Fantasy Baseball Tonight 6/20

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Josh Beckett has officially caught fire. He has now won six of his last seven decisions, and with the complete game shutout tonight, has not allowed even a run in four of his last six starts. He now also has 88 strikeouts in 91 innings, so he is really helping you in that category as well. Beckett is really prone to wild streaks, so this could turn around and he could get cold again. However, he is one of the more talented pitchers in baseball, so continue to start him with confidence.

I was going to write about Luis Valbuena yesterday, but decided against it at the last minute. Apparently, he didn't like that so he went out and got my attention today. He had three hits on Saturday, including two home runs, his third in the last two games. In the last four games he has eight hits and has driven in seven runs. Yahoo lists Valbuena at 5'10" and 190 pounds, but I have also seen him listed at 165 pounds. Those are not the kind of dimensions that scream power hitter to me, so you shouldn't be expecting this to continue. In a short term injury situation, or if you have a spot where you just pick up the hot guy, I think Valbuena qualifies. He is not the second coming of Hanley Ramirez however.

Jhonny Peralta had his third consecutive two hit game, and his first homer in over two weeks. All of you know I came into the season with big hopes for Peralta, and they have now switched to high hopes for Peralta after the All-Star Break. He has only had small spurts of production this season, so if he is out there, I couldn't say that I would send you running to the waiver wire. I do think that he will outperform Mr. Valbuena above, so if they are both out there I would consider him first, unless you just want to play the hot guy.

James Shields had one of the better starts of his season on Saturday against the Mets, but it was interrupted by rain. He had only thrown 87 pitches through seven innings when the game was delayed, and likely would have kept going. But he did allow only one run, didn't walk a batter and struck out four. I have been down on Shields this year, as he hasn't seemed like the same pitcher he had been the past couple of years. You can say that about the entire Rays rotation. But he is definitely capable of having an outing like this most times he goes to the mound. He should be better than he has been this year, perhaps this is the start of a nice roll.

Mat Gamel

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