Saturday, the 13th

Good morning everyone. Ok, who had the sack to take Lester last night? Yeah, me either. It just goes to show how great this game is. On the bright side, hockey season is over so baseball will get that much more coverage for the rest of the summer. Once the hoops finals end, we'll be the only show in town till football season. That, my friends, is a good thing. If my math is right, there are 30 days left in the first half. Time to put on your game faces and get down to business. The home stretch is already here.

YESTERDAY

From the look of things, it seems that the 37 points my bats gave me was pretty average. Bats were doing well everywhere. Amazingly, of those 37 points, I only had one home run. That doesn't happen too often. Everyone I had pitched in at least 3 aside from ARoid and Vlad, who had 2 apiece. I was also fortunate enough to be on the right side of the Doc/Lince discussion. Lince was not perfect by any means, but 32 is 32. Enjoy watching that kid folks, as he sure looks like one of the future greats of the game. I'm sure the Yankees are already preparing their offer. My 69 total points moved me up 2 spots to #25, but more importantly added to my Leaderboard cushion. I am now 40 points ahead of 50th place.....for now.

TODAY

Why did I say "for now"? Well, for starters.....there are no starters today, none that I trust anyway. I hated to do it, but for some reason a 46 year old rat looked like the safest option today. Where we usually look for the best chance to get 30 from the mound, today I am pretty sure we all tried to pick the one lease likely to put us in thenegatives. Here is my misery.....

C: Posada
1B: Tex
2B: Utley
3B: Wright
SS: Zobrist
LF: Braun
CF: Beltran
RF: Ethier
DH: Rasmus
PS: RJ

TODAY

Weather:
No games are currently scheduled for more than a 40% chance of rain.

Teams facing Lefty starters:
Yankees, Marlins, Red Sox, Pirates, Rays, Brewers, Twins, Rockies, Giants, Cardinals

Teams facing Rookie starters:
Rays vs. Detwiler (0-3 5.06 ERA, 23 K in 26 IP)
Dodgers vs. Holland (6.54 ERA in 12 appearences and 3 starts)

Pitchers (and lots of them):
Lee (3-6 3.17, 3 R or more in 3 of last 4, vs. StL)
Carp (4-0 1.23, 1-0 1.96 on road, 1-0 2.41 in June, at Cle)
Cain (8-1 2.55, less than 7 IP in 4 of 5, rocked last start, vs. Oak)
Weaver (6-2 2.31, 2 R or less in 6 of last 7, 4-1 1.21 at home, vs SD)
Johan (8-3 2.39, 91 K in 79 IP, 3 R or more in 4 of last 5, at Coors East)
Johnson (5-1 2.73, 77 K in 89 IP, 7+ Ip in last 4, vs. Tor)
Lowe (7-3 3.44, 7+ ip in last 5, .240 BAA at Balt)
Beckett (7-2 3.77, 76 K in 76 IP, 3 ER total in last 5 starts, at Phi)
Happ (4-0 2.98, has only gone 7 IP once, vs. Bos)
Shields (5-3 3.36, 2 R or less in 5 of last 6, vs. Was)
Buehrle (6-2 3.24, 3 R or more in last 3, 0-1 5.65 in June, at Mil)
Cueto (6-3 2.33, 7+ IP in 9 of last 10, 2-0 1.35 in June, 5-1 1.72 on road, at KC)
Lilly (7-4 3.00, 2 R total in last 3, 1-0 0.66 in June, 4-1 1.29 at home, vs. Minn)
Bills (8-3 2.73, 90 K in 85 IP, less than 7 Ip in 4 of last 5, at Tex)
Vargas (2-1 2.35, less than 6 IP in 4 of 6, at Col)
I eliminate Lee, Carp, Johan, Lowe, Happ, Buehrle, Lilly, Bills, andVargas because of who they play, but still I have 6 to choose from. Beckett is probably the best pick on the board, but I hate to take him in that park. My final 3 are going tobe Cain, Weaver and Cueto. Because Weaver plays on the best team of the 3 and the teams they are facing are equally crappy, I think I will take Weaver again. I know he's in an Al park, but he has beenas good as anyone in the last month or so.

