Posted by Rob McQuown on Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 3:23 am

Starting Pitchers:

- I can’t believe this, because I thought he was overrated in his prime, and almost certainly done after the injury, but Brad Penny has been pitching well.  You couldn’t have convinced me to put him on my active roster in my deep AL roto league (25 active players per team; 40-man rosters including minor-leaguers; 12 teams; non-AL players are lost, so it’s VERY deep).  Well, KC is coming to town, so he doesn’t even have to be good today, just ambulatory.

-  Randy Wolf at Citi against Livan, with the Mets injuries, should be good.

-  Going to endorse Joel Pineiero today, even though the Brewers have some serious bats.  They’re still weaker against RHP (.254/.334/.419 instead of .258/.352/.431 vsL), with Gamel and Catalanotto helping even out last year’s completely lopsided splits.  And Pineiro has quietly posted a marvelous 3.39/1.18 line this year (and his xFIP is a very good 3.86), despite walking about half the totals you’d hope for.

Batters:

- 3b Scott Rolen against an inconsistent David Price (About whom Steve Phillips of ESPN notes that the solution to his problem is “simple”, he just needs to throw more strikes.  Get right on that, Steve, and let him know.  I’m sure he hasn’t thought of doing that yet.)  Meanwhile, we’ll keep sending RH batters against him until he does start showing his stuff for real.

- ss Yunel Escobar isn’t great for fantasy, and Aaron Cook is good, but Cook allows a lot of hits, and the game is in Colorado.

- We like of Cody Ross a lot better against LHP, but with a short slate, an Arizona ballpark, and Yusmeiro Petit going, he’s a fine play today.

- c Kelly Shoppach, if he plays, is a good matchup with Clayton Richard in US Cellular.   That’s a big “if”, though.

- Nats of Nyjer Morgan, ss Cristian Guzman, and 1b Nick Johnson are all great plays against Russ Ortiz.  We’re not fooled by that 4.11 ERA Russ has, even if his xFIP is under 5 instead of its customary value around 6.

- of Denard Span appears to be back on the fast track after putting his injury woes behind him.  Time to start considering keeping him around again.  He gets Aceves today, good thing.

- of J.D. Drew is home against Hochevar.  Yay!

- ss/3b Gordon Beckham is facing unproven lefty David Huff, and in general, we like our chances against Clevaland pitching.

- c John Baker, also against Petit.

- 2b is so soft today, that we were going to suggest 3b Brooks Conrad, who is playing at Colorado.  But he’s not rated at 2b.  So, we’ll stick with 2b/3b Ian Stewart and INF Martin Prado, if you need someone to fill the slot.  Playing at Colorado makes up for some matchup problems.