The Rangers have finally lost their patience with first baseman Chris Davis for the second straight season and have called up super prospect Justin Smoak .
Smoak will start immediately and unless he pulls a “Chris Davis” and strikes out like it is going out of style, he should be here to stay.
A former first round pick, Smoak’s best traits are his fantastic plate discipline and his eye-popping power.
I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he was successful right out of the gate, and I already picked him up in every league that I am in where he was available.
J.A. Happ has now been placed on the 15-day DL with the strain in his forearm. Happ threw in the bullpen, but the session was cut a little short when the pitching coach thought that it just wasn’t right.
There was not a timetable given for his return, but I don’t like the sound of “we don’t think it will be a tremendously long time.” Stash Happ on your injury spot if you can, as he hasn’t allowed an earned run yet this season.
Jacoby Ellsbury was not making any progress towards coming back to the Red Sox lineup so he was given a CT scan which revealed a fracture in four of his ribs from the collision with Mike Cameron.
This is obviously not good news and you can kiss goodbye any thought to him coming back when he is eligible to come off the DL on April 28.
What do you write about when a team scores 20 runs? Prince Fielder’s first homer? Ryan Braun is awesome? Jim Edmonds seems to be the most newsworthy item of that game, as he had four hits including his first homer, and he drove in three runs.
Edmonds has now hit in five straight games that he has played in and has five RBI in the last three days. However, he is still up there in age and doesn’t play every day, so unless you are in a 20-team league or an NL-only league, don’t chase this great day by Edmonds.
Mitch Talbot followed his complete game up with another impressive performance, and is likely to be coming off of waiver wires all over fantasy baseball.
Looking at the rest of his career in the majors and minors, there is nothing there that gets me overly excited and I don’t see this great start continuing.
He doesn’t do anything well enough to be worthwhile to pick up unless you are either in a pitching-obsessed league or one with 16 or more teams.
Lou Marson continues to absolutely stink the joint out at the plate for the Tribe, which should bring mega-prospect Carlos Santana closer to the majors.
Marson actually did have a hit on Thursday, but even with that single, his average is still only .103, and all three of his hits on the season are singles.
I don’t care if he is the greatest defensive catcher on Earth, the Indians can’t let this go on too much longer when they have an impact player waiting in the wings.
Dallas Braden had a great start against the New York Yankees on Thursday as he allowed just two runs over six innings as he walked one and struck out two.
Braden ran his record to 3-0, and he hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any start this season and has gone at least six innings each time out.
However, Braden is generally inconsistent with his production and doesn’t get a lot of strikeouts. He will also struggle with a lack of run support in Oakland, so unless he is your fifth or sixth starter, I really wouldn’t mess with Braden.
Kurt Suzuki had quite the up-and-down day against the Yanks on Thursday as he cranked his third homer of the season, and then ruined it by hitting into a triple play.
Suzuki is batting just .222 but I still feel that he is one of the top seven options at catcher in fantasy and will turn this bad batting average around. Stay patient with him and by season’s end, you will be rewarded.
Ubaldo Jimenez followed up his no hitter with another outstanding performance as he shut out the Nationals over 7.1 innings and struck out five. Like we said after he pitched the no-no, Jimenez is catapulting himself into fantasy stardom with his nasty pitches and the zeros he is putting on the board.
There isn’t much advice to give here. If you have him, hold on tight. If you don’t, now is not a great time to try to acquire him.
Ike Davis continues to hit for the New York Mets and they continue to win games. Davis had three hits, including a double (his first extra base hit in the majors) and is now hitting .400.
It is nice that he is getting on base, but without any power, he still is not worthwhile from a fantasy perspective. Hold off on Davis still in seasonal leagues.
Johan Santana was very good on Thursday and has now been exceptional in three of his four starts. Santana lasted just 6.1 innings, allowing just one run and struck out five.
His ERA is 2.59 and he has 22 strikeouts in 23 innings so he is still good in that department as well. Santana slipped mightily in fantasy drafts this season, and he is showing why that was a mistake.
Clay Buchholz pitched very well tonight for the Red Sox as he allowed just three runs over 6.2 innings against a strong Texas lineup and struck out 10.
Buchholz now owns a 2.70 ERA after three starts and has more strikeouts than innings pitched and is looking like a gem in keeper leagues.
I continue to doubt C.J. Wilson and he continues to pitch well. On Thursday Wilson shutout the Red Sox over 6.2 innings, although he struck out only two batters this time.
I still can’t find a way to get behind Wilson and think that he is going to be a strong fantasy pitcher the entire season, but so far he has been just that.
I am still waiting for his drop from relevance but so far he has been solid. Ride the hot streak while it is there.
Anibal Sanchez finally had a pretty good outing, but now the strikeouts weren’t very good. Sanchez gave up just one run over 6.2 innings, but only struck out one batter.
This is a great improvement over his past two starts when he allowed a combined nine earned runs, but if you are even thinking about adding Anibal, you better hope that the Ks go up.
He has been a reasonably good strikeout guy throughout his injury riddled career, so now if he can just meld his fine pitching tonight with his whiffs from the past he might be worth taking a look at.
Jake Peavy got shelled again on Thursday, and so far he has had a very up and down start to his first season in Chicago. Peavy allowed seven runs over just 4.1 innings with control being his biggest problem as he walked seven.
His five punch outs weren’t bad considering how long he pitched, but the rest of his line was awful. Even though he was bad, I hope you aren’t thinking of bailing on Peavy it is way too soon for that unless you are in a very small league.
He still has immense talent and I am chalking some of this up to the transition to a new league. He might not be that number one guy he was in San Diego, but there is still plenty of room on my roster for a guy like Jake Peavy.
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