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First Impressions

If you missed it (and if you're fantasy baseball fanatic, you didn't), the Matt Wieters Era finally began on May 29. His sidekick in hype, David Price, made his season debut just a scant four days earlier. Perhaps inspired by seeing Orioles and Rays fans stampeding to the ticket counter, the New York Mets, Atlanta Braves and Chicago White Sox all followed suit by calling up their own franchise saviors, Fernando Martinez, Tommy Hanson and Gordon Beckman seemingly within minutes of each other. Let's take a look at the first impressions these kids are making on the fantasy baseball owners burning up the waiver wires to add them to their own rosters... Matt Wieters: I'll leave the hyperbole up to the folks at the hilarious Matt Wieters Facts website, but let's just say that those possessing a Y chromosome haven't been this excited since Jessica Biel finally revealed her true talents in Powder Blue. But don't start casting that Hall-of-Fame plaque just yet. Wieters was batting just .229 as of this writing, without a homerun or RBI to his name. He does sport an unsightly 8:1 K:BB ratio, mildly surprising given his minor league track record of patience. Those expecting "Joe Mauer with power" to be their fantasy savior this season may be sorely disappointed. He plays the most physically and mentally demanding defensive position on the diamond, so any extra work he does this summer will be dedicated to learning about the Orioles pitchers and opposing hitters, not adjusting his own swing. He'll have to survive in the batter's box on talent alone and, while that talent is prodigious, that may not be enough for a 23 year old with barely a season's worth of professional experience. For perspective, here's how some of the best hitting catchers in major league history fared in their real exposure to the big show: Mike Piazza - 21G, .232 1 HR 7 RBI Carlton Fisk - 16G, .283 2 HR 6 RBI Johnny Bench - 26G, .163 1 HR 6 RBI There are exceptions (both Mauer and Brian McCann got their careers off to solid statistical starts), but regardless, patience will be the order of business for Wieters owners. They may have to wait until 2010 for their investment to truly pay off. David Price: Though he made is major league debut last season, Price is still a rookie and, perhaps excepting Hanson, the most hyped pitching prospect in all of baseball. Rays fans and fantasy baseball owners surely questioned Tampa's decision to send Price to Triple-A Durham to open to the season, but the prudence may well have paid off. Not only did the Rays delay Price's service time clock (no small factor for a small market team like the Rays), not only did Price gain valuable experience while pitching for the Bulls, not only will they be better able to control Price's innings load this season, but they also got a good look at what Jeff Niemann and Andy Sonnanstine could offer the big club this season. Since in Sonnanstine's case the answer is "not much," expect Price to stick around Tampa even after Scott Kazmir returns from his injury prompted hiatus. That said, don't expect miracles. Other recent, similarly talented young arms have experienced plenty of growing pains once they started facing major league hitters: Max Scherzer - 115.1 IP, 2-8, 3.59 ERA Clayton Kershaw - 171.2 IP, 8-10, 4.35 ERA Going back a little farther, we begin to see a trend developing: Jon Lester - 81.1 IP, 7-2, 4.76 ERA Chad Billingsley - 90 IP, 7-4, 3.80 ERA And how about some future Hall-of-Famers: Tom Glavine - 50.1 IP, 2-4, 5.54 ERA Greg Maddux - 31 IP, 2-4, 5.52 ERA Frankly, it almost behooves Price to start slowly as many pitchers who came out of the gate dominating (Dwight Gooden, Fernando Valenzuela) ultimately flamed out more rapidly than Paris Hilton's "acting" career. Since this post is already obscenely long and I'm running out of clever celebrity comparisons, we'll cover Martinez, Hanson and Beckman in the next edition of Fantasy Tipster's First Impressions early next week.

