Today's Fantasy Rx

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

Forty-one National Leaguers earned a 1 for their performance through last week. This week, twelve pitchers joined the list while Roy Oswalt(H/9) departed, leaving us with fifty-two pitchers displaying solid skills.

Pitchers who joined the list include Kevin Millwood, Todd Jones, Andy Ashby, Joey Eischen, Javier Vazquez, Mark Guthrie, Armando Benitez, Brandon Duckworth, Mike Lincoln, Jay Witasick, Steve Kline, and Woody Williams.

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 seventh set of 2002 in-season NL LPR ratings, which include all games played through June 21st. 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
abxy - Brian Lawrence(55554)

Robb Nen

123
Jason Isringhausen
Jose Mesa
Billy Wagner

124
bcxyz - Al Leiter(30335)

Justin Speier

234
abcxyz - Randy Johnson(45455)

Juan Cruz(41005)
Jeremy Fikac
Felix Rodriguez

12
abcxyz - Curt Schilling(55544)
abxyz - Javier Vazquez(35234)
by - Jason Schmidt(45555)

Steve Kline
Vladimir Nunez
Mike Remlinger
John Smoltz
Dave Weathers

13
Joey Eischen
Byung-Hyun Kim
Dan Plesac
Steve Reed
Luis Vizcaino
Jay Witasick

14
Trevor Hoffman
Scott Strickland
Gabe White

23
abcxy - Kerry Wood(42440)
by - Brad Penny(23040)

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

24
z - Britt Reames(00)

34
bcxyz - Greg Maddux(35333)
acyz - Kevin Brown(45420)

Jose Acevedo(51030)
Chad Fox
Dave Veres

1
acxyz - Woody Williams(23444)
acyz - Kevin Millwood(50445)
axyz - A.J. Burnett(44453)
axy - Kevin Jarvis(43444)
axy - Pedro Astacio(23545)
bxy - Matt Morris(23554)
ax - Odalis Perez(44554)
ax - Omar Daal(55420)
ax - Vicente Padilla(33435)
xz - Matt Clement(55334)
x - Andy Ashby(34234)
y - Brandon Duckworth(30455)

Mike Crudale(0)
Jason Middlebrook(00)
Armando Benitez
Brian Boehringer
Alan Embree
Eric Gagne
Mark Guthrie
Darren Holmes
Todd Jones
Mike Lincoln
T.J. Mathews
Kent Mercker
Guillermo Mota
Mike Myers
Scott Sauerbeck
Scott Stewart
Tim Worrell

2

IN MEMORIAM: bcxyz - Darryl Kile(43004)

bxyz - Randy Wolf(24424)
abx - Roy Oswalt(34144)
bxy - Russ Ortiz(14504)
bxy - Tony Armas, Jr.(33230)

Nelson Cruz
Jose Jimenez
Kerry Ligtenberg
Scott Sullivan

3
bxyz - Jon Lieber(4134)
by - Ruben Quevedo(55100)

Jason Bere(34555)
Tim Redding(40004)
Ryan Jensen(41033)
Jose Cabrera(043)
Pedro Borbon
Giovanni Carrara
Mike Matthews
Paul Quantrill

4
xy - Ben Sheets(23205)
b - Bud Smith(10010)

Kris Benson(00200)
Doug Brocail
Vic Darensbourg
Aaron Fultz
Greg Swindell
Scott Williamson

a
xyz - Tom Glavine(35425)
x - Tomokazu Ohka(54533)
x - Mark Prior(50552)
x - Josh Beckett(25500)

b
cyz - Wade Miller(01553)
cy - Hideo Nomo(42343)
xy - John Thomson(20312)
y - Steve Trachsel(34435)
Terry Adams(43035)

c
xyz - Ryan Dempster(33035)
xy - Robert Person(33540)
xz - Glendon Rusch(14334)
Rick Ankiel

x
yz - Livan Hernandez(54520)
yz - Denny Neagle(03223)
yz - Elmer Dessens(03231)
y - Shawn Chacon(44333)
z - Rick Helling(31445)
Kip Wells(42405)
Brett Tomko(53414)
Dennis Stark(35224)
Jimmy Haynes(32434)
Jason Simontacchi(42324)
Kazuhisa Ishii(33405)
Damian Moss(34305)
Miguel Batista(04253)
Josh Fogg(04222)
Kirk Rueter(42033)

y
z - Shane Reynolds(42300)
Jason Marquis(51440)
Brian Tollberg(32320)
Nelson Figueroa(30032)
Sean Lowe(0)
Darren Dreifort

z
Julian Tavarez(33334)
Shawn Estes(12252)
Carl Pavano(03400)
Jamey Wright(23330)
Mike Hampton(02113)
Albie Lopez(023)
Bruce Chen(00320)
Andy Benes(000)

NL pitchers I recommend despite their failure to appear here include Antonio Alfonseca, Joe Borowski, Ricky Bottalico, Mark Corey, Rheal Cormier, Mike DeJean, Danny Graves, Jason Jennings(35340), Bobby J. Jones(24403), Satoru Komiyama, Jake Peavy, Chris Reistma(10351), John Riedling, Kirk Saarloos(0), Jose Santiago, Carlos Silva, Gene Stechschulte, and Mike Williams. 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 pitchers who you probably shouldn't deploy right now include Brian Anderson(32413), Jimmy Anderson(10313), Joe Beimel(414), Eric Cyr, Zach Day, Mike Fetters, Joey Hamilton(04313), Matt Herges, Carlos Hernandez(42020), Graeme Lloyd, Braden Looper, Kevin Olsen(30450), Oliver Perez(33), Mike Timlin, T.J. Tucker, and Ron Villone(03043).

Today's Fantasy Rx: Relatively recent call-ups like Travis Driskill, Rafael Soriano, Aaron Harang, and Mark Prior all earned places on this week's lists with with ax ratings. They all offer significant upside and are worth immediate pickups in all but the shallowest leagues, although Soriano and Harang will likely win more games due to their teams' superior offenses.