Hello and welcome to your
first taste of Tips ‘n Trends! We finally got what we’ve all been waiting
for — a full day’s worth of baseball games, and I couldn’t be happier. My personal
thrill of the day was finally getting to watch one of my favorite players for
this ‘08 season get his first regular season at bat (I didn’t have any Red Sox,
A’s, Nationals or Braves hitters on my teams).
Now I’ve received a good amount
of slack for drafting Guillen “too early”
in all of my leagues including our FantasyMLBTips League — but Guillen is a guy
who I was willing to stick out my neck for, since I’ve been hyping him as being
this year’s clear-cut, 4th best fantasy shortstop since back in February. Check
out the “2008 Fantasy Projections: Shortstops”article to see it for yourself. During Spring Training, Guillen rose to the
challenge of taking on a more power-oriented position, belting 5 homers in 48
AB this spring. Supposedly, according to
the ballgame’s announcers, Guillen is “standing closer to the plate” this year,
and that’s allowing him to “really clear those hips” on inside fastballs. With Sheffield, Ordonez and Cabrera
batting ahead of him, I can say this with certainty — I’ve never in my life
been more excited about a guy’s “hip-clearing” ability.
With that visual in your
head, let me tell you about Tuesday’s “TNT.” For the next six months, we’ll be cranking
out interesting trends that you can possibly use to gain an edge in your
fantasy leagues. Unless a really good hitter has an absolutely ridiculous track
record against a pitcher, you won’t see stud after stud on this list because
there’s nothing really unusual about Albert Pujols batting .340 against a
certain pitcher — and even if he’s 1-for-9 in his career against John Doe, you’d
never bench him. The daily Tips n’ Trends list will primarily help
those owners who are deciding on who to bench or who to fill that last IF or OF
or UTIL slot with.
Tuesday’s Positive Trends:
Jason Kubel [career against Jon Garland]: 7/17, 3 HR, 11
RBI, .412/.389/.941
Chone Figgins
[career against Boof Bonser]: 4/10, 1 3B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, .400/.400/.900
Manny Ramirez [career against Joe Blanton]: 9/15,
.600/.611/667
Raul Ibanez [career against Vicente Padilla]: 6/14, 1 HR,
.429/.471/.643
Ichiro Suzuki [career against Vicente Padilla]: 12/23, 1
HR, .522/.542/.739
Luis Gonzalez [career against Pedro Martinez]: 16/44,
.364/.442/.523
Jose Reyes [career against Rick VandenHurk]: 2/5, 1 3B,
1 HR, .400/.500/.1400
Brian Giles [career against Brandon Backe]: 4/10, 0 K,
.400/.400/.500
Lance Berkman [career against Chris Young]: 2/5, 1 HR, 2
RBI, .400/.400/.1000
Jeff Kent [career against Matt Cain]: 4/8, 2 HR, 2 RBI,
.500/.556/1.250
Andre Ethier [career against Matt Cain]: 6/11, .545/.538/.545
Rafael Furcal [career against Matt Cain]: 5/12, 2 2B, 1 SB,
.417/.462/.583
Bengie Molina [career against Derek Lowe]: 6/14, .429/.400/.429
Ray Durham [career against
Derek Lowe]: 13/40, 1 HR, 10 RBI, 2 K, .325/.386/.475
Rich Aurilia [career against Derek Lowe]: 5/11, .455/.500/.545
Aaron Rowand [career
against Derek Lowe]: 5/11, .455/.571/.455
Tuesday’s Negative Trends:
Garret Anderson
[career against Boof Bonser]: 2/9, 0 HR,
1 RBI, .222/.222/.444
Coco Crisp [career against Joe Blanton]: 2/12, 0 HR, 0
RBI, .167/.231/.250
Richie Sexson [career against Vicente Padilla]: 4/17, 0 HR,
4 RBI, 6 K, .235/.350/.353
Hank Blalock [career against Felix Hernandez]: 3/20, 0 HR,
8 K, .150/.261/.200
Dan Uggla [career against Pedro Martinez]: 2/11, 0 HR,
0 RBI, 8 K, .182/.250/.273
Miguel Tejada [career against Chris Young]: 1/7, 1 HR, 3
RBI, .143/.143/.571
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