Quiet.
For weeks, not a sound. The world had gone silent, as if the day-to-day routine of a 162-game season had brought a natural order to things. I talked, people listened, time passed and the process repeated ... in silence.
Then, I criticized Javier Vazquez.
Out of the woodwork came the sound of a hundred voices, loyal Fantasy owners rushing to defend a pitcher whose struggles they apparently had enough depth to absorb.
"You come down too hard on the guy. He hasn't done anything wrong. I'd have him start for me any day of the week." And so on.
All this for a guy with a career ERA halfway to 9.00 who lived up to expectations exactly once in the last four seasons.
"All right," I told them, "put your unwavering confidence in a pitcher with a 6.23 ERA since May. We'll see where it gets you. We'll see."
We saw.
Change-up I recently predicted incorrectly on this guy and need to make a revision.
Javier Vazquez, SP, White Sox
It's not just that Vazquez won both his starts since I spewed my hatred. He pitched eight innings twice, allowed fewer than two earned runs twice, and struck out more than a batter per inning twice. In short, he did everything he could to make me look like a fool and you like a pile of nondescript geniuses.
Well, at least I'm not in a pile.
He pitched like more than just a solid pitcher on a good run. He pitched like an ace, walking one batter in 16 innings, showing he still has the ability to dominate beyond what any rational Fantasy owner could expect from a member of his staff.
So at this point, I'm willing to call Vazquez's June and July nothing more than a slump and assume he'll get back to pitching like he did in April and May, when he posted a 3.43 ERA.
Hey, I'll take any excuse to get all those strikeouts in my lineup.
Sliders These guys' recent performances signify more than a hot or cold streak. Their Fantasy appeal has actually "slid" either up or down.
Adam Lind, OF, Blue Jays
Some prospects break out gradually, making small, measurable bits of progress in a span of three or four seasons.
Others break out suddenly, as if something clicks overnight. Maybe they finally get the motivation they need, such as a demotion or a benching. Maybe they just eat a good egg salad sandwich. But for whatever reason, they turn the corner and instantly become players worth using in Fantasy.
Lind belongs in that latter group.
Because he certainly looked like a dud earlier in the season, going 1-for-19 during a five-game stretch in late April and early May. You could simply point to the small sample size as the culprit, sure, but he didn't look much better in 290 at-bats last season.
All that changed in late June, when the Blue Jays called him back up from the minor leagues and named him their everyday left fielder. Suddenly, his major-league numbers began to mirror his minor-league numbers. Specifically, he's hit .329 (53-for-167) with eight home runs since that day.
Will it ever stop? Yo, I don't know. It looked like it might early in August, when he hit only .231 (9-for-39) over the first 11 games, but then he bounced back with three home runs in his last five games going into Monday. So not only did he survive his first slump, he emerged from it even more powerful than before.
He doesn't walk enough, but he doesn't strike out much for a young guy either. And he has already shown more consistency than some of his peers, including super prospect Jay Bruce. In fact, I'd rather have Lind than Bruce for the rest of this season. Yeah, I said it.
And yet Lind remains unowned in 55 percent of Fantasy leagues. Time for that to change.
Justin Duchscherer, SP, Athletics
Duchscherer had a memorable run early this season, one filled with an unprecedented rise to Fantasy stardom, an All-Star appearance and more than enough mispronunciations of his last name.
But it's over now, and you can't even argue. Statistically speaking, it is. During those magical 17 starts to open the season, that stretch that made him known as a Duchscherer-thing, he had one game where he allowed as many as three earned runs. That's it -- one. In his last four starts, he has three.
See? Over.
You had to expect the innings to catch up to him at some point after he spent the last four seasons in the bullpen. Or shoot, you had to just expect his luck would even out. He's not Greg Maddux, which is how he looked through those first 17 starts, posting a 1.87 ERA. Besides, not even Maddux could win games for the Athletics in their current sorry state. They've gone 5-23 since the All-Star break.
But just because I acknowledge Duchscherer's run is over doesn't mean I think you should cut him. In fact, I think he remains a must-own, just not a must-start. His four latest starts, apart from one against the Rangers, haven't looked terrible. They just haven't looked good enough for a non-strikeout pitcher to maintain his title of Fantasy ace.
Think of him now as the kind of pitcher who can supplement your Fantasy staff instead of leading it.
Jed Lowrie, SS, Red Sox
Lowrie always had this kind of potential. He just needed an opportunity.
