Tag: Kevin Correia

Ubaldo Jimenez To DL, Who To Pick Up?

The Rockies have placed fireballer Ubaldo Jimenez on the 15-day disabled list because of a cracked thumb cuticle on his pitching hand. This leaves many options so early in the season on who to pick up, here are some answers for you.

Analysis: Kevin Correia of the Pirates now has two wins in two starts. Correia has pitched 13 innings allowing just two earned runs. In deep, deep leagues the right hander is a solid choice as he is owned in less than one percent of fantasy leagues. Edwin Jackson of the ChiSox is another widely available interesting option. E-Jax threw six innings of two run ball while striking out seven batters last Saturday against the Indians. Jackson is due to start Thurdsay against a struggling Rays team, look to take advantage. Another deep league option is Clayton Richard of San Diego. Richard’s next start is in PETCO against the Dodgers on Friday night. Richard may have the best season of all the pitchers mentioned here thus far just because of where he plays. Richard had a 3.75  ERA last year with 14 wins but he still doesn’t get any love. Look for Richard to be a consistent presence in the Padres rotation as they will again try to push the action in the NL West. Obviously, if it’s not too late to pick up Kyle Drabek then pick him up. For more information on Drabek just scroll down the page. Drabek possesses the most upside with the nastiest stuff of all these guys next to Edwin Jackson’s slider.

Jeff Francis and Kevin Correia 2011 Outlook

Issue: Last season Jeff Francis and Kevin Correia both had ERAs greater than 5.00 and WHIPs higher than 1.48. Has the change in home ball parks for 2011 made them worthy of a $1 flier in Auction End Games?

Facts: Francis has spent 6 seasons in Colorado. In 2011 Jeff will be the #2 starting pitcher in KCR’s rotation. Correia has spent 8 seasons in The Show, first 6 with SFG and last 2 with SDP. Kevin will be the #3 starter in Pittsburgh this season.

Condensing each one’s career into a single season of stats looks like this:

Hurler W ERA IP HR WHIP HR/9 SO/9 SO/BB
Francis 13 4.77 201 25 1.429 1.1 6.1 2.1
Correia 7 4.57 150 18 1.441 1.1 6.6 1.84

 

The Park Factors are these:

HR LHB HR RHB K LHB K RHB
Correia(RHP)
SDP 59 95 107 110
Pitt 99 73 93 89
Francis(LHP)
COL 116 117 87 90
KCR 73 85 88 92

Analysis: This is a tale of home advantage going in opposite directions. Francis has been below the league average in K/9 which puts too many balls in play. He won’t get any material help in strikeouts in KCR, but those HR factors are so much better in KCR. Remember 100 = League Average. Correia has been right at or slightly above the league average for K/9. Pittsburgh will decrease those, especially with RH hitters. It also looks like Kevin will be a lot more vulnerable to homers by LH batters. Add to it that the Padres were one of the best defensive teams in 2010 while Pittsburgh was one of the worst.

We would stay away from Correia and consider Francis for a buck, while being nervous about his high career WHIP, but expecting it to come down. Keep in mind Correia has been healthy through out his career, while Francis has had shoulder problems 5 different times. Watch the Spring Training news for Jeff’s health.

Predictions:

Francis  12W  190IP  4.10ERA  105K  1.29WHIP

Correia   9W  172IP   4.60ERA  125K  1.43WHIP

{6-4-3 Assists to StatsCorner and Baseball-Reference.}