Posted by Rob McQuown on Friday, August 14, 2009 at 10:00 am

Starting Pitchers:

After a couple days with very few options, there are many freely available pitchers with good matchups today.

Randy Wells is far from a proven ace pitcher, but in pulling up the Pirates Depth Chart with mid-season PECOTAs (http://www.baseballprospectus.com/fantasy/dc/index.php?tm=PIT), the fact that only two numbers are in black (positive) pretty much sums up what’s left of the Pirates.  Also, it’s not like Wells has been chopped liver… he’s in contention for Rookie of the Year honors.

Barry Zito has been good in 2nd halves of seasons.  He’s been good recently.  He’s facing the Messed-up Mets.  We say “go for it!”

Joe Blanton at Atlanta.  He’s actually striking people out this year!

Another rookie pitcher having a great year facing an offense which isn’t intimidating is Brett Anderson against Chicago.  Don’t expect a “W” here, though.

Never a great play against St. Louis, but Mat Latos has been so good that he’s not a crazy play today.  We’ll stop short of a full recommendation, but if you’re in dire need of some pitching stats…

Atypically for the A’s, we’re going to stay away from Jose Contreras today because of Oakland’s running game.  He and AJ form one of the worst batteries in the game at containing the SB, and expect the new-look Beane crew to take full advantage of it.  He’s not a terrible play, since the A’s have trouble getting guys on base, but there are better options today.

Batters:

• 1b Billy Butler
• of Rajai Davis (see Contreras comment above)
• dh Travis Hafner
• of Andrew McCutchen
• of Kosuke Fukudome
• of Denard Span
• of Josh Willingham
• of Jeff Francoeur
• c Kurt Suzuki
• 2b/3b/1b Martin Prado
• of Garrett Anderson
• ss Cliff Pennington – making his debut on Roto Lunch, reviewed at (http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/fantasy/article/waiver-wire-al-0814/)