Fred Slacks' Fantasy Stats: Aimless Ramblings of the Week

Well after last week it seems that Fred Slacks has an arch nemesis of sorts in a fella named Kevin Khakis. He made a few good points. Like how I haven't mentioned Emil Brown at all. Truth is, I figured most people were on to him in standard 12 team leagues. He's been entrenched in the A's outfield and batting in the 5 spot. His numbers may not be fancy, but his RBI total has him 5th in the majors as of Sunday morning. I don't expect him to end the year that high, but 100 RBI's isn't too far out of the realm of possibility. The longer he keeps hitting well the more mashers Frank Thomas and Jack Cust will see better pitches to hit, increasing their value as well.


Kevin also mentioned he was down on Ted Lilly a bit. Unfortunately he's pitched brilliantly lately. In his last four games now hes 3-1 with an ERA of 2.42, WHIP of 1.00 and 25 K's in 26 innings. And his three wins have come against St. Louis, New York, and Arizona. I'd say he's pretty dialed in by now and he should look to continue to have success in his next start against San Diego's anemic offense. At this time, there is no reason he shouldn't be on rosters now. Be weary of his May 19th tentative opponent however. Houston has batted .296 against LH pitching this year. Lilly is still should be startable though, especially if has another good outing on Wednesday.

I guess one thing I've overlooked is that I've mainly tailored(I just realized that's kind of a pun) this little column to Yahoo! standard 12 team leagues with daily lineup changes. Maybe that's a little short sighted on my part, but taking into account most people I know and the kind of leagues they are in, it makes sense to pander to them more. This goes for prospects as well. ESPN seems to release all player names while Yahoo! only makes a player available once they are placed on the 40 man roster. Anyway again if the format doesn't suit you sorry. But I'm always up for debating players and stats and projections. Let me get my ramble-pants on.


- Nate McLouth has continued to tear the cover off the ball. In an effort to capitalize on his power the Pirates have moved him to the 2 spot when Ryan Doumit catches, and in the 3 spot when Ronny Paulino catches. This should give him an obvious uptick in RBI's as new lead off hitter and career .300 hitter Freddy Sanchez starts to heat up. The Pirates have won 5 in a row and seems to have been sparked by Freddy's 9-21 performance over that time.

- Sticking with the Pirates, keep your eyes on Adam LaRoche. He's a notoriously terrible April hitter, but begins to heat up some in May. When he really starts to hit is in July and August where he is a .300 hitter in those months. I'm sure in many leagues he's sitting on the wire but he is someone to keep in mind and get for the the post AS break run. He is very streaky, especially when the home runs start to flow, so watch him and maybe pick him up if he looks to be getting warm. Also target him as an after all-star break must. With the way Mclouth, Jason Bay, Xavier Nady, and Sanchez have been playing well in front of him, he should see ample RBI opportunities.

- Kevin Khaki's mentioned Clayton Kershaw. Three weeks ago he was discussed along with Max Scherzer as two players worthy of waiver priority uses in Yahoo! leagues. Kevin is right, if he is available in your ESPN leagues get him now. Most likely someone has stashed him already but he may be around in a few leagues. He is currently in AA and pitching outstanding. He has posted an ERA of 1.08, over a strikeout per inning and K/W ratio of 3.36. With Esteban Loiaza going on the DL and Hong-Chih Kuo being used in the bullpen as a long reliever/5th starter, Kershaw could look to be a replacement until Jason Schmidt is ready to go. It seems the Dodgers would promote Kershaw over any of their AAA starting pitchers as all of them have posted very pedestrian numbers.

- Lance Berkman is a beast. He's hitting .783 this week. .783!!!!! He is 18-23 with 3 homers and 2 SB's. He really is doing it all right now, and anyone who possesses Berkman is likely praising him at this point. Berkman is a stud and while his ridiculous hitting pace will slow, his overall stats should continue to boast some of the best power numbers in baseball.

- Andrew Miller has pitched like the prospect he was touted as this past week. However, temper your future expectations if you currently have him on your team. He did his damage against two of the worst teams in the NL right now in Washington and San Diego. Those were the only two games in fact where he pitched 6 or more innings. I don't trust him yet and neither should you. Pass on him for now, but pay attention to his next few starts, if he can string together some nice outings and build confidence this 2006 1st round pick could be a nice pitcher down the stretch. Those in keeper leagues should have already latched on to this guy, he should be one of the better pitchers in the league in a few years.