The Daily Dirt for Sunday

by Todd Lammi Chipper Jones smacked two home runs and went 4 for 4 with 5 RBI to lead the Atlanta Braves to an 8-7 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. Yunel Escobar went 3 for 5 and drove in the game-winning run in the 8th inning. Rookie Tommy Hanson was taken deep three times in his debut, allowing six runs in six innings with five strikeouts. Ryan Braun went 2 for 4 with two home runs and four RBI for Milwaukee. Braun now has 38 RBI on the season to go with his 12 home runs. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Sunday... Hitters: Nelson Cruz moved into a tie in the American League home run race after clubbing his 17th home run of the season. Cruz went 3 for 4 with three runs scored. Since May 20th, he has not gone more than three games without hitting a home run. Shane Victorino went 2 for 5 with two RBI including his fifth home run of the season. Victorino is now hitting .295 on the season with 29 RBI and 9 stolen bases. Juan Rivera went 3 for 5 with three RBI and his sixth home run of the year, giving him 25 runs knocked in on the season. Rivera has driven in a run in 7 of his last 8 games, giving him nine RBI during that period. Aaron Hill broke out of an 0-for-25 rut by connecting for his 13th home run of the season and boosting his RBI total to 40. Despite a roughly 60 point drop in batting average from the beginning of May to the start of June, Hill still hit .307 for the month of May. Alexei Ramirez went 2 for 5 with three RBI and delivered his fourth home run of the year. After ending May on a high note by hitting .281 for the month, he has started off slow in June batting .174. Clint Barmes has been on a roll, going 3 for 4 with two RBI on Sunday, which gave him five consecutive games with two or more hits. He has now driven in seven runs in his last four games. Jose Lopez went 3 for 5 with two RBI and hit his sixth home run of the season. Despite batting only .236 on the season, Lopez has still managed to drive in 31 runs so far this year. Rookie Andrew McCutchen went 3 for 5 with an RBI and is batting .333 early on since his promotion from Triple-A this week. Mark Reynolds finally put an end to an 18 inning game, delivering a three-run home run off of position player Josh Wilson. The home run was the 14th of the season for Reynolds who had struck out four times earlier in the game. Pitchers: Roy Halladay pitched a complete game shutout, allowing seven hits and no walks with six strikeouts, to improve to 10-1 on the season. More impressive is that the shutout comes on the heels of throwing a season-high 133 pitches in his last start. Halladay has been a true workhorse this season, pitching at least seven innings in every start he has made. Rookie Antonio Bastardo moved to 2-0 after allowing two runs in five innings with four strikeouts. He had some control problems, as he only managed first pitch strikes to 7 out of 23 hitters, but he pitched well with men on base to minimize the potential damage. Livan Hernandez improved to 5-1 by hurling seven shutout innings with four strikeouts. Hernandez has dropped his ERA almost 3.5 runs since his only loss of the season back on April 23rd. Ubaldo Jimenez allowed two runs in eight innings with nine strikeouts to notch his fourth win of the season. Take away his three starts against the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team that has pounded him for a 10.20 ERA this season, and his numbers would be even better. Rookie Vin Mazzaro improved to 2-0 by pitching 7 1/3 scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Mazzaro has yet to allow a run in 13 2/3 innings since being recalled from Triple-A. Erik Bedard allowed two runs in five innings with four strikeouts to up his mark to 5-2 on the year. Despite his good record and low ERA of 2.47, he has not made it to the seventh inning in a start since May 5th. Ricky Nolasco pitched better in his return from Triple-A, allowing two earned runs in seven innings with four strikeout, but was still tagged with his sixth loss of the season. Closers: Chad Qualls blew his third save of the season, allowing two runs in 2/3 of an inning. Qualls, who complained of forearm stiffness this past week has blown two of his last three save opportunities. To get more fantasy baseball insight and analysis, go to Fantasy Baseball Tools

