Fantasy Fantasy Baseball

We've already discussed the implications of the C.C. Sabathia and Rich Harden trades here on Fantasy FanHouse, but what about the other names that recently found new homes?

Joe Blanton
Much like Harden, Blanton's going to go through a whole new experience when he pitches in front of a boisterous packed house tonight. He's going to get a nice trial by fire as the Phillies face the Mets and Braves this week -- Blanton's a two-start pitcher. Look for the change of league to ignite Blanton. He was too good a pitcher to keep scuffling along with such a poor record (5-12) and ERA (4.96) anyway. Now is the time to trade for him, because his stock will never be lower. The ERA was a full run lower last season, and he had a nice 140/40 K/BB. This season he's partially having issues because of his control. He's only sporting a 62/35 K/BB in a little more than half the innings as last year. As I said, the change of league will help ... facing a whole batch of new hitters is always advantageous to the pitcher. His turn-around starts tonight.

Cheap Yard Work helps you pick out likely free agents in your league that have been raking over the past week.

Keep in mind we have a really small sample with which to work this week ... because of that I made sure to pick out some names that we should all know in fantasyland.

Nomar Garciaparra, SS, Dodgers
Post-ASG stats: .462/.462/1.000, 2 HR, 3 R, 3 RBI
Betcha never thought this first guy would be fantasy relevant again. I sure as hell didn't. Yet there he was dropping two bombs on Saturday. Don't expect that power to continue, but he will be playing pretty much everyday. You could do much worse, especially now while he's hot.

Billy Butler, DH, Royals
Post-ASG stats: .385/.429/.846, 2 HR, 7 RBI
We've been waiting on him to break through as a middle-of-the-order power bat and even endured a stint in the minors. He should be back for good, considering the Royals aren't gonna factor into the AL playoff picture.

Melvin Mora, 3B, O's
Post-ASG stats: .400/.471/1.067, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 5 R
If you are one of the few owners looking for help at the loaded 3B position, Mora should suffice for the rest of the year. He's ancient, yeah, but he's still more than serviceable in the power categories.

Garrett Anderson, OF, Halos
Post-ASG stats: .455/.455/.727, HR, 5 RBI
He's actually probably not worth it in leagues where he's available due to oldness. He just fit with the theme so I figured I'd throw him in.

In todays game against the Chicago White Sox, Dodgers rookie pitcher Clayton Kershaw was pulled after four innings after only giving up two runs.Kershaw only threw 69 pitches, hardly a yeoman-like effort.

So what's the deal? Is Kershaw hurt? Well, not as far as I can see - no reports suggests Kershaw was pulled for anything besides his ineffectiveness. 29 of those 69 pitches were balls, which isn't terrible but doesn't suggest he was locked into the zone.

Kershaw has yet to notch his first major league victory, and if you are a Dodger fan or in a fantasy league, that comes as a bit of a letdown considering the huge amount of hype surrounding the youngster. Sports talk radio, internet chats and office watercooler talk ask one question - is Kershaw a bust?

Hardly.

As Fornelli put it yesterday, the Supreme Court refusing to hear MLB Advanced Media's case regarding statistics on fantasy sports is a good thing, especially for fantasy players. Note that it is also a good thing for American sport fans who like their sports coverage cheaper and enjoy this basic thing we call "freedom" as well.

It really should not be an issue -- these statistics only exist because we, the American consumers, are willing to pump billions of dollars each year into attending, watching and becoming obsessively immersed in these sports. And judging by some of MLB.com's CEO Bob Bowman's responses in an interview with Darren Rovell, that concept is not lost on the large entities that are attempting to take control of stats back.

Darren: What was your reaction when you found out that the Supreme Court wouldn't hear this?

Bowman: I don't think our reaction was one of great surprise. Since September of '06, when the magistrate first ruled in Missouri, we've been operating as if that was going to be the case. The Court of Appeals upheld it, now the Supreme Court denied, so it won't be heard. Until further action, that is the law of the land. Further action may occur. We weren't surprised and we've been running our business as if it were the case.

