Mark Trumbo is swinging an amazing bat right now. Not only are his numbers impressive, but he looks going doing it too, hitting moon shots into the deep corners of the outfield seats (and outfield rocks), which is why now is the time to sell as high as you can.

no comments

The Braves official website announced on Tuesday evening that the team is optioning Kris Medlen to Triple-A Gwinnett in order to stretch him out and convert him from reliever to starter.  The hope is that he'll be stretched out and ready to start for the parent club by mid-June.  It's unclear who he'll replace in the rotation, but the top two candidates for removal from the starting five are Mike Minor and Randall Delgado.  What should fantasy owners expect from Medlen?

League has been dreadful this season.  He has nearly as many walks, 12, as he does strikeouts, 13.  His groundball rate is down significantly this year, and all-in-all, the negative peripheral stats have resulted in a 4.43 ERA and 1.62 WHIP.  Unfortunately for his fantasy owners, the ugly season line isn't the result of some messy non-save work.  He has fumbled away the closer role by blowing four saves in 13 chances, including two in the last 10 days.  He has allowed multiple runs in three of his last four appearances, and manager Eric Wedge has decided enough is enough.

I'm going to be totally upfront and honest here. I don't know much about prospects. I'm a big league guy. I love going to minor league games and have the pleasure of living in an area where there is a NY-Penn League team, but I don't know a lot of the guys in the minors. I know the big names, the Miller's, the Bundy's, the Taillon's and d'Arnaud's, but that is about it. I'm a numbers guy, despite my ill will towards math. I can get tons of big league statistics, can't get them for the minors. If you want info on prospects talk to Josh or Charlie, or Mark. Not me. 

I figure I need to get on this prospect band wagon if I'm going to succeed in this industry, so I'm looking into maybe joining a dynasty league. Take over a big league roster, each yearly draft is all minor league players. When looking at available teams in this league, and the prospects affiliated with each one, I had to do a fair bit of Googling to see how good my farm system was I may be inheriting. One name that popped up was  Todd Frazier. I had never heard of him (this was a month ago). The point of all this is not only do I know who he is now, I'm sure everyone in Atlanta does too, because you see, Todd hit a walk off homer last night to cap a 2-1 victory against the Braves. 

Frazier is a power bat at a power position, he has 64 AB's this season, a .250 avg and 3 HR's. A respectable rate of hitting a HR every 21 AB's or so (math wins again!), or a HR every 4 or 5 days... or to broaden it out, a little more than 1 HR every week. Look at all that math! That's currently a better pace than Alex Rodriguez, and similar pace to Kelly Johnson and Billy Butler. Not overly sexy names, but players more than useful to our game. The point is with regular playing time this guy is capable of helping out. If you have nothing better going for you, grab him and see what happens. He's hitting HR's at a better rate than Miguel Cabrera has been.

So, Adam Wainwright looked like the old Adam Wainwright last night, rattling off the complete game shutout, fanning 9, allowing only 4 hits, 1 walk. He has been mostly average so far this season, with glimpses of his old self, but last night was encouraging (understatement). Yes, this gem came against the Padres, but his next start is Sunday against the Phillies and they aren't quite the force they were of years past. Looking further ahead he draws matchups against the Mets, then Astros. The only way this stretch of games could be any better is if the Pirates were thrown in somewhere, but alas, this isn't a perfect world. This could be just the thing Waino needs to get his groove back. Don't overlook those Astros too much though... Jed Lowrie could kill you.No joke, for now anyway.

Lowrie has a WAR of 0.7 over the last 7 days, tied for highest in baseball. Over that stretch he has a .360 AVG with 3 HR's, 5 Runs and 6 RBI. Eligible at 3B and SS he is the 41st ranked player in Yahoo! at the moment and he is only owned in 51% of leagues. By now I hope you have given up on Alexei Ramirez, Erik Aybar or Jhonny Peralta and grabbed him. Heck, if you read this paragraph before doing it, it's probably too late. 

If anyone is still feeling love not yet completely numb from burns season after season, Gordon Beckham is once again showing signs of his potential, with 3 HR's and a .280 avg over the last week. Ride the streaks folks.

We’re not “early in the season” anymore, but, then again, we aren’t exactly deep into the season either. There are a number of high round draftees still struggling to find their way and put forth the numbers that their fantasy GMs were expecting. Because of their track record, on top of current peripheral stats, these players make for great buy-low targets.

no comments

• Out with the old in with the new in the outfield for the Angels. Mike Trout, Peter Bourjos, and Mark Trumbo all started tonight. 
• Lots of injury notes in Oakland. Brett Anderson is ahead of schedule but had a recent setback, Coco Crisp could be back tomorrow, and Yoenis Cespedes will not be activated when eligible to come off the DL on Tuesday.
• Adrian Beltre's hamstring issue is almost to the point where it is no longer an issue. 
• Jesus Montero busted out of a slump for the Mariners. He attributed his 3-hit day to an at-bat in which he drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch early in the game.
• As soon as the swelling goes down, Paul Konerko will be back on the field for the White Sox. The shiner he got from Jeff Samardzija is worth a look for the boxing fans.
• Detroit will be without Jose Valverde for at least another couple of days. Austin Jackson also figures to be out of the starting lineup for Sunday's action. 
• The Royals have already had 8 different starting pitcher and 14 different relievers through 37 games played this season. That won't change this year given that the team won't be adding a veteran.
• Jeanmar Gomez has a 1.09 WHIP this season after another quality start on Saturday. He's had one bad outing in the eight appearances he's made this season (7 starts) and if we throw out that one bad outing he has a 1.77 ERA. 
• It's possible that Desmond Jennings could be back on May 27th when he's eligible to return. Joe Maddon said the club has not decided if he needs at-bats in the minors first. 
• Brandon Morrow has looked as good as any pitcher on the planet over the last month including Justin Verlander. Morrow threw a complete game 3-hitter Saturday and has not allowed more than an earned run in his last six starts. It's stories like this that inspire people to actually believe in xFIP. 
• The Red Sox might not have to make a decision on Daisuke Matsuzaka by May 23rd when his rehab schedule is supposed to be complete. 
• Adam Jones is on pace for more than 110 RBI, 120 runs scored, and 55 home runs. Yes, it is time to sell high. 
• Alex Rodriguez has 1 home run in his last 72 at-bats. Hank Aaron's Barry Bonds' record appears safe.

This is usually a popular time of year for fantasy pundits to discuss which hot prospects are worth stashing in the hopes of an early summer promotion.  I am often one of those fantasy baseball writers driving the hype train on prospects.  However, in an unusual turn of events, a couple of older veterans may be worth stashing instead of the youngsters.  Manny Ramirez will be taking cuts for Triple-A Sacremento starting tonight, while he continues to serve his suspension for a failed drug test.  Meanwhile, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, Roy Oswalt has thrown bullpen sessions for the Phillies and Red Sox, and he appears on the verge of picking a contender to play for in 2012. no comments