Fantasy Baseball Tonight 5/1; Struggling Middle Infielders, LaPorta Arrives and Injury News

For you Brandon Phillips owners, hopefully this will be the start of something for your second baseman. Phillips was on his way to another Ofer, but connected on his third homer in the eighth inning, and then drove in another run in the ninth with a sac fly. His average is still under .200, and still only has nine RBI, but I don't believe he is done yet.

Another struggling middle infielder who may have got on track tonight is Jhonny Peralta of the Indians. After having just two hits in his last ten games, Peralta had two hits on Friday, including his first home run of the year. In my opinion, Peralta is a very underrated shortstop. He gets a bad rap as a guy who hits for a bad average, but Peralta has hit over .270 in each of the last two years. He is also one of the best power hitters at his position, with over 20 bombs in 2007 and 2008. I believe that he will turn this slow start around, and if you have him, be patient.

Might as well cover another shortstop who is doing badly, although his news isn't as encouraging. Jimmy Rollins failed to get a hit again on Friday, but was able to at least draw a walk. That was the bad news. The even worse news is that Rollins got caught stealing for the second time this season. You have to figure that this guy isn't finished, but he is batting under .200, has only one home run, one steal, and has been caught twice.

Welcome back Joe Mauer. After the Twins catcher missed the entire first month of the season with back trouble, he was back in the lineup tonight and proceeded to connect on a home run in his first at bat. This is great news for his owners, but don't get too giddy. It is great to see him in the lineup, just don't expect him to turn into Babe Ruth. Mauer is a great average guy, but won't bring you more than 15 jacks.

The Cubs bullpen continues to be a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Carlos Marmol gets some save chances, Kevin Gregg gets others. I truly think that if one of these guys would step up, they would grab hold of this job. Everyone is calling for Marmol to be the guy, but let's look at this closely. In his last six appearances, Marmol has allowed a run in three of them (seven runs total), and has now walked eight guys in his last three times out. Is that the consistent stuff you can count on? Gregg's knees are no good, making him unavailable from time to time, and he has also given up runs in three of his last five appearances. Both guy's ERAs are near 6.00, so no wonder Pinella can't make up his mind.

Here comes the first big prize prospect of the season. Cleveland's Matt LaPorta will be called up to the big leagues on Saturday. He hit 22 homers in two levels of the minors in 2008, and could have an impact right away. In 21 games this season, LaPorta was hitting .333 with five homers and 14 RBI. I'm not really sure how the Indians plan on using their young stud, but left fielder Ben Francisco is hitting .241. Perhaps that is the opening that he needs to get some playing time.

Rookie Jordan Zimmerman had his first rough "welcome to the league" tonight against the Cardinals. Albert Pujols welcomed him right away in the first inning, and the Cards ended up hitting three homers off of the rookie, as he allowed five runs over 5.2 innings. The good news is that Zimmerman was still able to strikeout six, and didn't walk anyone. I feel like a broken record, but ALL young pitchers will have these games. But Zimmerman has already shown his talent, and should have a pretty decent rookie year. Being on the Nats will limit his win total unfortunately.

Armando Galarraga had his first rough outing of the year. The most consistent of all of the Tigers' starters gave up five runs over five innings, walked three, while striking out only two. Seeing that his ERA was under 2.00, it was predictable that he would have some tough starts ahead of him. The question is how he will bounce back from them. My thought is he could win 14 games, with an ERA around 3.50-3.75.

For those of you who have Ryan Doumit or Brian McCann and are looking for a replacement should look at Jesus Flores from Washington. Flores had two hits for the second consecutive night, and for the second consecutive night one of those hits was a triple. He has got his batting average to near .300, and has two homers and 11 RBI.

Zach Duke continues the great pitching for the Pirates, allowing just one run over seven innings and struck out five. I still can't believe what I am seeing with the Pittsburgh pitching staff. Duke's ERA is now 2.21, and he has 21 strikeouts in 36 innings.

Since being removed from the closer's role, Jason Motte has looked like a new pitcher. He hasn't allowed a run in his last eight appearances, and has only allowed eight hits over his last 11 times on the bump. While Ryan Franklin remains hot, Motte's role will remain as a setup man, but it is nice to see him get back on track.

Joel Hanrahan has also looked better since being removed from the ninth inning. The displaced Nats' closer has had two straight scoreless outings in the last two days. It seems only natural that he gets his job back. But I think his manager will want to see him earn it.

