Day 120

Notes from yesterday:

If Dotel goes to the NL, NL-only leagues should consider bidding on him regardless of his role with the NL team. He is a free agent and could sign as a closer with his new team.

I expect Dotel to be cheap in most NL-only leagues with Mark Teixeira sucking-up all the FAAB. Throw-in the AVG/SB potential of Luis Castillo, and a middle reliever should be available for an under-the-radar bid.

*

A's starter Joe Blanton was hittable again. I was very high on him, but recently dealt him for Mariners' OF Jose Guillen. This was last Friday. Now Blanton is being shopped. Did I sense something the A's know about Blanton?

Day 119

Notes from yesterday:

My eyes filled-up with tears in sympathy for all those Jason Jennings owners when I saw he allowed 11 earned runs in 2/3s of an inning. That welling-up occurred after the panic-stricken moment it took me to recall I do not have him on any teams.

Day 118

Notes from yesterday:

Danys Baez is supposed to be the new Orioles' closer, but he inconveniently got sick and watched a save go the Chad Bradford and Jamie Walker on successive nights.

*

Rookie 2B Danny Richar was recalled by the White Sox to replace the just-traded Tadahito Iguchi. With two hits in his debut, Richar is going to get two months to show he can fill that position in 2008. Check out his career numbers in my Fake Teams post from Friday.

Day 117

Auditions for '08 closer happening right now: "The Giants could have a third candidate to close next season: Matt Cain. The team does not want to mess with him in midseason, but some in the organization believe he has the stuff and bulldog attitude to become another Jonathan Papelbon. "

Wow.

The article also mention Hennessey and Randy Messenger.

Day 116

Notes from yesterday:

Watched Zach Greinke's inning of work against the Yankees last night, and he looked fast. The YES gun said 95, but sometimes the pitchers doesn't look as fast as the readings. Greinke did. That 98 MPH rising fastball to Abreu (which he laid off) was nasty, and it got there quick.

Day 115

Notes from yesterday:

Tigers OF Ryan Raburn went 4-5 with two HRs and seven RBIs. With reports the Tigers have interest in Yankees' reliever Kyle Farnsworth, I wonder if Craig Monroe could be headed to NY with Raburn getting his ABs in the OF.

*

Orioles closer Chris Ray is on the DL with an ulnar ligament issue. Expect the O's to use the $40MM or so worth of relievers they signed to fill-in (Baez, Walker and Bradford). At $19MM, Baez would be the favorite base don size of contract alone.

Day 114

Notes from yesterday:

Tigers OF Ryan Raburn continues to make the case for remaining in the majors by going 2-4 with a SB. He is now 6-16 with 3 BBs, a HR and that SB.

*

Rockies' 4th OF Ryan Spillborghs has 32 RBIs. If the Rox hadn't fleeced the Astros so badly on the Jason jennings trade, I'd complain about Wily Tavares. As is, Spillborghs is blocked.

Day 113

Notes from yesterday:

Reports have the Indians unwilling to deal either Franklin Gutierrez or Ben Francisco for Royals' closer Octavio Dotel. That seems to be the lowest price I've seen for Dotel - spare outfielders.

*

Tha Yankees promoted AA pitchers Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy to AAA. Expect to see Chamberlain in pinstripes.

Day 112

Notes from yesterday:

Shelly Duncan hit two HRs. The Devil Rays' bullpen is a bad as any in baseball, but one of those HRs was against James Shields.

*

Orioles' closer Chris Ray woke-up with some shoulder soreness. That is why Jamie Walker closed out yesterday's 2-0 victory. You have to think the O's would try to get something out of $19MM reliever Danys Baez, wouldn't you?

Day 111

Notes from yesterday:

Yankees' rookie Shelly Duncan hit his first major league HR. In the Cardinals' game, his brother Chris hit his 19th. While Chris is an established hitter at this point, let's hope Shelly can do the same. FWIW, he also felw out to the warning track in LLC field.

He is a nearly riskless gamble for those teams in search of stretch run power. If he continues to hit, he will play. If not, he will be sent to the end of the bench or AAA.

*

Another player worth looking at is the current starting 2B for the Mets, Ruben Gotay. In 103 ABs, he has hit 4 HRs and has a .350 AVG. While memories of a .227 AVG in 2005 linger, he is still just 24-years-old. A post-hype sleeper seems appropriate?

Day 110

Notes from yesterday:

Red Sox SS Julio Lugo continued his torrid July with a 3-4 game and a grand slam.

*

Reports have Yanks GM Brian Cashman at last night's start for Joba Chamberlain. The hype behind Joba is growing exponentially. he could be a helpful power arm in the pen. He could also flop and/or get on Torre's bad side like fellow rookie Edwar Ramirez.

Day 109

Notes from yesterday:

Cardinals' manager Tony LaRussa allowed his starting pitcher, Mike Maroth, to return for the 5th inning after allowing five earned runs in the first four. He then allowed Maroth to pitch the 5th inning when he gave-up another five earned runs. Why?

*

Andruw Jones homered again.

Day 108

Notes from yesterday:

In a 4-1 game, Joe Torre turned to his closer Mariano Rivera for a five-out save. I wonder whatever happened to Edwar Ramirez, though. He has not pitched since July 6th. Torre should be ashamed of himself for such roster mismanagement. It is inexcusable.

Day 107

Notes from yesterday:

Braves CF Andruw Jones homered for the 6th time in July. The opportunity to buy low is rapidly slipping away. However, it is not completely gone as the mainstream baseball media is still talking about Jones and how much he has lost thanks to this season.

*

Don't punt Antonio Alfonseca yet. News has Tom Gordon admitting he is trying to pitch through a torn labrum since last season. Recall his second-half ineffectiveness last year.

