At Home Plate - Fantasy Q & A (XV)

At Home Plate

Written by Bryan Roth (Contact & Archive) on August 27, 2007

Q: I'm in a crazy 10x10 head-to-head league where we can keep 5 players for next year. At the moment, Francisco Liriano is not owned. I was thinking of picking him up and stashing him for next year, but wasn't sure what to expect from him. Will he be the Liriano of '06, or is he not worth the risk?

A: If you have room on your roster to hold onto him for a few weeks, then you should absolutely do it. For pitchers coming back from Tommy John surgery, it’s not uncommon for them to be just as good as before and sometimes they even pick up some extra velocity. Nonetheless, Liriano has had no setbacks so far and started a throwing program a couple weeks ago. If no one is smart enough to have realized he’s available, you should jump on that right away.

Q: Categories are: Runs, HRs, RBIs, Avg., OBP and stolen bases
Have to drop one of the following:
Billy Butler
Johnny Damon
Justin Upton
Josh Willingham
which one?

A: Like I’ve said before and will repeat, Upton just wasn’t ready to play in the majors yet when the Diamondbacks called him up. He’s struggling to hit over .200 right now and has little power to go along with that …. or stolen bases. This is a guy who was skipped over Triple-A to go straight to the big show and just turned 20 this past weekend. Hitters need more time to develop than pitchers and he’ll need some time in the Arizona Fall League and Triple-A next year before he can contribute in real like and fantasy.

Looking at that list, I’d rank them in order to drop: Upton, Butler, Willingham, Damon.

Q: For a 12 team standard 5x5 roto non-keeper Yahoo league w/daily transactions, how would you rank these pitchers?

Jenks
Valverde
Gregg
Corpas
Borowski
Capps
Lidge
Reyes
Howry
Hennessey
CJWilson
Okajima
Broxton

A: Jenks, Lidge, Valverde, Capps, Gregg, Corpas, Reyes, Howry, Wilson, Borowski then the others Okajima and Broxton.

It’s hard to gauge the ranking just on saves alone because Lidge, Corpas, Gregg, etc. can offer you Ks while all those guys will pick up saves. I tried to base it on everything - including saves - to give an idea of what guys can help you across the board. It’s not fair to clump Okajima and Broxton in with the others because they don’t offer you (that many) saves, if at all. They will give you great ratios and some Ks, however.

Q: My staff is falling apart...literally.
Who would you choose from the following:
Wakefield
Meche
Shields
Maddux
McGowan
Willis
Mussina
Millwood
Olsen

A: Another list! I’d probably go Shields, Wakefield, McGowen/Meche, Maddux, Mussina, Millwood, Willis, Olsen.

Shields may not pick up wins, but he’s got filthy stuff which leads to plenty of Ks and a very low WHIP. Wakefield has been on fire lately and the rest are good spot starters. I’d take the first two to keep on my staff and the rest deserve that treatment after they’ve put together a string of two good starts.

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