MLB Real Talk: Opening Shots

And from the fog, a hero emerges...
Photo Credit: dbking

Though the season is only a couple of days old, fantasy owners already have a lot of questions about players off to noteworthy starts. While some say you should stand pat with your roster for at least a couple of weeks, your boy Stat Bundles advises otherwise. I’m not saying you should completely make over your roster by adding all waiver wire dudes, but let’s face it, every one of us has at least two disposable commodities on each team. If someone really interesting crops up on waivers, do not hesitate to dump one of your last rung losers for him. Championships aren’t won in April? Tell that to the people who picked up Jose Bautista two years ago.

More after the jump:

-I talked about how strange it was to roster Chone Figgins in all of my mixed league rosters prior to Opening Day, but it’s looking like a pretty damn smart move in hindsight. Figgins did jack shit in the Japan series, but he’s collected three hits in each of the last two games as Seattle’s leadoff hitter. He was my choice at 3B for the official “sleeper” tag, but to be honest, I wasn’t expecting him to just completely reinvigorate his career. The price was just too good to pass up this year, which made him an attractive fantasy option. Still, any time you have a leadoff hitter with 30 SB wheels and a contact rate capable of yielding a high BA, you have to at least be intrigued. He’s still available in 87 percent of Yahoo! leagues. Sure he has no power and is coming off two atrocious seasons, but he’ll have plenty of value if he returns to his former three-cat glory days.

-Fuck Chad Billingsley. Not personally, just as a fantasy option. If you can sell-high off one start at spacious Petco Park, do so... now. The chronic underachiever has these great starts from time-to-time, but his K/9 has declined each of the last three years and he has just one sub-1.30 WHIP season under his belt. I suppose an ERA in the high 3.00s is possible, but odds are he’ll once again be rotation filler at the back end of your pitching staff in 2012.

-Remember a couple of months ago when people were actually trying to sell that first base wasn’t as deep as in years past and that there should be more of an emphasis on spending on the big guns? Well, Adam Dunn, Carlos Pena, Adam LaRoche, and Lucas Duda were all part of this so-called “poor” first base crop, and they’re all looking like great cheap buys right now. Each of them has homered already (Duda twice yesterday), and LaRoche is still available in almost all leagues. Want some other cheap 1B names? Well, while these dudes are not killing it early, they are all widely available and could offer up some cheap pop: Shelley Duncan, Luke Scott, Aubrey Huff, and Garrett Jones. When you can think of four players at a position who are owned in over 90 percent of leagues that can be useful, the position they are playing is not shallow.

-Myself and Million Dollar Sleeper took sides in a Gio Gonzalez vs. Madison Bumgarner beef, but both pitchers got lit up like joints at an Allman Brothers concert. Here are the lines:

Neo-Gio: 3.2 IP, 4 ERs, 7 Hs, 3 BBs, 6 Ks
MadBum: 4 IP, 4 ERs, 2 HRs, 7 Hs, 2 BBs, 3 Ks

This ain’t ovah. Being a Gio supporter, I have to point out that he gave up zero bombs in Saturday’s outing and did rack up the Ks. Of course, Bumgarner started off slow last year but went on to have a dominant second half. Again, this ain’t ovah.

-Speaking of Bumgarner sucking, Aaron Hill smacked two bombs off him yesterday and should really be owned in more leagues. Hill has been an inconsistent fantasy option during his major league career, but we’ve seen him put up serious power numbers before and he even added SBs to his arsenal last year. With Chase Field as his home park, 25 or more HRs are definitely in play.

-I’m still not 100-percent sold on Yoenis Cespedes, but the power is for real. 25-plus HRs are at hand, but expect a ton of strikeouts and a boom-or-bust player to the fullest. As the season wears on and pitchers pick up on his tendencies, he may get exposed. Me? I’d be looking to deal him relatively soon while his value and legend are at soaring heights.

-Don’t get too carried away with Raul Ibanez. He had a nice debut and his swing is a good fit in Yankee Stadium, but aside from some easy HRs, the guy just isn’t that nice. The Yankees already revealed that when they face lefties, Alex Rodriguez or Derek Jeter will DH most days while Andruw Jones and Eduardo Nunez will see PAs. Ibanez is looking like a platoon option and at a position as deep as OF, you can do better. See if you can pawn him off to some Yankee homer.