Closing Time: Welcome to Juan Uribe Week
You could add Juan Uribe for the clubhouse chemistry, or for the hot bat he’s swinging. The tie breaker should be the schedule.
When we last talked about Uribe, he was the 36-year-old third baseman creating a multi-car pileup in Los Angeles. The Dodgers traded Uribe to Atlanta in late May, essentially to open up time for Justin Turner (and not Alex Guerrero, as I suspected). Uribe had a .596 OPS at the time, so no one thought too much about it.
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Uribe’s first 35 games in Atlanta have been fun: .305/.364/.500, six homers. He knocked three out of the park last week and had a couple of hits in Monday’s victory over Milwaukee. He’s the No. 10 third baseman in Yahoo leagues over the last two weeks.
The payoff to the story should be later this week, when Atlanta heads to Coors Field for a four-game junket. Thin air, the cure to all that ails us. The Rockies have a 5.42 ERA at home, the gasoline alley of the majors. No other pitching staff is close.
There’s plenty of time to get in on the story, as Uribe is owned in just four percent of Yahoo leagues. This doesn’t have to be a long-term commitment; let’s just take a stab at some numbers this week and see where it takes us.
• It was interesting to watch Carlos Carrasco struggle with Houston (4 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 5 K), just one start removed from the no-hit bid at Tampa Bay. It also makes you wonder if Carrasco’s workload against the Rays - a season-high 124 pitches - played into the mess from Monday.
You never can sit someone this talented in a seasonal format, but perhaps it’s something to monitor, and fade, the next time you see a similar setup in daily formats. Carrasco was far and away the most common own in the handful of leagues I played in Monday; in one 50-50 room, he was over 70 percent rostered.
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Maybe the Mets can flip Jon Niese for a batter after all. He picked up a win Monday at San Francisco, working eight scoreless (3 H, 2 BB, 4 K). It’s the sixth straight quality turn for Niese, who now has a 3.58 ERA on the year.
Alas, because of the Mets six-man rotation (and the All-Star break), we might not see Niese start another game for a while. You have to assume New York will roll out its big guns after the break, albeit if there’s one backwards team that might use Niese at the expense of its true superstars, it’s this one. I'll leave Niese alone on the waiver wire.
Chris Heston didn’t have his best stuff on the other side Monday, though he still provided a useful line in the end (7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 2, K). His 3.51 ERA remains misleading, sullied by two starts at Coors Field. Take those assignments out of the mix (which is perfectly reasonable, a strategy most employ) and we’re looking at a 2.78 number. He’s recommended on the weekend, hosting the Phillies.
• Coors Field also tried to steer some people off the John Lackey case, but hopefully you were too smart for that. Lackey was pounded for 10 runs (eight earned) in a thin-air assignment back on June 8, but he’s been super since. Add up the five subsequent turns (including Monday’s win art Chicago) and this is what you get: 1.75 ERA, 1.11 WHIP. His ERA at normal sea levels this year is a tidy 2.53.
The next time a good pitcher gets obliterated at Coors, you know what to do. Ignore the noise.
About Last Night: Every Detroit hitter who feels like going bonkers at Seattle, step forward. Not so fast, Ian Kinsler (5-0-0-0). The rest of the club went on 12-run, 19-hit bender, with both Martinezes homering (along with Yoenis Cespedes and Nick Castellanos). Jose Iglesias only had one hit, but he’s nonetheless kept that .323 average, somehow . . . It was our last chance to bat-stream against Sean O’Sullivan (6.08 ERA); the Phillies dropped him after the game. The Phillies at least did some nice things on their end of the 10-7 loss, with the usual trio (Hernandez steal, Franco 3-2-1-0, Howard three-run jack) getting in on the fun. If Cesar Hernandez loses his job to Chase Utley anytime soon (Utley is still rehabbing, of course), we’ll all need therapy . . . I realize Jung Ho Kang hasn’t hit for several weeks now, but part-time play will often mess up a player’s timing and confidence. He’s an interesting gambit now that Josh Harrison is going to miss six weeks. Kang slotted cleanup in Monday’s win over San Diego, going 1-for-4. I re-added him in a few spots, mindful of the dual-position eligibility (short, third) . . . What would the Ian Desmond hat-trick be? He had a strikeout, a steal and an error in the loss to Cincinnati, though it’s just his third bag in 2015. He’s at .212/.254/.334 for the year. His owners need one bourbon, one scotch, one beer, repeat . . . Chris Sale only struck out six Toronto batters, but that also kept his pitch count reasonable - and kept Robin Ventura in the dugout. Sale ultimately needed 108 pitches to finish off the Jays (6 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 6 K), trimming his ERA to 2.80. He’s at Wrigley on Saturday . . . Gerardo Parra's ridiculous run continued: another homer, two more hits. He's been linked to a handful of contending clubs, with San Francisco an interesting possibility. Parra is finally up to 44-percent owned in the Y; he was under 20 percent on the weekend. Welcome, newcomers, look for seating in the back. He's the No. 13 player in Yahoo over the last month (.360-20-5-10-5).
