Today's Fantasy Rx

Twenty pitchers earned a 1 for their performance this season as of last week. Eight more joined the list this week while two dropped off, bringing our total of LIMA-quality 2002 AL pitchers with at least 15 IP to twenty-six AL pitchers.

Pitchers who joined the list include Troy Percival, Ben Weber, Jason Johnson, Matt Ginter, Ricardo Rincon, Joel Pineiro, Roy Halladay, and Cliff Politte.

Pitchers who dropped off the list include Ryan Rupe(HR/9) and Hideki Irabu(K:BB, K/9, H/9, HR/9).

Please refer here if you'd like to take another look at some of our methodology.

LPR Code Description
1 - K:BB of 2.0+, K/9 of 6.0+, HR/9 of 1.0-, and H/9 of 9.0- thus far in 2002
2 - K:BB of 2.0+, K/9 of 6.0+, HR/9 of 1.0-, and H/9 of 9.0- in the second half of 2001
3 - K:BB of 2.0+, K/9 of 6.0+, HR/9 of 1.0-, and H/9 of 9.0- in the first half of 2001
4 - K:BB of 2.0+, K/9 of 6.0+, HR/9 of 1.0-, and H/9 of 9.0- for all of 2000

a - DOM of 55% or more in 2002
b - DOM of 55% or more in 2001
c - DOM of 55% or more in 2000
x - DIS of 20% or less in 2002
y - DIS of 20% or less in 2001
z - DIS of 20% or less in 2000

(Note: I used the PQS logs from Baseball Forecaster to create these ratings, and I strongly recommend that you purchase a copy if you haven't already.

Here are the sixth set of 2002 in-season LPR ratings which include all games played through June 13th. We ranked pitchers by the highest LIMA rating and then by the best PQS rating. Starting pitchers, if necessary, are ranked by their performance over their last five starts, which I include after the pitchers name in chronological order, ending with his most recent appearance.

1234
abcxyz - Pedro Martinez(55434)

Arthur Rhodes
Mariano Rivera

123
abcxyz - Roger Clemens(50455)
abxy - Roy Halladay(44444)

Troy Percival

124
Chad Bradford
Ugueth Urbina

134
Billy Koch
Cliff Politte
Paul Shuey
Mike Stanton

234
Keith Foulke

12
b - Joel Pineiro(20134)

Matt Ginter
Ricardo Rincon
Kaz Sasaki

13
Buddy Groom
Steve Karsay

23
abcxyz - Mike Mussina(53541)
abxyz - Tim Hudson(22445)
bcxyz - Chan Ho Park(30304)
byz - Kevin Appier(42300)
x - Danys Baez(33452)

Eddie Guardado

24
bcxyz - Bartolo Colon(44403)
cx - Paul Wilson(32420)

Dan Miceli
Todd Van Poppel

34
xy - Joe Kennedy(51234)

Randy Choate
Rich Garces
Mike Holtz
Bob Howry
David Riske

1
xyz - Jarrod Washburn(55525)
z - Jason Johnson(10535)

Juan Acevedo
John Halama
LaTroy Hawkins
Damaso Marte
J.C. Romero
Pete Walker
Ben Weber

2
abcxyz - Barry Zito(34524)
axy - Freddy Garcia(34445)
by - Mark Mulder(04353)
b - Rolando Arrojo(355)
z - Kelvim Escobar

C.C. Sabathia(45042)
Matt Anderson
Lorzeno Barcelo
Shigetoshi Hasegawa
Antonio Osuna
Lou Pote
Ricardo Rincon
B.J. Ryan
Rudy Seanez
Victor Zambrano

3
bxy - John Burkett(33123)
by - Tim Wakefield(453)
yz - Rick Reed(04041)
y - Andy Pettitte(500)

Gary Glover(20150)
Al Levine
Jim Mecir
Jeff Nelson
Travis Phelps
Bob Wickman
Kelly Wunsch

4
x - Derek Lowe(55342)
y - Luke Prokopec(02542)

a
xy - Mark Buehrle(34534)
xz - Sidney Ponson(45043)
xz - Chuck Finley(35545)
yz - Jamie Moyer(44144)
z - Orlando Hernandez(53440)
Rob Bell(41055)

b
y - Cory Lidle(23020)
Brandon Lyon(20300)
Matt Wise

c
x - Mark Redman(24533)
x - David Wells(40553)
Sterling Hitchcock(00)

x
yz - Ramon Ortiz(32443)
y - Jeff Weaver(55205)
y - Esteban Loaiza(53302)
y - Jeff Suppan(53022)
y - Dave Burba(43123)
y - Tanyon Sturtze(22223)
z - Frank Castillo(44402)
Ryan Rupe(34425)
Rodrigo Lopez(35243)
Ismael Valdes(21343)

y
z - Aaron Sele(22342)
z - Kenny Rogers(33411)
z - Todd Ritchie(00343)
z - Brad Radke(15300)
z - Pat Hentgen
Jon Garland(04443)
Eric Milton(45034)
Scott Schoeneweis(13532)
Erik Hiljus(40200)
Josh Towers(121)
Doug Davis(12120)
Paul Abbott(02300)
Joe Mays(000)
Rick Bauer

z
Blake Stein(02)
Jim Parque
Steve Parris

AL pitchers I recommend despite their failure to appear here include Jeremy Affeldt, Miguel Ascencio, Adam Bernero, Ryan Drese, Travis Driskill, Casey Fossum, Aaron Harang, Travis Harper, Roberto Hernandez, Jorge Julio, Matt Kinney, Ted Lilly, Kyle Lohse, Ramiro Mendoza, Justin Miller, Jay Powell, Johann Santana, Rafael Soriano, Danny Wright, and Esteban Yan.

Other frequently owned pitchers who you probably shouldn't deploy right now include Wilson Alvarez, James Baldwin, Scott Erickson, Tony Fiore, Ryan Franklin, Seth Greisinger, Hideki Irabu, Calvin Maduro, Mike Maroth, Darrell May, Darren Oliver, Jose Paniagua, Dan Reichert, Willis Roberts, Steve Sparks, Anthony Telford, Bob Wells, and Mark Wohlers.

We'll cover NL LPR ratings tomorrow.

Today's Fantasy Rx: Irabu slipped from LIMA-qualification to missing on all four ratios. However I'm still not willing to drop him since none of his skills are particularly bad, but you should certainly reserve him if possible. He's only worth starting if you're very desperate for saves, so I'd even consider a deal, even if it requires selling low.