Monday = Slow Day, But Penny Is Worth Much More Than His Name

Brad Penny: Wow, where did this come from? Penny has always had quality stuff, but he's been very inconsistent throughout his career, and he's not a very efficient pitcher. Last night was possibly the best start of his career, allowing 0 runs and 5 hits while K'ing 14 in 7 innings to pick up the win. Given he had 15 Ks in 38 IP prior to this start, he needed something like this to bring his K rate back up. He was due to as he's posted a solid 7 K/9 IP ratio in his career. He was getting extremely lucky by posting a sub 2.00 ERA with a 1.20 WHIP and a 15:17 K:BB ratio so far this season, but he was very impressive last night. Now is your chance to sell high on this guy as there's no question his ERA will shoot back above 3 at some point, plus he's always an injury risk.

Fausto Carmona: Another impressive 7 innings from him last night. Given his lack of Ks (11 in 33 IP), it's hard to recommend him in anything but deeper leagues (or leagues that don't reward Ks), but he's worth a look if your rotation is struggling. I've read his poise is much improved from his attempt at closing last season, and he has a great offense supporting him. I'm not sure how long he'll stick around since he was demoted after Cliff Lee came off the DL, but he's pitching like he belongs.

Matt DeSalvo: Flukey start. 7 IP, 3 hits, and 1 R might entice you to put in a waiver claim for him, but I can't imagine him continuing success in the majors in anything other than an "occasional start" role. He didn't strike out a single batter, and he was facing a rather anemic offense. Don't bother.

Adrian Gonazalez: 9 HRs and 29 RBIs from a middle round 1B. Another round of congrats is in order for those of you who took him as a sleeper 1B or a UTIL guy. He's been awesome and has the talent to keep this up all year long. His home ballpark of Petco will hurt him somewhat, meaning more of his power will come on the road, but he's hitting .315 at home and those HRs will just be more doubles.

Dan Wheeler: Another save last night, although not without a 2 run HR. I haven't been paying attention to his ratios that much even though I own him, but he hadn't been scored upon in 8 straight appearances, so nothing to worry about here. His 1.07 WHIP is very nice, and he had a sub 3.00 ERA before last night.

Troy Tulowitzki: After a slow start to his career, he's been on fire recently. If you have SS problems, keep a close eye on him. He's now batting 2nd in the order, and that'd be a great place for his fantasy value with Holliday and Helton behind him. He has 15-20 HR power and can swipe a few bags, so he could be somewhat helpful in all catagories.

Bengie Molina: 2 HRs and 5 RBIs last night. If you're struggling at the C position with Mauer and Piazza on the DL, he's worth a look. The only problem is that with him hitting .333 right now, he's due for a decline, so picking him up with a possible downswing on the horizon might not work out so well. I've personally gone with AJ Pierzynski as my backup beacuse he's due to break out of his slump.

I bumped Molina's note to the end of the list because I wanted to expand upon what I said in there. A mistake I've made before in fantasy baseball is that when I lose a guy earlier in the season, specifically at a position I don't have a backup for, I immediately sort by what the waiver wire fodder have done so far this year and pick up the highest rated player, or my favorite among the top 3. Something you often miss by doing this is an established player who's off to a cold start. He might have been dropped, or was someone people were watching and then forgot about after that cold start. AJ Pierzynski is a solid example of this. He's a borderline starting catcher in fantasy, so he wasn't drafted in all leagues. He's a career .286 hitter, so there's no doubt that his current .227 start is abnormal, and baseball usually finds a way to average things out. I like to own players during that time, obviously, so he's often a better pickup if your starter is going to miss several weeks than someone off to a scorching start.