Projo Fantasy Sports Blog

By David Ferris

Gary Sheffield is finally healthy, Adam Lind is finally getting a chance to play, Matt Garza is finally living up to his potential. The waiting might be the hardest part in this fantasy pursuit of ours, but it’s time to enjoy some profit. Get a comfy chair and your favorite summer drink and let’s survey some movers and shakers in the American League landscape.

Hitters

BUY

Gary Sheffield, OF/DH, Tigers: He says his shoulder is finally healthy, and the Cardinals aren’t going to dispute the point – Sheffield thrashed them for six hits and a pair of homers over the last three days. It should be a fun offensive summer in Motown, with Sheffield healthy and Curtis Granderson coming on against left-handers.

Adam Lind, OF, Blue Jays: He’s probably just an AL-only play for now as the Jays are keeping him away from left-handed pitching, but there’s still a lot to like here (.365/.420/.587 line at Triple-A, then two homers in his first week back in Toronto). Lind was dealing with a sore neck earlier in the season, but that’s no longer holding him back.

SELL

Delmon Young, OF, Twins: He’ll be back in the mix when the Twins get back to AL stadiums, but it’s a definite red flag when Ron Gardenhire leaves Young on the bench for the NL trips. Young is aggressive on the bases despite a mediocre steal rate, and his batting eye has improved in his second full year, but a .366 slugging percentage won’t cut it, especially from a corner outfield spot.

Joe Crede, 3B, White Sox: A cranky back cost him a couple of games this week, and it’s the same injury that kept him out most of 2007. It’s probably a good time to see what Crede’s .270 average and 15 homers will bring on the open market.

HOLD

Jermaine Dye, OF, White Sox: He loves the home cooking (.331, 10 homers), and you normally see a summer spike from Dye (his two best OPS months are July and August). Get the jetstream fired up on the South Side and let’s put up some crooked numbers.

Pitchers

BUY

Matt Garza, SP, Rays: He’s always had the fastball to be successful, he’s starting to trust his other pitches more, and when it all clicks, batters don’t have much of a shot (note the two 10-strikeout games over the last month, not to mention Thursday’s one-hitter and five excellent turns out of seven). The Rays have a very bright future if they can find a way to keep Scott Kazmir, James Shields and Garza healthy for the next few seasons.

SELL

Vicente Padilla, SP, Rangers: He’s found a way to cheat the Arlington undertow this year, albeit 10 of his starts have come on the road. If you’re like us, you’ll side with gravity and be wary of Padilla’s ordinary career line (4.21 E.R.A., 1.38 ratio, .266 batting average against). Trot his 10-3 record and 3.74 E.R.A. around your league and see if someone will nibble.

HOLD

Dan Wheeler, RP, Rays: He’s got a closing profile (.178 E.R.A., 0.93 ratio, .161 average against), and the Rays might need him to do just that for a while as 38-year-old Troy Percival deals with a balky hamstring. Cleveland’s Masa Kobayashi is another intriguing target for the save speculators in the crowd; he’s moved to the No. 2 spot in the Tribe’s bullpen, and Joe Borowski is far from a sure bet (from a health or efficiency standpoint).

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