Fantasy Baseball Tonight (April 10)

Cole Hamels had his much anticipated first start of the season, and boy was it a DUD!  After missing his Opening Day start due to elbow troubles in spring, Hamels finally took the mound against the Rockies. 

His debut didn’t last long.  He was unable to get through the fourth inning before allowing 11 hits, seven runs, and he only whiffed one.

This was a bitter disappointment for those who own Hamels (I hope you sat him, Martha!), but it is far from time to panic.  Cole missed much of the spring and couldn’t have been perfectly ready to give his all. 

Of course, I still thought he would do well, as I started him in every league where I had him.  Keep him in your lineup and don’t try to dump him over injury concerns. 

There is a slight cause for concern given the number of innings he threw last year, but I’m not ready to throw in the towel on Hamels after one start.

Rich Harden also made his season debut, and with much better results.  Harden, who also was dealing with some injury concerns this spring, lasted six innings, allowed one earned run and struck out 10! 

Now for those of you who follow me know that I never trust this guy, and many are wondering if this changes my opinion. 

You have never heard me question his talent, just his ability to stay on the mound.  If you own him, great, he came through the game OK, if you are thinking of trying to trade for him; Buyer Beware!

Fantasy players have been hoping for this….Kevin Gregg blew his first save for the Chicago Cubs.  Everyone wants Carlos Marmol to be named the closer for the Cubs (except Gregg owners, of course), and every time that Gregg blows one there will be calls for Marmol to be in there. 

Marmol did pick up his second hold of the season, but in three appearances, he has yet to strike a batter out.  I think that Gregg will be on a much longer leash than this, and I wouldn’t be on Closer Watch just yet.

The other day I wrote about Adam Lind having one big day with a couple of O-fers as well.  I guess he read that (yeah right), and got mad because he has been hitting up a storm again. 

The game tonight is in question at this time due to a rain delay, but Lind has homered for the second straight day and now has three on the season.  I’m still not buying, but he is making a case for himself.

Also in that game, Travis Hafner homered for the second straight day.  Left for dead this season after a year lost to a shoulder injury last year, “Pronk” is starting to look like he’s not done just yet. 

Again, rain might wipe it out, but he is hitting in the .350s with two homers and now four ribbies on the young season.  If he’s out there and you have someone that you aren’t interested in keeping, Hafner might be worth a look.

A popular sleeper heading into the season was Nelson Cruz.  Well, after a two homer game on Wednesday, Cruz connected for his third of the year on Friday, and is looking like he will live up to the expectations. 

Cruz hit 37 homers in 99 games last year in the minors, and although I don’t think he will get to that number, he could be a solid contributor in the power department in 2009.

Armando Galarraga had a great rookie season, and he is off to a good start in his sophomore campaign.  Galarraga have Detroit its first reliable pitching performance, as he allowed only one run over seven innings and struck out eight.

He struck out only 126 in 178 innings, so you shouldn’t expect that number of strikeouts again, but he still should have a good year.  He won 13 games in 2008; can he reach that again this year?  Yeah, I would say that is a reasonable expectation.

Miguel Cabrera continued his torrid start with another home run and a whopping six ribbies, giving him 10 on the season.  He is looking like he is going to have another fantastic season and will be worth whatever draft pick you used on him.

On the other hand, young Chris Davis is really struggling to start the season.  With his O-fer today he now has more strikeouts (6) than hits (1) so far.

It isn’t time to panic yet, but the concern with him is he never played above AA ball before last year.  But the guy was pretty darn successful last season, and I believe he will get out of this early-season funk.

Nick Swisher had another solid game for the Yankees today.  A day after a five-RBI day, Swisher was in the lineup again and had another RBI.

He is certainly making a case for more playing time, but right now I don’t think he will see enough at-bats to warrant a place on your fantasy roster.

Another Yankee, Andy Pettitte, had a solid outing.  Pettitte gave the Yankees seven strong innings, allowed just one run, and struck out six. 

He was so bad last year that he is most likely available in your league (unless it is populated with Yankee fans).  If you have no Pinstripe People, Pettitte is worth watching in his next start.

Given his age and his 2008, I don’t think I would go running out and grabbing him after this first start, but it was certainly a good sign for the Bronx Bombers.

Not good Jason Motte owners!  Tony LaRussa gave the kid another shot at closing the door against the Astros, but was unsuccessful again.  Motte came into a 5-3 game and allowed two of the first three men to reach base.

At this point, if you have another closer available to you in free agency I would probably make the move to let go of Motte.  If you are only picking up a set up man, I would see if LaRussa called on Motte the next time a save situation occurs.

Jayson Werth broke out of his early season doldrums in a big way with a 4-4 game that included two doubles and his first home run. 

There is plenty of debate in the fantasy community whether Werth will duplicate his 20/20 campaign from 2008.  After a slow start, perhaps he is on the way there already.

Young Pitchers Debuts

Dodgers’ young phenom James McDonald had his first major league start today, and you can’t say it went well.  After breezing through the first two innings without allowing a hit, the wheels came flying off. 

He allowed a leadoff homer to Chris Young in the third inning.  Next thing you know, four more runs had come across to score and McDonald was out of the game. 

He didn’t have a great spring or dominating spring numbers, so I would stay away from him at this point.

Brett Anderson also didn’t fare well, but his manager showed some confidence in him by allowing him to stay in the game even when he was struggling badly.  Like McDonald, Anderson gave up five runs in an inning, but he remained in the game. 

After allowing those five runs in the second, Anderson continued to pitch through six innings and didn’t allow any more damage.  That shows some guts on the part of Anderson and some hope for the future.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome at [e-mail]. I guarantee a response within 18 hours. Also, don’t miss “The Fantasy Baseball Gurus Show” every Wednesday night at 10pm EST on Blog Talk Radio.

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