The new Yankee Stadium and fantasy stats

Everyone's making a big fuss about all the home runs that have been flying out of the "new" Yankee Stadium over the past weekend. Obviously when a new park witnesses 25 home runs in its first five games (including exhibition), that gets the attention of fantasy owners. Ditto for the 14-run inning the Indians posted in their 22-4 mashing of the Yankees last week.

So what's the deal? Is it the way the park is situated or the shape of the seating areas, creating some weird wind effects? Some media geniuses are already calling the stadium "Coors Field East." Hah, good one. So does that mean we should start changing how we approach our fantasy lineups whenever we've got guys playing in the Bronx, the way we used to with Denver (in the pre-humidor days)?

I'm not sold.

First of all, the sample size is way too small. Obviously the 22-4 game is going to skew the numbers a bit (eight homers in that one). There have also been two games so far at the stadium in which only one homer was hit.

There's another reason for all the longballs, too: Bad pitching. Two of the Indians' homers were surrendered by someone named Anthony Claggett, making his first major league appearance. Two apiece were allowed by Edwar Ramirez and Damaso Marte (2009 ERAs: 8.44 and 21.00). One came off Chien-Ming Wang, and you know how great he's been this year. Two of the Yanks' were served up by Fausto Carmona (groundball to flyball ratio this year: 0.78).

In other words, pitching probably has played the biggest role in all the dingers. Plus, it's only April, so who knows how the winds will change, along with the temperatures and humidity, over the course of the next five months in New York? Even a full season's worth of data might not be enough to really give us a sense of whether Yankee Stadium is homer-friendly. Consider this, as baseball researcher and author David Vincent points out in an article in the Daily News: Washington's Nationals Park averaged 1.85 home runs last year in its inaugural season, and so far this year is averaging 3.5 round-trippers a game. Is it global warming? El Nino? Or perhaps the Nats' awful pitching (team ERA: 5.40)? Or some combination of these, plus a small sample size?

Anyway, I'm not going to rush to pick up Cody Ransom all the sudden and start him in every home game until we get some more information. For now, treat your lineups the way you normally would, and don't overreact. The "old" Yankee Stadium was 14th in the majors in home runs allowed per game last year, pretty much average. Let's see how it stacks up after a full season's worth of games this year before we start to make any big adjustments, OK?

Of course, as I was writing this, three homers were hit at the stadium in the course of an inning and a half, by Kurt Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and Melky Cabrera. So what do I know?

Save situations, July 28: Tigers, Pirates, Cardinals

Looks like Todd Jones' time is up as the Tigers' closer, at least for the time being. Fernando Rodney has supplanted him after Jim Leyland had seen enough of Jones' awfulness this year. Fantasy owners might have been willing to put up with the 4.99 ERA and 1.59 WHIP if there was at least a promise of coming close to 40 saves like the past three seasons, but now it's safe to put Jones on your bench or even cut him. His 18 saves and measley 13 strikeouts were barely worth the trouble.

Rodney certainly has the stuff to succeed in this role, but injuries have been a problem, so his grip on the job will be tenuous at best. Still, he's got to be picked up immediately, with Joel Zumaya's value also rising if Rodney should falter or get hurt again.

g The Pirates' trade of Damaso Marte means his fantasy value in most leagues is shot. Marte (right), who had taken over for the injured Matt Capps in Pittsburgh, will strictly be a left-handed specialist now that he's with the Yankees. That leaves another void in the Pirates' bullpen, and it's unclear where they might turn next. John Grabow didn't exactly inspire much confidence Sunday by allowing two home runs, Tyler Yates has been shaky for the past few weeks (seven earned runs in his past 10 2/3 innings), and Denny Bautista is pretty much the epitome of an average middle reliever. In other words, stay away from Pirates relievers unless you're absolutely desperate for saves.

g In St. Louis, the news isn't quite as bad, but it's still a mess. Closer Ryan Franklin has been bad his past three times out (two blown saves and two losses), but luckily for him, Jason Isringhausen hasn't exactly made a case for taking back his old job, either. It looks like the Cards will ride it out with Franklin for the time being, which means he still has value, although I'd probably relegate him to my bench until he snaps out of his funk. Bradenton's Chris Perez showed lots of promise in his brief call-up, but after the league adjusted to the rookie he was sent back down to the minors for some more seasoning. He's the guy to really keep an eye on, although he probably won't be making much more of a fantasy contribution until 2009.

Photos by The Associated Press

It's so hard to say goodbye

I'm dedicating this song to a few fantasy mainstays we've been forced to part with in the past couple days:

Jeff Francoeur has a bit of a reputation as a free swinger. The story's no different this year: 20 walks to 62 strikeouts, which puts him just about on pace for last year's K/BB rate (42/129). No surprise there. Problem is, Francoeur's hitting just .234, whereas last year he finished at .293. That dip caused the Braves to demote him to Double-A to work on his swing for a couple weeks, a pretty embarrassing move for a guy in his third season who's coming off two 100-RBI seasons. If you're in a shallow league you may consider dumping Francouer, as you can probably find another OF who can do what he does in the free-agent pool. But those in deeper leagues or NL-only formats have to hold onto Frenchy, who could give you 50 or so RBIs in the second half.

Looks like it could be a lost season for Rafael Furcal. The Dodgers SS was batting a robust .366 with five homers and eight steals in his first 32 games before some back problems flared up. He's been on the 15-day DL since early may, and on Friday, L.A. moved him to the 60-day DL, meaning he'll be out at least another eight weeks. Bummer.

Matt Capps will be gone for at least eight weeks, too, thanks to a shoulder injury. The Pirates closer got off to a great start (15-for-15 in save opportunities) but had blown five of his last seven chances before the injury flared up. Romulo Sanchez got first crack at the team's next save opportunity, but veteran Damaso Marte is probably the better choice if you're speculating for saves. Then again, how many chances do you really expect Pittsburgh to offer him?

Joe Borowski, what happened to you? Fourty-five saves for the guy last year ... six this year, with four blown saves, a 7.56 ERA, one strained right quadriceps and now a designation for assignment. That means the Indians will go to a closer-by-committee situation (again). We've already seen Rafael Betancourt and Masa Kobayashi fail in ninth-inning duties this year, so I'm not sure if I really want to try either of them again unless I'm desperate.