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 a week ago. This week, five pitchers joined the list while two departed, leaving us with forty-four pitchers displaying solid skills.

Pitchers who joined the list include Joe Borowski, Roy Oswalt, Paul Shuey, Pedro Astacio, and Vicente Padilla(K/9).

Pitchers who departed include Paul Quantrill(H/9) and Jayson Durocher(K:BB).

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 twelfth set of 2002 in-season NL LPR ratings, which include all games played through August 2nd. 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
Robb Nen

123
Octavio Dotel
Jason Isringhausen

124
abcxyz - Al Leiter(24405)

Justin Speier

234
abcxyz - Randy Johnson(44255)
abxy - Brian Lawrence(45345)

Juan Cruz(41005)
Jeremy Fikac
Felix Rodriguez
Tim Spooneybarger

12
abcxyz- Curt Schilling(54555)
abxyz - Javier Vazquez(34544)
abx - Roy Oswalt(54354)
aby - Jason Schmidt(14445)

Steve Kline
Vladimir Nunez
Mike Remlinger
John Smoltz

All four of these pitchers would be fantastic pickups in almost any league, and only Kline wouldn't be particularly useful in some mixed leagues. Oswalt rejoined this section, but all four of these starters have dominated in four of their last five starts, placing them among the hottest pitchers in the game.

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

Quantrill exits for at least a week while Reed moves cross-country to New York; he should be placed in even lower pressure roles, enabling him to increase his strikeout rate. Eischen's the quiet success story in this group; either he or Plesac would help most 4x4 teams a lot more for the remainder of the year than owning someone like Jason Jennings when he's about to start an extended homestand.

14
Trevor Hoffman
Gabe White
Scott Williamson

23
abcxy - Kerry Wood(45445)
by - Brad Penny(00050)
Carlos Zambrano(33540)
Nick Neugebauer(42451)
Kyle Farnsworth
Jeff Fassero
Josias Manzanillo
Jose Mesa
Billy Wagner

Wood is absolutely on fire, and we're looking forward to leaving him in our challenge lineup as much as possible. Try to grab him in strikeout leagues as his pre-All-Star break command problems have vanished, but his owners might not realize how he's dominated the last few weeks.

24
bcxyz - Bartolo Colon(33325)
z - Britt Reames(0055)

Reames has dominated two decent offensive teams in two straight games, making him a high-risk, high-upside gamble for both this year and next. Rebuilding teams with open pitching spaces should try to pick him up for a buck. He's displayed solid skills at times in the past, so there's no reason he couldn't continue his current success.

34
bcxyz - Greg Maddux(44445)
acyz - Kevin Brown(45420)

Jose Acevedo(51030)
Chad Fox
Mike Holtz
Dave Veres

Maddux is on a role, even finally contributing some strikeouts. If he's available, we'd much rather deal for him now than earlier this year when he didn't show this level of consistent dominance.

1
acxyz - Kevin Millwood(45535)
axyz - A.J. Burnett(50555)
axy - Pedro Astacio(02454)
bxy - Matt Morris(15550)
ax - Odalis Perez(33325)
xz - Matt Clement(55533)

Burnett's running a 5550555 streak, although we'd still rather own Millwood right now. There's really no problem with any of these pitchers.

Mike Crudale(0)
Brian Boehringer
Joe Borowski
Eric Gagne
Mark Guthrie
Darren Holmes
Todd Jones
Kent Mercker
Guillermo Mota
Mike Myers
Blaine Neal
Scott Sauerbeck
Scott Stewart
Tim Worrell

While Borowski replaced Durocher, Jayson only missed the cut by one walk too many. A smart Cubs' GM would deal all three high-priced relievers(Alfonseca, Gordon, and Fassero), call up Cunnane, Duncan, and maybe even Mahomes, and let Farnsworth and Borowski vie for saves. Instead, Darren Lewis' cowardice led Hendy into giving up our top lefty relief prospect in Rick Palma just to keep a historically overrated fourth outfielder who will likely (and unfortunately) wind up starting over Patterson at times. I know MacPhail only canned himself a month ago, but maybe it's time for another round of "The GM is fired. Long live the GM" in these parts.

2

IN MEMORIAM: bcxyz - Darryl Kile(43004)

abxyz - Randy Wolf(55535)
bxy - Russ Ortiz(53205)
bxy - Tony Armas, Jr.(22040)

Nelson Cruz(05040)
Jose Jimenez
Kerry Ligtenberg
Scott Sullivan
Dave Weathers

3
bxyz - Jon Lieber(44325)
by - Ruben Quevedo(03114)

I'm not even mildly surprised that Lieber is both still on the Cubs and now on the DL. They've worked him into the ground the last two years, and instead of dealing him, Mueller, and a low prospect for Rolen, we're stuck with an extra #3 starter, a pending free agent, and no Scott Rolen.

Jason Bere(45550)
Ryan Jensen(51551)
Jose Cabrera(04223)
Tim Redding(04320)
Pedro Borbon
Giovanni Carrara
Mike Matthews
Paul Quantrill

Quantrill heads back down here, although only he and perhaps Jensen are worth deploying from this group.

