by Peter Kreutzer, NL
My most expensive pitcher isn’t on the DL, but he’s been so ineffective pitching that he got knocked out of last night’s game by taking a line shot off his pitching arm. My second most expensive pitcher got through three innings on Opening Day and has been on the DL ever since. My fourth most expensive pitcher threw a beauty of a game, then in his second start got hurt and is on the DL I mention these things to explain why today I have 9 pitching points (out of a possible maximum of 65).
Yes, I have Cole Hamels, Brandon Webb and Chris Carpenter on my team. Because I obtained Hamels while price enforcing, I don’t have a closer, but I don’t mind that. Well, I wouldn’t mind that if my team was wracking up wins from dominant starts by my hydra of aces. At least Chris Young and Anibal Sanchez have been good, though they bring their own worries.
And the hitting has been in the first tier, presently with the fifth most points in the league, which makes a comeback seem possible. It’s not even the end of April, and this has been a shorter April baseball-wise than usual, but there are good reasons to worry about April performance. It isn’t that bad performances doom a player the rest of the year. Sometimes they are just the random fluctuations that come with a lucky or unlucky hop here or there.
But sometimes, as was the case with Webb on Opening Day, the bad performance indicates an injury or some other condition that represents real information. I looked at Hamels’ spring problems as a little issue, something he would get past because he always had, but now as he struggles I face $61 of my $91 pitching staff missing considerable time this year.
That kind of offsets the pleasure of grabbing Brian Barden on my reserve list.