The Daily Dirt for Saturday

by Todd Lammi Andre Ethier hit two solo home runs, including a walk-off home run in the 12th inning to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Ethier has seen his average drop 54 points coming into Saturday's game since Manny Ramirez was suspended. Rafael Furcal sent the game into extra innings with his second home run of the year in the ninth inning off Brad Lidge, who blew his sixth save of the season. In his second start back from the disabled list, Hiroki Kuroda tossed six shutout innings with five strikeouts. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Saturday night... Hitters: Ben Zorbist went 2 for 3 with two runs scored and connected on his 11th home run of the season. Zorbist has homered three times in his last four games. Mark Teixeira went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI and smacked his 17th home run of the season. I think with Alex Rodriguez protecting him in the line up and the way the New York Yankees new stadium is playing, Teixeira could easily be the second best first basemen in fantasy baseball behind Albert Pujols the remainder of the season. Teammate Alex Rodriguez hit his 8th home run of the season and also stole his first base of the year. The home run was A-Rod's first in his last 12 games. Prince Fielder hit two solo home runs giving him 15 total on the season to go with 54 RBI. Fielder has heated up in his last 10 games, boosting his batting average 34 points and hitting five home runs with 11 RBI. Nick Johnson went 3 for 4 with 3 RBI and stroked his fifth home run of the season. Johnson is now batting .332 on the year with 30 RBI. Ian Stewart banged out two home runs and drove in five while going 3 for 4 at the plate. Stewart has homered four times in his last four games with 12 RBI. Josh Fields got the start over recent call up Gordon Beckham and went 2 for 4 with his third home run of the year. It was weird time to start Fields given that Beckham had only six at bats so far before sitting and Fields was hitting under .200 against left-handed pitching. Pitchers: Edwin Jackson picked up a complete game victory, allowing one run with five strikeouts. Jackson improved to 6-3 on the season and now ranks second in the American League in both ERA (2.16) and whip ratio (0.98). Gavin Floyd allowed one run in 6 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts to up his mark to 4-5 on the year. Floyd has turned it around in his last four starts with six runs allowed in 29 2/3 innings and 31 strikeouts. Jarrod Washburn allowed one run in six innings with six strikeouts in a no decision. Washburn has allowed two runs in his last 19 innings even though he does not have any wins to show for it. He is currently on pace to set a career high in strikeouts with 145 which would be his highest total since 2002. Jon Lester pitched a complete game two-hitter to even his record at 5-5. Lester allowed one run and struck out 11 to give him double digit strikeouts in his second straight start. Ryan Dempster threw six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts in a no decision. He could be finally past his blister problems, as he has not allowed a run in two straight contests. Rookie Trevor Cahill allowed two runs in six innings with five strikeouts to notch his third win of the season. Cahill has allowed two runs in each of his last four starts. Cincinnati Reds rookie Matt Maloney in his first major league start allowed two runs in six innings with four strikeouts in a no decision. He will face the Kansas City Royals in his next start. John Lannan hurled a complete game shutout with two strikeouts to earn his third win of the season. Making his first start since 2007, Kelvim Escobar allowed two runs in five innings with five strikeouts. John Smoltz allowed one hit and one run in six innings in his rehab start in Triple-A on Saturday, while throwing 74 pitches. His next start in Triple-A will come on Thursday. Closers: Marian Rivera took a loss, allowing three runs in 2/3 of an inning against the Tampa Bay Rays. Rivera has suffered both of his losses against the Rays this season. Randy Choate picked up his third save of the season for the Rays when Dan Wheeler was unable to close out the game in the ninth inning. Leo Nunez picked up his second save of the year in relief of Matt Lindstrom. Lindstrom was charged with two runs in the ninth inning before being removed. To get more fantasy baseball insight and analysis, go to Fantasy Baseball Tools

