Today's Fantasy Rx

Once again, here are the two tables from yesterday's column:

AL	K/9	BB/9	H/9	HR/9	G-F
2000	6.3	3.7	9.7	1.2	1.22
2001	6.4	3.2	8.8	1.1	1.20
2002	6.3	3.3	9.2	1.1	1.16
2003	6.1	3.2	9.3	1.1	1.18

NL	K/9	BB/9	H/9	HR/9	G-F
2000	6.7	3.8	9.2	1.2	1.23
2001	7.0	3.3	9.0	1.2	1.21
2002	6.8	3.5	8.8	1.0	1.26
2003	6.5	3.4	9.0	1.1	1.29

AL	IP	W	S	K	ERA	WHIP
2000	20141	1143	551	14033	4.91	1.49
2001	20213	1138	589	14474	4.47	1.33
2002	20160	1129	558	14020	4.46	1.38
2003	20219	1123	538	13735	4.53	1.39

NL	IP	W	S	K	ERA	WHIP
2000	23103	1285	627	17323	4.63	1.45
2001	23074	1290	621	17930	4.36	1.37
2002	23098	1296	666	17374	4.11	1.37
2003	23105	1306	661	17066	4.27	1.38

Strikeouts

Strikeout rates fell to the lowest level in years this season. The American League continues to trail the NL even though neither Randy nor Schilling reached even 200 strikeouts this year. Four NL pitchers exceeded 200 K while only three AL hurlers managed that feat, and while the AL pitchers didn't even reach 210 K, three NL pitchers finished with more than 240 strikeouts.

Thanks to Pedro missing a half dozen starts and leaving his last start after only a few innings, Esteban Loaiza led the league in strikeouts thanks to an 8 K performance on the last day of the season to finish with 207 strikeouts, one more than Pedro. Roy Halladay needed 36 starts and 266 innings to reach 204 strikeouts, while Mussina(195), Clemens(190), Pettitte(180), and Colon(173) were the only other AL pitchers over 170 strikeouts. However, although only 11 AL starters struck out 140 or more batters in 2002, 17 pitchers managed that feat this season, and 11 of those pitchers reach 150 strikeouts.

Kerry Wood(266) and Mark Prior(245) paced the NL, followed closely by Javier Vazquez(241). A significant gap separated those three pitchers from the next tier of power pitchers, which includes Jason Schmidt(208), Curt Schilling(194 in only 24 starts), and Kevin Brown(185). Five more pitchers, Livan Hernandez, Hideo Nomo, Randy Wolf, Brandon Webb, and Matt Clement, exceeded 170 K, and another 18 pitchers struck out 140 or more batters this season. The National League remains significantly ahead of the AL both in terms of the quality and number of power pitchers available for fantasy owners to draft.

Today's Fantasy Rx: My predictions for today's games(all times CDT):

12:00: Oakland@Boston
3:00: New York Yankees@Minnesota
6:30: Chicago Cubs@Atlanta