MLB Fantasy Week In Review: April 4-11

The fantasy baseball season has gotten off to a flying start. There were some pretty incredible performances from the first week of the season.

Here are the fantasy studs, the players who already have me concerned, and the potential pickups from April 4-11.

Polanco had a tremendous week for the Phillies

Fantasy Studs

Miguel Cabrera: .522/2/8/.621. After slipping up both on and off the field at the end of the last year, Cabrera looks extra focused in 2010. That means trouble for the rest of the American League.

Albert Pujols: .375/4/10/.444. Pujols’ Opening Day, two home run performance automatically put him on this list. Then he went ahead and another two home runs last night.

Ryan Howard: .357/3/10/.400. Perhaps the most impressive feat from Howard’s week was that he only struck out four times in 28 ABs.

Placido Polanco: .481/1/8/.500 with eight runs scored. If Polanco keeps getting on base in front of Chase Utley and Howard, then those two will set career highs in RBI and Polanco will set a career high for runs scored.

Nelson Cruz: .450/4/9. A very solid week for one of the more underrated players in baseball. If Cruz can play in 150 games, 40 home runs is a possibility.

Curtis Granderson: .348/2/4 with three stolen bases. Granderson made New York Yankee fans forget about Johnny Damon by hitting a home run in his first AB as a Yankee. He looks to be running again, which is good news for fantasy owners.

Roy Halladay: 2-0 with one run allowed, two walks, and 17 K’s in 16 IP. Halladay is going to run through the National League like a hot knife through butter. I am starting to think it almost might not be fair.

Tim Lincecum: 2-0 with two runs allowed, one walk, and 17 K’s in 14 IP. Every year we will all wonder if this is the year that Lincecum breaks down? It certainly doesn’t look like it will be this year.

Jorge De La Rosa: 1-0 with one hit allowed, zero runs, one walk, and nine K’s in seven IP. De La Rosa’s issue has always been command. If he figures things out in that area, then he will be a legit Cy Young candidate in 2010.

C.J. Wilson: 0-0 with zero runs allowed, two walks, and nine K’s in seven IP. I was very skeptical of Wilson moving into the starting rotation, but for one start he proved me wrong. Whether or not he can repeat his first performance throughout the year is the big question with Wilson.

Jon Rauch: Four saves with one run allowed and three K’s in four IP. Rauch did his best to make sure everyone forgot about Joe Nathan in Minnesota. With the Twins expected to win a lot of games this year, Rauch becomes a solid No. 2 fantasy closer.


Reasons for Concern

Mike Napoli: One week and just nine ABs aren’t going to cut it for Napoli owners. Sadly, it looks like Jeff Mathis is the No. 1 catcher for Mike Scioscia.

Brian Roberts: Roberts was placed on the 15-day DL today with a strained abdominal muscle. Roberts had back issues during spring training and now he has abdominal muscle issues. It looks like injuries will be a problem for Roberts this season.

Mike Gonzalez: three games, one save, and two blown saves for the new Baltimore Orioles closer. That is not going to fly with Dave Trembley.

Keep an eye on this situation. If Gonzalez blows another save this week, Jim Johnson could become the new Orioles’ closer.

Frank Francisco: After giving up six runs in three appearances last week, Francisco has already lost his job to Neftali Feliz. How bad do you have to be to lose your job one week into it?


Potential Pickups

Neftali Feliz: Feliz could be “K-Rod” 2.0. And I am talking about when K-Rod was a fastball throwing, strike out machine back in the mid-2000’s. Not the nibbler that we see today. Feliz has electric stuff and should be picked up in all fantasy formats.

Scott Podsednik: This pickup comes with a disclaimer: Only if you need stolen bases. Podsednik stole four bases last week and the Kansas City Royals will let him run at will this year.

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