2012 Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Advice & Analysis
 David Murphy Start ‘Em David Murphy | Texas Rangers | 12.8% : Over the last three years Murphy has hit .417 with 3HRs 10RBI in only 36 at-bats at Camden Yards, one of the parks he’ll see this week. Against the other team he faces this week, Tampa Bay, Murphy has hit .345 with 8 of his 19 hits for extra-bases. His current hot streak should help propel him into a strong upcoming week. Pedro Alvarez | Pittsburgh Pirates | 25% : The ever increasingly hot rookie is poised for a big week. All week long he will have the benefit of home field where he’s hitting .287 with a .352 OBP. Nine of his ten HRs have been hit at home, and he hits 100 points higher at home as well. His OPS is a whopping 422 points higher at home! Mike Stanton | Florida Marlins | 39.2% : The upcoming away series at Houston should be great for Stanton owners. He has hit 140 points higher on the road (.327 avg. .398 OBP 1.081OPS away!!!). Those stats and his current hot streak and the poor performance of the Pittsburgh pitching staff should equate to a good week for Stanton.  Brett Gardner Sit ‘Em Ike Davis | New York Mets | 28.1% : Davis has been cold of late and this upcoming week shouldn’t warrant you taking any chances on this Met. Both of his games this week come away from Citi Field. On the road Davis is hitting .223 with a .288 OBP. Further dowsing the fire is his .227 avg. since the All-Star break. Leave him on the waiver wire where he belongs. Brett Gardner | New York Yankees | 99.7% : Gardner has been horrid since the All-Star break. He’s hitting .174 with a .296 OBP in the 69 at-bats since. Adding to his problems is his combined stats against the Tigers and Mariners, next week’s opponents. He’s hitting a combined .219 and going two for three in steals in 32 at-bats against those teams. Hitting 15 points higher at home might help him out, but don’t count on it.  Brett Anderson Two-Start Pitchers To Use Jonathon Niese | New York Mets | 15.5% : The two teams he faces in the upcoming week have very limited at-bats against him and are batting .067 against him in this limited sample. The main reason for Niese’s strong upcoming week is both Houston and Pittsburgh’s stats against left-handed pitching. Houston is the fourth-worst team in the NL against lefties (.250 avg., .306 OBP) and Pittsburgh is the second-worst hitting team against lefties in all of baseball (.244 avg., .312 OBP). Look for Niese to keep his WHIP low and hopefully score some wins for the reeling Mets. Brett Anderson | Oakland A’s | 81% : Next week Anderson faces a few teams that have some pop in there lineup. Don’t be timid though, every major power threat on both the Blue Jays and Rays is a right-handed batter. His career mark against righties is .239, and this year he has continued to lower it by keeping them to a .208 avg. Two more facts will help keep the balls in the park against Anderson. He has one of the best ground to fly-ball ratios in the majors this year (1.34) and both games will be at home in the Coliseum, the third-worst park for homeruns in the majors.  Jon Garland Two-Start Pitchers To Avoid Jon Garland | San Diego Padres | 55.1% : Garland’s career numbers at Wrigley exhibit a 5.50 ERA and a 1.67 WHIP. Mix that with his numbers this year away from spacious PETCO Park (4.52 ERA and a .267 BAA) and you have a recipe for a benching. Rich Harden | Texas Rangers | 39.4% : Those of you hoping for a turnaround in the oft-injured Harden should keep hoping for a new week. His career numbers against the Rays are bleak: 32 innings of 5.01 ERA and 1.42 WHIP. Considering both of his starts are away this upcoming week it’s also advised to take note of his ERA outside of the Ballpark in Arlington this year (6.40 ERA and 11 HRs in only 45 innings), ironic for being such a hitter-friendly park. Hind Sight Here we take a look at last week’s decisions and whether they might have paid off or not. All hind sight stats are through the end of games on Friday, August 13th. Start ‘Em: Bill Hall | Boston Red Sox | : .235 avg. .250 OBP 2 Runs 2 HRs 4 RBI. The batting average isn’t stellar but if you picked him up for the power and RBI production then you have reaped the benefits so far. Chris Johnson | Houston Astros | : .429 avg. .467 OBP 2 Runs 4 RBI. Chris Johnson continues to stay hot. With trade deadlines approaching, now is a great time to get him if he’s still available in your league. Jon Jay | St. Louis Cardinals | : .333 avg. .368 OBP 3 Runs 1 RBI. So far it has been a great decision if you did pickup/start Jay. The guy can rake and even though he can’t help in every category, he’s an asset to the one’s he can help. Sit ‘Em: Jack Cust | Oakland A’s | : .333 avg. 5Ks in 12 ABs. This is a small sample size through the week so far, yet the four strikeouts is a lot in only seven at-bats. Overall, this was a so-so sit, better if your league has a strikeout category for hitters. Jay Bruce | Cincinnati Reds | : .333 avg. in 9 ABs with 1 HR 3 RBI . Of course he hits one out right before I submit this article. Thanks for making me look bad. Pitchers To Use: Max Scherzer | Detroit Tigers |: 7IP 4H 1ER 4BB 2K Ervin Santana | Los Angeles Angels |: 6.1P 6H 3ER 1BB 3K Pitchers To Avoid: Jair Jurrjens | Atlanta Braves |: 7.1IP 6H 1ER 1BB 3K Edwin Jackson | Chicago White Sox |: 6IP 6H 1ER 1BB 7K All Statistical Information was obtained through ESPN.com Written exclusively for TheFantasyFix.com by James Bryce. James is a Grad student at UCSD and is currently