- Don't get me wrong, I love the slacks but as soon as the temps hit the 50 degree range, you'll find me in some cargo shorts and most likely sandals. I'm all about comfort and nothing to me is more uncomfortable than fitting my giant flat feet in socks and shoes. So I never understand why get crap for this from my friends. I don't get it. So its like 50 out and I'm wearing sandals and shorts. I mean, I would understand if it was below freezing or there was snow on the ground but when its 50? Why do you even care? It's not like if I get cold I am in some way inconveniencing you, I would think I would care more about that. I remember a few times in college some buddies would even bet if I was wearing sandals or not when I would meet up with them. Personally, I think they are just jealous that I have a high tolerance to mild temperatures and flippers for feet. Don't feel insecure because I'm in shorts sandals and you wish you were.

- Maybe I was a little over zealous last week on Jesse Litsch. But I love the fact that hasn't walked a batter, has gone 7 innings or more and has given up only 15 hits in his last three starts. His K/W ratio of 3.57 is down right nasty. On the downside he has allowed 7 homers this year in 8 starts, but when you aren't walking guys and limiting those homers to solo shots you are pitching very effectively. Right now his peripherals all point toward a pitcher who can give you a big boost in keeping your WHIP and ERA low. I still feel like some team could really use his sort of stats as a 5th, 6th or 7th pitcher. Apparently, I'm not the only one either, as Yahoo!'s Greg Shea said pretty much the exact same thing I did last week in his column on Saturday.

- It seems like the Cardinals are going into a loose closer by committee type approach. As I mentioned a few weeks ago getting Ryan Franklin probably is a good idea. He should see the bulk of the save attempts that the Cardinals will have over the next few weeks. At some point I feel like Jason Isringhausen will definitely get back in to the roll he has done well in over the last few years but when exactly I'm not really sure. If I had to make a bet I would say sometime around the AS break, unless St. Louis's end game issues start to fall apart quickly and Izzy gets his job back by default.

- The Brewers also seemed to be shaking up there closer situation. Eric Gagne seems to have lost his job when he came in toa tied game on Saturday and ended up giving up 2 runs and getting the loss. Milwaukee has a little more of a muddled situation than St. Louis. It looks like Solomon Torres will head the committee, but really it could be a true committee as Brian Shouse, Mitch Stetter, Guillermo Mota and/or Seth McClung could as possibly see some end game work based on the situation. And I wouldn't be surprised to even see Gagne in a couple weeks back in the closer role. For now I feel Torres is the best bet to see saves. Mota has been too valuable as the setup man and seems to really settled in there. Shouse is a situational lefty and came in and worked a third of an inning to get the save on Sunday.

- Kevin Youkilis has been on fire this week but I really don't think he is someone you wanna go after in terms of a trade. He now has 8 homers which is half of his previously career high of 16 in one season. He will continue to be a good source of AVG, and OBP but his power numbers are really something of a mirage. With this latest ridiculous hot streak he should net around 18-20 homers and 90 or so runs and RBI and a handful of SB's. He is a prime sell high candidate in my opinion.

- 3 pitchers I feel should be good streamable solutions (next three projected starts): Darrell Rasner(@TB, BAL, SEA), Bronson Arroyo(FLA, CLE, @SD), Greg Smith(@CLE, TB, TOR)

- 3 pitchers I would shy away from acquiring or streaming even though they've had some recent success: Aaron Laffey(OAK, @CHW, TEX), Daniel Cabrera(BOS, @NYY, NYY), Gavin Floyd(@SF, CLE, @CLE)

- 5 hitters I really like this week that are probably available on your wire: Ryan Ludwick, Melvin Mora, Pedro Feliz, Placido Polanco, Wladimir Balentin

- 5 hitters that played well this week and are likely on the waiver wire that I don't like: Mark Kotsay, Jose Castillo, Kevin Millar, Casey Blake, Aubrey Huff


FANTASY QUICK TIP: Set your lineups a couple days in advance in daily leagues. Seems pretty basic, but amazingly some people still don't do it. This way if you can't get a computer one day for one reason or another, you are still set with your pitchers and whatnot.


ICHIRO UPDATE: In the debut column I stated my claim that Ichiro Suzuki 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 he's doing so far. Drum roll please..................................... .292. He's 47-161 through Sunday's games. Well here he comes, as customary he has started out hot this May hitting .405.