This Week in Fantasy Baseball…

• What can we say about Mr. Hanley Ramirez, the preseason number 1 overall player? He just finished a week where a clubbed a couple grand slams and drove in 15 runs. His overall campaign now looks like .333 AVG / 47 R / 11 HR / 51 RBI / 11 SB; however all his owners would like the steals to increase from a guy who has stole 50 in the past.
• “Bossman” BJ Upton had another nice week and continues to shine in the month of June. Upton went .348 over the past week with a homer and two steals, upping his total to 28 bags. It looks like the window has passed to buy low on Upton as he finally has things going and displaying that 5 category potential.
• After 3 straight sub-par outings, Matt Garza finally picked things up for Tampa Bay. He went eight strong against Philly, giving up 3 hits and whiffing 8, bringing his strikeout total to 85 this year. Garza’s K/9 rate has improved to 7.86 this year from 6.24 a year ago, and his BAA has went from .245 to .210, but his walk rate is too high. Also, watch out for his 106 pitches per start as we wear along this summer.
• I must give props to Javier Vasquez. Coming up with two more solid fantasy starts this past week, Vasquez now has 125 K’s, a 3.06 ERA, and a WHIP of 1.06 for the season. Coming into the season as a mid-round pick, Javier has jumped up to fantasy ace status with his start in the ATL. Projections have him fanning 270 this season, but a 250-260 season could be reasonable as he contends for the MLB strikeout king.
  ***Just a tip, always draft pitchers with increasing K/9 rates or pitches who consistently have high K totals, they tend to have better stuff and strikeouts take away the “chance” factor in putting balls in play (BABIP), which can cause pitchers to become unlucky over the course of a season.
• Grady Sizemore is back from the DL and has hit .300 since, with a homer and 8 runs batted in. Expect good things the rest of this summer from this 5 tool talent.
• Blue Jays second baseman Aaron Hill clubbed 4 more homers this past week, adding to his career best season so far. Hill now has 19 homers with 56 RBIs, and boasts an OPS of .848, which is splendid for a second baseman. Expect more homers since Hill’s fly ball percentage is hovering around 50 percent, 50.6 to be exact. Owners have to be ecstatic over Hill’s production so far.
• Josh Beckett loves the Braves. He has thrown 16 innings, won 2 games, given up 11 hits, allowed no runs, walked none, and struck out 13. The boys in Atlanta are glad to see the big Texan go away for the rest of the year. That is a simple description of domination.
• Danny Haren had another great week. I don’t think people understand how dominant he has been. Haren has a season WHIP of 0.81 in 108 innings pitched. Only Jonathan Broxton and Joe Nathan have lower WHIPs as CLOSERS. Chris Carpenter does have a WHIP of 0.70, but he has thrown only65 innings, 43 fewer than Haren.

DRang

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