Today's Fantasy Rx

I'll spend one more column looking at individually dominant pitchers before presenting the first in-season LPR rankings of 2005 next week.

Last week I analyzed the seven AL starters that had started dominated in no less than three starts: Bartolo Colon, Johan Santana, Gustavo Chacin, Mark Buehrle, Pedro Astacio. Matt Clement, and Jarrod Washburn. Given another week of starts, a few more pitchers reached similar qualifications without registering more than one disaster.

QA score for starts: up to 5 total points, one for each statistical goal, to any starter who pitches at least 5 innings and fulfills any of the following skill qualifications: K>=IP-2, BB<=IP/3, H<=IP, HR<=1, and G-F>=1.00. Any starter who doesn't reach any of the required statistical goals or fails to pitch 5 innings earns a 0 QA score. Scores of 5 and 4 qualify as DOMinant outings, a 3 is DULl, and anything below 3 ranks as a skill DISaster.

We've included the most recent QA scores for each pitcher.

3 DOM, 2 DUL, 0 DIS
Randy Johnson, NYY(53345): 2-1 on a 34:6 K:BB in 34.1 IP over 5 GS with 27 H, 5 HR, a 1.25 G-F, and a 4.19 ERA. With only two wins and an ERA over 4.00, Randy probably seems a failure to many Yankee fans devastated by the team's rather poor April performance. However, his skills remain excellent aside from a slightly elevated homer rate, and a .96 WHIP suggests a pending ERA drop down towards the sub-3.00 marks he usually posts. Consider an additional dozen wins the minimum projection for his balance-of-the-year success, and when combined with an outstanding strikeout rate and fairly excellent qualitative marks, anyone looking to add an ace needs to find a way to acquire Johnson while his current ERA and win total keep his trade cost at least mildly depressed.

We'll continue tomorrow with NL pitchers.

Internet Challenge

SP(6)
Randy Johnson: Fri:TOR(D.Bush)
Johan Santana: Sun:ANA(B.Colon)
Jason Schmidt: Fri:@PIT(Ol.Perez)
Roy Oswalt: Sun:CHC(M.Prior)
Roger Clemens: Fri:CHC(G.Maddux)
Mark Mulder: Fri:@ATL(T.Hudson)
Jake Peavy: Fri:ARI(B.Webb)
A.J. Burnett: Fri:@PHI(R.Wolf)?
Josh Beckett: Sun:@PHI(C.Lidle)?
Miguel Batista: 3 Road at NYY.

No starts: Pedro, Sheets?, and Harden.

With Florida's rotation uncertain thanks to the Colorado rainouts, Oliver Perez suddenly hot, and Mulder facing a tough opponent in his old teammate, we'll deploy Randy, Santana, Peavy, the Astros, and Batista. Until Dotel begins pitching like we expect, he'll remain seated in favor of KRod, Ryan, Mota, and Lyon.

Carl Crawford and Justin Morneau replace Helton and Holliday as the Rockies visit the Dodgers. Iguchi and Jeremy Reed remain benched due to surprisingly limited immediate upside.

Rotohelp.com(4th lg; 129th overall)
Week 4b: April 29-May 1

C	Victor Martinez		860
C	John Buck		390 
1B	Albert Pujols		1930
1B	Travis Hafner		810
2B	Brian Roberts		960 
2B	Marcus Giles		950
3B	Melvin Mora		1270
3B	Troy Glaus		830
SS	Jose Reyes		850
SS	Clint Barmes		400 
OF	Carl Crawford		1560
OF	Jim Edmonds		1250 
OF	Adam Dunn		1110
OF	Miguel Cabrera		1110 
OF	Scott Podsednik		1090 
OF	Kevin Mench		580 
UT	Mark Teixeira		1310 
UT	Justin Morneau	680

SP	Randy Johnson		1980
SP	Johan Santana		1710 
SP	Roy Oswalt		1320 
SP	Roger Clemens		1280 
SP	Jake Peavy		1030 
SP	Miguel Batista		840
RP	Francisco Rodriguez	1250
RP	B.J. Ryan		950
RP	Guillermo Mota		950
RP	Brandon Lyon		750

Total Salary for Week 4b 	30000

Today's Fantasy Rx: Scarcely three dozen people attended one of only two midnight showings of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in our area, and despite the diehards who joined us in bringing towels, the somewhat cool reception to the unconventional film surprised me. Of course, while Hitchhiker's couldn't replicate the exact mood of the book, and questionable cutting decisions removed some of the funnier moments, we still enjoyed the movie quite thoroughly. Reading the ridiculously misnamed Hitchhiker's trilogy remains an excellent idea even if your tastes don't normally include British sci-fi humor, but given the limited selections offered at most theaters over this rather chilly spring weekend, definitely go see Hitchhiker's when presented with any opportunity.