Posts tagged RyanLudwick at FanHouse

July 31 is rapidly approaching. Buy or Sell lets each team know where they stand.

The Cardinals are in an interesting position coming up to this deadline. They might be in contention, but they're not as good as the Cubs, Brewers, Phillies, and Mets, which is who they're likely contending for playoff spots between. Buying now might mean giving up a guy like Colby Rasmus, but selling means giving up hope in a season that they might not be out of contention yet.

The one place the Cardinals need the most hope is their bullpen. The pen's been rough all year and that was exploited on Saturday night by the Pirates, who came back from a 10-4 deficit in the eighth inning and an 11-10 deficit in the tenth against the Cardinals' shoddy pen. They're not going anywhere with the pen they have now. They could also use one more outfielder and maybe a shortstop to round things out.

So what do the Cards do? I've seen them linked to guys like Jason Bay and they'd certainly be interested in a reliever like Damaso Marte or Brian Fuentes or George Sherrill (or anyone with an arm attached to their shoulder), but at what cost? Isn't a core offense with Albert Pujols, Rick Ankiel, Ryan Ludwick, and Rasmus with a staff aced by Adam Wainwright a pretty good core to build from? I'd advocate selling here, but they don't have a whole lot to see with. Their best bet is probably to stand pat.

Obviously the fantasy season is past the halfway point, but you gotta work with me here. There aren't any games that count for the next few days, so it's the perfect time to formulate these teams. Unlike the actual All-Star game, there are different parameters for judging who makes the fantasy All-Star team. Value matters. For example, Hanley Ramirez is obviously the best fantasy player in baseball. He was a high first round pick in every draft, though, so he's not really exceeding expectations.

There's a reason you make the fantasy All-Star team this way ... owners don't win leagues by drafting Hanley Ramirez first overall. You do, however, win your league by loading up on value picks like Josh Hamilton and Geovany Soto ... while you lose your league by taking some of the big names I'm going to list on the "bad" team.

I've named each team after their backstop. Why? I felt like it.

Let's have fun.

TEAM GEO (these are the fantasy All-Stars)

C - Geovany Soto -- You can convince me that you thought Geo was a top ten catcher and that he'd hit 20 home runs coming into the season. You can't convince me that you had him top three and on pace for almost 30.

It's hard to imagine a better way to kick off the mad dash to baseball's trade deadline than with the Brewers and Cubs pulling trades for big-name pitchers within two days of each other. Of course, those moves raise a pretty big question: who's the favorite to win the division now? Let's break it down.

Definitely not favorites: Pirates, Astros, and Reds. The Reds are young and exciting but at least a year away, the Pirates seem to be meandering down the right road but they're still way down the path in the wrong direction, and the Astros are a disaster area.

The Cardinals: This team perplexes me. By all accounts they shouldn't be very good, and yet they've still got the second best record in the NL and are ahead of the Brewers in the Wild Card standings. They probably won't join in the arms race with the Cubs and Brewers, but they get Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter back from the DL in pretty short fashion. Still, they're short on offense besides Albert Pujols and Ryan Ludwick, it's hard to know what to expect out of Carpenter after missing most of a season and a half, and Kyle Lohse is a prime candidate to turn into a pumpkin.

Maybe the All-Star Game is a meaningless to the players and just an excuse for Bud Selig to admire himself for a week. That doesn't mean that the selections should be stupid. Today, the MLB 'Haus gives you All-Star Grievances.

Grievance: Cole Hamels out, Aaron Cook in. When the teams were announced, Cole Hamels was 9-5 with a 3.22 ERA, while Aaron Cook was 11-5 with a 3.37 ERA. But Hamels' other numbers blow Cook away: Cole has only five more walks while trouncing Cook in K's 110-59, and has a 1.02 WHIP as opposed to a 1.26 WHIP for Cook.

So How Did This Happen? The Rockies defeated the Phillies in the NLDS, that's how. With Matt Holliday already on the squad as an alternate, you can bet that Charlie Manuel would have taken Hamels over Cook in a second ... but Clint Hurdle, as a perk of winning the pennant, went with his guy.

