April Sighs

You know your team has a problem when Kevin Millwood is an anchor of your rotation...and that Zach Duke is on your team. Maybe this is the year Duke lives up to his 2005 breakout...which looking back at wasn't that impressive. He only had 58 strikeouts in 84 innings...but he did have a 1.81 ERA which was the big deal. My bet is he ends up on waivers before long, same with Millwood and his back to back 5+ ERA seasons...this can't be the year he turns it around, can it?

On the bright side Greinke shut out the Rangers in Arlington with 10 Ks and has a 30 inning scoreless streak. I thought he would be great this year, but maybe not quite this good. My team desperately needs him to continue for my staff not to be a complete train wreck on my ERA/WHIP. This is definitely the first year I have been so bad in Ks and Wins, but it has been a little by design as discussed previously. Normally I have AJ Burnett and Carlos Zambrano on my team who give you the Ks and Wins but can blow up at times. Also I have been far more aggressive on picking up riskier K pitchers off waivers. A perfect example is David Purcey who I had on my team for a week but didn't start, and dropped him after a 4.2 inning 10 K game because he had 6 walks, 4 hits, and 4 ER. He has since had a 3.2 inning 5 run game.

The strategy becomes a lot more difficult to manage when you have too many risks in your rotation and bullpen like I do. Greinke is probably the only sure thing on the entire roster. Luckily Joba, Price, Weaver, and Jurrjens have all shown flashes of being great as well. My closer situation is becoming tighter by the day with Street already being demoted out of the role, Villanueva losing his job because of skill and Hoffman coming back soon, and Motte being cut loose after two bad outings. This has let me take some more chances on starters, and I'm still somewhat comfortable with Ziegler and Gonzalez. I pray for Sherrill as he has looked horrible for the most part, but seems to be able to strike out that last batter with the bases loaded each time. If one of those three go down I will be forced to trade for a closer, or be on top of who replaces them.

My offense has not been overwhelming this week, mainly because Hanley isn't doing anything and Ortiz has had one extra base hit all year so far. Luckily Fukodome and Adam Jones are saving me from getting blown out. Burrell, Thome, and most disturbingly Holliday are all having a very slow start. I've already seen two doubles Holliday has hit in Oakland that would have been home runs in most parks. He even began a trot before realizing it would hit the wall. Granted he is hitting .244 at the moment and is a career .318 hitter, so he should bounce back strong at some point. In a head to head league the more stats I can load up in the later months, the better. Perfect example of that was last year when Miguel Cabrera and Tiexera had terrible first months but then produced to their averages in the second half. Cabrera even hit more homers than he ever has, hitting a believe 25 of them in the second half. He never quite raised his batting average back to his career numbers, but it was so low to begin with it was difficult.

Ortiz scares the shit out of me with his horrible .209 slugging % and his 12 strikeouts in 11 games. Even in his slow Aprils in the past he hit homers, his minimum is 5 in the past few years in April. My team will survive without him, but if somehow he puts it together and gives me the 30+ HRs and 380+ OBP I paid $20 for my team becomes a lot more powerful.