MLB Today: Last Chance to Enter RotoRob-DraftStreet Freeroll
Will picking murder suspect Alfredo Simon kill your team’s chances?
Before we get to today’s post, I just want to remind all our readers that in conjunction with DraftStreet, we’re hosting a Fantasy Baseball freeroll for Friday’s (today’s) games. It’s free to enter, so sign up here, pick your team and see how you do against Team RotoRob and our readers!
To help you out, here are a few tidbits to consider for Friday’s games:
- The Angels have dropped six straight against the Orioles, going 26 straight innings without scoring. Could Baltimore starter Alfredo Simon be a good bet as a result? Simon struggled badly in the second half of 2010, and he apparently doesn’t get along very well with his own family, but he sure looked sharp against the Tribe his last time out. Mostly a reliever in his career, Simon has a chance to stick in an unsteady Oriole rotation for the rest of the season if he can string a couple of decent outings together.
- For the Halos, Ervin Santana has always had trouble against the O’s (5.84 in 10 starts), and he hasn’t been the top 50 starter we expected, although he hasn’t been too far off the mark. Santana has definitely been better than his record would indicate, but he’s just 86th among 109 qualified starters in run support.
- Heading into the season, we expected Paul Konerko to be a low-end starting first baseman in standard mixed leagues, but the slugger was out of his mind in the first half, and really only Adrian Gonzalez and Miguel Cabrera were better Fantasy options at first base. However, Paulie has suddenly gone hitless in his last nine at-bats, taking his second half BA down to .182. Combine that with the fact that he has just one extra-base hit in five games against the Indians this season and you might be better off going with a cheaper option at first base in the freeroll.
- Indians starter Carlos Carrasco has a 9.00 ERA so far in July and has lost all three starts, but he looked much better his last time out. However, the White Sox bitch slapped him something fierce earlier this season, so he may not be the safest option. Carrasco, the key piece the Indians got from Philly when they traded Cliff Lee in 2009, has improved his control this year, but it’s been a problem lately, as he’s walked seven batters in 14 IP so far this month after issuing just seven walks in 42 2/3 IP in June.
- We didn’t think that much of Cameron Maybin’s chances to be a stud this year, only ranking him outside the top 85 among outfielders in the preseason. However, Maybin has been a very pleasant surprise and has turned out to be a bit of a waiver wire darling (yet he’s still widely available). Thursday he rapped out four hits to run his hitting streak to seven games during which he’s racked up 14 hits. Maybin’s roll has him up to .324 for July, and he’s finally starting to prove he deserves to be a full-time player. He’s now set a new career high in at-bats, is showing a bit more pop, and has cut his still lofty strikeout rate. How about the lesson he taught the Marlins, the team that gave up on him this offseason? In the just completed three-game set, Maybin slashed out nine hits, scored five runs, drove in three and burned up the basepaths with five steals. Smoking!
