MLB Fantasy Baseball: Wednesday News and Notes

• When a pitcher describes any injury using words like "numbness in the pitching hand," you take notice. Josh Beckett has had his start pushed back to at least Tuesday and will undergo tests today to determine the severity of the injury he first dealt with on Sunday. Unless you hear otherwise, expect him to be pitching against New York on Tuesday.
• Let's take care of the rest of the injuries here, as most of them occur in the bullpen. Billy Wagner is out indefinitely, making Aaron Heilman the de-facto closer going forward. George Sherrill has landed on the DL with tightness in his pitching shoulder, and Jason Isringhausen is likely done for the season. As far as fantasy impact, look to add Chris Perez if he's still available, as he should get the ball in St. Louis. If you're trolling waivers for other potential closers, Tyler Yates and John Grabow in Pittsburgh will still get chances as will Dan Wheeler in Tampa until Percival returns. Plenty of household names there.
• I don't know who this team is or what they've done with the Angels' bullpen, but someone needs to figure this out. Anaheim has looked out-and-out awful in their two games in Tampa. Last night, the bullpen blew up in the eighth inning, spoiling a solid start by Ervin Santana. Santana continues to pitch well on the road, regardless of the environment.
• A.J. Burnett continued his domination of the Yankees. Burnett seems to simply have success against them, and this time recorded the win in a normal fashion, without giving up four or six runs in the process. He pitched eight innings, struck out 13, gave up just five hits, and one earned run—not a bad outing against anyone. He improved to 3-0 against New York and lowered his ERA against them to 1.61 in three outings. When it comes to wins, Burnett is now 4-0 in August.
• Let's not go and say that Jason Varitek is turning a corner. The catcher is still hitting just .250 in his last six games, so he isn't exactly lighting the world on fire. Yes, he's swinging the bat well against Baltimore, but he has all season (.290 AVG). Tek is now going through a very public divorce and maybe finally getting that ball rolling will help. But a hot streak is much more than a .250 stretch...even for a .218 hitter.
• While on the Red Sox, I have to agree with Peter King that watching Matsuzaka pitch is "excruciatingly rewarding." Matsuzaka got his 15th win of the season last night, but only managed to get through five innings because of his pitch count. It's his sixth win of the year that has only seen him record five innings of work. He walked five last night and gave up six hits for a WHIP north of 2.00. If you can handle the WHIP, the ERA, strikeouts, and wins always make him worth the start. It's just irritating to watch.
• Talk about an unexpected pitcher's duel last night between Ian Snell and Braden Looper. Looper took the loss, giving up just one run over seven innings, while Snell finally pitched well on the road and shut out the Cardinals through seven innings of his own. Looper has given people reason to expect outings like this about every third start. Snell, on the other hand, caught lightning in a bottle.
• Barring any setbacks, Alexi Casilla will return to the Twins' lineup on Wednesday. When talking about the loss of Ian Kinsler, he's one guy that I didn't mention and it was a good point by RedSox Fanatic on BleacherReport to mention that. Casilla is on waivers

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