will help my ERA and WHIP numbers.
I don’t have to decide until Monday, so I will keep an eye on it. As the first place owner, I get last choice to select a FA, if any one else is considering this move, so it might be worth a non-commital gamble. (Is it really worth the $5 a Free Agent Move costs?)
Tonight I have three pitchers starting, should be interesting to see.
As I commented on previously, just because a pitcher is projected to start doesn’t mean he will. Looks like Lohse’s start will be cancelled this weekend to bring back a pitcher from DL without disrupting the rotation of the other starters. Don’t know what this means yet. Silva, the pitcher coming back, was the initial #4 pitcher of the Twins staff, Lohse the #3 starter.
Lohse hasn’t been too hot so far, with a 6.62 ERA and a 1.358 WHIP. (He’s actually the worst pitcher on the Twin’s roster, at present.) The major difference between Silva and Lohse is that Lohse will get more stikeouts. But Lohse is way above his expected ERA and WHIP. Silva went on DL with a hurt knee, so it will be interestnig to see how he does when he comes back this weekend.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Lohse sent down for a few months in order to get his act back in gear. He did make the Opening Day roster as a starter, so he has potential. He just doesn’t seem to have found it yet this year.
Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Box Score
I got a save! Looks like the White Sox’s ace closer didn’t quite work out and they brought in my guy for the last 2 outs to get the save. Remarkable!
On a sadder note, it looks like I have to start shopping one of the best pitchers in the majors for the past ten-fifteen years, Randy Johnson. What made Johnson such a worthwhile pitcher is that, in addition to the strikeouts, he also provided Wins, ERA and Ratio. The Wins and ERA have flown out the window. He gave up 6 runs (5 earned) in 7 1/3 innnings yesterday (6.14 ERA) against Tampa Bay! He was very economical about it, doing it all on 6 hits. His ERA for the year is 5.13. He won Opening Day and that was it. Alas, alas.
Randy’s ERA for the previous 18 seasons is 3.06. This is a good number. (I think anything under 4.00 is a very good ERA number.) Along with 4076 strikeouts. But, maybe, he has held on too long and it is time to let him go.
After a truly outstanding performance from the Hitting side of the team (.360 BA, 13 R, 20 RBI, 4 HR, 2 SB), the Rocky Coloradans are in first place in the UBL, with 69 points. Of course, on April 19th, this means squat. But they did it, even with the typical lackluster performance of the pitching staff (6.43 ERA, why are these guys even in the majors?).
Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Red Sox 12, Blue Jays 7
Looks like Boston and Toronto had a bit of a SlugFest to start the day. One of my hitters went 2 for 4 and the other went 2-2, both homers. One of my pitchers even came in and finished the game for the losing side, miraculously not giving up anything in one inning; no runs, hits, or walks. I guess Boston was a bit worn out by the ninth.
A satisfying week all around. The Hitters got their average up while the pitcher’s ERA stayed level. A look at the numbers, for the week:
RBI 42; LA 34.6; Pts 8: Another good move up the charts, many of my hitters are in a position to drive in runs.
SB 7; LA 3.6; Pts 10: I am starting to run away with this category (pun intended), but best not to get too cocky too early.
W 5; LA 3.6; Pts 10: The Win category is still tight. I overtook the Indians because they only had 2 wins for the week. Next week it could be me.
I have nine starts projected this week between 7 starters. One start every day; with three starts on Thursday. Two pitchers will pitch twice this week. Let’s see how many wins they eke out this week.
Of course, projections are based on standard pitcher rotation patterns. (Starters usually start every 4 or 5 days. Different managers have different rotations.) It doesn’t mean that I will actually have 9 starts to work with. Last week I had a pitcher originally projected for a Friday start who got pushed back to Sunday because of a sore elbow.
And there’s always the joy of having 2 starters starting against each other. Had that happen last week. Not projected for this week.
Saw a couple of stickers on the rear window of a car I drove by. The first was a Bush-Cheney ’04 sticker. Lots of them in this neighborhood. And next to it was a “Partnership for an Idiot Free America”
That one really boggled the mind.