Today's Fantasy Rx

Please refer here to see the changes made to the rating system.

Thirty-five National Leaguers earned a 1 for their performance through last week. This week, nine pitchers joined the list, while six departed the list. The nine new pitchers are Antonio Alfonseca, Gabe White, T.J. Mathews, Billy Wagner, Scott Sauerbeck, Mike Fetters, Steve Reed, Jay Witasick, and Robb Nen. The six former LIMA pitchers are Eddie Oropesa, Danny Graves, Scott Williamson, Kaz Ishii, Kane Davis, and Brandon Duckworth.

Please refer here if you'd like to take another look at some of our methodology.

LPR Code Description
1 - K:BB of 2.0+, K/9 of 6.0+, HR/9 of 1.0-, and H/9 of 9.0- thus far in 2002
2 - K:BB of 2.0+, K/9 of 6.0+, HR/9 of 1.0-, and H/9 of 9.0- in the second half of 2001
3 - K:BB of 2.0+, K/9 of 6.0+, HR/9 of 1.0-, and H/9 of 9.0- in the first half of 2001
4 - K:BB of 2.0+, K/9 of 6.0+, HR/9 of 1.0-, and H/9 of 9.0- for all of 2000

a - DOM of 55% or more in 2002
b - DOM of 55% or more in 2001
c - DOM of 55% or more in 2000
x - DIS of 20% or less in 2002
y - DIS of 20% or less in 2001
z - DIS of 20% or less in 2000

(Note: I used the PQS logs from Baseball Forecaster to create these ratings, and I strongly recommend that you purchase a copy if you haven't already.

Here is the second set of 2002 in-season LPR ratings, which include all games played through May 17th. We ranked pitchers by the highest LIMA rating and then by the best PQS rating. Starting pitchers, if necessary, are ranked by their performance over their last five starts, which I include after the pitchers name in chronological order, ending with his most recent appearance.

1234
abcxyz - Randy Johnson(55535)

Robb Nen

123
Jason Isringhausen
Jose Mesa
Billy Wagner

124
abcyz - Al Leiter(54044)

234
Brian Lawrence(43403)

Juan Cruz(31400)
Jeremy Fikac
Felix Rodriguez

12
abxyz - Javier Vazquez(45445)
abx - Roy Oswalt(52535)

Mike Remlinger
Scott Sullivan
Dave Weathers

13
Byung-Hyun Kim
Steve Reed
Luis Vizcaino
Jay Witasick

14
Gabe White

23
bcxy - Kerry Wood(02354)
by - Brad Penny(22304)

Octavio Dotel
Kyle Farnsworth
Jeff Fassero
Josias Manzanillo
Nick Neugebauer(42451)

24
z - Britt Reames
Justin Speier

34
acyz - Kevin Brown(04454)
bcyz - Greg Maddux(02543)

Jose Acevedo(5103)
Chad Fox
Dave Veres

1
abxy - Matt Morris(43355)
acyz - Kevin Millwood(03534)
axyz - A.J. Burnett(43352)
axy - Kevin Jarvis(43444)
axz - Jeff D'Amico(42505)
xyz - Tom Glavine(35223)
ax - Carlos Hernandez(55535)
ax - Josh Fogg(33455)

ax - Vicente Padilla(44353)
xz - Matt Clement(34033)

Omar Daal(55)
Antonio Alfonseca
Brian Boehringer
Joe Borowski
Mike Fetters
Eric Gagne
Darren Holmes
T.J. Mathews
Kent Mercker
Scott Sauerbeck
Scott Stewart
Tim Worrell

2
abcxyz - Curt Schilling(54455)
bcxyz - Darryl Kile(44223)
abxy - Tony Armas, Jr.(55441)
bxyz - Randy Wolf(32043)
bxy - Russ Ortiz(33345)
by - Jason Schmidt(20005)

Nelson Cruz
Jose Jimenez
Steve Kline
Kerry Ligtenberg
Jose Nunez
Vladimir Nunez
John Smoltz

3
abxyz - Jon Lieber(34424)
by - Ruben Quevedo(41203)

Ryan Jensen(30534)
Tim Redding(00543)
Jason Bere(03324)
Pedro Borbon
Jose Cabrera
Giovanni Carrara
Joey Eischen
Mike Matthews
Paul Quantrill

4
ay - Ben Sheets(02535)
b - Bud Smith(3100)

Kris Benson(0)
Doug Brocail
Vic Darensbourg
John Franco
Aaron Fultz
Trevor Hoffman
Scott Strickland
Greg Swindell

a
cxyz - Ryan Dempster(33455)
bxy - John Thomson(55243)
cxz - Glendon Rusch(55034)
xyz - Elmer Dessens(34433)
xy - Pedro Astacio(24445)
x - Odalis Perez(44435)
x - Josh Beckett(44532)
x - Joey Hamilton(44350)
x - Kazuhisa Ishii(25433)
x - Damian Moss(43423)

b
cyz - Wade Miller(041)
cy - Hideo Nomo(44201) y - Steve Trachsel(03133)
Terry Adams(35052)

c
xy - Robert Person(43433)
yz - Woody Williams(05)
Rick Ankiel

x
yz - Shane Reynolds(54434)
yz - Denny Neagle(25534)
yz - Livan Hernandez(43330)
y - Jason Marquis(53135)
y - Shawn Chacon(32344)
y - Nelson Figueroa(23333)
z - Rick Helling(40524)
z - Carl Pavano(42230)
Andy Ashby(45243)
Brett Tomko(54243)
Tomo Ohka(55242)
Miguel Batista(23453)
Kirk Rueter(32241)
Bobby J. Jones(35302)

y
Brian Tollberg(04432)
Sean Lowe(0)
Darren Drefort

z
Shawn Estes(15324)
Mike Hampton(03244)
Albie Lopez(023)
Jamey Wright(0)
Bruce Chen(0032)
Andy Benes(000)
Julian Tavarez(01200)
Tony McKnight

NL pitchers I continue to recommend despite their failure to appear here include Kurt Ainsworth, Armando Benitez, Ricky Bottalico, Jason Simontacchi, and Mike Willams. Please recognize that these are fairly risky or unproven players, but most aren't missing much to at least pick up a 1 rating fairly soon.

Other frequently owned pitchers who've shown little overt skill in the last three years include Jimmy Anderson, Dave Coggin, Mike DeJean, Matt Herges, Graeme Lloyd, Braden Looper, Chris Reitsma, Garrett Stephenson, Todd Stottlemyre, Ron Villone, and Kip Wells.

Today's Fantasy Rx: Scoring in Coors appears to be heading up again, so I hope no one's sold short on any Rockies. Value them as high as their pre-season prices if you discuss any trades since I expect that most of them will meet expectations by the end of the season.