Past Newbie Updates...

To update where some of our past Newbies are after we said you should keep an eye on them --- we're showing you we're not running away from pointing these people out to you. We're not shying away if they suck worse than a Jennifer Lopez movie. We'll back our errors.

That said, after week one, we look fairly sharp here, don't we? Here's a look at our Newbie starters so far...

Gavin Floyd had his first start of the season on Saturday -- pitched 7.0 innings, allowed only 3 hits and 1 run, while striking out 2 and getting the win. Those translate into a 1.29 ERA and 0.43 WHIP on the young season. Hey, we're not saying Floyd going to be that lights out every week. He's young, and that means he'll have games where he's lit up more than Whitney Houston. But he'll have more than his fair share of games like he putched on Saturday. The biggest problem looming is Vincente Padilla coming off the DL soon. With Charlie Manuel seemingly preferring veterans over young superstars in-the-waiting (Paging Chase Utley...paging Mr. Utley...), you have to wonder whether Manuel will ignore anything Floyd does that's lights-out and still put Padilla back into the rotation --- sending Floyd back to the bullpen. Reminds us of Johan Santana's first few years with the Twins, where he was dominant in his occassional start, but the Twins kept putting him back in the bullpen to allow some veteran pitcher to start instead. That said, ride Floyd as long as he's in the rotation, and hold him on your bench IF Manuel puts Padilla back in the rotation. Don't drop Floyd if you don't have to.

For another one of our Newbie sleepers, Noah Lowry pitched 6.0 innings on Friday against the Rockies, allowing 2 earned runs and 4 hits, striking out 2. For the young season he has en ERA of 3.00 and a WHIP of 1.17. He didn't get the win as the Giants bullpen allowed an 8 run 7th inning once Lowry left the game --- blowing his sure-shot at victory. But considering his solid amount of starts last season, Lowry is taking off right where you'd like to see him. We still strongly suggest you pick him up or trade for him on the cheap if you could use a starter, since he should have his slot in the rotation all season, and he's a young pitcher on the rise.

David Bush had some performance anxiety for game #1 you could say, but it still wasn't terrible. Considering that he was facing the Red Sox offense, he pitched 5.0 innings and allowed 3 earned runs, allowing only4 hits and walking 2. While Gavin Floyd shut down a powerful offense in the Cardinals for his season debut, Bush couldn't do quite the same against the Red Sox. But we did say he was a deeeeep sleeper, and for that he wasn't bad at all, we'd say. We still suggest you keep an eye on him. If he can throw his curve ball a bit more in the right moments of a count, and not rely on his fastball --- which the Red Sox were jumping all over --- he could get better results. And not all offenses he'll face this year are the Red Sox lineup.


Look for the next Newbies of the Week update later today or tomorrow. Also, the next listing of top 51 players in fantasy baseball list should be posted sometime in that same time period.