He finally got one when Julio Lugo went on the DL because of a strained left quadriceps -- well, that and after the Red Sox got their fill of Alex Cora, which tends to take a lot longer than it should.
And the best part is Lowrie hasn't even shown any power yet -- at least not in terms of home runs. He clearly has it, though, as evidenced by his .492 slugging percentage. Before the end of the year, some of those balls hit into the gaps will start clearing the fence.
And even if they don't, as long as he continues to hit doubles and triples, he'll accumulate plenty of RBI batting seventh, behind all the on-base types up and down the Boston batting order. His current rate of RBI puts him on pace for 136 in a 600 at-bat season.
Would he honestly sustain that pace over 600 at-bats? No, he probably wouldn't, and he might not sustain his .318 batting average either. But since he plays such a weak position, he could emerge as a must-start in Fantasy even if he falls a little short.
If he remains unowned in your league and you don't have Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes or Jimmy Rollins, pick him up. He might end up starting for you before season's end, making the same impact this year that Dustin Pedroia made last year.
Dan Uggla, 2B, Marlins
Now, the true Uggla emerges.
That one you saw before the All-Star break? Not him. That guy was too good -- a stud, even.
Uggla is not a stud. He's a .260 hitter with better-than-average power for his position whose strikeouts make him more trouble than he's worth in certain Head-to-Head leagues.
After he began the season scoring at least 20 Fantasy points in six of the first 12 weeks, he's gone eight straight weeks without scoring even 10. In August, he's batting .193 with a .566 OPS.
Granted, he gets streaky, so he won't hit this poorly the rest of the season. But he needed this recent cold streak just to normalize his stats from the first three months of the season -- a hot streak that seemed a bit too sustained when compared to his long-term history. In other words, the last two months haven't set him back or put him "behind schedule," statistically speaking, so you can't expect an equal and opposite hot streak as compensation.
So does all this talk of streaks mean you should bench Uggla? No, and that's precisely the problem. He's still a top-10 second baseman, and he'll still finish as a top-10 second baseman. You probably got the best you'll get from him earlier in the season, sure, but he could still have another outburst or two before the end of the season -- enough to set him apart from whatever you could find on waivers. Yes, if you own Uggla, you have to stick with him, for better or worse.
Maybe now you'll know better than to target him as your starting second baseman next season.
Willy Aybar, 3B, Rays
Aybar has always fascinated me for reasons I can't fully express. He just seems like one of those players who'd surprise with everyday at-bats.
Well, with Evan Longoria sidelined with a fractured wrist, now he has his chance.
And already with less than two weeks of at-bats, some of his positive characteristics have begun to show. He has underrated power, as evidenced by his three home runs in the last week, and his 1-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio suggests he won't ever have a serious slump.
With everyday at-bats, I could see him developing into a .280 hitter with the power to hit 15-20 home runs.
No, those numbers don't have as much appeal as they would if he still qualified at second base or shortstop, but for a corner infielder in AL-only leagues, you could do a lot worse than Aybar. Longoria might have to miss a few weeks still.
Hanging Slider This guy looks like a Slider, but not so fast! His recent performance might cause you to misinterpret his Fantasy appeal.
Raul Ibanez, OF, Mariners
Maybe your offense had fallen on hard times. Maybe you had relied on Chipper Jones all season or Adam LaRoche as your July sparkplug and had no replacement on hand when they went on the DL. Maybe with no other direction to turn, you decided to plug Ibanez into your starting lineup, just on a whim.
Maybe you haven't lost a game since.
Sounds conceivable enough, right? Ibanez has eight of his 19 home runs since the All-Star break and a .413 batting average in August. Those numbers have the potential to carry a Fantasy team, and they came almost out of nowhere.
Which is reason enough to make you suspicious, particularly coming from a 36-year-old.
Ibanez did this exact same thing on a smaller scale in April. He hit five home runs in the span of a week and then hit three over the next two months. So you have to assume the hot hitting will end. It'll end abruptly, and it might not come back.
So as much as Ibanez looks like he belongs in the top 40 Fantasy outfielders, he doesn't. After this latest flirtation with greatness ends, he'll resume his place in Fantasy purgatory as an outfielder good enough to roster, but not good enough to play.
You can e-mail Scott your Fantasy Baseball questions to dmfantasybaseball@cbs.com. Be sure to put Attn: Sliders in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state.We'll answer as many as we can.
