Baseball Update 6/1

Happy day before my birthday!

The biggest piece of news that I wanted to comment on today was the activation of Allen Craig.  I have owned Allen Craig all year in a 12 team mixed league, and strongly encourage all in those type of leagues to add him if he was dropped.  Even in 10 team leagues.  Since the beginning of Spring, Allen Craig has hit.  He is a man without a position essentially, and still he has hit his way into the everyday lineup.  There are talks now about him becoming the everyday 2B for the Cardinals with Skup Schumaker out.  Let's see, if Allen Craig qualified at 2B, which guys would I rank higher?

Robinson Cano
Ian Kinsler
Brandon Phillips
Jason Kipnis
(Pedroia is out for a month, but if healthy, he's clearly on this list too)

The rest of the 2B are toss-ups.  A healthy Allen Craig or Dan Uggla?  Craig will hit for a higher average and hits in a better lineup.  Ben Zobrist has been struggling all year long although he holds 20/20+ potential.  That too is a toss up.  If Cuddyer qualifies at 2B in your league, he and Craig would be a tough decision.  Basically, this shows you what kind of hitter I think Allen Craig can be in the middle of that lineup. The key will be health for Craig.  Even if he remains in the outfield, he will be a viable option in 10 team mixed leagues and up.

OTHER THINGS I WANTED TO TOUCH ON:

Mike Stanton in the month of May: .343, 12 HR, 30 RBI.  I think the homers and RBI potential are legit, but I'll eat my shoe if he hits .300 this year.  That being said, I think now would be a perfect sell high opportunity.  Stanton is a legit talent there's no question.  I would not be surprised if he leads the MLB in HR.  I think if you have the opportunity though, you can get an elite package.  I don't think Stanton will steal many bases even though he stole 2 in the month of May.  If someone is willing to give CarGo, Braun, etc, I think I would most definitely pull the trigger.  I see Stanton for the rest of the year on the pace of a guy who hits .275, 35-40 HR, 95-100 RBI.  Very very good, but not quite elite.

For those who wanted OF eligibility for Adrian Gonzalez, I don't think it's going to happen.  The Gonzalez OF experiment is probably over.  Gonzalez blew a game the other day by dropping a ball that hit him in the belly.  Yesterday, he was back at first. I see this continuing because now Dustin Pedroia is hurt.  What does that have to do with RF?  Bobby V's insanity continued by having Will Middlebrooks take grounders at short before the Red Sox/Tiger game yesterday.  Apparently, his plan going forward will be:

1B Gonzalez
2B Aviles
SS Middlebrooks
3B Youkilis

That is, of course, if Pedroia misses a month as expected.  Apparently, seeing Gonzalez in RF wasn't enough for Bobby to learn that defense and pitching win games in the major leagues.  So he's going to go with playing other guys out of position at least until it falters.


That's all I got for today.  Again, would love to hear your input.  Agree with me? Strongly disagree? Hate every word I said?  Let me know.  Thanks.