4
b - Bud Smith(02040)
y - Ben Sheets(55313)

Kris Benson(51103)
Doug Brocail
Vic Darensbourg
Aaron Fultz
Scott Strickland
Greg Swindell

Even Strickland still scares us right now. Bench everyone here except, Sheets against weak offenses.

a
cxyz - Woody Williams(44554)
xz - Chuck Finley(30444)
x - Oliver Perez(55534)
x - Mark Prior(54543)
x - Josh Beckett(03544)
y - Kevin Jarvis(44400)
Jake Peavy(45403)

In nine major league starts, the 20-year-old lefty Perez, who hasn't even pitched in AAA, also hasn't posted a PQS score below 3. He's certainly worth a flyer at this time, especially if you're rebuilding. Finley looks like he's just heating up; grab him now before his owner locks him down.

b
cxy - Hideo Nomo(44333)
cyz - Wade Miller(53342)
xy - John Thomson(34123)
y - Steve Trachsel(54044)
Terry Adams(33001)

In case you missed one of the several other times I'll mention this piece of information, go get John Thomson right now. Five wins or more with very helpful qualitative numbers are a perfectly reasonable prediction.

c
xyz - Ryan Dempster(30303)
xz - Robert Person(33320)
z - Glendon Rusch(03442)
Rick Ankiel

x
yz - Tom Glavine(03123)
y - Shawn Chacon(33304)
z - Shawn Estes(22353)
z - Jamey Wright(23023)
Miguel Batista(43254)
Jimmy Haynes(45432)
Kazuhisa Ishii(43440)
Jared Fernandez(35243)
Michael Tejera(44323)
Kirk Rueter(23244)
Damian Moss(21534)
Kip Wells(04325)
Pete Munro(04253)
Denny Stark(44303)
Bobby J. Jones(33343)
Vicente Padilla(33234)
Brett Tomko(34320)
Brian Moehler(43331)
Omar Daal(20234)
Andy Ashby(31314)
Tomo Ohka(40303)
Josh Fogg(30042)

Padilla and Ishii fall here while Moehler and Munro crack this list. Batista, Haynes, and even Jared Fernandez look quite good right now. Regarding the x pitchers, we're only worried about Ashby, Ohka, and Fogg, and we'd even deploy them in two-start weeks and against poor offenses.

y
z - Livan Hernandez(54223)
z - Elmer Dessens(34430)
z - Shane Reynolds(42300)
z - Denny Neagle(23300)
Brandon Duckworth(14450)
Jason Marquis(53404)
Brian Tollberg(32320)
Nelson Figueroa(30032)
Sean Lowe(0)
Darren Dreifort

Livan's pitched surprisingly well lately, although all four healthy starters, including him, Dessens, Duckworth, and Marquis, appear fairly safe to use at the moment.

z
Rick Helling(54400)
Carl Pavano(03400)
Jeff D'Amico(22230)
Mike Hampton(21221)
Julian Tavarez(03123)
Albie Lopez(0230)
Bruce Chen(03200)
Andy Benes(00003)

If rebuilding, see if you can add Chen cheaply as he's shown solid skill improvement over the past few weeks. No one else here is likely worth playing in the next week, although we're looking forward to observing D'Amico in relief.

NL pitchers I recommend despite their failure to appear here include Antonio Alfonseca, Armando Benitez, Jaime Cerda, Rheal Cormier, Jayson Durocher, Mike Fetters, Danny Graves, Ray King, Mike Koplove, Matt Mantei, Brett Myers(40), John Patterson(55), John Riedling, Joe Roa(0), Kirk Saarloos(00442), Carlos Silva, Gene Stechschulte, T.J. Tucker, Brandon Villafuerte, Mike Williams, and Masato Yoshii(33333). 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(33254), Jimmy Anderson(03223), Joe Beimel(30522), Mike DeJean, Tom Gordon, Kevin Gryboski, Joey Hamilton(13402), Chris Hammond, Matt Herges, Jason Jennings(15334), Graeme Lloyd, Braden Looper, Dave Mlicki(30030), Chris Reistma(42030), Jose Santiago, Jason Simontacchi(33100), Mike Timlin, and Ron Villone(03043).

Today's Fantasy Rx: While Cliff Floyd unquestionably offers the most overall help in the AL, the NL has a few players of interest. John Thomson probably heads the list. I've seen some completely uninformed quotes that denigrate his very solid year with the Rockies; we're still firmly of the opinion that anything below a 5.00 ERA in Colorado is excellent, placing his 4.86 in good company. If you need pitching and he's available, he should be the first guy you try to acquire, potentially spending a few dozen bucks of FAAB.

Kenny Lofton, Gabe Kapler, and Jay Payton all offer your team different attributes. Payton's likely already owned in the vast majority of NL leagues, but I'd be surprised if he and Kapler see more playing time than pinch-hitting and respectively starting in place of Cust and Pierre against right-handers. Kapler should easily go for $40+ in leagues where more than two teams have $60+ of FAAB remaining. Lofton is the only real speed that changed leagues, and if you believe he'll stay healthy and running, a $50+ bid is quite realistic, barring any salary cap.

I've suggested this at times over the past few days, and if he's still available, make every effort to secure Paul Shuey if you need any pitching help. He'll contribute in five categories, and if Gagne continues to struggle, he's easily first in line for save opps. Paul Quantrill will likely pick up any that Shuey and Gagne miss.

Lastly, when Jason Romano gets called up in September, see if you can snag him for a buck or two in keeper leagues. I believe he has at least a decent chance of starting for Colorado at either 2B or 3B if they decide not to spend on infield help.