Fantasy Baseball: NL Strikeout Leaders for Last Two Months

by Ray Guilfoyle on Aug 7, 2009 9:30 AM EDT in Baseball

For those of you in 5x5 leagues that use strikeout as the 5th category, here are the punchout leaders for the months of June and July:

Player	INN	GS	QS	W	K	BBI	ERA	WHIP	K-BB	K-BB/9
Lincecum, Tim SP SF	83.3	11	10	7	99	21	1.73	0.94	78	8.43
Gallardo, Yovani SP MIL	75.3	12	7	6	91	42	2.99	1.35	49	5.86
Wainwright, Adam SP STL	86.3	12	9	7	79	27	2.5	1.31	52	5.42
Haren, Dan SP ARI	77	11	9	6	75	13	1.87	0.82	62	7.25
Gaudin, Chad SP SD	68.7	12	7	3	75	28	4.46	1.41	47	6.16
Nolasco, Ricky SP FLA	66.3	10	7	5	73	14	2.71	1.04	59	8.01
Vazquez, Javier SP ATL	70	10	7	4	72	12	2.44	0.96	60	7.71
Jimenez, Ubaldo SP COL	76	11	8	4	67	28	3.43	1.17	39	4.62
Cain, Matt SP SF	73.7	11	7	6	66	27	1.95	1.05	39	4.76
De La Rosa, Jorge SP COL	67.7	11	8	9	65	27	4.26	1.32	38	5.05
Kershaw, Clayton SP LA	64.7	11	7	5	62	33	1.39	1.18	29	4.03
Rodriguez, Wandy SP HOU	65	10	7	5	62	23	3.05	1.23	39	5.40
Harden, Rich SP CHC	54.3	10	5	3	62	20	4.31	1.33	42	6.96
Oswalt, Roy SP HOU	74.7	11	8	5	59	16	2.77	1	43	5.18
Scherzer, Max SP ARI	56.7	10	6	4	58	21	3.81	1.39	37	5.87
Sanchez, Jonathan O. SP SF	52.3	9	2	2	56	23	4.99	1.36	33	5.68
Lilly, Ted SP CHC	58.7	9	7	3	55	9	3.68	1.23	46	7.05
Hamels, Cole SP PHI	69.7	11	6	4	55	11	3.88	1.18	44	5.68
Correia, Kevin SP SD	70	12	8	6	55	21	4.5	1.27	34	4.37
Billingsley, Chad SP LA	64.7	11	6	4	55	30	5.29	1.41	25	3.48
Blanton, Joe SP PHI	67	10	8	4	54	15	2.55	1.1	39	5.24
Harang, Aaron SP CIN	65.3	11	6	0	54	19	4.82	1.52	35	4.82
Zambrano, Carlos SP CHC	71.7	11	8	4	53	33	2.76	1.26	20	2.51
Jurrjens, Jair SP ATL	68	11	8	4	53	25	2.78	1.18	28	3.71
Zito, Barry SP SF	62.3	11	4	5	53	25	5.05	1.41	28	4.04

The pitchers that stick out for me are the recently traded Chad Gaudin (to the Yankees), Ricky Nolasco, Jorge De La Rosa and Ubaldo Jiminez. Gaudin will be pitching out of the bullpen initially for the Yankees, but don't be surprised to see him spot start in place of Joba Chamberlain, as the Yankees want to limit Joba's innings down the stretch.

Back in spring training, I posted an article about drafting Rockies pitchers, and Ubaldo Jiminez and Jorge De La Rosa have performed pretty well, especially Jiminez who has turned into the Rockies ace, Aaron Cook notwithstanding.

Ricky Nolasco, after a horrific April and May, has returned to his 2008 form, and has actually pitched better than his teammate Josh Johnson in June and July. He could challenge for a Cy Young award one of these years if he could put in a full season similar to his last two months.

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