As the Orange County Register pointed out last night, Mike Trout did not play in a game yesterday, but has taken over the league lead in batting average as Paul Konerko dropped a point behind him. Anytime a player is leading in one of the big traditional three categories (average, home runs, or RBI) it cries out to voters that they deserve some recognition. Today, the votes are being changed to account for OBP, OPS, and even WAR but those numbers usually sit right in line with where a player is in the traditional categories. Here are Trout's numbers among AL rookies: no comments

Trevor Bauer pitched only 2.2 innings today. There was nothing physically wrong with him. He had 5 strikeouts and gave up 2 hits. Given that he met with the Diamondbacks front office earlier in the week to discuss how he would speak to the media and that Joe Saunders has been placed on the DL, it was pretty obvious that the Diamondbacks were set to call up their best prospect. 

Bauer is 11-1 this year with a 2.23 ERA with 56 strikeouts in 42.2 between AA and AAA this season. Even though he has less than 120 innings thrown in the minors between this year and last, many believe he has nothing left to prove in the minor leagues. He should be added in all mixed leagues by the time he takes the mound on Thursday against the Braves.  no comments

According to Red Sox beat writer Nick Cafardo, the White Sox and Indians are the most likely destinations for Kevin Youkilis while the Dodgers and Pirates, and what sounds like one other team. Here are the situations that would be best for Youk's fantasy value:
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Tim Lincecum is 2-8. He has not won since April 28. His team has lost 9 straight games he has started. He has an ERA over 6.00. He has a career worse 4.8 walks per 9 innings. His average fastball velocity is lower than ever. 

Tim Lincecum is also 28. He has won two Cy Young Awards. He is striking out more than a batter per inning this season. He and the team claim that he is healthy. 

Although pitchers are a lot harder to predict when it comes to reading if they can bounce back, I never doubt a struggling veteran that still should be in or around the prime of their careers and has been consistent for a stretch of multiple seasons. It is the theory that every Adam Dunn owner has relied on this season. That every Dan Haren and Ian Kinsler owner relied on last season. Or Carl Crawford owners the season before that. 

Can you get burnt? Sure, Crawford owners this season might have. Ubaldo Jimenez owners have as well. In both of those instances there was an obvious reason to look for the player to just fall off the table. Crawford was hurt coming into the season and is still hurt. Jimenez's fastball, which was his greatest weapon, stopped being fast. In the case of Lincecum, I don't know if there is a clear reason for his lack of success. The fast ball velocity is about 1.5 MPH lower on average than it typically is, but according to Fangraphs pitch values, Lincecum has actually had a better fast ball this season than he did last year. 

Going by the numbers, Lincecum has been severely unlucky. His FIP and xFIP are both under 4.00, but Dave Cameron suggests that calling it bad luck is dismissing the fact that he is not locating pitches. In that article, Cameron describes a juicey 1-2 pitch that Lincecum made to Jesus Montero. To me, if Lincecum is not struggling with walks this season, he throws him something way off the plate and gets Montero to chase. Lincecum is struggling with walks and everything else on the mound, thus the numbers he has accumulated this season. Lincecum also is having difficulty pitching out of the stretch. His batting average against is almost 50 points worse with runners on base than it is with the bases empty. That could be mechanical, but it also could be mental. That whole "here we go again" mentality when someone gets on against him. More than anything, Lincecum needs one good start to build on. His greatest problem right now is himself. 

Today he takes on the Athletics who are 24th in the Majors in runs scored and have the 4th worst on base percentage in the game. Lincecum has already struggled against the A's this season, but at some point if we believe that he isn't hurt, he is going to pitch like Tim Lincecum.

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Jacob Turner is one of the few starting pitchers that was sitting around in the minors that might deserve immediate consideration in mixed leagues. Along with Danny Hultzen and Trevor Bauer, Turner has the stuff that can help teams right now rather than somewhere down the road. Turner features a fastball, breaking ball, and a change up which are all solid pitches for him. The fastball usually sits at around 92 MPH and the change up typially comes in about 6 MPH slower than the fastball. 

