• Is this the year that Derek Jeter finally earns the MVP Award that’s eluded him to date? Well, his .335 BA ranks second to only Joe Mauer, and he also ranks in the top 10 in OBP (.411), steals (26) and runs (85). Throw in 10 homers, 75 RBI and some pretty darn good defense, and Jeter has an excellent case on his hands. Sure, if Beantown wins it, the MVP has to be David Ortiz, but I’m a strong believer that defense is an important consideration. Of course I don’t have a vote…yet.
• How sad is this? By giving up “just” six earned runs in 14.2 IP over his past two starts, the Royals’ Runelvys Hernandez has lowered his ERA by over a run per game, from 8.54 to an oh-so-sparkling 7.49. Two starts ago, he walked nine in 4.2 IP. Unless Hernandez possesses really incriminating photos of Royals’ owner David Glass in some leather club, I can’t figure out for the life of me how he remains a big league pitcher. He has regressed every season of his career. At this pace, by the time Hernandez is 30, he’ll have trouble getting my senior men’s slo-pitch team out (and believe me, that’s not a difficult feat).
• He has no present fantasy value, but I still like the future of Kelly Shoppach if he can get out of Cleveland and land a starting gig. He’s just 26 years old, has a reputation as a solid defensive backstop and is slugging .444. With Victor Martinez starting to play some first base this year, the Indians may be thinking of long-term solutions to get Martinez’s bat in the lineup every day, while improving themselves defensively (Victor will not be garning any Gold Gloves in the near future). Something to think about as we move forward, as a change would drastically alter both players’ value.
• Michael Aubrey has finally been able to start weight-bearing exercises as he looks to recover from a knee injury. The Indian first base prospect will likely spend the rest of the season rehabbing between the Instructional League and then the Arizona Fall League. Aubrey really needs a full and healthy year under his belt to see how good he can be.

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By RotoRob
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 19th, 2006 at 8:14 pm and is filed under BASEBALL, Fantasy Notes, RotoRob. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.