By Dan O’Shea
First basketball, then baseball.
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The depths of the Pacific Division in the NBA’s Western Conference may seem an unlikely place to find waiver wire bargains, but three players with the bottom three teams in that division had great weeks.
* Eric Gordon, now starting at shooting guard for the L.A. Clippers, averaged 20.8 points per game last week and has been steadily improving of late. Last week, we linked to a post talking about how rookies start to flag around this time of the season, but Gordon is in a zone, as we old-school ballers used to say. He’s only 71 percent taken in Yahoo! leagues.
* Ronny Turiaf, power forward and center with Golden State, averaged 3 blocks per game last week and almost 7.8 rebounds per game. He doesn’t get a lot of playing time, and those rebound stats were well above his season average, but he can immediately cure your team’s block deficit if that is the only thing keeping you from the top tier. He’s only 21 percent-owned.
* Jason Thompson has stepped up in Sacramento, and also averaged 7.8 RPG last week, with 15.7 PPG. He gradually is becoming the rebounding ace in Sacramento, with his playing time increasing over would-be star Spencer Hawes. Even of more value is his three-position qualification: small forward, power forward and center. He’s 50 percent-owned.
The fantasy basketball experts gallery has more:
* Bleacher Report says that you must pick up Lamar Odom now, in response to yet another injury to Andrew Bynum. It is probably too late for that move in most leagues, though. Odom was 87 percent-owned in Yahoo! leagues as Tuesday this week. Odom has been sub-par this season, with points and rebounds way down from last year. He will indeed get more playing time as Pau Gasol moves to center, though it could also mean players like Luke Walton and Derek Fisher might get the ball more.
* ESPN’s Eric Karabell proposes that aforementioned Illini-jilter Gordon could be Rookie of the Year. He has taken over the scoring for a team that needed someone to step up in that department. I still wonder how much of Gordon’s current performance is just a hot streak, though, and my ROY dark horses would be Kevin Love and Brook Lopez.
* ESPN’s John Cregan has a pretty amusing spin on the “25 Random Things . . . ” chain post that recently has taken over Facebook.
Arms War
The fantasy baseball mock drafts are starting up, but the free agent market has not nearly settled. Manny Ramirez, Bobby Abreu and many others had no homes yet as of early this week. What if Abreu ends up at The Cell? That could add 10 homers to his stats.
It’s a good idea not to get too far ahead yet, but after offering my own potential first round for the upcoming fantasy baseball season last week, I wanted to show you my top five pitcher picks.
* Tim Lincecum. San Francisco has improved, which could means 20+ wins and maybe even the lofty 300 Ks
* Johan Santana. Will it be the Mets year? Either way, Santana will carry them on his back.
* Brandon Webb. Mr. Consistency could have another 20-win season.
* CC Sabathia. His new team could help him to the 20-win ranks, but no more CGs for CC.
* Cole Hamels. No reason for the Phillies to slide. His ERA and opponents’ batting average have been trending down.
Meanwhile, the experts are starting to chatter. Here’s one worth taking a look at:
* Andy Behrens at Yahoo! has the first round of his mock draft up, and I have to say I agree with most of his choices, though I would take David Wright before teammate Jose Reyes.
Things should start getting interesting after league sign-ups actually begin.
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Dan O’Shea’s Fantasy Fix appears every Wednesday, except when it appears on Thursday. Tips, comments, and suggestions are welcome.
Posted on February 5, 2009