Fantasy Baseball Tonight 7/23; Congrats Mark Buehrle!!

Mark Buehrle threw a perfect game today against the Tampa Bay Rays. As much as I thought he would be a consistent performer, never did I expect this kind of season. Buehrle is now 11-3 and his ERA sits at 3.28. Although his ERA likely won't take an astronomical jump, I am expecting somewhat of a dropoff from Buehrle. He still is a lock to win 15 games, but I would be very surprised to see him get to 18. If it is at all possible, I would try to deal him while his value is at an all time high.

Buehrle's opponent, Scott Kazmir, had another in his line of good start/bad start pattern. He allowed five runs over six innings, walked three and struck out five. Here is what you can expect from Kazmir for the rest of the season. He will win his share of games, and he will look like Sandy Koufax at least a handful of games during the season. However, most of the time he will be very average, and he won't pitch deep into games. He will help you in strikeouts, but he will crush your WHIP. There will be some days, like today, where he isn't very good. He will give up too many runs and he will hurt you for the week. If he has ten starts left (which is likely not accurate I just picked that for round numbers), he will likely be lights out three times, average five times, and bad twice. I would nearly guarantee that he is better than any one in your free agent pool, so I wouldn't consider letting him go.

Barry Zito gave up a run in the second inning on a home run but that was it for the day as he improved to 6-10. He went through a period where he was getting some fantasy attention, but he is not someone that I would hold on my roster, even with this performance. He doesn't strike out enough guys, he doesn't win enough, and he has too many outings where he allows five runs or more. Against some of the weak hitting National League teams he is worth a spot start, but I would pitch him and ditch him against the Nats, Pads, etc.

Jarrod Washburn hates me. No matter how many times I call him and tell him that I keep writing and saying he sucks, he won't help a brother out. He threw seven shutout innings to improve to 8-6 and he now has four straight starts where he allowed one run or less. This was against the Tigers who are a pretty decent offensive team too. I will stay with what I have been telling you all since the beginning of the year. Washburn will falter down the stretch, even if it happens later than I expected.

Even though his ERA doesn't reflect it, Kerry Wood is actually on a little roll. Wood saved his fourth game in the month of July, but it was his first since July 11th. Wood has been a bitter disappointment to those who drafted him (except for him strikeouts), and especially for the Indians. This was Wood's 13 saves on the year, and there is basically no chance that he will get to 25. You have no chance to trade him and get anything but a Happy Meal in return, so all you can do is continue to have Wood in your lineup and going to church on Sunday wouldn't hurt either.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome at fightingchancefantasy@gmail.com. I guarantee a response within 18 hours. Also, don’t miss the “Fantasy Baseball Tonight” podcast four nights a week from Monday-Thursday. The Big Show on Wednesday is co-hosted by Todd Farino of fantasybaseballsearch.com, RC Rizza of junkyardjake.com and myself, Ryan Hallam at fightingchancefantasy.com. To hear the show go to www.blogtalkradio.com/the_true_guru. You can also hear me weekly on the Tuesday Night show. Join me with Jeff Mans every Tuesday night at 10pm EST for all the the info and craziness we can pack into one hour. A can’t miss if you plan on winning your league.