Today's Fantasy Rx

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

Forty-four National Leaguers earned a 1 for their performance through last week. This week, three pitchers joined the list while eight departed, leaving us with thirty-nine pitchers displaying solid skills.

Pitchers who joined the list include Randy Johnson, Kyle Farnsworth, and Ray King.

Pitchers who departed include Mike Myers(H/9), Darren Holmes(HR/9), Vladimir Nunez(K:BB), Jose Mesa(K:BB), Kevin Jarvis(HR/9, H/9), Woody Williams(HR/9), and Steve Kline(H/9).

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 ninth set of 2002 in-season NL LPR ratings, which include all games played through July 5th. 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(45554)

Robb Nen

123
Kyle Farnsworth
Jason Isringhausen
Billy Wagner

124
abcxyz - Al Leiter(35542)

Justin Speier

234
abxy - Brian Lawrence(54205)

Juan Cruz(41005)
Jeremy Fikac
Felix Rodriguez

12
by - Jason Schmidt(55351)

Mike Remlinger
John Smoltz
Dave Weathers

13
Joey Eischen
Byung-Hyun Kim
Paul Quantrill
Steve Reed
Luis Vizcaino
Jay Witasick

14
Trevor Hoffman
Gabe White

23
abcxy - Kerry Wood(40324)
by - Brad Penny(23040)

Nick Neugebauer(42451)
Carlos Zambrano(0)
Octavio Dotel
Jeff Fassero
Josias Manzanillo
Jose Mesa

24
bcxyz - Bartolo Colon(03425)
z - Britt Reames(00)

34
bcxyz - Greg Maddux(33343)
acyz - Kevin Brown(45420)

Jose Acevedo(51030)
Chad Fox
Mike Holtz
Dave Veres

1
acyz - Kevin Millwood(45545)
axyz - A.J. Burnett(53455)
axy - Pedro Astacio(54532)
bxy - Matt Morris(54531)
ax - Odalis Perez(54443)
ax - Vicente Padilla(35205)
xz - Matt Clement(34253)

Mike Crudale(0)
Armando Benitez
Brian Boehringer
Jim Brower
Eric Gagne
Mark Guthrie
Todd Jones
Ray King
T.J. Mathews
Kent Mercker
Guillermo Mota
Scott Sauerbeck
Scott Stewart
Tim Worrell

2

IN MEMORIAM: bcxyz - Darryl Kile(43004)

abcxyz - Curt Schilling(44435)
abxyz - Randy Wolf(24434)
abxyz - Javier Vazquez(23402)
abx - Roy Oswalt(44553)
bxy - Tony Armas, Jr.(30552)
bxy - Russ Ortiz(04323)

Nelson Cruz(0)
Jose Jimenez
Steve Kline
Kerry Ligtenberg
Vladimir Nunez
Scott Sullivan

3
bxyz - Jon Lieber(34542)
by - Ruben Quevedo(10041)

Jason Bere(45550)
Jose Cabrera(43042)
Tim Redding(00432)
Ryan Jensen(33332)
Pedro Borbon
Giovanni Carrara
Mike Matthews
Dan Plesac

4
b - Bud Smith(01020)
y - Ben Sheets(05315)

Kris Benson(00335)
Doug Brocail
Vic Darensbourg
Aaron Fultz
Scott Strickland
Greg Swindell
Scott Williamson

a
acxyz - Woody Williams(44455)
cxz - Glendon Rusch(34440)
x - Mark Prior(52535)
x - Josh Beckett(25500)
y - Kevin Jarvis(44400)

b
cxy - Hideo Nomo(34345)
cyz - Wade Miller(55331)
xy - John Thomson(31223)
x - Terry Adams(35333)
y - Steve Trachsel(43540)

c
xyz - Ryan Dempster(35543)
xy - Robert Person(40433)
Rick Ankiel

x
yz - Tom Glavine(42520)
y - Shawn Chacon(33340)
z - Rick Helling(44544)
Jimmy Haynes(43442)
Kazuhisa Ishii(05404)
Denny Stark(35224)
Michael Tejera(03535)
Travis Smith(55033)
Kip Wells(40533)
Damian Moss(30542)
Josh Fogg(22144)
Brett Tomko(14224)
Miguel Batista(53204)
Tomo Ohka(33235)
Omar Daal(20432)
Jason Simontacchi(24033)
Andy Ashby(34023)
Kirk Rueter(03322)

y
z - Elmer Dessens(31430
z - Livan Hernandez(20400)
z - Denny Neagle(23300)
Brandon Duckworth(45504)
Jason Marquis(40534)
Nelson Figueroa(30032)
Sean Lowe(0)
Darren Dreifort

z
Shawn Estes(25240)
Julian Tavarez(34123)
Mike Hampton(13422)
Carl Pavano(03400)
Jamey Wright(33033)
Jeff D'Amico(03302)
Albie Lopez(0230)
Bruce Chen(03200)
Andy Benes(000)

NL pitchers I recommend despite their failure to appear here include Antonio Alfonseca, Armando Almanza, Joe Borowski, Rheal Cormier, Jayson Durocher, Mike DeJean, Tom Gordon, Danny Graves, Luke Hudson, Matt Mantei, Jason Middlebrook(00), Jake Peavy(50), Oliver Perez(3343), Chris Reistma(51420), John Riedling, Carlos Silva, Gene Stechschulte, T.J. Tucker, 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(13043), Jimmy Anderson(13130), Mike Bacsik(2), Joe Beimel(41430), Eric Cyr, Mike Fetters, Joey Hamilton(31340), Matt Herges, Carlos Hernandez(20200), Jason Jennings(40123), Graeme Lloyd, Braden Looper, Kevin Olsen(04500), Jose Santiago, Mike Timlin, Ron Villone(03043), and Masato Yoshii(00333).

Today's Fantasy Rx: Aside from Jimmy Anderson, the worst starters in the NL include Ruben Quevedo, Chris Reitsma, Bud Smith, Julian Tavarez, Kevin Olsen, and Kris Benson. The only pitchers from this group we'd even consider deploying at the moment are Quevedo, Reitsma, and Benson, and you should probably only start them against weaker offensive teams when possible to avoid potential ERA/WHIP blowups.