Fantasy Baseball: Where my Swag At? Vol. V
By BrooklynBums
To start off I want to say congrats to Matt Cain for pitching the first perfect game in San Francisco Giants history. My caps off to you. This season Matt Cain is a player who put it together and with pitching a perfect game you get instant swag, till his next start.
TIM LINCECUM – SF
Stats as of 6/18: 6.19 ERA. (2-8 Record.) 1.57 WHIP. 93 Ks in 77 INN.
The same cannot be said for his counterpart Tim Lincecum. When Lincecum broke into the league he was unstoppable. In 2008 Lincecum won 18 games, had an ERA of 2.61 and struck out 265 batters. Can you guess what happened to Lincecum at the end of the season? He won the Cy Young. The next season nothing changed. Lincecum won 15 games, had an ERA of 2.47 and struck out 261 batters. First verse same as the first. Lincecum won the Cy Young award again. The league could not figure this guy out. With his funky delivery it is said to be very hard to see the ball come out of his hands. Eventually the batters started to catch up with his pitching style and it is starting to show.
This season Tim Lincecum has been in a downward spiral. Lincecum, in his 14 starts, only has 2 W to show for it. I don’t know how a Cy Young winner can only have 2 wins on the season at this point but it is still 2 more W than Cliff Lee. Lincecum also has 8 L that puts him on pace for a record of 4 W and 19 L. His ERA is 6.18, which is the highest in his career. The only thing that is consistent with Lincecum this season are his K’s. He is on pace to strike out 206 people which is consistent with his average. If you have Lincecum in your league I would bench him or try to trade him until he can get out of this funk he is in.
LINCECUM, WHERE YOUR SWAG AT?
JUSTIN UPTON – AZ
Stats of 6/18: .258 Average. 5 HR. 22 RBI. 8 SB.
Sticking with the NL West, the next player to have lost his swag is the young Justin Upton. When I was in Arizona I went to the D-Backs game’s all the time. One time I went with the camp I was working for and my brother decided to teach his campers a chant to yell at Justin Upton. Little did I know this chant was from an episode of South Park. The chant went “Justin Upton is a man, bear, pig”. The kids kept repeating that chant the entire game. I’m pretty sure Upton went 3 for 3 that game with a HR. So maybe the chant will bring him luck and he will come around because Upton’s numbers are at a low point. Last season Upton had a career year in 4 of the 5 major hitting categories. He hit 31 HR, drove in 88 RBI’s, scored 105 runs and stole 21 bases. All of which were career highs. Everyone thought Upton was the next big thing when he came up and last season showed just that.
This season is looking a little different. Upton did not come out of the gates blazing. Right now Upton has a BA of .258 and only 5 HR. This puts him on track to only bat .258 for the season with 12 HR’s. The success of Upton was one of the major reasons the Diamondbacks did so well last year. If Justin can start to string it together he can be very dangerous. With the big contract he signed a few years ago he should be hitting 30+ HR and driving in over 100 RBI every season. Maybe the chant will help, “Justin Upton is a man, bear, pig. Justin Upton is a man, bear, pig”.
UPTON, WHERE YOUR SWAG AT?
Hey there,
Would you pick up Ben Revere and drop Cameron Maybin while he looks for his swag? I need help with runs and steals. I kinda feel like Revere can give me these at the top of his lineup more than Maybin can at the bottom of his lineup. I like Maybin’s potential so it’s hard to drop him, but Revere is producing.
JUST WONDERING WHAT THE DEAL IS WITH KENDRY MORALES?? CAN YOU TELL ME IF YOU EXPECT HIM TO TURN IT AROUND OR SHOULD I CUT HIM??
Hey Joe,
Picking up Revere will help you with average. As for Runs and SB i would keep Maybin. Maybin has 31 runs to Reveres 19 and 14 SB to Reveres 11. The Padres like Maybin and like to shuffle him around the lineup. Also the Padres do not plan on benching Maybin and Revere has been up and down in the majors and minors. Who’s to say the Twins wont send him down again.
Thanks for reading the article and keep the questions coming.
Hey BrooklynBums,
Thanks for the response! You’re right about Maybin having more runs and SBs than Revere. The reason why I was considering Revere is because it took Maybin 221 ABs to get 31 runs and 14 SBs. Revere needed only 131 ABs to get 19 and 11. If given 221 ABs, Revere would have 32 runs and 18 SBs…slightly better numbers plus batting avg. He’s also batting in front of Morneau, Willingham and Mauer, whereas Maybin has Headley and Quentin, sometimes? Ultimately though, your point about Revere possibly getting sent down again is what matters most, and playing time/opportunity trumps everything else. Thanks for making that point!
Here’s another question…it looks like Ike Davis and Brandon Belt are starting to find their swag. Can you rank these 1Bs for me according to what you think their fantasy values are for the rest of the season in a H2H league:
– Ike Davis
– Brandon Belt
– Lucas Duda
– Mark Reynolds
– Anthony Rizzo
Thanks,
Joe
DTURA,
With a full season under his belt I feel Marales can return to his 2008 form. I don’t recommend dropping someone who has 30 HR potential. What 1B are available for you to pick up? If it were my team I would bench him and look for someone on waivers or try to trade him.
Thanks for reading and keep the questions coming.
BrooklynBums