Rounding the Bases: Think Twice Before Ordering the Specials or Watching the Royals

Posted by Howard Bender on 04/19/2012 | 0 Comments

Tags: fantays baseball, Kansas City Royals, Eric Hosmer, Billy Butler, Matt Cain, Cliff Lee, Antonio Bastardo, Ty Wigginton, Brandon Belt, Melky Cabrera, Justin Morneau, Hiroki Kuroda

Just a quickie today, folks!  Maybe it’s been some sort of stomach flu.  Maybe it was that order of Clams Casino the chef recommended as he listed the specials.  Or maybe it was the fact that I opted to watch the Royals game.  Wow, they look awful right now.  Whatever the case may be, I’ve been sick as a dog for the last 12 hours and barely have anything left in me to bring you the highlights (and lowlights) from Wednesday’s games.

I’m going to rule out stomach flu due to a lack of other symptoms and say that it was either bad clams (thanks, Chef!) or the Royals.  The former is an easy fix, but the latter could go on for some time.  Kansas City has so much talent on that team – Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Billy Butler, just to name a few – and they just can’t put it together.  Actually Butler is the only one hitting with any consistency right now as he’s on an eight-game hitting streak and batting .375 for the year.  But everyone else just looks lost right now.  You’ll see a flash here and there, but between a general lack of offense, some defensive miscues and the reliance on a player like Yuniesky Betancourt, it’s become quite sickening to watch all this young talent being wasted.  I actually own a number of them on a variety of fantasy teams, so maybe that’s adding to my the run of “technicolor yawns” (think about it) I’ve been experiencing.  Too early to give up on any of them, but I’ll spare myself the aggravation and health risk next time and watch a different game.

What makes me sad, both as a fan of the game and someone who reports to others the news and events of baseball, is that this illness, kept me from being able to sit and watch that amazing pitcher’s duel between Cliff Lee and Matt Cain that ended with neither factoring in the decision and the Giants earning a hard-fought eleven inning 1-0 victory.  Coming off of a complete game one-hit shutout victory in the Giants home opener last week, Cain turned in another dazzling performance using only 97 pitches to make it through another nine scoreless frames.  And Lee was just as masterful going a full 10 innings and only throwing 102 pitches in total.  Both teams’ offenses failed to put anything together, especially the Giants, who looked like they were threatening at a few points but still came up empty on the scoreboard. 

And in the end, it was an error by Ty Wigginton that sealed the fate of the Phillies.  Antonio Bstardo (Tony Bastard if he came from Brooklyn) gave up a single to Brandon Belt, watched as the Wigginton error allowed Angel Pagan to reach base and advance the runner and then gave up another base-hit to Melky Cabrera to score Belt and give the giants a walk-off victory.  Now that was a game!  Never again will I let bad clams or the Royals keep me from such an event.

Now here’s a quick glance at the top and bottom performers from Wednesday and we’ll be back to normal after Thursday night’s events…

Fantasy Beast of the Day

I’m just as surpised to see his name here as you are.  Maybe it’s the start of something big or maybe it was Hiroki Kuroda serving up big meatball-like pitches (ewww, meatballs….gimme a sec  ::runs out of room::  ok, and we’re back) in a stadium that has an uber-short porch in right field.  Either way, Justin Morneau had a fierce game on Wednesday and deserves the nod here.  Now let’s just see how he follows it up.

As for the rest of the top performers….

And our bottom-feeders of the night….

Thanks for indulging me here.  Like I said, back to our regularly scheduled program next time!

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Howard Bender has been covering fantasy sports for over ten years on a variety of web sites including his own, The Fantasy Baseball Buzz.  You can follow him on Twitter at @rotobuzzguy or email him at rotobuzzguy@gmail.com.