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.

Fantasy Baseball - the Daily Dirt for Tuesday

by Todd Lammi There is rejoicing in fantasy baseball land Tuesday night as top prospect Matt Wieters of the Baltimore Orioles is expected to be recalled from Triple-A on Friday. It should not take long for Wieters to ascend to the top tier of the catching ranks, based on his expected performance. With injuries to Ryan Doumit and Chris Ianetta and Geovany Soto off to a slow start, it is not inconceivable for Wieters to be a top 5 catcher the rest of the season, behind Victor Martinez, Joe Mauer, Brian McCann and Bengie Molina. To give you an idea of the landscape at catcher from a fantasy baseball statistical purpose, Jorge Posada ranks six among catchers in RBI with 20 despite missing the last three weeks of action. Russell Martin still is stuck on zero home runs, although he does has six stolen bases and Mike Napoli should start to lose at bats with Vladimir Guerrero returning to action as Napoli was seeing time at designated hitter when not catching. Wieters, who was the fifth overall selection in the 2007 June draft, will take over immediately as the Orioles starting catcher upon his arrival. Wieters is currently hitting .305 with 5 home runs and 30 RBI in 141 at bats with a 2o to 30 walk to strikeout ratio in Triple-A. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Tuesday... Hitters: Orioles hitters responded to the news of Wieters impending arrival by collecting 14 hits in a 7-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. Adam Jones (11), Aubrey Huff (8) and Nolan Reimold (3) all hit home runs in the victory. With the young bats the Orioles have and the pitching in their farm system, they are probably 1 1/2 years away from competing for the division. The Cleveland Indians used four home runs to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1. Mark DeRosa starting in left field hit his 8th home run of the year and is now up to 32 RBI on the season. It is nice the Indians are show casing DeRosa's versatility in the outfield to boost his trade value, but that comes at the expense of playing time for Matt LaPorta who was sent back to Triple-A. LaPorta never got untracked with the Indians, batting .190 with one home run in 13 games. Carlos Pena hit his 16th home run and knocked in his 40th RBI to provide the lone run of offense for the Rays. Joey Votto hit a two-run home in the seventh inning to propel the Cincinnati Reds to a 6-4 win over the Houston Astros. The long ball was Votto's 8th of the season to go along with his 33 RBI. Gary Sheffield continues to pick up the slack offensively for the New York Mets with Jose Reyes, Ryan Church and Carlos Delgado all missing from the lineup due to injuries. Sheffield went 2 for 3 with 3 RBI and belted his fifth home run of the year to lead Mets to a 6-1 win over the Washington Nationals. He has now driven in nine runs in his last five games. Also for the Mets, rookie Fernando Martinez was recalled from Triple-A with Church going on the disabled list. Martinez got the start in right field batting sixth and went 0 for 3 with an RBI. Martinez was hitting .291 with 8 home runs and 28 RBI in 165 at bats in Triple-A with two stolen bases. Chris Davis hit two home runs to power the Texas Rangers to a 7-3 win over the New York Yankees. Davis now has 12 home runs on the season, but is only batting .208 on the year. Justin Morneau went 2 for 3 with 3 RBI including his 14th home run of the season in a 5-2 win over the Boston Red Sox. Morneau has driven in 11 runs in his last five games. Mark Reynolds hit his 13th home run of the year and knocked in two in a 6-5 win over the San Diego Padres. Reynolds is currently 5th in the National League in home runs and 7th in stolen bases with 10. Jayson Nix hit two solo home runs to give the Chicago White Sox a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels. Pitchers: Zack Greinke continued his amazing 2009 season, tossing a complete game against the Detroit Tigers in a 6-1 win. Greinke struck out eight while lowering his ERA to 0.84. He has still yet to allow more than two runs in any start this year and also has not given up a home run through 75 innings. Joe Blanton tossed seven shutout innings with 11 strikeouts in a 5-3 win over the Florida Marlins. The victory evened Blanton's record at 3-3 and easily surpassed his previous season high of six strikeouts. Carl Pavano allowed one run in seven innings with six strikeouts to pick up his fifth win of the season. Pavano has now won 5 of his last 6 starts, while allowing four runs or less in all of them. Livan Hernandez picked up a complete game win, allowing one run with six strikeouts. Hernandez has now allowed two runs or less in four of his last five starts. Adam Wainwright allowed one run in seven innings with nine strikeouts in a 8-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. Wainwright improved to 5-2 and has allowed one run in each of his last three starts, covering a total of 23 2/3 innings. Nick Blackburn allowed one earned run in seven innings with seven strikeouts to move to 4-2 on the season. Blackburn has shaved 1 1/2 runs off his ERA in his last five starts to his current mark of 3.55 Eric Milton picked up his first win in almost three years, tossing five innings of one run ball in a 7-1 win over the Colorado Rockies. Milton allowed seven hits and struck out three in his second start since being recalled from Triple-A. Sean Marshall allowed one run in five innings with six strikeouts to pick up a rain-shortened 6-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Marshall continues to keep pace with Randy Wells to see who will become the 5th starter once Rich Harden returns from the disabled list. Max Scherzer allowed two runs in seven innings with 10 strikeouts to earn his second win of the season. Scherzer has had back-to-back 10 strikeout performances and will face the Atlanta Braves on Sunday. Jarrod Washburn hurled six scoreless innings with four strikeouts in a 4-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics. Tim Lincecum pitched eight shutout innings and fanned eight in a 4-0 defeat of the Atlanta Braves. Lincecum lowered his ERA to 3.03 and has struck out eight or more in 7 of his last 8 starts. Closers: Brad Lidge was supposed to get the day off, but after the Marlins cut the lead to two in the ninth innings, he came in to record two outs for his ninth save of the season. Manager Charlie Manuel's use of the bullpen on Tuesday night signifies he has little faith in Ryan Madson as the closer and why he continues to stick with Lidge in spite of Lidge's recent blown saves. Instead of using Madson in the ninth inning and a different set up man in the eighth, he still pitched Madson in the eighth and had Chad Durbin come in to close the door in the ninth, which Durbin failed to do. To get more fantasy baseball insight and analysis, go to Fantasy Baseball Tools