Week Two Spot Starts:

Two Start Pitchers:

Ross Stripling, LAD (24.2% ESPN to 54.5% Fantrax owned) – Vs. MIA Mon 4/25 and Vs. SD Sat 4/30:

Maybe I’m late to this party, but so are a combined 60% or so of owners in the major

fantasy leagues. Really though, no one could have expected the near no-no, and I recommended against the follow up start. Then he rattled off another two good starts after the no-no. That is not why I’m recommending him this week. This week he is a two start pitcher and his opponents are the Marlins and Padres, both at home. After three MLB starts, Stripling has a 2.65 ERA and 1.06 WHIP, but also has no Wins and only a 13/7 K/BB ratio after 17 Innings. So, no, he is not the 2nd coming of Zack Greinke, but it is worth riding the wave until it crests, especially against these two opponents.

Ubaldo Jimenez, BAL (17.8% ESPN to 58% Fantrax owned) – @TB Tue 4/26 and Vs. CHW Sun 5/01:

I’m not sure why there is nearly a 40% difference in ownership with this guy, butchances are he is out there if you need him. Ubaldo scares me as much as he scares you, but you know you will use him at some point every year, at least for a minute, no? Well, not only is he a two start pitcher, but I like his opponents. Lifetime, Ubaldo is 4-1 with a 2.56 ERA vs Tampa and 4-0, 2.66 ERA vs the White Sox. Right now he is pitching to a 3.71 ERA and a high 1.59 WHIP after three starts, winning against Minnesota and pitching well vs Toronto, though he got hit pretty well in Boston. He has a lifetime K/9 over 8, but also a lifetime Walks/9 over 4 and gives up about one gopher ball a game (post Colorado), which is why he never became an ace. However, he also goes deep into games, giving you a good chance for a W compared to most marginal spot starters. He has won over 10 games in six of the last eight seasons, putting up 100 W’s in that time. Could he blow up? Sure. I like his chances against these two teams, though. Plus, if he does poorly against Tampa, you can drop him before the tougher White Sox matchup if you have that luxury. If you use Ubaldo once a year like I do, this may be the week to do it, as his 1st half ERA is a full half run lower than his 2nd half ERA.

Kendall Graveman, OAK (4.0% ESPN to 43.4% Fantrax owned) – Vs. DET Mon 4/25 and Vs HOU Sun 5/01:

I know. Kendall Graveman. I got to watch him pitch against my Yankees the othernight and was quite impressed, as I don’t get to see the left coast pitchers pitch that often. After the Yankee start in which he got a W and gave up one earned run in over 6 IP with 3 hits and 3 walks, his record sits at 1-1 with a 2.04 ERA and an even more impressive 0.91 WHIP. Is he suddenly another A’s Ace? Calm down, his FIP is 3.82, almost a full run down from 2015 when he became a full time SP, but also a full 2 runs higher than his current ERA, and he is pitching to a Babip of .179. He could change like New England’s weather in a heartbeat, but what I like is that he is also an extreme ground ball pitcher (2-1 for GB/FB and 2.5-1 for GO/AO) and his line drive percentage right now is only 19%, or about 7% lower than league average. No one is hitting him right now, and just for good measure his strikeout rate is nearly 2 per 9 K’s higher than it was last season. Do you need strikouts? Do you need to limit HR? Houston is 2nd in the AL with 166 K’s and 2nd with 24 HR, and Detroit is 7th with 130 K’s and 4th in HR. Ride the wave before it crests.

Since the beginning of 2015, the Rockies are hitting .256 with 34 HR in 1700 PA’s vs Lefties, but are hitting .270 with 181 HR in 4900 PA’s (Twice as many HR/PA vs Righties). Ray is a lefty and he’s got three quality starts on the young season vs. good teams (Cubs, Dodgers, and Giants), posting a 1.96 ERA. His K/9 & BB/9 were both an equally horrible 6.6/9 IP prior to this week and now are 8.3 K/9, and a still too high 5.4 BB/9, but trending positive. He still has one more start this week, today vs Pit, to prove his inclusion in this weeks list. Yes, the Rockies hit homers, but Ray has not given one up this season, and last season his HR/9 rate was a minuscule .6/9. He pitched far better than his 5-12 record last season, as his Babip was .317 vs this season’s .277, and his 3.52 ERA was no fluke when backed up by his 3.53 FIP. I’ll take Ray vs the Rockies at home in the desert.

Nick Tropeano, LAA (10.4% ESPN to 38.6% Fantrax owned) – Vs. KC, Wednesday 4/27:

He’s been on this list so long I had to find a new picture for him. Last week I said,

“Trope still has to pitch on Sunday (April 17) to see if he’ll continue to make me look smart here.” He did, hurling 5.2 innings with only 1 run, 5 hits, 2 walks and 3 K’s. He did not get a decision nor a quality start because he could not make it out of the 6th inning. In fact, he has not made it out of the 6th yet in three starts. The most important thing to get from a spot start is a quality start. Trope is pitching well enough to get a QS, but not getting that last out or two he needs for it to count. Just yesterday he pitched 5.2 innings with one run, 4 hits, 4 walks and 5 K’s. So, after three 2016 starts he has an ERA of 1.69 with a 1.44 WHIP and 14 K’s against 8 walks in 16 innings pitched. The walks could hurt him against the patient Royals offense, but he has also not given up a single HR yet this season. This will be a big test for him, though, as his first three starts were against Oak, Min & Sea. He may be pitching over his head, but he is also improving in several areas every time out. I picked him up two weeks ago in several leagues and have not dropped him yet. He’ll be over 50% owned with a couple more good (quality) starts.