Fantasy Baseball - the Daily Dirt for Wednesday

by Todd Lammi If you are an Atlanta Braves fan, today has provided quite a swing of emotion. Three events happened which all somewhat coincided with each other depending on who's version of the story you want to believe to shuffle the Atlanta roster. The first move was the Braves fleecing the Pittsburgh Pirates out of Nate McLouth for three prospects, none of whom were named, Tommy Hanson, Kris Medlen, Jason Heyward or Freddie Freeman. Even with the addition of McLouth who takes the spot of Jordan Schafer who was recently demoted, the Braves are still short a bat in their line up. At only $2 million, the Braves take on very little salary by adding McLouth this season. The next move the Braves made frees up salary, by surprisingly releasing Tom Glavine who was due to return from the minor leagues on rehab assignment very shortly. The release of Glavine saves the Braves $3.5 million in salary, in addition to creating a roster spot for top prospect Tommy Hanson who was called up from Triple-A. Hanson will move into the Braves rotation Saturday and get the start against the Milwaukee Brewers. Kris Medlen gets a pat on the back for striking out nine in his six innings in his last start and a trip to the bullpen. For the Pirates, the trade of McLouth opens up center field for Andrew McCutchen who should see the majority of starts for the rest of the season. McCutchen was hitting .303 with four home runs, 20 RBI and 10 stolen bases in 201 at bats in Triple-A. If you are a fan on minor league players or have some on your team, these last two weeks have to feel like Christmas with Matt Wieters getting called up and then Hanson and McCutchen getting called up today. If that was not special enough, late Wednesday night it was announced that Gordon Beckham has been recalled by the Chicago White Sox. If the White Sox are calling him up after just a week in Triple-A, it stands to reason he is going to be in the starting line up somewhere in the infield. Beckham was hitting .464 in Triple-A with three RBI and one steal in seven games. Between two levels on the season, he was at .326 with four home runs and 25 RBI. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Wednesday night... Hitters: Ben Zorbist, wow, where did all the power come from? Zorbist should be a permanent fixture in the Tampa Bay Rays line up going forward, and is rewarding fantasy baseball owners, by connecting for home runs on consecutive days. Zorbist is currently on pace for a .300 average with 33 home runs, 105 RBI and 16 steals. Nice to see Elvis Andrus finally turning on the jets a little bit, as he stole two bases and went 2 for 3 at the plate. With stolen bases in consecutive games, he is now on pace for 30 thefts on the season. Jorge Posada homered for the second straight and has been on a nice roll since returning from the disabled list on May 29th with three home runs in six games with six RBI. Bobby Abreu went 2 for 5 with 4 RBI including his second home run of the season. After being on a stolen base tear for the first month and a half of the season, Abreu has not stolen a base since May 19th. Dan Uggla homered for the second consecutive day and is now up to 11 home runs with 39 RBI. His batting average is s-l-o-w-l-y creeping up t0 .219 after being around the Mendoza line for much of the season. Hunter Pence went 4 for 5 with 3 RBI and slugged his sixth home run of the season. The home run Wednesday night matched Pence's home run total for the entire month of May. Ryan Howard hit home run number 16 and knocked in two runs giving him 45 RBI on the season. He has now driven in a run in five consecutive game, totaling 11 plated runners. Laynce Nix hit two home runs and drove in four, giving him seven RBI in June which matches his total for the entire month of May. He should continue to get the majoirty of at bats against right-handed pitching. Brandon Phillips went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI and two stolen bases and has homered three times in his last five games. Scott Hairston was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained biceps. Will Venable was recalled from Triple-A and should see time along with Tony Gwynn Jr. Asdrubal Cabrera was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained left shoulder and is expected to be out 2-4 weeks. Jamey Carroll should see time at third base with Jhonny Peralta moving over to shortstop. Carroll went 2 for 6 batting second on Wednesday. Peralta, back at his old position of shortstop went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI, including his second long ball of the year. Pitchers: Possibly there is light at the end of the tunnel for Jeff Niemann who tossed a complete game shutout with nine strikeouts to earn his fifth win of the season and lower his ERA to 3.77. Niemann has allowed two runs in his last 18 innings with 18 strikeouts and has seen his overall ERA decrease in his last five outings. Jered Weaver hurled seven innings of one run ball with 10 strikeouts to improve his record to 5-2 on the year. He has now allowed one run in five of his six last starts, although he only has two wins in those outings due to a lack of run support. Ted Lilly allowed one run in seven innings with seven strikeouts in a no decision against the Atlanta Braves. He cost himself a win with a throwing error that caused an unearned run to score. Josh Beckett tossed 7 2/3 shutout innings with nine strikeouts to up his record to 6-2 on the year. He has allowed two runs or less in his last four starts while shaving two full runs off of his ERA. Scott Feldman allowed two runs in 6 1/3 innings with five strikeouts to improve to a perfect 5-0 on the season. As a starter this season, remember that he had three relief appearances that threw his ERA out of whack, Feldman had an ERA of 2.59 heading into the game. Josh Outman moved to 3-0, after allowing two runs in 6 2/3 innings with two strikeouts. Check out the top 2o in pitching for May, he ranked high in several statistics. Cliff Lee allowed one run in eight innings with five strikeouts to notch his third victory of the year. Despite his 3-6 record, Lee has a 2.96 ERA as the Indians have been shut out or scored one run in six of his starts this year. J.A. Happ tossed seven shutout innings with four strikeouts to earn his fourth win of the season and second in three starts. Chad Billingsley hurled six shutout innings with nine strikeouts to up his mrk to 7-3 on the year. His numbers would be even more impressive if he managed to reduce his walks, after walking four or more batters in 5 of his last 7 starts. Closers: Jose Valverde is expected to go on a short rehab assignment next week and if all goes well is on track to return from the disabled list around June 12th. Joakim Soria returned to action, facing two batters and throwing 13 pitches. I would still hold on to Juan Cruz for another week or two if you need saves, just in case. To get more fantasy baseball insight and analysis, go to Fantasy Baseball Tools

