Fantasy Clicks: Art of the Deal

Recent Fantasy Clicks 5-28-09: Birds Ready To Take Off? 5-21-09: Welcome Back 5-14-09: Five Faces in New Places 5-07-09: Dominican Duds 5-06-09: Welcome to the House of Pewter 5-04-09: The Man Of Steal Rides Again 4-29-09: Dangers of RB Overpopulation 4-27-09: It's All About The O's 4-24-09: The New Falconer 4-22-09: Fantasy Breakdown Of NFL Sked 4-20-09: The Ultimate Fantasy Catch-22 4-17-09: Cyclist Of The Century 4-15-09: NFL Slices Of Heaven, Part II 4-13-09: All Hail The Check-Swing King 4-10-09: Welcome To Adventureland 4-08-09: NFL Slices Of Heaven 4-07-09: Running vs. Trotting 4-06-09: Opening Night Revelations 4-03-09: Draft Night Revelations, Part II 3-31-09: Dynamic Duos 3-30-09: Draft Night Revelations 3-27-09: Draft Rules To Live By 3-25-09: Sophomore Surges 3-24-09: All Apologies 3-23-09: Catch A Rising Star 3-20-09: Look Out For Pick No. 1 ... and 24 3-18-09: PVR Perfect 3-17-09: Don't Forget About Me 3-13-09: Welcome To Spring Break 3-12-09: LT2 Losing His Charge 3-11-09: Sudden Impact 3-09-09: Hip, Hip ... Hurry Back, A-Rod 3-06-09: Revenge Of The Cyst 3-05-09: A Disappointing Deadline Day 3-04-09: Cosmic Charlie 3-02-09: Aces In The Hole 2-27-09: Depth Perceptions 2-26-09: Tyson's Corner 2-25-09: Pack Your Bags? 2-24-09: NFL Combine wrap 2-20-09: Designated Long Drivers 2-19-09: The Brady Hunch 2-16-09: Seeking Sweet Relief 2-13-09: Sneak peek at an MLB mock draft 2-12-09: Boozer's Snoozer Of A Season 2-11-09: Impossible to ignore 2-9-09: The Secret Life of A-Rod 2-6-09: Pick of the 2B litter 2-5-09: Time for a fantasy bailout 2-4-09: Another winged wonder? 2-2-09: Super Bowl Revelations

Art of the Deal

Tommy Hanson :: AP

The Braves were busy on Wednesday, dealing three prospects (Charlie Morgan, Gorkys Hernandez, and Jeff Locke) to the Pirates for All-Star center fielder Nate McLouth after releasing 305-game winner Tom Glavine, thus opening up a permanent rotation spot for minor-league phenom Tommy Hanson. The Pirates did what most small-market teams do, trade a very good player with a higher contract for youngsters who they hope will pan out, while the Braves -- just 5.5 games behind the Phillies in the NL East -- not only helped themselves for this season, but now have a center fielder who'll call Atlanta home for years to come. The fantasy wild cards of the day however are Pittsburgh's new center fielder Andrew McCutcheon, the franchise's perennial top prospect who was batting .303, 4 HR, 20 RBIs, 10 SB at Triple A Indianapolis, and Hanson, who has struck out 90 in 66 1/3 with a 1.49 ERA and 0.86 WHIP for Triple A Gwinnett. Perhaps the biggest losers in this whole transaction are Jordan Schafer owners who went from having a promising center field prospect with a starting job to a Triple A player blocked by an All-Star for the foreseeable future. Here's the order I'd prioritize the rookies involved in those transactions.

1. Hanson
2. McCutchen
3. Hernandez
4. Morton
5. Locke

The Who-Rays

Two of the hottest and least heralded waiver wire pickups of the season showed off last night in Tampa Bay's 9-0 drubbing of the Royals.

Starter Jeff Niemann, expected at the start of the year to simply be a rotation placeholder for David Price has recently pitched like an ace on what is a great fantasy staff. Reportedly on the trading block all spring, Niemann's two-hit, 100-pitch, nine-strikeout masterpiece gave him a 3-1 record with a 2.03 ERA and 1.06 WHIP over his last five starts. And he's available in four-fifths of all leagues.

The other big Ray pickup has been jack-of-all-trades Ben Zobrist, who began the year platooning in center field for an injured B.J. Upton. His versatility (he's played 2B, SS, 3B, and all three outfield positions this year) plus a productive bat (10 home runs, 32 RBIs) makes him a perfect fit for nearly any fantasy team. His grand slam in last night's contest was already the fourth of his career and gives him a career slugging percentage with the bases jammed of 1.118, second to Detroit's Marcus Thames (1.280) among all active players with at least three such trips to the plate. He's still not owned in 90 percent of leagues so, if you can, find a place for him.

Powerless but productive

Dodgers first baseman James Loney is tied for 13th in the major leagues in RBIs but has hit just two home runs putting him on pace for a rare season of single-digit home runs but triple-digit RBI totals. How rare? Although it's occurred 103 times since 1900, in the expansion era (since 1961) only two players have done it: Paul Molitor had 9-113 for the 1996 Twins and Tommy Herr who went 8-110 for the 1985 Cardinals. At this pace Loney's numbers would finish with six home runs and 123 RBIs. The only four players with comparable numbers in the last 110 years were Honus Wagner (6-126, 1901 Pirates), Sherry Magee (6-123, '10 Phillies), Pie Traynor (3-124, '28 Pirates) and Luke Appling (6-128, '36 White Sox).

Poor defense doesn't always hurt

In most fantasy leagues it's not a bad thing to have pitchers on a bad fielding team. Not only does your guy get a chance for more strikeouts, but he also doesn't get charged with as many unearned runs. Here are Current leaders in unerarned runs allowed with ERA and runs allowed average (RAA).

	ER	Unearned	ERA	RA
Daniel Cabrera, Nationals	26	13	5.85	8.78
Bartolo Colon, White Sox	21	12	3.75	5.90
Brett Anderson, A's	30	10	5.70	7.61
Hayden Penn, Marlins	19	8	7.77	11.05
Jason Hammel, Rockies	22	8	4.83	6.59
Mark Hendrickson, Orioles	22	8	5.50	7.50
Jamey Wright, Royals	10	7	3.51	5.96
Johan Santana, Mets	16	7	2.00	2.88
Wandy Rodriguez, Astros	17	7	2.26	3.19
Josh Beckett, Red Sox	32	6	4.09	4.86

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