Monday, March 31, 2008

Live Blog 4: K.C.'s Meche hanging tough


What's the deal with Gil Meche?

OK, you say, are we really going to talk about every player from Kansas City or Detroit?

Well, with a rain delay in New York and rain threatening both 2 p.m. starts, Arizona-Cincinnati and Milwaukee-Chicago, it may be a steady diet of Royals and Tigers for a bit, so let's get the magnifying glass out on Mr. Meche.

When K.C. signed Meche to that 5-year, $55 million deal two offseasons ago, most of baseball thought to themselves: "Bad signing."

But Meche rewarded the Royals with borderline No. 1 starter stuff last year: 3.67 ERA, a 1.30 WHIP and 156 strikeouts.

Meche hasn't been terrible today (he's struck out 4), but he's allowed 5 hits and 2 walks with just 1 ER, thanks to Jose Guillen gunning down Maggs at the plate in the bottom of the third.

btw, Guillen has an absolute cannon in right. 

Fantasy Spin: Meche is playing on an improved Royals team that ranked 29th in runs scored last year. With the addition of Guillen and Billy Butler and another year of seasoning of Alex Gordon, look for Meche's win total to improve from 9 to about 13. ERA will probably be a shade below 4 and average WHIP/K numbers. He's worth filling a roster spotl in mixed leagues and is a no. 4 or 5 starter in AL-only formats.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

T-Bone, love the blog! As long as we've got the magnifying glasses out ... Verlander is looking like his usual strong self (He helped me to a title last year). But what are your thoughts on Bonderman? He looked worn out last year. Can we expect another up and down year from him?