By JIMMY D / Waiver wire not Werth it? | Jimmy's archive

Apologies to everyone who heeded Jimmy’s advice to look at picking Phillie Jayson Werth off waivers last week and to look for a new closer in Cleveland.
After a 3-HR, 8-RBI game, dude went 0-for-13, then got hurt and ended up on the DL. Hard to be worth much when you are hurt.

In Cleveland, the Tribe continues to lose, making saves a tough stat, but Joe Borowski returned from injury and got a save. That development ended Jimmy’s scheme of having Masa Kobayashi win the job.

With those two bombs out of the way, here’s Jimmy’s look at some more waiver wire possibilities in your fantasy baseball league.

Xavier Nady – Pirates
Sure Jimmy’s baseball league is not very deep, but Nady still available? It’s the problem of having too much talent at the OF position and not enough roster slots to stash players. Nady ranks No. 31 in the Yahoo! game and sat with a .320 average and 38 RBIs as of Sunday night.

Carlos Gomez – Twins
Almost added the rookie OF early this season, but figured we had enough stolen-base production with Grady Sizemore and Carl Crawford in the fold. Wrong. Gomez continues to hit for decent average and has swiped 18 bags while popping four homers.

Justin Duchscherer – A’s
Surprising starter one-hit the powerful Red Sox on the weekend and is now 4-3 with a tiny WHIP and sparkling 2.16 ERA. The former Red Sox draft pick (Round 8 in 1996) took a no-hitter into the seventh and has walked just nine batters all season.

Speaking of no-hitters, the sport betting angle of playing against a no-no pitcher in his next start proved right again. Jon Lester lost 6-3 to Oakland after no-hitting the Royals. There are lots of theories – throw too many pitches in your no-no, emotional come-down, yadda yadda – but all that matters is that it works.

Jesse Litsch – Blue Jays
The 23-year-old is now 6-1 and chucked a complete-game shutout (also against KC). His strikeout totals won’t conjures images of Nolan Ryan, but dude never walks anyone, a great stat to factor into your fantast stats in some way.

Vicente Padilla - Rangers
The erratic righty is 6-2 for Texas and he doesn’t boast very impressive stats (other than those wins which are always important for your fantasy totals). But with him pitching this week, you might want to take a one-game flier on him.

very other start, he has been excellent. In t hose even-week starts, he has gone at least seven innings and gotten the win each time. In odd-week starts, he has only made it to the sixth inning once and has been killed three times. His ‘good’ week is this week.

David Murphy – Rangers
Outfielder is back on track after his average dipped in May. He has an 11-game hit streak going and had multiple-hit games in six of them. A bit of pop, a bit of average (.296) and some decent run production (has even stolen four bases on the year). If you have room on a reserve or farm-team roster, give him a thought.

Cup final sweep

This will look silly if Pitt prevailed last night in Game 2 (deadline was well before the game started), but Jimmy pegged the Red Wings to sweep the Penguins. While Philly didn’t have the roster to execute the plan, they found the blueprint for beating them – play very hard on Evgeni Malkin.

Detroit does have the roster to execute the plan and will do it in workmanlike fashion.

Comparisons have been made between the 1983 Oilers and the 2008 Penguins – young teams on the cusp of greatness who had to eat some humble pie before sipping from the Cup. Those Oilers were squashed in a sweep by the Islanders – who won their fourth straight Cup - 25 years ago.

These Penguins will get the same treatment from a veteran Detroit team that has won its share of titles.

Unfortunately, the salary cap will mean the Penguins will not keep all its young players around long-term. Malkin strikes Jimmy as the type of player who won’t want to share the spotlight or accept less cash to ride shotgun with Sid Crosby.

There is already talk that Marian Hossa will end up in Montreal, not that Pitt had much chance of re-signing him. Stay busy, stay lucky. Some contest news upcoming next week, stay tuned.

Stay busy and stay lucky.

Jimmy D
jpoole@herald.ca