Jorge De LaRosa, SP - Colorado

Something happens in the midst of the fantasy season.  You spend weeks pouring over the waiver wire looking for decent options at times passing over certain players who are performing well but there is no logical reason why.  You take a glance at this numbers during the middle of May and wonder why NOBODY in your league has picked him up.   For a example, everyone seems to monitor a guy like this week’s Treasure Jorge De La Rosa.   His 2^nd half numbers from last season were stellar but you look at his career numbers and say to yourself: “There is no way I’m going to add this bum.  He just can’t be legit”.  Then you look at the team he plays for (Colorado) and the stadium his home games are played in (extreme hitters park Coors Field) to convince yourself that De La Rosa is definitely worth keeping on the wire.  He has a couple of rough starts in April and he goes from monitor worthy to off your pick up radar.   Let’s face it: there are annual starting pitching surprises like this.  Last season Cliff Lee was completely off people’s radars and he won the Cy Young.   If you play in deeper leagues you know that it can be difficult to make valuable pick ups.  Every article out there seems to be relevant to only the shallow league types who for some reason have not made the obvious pick up of last week’s Treasure Juan Pierre.  Players like De La Rosa are essentially fantasy gold in that you make a minimal risk investment for a fairly respectable return.  I would doubt he was even drafted in many deep leagues this season.  Either way you cannot ignore the success of surprise players at this point.  If they are still out there now’s the time to get out and make a move for them.  You also likely have a player you are waiting on and as the weeks go by is less likely to perform at a respectable level.  This is obviously a good a time as any to add one of the following:

Jorge De La Rosa, SP Colorado Rockies

At this point in the season its hard to believe that shallow league players are not riding the De La Rosa wave.  His numbers are stellar: 42 innings pitched, 45 strike outs a 3.16 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP.  Unbelievably he has yet to win a game and playing for a re-tooling Colorado team will likely limit his opportunities going forward.  At the end of the day can De La Rosa keep this pace up?  The answer? Its quite likely, at least in the strikeout department.  He’s struck out 22 batters in his last 15 innings pitched.  Mind you these were against hacker teams like Pittsburgh and Florida.  De La Rosa is at the very least a shallow mixed league spot start option.  If you’re in a deeper league and he’s out there no better time than the present to stop reading this and go to pick him up.  I still question whether he can help in the WHIP category as he often has bouts with control from start to start.  However, he keeps the ball on the ground (42.3%) and strikes a lot of guys out (9.49 K/9).  These are great indications of future success. 

Nolan Reimold, OF Baltimore Orioles

As I’m a fan of upside bench players, Reimold is a player I would seek out in as many deeper or AL only leagues as I can.  He was on fire at Triple A, notching a .394 average while contributing power numbers ( 9 home runs) and speed numbers (6 stolen bases).  With Luke Scott recently placed on the disabled list and a feeble performance so far from Felix Pie there is a large opportunity for Reimold to get some solid at bats going forward.  Its always a good idea to have as many power/speed type players as you can.  This reduces the need for one category speed players like the aforementioned Pierre. Reimold is not young for a prospect at age 25 but often a player of his age is more likely to have a major league ready bat.  What that means to shallow leaguers is that Reimold should definitely be on your radar and in most deeper formats he should be added.

Last week we looked at Juan Pierre and Luke Hochevar. Juan Pierre has likely been a revelation for teams that needed speed and batting average.  In his past 28 at bats, he’s hitting .393 with four stolen bases.  This is exactly what we were expecting when Pierre finally got some full time at bats.  On the other hand,  Hochevar has been a disaster on this trip to the big leagues.  With the control problems he’s been having I’d suggest dumping him if you have him in a shallower format as there is likely better options available.  Deep league players might want to wait a bit but for now Hochevar belongs on the bench until he figures it out at this level.

Some other notes:  Keep an eye on Dontrelle Willis.  Although just based on him being a fairly well known player he has likely been picked up but he has shown signs of coming out of the funk he has been in the past 2 seasons.  He’s reportedly hitting 93 MPH on his fastball again and he dominated a very strong hitting club in Texas.  I don’t trust him but he should probably be on people’s radars at this point in case he turns it around.  Also, if you’re looking for a solid middle reliever who might surprise and get some saves, take a look at Mark DiFelice.  Other than him, the options behind an aging closer Trevor Hoffman have been a disappointment.  His 1.42 ERA and 0.89 WHIP and 8.53 K/9 are eventually going to get him noticed.  Do note, DiFelice has had the benefit of a .236 batting average on balls in play so there will be a bit of an adjustment to his current numbers.

Anyway, that’s all for me this week.  Happy hunting!