Posted by Rob McQuown on Monday, July 20, 2009 at 7:52 am

Okay, I promise to tell everyone when I bench a starting pitcher in all three of my daily-move fantasy leagues, as I did with Joba yesterday.  Not saying there’s causality here, but it was a long-awaited great outing from him, and I’d doggedly persisted with making him active every other start before this one.  Regarding the Jose Contreras saga, at least the lead dog in my Yahoo league had him active, somewhat counterbalancing his great days from Halladay and Vazquez.

I only had room for Contreras on one of my ESPN teams, though many would wonder why I was still holding on to Joba if I wasn’t going to start him. I did follow my own advice on my H2H team, and grab Nyjer Morgan, who a) Hart couldn’t stop (as predicted), b) seemed to agree with me that the Cubs didn’t have a catcher who could throw (as predicted), and c) stopped stealing after the game became lopsided (as predicted).  Of course, I didn’t predict he’d get thrown out, but going 2-1 on SB should help teams even in leagues which penalize CS.

Starting Pitchers:

- We’ll recommend Tommy Hanson today, with the caveat that his peripherals aren’t that good.  But neither are the Giants hitters, and Hanson’s pedigree is so heavily gilded that we’ll take a chance that his 41 IP this year are not indicative of the sort of peripherals he will post going forward.

- Like the low-K guys we recommended yesterday (Marquis, Happ, Pineiro, Duke – a team could have won their week’s pitching just by grabbing that quartet… well, other than K’s, of course), Nick Blackburn is a good play today at Oakland.

- My Favorite Marlin (not to be confused with “My Favorite Martian”) is Rick Vanden Hurk, who will be getting his season debut in San Diego.  He’s actually borderline worth picking up, for the combination of ballpark and SD’s lack of offense.  RVH is a flyball pitcher, so the expanses in Petco should especially help him.   He appeared to be back on track after his injuries, as he was mowing down AAA hitters this year before his recall.

Batters:

- Today’s another fine of Nyjer Morgan day if you need speed.  Livan is a known mediocrity (and right-handed – against which pitchers Nyjer is a shocking .332/.394/.420).

- 1b/of Kendry Morales is still on a pace to hit .291 – 80 – 30 – 90, and that is almost entirely against RHP.  His .310/.378/.604 line against RHP is among the best in all baseball, and for daily-move leagues, that’s all that matters, as you can just bench him against LHP.   Today’s victim is Ponson.

- of Kosuke Fukudome is a great start today against Rodrigo Lopez in Philly.  In addition to normal matchup goodness here, his longtime Japanese hitting coach is joining the Cubs staff (in uniform) starting today, and Kosuke has responded well to him in the past.

- 1b/2b/3b Martin Prado against Jon Sanchez is a great play, even if Sanchez was sharp last time out.

- of J.D. Drew may be in a slump, and Millwood may be good, but Drew in Texas against a RHP is just too good of a combination, historically speaking, to pass up.

- 1b Nick Johnson against Livan.

- 2b/of Skip Schumaker against Moehler.

- of Colby Rasmus against Moehler.

- 2b/3b Mike Fontenot against Lopez.

- “Safe” plays today: Michael Cuddyer, Yadier Molina, Yunel Escobar, Clint Barmes, Andrew McCutchen, Kurt Suzuki.