James Shields-Tampa Bay Rays

Finally something about the Rays-considering how they lost most of their bullpen, including a 44 save closer, this came from the internet.

Shields also dominates for 18

Tampa Bay's James Shields pitched a pair of complete games last week, allowing just one unearned run in the process. by: Bill Bender
Rory McIlroy had a fantastic weekend.

Dude shot a 16-under at the U.S. Open over the weekend. That's unreal considering I shoot about 16 over on the front nine of any golf course I play.

McIlroy, however, wasn't the only person who dominated over 18 last week. Tampa Bay pitcher James Shields allowed one unearned run over 18 innings in two starts last week.

We won't get it into what is more impressive, but let's just say I think I would get a lucky par at the Congressional Country Club before I would pitch a shutout in the majors. Call it even?

I found out first-hand what it's like going against Shields in a H2H league. He threw exactly 110 pitches in back-to-back complete games against the Red Sox and Marlins. I lost ERA this week as a result.

How good is Shields? Well, he leads the league in complete games (5) and shutouts (3). He's doing all those things Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee do. Half the headlines, half the price, same production.

Can Shields keep it up? Well, he should continue to dominate at Tropicana Field (3-3, 1.71 ERA, 0.95 WHIP) and be good enough on the road (4-1, 3.28, 1.07).

His first-half career splits (35-26, 3.48, 1.19) are much better than his second-half numbers (28-29, 4.80, 1.33). It would take some serious gumption to sell high on Shields knowing all that, but I guess it depends on what you can get in return.

If it were me, I'd stick with Shields.