Fantasy Baseball - the Daily Dirt for Sunday

by Todd Lammi Adrian Gonzalez stayed scorching hot, hitting his 20th home run and driving in three runs. What is mind boggling to me is how he was only 12th in the league in walks heading into Sunday's game. The four hitters batting behind him on Sunday had averages of .228, .236, .172, .209. Why would he not be walked every time he came up to bat? He has homered against every team he has played against this season except for the San Francisco Giants. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Sunday... Hitters: Mark Teixeira hit his 16th home run of the season and drove in all four runs for the New York Yankees on Sunday. He ends the week with three home runs and 10 RBI as he knocked in a run in 5 out of 6 games for the week. Kevin Youkilis hit two solo home runs and scored three runs. Despite having nine home runs on the season, Youkilis leads the American League in slugging percentage as well as on base percentage. David Wright stole his 12th base of the season. Despite hitting .333, he is off to a slow start in the power department with only three home runs. I have to wonder if he is hiding an injury as two stats give me warning flags 48 games into the season. One, he is on pace for 178 strikeouts which would be 60 higher than his career high of 118 last season. Second, he has already been thrown out stealing seven times, which is more than each of the three previous three seasons when he was caught five times each year. Ben Francisco went 2 for 3 and stole his ninth base of the season. Francisco is quietly putting together a nice season, and is now on pace for 18 home runs, 70 RBI and 32 steals. Josh Willingham hit two solo home runs giving him nine on the season. He seems to enjoy hitting with no men on base, because despite having nine home runs, he only has 12 RBI on the season. Carlos Pena looks to be locked in the home run mode as he continues to swing for the fences. Pena hit his 17th home run of the season, but continues to strike out at a high rate, making it tougher for him to boost his .231 batting average. Pena has 66 strikeouts on the year, good for a 204 pace. Mike Cameron homered for the second consecutive day and now has 11 long balls on the season. Despite being the 20th player to reach the 250-250 home run - steal level, his stolen bases are a thing of a past in 2009. He has two stolen bases for the season and both of those came on opening day. Brandon Phillips homered for the second straight day as he continues to play through the the injury to his thumb. Phillips is up to 9 home runs and 36 RBI on the season. Adam Kennedy went 3 for 5 with three runs scored and hit two home runs to give him four on the season. Since the Oakland Athletics acquired Kennedy from the Tampa Bay Rays on May 10th for a player to be named later, Kennedy has hit .390 with four home runs, 15 RBI and five steals in 82 at bats. Edwin Maysonet went 2 for 4 and is now hitting .450 for the Houston Astros. With Kaz Matsui on the disabled list, Maysonet should have some value in National League only leagues the next few weeks. Scott Hairston hit his seventh home run of the season and stole his sixth base of the year. With Jody Gerut now out of the picture, I see a possible 20-20 season out of Hairston. Torii Hunter blasted his 12th home run of the season and knock in two runs to boost his RBI total to 42. Hunter is currently on pace for his first 30-30 season of his career with 12 home runs and 10 stolen bases year to date. Matt Kemp hit his sixth home run of the year and stole his 12th base of the season. Despite being slotted 7th in the batting order for the majority of the season, Kemp still is on pace to drive in close to 100 runs this year. Pitchers: Edwin Jackson hurled eight shutout innings with seven strikeouts to up his mark to 5-3 on the year. Jackson has allowed three earned runs or less in his last five starts, going 4-1 during that period. It took him three starts but Kris Medlen finally picked up his first win of the season, allowing one run in six innings with nine strikeouts. The win most likely extended his stay in the rotation until Tom Glavine is ready to return. Chad Gaudin allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts to notch his second win of the year. It was the first start this season for Gaudin where he did not walk a batter, after previously walking a minimum of three hitters in every start. Jon Lester allowed one run in six innings with 12 strikeouts to pick up his fourth win of the season. Despite an increase in his strikeout rate, Lester has seen opponents bat 50 points higher against him in 2009 and his home run rate is 2.8 times higher than it was in 2008. Eric Milton allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings with four strikeouts to improve his record to 2-0. The 33-year-old Milton has solidified the Los Angeles Dodgers 5th starter slot, and one could argue his three starts should make him the fourth starter ahead of Eric Stults. Yovani Gallardo allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts to boost his record to 5-2. Heading into Sunday's start, Gallardo had the lowest batting average against for starting pitchers in all of baseball at .193. Closers: A painful way to end the week for David Aardsma owners, as he allowed six base runners in 2/3 of an inning with three runs scored to blow his first save of the year. To get more fantasy baseball insight and analysis, go to Fantasy Baseball Tools