It's a brief but excellent interview, and I highly suggest taking the link over to Rovell's page for the full answers. The other main points of contention -- and these are the "good" reasons, if I may play moral policeman for a second -- are the $50 million MLBAM paid to the players' union for the rights to the statistics several years ago and the "likeness" issue.

There's a company called C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing Inc. in Missouri that's been selling a fantasy baseball game on their website. They're having a minor problem though, because Major League Baseball won't let them use any of the players' names without obtaining a license from the league first.

C.B.C. thinks this is a bunch of crap, and that they don't need no stinking license to run their game. MLB thinks that they do. When there is something so important as fantasy baseball being kept from the masses of the United States, there's only a small group of nine people who can decide once and for all who is on the side of the righteous and just. They are the Supreme Court, and they don't care.

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to step into a dispute between a fantasy sports business and professional baseball.

Without comment, the justices declined to hear the case involving a segment of the $1.5 billion fantasy sports industry in the United States, in which participants manage imaginary teams based on the real-life performances of professional players.

This is actually good news for C.B.C. as it was MLB who was appealing to the Supreme Court after a federal court and the 8th District Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis both ruled in C.B.C.'s favor saying that MLB was trying to violate their right to free speech.

I'm not exactly that familiar with the way the legal system works in these cases, but I'm not quite sure how keeping a company from running a fantasy baseball site limits their free speech. Of course, as someone who plays fantasy baseball, I'm all for the decision.

No one inspires more absolutely horrible, extemporaneous-letter, fantasy writing jokes than Jhonny Peralta. This makes zero sense, because the "H" is the only bizarre letter in his name, and there are only one of them. Yet, somehow I am able to fight through that fact and persevere with my putrid humor. Point being that Peralta tops the list of players you should consider adding this week.

Jhonny Peralta
7 day stats -- .333/.385/.708, 2HR, 3RBI, 2BB, 0SB
Peralta is the eternal fantasy tease after his monster season a few years back. He is streak, just like most free agent options, but he's white hot now and the Indians get four games at Texas followed by three games at Detroit, so you should expect to see him continue raking.

Mark Reynolds
7 day stats -- .359/.450/.941, 3HR, 3RBI, 3BB, 0SB
You may remember Reynolds from such hits as "Early April Fraud" and "Chris Shelton, Part Deux". Reynolds appears to have gotten sloppy with all the attention he got and fell off the radar. Then Chad Tracy came back and the dood started raking again. Snatch him up this week and start him while he's hot.

Jerry Hairston
7 day stats -- .458/.464/.652, 0HR, 4RBI, 4BB, 3SB
Guy just won't go away will he? Hairston continues to start, steal bases and have MI eligibility. That makes him start worthy in a large number of fantasy leagues. He's not a great player but you can't kill speed.

Cliff Floyd
7 day starts -- .357/.500/1.00, 3HR, 5RBI, 4BB, 0SB
You know what you're getting with ole' Cliff -- some taterjacks, some strikeouts and possibly limited AB's, in this case. Still, he's certainly a nice deeper end pickup and he's streaking now so that makes him a pretty nice option.

As always, the hype machine owns everyone. Two youngsters -- one in Los Angeles and one in a somehow bigger circus scene that is Cincinnati.

Clayton Kershaw, SP, LAD (18,458 Adds) -- Hey, I'm just as guilty as everyone else. A keeper league team I own is sinking quickly, and instead of grabbing someone to shore up this season, I've got a death grip on Kershaw. Joe Torre called him Sandy Koufax. Basically. And if the bullpen doesn't cough up his start, we'd be even hotter on the guy right now. Seasonal leagues should use their first waiver claim to grab him and then sell high. Keeper leagues want to hold if the price is right.

