Daily Notes | Cliff Lee Enters the Win Column
From a numbers standpoint, Lee hasn't been as good as he was last year, but he has still been really good. He's striking out more than a batter each inning, the strikeout to walk rate is close to 5, and his line drive rate is down compared to last season. He has simply been a victim of awful luck in the season's first half, but if the Phillies can get healthy and stay healthy there's no reason to believe he can't have one of those months where he simply carries a fantasy pitching staff for a while.
- Matching Lee's win total yesterday was Chris Tillman. Our own Josh Shepardson was very excited about his eventual rise back to the big league's last week, and Tillman did not disappoint. He was two outs away from a complete game. The Orioles actually sent him down after the game, but only to give him the opportunity to pitch at Double-A during the All-Star break. Tillman will be expected to start the Orioles third game after the break. Kind of a curious decision given that he threw 125 pitches yesterday.
- Ben Duronio of RotoGraphs writes that he likes Jose Reyes as a buy-low option right now because he is on pace for career bests in walks to strikeouts and games played. Carlos Lee should help.
- Jose Altuve has just a 4.9% walk rate this season.
- Jaime Garcia threw 40 pitches from flat ground yesterday and could be ready to rejoin the Cardinals rotation in August. That's a boost for a team which officially learned Chris Carpenter won't be pitching at all this season.
- Justin Upton says he doesn't care what the fans think after being booed again yesterday.
Tell me about it! I'm just lucky I'm up at the top of the win column and my ace finally gets a W at the all-star break.
Love the all-star break cuz now teams are gonna start making trades for the 2nd half push. Got an offer for Asdrubal Cabrera (14th rd keeper). I can get either Hosmer or Goldschmidt (16th rd keeper). My backup SS is Aviles right now, but I'd look to get Everth in free agency cuz I do need speed. My 1B options now are Dunn and Santana (and hopefully Billy Butler if he gets 1 more game under his belt). I think I gotta pull the trigger and I'm thinking Hosmer over Goldy. Hosmer is only hitting .233 and he's still got the same power numbers Goldy has who is hitting .300.
Thoughts?
@TheGreatOne I don't really know if we can say that Hosmer has more upside than Goldschmidt at this point just because he was supposed to be better last year at this time. They are both relatively young and inexperienced and one is clearly outplaying the other. I'd take Goldschmidt over Hosmer right now, but that's just me.