If you look at the numbers that he's put together in the minors, players like Bauer and Hultzen would appear to be much better options if all three pitchers were coming up today. I would probably take Bauer and Hultzen over Turner, but the fact is that those guys aren't coming up today. Turner had a slow start this year because he battled shoulder tendenitis right from spring training. That partially explains the 27 strikeouts to 18 walks he had in 42 innings. If you aren't desperate for pitching, then Turner probably isn't your guy anyway, but I am picking him up for his reputation in one league because of where I am in the standings in wins and strikeouts. no comments

Michael Morse was hitting home runs once every 17 at-bats a year ago, so when he came off the disabled list June 2nd and still did not have a home run 57 at-bats into the season it was easy to write off last year as a career year. Now he has one home run after 61 at-bats. Probably not what Morse or his fantasy owners would want, but it could be a start. 

Let's keep in mind that Morse basically did not have a spring training this season. He had 7 at-bats and  then got 21 rehab at-bats sprinkled in throughout different locations a the Nats minor league system. The 28 at-bats he had (if it's even fair to group them together) would be about one-third of a typical spring training regiment. In other words, Morse's slow start over the last two-plus weeks can be attributed to rust.

Also, Morse did not come out of the gates guns-blazing last year either. He was homerless through his first 46 at-bats and had just 1 home run after 70 at-bats. His April OPS was under .600 while every month after that was over .800. 

In a very short sample size, Morse is striking out more and walking less, and hitting more groundballs in proportion to flyballs, but let's keep everything in perspective. If he had struck out two fewer times and walked one more time his numbers would be where they were last year in those categories. Again, it's a very short sample size. This is still a buy low opportunity with some risk as every buy low opportunity tends to be, but if you were high on Morse before the lat injury there's no reason to fret about the slow start. 
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Here is an excerpt from KOBEshigawa's latest article over at the Great Mambino. Among the topics not mentioned is watching Jordan Zimmermnan's innings and waiting for Gavin Floyd to turn things around.

Hello friends, we're back (finally) with another edition of MAMBINO Fantasy Mondays. We give our (supposed) weekly updates and thoughts on Major League Baseball, and of course, the fantasy spin from some rugged veterans of the internet.

The NBA is winding down it's season with the championship round, while the NHL and NFL lie dormant until the fall. If your attention hasn't fully been on baseball the past few months, who could blame you? The NBA Finals is shaping up towards being one of the all-time greats, while the Los Angeles Kings' surprising romp through a supremely entertaining Stanley Cup playoffs kept us all distracted since essentially opening day. 

So if you're just cracking open the sports page, you'd probably take a look at these standings and your face would be contorted into a mess reminiscent of Jack Wilson's unfortunate mug. Some of the division leaders are as predictable as a Matt Cain quality start - the Yankees and Rangers are in first, while the Giants and Braves currently hold serve as the NL Wild Card reps and Tampa Bay Rays one part of the AL Wild Card.

But the rest of the standings? Your other divsion leaders (ordered by winning percentage) are the Los Angeles Dodgers, Washington Nationals, Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox.

For the rest of the article go to The Great Mambino's site.  no comments

Brandon Belt collected a hit in his fifth straight game last night and had a walk for the third time in five games. Previously his longest hitting streak was 3 games this season. That's because he has often been asked to come up as a pinch hitter, and has never been a consistent presence in the lineup. Fortunately for Belt, Aubrey Huff has been worse than anyone could have ever imagined and as his luck would have it Huff pulled a Kendry Morales during the Matt Cain perfect game. Belt is finally getting a chance, and this might be the week we look back on as the week that Belt finally arrived. 

Belt was homerless, but broke out with homers in three consecutive games to start the mini hit streak he is currently on. Perhaps the most significant part of the barrage is that all three home runs came against lefties. That will make it even harder for Huff or any member of the Giants to eventually replace Belt in a platoon role. Finding free agents that will stay on a roster for the duration of a season is harder to do at this time of the year in mixed leagues, but it would appear that Belt has the potential to do that. He should be rostered if he is avaialble.
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