Day 106

Notes from yesterday:

Braves OF Andruw Jones had another game with a hit. This means a lot more to a player mired under .200 for the first half of the season than any Jones owner had imagined before the season began. In July, he 295/407/705 with 5 HRs.

Day 105

Notes from yesterday:

With just 70 games remaining, it is harder to make the standings-changing trade. Each SP has roughly 14 starts remaining. Given most pitchers don't win 50% of their starts, it will be difficult to make-up a handful of Ws with the acquistion of just one SP.

Day 104

Notes from yesterday:

The Rangers may use lefty CJ Wilson to close if the team successfully consumates deals to send Eric Gagne and Akinor Otsuka to other teams by the 7/31 deadline. Reports say the Rangers are more likely to keep Wilson than the other two.

*

Red Sock SS Julio Lugo had another good day at the plate and contunies to look like a good buy low candidate.

Day 103

Notes from yesterday:

Angels 2B Howie Kendrick is back on the DL, and top hitting prospect Brandon Wood is being recalled again. If the Angels decide to move Chone Figgins to 2B, then Wood may be good for 5-10 HRs in the second half.

Day 102

Notes from yesterday:

The Red Sox latest SS mis-analysis, Julio Lugo, went 2-4. He is not 8-24 in July and could be the buy-low candidate his career would appear to make him.

*

Joel Zumaya played catch with no immediate reports of bad news. He could still get a chance to close in 2007 if things progress quickly. I suspect this would hurt the Rangers chances of dealing free-agent-to-be-no-trade-clause-closer Eric Gagne to Detroit.

Day 101

Notes from yesterday:

Red Sox AAA OF Brandon Moss hit a first inning HR in yesterday's AAA All-Star Game. His is a sleeper name to be a player in this year's trades. After being named the Red Sox top prospect a few years ago, his disappointing follow-up seasons have dropped him from people's radar. However, he is succeeding in AAA and is only 23.

Day 100

Notes from yesterday:

The Mariners recalled top prospect Adam Jones and installed him as the regular RF. This pushes Jose Guillen to LF and Raul Ibanez to DH. The obvious loser is Jose Vidro who is now offically an albatross. Ben Broussard is also superfluous.

Jones strikes out a lot so he may not stick, though.

Day 99

Notes from yesterday:

There were no games, but the HR Derby did occur. Will Alex Rios be hit by the HR Derby curse as David Wright was last year and Bobby Abrue the year before? Maybe it will be Matt Holliday?

Day 98

Notes from yesterday:

Yankees back-up catcher Wil Nieves now has 1B-eligibility. That fact should be all anyone needs to know about how bad the Yankees roster has bene constructed.

*

When is the next permanent change in closers going to occur? Gary Glover in Tampa Bay and Manny Corpas in Colorado look to be very brief stints.

Day 97

Notes from yesterday:

A's "ace" Rich Harden pitched an ugly 2 2/3s inning yesterday and reported not feeling right. His 2007 fantasy trade value is essentially nil.

*

White Sox ace Mark Buerhle, OTOH, dramatically increased his value by hurling a sixth consecutive gem whilst under the pressure of a very public contract squabble.

Day 96

Notes from yesterday:

Am I the only fantasy player who sees a 20-14 score and immediately runs through my rosters to make sure I have no pitchers on either team? And if I do, to rush in a panic to check the boxscore and hope none of my pitchers made an appearance?

Am I the only fantasy player who sees a 20-14 score and immediately fears my hitter is the one who didn't get a hit or drive in a run a la Michael Cuddyer?

Day 95

Notes from yesterday:

Reports say Devil Rays closer Al Reyes is already feeling better. That is good news for a team hoping to learn what win #71 is all about. Fill-in closer Gary Glover put three men on-bas in one inning of mop-up work.

Day 94

Notes from yesterday:

Al Reyes is on the D.L., and Gary Glover is reported to be the first in line. Other than this, there hasn't been a lot of churn in the closer roles lately. With nthe trading deadline 26 days away, I suspect this will not continue.

Day 93

Notes from yesterday:

Joe Blanton won his 9th game and dropped his ERA to 3.04. He is not amongst the sexier names for the 2007 CY Young, but if he plays the turtle to everyone else's hare, he may make a surprisingly good showing.

*

Amazingly, the Rangers are winning more than their line-up of 4th OFers and back-up infielders would lead one to believe. Unfortunately, they are further away from the opportunity to select 3B Pedro Alvarez in next year's draft. Tampa Bay, Washington and Cincinnati are worse, and San Francisco and Kansas City are closing fast.

Day 92

Notes from yesterday:

Imagine if ARod misses a couple weeks with a hamstring injury. The Yankees line-up will be almost Texas awful. Keep on eye on Shelly Duncan. He is tearing-up AAA Sranton-WB and could provide that Kevin Maas/Shane Spencer magic the Yankees desparetly need to be a .500 club.

*

Ryan Braun stole his 7th base. I am beginning to think he is going to be a second round pick next season and be in the argument for the 2nd-best 3B spot behin ARod.

Day 91

Notes from yesterday:

Can this line-up be this bad?

J. Damon dh .250
D. Jeter ss .338
R. Cano 2b .265
A. Rodriguez .327
J. Posada c .336
H. Matsui lf .270
B. Abreu rf .247
A. Phillips 1b .250
M. Cabrera cf .259

Day 90

Notes from yesterday:

The A's Rich Harden pitched two innings yesterday. There have no no reports of pain. However, that does not mean the A's did not tell him to keep that quiet if there were.

*

The Twins recalled Matt Garza. In AL-only leagues, he is worth picking-up but keep expectations low.