Fred Slacks' Fantasy Stats: Aimless Ramblings of the Week

Last weeks comments were a bit more on the lighter side. Travis gave us his take on thinking Laird may hit 35 home runs. I know Travis is kidding, but his second point was that Bill Hall will hit 35. Well hes up to 5 now, and clearly doing his best to show he can hit like he did in 2006. Another comment was brought up about a possible switch to Fantasy Sport Shorts with the weather being nicer. Fred Slacks will stay in his slacks for now, after all he has been wearing them for 2 full weeks now and they are nicely broken in. Plus here in Wisconsin, we just had snow falling yesterday, so no, the Slacks will remain for awhile. Now on to the rambles.

- The Cardinals outfield situation seems like a good one to have. They have 4 outfielders playing very well. I like Rick Ankiel and his position in center and batting in the middle of the lineup shouldn't change. The situation becomes a tricky one with Chris Duncan, Skip Schumaker, and Ryan Ludwick. La Russa seems to like using Schumaker in the leadoff spot and in RF, he has responded by batting .391 and scoring 7 runs this week. Chris Duncan should get most of the work in LF and hit in the two hole, unfortunately he's abysmal versus lefties. Enter the platoon partner Ryan Ludwick who usually face left-handers. Both Duncan and Ludwick have great power with Ludwick a little bit of speed. I wish you could take these two players and make them one, Dunwick would surely be a stud. Ludwick has been off to a hot start and could steal some AB's from Schumaker. Depending on what you need, all 4 are very ownable at this point.

- Get real Raul Ibanez. You hit 21 homers last year and you hit 5 this week. While hes as steady as they come in terms of RBI and AVG, you will never be able to sell any higher. Shop him.

- Edwin Jackson is finally living up to the hype he had when he was coming up through the Dodgers organization. Only took 5 years. Just watch out for a relapse, after all he was 5-15 last year and had an ERA of 5.76 and a career ERA of 5.40. He's a guy that should be picked up with short term expectations only, and dropped at the first sign of trouble.

- It's April 13th and Rich Harden is on the DL. Once again I've drafted him and reaped a great start. Once again its all a big tease. Who knows what to even think here. I draft him nearly every year. When healthy(an oxymoron of sorts when talking about Harden, as is his last name by the way) Harden has the stuff and makeup of a top 10 pitcher. Unfortunately Soften, lame I know, I couldn't resist though, apparently can't even play catch right now. Ouch, DL stash him if you want, but in shallower leagues, its probably safe to just out and out drop him.

- As Winks has stated in past posts, the Five Dollar Foot Long and Miller Lite Beer Heaven tunes are very catchy. Thank God, at least I don't have to suffer through dancing walking symbols and CF4X commercials every Brewer commercial break this year.

- I really hate the commercial where 18 people yell "It's my money and I need it now!" Well here's an idea, instead of blowing your money on a 50 inch HD flat screen, an Audi, and the latest Bowflex, maybe you could save some money by driving a Dodge Neon from 2001, watch TV on a normal tv, and run around your block. That way you can use the money YOU make for YOUR bills, and then I wouldn't have to see J.G. Wentworth's sleazy weasel face on TV.

- Rich Hill has been off to a shaky start thus far this year. Apparently he will be used out of the bull pen this week and resume his rotation status on Friday. I am really high on this guy, and I feel like he still could turn it around. I say buy low on him now. There is just too much promise in him.

- Hamels and Sheets continued to look great this week. Ride the gravy train on these guys while you can, and hope that there frail pasts don't creep up on them anytime soon.

- I love saying I told you so. It sooooo fun to be right, and since I'm wrong probably as many times as I am right it makes saying I told you so even sweeter. Honestly, why did anyone think Jose Valverde would be good this year? Granted he's picked up two garbage wins, he has one save so far and an ERA of 9.00 and a ridiculous WHIP of 2.20 this year. Hes given up 5 runs in 5 innings. Sure he was great at the end of last year, sure he carried the late innings of that really good Diamondbacks team, but did you really think he would continue his semi-flukish success on a team with so many holes? Food for though, Valverde has an ERA of 5.24 in even years and a 2.44 ERA in odd ones. Why even put up with the headache. Shop him to a team desperate for a closer.

- Take a chill pill on Gabe Kapler(in fantasy terms), while its a great story that a retired man who was managing single A ball last year has come on strong in the beginning of the season, look at the situation. He was retired, hes 32, still in a Right/Left platoon, and will lose his AB's when Cameron comes back. Much of his success is fun to see though, especially as a Brewer fan. From purely a fan standpoint, he's in great playing shape, a solid OF, has a managers mentality and has taken full opportunity of the situation. His home runs are most likely a result of seeing meat pitches while hitting in front of Fielder and Braun though. If anything, imagine what Mike Cameron(a superior player in every phase) is going to do in that two spot. 25 home runs out of Cameron is very realistic. In the mean time, fan wise lets enjoy Kapler for the great story he is.

- Evan Longoria is the most recent call up. He's 2-6 with a walk, an RBI, and a Run in two games. He'll likely stay up for awhile this year. While he should be a stud down the road I really don't expect much a giant year this from him. Look for an Alex Gordon ala rookie campaign here with less SB, a little more pop and a better average.

- Sabathia and Oswalt have continued to look ridiculously hittable this week. This year these two have combined to give up 54 hits in 30 innings. wow.

- Sheets, Peavy and Webb have continued to look the exact opposite. This year these three guys have combined to give up only 38 hits in 66 innings. wow.

- Guys I really like this week that are probably available on your wire: Boof Bonser, Gavin Floyd, Jorge Cantu, Mike Jacobs, Ryan Ludwick, Skip Shumaker, Jason Kubel

- Guys that are likely available and have played well this week, but I don't like: Aubrey Huff, Joey Gathright, Carlos Quentin, Edwin Jackson, Dana Eveland, Kevin Correia and Nelson Figueroa

- Fantasy Faux Pas: Dropping established players for hot start players who in the past have been streaky. Just don't do it. Matt Cain was recently dropped in one of my leagues in favor for Scott Linebrink. There is no excuse for this, Matt Cain won't get wins he should because of the Giants offense but he still is a threat to be a top 20 pitcher. At the very least you should shop Cain, someone will give something up for him, rather than letting the sharks go after him in the waiver pool. In fact Cain had a 3.24 ERA with 15 K's in 16.2 innings. I would imagine he was dropped because he hasn't gotten a win yet. Seriously wins are probably the one category where you get more lucky than anything. You should never draft a pitcher on his ability to win over his ability to rack up low ERA's, WHIP's and K's. In short, if you have a higher profile player you are frustrated with, shop him around, you will almost always get someone in return who is better than the options on the waiver wire.

ICHIRO UPDATE: In the debut column I stated my claim that Ichiro would hit under .300 for the first time in his career this season. Take a look back to see why. Let's take a look at how hes doing so far. Drum roll please.......................................................... .255!!!! He's 14-55 through Sunday's games. Again so far so good.