2011 Fantasy Baseball Daily Fix: Prince Fielder Proves Why He Is Suited To Be King
It was the day for McCutchen’s Thursday. In extra innings, Andrew McCutchen hit his 10th home run of the year, giving Daniel McCutchen and the Bucs the win over Arizona. Pittsburgh is now the proud owner of a .500 record. Mazel Tov!
The Padres faithful will have their first opportunity to test the fruit of the Adrian Gonzalez trade. It has been widely speculated that 21-year-old Anthony Rizzo, he of this ridiculous stat line: .365 avg,16 homers, 20 doubles, 1.159 OPS, will be making his big league debut on Thursday. We’ve seen other hot prospects flop this season given their first taste of big-league pitching (Brandon Belt?), will Rizzo fair any better? Only time will tell.
The Brett Lawrie era will have wait. According to MLB.com, he had a CAT scan which revealed a fracture in this hand. He will be out 2-3 weeks. Bummer for those who jumped on the early pickup.
On this day in baseball history Ken Griffey Jr. became the 6th player to join the 600 home run club. Then, he took a nap.
The Red Sox beat the Yankees for the 2nd straight day and have now won 5 in a row. With the win they pulled ahead of the Pinstripes for 1st place in the AL East. Big Papi (15) went yard for the 2nd day in a row and I’m pretty sure he hit it only so he could flip his bat. Carl Crawford (6) and A-Rod (11) also hit bombs. After a scary beaning the day before, Mark Teixeira was back in the lineup.
After being swept by the Rangers and losing 2 of 3 to the Twins, the Indians find themselves only 1.5 games up on the Tigers.
Nothing can stop the Alexi Ogando train (not even Brett Talley). Ogando improved to 7-0, only giving up 1 run over 7.2 innings. His ERA stands at an amazing 2.10!
Speaking of homers, Miguel Olivo blasted another, giving him 4 in the last 6 games and 8 on the year. Also Adam Lind doubled down, giving him 4 in the last 4.
Matt Cain shut down the Nationals to the tune of 9IP, 5H, 1R,11K. He also had an RBI double in the 3-1 win.
Todd Helton had a perfect day going 4-4 with a home run. Helton’s .324 lifetime average is 3rd among active players only behind Albert Pujols and Ichiro who both have a .331 Avg.
It had to happen sooner or later, over the past week Albert Pujols has been on the type of tear to which we have become accustomed to – .375 Avg, 5 home runs and a crazy 1.524 OPS. I guess the stories of his demise were premature.
Staying on the topic, Bud Norris dominated the Cards only allowing 1 hit through 8 innings, a homer to Lance Berkman. Jaime Garcia received his 2nd loss. Speedsters Jason Bourgeois (14) and Michael Bourn (26) both were charged with robbery. Even though the duo has 40 of the Astros 50 swipes, the Padres actually lead the NL with 60 (Rangers lead the league with 63).
Cole Hamels for Cy Young? Like clockwork, Hamels dominated the Dodgers, pitching 8 scoreless innings and striking out 9. If not for an opening day blowup, Cole would have a 2.04 ERA.
After 2 consecutive bad starts, O’s rookie Zach Britton is back on track with the win over the A’s. It was his 6th win of the season.
In the duel of the night, neither James Shields nor Jered Weaver got the win. Shields went 7 innings, giving up 3 runs and struckout 8. Weaver lasted 7.2, gave up 3 runs and struckout 5. Tampa won 4-3 in the 10th.
One of the better feel good stories of the year was put on hold when Jake Peavy was placed on the DL with a strained groin. Aside from the obvious discomfort associated with that injury, it should not end his season, but it does put a damper on his comeback.
The draft was just completed and lots of dreams came true, but when all is said and done, the two lives that might benefit the most are the lives of Buddy Lamothe and Johnathan Taylor who were drafted by the Rangers and Astros, respectively. Neither of these two were at the top of hot prospect list, but both share one unique characteristic, both are paralyzed. A classy move by these organizations to basically leave picks on the table to make dreams come true.
We’ve had some grand foul ball catches this year, this one isn’t the best, but at least no kid was dropped. Watch here.
Today's best matchups to watch: Josh Beckett @CC Sabathia, Clayton @Jhoulys Chacin, Johnny Cueto @Madison Bumgarner. Also hurling – Derek Holland, Yovani Gallardo, Trevor Cahill, Jair Jurrjens, Josh Collmenter, Justin Verlander & Ricky Romero.
Written by Evan Marx & Chris Summers exclusively for TheFantasyFix.com
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(June 7, 2011 – Photo by Scott Boehm/Getty Images North America)
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