Chris Carpenter - fantasy nightmare

[Barnyard]

Can anyone explain why Chris Carpenter is such an abyssmal choice in fantasy baseball? I picked him twice and never again.

[artie4121]

LOL.

Anytime we're in the same league, I will take Chris off your hands :wink: . . .

For me, until I traded him and Derreck Lee for Pujols, at Petco, he was 12-6 2.53/0.99 . . . with two no-hitters and FOUR shutouts until game 130 or so.

Pujols underperformed, and I wish I had kept Carpenter.

Of course, YMMV.

[Knerrpool]

I got this out of him at Rogers Centre. I guess I was lucky....
14-9 266.2 229 84 79 64 185 20 2.67 1.10

[durantjerry]

Nothing short of good for me, 22-6 on a Minute Maid team and at least good or better on every other team. I actually like him the best of all the SP's.

[Jeepdriver]

You know I think the author of this thread is talking about "Fantasy" baseball and not Strat. If not he mis-spoke. This would obviously be the wrong place to do so.

Concerning his struggles of late in real baseball, unless there's an unknown injury (which is possible in his case) I think he'll be back to his normal self soon.

[durantjerry]

I thought he might be too.

[Barnyard]

I was talking about strat online, just wish I had the same luck you guys have had. Well, perhaps soon I'll go once more into the breach with Mr. Carpenter.

Thanks to all of you.

[AeroDave10]

He's also excelled in just about every 2009 league I've been in, too. Those must have been two anomalies. Can you post links to the team, Barnyard?

[artie4121]

Dave can certainly give a great analysis once he has your link.

I would guess, not even seeing your team, that four factors impacted Carpenter greatly.

1. [u:f45d80134d]ballpark selection.[/u:f45d80134d] I had him in Petco and he was lights out. If you are talking about a hitter's park, his ERA/WHIP numbers would most likely be higher. Ironically, that might not be indicative of his effectiveness: you need to index the slashlines to the ballpark.

2. [u:f45d80134d]the defense behind him.[/u:f45d80134d]. If you have a high number (3 or 4) in C, 2b, SS, CF especially (or even a low number high error combo), then his ERA/WHIP will zoom.

3. [u:f45d80134d]Your divisional competition.[/u:f45d80134d]. If you have a lot of boppers in small parks or very experienced managers in your division, they could just be outplaying you mano a mano.

4. [u:f45d80134d]Sample size.[/u:f45d80134d] I'm assuming you are talking about two FULL seasons of Carpenter. While my sampling is also low, I had it all going for me: ballpark, defense and divisional competition. That is why your question was a good one: trying to find a consensus amongst the managers here.

I would pick him again in a heartbeat.