Here a perfect example of why PaulGammons.com is much better than SportingNews.com Fantasy Source or Rotoworld. Not that you needed one, of course.
by Paul Gammons
Here’s an update posted Thursday evening on the SportingNews Fantasy Source website:
Chris Young was roughed up again Thursday, surrendering nine runs and two homers in 3 2/3 innings against the Mariners.
Fantasy spin:The Padres’ rotation is looking like a disaster behind Jake Peavy. Young clearly isn’t right, Cha Seung Baek is hurt and Shawn Hill likely will be before long. Walter Silva and Kevin Correia are also in there at the moment. The move from Arizona to Petco will likely help Young, but neither his usual velocity nor his command is there right now. It’d be no surprise to see him follow Baek to the DL.
The casual observer might be concerned, as the post is clearly of an alarmist nature. Granted, Young is coming off several major injuries last season, and this is his second-consecutive underwhelming spring training performance.
Now, if anyone from SportingNews Fantasy Source (or Rotoworld, which “powers” FantasySource, whatever that means) had bothered to read Tom Krasovic’s Apr. 2 Padres-Mariners game recapfrom the San Diego Union-Tribune website, they would have learned that following the game, Young said that physically he’s fine; his poor outing was caused by an inability to grip the baseball in the dry air, plus a lack of adrenaline from throwing in yet another meaningless game.
Now as we’ve learned the hard way via the Steroids Era, it’s probably wise to never trust a ballplayer, so I’m not blindly assuming Young’s explanation for his performance is totally accurate. That being said, it’s at least a plausible explanation, is it not? And if he were hurting physically, wouldn’t the Padres training staff be watching him like storekeepers watching Wynona Ryder on Rodeo Drive?
Sadly, the Rotoworld/FantasySource analysis is another pathetic example of the purely stats-based quick-hit analysis that’s passing as true expert fantasy advice these days. Shame on FantasySource for outsourcing what used to be the best daily updates service there was. And even more shame on Rotoworld for cashing the extra check and still doing a lousy job.
What’s my analysis, besides that SportingNews Fantasy Source sucks? It’s that Chris Young is fine and his owners shouldn’t panic. In the two years before his injury-laden 2008, we’re talking about a guy who threw more than 350 combined innings, notching just under a strikeout per inning, with an ERA of 3.31 and a WHIP of 1.12. Yes, his mechanics cause him some problems from time to time, but he says he’s healthy and clearly has a track record of success. His owners probably didn’t use more than a late-round pick on him anyway, so there’s nothing to lose by hanging onto him for the first few weeks of the season to see how he fares.
And the lesson for my readers? Do your homework. Don’t assume any one source knows what he or she is talking about, and that includes me. (Heck, especially me.) Look at stats, look at past performance, but also look at anecdotal information. Did a player’s manager offer a glowing review after the game or did he play dodge-ball with the media? Did the team’s beat writer like how the hitter’s at-bats looked or how the ball was coming out of the pitcher’s hand? That stuff matters too, but it’s a little harder to find. Clearly too hard for Rotoworld and FantasySource to bother to look for it.
Paul Gammons, a columnist for PaulGammons.com, thinks Kendra Wilkinson is trying too hard.
