With the lack of anything "significant" in baseball yesterday (I'm looking at YOU Matt Weiters. We've been expecting you to get 4 hits and 5 RBI's in games for 3 years.) I decdied to go with the recomendation of stashing Wil Myers. I posted a couple days ago that the Royals GM said that he might sit in AAA until early next year, but I also speculated that could have been GM gamesmanship. Well, the other shoe fell. Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com has reported that the Royals are looking to trade Jeff Francouer, opening a spot in RF for Myers, which his limited and range and strong arm are a better fit for than the CF he has been playing this season. Francouer doesn't have a ton of value, but perhaps the A's will be willing to grab him?

In ESPN leagues, Myers already has his OF designation, but those of you in Yahoo! formats will get to reap the potential benefits of a call up while using him at Catcher until he gains his OF eligibility, then of course, continue to use him at catcher until he loses the designation next season. no comments

Matt Cain not only threw the first perfect game in Giants history last night, but he did so in dominating fashion, striking out 14 batters in the process. Sandy Koufax is the only pitcher to accumulate that many K's in a perfecto. As rare a feat as a perfect game is (this is the 22nd in MLB history), and as stated, only the 2nd time it was "as" perfect, should we be surprised by it? It's certainly something to behold, but it was Matt Cain. The same Matt Cain who was given the richest contract all time for a right handed pitcher. It should stand to reason that if someone is going to be the highest paid all time at a position, that he should do something extraordinary. Mission accomplished. And as good as his performance was last night, it wasn't the most surprising. 

The most surprising performance of the night goes to a Mr. R.A. Dickey. Before you jump all over me and my Met's fan bias, hear me out. He didn't walk a batter. That alone is amazing. A knuckle baller not walking anyone. But it gets better. He faced two batters over the minimum. The first batter reached on a questionable scoring decision (hit, could have been ruled an error) in the first inning. The 2nd batter reached on a throwing error in the 9th. Dickey had no wild pitches, or passed balls...until the 9th inning, when Mike Nickeas allowed two to get by him letting the runner to advance to 3rd, then score on a grounder to short. He also struck out 12. So there you have it, complete game, 1 hit, 0 walks, 12 K's 0 earned runs, obviously coming out of it with a win. During the game, Dickey also set a Mets record throwing 34.2 consecutive scoreless innings. So this wasn't just a dominating game, this has been a dominating stretch. Over his last 5 games, he is 5-0, with a 0.23 ERA and a K:BB of 50:3. I'm not Elias, but I would venture that a knuckle baller has never been as dominant as he is right now. The thing is he doesn't just have a knuckle ball. He has three knuckle balls, technically it's one, but he changes speeds with it from anywhere in the high 60's to low 80's. He can throw a fastball in the 80's too. There is just too much to keep a hitter off balance. Dickey was just traded in my NL only league 1 for 1 for Andre Ethier to give you an idea for what his trade value might be at the moment. no comments

I was reading a Jayson Stark story on ESPN last week about 5 teams in baseball that were shocking, either good or bad. Story can be read here. In any case, aside from going over my beloved Mets, he mentions the Tigers, and how much of a disappointment they have been this year. He specifically says (in regards to their awful defense and injury problems):

"...it certainly doesn't explain why their closer, that thrill-a-minute Jose Valverde, could have had zero blown saves, a 2.24 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP last year -- and now has three blown saves, a 4.24 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP this year." 

And he is right, the defense and injuries have nothing to do with Valverde's regression. It has everything to do with he just wasn't that good. In preseason a lot of fantasy writers were calling out for Valverde to regress, and not just a little. How did we figure this out? Peripheral stats... no comments

One of the secrets to being a good fantasy sports player is to read. I read a lot. Yahoo!, ESPN, FanGraphs, FB365. You have to research, and my favorite kind of research is the kind where I don't have to crunch numbers, people who are smarter than me have done it, and I can reference it. 

Michael Salfino has a great article today on pitchers being lucky or unlucky in the ERA department, pointing out that if a pitcher lets the lead off batter of an inning on, than he is 3 times more likely to give up a run. He concludes that pitchers with high OBA's against the lead off batter, but low or average OBA against the rest of the lineup, are due to increase their value, and likewise, guys with opposite splits are due to regress. That is it in a nutshell, there are other things too, but I don't want to re-write the guy's whole article, you might as well give him the credit and the clicks he deserves by going to their site and reading it here, but not before checking out today's Pitching Match Ups below...and my one daily note. no comments

Roy Halladay and the Phillies finally talked about his injury. He is scheduled to miss 6-8 weeks, no surgery, just rest and some exercise. Doctors said that there isn't anything alarming about the MRI on his shoulder compared to the baseline MRI they took in Dec 2009 when he was traded from Toronto. Halladay is confident that he will be able to return to form, but what about the rest of us? Sure, when he got hurt he was 4-5 (not great, but a lot of leagues don't count losses) and had an ERA of 3.98 which isn't bad, but when you are talking about Roy Halladay, he of the career 3.25 ERA and 4 consecutive under 3.00 ERA seasons he is coming off of, it makes him look more human than we are used to. Factor in a decline in velocity, and his lowest K% and highest BB% since 2007, and we have more to worry about.

If there is a light at the end of the tunnel it's that he A. Doesn't need surgery, and B. His ERA peripherals all point to him being better than the stats indicate, but last time I checked, I don't recall seeing a league that used FIP or SIERA as a scoring category. no comments

Hey all, I don't have much time for notes today, but thought I would at least put up the guys I would sit or start tonight. Take what it what you will... no comments

• Chris Young will be making the start for the Mets tonight at Washington. He is 13 months removed from the same shoulder surgery that Johan Santana and Mark Prior have had. He has had 4 rehab starts, three in Single A where he pitched a 3.18 ERA and then 6 scoreless in his last start at AAA. He is expected to max out at 80 or 85 pitches today. I've grabbed him as a lotto ticket in my NL only and Blog Wars. 
• Jason Bay will not be starting tonight as anticipated. He hasn't had a setback, he's just sick.
• Jarrod Parker threw seven innings of no hit ball to beat the Rangers. He finished with eight innings, one hit, and 6 K's. 
• Scott Feldman finished with 1.2 innings, giving up 8 runs on 7 hits. Roy Oswalt can't be ready soon enough...
• Resident most hyped sleeper of the year, Lucas Duda hit another homer last night, his 9th of the year and 5th in his last 10 games. I called him for 25-30 bombs this year. His current pace puts him at close to 28. no comments

Last night Chris Sale was awesome. He has been all year actually, but last night was like some type of punctuation mark. Probably an exclamation point. He went the distance giving up only two runs on only 5 hits and 2 walks, to go along with 8 K's. Sure, Miguel Olivo tagged him for a two run shot, but Sale is easily surpassing expectations this year, despite the White Sox bouncing him around from role to role. On the season Sale is now 7-2 with a 2.30 ERA and 0.98 WHIP. How is he doing it?

For starters, he has toned down the velocity of his pitches, which makes sense considering he needs to pitch more than one inning at a clip now. This drop in velocity has allowed him to have more control over his pitches, as illustrated by his drop in BB/9 (almost 1 full walk lower from last year). All of his pitches are grading out as plus, and he is getting swinging strikes at a rate that is top 20 among qualified starters.

I have some concerns that he may tire at the end of the season just because he hasn't thrown a full starting pitcher amount of innings in a season before (71 was his high list year, ZIPs projects him to finish in the 170 range, which could mark him as an injury risk heading into next year. That isn't now though. Now he is awesome.

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