ANNOUNCEMENT: The batter matchups are horrid today. I will lis who I think is a good pick, but very little of it will be based on BVSP. Who hits lefties/righties and who's hot will play more of a factor for me with these picks. The only possible load up I see is with the 'Stros.

First:
Youk (hot)
Berkman ( 3 multi hit games in last 5, vs. Crap starter)
Branyan (12 Hr vs. righties, at Coors)
Lee (coming around, 11 game hit streak and very, very cheap)
Derek is only 3.6 mil and Baker is no stud by any means. I'll pencil him in for now to save money for later. However, I may upgrade if I can after I've worked my way around the horn.

Second:
Sanchez (10-17 vs. Willis)
Every good hitter here is either struggling or facing a good starter. Damned if you do........gimme Sanchez for the time being.

Third:
Reynolds (hot)
Figgins (.439 in June)
Chipper (vs. rookie)
He shits on me every time I do it, but let me have Chip again.

Short:
Zobrist (hits lefties for average)
Escobar (hot, but got hit on hand last night)
Tejada (hitting .344 and I like the 'Stros tomm)
I'll take Tejada over Zo, just a feeling I have

Left:
Pierre (on road vs. Lefty, hitting .447 vs. Lefties)
Lee (does most of his damage vs. righties)
Soriano (Baker is a turd)
Abreu (hitting well but power has disappeared)
Only because Lee always seems to short me, I'll give Fonzie a shot)

Center:
Kemp (vs. lefty rook, .377 vs. lefties)
Hunter (hits righties well)
McLouth (warming up a little)
Torii is hitting better than Kemp right now.

Right:
Ichiro (3-4)
Vlad (10-17, 4HR)
Upton (hits best vs. righties)
Dye (.314 vs. righties)
Pence (.335 vs. right)
I have to go with Upton...Moehler sucks.

DH:
Sheff (8-28, 3HR)
I'm going to take Scott here, only becasue I think there is a chance Sheff could sit.

Catcher:
McCaan (vs rookie, should at least DH)
I'll take it, can't afford Mauer.

I have some money left, so I'm going to jump back to first and take Berkman over Lee. I think he has a better chance to go deep in that one. Again, I am sorry for the lack of batter info here, but there just isn't much to go by. Here is the final.....

FINAL LINEUP

C: McCaan
1B: Berkman
2B: Sanchez
3B: Larry Jones Jr
SS: Tejada
LF: Soriano
CF: Hunter
RF: Upton
DH: Scott
PS: Dream Weaver

STAT CORNER

Did you know that Matt Stairs has hit 246 home runs since he turned 29 years old? Leads the majors. WTF? I never realized he had hit that many.

It's time to look again at the best and worst hitters at home and away.

Top and bottom 10 at home (100 ab minimum):
M. Cabrera .400 Wells .162
Youkilis .390 Duncan .172
Sandoval .375 Swisher .183
Tejada .367 Giles .188
Morneau .365 Eckstein .189
Lind .357 Werth .191
Castillo .356 Rollins .193
Pujols .348 Beltre .193
Kinsler .347 Dunn .195
Zimmerman .346 Sizemore .202

Top and bottom 10 on the road (100 ab minimum)
Wright .417 Bruce .157
Ichiro .393 Ad. LaRoche .165
Beltran .385 Ortiz .171
Figgins .382 Atkins .177
Hanley .378 Griffey .180
Braun .374 Uggla .182
VMart .358 Kinsler .182
Bartlett .354 BJ Upton .189
Hill .353 C. Davis .196
A. Cabrera .352 Castillo .198

DISCLAIMER

My picks are my picks. If you choose to follow my lead, do so at your own risk. Thanks for reading, please come again, tell a friend, and.....

FU Kerry Wood