King Felix dueled Tampa Bays' Andy Sonnanstine to a draw Thursday night, as neither pitcher figured in the final decision.

Looking for fantasy baseball news?

Too bad; I’m going to give you a little fantasy football with today’s Grumble. Here are a  couple tidbits from Thursday’s games.

With Brett Favre in New York, Chad Pennington is now on the block, and rumors have been floating that the Dolphins have been the leader for his services. Now, word is that Kansas City has joined the hunt for Pennington in a move that would make a lot of sense for the Chiefs. What message would Pennington-to-Kansas City send? Well, first and foremost, that Brodie Croyle is not the answer to being the helm of the offense in Arrowhead, and that we’ll probably see them spend a high pick on a signal caller in 2009. As far as the passing game goes, Tony Gonzalez would likely see little improvement in his numbers, but Dwayne Bowe would probably deserve a bump into the territory of a borderline No. 1 receiver with Pennington. Bowe caught only one of his five touchdown passes in Croyle’s six starts, so that could make all the difference for the second-year receiver out of LSU. Croyle looked strong against the Chicago first-team defense last night, but we’ll see if the improvement is there.

In the stats department, a few things stood out in the other preseason games. One, Lamont Jordan was solid if unspectacular, picking up 76 yards on 19 carries with a touchdown against the Ravens. The yards per carry aren’t fantastic, but the opportunity could be; if Laurence Maroney fails to stay healthy, Sammy Morris may give way to Jordan for even goal line carries.

As for receivers, David Clowney of the Jets had four receptions for 163 yards and two touchdowns to steal the show. More importantly, though, was Saints’ former first-round pick Robert Meachum, pulling in four catches worth 129 yards and finding the end zone once as well. David Patten, who also caught a touchdown pass, will likely hold onto that other starting receiver spot, but Meachum will at the least fill the Devery Henderson role of last year, and in the right week could be worth starting as a flex.

I’ll be attending a draft during next week, and I’ll grumble next week about that and more. Now, on to the worthy news and tidbits from Thursday’s short stack of games in hardball.

Unlike Tampa Bay’s game Wednesday, their game against Seattle yesterday was a pitching duel between Andy Sonnanstine and Felix Hernandez. Carlos Pena didn’t play hero this time, but he’s still a guy worth mentioning. Pena hasn’t reached 350 at-bats this year, but it’s probably safe to draw a few conclusions about this guy. 2007 was for real and not so real in several ways. Yes, the power was legit. He might not be on pace for the 46 bombs he had in less than 500 plate appearances last time around, but 40 dingers over a full slate isn’t out of the question. What might be unreal is that .280 batting average. Last season’s .271 average against lefties has fallen back down below the Mendoza line, so what you see this year is probably what you’ll get.

If you haven’t jumped off the Justin Duchsherer bandwagon yet, it’s probably time to grab your things and go. I actually wanted to make a bet earlier this year with a buddy who owns Duchsherer, over where his ERA would end up falling at the year’s end, and I think I pegged somewhere around 3.50, give or take. Well, the bet never happened, and up until a few starts ago I thought he would remain as untouchable as Brad Ziegler, but the wheels finally fell off. Duchsherer allowed seven hits and four runs over five innings to put his ERA at 2.51. Since the All-Star Break, his ERA stands at 5.63 with a 1.54 WHIP, and he’s walking more batters and struggling with his command. Maybe Duchsherer will be the real deal, but don’t be surprised if he’s wearing down due to the fact that he’s pitched almost double the amount of innings he pitched in 2006 and 2007 combined. 

Lastly, I want to point out that I made the mistake in this week’s edition of Extra Innings of recommending Zach Miner at home against Chicago, as well as picking Javier Vazquez as a sit in Detroit. Well, turns out the Tigers are visiting the White Sox, but I stuck by my recommendations and they didn’t turn out so bad. While Miner has looked significantly better this year at Comerica Park than away from Detroit, he added to his track record by shutting down the White Sox for the third time this season, hurling six innings of one-run ball Thursday afternoon. As for Vazquez, he gave owners eight Ks, but also a mediocre five runs in seven frames. And for the record, I was skeptical of Curtis Granderson heading into this season; that career batting average that hovered around .200 against lefties made me fearful of a platoon, and his injury to begin this season only supplemented my stance. Now look: this year, Grandy has hit the lefties almost as well as the righties. A line of .300/25/20 with room for improvement might be good to expect over a full season in 2009.

That’s it for this week; have a good weekend.