in his 13th year of fantasy sports. Agree or disagree with James? Want to make a suggestions? Leave a comment at the top or respond to us on Twitter! Tags: The Fantasy Fix, Fantasy Baseball Advice, Fantasy Baseball Blog, Week 20, Forecast, Two-Start Pitchers, Sit 'em, Start 'em, James Bryce, MLB, David Murphy, Pedro Alvarez, Mike Stanton, Ike Davis, Brett Gardner, Jon Niese, Brett Anderson, Jon Garland, Rich Harden Add Comment  Jorge Cantu Start 'Em: Jorge Cantu: Start him, or if you can, pick him up and then start him. He is only owned in 89% of leagues and most recently trending downward. He’s going ot be streaking up soon. He will be entering one of the hitter-friendliest parks in the bigs as well as one of the most hitter-friendly lineups in the bigs. This week Texas faces Seattle and Oakland. Cantu’s career numbers against both teams: In over 150 ABs Jorge is hitting .297 with 4HRs. He doesn’t have great career power numbers against these teams, yet he has hti for an average almost 25 points above his total career numbers and with the devastating lineup around him his RBI chances will skyrocket. Josh Willingham (89%): Just like Jorge, start ‘em if ya got ‘em. Josh has phenomenal numbers at Chase Field (.333 AVG, .360 OBP, .964 OPS through 48ABs) one of the league’s better hitter’s parks. The start of August ushers in Josh’s historically best month for HR hitting (1 HR/20 AB vs. a career 1 HR/ 24 AB w/o Aug.) and second-best month for AVG. (.280 avg. vs. a career avg. .261 w/o Aug, nearly 20 points higher). Rajai Davis (69%): His speed is great but when you account for his great career hitting numbers against KC and at home, he makes more of a complete fantasy impact. Career numbers against KC: .366 AVG. with an OBP of .451. If he can keep raking at this pace his potential for swipes could jump this upcoming week. After KC he plays at home where he plays against Texas, hitting a .314 clip against them this year, nearly 40 points above this year’s numbers. You also have to take into account that Rajai has a career post all-star average 50 points higher than before the Midsummer Classic, as well as an OPS that’s over 140 points higher. His hot pace continues with 11 hits in his last 33 ABs and 5 SBs as well over the course of the last 15 games.  Carl Crawford Sit ‘Em: David Wright: Against both the Braves and Phillies this year, David Wright is hitting a pathetic .163 through 49 ABs with only 2 HRs. His average at Citizens Bank is 46 points below his career average. His average against the three Braves SPs is .247 through 73 at-bats. His news facing the Phillies isn’t much better. He’ll be facing the murderer’s row of pitching: Oswalt, Hamels, and Halladay. His career against these pitchers is a little better, .269, but has only 1 HR in 52 ABs. His recent cold-streak should help increase the uneasiness too. Through his last 15 games he’s hiting .216 with a .585 OPS, ouch! Matt Kemp: One out of every three hits against the Padres for Matt Kemp is a homerun. The bad thing is, that’s through 26 ABs. The Padres are holding Matt Kemp to a weak .192 average this season. The 4 starters that he will face are holding him down to an even worse .184 avg. Carl Crawford: Against the Blue Jays this year he’s hitting .226 in 31 ABs. He’s also hitting .250 for his career against the Starting Pitchers that he’ll face up against. Crawford has also been a victim of poor hitting lately. He has a .217 average and .577 OPS through his last 15 games played. <Insert America’s Funniest Home Video ball-to-crotch punch line here.>  Travis Wood Two-Start Pitchers: Travis Wood (15.1%): Start this rookie sensation. His first start is at the cavernous PNC park, the fourth-worst park for HRs. Pitching against that Pirate lineup should raise a brow or two as well. Pittsburgh is hitting a weak .248 against Lefty pitching. Start #2 for Travis Wood takes place in Chicago against the under-achieving Cubs. There's obviouly not much history with this rookie against the Cubs, however he did have a great outing earlier on, giving up 2 runs off of 2 hits in 7 innings. Mat Latos: Here's another good two-start young phenom for this upcoming week. First he starts at Dodger Stadium against a team that he worked over pretty well earlier on in the season. As well, Latos holds lefties in check to a .188 BAA, neautralizing the better hitters of LA's lineup (Xavier Paul, Andre Ethier, James Loney). Latos likes to minimize the HR threat with his great GB/FB ratio of .93. His second start comes against the D-backs in the desert. AZ's avg. against righties is bad enough for 22nd, .252. Adding to the potential for fantastic fantasy numbers for Latos is AZ's horrible strikeout rate. They lead baseball with 708 K's against righties. Next closest... FLA with 632. Expect a lot of whiffs for Latos. Other Lesser-Known Two-Start SPs To Consider: Clayton Richard (30.5%) - Same opponents as Latos above and always potential for a big game. Randy Wells (9%) - This guy is on fire through his last three starts. He has only allowed only 3ER in 19.2 innings in the last three starts. Article By James Bryce Exclusively for TheFantasyFix.com. Agree or disagree with James? Want to make a suggestions? Leave a comment at the top or respond to us on Twitter! Tags: The Fantasy Fix, Fantasy Sports Blod, Fantasy Baseball Advice, Two-Start Pitchers, Sit 'Em, Start 'Em, Week 18, Fantasy Baseball, Jorge Cantu, Rajai Davis, David Wright, Matt Kemp, Carl Crawford, Mat Latos, Randy Wells, Clayton Richard, Travis Wood, Josh Willingham |
