This one will be a little short today, as I have some errands to run in a little while.
MLB Daily Dish Call Up Tracker
If you are looking for a complete list of prospects called up from the minors this month, look no further than the September Call Up Tracker over at MLB Daily Dish.
The Tracker provides a team by team break down of every prospect promoted to the big leagues.
Fantasy Football Week 1 Rankings
In case you missed it, I posted links to the position rankings for Week 1 of the 2013 NFL season last night and you can check them out in the link below:
If you still haven't drafted, make sure you check out all the fantasy football goodness linked in this post:
Fantasy Football 2013: Rankings, Sleepers, Targets and Avoids
Make sure you check out the Fantasy Football War Room on Sunday morning for all of your Start/Sit questions, running from 8:00am to 1:00pm over at SB Nation Fantasy.
Jason Kipnis: Excerpt from "What Scouts are Saying"
A few times per week, the Baseball Prospectus staff write a piece on what some scouting contacts are saying, called What Scouts are Saying, about certain players, and on Thursday they quoted one scout on Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis. Here is the excerpt:
Indians 2B Jason Kipnis: "The best power-speed combination of any 2B in the game right now, and he just continues to improve. If he can cut down on his strikeouts he might become the best 2B in the game. He does all the little things and plays the game the right way. If he played in New York or Los Angeles, he would be a superstar."
I think you all know by now that Kipnis is one of my favorite fantasy hitters, as I ranked him in my Top 25 last week. I couldn't agree more with what this particular scout said about him here.
Yusmeiro Petit: Almost Perfect
A couple weeks ago, one of Fake Teams' readers asked if he should stream Giants starter Yusmeiro Petit, and my response was "no, I want to see more than one start from him:, or something to that affect. Well, Petit has pitched well in all four of his starts this season, none better than on Friday night, where he was one strike away from a perfect game vs the Diamondbacks.
Petit gave up his only base runner, a single to Eric Chavez on a 3-2 count, with two out in the ninth inning last night, but that was the only hit he was to give up. Petit struck out 7 to win his third game in four starts. He is 3-0 with a 2.05 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and an excellent 30-4 strikeout to walk rate in 26.1 innings. He is owned in just 14% of ESPN leagues, so he should be added where he is unowned right now.
For more on Petit's almost perfect performance, check out McCovey Chronicles, SB Nation's Giants fan site.
Round'em Up
I am a little late on this but the Blue Jays have shut down outfielder Jose Bautista for the rest of the season, due to a bad hip injury. I am not sure how he injured the hip, but his absence will impact fantasy lineups in September. He finishes the season hitting .259-.358-.498 with 28 HRs, 82 runs, 73 RBI in just 118 games. I imagine he will be fully recovered from his hip injury to start the 2014 season.
Tigers second baseman Omar Infante had perhaps the best game of his career last night, going 5-5 with 2 runs scored and 6 RBI in the Tigers 16-2 thrashing of the Royals. Infante isn't a big run producer, but is having a solid season at the plate, hitting .328-.354-.465 with 9 HRs, 50 runs and 44 RBI in just 99 games.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that Marlins young ace Jose Fernandez pitched another gem last night. Fernandez limited the Nationals to just one hit, a weird roller down the third base line that very well could have gone foul, but didn't. He walked just 2 and struck out 9 to win his 11th game, and is 11-6 with a 2.23 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and an ace-like 182-55 strikeout to walk rate in 165.2 innings. Amazing for a 21 year old who hadn't pitched above High A coming into the season. I ranked him in my top 10 starting pitcher rankings on Friday, and it wouldn't surprise me to see him in the top 5 in 2014.
Red Sox first baseman Mike Napoli figures to earn himself more than a one year contract in the free agent market this offseason, and his performance on Friday night bolstered those chances. Napoli went 3-3 with a HR, 2 walks, 3 runs and 3 RBI in the Red Sox 12-8 win over the Yankees last night. Napoli raised his triple slash line to .258-.351-.468 with 19 HRs, 70 runs, 82 RBI in 124 games this season. So much for his bad hips that was all the talk in spring training.
More from Fake Teams:
- Around the League - A.L. and N.L.
- Streamer Report: Saturday's Streamers
- MLB Prospect Rankings: Reviewing My Bold Prospect Predictions, Part 3
- Early Look at the Top 50 fantasy starting pitchers for 2014
- Roto Roundup: Julio Urias, Pablo Sandoval, David Ortiz and Others
- Fantasy Football 2013: Week 1 Rankings