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