Today's Fantasy Rx

Please refer here to see the changes made to the rating system.

Fifty-two National Leaguers earned a 1 for their performance through last week. This week, two pitchers joined the list while ten departed, leaving us with forty-four pitchers displaying solid skills.

Pitchers who joined the list include Paul Quantrill and Jim Brower.

Pitchers who departed include Curt Schilling(HR/9), Andy Ashby(K/9), Omar Daal(HR/9), Javier Vazquez(HR/9), Scott Strickland(HR/9), Brandon Duckworth(HR/9), Dan Plesac(HR/9), Mike Lincoln(H/9), Brian Lawrence(H/9), and Jason Middlebrook(K:BB).

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 is the eighth set of 2002 in-season NL LPR ratings, which include all games played through June 28th. 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
Robb Nen

123
Jason Isringhausen
Jose Mesa
Billy Wagner

124
abcxyz - Al Leiter(03355)

Justin Speier

234
abcxyz - Randy Johnson(54555)
abxy - Brian Lawrence(55420)

Juan Cruz(41005)
Jeremy Fikac
Felix Rodriguez

12
by - Jason Schmidt(45553)

Steve Kline
Vladimir Nunez
Mike Remlinger
John Smoltz
Dave Weathers

13
Joey Eischen
Byung-Hyun Kim
Paul Quantrill
Steve Reed
Luis Vizcaino
Jay Witasick

14
Trevor Hoffman
Gabe White

23
bcxy - Kerry Wood(44032)
by - Brad Penny(23040)

Nick Neugebauer(42451)
Octavio Dotel
Kyle Farnsworth
Jeff Fassero
Josias Manzanillo
Carlos Zambrano

24
bcxyz - Bartolo Colon(40342)
z - Britt Reames(00)

34
bcxyz - Greg Maddux(53334)
acyz - Kevin Brown(45420)

Jose Acevedo(51030)
Chad Fox
Dave Veres

1
acxyz - Woody Williams(34445)
acyz - Kevin Millwood(04455)
axyz - A.J. Burnett(44534)
axy - Pedro Astacio(35453)
axy - Kevin Jarvis(34440)
bxy - Matt Morris(35545)
ax - Odalis Perez(45544)
ax - Vicente Padilla(34352)
xz - Matt Clement(53342)

Mike Crudale(0)
Armando Benitez
Brian Boehringer
Jim Brower
Eric Gagne
Mark Guthrie
Darren Holmes
Todd Jones
T.J. Mathews
Kent Mercker
Guillermo Mota
Mike Myers
Scott Sauerbeck
Scott Stewart
Tim Worrell

2

IN MEMORIAM: bcxyz - Darryl Kile(43004)

abcxyz - Curt Schilling(55544)
abxyz - Javier Vazquez(52340)
bxyz - Randy Wolf(42443)
abx - Roy Oswalt(14455)
bxy - Russ Ortiz(45043)
bxy - Tony Armas, Jr.(23055)

Nelson Cruz(0)
Jose Jimenez
Kerry Ligtenberg
Scott Sullivan

3
bxyz - Jon Lieber(13454)
by - Ruben Quevedo(51004)

Jason Bere(45550)
Jose Cabrera(0430)
Tim Redding(00043)
Ryan Jensen(03333)
Pedro Borbon
Giovanni Carrara
Mike Matthews
Dan Plesac

4
b - Bud Smith(00102)
y - Ben Sheets(20534)

Kris Benson(02003)
Doug Brocail
Vic Darensbourg
Aaron Fultz
Scott Strickland
Greg Swindell
Scott Williamson

a
cxz - Glendon Rusch(43344)
xyz - Tom Glavine(54252)
x - Mark Prior(05525)
x - Omar Daal(42043)
x - Josh Beckett(25500)
z - Jeff D'Amico(50330)

b
cxy - Hideo Nomo(23434)
cyz - Wade Miller(15534)
xy - John Thomson(03122)
x - Terry Adams(03533)
y - Steve Trachsel(44354)

c
xyz - Ryan Dempster(03554)
xy - Robert Person(35404)
Rick Ankiel

x
yz - Denny Neagle(22330)
yz - Elmer Dessens(32314)
y - Shawn Chacon(43334)
z - Rick Helling(14454)
z - Shawn Estes(22524)
Jimmy Haynes(24344)
Kazuhisa Ishii(34054)
Damian Moss(43054)
Dennis Stark(35224)
Tomo Ohka(45332)
Kip Wells(24053)
Brett Tomko(34142)
Jason Simontacchi(23243)
Miguel Batista(25320)
Josh Fogg(22214)
Andy Ashby(23402)
Kirk Rueter(20332)

y
z - Livan Hernandez(52040)
z - Shane Reynolds(42300)
Jason Marquis(14405)
Brandon Duckworth(04550)
Brian Tollberg(32320)
Nelson Figueroa(30032)
Sean Lowe(0)
Darren Dreifort

z
Julian Tavarez(33341)
Mike Hampton(21134)
Carl Pavano(03400)
Jamey Wright(33303)
Albie Lopez(0230)
Bruce Chen(03200)
Andy Benes(000)

NL pitchers I recommend despite their failure to appear here include Antonio Alfonseca, Joe Borowski, Rheal Cormier, Mike DeJean, Danny Graves, Luke Hudson, Satoru Komiyama, Matt Mantei, Jason Middlebrook(00), Jake Peavy, Chris Reistma(35142), John Riedling, Kirk Saarloos(00), Jose Santiago, Carlos Silva, Travis Smith(2550), Gene Stechschulte, Michael Tejera(0353), and Mike Williams. Please recognize that these are fairly risky or unproven players, but most aren't missing much to at least pick up a 1 rating fairly soon.

Other pitchers who you probably shouldn't deploy right now include Brian Anderson(24130), Jimmy Anderson(31313), Joe Beimel(414), Eric Cyr, Zach Day(30), Mike Fetters, Joey Hamilton(43134), Matt Herges, Carlos Hernandez(42020), Jason Jennings(34012), Bobby J. Jones(24403), Graeme Lloyd, Braden Looper, Kevin Olsen(04500), Oliver Perez(334), Mike Timlin, T.J. Tucker, and Ron Villone(03043).

Today's Fantasy Rx: World Cup Final between Germany and Brazil is on ABC at 5:30 AM(CDT); we recommend an afternoon nap if necessary as long as you get up early to watch it.

Also, you may have noticed that six of the ten pitchers who lost their 1 qualification this week ran into home run problems, while two more suffered from too many hits. Offenses continue to improve as the weather warms normally, so don't be surprised if your actual ERA heads upwards for the next few weeks. However if you find yourself losing ground in your league, take a closer look at your team to see if your problems are due to random statistical fluctuation over the course of the year, or if they're symptomatic of specific pitchers' skill deficiencies.