Friday's Fun

Ted Lilly - 8 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K. He bounced back nicely after the ejection last time out, and some struggles before that. It was against a mediocre Padres offense, but his fantasy owners will take it.

Ryan Dempster - Converted his 15th save yesterday with a perfect 9th. Remember all that talk about him losing his job? Me neither.

Alfonso Soriano - Is anyone streaker than this guy? After hitting 3 HRs in one game, he went hitless in his next 21 AB. He hit his 11th HR last night, but only has 23 RBIs on the season to show for his power. Makes you wonder how he drove in 95 last year leading off for the lowly Nationals.

Mike Fontenot - He arguably should have been called up before Ryan Theriot, and he's proving that so far by hitting .407 with 2 HRs and 9 RBI so far. It's hard to suggest picking him up before knowing what his role will be between him, Izturis, and Theriot, but he has the most offensive potential between the 3. Wait and see.

Jon Garland - 6 IP, 11 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. Against the Pirates? Blah. Still, Garland is prone to these sorts of games since he doesn't strike out many hitters.

Matt Capps - Saved his 4th game last night since taking over the closer's role, and he's only been scored upon twice in that timeframe. He should continue to be a solid, but not spectacular closer.

Jeremy Bonderman - 6 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. Another rough outing that results in a win. Fantasy owners have to be loving the offensive explosion of the Tigers this year, allowing starts like these to give their owners a win.

Ivan Rodriguez - 3/5 with 3 R and 5 RBI last night. He's now hitting .300 with 7 HR, so you could do worse than him for a starting catcher. I've seen him on the WW in at least one of my leagues.

Erik Bedard - 7 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K. Very irritating when a start like this results in a loss, especially when the bullpen blows it. This is the main reason I'm suggesting that my keeper league move to a quality start stat catagory to replace the wins catagory. I like to eliminate luc situations like this when possible in fantasy leagues.

C.C. Sabathia - 8 1/3 IP, 12 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 7 K. He tried to go the distance, and gave up a 2 run double that turned a 1 run lead into a 1 run deficit. Still, he pitched very well up until the 9th.

Oliver Perez - 7 1/3 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K. Against the red hot Yankees, this was very impressive. The 3 walks didn't hurt him, and he was outstanding against the hottest offense in baseball. Unfortunately I had him on my bench, thinking the 2nd time around against the Yankees wasn't a good matchup. Oops.

Roger Clemens - 6 1/3 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K. He was on my bench too. Dammit. A great outing for Clemens, especially against the Mets. He looks to be ready to roll from here on out.

Jose Reyes - 3/3 with 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR, and 3 SB. Now that's the way to fill out a stat sheet. He hit a solo HR, an RBI single, and stole 2 of his 3 bases against Clemens. That's not a nice way to treat your elders.

Barry Zito - 5 1/3 IP, 5 H, 6 ER, 4 BB, 5 K. He's just not very good against great offenses, for the most part. That's 16 ER in 13 1/3 IP against AL opponents this year. Thank the almighty dollar for the league switch, huh?

Dustin Pedroia - 5/5 with 2 R, 5 RBI, and his 3rd HR last night. If he's figured things out and is going to hit 2nd in the Boston lineup for the rest of the season, he can be used if your starting 2B goes down, or for MI help. He only has 3 HR and 0 SB, so he has to hit .300 or better to be worth considering.

Roy Halladay - 7 1/3 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K. 2 solid outings after the Tampa Bay blowup, so he appears to be fine again. Against Washington, this was expected. It has to be frustrating to own him, and you just can't draft him as your reliable ace.

Troy Glaus - Hit his 11th HR last night, and he's still hitting .294. If you can take the inevitable AVG plummet that he's due for, hang onto him. If not, deal him before his AVG drops down and more closely resembles the .255 career line he has.

Eric Gagne - 0.53 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP. He doesn't have the same stuff before the recent round of elbow surgeries in the past couple years, but he still knows how to close games with the best of them.

