Big Hurt

The Big Hurt, Frank Thomas, has landed himself a job with his former employer the Oakland A's.

Fantasy Impact. Now that Thomas is here, he will take the majority of DH time and Emil Brown and Jack Cust will platoon. Owners of Brown and Cust should see a decrease in playing time unless they are producing.

Frank Thomas is looking for another 2006 season where he was awarded the Comeback Player of the Year by batting .270, 39HR, and 114RBI's. Look for Thomas to produce again, not at that level though. He is valuable in AL-Only leagues as well as mixed. Expect him to hit 20+HR's.

Guess my prediction of him going to the Rays was way off.

Closers

H. Street of the A's had a 4 out save with 1K. Owners, just hope he has turned the corner from a poor start to the season. Street has value and should be kept in your line up.

Brad Lidge of the Phillies recorded save and finished a nicely pitched game from teammate B. Myers. Remember when Lidge was on the DL and how crap Gordon was pitching? Well, no more Gordon and hopefully more of Lidge. Owners...Lidge is a good closer but seems to have periods of inconsistency. Keep him in your lineup though.

B. Wagner of the Mets recorded his first save of the season by pitching a perfect 9th. Owners should be happy with Wagner and there isn't much to say about him except he is one of the elite closers in the bigs.

Moylan of the Braves recorded the save and might be the newly crowned closer after Soriano was placed on the DL. As I said in a previous post, make sure to pick up Moylan and Boyer top hedge your risk.

Starters Review

E. Jackson of the Rays had a great start and is adding to a nice start to this season. His season stats so far...14IP, 7H, 1ER, 6BB, 10K, with a 0.64ERA. Go out and grab this pitcher for your roster before someone else in your league does. Always ride out hot streaks with pitchers and make sure to kick them to the waiver wire when they fall.

K. Millwood of the Rangers has come into the 2008 season with a strong stats (21IP, 19H, 3ER, 9BB, 11K, and a 1.29ERA) but is getting killed by his teammates with 2 losses. Advice...this is a nice start and like Jackson, pick him up and ride out his hot streak.

S. Marcum of the Blue Jays had an amazing 2007 and now is tearing up 2008 with a stat line of 14IP, 9H, 4ER, 2BB, 16K, and a 2.57ERA. With Halladay, Burnett, Mcgowan, and Marcum...the blue Jays have a crazy rotation when they are all kicking. Marcum should be in all rotations as your 3 starter.

D. Eveland the lefty from the A's is throwing something, something sweet. Stat line of 13.1IP, 9H, 1ER, 4BB, 13K, and an ERA of 0.69. Go out and grab this pitcher for his next start. Ride the hot streak.

K. Correira of the Giants is pitching well but with a team like the Giants behind him don't expect too many wins. He should be considered for your team only on a start to start basis.

Harden

Mr. Harden of the A's is on the 15Day-DL. I can't say much to comfort Harden owners but there is nothing you can do about it now. He's injured and you won't get any value for him.

You are officially stuck with Harden, you can't drop him and you won't get full value for him. This is what you get for drafting Harden. He's either injured or dominating opponents.

Just keep him on the bench and better hope he's going to be healthy after the 15day DL stint.


My thoughts...I think it's time for Harden to move into the bullpen and come in for long relief or become a dominating closer.

Closer

Accardo of the Blue Jays blew a save allowing 4ER's with 0.1IP. Ouch. Owners, don't worry. He's fine for now. A blown save here and there is no biggey.

Street of the A's had a nice save and no ER's, yay (sarcasm)!

Wood of the Cubs...Blown save. Short and I mean short leash!

Suzuki

This catcher from the A's is still hitting. At this point he should be on your fantasy roster if you don't have the top 5 catchers. If you belong to one of those deep leagues where you play 2 catchers take a look for him on the wire, I'm 99% sure he won't be there but you might be lucky.

quick look @ pitchers

Lincecum of the Giants had his first real start and was strong like usual but was left with a no decision (like usual). 6IP, 7H, 1ER, 1BB, and 7K's (nice).

Harden of the A's was bumped from his start and is scheduled to pitch on Saturday. This is terrible news for Harden owners. This guy dominates the Red Sox in his first two outings and now is left with wondering if he'll be on the DL. Injury doesn't sound bad but any injury with Harden is not good. Keep an eye on this guy. He has a sore upper back.

Phil Hughes had a rough outing. 3IP, 6H, 3ER, 4BB, 2K. For the Yanks to do anything this year, they need him to step up and pitch better than this. Owners should keep him and monitor his starts closely. I would pitch him against favourable match-ups for the time being.

Daisuke had another dominating outing. The only thing I want to say is his 4BB. He needs to lower his BB but I'm only being picky right now. Owners should be happy with his stuff.

Bedard of the Mariners pitched in his return from a sore hip (something he woke up with...sounds like an 80 year old). Only thing to note is 2HR's allowed. He's giving up the long ball and that's not a good sign.

Suzuki - 7 Game Hit Streak

Are you thinking of Ichiro? Well, there's another Suzuki in the majors and he currently has hit successfully in all 7 games for the A's. Kurt Suzuki, a CATCHER, has his safely in every game the A's have played. We all know the catcher position is so shallow so as posted earlier, people who are hurting in the C position, please go out and grab Suzuki and ride his hot streak. He'll help with AVG and maybe provide some RBI's, but don't expect huge numbers like V-mart or R Martin.

Notable Pitchers

Broxton of the Dodgers is still bringing the heat. He will give you a nice boost in K's, WHIP, ERA, and the occasional win and on the rare occasion a save. Too bad Saito is still pitching extremely well. But never keep Broxton far from your roster. Saito is old and well, closers can change in a week.

Trevor Hoffman of the Padres had 1ER in his last appearance which gave him his 2 loss of the season. Like I said, owners shouldn't worry just yet but this is not a good sign.

Lyon of the Diamondbacks blew a save but ended up with the W. If he continues to blow saves in the next two weeks, start looking Pena, he should take the saves if Lyon is incapable of holding a 9th inning lead.

Fuentes of the Rockies held the closers role last year until he lost it due to poor performance. But this year he's tearing things up with a stat line of 3IP, 2K, 0ERA, and a 1.33WHIP. I would grab Fuentes and stash him away since Corpas just blew a save.

Wang of the Yankees just had a second great outing of the year with a stat line of 6IP, 4H, 0ER, and an amazing/uncharacteristically striking out 6 batters!! Through his major league career Wang hasn't been high in the K department so don't expect this to continue. But this is a great pitcher for wins since he pitches for the stacked lineup of the Yankees.

Ben Sheets of the Brewers had an incredible outing with a 5 hit complete game shutout with 8K's. Sheets is a must own for all fantasy owners but just like Harden of the A's he's prone to injury. Owners, just hope this is the season where he stays healthy.

Erik Bedard of the Mariners is expected to pitch on Tuesday after skipping his start over the weekend with a sore hip.