Fantasy Baseball Tonight 5/16

Raul Ibanez is out of his mind. In a rain-shortened doubleheader, Ibanez was 5-8 with three more home runs, and seven RBI. This brings his season totals to 13 homers and 35 RBI. He is now more than halfway to his season total in homers from last season, and he is still hitting a ridiculous .368. I don't know how much longer this can go on, but for those of you who own them, enjoy the ride. I would still try to trade him and get a player that was drafted in the first couple of rounds if you can, but I'm not sure what you would be able to get.

Kevin Gregg couldn't get anyone out on Saturday. Gregg came into the game when it was 4-0 and next thing you know he was out of the game, and the game was tied. His ERA is now at a mind-blowing 6.06, and you wonder what the future holds. He had improved and hadn't allowed a run in his last six appearances. Carlos Marmol pitched a hitless inning in the eighth and struck out the side. This is still one of the most frustrating situations is fantasy baseball.

Alex Rodriguez hit a game-winning two run home run in the 11th inning to give the Bronx Bombers the win on Saturday. It was his only hit of the game, and he is still hitting just .154. I still think he is a week to ten days away from being the actual A-Rod, but perhaps this will give him a few days before the fans start booing him unmercifully again.

Mark Teixeira was 4-4 on Saturday, and it seems like perhaps he is ready to break out of his season beginning funk. He has raised his batting average 47 points over the last four days, and has three homers in the last seven days. Everyone knows that he is a notoriously slow starter, and this could be the start of something big. At the end of the year, the numbers always seem to be there.

Trevor Hoffman is a perfect nine for nine in save chances since coming off of the Disabled List. Even more impressive is he hasn't allowed a run, and has only surrendered three hits over that span. The past couple of seasons Hoffman hasn't been a closer that has helped your ERA, but he is certainly off to an amazing start since coming over to Milwaukee.

B.J. Upton is also finally breaking out of his slump. He has raised his average 32 points over the last four days, has homered in back to back games, and has stolen four bases in the last three games. You had to figure this was coming sooner rather than later, and I sure hope you didn't do anything crazy like drop Upton. If you did he will be haunting you in your dreams all summer long.

John Lackey made his return to the mound, but it was incredibly short lived. It wasn't that he was ineffective, he was thrown out of the game after only two pitches. Lackey's first pitch went behind Ian Kinsler, who had two homers the day before, and the second one hit Kinsler. It is a shame considering that it was Lackey's first start back off of the DL, but perhaps he won't have to wait the full five days before he gets to start again.

Andrew Miller had a fairly good start by hist standards, but the once highly touted prospect should not be picked up in your league right now. He still is walking far too many, is giving up too many runs, and doesn't go deep into games. On Saturday, Miller went just five innings, allowed two runs, walked four and struck out four. I really want him to live up to his potential, but so far he's still a long way away from that.

Rick Porcello was great again, and won his third straight start. Porcello went six, gave up one run, and struck out five. It has now been three straight starts that he has allowed one run or less, and he has 13 whiffs in those games. I think he is now worth picking up in your leagues, as it seems he has gotten over his early season struggles.

Rich Hill made his first start for his new team, and his first start in over a year, and much to my surprise he came away with the win. Hill lasted 5.2 innings, allowed just two runs, walked two, and struck out six. It was impressive on a couple of different fronts. Hill battled injury as well as an inability to throw strikes as he went from a highly thought of starter, to nearly out of baseball. he battled, rehabbed, and made his way back to the big leagues. If he is able to continue pitching this way, he could have an impact in fantasy baseball, but I need to see another good start or two before I'm ready to make that kind of claim.

Gerardo Parra is making quite the impression over his first few days in the majors. With three more hits on Saturday, Parra is now hitting .385 since his call up. He drove in three runs on Saturday and now has five on the season. He also tripled for the second straight game, but was also caught stealing for the second straight game. He obviously is making an impact on the team, and has pushed Chris Young to the bench for the time being. If Parra keeps playing like this, he could be around for a while.

Nolan Reimold had his first mult-hit game as a pro, and drove in his first run. He has struggled a little bit out of the box, going 3-13, but I still have high hopes for him as soon this season.

Injury News

Chris Carpenter looks like he will return to the rotation instead of throwing another bullpen session. After his latest bullpen session yesterday, Carpenter said he was ready to come back. He threw over 100 pitches on Friday, and felt good. He is now being considered for a start on either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Frank Francisco is going on the 15-day DL with the biceps tendonitis. Apparently he threw a bullpen session in which he said he felt no pain, but he wasn't right either. It seems that the Rangers are just being overly cautious with their star closer, and will sit him down for a little while longer. The move was made retroactive to May 7th, so he is able to come back on Friday. C.J. Wilson will hold down the closer's duties until then.

Kevin Youkilis will start a rehab assigment on Monday, and if all goes well with him and his oblique strain, he could be back with the Red Sox when he is eligible on Wednesday. For those of you in weekly leagues, I would probably sit him down for one more week.

Daisuke Matsuzaka made his third rehab appearance and could be back with the Red Sox next week. In his third start, Dice allowed two runs on three hits over five innings, while striking out nine. If he pitches on regular rest, he could be back on the mound for Boston on Friday. Keep tabs on this situation if you own him.

Magglio Ordonez is taking a personal leave and will be out for a few games. He is going to play in Sunday's contest, but then won't be back with the team until Thursday. It is unsure whether or not that he will be back in time for the game on Thursday, which is an afternoon game. This is some unspecified personal matter, but he should be back on Friday at the latest.

New Feature

For those of you who are regular readers, I would like to offer a new service. I am starting a mailing list. Sometimes I see news during the day, but I wait until this nightly article to pass it along to you guys. Prospects coming up, injury news, closer movement, etc. Just send me an email to fightingchancefantasy@gmail.com with “Mailing List” in the subject line and I will add you to the list. Then, whenever I find news that I feel is breaking and important, I will send it to you as soon as I find out about it. Hopefully this is something that you all will find valuable to make a possible move before your competition.

Also, you can now follow me on Twitter for more updates. Go to www.twitter.com/fightingchance.

Attention League Commissioners! If you are looking to spice up your league some, go and visit Fantasy Sports Trophies. Tom Harkins has put together a great site with all kinds of different trophies to give the winner of your league something besides just bragging rights. There are trophies for fantasy baseball, football (check out the Beer League Fantasy Football Trophy), basketball, hockey, and auto racing. I invite you to take a look at the site and try them out.

I’m also going to start mentioning the Fantasy Windup with Steve Gardner over at the USA Today again. His blog is updated many times each day, and is always covering the stories you are talking about when it comes to fantasy baseball. Go check out the blog and be sure to leave him some feedback.

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 Tonight” podcast four nights a week from Monday-Thursday. The Big Show on Wednesday 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. You can also hear me weekly on the Tuesday Night show. 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.