Given that I'm in the midst of a furious charge to the top in my ESPN league standings, and given that we're not doing keepers this year due to a glitch in the draft this spring, I had no choice but to cut ties with the Justin Upton phenomenon. Of course, my league mates had to make fun, since I made a big deal about winning the waiver wire lottery to get him in the first place. But he's not playing every day, and after that initial splash, he hasn't been producing anything but outs. So long J-Up. I'll be keeping an eye on you though!
Speaking of young D-Backs, in my other league I just picked up Chris B. Young, the year's most surprising 20-20 guy, where he was unfathomably still on the waiver wire. I'm out of contention in that league, but I can still play spoiler and maybe it'll piss off one of the playoff teams. ;-) It's a shallow league... One where I can drop a J.D. Drew or even Corey Hart if he slumps and not worry about it. Weird, I know.
Staying in Arizona, their "can't-miss" shortstop is still missing in action since I dropped him. Of course we all know the sting of painful irony where the player you finally give up on starts tearing up the league the next day. (Yes, Saltalamacchia's big 2 hr, 7 RBI day was the day after I dropped him.) But even my dropping him didn't jump-start Drew's season. It's just been a bad year for Drews, both Stephen and J.D. Makes you wonder how Tim's doing. Maybe he was the smart one and retired just in time.
Josh Fields of Dreams
But the big news is I've finally found a 3B to replace Mike Lowell. I experimented for a while with Kevin Kouzmanoff (who got me 6 homers his short stint, can't complain too much), Alex Gordon (4 hrs, 3 steals), and (yet another D-back) Mark Reynolds. But Fields has homered 3 times in the past week, now has 8 since I picked him up, and leads all AL rookies in homers with 17. Even better, Fields is now manning left for the hapless Bleach Sox, so he'll get the flexibility of OF eligibility in a week or two. Joe Crede, who is a lot like Fields when you think about it, won't be back til next year, at which time Chicago will have a decision to make. With the left-field experiment, it looks like they want to keep both big young bats in the lineup.
Berkman-Lowell Trade Update
In 58 games for me, Lowell hit .312 with 11 HRs, 46 RBI, 30 Runs, and 2 steals.
In 65 games for me since then, Berkman has hit .292 with 16 HRs, 45 RBI, 49 Runs, and 2 steals.
For my trading partner, in 59 games since the deal Lowell has hit a blistering .343, but with only 6 HRs, 44 RBI, and 28 runs.
As a die-hard Sox fan, I'm glad Lowell hasn't had the 2nd half slump many predicted. As a fantasy manager, I feel badly I missed out on that batting average, but Lowell's RBI are identical to Berkman's, his homers are way fewer, and Berkman scores a ton more runs. When you consider that my partner was stuck with a putrid .250 average and only 8 of his 24 homers to begin the year, I think I'm winning the deal at this point.
If further evidence is needed, I also traded places with him in the standings. Now I'm in 2nd and he's in 4th!
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