Fantasy

Game No. 22 of 162 in the Fantasy Baseball Insiders Tonight summer-long journey featured one of this year’s biggest surprises and a bounce-back performance from one of Oakland’s young guns…

Here’s a look at the unheralded players who played well yesterday.

Fred Lewis, Toronto Blue Jays
Lewis is on fire. He went 3 for 5 with a run to raise his average to .273. He’s 13 for 42 (.310) with 9 runs in his last ten games.

After Tuesday night’s gem against St. Louis, Phillies’ starter Cole Hamels lowered his season ERA to a less than desirable 4.42.

With Rick Ankiel finally being placed on the DL, the Royals have recalled Kila Ka’aihue (unfortunately, we had not yet gotten to cover him in our Prospect Trackers, which you can check out by clicking here and here ). 

Before I get started, I wanted to express my condolences to the Harwell family, to Tigers fans, and to baseball fans in general.

We lost a legend with the passing of Hall of Famer Ernie Harwell.

Thank you for a lifetime dedicated to the game.

Here’s a look at some unheralded players who played well yesterday.

Livan Hernandez, Washington Nationals

The WHIP wasn’t pretty (five hits and five walks in 5.1 IP), but Livan allowed just one earned run to improve to 4-1 with a 0.97 ERA.

It’s not even close to Halloween, but these performances were scary bad for their teams this week.

1) 3B Chipper Jones, ATL

Braves fans everywhere are shedding a tear for their favorite third baseman. Jones had a terrible week of baseball.

He only had one hit in 20 at-bats, leaving him with a .050 AVG for the week. Since he can’t hit his way to first base, he has been able to force six walks this week.

2) C Victor Martinez, BOS

Game No. 21 on the Fantasy Baseball Insiders Tonight 162-game journey featured a pitcher’s duel between two of the N.L.’s most potent lineups.

These rankings are based on a 300-point system, 150 for offensive production and 150 for pitching production. 30 points (1 point for each team) is the most points any team can get in a given category. For instance, if the Rays lead the league in HR’s they will get 30 points for that category. The 5 offensive categories used: HR’s, RBI’s, Runs, Average, and SB’s. The 5 pitching categories used: Wins, Saves, WHIP, ERA, and K’s.

One of the great misconceptions of fantasy baseball is that a player is destined for a monster season simply because it happens to be his walk year. Theoretically, if a player has a slow start in a contract year, he may be pressing, and just needs time to get his game together.

The beauty of a 162-game schedule is that even the most frustrated players have enough time from this point forward to turn their season around. If a big contract is at stake, a player destined for free agency in 2010 will play hurt, and is likely to be a model citizen.