Adam Dunn - Hit his 16th HR last night, and he has 42 RBIs as well. The trade rumors are starting to heat up regarding Dunn, and while he does hit in one of MLB's best HR ballparks, he has power that will transcend into any ballpark. Hopefully he'll end up in the middle of a nice lineup. The Padres are one rumored destination, and if he lands there, that'd be the worst possible situation given he'd be moving to the hardest ballpark to hit HRs in. Just look at what happened to Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns after they left Cincy to head to Washington. If that's the case, you might want to shop him.

Felix Hernandez - 6 IP, 12 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 K. I honestly have no idea what the hell his deal is. He is a shell of the pre-elbow injury Felix, getting hit around like a batting practice pitcher. He's now given up 61 hits in 37 2/3 IP, although he sports a nifty 22:4 K:BB ratio in his last 4 starts. I haven't watched him pitch, but judging from the stats, his control has improved, but he's missing in the middle of the plate far too often. Maybe he's tipping his pitches, maybe his mechanics are off and he's leaving too many pitches over the middle of the plate, or maybe he's babying his arm. The Seattle fans don't seem to know either, so make sure he's a permanent fixture on your bench until he figures this out. He's way too talented to just drop.

Scott Baker - 4 2/3 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 6 K. He just can't put it together in the major leagues. It's very possible the Twins will call up Matt Garza, so pick him up if you'd like to gamble on a talented youngster.

Matt Garza - See above. He's not quite Lincecum or Gallardo due to his lack of a dominant secondary pitch, but he throws high 90s and has been pitching very well in AAA.

Justin Morneau - His AVG is stuck in the .270s, but he smashed his 19th HR last night. His power numbers are excellent, but those expecting him to hit .320 again heading into the season are going to be disappointed. I wouldn't be surprised if that's his career high single season AVG. He seems to be more of a .280-.290 hitter.

Gil Meche - 8 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K. Continues to pitch like an ace, and picked up his 4th W last night. Like I said before, he's going to have trouble picking up wins for the terrible Royals team, but it seems possible that he's going to post his first season of a sub-4.00 ERA.

Octavio Dotel - 4 scoreless appearances in a row, allowing only 1 hit in that timeframe. I'd would definitely shop him. The Royals took him on as a cheap restoration project, but with the rumblings that they'd like to see Greinke close some day, it makes no sense for them to hang onto Dotel past the trading deadline. I'd be surprised if he was still a Royal, barring an injury or horrible performance, after the deadline passes. They aren't contenders and they're cheap. A healthy, effective Dotel would probably get them a quality prospect in return.

Alex Gordon - 2/4 last night, giving him 9 hits in his last 19 plate appearances. He might have figured things out, so if you still have a hole at your 3B position, or own an injury-prone player like Chipper, pick him up.

James Shields - 6 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K. I'm sure Shields owners were sick to their stomach seeing the 12-2 final score, so his line isn't as bad as some may have thought. He pitched very well after serving up 4 hits and 2 HRs in the first inning.

Delmon Young - Quietly getting his AVG back up there, as he currently stands at .265. Hopefully you bought low on him when I suggest this back a few weeks ago. He should continue to improve over the season, and his keeper league value is tremendous. He has 40 HR/20 SB potential.

Dan Haren - 7 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K. You know you're doing something right when this performance raises both your ERA and WHIP. Another day at the office for the breakthrough starter.

Eric Chavez - HRs in 3 straight games now, giving him 12 on the season. His bat is really starting to heat up.

Derek Lowe - 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K. One of the best strikeout nights of his career, and he picked up his 7th win in doing so. A great start for an underrated mixed league starter this year. The NL was definitely what his career needed.

Ervin Santana - 7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. What's this, 2 straight quality starts on the road? Maybe he's figured out his pitching-on-the-road problems, but it'll take more than this to convince us.

Chone Figgins - Stole his 14th base last night. Given the time he spent on the DL combined with the time spent learning how to hit, he's stealing a ton of bases. He's hitting a scorching .431 this month as he's completely turned his season around.