Fantasy Baseball Tonight 6/9: Reimold, Beckett, Papi, Gamel

Nolan Reimold continues to hit very well for the Orioles, and is far surpassing expectations for most rookies. He raised his average to .295 with two more hits tonight, including his seventh homer of the year. In 23 games he has now driven in 16 runs, and is in the Orioles plans for 2008 to stay.

If for some reason Reimold is still available in your league, keeper or seasonal, he is worth having on your team. Find a way to get him without dropping a proven star.

Josh Beckett won his fifth straight decision in impressive fashion over the Yankees on Tuesday night. He threw six shutout innings, walked just two and struck out eight. This makes four straight starts that Beckett allowed one run or less, and he is now 7-2.

I know that some of you had some reservations starting him tonight considering some of his struggles this year, but right now he is white-hot, and is a must-start no matter the opponent.

David Ortiz hit his second homer in the last three days, and now has a seven-game hitting streak. Of course, his batting average is still just under .200, but perhaps this is the slight sign of life that Papi owners have been waiting for.

I stick by my opinion that you have to keep him on your team and not trade him away for something cheap. There is still a chance that he will break out of this and go on some sort of tear.

If he was dropped in your league, I would seriously consider picking him up.

Mat Gamel has now started four straight games for the Brewers, and the best part is, he is taking advantage of the time that he is being given.

Gamel homered for the second time this season, and now has ten RBI in 20 games. Of course, I think only about 13 of them are games that he started in. The guy has a ton of offensive potential, but needs to improve his defense in order to stay in the lineup. It appears he is giving the Brew Crew some much needed pop.

If he continues to get starts, he is worth having on your roster. If he’s still primarily a pinch hitter, he is a keeper league guy only.

This one is for you Sinkoff! Brad Bergesen had his best start as a pro, and through ten starts he is still yet to allow more than four runs.

Bergesen had a pretty good minor league career, but I’m still not driving the bandwagon just yet.

Last year at AA he was 15-6 with a 3.22 ERA. He is not known as a strikeout pitcher, and had just 72 whiffs in 148 innings in 2008.

Given the state of Orioles baseball, their division rivals, and the low number of strikeouts, I would not drop anyone good for Bergesen, but I would continue to monitor his progress in the majors.

Elijah Dukes homered for the second time in three games, and may be on track to perform the way many expected.

I am not the biggest Dukes fan,but it is mostly because of his shady, checked past off the field. Heck, it isn’t even his past, it’s his present as well. He could do something stupid on any given day that could lead to a suspension, and I don’t like counting on someone who is unstable.

He is a very talented player, or else he’d be out of baseball by now for the number of dumb things he has done.

If you own him, get him in your lineup while he is hot, but be prepared for another injury or cold streak which could be around the corner.

Scott Baker had his second straight strong start, and could be worth having on your roster.

Last year, he had a very respectable 11-4 record with a 3.45 ERA. He is not an elite strikeout pitcher, but more than adequate, as he had 141 Ks in 172 innings in 2008.

Baker has had his fair share of horrible starts this season, but he is better than this. I believe that he will have a nice correction over the next number of weeks.

He might only match his win total from last season, but Baker is a nice pitcher to pick up when he has the right matchup. I’m not sure that he is anything more than that.

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Mailing List

I’m not going to stop bringing up the mailing list until I get a day where I don’t get a request to join it.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, when I find news earlier in the day I will send an email to you about whatever it might be.

If you were on the mailing list you would have found out about the callups of Matt Wieters, Fernando Martinez, Nolan Reimold and others. Also you would have been up-to-date on the trade of Nate McLouth, and injuries to Jose Reyes, etc.

This mailing list is your way to get a step up on your competition. Anyone who is on the list, please leave a comment below on whether you think that you have benefitted from the list.

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As always, your comments and questions are welcome [e-mail]. I guarantee a response within 18 hours. Also, don’t miss the “Fantasy Baseball Tonight” podcast four nights a week from Monday-Thursday.

The Big Show on Wednesday is co-hosted by Todd Farino of fantasybaseballsearch.com, RC Rizza of junkyardjake.com and myself, Ryan Hallam at fightingchancefantasy.com.

To hear the show go to www.blogtalkradio.com/the_true_guru.

You can also hear me weekly on the Tuesday Night show. Join me with Jeff Mans every Tuesday night at 10pm EST for all the the info and craziness we can pack into one hour. A can’t miss if you plan on winning your league.