Jay Bruce, OF, CIN (13,017 Adds) -- It seems inevitable that he will stick, right? Well, because Dusty Baker is a fool, there is actually a question. Bruce is a legitimate threat to dominate this season, so he is a moderate buy. He's probably already too hyped (and owned) in your league, so it is tough to get a reasonable price. But if he begins to struggle, pounce on him in a trade offer.

Doug Davis, SP, ARI (3,840 Adds) -- Obviously, Davis returning from cancer was at best a risky proposition for fantasy owners. A great story, sure, but a risky bet. Sadly, he is still a sell high. The return is great, but history tells us he is not going to maintain a decent ERA. I'd use him in matchups for a back of the rotation guy, but don't be fooled by the fascinating nature of his cancer battle. (Heartless, I know.)

Akinori Iwamura, 2B/3B, TB
7 day stats -- .406/.441/.594, 1HR, 3RBI, 2BB, 0SB
Iwamura isn't going to set the world on fire with his power, but he gets hits (13) and he should score in the Rays lineup. Also, he's second base eligible. Not to mention the Rays have a nice set of matchups this week with Oakland and Baltimore on tap. A very nice start.

Jeremy Hermida, OF, FLA
7 day stats -- .269/.321/.615, 3HR, 5RBI, 2BB, 0SB
Hermida has been talent-laden for what seems like forever (it's actually not) and is finally starting to rake a little bit, even if his average numbers aren't especially appealing this week. Hermida is certainly a nice option in deeper leagues (only because of the Webb/Haren combo this week) and can help teams for the remainder of the season as well.

Blake DeWitt, 3B, LAD
7 day stats -- .467/.500/1.000, 2HR, 3RBI, 1BB, 0SB
Yes, he awkwardly has as many home runs in the past week as Andruw Jones does on the season. DeWitt probably got re-dropped in most medium sized leagues after getting hurt, but like the Cavs, he seemingly won't go away. Fortunately for him, he should continue to see playing time and is a nice option in most leagues as a CI.

This is one of those weeks where the top set of two start pitchers is ideal but after you move out of the top 10 or so, well, not so much. But there are some interesting options (as always) for your abuse this week. Most prominently, the four people that I see who are particularly interesting include two old doods and two young guys.

Greg Maddux is probably owned in your league, but if it's reasonably shallow, he could have been dropped during his quest to get 350, which took a while. This week he gets St. Louis and Cincinnati at home, and while both teams can do damage, I could see Mad Dog setting the Reds up.

Mike Mussina has been pretty warm as well, winning his last five starts. Sure, the Yankees are the worst team in the AL East, technically, but Moose has been dealing.

On the other hand, if you don't like old guys, you could always gamble with Luke Hochevar or Manny Parra. Parra is more of a risk because there is a possibility the Brewers could skip him, but he's got nice matchups in Washington and Pittsburgh assuming he gets to roll. The KC youngster, on the other hand, has to go at Boston and at Toronto. So maybe I'm being a little aggressive in saying I like him, but he's got legit K potential and ... yeah. Probably only for H2H leagues.

Pitcher	Team	First Start	Second Start
Jake Peavy	SD	v. STL, Wellemeyer	v. CIN, Arroyo
Cole Hamels	PHI	at WAS, Bergmann	at HOU, Sampson
Roy Halladay	TOR	v. ANA, Lackey	v. KC, Meche
C.C. Sabathia	CLE	at CHW, Contreras	v. TEX, Mathias
John Lackey	LAA	at TOR, Halladay	at CHW, Contreras

Curtis Granderson -- Warm-up time, apparently, is for suckers. So are allergies. Granderson got plugged right into a Tigers lineup that is heating up and picked up the pace himself. Over the last seven days, he's hitting .350/.500/1.050 with three homers, six walks and three RBI. No stolen bases. I know. Sad, right? You'll live.
Justin Upton -- A very, very, very strong buy. Upton came out gangbusters, but obviously it wasn't going to last all season long. And over the last week he's hitting .143/.208/.190. He's not going to get any cheaper than this all season.