Not for the faint of heart:

Josh Tomlin, CLE (7% ESPN to 42.7% Fantrax owned) – @ MIN Wednesday 4/27: Tomlin gets the light hitting Twins on Wednesday, and after two very good starts it sounds like a perfect time to start Tomlin. He has an ERA of 1.54 and a .770 WHIP, with 10 K’s and only one walk in 12 Innings so far. No, I am not a Tomlin fan, but I’m a fan of this match-up.

Steven Wright, BOS (4.8% ESPN to 18.3% Fantrax owned) – Vs ATL Wednesday 4/27: Wright gets the hapless Atlanta Braves on Weds at home, setting up the perfect storm. He’s pitched three awesome games so far this season, with an ERA of 1.40 and an equally good 1.24 WHIP, and 17 K’s in 19 IP. He does have 8 walks as well, but that is what you are getting at this level of spot start.

Almost made the cut: Look at the matchups. I’d use any of these four next week.

Bartolo Colon, NYM Vs. SF Sun; Jered Weaver, LAA Vs. KC Tues; Chris Tillman, BAL @ TB Weds; J. A. Happ, Tor @ TB Sat.

Do Not Start:

Keven Gausman, BAL is once again scheduled to come off the DL and pitch a two start week, Monday @ TB and home vs the Chisox on Saturday. I may pick him up, but keep him benched Monday. If all goes well, I pitch him Saturday and he likely stays on my roster.

Jeff Locke, Jon Niese & Juan Nicasio, PIT are all scheduled to pitch in Colorado Monday through Thursday. None of them will be in my lineups. Gerrit Cole gets the Tuesday start there, but you likely never bench him. I’m not saying you should here either, but if you have enough SP to make your limit for the week you might consider letting him sit this one out.

Match Ups of the Week: There are some interesting marquis match ups this week:

April 25 – Chris Sale, CHW @ Marcus Stroman, TOR. Stroman has a busy week, also going to TB on Sunday to face Chris Archer.

April 27 – Max Scherzer, WAS Vs. Vince Velasquez, PHI. The rookie’s schooling continues with one of the masters.

April 28 – Kenta Maeda, LAD Vs. Jose Fernandez, MIA. What a great year for young pitchers so far.

May 1 – Madison Bumgarner, SFG @ Noah Syndergaard, NYM. Whoever does the uniform names on the jerseys will be busy that night.

Closer Carousel: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The Cincinnati Reds’ Pen has gotten muddier, as expected. JJ Hoover has already lost that gig and Jumbo Diaz (Great name for a guy in a muddy pen) is back in AAA. Tony Cingrani is my bet to be the next Reds closer as I predicted here last week, but he blew a save the other night. Another name has recently surfaced, and that is Caleb Cotham, RP, CIN. He is a righty, as opposed to Cingrani who is the only lefty in the Reds pen, but I’m not impressed. Caleb was a failed starter from the Yankees organization who had a pretty nasty cup of coffee with the Yanks in 2015, posting a 6.52 ERA in 12 relief appearances. He’s got a 1.86 ERA after 9 relief appearances with the Reds so far in 2016, but he has also walked 5 batters with only 6 strikeouts in 9 innings. In the minors he averaged about 7 K/9 but 3.5 BB/9 in six years with only two career saves on that resume. I guess he must be owned in Roto, as someone has to close in Cinci, but I’m still banking on Cingrani myself.

Alex Colome, TB has three saves now. Done deal.

Jeanmar Gomez, PHI still has the closer role in Philly, but talk of Andrew Bailey has resurfaced now that he has been recalled from extended Spring Training.

Can we call Ryan Madson the Closer now in Oakland and get it over with? Sean Doolittle has 2 saves to Madson’s 7. Madson got the last five saves. Did you know that Doolittle has only 32 lifetime saves? That is barely a good season for a closer, and Madson has twice that over his career.

See you next week, and convince your league mates to downgrade the Save as a scoring category. This Merry-G0-Round is not going away, and may start spinning faster.

All stats used were courtesy of Baseball Reference.com, Fangraphs.com, Fantrax.com, and ESPN.com. Aaron Hicks video courtesy of MLB.com.

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Major League Fantasy Baseball Show: Join Corey D Roberts on Sunday April 24th, 2016 from 7-9pm EST for this week’s episode of the Major League Fantasy Baseball Radio Show. We are a live call in radio show so we encourage callers at 323-870-4395 . Press 1 to speak with the host. Every week we will do a quick recap of Fr-Sat games, and a forecast of Monday through Thursday’s games.

Our guests this week are Ron Shandler, Joe Iannone, and Andy Macuga. Ron is a legend and pioneer in the fantasy baseball world. He has been part of fantasy baseball world since 1986, and is a member of the FSTA Hall of Fame. He is currently a writer with ESPN, and runs ronshandler.com. Joe is a veteran writer with majorleaguefantasysports.com as well as a tenured fantasy baseball expert. Andy is the head baseball coach at Borrego Springs H.S. in Southern California, and a veteran owner in MLFS leagues.