Two Start Pitchers - April 30 - May 6
April 28, 2007
Let's Play Two will be something we'll be doing every Saturday throughout the year which will be highlighting all pitchers projected to make two starts in the upcoming fantasy week, running Monday through Sunday each week. This can be a particularly useful tool for those of you either in leagues that use weekly transactions and for those of you in head to head leagues. To play along, we'll select a starter from each league and keep track of our statistics based on our Start of the Week. All home games are in CAPS.
American League
Daniel Cabrera - Detroit, CLEVELAND
Curt Schilling - OAKLAND, Minnesota
Javier Vazquez - Seattle, Los Angeles Angels
C.C. Sabathia - TORONTO, Baltimore
Jeremy Bonderman - BALTIMORE, Kansas City
Odalis Perez - LOS ANGELES ANGELS, DETROIT
Zack Greinke - LOS ANGELES ANGELS, DETROIT
Sidney Ponson - Tampa Bay, BOSTON
Philip Hughes - Texas, SEATTLE
Jarrod Washburn - CHICAGO WHITE SOX, New York Yankees
Edwin Jackson - MINNESOTA, OAKLAND
Vicente Padilla - Toronto, TORONTO
Kameron Loe - NEW YORK YANKEES, TORONTO
Roy Halladay - TEXAS, Texas
A.J. Burnett - Cleveland, Texas
Start of the Week
In an effort to break the curse, we're going to go with yet another AL Central arm (the fourth in five tries) and give Jeremy Bonderman a shot. Bonderman won his lone start against the Orioles in 2006, striking out seven in six solid innings. He was also 4-0 in five starts against the intradivision Royals, maintaining a terrific 3.41 ERA and 1.23 WHIP against them. In two starts against Kansas City this season, Bonderman has yet to figure into a decision, though he's allowed just three runs and eleven baserunners in thirteen innings against them.
Last Week's Selection: Javier Vazquez - 0-1, 6 IP, 7 H, 1 BB, 5 R, 5 ER, 5 K..... I promised this spot was cursed last week, and it remains so. Vazquez' second scheduled start has been bumped to next Monday because the White Sox were rained out against Detroit Thursday. We've yet to get a second start out of an AL two start (scheduled) pitcher, with three pitchers being bumped due to either rain or snow and Felix Hernandez' injury occurring on our watch.
On the Year: 1-3, 18.1 IP, 22 H, 8 BB, 14 R, 13 ER, 11 K (6.39 ERA, 1.64 WHIP)... I've had bad starts in the AL before, but never this bad!
National League
Brandon Webb - Los Angeles Dodgers, NEW YORK METS
Livan Hernandez - Los Angeles Dodgers, NEW YORK METS
Mark Redman - PHILADELPHIA, LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Ted Lilly - Pittsburgh, WASHINGTON
Bronson Arroyo - Houston, COLORADO
Josh Fogg - San Francisco, Cincinnati
Ricky Nolasco - New York Mets, SAN DIEGO
Wandy Rodriguez - CINCINNATI, St. Louis
Randy Wolf - ARIZONA, Atlanta
Jeff Suppan - ST. LOUIS, PITTSBURGH
Ben Sheets - ST. LOUIS, PITTSBURGH
Orlando Hernandez - FLORIDA, Arizona
Mike Pelfrey - FLORIDA, Arizona
Jon Lieber - Atlanta, San Francisco
Cole Hamels - Atlanta, San Francisco
Zach Duke - CHICAGO CUBS, Milwaukee
Tony Armas - CHICAGO CUBS, Milwaukee
Jake Peavy - WASHINGTON, Florida
Noah Lowry - COLORADO, PHILADELPHIA
Russ Ortiz - COLORADO, PHILADELPHIA
Braden Looper - Milwaukee, HOUSTON
John Patterson - San Diego, Chicago Cubs
Start of the Week
Based on his selection last week, Jake Peavy is ineligible for the upcoming week. Instead, we're going to go with his opponent from that fabled start he made on Wednesday when Peavy struck out sixteen, including nine in a row at one point. Defending NL Cy Young Award winner Brandon Webb was overshadowed not only by Peavy's performance, but by the San Diego bullpen's meltdown. In truth, he was fantastic himself, giving up just two runs in eight tremendous innings.
His recent history against his opposition next week can only be described as bizarre. Though you would expect he'd be loaded up with starts against the intradivision Dodgers, he faced them just once last season, allowing two runs over eight innings as he picked up a win. He had L.A.'s number in 2005 as well, allowing just two runs in 14.2 innings as he won each of his starts against them. Bank on him doing well there. As for his performance against the Mets last season, Webb was brilliant, though his teammates weren't. In two starts against New York, Webb allowed just one earned run, though he finished the year 0-1 against them. He also lost both of his starts against the Mets in 2005, though he allowed just four runs in fifteen innings in said starts. I always ignore the win-loss total in favor of a starter who is going to give me good innings, and Webb figures to do that next week.
Last Week's Selection: Jake Peavy - 0-0, 7 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 0 R, 0 ER, 16 K.... With the exception of the fact that he didn't make it a horrible start (in fact, he was incredible!), Peavy must have received some kind of note that he was picked as the AL Start of the Week this week. It was initially expected that the Pads would bump David Wells with the off day and let Peavy pitch on his regular rest. However, he was pushed back to Wednesday, which means he'll no longer make a second start. Let's just say the extra day off didn't hurt, though the bullpen couldn't hold his 2-0 lead.
On the Year: 3-1, 52.0 IP, 24 H, 18 BB, 7 R, 7 ER, 42 K (1.21 ERA, 0.81 WHIP)
Fantasy Baseball 
