-0.5 Points: Back in Third

I tasted first place yesterday, but my enjoyment was short-lived. Soon after my team made it to the top of the standings, Justin Verlander stopped throwing strikes. There are many ways that my fantasy team has frustrated me this year, and Justin Verlander reminded me of at least three of them yesterday:

i) He stopped throwing strikes. Come on, man, you’re one of the least hittable pitchers in baseball. No one can touch the heat and you’ve got great offspeed stuff too. Don’t mess around, especially against Sal Fasano and Asdrubal Cabrera.

ii) His bullpen let him down. Clay Rapada allowed two inherited runners to score in the 6th. It’s not that Verlander deserved better, but I’d rather not see my ERA skyrocket because of the incompetence of a reliever who had 15.3 major league innings to his name entering yesterday’s game.

iii) In spite of the ugly line, Verlander was dominant. He struck out 9 of the 26 men to face him (4 in a row at one point) and only allowed 5 base hits. It’s not that I want my pitchers to look bad when they pitch badly, but it’s frustrating all the same.

Verlander aside, I had a decent day yesterday, thanks to Derek Lowe’s continued hot streak (or is this just a good season? It’s been months now) and some pop from Vladdy.
I picked up Armando Galarraga to replace Matt Garza, who I had to drop when I picked up Jim Johnson in preparation for the George Sherrill trade that never happened. I was disappointed to see that one of my main adversaries had picked up Garza, but my disappointment was lessened when I saw that the little cat’s numbers are actually better than Garza’s.