It doesn't get much better than Evan Longoria. The young Rays' 3B hit a grand slam tonight, giving him the AL lead in RBI with 28. I knew this kid would be good, but he is even surpassing my expectations. All I can say is, I hope you drafted him.

Carlos Pena is the first hitter in the majors to get to ten home runs. He did have a 46 homer season in 2007, but he is still a guy that I would be trying to sell high on if I owned him. A guy with ten homers on May 1st can only disappoint you in July, August, and September.

Manny Parra had his second consecutive start where he allowed only one earned run. After finishing '08 strongly, a lot of fantasy owners were picking Parra at the end of their staffs. He was pretty awful as the season began, but it seems that he has done something to improve his results. He did still walk four, which has been part of his troubles, but he also struck out eight.

White Sox rookie Chris Getz had two more hits tonight, making it seven multi hit games out his last eight. He isn't bringing you much else in the way of fantasy value, no homers, and only three steals, and he shouldn't get any higher than 15 homers and maybe 20 steals. But at second base, he could help you out at a MI spot, or at least good insurance in case of injury to your starter.

Emilio Bonifacio has started to hit again some. Now, I'm not saying go run out and grab him, but perhaps he is going to pull out of that funk he was in. With another hit on Friday, Bonifacio now has six hits in his last five games, and today was his first RBI since the fifth game of the season. He also only has two steals in his last ten games.

After not homering for the first 17 games of the year, Matt Holliday has gone yard for the second straight day. He had two hits, and his average is now up to .253.

Injury News

After days of reporting that Josh Hamilton would avoid the disabled list, that is exactly where he ended up today. He apparently is still unable to swing without pain, and the Rangers needed a roster spot to call up catcher Max Ramirez to back up Taylor Teagarden while the starter, Jarrod Saltalamacchia is dealing with an injury. The move is retroactive to April 27th, meaning he is eligible to return on May 11th.

Daisuke Matsuzaka is scheduled to make his first rehab start on Tuesday. It hasn't been determined how many rehab starts he will need to make, but it is likely to be "several." Continue to keep him on your DL, but this is at least encouraging news that he is ready to get back on the mound.

Angels' starter Ervin Santana will make a minor league rehab start on Monday at Class A, while fellow injured hurler John Lackey will make his rehab start on Tuesday at AAA. No timetable has been set for either of their returns.

Nick Swisher left the game with a bruised elbow after being hit by a pitch by Jered Weaver. The X-rays were negative, and Swisher has been deemed day-to-day.

In the ever growing blurry vision saga, Brian McCann is now trying to play with glasses. He is still trying to find something that allows him to see, and something that he is comfortable with. By now he could have had his repeat Lasik surgery and been back instead of all of this experimenting. There must be some reason he doesn't want to do that.

Bobby Abreu left tonight's game against the Yankees with stiffness in his back. No further information is available at this time.

Jose Valverde's injured calf is still not in good shape, and an MRI showed some hematomas, which were drained. The problem is he could also need a follow up procedure that would cost him three weeks. I will get you a further update as soon as it is out there.

He is still a ways away from returning to the mound, but Chris Carpenter is feeling no pain except when he makes "extreme movements". The Cards ace is hoping to make it back to the team on the short end of the four to eight weeks he was supposed to miss, but considering the way the rotation is pitching, and the recent injury history for Carpenter, don't expect St. Louis to rush him back.

Finally, I would like to take this time to post a link to one of the newest baseball blogs, The Fantasy Windup. Steve Gardner, who has been with USA Today for over 15 years, has recently started his own blog about everything baseball that is updated multiple times a day. I especially liked the post from early in the week in which he was good enough to mention my site and link to my article from 4/26. Thanks Steve! I invite all of you to check out the Fantasy Windup and to get involved in the comments and forums with some of his great readers.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome at fightingchancefantasy@gmail.com. I guarantee a response within 18 hours. Also, don’t miss “The Fantasy Baseball Gurus Show” every Wednesday night at 10pm EST on Blog Talk Radio. The show is co-hosted by Todd Farino of fantasybaseballsearch.com, RC Rizza of junkyardjake.com and myself, Ryan Hallam at fightingchancefantasy.com. To hear the show go to www.blogtalkradio.com/the_true_guru. The Fantasy Baseball Scouting Report is also back! Join me with Jeff Mans every Tuesday night at 10pm EST for all the news, free agent pickups, minor leaguers, and injuries. A can’t miss if you plan on winning your league. I also just met the people over at Baseball Trade Rumors and I invite you to visit their site. They have a page for rumors for every major league team, constant updates on the latest rumors, interactive polls, and overall some great content.