Double Dipping Two-Start Pitchers Week 3: Matt Cain, David Price

Many players have gotten off to surprisingly fast starts in 2010 like Jorge Cantu , Edgar Renteria , Vernon Wells , and Alex Gonzalez , but don’t expect these guys to continue to play well above their ability levels. They are hot now and you should enjoy the ride, but be ready to trade them or waive them before reality kicks in and they drag your team down. Keep an eye on their preseason projections, as those will be reasonably close measuring sticks for their final statistics.

Now, here are the projected two-start pitchers for this week. For those of you in leagues who require you to set your lineup at the beginning of the week, these are guys you should strongly consider:

American League BAL Brad Bergesen BOS John Lackey , Tim Wakefield CWS John Danks CLE Justin Masterson DET Dontrelle Willis , Rick Porcello KC Brian Bannister LAA Joel Pineiro , Scott Kazmir MIN Kevin Slowey NYY Javier Vazquez OAK Gio Gonzalez SEA Doug Fister TB Jeff Niemann , David Price TEX Colby Lewis TOR Brandon Morrow

National League ARI Rodrigo Lopez ATL Tommy Hanson CHC Randy Wells , Carlos Zambrano CIN Homer Bailey COL Aaron Cook , Jorge de la Rosa FLA Chris Volstad HOU Brett Myers LAD Chad Billingsley MIL David Bush NYM Jon Niese , Mike Pelfrey PHI Kyle Kendrick PIT Charlie Morton SD Clayton Richard SF Matt Cain STL Brad Penny WAS Craig Stammen , Scott Olsen

Rick’s Picks
Five best bets for double-start pitchers this week

1. Matt Cain , SF—Good matchups (at SD, vs. STL), but the offense has been poor. Look for good ratios, but the wins are in question.

2. David Price , TB—Price is hot and his opponents (at CWS, vs. TOR) are not.

3. John Lackey , BOS—Though Lackey hasn’t been as good as advertised, he’s facing two beatable opponents (TB, BAL) at home.

4. Kevin Slowey , MIN—Slowey is much better than he’s pitched so far and look for him to start to show his value as the Twins play two weak opponents (vs CLE, at KC).

5. Brad Penny , STL—Penny is pitching very well right now, so you should enjoy the ride as he faces two weak offenses on the road (at ARI, at SF).

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Rick Milleman is the head fantasy baseball contributor at DraftBuddy.com . Check his annual player projections included in the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy to help draft your championship team.