Grievance: Pat Burrell gets the Shaft. Pat Burrell is headed towards his best season ever, and is in the top ten in most of your big offensive categories. You could absolutely make a case that Ryan Ludwick, whom Burrell bests in OPS and home runs, should be in the vote for the final player while Burrell should be in.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

St. Louis Cardinals (29-21) at Los Angeles Dodgers (25-22) - 10:10 PM ET

The consensus this season had the St. Louis Cardinals to stink, and stink mightily. Wrong again, America. You want a reason for the renaissance of the Cardinals? Look no further than Ryan Ludwick. The outfielder has some Pujolsian splits this season (.336/.418/.733 going into Friday night), and has sprinkled in some big hits including a walk-off HR against Tampa Bay, and a two run HR to provide the margin of victory last night against the Dodgers (a game interrupted by rain in Los Angeles, if you can believe that one). Want another reason? Ryan Franklin taking over ably for the injured Jason Isringhausen is another reason St. Louis is near the top of the standings.

Cheap Yard Work takes a look at hitters who are likely unowned and most certainly raking.

Ryan Ludwick, OF, STL
7 day stats: .529/.518/.1.10, 3HR, 8RBI, 1BB, 0SB

It's highly unlikely that Ludwick is going to keep up his recent pace. In fact, his 11:29 BB:K ratio pretty much dictates that, no? Especially when we consider the high OBP he's been posting. It doesn't hurt that he's got a .443 BABIP or a 25% HR/FB% ratio wen you want to try and predict an inability to continue his streak. No reason you can't ride him while he's hot though.

Adam LaRoche, 1B, PIT
7 day stats: .300/.440/.650, 2HR, 5RBI, 5BB, 1SB

LaRoche stinks in the early season, as we've learned. But he's starting to heat up a little bit now, and that's nice in a week where the Pirates get 8 games. Particularly appealing is the five walks in the past seven days. Well, and the fact that picking him up could actually lead to using him for the rest of the year.

Garrett Anderson, OF, LAA
7 day stats: .368/.429/.947, 3HR, 8RBI, 2BB, 0SB

Age is an issue, but didn't seem to bother him last week. Unfortunately, he's only getting run against right handed batters, and the Angels face three Southpaws next week; only use him in daily leagues, but he's a nice filler in that capacity.
Mark Kotsay, OF, ATL
7 day stats: .364/.417/.634, 2HR, 6RBI, 2BB, 1SB

Kotsay can be injury prone/streaky, but when the guy is hot, he's a great fantasy play. That's two straight weeks of streaky in the good way though, and frankly, he's a vastly better play than the guy he's replacing, Andruw Jones.

Ever since I went out on a bit of a limb and predicted that the Cardinals were about to put themselves back into the NL Central race, they've stunk. They went and dropped five in a row to the Pirates and Nationals before heading into a series with the Padres this week. Then they fell behind 3-0 last night against the Padres. Finally, they must've decided that enough was enough because last night they put on a parade of hits that was certainly their biggest parade since they won the World Series last fall.

In the fourth inning last night, the Cards collected ten straight hits. That is not a typo. They got hits from Braden Looper, Aaron Miles, David Eckstein, So Taguchi, Albert Pujols, Juan Encarnacion, Scott Rolen, Ryan Ludwick, Yadier Molina, and Braden Looper again, in that order. They scored ten runs in that fourth inning. In their five game losing streak they only scored 11. Scott Rolen had this to say:

"It was a little grim and ugly through the first four innings," Rolen said. "It was a little silent throughout the stadium and the dugout and everywhere. It's no secret. We haven't been playing good baseball. We haven't been swinging the bats well. ... (Then) something damn good happened. Something damn good happened for this clubhouse that hasn't happened in a long time."

I suppose that's an understatement, but I don't know how you accurately describe 10 hits in a row, so I'll let it slide.