What To Do With Ian Kennedy
We are long since removed from Ian Kennedy’s breakthrough 21-4 season with a 2.88 ERA back in 2011. Since then, Kennedy had an average at best season and this year he has been downright miserable, but still he is owned in over 60% of Yahoo! leagues.
It is time to dump Kennedy and there should not be much of a regret in letting him go. His strikeout rate of 19.1% is as low as it’s been since he came to Arizona and his walk rate is the second highest, giving him the worst strikeout-to-walk ratio since his Yankee days. It seemed as though Kennedy turned a corner in his second year with the Diamondbacks but the following two seasons have pointed to that year being far more of a fluke than a breakout.[am4show have=’p4;p7;p3;’ guest_error=’Front Office’ ]
He pitches in a bad ballpark, he gives up tons of home runs, and his peripherals point to him being very bad and not just a bit unlucky. ZiPS and Steamer are relatively bullish around Kennedy for the remainder of the year, consider what he has done in the first half. ZiPs has him going 4-4 with a 4.00 ERA over his remaining 13 starts while Steamer has him at 5-5 with a 3.99 ERA. Those systems seem to be taking into account Kennedy’s past and not necessarily how bad he has thrown the ball this season. Yes, some of his numbers are hurt by the 10 runs he allowed against the Cardinals in early June, but he has still allowed four or more runs in three of his past four starts.
This is a difficult place to be if you are a Kennedy owner. People know that he has talent, so if you hold onto him and he makes a few good starts you could potentially trade him before your fantasy deadline. However, if you are a fringe playoff team or not far from the lead in your roto league and you are risking your fantasy livelihood by having Kennedy start week in and week out then you are putting yourself in a dangerous situation.
At this point, I feel perfectly comfortable letting Kennedy go. In every league I am in I can look on the wire and find someone I am more confident in being a consistent starter for the remainder of the year rather than Kennedy. If an owner in your league is willing to give you more value than you can find on the waiver wire then take him up on a trade, but if you have been on the edge of whether to keep or dump Kennedy my recommendation is to dump him with no regrets. [/am4show]
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Private league commish’s. I think it is time for fox fanatasy to set some standards for commish. I joined a private LG this year with what I thought was a perfect fit on the rules. We had the 7 transaction limit, no “no drop rule” and 4 teams already signed up. After I joined so did 2 others. After the draft and before the 1st game started the commish changed the trans to unlimited. I protested, and after a squabble he changed it to a 14 limit. A few weeks into the season he was doing very poorly because so many teams were using the 14 limit that he decreed there would be 0 trans per week. He stated that some players were cheating. Very bizarre and absurd. During the course of the season he has abused his power by changing the trans limit several times and even going so far as to edit teams and take their players at his whim for his team. Of course he is not a very bright player because he continued to trail in 4th place. What can we do about this??? One team has already dropped and the the 1st place and 2nd (me) continue to deal with it. Now I see that he has the power to edit playoff brackets. Where is the protection for ethical players who get sucked into this type of league. I protested to Fox Fantasy and they said there was nothing they can do. My suggestion is that you NEVER join a private league unless you know who is the commish. This commish also made it clear that he had 3 other friends in the league and any attempt to veto trades would be won by him because it is a 7 player league. This explains the original 4. I am astonished that Fox Fantasy would allow such absolute power to a commish that opened his league to other players.
Albert Sisk, Blackjacks mlb2013