Pitch or Ditch for Saturday-Monday, August 28-30
Pitch
or Ditch is a strategy for (ideally) daily mixed leagues in which you
pick up
starters on a day-to-day basis based on how well they are pitching and
their
upcoming matchups, then cut them in favor of new guys the next day. The
concept
is that the shallower the league, the more quality starting pitching is
available on the free agent wire, so rather than drafting expensive
starters,
it’s better to build a strong offense and bullpen and let the free agent
wire
populate your starting staff during the season. As a bonus, a handful of
“PoD”
guys emerge each year as worth keeping all year long, like Jair Jurrjens
last
year or Cliff Lee in ’08.
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CORY’S PICKS
SATURDAY
Bonderman
@ Morrow
Blackburn @
Fister
Greinke @
Gomez
Sabathia
@ Danks
Buchholz
@ Garza
Braden
@ Harden
Millwood
@ Kazmir
Blanton
@ Garland
Lohse @
Livan
Wells @
Arroyo
Nolasco
@ T. Hudson
Myers @
J. Santana
Duke @
Capuano
Billingsley @
Chacin
D.
Hudson @ Zito
SUNDAY
Chen @
Carmona
Porcello @
Rzepczynski – Porcello still too erratic to trust
Nova @
Floyd
G. Gonzalez @
Lewis
Guthrie @
Weaver – Guthrie OK if chasing wins/K’s while risking
ERA/WHIP
Pavano @
Fister
Lackey @
Shields – I don’t trust either, but if you are in gambling mode, gamble
here
Coleman @
Volquez
Norris @
Dickey – Bud Norris
baby!
Johnson @
Lowe
Wainwright @
Lannan
Ohlendorf @
Bush
Lilly @ Hammel – Hammel a
decent gamble here if you must
R. Lopez @
Cain
Hamels @ Richard -
Richard still getting
it done at home
MONDAY
Buehrle @ Talbot – good
matchup for Buehrle
Cahill @ Moseley -
have to trust Cahill’s results, and gamble on Moseley vs. the
A’s
Cecil @ Davis – have to
trust Cecil’s results
Wilson @ Davies – Wilson
surprising me by lasting this late into the season
Big Erv @ King
Felix – I don’t trust Big
Erv, but it’s the M’s
Misch @
Jurrjens
Wolf @
Wood
Marquis @
Sanabia
Maholm @ Zambrano -
do you trust Zambrano? Not me
Westbrook @ Happ – Westbrook
loving life in the NL so far
LeBlanc @ Saunders -
not using LeBlanc on the road
Halladay @
Kuroda
De La Rosa @ J.
Sanchez
mlbtstufantasy411
I have 3 closers (broxton, soriano, aardsma). I lead the league in saves. Do I drop Broxton, and concentrate on obtaing a player to help me improve in other categories?
I have 2 possible moves:
Drop Lackey / Broxton. Pick up Chris Perez, Max Scherzer.
Drop Lackey / Broxton. Pick up Sherzer, Coco Crisp or Bourn (I need to gain 5 steals on the guy ahead of me).
My other starters are Wainwright, Josh Johnson, Grienke, Beckett, Floyd, Wandy, Jaime Garcia. Any of these guys droppable for Sherzer?
With the injuries to Cory Hart, do you think he will fizzle out in the last month or get hot again?
Why don’t u trust Carlos Zambrano? He hasn’t give up more than two earned runs in his four starts since coming back from “anger disease”. He has a 2.67 ERA in August AND it’s the Pirates! They are 29th in team batting average in the last 30 days, only one point above the M’s. In this span they have a MLB-worst 62/224 BB to K-ratio. That’s ugly.
That being said: Sounds like a good matchup to me for a guy desperate to get the love back he was used to in all fantasy formats. I’m starting him.
Adrien, Switzerland
Gryff,
Don’t even think about dropping Broxton. I know it’s frustrating to hold onto a guy who isn’t picking up saves but I can see him returning to the closer role sooner rather than later. Let’s not forget that he was arguably the #1 RP in fantasy heading into this season…not waiver wire material at all.
I’m fine with you dropping the erratic Beckett in order to pick up Scherzer and would strongly consider adding Chris Perez for Lackey.
As for Hart, he’s very streaky but I like his chances of putting together a strong finish, though the opportunity to sell high on him is probably over.
********************************************
Adrien,
I’m a little higher on Big Z than Cory is, so in my view throwing him out there vs. PIT is a decent gamble…but only if you have enough innings to spare and you’re chasing wins and Ks.
Zach