A Yankee Not to Own

The New York Yankees have one of the finest teams that money can buy. There may not be another team in baseball that has more fantasy relevant players. With that said, avoid the newest Yankee like the plague.

The Yanks have just completed a deal for San Diego pitcher Chad Gaudin. His role has not been clearly stated - he might be long relief (which is not too useful in most fantasy leagues), or he is going to take over for the struggling Mitre (this would be my guess).

With an offense like the Yankees have, why would I avoid one of their starting pitchers? Because Gaudin is going to kill your ERA. Simply put, pitching in perhaps the most friendly pitcher park in all of baseball (Petco Field), Gaudin has an ERA of 5.13 - bad, now he is going to what is proving to be one of the worst pitching parks in all of baseball (New Yankee Stadium). Nothing about this looks good. His poor ERA is just going to get worse, much worse.

There is talk of his upside, but until he shows it, let someone else take the gamble. I cannot think of any format where you would want to add this pitcher.

- Scout Monkey

( scout_monkey@gmx.com)

This Year's Cliff Lee?

Last year Cliff Lee came out of nowhere to be one of the best pitchers in baseball. There were no signs that he could do what he did (and is still doing). That was last year, this year I will give that 'Cliff Lee Out of Nowhere Award' to Chad Gaudin of the San Diego Padres. Nothing in his past would say that he would be a good pitcher. I have always though of him as average - you know, that one time I though of him. He went undrafted in most leagues but is now starting to be picked up off the waiver wire. In his last 3 starts, he has struck out 28 in 21 innings while only giving up 5 runs (and 5 walks). That is Cy Young caliber stuff. In fairness, it has to be mentioned that two of those games were against Seattle, but one of them was against Texas. Now, up to three weeks ago, he was fairly bad - he had a couple of good outings, but nothing to point at his current success. The question now is, will he keep it up? Don't know. I hope so as I picked him up in my deep league. In my shallow league, I will pounce if he has one more good outing. I bet you wish you had picked up Cliff Lee last year - maybe you can this year. Keep an eye on Chad Gaudin. -Scout Monkey

( scout_monkey@gmx.com)