Fantasy

Some reasonably available players to assist you in the Strikeouts category.  Realize that some of these will come with high ERA and WHIP, because if a pitcher has low numbers in those categories and a good K total, they’re already spoken for.

Brandon Morrow, Toronto Blue Jays

Matt Garza got a save?  Max Scherzer and Jonathan Niese continued to impress on the mound.  Billy Butler and Mike Stanton may be turning up the power.  Let’s look at these stories and all the rest from yesterday’s games:

The Chicago Cubs have moved Tom Gorzelanny around, from the rotation to the bullpen and then back again. With the talk of Carlos Zambrano returning to the bullpen, if he ever returns to the active roster, it appears that Gorzelanny is entrenched into the rotation.

Let the Fantasy Fix take you on a trip through AA's Eastern, Southern and Texas Leagues—including the no-hit arm of Kyle Drabek and the toiling of money grabber Aaron Crow. Also, a look at Chris Marrero, Adam Dunn's possible replacement if he gets traded.

BATTERS
Chris Marrero, 1B Washington Nationals AA Line – .289, 11 HR, 43 RBI
The Nationals 2006 first round pick is slowly working his way through the system, playing in 356 games at the AA level over parts of four seasons.

The fantasy season is more than half over, and by now you are probably either panicking in the streets, or petitioning for the rights to the nickname, "Talented Mr. Roto ."

For the ones sitting pretty, good job. Keep up the good work, but don’t get comfortable. Make sure to realistically assess your players’ performances up to this point and don’t sleep on the waiver wire. You can always make you team better. Always.

But it’s the managers mired in mediocrity that I’m here to help.

Just because you’ve slipped behind in the stolen base category doesn’t mean you can’t catch up.  Here are some reasonably available bag stealing threats.

Corey Patterson, OF, Baltimore Orioles

Patterson had six SBs over the past 15 days while hitting .322 with seven runs, one HR, and seven RBIs. On the year he’s hitting .280 with 16 SBs, 26 Runs, four HRs, and 13 RBIs. Patterson is owned in 10.6 percent of ESPN and 18 percent of CBS leagues.

Andres Torres, OF, San Francisco Giants

We all know that there are certain players who have struggled through the first half of the season. We also know that there are players who notoriously produce better in the second half. Here are five hitters that other owners in your league may be ready to give up on, yet could produce plenty of value in the second half (all stats are through Sunday):

We're just a week away from the Midsummer Classic, which, despite the bastardization of the game by Bud Selig, remains a "must-see" on the sporting calendar. Unfortunately, due to roster limitations and obligations, not all of baseball's finest get the opportunity to participate in the all-star spectacle. This has spawned the concept of the inaugural Whatifsports.com 2010 Fantasy All-Star rosters . Our selection committee was given two simple guidelines when constructing the starting lineups for both leagues:

1. Let the numbers speak for themselves.

Yovani Gallardo of the Milwaukee Brewers has been officially placed on the disabled list retroactive to July 5 with a strained left oblique he suffered in the bottom of the third inning on Sunday. Fantasy baseball owners will greatly miss the 8-4 Gallardo with his 2.58 ERA and 9.83 strikeouts per nine innings.

Jordan Schelling of Brewers.com noted that despite being recently named to the National League All-Star team, Gallardo will not take part due to the injury.

There have been a lot of trade rumors surrounding the Royals’ David DeJesus, but should fantasy owners care?  Will his value change dramatically if he were to be playing for a contender?

First of all, let’s look at the numbers he’s posted thus far in 2010 (through Sunday):

306 At Bats
.327 Batting Average (100 Hits)
5 Home Runs
35 RBI
40 Runs
3 Stolen Bases
.393 On Base Percentage
.467 Slugging Percentage
.363 Batting Average on Balls in Play