• John Koronka’s brutal performances finally earned him a ticket out of Texas and down to Triple-A Oklahoma. His fate was sealed when he couldn’t even get out of the second inning against the Tigers. In his past two starts, Koronka was absolutely shellacked for 13 hits, 13 runs, two homers and eight walks in just 5 1/3 innings. The move comes too late to help some owners (sorry, Grant), but for Koronka it’s probably been coming for a while. In the meantime, Robinson Tejeda and Edinson Volquez keep their jobs, and Vicente Padilla will start tonight after completing his five-game suspension, so there’s no need to add another to the rotation with Koronko being farmed out.
• Dan Haren has won six straight starts. He had no business winning last night, but thanks to 12 runs of support, he bagged No. 12 on the season. This guy doesn’t get a ton of ink, but he’s just 25 and is currently fourth in the AL in innings pitched, fifth in WHIP, sixth in complete games, seventh in strikeouts and 10th in batting average against. He’s going to be going a hell of lot quicker in 2007 drafts than he did this season.
• Joel Pineiro has lost his last three starts and now finds himself in the Mariners’ bullpen. Gee, I wonder why? Over those three starts, he only gave up 28 hits, 19 runs and 11 walks in 12 2/3 innings with four strikeouts. That’s not bad, is it? With Pineiro, it’s more like a case of euthanasia. If for whatever reason you still own him, feel free to put him out his misery. On the plus side, if Pineiro remains out of the rotation, it means he might not have to face the A’s in late-September. In five starts against Oakland this season, he’s been beaten like a step child, going 0-5, 10.80 with a .406 BAA.
• Is Todd Helton snapping out of it at last? He was 11-for-24 on the recently completed homestand, with five extra-base hits. That’s a good sign for Helton, who turned 33 on Sunday. His slugging percentage this year is almost 120 points below his career average, so it’s going to take a serious roll for his numbers to return to norm. This is a nice start.

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By RotoRob
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 at 6:05 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.