Rounding the Bases: Beltre Blasts While Sale and Miley Continue to Roll

Posted by Howard Bender on 08/23/2012 | 0 Comments

Tags: fantasy baseball, Bartolo Colon, Wade Miley, Chris Sale, Adrian Beltre, Coco Crisp, Joaquin Arias, Aaron Hill, Brett Jackson, Yu Darvish, Buster Posey, Clay Buchholz, Tommy Hunter, Justin Upton, Matt Wieters, Albert Pujols

Oh man.  Look at this.  A guy goes away for a couple of days and look how everything falls apart.  Say it ain’t so, Bartolo.  Say it ain’t so.  I guess we all now know how, at 39 years old and 267 pounds (which is definitely lowballing),Bartolo Colon managed to post up 10 wins and a 3.43 ERA while pitching for the A’s this season.  But now,he's following in the footsteps of Melky Cabrera and sitting out the next 50 games which kisses this season goodbye as well as any chance of  a legitimate contract during the offseason.

And speaking of Melky…really?  A fake web site with falnse information so it could look like you were unaware of what you were ingesting?  Really?  What kills me even more is that your “associate” shelled out $10,000 to have it built and then you still got caught.  First off, how stupid is the whole notion?  And secondly, what are you paying ten grand for?  You could find some kid who will build you a brand new web site for $250 and it would probably have about as much authenticity.  And what’s worse is that now that this has all come to light, that one-year, $8M contract that you would have had to settle for during the offseason is now already a thing of the past too.

Just a disgrace.  Such a freakin’ disgrace.

Let’s just get to the highlights…

Fantasy Beast of the Day

Well, well, look who’s speaking softly and carrying a big stick here.  Adrian Beltre helped continue Texas’ dominance and abuse of Orioles pitching when he homered in his first three at-bats on Wednesday.  He smacked a solo shot in the second inning off Tommy Hunter and then another one, a two-run shot, off Hunter again in the fourth inning.  The Rangers then proceeded to bat around in the fourth and when Beltre came up again with a man on, this time facing Kevin Gregg…KA-BLAAM!!!!!  With 22 home runs on the year, Beltre has now hit 20 or more homers in six of the last seven seasons and at 33 years old, still probably has something left in the tank too.

Fantasy Pros

Though he was spared yet another shaving cream pie to the face, Coco Crisp continued to lead the A’s to victory with a late-game home run and another strong performance at the plate.  He’s now 10-for-30 (.333) over his last seven games with three home runs, 10 RBI, and three runs scored.  He’s now batting .295 since the All Star break with a .549 slugging percentage.  He’s doing plenty of justice to many a fantasy team out there right now.

Aaron Hill continues to hit well this season as he has now posted a .306/.364/.517 slash line since the All Star break and has almost just as many home runs since then as he did in twice the at-bats in the first half of the season.  Talk about a career turn-around.  Ever since he left Toronto, all this guy does is produce at the plate.

No doubt that Matt Cain was taking skinny, little Joaquin Arias out for some serious steak dinners after the diminutive infielder posted a career day for himself with a pair of doubles, a home run and five RBI against the Dodgers to help the Giants en route to a 8-4 win on Wednesday.  Too bad no one had him starting for their fantasy teams, though, but I mean, why would they, really?

Do you remember earlier in the season when the Chris Sale was dealing with some elbow soreness and the White Sox were discussing his future for the season – whether he would either close out games or be a member of the rotation?  I’ll admit that it made me a little nervous.  Especially when so many other young hurlers landed on the DL and headed in for Tommy John surgery.  I actually passed on him in a trade that, in hindsight, would have been huge for me, but what can you do?  He’s looked absolutely phenomenal, posting 15 wins, a 2.65 ERA and a ridiculously impressive 4.17 K:BB ratio.  I’ll be sure to draft him next year just in time for his impending elbow surgery…

Wade Miley – he’s another one I passed on, although for good reason as his owner was setting the price way too high.  Regardless of how poor a second half Jason Kipnis has had, giving him up in a keeper league would have been dumb dumb dumb.  But Miley has been just as strong as Sale really, but with fewer strikeouts.  He’s got 14 wins on the season, a 2.80 ERA and a 4.04 K:BB ratio.  More than likely he was an early season free agent acquisition for most fantasy owners, but boy, has he paid dividends.

Fantasy Cons

The usual gathering of under-performers here.  But what gets me is that Brett Jackson is still being given regular at-bats.  I know the Cubs are long out of it and want to get him some big league experience, but he’s really be somewhat of a disaster and they’re limiting any value they may be able to get for Bryan LaHair during the offseason, but sticking him on the bench so often.

Injuries

Justin Upton, OF  ARI – hamstring (questionable)

Matt Wieters, C  BAL – shoulder (questionable)

Dexter Fowler, OF  COL – ankle (questionable)

Eric Young, Jr., 2B/OF  COL – ribs (15-day DL)

Josh Rutledge, SS  COL – quad (questionable)

Doug Fister, SP  DET – groin (out for August 25 start)

Justin Maxwell, OF  HOU – finger (questionable)

Albert Pujols, 1B  LAA – calf (questionable)

Emilio Bonifacio, SS  MIA – knee (15-day DL)

Jean Segura, SS  MIL – foot (questionable)

Denard Span, OF  MIN – shoulder (doubtful)

Ivan Nova, SP  NYY – shoulder (doubtful for August 27 start)

Jason Marquis, SP  SD  -- thumb (out for August 27 start)

Buster Posey, C  SF – hamstring (questionable)

Yu Darvish, SP  TEX – leg (out for Aug. 23; expected to return Aug.28)

David Cooper, 1B  TOR – neck (doubtful)

Kurt Suzuki, C  WAS – hand (questionable)

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Howard Bender has been covering fantasy sports for over ten years on a variety of web sites including his own, The Fantasy Baseball Buzz.  You can follow him on Twitter at @rotobuzzguy or email him at rotobuzzguy@gmail.com.