July 27^th Daily Notes: A very quirky day of baseball

Friday was an extremely strange day in Major League Baseball. There was a player returning to his old team where he once was a totally different player, an unknown career minor league pitcher with bone chips in his elbow dazzled while the opposing pitcher, an ace, struggled. An extremely hot pitcher went into Coors and got destroyed – a day after an extremely cold and bad pitcher went into Coors and was brilliant.

Today is a special day in Daily Notes, as I bring you the Can’t predict baseball sub-section. It will be followed by the regular section rundown.

Can’t Predict Baseball:

In Game 1 of the double-header between the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals, Mets pitcher Jeremy Mejia, an unknown career minor leaguer who has never posted good minor league equivalents at any stop along the way, who is set to have bone chips in his elbow removed at the end of the season, threw seven shutout innings. He struck out seven and walked none. Sevens were wild as he allowed just seven hits as well. More from the crazy desk in this one, as centerfielder Juan Lagares went 3-4 with two doubles, two stolen bases and three RBI in Game 1. Also in Game 1 for the Mets in their 11-0 win, as they handed Jordan Zimmermann his third straight loss, Ike Davis hit a home run, and Daniel Murphy hit two home runs and drove in five.

This is probably a lot more predictable than most things, but Alfonso Soriano looked right at home in his pinstripes. He went 0-5. Remember when Soriano was a 40-40 guy playing second base in pinstripes? – Yeah, me too.

And finally, R.A. Dickey got shellacked by the Houston Astros. Sigh.

Pitching Injuries News and Notes:

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cliff Lee was scratched from his start today. He is suffering from a stiff neck and will see a doctor earlier next week according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Raul Valdes starts in his place, and I am picking on him in Daily Fantasy for today. – Don’t forget to read the Daily Fix! This is unfortunate for the Phillies as a Cliff Lee injury could affect the leverage they have with him in any possible trade negotiations that might surface.

Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Mike Minor continues to be absolutely excellent. On Friday he outdueled ace Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Braves won 4-1 and now Minor has four straight quality starts after a streak before that in which he had just one quality start in his past four starts.

Texas Rangers blow-up doll pitcher Martin Perez was atrocious as expected on Friday. He gave up six earned runs in three innings. Cleveland ultimately won the game against the Rangers 11-8 thanks to a Ryan Raburn three run home run off ex- Blue Jay reliever Jason Frasor.

Following Yovani Gallardo’s abysmal start against the Padres on Thursday, his ownership rate has gone down only 3.1 percent in ESPN.com standard leagues. It now sits at 63.8 percent. That needs to continue to go down, and at a much faster rate.

Jose Quintana pitched excellent for the White Sox against the Royals on Friday. However, he was saddled with a tough luck loss. He gave up just two earned runs in seven innings pitched. He struck out five and walked just one.

Colorado Rockies pitcher Tyler Chatwood continued his excellent season on Friday with a seven inning, 11 strikeout, zero walk performance against the Milwaukee Brewers. He held them to just two runs on six hits. He has a 2.48 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP to go along with a 7-3 record. Chatwood’s strikeout to walk numbers could stand an improvement, but he’s been excellent so far. He needs to stay owned until he tanks. He should be viewed in the same light as Pittsburgh starter Jeff Locke, if not a little bit better.

Hitting Injuries News and Notes:

Matt Holliday owners and St. Louis Cardinal fans can rejoice as the outfielder will return to action today. He had been on the disabled list with a hamstring injury. Fortunately for fantasy owners Holliday doesn’t steal bases, so Holliday shouldn’t have an extra un-necessary obstacle to overcome in order to be a productive contributor again.

On to a set of owners who are certainly not rejoicing thanks to the news that Miguel Cabrera missed his fourth straight game for his Detroit Tigers with that injured hip. Miggy basically has given owners a full season of production already, so if he is out for any length of time, it shouldn’t really hurt rotisserie owners too much. Head-to-head is another story.

Carlos Gonzalez was held out of the lineup on Friday (as expected) after re-aggravating the sprained finger on his right hand.

Marlon Byrd continued his renaissance season on Friday as he stole his second base of the season. If the Mets don’t trade Marlon Byrd right now, they will probably be investigated to find out if Ruben Amaro is secretly running the Mets as well as the Phillies.

Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Aaron Hill was pulled from Friday’s game with a sore hamstring and will not play today. The report comes from Jack Magrudger of Fox Sports Arizona.

Three Up:

Leonys Martin went 3-3 with two runs scored, an RBI and a stolen base. The steal broke as seven game stolen base drought for the young outfielder. It was his 20^th of the season. So far Martin has given production in bunches. This may be the start of a hot streak.

Ike Davis hit a home run off Drew Storen in the ninth inning on Friday, and until Ike Davis begins his hot streak that eventually allows him to level off his stats for seasons end so they aren’t atrocious. He will be in three up every time he hits a  home run.

Billy Butler went 2-3 and now has three straight games with multiple hits to raise his average to .281. The power doesn’t appear to be coming, but every step in the right direction is important for Butler. He’s really struggled against the cutter this season after mashing it last year. He hit .383 with a 1.039 OPS against it in 2012. This season he’s hitting .111 with a .412 OPS against it. Ouch.

Three Down:

Wily Peralta okay Wily, you could’ve told all of us you planned to go back to being who we always knew you were from the beginning, against Colorado in Coors. A little heads up next time? Or at least Nate Eovaldi, please don’t go and throw a shutout in Coors the day before, therefore given us false sense of reasoning that somehow Peralta was a worthy streamer pick. Peralta gave up five earned runs and seven hits in just three innings.

C.C. Sabathia got slaughtered by the Rays on Friday. He gave up seven runs, giving him two straight seven run outings now. Sabathia’s biggest problem has been a decrease in velocity, as the big burly lefty has just logged way too many innings in recent years. It’s not a slight on him, it’s natural for a guy who throws so many innings in a row without missing a significant amount of time.

R.A. Dickey Dickey struck out eight and walked just two against the Astros in five innings, but he gave up five earned runs. That simply cannot, and will not cut it against such an awful team. Dickey needs to be better, and he get the chance to do that for your team, since he needs to be on every waiver wire except 16 team mixed or AL-Only. Anytime Dickey shows promise or causes us to give people our vote of confidence on him, he stinks. He’s just too unpredictable and a royal pain in the neck.

Stream-Em:

Samuel Deduno | MIN | @ SEA | 3.5 percent owned

Aaron Harang | SEA | vs. MIN | 1.9 percent owned

Charlie Morton | PIT | @ MIA | 11.1 percent owned

Ivan Nova | NYY | vs. TB | 26.6 percent owned

Josh Johnson | TOR | vs. HOU | 36.6 percent owned

Bronson Arroyo | CIN | @ LAD | 51.7 percent owned

Leave-Em:

Dillon Gee | NYM | @ WSH | 12.2 percent owned – well, he never leaves the “Leave-Em” list. I guess you could say he’s out wandering in the desert in my Fantasy baseball land.

Dan Haren | WSH | vs. NYM | Too much percent owned

Andrew Cashner | SD | @ ARI | 8.3 percent owned