Get to Own a Guy Named "Lenny"

Matt_tmr The "Talented Mr. Roto" has a name, and it is Matthew Berry. He apparently gets recognized in public places... Anyway, he recommends picking up DiNardo in your fantasy leagues for the very reason I became a fan in the first place: They guy's name is Lenny DiNahdo...I mean c'mon. That's so cool. SportingNews.com article:

Lenny DiNardo, SP, Red Sox. Speaking of replacements for large pitchers, DiNardo has replaced Boomer Wells (knee) in the rotation. DiNardo, a soft-tosser who looked good in his first start, will get you wins and a decent ERA and WHIP, but not a lot of strikeouts. But how often to you get to own a guy named "Lenny?"

More Fantasy Baseball Stuff

The other day, I noted that the Sports Illustrated Fantasy Baseball guy talked about how fantasy GMs were actually putting Lenny on their teams.  I thought I'd check out if this is actually true...and it is:

In the ESPN Fantasy index (as of 4/20/06), 0.1% of MLB-wide fantasy owners added DiNardo to their teams. More impressively, in AL-only leagues, Lenny got picked up in 48.9% of the leagues! That's a 45.7% increase over Week 2 ownership numbers.  That's big stuff.

In the CBS Sportsline Fantasy leagues (as of 4/20/06), he's owned in 4% of leagues and he's starting in 2%... The CBS Fantasy Analysis isn't so great, though:

Lenny DiNardo is a decent pitching option in larger AL-only leagues if you need a replacement for Wells in daily formats, but this is a bit of an unfavorable matchup facing a former Cy Young winner.

They have him listed as the top 168th best relief pitcher in the majors. Boo yah. Mariano is #1, Foulke is #26.  I think these are pre-season ratings...here's the updated rank: 112. Papelbon is #1, KRod is #111...

Sadly, I can't find where Yahoo tells you the % of leagues in which Lenny is active.

And no, I don't have DiNardo on my fantasy team. It's a MLB-wide...and well, I had a good draft. Keep up the starts and I'll have to consider it...

Fantasy Baseball: The Immortable DiNardo

The Sports Illustrated fantasy baseball guy, "TalentedMrRoto" or "The Big Rotowski" (yeah, I didn't make those up) took a guess at how fantasy GMs reacted to the David Wells DL Situation.  He noted that a few genious GMs might have picked up Lenny in an AL-Only League:

Next, it sent a number of AL-only owners scrambling to the waiver wire to grab the immortal Lenny DiNardo, a lefty who, in the same game as Wells' debut, allowed six hits and a walk in three innings of work. DiNardo was fine starting against Seattle on Monday, but starting him next Saturday in Toronto will be fantasy suicide.

If not fantasy suicide, at least not a great fantasy move...