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May 25, 2012

Weekly Planner

Week Nine

by Paul Sporer

I have no idea what Gavin Floyd’s problem is, but I thought the Minnesota matchup would be the easier of his two this week.  Hopefully he doesn’t make things worse in his start against Cleveland.  Meanwhile, Felipe Paulino remains excellent and started the week off with a gem in New York.  Looks like I had last week’s AL “starts” in reverse order; it should have been Paulino, Jerome Williams, Floyd, Hiroki Kuroda. 

Mike Minor has a long way to go before earning another “consider” recommendation, let alone a “start.”  His home run issues are just painful at this point.  At least Chris Capuano rewarded my confidence in him over guys like Bud Norris and Mat Latos (both of whom I like immensely) by pitching a gem to start the week in Arizona. 

This week is a bit light on options, so don’t force it. 

(All categories are ranked in order of confidence)

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Auto-Starts: Justin Verlander, Jered Weaver, Chris Sale, and Doug Fister

These auto-starts run the gamut from the very best to those right on the borderline of “auto start” and “start.”  Sale has been unquestionably excellent, and while he had some injury concerns that put his role in flux, he is a starter now and cannot be ignored.  He may have an innings cap later this summer, so make sure you get every start you can while he is still going every fifth day.